From the comments and e-mails it sounds like most of us are in favor of waiting. I have heard word of double compounded interest in Sept. Is that what everyone sees on their account or just those not compounding? Is this just another carrot dangling out there that we may never get or is he trying to make it up to those expecting wire transfers? I hope it's the latter. The carrot is what Charles Ponzi did. That seems to be the big question on everyone's mind. Ponzi? The good news is that something happened that would have needed Jeff's approval. Does this mean he is trying to work on FCSL again?
We have sent our first attempt at contacting Jeff as a blog and will keep you posted. Communication is the first rule of customer service and what everyone is waiting for at this point. All we want is for him to keep us updated. Jeff, you need to stop leaving us all in the dark. We are all out here with nothing to go on but speculation as a group. What else can we do but discuss at what point enough is enough?
We will stay as patient and optimistic as we can, but that will run out at some point.
First Capital Savings and Loan Client
Dear, Jeff Lowrance. You are a liar.
15 years ago
30 comments:
We need as much information as possible at this point about Jeff. I want to start doing some minor investigation... not with authorities but with some independent firms in Panama City and perhaps Auckland.
1. Does anyone know the address of the building he works from in Panama?
2. Does anyone know the company name he has registered in Panama City?
3. Does anyone know the name of his "council"?
Please respond ASAP with any information you have that can help track things down.
Has anyone tried to sign up to be a distributor of USA Tomorrow? There is an 800 number and they do answer but it is a service. And they say they will take your information and someone will call you. I didn't go that far but we might get more info if someone does...
To clients of First Capital,
I am also ready to wait one more month for some communication from Jeff Lowrance.
The silence from him is hard to understand. I did not receive a doubly compounded bonus
for September as had been rumored but my usual monthly bonus has been recorded.
I appreciate the blog and the communication between clients. Those who know Jeff better
than me are confident that he will follow through on his commitments. I am ready to wait
another month. Perhaps we should encourage Jeff to give us a "minor report" rather than
wait for another lengthy "major report."
The following scenarios are speculative, but without Jeff’s communication, it is all that we are able to do. After all, that is what people do when left in the dark with no communication.
1. Jeff has the money, but some of it may be tied up in active trades. This may possibly take some time to execute trades to get all funds liquid and returned to him from the brokerage he is using.
2. Jeff has some of the money, but not enough to pay back at this time. In this case, I believe he has the capacity to earn and regain monies owed to us through more active trading (their trading still remains to be extremely strong). It could make sense to Jeff to cease disbursements and use profits in trading in order to compound more quickly. If he is indeed “wrapping it up” then this would be the fastest way to bring it to an end.
3. Jeff has little or no money to pay us back and is simply stalling or he has no intentions of paying us back. (I personally think this is not the case).
Now consider the following points.
4 Jeff has a long track record (3.5 years or more) of paying with little or no delays.
5 Jeff has his reputation at stake, which is a huge asset to him.
6 Jeff’s current endeavors require him to maintain his integrity.
Ben stated that the closing process would require a couple of months to execute. That was on August 22nd, so two months puts us in the middle of October.
As far as the previous post, I am not for getting regulators involved yet. I imagine they wouldn’t be able to do much anyway and my experience tells me that they are really good at screwing things up. Getting information from regulators is just as bad or worse than what we are getting from Jeff. I was drawn to this investment because it was offshore and out of reach of regulators.
I think patience is our best play right now. It is too bad, that our communication has been so poor from Jeff. A little communication on a regular basis can go a long way with investors.
Most of you think Jeff is concerned about his reputation. I don't believe that. He admitted to embezzling money from our interest payment funds. He is not an honest man. USA Tomorrow is his current focus, but it is poorly written and extremist. That kind of publication does not survive in the mainstream and therefore will have a hard time being profitable or effective. I do still hope to see my money back, but short of hiring muscle in Panama and playing the game at his low standards, I don't see we have many options here other than wait for him to come to his senses. It is sad that he does not recognize he had a good thing going here and he screwed it up BIG time.
I did a Google search for USA Tomorrow and found that Jeff had been doing the online talk show circuit last month promoting his paper. On one of the talk shows Jeff stated he wants his paper published every 6 wks which means he isn’t spending any time on FCSL. Secondly, on the same show at the end he gave a plug for his New Zealand investment (aka FCSL) “Where you can get a great return” as Jeff stated last month.
Here is the number to become a distributor of USA Tomorrow, 1-800-635-5823, I know we all don’t care about the paper but Jeff made sound as if he is personally calling some of the people requesting to become USA Tomorrow distributors.
We are in agreement with some of the ideas posted, and also do not understand why Jeff would let a good thing go. As far as USA Tomorrow and Jeff, they are mentioned on one of the links we received and apparently there is a group of people who seem to respect his perspective.
Has anybody done any other kind of business with First Capital in Aukland other than the Forex?
Office in Panama
Obarrio
Sunrise Towers Building
Floor 21-B
Panama City, Panama
I believe the company name is First Capital Savings and Loan Limited but is registered out of Auckland.
This website, www.companies.govt.nz and search for company. Registration #1907295 might also help.
Does anyone else get the feeling that the current trading is not to pay back FCSL clients but to load up for another run at USA Tomorrow?
I was not previuosly compunding but I am now by default. I did not get a double compound in sept.
I have the Building Name and address.. but prefer to wait a little before I give it out.
Does Jeff really even own a bank? I realize he has a website that says it is First Capital Savings and Loan but that doesn't mean anything. In looking closer at the New Zealand setup where he is bound by all those "laws"... I can find no evidence that he is registered as anything in that country. The address I believe is totally bogus. I looked it up on Google Earth and there is no reference to his company at all at that location. We have to stop patsying around here and go after him with demands and ultimatums. There can be no good explanation for his lack of communication... especially with the amount of contancts he has to be receiving with Ben's departure.
His threat to take "drastic measures against anyone who so much as sneezes at USA Tomorrow, me or my family" is a joke. What's he going to do... not give us our money? He isn't doing that anyway. If there is one thing the guy places value in its that paper. Couldn't we do something as a group to threaten that if he doesn't start talking?
I don't know Jeff and have never met him. We received our regular compounded return for September and not double since we normally compound. We don't take money out very often because we thought it became a "secure" investment with the change to FCSL from the high risk investment we initially started. I don't live on this money but it will hurt if I don't at least get my initial investment back. Is there a way to appeal to Jeff from that angle? I vote to give him more time since no one wants to be targeted as the instigator and not get any money back.
I want to add onto my email to you last night. I called the 800 number this morning and inquired about the business opportunity with usa tomorrow to discover I was being asked if I was inquiring about the usa tomorrow business opportunity or the FCSL investment add? What is Jeff up toooo?
We need to do something now! Many of us are in serious financial problems because of Jeff's lack of communication and professionalism. It was May 2008 when I got my last payment and I can’t wait anymore.
If Jeff doesn’t care for FCSL’s investors, why should we be considered with him and his news paper? Lets go after his news paper!! We are not getting our money back!
Here are some links to youtube videos featuring Jeff using our money...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akd8638cejw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5rmB4wwRJ4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akd8638cejw
Although you would be pretty hard pressed to find someone blinded enough by fear/despair to jump the gun at this time, it does make sense to put two timelines together.
1. For Communication:
A) Assurance that the money is there.
b) The trading is real.
2. Payout Schedule
a. People that have received no monies from FCSL heretofore should be first in line, not as quoted by Jeff “Newer Clients relying on monthly dividend will be paid first”. This rather arrogant ethical assertion assumes older clients with funds compounding don’t need the money as much in their current context. The payout needs to be objective. With that in view, until everyone receives their original principle back, it is logical to presume that the sum of monthly dividends received thus far by any individual/group should be necessarily counted against that individual/groups principle. Again only until all principles are paid in full to all clients. Then interest payments in equal percentages should be paid out immediately following perhaps monthly etc…
b. Also at some point the “interest meter” should stop. Perhaps this would be either when Jeff breaks his silence or starts paying. In any event I believe the payments when they become available should be disbursed in an equal percentage to those eligible first. Perhaps the timelines should reflect Jeff’s message to Ben that occurred on the 22nd.
c. I believe the absolute most important thing to determine before anything is; we must verify if the current trades are authentic. A learned trader friend of mine has been watching their trade results every morning for the past few months. They bear out only a few suspicious anomalies (i.e. .trades is off by a minute); a couple trades were simply unachievable. There is a chance these are transmission errors, but to be sure we need cooperation from Mack, Jay or Ben to find out either a) the trading desk phone number b) the name of brokerage house Jeff trades through c) or more trader knowledgeable former clients cross examining daily trades.
All strategies are relevant only if trades are authentic.
The harsh reality to this whole circumstance is that Jeff Lowrance has come across through his email updates, and by not communicating to us at all, like a person who is out of touch with reality. He conducts himself like a person who has impunity. I think that his accusations that someone has threatened the well being of him and his family and threatened to disrupt the Ron Paul Convention were not based in reality, were contrived and his intentions are to create a diversion and to portray himself as someone who needs to defend himself and is prepared to do so. His updates have always given me the impression that he is an eccentric man. However, his latest round of updates starting with the lengthy July 15th update takes things to a new level and portray him as a person who may be delusional. If anyone can honestly give me any evidence that Jeff's emails do not depict him as a self absorbed, hyper spiritual, crusader out to change America by what he
calls truth, I'm all ears. This is all hard to come to grips with because no one wants to believe that he is capable being a crook or a con man because he seemingly has so much at stake. Every one of my instincts are telling me that no ones money is going to be returned by October 22nd. Until that time, I think that we should prepare ourselves by starting to draft our own testimonials of what Jeff Lowrance has done and then send them individually to USA Today, 60 Minutes and any other news reporting agency that any of you can suggest, revealing exactly what Jeff Lowrance has defined himself of being, a crook. All those letters should be sent on October 23rd. A legal battle with Jeff who has distanced himself in another country will only lead to him defending himself with our money. Ben Greenwood said in his Resignation Letter that the last straw for him was that Jeff had no intention of sending out his "major decision" update and that and he had
caught him in a lie. Waiting for a liar to finally reveal a truth is hopeless.
In googling extensively, I came across http://swissprovidence.com/. This is obviously the same organization as FCSL, however it doesn't recognize my account login. Has anyone heard of this mirrored site? Do any former FCSL employees know anything about it? Any additional info would be . . . interesting.
-John
This is what I heard. Swiss providence is a bank entity purchased by Jeff or FCSL as a way to seperate premier clients from new clients. The new clients aren't getting the same interest rates and they were goiong to market their services under the name Swiss Providence. Apparently they weren't able to get everything finalized with Swiss Providence in time.
In light of the Swiss Providence site, who knows and can explain transition from Mentor investing to FirstCapital. Is this somehow another card for Jeff to play?
Everyone needs to take a breath and make smart decision here. There is no doubt that action is required but we need to be careful and coordinated. I agree that we start by threatening his paper. I say we all send him emails with a deadline for communicating with us of this Sunday and if he doesn't, the first step is that we all start sending emails to everyone associated with USA Tomorrow such as the advertisers, writers, etc. to let them know the truth of where the funding came from for this paper and what is happening now. If that doesn't prompt a quick response on his part then the money is gone in my opinion.
I agree with taking a breath and making sure we are coordinated, but I don't agree with threatening his paper first line. I think getting an attorney to write a letter on all of our behalf with all of our names on it should be first line. ceo@firstcapitalsl.com has a full mail box. He isn't even reading his e-mail at that account. A time line of a week will not be sufficient. But whatevere happens we need to make sure it gets sent to accounting@firstcapitalsl.com. I believe he still keeps in contact with them. They might have to relay the message. I can imagine that his hotmail account is pretty full too.
I will have to agree with whoever said we need to let people know what he is up to. The writers, advertisers, maybe even Ron Paul. I am sure he would like to know what Jeff is up to. We should give him a deadline. If he doesn't read his email, that isn't our fault. If we send it to accounting and his other email addresses, then we have done our due diligence.
If Jeff would just communicate his plan to us, I know that everyone would be a lot more forgiving and understanding, as long as we knew what was going on. We MUST assume the worst if there is no communication from Jeff.
We need to do this in a timely manner. There are lots of people really struggling financially. I know one person who is going to loose his house if something doesn't happen very very soon.
Hopefully you all read Jeff's recent email that just came out. (Friday at 10:50am PST). From the discussions I have been involved in, Jeff has made himself extremely sick from overwork, stress and severe depression. He created his own mess!
That being said, there are people who are in contact with Jeff that have all of our best interests in mind and are working directly with him. Luckily for that or there may not have been this communication to us today from Jeff.
I suggest nobody go the legal route as it will most assuredly lead to our funds being tied up for years to come in court. The assets would be confiscated and held and there would be other legal concerns for each individual involved in this.
I for one want my money back but even if I only get a portion back it would be worth waiting until February 2009 or even longer.
For some of you this is a major problem since you relied on this income, but is it not better to wait for something than to get NOTHING?
I do have a fear though: since there is about 550 investors involved in this fiasco it is hard to know if one of us will not spoil it for the whole group. It would only take one to get the authorities involved and then we can just all kiss-off seeing any funds returned by 2009 as a reality.
We are not really organized or familiar with one another, just our own little group of friends that we may have shared this program with. I wish there was a way to get organized but as you can see, everyone wants to stay anonymous.
The best thing I can suggest is that each of us just hold on till January and pray for the best. There are clients like you and me that have some pull with Jeff that will keep him to task. Regardless of Jeff's arrogance and stupid decisions I still feel that down inside he plans on doing the right thing and returning our funds.
If he does not do this he can kiss his Newspaper project and anything else he wants to do for the rest of his life goodbye. His credibility will be totally shot. I think he knows this or has at least realized this. He actually has visions of helping Americans with his paper! So even though I disagree with the way he is going about it, at least he has some worthiness in him.
Communication! Jan 5th? Why? Its something, but how do I know this isn't just another false string along deadline? He has lost money?! My money? No kidding. I think I need just a few more details. Dude got into a business for ideological reasons and not because it made business sense. That is what it sounds like to me.
Jeff has to be moving around the USA working on his news paper,he has to be at printing locations, and distribution locations in Texas at certain times. Any investors in Texas willing to look for him? Any information about these locations could be put on the blog.
What are you going to do if you find him, juice the money out of him?
I agree that patience is needed, but we should demand at least one payment as a show of good faith. Surely he is liquid enough to cough up one payment? I say that or we step up the pressure somehow. (not physically accosting him, for heaven's sake) If we get that , we wait. What do others think of this idea?
As it is, Jan 5th sounds just like all the other dates I have been told we were getting paid
We received the first official copy of the newspaper last week in the mail in a brown envelope with a return address of "Foot Soldier" somewhere in Texas. So much for Jeff's promise to let the paper ride and work solely on getting money back to his investors!! Why are we not surprised? The only way anyone should trust Jeff with their money in the future is if we hire a gatekeeper to oversee the funds and not let him get his hands on funds that truly belong to his investors since he apparently is unable to control his spending! Curious to know if anyone else received the paper. Would someone inform the rest of us, via the blog, what is agreed upon in the conference call?
And what do some of you mean,"give Jeff more space to figure it out"? He's had plenty of advance notice that it was due to us!
Jan & Ron Brown
mollyb@goldenwest.net
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