HIGH INTEREST INVESTMENTS

Well if you are not going to helpful why are you on the forum I just wished to know what qualifications are required nowadays, you seem to know so much about investing you seem also upset and defensive of this fund people are only giving you their opinions why is that please are you an investor in the fund or are you a financial adviser

I cannot work it out what is your interest

InvestorMorse

 yes investorm he seems to yet make a point just here to criticize those who do and urge caution

oh well

he seems to like saying SWEEPING STATEMENT hardley a surprise as he seems to be an expert on the practice

I don't know why so many poeple are worried about investing money.

A lobbyist on his way home from Parliament is stuck in traffic. Noticing a police officer, he winds down his window and asks: ‘What’s the hold-up?’ The policeman replies: ‘The Prime Minister is so depressed he’s stopped his motorcade and is threatening to douse himself with petrol and set himself on fire. He says no one believes he can get us through the credit crunch. So we’re taking up a collection for him.’ The lobbyist asks: ‘How much have you got so far?’ The officer replies: ‘About 40 gallons, but a lot of people are still siphoning.’

Hi,

I came across this thread while scouring the web for details of LM Investment's 16th May proposed liquidity mechanism vote. Your thread has gone a bit cold recently, but to update for dumbbunny's information, there's a couple of Aussie financial press reports:

The Australian Financial Review -  personal_finance/smart_money/cold_comfort_for_frozen_fund_investors

Sydney Morning Herald -  /business/the-scarlet-pimpernel-of-funds-management

Sorry I can't get the links in. I think your OP observations may now be proving correct. Wether it's Ponzi or not, if you can get your investment back it's no good. Pity that your OP invited the sharks into your waters, but I would throw my barge pole away anyway.

ojosazul89 and mishmash, you're both doing a grand job lads. Keep it up with all your mates and clients, and get the money rolling into LM. The rest of us LM Investors may eventually get our initial investments back, with maybe some distributions as a bonus. 

"The Scammed" The article you are referring to is below. As i have previously mentioned, it refers to a totally different LM fund and not the one the OP was talking about. So all funds that have suffered due to the dire credit credit crunch in the last few years can be labelled as "Ponzi schemes"? The Scammed. Incredible analysis!!!

http://www.afr.com/p/personal_finance/smart_money/cold_comfort_for_frozen_fund_investors_3lKdZ6kbAIJfLyvAommpAJ

That was a quick response. Obviously not much else to do in Spain.

When investors cannot get redemptions out of a frozen fund for over three years, but the fund manager has increased leverage and is still milking his own high fees, not much analysis is necessary. They are scamming their own investors. The impending Class Action will show this to be the case.

If you believe other potential new investors would be safe dumping their hard earned cash into other funds with the same LM Austraila, you must be as gullible as I was in the first place. Alternatively, you could be yet another parasitic IFA?

These lot make even the banks look half way honest and safe havens.

We have been invested in the LM Performance Fund since 2007.  We are still unable to withdrawl our funds.  We get the same gibberish each time - the fund is meant to Capital preservation.  Does anyone know of any litiagation underway?

I'm sorry vsn30 but and I are both in the same boat, along with many others who are loosing money by believing the spruik from LM Investment. The current unit price is 59 cents, dwindling rapidly and still not a single cent paid out by them. What an investment!!

The original poster was right to right to question if was a Ponzi scheme. From what I can see, all of these Australian funds are money making scams, run for the benefit of fund managers and financial advisors. They are still advertising their other open funds, hoping to catch more unsuspecting fools!

There is a law firm called Piper Alderman who are preparing an action against LM Investment. I'm not entirely satisfied that they are doing very much at all, while we investors are still being milked for fees, but that's lawyers for you. If anyone else knows of other firms or actions, I'd be interested to know too. No doubt they and the litgation funders will also be dipping into our funds, but at least there may be something to recover. Contact them through their Senior Associate Shaan Palmer. Try here on SPalmer at piperalderman com au.

You should also take a look at  forum called Aussie Stock Forums. There is a long thread there about the sad and sorry story of LM Investment and other sharks. It's headed LM Investment Management - Lack of confidence.

Good luck

This message was last edited by GuyT on 27/01/2013.

The link I gave has already been quoted but it's well written by an Aussie financial reporter and worth a laugh, provided that one isn't one of Mr Drake's victims. If one is one of his victims, rather than expect a penny from the inevitable bankruptcy and fleecing of any remaining funds by Mr Drake and assorted lawyers, one would do better to get on bended knee and pray for your Spanish property to triple in price during the next year. It's by far the more likely of the two possibilities.

So LM Investment Management Ltd has eventually gone into 'Voluntary Administration' as the Aussies term it. The rest of us would probably describe it as the collapse of a ponzi scheme.

It's now clear to me that nobody should put their hard earned cash into any of these funds. The Gold Coast has gained infamy on the back of all these dodgy property developments, and now with them the equally dodgy mortgage funds.

As futher advice to everyone out there: Don't trust the weasle words of the Independent Financial Advisors or Personal Wealth Managers. They were all hawking these funds as low risk, safe investments, contrary to what the financial world appears to have already known to be  untrue. What is even more scandalous is that this was still going on until the last few weeks, with some IFAs still advising investors to dump their cash into LM funds! 

So how many poor investors (now poorer) were conned on this forum? Have a look at Aussie Stock Forums to see how the fiasco is unfolding.

It is my opinion that many , many investors do not actually understand what their true attitude to risk really is as if that is the case then the larger majority of invesmtents made are most oorbably not going to be suitable over the longer term. 

With any investment there are only two main areas that will affect the overall outcome, these are

a) the charges / costs

b) the fund performance

it is pointless having for example 10% pa grwoth if the charges are 7% per annum and similarly vicea versa.

As a rule of thumb the higher the potential return the higher the risk.

So how many other eyeonspain forum members were also victims of the LM Investment Management ponzi scheme? I hope not too many were fooled by the  excessive commission grabbing IFAs on the forum.
It there are any of you out there who re still wondering what to do now, or even better if you can share an action plan, a new website has been opened specifically for LM Victims:

I can't post the addess here, but it's a google sites called lminvestorvictimcentre

It may too late for many of us now, but the intention of the website is to unite members from around the world. Please feel free to join. For the others out there who are stalked by fork tongued IFAs  - don't belive a word they say and keep you cash in your own pocket where it's safe!

Hi All,

I have invested in LM Australia and I have tried many times to contact them but without success.

I have lost most of my savings  and income as a consequence of this investment. 

I am aware that there is a company in the North East called CPC Worldwide that has an action group against this Company. I have a friend of mine from Singapore that has joined the group and I think I will to do the same. What do you think?

Maybe we have a chance of getting your money back!

Maria

All regulated UK investments are covered for up to £85,000 of total investment by the FSCS, I presume that the scheme in question does not have similar investor protection, but am struggling to find detais of Australian investor protection, does anyone know anything about it?

Quite sure there is no compensation scheme operating in Australia. It's a financial industry fraudsters paradise, from the big banksters scamming their own mortgagees, right down to the conman financial planners running off with investors' savings. If there was such a scheme it would probably have to payout more compo than it ever had in contributions. If you find one please let me know where to send my claim.

Although the early LMIM funds were subject to local regulation, the main one which took most of the recent investors money, the MPF (Managed Performance Fund), was not regulated and not even permitted for Australians. It targetted expats around the world, (in hindsight) with the intention of ripping them off and making legal actions far too difficult. The Oz regulator ASIC is totally useless on all fronts and does not even consider claims against funds & advisors who are not in Oz. Aren't we sure that the Peter Drake & Co robbers knew all this from the beginning?

Where are all those useless lying parasite IFAs who were spruiking the LM funds a few years ago in this thread? You know, the ones who said LMIM were well managed funds, suitable for expats? The whole lot of them should be ashamed and prosectuted, at the very least for not knowing or caring what they are talking about.

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, TRUST OR FOLLOW AN IFA's ADVICE.

Scammed I dont think its fair what you have posted re IFAs if you look back on this post an IFA was warning people not to invest in this LM scheme and went into great detail why to avoid it. 

Even when he was badgered by several other forum members in the end it seems he was right.

I recently took financial advice from a UK regulated adviser with many years experience on my pension I paid for it and I am happy, he will be rewarded if it grows and visa versa as he has 0.5%pa to manage it.

Love Hugh

It's easy enough to lose a big slice of your investments due to changing market conditions, however greed will often win out over common sense when placing your hard earned money in something that beats your bank. UK IFA's are bound by the rules of the FSA, so if you are scammed by a rougue IFA you will be compensated, so when someone comes along promising you massive gains, at least check that you are covered by a kosher compensation scheme.

mariakz check your private messages

hughjardon - please don't talk to me about fairness and IFAs.

They are the ones who pocketed their commissions and walked away with significant slices of our money. They are the ones in cahoots with the robbing fund managers. They are the ones who are supposed to know about these matters but still advised us into a ponzi scheme. 

We are the ones who lost our life savings. Thats not just unfair - what they did is reprehensible and even more scandalous it that they are still getting away with it!! IFAs ARE NOT TRUSTWORTHY.

You don't say what your recent investment advice was, but I hope it wasn't managed funds. You may be happy that you paid him and then he takes a further slice for doing nothing. I feel sad for you and angry at the IFA. Where's the vice versa if you loose the lot?

I think you will find that its you may be partly to blame as you did not perhaps check the credentials of the individual or were perhaps clouded by greed, remember if an investment sounds to good to be true it probably is. 

You are covered for this type of loss if you had UK regulated advice, my IFA explained at my recent meeting that you have to be qualified to give this advice 

You should contact the Finacial Ombudsman here is the number from my papaerwork 0800 023 4 567 

Hope you get your money back

Love Hugh