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By Adrienne Tanner |
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March 4, 2001 |
Hundreds of B.C.
investors ruined by 'servants of God': They trusted the devout man
who promised them riches from a bank on a tropical island. But he
has disappeared and, experts say, so has their money |
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Intro: |
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For a few
sweet months last year, payments from the tropical island arrived as
promised, delivering returns as rich as 37 per cent.
Ivan Novak, Maria Bouberl and hundreds of other Lower Mainland
investors thanked luck and God for directing them to the miracle
offshore bank on the Caribbean island of Grenada. |
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Excerpt: |
Cambridge
has links to First International Bank of Grenada, which collapsed in
1999 after duping investors of $200 million US, says
David Marchant, publisher of
Offshore Business News and Research
in Miami.
Run like a pyramid scheme, First International used money from new
investors to pay returns to earlier investors. It was backed with
falsified assets and a "sham insurer,"
Marchant says.
Like many scams of its type, First International sucked in naive
investors with the promise of astronomical returns from pitchmen
professing to be servants of God.
"It's amazing, but a significant number of adults believe that money
. . . is something that grows on trees in the Caribbean. That the
taxi drivers and electricians of the world can go and pluck these
notes from the trees. It is laughable,"
Marchant says. |
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