This may bring a few smiles to the lakhs of proud Speak Asians after a soothing clarification came from Speak Asian CEO that all is not that bad with them. After the reported news about United Overseas Bank (UOB) of Singapore freezing the bank accounts of Speak Asia, the Website official clarified on Friday that their account in Singapore has not been frozen but that it is only moving its company account to another bank. "We are approaching and evaluating various other Banks in Singapore from where we will soon be able to disburse the payments to all panelists," Speak Asia's India CEO Manoj Kumar said. He also emphasized that, "Also, we would like to reassure that the panelists’ money is safe! Towards this, we are trying to open an escrow account in order to further protect their interests."
So, what's next now? Well, the panelists have no other options but to wait with bated breaths when their next payment comes. It might be too soon or never. But, still will give them a glimmer of hope that all is not gone and Speak Asia is not dying. They are hoping that it will come out stronger and bigger, and I give them my best wishes that they get their money back.
The only thing that bemuses me is that if there was nothing right with their operational method and they have publicly apologized for that as well as accepted that they are not a survey company but rather one of the Ponzi company which works on the same age-old method, get money from the member, ask the member to bring more members and thus more money, then pay back the old member a fraction of money from the new members, and let it go as long as the money is there or the pyramid is not completed, why they chose to stay afloat after all the media revelations.
I am sure that they had earned already enough money from the 20 lakh panelists and they had all the time in the world after the first telecast of Star News regarding Speak Asia supposed scam to go away and hide in any part of the globe, but instead they chose to fight back and clarify their sides. So, that seems a good thing from the panelists' point of view that Speak Asia still wants to go on and I think as long as they can manage to go on, I think they will give their member some money back so at least one can still get their investment back if not profit for some time.
Keep your fingers crossed.
© 2011 Ranjan Kumar
