Govt’s investment fund, a Ponzi scheme

UPDATE:

OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, at the UNC’s Monday Night Forum, warned that government’s National Investment Fund (NIF) is a Ponzi scheme and not a “gift to the nation” as being suggested by Finance Minister Colm Imbert. She said there is no guarantee citizens would be repaid their investment should they buy bonds in the fund.

Addressing the party’s faithful at Avocat Vedic Primary School in Fyzabad, she said Imbert told Parliament on October 2, that assets of CL Financial would be divested either through public offerings on the stock exchange or placement on a new national mutual fund.

“On May 18, a few months later, he now tells us there will be an initial public offering of 49.9 per cent of shares of the newly incorporated company, the National Investment Fund (NIF). He is now telling the country, ‘no shares, it will be bonds.’

“But the bonds do not have a guarantee from government for repayment. So you buy the bonds and at the end of the period of five, or ten years or 20 years, there is no guarantee government will pay you back the money you invested,” she said.

She said this scenario was “very frightening” especially where it is that companies government wants to divest through these bonds, are ongoing concerns. “So if those companies collapse for any reason, you ent getting back your money.”

“To me that is the greatest deception in this whole NIF scheme. You will own shares, you will be a shareowner, we are sharing the wealth, but these bonds are nothing more than a loan. Government is borrowing from you, the government wants to get $4 billion from you.

“This NIF is, in my view, like a Ponzi scheme, which is really a scam and something that can collapse upon itself,” she said. A Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud that pays existing investors with funds collected from new investors.

In a wide-ranging address, she also spoke of her disagreement with provisions in the property tax and once again pledged to remove the legislation if re-elected into government. She said pensioners as well as squatters would also have to pay the property tax as well as those persons who receive public assistance and disability grants. “You will have to pay the tax.”

Regarding the long-awaited Galleons Passage vessel, she said Imbert has not laid a crucial document relating to the vessel and wondered whether there was corruption in the procurement process.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has vowed not to support the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2018 as long as provisions remain to give Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi additional powers.

Addressing the party’s Monday Night Forum at Avocat Vedic Primary School, Fyzabad, she also described the National Investment Fund as a Ponzi scheme, saying there was no guarantee that citizens would be repaid their investment.

In a wide ranging address, she also spoke of her disagreement with the provisions of the property tax and once again pledged to remove the legislation if re-elected,

On the long-awaited Galleons Passage vessel, she said Finance Minister Colm Imbert had not laid a crucial document relating to the vessel and she wondered whether there was corruption in the ship’s procurement.