Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Grimmer news for League Investors - some $355 million of their money gone

The news keep getting worse for investors in Victoria-based League Assets. And the financial disaster is still not getting adequate media coverage.
Back in November, I predicted massive losses for the investors League, which promised investors security and great returns through real estate investments.
Based on the latest filings from PWC, the news is even worse than I expected.
League Assets, the creation of Adam Gant and Emanuel Arruda, is broke and filed for protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. PWC is being paid to manage the mess.
The best estimate, in November, was that League’s properties could be sold off and net $227 million.
But there are $186 million in mortgages, PWC reported in its latest filing, and $6.3 million owed on outstanding property taxes and liens. They get paid first.
Some 460 trade creditors are owed $19.5 million. They get paid next.
Which leaves about $15 million for League’s investors, who entrusted the fund with $370 million of their money - retirement savings, money set aside for children’s education and the like.
There are 4,280 investment accounts, which means an average investment of about $86,000. Blogger Rachel Berube has shared case studies from the company’s sales material, which include investors who talk about mortgaging their homes to invest in League and counting on the investments for their retirements. 
Based on the PWC reports, those investors will be lucky to get back four cents on the dollar. A typical $86,000 investment entrusted to League will be reduced to about $3,400.
It’s extraordinary. Investors put $370 million into League based on promises, and now $15 million is left. 
Money doesn’t disappear, and many creditors are asking where the missing $355 million has ended up.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Honduras: The new president gets a lavish swearing-in

There’s a certain over-the-top, bread and circuses aspect to tomorrow’s ceremonies for the swearing in of the new president of Honduras.
Especially for a country that is, effectively, broke, with desperate unmet needs.
The government has given all employees a half day off, in case they want to attend the ceremony or watch it on TV. A fleet of 450 buses has also been lined up to bring people from around the country.
The national stadium in Tegicugalpa, the venue for the big event, is being repainted, and beginning Sunday night the roads in a wide area around the stadium will be closed to traffic.
And 8,000 police - 4,000 of the new military police and 4,000 regular officers - were pulled from duty beginning Saturday to prepare security for Monday’s event. They will set up a series of security cordons and guard the hotels where representatives from some 60 countries will be staying (including Canada).
It’s a far cry from the Canadian process where the new prime minister and his cabinet are sworn in, there are some photo-ops and a cocktail party for party supporters, and everyone gets back to work.
You could argue, I suppose, that all the spending and pomp and pageantry are a legitimate celebration of democracy in a country still scarred by the 2009 coup. The November elections, while flawed, where the second since the widely criticized post-coup elections.
Or alternately you could argue that the giant public event is in effect a victory celebration for the National party, which succeeded in capturing the presidency and a plurality of congressional seats, designed in part to reinforce the power of President Juan Orlando Hernandez.
Mostly though, you have to wonder about the lavish spending on a spectacle at a time when hospitals go without medicine and the government has claimed an urgent need to cut spending.