[dropcap type="circle" color="#ffffff" background="#e53b2c"]W[/dropcap]e had not heard from Patrick Visser's Silva Tree Sustainable Capital Group (SCG) outfit in a while, but on his blog we finally found all kinds of exciting news.
It seems the Sustainable Capital Group, formerly Silva Tree, is undergoing yet another reorganization or restructuring or whatever you want to call it. Says Visser:
During 2014 we will be looking to merge all previous investment/fund raising structures into one big company and we hope to conclude this during the first three to six months. Most investors have already been contacted about this and we are pleased with the positive reactions received.
That comes after about a year ago they established a holding company in the British Virgin Islands which would then serve as the umbrella for Sustainable Capital Group operations in Panama, Suriname and Mozambique. The latter two have since vanished from the group's portfolio, leaving only the Panamanian enterprise.
Patrick Visser, who earlier claimed he was no longer on the board or even formally involved with SCG, a sort of resurfaced at the helm of the troubled group, records show. He himself writes:
Grant Thornton has been appointed as auditors of the group and we will soon provide our shareholders with the audited accounts for 2013. We have also added more people to the board and the same people have become investors in the group.
Unsurprisingly, this contradicts what we found in the official records in Panama's Public Registry when we searched on January 16th of this year. First we found that "Sustainable Capital Group Energy, S.A." has been dissolved (PDF).
Then there is "Sustainable Capital Group Management, S.A." where we find Patrick Visser himself as the president and legal representative of the company - so much for his lies about "only working as a consultant" for the outfit (PDF).
And last but not least we have "Sustainable Capital Group Panama, S.A.", where again we find Patrick Visser as the president and legal representative (PDF).
PRIME FORESTRY STYLE CORRUPTION?
Another director, one Hermann Ernesto Gnaegi Urriola, was reported in La Estrella in 2012 to be the new head of the "Instituto de Investigación Agropecuaria de Panamá" (IDIAP). Is he now wearing two hats, Prime Forestry style, or has he made the jump from government job to the private sector? His Facebook profile says nothing about SCG, but lists him as still working at IDIAP, which, if all info is accurate, would represent a major conflict of interest, to put it mildly.
No trace, meanwhile, about others having been added to the board. Similarly, principal Maurice Sjerps, arrested earlier in Costa Rica on allegations of a massive reforestation teak fraud, has vanished from the corporate records - he might still be a shareholder though - and the same goes for Keren Visser-Katz who used to be on the board of all the SCG vehicles.
As is customary with forestry outfits of ill repute in Panama, the SCG website offers no information at all about the principals of the company.
Last but not least, Visser offers this priceless blurb on his blog:
We are still waiting for the judge in our court case to overturn the appeal lodged by the legal counsel of Bananamarepublic’s author, but by now we know that the Panama legal system is not the fastest in the world. It is unfortunate that the libelous articles still appear in the search engines, but there is not much more we can do about it.
Not that he and his buddy, the career criminal Monte Friesner, didn't try, that is. But truth be told, all the efforts of Friesner, Patrick Visser, Maurice Sjerps and Keren Visser-Katz to erase us from the web, to have us thrown into jail and to smear yours truly with the most ludicrous nonsense have majestically backfired because, well, here we are.
"All in all we are very pleased with the progress made during 2013 and look forward to a successful 2014," Visser concludes his post. This man has really weird ideas about what "progress" means, if you ask us.
Well, Okke, it depends of what your definition of “progress” is. Progress could mean that Patrick, Monte, Maurice and Keren aren’t themselves in jail…yet. Or, it could mean that they are still finding gullible gringos to buy nonexistent teak forests for outrageously overpriced shares with huge losses for the idiot gringos looming in the future. Or, it could mean that some angry cheated investor with large financial means at his/her disposal didn’t hire a hitman to make sure that Patrick, Monte, Maurice and Keren didn’t see 2014. Or that the hitman tried and failed. You see, it all depends on what your definition of sex is!
I think that your malicious gossip, is threatening the livelihoods of a lot of needy people, and is st the same time threatening the investments of a lot of people who have invested if not all, then a large portion of their life savings. That is certainly not a noble thing to do, and I think that you should desist from such actions forthwith. All you are doing is spreading mis-trust and uncertainty, why don’t you try doing something positive and productive, as is the Sustainable Capital Group.
BV, A very disappointed, and disgusted investor.
If you have invested all or a large portion of your life savings in Patrick Visser’s schemes you deserve him.
If he has any money left come to Pedasí and buy some real estate ffom artists rendering and photo stock websites with their 1500 likes…….