Luke Connell Sucks! He Knew!!
Crime, Financial, Law, Linden Labs
As was suspected by many, it seems that Luke Connell of the World Stock Exchange (WSE) knew what Linden Lab was about to do. Luke knew about the banking ban, before it happened! As more information comes out, little by little, a clearer picture is being painted of the motivations behind the closing of the WSE for “upgrades”, two days prior to the bank ban by LL.
Although she’s leaving the WSE later than she should have, in my opinion, Lindsay Druart has decided to “sever ties” with the WSE. In her explaination of the reasons for leaving, she says:
“I found it odd but continued to conduct a bit of logical explanation for possible reasoning. Considering WSE closed VERY shortly before the banking ban without any prior notice, I was puzzled as Luke had shared information about WSE happenings before but this time was different. Once the banking ban initiated, Luke Connell was quite elated to the fall of the SL banking industry which I found very odd. At that point, it all made sense. Luke Connell was tipped off. I speculate that Linden Labs received a subpoena for account information in relation to the Midas depositor’s case. Per Luke Connell, the lawyer planned to pursue the case whether there was a loosing chance or not to get the public eye on virtual business and create his name in the press for it.”
A couple months ago, there was a plea from the SLEC for businesses listed with the WSE to de-list and move to another exchange. At the time, it was very laughable because the SLEC has absolutely no authority to enforce any of the decisions it makes. At the time that the SLEC mad the plea, Lindsay also laughed it off and said, publicly, that she would be staying.
It seems like, now, she has changed her tune. She says “Also, I received information that Luke was offering to buy banks in SL since the ban. Not to mention, WSE was giving away money for the holidays but had defaulted on bond payments. To my knowledge, no person can defer a payment on a loan without approval from the lien holder so WSE did not defer payments. WSE defaulted.”
This is exactly what happened with Hope Capital, but she didn’t want to see it that way, at the time, no matter how many people she talked with, or how many different ways they tried to explain it to her. Even though it’s a little later than she should have done it, she finally made the right move.
Luke, on the other hand wants to make things seem like they’re alright. He thinks that the WSE will survive the whole banking ban, even though it seems that he was at least partially to blame for it. If not to “blame”, he at least knew about it before it happened. He put up a cheerful audio message on the WSElive web site saying that the WSE is for entertainment and educational purposes, pointing out that it uses a “fictional” currency. Here’s the mp3 download. He’s pretty much acting like the banking ban will not be affecting him, at all. He says that all the WSE has to do is stop paying interest on deposited money (L$).
Luke has already deleted the announcement (copied here) made by Lindsay on the WSE web site. He’s done this in the past, and he continues to do things like this. You would think that his “customers” would finally realize what he’s doing and get the hell out of there, fast. If you say something he doesn’t like, he’ll de-list your company. If you’re not a listed company, and you upset him, you’ll get banned from the land.
I think what is most frustrating about the whole banking ban is the fact that Linden Lab has not given ANY additional details or information about a policy change that will effect a large number of it’s customers. I would suggest that anybody with questions keep posting off-topic comments on the LL blog, until we get some more answers. If Ken Linden and Luke Connell are now “buddy - buddy”, that’s a huge reason to disassociate yourself from the WSE!! It seems that this is definitely possible
Malignant Narcissist @ January 14, 2008
Malignant Narcissist indeed. You’ve been drinking too much Haterade. Even if Luke was tipped off, it’s not like those 2 days did much to help him. Consider that ‘banks’ (as some ponzis out there call themselves) are not shut down even to this day. If a legitimate financial company goes under in SL because of this change, it means only two things - they aren’t as legitimate as they claim, and they don’t have the business sense to run the company they want. As in any business, especially a financially-based one like a metaverse bank, you have to accept and even to some degree expect policy change, and adapt as it comes. In this case, it is unfortunate for all involved, because there is no recourse with Linden Labs for discussing and amending the changes, because they enjoy the dictatorial style of their virtual world management.
Rob, yes… consider that banks are not shut down, actively repaying people (albeit, at a slow pace) what they had deposited in their banks, while Luke closed up shop early, avoiding any kind of “run”, whatsoever.
Those two days helped him hang on to every last L$ that was deposited. Nobody that had anything deposited in Hope Capital or WSE has received a thing from him… NOBODY!! I personally don’t think his “customers” will be repaid, at all.
Policy change that completely undermines your entire business, in effect, destroying the whole business model you had, without any detailed investigation, forethought, or warning whatsoever should never need to be expected. Of course, Linden Lab has done this at least twice within the last year, now, so I’m almost positive it’ll happen again.
If you were to make a normal living wage in SL, and they were to shut down the LindenX without warning, before you were able to “cash out” your real profits and you learned that somebody else had a “warning” that it was coming, you’d go on a little “hunting” trip, wouldn’t you? It HAS been talked about. Should we expect it?
One can never drink too much Haterade, by the way. It’s so sweet, I just can’t get enough.