Girl With a Purpose (GWAP)

Big Up...to All Girl With a Purpose Friends!

Well friends, we at Girl With a Purpose (GWAP) Blog, are doing the "Cheers to You, Our Highly-Valued Friends", dance, tonight !!!

Why?

Because we are celebrating our 8,452nd visitor to our blog!

Yippee!!

Oh my goodness...we're getting out the bubbly....both the alcoholic and non alcoholic champagne, that is...to toast you!!!

Yes, you!!

Because of you, our friends, we exist!

And you come from many different countries:

Afghanistan, Australia, Azerbaijan, the Bahamas, Canada,  China, The Czech Republic, Egypt, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Pakistan, The Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Turks & Caicos Islands, The UK, The USA.

Double wow!

To all of you who keep returning to our blog, we really want to thank you!...your loyalty to this blog has been and is, deeply appreciated...please keep coming back!

To our newly-discovered friends, thank you for visiting...please sit back, relax and read our content...and don't forget to tell us how you feel about it, by using the Comment link, below our posts, or by e-mailing us.

To all of you, our friends...we promise to continue to bring you content which will:

1) Cause you to make better life decisions

2) Empower you, so that you will empower others

3) Keep you informed and entertained!

4) Enable you to so live your life with purpose, that your contribution to your family, community and your country, will be monumental!

Again, we thank you and say Big Up! (Jamaican, meaning, we greatly appreciate and respect you!)

Gillian

Jamaican PM..The New Energy-Saving Santa?

Solar Panel to scale.
Originally uploaded by TaranRampersad

Seems like Jamaica has its newest Santa!

Jamaican Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, gave his inaugural speech in Parliament, yesterday...

And he did not disappoint!

Not only was he clear re the government's intention to license casino gambling, he was clear that there would be concerted efforts by the government of Jamaica to ensure a 15% reduction in energy consumption for this fiscal year.

( Jamaica's oil bill is USD $2.5 billion/year and is projected to reach US $3 billion by year end.)

As such, he made public, the following bag of goodies (in true Santa form) for businesses and individuals,  who will contribute to this reduction in energy usage:

If you intend to import appliances into Jamaica...go for those with the Energy Save/Energy Star mark...this is guaranteed to bring you a 20% reduction in custom fees.

There will also be incentives for home-owners whose homes are energy-efficient and utilize solar energy.

The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) is to provide loans to small businesses who enact renewable energy projects. This will be done through small business credit institutions and micro-finance institutions. The loans will be available for a period of six (6) years, at an annual interest rate of 10%.

Prime Minster Golding also stated that overarching goal of the government is to reduce Jamaica's dependence on oil, in the long term.

Thus the government welcomes projects that utilize solar, hydro, wind and biofuels…and that will reduce Jamaica's energy consumption by 15%.

To this end, the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica's Wigton Wind farm will be upgraded to produce 100 Mega Watts (MW) of electricity by 2012. (It currently produces only 5 MW.)

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Well friends, this is certainly great news for businesses and households, alike!

Please remember,however, that for us to really benefit from this, we should ensure that we ready ourselves to take advantage of these bag of goodies...by making the necessary preparations from now!

The addendum to the existing Energy Policy, to reflect these initiatives, will be added in May.

[The inset picture above shows the size of a typical solar panel in relation to that of a Trinidad and Tobago (TT) dollar bill.]

Gillian

Source:

Jamaican Prime Minister, Bruce Golding's, Inaugural Parliamentary Speech, via Television Jamaica, April 22, 2008

Cash Plus Boss Denied Bail!

200601 court room
Originally uploaded by superciliousness

Yesterday, Cash Plus' Chairman, Carlos Hill and his brother, Bertram Hill, were denied bail...when they appeared in the Half-Way-Tree Resident Magistrate Court.

Cash Plus Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Peter Wilson was however released on JMD $5 million bail.

(All three were charged on Tuesday for conspiracy to defraud and fraudulent conversion of funds.)

As I watched the news last night, what I found to be interesting is the contrasting stories from both news stations,re the Cash Plus clients who were demonstrating outside the Court House.

Television Jamaica (TVJ) focused on the plight of Cash Plus Clients, especially the Jamaican  lady who had come down from New York to see the proceedings...she had mortgaged her house and invested the USD $300,000 she received into Cash Plus...she's owing on the house, can't pay her bills, so is anxious to know when she'll get back her money.

While CVM Television focused on Cash Plus clients' support for Mr. Hill. They reported that these clients are hopeful that Mr. Hill will be released soon so that they can get their monies back. That these clients feel that while he's behind bars, he cannot enact plans to begin payment of their monies.

Meanwhile, the police claim they are remanding Carlos Hill for his own security...they don't feel he's safe being released.

They also claim that his release at this time will interfere with ongoing investigations of fraud and into his assets.

Well of course Mr. Hill's lawyers (Valerie Neita-Robertson and Churchill Neita) were in total disagreement with this and claimed that if the police had hard evidence against their client, they should have argued this in court versus holding that press conference on Monday, April 15, 2008.

A press conference that they claim will obviously create bias when a hearing is actually held.

Well all Jamaica is anxiously awaiting the results of the Organized Crime investigation Division of the Jamaican Constabulary Force in to the assets of Mr. Hill...

USD $7 billion, dollars is nothing to sneeze at...and over 40,000 Cash Plus clients will continue to face sever economic hardship, if the US $450 million (JMD$ 32 billion) owed, is not recovered.

Hmmmh!

Friends, please allow me to make two statements here, in relation to the choices you make in investing your monies.

1) Please invest your money carefully...try to throughly investigate companies, before you invest with them. This includes banks.

You work too hard and smart for your money, to throw it away.

2) Please ensure that when you are accepting financial advice, that it is from people who are qualified to give it.

Think,long term, before you act!

Nuff said! (Jamaican meaning, enough has been said!)

Gillian

Sources Include:

1) Television Jamaica News at 7:00 p.m., April 17, 2008

2) CVM Television News at 8:00 p.m., April 17, 2008

News Byte: Carlos Hill to Be Charged for Fraud!

At a press briefing held at 10:00 a.m. this morning, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Les Green, head of the Organized Crime Investigation Division, (the division of the Jamaican Constabulary Force that is leading investigations into the operations of Cash Plus Ltd.), reported that the raid on Carlos Hill's premises, last Thursday, has yielded numerous information.

(Carlos Hill was Chairman of Cash Plus Ltd., an Alternative Investment Scheme in Jamaica, which after three months, could not meet its debt obligations to its clients/lenders.)

He reported that Cash Plus was in fact a Ponzi Scheme...that they in fact had 106 affiliates, worldwide, in addition to 80 companies directly linked to Cash Plus, and that Carlos Hill has numerous assets outside of Jamaica:

Including Turks & Caicos Islands, China, Dominican Republic, Ghana, British Virgin Islands, Spain, Kuwait and the Netherlands.

ACP Green says that mutual assistance is being sought from these countries.

Examples of the amount of monies found in Cash Plus accounts, are as follows:

• US $1 billion in one account alone
• US $2.5 billion in five (5) accounts
• US $450 million
• US $100 million

Preliminarily, it may seem that Carlos Hill may have sufficient funds outside of Jamaica, to return monies owed to Cash Plus clients.

ACP Green said that Carlos Hill is to be charged on conspiracy to defraud and fraudulent conversion of funds.

We are not sure if these are the full charges to be laid on Mr. Hill and what charges, if any, will be laid against his brother, Bertram Hill and Cash Plus CFO, Peter Wilson.

The men are to appear in court on Thursday.

The men are to be represented by lawyers: Hugh Thompson, Mr. Hill's defense lawyer from the US; Churchill Neita and Mrs. Valerie Neita-Robertson.

To find all our previous posts related to Cash Plus, please type in "cash plus" in the Google Search box, found to the top, left-hand side of our posts, select, "www.girlwithapurpose" , then press the "Search" button.

Gillian

Sources Include:

Nationwide Radio April 15, 2008

Cash Plus Declared Insolvent...Chairman Arrested, Assets Siezed!

Ok friends, Girl With a Purpose Blog has sad news to report this afternoon.

Cash Plus' Receiver, Kevin Bandoian,from PriceWaterhouseCoopers USA, has completed his assessment of the actual assets belonging to the company and has declared Cash Plus insolvent .

In a preview of his final report, yesterday, Mr. Bandoian stated that neither Cash Plus, nor its eighty (80) affiliates, have enough money to pay its clients (lenders), on April 14, 2008, as promised.

In a related incident, the  Jamaican police from the Organized Crime and Investigations Division (OCID) surrounded the Norbrook home of Cash Plus Chairman, Carlos Hill, in a surprise pre-dawn raid, this morning.

(Norbrook is an upper-middle class neighbourhood in St. Andrew, Jamaica)

They seized five( 5) luxury vehicles worth over JMD $30 million and have arrested Mr. Hill.

They have also conducted raids on the houses of some other Cash Plus' senior managers and have vowed to continue raids on other Cash Plus residences.

Several Cash Plus senior managers have also been arrested.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Les Green, has asked Cash Plus lenders with dishonored cheques, to file formal reports of fraud on Cash Plus, on the designated form on Ministry of National Security website at www.mns.org.jm.

(This can be found under the link entitled "Witness Statement Re Cashplus", to the top right-hand-side of the page. )

Will keep you updated of events as they unfold in the Cash Plus saga, as soon as they become available.

Please read our previous post for background information...

To get  a chronology of events re Cash Plus, please use the Google Search bar, under the section entitled,
"Search This Site or the Web Here!" to the top left-hand-side of our posts and type in "Cash Plus":

This will give you resultant posts that outline this.

Gillian

Sources Include:

a) Television Jamaica News at 7:00 p.m. , April 9, 2008

b) Nationwide Radio, April 10, 2008

c) Article, "Cash Plus broke- Receiver says investment club has no money to pay out", by Arthur Hall Senior Staff Reporter, Jamaica Gleaner, April 10, 2008

Good News for Cash Plus Clients!

Yes friends, Cash Plus Ltd.'s clients (creditors) might just be able to rejoice today!

The Financial Services Commission(FSC), has varied the cease-and-desist order it placed on Cash Plus in December 2007, thus allowing Cash Plus to pay the outstanding monies it owes its clients.

[Cash Plus  Ltd. (CPL)  is one of the Jamaican Alternative Investment Schemes that has been hammered by the FSC, for its failure to register as a securities dealer and file audited financial statements that would prove assets to keep the company afloat.

In November 2007, as a result of Cash Plus' inability to provide its, banker, National Commercial Bank(NCB), with audited financial statements, outlining the source of its funds, the bank closed seventeen (17) of Cash Plus' twenty-six (26) accounts.

NCB completed this process in February 2008, thus preventing Cash Plus from disbursing monies to its clients.

The bank claimed it did this to prevent the bank being implicated in money laundering and terrorist financing.

Following the  decision by NCB to close some of Cash Plus' accounts in November, the FSC placed the cease-and-desist order on Cash Plus.

NB: Cash Plus claims that its clients are really creditors, as they have loan the company money to invest on their behalf.]

Cash Plus then asked it clients for three months (up until March 31,2008) to be able to come up with monies to pay them back.

Cash Plus however failed to meet its March 31,2008 deadline  and was put in receivership last Monday by the Jamaican Supreme Court, at the request of lawyers representing the company.

The court then appointed a Receiver (Mr. Kevin Bandoian) from PriceWaterhouseCoopers USA, to assess the actual assets that the company has and to begin disbursement of funds to its clients.

Apparently Cash Plus, in the documents it presented to the FSC, last Friday, has been able to prove that it has monies to the tune of US $460 million (JMD $32 billion) to pay its clients, from its affiliate in the Turks and Caicos islands. Thus allowing the FSC to waive the cease-and-desist order.

Although Cash Plus Ltd. in a press release in the Sunday Gleaner on Sunday April 6, 2008, claims that it will actually start disbursing the monies on April 14, 2008, Cash Plus clients are yet to get verification from the FSC, re the actual disbursement date.

In the April 6, 2008 press release, Cash Plus vowed to continue operating as soon as it  applies to the FSC to become a licensed securities dealer in Jamaica.

I would like to thank deshoda for providing us with the inset video seen above. Deshoda's YouTube.com profile can be seen, here.

Gillian

Sources Include:

1) The Business Day, via Television Jamaica (TVJ) News at 7:00 p.m., April 7, 2008

2) CVM News Watch, at 8:000 April 7, 2008

3) Article, "Cash Plus in turmoil - Investment Club in receivership- Investment club in receivership", by Barbara Gayle and Gareth Manning, Jamaica Gleaner, April 1, 2008