| Complaints pile up about online investments involving foreign ...
Ellen Whitmore never takes a risk. She watches her expenses closely and describes herself as a conservative investor.
But last November, Whitmore, 50, of Fort Lauderdale, did something out of character while surfing the Internet: She made an impulse purchase after a pop-up window claimed that buying Iraqi currency was a good investment. She has since learned the hard way, as financial experts and consumer watchdogs warn, that investing in foreign currency with online companies could be a risky proposition.
"It sounded very legitimate," said Whitmore, who never received the 2 million Iraqi dinars she purchased for $1,480 through the Web site of Illinois-based United World Exchange, www.usdinar.com.
Whitmore, a part-time volunteer with a local nonprofit organization, is one of a growing number of consumers who have filed complaints against United World Exchange with the Better Business Bureau of Chicago and the Illinois attorney general's office.
China To Open Fund To Invest Foreign Currency Reserves
China will create an agency to invest its immense reserves of foreign currency, now totaling more than $1 trillion, the country's finance minister announced on Friday. The minister, Jin Renqing, offered no specifics about how much of China's currency reserves would be under the agency's control. But whatever the precise figure, analysts say that the agency is certain to begin life as one of the world's biggest investment funds. China's currency holdings are already the world's largest, and they are growing rapidly because of China's huge trade surpluses. Most of the reserves are now invested very conservatively, in United States Treasury bonds and other government securities, a strategy that helps to keep interest rates low in the United States and other developed countries but earns little profit for China.
China's central bank deputy chief says capital to be released slowly
China's central bank will gradually ease restrictions on capital flows in a renewed effort to curb its huge trade surplus, according to Wu Xiaoling, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China. "China will ease cross-border capital transactions selectively and gradually under the precondition of effective risk prevention and intensified capital flow monitoring," Wu told a forum in Mumbai, India. She said the bank would broaden the overseas investment channels step by step, adding it was actively nurturing a foreign exchange market to provide more investment instruments for foreign currency holders. The government would also take more measures to boost domestic demand and persuade domestic businesses to import and invest overseas, she said.
Currency investment trainer indicted
A man who prosecutors said referred to himself in a journal as a "financial serial killer" has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of stealing millions from investors who thought he was leading them to riches in currency investments and real estate. Prosecutors said Joel Nathan Ward, a frequent commentator and speaker on foreign exchange trading, was charged Thursday with nine counts of fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors said many of his victims were members of his family, friends and people who enrolled in a foreign currency investment training program he operated in Sacramento. Attempts to locate Ward's attorney or reach family members were unsuccessful. Prosecutors said Ward was accused of defrauding investors in a purported real estate investment scheme in Mississippi.
|
