Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego Gregory Pitt?

Richard Cayne has been boasting for quite some time that his partner in the Royal Siam Trust / White Sands Beach mess, Gregory Pitt, has been handed an eighteen-year prison sentence by a court in Thailand. Unfortunately, Mr. Pitt has decided to go into hiding rather than face the music.

I find it very difficult to believe this claim. First of all, as investigative journalist Andrew Drummond correctly points out, "I do not believe for a second that he is in jail. Nobody with cash goes straight to jail in Thailand. They go to appeal and the Supreme Court first – which can take at least a decade."

At least a decade? Oh my Heavens! That reminds me of those old TV commercials that always ended with "Not going anywhere for a while? Grab a Snickers!"

Secondly, does anyone really expect me to believe that no one has been able to locate an obese, alcoholic WHITE man in Southeast Asia? Take a look at this picture and tell me he doesn't stand out like a sore thumb.



"Where did he go? He must have vanished into fat thin air!"

Lastly, go back to my post dated October 26, 2014 and take a good look at the second document. The co-founders of Royal Siam Trust Company were Richard Cayne and Gregory John Pitt. This is not a case of Richard Cayne, the unsung hero investment broker, hunting down the land whale crook, Gregory Pitt, on behalf of his investors. Richard Cayne and Gregory Pitt set up and marketed this landbanking scam together and when their deception was discovered, they began pointing fingers at each other.

I believe that Richard Cayne knows where Gregory Pitt is and may even have been in contact with him since he "went into hiding." I won't believe otherwise until he is located but I'm not optimistic. Maybe grabbing that Snickers wasn't such a bad idea after all....

Bye Bye Tokyo, Hello Bangkok

Here is the farewell letter that Richard Cayne sent to his clients before moving away to Bangkok:

I would like to thank you for patronizing our services over the past 10 years. This notice serves as an announcement that Meyer Asset Management Ltd has closed operations in Japan due to several regulatory changes with the Japanese Financial Services Agency. Meyer Asset Management Ltd has been registered as a “licensed investment advisory agency” in Japan under the jurisdiction from the Kanto Local Finance Bureau as a Financial Supervisory Authority (hereafter the FSA).

Over the past 10 years we have been pioneers in advising clients on a range of over 200 top global fund companies each offering several lines of investment products and therefore Meyer wanting to keep a very open architecture advisory business where we can genuinely help advise our client to create portfolios of investments from the very best of investments around the globe have decided in an effort to be completely compliant with local laws and regulations cannot do this business in Japan. 

In order for a firm in Japan to introduce overseas products to Japanese residents the introducing firm must be appropriately licensed and such products would have to be registered with the Financial services Agency and therefore to offer such a broad range of products would be impractical and cost prohibitive to register each one. In addition to which a securities or advisory firm in Japan is subject to information requests by the FSA or Japanese tax bureau at any time and would be required to release investors confidential information on demand.

Therefore due to client driven demand for more confidentiality and even wider range of services and products from our advisory service it has been decided to shut the Japan operations and clients will be serviced by Meyer International offices from Bangkok, Thailand operations center. We are pleased to advise that being based in Bangkok will give us the flexibility and strategic positioning to be very central to our clients all over Asia and allow us to offer clients even more global investment choices with a much higher degree of confidentiality. 

In order to achieve ones financial objectives, investors need professional advice and need to receive support from an independent position at all times. We believe that having choices from a wide variety of investments products from all over the world in order to achieve such financial objectives is paramount.

Our consultants will explain to you regarding future business plans should you have any questions.

Thank you very much for your continuous support and understanding.

Sincerely yours,

Richard M. Cayne
Managing Director
Meyer Asset Management Ltd

And here is a bit of reading between the lines about what the message might really mean:

So, according to Cayne, registering investment vehicles with the FSA in Japan is "impractical" (translation: not subject to approval) and "cost prohibitive" (for the business offering them). And the FSA can gather private details about clients through their investment broker (translation: the FSA can investigate to see if the broker is complying with Japanese law). Finally, Cayne suggests Thailand is more "confidential" than Japan (translation: the Japanese authorities will be more likely to investigate dodgy businesses than Than authorities). Finally, a "consultant" will not contact you because there are no consultants. The 'consultant" will likely to be Cayne or a flavor-of-the-month associate. 

Let the buyer beware.

Wait! There's more! Check it out:

Looks like the parasite ran away from Japan when the authorities decided to enforce regulation. They really don't like being registered and licenced do they? Too difficult to stitch up the unsuspecting punters with their useless managed funds and assorted ponzi scams.
What's the next best location - Thailand of course! Join the rest of the unlicenced unregulated and unscrupulous financial conmen preying on gullible expats.
Is it just a coincidence or do all conmen hide behind the sham of supposedly keeping their investors confidential information, only as a pretext to hide their own dodgy dealing?

If it sounds too good to be true...

Richard Cayne giving people advice on how not to get ripped off! Oh, what priceless irony!

http://richardcayne.net/if-it-sounds-too-good-to-be-true-it-may-be-a-ponzi-scheme/

According to the article, here are the warning signs that investors need to be aware of:

High returns on investments with seemingly no risk. Even under normal conditions, a yield over 5% to 8% may seem incredible. To get 200%, with a guarantee, is most likely a Ponzi scheme.

This is food for thought - especially considering that Richard Cayne told me that Royal Siam Trust was such a good investment that I could "double or even triple" my money. Your words, Mr. Cayne, not mine.

• Regulations are often the bane of investors, but they are there for your protection. If you deal with an unregistered or unlicensed dealer or investment, there’s no way for you to confirm their legitimacy, and you’ll definitely have less recourse when things go wrong.

It's kind of like doing business with an investment advisor in Japan who abruptly shuts down operations there and runs moves away to Bangkok, Thailand after getting sanctioned by the competent  authorities at the FSA. It's definitely true that Royal Siam Trust investors have no recourse whatsoever now that the guy who sold it to them is living in Thailand. I guess their only "recourse" now is to have faith that the same person who got them into this mess will somehow get them out of it.

• You get great looking statements showing how your investment has grown, but you can’t find out exactly how this is happening and can’t get your hands on that money easily. It’s still your money, so you should be able to track your funds, and, if necessary, withdraw from or close your account depending on the nature of the investment and asset class.

Whatever happened to the www.royalsiamtrust.com website? And didn't Richard Cayne tell his clients that they could resell their "units" in Royal Siam Trust early if need be?

Hmm. Something seems fishy here.

"It's their plan for your money, so assume deception"

I contend that the only reason an advisor would recommend such an expensive and inflexible investment plan is to earn a fat commission payment, and therefore the payment of a large commission to an advisor is akin to bribery. 

I couldn't agree more with the above statement. Did Richard Cayne really have his clients' best interests at heart when he recommended lousy investment products such as Zurich International Life?

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2014/02/26/voices/its-their-plan-for-your-money-so-assume-deception/#.WqEjVZNuZIY

Here's a review from a satisfied (?) Cayne client:

https://meyer-international.pissedconsumer.com/scammed-by-richard-cayne-20150110580676.html