Bernie Madoff says hello. Apparently, he will be released in 2139 at the age of 201.
Iām reading āDen of Thievesā at the moment. Old story about the junk bond traders & scandals in the 80s (think Mike Milken & Co.). Several of them did real time. Jeff Skilling from Enron was released last month after 12 years behind bars (should have been longer).
I get your point, though, and wholeheartedly agree. Plenty of bankers should have been jailed in the wake of the GFC. And there are plenty of dubious shenanigans still going on.
Fat Andy is practicing his craft so that when when Gilligan decides to step down, heāll apply for the CEOās position at the AFL or maybe a spot on the Commission. Why not heās got the talent.
How the fark is that in any way comparable to Fat Andy?
In @dingus case he was one of the people ripped off by the farkers, he wasnāt a Fat Andy ā ā ā ā doing the ripping off.
I have always said, āthe boys club and their fancy lawyers who know all the lurks, loopholes and perks.ā That is why the high flyers pay a fortune for the very best of the best lawyers/accountants in the business. They have inside knowledge exactly when, where to strike and cash up. And when and where to get out and hide the loot. Fingers in many pies across a broad range of industries.
Bankruptcy is no disgrace today, people couldnāt care less about loosing otherās peopleās hard earned cash and whether they go to the wall. Those in the know also ensure their own finances are tied up in such a way, nothing can be touched by the law. Its all a win/win.
Companies like this were allowed to flourish with deals done between the States and the Commonwealth, under which overseas students could get residency after studying at such institutes. Victoria had a reputation as being the least audited, with ghost campuses being tolerated.
Our High Commission in Delhi was awash with migration agents, private institutes and immigration officials busy granting visas.
The rot set in after a few scandals and when Chris Bowen transferred some of the student visa quotas to refugee visas. Then the Government stopped the automatic right of residency after completion of courses. Lots of collapses, but no doubt Andy was lobbying governments against such actions.
Yes, Indians massively took advantage of visa loopholes by enrolling in a TAFE course such as accounting or hospitality which were āSkills shortageā categories.
Having taught at a major TAFE in Melbourne I can say what a joke this was - students attending sometimes only once or twice a Semester, then after failing wanting to be given a pass because failure jeopordised their Visa, the College pressuring staff to pass students (to protect their revenue flow).
Then even worse were the private providers who basically sold diplomas to students (and by extension PR visas) without the unnecessary trouble of actually studying!,
This country now must have more bookkeepers and kitchen hands per head of the population that anywhere else on the planet.
To end this rant through my experience students from the sub continent were the typically the laziest and greatest cheats one could ever deal with. At least Chinese students worked hard at cheating on assessments, but Indians wouldnāt even make that effort!
Yes getting the precious piece of paper with all its bad press and the around scams going on, makes it seem like a waste of time and money but parts of the Australian Government were well aware of what was going on and nothing was done to plug the loopholes. Made getting the piece of paper seem all quite valueless.
I remember when I was at Uni in the USA in the early nineties, I felt almost out of place amongst hundreds of Japanese students. From my observation they really put me to shame, they were incredibly studious and hard workers. They really put in the hours, got good results because of their dedication and motivation to succeed actually almost driven. They were all work no play until they had done their quota. Hanging around with them really changed my studying habits as I had been treating being there like a bit like a holiday. It became sort of a contagious habit spending time with them and changed the way I studied and applied myself. They were very good role models for me.
I was wondering if they ever did have any fun or it was just all work. In the term break about thirty of us went to Disneyland at Anaheim for five days, they left me for dead in the fun stakes and really did know how to let their hair down. Being in their company changed everything about the way I viewed being at University, when I returned to Australia and went back to Ballarat University, my lecturers commented on how different I had become. So, not all overseas students are looking for the easy way or scamming their way through uni.
I think we are conflating two separate rorts of the training system.
Student visas are rorted to get citizenship but at least international students pay student fees.
Acquireās business model was based on VET FEE-HELP which was introduced by government to give tertiary students access loans similar to those available to university students. Unfortunately the scheme had an enormous loophole. It assumed training institutions would have the same rigour around enrolment as universities did. That was not the case, especially with the private providers, a number of these were purely in it for the money. Thus students were recruited who had no hope of completing diplomas but along the way incurred debts on average of $20,000 with the government. The āloanā was paid to the training provider by the government, on behalf of the student. It was this loophole that Demetriouās Acquire Learning exploited. Acting as broker, they sought out vulnerable student matched them with an unscrupulous training provider and took a share of the government;s money. That is why ASIC fined Acquire $4.5m. And once the government tightened the rules Acquire went bankrupt
