MESSY! 2. The REAL Caroline Macdonald

This post is one of a series exposing the real Caroline Macdonald, CEO of BBX International, a fraudulent commercial barter company that I investigated thoroughly in February 2017. The series will become a book – called “Messy” a direct quote from a woman who will mo doubt need a ‘nappy change’. It will be warning the world of the things that she (and her fellow criminals) do not want known by her victims and cohorts. The art of a white-collar criminal is deception – specifically a crook’s capacity to hide debt is their measurement of their ‘success’. Enjoy, as I take on yet another Australian commercial barter BS artist.

Caroline Macdonald is the daughter of deceased and disgraced Australian businessman Michael Touma. At the time of writing she is currently the CEO and Director of BBX International (an international barter fraud) and Director of Black Tie (a crypto currency company).

I knew Michael personally and while his ‘interesting’ trading patterns caused multiple business failures around Australia it was actually in Godzone here that his crimes first came to the attention of the authorities. He was subsequently banned as a Director in New Zealand. Woah! That’s serious stuff.

Michael’s daughters carried on his fraudulent trading in New Zealand with Caroline and her older sister (Magali Russo) having a couple of failed companies here too. I’ve shared elsewhere how she wrested control of the BBX business in previous blogging, but the family wealth was actually tied up more in property. Caroline’s move to protect the BBX business fraud upon her father’s death was as much a mixture of Caroline’s arrogance and aggression as it was Mags’ drug and alcohol-filled apathy and incompetence. It would be fair to say that in the family power struggle, the stronger girl won. I think from memory, Mum was sidelined.

Michael’s fraudulent conduct in New Zealand was eventually partially caught and exposed with his various companies incurring tax liabilities then going under. As far as I have determined, the fraud ‘worked’ property, alongside of commercial barter. The tax and barter component of the deals were used as pure margin to the crooks and the cash portion was rolled over from deal to deal.

Depending on the deal and the dealer, basically Michael and those under his tutelage would buy property using say a 20-30% portion in trade credit supplied by BBX, the company would then avoid all taxation requirements and the BBX currency would be devalued by misappropriation of that liability. There’s a hundred different ways of doing dodgy deals for a hundred different trades, but as I said in the introduction, the essence of the barter fraud is that their capacity to hide debt. Their capacity to do this determines the success of the con. H/T to Bartercard International’s Paul Bolte for that insight!

Before Michael died, he transferred directorship to his daughter Caroline under a false name but he still copped the disqualification which was Gazetted – image above. In doing so, he showed the world his true nature as did Caroline because he tried to hide her identity at the time by removing the “E” from her first name and the “A” from her surname. I’m a father too, and no father gets these sorts of things wrong by accident, I can assure you!

What then happened was that her sister attempted the same sorts of things as her father, but she too got caught out from the NZ Companies Office and taxman too. To keep things ‘Mum’ the liquidators settled with Caroline for the value of the liquidator’s fees, and it was ‘business as usual’ although not in New Zealand any more.

My investigative and blogging activities in Q1, 2017 had a massive affect on the BBX operations internationally with the New Zealand members all forced to face the fact that they had variously lost out on some $7m and BBX failing to keep their staff or indeed any aspect of their NZ operation going at all. It has been said to me that Caroline fears my words and that I single-handedly destroyed their barter fraud through my blogging.

While these two statements would probably need to be moderated a little I do accept that the power of intelligent thought, with the guts to speak truth that others can not or will not will create unique stresses for crooks, crims & crazies, and as I said at the outset will require some people to need “nappy changes”. Nappies, for my American-speaking followers are “diapers” in the English-speaking world. “Needing a nappy change” is a polite version basically of the slang saying that they will be “shitting themselves”.

This series has been spawned by two recent events:

1. IRTA’s appointing ‘Madam’ to their 2022 International Conference as a keynote speaker on 12 September 2022 in Las Vegas, and
2. The public airing of a spat between ‘Madam’ and Robert Tidy, a lot of this behind the scenes information being a real treasure trove of data for an investigative blogger like me!

Personally, I think that Caroline should be locked up and spend the rest of her life in an orange jump suit, it’s that bad. People across the globe have come to me in tears at the losses they have had at her hands, and the feedback over many years has been some of the worst ever . . . evil, *itch (with a b and a w) are intertwined with deep passion when the reports come in. I stop short of recommending the death penalty for her because God has granted her the opportunity to continue to breathe. This is however a courtesy I extend to all, so don’t read too much into this grace, please.

Over the next few posts I will be:

1. Explaining the backstory to the BBX fraud;
2. Diving into the 2022 IRTA Conference and explaining that this endorsement and write-up of a proven crook is more of the same, from a struggling organisation watching both their membership base and their relevance dissolve, actually matching their credibility as all three of these things evaporate.
3. Explaining the who, what, how, where and why BBX New Zealand and its principals will now be facing the music from NZ’s ComCom (Commerce Commission), SFO (serious Fraud Office), IRD (Inland Revenue Department) & FMA (Financial Management Authority) – all this regardless of what these crooks choose to do now;
4. Detailing the exact way that crooks like Caroline use & abuse the credit of their members. It is the abuse of the credit of this membership that gives the crooks their power;
5. Analysing the Black Tie theft and sharing my observations of the Caroline Macdonald/Robert Tidy conflict, focusing in on Caroline’s attitude, approach and actions securing the services of ACA, an Australian TV investigative ‘hit’ team; and
6. Projecting the future with regards to the BBX, Black Tie, Crypto businesses and any brand or company or organisation associated with this woman.
7. Redeveloping my tipline to provide a better mechanism for affected parties to share their experiences (both good and bad) publicly in regards to any person or entity I’ve mentioned.

While she may be possibly be a great mother; be loved by those ‘weaker’ than her or those who think that they need her and while she was obviously “born with a silver spoon in her mouth”, the Caroline Macdonald I know is an ugly and aggressive con artist; a fraudster with an ego only matched by her greed and abrasiveness.

I’ve been at this game and working in this industry for many decades and while there are plenty of others who have out-performed her in terms of basic business acumen; financial success and natural cunning, IMHO few have matched the pain and the passions she has evoked across the globe.

IMHO as said to me more than once, “a nasty piece of work!” is indeed a justified assessment.

PUBLIC WARNING

My advice is to be warned about Caroline Macdonald.

If you have any involvement with BBX New Zealand, distance yourself publicly and firmly immediately, NO MATTER THE COST so that you do not get you or your business caught up in any formal investigation. It’s on!

The same advice applies to Caroline Macdonald personally and in any business relationship associated with her. Back off, get out and do it quickly and publicly, so you don’t get your fingers burned too!

Caroline Macdonald has every legal right to do whatever she wants but the same authority that extends her that right also extends me the right to expose what she does. Watch out team!

In my next post I dive into the BBX backstory and explain why the IRTA spin on their 2022 conference marketing, misses the mark. You won’t be wanting to miss this one!