YOURSAY 'The public really needs to be made aware of risk-rewards trade offs. At some point, if the rewards looks very good, the risk is likely to be very high as well.'

Gold scheme investors camp out at PMO gates

Kit P: Some time ago, an acquaintance passed me what was described as a hot investment opportunity. It turned out to be gold trading company Genneva. I took a close look at was being offered and my decision ignore it was an easy one.

"Too good to be true" was how I would describe it in one sentence. The public really needs to be made aware of risk-rewards trade offs.

At some point, if the rewards looks very good, the risk is likely to be very high as well. Rewards which look too overly good are possibly linked to illegal activities.

Albert Wong: Is the government to be blamed for such scams? Or is it stupidity or greed to be blamed?

Anyway, I wonder what will happen if all "poor victims" are compensated for their losses - that will be a win-win situation, is it not? Except for those that did not invest in such gold schemes.

Ferdtan: The primary fault in the gold bar scheme lies with Bank Negara Malaysia. The action taken by the central bank came too late, especially when so many thousands of subscribers to the scheme were caught by the sudden action by the authorities.

Why was it not controlled or stopped by the authorities in the first place? This is for the Bank Negara governor to answer for. She has a lot of explanation to do.

We can only guess why actions are only taken now, instead of many years earlier. Perhaps because the problem is getting bigger, and the bubble is about to burst.

The scheme works when the gold prices keep increasing, as it happened in the last few years. If there is a sudden depression in gold prices, then the eminent collapse of the scheme would be possible, hurting many.

In simple terms, Bank Negara has lost control. Some heads must roll. The best solution now is to control, and not stop it so that there would be no panic among the investors.

Legislation must be passed to regulate this and to give protection and raise awareness among investors; most of whom are greedy and gullible.

Onyourtoes: It is easy to blame the authorities for taking action late. But there is no way the authorities will know everything right from the start. Ultimately, it is still our own responsibility to assess the investment we choose to make.

It is time for Malaysians to learn the basics of finance and investment and of risks and returns. There are no free lunches.

So long as many Malaysians choose to remain greedy and gullible, more schemes would come up. If the authorities step in to help in this case, I can guarantee there will be more crooked promoters and more greedy investors coming forward to indulge in similar schemes.

The authorities must quickly investigate; match the assets with liabilities and return whatever balance to the investors. There shall be no bailout. The investors must take the haircut and face the consequence of their own folly.

If the government entertains this group, I shall organise another group of Malaysians to camp outside the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to claim compensation for our years of miserable returns on Employees Providence Fund (EPF), fixed deposit and Amanah Saham Malaysia.

Timothy: Those who had poured their life savings into the failed scheme, my sympathy goes out to them. Worst is when former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad, other VIPs and government certificates were used as 'pull factors' for investors.

Lesson learnt - invest in a diverse basket, not just dump all your life savings into one basket. Every investment comes with varying risk levels.

Mushiro: It may look like it is not fair to blame the government for an individual's investment in a Ponzi scheme, but when Mahathir attended the company's opening ceremony and made a speech to encourage investments in gold, then the government cannot run away.

Furthermore, Deputy Finance Minister Donald Lim also attended one of the company's dinners and the prime minister's wife Rosmah Mansor also graced the company's function this year. How do we explain this - that the government was conned or the government joined in to con the rakyat?

What have the police been doing and what has Bank Negara been doing - looking for faults with the opposition?

Swipenter: I think they should camp in front of Bank Negara instead of PMO. They should put pressure on Bank Negara to wrap up their investigations as soon as possible and distribute whatever can be salvaged back to the investors.

Aries46: A year back, I was approached by a representative of Genneva marketing their gold investment scheme. I found the scheme to be far-fetched. The representative was convincing and if one is not versed in basic financial matters he will be easily taken in for a ride.

What puzzles me is that the protesters appear to be mostly Indians, as if they were specially targeted. Secondly, if Mahathir and Rosmah were promoting the enterprise, what was their role in the overall scheme of things?

Thirdly, if Bank Negara allowed these gold investment companies to freely proliferate, which indirectly encouraged the investors, why was the need to clamp down at this late stage and confiscate their funds, leaving the investors in the lurch?

What is Bank Negara's motive and role in this whole debacle and why are they hiding behind officialdom while the poor investors are made to beg for their legitimate investments and hard earned monies? Can we have some answers from the 'people first' PM?

Lover Boy: Dear Bestino investors, PM Najib Razak is prepared to meet the Genneva investors because there were almost 60,000 plus investors are involved. You chaps are only around 6,700 investors. You do not have the numbers.

Asamko: At least financier Bernie Madoff was honest enough when he admitted that it was all over and that his investment scheme was a 'ponzi' scheme.

And please do also camp in front of Mahathir's house as he officially launched the opening of Genneva.

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