The Times has a great article about
buyers denial: "[The] belief that somehow a fraud was not what it seemed to be, and that there was still a way to avoid losing the money the victim had foolishly invested." The article centers on victims of a fraud involving a company called CMKM Diamonds:
Several shareholders in CMKM — some of whom kept buying shares after the government exposed the fraud — want 10 current and former commissioners of the Securities and Exchange Commission to pay them $3.87 trillion, an amount equal to about half the United States government debt in public hands. You might think that would be enough, but the suit claims those are merely compensatory damages. They also want punitive damages, but do not cite a figure.
That is an impressive amount for a company whose last published balance sheet showed total assets of $344. That is dollars, not millions.
The tale the shareholders tell, in a lawsuit filed in January in federal district court in Santa Ana, Calif., is of a conspiracy involving not just the S.E.C., but also the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security.
The article as a whole is worth reading. Indeed, many fraud victims seem to go through an incredible amount of
motivated reasoning in order to avoid facing the reality of having been duped. Perhaps motivated reasoning is what got them in the fraud in the first place, making them more likely to engage in further motivated reasoning when confronted with evidence that they have invested in a fraud?
It is quite interesting how so many "SO-CALLED" experts can believe in the fraud against thee investors. These experts continue to comment on how the investor needs to except they have been DUPED. While not one of these experts, like Mark Zimbelman, that teaches classes on fraud, has anything to say about how the SEC did NOT protect the investor as is their purpose and job. So it is the fault of the investor for being duped, NOT the SEC for FAILING to do their job. Where is the real NEWS writers that do real research before writing about anything, instead of just jumping on a band wagon of unverifed stories. Are these experts afraid of what they might really find out if they dug into the real story and are afraid to get involved???
ReplyDeleteIt would appear to me that since the SEC has filed a suit against the guilty parties, there must be something to the claims of the shareholders. Urban Casavant is still at large. Wouldn't one believe that our Gov't. is capable of apprehending such a criminal if there was not a sting involved. The facts do not add up in this case. If Al Hodges does have the smoking gun, now is the time to expose the truth to the nay sayers.
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