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I was forced to start this update today with the above proverb after reading various news items which were not only factually incorrect but in most case was an attempt to place before the readers/viewers old wine in a new bottle.

This is the case of churning out old news in new packaging. Was this an attempt of a frustrated adversary?

I ask myself a few questions. Why over the last couple of days have the Speakasian Panelists been bombarded with so much disinformation about the impending investigation of individual panelists by the authorities and the seizing of their accounts?

Is it to spread panic amongst the panelist family? Is this a desperate attempt by the enemy to influence the authorities against SAOL?

Thus is the opening tone of All India Speak Asian Panelist Association’s (AISPA) President Ashok Bahiwani’s latest update published on their website.

And fair enough, albeit Bahirwani could look a bit less cultish by referring to anyone negatively reporting on Speak Asia as ‘the enemy’, but I digress.

Working for Speak Asia’s members, it must certainly be frustrating to see things misreported in the media. Good on him for addressing the misreporting and getting some truth out there.

However, after making his corrections, Bahirwani then launches into some obviously ridiculous diatribes of his own.

Why chastise the media when you yourself are no better?

Here are the choice take away points from Bahirwani’s latest update… and why he’s utterly misguided and wrong.

I ask myself, has there ever been a case in the history of independent India, when employment has been generated for over 20 lakh people within a short period of 10 months, has this ever been done by any Government, semi Government, or any NGO.

Probably not, because ponzi pyramid schemes are illegal. By having no retail product and paying members commissions for recruiting new members to the scheme, Speak Asia experienced unprecedented growth in India.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not an illegal ponzi scheme.

Attempting to paint the actions of the regulators and authorities as some sort of jealousy is ridiculous, Speak Asia’s business model is what it is and is the sole reason they are in the courts today.

I ask myself, how is SAOL a fraud that it is been made out to be? Here is a company which had regularly paid their panelists without fail till 12th May, 2011.

Because paying panelists does not legitimise the ponzi scheme business model. Even if tomorrow Speak Asia were allowed to resume operations under an unchanged business model, it’d be mere weeks, if not months before the entire operation collapsed anyway!

Some payment has to flow through a pyramid scheme, otherwise they don’t grow. The illegality stems from the fact that nothing is really being sold and all the company is doing is shifting money from those recently joining the company to those who have already joined.

Given that a 1:1 ratio of payment between new members and existing members wouldn’t attract anyone, this payment ratio must then deliver more than those who join put in. The end result is that you need, at the very least, two new members to deliver a return to one existing members (usually more).

Even with two new members having to cover the recurring commissions of one existing member, and then two new members being required for those two new members and so on and so forth, eventually the model requires so many new members that it eclipses the entire population of Earth.

This, and this alone is why Speak Asia has not been able to continue it’s business operations. Anyone with the slightest mathematical inclination should be able to understand this.

The company has not been able to pay their panelists since 12th May 2011, not because they do not want to pay, but because they are not being allowed to pay.

And let us look at why Speak Asia aren’t allowed to pay. As Bahirwani notes,

the entire case of the EOW is based on one, YES ONE, solitary FIR filed by a disillusioned individual going by the name of Mr. Khosla.

Kkhosla complained he wasn’t getting paid and following this FIR being filed, an investigation was launched into Speak Asia. In the process of this investigation it’s inevitable that Speak Asia’s business model would come under scrutiny.

Now as I’ve mentioned earlier, all there is to the Speak Asia compensation plan is that

  1. There is no retail product being sold.
  2. Money is merely shifted to existing members from new members joining via recruitment commissions.

That’s it. There’s no hidden complexities, no additional clauses, no deeper information. If you want to understand the Speak Asia business model, then merely understand those two points and you’ve got it.

In light of this Speak Asia’s bank accounts were frozen as the business model is a blatant illegal pyramid scheme in its current form. Not because they were or weren’t paying out people.

Thus the argument that ‘we can’t pay anyone because the government seized our accounts, it’s all their fault!’ is completely ridiculous.

If the police investigate an illegal drug ring and seize equipment that is vital to the continued operation of said drug ring, would it make any sense that the drug ring complains that it can’t produce illegal drugs because of the police’s actions?

Speak Asia’s financial operation as a pyramid scheme is no different, and entirely illegal. The seizing of their bank accounts effectively prohibits operation of the business plan.

Now if a court clears them, then by all means unfreeze the accounts and let Speak Asia bumble down the track to inevitable collapse when it’s members can’t find enough new recruits to feed the machine.

Until then, enough with the nonsense about how Speak Asia cannot pay anyone. This is not why they are being investigated and it’s not why their accounts were frozen.

Anyone claiming otherwise is severely (and possibly deliberately) misleading the public and showing not only great incompetence but a demonstrated clear lack of understanding of the regulatory problems Speak Asia are facing.

Lastly, there’s the matter of the ‘revolutionary business model‘;

What amuses me no end is everybody wants to hang SAOL by the first visible pole without even trying to understand the revolutionary business module.

The only crime that SAOL has possibly done is that they have been ahead of their time, much ahead.

Not understanding the business model, are you kidding me? It’s the exact understanding of the business model that has allowed for such investigations into Speak Asia, the company’s CEO’s to go into hiding and the freezing of any and all bank accounts associated with the company.

If you want to understand Speak Asia’s business model, as mentioned earlier, this is all you need to grasp;

  1. There is no retail product being sold.
  2. Money is merely shifted to existing members from new members joining via recruitment commissions.

If you understand in plain English those two points, then you understand Speak Asia’s ‘revolutionary‘ business model. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to your face and taking you for an idiot.

Oh, and one more thing, Ponzi schemes have been around since the early 1920’s – there is absolutely nothing revolutionary about them.

Finally I’ll leave you with Bahirwani’s closing thoughts;

This has unfortunately resulted, in robbing over 20 lakh Indian citizens, of their basic right to seek gainful employment and is in gross violation of their basic human rights.

Whilst it is true that 20 lakh Indian people have been robbed, fortunately it’s got nothing to do with the government or the criminal investigations into the company.

If anything, the longer the authorities let Speak Asia continue their operations the more people would have been sucked in before the mathematical certainty of the company’s implosion.

Then of course everybody would be blaming the government for not doing anything earlier. As it stands, 20 lakh people getting sucked into a pyramid scheme is already too much and let’s hope under Speak Asia no more do.

The attempt to pin this on the government is merely the misguided defense of those not willing to accept that Speak Asia operate on an unsustainable platform.

As a panelist, when you participate in an illegal scheme you pretty much forfeit your right to the return of that money if it can’t be recovered (say for example the CEO siphons it off to India).

Despite their claims, Speak Asia cannot pay you out until the criminal investigations are resolved into the company. Otherwise the government are potentially letting a criminal entity operate whilst under investigation.

Naturally in light of this Speak Asia will do everything they can to wedge you against the government, as it takes the heat off them and allows them to pursuit the legitimization of a business model that is clearly illegal for a reason.

The larger it grows, the more lives it ultimately destroys.

That, my friends is the cold, hard truth of the matter.

Once again I commend Bahirwani for providing daily updates and correcting the media but enough with the bullshit and misleading arguments, reasoning and statements.

The position you are in within the Speak Asia panelist community should not be abused or misused in order to serve the needs of a company seeking to utilise a fundamentally flawed business model.

And it’s high time you accepted this.