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davelj
ParticipantSteve, Bugs and others… I’ve got a question about these appraisals.
Although we all *know* that the appraisals in these instances are fraudulent, can the appraiser just feign stupidity and say, “You know, here are the comps I used and I guess they were wrong. Damn, I sure am a dumb appraiser. Maybe the worst appraiser ever. But I certainly didn’t do anything with criminal intent.”
Is out-and-out stupidity a defense in these cases? Will the prosecutor have to find a trail of monies paid to the appraiser outside of the appraisal process?
Participantjg…While I thank you for your stint in the Navy aiding the protection of our country, your service didn’t help the truly unfortunate of this world much. You’ll have to pardon me if I don’t consider service in the armed forces “God’s work” on the level of Mother Theresa (again, personally, I appreciate your efforts)… and you conveniently didn’t bother to address the issues that I brought up in the first paragraph of my previous post, which speaks volumes.
As to my “public service” or “charity” or whathaveyou, well, ask and you shall receive. (Well, sometimes, anyway.) A quick perusal of my 2006 1040 Schedule A Statement 5 reveals $16,200 in Contributions by Cash or Check spread among the following:
International Community Foundation
Kingsley House
Make-a-Wish Foundation
Special Olympics
The Tibet Fund
World Vision
The College of William and Mary
The Lance Armstrong Foundation (yeah, despite the annoying yellow wristbands)
The Katrina FundYou asked.
Now, does giving to charity make me a “good” person? No. I do it for me. I enjoy helping people who I think deserve it. (To put it into perspective, however, I get an equal amount of pleasure helping to trample people who I think deserve it.) Am I going to heaven? Nope. In all likelihood I’ll rot in the ground just like everyone else. Unlike most religious types, I don’t help others in order to increase my likelihood of going on to my “Great Reward” in the sky. I’m not trying to appease some God by doing “good.” I just enjoy it; thus, it’s a symptom of my own self-interest.
I can only imagine what the typical Christian (or other religous type) is thinking as s/he strokes out a check to some charity: “Look, God, Look!! I’m a good person!! Really, I am!! I hope you remember this when I meet up with St. Peter at the Pearly Gates!! Will I get extra credit for this?!?”
Participantjg…While I thank you for your stint in the Navy aiding the protection of our country, your service didn’t help the truly unfortunate of this world much. You’ll have to pardon me if I don’t consider service in the armed forces “God’s work” on the level of Mother Theresa (again, personally, I appreciate your efforts)… and you conveniently didn’t bother to address the issues that I brought up in the first paragraph of my previous post, which speaks volumes.
As to my “public service” or “charity” or whathaveyou, well, ask and you shall receive. (Well, sometimes, anyway.) A quick perusal of my 2006 1040 Schedule A Statement 5 reveals $16,200 in Contributions by Cash or Check spread among the following:
International Community Foundation
Kingsley House
Make-a-Wish Foundation
Special Olympics
The Tibet Fund
World Vision
The College of William and Mary
The Lance Armstrong Foundation (yeah, despite the annoying yellow wristbands)
The Katrina FundYou asked.
Now, does giving to charity make me a “good” person? No. I do it for me. I enjoy helping people who I think deserve it. (To put it into perspective, however, I get an equal amount of pleasure helping to trample people who I think deserve it.) Am I going to heaven? Nope. In all likelihood I’ll rot in the ground just like everyone else. Unlike most religious types, I don’t help others in order to increase my likelihood of going on to my “Great Reward” in the sky. I’m not trying to appease some God by doing “good.” I just enjoy it; thus, it’s a symptom of my own self-interest.
I can only imagine what the typical Christian (or other religous type) is thinking as s/he strokes out a check to some charity: “Look, God, Look!! I’m a good person!! Really, I am!! I hope you remember this when I meet up with St. Peter at the Pearly Gates!! Will I get extra credit for this?!?”
ParticipantSo, jg, “Some hardships have a blessing wrapped up in them.” Perhaps. Is that how you view the fact that tens of millions of people – a majority of whom are truly “innocent” children – starve each year on our planet? Does that “warm your heart” as well? Do such hardships “lead to good changes in [their] lives” [or I guess “deaths” is more appropriate]? I’m sure these people find a great deal of meaning in their hardships… yes, I’m sure you’re right. I’m sure the millions living (and dying) under the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe are ecstatic about their fate – perhaps a “sign from the Good Lord”?
If you’re really a “true believer” then why don’t you go to a third world country and actually help someone instead of spending your time on this message board? Isn’t saving someone’s soul and/or life more important than earthly pursuits like real estate, etc.?
As my father often said, “The problem with high ideals is that they are seldom easy to live by.”
Now, back to that sand pounding you interrupted…
ParticipantSo, jg, “Some hardships have a blessing wrapped up in them.” Perhaps. Is that how you view the fact that tens of millions of people – a majority of whom are truly “innocent” children – starve each year on our planet? Does that “warm your heart” as well? Do such hardships “lead to good changes in [their] lives” [or I guess “deaths” is more appropriate]? I’m sure these people find a great deal of meaning in their hardships… yes, I’m sure you’re right. I’m sure the millions living (and dying) under the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe are ecstatic about their fate – perhaps a “sign from the Good Lord”?
If you’re really a “true believer” then why don’t you go to a third world country and actually help someone instead of spending your time on this message board? Isn’t saving someone’s soul and/or life more important than earthly pursuits like real estate, etc.?
As my father often said, “The problem with high ideals is that they are seldom easy to live by.”
Now, back to that sand pounding you interrupted…
ParticipantCbC, you said: “Actually several of your co-posters feel we should be jailed, mocked, drawn and quartered, humiliated, spit upon, and have a giant L tattoed on our chests.”
I’ve read all the posts in this thread and haven’t noticed anything of the sort. Perhaps you can point me to a specific post indicating otherwise?
From a big picture perspective, I just don’t think you should be too worried about all of this stuff. God will take care of it, right? I’m sure this is all just part of his Plan. Maybe you’re just getting hung up on the details.
ParticipantCbC, you said: “Actually several of your co-posters feel we should be jailed, mocked, drawn and quartered, humiliated, spit upon, and have a giant L tattoed on our chests.”
I’ve read all the posts in this thread and haven’t noticed anything of the sort. Perhaps you can point me to a specific post indicating otherwise?
From a big picture perspective, I just don’t think you should be too worried about all of this stuff. God will take care of it, right? I’m sure this is all just part of his Plan. Maybe you’re just getting hung up on the details.
ParticipantCbC, To answer your first question, yes, I hire a law firm to do an extensive background check on EVERY key person in every investment I make (if I haven’t worked with them before). But I admit that’s fairly unusual – but I’m a professional investor and invest other people’s money as well as my own so it’s part of my fiduciary duty to do these sorts of things.
It’s funny, you view people who question your “purity” in these transactions as “beating up on you.” I think we merely view it as placing a small bit of the blame where it deserves to be placed: with you. We’re not beating up on you, we’re just calling it like we see it. You say tomato, I say tomahto.
I think EVERY poster reading this agrees that you and all of your co-plaintiffs have been wronged and should be very angry with James, et al. No doubt about it and I don’t think ANYONE here thinks otherwise or “secretly admires the fact that they pulled it off”, to use your words. That you would think this possible shows just how little time you’ve spent on this board. Here’s the problem: YOU’RE here and posting; James, Hendrix, et al are not. If they were I can assure you that we’d be pillorying them with abandon… you’re getting off easy, frankly.
But, not to worry. Even if you end up BK, you’re still quite lucky: over 3 billion people on this planet live on less than $2 per day and tens of millions die of starvation every year. You’ve had the good fortune to reap your God’s favor and live in the United States while others are clearly in His great disfavor. In the whole scheme of things your problems aren’t so great, are they?
ParticipantCbC, To answer your first question, yes, I hire a law firm to do an extensive background check on EVERY key person in every investment I make (if I haven’t worked with them before). But I admit that’s fairly unusual – but I’m a professional investor and invest other people’s money as well as my own so it’s part of my fiduciary duty to do these sorts of things.
It’s funny, you view people who question your “purity” in these transactions as “beating up on you.” I think we merely view it as placing a small bit of the blame where it deserves to be placed: with you. We’re not beating up on you, we’re just calling it like we see it. You say tomato, I say tomahto.
I think EVERY poster reading this agrees that you and all of your co-plaintiffs have been wronged and should be very angry with James, et al. No doubt about it and I don’t think ANYONE here thinks otherwise or “secretly admires the fact that they pulled it off”, to use your words. That you would think this possible shows just how little time you’ve spent on this board. Here’s the problem: YOU’RE here and posting; James, Hendrix, et al are not. If they were I can assure you that we’d be pillorying them with abandon… you’re getting off easy, frankly.
But, not to worry. Even if you end up BK, you’re still quite lucky: over 3 billion people on this planet live on less than $2 per day and tens of millions die of starvation every year. You’ve had the good fortune to reap your God’s favor and live in the United States while others are clearly in His great disfavor. In the whole scheme of things your problems aren’t so great, are they?
ParticipantCbC, I suspect that most people here believe that you were ripped off to large degree, probably with a great deal of help from fraudulent activities. What people have a hard time swallowing, however, is that you have NO blame whatsoever in this situation. I’m with PD here; you probably had some degree of complicity – however small – in what happened here. And the reason is that you were greedy, plain and simple. That’s not to say that you and your co-plaintiffs deserved your fate, but were it not for such greed you wouldn’t be in this mess. Had you read all of the documents involved, done background checks on everyone involved – basically had you done proper due diligence – it’s unlikely you’d be in this mess. I wish you the best of luck – you were conned. But had greed, naivete, and – let’s say it – some degree of ignorance, not reared their ugly heads all at the same time you wouldn’t be posting here.
One question I’ve got, though, is where God was during this whole thing. This whole mess was His will, right? So, as a Christian, you should have nothing to worry about, right? Also, instead of pursuing these con men shouldn’t you just turn the other cheek and forgive them? Pope John Paul forgave that guy that shot him after all. What about that whole “to err is human, to forgive divine” thing? I guess I’m just having a hard time grasping the Christian angle in this situation.
ParticipantCbC, I suspect that most people here believe that you were ripped off to large degree, probably with a great deal of help from fraudulent activities. What people have a hard time swallowing, however, is that you have NO blame whatsoever in this situation. I’m with PD here; you probably had some degree of complicity – however small – in what happened here. And the reason is that you were greedy, plain and simple. That’s not to say that you and your co-plaintiffs deserved your fate, but were it not for such greed you wouldn’t be in this mess. Had you read all of the documents involved, done background checks on everyone involved – basically had you done proper due diligence – it’s unlikely you’d be in this mess. I wish you the best of luck – you were conned. But had greed, naivete, and – let’s say it – some degree of ignorance, not reared their ugly heads all at the same time you wouldn’t be posting here.
One question I’ve got, though, is where God was during this whole thing. This whole mess was His will, right? So, as a Christian, you should have nothing to worry about, right? Also, instead of pursuing these con men shouldn’t you just turn the other cheek and forgive them? Pope John Paul forgave that guy that shot him after all. What about that whole “to err is human, to forgive divine” thing? I guess I’m just having a hard time grasping the Christian angle in this situation.
ParticipantCarlmichael, I’d never begrudge someone the 10%-20% intraday profit they think they deserve. I’d say the odds of your getting an allocation of the IPO, however, are roughly 0% unless you’re a huge client of the underwriters. And buying it in the secondary market… well, hey, best of luck with that.
ParticipantCarlmichael, I’d never begrudge someone the 10%-20% intraday profit they think they deserve. I’d say the odds of your getting an allocation of the IPO, however, are roughly 0% unless you’re a huge client of the underwriters. And buying it in the secondary market… well, hey, best of luck with that.
ParticipantDrChaos, you managed to miss my point entirely. I brought up Berkshire Hathaway merely to point out that the fact Blackstone’s holdings would be mostly private should not be a big issue in its IPO because many other public companies – like Berkshire Hathaway – also held mostly private companies.
I agree that in just about every OTHER way Berkshire is entirely different from Blackstone. Actually I’d probably say “very” different as opposed to “entirely” different, but that’s a matter of semantics.
How you managed to read my post and get the idea that I was making a blanket comparison between Berkshire Hathaway and Blackstone – outside of the issue of the fact that they both invest in private companies – is a mystery to me.
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