OK, so he's no Bernie Madoff. He's not even Vincent Lacroix.
But Earl Jones has allegedly done it too. Financial fraud to the tune of $30 to $50 million.
Lots of people (including his brother) have lost tons of money and have financial ruin to look forward to rather than a comfortable retirement.
The man is despicable, I'm not debating that. Utterly and repulsively despicable.
He was also not even a board certified investment specialist. Is is just me, or do his victims also have some small responsibility in this? Did they not check up on this guy with the Authorité des marchés financiers (the Financial Markets Authority) or whatever board certifies these people? I mean, it's not as if Jones was working for a bank or well known financial institution.
Am I just paranoid? Seems to me if I'm investing my money with someone who is working independently, I'm going to find out as much as possible about him/her before they ever see a cent of my money.
This being said, I hope to hell the guy is charged and does a lenghty prison term. Of course, in Quebec that would be surprising. After all no bodily harm was inflicted. Lacroix is already out on probation, so chances are Jones, if ever he is charged, won't spend much time behind bars.
More's the pity.
Update: Mr. Jones gave himself up to the police today. Seems he will be accused of theft and, possibly, fraud.
14 comments:
Yeah, I've never quite understood how someone can put their finances into someone else's hands, period, let alone without checking up on credentials.
For some reason we (our cultures) think violence or threat of violence is much more detrimental to society than mass fraud.
I wonder though: just how is one man stealing 50 million dollars and destroying the livlihoods of hundreds of victims not worse than one other man stealing 300 dollars from a convienece store? (Most small scale robberies dont even result in ruined lives or deaths).
I've always wondered about that too-how people choose these guys? What the hell? I would certainly use an established company with credentials.
just stopped by to say thanks for the comment!! it made my evening:)
and I'm sure you could doodle too!
take care
Trish
He's defintely a criminal and I think that a lot of eople fall for scams because of greed - if soemthings sounds too good to be true...
Who do these assholes think they are? Hope he does some big time.
reminds me of those plastic surgeon quacks -- they must have the same cold and heartless gene.
Financial sociopaths, all of them.
I look at his ruddy complexion and hope it signifies an early-in-life heart attack.
I'm thinking the exact opposite of Rachel. This big-time financial rip-off stuff always makes headline news; people are outraged; the media drama goes on and on; sentences usually end up being pretty stiff. And yet, children and murdered every day and they warrant only a small paragraph in the middle of the paper somewhere and the perpetrator usually ends up with a minimal sentence. To me, the murder of one child is far more important than 100 people losing a bunch of money
Aw crap! I wrote all these articulate answers to your posts and left before hitting publish. I can't even blame Blogger. I am an idiot. Let's try again, though surely less articulately...
Sully - Go figure
Rachel - obviously in our society white collar crime is seen as a "victimless" crime. Again, go figure.
Geewits - You and me both. My paranoia might mean that I get less of a return, but chances are slim I'll get scammed like this.
Trish - Thanks for stopping by.
SAW - Words of wisdom. Amazing what greed will do, eh?
Gaelyn - They think they can get away with it obviously. And if the economic situation wasn't what it is right now, they probably would.
Susan - if we could isolate and destroy that gene, lots of society's problems would disappear.
WM - yeah, really. And when you look at the profile of a sociopath, it really fits this type of person doesn't it?
Joce - well, he's already almost 70 but we can hope.
XUP - I think part of the problem is that sentencing is so damn lax in Canada. And yes, people who abuse or kill children ? Nothing they can do to them is enough, as far as I'm concerned. When I hear that after a year they're already out my blood boils.
At the same time, I feel for people who worked hard all their lives and find themselves suddenly destitute. Of course, these frauds seem to typically involve incredible returns on your investment, returns that are way out of line with what can be expected. So, then you wonder if it doesn't simply become a question of karma rearing up and biting people in the ass.
I didn't want to say that, but I do have trouble feeling sorry for people who have piles of money and want piles more so they invest in some too-good-to-be-true scheme and then lose it all.
XUP - yeah, I have trouble really feeling sorry for most of them... if it seems too good to be true, that's because it is - and if you don't have enough common sense to realize that, too bad. I don't for a minute believe they were all a bunch of naive hicks. Hell, it seems lots of them were even letting him take care of their income tax, so they might be deep in trouble with the tax man too. They're staging a demonstration against him today it seems....
Never trust a man with too many teeth. Sharks have those, too. And, since his malfeasance was in Canada don't expect a Bernie sentence. Probably a conditional house arrest, n'est ce pas?
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