Quote:
Originally Posted by answer20
I think we're mixing topics a bit .. which typically leads stretches and hyperbole.
1) I've read nothing to indicate that the Players failed to receive the $1600 in cash (money) they were entitled to.
2) Was the $208K (or whatever) the 'proper' amount of the prize pool that should have been used to purchase the metals? If so, then the fact that the charity overpaid for the metals may not have been in the scope of the scheduled inspection by the AG personnel. While the AG and charity may 'need' to have another meeting to see if there's any recourse/issue with the Dealer I'm guessing it was a can of worms that the AG folks didn't want to address or get roped into without further home office instruction. IMO they were only there to verify that the charity did, in fact, have 'prizes' in the calculated amount.
3) With comments about these 'make up' cash App payments floating around I would have to believe that whomever is offering them up may get looked into .. and hopefully is not the charity directly.
4) Granted we all love the English language, but we need to be careful not to mix terms too often. There's a lot of 'where's the money' comments out there, but I'm thinking the money/cash isn't where the focus should be. It's right where most of the comments are leaning .. that the 'value' of the prizes don't match up to the money/cash that was spent on them and any issues related to that decision/process.
A) Did the charity get taken advantage of? It sure looks that way. Did the Dealer violate any trading laws in the process, no one has really come forward with enough knowledge of that trade as of yet.
B) Were the Players shorted value? For sure, and unfortunately their gripe has to start with the charity, the license holder of the event and then evolve from there.
I'm not trying to sympathize with Midway here, I'm just trying to keep the focus where there can actually be 'work' done. That's why this stuff can take months to simmer to the top.
From the outside looking in, I think the Players actually held it together pretty good under the circumstances. You'd have to talk to Chad or others to find out who the voice(s) of reason were. "We can all just throw our hands up or we can play for what's on the table." Once the AG left the building and they knew the metal was 'theirs' to chop up you either cut a deal or play for it. GL
Putting aside the issue of them choosing to substitute silver in lieu of cash due to regulations,
this really depends on how much they overpaid by and who the beneficiary of it was. what if he paid 40$ an ounce? what about 50$? you're acting as a fiduciary here for a few different parties and you have to exercise some minimal level of effort to not completely bone everyone involved, even if you're not skimming.
more importantly though the question is who he bought it from. if you pay $35/o to an independent seller that you have some kind of history with, it doesn't even matter if you can prove he got kickbacks - he'd be using charity funds to enrich a friend. and the fact that you can very easily find it for less makes it look like there's a high likelihood that there were kickbacks.
at $35/o for something that can easily be had for $27/o (the bars)...
if he was the one realizing the gains, it would be as if he just pocketed 1/3rd of the prize pool of the entire tournament.
Quote:
The "secondary market" 100oz bars of silver go for about $2-$3 over spot. Is there any proof that he paid $35 or $40 for this silver? Seems to me that a very likely scenario is that he says he bought it for $35/$40, actually got it for $30, and then made the players absorb the loss by paying them at $24. And he either he makes money or gets out with his ass from this the whole situation.
If he's already doing this, and this is just money out of his pocket, i have a hard time imagining that he'd be paying as high as $30. it would have been planned before hand.
sick part is that if he just valued it at $30/o nobody would bat an eye, and he could have skimmed approx. 10% of the prize pool every time he ran one of these things.
