November 28, 2007 by Nobody Fugazi
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Late yesterday, I received this notecard from Skip Oceanlane regarding his attempts to get former MIBank investments in WSE to the depositors of MIBank. Below it, a response given by WSE to one of the depositors of Midas Bank is also available.
IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE - November 27, 2007
WORLS STOCK EXCHANGE (WSE) REFUSES TO COOPERATE, KEEPS INVESTOR MERLIN'S STOCKS FOR ITSELF
In an e-mail to Merlin's Investment Bank (MIBank) Vice-President Skip Oceanlane, World Stock Exchange owner LukeConnell Vandeverre refused to confirm information about what stocks Investor Merlin purchased with MIBank funds citing "privacy concerns." In addition, Mr. Vandeverre stated that he was refusing to transfer any stocks to the care of Skip Oceanlane and is instead keeping all stocks for himself and his stock exchanges use. Mr. Vandeverre is doing this in spite of the fact that every other SL stock exchange has already transferred shares in question for sale and refund to former MIBank depositors.
Mr. Vandeverre stated instead of transferring stocks worth hundreds of thousands of Lindens to the care of Skip Oceanlane and allowing him to sell them so Lindens can be refunded to depositors, he will instead issue "World Trader Fund" stocks to former depositors. "This stock Mr. Vandeverre is giving out is practically worthless compared to the stocks he should be transferring. It's nothing but a scam as bad as what Investor Merlin has done", said Oceanlane. Vice-President Oceanlane said he would bring the matter to the Second Life Exchange Commission to take action, if possible.
Skip Oceanlane has estimated that this stock, currently hovering around .03 Linden per share, is only roughly 5% of what could be obtained if the stocks in Investor Merlin's name were sold. "I am deeply disappointed that Mr. Vandeverre is keeping these stocks for his own use at the WSE. Every other stock exchange has transferred the stocks back so depositors could get back some of their Lindens", said Oceanlane.
Mr. Vandeverre refused to allow Mr. Oceanlane to provide all necessary documentation to state the case why the stocks should be transferred to his care. Mr. Vandeverre stated that he doesn't feel Mr. Oceanlane has a legitimate claim to the stocks, and that transferring them would be "illegal."
In spite of Mr. Vandeverre not releasing a list of stocks in question, here is the last known list of Investor Merlin's stocks at the WSE. This list is as of October 12, 2007, and Mr. Vandeverre refuses to verify its accuracy:
ACE:1500 ALC:23451 AMA:1 AMI:3096 AMS:10000 BMC:8730 BPV:6087 CIG:1181 DSE:11080 DTR:35 ENL:3036 FED:1775 GAL:667 GBU:9497 HOT:1274 HUI:371 HYP:137 IBM:10205 KCG:512 LDI:17622 LEM:393 LFB:968 LGO:9055 MFM:11284 MYT:2422 PFW:??? PGI:10607 PPL:51791 PSG:38983 REZ:306 RIN:565 SIM:7584 SKY:1857 SLM:1747 SLR:729 SLZ:1681 SNL:1065 SSP:650 TCI:5030 TGB:1065 TYP:4999 VGI:650 XDT:500
Copy of statement, word for word, from Mr. Vandeverre:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello,Firstly, you cannot claim the lindens stolen. SL residents deposited linden dollars into a virtual bank with many risks that was controlled by the avatar Investor Merlin. Once they do that they are giving Investor Merlin permission to use those linden dollars however he decides to in order to hopefully generate a return that would cover his large and in our view unrealistic interest rate commitments.
The result was that Investor Merlin was unable to generate a reasonable return from his virtual investments to cover the interest commitments being offered by his virtual bank. He is also likely to have over committed the linden dollars in his virtual bank that resulted in insufficient cash reserves to cover any withdrawal requests by his users.
The WSE is not obligated in anyway to the depositors of his virtual bank or the customers of any virtual business controlled by other avatars however we have a process for situations such as this and the process we have is that we do not transfer control of fictional assets in the WSE to any other user once an avatar is found to have gone bankrupt or breached WSE terms. Rather than an immediate liquidation of those assets, the WSE converts those assets into a large fund called the WSE Traders Fund that offers a far better opportunity for any shareholders of the fund to have an opportunity to get the best possible return through large dividends and interest payments to offset any loss from failed virtual businesses.
I look forward to receiving the final and complete list of avatar names and balances for us to begin the recovery process. The WSE would recommend that users hold their WTF shares once they have been issued rather than selling them at the current market price.
Kind Regards, Luke
--------------------------------------------------------------------------I have forwarded the final approved claims list to Mr. Vandeverre. Anyone that wishes to get more information about what he intends to do, can contact the WSE directly.
Sorry folks,…I did my best, but it seems that not everyone wants to do the right thing here. If anyone can help get Mr. Vandeverre to change his decision, please do so. Thank you.
Peter Stindberg shared the following response to him from WSE (Lukeconnell Vandeverre) via notecard:
Hello, The WSE is not responsible for any of the lindens that you paid to the Avatar Midas Commons using the Midas Bank System. Please tell me why you thought that your lindens would be in the WSE? The WSE is not obligated to help or assist Midas Bank customers however the WSE did ask Midas Commons to provide a list of all depositor names and their balances so that the WSE could try and assist Midas Bank depositors in recovering their lindens through the WSE Traders Fund. To date Midas Commons has refused to let us assist his depositors at all and he has not provided any information to us. Kind Regards, Luke --
Personal Opinion: So, What Does It Mean?
There is some room for speculation here. While the WSE may be sticking to its rules, it does seem odd that they would consider anything 'illegal'; they make it a point to say that they are dealing with 'fictional currency' so these must be fictional laws that are being discussed. The irony of that is not easily lost despite the continuation of Linden Lab's magic circle of fictional currency.
The acid test when someone says 'its just play money' is to ask them to give you all their Linden dollars. If they give you all their money, then it is play money.
Considering how WSE and Ginko Financial are joined and how WSE capitalized on the collapse of Ginko at the cost of Ginko Depositors, it does seem that WSE is a little short on scruples and a little long on sticky fingers.
Personally, I feel bad for depositors of Midas Bank and MIBank. In the case of Midas Commons, I think LukeConnell Vandeverre went for the throat - which may be legitimate, but certainly doesn't bode well for WSE investors.
In the case of Skip Oceanlane's attempts to gain investments made by Investor Merlin from the WSE so that they could be passed on to depositors - I think the WTF fund of WSE was appropriately named, and that Luke's snickering about it himself.
No good can come from a fund named, 'WTF'.
Other stock exchanges seem more amiable to investor security, though none of it is perfect within Second Life. Still, at least some are willing to try instead of laughing in one's face and saying.... WTF!
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[...] school for science and technology 26. oslo norway … http://www.buzzingstock.net/ WSE says 'WTF' to MIBank and Midas Bank Investors | Your2ndPlace Nov 28, 2007 Late yesterday, I received this notecard from Skip Oceanlane regarding his attempts [...]
Hmm
Is this standard practice for WSE to issue WTF in such circumstances? You're right, the name doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Who benefits from WTF? Would WSE be any better or worse off if they'd followed the lead set by other exchanges?
There really should be a code of conduct for financial institutions, it's a big sorry mess at the moment.
IM from LukeConnell Vandeverre
While Luke seems unable to comment on a blog, here is an IM from him sent to me directly. My response, which was 'feel free to comment on the entry', was not able to be sent through Linden Lab's mail gateway for some reason:
That is what he had to say.
Second Life Consultant
LukeConnell Vandeverre Weasel Words
This is yet another example of LukeConnell Vandeverre thinking he's the master of spin, and above the rules. He's trying to change the REAL subject of that what he is doing is illegal, to instead making the discussion that he never said it was illegal what he did.
Mr. Vandeverre says: "Clearly there will be opposition to the actions the WSE has taken with regards to the WSE Traders Fund..."
This isn't about Mr. Vandeverre's worthless WTF stock. This is about him stealing 1,000,000 Lindens worth of stock from Investor Merlin's account so I couldn't sell it and return Lindens to MIBank depositors. I gave him a copy of Investor Merlin's e-mail authorization for me to use the account (I was given the password like all the other stock exchanges). I also gave Mr. Vandeverre Merlin's real life contact information including his name, address and phone number. He ignored addressing my e-mails. Remember, I was the one asking a hold be put on the account to begin with, until it all could be sorted out.
I think Mr. Vandeverre needs to look up the word "illegal" in the dictionary. For what he's done to MIBank, Midas, and a host of others, the definition fits it perfectly. We are all finally seeing what a con artist he really is, hiding behind his "business." He's fooling no one anymore.
Mr. Vandeverre already knows people have had it with his ILLEGAL acts of taking stock and Lindens away from others, and keeping it for himself. He's just hoping everyone drops it, or that he doesn't face any consequences.
Well stay tuned folks. This is far from over.
VSTEX statement
A few days ago Mr. Skip Oceanlane got the last proceeds from the liquidation of Investor Merlin's assets found at the VSTEX.
We're gonna post the details of the proceeds, for purposes of transparency.
We believe we should not comment on WSE decision to turn down Oceanlane's request and issue WTF quotas to Merlin Investment Bank depositors, since our totally different approach to the issue speaks out loud, already.
Samantha Goldflake
VSTEX Communication and Public Relations Director
http://www.vstex.net
Understand this
I do understand where most are coming from with this but I think a few key elements are missing in the understanding....
First, Luke has no obligation to Skip to turn over Merlin's assets and if Merlin wanted to, he could attempt to push a violation of TOS...don't think it will fly but it could at least be attempted as Merlin has not authorized Luke to do this.
Second, Merlin's assets are not necessarily that of the bank because they are held under his avatar name and not a disclosed company alt. Again, a TOS violation could be argued here.
Third, since there is not true corporation in SL, again, Luke and no other exchange has any obligation to release assets.
Now, don't get me wrong. I am not saying that it should not be done but I am saying that no one has an obligation to do it so getting mad about it is mute. I would say stop focusing on the problem and focus on the solution.
Solution: Creating a true (or modified) corporation in SL.
Exactly
The Lukaroni is perfectly within legal limits by not releasing anything in this instance. However, he is at the least jumping up and down on the morality area.
Business Ethics: F.
But we knew that already, didn't we?
Second Life Consultant