Monday, May 31, 2010

UFC, Lee Murray and the $92 Million


Here I´m on the supreme objective of making one Million Euros in less than five years, planning, planning and planning following a spanish seminar on the Law of Attraction (let me know if you are interested so I can share that with you) waiting also for the absolut reafirmation on how Millionaire I´m not yet on the material aspect but on the familiar one.

I want to share a story that even Tarantino, Scorcese and Ritchie would love to direct as lately I have been following the Mixed Martial Arts scene I got to know the story of Lee Murray, the MMA fighter accused of masterminding a brazen $92 Million British bank heist, is back in Moroccan police custody after being freed briefly by that country's Supreme Court, his attorneys in London and Rabat told to the press.
The information comes as British prosecutors are pressuring Morocco to try Murray for the 2006 robbery.
In a hearing, the Moroccan Supreme Court denied Britain's request to have Murray transferred to London from the capital city of Rabat, where he has been jailed since 2007. The court ruled that because the fighter's father was born in Morocco, he has all the rights of a citizen. Since Morocco does not have a formal extradition treaty with the UK, that scuttled the extradition request.
But the Moroccan government now appears willing to invoke a local law that allows foreign prosecutors to try Moroccan citizens for foreign crimes, so long as the trial is held on Moroccan soil.
"Lee was re-arrested because the British authorities have put a formal request to the Moroccan authorities to have Lee tried in Morocco for the robbery," Abdellah Benlamhidi, Murray's attorney in Rabat, told that "Lee is the hands of the Moroccan police right now."
UK officials refused comment on the latest twist in the headline-grabbing case. In the British county of Kent, where the heist occurred, a police spokesman mentioned: "We are waiting to receive direction from the Moroccan judiciary as to which direction they would now like to take."
Benlamhidi said that he expects a Moroccan trial to "begin soon." A guilty verdict under Moroccan law could net Murray a maximum sentence of ten years, which is still a fraction of what he could get if convicted in the UK.
In February 2006, robbers posing as cops abducted the manager of a high-security bank warehouse in Tonbridge, Wales, and forced their way inside the building while his wife and son were held at gunpoint. As employees were bound and gagged, seven masked men loaded three waiting trucks with 53 million British pounds in cash (about $92 million.)
Police say about $57 million of the haul is still missing.
Five of the assailants were captured and convicted at trial in London last year. Another alleged accomplice is currently in custody awaiting trial. But British prosecutors say Murray, a former UFC star, was "at the heart" of the plot and claim to have a cell phone recording that shows him planning the heist.
After the robbery, Murray, 31, fled to Morocco and claimed citizenship, living lavishly until he was arrested by police officers in a Rabat mall. After authorities found cocaine in his upscale villa, Murray was charged with local drug crimes.
In February 2007, a court convicted him and sentenced the fighter to eight months in lockup. Since then, he has been held at the maximum-security Sale prison while the Supreme Court weighed his request for asylum.
According to Murray's UK attorney, Derek Parker, the Supreme Court's decision denying extradition caught Murray completely by surprise. Parker said Murray thought he was being called to testify as a witness in an unrelated case involving inmate violence.
Murray's professional height came in January 2004, when he fought as "Lightning Lee" at UFC 46 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, dressed in a "Silence of the Lambs" mask and an orange jumpsuit. He prevailed over veteran Jorge Rivera in just 1:45, sparking talk that he could be MMA's next big star. But legal troubles in the UK prevented him from entering the U.S. after that. And a stabbing outside a London nightclub in 2005 raised questions about whether he would be healthy enough to fight again.

Murray's prison tenure has been as colorful as his history in the ring. The Wrestling Observer newsletter reported that the fighter tried to break out of his cell by using tiny saws that were hidden in his food. According to the publication, he was thwarted when another prisoner broke into his cell, found the saws and informed prison officials. At the time, he was housed in another location as punishment for being caught with a laptop computer and fine clothes. The inmate who found the saws reportedly entered his cell to steal his belongings.
Murray's UK attorney Parker called the alleged escape plot untrue, and on Friday was unable to say where Murray is currently being held.




Latest update a must see:

Exclusive interview with Lee Murray, directly from his Moroccan prison

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Greek bailout The Millions in the European Union (part two)




Back to the normal rutinary days followed by a great sunny day... I finally have time to express all the ideas on the objective of the Million Euros in less than 5 years. After taking a short trip to Amsterdam to celebrate their freedom day! and see a couple of friends in there I'm back the news are quite extreme, everything financially speaking circles around Greece and Europe, therefore I have to write a follow up article to my article writen on february 2010.

The follow up has to do with Greece and the final bailout that not so many were expecting including me, I still perceive a bunch of exagerated facts and issues let me explain:

The European finance ministers triggered a record 110 billion euro ($147 billion) bailout for debt-stricken Greece last week after Athens committed itself to years of painful austerity.

After weeks of tough talk and procrastination due to fierce public opposition to handouts for the Greeks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel finally threw her full support behind the EU/IMF package, vowing to fight for parliamentary approval.

Euro zone ministers, meeting in emergency session, approved the three-year package of emergency loans and agreed the first funds would be released in time for Athens to make a big debt repayment to creditors on May 19.

In exchange for by far the largest bailout ever assembled for a country, Prime Minister George Papandreou announced further spending cuts and tax increases totalling 30 billion euros over three years on top of tough measures already taken.

"It is an unprecedented support package for an unprecedented effort by the Greek people," a sombre Papandreou, told a televised cabinet meeting.

Merkel called the programme very ambitious and said she would work to achieve swift parliamentary approval of Berlin's share -- the biggest of any EU state at about 22 billion euros out of 80 billion -- of the rescue loans.

U.S. President Barack Obama told Papandreou on Sunday he welcomes Greece's "ambitious" reform program, the White House said. He also praised the "significant support" from the IMF and Eurozone members.

Euro zone leaders held a special summit on Friday to formally launch the rescue after obtaining parliamentary approval where necessary. International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn forecast the IMF board approved its 30 billion euro contribution to the package this week.

Greeks have already taken to the streets to demonstrate against the austerity drive and past governments have backed off from reforms to defuse often violent protests. But Papandreou, a Socialist with a strong personal approval rating, has insisted the country must face the bill for years of drift and graft.

"These sacrifices will give us breathing space and the time we need to make great changes," he said. "I want to tell Greeks very honestly that we have a big trial ahead of us."

The first rescue of a member of the 16-nation euro zone aims to stem a debt crisis that has shaken financial markets, dented confidence in the euro and begun to spread to fellow euro zone weaklings Portugal and Spain. Berlin's hesitancy has fuelled market panic.

The chairman of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker, said that at Germany's insistence, all ministers would discuss with their national banking sectors the possibility of voluntary contributions to the aid package.

Some 10 billion euros of the overall amount was earmarked to help stabilise the Greek banking sector if necessary, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said.

Greece is such a particular case that could not be compared to any other state. Now what really worries me behind all this propaganda is that The euro zone loans will carry an interest rate of about 5 percent -- just half the rate demanded by markets last week to buy Greek debt, but nearly 2 percentage points more than the rate on Germany's benchmark bonds. Here is my main question and concern. How would Grecee be able to pay a loan with a loan?

European Commission and the International Monetary Fund will monitor Greece's progress quarterly and loan disbursements will be tied to those reviews.

Telling angry Greeks to choose between the painful rescue or economic collapse, the government now aims to bring its towering budget deficit back to the EU limit by 2014, two years later than originally promised.

"These measures are tough and unfair," said Stathis Anestis, a spokesman for private sector union GSEE. "They lead workers to misery and the country deeper into recession."

Economists were more positive. "The aid package will help defuse the primary cause of concern for creditors which is the imminent risk of default," said Lena Komileva, head of G7 market economics at Tullett Prebon. But she noted that there was still a question mark over political approval across Europe.

The Greek rescue dwarfs the previous record bailout. South Korea -- a country with a population nearly five times that of Greece -- obtained a $58 billion rescue package from donors including the IMF during the Asian financial crisis in 1997.

Citing a choice "between collapse or salvation", Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou announced a three-year public sector pay freeze, further cuts in civil servants' benefits, higher sales and fuel taxes, an increase in the effective retirement age and reductions in pensions.

Papaconstantinou said the deal would cover a large part of Greek borrowing needs for the next three years. In return Athens promised to slash its budget deficit to the EU limit of three percent of GDP by 2014 from 13.6 percent last year.

Papaconstantinou said Greece's public debt would soar to nearly 150 percent of GDP -- a higher peak than forecast earlier -- but start falling from 2014. Both he and EU and IMF officials insisted there had been no talk of restructuring Greece's debts. It seems that there is some clear lack of specialization concerning finacial issues in this particular case, we basically have to consider some basics on financial matters. Austerity and stop the credit crunch lately the world has seen a bunch of financial bubles and here comes my second questions Why we just don't get it? Stop getting loans that you are not able to pay.

Economists say that if the rescue fails to calm markets, European countries could end up footing a bill of half a trillion euros ($650 billion) to save several other nation. I ask the Economist Who will be able to re pay those bills? why to go that far, instead we should go back to the basics of the market to learn to live between our means stop the credit crunch be environmentaly friendly and make a decent but multiple profit.

It seems to me that the Greek classics are comming back specially with the The Allegory of the Cave, also commonly known as Myth of the Cave, is an used by Plato in his work. The Republic to illustrate "our nature ". (514a) The allegory of the cave is written as a fictional dialogue between Plato's teacher Socrates and Plato's brother Glaucon, at the beginning of Book VII.

Plato imagines a group of people who have lived chained in a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Plato, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to seeing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not constitutive of reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.

So it seems to me that maybe we should see what is going on behind the shadows, having in mind the following:

-Grecee is not the whole of Europe
-Greeks must be ready for long sacrifice
-
Athens promises extra 30 bln euros in cuts over 3 years
-The bailout will have to be paid (with interest)
-
In the past the USA approved 100 billion loan to IMF.
-Learn from the past and stay out of debt!

Final comment: Any heart weak investor should go out off the stock market immediatelly, others like me will stay inn strong waitting for the great oportunities to come, last month Nokia was around 11.30€ a share after all this news it came down to 8.40€ a perfect time to buy don't you think?

Keep your mails and comments coming and let's make it happen!

Here you have two different points of view: