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New Year’s Day, we slept late. We’d had a New Year’s Eve party the
night before, which unfortunately included a tremendous blowup between my foster son Wyatt and his erstwhile girlfriend Nikki. As Nikki was also our friend, she came on New Year’s Eve while Wyatt went to Oregon with his new girlfriend. It was a long night, and it was going to be a long day.
2011 started with the funds languishing in New Jersey, being investigated by OFAC (Overseas Financial Asset Compliance). How long that would take, no one knew – ever since Homeland Security raised its’ ugly conservative head in the U.S. the chances of getting money into the country, money of any sizeable amount, was like running a marathon with crutches.
January 4, 2011
Dear Stephen,
OK, this is the situation. You did say that the bank investigators would be having a telephone call with the investors in Shanghai about the use of the 100 million they are transferring. That this telephone call would occur on Wednesday of this week, and that they would then be able to initiate the wire transfer to us within 48 hours, which would be Friday. The 20th is nearly three weeks from now -- are we going to have another hold up? I know you have been doing your best, but we signed a contract with you in September to become our seed investor, and that was more than three months ago now. We cannot wait too much longer, and neither can you, from what I've heard. We can't take on a second investor while still being under contract to you; every one that has contacted me wants to know how things have worked for you as our investor. We would have to start over from the beginning -- and if we have to do that, we need to do it soon. I'm really not trying to be difficult here, but you keep extending the payout date. The programs open the 15th of this month, perhaps earlier -- we need to be ready or ready to move on.
Sincerely, Debora Hill
January 6, 2011
Dear Team,
I had a short instant message from Stephen this morning saying nothing happened today. The last real information I had from him was that the people at the bank were trying to get a telephone conference with the investor in Shanghai to determine the use of the funds here in the u.s. and that he had been on vacation over the winter holidays.
So, what does everyone think? The only thing I could do at this point is write to the people who evinced interest in the past. Stephen insists that this is the last step and that the money would definitely be released after that conversation with the investor in Shanghai, but there have been numerous delays. I realize that the rules here in the u.s. changed with Homeland Security and all, but still...the problem is that I don't know what to say to people. They all know we have an investor, and they will probably want to know how he has done for us. Any ideas?
Sincerely, Debora
There was a lot of argument regarding this; OFAC was started to screen out money transfers to and from suspect countries; but since its’ inception it had become so out of control they wound up checking people who lived in the states, some of whom were citizens, when they tried to buy a house.
By January 13th the investigation was supposedly finished, but for some reason the Swift order for the money transfer had to be re-sent. While a Swift is not technically a money order or wire transfer order, it can be an instruction for a monetary payout based on a secure bank account. Unfortunately, this one seemed to have something wrong with it, because the payout kept failing.
January 18, 2011 from Stephen Edwards:
Deb:
Thanks for the update and communication. On the funds issue, the issuers are to confirm when the copy will be made available today with the Funder in NJ. I will know sometime after 19:00GMT.
Whatever it is, I think we have a proper road map now to close this transaction this Jan. I have also made additional standby alternative from another source who wants to purchase some metal scraps in Russia and i have been able to convince the group to allow us make use of the buyers funds to do the investment before they supply the product, the total amount is about $5m , but what I have yet to learn is if the payment would be made by cash wire transfer or BG-bank guarantee.
Additionally, I am working out another support facility in the region of $10m to come through Bank guarantee which this same funder in NJ will monetize and then get us all into placement..
My strong conviction is that I am working with a team based on trust, transparency and focus, so whatever we missed last year is an additional bonus for us this year.
Keep up the good work and lets see what happens.
Sincerely, Stephen
The programs had started to open up the middle of January, and still we had no results.
January 23, 2011
Dear Stephen,
I'm feeling a little better about our situation after the Skype conference this morning. My biggest fear, apart from the mistakes and mess-ups others along the line have generated, was that the 100 million investor was either loaning you the 5 million for the seed investment or giving it you as a partner in the payout. Now that I know this is a fee owed to you for brokering the gold deal I feel more confident about the situation. I am sorry there was another mistake at the other end, and hopefully that will be the last until we receive the money here. Then we'll try for no mistakes on this end!
Anyway, if we can just get this most difficult step completed, we might be able to give birth to this elephant...
Blessed Be, Debora
Everyone was starting to get nervous again, and it was suggested that I return to Linked In and some of the other investors who had evinced interest before. It was my opinion no one remembered that particular nightmare, and I had no intention of revisiting it.
January 27, 2011
Dear Team,
Steve and I had a Skype conference with him on Monday; something is holding up that transfer order from Shanghai. But, the good news is that the 5 million he will be investing with us is actually a fee owed to him by the investor in Shanghai for setting up the big 100 million gold deal. Then we had another conference with him this morning and he's become fed up with waiting for that money transfer (again something on the other end, the Chinese New Year's holiday is coming up and I think they just don't care when they get it done) and he has been talking to two other possible partners for his investment.
In order to go back to Linked In and start over I'd have to tell people there that Stephen failed us after five months. I might get by without mentioning his name, but unlikely -- which would pretty much mean he'd be finished on that site. Also, it might make people think there was something wrong with us...and it was difficult enough before. I wish I did know what to do...not a clue at this point. I know he's trying his best, but we're getting some kind of a trickle-down of people letting him down.
Sincerely, Debora
The following day, Stephen introduced us to a man named Gary Bras, a man he met on Linked In. Bras owned a company called Bayside Financial, and this company did something called ‘large-scale money leasing’. Funny how you can go through most of your life never hearing about things like this...money leasing? Where was that when most people needed it? Waiting for them to accrue a few million dollars, just like Steve Glanz and his cohorts. And everyone wondered why the rich kept getting richer and there was less and less left for everyone else. What technology did for the rich was enable them to scoop up money faster and better. The robber barons of the gold coast would have been proud, and relieved...no one had to get their hands dirty anymore.
So I had a telephone conversation with Gary Bras and basically Bayside Financial provided short-term amounts of 50 million dollars or more, secured by a few million retainer, for entry into one high-end trade program. At the end of the program they got their money back and a percentage more, and the deal was over. Which left us still needing Stephen Edwards’ money, so that possibility went onto the back burner.
At the end of January, the Swift was withdrawn from possible monetization in the states and Frank engineered a deal to send it to a bank in Slovakia. It was all a little too confusing for us, particularly at first, but this is how it started:
Dear Deb,
Maybe we have a chance to get some money very quickly. Stephen can organize a new Swift for 300 m euro. I found a bank in Slovakia willing to lend 250 m against that. My friend will open an account in the bank Monday morning and we will send the coordinates to Stephen, who will in return organize the Swift to be issued asap. 25% is going to issuer and 10% to the people who helped with the transaction in Slovakia. The balance, 162.5 m euro (about $220 m) will be transferred to Deb's account for one of the programs. If the Swift can be issued at the latest by Tuesday we can have money by the end of next week. Will update you Monday.
Frank
Naturally, it wasn’t that easy. Not by a week, not by a month. But I did get a second letter from Frank later that day.
Dear Deb,
I received another email from Slovakia few minutes ago, Milan probably can't sleep. It looks like everything's ready. They will open a new account Monday morning and we can rock & roll. I hope Steve was able to hold the Swift for us. We were on skype last night very late, I was trying to get the info for him so he could secure the Swift for us. The person who organized the contact to the Slovak bank wanted to sign a commission agreement first; Steve was pushing me every minute to give him the contact details; my friend was on the road somewhere in Slovakia trying to organize everything, so it was a mad night. I will see how it goes when he wakes up but the Slovak bank is ready to proceed.
Frank
On the 29th I received this letter from Gary Bras:
Debora,
I look forward to the opportunity of working with you and your team. As promised here is an overview of our criteria and parameters. Let me know how you wish to proceed.
We provide capital for JV investments in quick turn financial instruments, proven trading programs and commodity transactions with an exit buyer in place. We use our own funds and have cash accounts at the major banks in Europe (DB, Credit Suisse, UBS, ABN Amro) and HSBC and a couple of private banks in Hong Kong. Since we have our own readily available funds we can move very quickly if necessary and have a long and successful track record.
We structure all of our transactions as JV Partnerships where we provide the capital and you (our partner) provide the transaction. We will guarantee our funds and validity and look for you to do the same with the transaction. We split profits 50/50. Our minimum is $50MM US but prefer larger transactions. We have the availability in excess of $2B US for initial transactions and greater amounts on subsequent tranasactions.
We require that you place 3% of the amount requested (1.75% if $500MM US or greater) into escrow. You and your attorney will have control of the escrow and ample time to review all documents and complete your due diligence on us and our funds. Once and ONLY when you are completely satisfied with us as your financial partner are the funds released to us, simultaneously with the execution of our JV Agreement and commencement of the transaction. If you are not completely satisfied with us you simply pull your funds from escrow.
Upon first profitability of the transaction the escrow deposit is refunded to you and we split profits 50/50 and look ahead to another transaction together.
Debora, I hope this clearly explains what we do and what our criteria is. Should you have a transaction that meets these paramaters and you are prepared to move forward kindly provide a summary with capital needs.
Again Debora, I thank you for you reaching out and I look forward to the opportunity of working with you and your team.
Continued success, Gary
At this point Steve Glanz professed some skepticism about Bayside Financial. Sandra and I had also been feeling that this was a rather strange setup.
Dear Deb,
I'd like to know his business model. Why does he need up-front money? Trade programs can make $1.5M in a day or a week. You don't need it from a client. Sounds like he's making money from the clients up-front fees, which means he's not earning it from the programs?
Is it sweat equity he is asking for - from the client? Well, how many startups have sweat equity? Hard sell.
Why doesn't he just do the deals in exchange for equity in the companies he is investing in? Forget about the up-front fees.
And if he is so well connected to traders and has so much money, why does he need JV partners at all? Unless the trades are bogus and he's just making money on the up-front fees?
Steve
January 30, 2011
Dear Team,
I just re-read Gary's description. Now I get it. It's not what I thought. Looks like a leased-funds deal. 3% is the lease-fee, $50M minimum. So you need $1.5M minimum to play. We can then do whatever PPP we want with the $50M, as long as we "guarantee" the transaction. I'm not sure what that means. Presumably, I would be providing the PPP. I cannot give a hard guarantee until the $50M is submitted with an entry package to a PPP, which gives access to its platform and allows for hard due diligence (ie. examining the contract, etc.). Prior to that, I can only give a soft guarantee based on trusting relationships with my partners. So depending on what Gary means by "guaranteeing" the transaction, he may not even go along with it, even with the 3% fee.
Then where does the 3% come from? It has to come from a third-party investor, which means Stephen and LMI have to split profits with that investor. I don't I have $1.5M investor at the moment. Do you? If one is found, they would have to agree to split their profit 3-ways, which could be a hard sell.
Regarding the 70:30 vs. 50:50 split, that would be up to Gary. I kind of doubt he would go along with it, but we could ask. Stephen and LMI can negotiate how to divide their portion - but would have to include the $1.5M investor in the split!
Steve G.
Sun, January 30, 2011 11:02:31 AM
Dear Steve,
But this is similar to deals we've been offered in the past...it always comes down to someone wanting money before we can get any money. As I said yesterday, if Stephen had been able to come up with 1.5 million before, we'd already be underway. I had another message from Gary Bras this morning confirming the Skype meeting tomorrow -- should I cancel that? What is the consensus here? I've had a message from Stephen this morning saying that now he understands how the deal works he doesn't feel it's worth the trouble talking to Gary further.
Debora
On January 30th, Steve said this:
I'm in favor of the conference call, for the following reasons:
1. You never know what the possibilities are until you try. Discussions stimulate creativity.
2. We are making a snap judgment based on Gary's brief overview. I'm sure there's more to the story
3. Gary's program is one possible backup to my CMO deal, which could close any time. I can always find other deals, but his isn't bad. With $50M+, there are many PPP's, and they tend to stay open longer at that level. (We'd still need to find an investor for the 3%).
4. If the 3% is not a lawyer's or lease fee, we could float the idea of a no-advance-fee scenario. A combination of equity-share and PPP profits.
5. We could see if he is flexible on the JV-share. If we find an investor, PPP profits would have to be split 4-ways: Bras, LMI, Stephen, Investor. So it makes sense to propose 70:30 or better.
Steve G.
Frank and his business partner Milan were working on a new deal in Slovakia for the monetization of another Swift. January 31st.
Dear Deb,
I sent to Stephen bank details of the Slovak company prepared to accept the Swift mt 760 for 300 m euro. The bank was informed about the deal and is waiting for the swift, which will be probably be issued tomorrow. I still have to finish some documents for the Slovak bank with Milan today, it's not just a simple exchange of funds against Swift. Once the swift is received I should have more info for you.
Do you have any update on swift for US bank? It looks like it's over unless you have some new info.
Sincerely, Frank
Dear Team,
Steve G and I had the conference call with Gary Bras today; Stephen Edwards was not present on the call. Gary explained the process of their funding for investment; Bayside Capital specializes in providing money specifically for the kinds of programs Steve G represents. If we decide to work with him we will be required to place 1.5 million in an escrow account with a company located in California. Once the money is placed in escrow the time frame for receivership of the 50 million for investment is 7-10 working days. Overall, I calculate about 30 days from beginning the process with Bayside to when we would receive the capital. This is a conservative estimate, but I believe realistic.
Therefore, I suggest we divide the 5 million seed investment and place the 1.5 million required by Bayside into their equity account, and the remaining 3.5 million into the current CMO program. If the CMO program has closed in the interim, then another program can be utilized. Sandra and I would strongly suggest not putting more than this into the Bayside program; everyone involved in this joint venture requires a first payout as quickly as can be arranged -- with every delay our business and Stephen's becomes more fragile and more prone to complete disintegration.
So, does everyone have the documents Gary Bras sent to me? I know Steve G does -- anyone else who needs them, please let me know. Gary is now waiting for us to make a decision about working with them, and also of course for the seed investment to arrive. We don't have to make a decision until the seed investment money is in the LMI account, so everyone take time to review and we can always have another conference call with Gary when needed.
In the interim -- Stephen, was there any movement on the Shanghai funds today? And Frank is now waiting for some work from you on the Slovakian possibility, so you will need to weigh in at this point with a progress report.
Blessed Be, Debora
Steve Glanz and I had a Skype conference with Gary Bras, but we basically decided against going with his program, at least with our first money.
Dear Deb,
Let’s see what the next couple of days bring. The swift should come from London, the Slovak bank said they need 2 days to approve the credit line. Obviously they need all the supporting documents. The bank has to send info on the transaction, including supporting documents, also to reserve bank and other authorities monitoring the financial market. It is a lot of money we are talking about and if we want to receive the funds everything has to be 100%. But we will know after the swift is issued.
Is it possible to do business with Gary or is it just another upfront money waste of time?
Frank
February 1st.
Dear Team,
Steve G and I had the conference call with Gary Bras today; Stephen Edwards was not present on the call. Gary explained the process of their funding for investment; Bayside Capital specializes in providing money specifically for the kinds of programs Steve G represents. If we decide to work with him we will be required to place 1.5 million in an escrow account with a company located in California. Once the money is placed in escrow the time frame for receivership of the 50 million for investment is 7-10 working days. Overall, I calculate about 30 days from beginning the process with Bayside to when we would receive the capital. This is a conservative estimate, but I believe realistic.
Therefore, I suggest we divide the 5 million seed investment and place the 1.5 million required by Bayside into their equity account, and the remaining 3.5 million into the current CMO program. If the CMO program has closed in the interim, then another program can be utilized. Sandra and I would strongly suggest not putting more than this into the Bayside program; everyone involved in this joint venture requires a first payout as quickly as can be arranged -- with every delay our business and Stephen's becomes more fragile and more prone to complete disintegration.
So, does everyone have the documents Gary Bras sent to me? I know Steve G does -- anyone else who needs them, please let me know. Gary is now waiting for us to make a decision about working with them, and also of course for the seed investment to arrive. We don't have to make a decision until the seed investment money is in the LMI account, so everyone take time to review and we can always have another conference call with Gary when needed.
In the interim -- Stephen, was there any movement on the Shanghai funds today? And Frank is now waiting for some work from you on the Slovakian possibility, so you will need to weigh in at this point with a progress report.
Blessed Be, Debora
On February 2nd Stephen Edwards wrote us an email to say his Swift had
been increased from 300 million euros to 500 million. Following this I had an instant chat with Stephen Edwards who said there would be two Swift transactions, the larger first and then the smaller. In the meantime, the business deal Stephen had been working on in New Jersey failed, although we never really knew why.
February 4, 2011:
Deb:
I have been on the phone myself calling three continents...my bill for Jan was $2000 and I dont ask anyone for assistance...I have just been informed today that both the 500m & the small one for 73m should go out today; but other wise by monday if they don’t finish today.
The essence of why I said that frank should also pursue this 100m is because I am 100% certain about it: at least they did it before & it was canceled, all he needs to do is just send it out as the verbiage is and let the banker confirm if they can give a credit line against it & for how much- simple question but they have to bear in mind that the Swift has a validity period of 30 days flat, meaning that it will expire in 30 days. The funds that would be gleaned from it should be able to get some income before 30 days go by, and from there we will advance the sellers for the gold to enable them have the issuer to re- issue the swift again for another fresh new month.
Hope you are clarified now. We can’t just keep all our eggs in one basket...i am working in all directions to bring funds about.
Stephen.
And from this he thought he had clarified the situation. Unfortunately, in the way of banks and bureaucrats everywhere, once Frank worked for over a week to get everything set up for the Swift to arrive at CSOB bank in Slovakia, it look more than another week to arrive. And it was that week that the recriminations and accusations began.
Dear Stephen,
I received a very angry email from my Slovak associate. The bank called him again yesterday afternoon and gave him a really hard time. His company can have serious problems if dealing with the bank in the future and it could mean substantial financial loss for him. I have doubts about this Swift business; not only your associates are not able to meet any deadline they give us but all the Swifts we have received so far were rejects from other banks. It indicates something is wrong. I already told you the signatories on draft from HSBC were 2 officers who both retired from the bank a couple of years ago. What other problems are on the side of your associates I don't know but the letters you asked me to supply do indicate there are some further problems as well. If the swifts are not issued on Monday the bank will close all the doors and we are finished there forever.
The last Swift you sent me, The MT 799 rejected by the US bank, is just a proof of funds and no bank will lend any money against that.
Frank
Dear Deb,
Stephen sent me the draft of the swift for the Slovak bank "issued" by HSBC London. The first thing I've done was to google the names on the draft and it showed both signatories retired from the bank in 2008. When I asked Steve how the swift was signed by people who do not work with the bank for some time, he said it's just a draft and there will be other people signing the final. The Swift was originally issued for a bank in Indonesia on 19 January so there is no way the bank would keep the signatories on file 2 years after they left the bank, even if it's just a draft. The other thing is I never know what comes next. He dumps on me all the shit he receives from somewhere, it's every hour different info. I informed the bank in Slovakia that they would receive a Swift from UBS worth 15 million euros and he sends me the next hour a Swift for 73 m from Hong Kong. The same with the 300 m euro Swift, he changed it to 500 m, and then he said they issued the 500 m and in 3 days would issue another 300 m. I am sure nobody would risk even 1 m and pledge it for people he never met in his life. I don't know what's behind all this; maybe they are just using our company details and contracts for something else. Who knows. But we can be 100% sure the deal between Shanghai and the US bank is definitely over. The swifts were rejected; if it’s real, in countries where you can buy a bank director for a carton of Chivas Regal, why should it work in Slovakia I don't know. It could be a costly experience for me and my friends in Europe, not to mention I soiled my relationship with those people and they with the banks. I Will see what happens on Monday, but I have a very little hope it will work. maybe is everything OK, I really don't know. I've seen fake bank guarantees but this is going through secure system between banks. I doubt it is possible to interfere with that. We see if it's issued Monday, if not I see the chance as being very small the bank will talk to us after that. We have an excellent contact, but we might lose him next week.
Frank
That day Stephen wrote me an instant chat message and asked me if I thought Steve Glanz could handle the Swift in the states. This was his response, on Saturday, February 5th:
Dear Frank and Debora,
I would not get involved with this unless the request came from Stephen Edwards. It's his deal and he hasn't asked me to get involved. The MT799 draft below is a very simple example. The text of an MT799 can be as varied as there are deals. There are certain standards which define the essential nature of an MT799 (basically, a Proof of Funds), but you can add things to it. For example, transferability can be a term the message - the ability to transfer the asset to a third party.
If I were given the assignment, the first thing I would do is look at the particular MT799 that already exists. What verbiage is in it? What are the terms? Then, I would try to verify that it is genuine. Someone would have to give me permission to call the bank and authorize me to verify the MT799 message and the asset that it is talking about. I would need an introduction to the asset owner for further questions and verification.
I would determine what the owner wants to do with the asset. Does he want a line of credit, a trade platform, or both? Or maybe he wants to sell it. Then I'd need to get a clear lineage report on all the brokers and JV partners, and their expectations.
There are some Traders whose banks can trigger their own credit lines based on the right type of MT799 with the proper verbiage. After all this preliminary work, I would ask the Traders either directly, or indirectly through their platforms and co-brokers, if they would accept the verbiage the client (asset owner) has presented. They may request a compliance package.
I may need to ask if the asset owner would be willing to change the verbiage and terms to conform with what the platform and trader needs. I might even be able to talk the asset owner into a different procedure, such as an MT760 for blocking the asset, an Administrative Hold, or even setting up an account at the trade bank and depositing the asset there.
This is all very hypothetical. I have no idea what is going on with this Shanghai group. All I know is the reports we have all been receiving that the New Jersey funder already has everything in place, and is waiting for the end of the Chinese New Year period to receive the asset into his bank, and engage a lender against the MT799. At minimum for this to occur, the MT799 would have to have terms of transferability to the New Jersey funder.
Steve G.
Dear Stephen,
Frank has related to me the problems he had with your original Swift for 100 million and that it cannot be monetized in Europe. As LMI is Steve Glanz's contracted client and your are our contracted investor, I would now like to invite you to work with Steve on the possible execution of the MT 799 in the U.S. -- he has some ideas on how this could be accomplished, but it must be with the complete cooperation of everyone involved on your end. Please contact him tomorrow, if possible, by email or Skype, to discuss how this would work and how to get started.
Thank you.
Sincerely, Debora Hill, CEO, Lost Myths Ink LLC
On Sunday Stephen Edwards sent us this letter from his investor, the issuer of the Swifts. The only information we had on this person was that he owned an airline in Malaysia.
Hello,
No acceptable explanation has been given so far on the situation. You know I have not done this transaction before; this is my first time of doing something like this. I spent good money paying legal fees and things like that. I am begging to ask questions and I am getting more and more educated on the issue. I hope it is not what I am thinking because if it is, I will spare no one, Both my agents and even some people in the bank will be in serious problems.
If by Tuesday of next week nothing good comes from them, I will fly over to the UK and sort things out by myself. Meanwhile, I have decided to stay action on the transaction until this whole mess is sorted out.
Thanks for your advises on this matter.
Regards, Melvin
It is somewhat difficult to work internationally and still take seriously a letter like this, in which the spelling and grammar mistakes are so egregious. But we had come to realize that no one does well in a second language, particularly the written part. Frank was frightened that his people in Slovakia would pull out of the deal once they learned that the issuer was going to the UK to sort out his problems with the Swifts. That didn’t happen, of course – when dealing with such large sums of money, most people seemed to be particularly forgiving of delays. They pretty much had to be.
On February 7th I received this from Stephen; it was certainly starting
to look as if he was casting around in every direction he could, but he was starting to resemble a fish flailing on a river bank.
Dear Deb,
Personally I am working on all points to see that we break even. There’s a new BG of $100m from brazil via banco bank that would also come through maybe, just maybe before Friday they said.
On the other issues, we hope to hear news today on the 73m swift for the mt103/23 and then for the 500& 300, I will know more news today if they have resolved the issues with the signatories since the account owner is now in the UK.
on the 9m wire, I heard again it’s still on course to your account before Friday as well....there’s another 2.5m euros likely as well before Friday but I have not finished with them yet...they are only ready to give us the equivalent of $1.6m to work with.
We are working and stay positive.
Stephen
Most of this proved to fog, and it disappeared over the course of the next week. The wire transfer never materialized, either – we were never clear on the reason but a lot of it seemed to have to do with the incompetence of the bankers and brokers involved. In the interim, another program closed and another opportunity slid out of our reach.
February 8, 2001
Dear Debora,
The current CMO program we have been discussing has now come to an end. The platform had a $20B allocation and reached their limit. We don't know if the program will re-open. There is a possibility of another CMO program opening up, but for now, there is no CMO program we know of that is available.
One alternative is to go with Gary Bras' program, which actually has very good leverage, comparable to the CMO program. In that regard, I have an issue to run by you. I have other clients who are also looking for leveraged programs at the $1M level. I had intended to slot them into the CMO program, but now I'm looking at Gary's deal as an alternative. The problem is that it would be very difficult to talk a client into taking only 1/3 of the profits in perpetuity. It would be their money, after all.
So here is what I propose. Let's say I get a client for Gary. He invests $1.5M to get $50M into trade. Let's say the program earns 100% a week. The first week, my client splits half of that with Gary, earning $25M. I ask the client to enter into a one-time, JV side-agreement with LMI/Stephen Edwards for $5M of that $25M out of the first week's profits. Thereafter, he is keeps everything for himself.
So now you have $5M, and can invest $3M into Gary's program yourself. Or, you can invest it in a good CMO program, or anything else that comes around to your liking. Let me know what you think.
Another option is a perpetual side-agreement, but I don't think any client would agree to more than 10% tops. After all, they are already paying at least 10% or more in platform/broker fees (in the typical program). That would reduce the client's overall take to 80:20, which could be a hard sell.
If Stephen's other deals come through first, you won't need this way of raising capital, but I would still suggest it to my clients as a way to honor the referral.
As it turns out, I do have one client I just tried putting into the CMO program, and I was thinking about suggesting this alternative. I also have another one who tells me he'll have funds shortly. So this is a good time to discuss it.
Steve Glanz
OK, sorry to hear about that CMO, but -- in the time we've known you, loads of programs came and went. That CMO wasn't even one of the best, except of course that it had a weekly payout, which was really good. What else is available right now? If Stephen can get this stuff done this week, even one of them, we'll need to get that money into a program right away; these investors want a return, they won't want us to put the money into Bayside Financial and then wait a month for Gary to turn it into the larger, THEN wait for the first payout. Sandra and I are pretty leery of that whole scenario; not saying it couldn't work, but...that means another opportunity for delay and bureaucratic snafus. They are a money company, after all. We're not saying we absolutely wouldn't do business with Gary's company, but...we'd rather not. And Stephen has made it clear that his partners wouldn't want that kind of delay.
Debora
Things continued pretty much in that same train for the next couple of weeks. It all become more confusing and more chaotic; there were a lot of Skype chats with Stephen Edwards, his investor was supposedly sorting matters out on his accounts and his associates, etc., but there was absolutely no progress made. The only thing we worked out was that we would add an addendum to our contract with Stephen Edwards, and agree to split anything we got out of the Bayside Financial deal 50-50 (as opposed to 65-35 if we brought in the seed investment). There was then a lot of discussion about how to invest this 6 million – in a lump sum, which would yield the highest payout from a program; divide the 6 million into 3 million for us and 3 million for Edwards and invest separately; take some out for upfront expense money and then invest the rest?
February 22, 2011
Deb:
Of the $100m swift...the issuer requires 50% but since that cannot be granted immediately, what I suggest is that we give them 20% and then use the balance from the credit line against the swift and do the placements. I can keep them waiting for their 30% in a month’s time.
It is better we have more funds to do the programs so that we can make more returns; we can do as many placements as possible, which is what I have in mind.
Stephen
February 24, 2011
Dear Team,
We are expecting 2 swifts going into 2 different banks. As you know this has been dragging on for a month or more; the amounts are going up and down like a yoyo, so are the terms and issuing banks. Stephen was assured the first swift from HSBC which dropped down from 500 m to 100 m would happen this week. Stephen came yesterday with news that the account holder wants us to sign a fee protection agreement. I asked for the copy but received nothing. So there is a very small chance we will receive the swift this week. The Slovak bank promised a credit line against the swift, 80% of the face value. This was based on information we gave the bank one month ago. Out of this money we have to pay the account holder, commission to people in Slovakia who organized the deal, with the rest going to the LMI account. How much it is in real figures I cannot calculate until we have something concrete in our hands.
Frank
The first Swift finally arrived at CSOB on March 2nd. March 3rd was when everything became quite surreal in the talking about amounts, and payouts, and possible program profits. While this entire way of doing business and making money had always been difficult for us to fathom (difficult for a lot of other people as well, apparently, since it took us so long to find a seed investor and was now taking so much longer for that investor to actually get any seed funds to our account), but it now became the sort of thing you’d expect to see in a fantasy movie about millionaires.
Dear Team,
Stephen and Steve G have been discussing the possibility of using the entire 100 million payout of the first Swift to enter one of Steve G's 'super' programs. According to Stephen, there is one that would pay out 300 million within 7-10 days. Stephen, have you considered how to handle that payout? I know 100 million of it will go to your partner who originated the Swift...what about the remainder? There are two possibilities:
1. roll over 100 million into the same program, take out 100 million or 65 million for Stephen, 35 million for LMI.
2. if Stephen requires a larger sum immediately, after the first payout scale down to a smaller program of 20 million and keep doing this for awhile, building each investment sum back up over time.
We will need to leave this decision up to Stephen -- either way we will be well suited to hit the ground running on the LMI film fund and all offshoots.
Just planning 'cause I can't help it...I'm a Cancer crab.
Deb
Deb:
The amount is not 100m but 500m, so if the swift is confirmed by Friday as ok, then with the credit line in place, Frank & his people should get about 85% of this 500m and then payout initially 20% out of the 50% to the issuers & another 3m for expense.
The balance would then go into Steve G's bullet 10day program and we would then apply your suggestions as to how to proceed. I am positive that the confirmation should be in for Friday: they have already began to put pressure to confirm if its ok.
Goodnight & stay blessed. Stephen.
Dear Deb,
Well, I'm not a professional Stephen Edwards interpreter, but here's my take on his post :) $500M x 85% LTV = $425M. Frank gets 50% of that = $212M. He pays the issuer 20% of that + $3M = $45M. He's left with $167M. That's the amount you get to invest.
Presumably, the BG issuer is a business owner who is happy to put $42M in his pocket for having someone arrange for a loan on his instrument (which he still owns), and two groups who will invest $150M+ into programs, where he will split profits with them. That's my best guess, not being involved in this deal or knowing anything about it.
Steve
Dear Deb and Frank,
Please let me make the clarification again: the BG issuer wants 50% of the 500m value which is 250m.....I know that if we give him all of that, we can’t do any good work and make money for ourselves, so I suggested to the issuer that I can get them about 20% +3m out of whatever will be the LTV value, so give & take, he will initially get a minimum of about 90m....+3m.
Now, whatever is left as balance, we would put into a program that would ensure we generate back part of what was given to the issuer first & further more we now balance his 30%. The rest based on income would now be shared out b/w us, all based on a new split ratio with the bankers & the account owner who is Frank’s associate.
But the priority will be given to our first agreement in place with LMI. All the others will be done one after the other. I hope I am clear on this now. Let me know if you want any input done.
Stephen
On March 5th Steve G’s German client tried to wire transfer his money into an auxiliary account for his business, unfortunately located in Spain. We wouldn’t find out for another several weeks the real story, but his money was frozen in his German account along with every other depositor in that branch. No, you aren’t reading that wrong and no, it wasn’t a mistake on my part – the German homeland security bureau, entitled BAFIN, decided there might be something suspect about one of the depositors so they froze the money of every depositor in the bank for 10 working days while they investigated.
The 5th of March was the day Frank Cmero proved once again he was not to be trusted – as if we needed to be reminded in any way. He first tried to take control of the entire operation, suggesting that he and Scott Ferguson should be made officers of LMI with full voting rights on whatever projects we funded and produced. When I vetoed that and noted that Sandra and I were the only officers of LMI and that was never going to change, he suggested he be removed from the equation after the first two films and then receive 25% of the payout of the fund for one year after the first payout. Apparently he thought I wouldn’t notice that this would mean he would be receiving 24% of the profit while his film was also being funded. We caught that pretty quickly and suggested that we pay him 25% of the profit of the fund after GO WEST was entirely funded. He agreed to this, which would mean we could be free of him sometime in 2012, which sounded like a bargain to us. Not a good one, perhaps, but certainly it was well worth the cost.
Over the course of the next week there were numerous hours spent and countless suggestions made as to how best to keep the Bank Guarantee money out of the clutches of Homeland Security in the u.s. One of the suggestions was that the money be invested into a program in Switzerland without ever coming to the states. In order for Steve Glanz to do this, he and Frank Cmero would need to fly to Switzerland to be the signatories on the platform, and we would make Steve our Chief Financial Officer for LMI for this one transaction.
March 7, 2011
Dear Team,
I believe Steve would need more travel expense money, but perhaps that can be handled from this end. Do remember that the percentage of the four partners on our end: Debora, Sandra, Frank and Scott -- will be coming to the u.s. to be invested in one of Steve G's programs, and Stephen will get 65% of the profit of that program, as he will from any profits we make from programs except Bayside Financial (50%).
I don't understand a lot of this, but if a company is required for the transaction and has to have articles of incorporation, LMI does -- and we could make Steve our Financial Representative. He is anyway. Also, the issue of the blocking of funds in the account was, I believe, why Frank wanted to open an account for the funds in Switzerland. Is that correct?
I had a note from Frank this morning on Skype about 2.5 hours ago that Milan was waiting for a phone call from the bank about the release of the credit line.
Debora
On March 8th everything started to fall apart...yet again. There were some problems at CSOB, the Slovakian that was monetizing the Bank Guarantee. But part of the confusion was that at the time we didn’t know or realize that a Swift was simply a document used to ‘announce’ a Bank Guarantee. There was supposed to be a separate document that proved the presence of the backup money – this was the actual Bank Guarantee. So the Swift from Barclay’s was supposed to have arrived on the 5th of March. On the 8th an official at CSOB wanted to talk to the official at Barclay’s Bank who was in charge of the actual Bank Guarantee for the Swift. Seemed pretty straight-forward, but no. The infighting and blaming got so bad between Stephen E and Frank that we decided if this deal failed we would end our association with Stephen. We weren’t even blaming him, it just seemed as if it was one failure after another, with no resolution. Frank claimed he could get the matter cleared up that day, and we realized we would not be able to end our contract with Stephen Edwards until we knew if Steve Glanz’s German client was able to complete his program.
Dear Debora,
I will keep my fingers crossed & await the news that will come from F Frank. Remember that before we began this transaction, he said that he was 100% sure of the account owner & the bankers.
CSPB has all the contacts at Barclays Bank, and if any banker is not satisfied with what his client says, all he should do is send a swift mt 999, which will not cost them anything, to Barclays to confirm the legitimacy of the swift they received. But to say otherwise, then someone wants to take us all for a big ride which neither me nor the issuer will find adequate. CSOB knows what to do & they should do it. Like I keep saying, i dont know how well Frank trusts his partner who is the account owner.
we are doing everything on trust and it will be sad if at this very last minute, someone will try to ruin all our efforts. Why? I leave it in your hands to cordinate with frank.
Regards, Stephen
And later on March 8th...
Dear Debora,
I have just been told that the next 300m & the other 100m swift have all been put on hold because of all this misinformation coming out of CSOB.
The issuer of this BG is one of the biggest airline owners in Malaysia & he has over 2 billion cash in the account from where this BG was issued. He’s one of their big customers, that’s why he left HSBC when they were messing up. Let us not lose this big time opportunity that has come our way, and please Frank, ask your people to do the right thing and get the credit line issued.
We stand to get more of the others when they get their funds; so please clarify any miscommunication and insure that they do the needful.
This is our chance to make history. I will await news from Frank.
Regards, Stephen
And since Friday came for us last, my report came after the storm had blown.
Hello, boys...
Naturally there has been a small snafu at the CSOB bank which during the night (our time, day in Europe) was blown into such an enormous balloon it exploded all over the place. At CSOB the Vice President of that branch waited so long for Barclay's to send him the Swift (two weeks, perhaps longer) that he had to go to Italy on business and leave it for someone else to receive. The amount was so large they kicked it upstairs to the main branch. Then they asked for telephone confirmation from an officer at Barclay's in London on the Swift details; then someone at Barclay's couldn't find the right person to talk to (all this happened today, their time) and said the person in charge should call Barclay's instead. Milan got all upset because someone told him they couldn't find the Swift after they sent confirmation that they got it, and it took him all day to get hold of the information that it was now at the headquarters of the bank for authentication.
During the night there were about a dozen emails back and forth from Frank and Stephen -- Stephen having a nervous breakdown, blaming Frank, Milan, CSOB, etc. By the end of the day it had been decided that the person handling the authentication of the Swift at CSOB would telephone the proper person at Barclay's in the morning (late night our time).
Stephen started all kinds of posturing and threatening that his client would pull the Swift, yadda yadda yadda, and I basically got fed up and told him that his client couldn't possibly be that stupid after paying for the Swift and having it held up on the Barclay's end for over two weeks, during which time period the people at CSOB were waiting to receive it.
Finally it all came down to that phone call that needs to happen in the morning in Europe, as it should have done in the first place. I probably won't have anymore concrete news until Frank is available, but I did want to update everyone.
Deb
The next thing we heard was that because the first Swift was increased in size from 300 to 500 million euros, it was too large a sum for the branch office to handle, and had been sent to Prague. It wasn’t true, but that’s what we heard...then Stephen wrote to say that the long-awaited wire transfer of 20 million euros had finally been sent from Barclay’s in Singapore to Tatra Banka in Slovakia.
March 11, 2011
Steve,
Milan was in Tatra Banka before they closed for business yesterday and the money was not there yet. When I sent money from Australia to Slovakia it usually took 3-4 business days, from Singapore should be the same. There's a good chance the money will be there today. I received the LMI account details from Deb, please send me further instruction and the account where the money should be transferred. Thanks.
Regarding the MT 760, the amount is too large for any bank in Slovakia or Czech Republic. They are not able to handle such a large volume. We should consult the bank before the amount was increased from 300 to 500 m. However, our contact in CSOB recommended we use the BG in program. He's got a bank in Hong Kong which can accept the BG as collateral for a program. We would receive 8% of the BG's face value in cash immediately and receive payouts from the program for the period of 12 months. They want to split the profits 50:50. They have a company in Australia they want to use for the transaction with an account in Citibank, Sydney. The draft of the swift will all the details is in the attachment. I tried to find out some info on the Australian company, but I’ve never heard of them. There was not much I could find, just the registration details but I can ask for more details if we need them.
I know some platforms accept BGs into programs and I believe Steve G would be in the position to find a bank in Switzerland we can use. This would be the best option for us, we can control the transaction and the whole profit stays with us. I didn't tell Steve about this yet, maybe you can discuss it with him.
Rgds, Frank
Dear Deb,
If we say yes to this option, then 5% of the immediate payment would
go to the issuer & of the 3%, you & account owner would take 1% and send 1% to debbie & me and mandate of issuer to take 1%....lets do this asap & you inform can Steve G and others on the team.
Let us know what would be the payout of the 50/50 % and would it be weekly or bi-weekly etc, so that I know what to inform the issuer etc.
On the wire transfer, I will send you the account details later.
Rgds, Stephen
Also on March 11th:
Dear Deb,
I have spoken with Frank and a lot has changed...he’s now got a buyer for the BG from one of the bankers for 60%, rather than going into a program...I have spoken with the mandate to the issuer and they say we should go ahead, they would pay out the entire 60% asap, but 100m will be shared with the bankers & brokers from the buyers side, so we would have left 200m from which they will use 100m maybe through Steve G or direct into a platform. Then from the 100m left, the issuer would be paid 70m and then 20m sent to your account and the balance of 10m given to the mandate of the issuer...Frank says the payment can happen before wed...he’s already doing contracts like I said, we can’t argue much with the bankers.
Regards, Stephen
March 14, 2011
Dear Team,
Stephen sent me a Skype message this morning saying he would have a full report from Barclay's in the morning.
From Frank this morning: his (Milan's) friend has a relative working in the bank and he said you will see it only when it's credited, cant see if something is coming or not. Today is the 4th day, it should be there. Milan will check after 9 his time and then at 3 pm. The bank credits only twice a day.
From Frank at 9 pm: The bg, the contact in the bank found the buyer in london, they are working on the contract and once executed the buyer will meet with the Slovak company in Prague and they will exchange the BG against the money.
Steve G doesn't like me to send on his messages to me, so I will just say it will be between Wednesday of this week and Wednesday of next week before his client's money is released by Spanish authorities.
I will send more when I hear.
Debora
It was around the middle of March that the questions really started:
was this Bank Guarantee real, was it bogus? Were there people in the middle of this whole deal who were trying to sabotage it? There was much more to come in this soap opera, but it would be weeks before all was revealed.
Dear Stephen,
From where we are watching, most of what has happened is due to the fact that your investor moved his funds from Singapore to London and then tried to immediately wire them to Prague. This is a different world, global banking is in crisis, and he managed to raise a lot of red flags by doing that. Also, it wasn't Frank who raised the BG from 300 to 500 euros, a sum which apparently cannot be handled by 90% of the banks in the world. This is a bad time to blame anyone when mistakes have been made all round. Steve G's investor made a terrible mistake himself when he sent money to Spain and then tried to transfer it right away into the equity account in the u.s. That kind of thing can't be done anymore -- it always comes under suspicion, causes delays, and sometimes causes deals to fail.
Debora
Dear Team,
It would seem we have had another meltdown, this time regarding the wire transfer in Prague. This is happening all too frequently lately, even to Steve G's client in Germany. So, rather than blame one another or even stupid people in the banking industry or investors who think they can send their money flying all over the world without anyone noticing, perhaps we can all work together to affect some positive outcome.
Frank, Stephen obviously feels you aren't giving him full reports on what is happening with your people. I know you mean to do this, so perhaps you can ramp up your reporting to twice a day.
Stephen, you will need to make sure at the very beginning of any transactions that there aren't speed bumps that will slow them down. The withdrawal of the wire transfer because it was held up for investigation is an indication of the international climate -- paranoia. Continually trying one thing after another to get money into this country for Steve G's programs clearly isn't working as it has been going on for six months. Perhaps you can sit down with the bankers at Barclay's and your investor and work out a strategy they feel will be of value -- what I can't understand is why your investor didn't just wire transfer his 5 million straight to our corporate account in the states from Barclay's in London or from his bank in Singapore? Too much messing around only seems to have gotten us stuck in international quicksand.
All this said, there isn't a lot we can do from here, except try to help. The lesson we have learned (Sandra, Tom, Debora) comes from Steve G's German guy -- he sent his money from Germany to an account in Spain (we don't know why) and then immediately tried to transfer it again to an equity account in the u.s. So Spain reported this to their Homeland Security again, BAFIN, and they froze his funds for a couple of weeks. We see this lesson as -- don't try to send your money whizzing around the world from one account to another, each in a different country.
We are of course only us, and the rest of you may have a different take on it.
Deb and Sand
Stephen:
Thanks for keeping us posted. As I am not directly involved in these BG deals, it would just add to the confusion for me to comment on specifics. Let me know if you want me to be more directly involved.
Skype chat is a useful tool, but it does have limitations. Have you and Frank ever tried to do an Audio Skype chat, or even a phone call? That might help. Voice conversations are more interactive, and can alleviate some of the languaging issues and cross-talk confusion of written chat.
In some cases, I recommend email. Use it when you need time to collect facts and make a careful presentation.
The sense I get is that Frank is working very hard. However, he is hampered by having to deal with too many brokers. This has created delays in response times, and unintended misrepresentations. My advice to both of you - get direct to your principals and bankers. Ask the other brokers to step aside.
Stay positive, focused and keep a cool head. The same goes for the principles and brokers you are dealing with. The mechanics or these transactions are hard enough without tempers getting in the way.
Steve Glanz
Dear Stephen,
OK, I'm getting worried as well. For one thing, you two are out of control here and blaming one another, the banks, your investor, the weather...this is not working together. I know how frustrating all this is -- if you do change your mind and decide to end all this and go elsewhere, what would happen with Steve Glanz and his client in Germany for the Bayside Financial program? Does your last sentence mean you don't want to work with us anymore? Hence my question about Steve G/Bayside.
Frankly, there seem to have been plenty of mistakes made on both sides here. Lack of communication, yes -- but also some things that didn't work because there was lack of proof of funds origin, lack of preparation, etc. Our agent Scott Ferguson came up with a good suggestion, and we were wondering why it wasn't tried before:
Debora: I agree on returning to the bankers / investor and suggest wiring directly to Lost Myths Corp Acct - or perhaps determine a better transaction mode (would platforming something to Steve G. work). But a mutually workable business activity that sidesteps parking fund documents in various banks - unless thats unavoidable. Getting the funds working (producing profits) - is the real goal of the bankers / investor anyway. I would think the investor in particular is aware of the current global banking problems associated with moving money around. And, as you noted, the higher numbers may be stalling the process as well.
Anyway, maybe this bump in the system with clear up over the next day or so and a new wire transfer or other transaction with resolve the problem and move things ahead.
Whatever is decided, let's try to stop blaming one another for the past failures and figure out what is going wrong. There are a few things here that I feel need to be addressed. First off, Stephen E's partner's BG was refused by the Slovak bank due to the amount -- that isn't the fault of anyone on our team, or his...or theirs, really. Just a fact. Second, the wire transfer failed because there was something wrong in the origin -- perhaps the money was sent too many places, as I pointed out yesterday. Perhaps all that is required is that more evidence is presented as to the provenance of the money. Whatever it is, it is not a failure on the part of Frank or his people -- it was a bank decision. It wasn't a failure on the part of Stephen E, either -- again, just something that happens. What we can't figure out from this remote vantage point is why Stephen E's partner is so jumpy about this whole thing; if he owns an airline in Malaysia he must be more conversant with international banking than this, and he must know how careful everyone is now. To say he is 'pissed off' doesn't make a lot of sense; this is not how business people behave -- they do what needs to be done and provide what is demanded for proof of ownership, provenance, etc.
I have no idea where we can go from here. I know there are a lot of suggestions floating around; it appears that Frank needs that wire transfer to be initiated again; so do we all. He needs to get to Europe to do the BG, we need to pay retainers to the CPA and attorney, and some other loose ends that need to be gathered before there is program money paid out. So, what needs to be done to get that wire transfer sent correctly, so it can be initialized by the receiving bank? Stephen, if you talk to the people at Barclay's they will probably be willing to help you -- but everything needs to be clearly laid out for them, including why the wire transfer was refused at the other end. This is only a suggestion, I'm not there so I can't make it happen myself.
Also, is Scott's suggestion a valid one?
Debora
Debbie:
Let me make some issues clear, in as much as we are all a team working for a single purpose which is to make use of maximum opportunities for our benefit, it is good to know that we should be extremely open with one another otherwise it will lead to a crisis of confidence .
I have observed of recent where Steve G has asked Debbie not to share contents of his Skype conversation with her with the group(please clarify) if i am wrong. Also Frank Cmero of late has not been forthcoming with updates to me on the BG issue for which he knows I am obligated to report back to the issuers mandate.
I have had to quarrel with him over this during our conversation on Skype and we later reached an understanding: if it wasn’t for Debbie, I wouldn’t know any of you guys and I would want Debbie to know that it was based on my explicit trust & confidence the BG was issued to frank's partner MBC in slovakia.
The issuer is doing independent checks on all the info I have supplied in the last one week to confirm if it is valid. My credibility is on the line; Now frank says, he’s got a Swiss platform which would accept the BG for trade with 80% most probably as the credit line value & that documentation etc. would be sent to him for signing, and I said ok-go ahead.
He mentioned there are 6 persons who are part of a chain to the final link up with the platform: (i asked him to define their roles &expectations) which he couldn’t do immediately. This led to another round of arguments b/w us and I told him, whatever be the case, they will all benefit from what will be due to MBC & frank.
I did let him know that in as much as there was no pre-agreement b/w us doesn’t mean there should be ghost persons introduced for profit taking. Having said that, I told him whatever be the case, from the income, 60% should be reserved for the issuer and the 40% less the 10% for the bankers whom we still need to know why they deserve such since they cannot give the requested line of credit against the BG would now be shared 50/50 with LMT and then Frank /MBC & co. Anyone in my position would do the same or apply a different method to accomplish things differently Please let me know if I am wrong....
What do we do in the light of all these? I am open to ideas and negotiations.
Stephen
Hi, Stephen;
Ok, first off -- Steve Glanz doesn't like me to forward his messages that come to me alone -- so I always try to paraphrase what he tells me. I agree that we need to have complete transparency; this is difficult when there are a few people involved, but -- I always try to do this. And Steve G is very good about weighing in, as he did this morning.
Once again, let's get past the blaming of one another and whoever else may have messed up. Pretend this is the first day of business between us and we must go from here -- what can we do now, and what have we learned from previous mess-ups in our business?
1. Is there a chance your partner will reissue that wire transfer with back up documents as to origin of the money?
2. Frank is working on the BG with a bank in Switzerland. Is there anything you can do to assist him, or anything your partner can do? Rather than leaving everything up to him, if you can be more involved at each step we might stave off another disaster.
3. What about Scott Ferguson's suggestion? Why can't the BG be monetized here? And why can't that wire transfer be sent directly to the Bank of the West? They are a large international bank with affiliates pretty much everywhere, and Charmaine would be on the track of it from the first minute the wire is ordered.
These are the only suggestions I have right now.
Debora
Dear Team,
I am not going into the debate you had recently, I spend hours with Stephen every single day on skype and occasionally on phone and communication is certainly not the main problem.
After the developments of the last 2 weeks I was, after approval from Stephen, pursuing two options - the direct sale of the BG from Barclay's and using the BG in a program with a Swiss bank.
The initial problem with the sale was that the buyer requested documents Stephen was not able to supply. I had a number of phone calls with the banker in Europe trying to find the way to streamline the procedure and avoid a request of documents we can not supply. I received a letter from the buyer overnight (attachment) with a detailed procedure which I hope can be accepted. Stephen, please forward the letter to the mandate and let me know if the procedure is acceptable. If yes, the buyer is ready to proceed immediately.
If we can not proceed with the sale we have an opportunity to use the BG in a program with a Swiss bank. I had a phone call with the broker who is direct to the platform. He is traveling to Switzerland today and will discuss with them our participation. Once accepted the platform usually supplies 3 offers of different programs of which we choose the best for us. I will receive a further update from him after the meeting in Switzerland. He's got s copy of the swift sent to CSOB and the platform will tell him if this is acceptable for them. They usually release a credit line of 75-80% of the face value.
The wire transfer was cancelled for reasons we can not control. The Slovak company is still prepared to receive the funds and distribute them according to our agreement but the question is if the other side has funds available that can be transferred.
Frank
March 16, 2011
Dear All:
First of all, let us not talk about the events of the last 2 weeks anymore. Let’s respect frank's wish and have all debates closed and move forward. I have talked with the mandate who spoke with the issuer, and the purchase option was rejected.
Let us move asap with the second option which is the Swiss bank platform. All we need after today from frank is just regular updates.
Let’s keep a positive mind forward.
Rgds, Stephen
Well, having read thusfar you undoubtedly already know that those positive thoughts didn’t last long, and the recriminations and accusations were soon flying again. There was something about such a huge sum of money that made people’s brains rot, their eyes cloud over until they couldn’t see a foot in front of themselves, and their typing fingers fly over the keyboard of their own accord, sowing discord as they went.
Dear All:
Let me take this time to brief you of the developments today. Frank got the Swiss compliance documents and a condition was put forward for the issuer to place on his letterhead and fill out details of the bank officer name, tel number & fax etc. When I inquired of the mandate, he said no third party request would be entertained unless directly from CSOB bank where the BG is now situated. With this development, I had to inform frank to discontinue with Swiss offer.
I have received an offer from a world investment incorporation to have the BG funded for 30% monthly & 10% upfront after receipt of swift mt 760 from CSOB. They sent me a verbiage which I have sent to frank. They don’t require any further documentation from the issuer.
Additionally, I was told that the Swift charges can be reversed and the WII will pay upon receipt from CSOB bank, should we agree to proceed.
I know their rate is low compared to others but they can manage the BG as it is without any additional requests.
Finally, the mandate has informed me that if frank & co cannot do the needful, then they should have CSOB cancel the BG and return back to Barclays by the end of this week.
Regards, Stephen
And so it went, dragging on another week...the BG wasn’t cancelled
(probably because the issuer didn’t REALLY want it to be, he was just posturing. And so by the 24th...
Debbie:
Thanks for the update; I will make my response to Frank so that maybe he would be able to do something.
1-Frank mentioned that the Swiss company would find a way to get over with the due diligence issue, so there was no need for the issuer to send the requested details of the bank officers info etc. I am not blaming Frank here but appreciating his work rate effort so far. However, it seems that after over 4 days, the Swiss company has not been able to come forth with news.
2- it would be more difficult to go back to the issuer and again request the same details which he was told were no longer required. He would feel that we (Frank) don’t know what he’s doing...
3- The issuer has said again and again that any request for such should be done via CSOB since the beneficiary is a client (MBC) with their bank...banks would hardly give info to any third party...
3- If there’s no success with the Swiss platform, where and what do we do? Do we ask frank to go back to the CSOB bankers and agree to the 50/50 split they initially offered?
Let’s put our heads together and come up with suggestions....I don’t know why we have this situation. The issuer needs results and by Friday this BG has been with CSOB for three weeks. Let’s find a way forward.
Stephen
It certainly seemed to me at this point that the entire situation was way out of hand. It was long past time when Frank should have informed Steve that CSOB refused the BG entirely because they felt the Swift sent to them was a fraud. Instead he spent weeks flailing around, coming up with lame reasonings that Stephen clearly didn’t believe, and I was unable to inform Stephen myself because Frank was determined not to tip his hand until after the Swiss and Barclays finished their investigation. It was getting sticky out there.
March 25, 2011
Fri, March 25, 2011 5:42:24 PM
Steve,
I spoke with the (Swiss) platform manager last night. They tried to call Barclays on a number of occasions. However, the department that is in charge of BGs didn't want to talk to them and kept hanging up the phone. The Swiss bank then called the CEO who is the signatory on the swift. He said he doesn't know anything about our swift or bank guarantee and according to the platform manager he was really nervous about it. I don't think he would necessarily know about every BG issued by his bank but it would be better if we don't make too much noise about our BG and get the contact details of responsible officer immediately. We also need a copy of the bank guarantee and the contract between issuer's company and MBC. The platform needs just some brief document showing relationship between them and reason why MBC is the beneficiary.
If evidence is established about the BG, MBC will be invited to Switzerland to sign the contract. It will be then necessary that Barclays re-swifts MT 760 to Swiss bank, to the account of MBC which will be opened there and which will be credited with program profits. I was told the swift costs about 100-200 EURO.
The platform has a program selected for us already. We will receive 300% in 2 weeks, and then 25% of the invested money each week for 30 weeks.
Please make sure we receive the necessary documents ASAP so the Swiss bank can finalise the DD process on Monday. Thanks.
Rgds, Frank
Frank:
Thanks for your briefing...let me clear some points here:
1- you & I know that there’s no contract between the issuer’s company & MBC - you & your account owner are supposed to have worked that out prior to this time. And I don’t think that is the concern of the issuer, but MBC.
2- what about the contract that was put in place? Which was sent to your account owner by registered post?
3- up till this moment, you have not showed me any of the compliance documents you sent over to the Swiss platform.
4- I have asked for the Telephone number and bank officer’s details – the officer who issued the swift. I hope I will get them before Monday and that is what I think the issuer can do.
5- Before the issuer will re-direct the swift to the Swiss bank, you have to ask your friend the account owner to get a letter from CSOB bank stating that they cannot handle the Bank Guarantee because of its large value or what ever reason. Otherwise the issuer will not comply.
6- I don’t know if you have told the swiss platform that the subject BG was without hard copy, but why are they asking for it now?
7= You have not confirmed if the info on the bank officers and telephone number are submitted, will the Swiss platform still require that the subject BG be re-issued? These are the questions I will be asked from the mandate. Let us not behave like non professionals....
8- Even if the answer to 7 above is yes, you will now have to get a letter from CSOB stating that they cannot handle the BG....and this will now serve as the reason why we have to go via the swiss platform.
Remember that this was not the way we agreed to work initially from the beginning ...if we cannot get direction within 3 weeks, then what are we doing ? I don’t want to blame you but I have noticed that you are not direct to the Swiss platform, and this is what Steve Glanz had talked about, saying that you are only restricted to what you need to hear.
It’s best before Monday that you give serious thought to my questions and provide answers so that we are 100% sure of either what we are doing or we do not continue any further. I hate to waste my time and effort chasing shadows especially when I have little or no information to work with.
Happy weekend ahead. Stephen.
And ending the first quarter of 2011:
Hello, Frank:
Steve G wrote me a Skype message today with some thoughts on the Swiss program and in general. Last week Stephen Edwards and I agreed that 20 million from that large lump sum payout should go to a Steve G program. I know you were resistant to putting any of that money into one of Steve's programs, but I have a couple of reasons for doing so which I believe are valid:
Steve has been loyal to us for a year and a half, doing a lot of work for nothing while Stephen was trying to get his investment money together, being available most of the time as a consultant and adviser. He doesn't deserve to be cast aside now -- without him we would never have come this far.
Also, I believe it is a good idea to spread the money around between several programs, and to begin this immediately. When there is so much to go round, we shouldn't keep it all in one program.
Regarding the setting up of the Swiss program -- Steve wasn't sure why you, Milan and Stephen need to go to Switzerland to sign the contract for the program. He was under the impression the bank guarantee could be blocked at Barclays and the signing process done without being present. Is this a requirement of this program, or these people in particular?
As we (LMI, Stephen Edwards, you) have been working as a cohesive entity throughout the fundraising process, Steve feels we should all have copies of documents and contact information for all parties involved.
Now, it has not been possible up until now to determine exactly how much money is involved here. Our agreement with Stephen Edwards was that the seed investment would come to LMI and be invested in one of Steve G's programs to fund the film fund and Stephen E's project. Now, that has changed. Here's what we need to know:
How much money will be going to: (1) the BG issuer; (2) the various brokers and MBC; (3) remaining in the program in Switzerland. How much will then be coming to the states to start the first two film productions? I know we have the various expenses to pay out to the partners -- and since this involves much more money than originally planned, I believe this is what we can do:
8 million upfront for Stephen Edwards (50%) as agreed) and
8 million to LMI. LMI's 50% shall be used for the Executive Producer fees, writer's fees and other misc. fees such as Script Consultant Fee for Scott for Go West, life rights fee for Frank for Go West, etc.
All expenses for Frank, Milan and Stephen must of course be paid right away. So here is my question -- I need someone to tell me how much I will have to start the first two film productions out of that first lump sum payment. And then how much the smaller payouts will be, of which 50% will be ours and 50% Stephen's? Depending on the amount will determine how quickly I can get the first two films funded and in production.
please let me know your thoughts on this.
Debora