Some months ago, I posted a summary of the AFINSA scandal. It was nothing more than a summary of what had happened. I did not have an opinion of the case, but I wanted to know what had happened.
Well, an affected from the case wrote a coment in which he copied he letter the affected people are going to send to EU. Just go here and read it (it’s in English). It is very interesting. So were there Government’s passivity and they acted because they have other problems to hide or just because it was necessary?
I have my own opinion, but I will prefer you all to comment on this. The volume of affected people and of money involved makes necessary this scandal does not fail into oblivion.
Hace unos meses escribí sobre el escándalo AFINSA. Un lector víctima del fraude que supusieron AFINSA y Fórum Filatélico escribió un comentario en el blog en el que reproducía la carta que los afectados habían mandado a Bruselas. En ella, los afectados hacen notar que ninguna de las dos empresas habían dejado de pagar sus obligaciones, pero que estas fueron inmediatamente suspendidas después de la intervención del Gobierno, la Agencia Tributaria y fuerzas policiales muy armadas.
También señalan que han acusado a las empresas por delitos muy graves tales como lavado de dinero, transferencia de dinero a paraísos fiscales, sellos falsos, mala administración, etc. pero que ninguno de estos delitos, aparentemente, fue detectado con anterioridad.
Asimismo, aluden a la campaña mediática que rodeó a la intervención: TV y medios afines al Gobierno estaban allí antes para informar sobre la intervención. Tanto los empleados como los clientes creyeron que se estaba buscando a etarras.
Señalan también la proximidad de la intervención con otros problemas “vergonzantes” para el Gobierno y los créditos a fondo perdido que han obtenido los socialistas para su campaña. También consideran que esta campaña ha beneficiado a los grandes bancos que no querían tanta competición por parte de otras inversiones mucho más lucrativas.
Critican a los administradores puestos por el Gobierno, que, mientras les dicen que las empresas están al borde de la quiebra, se han fijado unos salarios altísimos. También al Presidente del Gobierno español, Zapatero, de quien dicen que tiene sueños de grandeza y quién dijo a los afectados que tuvieran confianza. Y a Borrell y a Elena Salgado, que firmaron en el libro de honor. La actual ministra de Sanidad y Consumo, entonces Directora de Correos, escribió “para que los españoles ahorren más en sellos”.
Los afectados han intentado hablar con el Defensor del Pueblo europeo, pero su oficina les ha dicho que no atienden este tipo de problemas. Por eso, se dirigen a la Unión Europea como último recurso.
Así que ¿hubo pasividad del Gobierno y este actuó simplemente porque tenía otras cosas que tapar o bien porque no había más remedio? Yo tengo mi opinión, pero prefiero que digais las vuestras. Tanto el volumen de personas como de dinero implicado hace necesario que no caiga en el olvido.
technorati tags: Zapatero, Socialist+Government, Spain, Afinsa, Forum+Filatélico, Corruption+scandals, European+Union, Stamps
The Costa del Sol Action Group has maintained details of Afinsa and Forum Filatelico on its web site.
I could speculate about the Forum/Afinsa/Escala
situation, but will not. Rather, here are some facts about the Escala Group, majority owned by Afinsa.
Escala Group, formerly GMAI, was controlled by Greg Manning until the majority of its stock was bought by Afinsa. Escala provided much (perhaps most) of the material acquired by Afinsa for Afinsa’s “investors”. Escala has been delisted by NASDAQ for failure to file required reports with the US SEC. It is now in the process of restating all its reported accounts from 2004 on. Its auditors resigned, and it now has new auditors and a new CEO, and new board members. Escala formally severed all connection with Greg Manning recently, alleging that Mr. Manning violated some of the company’s rules of corporate conduct.
The SEC is conducting an investigation of Escala Group. As of now, so far as I know, no authority has alleged any legal misconduct by Escala Group or by Greg Manning, although two employees of Escala Group in Spain were arrested by Spanish authorities (and fired by Escala Group). There are class action lawsuits against Escala Group pending, filed by minority stockholders of Escala Group. Upon Escala’s severance of ties to Greg Manning,
Escala also changed the name of one of its largest subsidiaries, Greg Manning Auctions, to H. R. Harmer, Inc.
There is evidence that a large part of the UN philatelic archives, sold by UN officials without authorization, and subsequently acquired by Greg Manning, was sold by Escala to Afinsa;
several UN officials were fired in connection with the UN sale, but no misconduct by Greg Manning 0r Escala in connection with those transactions has been alleged that I know of.
Two officials of the State of Ohio have been convicted of fraud in connection with diversion of US $3,000,000 from the State of Ohio’s “rare coin fund”; one has been sentenced to three years in prison, and sentencing of the other is pending. In the course of that diversion, one of the two engaged in large and complicated transactions with Greg Manning, GMAI, Escala and Afinsa, but the State of Ohio prosecutors in the case did not allege any legal misconduct by any of those. This case got extensive coverage in the Toledo (Ohio) “Blade” newspaper.
Except for that coverage by the Toledo Blade, the US press, including specialized hobby publications, has been extremely cautious in its coverage, limiting statements about Manning, GMAI, Escala and Afinsa to what has appeared as matters of legal record.
The whole situation is complicated by the fact that a “secret” contract between GMAI (Escala) and Afinsa has come to light, as has a “secret” contract for unspecified services to Escala by a Spanish national.
Presumably, more information about Escala, Afinsa, and the transactions between them, will eventually emerge as Spanish and US investigations continue and as lawsuits proceed.
Meanwhile, like you, I maintain an active interest about this whole complicated situation.
Hi, my name is Frederick and I am one of the people that were robbed in broad day light. I had invested some money one month prior to what I still to today can not explain.
The worst is there is no one I can call or speak to to give me some answers. Even more scary is how it feels that this horrible event this MASSIVE crime is falling to oblivion.
Thousands of people including me were robbed. Robbed of their money. The hours, the days, the weeks, the months, the years of hard work and sacrifice I had to do, to put that money together. Suddenly it is gone as if it were nothing. Disgusting. Revolting. Animal.
Worst of all although is the little energy being put by the government to efficiently resolve this clear example of mass abuse.
How can I find out more? How can I talk to the right person about this? What can I do to not allow these people to treat us like idiots and abuse us even further as if we don’t exist?
What is going on???