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Guest Post: The Gold Guarantee Blowing Up In Singapore?
Originally posted at The World Complex blog,
Today's reminder of the importance of taking physical delivery of gold at the best price possible comes from Singapore.
The Gold Guarantee is (was?) a company based in Singapore allowing "investments" in gold. They had two separate schemes. One allowed victims to take delivery of their gold, but at an approximately 30% premium, albeit with a monthly repayment of a small portion of the premium for as long as the gold was held (and the company remained solvent) and an option for the company to buy back the gold at a price related to the spot price. The other scheme offered a gold certificate and a higher monthly payout.
The monthly payouts amounted to over 20% p.a. I am unaware of any method by which a company could sustain such payouts through normal business practices. Were I aware of such a business, I would invest in it.
Today's Straits Times reports (unfortunately this story is not in the free online section) that the owner of the company is unreachable, and the offices have been shuttered since about January 9. The last communication most shareholders had was an email sent on January 8, announcing a merger between The Gold Guarantee and a similar company called Asia Pacific Bullion.
Customers have been dropping by the office and showing up at the CEO's home since he vanished, but to no avail. Some are facing losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The latest gold price reported on the company's website is dated January 7. What appears to be an apologist blog posting for the company is dated January 3.
Here is a link to a discussion group which includes some unfortunates who bought gold from this company within the last few months. Note the advice they have received.
The scheme looks like a carbon-copy of the Geneva scam which fell apart in October.
Avoid certificates, and if you take delivery of gold, verify the spot price (it should be part of your due diligence).
Update:
Here is an article on the topic by a local financial blogger.
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Buy it. Take delivery. Own it. Loves it. Loves it raw and wriggling in our fingers.
I guess when suckers are this stupid you almost can't help but steal from them, huh? I mean it's almost a fuckin obligation to take their money
trav, you are destined for the PR job at Goldilocks.
And he's right. Idiots are idiots and you can't help it!
Markets were inefficient. Now intelectual capital is the most inefficent mechanism out there.
Trav is right.
What?? Markets were inefficient? What do markets have to do with morality IN the markets?
My mentor many years ago....bless his soul.....informed me the markets were a snake-pit.
That guidance has never failed me.
Indeed, nothing is "guarranteed" aside from death and taxes.
and, for empires, that your last leads to your first
That which cannot be sustained, won't be. Taxes have little to do with the human ponzi. Call it what it really is.
unga bunga
DEATH!!.... by unga bunga.
Boobs, if they don't feel real, their not.Same with your Gold. Feel it or find a better girlfriend. Bitchez
If they're not real it could be a man
This sort of scam isn't much different than Kitco selling silver coins way above spot price.
If you're in these markets just go to a bullion bank and buy over the counter style, you'll get the best price and most reliable product. Most cities it's pretty easy to buy gold bars.
I mean, especially Singapore, c'mon!
My mentor many years ago....bless his soul.....informed me the markets were a snake-pit.
That guidance has never failed me.
That's some profound shit GZG, thanks for sharing. I'll be trading when the market opens using this "information."
Seriously, 20 ups for, "...markets were a snake-pit." JFK!
I didn't say anything about Morality.
Everyone is an idiot until he's not, any more - specially if you've been mislead and lied to for as long as you can remember.
When was it that you started considering gold as a savings/investment option and why haven't you done it before that?
Cause you and your thinking were serf before and gold is the money of kings.
Well, John Carney at CNBC seems to believe that it doesn't really matter if the gold is present, only if people think it's present. Read this puppy and weep...
http://www.cnbc.com/id/49540593
Gold certificates are just "hot potatoes" . You don't want to be holding them when the music stops playing.
TOO easy - Zee Germans are coming!
I was thinking the same thing...its almost like a pedophile looking at a child while justifying his/her thoughts.
Now I'm gettin' a woody! Jesus thinkin' about Goldman, the Illuminati, the City, Princess Anne, clowns and pedophiles....
Just toooo much........
I'd better bring ya back to earth, knukles.
Camilla, Hillary, Janet Napolitano. Woody gone yet?
In the immortal words of Hitlery..."What difference does it make?!?!"...lol.
for hillary, what a difference a dress makes
Reno
Michelle
MAKE IT STOP
holy shit. OK, now it's time to WilliamBanzafy it
Chewbacca.
WHOA!
What happened? Where am I?
What?
Aagggaaaaaaaaaaaaarah1
(running from room, hands waving, screaming)
There's no difference between Gold Guarantee and GLD. GLD holders are just 'more sophisticated' suckers.
Or does GLD have a more sophisticated coverup technique? It's all the same - the entire financial system is a ponzi. I tell you what's coming next: People that have cash in the bank in savings or checking accts and it goes missing, or frozen, or whatever.
If you down possess it, it fair game in todays criminal world. Wake up people!
You got that right. With my charts goldpricemodel 2013 roc 52-week & 2013 goldpricemodel 277 week ROC 04 price mapping & 2013 silver price model 277 week ROC from gold price projection
I'm a lot more daring about the paper trades.
If I should win big then see the whole thing wiped out or reversed I will cry not one tear & I will not be shocked in any way shape or form.
I still have my actual money in gold & silver coins with me & it is beyond the reach of such banking alchemy.
If you don't see the difference then you are likely the sucker. Making such sweeping statements is not just imprecise but silly.
If you dont see you arent looking.
Damn you didn't have to give the poor guy nightmares.
Talkin' about nightmares. Some time ago I remember an incredibly vivid dream wherein I was in mortal danger, desperately frightened, couldn't escape death.
And woke up.
In my dream I woke up... so it seemed all too real.
Panic time.
I mean serious panic attack.
Which woke me up for real, heat pounding, sweating, shaking....
Never had that happen before... waking up in the dream and believing I was awake and it being real.
Not good.
Maybe time to go read some Umberto Eco... something sane.
(rolling eyes)
It's called mescaline .. It's the only way to fly. Hey it just sounds to me like you need to unplug man....
The hot little white rabbit girl, yum, yum.. The dream like quality of that entire door / software selling scene was artitastic..
The whole movie was a work of art in my book. I can't tell you how many times I've watched the movie and still pick up things. The rest of the trilogy was good, but the first movie was a masterpiece.
Just for the record, the first movie IS a masterpiece, but the two follow-ons are best forgotten.
I was going to say "were pretentious incoherent crap", but began feeling generous.
I have mortal danger kill-or-be-killed combat dreams nearly every night. People, racoons, monkeys, dogs firearms, alligators, car wrecks, plane crashes, hand to hand, you name it (never clowns). Fortunately, the awake-sleeping panic attacks only come once or twice a year, although those usually have an exorcist/satanic posession vibe that can't be explained, so they stick with me for a good long time.
Sweet dreams, bitches!
I have the same two dreams. the first one i am in a fight and everytime i punch it's like a slow motion mush punch into a pile of sand. the other one is i am playing in a ballgame and i don't have my glove and i borrow one and it does not fit and i can't get my hand in it and the ball is hit to me.
drives me fkin crazy, both of em.
Oh I got a recurring one where I'm running and it's like slow mo.... Can't get anywhere people are walking quicker.....
And then flap my arms and fly a small distance.... Really slow
Strange
But the coolest is finding and maintaining a presence in that temporary space somewhere between asleep and awake... Meditative area
Ever so tranquil, understanding the term serenity and knowing peace
Nicely expressed. I know exactly what you mean.
When I was younger I would have flying dreams. Later they became floating dreams--had to "swim" through the air to make progress--also could not attain much altitude. Now it's mostly falling softly, then when I hit the ground there is no impact, but rather the momentum gets transmitted into a glide a few inches above the ground. I am "standing" upright but "skating" so to speak over the ground--going down stairs is fun because it gives you extra momentum.
+1 on the "in between" state.
The "moving too slowly or incompetently in facer of danger" dreams are fairly typical. Flying much more enjoyable.
I have always had flying dreams. Just last night I had the most amazing flying dream. I skipped past the sky, mountains, earth and ended up in the black vacuum of space. Just nothing, no site or sound, for I don't know how long. Then thousands of spinning moons appeared, and I came back down to earth, flying to my house.
haha could have sworn the next part was gonna be "now they're all scuba diving dreams, somehow these crop up since reading zerohedge"
I have a recurring dream that is exactly like the movie Clue. I am always the detective with the same people and each time someone different gets murdered and someone different is the killer. I was even murdered in it once, it is the best dream I have but it only happens once a year or less.
@ fonz and knukles - you guys need to think about what adult beverage you've been drinking the nights you have these dreams. Seriously. The ONLY time I have wacked out dreams is when I have martini's or some other hard booze. Never, otherwise.
That first dream is funny Fonz because I used to have one similar when I was younger. It would haunt the crap out of me because I felt like my punches did nothing. Now that I'm older I find that in the dream I have to restrain myself because my punch is so f--Ing deadly. I don't know why or when they changed but they did. Now it's that second punch that wakes me up.
I lived in a rough neighborhood as a kid, you had to fight to find your place in the pecking order and be left alone. Anyway, during a dust up I would sometimes feel like I was weak, not punching effectively so I would concentrate and pour it on..
Not good. I saw a victim of mine the following Monday in school and he looked like he'd been hit by a truck. One guy told me that it was the adrenaline making me feel shaky or out of punching power when just the opposite had happened.
The boy looked awful so I remembered not to do that anymore. Fighting sucks, everyone gets hurt.
You guys are wierd. Mine are zombies. Almost always zombies. Mostly not even swarming, chasing, biting, nothing anymore. Just "hmm, kinda gray today, wonder what the weather's like out." "oh look, it's zombies again, how quaint'
(after the first decade this really is not a scary dream of any sort)
"I have mortal danger kill-or-be-killed combat dreams nearly every night. People, racoons, monkeys, dogs firearms, alligators, car wrecks, plane crashes, hand to hand, you name it (never clowns)."
Fucking clowns -- they always send in the others first. I've been working on a remote interlock system on the VW door. Think it's going to work but I need one more ring to test it.
It's funny we should all be talking about dreams. But since we are, I've had a re-occuring dream since at least '97 before the dot com. All financial upheval, dark, fighting-especially in grocery stores and fundamentally centered around the loss of faith in organized modern day Christianity. Still happens today.
Something the Bible says about the passage about the end times: " The old men will dream dreams, and the young will see visions..."I think I got that passage right.
Dreamer.
Nothing but a dreamer.
Put your hands in the air. Oh no!
i prefer crime of the century
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHTTr9y9ObE
where or what will it be?
"In my dream I woke up... so it seemed all too real."
Congrats! - You are very close to controling your dreams, have fun!
My program for tonight: sex and torture, staring Nicole Kidman and Herman Van Rompuy et al.
yikes!
You're going to screw Von Rumpoy and torture Nicole Kidman? Get help, man!
You forgot Elizabeth 2.
I also forgot two more: Angela Merkel and Dianne Feinstein. Two more from the Hall of Fame! Shame on me!
Feeling faint....
ecstacy will do that
uhhgg.
Assuming the list is now complete, are you saying Pelosi is a go?
With enough booze, lubricant and the proper bag...
I also forgot two more: Angela Merkel and Dianne Feinstein. Two more from the Hall of Fame! Shame on me!
DoChen,
Uhmmmmmmmmmm, you forgot Piglosi.(;*
How could I forget our beautiful and wonderful Nancy Pelosi?!
EXTRA shame on me!
Hey, Elizabeth 2 from the 1950s-60s wasn't bad, she had HUGE royal titties.
Hey come on now.. Hillary is a beautiful woman. Powerful and intellectual. Stimulating and sensual. "SAY MY NAME CHUBBY!!"
It can't be just me?... Right?... Anyone?
I don't know why she is so reviled. Could it be that she dared to forgive?
She is reviled by men because they are threatened by her. She's whip smart and has bigger balls. That's why.
Nancy Pelosi deflates like hope and change.
Crime syndicates all.
You're not gettting any woody, you're too old but still you can drool!
So that's what that wet....
What? I can't hear ya....
for the record I REALLY don't want to know what people are thinking...and quite honestly i have no idea why anyone else would either. insofar as "taking gold on the promise of delivery" is about as easy as it comes. not to toot the horn of Governments here but "you can always be a coin collector." that product has indeed been "assayed." and that is pronounced "ass hayed" in case anyone is vundering. in other words "before you believe that the vunder veapon will achieve victory have your gold ass hayed." this also is true when marking the financing of the entire Federal Government to model instead of say..."to taxpayer" as is normally done since if the former is done "yet again vee have vallen for the ass hay effect" and are all the more poorer for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqClWdOcWog
Bill Maher On Guns And Civil Liberties In America
Bill Maher On Guns And Civil Liberties In America
Well he's right to a certain point, but totally incorrect on the 2nd.
When it goes, THEN you will have no say, and no way to ever regain those that have been illegally legislated away.
And FWIW,I can not stand that arrogant pompous asshole,and if I met him I would be locked up, he is a total Libtard.(he should be directing this to the ACLU, where are they?).
Oh for Pete's sake, he's funny as hell. You should be laughing even more so knowing that he donated $1M to the "Choom" before he pulled his head out of his ass.
I believe you will see the ACLU defending the 2nd. Against a hostile population, as usual.
You are referring to those who support government, aren't you?
"A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place"
- Gordon Gekko or Trav?
Oh, I can hear a boating accident on the horizon...
One of these European pigs is gonna start printinting their own currency...eventually.
What's gonna happen to the price of gold?
I see a deflationary nightmare in the future.
There's still too much debt.
http://angrysinner.blogspot.kr/2013/01/yesterday-i-cooked-my-own-dinner.html
You ain't holding, you ain't got squat.
Physical gold, bitchez!
And no paper. Ever.
Toilet paper. When the SHTF (no pun intended), it will be a luxury!
Listen, let me just tell you --- I totally get holding physical for your longer term wealth preservation, etc. But, you people have missed some GOOD trading profits in GLD and SLV.
As usual, when viewing things on a black and white basis.....much gets missed.
Gold: follow these instructions..
The ultimate stacker!!
It's actually a Ponzi scheme but I guess greedy losers never do learn do they?
Damn you know I keep thinking of Singapore as the honest place with the smart money.
I suppose I should think again.
They don't take kindly to fraud and theft in Singapore, let alone gum chewing grafitti artists. So I can understand why the CEO is on the lam.
had similar thoughts
just got back from the river and all my certificates were gone!!!
As Jamie Dimon famously said, "there is a sucker born every minute." Or was that someone else? No, I'm pretty sure it was Jamie.
Jamie didn't say it originally but he sure made a living on it.
jamie even steals his scam lines
I'm going to take mine out tonight and clink it together. Makes a pretty sound.
more evidence of my thesis that gold is in severe and permanent backwardation contrary to what the paper price tells you....
Four years of me bitching about paper price suppression and now I thanka massa for the Lordy low price.
Yes, I'm so happy when it goes up and I'm happy when it goes down. Its my ying yang zen Utopian investment. I have no stress over it what so ever because I can hold it my hand. My goal is to give it away to my grand kids and fuck the government once and for all.
what about BV and GM??
GM is James Turk who I respect greatly, and BV I have used. I also respect Eric Sprott, and similarly Kyle Bass for taking delivery on UT's gold, but at the end of the day I believe they all store within the system - HSBC, Brinks etc. If YOU don't hold it, YOU don't own it, or at least have the co-ordinates and the boat!
The CEO is fish food. It's not nice to steal from the syndicate.
Sounds like the CEO pulled a Corzine.
BTW - where is Corzine? Maybe this was his new gig.
I have heard he now lives under Oback's Oval Office desk. He's now Chief of "staff".
"staph"
fixed.
Evidently Michelle needs a fluffer.
Shaft
Fixed
Reggie Love is still chief of "staff" Ask the wookie aka Rick James aka moochele with the new hair she'll tell ya..
He is under his gold rock
Lee Song Teck ????
Aside from wanting it in your paws, ya don't need to read past the third paragraph to know that it was a scheme.
MATH: The New Inconvenient TruthTM
PS Gotta love the comments in the Singapore Hardware link. One guy talking about 24% in some REIT's as being a good deal. Like one of my Junk Bond Sales acquaintances was fond of saying: "Ain't nothing a big coupon can't take care of."
Man, I cannot see any hope for an investment the way it used to be. Buy a utility, take some dividends / buy a blue chip - sit back and watch it grow - Now all there is out there are safe havens that will eventually experience fear premiums.
I have always liked real estate, but that is now so risky as to be demoralizing.
The stock market is clearly alllll fucked up. Putting money in the stock market is like giving away money. Unless you are watching like a hawk, you are toast, and the people who are supposed to "manage" your money and investments are worthless unless the SEC is filing fake cases against them for manipulation/insider trading (of course these folks cost $$$).
Beans, bullets, and beer seem to be some of the best investments now!
Veterans of popular wars.
Yes, now that you mention it, I have heard of International Gold and Bullion Exchange.
You can't beat a pocket full of gold sovereigns.
Buy physical and take delivery.
There's an organization in NYC that only deals with central banks - they'll store gold for free in a most secure vault and even make money for you by lending it out..... you can rest assured that you rgold is as safe as can be and it even makes money for you.
I hear Germany and a bunch of other large holders have been making use of this service for decades.
Uh, well, Germany has a bit of an issue with those guys.
You should send your physical gold to me for safe keeping instead. I treat it well, take it for boat rides, you can trust me.
cold gold cajoled sold old mold bold
if u don't hold it. u don't own it.
Come to think of it, the people who got splooged on probably believe politicians promises, all is well with the world's economies, there is no pollution, the folks in Davos are thinking about our best interests, that people are inherently kind loving and altruistic and don't like children or small animals.
Actually, probably don't want any of them in Singapore to take your dog for a wok, either.
Disturbing, comments such as these.
+1 (at least) for:
"...the people who got splooged on..."
and
"...to take your dog for a wok..."
There's going to be a lot of surprised GLD and SLV holders when the shit finally starts flying.
Heh he he he...
All them vault receipts form all those LMBA anointed vaults overseen by the BoE once passed through the fair City and rehypo'd to infinity.
Alas and alack.
Will truly give new meaning to "hiding the sausage"
My thoughts are that when the shit hits the fan and the U. S. defaults the government will scoop that shit up faster than they are scooping up the ammo and keeping it off the market now. The bag holders will have a big zero on their statements by GLD and SLV.
And to Simon hide my gold in another country trust me. fuck you I have a passort already bitch.
In Singapore where if you spit on the street you go to jail who could imagine that there were some Chinese guys waiting to ass grind you out of your shit.
So you've decided to buy some gold, because you don't trust the printers of paper and the market manipulators.
So, rather than buy, oh I don't know, gold, you go out and buy a certificate that not only promises gold later on, but even includes some cockamamee (sp?) scheme to pay dividends from an asset with no yield.
It's almost poetic in it's way. Like watching the weak wildebeast slowly falling behind the herd and then being pulled apart by the lions. Its horrible and yet, I cannot look away.
Forwhomthetollbuilds,
That's a seriously funny comment!
Before one invests in a pool, he should learn to swim.
Before diving into said pool, one should make sure the water hasn't been rehypothecated to someone elses pool.
Investors should learn to tell the difference between physical gold and paper gold, how each sort of gold relates to the investor's investment horizon and what to expect from each:
http://www.dowtheoryinvestment.com/2012/10/not-all-gold-is-born-equal-go...
The CEO is probably living somewhere in California with all the investors' Loot neighbor to all the other Alien embezzlers....lmao.
Why you think that CEO is an idiot?
Who in the right mind would move from Singapore to California?
if you can't hide it
from the old lady....
you don't own it
Funny, I saw this article right after I finished updating my inventory of physical :) I like to go to an undisclosed location and gaze upon my wealth, occasionally fondling my coins....ummm
Hahahhaahahhahaaaa!! You Rube!
You're better off giving your hard earned cash to JP Morgan! LOL! What an idiot!
No FDIC for Gold in .sg? Or, 'GDIC' in this case.
Banks get robbed of paper fiat... No big deal, it is Ponzi fiat after all. But Gold? Different matter altogether.
Don't trust any place for gold that that far and I can't easily visit. Too inconvenient = illiquid by definition. The times make the Corzine factor too large.
This will only get worse over time, as the bullion walk turns into a run.
A lot of people will take up hikes in the US, Canadian and Australian wilderness (with maps, gps and cell phones off).
Physical posession and the firearms to protect it and yourself:
There is a reason every piss ant dictator and progressive revisionist would like to take away your rights; so THEY have control and thus ultimately POSESSION of you and your assets.
All I can do is lol, reread and lol some more.
Awesome article :)
edit: from page 3 of the linked forum a pic that shows even moderators of forums on the Element79 subject can be scammed 0.o
http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/9238/gennevagolddistributor4.jpg
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