Stamp Investment Scandals
There have been a number of scandals in this area over the years.
In Ireland in the 1950s, Paul Singer, a Bratislavian Doctor of Philosophy, ran a Ponzi scheme under the name Shanahan Stamp Auctions. The scheme collapsed when a mysterious robbery took place at the company's office on 9 May 1959, the eve of a major auction, when more than ₤300,000 worth of stamps went missing. Singer was charged with fraud, but was acquitted and vanished.
In the 1970s, the bursting of a speculative bubble left investors unable to realise their investment at the price they had paid. Prices took decades to recover.
In 2006, two Spanish firms Afinsa and Forum Filatelico collapsed and left around 350,000 investors with investments worth as little as 10% of the price they had paid.
Read more about this topic: Philatelic Investment
Famous quotes containing the words stamp, investment and/or scandals:
“Now stamp the Lord’s Prayer on a grain of rice,
A Bible-leaved of all the written woods
Strip to this tree: a rocking alphabet,
Genesis in the root, the scarecrow word,
And one light’s language in the book of trees.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“The only thing that was dispensed free to the old New Bedford whalemen was a Bible. A well-known owner of one of that city’s whaling fleets once described the Bible as the best cheap investment a shipowner could make.”
—For the State of Massachusetts, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“People who don’t like scandals shouldn’t be in finance.”
—Christina Stead (1902–1983)