How to Get Back Your Genneva Gold and Money – 10 Things To Do
Finance Twitter
As many as 35,000 investors and up to a whopping RM10 billion of investment were sucked into Genneva Malaysia Gold Scheme. The problem – Genneva Malaysia’s liabilities exceeded its assets. That was what Awang Adek Hussin, Malaysia Deputy Finance Minister, claimed couple of days ago. Considering PM Najib Razak is the Finance Minister himself, this statement from his deputy was perhaps the closest one can get from Bank Negara’s (Central Bank) investigation after their raid. However, one of Genneva Malaysia’s traders claimed the company has some 60,000 customers with monthly turnover of RM2 billion. On the other hand, Geneva Malaysia’s website boast 50,000 customers and a turnover of RM3 billion.
Whether these gold investors (or rather traders as what Genneva diehard fans would like to be known) actually poured merely RM30,000 or as high as RM285,000 each into the scheme is immaterial. The fact is most of these investors emptied their life savings believing Genneva scheme was a revolutionary and innovative business model – a blue ocean business strategy that could easily put McDonald and Apple Inc. business model to shame. Naturally, these street-smart Gennevarians cried foul and ran amok when their golden goose was slaughtered – by the authorities. They are crying for blood and refuse to wake up from their slumberland.
They are upset the Central Bank took away their cash cow. They are furious they cannot milk their golden cow anymore. They would curse and whack you till kingdom come for suggesting Genneva Gold scheme was actually a brilliant and sophisticated Ponzi scheme. They are crying because their children, parents, grandma, kitten, hamster, goldfish and whatnot are dying because they can’t afford the medicine after the Central Bank robbed their gold and monthly Hibah gift money. They are suggesting jealousy and cooking up tons of conspiracy theories as being the motive because Genneva was so successful that the company’s gold bullion could easily dwarf the Central Bank’s reserves (*woohoo*). In short, it’s everyone’s fault but theirs.
If the 14,000-plus Facebook Genneva Supporters Likes is any indicator, between 20% to 40% of Genneva gold traders (they don’t like to be called investors *tongue-in-cheek*) were painfully affected by the raid. This numbers can also means the high rollers or kings (of MLM and get-rich-scheme regulars) have long gone leaving these desperate leftovers running like headless chicken. While many greedy yet arrogant traders actually pawn everything including their undergarments and even took loans from financial institutions, a certain sector of illiterate yet ignorant rural folks bet their life savings on the scheme – all because of 1.8% to 2.5% monthly gift money.
You can also bet your money that a portion of these Facebook Genneva Supporters actually do not have the physical gold bullion in their possession – they left it with Genneva for safekeeping because renewal every 3-months required the gold bullion to be presented to Genneva – a successful trick by Genneva deliberately inconvenience the buyers. While the more fortunate buyers have at least their physical gold bullion as consolation prize, the “unfortunate” risk takers have only a piece of certificate of ownership as their trophy.
Latest update from the authorities revealed (from seized records) many investors who had paid had yet to receive any delivery of gold. The statement also said the total amount of gold seized during the raids from all the companies (Genneva Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Pageantry Gold Bhd, Caesar Gold Sdn Bhd and Worldwide Far East Bhd?) is approximately 142.7 kilogram, and monies in bank accounts and cash amounts to RM101.92 million – a puzzling figure considering Genneva alone is said to have monthly turnover of RM2 billion. So what happened to all the glittering gold bars and billions of ringgit allegedly robbed by Malaysian Central Bank?
At yesterday’s gold price of US$55.51 (RM169.39) per-gram or US$55,513.41 (RM169,359) per-kilogram of gold (the gold price has been trending down, mind you), there should be 11,809 kilograms of gold in Genneva’s vault, based on RM2 billion of turnover. Either there should be 11 tons of gold bars or RM2 billion in Genneva’s bank accounts (and cash). Now, let’s give the Gennevarians the benefits of doubt. Let’s assume there were indeed tons of gold bars and billions of cash prior to Central Bank’s raid. What can the Genneva buyers do to get back their hard-earned gold and money?
