Thanks for the post. Interesting that Klenovic himself promoted the stock to you (and I appreciate your trusting me to tell me this information). I suppose I only have one question: Who do you think put Klenovic on to you? Or did you answer some sort of investment advertisement? How do you think you ended up on Klenovic's list?
As a CFE candidate, I have four other comments: (1) It comes as no surprise that Klenovic was/is an accountant. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners teaches the fact that more accountants are in jail per capita than any other profession (including lawyers). Trivia: the reason?: it's not that accountants are inherently more crooked; it's that they have more access to cash than any other professionals.
(2) The fact that Klenovic was under an SEC consent decree/judgement just goes to buttress the CFE Association's belief that it is more important to perform a DD on the backgrounds of the individuals involved than the products being promoted. There is no substitute for a good hard DD on people's backgrounds. In a way, I think this answers Mitch Aunger's question of what constitutes good DD. Investigating the promoters' backgrounds must be an integral part of any DD. And, from the portions of the thread that I have read, I would guess that the people on this thread kept their eyes gazed on the products, not the people (which is exactly what promoters/hucksters want).
(3) It should ALWAYS be a red flag when a senior member of management promotes his company's stock. If the chairman of a BB has time to talk to a holder of $10,000 worth of stock (as Klenovic/Bunte apparently did), something is wrong.
(4) Runyon's statement that it is virtually impossible to determine who lost what and how much is true. This is usually the case because of the sheer labyrinth of stock transactions/prices. It is regretful that you are not going to get your money back, but that is the usual outcome of cases like this. Basically, in most frauds, once you hand over your money, you'll never see it again. It is unrecoverable, either through sheer complexity, or lawyers fees that eat it up.
If you have any other information regarding how you got talked into it, I would appreciate it.
Batman |
