MESSY! 4.IRTA’s 2022 Shame

Caroline Macdonald is the guest of honour at this year’s IRTA conference. Shame IRTA! Shame! In this post I get down and dirty real with an organisation struggling for relevance in 2022, along with a dying membership and credibility problems. I know the people and the organisation VERY well, and believe me this year will be nothing more than previous years, except that perhaps the ‘night-time activities’ will be with different players, if you know what I mean! Enjoy.

The International Reciprocal Trade Association (IRTA) had its heyday decades ago when commercial barter thrived. Established for a bunch of reasons by the movers and the shakers of the time it did some good early work but it has struggled in the last decade to retain credibility and relevance. As with many organisations adapting to a changing world, it has operated under Ron Whitney’s leadership, his role being both a blessing and a curse. The blessing being the fact that nobody else in the industry could do what he has done (he has undoubtedly brought stability to the organisation) but at the same time his weaknesses of limited vision and opportunism mixing with a changing world making survival the name of his game. He’s watched as the Board has changed and the politics of basically an old white-man’s club have created him major difficulties.

IRTA is Ron. IRTA would not still be around if it wasn’t for him, thus the remaining people who all know each other very well take the good with the bad. They have little other option as they know that IRTA needs him.

Ron’s choices this year for keynote speaker probably represent the lowest point of his career and I am sure that his heart will sink as he realises his mistake in appointing Caroline to the front of the stage for a day of ignominy. Caroline’s crowning moment will become an embarrassment to all women globally, to Australians and to all those in IRTA as (yet again) the blogger from hell New Zealand shows the world what the real score is! BBX is a fraud. Caroline has stolen then lost Black Tie as it was not hers in the first place and the authorities downunder are now onto her.

Before I go through IRTA’s marketing spiel above, please let me detour momentarily into the historical archives and explain for the newcomers who, what how and why I can speak with such authority in this industry, one that is quite honestly isn’t. My findings are that 97% of the commercial barter industry works with deflated currencies (some as I have proven with BBX) down to value less than one cent in the dollar, inflation of course being caused entirely by the currency owners/managers themselves. The 3% that I know to be honest traders (i.e. where one trade dollar, pound or whatever does equal one local currency dollar, pound or whatever) are NOT members of IRTA, BTW.

Pure Mutual Credit is as rare as hen’s teeth to find in the commercial barter industry because the temptation is way too high for most operators to resist the temptation to help themselves to the juiciest items on offer, or to just take a little bit here or there (for the members’ good of course) and the biggie, to avoid a little bit of tax here and there of course ‘only a little bit’. IRTA endorses this theft, but only to a certain level, and we won’t ‘go there’ today!

Many of the past difficulties in the industry are no longer to be seen thanks to my work and those who were around only will well recall the efforts IRTA went to to find and get rid of Daniel Evans and his Ormita Fraud; the Tradeqoin and Qoin cons perpetrated by the IRTA Board level-protected Dutch crooks and bankrupted two conmen, the Bartercard USA rip-off of IRTA; the associated Universal Currency BS; the dodgy BPS Technology IPO, and IRTA’s secret backdoor endorsement; the BBX UK and BBX International con jobs! The list goes on and on, year after year!

So what we have here is the 2022 version of the old man’s annual club meeting – this year IRTA is holding it at Las Vegas, but it comes with a difference – a feminine face and from downunder to boot! Based on the gossip going on downtown some of the men up there will consider that it’s a pity that she’s already got her man in tow for the Aussie baptism in fire but them’s the breaks fellas! I hear there’s plenty of other crumpet available up there.

Let’s go through the red lining above in a bit of detail then . . .

BBX is a Rhodium Sponsor.

Ummm, OK so what’s that? I think this means that the package the Ron put together with ‘Madam’ was that Caroline used some BBX funny money to buy herself the speaking slot. OK. Got it!

Second generation trade exchange owner Caroline Macdonald was raised on barter

True! You got that one right Ron. BBX was a Bartercard clone established by her father Michael Touma after Wayne set his up. She got rid of her siblings and sorted her grieving mother out to wrest control of the BBX ’empire’ – well actually only a struggling name. Owner? Yup – at the moment but watch this space. You heard the goss here first!

and has built one of the industry’s most innovative international barter companies. BBXI regularly implemented unprecedented business strategies that all barter professionals can learn from.

Oh Ron, Ron, Ron. This is just BS! Most people outside of the USA or your echo chambers can read through this marketing spiel inside two seconds.

BBX was actually a copy cat operation always following Wayne Sharp’s innovative activities. As a member of both exchanges at the time I never saw ANY innovation from Michael’s ‘up and down’ struggling BBX New Zealand ‘stuff-ups’ that Bartercard had not done first, from the membership agreement to the business structure and marketing; from Touma’s heady days as a little copy-cat brother through to Caroline’s failures I showed in 2017.

The only thing I think “barter professionals” should learn from this woman is what NOT to do in business if you want to stay out of prison that is!

Moderator: Caroline Macdonald, CEO of BBX International & Black Tie Digital & Jarrad Parke, COOO Black Tie Digital

I’ll share more about this Jarrad dude and the Black Tie thing in an up-coming post but Caroline will be trying to present this Black Tie thing as the way of the future and innovation through and through. Black Tie is dead. It was a Crypto established by another due who got sucked into her “BBX will do this and BBX will do that” BS story. Caroline tried to steal it after taking the guy’s idea and money, then trying to lie to an Australian judge to get out of his winding her up.

Trust me, Black Tie is dead, and if the company isn’t wound up by now the brand is dead in the water, especially if it is associated with ‘Madam’!

The Warning

On 3 September 2022 I flicked IRTA a warning about what was coming up. My thinking was and still is that if I was in their position I would appreciate a heads-up and believe it or not I’m really not a ‘shock=blogger’;. The truth is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and while others may choose to manipulate public perception for personal gain or political purposes, I’ve always found it a lot better in the long-run to do the honourable thing. It means that an adversary can take advantage of you but this is only ever a temporary thing and I play for keeps. So I said:

Hi Ron
Just a heads up that over the last month or so I have been working again on the BBX fraud, with a particular focus on New Zealand.
I now have sufficient evidence to take the matters further here in New Zealand.
Last week I put down a deposit for Auckland based lawyers VHP to commence action against BBX New Zealand and its principals and that yesterday I received confirmation from a Wellington barrister who [said] they are likely to instruct [and] that ComCom, SFO, IRD and the FMA will likely be very interested in his submission.  ComCom is NZ’s Commerce Commission, SFO the Serious Fraud Office who deals with fraud over $500k – BBX NZ was in the order of $7m five years ago. The IRD is the equivalent of your IRS and the FMA is New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority who will likely take the case only as a referral from the SFO and/or ComCom.
I am sorry but I cannot advise you of timing but with the payment of the deposit last week and verbal confirmation from the barrister yesterday, my assessment is that the likelihood of Caroline Macdonald personally being actively investigated by the government agencies in NZ shortly is very high 
My understanding is also that the Black Tie company has already been or is about to be wound up in Australia – but again I do not have proof of this nor do I know the exact timing, sorry.
I note that Caroline is your keynote speaker this year in Las Vegas and I respectfully suggest that IRTA prepares for PR adversity as a consequence of my work.
As always if you require further information simply ask
Thanks

What IRTA does now is up to them. Personally I think they would be best to encourage Caroline to “become suddenly unavailable” and to find someone else to speak up there but past conduct says that Ron will try to bluff it out. I don’t really care to be honest. I think most people in the industry know the real score anyway and the Conference is something just for show! Caroline will probably still get an award or two despite her Black Tie business failure and she’ll probably still get her orange jump suit in due course!

In future posts I will be sharing about how a manipulator and con-artist like Caroline uses others to achieve her goals. Jarrad, watch out mate, you’re dealing with the devil and are into this thing way over your head! She’s been taught how to do this stuff since she was knee-high to a grasshopper and you’re a real newbie at it! Watch out that you don’t get left holding the baby mate, cause from where I sit, that’s what she’s got planned for ya buddy!

In the next post in this series, I dig into the personal conflict between Caroline Macdonald and a guy called Robert Tidy. Rob has put some VERY revealing things online which show the real nature of this dudess!