concrete equities demonstration today?

[Crymson]

Anyone see this? There was about 100-150 people marching around the corner of 4th st and 10th ave holding placards about how concrete equities is a ponzi scam and have no financials, etc.. etc.. What's going on?

[slick2404]

http://www.660news.com/news/local/more.jsp?content=20090601_184550_7604



interesting...

[thetransporter]

i doubt people will get their money back.

concrete equities is a scam.. .

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Ven]

http://forums.canadianbusiness.com/thread.jspa?threadID=13368&tstart=1


Dave Jones of WealthStreet also has his hands in that pie. Advertising works, people fall for it all the time.

I think this is the next one --> http://www.homeruninvestments.com/core/ and their propaganda TV show Makin' $tupid Money

[im2fst4u]

This reminds of my Bre-X ring that we as "top" investors were given.....right before they closed their doors :thumbsdow

Anyone else here involved in the Bre-X fiasco?

RE: Concrete Equities as written in 2008.

Apr 5, 2008 8:53 PM

I keep hearing their ads on the radio, and one of my friends went to their seminars, so I figured I had better investigate.

I Googled and downloaded whatever promotional material I could find.

I found the material to be deceptive and misleading. Firstly, they calculated a return of 93.95% with an average annual return of 18.79%, which was obtained by dividing 93.95 by 5. Obviously they forgot to take compounding into account. A 93.95% return in 5 years is equivalent to an 11.673% return paid once a year, at the end of the year. If you were to compare to semi annual or daily, the rate would be lower.

Secondly, the "return" is mostly obtained by placing a second mortgage on the property at the end of the five years, because it would have appreciated. This is akin to placing a second mortgage on your house and saying "look at all the money I have earned."

Thirdly, the second mortgage would mean that the mortgage payments for the remainder would have to be higher. The rents would need to be renegotiated after 5 years with a 47-48% increase to maintain the same before cash tax flow. I don't know much about commercial real estate, so I don't know if this level of escalation is plausible. Any comments?

Fourth, I am not a tax expert, but I would expect that the portion of the interest payments on the new mortgage relating to the 'equity return' would not be deductible, as it was not incurred to earn income. They would have to have an expert from some firm like Felesky Flynn to make that opinion, but even so we have no idea where the interest deduct ability area will be in 5 years. Thus, the investors could be paying tax on an amount significantly higher than the distributions. This is also possible to a lesser extent because the CCA (tax depreciation)will be lower than the amount of principle paid on the mortgage.

Fifthly, I am really not sure how completely their calculations of cash flows take into account all expenses. If the leases are to be renegotiated after 5 years, what about the commission to the real estate agent? What about bad debts and management fees?

Finally, I Googled the principles involved in Concrete. I found that the #2 man is under a lifetime ban by the Real Estate Council of Alberta. Is that who you want to invest with?

WealthStreet seems to only sell investments by Concrete and the Mosaic fund, which offers "access to successful local companies not available on the stock market." What a way to put it! This begs the question, is this fellow not licensed to sell mutual funds and stocks, and why not?

It seems strange to me that someone who comes on the radio every day and tells people which stocks are going to go up would not sell them to his clients?????? SMOKE AND MIRRORS.

Research pays off....

[blackteg2]

"Solidify your portfolio with Concrete Equities"

these guys are usually in Mission often in their high end exotics with license plates CONEQ1, 2, 3

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Masked Bandit]

Aren't these guys the major sponsor behind "Dragon's Den" on CBC? FWIW, they own the strip mall that our office is located in and I do know that the rent has shot skyward in recent years.

[sputnik]

I think both the investor and Concrete Equities are to blame.

Were investors really smart in believing that somehow real estate at the height of a boom is a more stable investment than any other kind of investment? At the same time, should Concrete Equities continued to push for new investors for new projects?

I think what is really going on is that investors with Concrete Equities are feeling what any other highly leveraged real estate investor is feeling right now. Increasing costs, decreasing demand/rents and the underlying risk of losing their investment altogether.

Nothing is 100% guaranteed folks.

[Cos]

I had a berkshire/shire investments feeling about that place as soon as I started to see the ads

[yohan4ws]

Bankruptcy :

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090601/CGY_concrete_eq_090601/20090601/?hub=CalgaryHome

[Kritafo]

Okay... We are involved with all this crap at concrete. Dave Jones has been our financial planner for 15 +years... to say we are disappointed in the outcome would be an understatement. It all started to go wrong with Vincenzo De Palma and the other weasels.

We did manage to sell off a few of our investments with them back in Oct but held onto our SNC investment.

If anyone on here is involved you would have been contacted by other holding members and we have a website. We knew that Concrete next move would be bankruptcy filing weeks ago. It was the only choice they had. Lawyers have been hired by investors.

We got involved when it was just Dave Jones, not that it makes it any better... but there was no big flashy adverts and commercials. Etc.

Dave Jones did try to separate himself from the company a few months ago. He is pretty much in hiding. More than likely took his family to some secluded island to laugh at us. Most of his investors were church going people that he conned. He established a good relationship with a huge church group. His wife even had a blog... Since then he hasn't been on Breakfast TV.... my only thing to add is we are more than likely SOL.

lots of of these types of investments are high risk. We won't lose our shirts, but no many other investors that put it all into these type investments. All of their RRSP's will be gone.

[rage2]

Originally posted by im2fst4u
This reminds of my Bre-X ring that we as "top" investors were given.....right before they closed their doors :thumbsdow

Anyone else here involved in the Bre-X fiasco?
One of our family friends YEARS ago bought into Bre-X really early, and sold 1/2 of it at it's peak, made a few mill off it. So he got lucky.

[ZorroAMG]

Some people I dealt with for our development kept asking me about concrete and what I thought and why our promised returns were lower or less "jam packed with fun filled stuff!"....I guess the proof is in the lack of due diligence on the part of the "developer" (lol) and the investor turning a blind eye in hopes of false gain.

Financing your own return doesn't really sound like a deal to me....

[turbotrip]

homerun investments is the same type of scam and has ties to concrete equities too. should definitely avoid this one too

[Sugarphreak]

....

[Kritafo]

when I first met David Jones he drove a beat up purple Porsche and rented out an office at the financial management building over by the UFA. It was a sh$t hole of an office. His wife had all sorts of health problems and he was known as The Money Doctor, for 13 of those years he gave us the best advice and everything we did with him was gold. We had no reason to suspect that when Concrete and Wealthstreet were formed it was going to change. Even when things got good he only drove an Audi A4, nicer office but always the same stupid Hawaiian shirts.

[ZorroAMG]

Originally posted by Sugarphreak

I would rather invest my money into the stock market and lose it all on my own than have somebody else take wild risks with it while they live in the lap of luxury irregardless of the outcome.

That's called a stock broker.

LOL

[Neil4Speed]

http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Calgary+Concrete+Equities+under+fire/1657617/story.html

A little more information,

Is David Jones the guy who is on Global every morning giving market details?

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Fire_chickin]

I was looking at doing some real estate investing, but wanted to avoid slick guys like Concrete.

I still think there's decent money to be made.

Anyone know a decent firm out there that focuses on real estate investment?

[Sugarphreak]

...

[BigShow]

Originally posted by Sugarphreak


lol, that should have been your first tip off ;)

I dunno if you've seen Californication, but that guy is slick!

Does anybody here know Amit & Vinny?

[Fire_chickin]

Originally posted by Sugarphreak
^^^ Just invest in a REIT!

Anyone know what kinds of returns to expect from a REIT?

[Kritafo]

Not sure if David Jones did Global, but for sure BT

[Sugarphreak]

Originally posted by Fire_chickin


Anyone know what kinds of returns to expect from a REIT?

You should be able to look up the history on GlobeInvestor.Com

[Fire_chickin]

^^ Thanks!

[Kritafo]

just because he drove a piece of crap car means nothing. Slick like a car dealer.

I still can't believe what he has created.

We use to get stock tips from the guy, he was never wrong. We made a lot of money with him.

[mazdavirgin]

Does anyone know if any of the former exec from concrete equities are now tied up in standard capital group? I recall hearing something vaguely along those lines at a certain point. http://www.standardcapitalgroup.com/about.php

[Fire_chickin]

Here's a link to the limited partner's press release.

http://www.jasondunn.com/concrete-equities-investments-1629

Seems to spell everything out

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Kritafo]

http://forums.canadianbusiness.com/thread.jspa?threadID=13954&start=30&tstart=0

Here is another site for Concrete chat

[Kritafo]

Originally posted by Fire_chickin
Here's a link to the limited partner's press release.

http://www.jasondunn.com/concrete-equities-investments-1629

Seems to spell everything out

there is a steering committee website as well, but you have to be a member and have investments with this company.

[bubbley]

The COO Vinny Aurora has the facebook status "didnt know life could be so good"


:eek:

[Kritafo]

yeah..life is so good. I hope they all go to jail.

[Pacman]

Originally posted by bubbley
The COO Vinny Aurora has the facebook status "didnt know life could be so good"


:eek:

Of course he is....he drives a red Ferrari bought and paid for by investors money. He also brags about being a part time owner of a private jet and having multiple exotic cars.

I wonder what his personal net worth is after all of this. I'm sure they got everything they could out of the company and have it all stashed away.

[Kritafo]

so how does everyone know this about my pal Vinny?

Well they will all be at court tomorrow morning at 9 am sharp. Should be interesting.

[Pacman]

Originally posted by Kritafo
so how does everyone know this about my pal Vinny?

I don't know him, but I did meet him at a charity even a few years ago. "Vinny" was acting like an international playboy and bragging to everyone about how much money he was making and all the cool cars he had.

[max_boost]

Originally posted by ZorroAMG
Some people I dealt with for our development kept asking me about concrete and what I thought and why our promised returns were lower or less "jam packed with fun filled stuff!"....I guess the proof is in the lack of due diligence on the part of the "developer" (lol) and the investor turning a blind eye in hopes of false gain.

Financing your own return doesn't really sound like a deal to me....

So.....how's that Strathmore stuff coming along?

I rather take the AM if things don't work out though. :devil: :burnout:

[ZorroAMG]

LOL....I'll call you now to update ya....

[Khalil.e]

Vinny had plenty of cash prior to Concrete...
Even before thing were on the upswing for CE he could be found in his lambo..

[Fire_chickin]

Anyone know what happened in court yesterday?

[Kritafo]

Madame Justice Romaine heard two applications.
The first was the LPs' application for an Order that the Concrete GPs provide up to date registers for Concrete Equities Place and MEG Place along with access to financial records for all 7 LPs.


The second was the application by the Concrete GPs, who allege they remain GPs for all 5 LPs, for the appointment of Ernst & Young as an Interim Receiver of all 5 LPs.


After having heard argument from Concrete's counsel and from the LP's counsel (with some remarks by other counsel for alleged creditors of the LPs), Madame Justice Romaine reserved her decision on both motions.


Madame Justice Romaine will deliver her ruling in Chambers at 2 p.m. on Tuesday June 9th.

[Fire_chickin]

^^Thanks for the update

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Kritafo]

yes it's pretty disgusting. My favourite part is they are all blaming each other.

[Kritafo]

Shire Investments is being investigated as well.

ASC Cease Trades Cleone Couch and Shire International

Jun 05 2009

The Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) has issued an interim cease trade order against Calgary businesswoman Jeanette Cleone Couch, Shire International Real Estate Development Ltd., Shire Asset Management Ltd., Maples and White Sands Investment Ltd. and Hawaii Fund trust due to allegations of misrepresentations and fraud.

The interim cease trade order is in effect for 15 days and prohibits Couch and the named companies from trading in any securities or relying on any Alberta securities laws exemptions. An ASC panel issued the interim cease trade order after hearing evidence from ASC staff. The ASC has also issued a Notice of Hearing in which ASC staff allege the named parties:

* used raised capital for undisclosed, improper purposes and knowingly deceived investors;
* made misrepresentations to investors and ASC staff;
* engaged in conduct relating to securities that amounted to fraud;
* and took part in deceitful conduct that caused an actual loss to investors or placed investors’ money at risk.


The next appearance has been scheduled for 2 p.m., June 16, 2009 in the ASC Hearing Room on the 6th Floor, 300 - 5th Avenue, Calgary, Alberta. At that time, an ASC panel will consider extending the interim order.

A copy of the Interim Cease Trade Order and the Notice of Hearing can be found at www.albertasecurities.com.

The ASC is the regulatory agency responsible for administering the province's securities laws. It is entrusted to foster a fair and efficient capital market in Alberta and to protect investors. As a member of the Canadian Securities Administrators, the ASC works to improve, coordinate and harmonize the regulation of Canada's capital markets.

[jdmakkord]

Originally posted by Pacman


I don't know him, but I did meet him at a charity even a few years ago. "Vinny" was acting like an international playboy and bragging to everyone about how much money he was making and all the cool cars he had.

Him and his brother used to be around the U back when we were there. They managed to make a mint doing assumable's etc, before venturing into ripping people off lol

[cam_wmh]

Originally posted by mazdavirgin
Does anyone know if any of the former exec from concrete equities are now tied up in standard capital group ? I recall hearing something vaguely along those lines at a certain point. http://www.standardcapitalgroup.com/about.php

I'd like to know this as well.

[Masked Bandit]

So the building our office is in (a little shopping plaza in Deer Run) is owned by Concrete. They've had a sign posted out on the front lawn for about a year now advertising this fact. I come in this morning and someone has placed a large sign covering half the original sign (which faces right on to Bow Bottom Trail) that says "CONCRETE EQUITIES = PONZI SCHEME!". I'd say someone is pretty pissed.

[sputnik]

In some ways I want the whole Concrete Equities issue to completely explode. I hope the owners and investors both lose everything.

It's not because I am sadistic and want to see people suffer. I just think society (especially in Calgary) needs a bit of a wake up call.

Over the past few years it has been assumed that real estate, oil, natural gas or whatever investment of the day was 100% safe and will return whatever the salesmen promise. No one stopped to think, no one used any due diligence and people simply dumped their money into the investment that promised the highest returns.

Hopefully this makes people rethink their need to be greedy and perhaps reconsider where they put their money.

[Kritafo]

nice.

These types of investments are risky, they do tell you that from the very beginning.

Did we ask to be blatantly lied to..no. We personally had been investing with Jones for 14+ years and had no reason to not believe him. That is the relationship we had with him as our adviser.

Did we expect to walk out millionaires...hardly. We expect a good return on our investments.

Greedy, no it was far from that.

[ZorroAMG]

Originally posted by sputnik
No one stopped to think, no one used any due diligence and people simply dumped their money into the investment that promised the highest returns.


Certainly not everyone. Some of us do our homework. :)

[Kritafo]

yes I feel burned. Thanks for the clarification, as we are involved with Concrete I am pretty high strung at the moment. My apologies.

[ZorroAMG]

Where did I imply that? I was just trying to show that not all syndicators are schemers or fly by night. I wasn't in ANY way trying to mock your situation and I sincerely apologize if I came across that way or that you misinterpreted my comment.

I am sorry you lost money to these crooks.

[bksze]

Originally posted by ZorroAMG
Where did I imply that? I was just trying to show that not all syndicators are schemers or fly by night. I wasn't in ANY way trying to mock your situation and I sincerely apologize if I came across that way or that you misinterpreted my comment.

I am sorry you lost money to these crooks.

think Kritafo misunderstood

ZorroAMG is not an investor, he represents another land syndication company that "did their homework" as opposed to Concrete Equities who has been riding the latest gold rush in order to exploit their investors.


think his statement was calling out CE!

[ZorroAMG]

Thanks bksze :) I did PM Kritafo and she does understand where I was coming from now!

[sputnik]

Originally posted by ZorroAMG


Certainly not everyone. Some of us do our homework. :)

I was referring more to those that dump their money into investments with no more than a verbal discussion with their salespeople. While I don't doubt that David Jones at one point THOUGHT that Concrete Equities was a good company, he certainly did a poor job or communicating the REAL risks involved in investing in real estate. Especially with a company aggressively trying to expand their portfolio of properties.

These days if you want to invest in and unregulated investment like real estate, you need to do your homework. You need to also assess your own risk tolerance as well. You need to ask yourself if you trust the company that you are putting your money into and if they will be able to provide the returns they are promising.

You can't just go based on the fact that the company and its owners appear to be doing well. If you can't get a solid explanation as to where your returns are coming from, or you don't completely understand where they are coming from... you DON'T invest. It is that simple.

I have had a number of friends ask me about their latest investment opportunities (i.e. financial scams). Some even guaranteeing 35-50% annual returns and promising charitable donation receipts larger than the donations as well.

So I simply ask them. Where are your returns coming from and who is paying the difference on the other end of the transaction?

[Kritafo]

and I publicly apologized for my misunderstanding. I am a little high strung from all of this.

Between this, everyone getting laid off and my terminally ill sister I don't know how much more I can take!

[ZorroAMG]

Ugh.....rough stuff Kritafo. Chin up, our resident mom!

Sputnik, I knew what you meant :D

[Fire_chickin]

So Concrete got their decision in court.

Here's a link to a letter their sending out to investors.

http://www.jasondunn.com/status-update-concrete-equities-1707


I'm sure everyone on here who's invested with them have already seen something like this.

[Kritafo]

Originally posted by Fire_chickin
So Concrete got their decision in court.

Here's a link to a letter their sending out to investors.

http://www.jasondunn.com/status-update-concrete-equities-1707


I'm sure everyone on here who's invested with them have already seen something like this.

I love how concrete finally after all these years has decided to send out emails. First time for everything...and I love how they using the old director for everything seems like they are using him as a scape goat.

I will post the court stuff from yesterday once I get final word from the steering committee

[Fire_chickin]

Basically he says there's a complete lack of accountability in their company.

If one guy is able to sink a multi-million dollar show through sheer incompetence with no one noticing, you have a serious problem with your business structure.

[Kritafo]

I can't even believe the court sided with Concrete for that matter. Let me check the website again..see if there are updates and what the next plan is.

Nothing yet..

[Pacman]

Who's the guy that sunk the company and left?

[Kritafo]

Dave Huminek of Platinum Equities is being blamed for all of this...which nobody is really buying into. Too many things don't add up.

[kenny]

I hope everyone that posted in this thread, posted their own opinions or facts regarding Concrete Equities.

Just sayin'

:devil:

[battleaxe1]

:drama: :rofl:

[sputnik]

Originally posted by kenny
I hope everyone that posted in this thread, posted their own opinions or facts regarding Concrete Equities.

Just sayin'

:devil:

Sounds like another letter from a lawyer is on its way!

[Strider]

Originally posted by kenny
I hope everyone that posted in this thread, posted their own opinions or facts regarding Concrete Equities.

Just sayin'

:devil:

:drama:

Concrete Equities (http://forums.beyond.ca/st/266438/concrete-equities-demonstration-today/) :angel:

[TimH]

In response to this?
http://forums.beyond.ca/st/275393/concrete-equities/

Second page on Google while searching Concrete Equities.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by kenny
I hope everyone that posted in this thread, posted their own opinions or facts regarding Concrete Equities.



Duly noted, lol.

[kenny]

Did some searching and it looks like they've sent out letters to other websites. We haven't received any letters yet, just a casual e-mail asking us to erase the interwebs.

http://www.jasondunn.com/vincenzo-de-palma-libel-1981

Love the closing of the letter :rofl:

[Crymson]

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Do these guys all have the same playbook?

[kaput]

.

[bspot]

It is my personal opinion that Mr. Vincenzo De Palma is the president of concrete equities.

http://forums.beyond.ca/showthread.php?s=&postid=3088658

http://www.jasondunn.com/vincenzo-de-palma-libel-1981

http://forums.beyond.ca/st/266438/concrete-equities-demonstration-today/

[will_e_chill]

The only way these scams work is if people do not do their due diligence and get blinded by their greed. The post below is a great example of someone doing their research before investing.

In investing, there is no such things as a free lunch.

Most of these real estate investments are sold as limited partnership units or LPs. An LP unit is what an investor is usually paying for. The investor is NOT buying real estate, contrary to what their sales people will lead you to believe.

As an investor in an LP you are giving the general partner or GP free rein to do whatever the partnership agreement allows. Which is why it is important to read anything that you sign.

This is why the scammers hire lawyers to draft these partnership agreements. They want to protect themselves from liability.

Most investors would not have the time or patience to read thru a partnership agreement or want to pay someone to do it. Even as a lawyer, reading thru a limited partnership agreement is tough and time consuming. This is one of the reasons how these scammers can legally get away with ripping off investors.

I feel sorry for those investors that got ripped off but if you don't do your research and due diligence then you are putting your hard earned dollars at risk.




Originally posted by im2fst4u
This reminds of my Bre-X ring that we as "top" investors were given.....right before they closed their doors :thumbsdow

Anyone else here involved in the Bre-X fiasco?

RE: Concrete Equities as written in 2008.

Apr 5, 2008 8:53 PM

I keep hearing their ads on the radio, and one of my friends went to their seminars, so I figured I had better investigate.

I Googled and downloaded whatever promotional material I could find.

I found the material to be deceptive and misleading. Firstly, they calculated a return of 93.95% with an average annual return of 18.79%, which was obtained by dividing 93.95 by 5. Obviously they forgot to take compounding into account. A 93.95% return in 5 years is equivalent to an 11.673% return paid once a year, at the end of the year. If you were to compare to semi annual or daily, the rate would be lower.

Secondly, the "return" is mostly obtained by placing a second mortgage on the property at the end of the five years, because it would have appreciated. This is akin to placing a second mortgage on your house and saying "look at all the money I have earned."

Thirdly, the second mortgage would mean that the mortgage payments for the remainder would have to be higher. The rents would need to be renegotiated after 5 years with a 47-48% increase to maintain the same before cash tax flow. I don't know much about commercial real estate, so I don't know if this level of escalation is plausible. Any comments?

Fourth, I am not a tax expert, but I would expect that the portion of the interest payments on the new mortgage relating to the 'equity return' would not be deductible, as it was not incurred to earn income. They would have to have an expert from some firm like Felesky Flynn to make that opinion, but even so we have no idea where the interest deduct ability area will be in 5 years. Thus, the investors could be paying tax on an amount significantly higher than the distributions. This is also possible to a lesser extent because the CCA (tax depreciation)will be lower than the amount of principle paid on the mortgage.

Fifthly, I am really not sure how completely their calculations of cash flows take into account all expenses. If the leases are to be renegotiated after 5 years, what about the commission to the real estate agent? What about bad debts and management fees?

Finally, I Googled the principles involved in Concrete. I found that the #2 man is under a lifetime ban by the Real Estate Council of Alberta. Is that who you want to invest with?

WealthStreet seems to only sell investments by Concrete and the Mosaic fund, which offers "access to successful local companies not available on the stock market." What a way to put it! This begs the question, is this fellow not licensed to sell mutual funds and stocks, and why not?

It seems strange to me that someone who comes on the radio every day and tells people which stocks are going to go up would not sell them to his clients?????? SMOKE AND MIRRORS.

Research pays off....

[Masked Bandit]

Originally posted by bspot
It is my personal opinion that Mr. Vincenzo De Palma is the president of concrete equities.

http://forums.beyond.ca/showthread.php?s=&postid=3088658

http://www.jasondunn.com/vincenzo-de-palma-libel-1981

http://forums.beyond.ca/st/266438/concrete-equities-demonstration-today/

Nice post.

I considered investing with these guys a couple of years ago but something just didn't smell right. I didn't get too far into the actual numbers of things but as soon as "my tail started tingling", I went elsewhere. I would say that I "governed myself accordingly".

:D

[battleaxe1]

Jeffrey Bone. :rofl:

[rage2]

Bump.

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20120111/CGY_concrete_equities_120111/20120111/?hub=CalgaryHome

[Sugarphreak]

...

[roopi]

Pretty good deal. Steal $96 million and get fined $6 million. :rolleyes:

[rage2]

Originally posted by roopi
Pretty good deal. Steal $96 million and get fined $6 million. :rolleyes:
I believe they raised $100m, and took $25m in commissions, and lost the other $75m in real estate deals. In any case, the fine and proof of misconduct simply allows civil trials to go through a lot easier, so investors can go after them for their investments.

Not that they'll get any of it back.

[Scat E46]

I always looked at their commercials and wondered if this was legit.

Interesting.