The demise of the Dutch Qoin fraud shows the incredible power that the Internet provides those who know and understand how to use it.
In a display of massive fire-power daily blogging throughout a period of weeks literally bankrupted a high profile scandal based in The Netherlands. For ten years, conmen Rob van Hilten and Edgar Kampers had operated a scam whereby they sought and obtained public monies (totalling millions of Euros) for their personal benefit – primarily their lifestyle.
When this moved from scamming public monies from friendly politicians to the small-time investor I moved to actively close them down. Having proof that their wild claims of projections through the roof were indeed insanity, I activated a series of hard hitting blog posts that showed the conmen’s various moves to counter the adverse press, and I did it in realtime.
Smart investors pulled out. Others stayed in and lost all. Those caught previously sought to cover up their past errors of judgement and the crooks schemed their way out of their pickle. I published their actual list of priorities for the upset investors and creditors. Staff and key suppliers were right down on their actual repayment schedule. This exposure was a crippling blow to their con because they were then left to their own devices without premises or staff.
Still the pressure amped up as I showed that they were not only going broke but that they had been broke for years. Nobody can continue in business, certainly when you are in the confidence game, when there is somebody out there telling the world who you are and what scam you’re operating. Sunlight is indeed the best disinfectant and so it was only a matter of time before I managed to close them down. Suspecting that the end was nigh, I went in for the kill with an extraordinarily aggressive campaign of exposure, day after day revealing more & more, daily until the inevitable happened and they declared bankruptcy.
TIP 10:
Most investigations commence with an unusual experience & are maintained with simple questioning. Stories are developed over time (sometimes with professional assistance) & a resulting work such as a blog post, book, video or documentary can provide us with a permanent record.
An interesting thing happened on the way to their bankruptcy and in some ways I feel for an older man who got set-up to put his foot in it, but in others it just showed how fools can have top jobs and operate beyond their capacity. Early in my exposure of the conman Rob van Hilten as an international Board Member of IRTA, an accomplice who was located in The Netherlands and knew of my investigation asked Ron Whitney (CEO of IRTA) about my blog posts showing that one of his Board Members was actually a conman.
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