JT Financials, Wise Metaverse: Linked to Apparently Profitable Real Life Business.

I got pinged with a few people asking about JT Financials ability to pay interest, and whether it was a [w:ponzi scheme], and so forth. Truth be told, JT Financials has been the dark horse in the media for weeks, but it has been spending a lot of money - so it was worth looking into. It certainly has been spending a lot of money:

• $10,000 USD for SL Reports
• The buyout of the AVIX Exchange, which cost about $3,600 USD up front with a commitment of about $25,270 over the next year.
• SLMarketLive: A new spin on virtual item marketing.

Aside from that, a lot of money has been spent on simulators and so forth. There's a lot of money that has been visibly spent, so I poked and prodded Arbitrage Wise, the CEO of JT Financial and Wise Metaverse. He recognized that he had to show some people what he was up to - but he also didn't want to make what he was doing public. He showed me where the money is coming from once I agreed to a Non-Disclosure Agreement, and while I can't endorse the bank I can say the following:

• JT Financial and Wise Metaverse are tied to a real-world business which appears to be profitable enough to explain the expenditures for the rapid expansion over the last few months.
• There is nothing that is blatantly illegal that I saw
• It would appear that JT Financial and Wise Metaverse are also a tax break for the real world business, and there are plans that were shared with me that will link the real world business to Second Life. This may be the reason for the secrecy at this time.
• I encouraged Arbitrage to have Eliale Morigi of The Rock Insurance take a look at his operations, even if a Non-Disclosure Agreement is involved

So is JT Financials legitimate? It would appear so; I cannot write more on the topic myself. I will add that since taking over AVIX, there has been a push toward all companies providing identification of their CEOs, and that overall there does seem to be a culture of transparency that surrounds Arbitrage Wise. None of this guarantees that JT Financials and Wise Metaverse will be successful - even Arbitrage Wise acknowledged that - but it does look as if the success or failure of the inworld businesses is not linked to any readily apparent ponzi schemes.

Overall, I still consider banking in Second Life, even with complete transparency, a high risk investment. Things are happening to mitigate those risks, and while I'm happy to see that happening I'm not changing my opinion about SL banking being a high risk investment just yet. As more information comes to light, naturally, my own thoughts may change on specific banks as well as the banking 'sector' in Second Life as a whole.

If The Rock Insurance Co. does take a look, I expect there may be a lowering in the insurance rates for JT Financial account holders - which would be a better sign of viability than anything I could write.

As a sidenote, I'm glad that CEOs of banks are trying to address these issues.