Playing games with the truth can be a dangerous thing as IRTA learned the hard way. IRTACard the novel was a fictitious parody of the real-life connection behind the scenes of IRTA & Bartercard.
The International Reciprocal Trade Association (IRTA) supposedly represented the interests of their commercial barter members. In fact over the years their focus drifted into more survival mode as their members’ currencies became debased from mismanagement and a global downturn in the use of commercial barter, but often through outright fraud.
Secretly endorsing one of their members without informing the others, and contrary to logic, common sense and all ethical standards, they exposed themselves to ridicule from the astute.
I was approached by IRTA when I commenced my investigation into Australian-born conman Daniel Evans and his Ormita fraud. Daniel had run afoul of both Ron Whitney (CEO [& now President]) and Annette Riggs (Chairwoman at the time) and things had gotten pretty vicious & nasty between the three of them. That’s putting it a little politely! Probably in an effort to prop up his own con, Daniel exposed what he knew to be skeletons in the [IRTA] closet.
My due diligence confirmed some of Daniel’s key claims regarding Annette’s dodgy past, although it also showed fabrications of a sensitive personal nature regarding Ron Whitney. I engaged with IRTA at the time full-well knowing that there were porkies being told. With the subsequent closure of the Ormita fraud, I turned my attention to the Qoin con which in turn led back to one of those two conmen who had ‘effectively bought’ their role on the International Board of IRTA.
Further research surrounding the strange relationship between IRTA and one of their members Bartercard occurred on the IPO of Bartercard on the Australian Stock Exchange. Smelling a rat, I established that IRTA not only had endorsed the companies IPO but that it had entered into a secret deal to do much more – a sector of the board at the time making decisions without another sector even knowing!
We generally call that kind of thing, where secret deals are done, corruption.
TIP 7:
Expect that when “birds of a feather flock together” there is increased opportunities for abuse to occur as well as increased positive connections. When we know & understand others we have both increased trust & capacity for wrongdoing.
An interesting side-note to the IRTAcard parody was experiencing the difference between English and American humour. In a nutshell it is different.
On the one hand the Poms (and their derivatives such as me, a Kiwi) have a dry ‘intelligent’ sense of humour.
The Yanks on the other, have none. [joke!]
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