A CURE FOR CANCER WOULD RUIN THIS DRUG COMPANY MONEY SPINNER

Dear Readers,

     To be diagnosed with the
BIG C is everybody's nightmare. Below is something I took off Twitter and when I sent it to
my brother Anthony what 
follows is his reply.

         “Yes they put him in jail for selling them as a cancer cure. You

chew the kernel of apricot pips. When a Japanese Doctor at Sloan

Kettering Cancer research in the US discovered they killed cancer 

they repressed his research because it was not a patentable method. When a marshal arts champ used them to cure himself  of cancer and then starting selling them as a cure they put him in jail.

          A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that 15 million cancer cases were diagnosed in 2013. This disease was also responsible for 15 per cent of the deaths in the 118 countries included in the research. It was hardly surprising then that the global market for oncology drugs rose 10.3 per cent in 2014 and may reach US$147 billion by 2018 according to IMS Health, an American company that services the healthcare industry with information.

The discrepancy between perception and reality has convinced people like Linus Pauling, biochemist, two-time Nobel Prize winner and one of the 20 greatest scientists of all time that “most cancer research is largely a fraud.”

Sadly, he is not the only expert to claim that cancer research is a fraud; Collective Evolution has amassed a list of professionals who claim cancer has not been cured yet because the attempt to find a solution to this growing problem is nothing more than a hoax. For instance, Dr. Marcia Angell, long-time editor of the New England Medical Journal, stated that “it is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published” while Dr. John Bailer, who spent two decades on the staff of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, concluded that “the national cancer program must be judged a qualified failure.” In fact, he claimed that the institution’s “whole cancer research in the past 20 years has been a total failure.”

In 1981, the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Research Institute’s former director Dr Irwin Bross concluded that the animal model studies are useless, because practically all of the chemotherapeutic agents that are valuable in the treatment of human cancer were not found in animal studies, but in a clinical context. The corporate side of treating this illness cannot be ignored any longer, as spending on cancer medicines has hit a new milestone of US$100 billion in 2014.

Lancet’s Editor-in-Chief Richard Horton said in the medical journal’s April 15, 2015 edition that “much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue,” while Dr John P.A. Ioannidis, professor in disease prevention at Stanford University wrote in a 2005 article titled Why Most Published Research Findings Are False that “there is increasing concern that the most current published research findings are false.”

According to Cancer Research- A Super Fraud? by Robert Ryan, B.Sc, most cancer is preventable. The International Agency for Research in Cancer found that 80 to 90 per cent of human cancer “is determined environmentally,” which makes it avoidable. However, medical historian Hans Ruesch concluded that “less than ten per cent of the [U.S.] National Cancer Institute is given to environmental causes.”

In the late 1970s, investigative reporters Gary Null and Robert Houston wrote that “a solution to cancer would mean the termination of research programs and it would mortally threaten the present clinical establishments.” Dr Robert Sharpe has added that “treating disease is enormously profitable, preventing it is not.” 

It is much worse than it is mentioned here. They are NOT looking for a cure. Revenue from cancer treatments will be lost from so many medical facilities; pharmaceutical companies; Food and Drug Administration fees charge to fund the new drug approval process; or better still ‘payoffs’ for ‘approved’ cancer drugs will dry up and money from lobbyists to the corrupt politicians would stop. Too much money and jobs would be lost IF cancer is cured!”

           Anthony’s Comments:

This is worse than what went on in Nazi Germany. I am sure many Germans were not aware just as many in the U s of A are similarly oblivious, because the U s of A is an economy built on a house of cards - oil revenues channelled through their banks - arms manufacturing - dollar no longer supported by gold - a free licence to print money etc etc profits on medicine out of proportion to manufacturing costs.

Rewind to Welsley:

Many people know John Wesley was the inspiration behind the Methodist Denomination. But few know he was one of the first persons in England to use a static electricity machine to heal many disorders including blindness, gout, sprains, deafness, toothaches, and stomach and back pain. Wesley wrote in his book, Primitive Physick, that electricity is "the nearest to a universal medicine, of any yet known in the world."

He recommended electricity as a cure for over twenty illnesses. It was one of his favourite remedies and he said it was "far superior to all the medicines I know."

In November, 1756, he obtained an electrical apparatus and began experimenting by shocking himself for lameness and neuralgia. The cure was certain but gradual. His Journal records at least two other occasions where he applied electrical shock therapy to himself, once when he was 70 and once when he was 80 years old.

Successful cures from Wesley's Desideratum - Electricity Made Plain and Useful “William Jones, a Plaisterer...fell from a Scaffold on Thursday, Feb.15 last. He was grievously bruised, both outwardly and inwardly, and lay in violent pain utterly helpless, till Saturday in the afternoon, when he was brought (carried) by two men to be electrified. After a few minutes he walk'd home alone, and on Monday went to work.

“Sarah Guilford, aged 37 was for upwards of seven years so afflicted with rheumatism in her right side, that the knee and the ankle were wasted exceedingly. January 2d last she was electrified, and perfectly cured in one day. But it threw her into a profuse sweat, particularly from those parts which had been most affected.

“Abigail Brown, aged 22 electrified five days successively, having one wire applied to the fore part, another to the hinder part of the head, and receiving seven or eight shocks each Time. Hereby she was entirely cured, nor has found any pain in her head since, unless occasionally for want of sleep.

“A man, fifty-seven years old, who had been deaf for thirty-two years, was so relieved in a few days, as to hear tolerably well, etc., etc .,etc., etc.

He asserts that electricity for healing is the intent of God, the creator:

‘I do not know of any remedy under heaven that is likely to do you so much good as the being constantly electrified. But it will not avail unless you persevere therein for some time.”

Wesley believed that the emotions of the mind are capable of bringing about changes in the body. When the mind experiences disturbing emotions, the whole body responds in 'sympathy.' The medical men despised Wesley and his work. Their contempt was probably due to the fact that Wesley was not qualified, did not charge for his services, and was hugely successful.

He said that if society had to wait on the physicians to try electrical healing, society would wait in vain. Physicians were too committed to making money by prescribing complex medications for which they charged much money.

According to Wesley, physicians would not be interested in such a simple, cheap treatment as electrification until they had more regard for the interests of their neighbours than their own. At least not till there are no more apothecaries in the land or till physicians are independent of them. (Why does this sound so familiar? And that was some 250 years ago. Repeat for those sleeping or with selective hearing problems.) He said that if society had to wait on the physicians to try electrical healing, society would wait in vain. Physicians were too committed to making money by prescribing complex medications for which they charged much money.

The tradition continued in modern times in various forms confirming Wesley’s claims – yet the Flexner report sponsored by the Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundations, intent on steering all medicine towards drug based solutions debunked the electrical approach from as early as 1910 when the report first appeared.

          Nothing has changed, Flexner had no scientific qualifications, he was some sort of lay preacher.

It's all about money.

A.A.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcE46IH9LmQ This is part of "Cancers the forbidden cures" on Youtube

         Regards,

         Jon, a Consumer Watchdog who could not agree more with my brother’s comments that the drug business is not essentially about curing people it is more about making money.

P.S. According to Anthony the kernels of apricot pips contain cyanide in a special form which seeks out the cancer tumours and eliminates them. Unlike arsenic cyanide does not build up in the body. For cancer he says, “You start slowly with 3 pips and then as the body gets used to them you build up the numbers and frequency of doses. You might feel a little dizzy at first but nobody it seems has killed themselves except some kids in Turkey, who were starving and overdid it. You can buy them at the Wellness Warehouse or crack your own when they are in season.” Note: Anthony is not a doctor of any kind but he is an excellent bridge teacher who does not believe in conventional medicine.

* I contacted the Wellness Warehouse in Kloof Street, Cape Town where a lady told me they do sell raw apricot kernels. And when I asked if they sold them as a cure for cancer she replied: “We are not allowed to say that.”

ANTI-PONZI SCHEME ACTIVIST ROWENA JAMES HAS RECEIVED A DEATH THREAT

Dear Readers,

          As if a death threat was not enough Rowena James has also been maliciously maligned on Facebook. In addition she says she has evidence that indicates that the statement she gave to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (The Hawks) was leaked to the very people she is complaining about.

          All this is because this 51 year old divorcee has been extolling the aims of a pack of 400 people that is growing daily determined to hunt down Malcolm De Beer the master mind behind the Coin-It and CommEx ponzi schemes. Coin-It alone is estimated to have taken 27 000 people for something like R2.5 billion.

          Rowena herself was a victim of Coin-It, although her R60 000 loss was perhaps one of the smallest amounts among this huge number of people, who put their faith in Coin-It before it was closed by the Financial Service Conduct Authority (FSCA).

          She antagonised the Dundee, KwaZule-Natal promoters when she started an on-line Facebook Group headed: Coin-It and CommEx – The Truth. This was to encourage investors to co-operate with the Hawks investigators brought in by the FSCA.

          “I believe what really sent them over the edge was the action FSCA took and the serving of papers on Malcolm to appear in the Pietermaritzburg High court this week,” she told me.

          “Our group have each put in R350 to employ a firm of attorneys and the advocate they have appointed will be making an application to liquidated Coin-It in the hope that we can recover money for the investors. Many pensions, retrenchment packages and life savings have gone, not to mention the money from those who took personal loans to finance their investments.

          “They are from all over the country, mostly from KwaZulu-Natal with some from the Western and Eastern Cape and Polokwane.”

          In a press release issue by the FSCA to update Coin-It investors it stated that it had become aware that Coin-It was trying to get its investors to have their contracts transferred to other associated companies.

          It warned them not to enter into any financial arrangements with unauthorised entities associated with Coin-It.

          The FSCA launched an investigation in August into Coin-It and CommEx Minerals for suspected breaches of financial sector laws. This involved a search and seizure operation of the Dundee premises of these firms followed by the opening of a case with the Hawks for further investigation. The Asset Forfeiture Unit had also obtained a preservation order against bank accounts linked to the parties being investigated.

          “Neither Coin-It or CommEx nor its directors Mr Michael Andrew Anthony de Beer (Coin-It) and Mrs Patricia Ursula de Beer (CommEx) are licensed to conduct any financial services or to receive deposits from the public,” the statement added. Mrs Patricia Ursula De Beer is the ex-wife of Malcolm Henry de Beer, the founder of Coin-It and still the person running the its day to day operations. 

                                 (Heartless Sunday Times)                    

          Some weeks ago on Facebook Sibonelo Khulu Coin-It’s Brand manager described Rowena as a “racist who is scavenging on black people’s bloods.” He maintained that being “fully paid up after her 3 year circle with Coin-It she is busy misleading them with all sorts of nonsensical updates so they won’t become rich like herself.” He blamed her for complaining to the FSCA and called her “a heartless racist.”

          In her reply on Facebook Rowena included copies of the contracts for the two trucks she bought and stated that she would be happy to receive a R400 000 cash settlement for them as she suspected they did not exist.

          “The person who originated the complaint to FSCA was from Cape Town,” she continued. “I’m from Durban so that’s yet another thumb suck you have spread. Like a good citizen I have given the FSCA and the Hawks my full cooperation.

          “Mr Khulu you obviously know that these investors you have successfully misled and still are misleading will soon be locking you away as you have a lot to answer for.”

          She told me she had been alarmed on the evening of 24 October when she discovered that Sibonelo, known as Khulu the Man on social media, had distributed her home address with two voice notes in Zulu. The first one was from an unknown woman who asked for her address as she knew people in Durban who wanted to teach Rowena a lesson. And the second one was death threat.

          “Almost as alarming was the fact that he was distributing copies of the statement I made to the Commercial Crime Unit in Durban,” she said.

          She has lodged a complaint about this to the prosecuting authorities in Pietermaritzburg and it has been passed to the Serious Commercial Crimes Unit.

          “It’s clear that this case has now been compromised and my life is in danger.” she stated.

          Attached to her complaint were screen shots of what she says were copies of her statement that Khulu distributed on social media.

          Rowena was not the originator of the group that wants to liquidate Coin-It. She heard about it on WhatsApp and decided to join it.

          Regards,

          Jon, a Consumer Watchdog who believes not enough is being done by our enforcement agencies to ensure that the crooks behind these ponzi schemes end up in jail for a long time. And if you can’t trust the police, even at the highest level, it becomes very scary.

P.S. Rowena is to be congratulated for really sticking her neck out by taking a stand against these shysters, especially in the social media jungle where just about anything goes. Too many people complain bitterly about something, but when the time comes to stand up to be counted they are nowhere to be found.

(Feisty Rowena James)

P.P.S. The money Coin-It investors paid was supposed to have bought them trucks to earn them an impressive return on their investments, but all the indications were that these didn’t exist. CommEx was structured in much the same way only this time it involved the buying and selling of various minerals. 

     

NEWSPAPER BEHAVING BADLY - THE COURIER EXPOSES PONZI SCHEMES & THEN TAKES THEIR TAINTED MONEY FOR AN ADVERTORIAL

Dear Readers,

How is this for dubious newspaper morality? The Northern KwaZulu-Natal Courier, a community paper in the Caxton Group carried three exposés about the activities of members of the De Beer family’s Ponzi businesses Coin-It Trading and CommEx Minerals.

          The first one early last September was headed Drama unfolds as Coin-It and  Commex Minerals are raided. It was about how the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) had launched an investigation into these two companies.

          Its next report was headlined: Investment scheme maintains everyone will get paid.

          Then on September 18 it announced: Coin offices closed pending FSCA probe. Readers were told that it was too early to say what will happen to investors in Coin-It and CommEx Minerals following the raid by the FSCA.

          Soon afterwards the paper, which has a weekly free distribution of 15 000 copies in the coal mining town of Dundee (Population 34 000), carried the half page, controversial paid advertorial headed Coin-It Traders Speak Out! It would have earned the publication something like R7 000. 

This is how the Courier coined it & how
the advertorial began

          It was a huge puff extolling the good deeds these Ponzi scheme promoters had done for the people of the area as if their kind of business was perfectly acceptable.

          After weeks of controversy, Coin-It Trading appeals to the community to not forget all the good it has and is still doing, the ad began

          Speaking to the Courier, it went on, Coin-It’s representative, Peter Estrice said, “The public was not informed in the past on the big scope of activities that were taking place and the participation of social activities carried out by Coin-It.”

          Coin-It described itself as a huge part of the Dundee community and as such had aided many people.

Peter Estrice

          He claimed that when “last year’s terrible floods took away five lives, including three children, from a family in Sibongile (a Dundee township) Coin-It was there. We played a big role in helping the needy and even went to the extent of repairing some churches that were damaged.”

           Small businesses that relied on Coin-It had been enormously affected.

          “Other companies have also lost revenue when we stopped our service, such as the buying of trucks,” Estrice maintained. “Our hardware companies can no longer continue with business as everything has come to a standstill. Coin-It has donated signage to schools in the area and will continue to assist schools in other districts in the future.”

          Referring to the pending FSCA investigation Estrice stated: “As much as Coin-It is taking a beating it is also affecting our small businesses and individuals who relied on Coin-It. Our clients come from different backgrounds such as government officials, working class and the unemployed and Coin-It takes care of them.” He promised that they would have a "ceremony with our clients once everything had been sorted." 

          The advertorial concluded with the logos of the businesses the De Beer family evidently have an interest in.  

          In an email to the Courier’s Editor Terry Worley I asked how his paper could expose the Coin-It Ponzi scheme and then take this advertorial that promotes it.

          “The Courier has just gone one better than the Sunday Times for appalling double standards just to make money,” I told him. "You have also completely blown your belief in the 'community newspaper being the trustworthy watchdog of the community.'”

          I was referring to the fact the Sunday Times carried two advertising inserts from CommEx and My House, another Ponzi scheme promoted by the same people, a few days after its sister publication had revealed that Coin-It and CommEx had been raided by the FSCA.  (Heartless Sunday Times)

          Worley told me to refer to their advertising department. In a subsequent email he started that the Hawks investigation appeared to be stagnating, but they were following up because more investors who had not received their money still needed to make statements.

          “We are told not even 15 have made statements and there are apparently 27 000,” he added.

          I sent a similar email to Rod Skinner, Caxton’s Regional Editor for the area that includes the Courier asking why that controversial advertorial was accepted. “Surely that was the antithesis of good newspaper ethics,” I told him. “The message it sent was that your paper only cares about making money, not ethical behaviour.”

          He replied saying: “In fairness we had to give Coin-It a right of reply. They however insisted they wanted to reply in this manner. It is not for us to dictate how they as a company wish to exercise their right of reply.

          “Nothing in the advertorial solicits business for the scheme. Our investigative team is still investigating it along with several others in Northern KZN.”
                                     *     *     *

          Regards

          Jon, a Consumer Watchdog and the Poor Man’s Press Ombudsman.

P.S. The Caxton Group is no stranger to accepting adverts just to make money regardless of the morality of what it is doing. For years The Citizen, its daily paper that circulates mainly in Gauteng has been carrying Herbalist ads, when even one of its editors conceded to me that they are not believable.  Full of people claiming to be doctors, professors and the like when they are clearly nothing of the kind they offer services like “100% win lotto” and “manhood enlargement.” These are obviously nothing else but lies. (Lies,lies and more lies)

P.P.S. An advertorial is an advertisement written in the same style as a newspaper article. So it’s not hard to guess why the Ponzi promoters wanted their ad in this form.

   

INCREDIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE FROM SHAHEID ALEXANDER, THE MAN YOU MIGHT NEVER SEE

Dear Readers,

A rare pictu

         It’s scary in the dark when a North Wester could be battering your windows with sheets of rain or the South Easter is threatening to blow just about everything away. Not to worry you’ll still get it.

         They didn’t call this part of the world the Cape of Storms for nothing.

         You probably will never have seen how your paper arrives, but when you wake up in the morning it will be in your driveway, just like clockwork no matter how foul the weather is.

         If you are a newspaper subscriber in Cape Town’s Southern suburbs you will have experienced that mystifying miracle daily or at week ends.

         Ten years ago Shaheid Alexander gave up his conventional job as an administrative assistant at the Cape Town City Council for a will-o`-the-wisp existence of sleepless nights delivering papers.

         He starts his night at around 10.30 p.m. and doesn’t get back to his home in Mitchells Plain until four or five in the morning. He and his team of two deliver Business Day and the Financial Mail during the week and the Sunday Times, Economist and the Financial Times at the week-ends.

         It’s a 30 km drive from his home to the industrial area of Paarden Eiland where they collect the papers and that’s before he even starts his delivery round to customers spread across suburbs from St James to Noordhoek, Fish Hoek and Simonstown.  

         Shaheid alone travels something like 200 km a night. He is constantly haunted by the Fourth Industrial Revolution that is threatening to eliminate printed papers. His team was also delivering The Times, a daily that was an offshoot of the Sunday Times, but when that went digital only two years ago the two drivers who work for him lost out to some degree. They only deliver the Sunday Times at the week-ends now to more than 300 homes.

         They get paid per copy as well as a transport allowance. Shops are not on their route as they only deal with subscribers.

         My wife and I have been getting our Sunday Times delivered to our home in Kommetjie ever since we arrived here 10 years ago and before The Times ceased being printed we got that every day during the week as well.

         It was uncanny the way Shaheid’s service was virtually faultless. On the rare occasions that our paper didn’t arrive as expected due to something  beyond his control I would phone the Sunday Times’ Cape Town office and low and behold within an hour or so we had it.

         A couple of Sunday’s ago there was no paper, but not long after I phoned Shaheid was ringing the bell at our gate. He had driven the 30 km from his home just to bring us our Sunday Times.

         It was the first time I had ever set eyes on our mystery paper man.

         “I have to see to my clients,” he told me. “They come first.”

         Aged 57 he is married with three grown up children and four grandchildren.

         “We don’t meet our clients, but I love this job,” he said. And it certainly shows in the way he does it.

         His parting words to me were: “It was nice to be of service to you, Sir.”

         You could not get a better example of a job well done.

         Thanks a million Shaheid.

         Regards,

         Jon, a Consumer Watchdog who finds it such a pleasure to meet a shining light like Shaheid at a time when bad service is very much the norm.  We need many, many more Shaheids. The owners of the Sunday Times are lucky to have him.

P.S. Any firm in the service industry wanting to improve its image could not do better than to get its staff to follow Shaheid’s example.    

PONZI SCHEMES SCANDAL - HEARTLESS SUNDAY TIMES PROMOTES THEM AND GIVES THEM EDITORIAL IMMUNITY FOR ADVERTISING IN IT

Dear Readers,

Eben Gewers Head of
Advertising Sales at the
Sunday Times 

          Is it okay for South Africa’s biggest selling national paper the Sunday Times, renowned for its investigative exposé’s, to accept adverting inserts without question? Ones that cry out: ‘Ponzi scheme! This will surely devastate thousands of families.’

          Scams like this thrive in an economy in which people are struggling to make ends meet, because they offer a means of making a lot of money quickly.           

          In this case one ad was from the impressively named CommEX Global Corporation Limited Sheung Wan operating out of Dundee (population 40 000) in Kwazulu Natal.

          It offered readers the chance to become rich by investing in various minerals from coal to iron ore; manganese and dolomite. The promoters claimed that because of their “long term relationships” with mines around the world they could buy these minerals at below market price and then sell them “at a profit.”

          The big hearted philanthropists that they are however didn’t want to keep this profit for themselves. “Now for the first time ever, that profit can be yours,” they told readers.

          For an investment of R57 600 (minimum purchase amount) you could buy 72 tons of coal which they would then “assist you to sell at a profit” resulting in you being paid R5624 a month for 18 months. You would thus almost double your money with R101 232 in the bank at the end of the period.

          It would have been fun, if one had the money and didn’t mind losing it, to have invested the minimum in coal and told them not to sell it, but to rather deliver it to their Dundee premises so you could pick it up. My guess is they had no intention of buying any minerals at all.

          Similar hard to believe returns were given for the other three minerals.

          On 1 September 2019 the CommEx advertising insert appeared in this Tiso Blackstar owned paper just three days after BusinessLive, the online business website in the same group exposed CommEx as a Ponzi scheme.

          It revealed that the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) was investigating both CommEx Minerals and Coin-It Trading that appeared to be an allied company, as they were suspected of operating fraudulent schemes with a high likelihood that investors would lose their money.

          FSCA was said to have named Michael Andre Anthony de Beer as the director of Coin-It and Patricia Ursula de Beer, who was believed to be his ex-wife, as a director of CommEx Minerals.

            Coin-It was promising returns of up to 200% in only three years by selling trucks to investors, which it would then use for all kinds of “logistic services relating to transportation and distribution” to earn the amounts promised.

            When FSCA got wind of it investigators raided the offices of CommEx Minerals as well as the private home of a former director of Coin-It. A notice outside Coin-It’s premises in the Avon Industrial Area of Dundee announced that FSCA had closed the business until further notice.

          According to this authority neither firm was licensed to provide financial services or to receive deposits from the public.

          Brandon Topham, a director of investigations and enforcements at FSCA described Coin-It as showing “hallmarks of a Ponzi scheme.”

          In the Sunday Times of 1 September there was another insert together with the CommEx one. It was clearly from the same people. Entitled My House it enticed the public to buy a R335 000 a timber framed, prefabricated house over any period they chose up to 25 years. Once the full price was paid the house would be built on their property. It involved: “No Banks, No Interest, Zero Deposits, No Delay!” they claimed.

On 9 September I sent Topham a copy of the My House advert that was in the Sunday Times and asked if they were also investigating this.

He replied: “No we were not, but we are now.”

A 51 year old divorcee who supports her son, his girlfriend and her 2 year old grandchild, was one of the many people who lost money after buying trucks through the Coin-It scheme. When investors started being given excuses as to why their payments were not being made several Facebook groups were established. They had various opinions about whether or not Coin-It was legitimate.

“A person, who wishes to remain anonymous, contacted me and told me to read these posts,” she told me. “He explained that I had been caught up in a Ponzi scheme. I didn’t want to believe him, but he had no reason to lie.

“I realised then that there were no trucks because if you add up all the membership numbers on the various social media groups there are in excess of 10 000 of them. Then there are those that don’t’ do social media.

“I am not sure that Dundee could accommodate that many trucks. The smallest investment was R130 000 and the largest R500 000.”

          All went well for her in beginning as she was getting her regular monthly payments. Then cracks began appearing in the scheme before her contract was over, and between this and another truck she bought on the same basis she lost money.

She was never given any conclusive evidence that the trucks she bought actually existed.

See: feisty rowena james 
By accepting advertisements for Ponzi schemes like this without taking even the most elementary precautions the Sunday Times was spreading misery just to make money. The paper raked in an estimated R500 000 for the two inserts and if they had gone in its 310 000 copies they would have been seen by and awful lot of people throughout the country.

This shocking behaviour was compounded by the editorial side of the paper that clearly does not bite the hand that feeds it.

After being told on the phone by Debbie Thompson that she was the advertising manager of the print side of the Sunday Times I sent her this email to be fair to her paper by getting it’s side of the story. In it I asked her the following:

1.    “Does the Sunday Times vet very out of the ordinary inserts like this, before it agrees to carry them, by looking up the advertisers on Google for instance?

2.    “Does the Sunday Times ever check with the authorities to see if firms making offers like this are licensed to conduct financial services or receive deposits from the public, before it accepts adverts of this kind?

3.    “The Business Section of the Sunday Times carries a warning (nowhere near any advertisements) telling readers to “carefully scrutinise advertisements offering investment opportunities.” So why does this warning not appear on the kind of advertising inserts I have mentioned?

4.    “And if the paper wants readers to scrutinise advertisements of this kind to avoid being had, why doesn’t the Sunday Times do the same thing, especially when the claims made in these two inserts were so unlikely to be fulfilled?”

Instead of getting a reply from Debbie Thompson I got one from the Head of Advertising Sales Eben Gewers.

He told me: “Inasmuch as we try very much to encourage ethical advertising, we however do not accept any liability nor offer warrantee to the content of paid ads. We warn readers in all our publications regarding their responsibility to scrutinise adverts.”

These warnings have got less conspicuous over the years. Top
          is 2010 with bottom the current one that is not even in the
        main paper, but tucked away in the one corner of Page 2 of
the Business section nowhere near any adverts.

         I replied: “From what you say you don’t take even the most elementary precautions to ensure that crooks don’t promote their Ponzi schemes in the Sunday Times, which effectively means this paper aids and abets crooks. I accept that you can’t be blamed for things that are not right in some advertising, but when you have inserts for the likes of CommEx and My House, people in an investigative publication like the Sunday Times should be able to recognise them as suspect.

“The Sunday Times clearly doesn’t care if a Ponzi scheme it advertises destroys thousands of lives as long as it is making money.

“It’s significant too that even though the On-line business section of your group has exposed these people for what they are, and so have other publications, the Sunday Times has not mentioned a word of what has happened to these two Ponzi schemes.

“The moral to the story seems to be: If you don’t want your dirty deeds to be exposed in South Africa’s biggest selling Sunday paper, put an advert in it.”  

I also asked him to tell me what they did to ‘encourage ethical advertising.’

My email to him was dated 15 September. I have not had a reply so I think it is reasonable to conclude that he did not dispute anything in my email.

Regards,

Jon, a Consumer Watchdog and self appointed Poor Man’s Press Ombudsman, who fears that his old paper has really lost its moral compass now.

P.S. From 2010 onwards I campaigned on my blog to get the Sunday Times to stop carrying get-rich-quick ads. Eventually some years later it appeared to have stopped this, but not before a lot of lives had been ruined. Then it lapsed by carrying another one in January this year & I wrote this post. 
SUNDAY TIMES AT IT AGAIN WITH TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE ADS No more were featured until these two Ponzi scheme ad inserts appeared. It seems that thousands of people, many of whom were blacks, who could least afford it, were taken for a very expensive ride by the people who were behind these Ponzi schemes. Like so many big businesses all the Tiso Blackstar Group is interested in is making money with the Sunday Times regardless of the ethics of what it does to achieve this.

ROWENA JAMES - THE FEISTY PONZI SCHEME SURVIVOR

Dear Readers,

          This is Rowena’s story of how she threatened to further expose Ponzi scheme crooks on Facebook unless they paid her up to date. And they did when nobody else was getting their money.

“It was way over my head and I was fighting this battle solo on the advice of a complete stranger. To be honest I was getting excited at the idea that an ex-housewife was caught up in this surreal life of crooks, scoundrels and just plain shady characters,” she told me.  

She had invested in two Coin-It trucks hoping to solve her financial woes after she heard the company was promising investors an up to a 200% return on their money in just three years.
PONZI SCHEMES SCANDAL - SUNDAY TIMES ADVERTISES THEM & GIVES THEM EDITORIAL PROTECTION FOR DOING THIS

          At the age of 51 Rowena had just got a R640 000 divorce settlement, which she invested with Sanlam in 2015. That was more than enough, you would think, for her to start a new chapter in her troubled life.

          It began badly. Our crime riddled society caught up with her. She had loaded some furniture she had bought into her new little car only to be robbed by five men. They took all the furniture; crashed her Getz into the driveway gate and went off with her phone and handbag as well. The only good thing was that although she was badly traumatised she was completely uninjured. 

          Durban based Rowena had to withdraw R30 000 of her money to repair the damage to her car and to cover some other expenses.

          She had no house of her own as it had been sold when her marriage broke up with the proceeds being divided between her and her ex.

          “I had been a housewife for most of our married life so I don’t have a very good CV,” she continued. “Plus I’m not at the best age to be job hunting.”

          While she was still married she had a nervous breakdown. This she believes was because she was so “wrapped up in my own suffering” that she didn’t pay enough attention to her two sons now aged 34 and 30.

          The eldest is married and works as salesman.

          After her divorce she has had to support her other son. He has some disabilities but is studying bookkeeping and works part time driving for an organisation that sells flowers and teddy bears at night clubs for charity.

          Rowena has also taken his girlfriend and their two year old child under her wing.

          “She lost her job when the tea room she worked for changed hands around the time my grandchild was born. They are both wonderful parents and are actively seeking employment so as to provide for their son.”

          She spent some of her money on courses that she hoped would improve her employment prospects, but none of them worked out successfully.

          Disheartened she found she could not make ends meet on the R4 000 a month she was getting from her Sanlam investment.

          That’s when her brother told her about somebody, who bought trucks and
then leased them back to the company. So she withdrew her money from Sanlam and paid Coin-It a R210 000 deposit on her first truck. This was one of the companies run by members of the De Beer family

          “For the first 16 months I was going to be paid R21 687.50 and then I would have effectively paid off the truck. Thereafter I would be paid R37 500 per month for use of the vehicle to the end of the 36 month agreement.”

          This was towards the end of 2017. The value of the 2006 Man truck and tipper trailer was given in the agreement she signed as R440 000.  

          “After the first month’s payment came through I decided to get another truck for a total price of R140 000. For the first 16 months I was to get R15 468.75 a month and thereafter R30 250.”

          The truck this time was a 1999 Peterbilt 362, also with a tipper trailer.

          “For the first 16 months everything went smoothly. I got my payments on time. On the 17^th of January 2019 when I was supposed to have paid off my first truck I got the usual R21 687.50 instead of R37 500.”

At this stage she was still well and truly hooked. “I had wanted to start saving the extra amount to buy another truck since each contract only ran for three years. So I phoned the guy who had signed me up. He told me he had had the same trouble with his, and when he inquired about it Coin-It had informed him that they had made a mistake on the contracts and the repayment period was supposed to have been 18 months.

“It was the first inkling I had that something was wrong. By this time my best friend had decided to get a truck too, because mine had been doing so well.”

CoinIT's Dundee premises that is believed to have contained
        some trucks but I was not able to establish whether they were
           just for show or the ones the investors were supposed to have got 

Her friend received her payments regularly for five months and after that they were both having payment problems. They were given all kinds of dubious reasons for this. So Rowena found some Facebook Coin-It groups.

“One had in excess of 4200 members and the other nearly 2000. The larger one had quite an aggressive admin so I didn’t post anything there. I got lots of information from that group though.”

She did however post a comment on the smaller group asking if anyone was still awaiting payment. What followed was a revelation that is so typical of the tremendous damage that Ponzi schemes like this can do to so many lives.

“Pretty soon I had a long list of comments; people were worried about being evicted, some had loan repayments that were due, school fees etc,” she continued.

“Once in a while a person would post that they had received a payment, and the rest of us would feel a little more hopeful. Coin-It told us to request a letter via email explaining to our debtor’s that our payments would be late. I did apply for one, and to date I have not received it.

“So I posted to the group that my landlord laughed at my letter that Coin-It never sent. The next day I received a payment. I also received a stern warning from the group admin not to be so negative on my posts. My friend, who does not go on social media, had still not received any payments.

“About this time I was contacted by a person, who wishes to remain anonymous. He told me that these scams were all run by the De Beers and that I was caught up in a Ponzi scheme. He advised me to make as much noise on the Facebook groups as possible and demand my payments. By now my rational side was kicking in. I realised there were no trucks.

“Then I got advice from yet another total stranger. He told me the De Beers are bullies and if they threatened me with legal action I should let him know. He was watching my posts and their reaction.

The De Beer family is a lot happier than most of their investors.
          Here they have just received the 2018 Mayor of Umzinyathee's
       (Dundee) special award for contributions to sport in the area. At the
 time they were said be from Cosmic Transport

After posting more questions on the groups they started checking so she realised she would have to start her own group.

“Within two days my page which was entitled: ‘Is Coin-It under investigation?’ received more than 200 views. My group grew to over 100 members in two days. It was posting links to other De Beer scams like Commex and Maningi (something to do with upmarket clothing).

“I received a lawyer’s letter telling me to remove my defamatory posts or they would institute legal action. I contacted my online buddy and asked for his help in penning a response. He obliged and I typed it up, not understanding one word of it, and sent it back. I was told in reply that if I improved my posts and took down my page I would receive my payment. I retorted that I would remove my posts and page in return for full, up to date payment.

“Within an hour, R106 000 was deposited into my account. Two days later investigators from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) and the Hawks swooped and seized computers from the De Beer’s premises.

“The September payment that I was promised is overdue and I did not receive any papers for my trucks and trailers.”

This hush money she was paid did not work as far as these shysters were concerned. Her statement is with the Serious Commercial Crimes Unit and she has given the FSCA copies of her contracts.

Rowena ended her email to me with this: “During all this I have been working alongside people I may never meet, heard heart wrenching stories about the very poor, who took their retrenchment packages and invested just before this scheme crashed. Their hopes and dreams dashed in a moment. These De Beers from Dundee seriously need to be stopped. There are still thousands of investors that believe the lies that they are being fed.

“Please help spread the truth.”

Rowena was extremely lucky. It was a close call that she did not lose a lot more than she did. This was probably because she was one of the earliest investors and more importantly because she fought so courageously to get what was due to her. She made just R62 929. He deposits, plus installments came to R900 687 and she was paid R837 758.

No doubt she’s back to struggling to make ends meet while the De Beers are rolling in money.

Rowena deserves the highest praise for sticking her neck out to help take these heartless charlatans down. When she initially emailed me she did not want her name mentioned. But she agreed to let me use it after I explained that I don’t quote nameless people, except in very exceptional circumstance, because they don’t have much validity. Anybody can thumb suck a great story about an anonymous person.

Regards,

Jon

P.S. Rowena’s story is what the Sunday Times should have printed instead of helping these Ponzi schemers to spread a lot more misery. It’s hard to think of worse double standards than an investigative newspaper that exposes other people’s short comings every week, while promoting Ponzi schemes in its advertisements.