Petro businessman mum on 6%-a-month secret

Ancalagon

Honorary Master
Joined
Feb 23, 2010
Messages
18,140
My point is this. Only time will tell if this is really a ponzi scheme, at the moment we can only assume until evidence tells otherwise.

It's a ponzi scheme.

Think about what interest represents - it is the payment for using someone else's money. The interest rate depends on, among other things, the inflation and the risk the lender is assuming. Credit cards and other short term credit products charge a 22% annual interest rate because the risks involved in short term debt, unsecured debt are typically pretty high. If someone defaults, which is likely, attaching assets to recover your money is much more difficult than something like either a loan against a business, a vehicle, or a house. And that is also the reason why vehicle finance interest rates tend to be higher than home loan interest rates - because vehicles depreciate so fast, they are a risky investment for a bank. That is why they charge you more interest.

So, a bank will charge you 22% interest to use a credit card, which as I have said is pretty risky for them. Why would this guy be giving you a 72% interest rate on your money? Think about it from his point of view - you have this super amazing business that is generating so much money that you can give your creditors 6% monthly returns. Why on earth would you continue to do that instead of just buy your creditors out? If you are making that much money, it would be far cheaper to just buy them out or borrow money from a bank instead. Even if a bank gives you 22%, that is cheaper than paying private investors 72%.

And if your business had the bank statements to prove it was making so much Moolla, it would be easy to convince a bank to invest in you.

This is 101% guaranteed to be a scam.
 

LaraC

Honorary Master
Joined
Mar 11, 2014
Messages
42,675
The old saying "if its seems to good to be true" comes to mind...

Will not think of investing here.
 

Batista

Executive Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2011
Messages
7,909
Waits for "I got ripped off by this Petro scheme" threads...
 

rorz0r

Executive Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2006
Messages
7,968
Are they selling special fuel to fuel those R699/month cars?
 

goga

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2007
Messages
113
I thought Ponzi immediately when I read it before..but

Those I've spoken to who have invested substantial sums (they can afford to lose it), have all received the full capital sum back in returns and are continuing to earn returns. ie: they're now at no risk.

The owner, he's got a good reputation from what I hear from other businessmen who have dealt with him in this and in his other businesses.

Still don't understand it, and why he would want/need the investors anyways - but the above two factors put a question mark on the std ponzi scheme thought I had..
 

dunkyd

Executive Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2009
Messages
5,626
Let me say it now for the record.....
I told you so.:D
 

MKFrost

Expert Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2012
Messages
3,837
There is no quicker way to part yourself from your capital than to invest in something you do not know and or understand.

This, lets call it an investment, is essentially a collective investment scheme and from what I understand its not registered as such so first alarm bell. When investors do not understand how it works and start asking others to investigate how it works it means that things are not clear and or well explained to investors which rings the second bell.

A return of 6% a month is more than doable BUT not on an ongoing basis. There is truth in the saying the higher the risk the higher the return but this essentially means that you will have spectacular months, good months and some pretty bad months. Returning a constant 6% means that he must be making double or even triple that some months and by doing so then manages to smooth over the bad months. This rings another two alarm bells namely, true returns are not being disclosed and secondly making double and or triple that on an ongoing basis is just not going to happen.

As others have mentioned, the fact that he takes on more investors does not make any business sense as that capital can be obtained at a much lower rate so I just cannot see why he needs more investors, another bell.

Starting to sound like a carillon....
 

SAdata

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2012
Messages
396
Why would he want to pay investors 101.6% p.a. for their equity. He could get a loan for 10%. He could even get a shark loan (those dodgey ones) for like 25% p.a. or go the private equity route. But NOOOOOO he wants to "give back to the community" through charity and give away 101.6% per annum.. surrreeeee
 
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