His expose on
The Oxford Club
(with 50,000 members) is rehashed from
another source: (Barron's -- hey, what do you want for a $600 newsletter --
original stuff?):
...Barron's magazine recently published an article on The
Oxford Club, which is run by Baltimore-based Agora Inc. Writer Michael
Antoli wrote that investors do not realize that
"what they've really signed up
for is basically a semimonthly financial newsletter with a rather lousy
investment record"
. He reported that The Oxford Club steers its investors
to a variety of favoured stock brokers, including International Assets
Holdings, whose dubious past we have reported about recently, including
frequently getting into disputes with clients. He also reported that The
Oxford Club is a spin-off from the Royal Society of Liechtenstein, which
was closed down by regulators in the late 1980s over a mining stock
scandal and its misleading name.
l
The way I look at it, The Oxford Club membership is a lot cheaper than
$600 Pit Bull newsletter with rehashed content -- OC newsletter in fact is
pretty good.
l
Suggesting that OC has a "rather lousy investment record" could be said
of 60% of the mutual fund managers who failed to meet even S&P returns.
l
And I ask, what have the 110 subscribers of David Marchant's newsletters
signed up for???? For $600 you could get have gotten FORTUNE,
Barrons, Forbes, The Economist, INC, and a assortment of other
business magazines, and
actually be fairly confident that what you
read is reasonably accurate,
scrutinized by armies of editors and
lawyers. No such confidence with Offshore Alert (that's my impression) --
throw shit and see what sticks !!!
No accountability.
Back to the story...
A couple of days ago, my wife
at home
gets a call from a man who introduced
himself as a "magazine journalist who covering the offshore scene". He wants to
do a story on ecomBAHAMAS.com!!! Oh fantastic, I figure. A good article in
international press can be worth $100 a word in advertising. He introduced
himself as David (he would not reveal his last name) and left his Miami number to
call.
The next day or so I get an e-mail from "Henry Sigmund" (aka David Marchant)
using a nondescript hotmail account
offering to plunk down $125,000 (
check the
e-mail here
)
to ecomBAHAMAS.com Ltd.
The subject line was an enticing "investment" and a big fat promise of
"I have
$125,000 available" to invest in your company.
Then a few days later, in a second e-mail, the same Henry Sigmund (aka David
Marchant)
wants to get instructions how to wire us $50,000 -- he wants in!
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But, you Tarzan, me stupid. It was none other
than the great investigative journalist David
Marchant
fraudulently attempting to enter into a
contract using a fraudulent identity
as "Henry
Sigmund" trying to entice us into his
"investigative journalist trap".
The Robin Hood of
offshore fraud got lost in the Sherwood forest
and in ethics.
One would think that for a newsletter peddler
specializing in offshore scams, honesty would be
sacrosanct. I would guard my credibility with utmost
care. But ...
l
Guess the poor chap needs something original for his newsletter to
justify his $600 bill.
l
The scam investigator apparently has no qualms about being
fraudulent his own identity.
l
No problems in getting into a series of entrapment emails.
l
One of the bigger scams in the internet business seems to be these
newsletter and ezine publishers -- it seems any dick can do it with a
desktop computer.
l
And David is shooting himself in the wallet by having little regard for
ethical, businesslike conduct.
Since in the internet publishing there are NO controls
whatsoever, it is up to each writer/publisher to adhere to a
modicum of journalistic integrity. Alas, David Marchant isn't one
to be held back by contradictory facts.
David Marchant needs to understand that journalism,
regardless of the scope of the distribution (110
subscribers), carries a certain degree of responsibility.
Responsibility about doing due diligence about the facts,
researching properly, and understanding that since there is
virtually no accountability on internet journalism, one has
to impose the standard himself.
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I now strongly suspect that David Marchant is
intellectually way too far from his sandbox with this
offshore stuff.
Is this guy so vain as to shave his head to look mean? Oh dear.
CLICK HERE: More on David Marchant's libelous writing, David
Marchant crossword puzzle, and other trivia on the pit bull.
CLICK HERE: Updates on Marchant's lack of journalistic
skills
216.239.51.100 |
