Make a donation from your 100% compensation

In America, some lawyers are willing to take a case on a contingency fee. If they win the case, they receive 10% to 30% of the amount recovered. If they lose the case, the client only pay the expenses.

Some noteholders are interested to engage lawyers on a contingency fee to recover their money. But contingency fee is not allowed in Singapore.

Think again. Many volunteers have spent several hundred hours of time and their expertise to help the noteholders to recover their money, without any promise of payment. As a result of their work,  1,280 of the noteholders will be getting back 100% compensation.

I like to ask these noteholders to consider giving a donation, if you have directly benefit from the work of any specific volunteer. This is just a small donation (far smaller than the contingency fee expected by the lawyer). It is for the volunteer to decide if they wish to accept it. Some of the volunteers are able to spend the time because they are not working. They do need an income.

If you wish to make a general donation of say 5%, I will put the money in the legal fund to engage a senior counsel or queens counsel to give a legal opinion to help the other noteholders. If there is any balance in the legal fund, I will contribute it to the financial services consumer association (FISCA) that will be establised to provide financial education to the public.

If you wish to make a contribution to the legal fund or any volunteer, you can contact me at kinlian@gmail.com.  I will appoint someone to manage the accounts. Be generous. Remember - you could be one of the noteholders who has been rejected or have been offered inadequate compensation.

Honesty and fair play

My friend told me this story. A businessmen and a Government official were very happy. They have found a way to make a few million dollars for the businessman to import of rice into the country through a licence given by the official and to share the illegal profit in an overseas bank account.

My friend said that the illegal profit will have to be borne by the poor people who have to pay a higher price for the rice. He is sad that people can be so happy to make profit from the suffering of the poor people.

This does not refer to Singapore.

Obama: the price and promise of citizenship

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies.  It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours.  It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate. 

Our challenges may be new.  The instruments with which we meet them may be new.  But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old.  These things are true.  They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history.  What is demanded then is a return to these truths.  What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

President Obama's Inaugural address: 

A bank sue for being misled

After Sure-Bet Investment Fails, a Bank Contends It Was Duped

Article

Focus on the complaint case

Dear Mr. Tan,

There is something that disturbs me tremendously. I read your blog post that talked about some of the factors that affect the final decision of the FIs on the investors complaints. I empathize with many of the investors whom I believe have been most sadly given inadequate and inaccurate information and advice by the relevant FIs and their staff, which led to them buying the structured products, in particular Minibond and Pinnacle Notes and suffering loss and distress in the process.

I have received news that there are endless delays and repeated changes in the timeline given to clients who have lodged complaints with the FIs. All too often, investors have received a letter in the mail, hoping that it communicates the FIs compensation decision, only to be notified that the FI is still reviewing their case and will reply soon. 'Soon' can mean a couple of months.
In the questionnaires that the FIs are asking investors during the complaint interview, many investors have been quizzed on their education level, past investment experience, source of funds and the amount of savings they have. Many of such questions have no actual connection to their complaint on mis-selling and make no sense at all.

I have also heard news that some FIs are investigating into the wealth and property held by the investors, which once again is totally senseless and only serves to terribly delay the reviewing process.

I hope that the FIs can focus on the facts of the investors' complaint case and offer a swift and fair reply to investors, cutting short their torment over their failed investment products, rather than dig into the investors private information on their finances and assets.

Anonymous

SCMP:Watchdog to select minibonds case soon

Article

21 Jan 2009
Joyce Man

The Consumer Council will soon choose a representative complainant to support in legal action over banks’ sale of financial derivatives issued or guaranteed by Lehman Brothers.

The products lost much or all of their value with the US bank’s collapse in September.

Democratic Party legislator Kam Nai-wai held talks with council chief executive Connie Lau Yin-hing yesterday on when the watchdog would select a case, and its progress on dealing with the 7,000 complaints the party had referred to it about the sale of Lehman Brothers derivatives.

Some 43,700 Hong Kong investors bought Lehman Brothers derivatives, mostly minibonds, worth HK$15.7 billion. Despite their name, minibonds are not corporate bonds but complex, credit-linked derivatives.

Investors claim the products were mis-sold as low-risk.

The council has been sorting through complaints to single out cases suitable for help from its legal action fund, and has identified 45.

Mr Kam urged the council to consider not only cases that involved elderly or novice investors, but also less winnable cases. Banks were more willing to settle out of court with elderly and less experienced complainants, who had a higher chance of winning in court, he said. The council should choose some younger and well-educated complainants to send to court.

The Democratic Party said Ms Lau told it that taking a representative case to court would not have any impact on a class-action lawsuit investors may bring in a US court.

What will Obama do?

Barack’s plans and approach: http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

Transition team’s website: http://www.change.gov 

Portal to the citizenry: http://www.whitehouse.gov 

President Obama's Inaugural address: