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:
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Buyer submits a Letter of Intent |
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Buyer submits a clear copy of an enlarged passport with the attached Client Information Sheet. Buyers signs FPA |
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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 |
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Bank to bank authorization of the above mentioned documents |
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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:
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Your gross margin in comparison to the competition's gross margin. |
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The number of sales people you will need to reach that milestone. |
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The amount of sales each person will need to make per period of time. |
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Your sales cycle, whether it conforms with the industry standard and if not, why. |
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The number of IT, marketing, finance and administrative people you will need to support your sales people. |
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The amount of marketing dollars you must spend in order to achieve that sales figure. |
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Your ratio of marketing dollar spent to revenue dollar booked. |
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The amount of office space will you need. |
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Your fixed and variable expenses. |
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The variable expenses that will grow on a one-for-one basis with sales. |
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The variable expenses that will provide economies of scale as your company grows. |
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The amount of an average sale per employee. |
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The time it will take to hire and train new employees. |
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Your employee turnover rate. |
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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:
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Financing - money obtained/used from selling or buying stock or debt. |
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Investing - money used/obtained from buying or selling equipment, facilities, etc. |
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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:
Montserrat Reporter Account C/O Anthony Tarley Reid 1318 Bayview Drive Fort Lauderdale, FL. 33304 -----------------------------------------
Call: 1-954-728-9591 or 1-954-728-8641.
Or send check or money order made payable to:Payments can also be made via Check or Money Orders to:
Bennette Roach
4405 N.W. 73rd Ave.
Suite 189-1061 Miami, FL 33166OR 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
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