Grubstakers

In this teaser for our Patreon episode on Giovanni Ferrero, the Nutella guy, we look into the world coco trade. For the full episode, check out https://www.patreon.com/grubstakers

This week we're joined by Brad from hedgeclippers.org to discuss billionaire "activist investor" Daniel S. Loeb. Hear how he built his hedge fund fortune from small time message board pump and dumps to being one of the big players extorting companies into laying off workers and asset stripping themselves in order to give him a payday. We also discuss how in 2002 Dan Loeb was traveling in Cuba and hit a child with his car and nobody knows what happened to the child. So Dan Loeb's attorneys if you're reading this: please just tell us where the kid is.

For more information on Hedge Fund and Private Equity billionaires check out http://hedgeclippers.org/

The economist Jang-Sup Shin is actually a "he" not a "she" as Sean refers to them but here is his piece on how regulatory changes have made activist investors like Dan Loeb predatory value extractors. Also the shark in formaldehyde is by Damien Hurst not Jeff Koons so sorry about that one too:

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/08/hedge-fund-activists-coopted-shareholder-democracy.html

Teaser for the latest patreon ep on The Vatican. For more, visit https://www.patreon.com/grubstakers and give us a little $5 money kiss.

This week we look at the Mahfouz family, the billionaire family behind the first bank in Saudi Arabia, but also we look at the Saudi role in the September 11th attack in general. The Mahfouz family funded Al Qaeda, but they were certainly not the only Saudi Billionaires to do so: in 2002 the golden chain list revealed 18 Saudi businessmen with a combined net worth of $85 billion who had been giving money Osama Bin Laden. The Saudi connection into the attacks continues into various levels of the government, where employees for the ministry of Islamic affairs and the embassy in Washington served as handlers for the hijackers helping them get acclimated in the USA in the lead up to the attacks. Why was all of this covered up by the Bush administration and subsequent presidents? Why isn’t this the scandal of the century? Was all that tower 7 stuff a distraction from the very real conspiracy and cover up carried out right in front of all our faces? We try to wrestle with all those questions and more this week on Grubstakers.

Politico long piece going into more detail about some of the accusations against the Saudi government:

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/saudi-arabia-911-lawyer-214996

There are also allegations that two Saudi government agents carried out a "dry run" of the attacks on US soil in 1999:

https://nypost.com/2017/09/09/saudi-government-allegedly-funded-a-dry-run-for-911/

New episode on former billionaire diamonaire fugitive Nirav Modi diamond heir legacy child, Wharton college dropout, and as always, a billionaire with a brother who does him no good. Learn all about how he defrauded the Punjab National Bank of an alleged 1.8 Billion Dollars. The amount varies depending on the source, because they don’t know how much this Modi family has defrauded the banks of India. Whilst this fraud he was also selling fake diamonds to manufactures around the world as well as close friends, and including Canadian Paul Alfonso who has a lawsuit out for Nirav due to his fiancé leaving him because of being duped for two hundred thousand dollars. All that and more right here on Grubstakers.

The episode this week describes the hottest new trend in companies that have no conceivable way to make money: launching IPOs and letting the founders dump that problem onto the general investing public. Early 2000s nostalgia is in so we're bringing back dot com pump and dumps. Welcome to the life of Billionaire Adam Neumann and his "company" WeWork, which is cooking its books so blatantly that even the financial newspapers owned by other billionaires have been pointing it out. We explore his humble origin story growing up the rich kid in a Kibbutz on stolen land, his meager start doing business out of the Tribeca apartment his parents paid for, and how the WeWork IPO later this month will solidify him as a billionaire even when the company inevitably crashes and burns.

One thing we forgot to mention on the episode: the Brooklyn landlord Joshua Guttman, who gave Adam Neumann the space to start his first company Green Desk, has been linked to numerous mysterious arson fires at his properties. Everything here seems to be on the up and up!

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/18/nyregion/18landlord.html

Full Episode on Patreon now!

www.patreon.com/grubstakers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb8bENaDqNY

This week we are joined by Matthew Dagher-Margosian to have an in-depth look into the Hong Kong protests, as well as a profile on Chinese billionaire Li Ka-Shing (profile begins at 52 minute mark) After the episode Matthew Dagher-Margosian graciously sent us an additional bonus audio on the triads and their involvement on the protests. Links to the journalists and activists Matt mentioned on our show as well as his information below.

Asia Art Tours:

Asiaarttours.com

Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC37MGjfMHBkusWRESbxn5pA

Podcast (The Arts of Travel): https://player.whooshkaa.com/shows/the-arts-of-travel (also on iTunes and Spotify)

Hong Kong Folks to Follow:

@rosemarieho_

@HongKongHermit

@wilfredchan

@promiseli_

@hyjpang

@maryhui

Good Web Articles to follow or follow up on

chuangcn.org/2019/06/anti-extradition-translations/

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/hong-kongs-fight-for-life

https://crimethinc.com/2019/06/22/hong-kong-anarchists-in-the-resistance-to-the-extradition-bill-an-interview

https://multimedia.scmp.com/infographics/news/hong-kong/article/3016815/hong-kong-protest-city/index.html

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/08/hong-kong-protest-china-carrie-lam-umbrella-movement-extradition-bill-xi-jinping

https://www.timeout.com/hong-kong/blog/tycoons-the-men-who-rule-hong-kong-100416

Literature-

Land and the Ruling Class- Alice Poon

A Concise History of Hong Kong- John Carroll

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235956977_Neoliberalism_and_Privatization_in_Hong_Kong_after_the_1997_Financial_Crisis

Between Colonizers: Hong Kong's Postcolonial Self-Writing in the 1990s - Rey Chow

Full Episode on Patreon now!

www.patreon.com/grubstakers

Today on Grubstakers we're talking Naval Ravikant. He's known for creating AngelList, getting a bunch of money from Uber, and having one hell of a dumb brother. He was also on Rogan which makes him one of those dumb guy's smart billionaires. We also talk Epstein some more, because that shit continues to be wild.