Replies to post #2096 on Investing in Timber

[MarcFromPittsburgh]

Retaliation

Scheaf,

For several years I have thought about a way that TATF could retaliate against someone that they don't like, whether that be because of a lawsuit, posts on this board or simply plain greed.

There is nothing in our agreement(s) that says how many trees we will end up with. The projections reference "mortality/cull loss" in the initial few years, so it is expected that some trees will not fare well and likely die.

TATF could simply say that a tree owner's trees had a higher than anticipated mortality rate or broke off in a windstorm, whatever, and even go so far as to sell the lumber for their own profit. Over the years, my primary worry in this regard is that we have no guarantees about how the trees would fare and/or be cared for, but it is possibly open to fraud, too. Now I'm not saying that they WOULD do that, just that they COULD.

Marc

[belmontx]

schaef, you answered your own question about why many investors would prefer to post their critical comments anonymously when you said that you prefer to retain your anonymity and you stated:

"Those who have something to protect are the ones who are still hoping for a return from their trees. I want TATF to respond to my emails, so I don't act like a jerk when I contact them and in case I have anything negative to say here, I hold on to my anonymity. That's pretty much it for me. I agree; there is no evidence that anything good is happening. But I want to be able to send an email every couple of months and hope that somebody will respond. I hope they will be motivated to care for my trees in the hope that I will buy more. These are my reasons for anonymity."

It is no big mystery that most of TATF's investors are completely confused about the health of their investment, neither confident nor yet nor completely convinced it is a scam (but their fears are becoming reality with every additional month since 2006 with no communication coming from the owner). Therefore, most of them are in exactly the position you are vis-a-vis posting anonymously. We wouldn't get their news, experiences or opinions if they had to use the names Mr. Brunner would recognize.

That would be a loss for the forum. The way it is we all know no investor is getting any information whatsoever about their trees in spite of the projections they were given when they purchased them. If we didn't have the forum we would only have the TATF "What's New" propaganda since the "Tree Owners' News" seems to be defunct.

This website, the Hub, is sole news' sharing source about the Tropical American Tree Farms scheme and we need the participation we have been getting from other investors.

belmontx

p.s. I also agree with Marc's retaliation point in the previous post. No doubt that this forum needs the anonymity it offers investors.