Crimes of Community

[机构Lnvestor.我想澄清Alex Tapscott尚未被指控犯罪。与犯罪的比较，伯恩麦多夫，亚历克斯斯隆和哈尔德背板的罪行和涉嫌犯罪并非旨在使他们对Tapscott先生的行动。]

金融犯罪有一些独特的东西。有了罕见的例外，它不是一个枪在黑暗的底特律胡同中的枪。这是一位朋友的朋友的握手，或者去上学的人。

第一次击中了家的真相 - 几乎字面意思 - 对我来说是哈罗德背板的行为。Backer是一个三次加拿大奥林匹克划船和普林斯顿大学毕业，并在温哥华岛上的竞争对手的高中是一位老师。他也是许多家庭朋友的财务顾问。我在圣诞派对上随便地看到了他，感受着戏剧的感觉，如果没有亲密的，当我跟随他的脚步而且也划船加拿大。我知道的很多人对他的感觉相同：共同经历的舒适。

On a Tuesday morning in November 2014, Backer went out for a bike ride. He did not return. After his wife called the police, many of our mutual friends went looking for him. All they found, however, was that he had taken his bike across the border aboard a ferry bound for Washington state. It was a complete mystery — for two days.

那个星期四，信件开始到达他的客户邮箱。他们的钱都消失了，信件已经消失了。Backer在Dot-Com泡沫前15年丢失了它，并试图隐藏在Ponzi计划中的事实。暗示他会杀死自己的信件。显然，他的客户被摧毁了。在我当时的报告中，我与培训的高中划队教练和丈夫谈到了学龄前老师，那个被支持到普林斯顿的人，从年轻时培育他。他根本无法相信他几乎每天看到的男人都愚弄了15年，他几乎与他一样靠近他作为自己的孩子。经过近18个月的跑步后，Backer走进了一个温哥华岛上警察局，让自己变成了。他恳求无罪欺诈，目前与母亲一起生活。

我最近被提醒过的支持者当多伦多的朋友告诉我Alex Tapscott的故事。在11月初，她通过电子邮件向我发送了一篇福布斯文章，详细说明了Tapscott如何如何如何Tapscott - 加拿大人管理Guru Don Tapscott - 被迫中止他公司的计划，NextBlock Global。Tapscott“虚假地命名为投资者甲板的顾问，”并陷入了令人难以忍受的时尚。According to Forbes’ Laura Shin, “Vinny Lingham, CEO of blockchain identity startup Civic and a shark on South Africa’s Shark Tank, told Alex via email he was hearing he had been named an adviser and Tapscott wrote back, ‘You are (obviously) not an adviser and have not been listed as one! So bizarre.’ Lingham responded he was looking at the deck with his face and bio on it and said, ‘Please don’t lie to me.’”

Tapscott的误导们与支持者所谓的罪行相比，但我仍然发现它令人着迷 - 并且想知道为什么我知道Tapscott的名字。我通过电子邮件向多伦多发送了另一个朋友，询问为什么这个名字谐振。“我和他一起投资，”朋友回答道。Tapscott从朋友，家庭和一些风险资本家筹集了2500万美元。我的朋友 - 谁不是我认识的唯一投资Tapscott的人 - 已经赚了最少的金钱，比严肃的金融投资更多。随着业务的展开，投资者正在返回其资本，以及业务所做的一些回报百分比。

投资似乎是一个奇怪的届数之一e people I knew in town. What had made them invest, I asked? Their responses had echoes of Backer’s victims: They knew Tapscott through shared activities, through school connections, through friends referring friends. Toronto, to a degree unseen in other large cities I know, has an insular, clubby feel to it. If you went to the elite Upper Canada College high school — where Tapscott did — or Queen’s, a prominent nearby university, that counts for a lot. Attending the right charity events, and sitting on the right boards, also holds importance. Manners matter in elite Toronto society, and Tapscott had them. And just as with Backer, those shared experiences very likely stopped investors from examining closely enough where they put their money.

Bernie Madoff preyed on his Jewish community. Wall Street darling Andrew Caspersen bilked friends out of $40 million before being caught and sentenced to four years in prison. And, in its own little way, it happened to me too. The reason I remembered Tapscott’s name is that three years ago, a mutual friend asked me to introduce Tapscott to Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the Bitcoin billionaires who are college friends of mine. The email account I used at the time is now lost, but my friend tells me I happily obliged. I remember doing no research on Tapscott before vouching for him. A friend’s recommendation was good enough.