Thread: Getting Ready To Roll

Awsome Post,

Best post I have read on this subject or any subject of a investment "CHOICE" in a Year. As EW said Karma will show.

I'm so sorry to hear about your friend, but we all should know that putting money even into a stock market let alone a hyip would be senseless unless you could afford to lose it. Please don't try to pin the loss of your friend upon Bryan because they put money in high risk investment that they could not afford to do. Goodness, this was just part of a portfolio you should keep. The higher the yield, the higher the risk. I have bought stock in western digital and lost all of it. It was a big company and seemed okay. Well, stuff happens and I don't get to get on some forum and blame the president for my choice. That's cruel and crazy. The guy has no control over what this government decides to do. Crazy members turned it in and now we all pay the price. When it comes to money you really get to know people and who they really are.

It would of been different if the warning was along the line "You are being scammed, you risk losing all your money". So until then, yes! Everyone can blame Bryan for their misfortune because their money was never invested as promised!

Originally Posted by 1nfinity

It would of been different if the warning was along the line "You are being scammed, you risk losing all your money". So until then, yes! Everyone can blame Bryan for their misfortune because their money was never invested as promised!

1nfinity,

If the money was never invested by Bryan, how was he able to finance the 2% program so successfully?

If the money was never invested, the current investigations, which have been going on since November 2004, would have picked that up by now. That alone would have been reason enough to shut down Pips. But they have not so how do you explain that procrastination on the Bank's part?

Anybody can resort to speculation about anything but please put your thinking cap on while at it.

Answers please.

eman.

eman. Some more facts to think about as to whether funds were invested or not.
Yes, the 2% program did pay for a very long time, and those funds had to come from somewhere. I doubt they came directly out of Bryan's personel bank account.
There were millions of dollars in Humantarian Aid spent in the Phillipines. I doubt they accepted Picpay instead of greenbacks.
The same goes for the two Pips conferences. Those that attended did pay with Picpay, but in the end the event organisers and the hotels in question would again only have accepted greenbacks.

My take on the fall of Pips was two very bad decisions made by Bryan.
1. When he opened up the merchants, he promised that they would be paid in 14 days if my memory is correct. All this while us members were still waiting for our withdrawls which were months behind at that stage.
2. While he was trying to organise banks for withdrawls, many members had Picpay debit cards which were working just fine with VAT. Instead of requesting all members apply for a debit card to get their funds, he would not sign the agreement with VAT as he said their fees were too high.
Who would have given a rats about fees with the amount people were making with Pips. At least members would have had access to their funds from an ATM and Pips would not have been targeted for not paying.

You also have to look at what else Pips was involved in. They had over 150 staff plus a computer system worth a lot of dollars. This all had to be paid for, along with the Bistro and Coffee House and Fashion. Again this would be all done with greenbacks, not Picpay.
So IMO funds had to be invested somewhere to be able to fund these projects.
Take the UN and the Isabellamena Foundation which Pips was involved in. I know for a fact that the UN would have done their DD on Pips to ensure the longevity of Pips so that whatever Pips went into with the UN would be long lasting and not a fly by night operation.
Bottom line to me is that there is far more involved in the (hopefully) temporary closure of Pips than meets the eye. I also believe that some people within Pips were the scamsters funnelling funds for their own use instead of going to merchants and members.
Only time will tell and hopefully the BN investigation will be over soon and Pips will get back in business like before, and modified to stop the *****s requesting withdrawls every day months on end. This is another reason Picpay could not handle the huge amount of withdrawl requests and also frightened a lot of banks away. I hope members keep this in mind as these were the ones that contributed in some way to the problems we now have with Pips.

Interesting,

Yes, one would think the money had to be invested, but there appears to be no way to know this for sure since it was all in Bryan's head. As long as money is coming in, it can be paid out and look to be based on investments, so there is still no way to know the accounting, or lack of accounting which created this mess.

As to your figure of millions to Philippine Humanitarian donations for the school built, sorry, but this was stated in Philippine currency at time, so it was only a few hundred thousand US dollars as I had calculated. As to the Isabellamena Foundation, some organizations will take donations from anyone, some won't, as Bryan had mentioned. Yes, these donations to good causes were paid in dollars, but again, unless we knew what was coming in from all of US, the investors or so called lenders, there is no way to know who paid for what.

You are correct on other issues, convention took cash, and I suspect a large amount of people paid with Picpay, so who knows how many paid with real money. I agree about VAT, and at that point with the only means of withdrawals, I think the issue of fees was hardly a reason to stall withdrawals. I think most of us who had pending witdrawals would have paid anything to access our accounts, so fees was a crock of crap in my opinion. Besides, fees were alwasy passed on to us anyhow, so why weren't we asked how much we were willing to pay to access funds? So many unanswered questions, so I guess we all just have to wait and be patient.

Good luck to all, Mike

Freefox and Mike,

Thank you fot your inputs; I think we are all agreed that there is clear evidence that there were external sources of revenue pouring into Pips which enabled Bryan to successfully manage the 2% program which was the cornerstone of Pips.

As to the nature of those external sources; I am, personally, quite relaxed save to say that as long as Bryan was not seen to be breaking any laws; which is what the current investigations are all about, Bryan, along with all other businesses was perfectly entitled to hold business secrets. There has been a massive clamour in this forum and elsewhere, pricipally Talkgold, for Bryan to reveal his investment strategies. I do not see why he had to do that and thereby give a leg up to his competitors. No successful company would do that. So why are we surprised that Bryan has kept things close to his chest?

The naysayers are saying that he is refusing to divulge his investment strategies, ipso fatso, he is not being candid enough. No, he is allowed, legitimately, to keep business secrets.

As you have both pointed out errors have been made by Bryan which is what has allowed detractors to pounce on him and agitated enough to bring Pips to this pass. Hindsight is wonderful but I am sure Bryan is nothing if not a quick learner from his mistakes.

As to the revival of Pips, I fear that unless Bryan were to step into the back ground and allow that revival to occur under another guise, the same detractors are going to be at it again. See what happened to Freelandopps.

Good luck to us all.

eman.

Hi Mike and eman.

Mike, if my memory serves me correctly the amount of funding Pips was giving to the Phillipines was US$500.000:00 per month and this was done for about 3 months or maybe more. I would doubt that these funds were transfered in Phillipine currency as we all know international funding is done in USD.
As for money being invested, this would have been a subject of the UN and the Isabellamina Foundation DD. The UN would have had to make sure that the funding was clean and the source of the funds were clean also. Part of their DD would also have been the longevity of the funding source, that is where the funds were invested and the overall return of these funds.
If the UN had found that the funding for them was coming from us, the lenders, this would have shown a red flag to them and shown Pips as a pure Ponzie.
Why I say this is because a group of us Pipsters in Australia met with Kalai Chelvan who was a UN Rep. and speaker at the Hawaii Convention for the sole purpose of setting up a fund to help with the funding of the UN Flying Hospital. We did this and had quite a sizable account ready for Kal. to come to Australia and do his DD on not only the source of our funds, which was Pips, but also DD on the people setting up this Pips Trust Account. So for the UN to have been involved with Pips there was a lot of behind the scene activity between the parties.
As for Bryan not devulging his investment sources, I completely agree with him for it would be a huge mistake if any of us devulge where we have our investments and especially how much we have invested.

eman I also share your fear that if Pips does survive there will be those that will try to destroy him again if his head pops up above the radar. What twisted minds these sort of people have defies comprehension.

Interesting,

All I go by is what was reported in newspaper in Philippine's at time, which was the only article I remember seeing on the school being built, and it was reported in local currency, not US. What might have been said on tour about how much was donated could have been any amount. I can only state what I read originally, not what might have been said to others on tour.

The other point of accepting money from PIPS by any foundation is indeed dependent on clean money in most cases, and wasn't all of our donations clean? I assure you, with all the bad press now, no one would accept donations under the PIPS name, even if it is cleared of all charges. Yes, some organizations are more careful than others, while some will take donations from anyone.

If we ever learn the truth, it would be wonderful, but who would ever believe that a CEO has everything in his head when talking about a multi-billion dollar company which was entrusted with our millions to invest? Sorry, this does not compute to me, never did, especially now when we are all waiting to hear if any assets even exist at this piont, or if ever. All we need to hear is the truth, and all the rest of talk means nothing. The last word is the one that counts in my opinion, so here we are waiting patiently. (g)

Good luck to all, Mike

In essence this thing has been closed almost 2 years now, the investigation over a year now. I think everybody sees the handwriting on the wall, I have, it's over the curtain in down the show is over. The lobby still has a few hanging around wishing there was more, or it should have ended this way or that way! Well the lobby needs cleaning and they need to lock the doors, so good nite to all, hope you enjoied it, it was fun while it lasted but all good things come to an end. So sal-a -vie, good buy, ciao, say goodnight Gracie!!