Manx Herald Isle of Man

Letter to the Editor – The IOM: scheming, deceitful, contemptuous and hypocritical

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 17:13:00 -0400

The more we learn about the Isle of Man the more we come to discover that it has a financial services industry that is built of smoke

Eric-h

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 09:54:20 -0400

Sadly true, this lack of honesty, decency and accountability also poses many future issues for the Islands financial sector employers, due to the lack of trust the current and future potential depositors will now hold of the Islands FSC's inability to regulate and protect! how many more jobs will go from the Island, the smug and pious self praise expressed by Mr Bell over his staiving off of the G20 summits investigations by his foresight to ensure recipricol tax agreements where in place is still only a short term fix. The UK is casting off it's Crown dependencies and they will be back to shut the Island down.

Mat Walker

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:37:08 -0400

In the first 8 weeks after the UK Government fired their first salvo at the Isle of Man, Tony Brown and Alan Bell had a fantastic opportunity to prove to the Manx people, to the UK and indeed to the world, that they were good prudent politians and that the Isle of Man took seriously the people who entrusted their lifes saving there.

They failed. Not only did they fail, but then they spent over a million pounds trying to ensure their failure was covered up; they even failed there.

Now they try to make the very people whose lives have been destroyed pick up the tab of their attempted coverup!!!

Not only that, but they have built in the same coverup mechanism into the DCS as they had in the SoA - Even the KPMG administrators of the DCS state that they 'regret' the DCS means signing away the rights of those who sign up to it!!!

The good Manx people will soon realise (if they haven't already) that their polititians are destroying their small island in their sordid attempt to coverup their failings. There is a bad smell coming from Tynwald, and it is eminating from the direction of Bell and Brown.

Major Justice

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 06:51:55 -0400

Easy to see how the Island continues to boast annual growth in their financial services sector when the industry is virtually unregulated.

Good for business.
Disastrous for depositors and investors!

Codpeace

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:02:29 -0400

bell and brown have let the island down. They had the opportunity to seek justice from HMG but failed to be honest to themselves and the people of the IOM. The disgusting state of politics in the UK is well and truly part of the IOM.

To accept the DCS means you have to sign away your rights to everything for 50K. It's diabolical and another nail in the IOM coffin.

Alan Mauritius

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:50:50 -0400

The sad thing about this letter is that it doesn't go anywhere. It should be plastered all over The Times, The Observer, The Express, and other leading newspapers.

The fact that hurt me the most was that the Kaupthing Bank did not have the decency to write a letter to explain what had happened, and that they were sorry to have let their customers down. We didn't know anything until we went onto the website to draw out money to pay for a car to replace my 9-year old banger!

I have just written a book on pirates, and I send a black spot to all those evil doers on the IOM. Curse you to your early grave - you buggers!

Premier Shareholders Association

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:44:04 -0400

The words - scheming, deceitful, contemptuous and hypocritical used to describe the Isle of Man financial services industry, the island’s government, Financial Supervision Commission and so-called Office of Fair Trading would find favor amongst the hundreds of pensioners who were misled into transferring their life savings to an island based company trading as the Premier Low Risk Fund plc.

This company boasts that taking out hefty bank loans to trade in second hand endowment policies is a low risk investment strategy, allied to depositing money in a building society – and when the pensioner’s lose 35% of their savings the company invent a huge and previously undisclosed “exit penalty” effectively forcing the pensioners to leave their saving in a failing fund.

The Isle of Man government classifies the fund as only suitable for experienced/professional investors, yet despite the fund’s highly specialist nature the company entrusted its retail distribution to unlicensed, unqualified and unregistered “introducers” who the company misrepresented as “professional” investment advisors.

This resulted in the fund obtaining bank transfers from pensioners with little or no investment experience.

The company appears to have copied marketing abuses of a government that boasts an ombudsman scheme, yet does not employ an ombudsman – and a depositor’s compensation scheme that (to date) has proved to be a nightmarish hoax.

Obtaining bank transfers by deception are criminal offences and it is a continuing affront to common decency that some “financial journalists” persist in recommending the island as a reliable place for people to invest/deposit money.

In the interest of protecting the international community, particularly vulnerable pensioners, it is imperative that every available media resource is recruited to expose the Isle of Man for what it really is - a center for orchestrating financial fraud.

Perhaps adding the words, conniving, conspiratory, nepotistic and squalid would assist in accurately conveying this message.

PREMIER SHAREHOLDERS ASSOCIATION
Campaign for Transparency, Truth & Justice

Jim

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 08:39:05 -0400

I thank all of you who have commented on my letter.

I am astonished that those to whom I have referred have made no effort to defend the accusations. Not a word from the Kaupthing directors, the FSC, the Treasury, the finance houses or a government spokesperson.

Are they all pleading the Fifth Amendment ?

Jim for Justice
blog: http://ksfiom-blog.blogspot.com/