Financial Update – Ginko Not Dead Yet
by Jessica Holyoke on 17/12/07 at 7:38 am
Ginko Financials still taking deposits
The "JT" behind JT Financials revealed
by Jessica Holyoke
I approached a Resident when I noticed that she had a December 2007 rez date and two Ginko Financial groups in her profile. She told me how she used a Ginko Financial ATM based on the advice of a friend. She deposited Lindens in, as that is how you opened an account with that Bank, and was informed by the ATM that Ginko was closed. Unfortunately, the payment to GF Ambassador still went through. I confirmed that the ATM was still taking payments by making a L$1 deposit. The GF Ambassador account must still be active and the ATM is still taking payments on GinkoTech land.
Perhaps liquidators such as Shaun Altman should be made aware that the Ginko ATM’s are not disabled?
I received a rumor a few weeks back regarding what the JT in JT Financial stands for. I was unable to confirm with specificity until Arbitrage Wise, the CEO of JT Financial, Wise Metaverse Network and the SL Capital Exchange confirmed, under pressure, that the JT of JT Financial stands for juice trading as in www.juicetrading.com. The website offers a software program for gamblers that use book makers or bookmaking sites to gamble. The arbitrage comes from making bets on both for and against a certain team or outcome. By playing against the juice commissions that are involved in book based gambling, the gambler is intended to come out ahead by hedging his bets.
Arbitrage Wise in his statement on SL Reports http://sl-virtual-world-news.com/content/view/1361/99/, states that this software was developed solely for the overseas market, the company is based in Romania, and that there are no ties between Arbitrage, the owner of juicetrading.com, and the United States. Even though the website came first, presumably under the Arbitrage Associates corporation that Arbitrage Wise registered in RL, the website has no limitation on US residents accessing the site and the arbitration clause in the terms of service state that the laws of the United States apply.
IntLibber Brautigan is mentioned on Arbritage Wise’s disclosure that the US House of Representatives’ Majority Whip is investigating the use of SL funds in sports gambling. However, no reply was received to e-mail requests from Jim Clyburn’s office.
Ari
Dec 17th, 2007
“Perhaps liquidators such as Shaun Altman should be made aware that the Ginko ATM’s are not disabled?”
Ummm… you didn’t?
LOL – Just kidding. Couldn’t resist. :p
Alan Greenspan
Dec 17th, 2007
Hey somebody has to pay for Intlibber’s tier.
Hiro Pendragon
Dec 17th, 2007
Does Shaun Altman own the ATMs? No.
Does he know where every one is? I doubt it.
Can you pay any object in SL, regardless of whether it’s a “ATM” or a plain 0.5m^3 plywood cube? YES.
Is this trying to imply Shaun is doing something wrong by spinning facts to make it seem like “behaving in a way which EVERY SINGLE PRIM IN SECOND LIFE BEHAVES” is “active”? Yes.
This isn’t even tabloid quality, this is crappy writing.
Lao-Tzu
Dec 17th, 2007
Interesting article Jessica. Sounds like these remaining ATMs are a scam for sure.
Prokofy Neva
Dec 17th, 2007
Maybe Jim Clyburn’s office isn’t answering because Intlibber invoked the House Republican Whip:
http://www.blunt.house.gov/About.aspx?Section=5
” [12:09] IntLibber Brautigan: the US House of Representatives Republican Majority Whip wants a report from us about juice trading to forward to the FBI”
And this — if true in the slightest — is probably one of those things where Intlibber, apparently the former chair of the Libertarian Party in his state, called this Whip’s office and got told, “Um, well, sure, send us something, we’ll take a look.”
I emailed Roy Blunt’s office and didn’t get an answer either.
In fact, it all sounds bogus. Perhaps Intlibber could tell us whether in fact he meant Blunt or Clyburn, and whether he has any more response, as it all sounds fake.
Whatever Arbitrage’s story, it seems clear that Intlibber is engaging in blackmail here. I don’t see that anything he unearthed about Arbitrage’s web business is relevant to U.S. law as it is not located in the U.S. and the US doesn’t have jurisdiction overseas. In fact, the idea that you call up a political crony to start a probe about gambling seems pretty bogus, too; isn’t this the FBI’s job?
I don’t see how on earth we should accept this third-party story about somebody with groups on their avatar as evidence that “Ginko terminals were not disabled”.
I have to wonder how any terminal called “Ginko” could still function, as I recall distinctly towards the end that if you tried to deposit money into any terminal, it would give you error messages. This was tried repeatedly on a variety of terminals, including their central one.
If the GF Ambassador account is still active, it’s likely because LL could not find any violation of the TOS, and LL doesn’t get involved in resident-to-resident transaction disputes.
I would urge anybody who feels they have been significantly defrauded in Second Life to get a real lawyer, not an Internet lawyer dispensing advice on the Herald, and deal with real-world authorities, not residents and Lindens.
Jessica Holyoke
Dec 17th, 2007
Hiro,
Sorry you feel that I’m attacking Shaun.
1. Shaun did take it upon himself to find all the Ginko assets that were left over when Portocarrero left. In his blog post of November 8, 2007, found here: http://www.shaunaltman.com/articles/2007/11/11/ginko-liquidation-update, he stated the assets he was able to find of Ginko’s. Missing among that list is the GF Ambassador account.
2. I believe we’re assuming GF Ambassador is empty. Its obviously not empty now. If it contains assets, those should be seized and distributed too. Who holds the account? Does Ginko Tech have access to the account due to their coding of the ATM’s? Does the WSE have access to the GF Ambassador account
3. Most prims do not look like ATM’s and say “Pay to start a Ginko bank account.” Is it so hard to change that script to say that Ginko is no more?
4. How is Shaun doing with the liquidation? Nothing has been posted for 37 days on his blog. I can understand waiting until Q1 08 to report progress, but for someone who took on a trustee role, his name needs to be remembered.
My apologies if it came out like I was attacking Shaun Altman or if it came out that Shaun Altman had anything to do with the Ginko ATM still advertising Ginko Financial services.
Allana Dion
Dec 18th, 2007
>”I would urge anybody who feels they have been significantly defrauded in Second Life to get a real lawyer, not an Internet lawyer dispensing advice on the Herald”
To be fair Prokofy, writing a blog post telling a story or simply relaying info you’ve heard is not “dispensing advice” (regardless of whether you agree with the subject matter). When Jessica or anyone else writes a blog post, it’s done simply as a blogger unless stated otherwise. Her byline says “Jessica Holyoke” not “Jessica Holyoke, Law Student”.
What she writes here has nothing to do with her RL career any more than what you or I write on our blogs have to do with our RL careers.
economic mip
Dec 18th, 2007
From my own observations, you touch the ATM, it gives you a no longer a banking entity message. You pay the ATM, your money still goes to the holding account. Yes this is a problem, but anyone who does business with a Second Life bank should know there is no imaginable way to get a decent return.
Angel
Dec 18th, 2007
I wonder if you can AR these remaining ATM’s as gambling devices and have the Linden Game Gods swoop in mercilessly to remove them like they do ‘sploders?
Kahni Poitier
Dec 21st, 2007
I doubt it, Angel. Because there’s a zero percent chance of getting your money back.
It’s not gambling, it’s a guarantee.
Archie Lukas
Dec 24th, 2007
Isn’t this a simple case of outright fraud then?