Lionheart Securities Corporation High Yield Investment Scam
A colleague of mine has been approached by a very successful investor
who claims that he has been investing in High-Yield programs, which
apparently invest in Bank Guarantees issued by the top 25 world banks.
By memory he set out the initial investment pre-requisite as follows:
 |
Buyer
submits a Letter of Intent |
|
Buyer
submits a clear copy of an enlarged passport with the attached
Client Information Sheet. Buyers signs FPA |
|
At
buyers choice he/she shall provide one of the following:
a. Proof of Funds with two bank officers signatures or,
b. Capability and Comfort Letter signed by two bank officers or,
c. Written Bank Confirmation that buyer has established a credit
line signed by two bank officers |
|
Bank
to bank authorization of the above mentioned documents |
|
Investor
will be presented with a contract from the trading bank,
and will then decide whether to enter in or not. |
Contract will outline the terms and conditions and returns of
the program.
In this particular investment my colleague has been informed that his
money ($10,000,000 US) will always stay locked in a term deposit in Australia
with the National Bank of Australia (NAB), and UNDER NO circumstances
will the money move from the account, be leveraged against, or will at
any stage have any legal charge over the funds by a third party, and
the only signatory on
the term deposit will be my colleague. The returns are 25% to 100% per
week.
What I can't work out is where is the scam? the money never leaves the
control of the investor nor the control of the NAB. Could you please
advise me on this and tell me if this sounds like one of the scams you
refer to in your site.
The following companies were specifically mentioned as examples of the
facilitators of these programs:
1. Sherwood Management Inc. operating in Malaysia and offices in Canada.
2. IBG Group, based in Argentina and offices around the world.
3. Lionheart Securities Group who also have a web site that I have found "www.lhscorp.com" given
that they are one and the same organization.
7/13/03
Well, whether it's the same or not, the domain leads us into interesting
territories.
Whois info for, lhscorp.com:
Registrant:
LionHeart Securities Corp
934 SW 18 Street
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33315
US
Domain name: LHSCORP.COM
Administrative Contact:
Tarley, Anthony TTarley@msn.com
934 SW 18 Street
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33315
US
954-557-6077
Technical Contact:
Admin, Domain admin@register4less.com
398 Keroack
St-Bruno, QC J3V 5S1
CA
877-807-0076
Registration Service Provider:
Register4less, support@register4less.com
450-441-5458
http://register4less.com
Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 20-Mar-2002.
Record expires on 18-Jan-2004.
Record Created on 18-Jan-2002.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS5.READYHOSTING.COM 63.99.209.103
NS6.READYHOSTING.COM 63.99.209.104
Address link to Windsor Equities Capital Management
P O Box 306
Brades
Montserrat BWI
954-728-9591
US Representative Office
PO Box 350506
934 SW 18 Street
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 33315
Tel: 954-728-9591 Fax: 954-728-8641
E-Mail: wecmonline@excite.com
Web Site: http://www.wecmonline.com
Swiss Representative Office
c/o Mr. Robin Crawshaw, 10 Rue du Lac, Geneva, Switzerland.
Panama Representative Office
c/o Mr. Antonio Bechily Carreno, Edificio Vallarino, Oficina 202, Calles
52 y Elvira Mendez, Apartado 6-4197, El Dorado, Panama
which, at NVST.com ( www.bellwetherinc.com ) promotes the following:
"Probably one of the most vexing challenges facing entrepreneurs
is the creation of pro-forma financial projections. Entrepreneurs
wonder how fast they should plan to grow their companies; what
venture capitalists want to see; and what financial projections
would be considered realistic.">
"pro-forma financial projections, pro forma, proforma, entrepreneur,
venture capitalist"
| A
Global Source for Entrepreneurs Seeking Venture Capital |
PROFORMA FINANCIALS THAT WORK
Probably one of the most vexing challenges facing entrepreneurs
is the creation of pro-forma financial projections. Entrepreneurs
wonder how fast they should plan to grow their companies; what
venture capitalists want to see; and what financial projections
would be considered realistic.
Let's face facts. Many pro-forma financial projections follow
roughly the same revenue trajectory: $500,000 in year one, $5 to
$8 million in year two, $25 to $30 million in year three, $40 to
$50 million in year four and $75 to $100 million in year five.
The issue is not what the top line numbers say -- those numbers
are pulled from thin air anyway. The real issue is the support
mechanism you offer for your top line numbers. Investors need to
know you have a full and complete grasp of your industry, your
product and your sales process.
Listed below are five key items you will need to consider when
putting together your pro-forma financial projections. Follow these
steps, and you should be well on your way to creating comprehensive,
realistic projections that will show investors you have a complete
understanding of your company and its financial potential.
1. Build from the Ground Up
A compressive assumptions page should support your top line revenue
figures. For example, if you are stating you will have $50 million
in revenue in year three, it would be good to show:
|
Your
gross margin in comparison to the competition's gross margin. |
|
The
number of sales people you will need to reach that milestone. |
|
The
amount of sales each person will need to make per period
of time. |
|
Your
sales cycle, whether it conforms with the industry standard
and if not, why. |
|
The
number of IT, marketing, finance and administrative people
you will need to support your sales people. |
|
The
amount of marketing dollars you must spend in order to achieve
that sales figure. |
|
Your
ratio of marketing dollar spent to revenue dollar booked. |
|
The
amount of office space will you need. |
|
Your
fixed and variable expenses. |
|
The
variable expenses that will grow on a one-for-one basis with
sales. |
|
The
variable expenses that will provide economies of scale as
your company grows. |
|
The
amount of an average sale per employee. |
|
The
time it will take to hire and train new employees. |
|
Your
employee turnover rate. |
|
Your
allowance for uncollectable accounts. |
After you determine what assumptions
you need to support a sales projection, you need to compare your
assumptions and ratios against your competitors. Are you in line
with your competitors, or do you show stunning differences? If you
are projecting average sales per employee at twice the average rate
for your industry, what compelling reason do you offer? Do you have
a technique or technology that supports your assumption? Being able
to answer these questions will show investors you have really done
your homework.
2. Have a Full Set of Financials
Most projections include a pro-forma income statement. Few offer
a pro-forma balance sheet, and fewer still offer a pro-forma cash
flow statement. The most impressive plans will include all three,
and of these three, the cash flow statement will be stressed as
the most important. Without delving into the minutia of accounting,
the cash flow statement ties together the income statement and
balance sheet and follows the flow of money in three key areas:
|
Financing
- money obtained/used from selling or buying stock or debt. |
|
Investing
- money used/obtained from buying or selling equipment, facilities,
etc. |
|
Operations
- money obtained/lost from selling a good or service. |
3. Focus on EBITDA, Not Taxable Income
Who wants to pay taxes? A truer measure of your company's operating
performance is its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation
and amortization (EBITDA). The EBITDA figure strips away all the
ancillary financial factors and shows an earnings number based
on the internal performance of your company. In other words, are
you doing what you are supposed to do? Are you selling the product
your investors think you are supposed to be selling?
4. Be Wary of "Hockey Stick" Revenue Projections
Gary Knaus: "Very rare are those businesses that go from
zero to ten -- or even hundreds -- of millions of dollars in revenue
in one to three years. Of course, some businesses have an inherently
greater financial upside than others, but revenue step functions
are very infrequent. Take a look at the Inc. 100 or other similar
lists for a reality check. For every hyper growth company, there
are thousands of slow growth companies. There have to be very strong
and sound business arguments to lend credibility to spectacular
revenue growth projections."
5. The First Step
The first step from pro-forma business plan to reality is often
too big to take. This is usually the result of creating pro-forma
sales figures that look good, but are not rooted in sound assumptions.
Even if you can reasonably expect each new employee to produce
a certain amount of revenue, can you really staff up and support
all of those people within the time constraints of your plan? It
takes time to hire and train people; it takes time to buy and install
software; and it takes time to hook up networks and phone lines.
Even if you have the money to hire and buy to your heart's content,
do you have enough time to adequately set everything up?
Finally, after you have perfected your assumptions page, and created
pro-forma financial projections based on achievable milestones,
understand that nothing you created will come to fruition. What's
that old saying? "There are lies. There are damned lies. And
there are business plans." You are going through this arduous
task for a simple reason: Investors want you to demonstrate that
you understand every detail of your business. Therefore, it is
crucial that entrepreneurs do their homework and know every the
nuance of their business. Those who fail to do so will find it
very difficult to gain the capital they need to make a good idea
into a successful venture.
So, just who is Anthony Tarley?
Well, a phone number search from above gives us this.
Payment for the ON-LINE SUBSCRIPTION can be made by major credit
card:
Call: 1-954-728-9591 or 1-954-728-8641.
Or send check or money order made payable to:
Montserrat Reporter Account
C/O Anthony Tarley Reid
1318 Bayview Drive
Fort Lauderdale, FL. 33304
-----------------------------------------
Payments can also be made via Check or Money Orders to:
Bennette Roach
4405 N.W. 73rd Ave.
Suite 189-1061
Miami, FL 33166 |
OR |
Bennette Roach
P.O. Box 306
Plymouth
Montserrat
West Indies |
Tel#: 1-664-491-5495 / 4715
Fax#: 1-664-491-2430
E-mail: roachb@candw.ag
|
