The current corporate crime case that has been going through the courts in Western Australia since last year and resumed last week, is the ultimate example of corporate fraud.
The case against Firepower directors is the stuff of Hollywood – investors from the big end of towns all over the world and celebrities fell for the great corporate swindle. Even our own government kicked in quite a bit.
The problem is that there was no product. They were all investing in nothing.
This is a story about how one person can fool so many people into believing he has a product that he doesn’t actually have. In the case of Firepower, it was a pill that would reduce the emissions of petrol. And how so many people believed him.
The Firepower story goes to the heart of what anyone can get away with in corporate Australia, if they are bold enough. The story of the rise and fall of the company about nothing was featured in The Sydney Morning Herald on the weekend.
The case against them started last year in the courts and resumed last week with chief swindler, Tim Johnston, now claiming victim status with stories of intimidation and threats.
Last week, Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law, Chris Bowen, announced tough changes to corporate laws that give ASIC, the corporate watchdog significantly increased powers to tap phones and much harsher penalties for insider trading.
While this may be a step in the right direction in controlling corporate fraud, would any of these harsh new laws prevented the whole scenario of Firepower?
Con artists exist at every level. The bolder they are, the more people believe them.
Here was a guy who told people he had a product that he didn’t have, conned some really top people into investing large amounts of money in his company. Then he started shelling out sponsorships so the name “Firepower” was everywhere (with everyone else’s money I might add) and even conned the government, not only into giving the company grants but also giving leads overseas.
What was really a stroke of genius was the idea that this “product” was going to eliminate deadly emissions from the air completely. Something that could click onto a world trend didn’t seem to need any clarification.
Just about everyone has been tricked into buying shares these days, The media can be quite patronising sometimes when some of these go belly up. They often refer to investors as “mum and dad investors”.
Firepower shows how big time investors can get conned too. They just don’t ask questions.
The new laws may sound really good and are a step in the right direction. The trouble is that usually a whole lot of people have lost a whole lot of money before anything can really be done. The jail terms don’t bring back the money to those who have lost it.
Maybe there should be some more investigation or research before people, including governments shell out the money.
