by cappytan 49 Replies latest watchtower scandals
If they target people who have just sold property - houses, farms etc... then they could well land some big fish. If you look at the Wikipedia article there are examples such as "125 members of various Christian churches lose $7.4 million".
I don't think the figures are too unbelievable - we should keep an open mind pending more data.
Since 2008, property value in Spain has depreciated over 50% - those who sell are desperately in need of the cash, and can't afford surely to re-invest it in whatever. However, if this took place around 2001, that was the height of the real-estate fever in Spain, where property was (artificially) inflating in value over 8% per year. Some good opportunities for scammers in that climate ...
Eden
The great thing about the internet is how rapidly a story can be disseminated. The downside is the ease with which untrue or badly researched stories spread like wild fire - especially when tarted up to look like an official news release.
As my great Uncle Pelican use to say, Hold your horses.
And as I would add, Take a breather. If the story's correct, there will soon be ample confirmation. If not, well better that you did not run with it in the first place.
I was just reading the article in the "El País" newspaper.
It seems they were after those JW's who sold properties and persuaded them to invest in their scheme, in the shape of an investment company called "Rural New Life y Mutua Mas Vida". Looks like they "re-invested" the funds in properties. (It mentions estates in Marbella and Lanzarote, tourist resorts). I bet that, in the craze of the real estate market back then, some deals were initially profitable, but soon they were caught in the curve.
The 1300 may well be solely the number of people that participated in some sort of class-action lawsuit, or identified victims by the court. The number of those who actually donated may likely be much larger than 1300. In that scenario, this story gains more plausibility.
Eden
The unemployment rate doesn't really matter - whatever the country, there will be rich people doing very, very well.
There were billionaires being created during the last US recession.
Bogus!
But I hope I am proved wrong. Any bad press for the Borg brings a smile to my face.
The events date back to 2001, when 14 "elders" (the name by which Jehovah's Witnesses know their spiritual shepherds) used the ceremonies religious to collect from his parish cash "to build a hospital in Barcelona, that under our direction, do not provide blood transfusions to patients of our worship."
There is a hospital in Spain that offers bloodless surgery.
http://www.teknonbarcelona.com/en/medical-specialties/bloodless-medicine-and-surgery
It is the same hospital that offers proton beam therapy.
This goes back to 2001 , this is now 2015 , have any western / English newspapers ,TV `s , Radios , etc covered this story ? Surely with the huge amount of money involved it would have gotten worldwide attention sooner or later .
Just saying
smiddy
