Nothing new to report

So nothing new on the DOJ front and I have come to realize that I lead a pretty boring life, or perhaps it's a pretty busy life, either way I have struggled this past week to come up with new content for the blog. Of course, this could be due to my editor as well. My significant other is not too keen with the idea of me maintaining this blog. Very few people know about our misfortune and there is some concern that our friends or family may find out. That's right, not even our families know, kind of sad really. Even though we recognize that we are the victims here, it is very humbling to admit that we lost a significant amount of our savings to this scam. We consider ourselves to be educated and I suppose it is due to our own arrogance that we never thought we could be defrauded as easily as we were. But here we are...

I try not to think about it now, life goes on. It hurts the most when you consider the value of the loss in context. For example, a simple thing like listening to the local radio station offering a contest where the top prize is $5000 cash. Pretty exciting stuff to the caller when he/she is given the opportunity to compete. Even more exciting when they win! It pains me to know that I could have funded 40 such contests and have the same to show as I do today...except with possibly 40 more friends than I currently have.

Or when, I am flipping through the weekly Best Buy ad and I consider the plasma TV selling for $2000. It wasn't so long ago that I remember telling myself that such a purchase was unnecessarily extravagant and that I should wait until the prices come down. Hell, for the same amount I lost I could have bought one for each family on my block.

It's these kind of details that pain me, make me suffer. 99% of my waking day is pretty much fine now; however that 1%, it rips like a dagger. Shredding and tearing at my insides. I keep these thoughts to myself. I don't share them with my wife as I like to believe that our daily time slots for misery are misaligned, which means that there is always one of us available for sane conversation or concentrating on the parenting duties (gotta keep the kids alive).

I know she hurts... a lot...but she's a trooper. She puts on a brave face, smiles and laughs and looks as beautiful as ever, but her heart aches as mine. Her empty stares expose the pain as her thoughts concentrate on our misfortune. My hugs do little to console her during these times, nevertheless she still receives them warmly.

Our family is stronger now. We have survived heartache before and we can survive this, of this I have no doubt. Still, the entire situation sucks and I feel for everyone living it...not very elegant I realize, but quite accurate nonetheless.

TFI

Update from DOJ

I apologize for not posting these past 2 days. I came down with the flu and was horizontal for most of it. When I finally had a chance to login to my email I noticed that I had received an update from the Victim-Witness Co-ordinator at the Department of Justice. For those of you that may not have received this email, this is what it said:

We write to update you on the government's investigation and prosecution of the principals of Razor FX. The government has been moving to seize assets that represent the proceeds of the fraudulent scheme. We intend to forfeit these assets to the government and then, at the conclusion of the case, to make those funds available for victim restitution. We will provide you with more information as it becomes available. Currently our focus is on tracking assets.

In the interim, we request that you forward to U.S. Postal Inspector Vincent Minecci via e-mail to PIMinecci@uspis.gov, in pdf format, proof of your investment loss in the form of bank wires into the Razor FX account and bank wires received from the Razor FX account. In addition, if you invested or received funds by check, e-mail to Postal Inspector Minecci a copy of the checks. Please keep, but do not send him, original documents by mail until requested.

Finally, we apologize that you suffered losses in this scheme and we wish to extend to you our sympathy on your losses and our promise to utilize our best efforts to see that justice is done in this case. We respectfully request that you refrain from contacting the AUSAs on the case directly because our systems cannot handle the volume of voicemail and e-mail traffic they have been receiving making it difficult for them to conduct their work. We promise to keep you informed as the law requires and as you, as victims of this scheme are entitled.

Lisa Foster

Victim-Witness Coordinator

U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York

On a personal note, I feel that things have turned a corner here. I am slowly getting back into my normal routine and I am sleeping better at night (although that could be due to the pills). I hope that all of you are on the road to recovery as well. From the posts that I have read there are a lot of you struggling through extremely difficult times. I commend all of you on your fortitude.

I have read some posts on a few message boards claiming that this is somehow our fault. Apparently we have all been greedy, and that greed begets sorrow (not the exact words but the gist is the same). I say this is bullsh*t! None of us asked for this or deserved this. Regardless of what anyone says remember that we are all victims here.

Anyway, I am off to my kid's soccer game this morning. I am actually looking forward to going and cheering him on...how's that for normal?

Until next time,
TFI

A Little Perspective...

Before I set into my latest post I wanted to extend my thanks to all of you that have taken the time to respond with their own stories and words of encouragement. They have been extremely comforting to me and my family. Please keep 'em coming.

Today was an interesting day. I went to the doctor's today to get a prescription for something to help me sleep. I don't know about the rest of you, but I maxed out at 4 hours sleep the other night. Most nights I find myself waking at least a few times throughout the night. Anyway, while I was in the doctor's office sitting in the waiting room it did make me stop and put the recent events in perspective. Instead of seeking a prescribe sedative, I could have been in there because I was severely ill, or even worse I could have been there because one of my children was ill. I don't want to continue to harp on this every day, but I do find it helpful to recognize that on the spectrum of sh*t I could be a lot worse off.

Anyway, thanks to the doctor I should have close to 2 weeks (that's when the bottle runs dry) of relatively peaceful sleep.

Another interesting thing happened today....it was the first day in over a week that I actually laughed. I mean for real...not one of those fake smiles I put on to prove to everyone that I am okay, but an actual laugh. It felt really good, but I immediately felt guilty. I shouldn't be allowed to laugh so soon after I lost my family's entire savings, but it felt really good. Tonight was my best night yet and I think a lot of it had to do with my good chuckle earlier on. I am going to retell the story of what happened and hopefully a few of you get a good chuckle as well, you all deserve it. So here's what happened

I was out grocery shopping with my father-in-law, he's retired now and a little short-sighted. Anyway, we are at the checkout and he picks up a package of mints and puts them on the belt. It was a good 2 minutes or so before I realized that he had picked up a tin of novelty mints called "Pecker Mints". The can was full of tiny penis-shaped mints. I look at him and say "What are you doing?". He responds, "I felt like some mints", to which I answer "You know they are shaped like tiny penises?"

His face went beat red, after all this entire conversation had taken place in front of the cashier (she couldn't have been older than 20). His only response was "Oh my god, I don't want to suck on those!"

Now don't get me wrong, I am not passing judgement on anyone's sexual alignment but if you knew my father-in-law you couldn't help but break out laughing. I started laughing even harder when I imagined what may have happened if I hadn't alerted him to the fact that they were novelty mints. I pictured him popping a few in his mouth and then perhaps offering some to his wife or friends. My mind continued to go further down that rathole and I just continued to laugh. I am sure that the cashier thought I was a little nuts, but damn it felt good.

Reading over the story again, it just doesn't come out as funny as the moment...maybe I am nuts.

To cap off an interesting day, I am here lying in bed watching Stephen Colbert and he just donated over $171,000 to the Yellow Ribbon Fund, after selling 30,000 WristStrong wristbands. I thought to myself, I could have done the same thing with my money and still had $29,000 to buy something nice for my wife. At least I would know that it went to a good cause, rather than 2 idiots in New York...now that's perspective.

TFI

Will work for $200K

I have to say that probably the hardest part was going back to work. There were a handful of us in the office that had invested with Razor FX so the news quickly spread. I have committed to my family that I will not let this impact my work...I can't let this impact my work. I don't think I could handle losing my job right now.

Instead, I put on a face of nonchalance, shrugging off the questions about how I am holding up with the insane response "If you can't afford to lose it then don't invest it". Sure I have heard this adage before, and of course it makes sense. To be honest I was prepared to lose some with legitimate trades...but not by theft.

Still, most of my co-workers are looking for me to snap, go over the deep-end. Humans seem to have a strange interest with other people's misery, but I vow that I will not give them anything. In fact, I am even more calm than I was before. More determined to outperform and make a name for myself.

Of course, there are those close to me at work, that know the truth. They are my true friends supporting me to stick in, offering help wherever they can (Can you loan me $200K) :)... these guys know exactly how I feel. All day while I am walking the walk and talking the talk, the back of my mind is thinking "How the hell can I make $200K working on the side". I've gone over the budget a few hundred times and I firmly believe that we can make it work but it will involve sacrifices... lots of them. Some sacrifices I just can't give up. This was my mistake and I don't want to have to make my wife or my kids suffer. That would be even more devastating to me. Knowing my family the way I do, I know that they would never complain about having to go without but I would know that I failed them, which is enough. I can't let that happen...I have to think of other forms of revenue. So far, I haven't been that lucky so if anyone has any ideas feel free to post in my comments.

Damn...did I just ask every MLM guy out there to advertise on my blog? I guess I will find some irony if I see any posts about investing in Forex. :)

Is anyone else scared about how much legal costs may be to recover what was rightly ours in the first place?

This really sucks...

TFI

Department of Justice update

Victims that are signed up with the Victim-Witness Co-ordinator should have received an email today, resembling the following:

"We are currently compiling a list of victims and we will make sure your email address is included in our email list for the MacCaull case. Our office has started seizing the defendant’s and Bradley Eisner’s assets. We are receiving numerous emails and phone calls, so we appreciate your patience. An email with additional information and answers to frequently asked questions will be going out later this week. Thank you."



Lisa Foster

Victim-Witness Coordinator

U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York

Hopefully, we will get another update shortly. I wonder if this means that they are going to charge Eisner with something? All I have heard so far is that they have only arrested Michael Richard MacCaull. This could be part of the plea bargain if Bradley Eisner turned State's evidence. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Once again, if you haven't emailed Lisa Foster yet then I would recommend you do so and get yourself on the email list for updates.

TFI

***UPDATE***
There has been some questions raised to the validity of whether Bradley Eisner's name was included in the email. I have yet to receive my own copy (but I did send a follow-up to Ms. Foster) so I cannot clarify. Anyway, there does not appear to be any dispute around the rest of the content of the email

TFI

Crime and Punishment in the digital age

Sometimes, I scour the message boards in an attempt to glean any new information about the case. I came across this very active thread responding to an article found in a local NY rag. Going through the threads it appears that there are a number of individuals who claim to know the defendants, or are related to the defendants and there’s even one or two people who claim to be Bradley D Eisner himself. Now, although there isn’t much useful information found within the 200+ posts, it did cause me to pause and think about how many people these 2 con artists have affected with their actions. By all accounts there are over 1000 investors that are obviously affected by this, but I was thinking more of Mr. Eisner’s family (apparently he has two small boys) and Mr. MacCaull’s family. These guys have no idea who they ripped off. I am just one investor that poses no threat whatsoever, however it sounds like some people or groups have lost upwards from $6 million to $20 million. Anyone losing that kind of money has to be a lot more angry than me, and likely with a lot more resources as well. The trouble is that in this digital age, nobody is anonymous. I did a quick search for both of these alleged crooks and easily found names of their closest relatives (around 7 each), all of their home addresses and phone numbers. This would scare the crap out of me if I was them…or related to them.

Now, my point here is NOT to incite retribution on these people, they are likely just innocent victims like the rest of us, but perhaps this can serve as a warning to anybody out there perhaps planning to perpetrate a similar act of fraud…you are not invisible. Everything you own and everybody you know can be easily traced with a click of the button. Before you decide to try and make an easy buck, step back and think about all of the consequences if you get caught…and you always get caught. Aside from the penal system, you will be destroying the lives of all your loved ones, not to mention the lives of all your victims. Society puts a strong value on money today, and very few people can forgive and forget when someone steals from them. The urge for revenge may resonate strongly throughout the victim community and the end result will be that everyone you know will have to live in fear for a very long time.

If this isn’t convincing enough, and you still feel an urge to steal other people’s money, then just don’t pay your taxes for a couple of years. The end result is the same…you still get to be caught and sent to prison to become Bubba’s love pillow, but at least your family will not be endangered and you won’t likely destroy the lives of others with your crimes.

Anyway, that’s all I could muster for a public service address, but I hope to be back a little later today with another update.

Onwards and upwards,

TFI

Deep Resolve

Call me old fashioned, but as the man of the house, I feel that it is my responsibility to ensure the well-being of my family. Obviously, this recent event has introduced a significant number of hurdles into my family’s livelihood. For the most part I have maintained a stoic front and continue to do my best to try and re-assure them all that everything will be fine. That we will bounce back from this and soon be living our lives again as if this never happened…and deep down I do believe this, but my soul still aches and my stomach continues to wrench realizing that this one stupid mistake will have long reaching effects. Trips to Disneyland, 2nd Honeymoons, moving to a house closer to school, new car, renovating the kitchen, etc. Many people will consider many of these items to be superfluous but they were our hopes and aspirations prior to this debacle. Now my priorities have shifted to keeping the house we live in now, paying for our current car, paying the property taxes, etc. nowhere near as enjoyable.

The only time my stoicism collapsed was the day I found out the news. I had buried my emotions deep like men are supposed to and carried on with my daily tasks. I had obviously called my wife earlier in the day explaining to her the situation but I told no one else. That evening, after arriving home from work, my son approached me in my room. He’s quite young, too young to understand exactly what has happened, but yet he could sense that I was stressed. I was standing in the bathroom, looking in the mirror, taking a good look at the idiot that screwed over his family when he walked up to me quietly. There he was standing before me looking up to me and he said “I love you dad. You are the best dad in the whole wide world”. Then he gave me a big hug. I kneeled and returned the hug, and told him I loved him very much as well. I then sent him downstairs for dinner. Almost immediately upon his departure I broke down into tears. It was the first and only time since I had heard the news that had I cried over this. There was something about his innocence, or perhaps his undying trust in my judgment, that brought on this extreme feeling of guilt within me. It was overwhelming and I spent the next few minutes just letting it out. After what felt like an eternity, but was probably more like 2 minutes, I cleaned myself up and headed downstairs. I was now more determined than ever not to let these bastards destroy me. They can steal my money but there is no way in hell I am going to let them steal my family. This moment, with my tear streaked face and my swollen eyes, was the precise moment I had decided to stop being a victim and start the rebuilding process. Don’t get me wrong, I still hurt all over, and I am still sick to my stomach, but it was at this point in time that I realized that I had to step it up and take care of my family. I can’t rely, nor expect, anyone else to do this on my behalf.

Onwards and upwards,

TFI

Talking to the Feds

As I mentioned yesterday, I actually had a chance to speak with the lead prosecutor on the case last week shortly after the news broke. Apparently Ms. Monaco had been contacted by a number of us so she wasn't too surprised by another call. Her advice was pretty straight-forward, which was to ensure that we all contact the Victim-Witness co-ordinator and get our names on their list. I have posted the name in an earlier post however for those of you that may have missed it here it is again: lisa.foster@usdoj.gov

Aside from this, Ms. Monaco did mention that she felt they should seize close to $20MM in assets. Potentially, more if more sources are discovered. She went on to say that one house that was searched was completely empty. One can assume that potentially an associate of MacCaull's had been able to clean it out prior to the arrival of the feds.

Finally, when asked how long I should expect the recovery process to take, she exclaimed that with trial and everything she would guess close to 2 years...which is apparently a lot better than the victims of the Evergreen Scam which took close to 5 years to resolve. One of the main differences between Evergreen and Razor FX is that most of the funds were kept in the US with Razor FX, which should also help for recovery. According to Ms. Monaco, Evergreen had bilked over $100MM and only $6MM was seized due to the offshore movement of the money. In Ms. Monaco's opinion, at this early stage she felt much more optimistic that a more substantial level of asset recovery should be expected for the victims of Razor FX primarily due to the lack of involvement with foreign financial institutions.

Please note, this was just her opinion and in no way legal advice. She strongly suggested that I retain the advise of a legal expert in this field...which I shall do once I save up some money :).

In the meantime, I have sent an email to the Victim-Witness Co-ordinator and Ms.Monaco explained that we will likely get an update later this week or next.

Time to start moving on with life.

Where we're at today

Ok, like I mentioned in my first entry, it's been under a week since I have realized that I had become a victim of fraud. It's been a rollercoaster of emotions, below are just some of them:

1. Fear - the first feeling I felt as I was reading the email alert was the fear I had of telling my wife. My wife is a lovely soul and was entirely disclosed on the amount of money I was investing, however she was never really comfortable with it. It was her trust in my judgement that enabled her to give me the go ahead. That first call to her to tell her I had lost all our money was the scariest thing I had done.
   
   
2. Disbelief - After the fear, came the disbelief. I can't believe this is happening. This kind of stuff happens to people on TV but not to me. I consider myself a well educated individual with good common sense. I felt I did my due diligence and still got screwed over.
   
   
3. Confused - what do I do next, who do I need to talk to, where do I sign up to ensure I am kept up-to-date, etc. All of these questions, and many more, went rushing through my mind. I stumbled across a few message boards and quickly realized I was not alone with these questions
   
   
4. Anger - Obviously, there was an extreme level of anger directed towards the bastards that stole my money, but I also felt extremely angry with myself. I know better than to risk the nest egg, and potentially the house on an investment no matter how stable it appears to be. I began to question my judgement, were there more signs that I should have seen and withdrawn my money prior to the entire thing imploded? Why didn't I take out the principal and play with $20K or so I had "earned" since I had started a few months earlier? So many, "what-if"s and "why didn't I"s that I could spend hours beating myself up just replaying the past few months in my head.
   
   
5. Depressed - This is probably where I spend most of my life these days. Coming to grips that the likelihood of me getting any significant portion of my money back is probably very slim. I think about all the other ways I could have spent $200K if I felt the need to finance it to blow on something. A complete house reno for one...that would be great right about now. Or perhaps capping out both of my kids education funds, this way they would have something when Harvard comes knocking. Even something more frivolous, like a trip around the world would have given me a lifetime of experiences that I may be able to stretch my judgement in an attempt to justify. Hell, even a single spin on the roulette wheel would have been better would have been better than this...at least with roulette there is a legitimate chance to make money. This FX sham had no chance at all, and that just really sucks.
   

I know there are many of you out there reading this that may be thinking, "You dumb schmuck, you deserve to lose your money. Everyone knows there's no such thing as a quick buck." In hindsight, I would have to agree with these people...I am a dumb schmuck...but I honestly felt that this was a reasonable rate of return for a smart investor. They weren't promising to double your money in a month, or even double it in a year. In fact most weeks reported earnings of 0.5% and 1%, which is still pretty good, but no way as high as the ridiculous numbers that some other FOREX companies were proposing. Also, I know people that have been in this for over 3 years. They never had any problem taking money out over this time, or putting it back in. Of course there were weeks where their portfolio "lost" money or essentially broke even after the fees. I liked their strategy of sticking to the big boards (US, GBP and the JPY), it all seemed solid to me. Finally, in October, after watching all of my friends increase their wealth dramatically all these years, i decided to make the plunge. Three Months later my life has been changed forever because of this investment, but not in the way I hoped it would.

Anyway, I could go on forever about this and I likely will. I don't profess to be an English Lit major so don't expect my posts to be very coherent or have much of a flow. Right now, i am just typing it as it comes to me. Some posts will be long, almost novellas, and others will be small and succinct. I guess it will all depend on what kind of mood I am in that day. :)

Also, one last disclaimer. I don't proof read...simple as that. There will be words missing, grammatical errors and quite likely spelling mistakes and the misuse of there, or their, or they're. Hopefully, with all of this you will still be able to grasp the message of my posts. If not, feel free to drop me a comment and I will do my best to clarify the spaghetti of my text.

Tomorrow, I will discuss my call with one of the Lead Prosecutors on the case (yes I actually spoke to someone) and my trip to the pharmacy to get some prescriptions anti-depressants.

Until then, stick in there and be strong. Reaffirm that the most important thing in life is your family and your health and that together we can all get through this.

Regards,
TFI

First things first

So, it's been a flurry of activity these past few days and I want to tell you all about it. However, it's late and I haven't been sleeping very well these past few days (understandably). Still, I wanted to add one new post with some pertinent information.

If you are an investor with Razor FX and have not done so yet, I would suggest emailing the Victim-Witness Co-ordinator at the US Department of Justice. The co-ordinator for this case is Lisa Foster and her email address is lisa.foster@usdoj.gov.

Ms. Foster will add be able to add your name to a list of persons that will be contacted as updates in the case occur. I will also be updating this blog with any information that I hear from the DOJ, for anyone who is not on their email list.

Regards,
The Foolish Investor

5 Days of Hell!

This is my first post of what I anticipate to be many more to come. I plan to use this blog to document my road to recovery...at least I hope it's to recovery. It's been 5 days now since I discovered that I had lost close to $200K of my hard-earned money in what appears to be a ponzi scam run by Razor FX, a so-called investment firm based out of New York. Early reports claim the scheme bilked close to $68 million out of hundreds of investors so I know I am not alone in my suffering.

I hope that over time this blog will morph into one of the millions of other blogs filled with witty renditions of the lives of ordinary Americans, as I get my life back on track, but I expect the first few months may be considered quite depressing to a number of readers.

In the end I am determined not to let this destroy me. I am dedicated to proving to my family that we can survive this and get on with our lives. It will be a tough ride, but with the help of friends and family, we can all get through this together.

Please follow along with me on my journey.

Regards,
The Foolish Investor