|
|
|
By Jimmy Sarmiento-- Certified Financial Planner and former Internal Auditor-- Pacific Stock Exchange
I had never heard of the H. Martin Foundation (HMF) until I read “Chasing Rainbows” and “Lies of Legendary Magnitude I & II" on VIB. My initial impression was that of amusement, instantly dismissing the H. Martin Foundation as just another kooky but harmless scheme. However, the more I analyzed the official Vallejo city records, i.e., staff notes and the document, “Mare Island Projects In Collaboration with H. Martin Foundation”, the more alarmed I became. The proposal promises the sun, the moon and the stars to the City of Vallejo and other entities. For instance, HMF will (allegedly) provide essentially unlimited funding to Touro University, Solano Community College, and all students enrolled in the Vallejo Unified School District. The foundation will even “consider paying for the costs for all public services provided by the City of Vallejo … to Mare Island” and …”provide funding to resurrect the Public Safety Cadet and Trainee programs for both the Police and Fire Departments …” What a bonanza for everyone if it were real! Sadly, precious city resources were expended entertaining this pipe dream, at tangible expense to city taxpayers. Here’s the link to the proposal if you want to study it further. (link)
There’s an old saying, “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is”. That was the conclusion I reached after poring over the HMF website. The Times Herald article Foundation promises to ease local charities' burdens by reporter Jessica A. York also bolstered my skepticism. It talks about the founder, Martin Eddy Hornido Tirwatadinata, having “King Kong” amounts of money handed down from Indonesian royalty which could easily pay off the $11.8 trillion national debt of the United States. This, I had to see. I volunteered to join the VIB panel that requested a meeting with HMF representatives to review their finances in the presence of news reporters from different news organizations. HMF chose to ignore the request. Subsequent VIB requests for meetings with Rev. Rey Bernardes were likewise snubbed. In the City of Vallejo proposal, Rey and Eva Bernardes are identified as HMF representatives, while the Jessica York article in the newspaper report states, “Locally, the H. Martin Foundation has joined efforts with the Rev. Rey Bernardes, the founder of the Christian Help Center and the Global Center for Success.” In lieu of Flor Lat Villapando who apparently resides in Southern California, Rev. Rey Bernardes, the local HMF representative, would have been the perfect person to explain the foundation’s finances.
Frustrated by the lack of empirical evidence from within HMF validating the authenticity of their outrageous claim to wealth, we decided to expend some effort in gathering information using other sources. So, let’s lay this organization on the slab and dissect its parts, head first.
THE HEAD
The H. Martin Foundation claims that its founder, Martin Eddy Hornido Tirwatadinata, is the son of the Sultan of Bogor, Indonesia. VIB researchers communicated with a resident of Bogor and an expert in Indonesian history at the National University in Singapore, and confirmed that there never was a Sultan of Bogor. His Philippine passport (image) which VIB has obtained shows that he was born in Cagayan de Oro, on the island of Mindanao, Philippines. Since there never was a Sultan of Bogor, who, then, is this “Papa Eddy”? Where in the world is he? Mr. Hornido is the center of the HMF universe. He is the “Founder / World Chairman, Sole Funder and Sole Signatory of the Funds of legendary magnitude which have reached the highest monetary authorities of the U.S. Federal Reserve.” (Exact quote is from the HMF website.) The last 13 years or so, this “foundation” has been actively recruiting individual members in the US. Lately, it has focused its recruiting efforts on legitimate non profit organizations, Vallejo’s Global Center for Success, among them. The promise? The funds are “coming out soon”. The only thing missing is the signature of the “most honorable founder” in its “constitution and by-laws”. The money will be secured after they have proven that they have the requisite participation, people and programs.Let’s give credit where credit is due. In a conversation with Pastor Rey Barnardes’ brother-in-law and newspaper reporter Eduardo M. Yra of the FilAm Star, he revealed to me that the Founder/World Chairman lives in the island of Bohol in the Philippines. Bingo! I grew up on a nearby island and know people in Bohol. Let me point out at this juncture that in small communities around the world, the concept of privacy bears little resemblance to what we’re accustomed to here in America. This is especially true in small islands. Everybody seems to know everyone’s business. Out there, the lid over confidential information is very porous.
An old school chum of mine who knows Martin Hornido (as he’s known in the islands) emailed me: “ I know Martin Hornido for a long time now. He appeared in Bohol from I do not where in the 1990s. Some people said he came from Malaysia where he made a big money from logging business. Others said he ran a gambling business in Malaysia, similar to jueteng. Someone said he owned a fleet of hauling trucks that operate in Metro Manila. But among those who knew him thought he is a swindler.”
THE FORTUNE
It is obvious that Mr. Hornido’s “inheritance” from the Sultan of Bogor was not handed down in the form of a trust fund at Bank of America. HMF members say the fortune is worth several hundred trillion dollars, and is in the form of gold bullion deposited in various banks around the world, as well as treasury bonds from the United States of America and other countries.
As proof of the gold deposit, HMF operatives show off certificates of deposit. Shown here are three of these certificates representing 7,200 metric tons of 99.9 pure gold bullion. Two of these are “authenticated” by H. Martin Foundation’s Global Vice Chairman. Sang Uook Chun. (Yes, another Global Vice Chairman, just like Ms. VIllapando.) Below are images of the three gold bullion certificates.
The H. Martin Foundation claims they are genuine. They are all counterfeit. VIB has added the word FRAUDULENT to satisfy legal requirements
Click the thumbnails to see them close up. Click again to ZOOM.
Let’s examine the Wells Fargo Certificate. It has an issue date of June 22, 1935,but look towards the bottom of the certificate. It shows the address of the US Government Printing Office in Washington, DC, 20402. Big problem. The ZIP Code was implemented by the US Postal Service in 1963. How in the heck can a genuine certificate printed in 1935 incorporate a zip code? (unless it ain't genuine)
Another problem associated with this Wells Fargo Certificate is the signatures. The certificate bears the signatures of Georgia Neese Clark as Treasurer of the United States, and John N. Snyder who was the Secretary of the Treasury. Well and good; however, the only time period these two signatures were together on US currency and notes was from June 21, 1949 to January 20,1953. Never in 1935, before their tenure in office!
Just for grins, how much is 7,200 metric tons of gold worth in today’s market? Last time I checked, gold was $1,105 a troy ounce. Let’s round this down to $1,100 to be conservative. There are 32,150.75 troy ounces to a metric ton. Multiply this by $1,100, you get $35,365,825 per metric ton. 7,200 metric tons of gold therefore has a current value of $254,633,940,000. And this is only from those three certificates that we were given images of.
Since it’s not possible to walk over to your nearest Wells Fargo Bank or the Central Bank of Argentina and withdraw some gold, the H. Martin Foundation has apparently used these certificates to "creatively" generate funds.
They were used as “collateral” for certain business transactions and were allegedly used in one instance to extract $300,000 from the business “partner”.
Take time to read the contract. The victim, Party B, was tricked into shelling out the money in advance for a 25.5% share, and if the certificates turned out to be “not collateral useful”, Mr. Hornido would “immediately return to Party B US$300,000.00”. We’ll leave the rest of the story to your imagination.
Here’s a related email message from of one of our VIB readers who seems to know a lot about the HMF:
they have a lot of victims since 2004, and lost millions of dollar thru contract signing.”
NON PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS’ INVOLVEMENT
The gold bullion “business contract” is simply a classic swindle. What I find more insidious, however, is when innocent parties such as bona fide charitable organizations are led to believe that they will be recipients of massive grants and become party to a funding agreement that eventually results in a con job. We were provided a copy of a contract which we are redacting in part at this time so it will not compromise our ongoing investigations.
In the contract, Martin Hornido will allegedly provide investments of US$10 Billion a month for 10 years, for a total of “twelve hundred (1,200) billion US dollars”. Proceeds of the investments will be granted to the non-profit, including an outright $600 Billion grant for something akin to the Nobel Prize to be given to 2,000 recipients a year in perpetuity, as per these provisions in the contract. Party B is Mr. Hornido.
The alleged victim, apparently a Chinese industrialist, paid an “advance no return upfront USD $20,000” for bank charges, etc., as well as unknown amounts of investment grade bonds to Mr. Hornido. The billions in “investments” were supposed to have been channeled through the victim before disbursement to the Korean non-profit organization.
We’re not saying that the same con job will happen here in the US as non profits are likewise being recruited and promised funding by the HMF. What we’re showing is what has allegedly transpired in Korea and the Philippines. Does history repeat itself?
FUNDS OF LEGENDARY MAGNITUDE REVISITED
It is possible that hundreds of people have been recruited in the US during the years that Flor Lat Villapando and her HMF “Ad Hoc Core Group” have been operating. After all, they were holding weekly if not twice weekly recruitment meetings for long stretches of time. All for what? For the opportunity to have positions of responsibility within HMF in anticipation of the release of their hundreds of trillions of dollars so they can fulfill their dreams of helping humanity ?
Remember, according to their story, these HUNDREDS of trillions of dollars are not held in cash. They are mainly US Treasury Bonds, meaning instruments of indebtedness by the United States of America. Let’s put this astronomical amount in perspective. Since its founding in 1776, the United States of America has accumulated a grand total of $12 Trillion Dollars of national debt. Yes, Twelve Trillion Dollars. Twelve.
On the other hand, the H. Martin Foundation faithful profess that with the signature of their honorable founder on their HMF Constitution and By-Laws, the US Congress and the Federal Reserve Board will be compelled not only to acknowledge this debt of several hundred trillion dollars to HMF, but also to release these funds to them. If known to the public, it will create massive disruption in the financial markets. Hence, it is “hush hush” top level banking negotiations according to Ms. Villapando.
Pursuing their goal of securing the release of these funds, Ms. Villapando and the HMF Ad Hoc Core Group labored long and hard to craft a Constitution and By-Laws that reflect the principles and good intentions of the HMF. When finally completed, she and her core group of around 15 individuals traveled to the Philippines in 2007 to get the signature of the founder. Sadly for them, persuasion, prayers over the paperwork and a $200 pen failed to secure Mr. Hornido’s signature. Makes perfect sense to me. Had he signed, they’d fast run out of excuses as to why the funds aren’t “coming out” yet.
NEXT INSTALLMENT: DISSECTING THE BODY. An intimate look inside the HMF through the eyes, testimonials and video cameras of former members and victims.
Read other VIB articles on The H. Martin Foundation HERE
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
