Google “David Smith” and “forex” and you come up with hundreds of results. The man is the George Soros of Jamaica and reading through some of the material on him either you love him or you hate him.
On the Internet you can find plenty of testimonials from customers who back up his claims that his trading club “Olin” was routinely getting 10%
monthly returns. But I give you this blog post from “All Messed Up – My Life” to give you a front row seat at a David Smith love fest:
All Messed Up - My life, My work, My Jamaica
Quote:
David Smith is a Celebrity
I went to a Forex Expo over the weekend. It was the first of its kind that I’d ever seen put on in Jamaica, and since I have been dabbling in FX trading for the past 2 months or so I decided to go.
The first three sessions of the expo were very good and I picked up quite a few pointers that I could see being immediately useful. In the last two sessions however I lost interest slightly as the presenters (MTI and I-TradeFX) began to shamelessly promote their own services, which in all honesty was to be expected, I stuck around nevertheless as I was hell bent on winning one of the gate prizes. Though I won nothing I did find something extremely interesting, almost everytime time Jared Martinez said the name David Smith there was a loud round of applause in the auditorium. I said to myself, “this man is a frigging celebrity!”, and its really not hard to understand why.
This man has, almost single-handedly, started to revolutionize the landscape of the financial sector in this country. For years we were stuck with getting returns of 4-5% per YEAR on whatever money we placed in the various banks. We knew it was meager, but we pretty much took it for granted that that was the way it had to be. Then came along David Smith, a man with years of experience in FX trading who formed an ‘investment club’ called OLINT and started giving his members 10% return per MONTH on their investment. Yes, you checked that right, that’s 120% per year. A year or two ago the government cracked down on his operation, stating that he was putting people’s money at risk and that he was not licensed to do what he was doing. The government’s argument was load of crock, but that is what happens when people are ignorant and choose to fight against what t
hey do not understand instead of learning more about it.
Nevertheless I don’t think the actions of the government were based on their care and concern for the people of Jamaica. These new investment clubs were causing an upset. They were ’showing up’ the financial institutions who were giving us cents on the dollar (if so much) from the fruits of our investments. The heads of these institutions continually rub shoulders with the decision makers of this country….I am sure you see where I am going.
Screw the PNP AND the JLP. I say David Smith for President!!!
(I’m kidding about that last bit, but the party in power should really take some advice from that man).
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Such is the effect that Smith has on his followers. Indeed, below this blog post there are over 100 comments, many of them like this:
Quote:
I have been a member of Olint going on 3 yrs. David Smith’s Olint is God sent to us.
I have met David, he is a brilliant young man whom unselfishly has used his talent to help us ordinary Jamaicans. There is not one member who is unsatisfied with their returns as most if not all have gotten back their principle. Olint has been contributing factor to the development of Jamaica and its people. There is nothing negative you can say to sway us - as the proof is in our pockets. GOD BLESS DAVID SMITH, HIS FAMILY AND THE OLINT MEMBERS
Olinter
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So what got Olinter so riled up? Well, many of the people commenting claimed that Smith is merely operating a Ponzi scheme. In fact, the International Monetary Fund recommended that Jamaica close all its unregulated investment schemes due to the concern many bankers have about ponzi schemes in Jamaica.
Close unregulated investment schemes, warns IMF - JAMAICAOBSERVER.COM
This article that came out last week in the Jamaica Observer states there are 35 such known schemes in operation on the island today and that their collapse could wreak havoc on the island reminiscent of the Albanian Ponzi Scheme revolution of 1997:
1997 rebellion in Albania - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In fact, one major investment scheme has already been exposed in Jamaica, Cash Plus.
Cash Plus drama ...Carlos Hill and co-accused charged with fraud - JAMAICAOBSERVER.COM
Only time will tell if David Smith’s Olint is a Ponzi scheme too. And if it is it could have far reaching consequences well outside the happy confines of Jamaica.