http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-1856664,00.html Maybe if this kind of justice was meted out then thieves like Bennet, Ebbers et al would think twice before grubbing. Sorry for the family but then they are benefiting quite happily from blood money and they didn't let the sons of the Nazis keep the gold, did they ? Public schoolgirl murdered by mafia By Ian Key A BRITISH public schoolgirl has been murdered in a Russian mafia attack in which her millionaire parents also died. Businessman Alexander Slesareva was killed along with his wife and 15-year-old daughter Elisaveta in a drive-by shooting just outside Moscow. The teenager, who was a pupil at St Peterâs School, York, had talked to friends and staff about her fears of returning to Russia, where her father was embroiled in a scandal after the collapse of a bank he owned triggered a financial crisis. The 37-year-oldâs body was found in his bullet-riddled Mercedes along with that of his wife, Natalya, and his daughter. His seven-year-old niece, who was also in the car, was seriously injured and taken to hospital. Three men, thought to be his bodyguards, who were travelling in a separate jeep were also injured. Elisaveta, who was studying for ten GCSEs, had been at the North Yorkshire school, where it costs up to £18,000 a year to board, only since September. Matthew Grant, Master of the school boarding house where Elisaveta, known as Lisa, had been staying, said: âHer life in Moscow allowed her little freedom. She had confessed that she was not looking forward to having to live with a bodyguard at her side. This is a terrible waste of a young life.â Mr Slesarevaâs life was under threat after the collapse of the Sodbiznesbank amid allegations of money laundering. The family died when a car overtook the businessmanâs convoy on a road about 20 miles outside Moscow and two gunmen began firing as they drew level. The killersâ burnt-out car was later found with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and a Makarov pistol inside it. Mr Slesareva was infamous in Russian banking circles after the two banks that he owned had their licences revoked last year after claims that the Sodbiznesbank had been laundering ransom money. Its collapse meant thousands of depositors were unable to access their money for weeks and lost precious savings when it was finally liquidated. Depositors were kept out of Sodbiznesbankâs offices by armed men, who were seen apparently shredding documents. Mr Slesareva kept a low profile during the crisis, during which the bank was stormed by riot police. It is known, however, that he was a multi- millionaire, that he was one of the biggest cash donors to President Vladimir Putinâs re-election campaign last year and that he was politically well connected. Before his financial empire crumbled, his banks were among the few authorised to loan money to the Moscow city government. Police sources said yesterday that they suspected his murder could be connected with the Sodbiznesbank fiasco and that Mr Slesareva may not have âfulfilled his banking obligationsâ.
could we assume that since there is no class action suite for the accoumt holders and only for the share holders of Refco that the account holders will be ok ? anyone
Refco FX is bankrupt and is in bankruptcy proceedings. If you want to get back at least some of your money, you need to participate, through appropriate representatives, as a creditor in the bankruptcy proceeding. If there is any money left for you, after Refco FX first makes whole its higher priority creditors, then that money will be long gone, by the time any class action claims can be pursued. I took a look at the Refco FX account agreement. You agreed, when you signed the agreement, that you were giving up your right to any class action or other proceeding in which you would have been allowed to proceed with others as a class. You also signed away your right to a trial by jury and your right to sue, and you consented that your remedy will be limited to arbitration. You also agreed to take the risks of loaning money to Refco, for its own uses, and that Refco FX might go bankrupt and be unable to pay you back your money. I'm not defending Refco. I sympathize with you. I think that Refco took unfair advantage of your greed, your naivete, your failure to perform due diligence, and your blind recklessness in signing an agreement you didn't understand, loaning money to a company with a long and well-documented regulatory history of embezzing customer funds, operating in an industry well-known for fraud and other types of victimization against customers. You got dollar signs in your eyes, you dreamt of easy riches, you were intoxicated, they whispered sweet nothings in your ear, you were seduced, and you were ravaged, because you believed them, when they told that they would respect you in the morning. Refco operators, before bankrupting their company, grew rich as individuals, by feeding off of you, by using your funds as free investment capital, thus exposing you to enormous risks, which yielded free profits for the operators. The strong prey upon the weak, in retail spot FX trading, just as they do in nature, "red in tooth and claw". I will paraphrase a line from the film "A Dry, White Autumn", by observing that law and justice are only distant relatives, and that in American finance, they aren't even on speaking terms. Perhaps you might recover by pursuing a class action against the individuals who benefited from your victimization, but this is unlikely, because it is very difficult to hold individuals responsible for debts of a corporation, because you did so much to contribute to your own victimization, and because if you somehow did find an attorney, he would probably not do a good job, and he would probably steal from you, too. I sympathize with you, but judges and attorneys probably will not. Our legal system does occasionally protect the weak from the strong, but most of the time, it instead protects the strong from the weak, and I think this is one of those times. This is business as usual. This is the American way.
If you're a RefocFX account holder, there are several of us talking and discussing the situation. If you'd like to know what is going on (press releases, news stories, etc.), that will specifically effect RefcoFX account holders that is what this group is about. Also if there are legal options that become available to account holders it would be good possibly to act as a group. I just started this group on Yahoo since it's free and has a lot of utilities for sharing info among members: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/refcofxaccountholders/ If you wish to subscribe to email directly just send an email to the following address: refcofxaccountholders-subscribe@yahoogroups.com