The world’s biggest fraud in history was revealed when Bernard Madoff, 70 year old Wall Street guru and trader and ex chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market was arrested last week. He allegedly masterminded a $US50 billion fraudulent Ponzi scheme. Madoff’s arrest and liquidation of his company adds further fuel to the spiraling costs of a financial world, already in crisis.

Madoff, who was said to be of ‘impeccable reputation’, headed a firm which was supposedly a market-maker for around 350 Nasdaq stocks.

“Madoff’s investors included captains of industry, corporations, (some publicly traded),  that used Madoff ‘s company as if it were a high-yielding cash management account, including endowments, universities, foundations and many high-profile funds of funds,” said Douglas Kass, head of the hedge fund, Seabreeze Partners Management.

A Ponzi scheme is an illegal investment vehicle, that pays off old investors with money from new ones. Like any pyramid scheme it is totally dependent on a constant stream of new incoming investment. Because the invested capital is not able to earn a sufficient return on its own, such schemes eventually collapse under their own weight, as investors are paid with money that isn’t there.

Prior to the arrest, some investors had questioned how Madoff was able to generate annual returns in the low double digits in a variety of market environments, come rain or shine. Many wondered how US regulators were able to ignore the numerous red flags, in regards to Madoff’s operations. However, such niggling doubts were not enough to stop the high-profile organizations, individuals and companies from continuing to take the high return offered by Madoff. A case of grinning all the way to the bank, until you get your fingers burnt.

Continuing in the style of his grandee nature, Madoff is accused, by prosecutors, of wanting to distribute as much as $US300 million to employees, family members and friends, before turning himself in. Just too bad if you are not on the receiving end of such a deal.

Charged with one count of securities fraud, Madoff could face up to 20 years imprisonment and a $US5 million fine. The US Securities and Exchange Commission have filed separate civil charges.

A hearing was scheduled for Friday afternoon in US District Court in Manhattan on the SEC’s request, in order to grant powers to the court-appointed receiver to oversee the entire operations of the advisory business known as Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securites LLC.  It is believed that at least $15 billion has totally disappeared before the firm’s assets were frozen.

“The hearing was cancelled after the matter was resolved,” said a deputy for US District Judge Louis Stanton. No other details were immediately available. Madoff was released on $US10 million bond.

Billions of dollars were entrusted through the firm’s clients by high-profile organizations and individuals. Believing it to be a once in a lifetime Blue Moon Opportunity,  such charities as set up by Hollywood director Steven Spielberg used the company’s services and invested money with Madoff.  Other victims were a foundation set up by Mort Zuckerman, one of the world’s richest media and property magnates in the US, Frank Lautenberg’s foundation, besides dozens of Jewish organizations, sport team owners and a senator from New Jersey. The tragedy is that those charities will now suffer along with everyone else’s financial misery.

US authorities are presently liquidating the company.

If you’re intersted in a genuine Blue Moon Opportunity, take a few minutes out to check out Win A Resort.

It has been revealed that the Somali Pirates operate a world wide information gleaning network. In particular they look for illegal cargo, such as the 33 tanks being carried on the MV Faina, hijacked a few months back.

A  Somalia expert at Purdue University in Indiana, Michael Weinstein says “The huge Somali world wide diaspora (200,000 living in Canada alone), have taken to piracy as they would to any other business enterprise. Just as you would buy shares in any syndicate, you get a cut of the ransom dollars, when you buy in.”

The world piracy capital, Eyl, an outback, run down fishing village in Somali, where numerous hijacked ships are docked, receives only a small portion of the millions being paid in ransom.

Suleyman, one of the pirates  said, “We have negotiators, translators and agents in many areas of the world.” Acting as money changers and agents for the pirates, they earn a percentage of the ransom payments. Many are Somali expatriates.

They have agencies in Mombasa, Piraeus, Naples, and Rotterdam.  Information is received through spies working at shipping and marine insurance firms in the Gulf, East African and European ports. Anywhere the merchant vessels heading for the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean dock.  The pirates are briefed on the number of security guards and weapons available on board the vessel, a well as the cargo.

Though the pirate leaders are known by sight and by name, rather than exposing themselves and their exact location, they use their proxies to negotiate the ransom and terms for releasing hijacked vessels. These front men also are the buyers of the latest in navigation equipment, GPS, speed boats, communications gear, food, fuel and any other supplies needed by the pirate community.

As Somalia is a bank-failed state, only cash and an informal transfer network, called ‘hawala’ is used. In ‘hawala’ an operator receives the money at one end and then instructs a relative, friend or another agent to hand a like amount to someone else. This has created a paperless system, based merely on trust and oral agreements.

More and more however, the pirates are opting for cash settlements, in an attempt to bypass government surveillance. They warn strongly against anyone using false money on them. Early in the year the pirates asked for money delivered to the Gulf. Strangely, no one would volunteer to carry it.

The ultimatum for the ransom payment of $25 million for the MV Sirus Star, the Dubai owned oil tanker, taken on Nov 18th, carrying $100 million in crude oil, is drawing to a close. “We do expect a favourable reply,” said the leader of the group Mohammed Said.

Armed private-security agencies from Dubai see this as a once in a lifetime Blue Moon Opportunity to make a score. They are now offering their highly paid services to protect vulnerable shipping. However in a recent brazen attack on a Liberia-flagged oil and chemical tanker, three men jumped overboard and were fished out of the water by a German helicopter. They were former British soldiers providing security for the MV Buscagalia.

Crew aboard the MV Faina line the ships rails. Somali Pirates surround them.

To learn more about a genuine, once in a lifetime  Blue Moon Opportunity that may change your life take a quick visit to Win A Resort.

You thought wars were bad enough, as being legal forms of killing the ‘enemy’, but the Pentagon released documents under the Freedom of Information, that gave new ‘edge’ to the old concepts. It was confirmed that in 1994 consideration was given to producing non-lethal chemical weapons, by the Wright Laboratory, at Ohio Air Force Base, for a cost of $US7.5 million.  Weapons that specifically targeted human behavior.

This information blows the mind. Or it begs the question, is this a Blue Moon Opportunity of the weird kind giving a new meaning to the old saying: ‘Make love not war’.

Imagine: A plane zooms over the killing zone at around a 10,000 feet. Shortly after, some of the soldiers on the ground, wipe some moisture off their face. They wonder if it is the warning of an incoming rain storm, but the skies are cloudless. Caught back to the action, as they fight for their lives, they give it no more thought.
The fighting continues to intensify until all of a sudden there is an unearthly silence. One by one the soldiers discard their weapons on the ground. Unbelievably first one soldier then another turns away from the killing ground and begins chatting up some of his mates. Out of the dust of the battle, soldiers from the opposing side appear to be doing the same thing. Before long, a full blown uncontrollable gay party has broken out across the battle field, as enemies join together in ‘no-man’s land’. Much later, the soldiers would learn they had been the recipients of an overdose of strong aphrodisiacs through the means of a ‘Gay Bomb’.

One has to ask, how long would it take for the effects of such a bomb to wear off. We are pleased to be able to report, the idea was dismissed. Other unusual weapons that have been looked at are: invisibility cloaks, killing by mind-power, besides a weapon that would attract annoying creatures to the enemy positions, such as biting bugs, rodents and ‘larger animals’.

All this in the name of assisting the men and women in uniform. With that kind of help, who needs enemies? After all, it seems that fact is stranger than fiction.

It’s time now to take a quick look at a genuine Blue Moon Opportunity.

Children from a local village, on the tropical island of Vanuatu, recently enjoyed a ‘Black Islands Custom and Conflict’ black and white photographic exhibition held, in the Cultural Center, Port Vila.

The exhibition of black and white photographs is part of the collection taken by the world renowned Australian photo-journalist, Ben Bohane. Ben has sensitively captured custom and conflict images of the South Pacific and South East Asia region since 1989.

Ben has been a witness to most of the major conflicts in the area of the South Pacific, East Timor, West Papua, Moluccu, PGN, Solomon Islands, Bougainville, Vanuatu, Fiji and New Caledonia as a Blue Moon Opportunity, (an opportunity that changes lives).

Ben has had the opportunity to spend expended periods of time, living with a wide variety of tribal, custom, cult and rebel groups. He travelled with Guadalcanal guerrillas, as well as photographing the opposing Malaita Eagle Force. Ben was able to secure the only interview and pictures of Guadalcanal warlord, Harold Keke, before he surrendered to Australian troops.

Ben lays claim to what is deemed to be the largest contemporary photo archive, of the South Pacific, in the world. His highly emotive, but sensitive photographs hang in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art and the Australian War Memorial, as well as being owned to maintain an independent record of any conflict.

“I like to go home to Port Vila, Vanuatu and take a break whenever I can,” Ben told us. He continues to specialize in Australasia and the Pacific region. His exhibitions have included displays in Australia, Washington, Holland and Cambodia, besides appearing in magazines ranging from Newsweek, The Guardian, (UK), Geo in France, Aera (Japan), Pacific magazine(Hawaii), plus numerous Australian publications. His documentaries have been viewed on the ABC, SBS Australia, BBC and ARD, Germany andNHK, Japan. He is also a regular producer for the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent program on Pacific issues.

In a nation where education is not free and 25% of the young generation never go to school, it is exciting to see the interest the children displayed in the exhibition.

For further information on Ben or the photographic exhibition contact the cultural centre pima@vanuatu.com.vu, or look up their website

Vanuatu is the ‘Must See’ travel adventure destination of the South Pacific. You can check out more about this exciting nation at Win A Resort