- Oct 26, 2004
- 24,083
- 22,859
- 🏆 Honorable Mentions:
- 2
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab Explorer
- Primary Interest:
- Shipwrecks
Former Execs at Spanish Philately Company Jailed for Huge Fake Stamp Con
MADRID – A Spanish court ruled Thursday that a group of businessmen who duped many small-scale investors into staking their life savings on a supposedly high-yield venture based on postage stamps that in fact was no more than a pyramid-sales fraud should serve jail time.
Spain’s National Court made public its verdict in the case of a company that sold allegedly rare stamps to investors as part of a Ponzi scheme that eventually wiped out the savings of more than 150,000 customers, in which it sentenced the company’s former executives to various prison terms for aggravated fraud, money laundering, false accounting, bankruptcy fraud and tax crimes.
According to the judges, Afinsa’s clients were swindled by sales representatives who recommended they persuade relatives, friends, neighbors and acquaintances to join the scheme woven by the company’s management by investing in philatelic products.
In exchange, Afinsa promised to re-buy the stamps at a higher price, a profit that derived from the company’s constant revaluation of assets through pyramid sales.
The court said that this business model was “untenable,” since Afinsa’s investment was minimal and generated costs that increased its deficit equity, as demonstrated by the black hole in accounting of 2.6 billion euros ($3.2 billion) that prompted a police operation resulting in the arrest of Afinsa’s top brass in 2006.
More here:
Latin American Herald Tribune - Former Execs at Spanish Philately Company Jailed for Huge Fake Stamp Con
Don......
MADRID – A Spanish court ruled Thursday that a group of businessmen who duped many small-scale investors into staking their life savings on a supposedly high-yield venture based on postage stamps that in fact was no more than a pyramid-sales fraud should serve jail time.
Spain’s National Court made public its verdict in the case of a company that sold allegedly rare stamps to investors as part of a Ponzi scheme that eventually wiped out the savings of more than 150,000 customers, in which it sentenced the company’s former executives to various prison terms for aggravated fraud, money laundering, false accounting, bankruptcy fraud and tax crimes.
According to the judges, Afinsa’s clients were swindled by sales representatives who recommended they persuade relatives, friends, neighbors and acquaintances to join the scheme woven by the company’s management by investing in philatelic products.
In exchange, Afinsa promised to re-buy the stamps at a higher price, a profit that derived from the company’s constant revaluation of assets through pyramid sales.
The court said that this business model was “untenable,” since Afinsa’s investment was minimal and generated costs that increased its deficit equity, as demonstrated by the black hole in accounting of 2.6 billion euros ($3.2 billion) that prompted a police operation resulting in the arrest of Afinsa’s top brass in 2006.
More here:
Latin American Herald Tribune - Former Execs at Spanish Philately Company Jailed for Huge Fake Stamp Con
Don......
