lol
no smoking inside please could all prisoners go outside for a cigarette break
A gang of very disgruntled German pensioners who lost $4m in savings in a Florida property investment scheme allegedly decided the best way to get their cash back was to kidnap and torture the financial adviser responsible. German-American James Amburn, 56, was subjected to a harrowing ordeal which began last Tuesday when two …
"Thanks to Eugene Meany for the tip-off."
Meany in torture claim shock!
Sorry.
"Is it secret? Is it safe?"
You'd have thought the guys woudl have had enough left over cash to hire someone to do this for them, or at least to have the financial nous to know that, unless he was defrauding them, the money was just as gone for him as them.
...but what a great idea.
I admire the spirit of these people. You have worked all your life to build up your savings, and some twonk of a financial adviser loses it all for you without batting an eyelid.
I have every symapthy for the old timers, and none at all for the FA (f***ing arsehole - Financial adviser: same thing.)
... and I'll say it again: they're not making old people like they used to. And if they're using an Audi A8, apparently they're not THAT broke.
Personally, I find this story appealing on so many levels. For one thing, it's nice to know that foreigners are getting scammed on American housing, not just American homeowners. For another, could we do this to government bigwigs when social security goes tits-up in two years?
This is making my brain hurt.
Anyone investing in a company called "DigitalGlobalNet" deserve everything they get.
But kudos for them taking revenge on the "Advisor", when, let's face it, financiers' reactions to people losing their life savings is to light another fat cigar with a £50 note and award themselves another bonus.
Can't.... compute... need beer to hold mutually exclusive opinions at once...
Really , they thought this was all right?
Germans using brutality , well we've never heard that before have we , maybe someone wanted to re-live his war glory days ...
No matter if he was a greedy fat cat ( though more likely he was just doing his job , and the world economy just did or it) , he didn't deserve that sort of treatment , and anyone who thinks he did is just a nob. Sorry.
~a
These are not little old men being tricked out of their 50 grand life savings in the Wisbech & Haddenham Building Society here. These people had $4m to invest in a single property investment. And they drive Audi A8s. And the public prosecutor thought it worth mentioning that the money hadn't been declared to the taxman. And there were four of them who colluded in torturing a fellow human being.
Now, it's plausible that one normally decent person might go loopy and decide to torture someone they were angry with. Two men falling into a moral black hole is still plausible. But four ordinary, upstanding pensioners thinking up an elaborate plan to kidnap and torture someone in a remote cabin, without any of them saying "Hang on guys, maybe we should think this over" or phoning the police?
Legally I probably shouldn't state the bleeding obvious about what kind of people these guys are, but if you think that these people got their $4m of black money from the occasional flutter on the dogs with their state pension, then your brain should be removed for Alzheimer's research as it obviously isn't doing you any good.
The adviser probably isn't any angel either if he's chosen to advise such people and directly look after their money in his private company, but at least he's not a man of violence so far as we know.
"Grundsatz" is a rather odd translation for "policy". Among other possibilities, "policy" as in "insurance policy" is "Police" is German.
Quote from sueddeutsche.de: "[...] wies mit einem Fax an eine Schweizer Bank den Verkauf von fiktiven Wertpapieren, sogenannten Call-Optionen, an. "Sell Call Pol.Ice" schrieb er auf das Fax."
So the fax was "meant" to advice the bank to sell call options.
Old dog, old tricks and all that. Did they break the trilbys and leather overcoats out of storage as well?
In this particular case, shouldn't the grenade icon have a long stick attached?
I'm not giving them my name Captain Mainwaring.
" maybe someone wanted to re-live his war glory days ..."
Would that be the one who was only 2 years old when the war ended? Or the one who was 10? Or maybe it was one of the two who weren't even born?
FFS - what they did was wrong, but so was your cheap war jibe just because they happened to be German.
These hypocrite anti-smoker whingers get all upset about second hand smoke - and yet you'll notice they never take you outside when it's time to torture you with their burning cigarettes.
Always the same with these people. In my day a proper torturer would give you the cigarette while you were comfortably taped to the chair. They would never be so barbaric as to force you go outside to enjoy what might be your last drag on your favourite brand of coughin' nails. Obviously these people don't have the class of a good old fashioned SS torturer. Where is their national pride for god's sake?
"A gang of very disgruntled German pensioners "
Fortunate to still have a pension I reckon.
"The victim was found in his underwear."
Naked short selling probably.
If there's any justice the perps will end up in an institution where their needs will be provided by the state (TBH I think they were heading there anyway) and the victim should be an Unemployed Financial Adviser. Actually all financial advisers should be, with only a few exceptions.
The initial impression given by this story is of 4 little old coots bumbling around on zimmer frames and somehow managing to bundle a younger chap into the back of a car. Thinking about it now, two of the guys were just in their early sixties. My dad is in his early sixties and I, for one, would not like to meet him when extremely disgruntled. The man single-handedly lugged half the engine block out of my car recently, so it's not unsurprising that men of a similar age can so readily invite a stripped and bound financeer to mess his drawers by employing a little violence. These oldies just won't conform to the correct stereotypes these days.
I agree with AC - they're in the prime of life. If retired then just retired from wage-slavery. Obviously rolling in it otherwise. Probably the house with the cellar was as big as Fritz's palace, too.
(Paris, cos she could think of fun things to do with her wrinkly bits and a Zimmer frame...)
Watched the Madhoff programme on telly last night and so feel a little sympathy for these marks. Financial Advisers really should have insurance for their investment advice so that they can be sued successfully.
If you have an amount of money burning a hole in your pocket and want to invest it then please exercise caution!