IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE - November 27, 2007
(From Skip Oceanlane, provided in-world by Bogart Beck and IntLibber Brautigan)

WORLS STOCK EXCHANGE (WSE) REFUSES TO COOPERATE,
KEEPS INVESTOR MERLIN'S STOCKS FOR ITSELF

In an e-mail to Merlin's Investment Bank (MIBank) Vice-President Skip Oceanlane, World Stock Exchange owner LukeConnell Vandeverre refused to confirm information about what stocks Investor Merlin purchased with MIBank funds citing "privacy concerns."  In addition, Mr. Vandeverre stated that he was refusing to transfer any stocks to the care of Skip Oceanlane and is instead keeping all stocks for himself and his stock exchanges use.  Mr. Vandeverre is doing this in spite of the fact that every other SL stock exchange has already transferred shares in question for sale and refund to former MIBank depositors. 

Mr. Vandeverre stated instead of transferring stocks worth hundreds of thousands of Lindens to the care of Skip Oceanlane and allowing him to sell them so Lindens can be refunded to depositors, he will instead issue "World Trader Fund" stocks to former depositors.  "This stock Mr. Vandeverre is giving out is practically worthless compared to the stocks he should be transferring.  It's nothing but a scam as bad as what Investor Merlin has done", said Oceanlane.  Vice-President Oceanlane said he would bring the matter to the Second Life Exchange Commission to take action, if possible.

Skip Oceanlane has estimated that this stock, currently hovering around .03 Linden per share, is only roughly 5% of what could be obtained if the stocks in Investor Merlin's name were sold.  "I am deeply disappointed that Mr. Vandeverre is keeping these stocks for his own use at the WSE.  Every other stock exchange has transferred the stocks back so depositors could get back some of their Lindens", said Oceanlane.

Mr. Vandeverre refused to allow Mr. Oceanlane to provide all necessary documentation to state the case why the stocks should be transferred to his care.  Mr. Vandeverre stated that he doesn't feel Mr. Oceanlane has a legitimate claim to the stocks, and that transferring them would be "illegal."

In spite of Mr. Vandeverre not releasing a list of stocks in question, here is the last known list of Investor Merlin's stocks at the WSE.  This list is as of October 12, 2007, and Mr. Vandeverre refuses to verify its accuracy:

ACE:1500  ALC:23451  AMA:1  AMI:3096  AMS:10000  BMC:8730  BPV:6087  CIG:1181 DSE:11080 DTR:35 ENL:3036 FED:1775 GAL:667 GBU:9497 HOT:1274 HUI:371 HYP:137 IBM:10205 KCG:512 LDI:17622 LEM:393 LFB:968 LGO:9055 MFM:11284 MYT:2422 PFW:??? PGI:10607 PPL:51791 PSG:38983 REZ:306 RIN:565 SIM:7584 SKY:1857 SLM:1747 SLR:729 SLZ:1681 SNL:1065 SSP:650 TCI:5030 TGB:1065 TYP:4999 VGI:650 XDT:500

Copy of statement, word for word, from Mr. Vandeverre:
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Hello,

Firstly, you cannot claim the lindens stolen. SL residents deposited linden dollars into a virtual bank with many risks that was controlled by the avatar Investor Merlin. Once they do that they are giving Investor Merlin permission to use those linden dollars however he decides to in order to hopefully generate a return that would cover his large and in our view unrealistic interest rate commitments.

The result was that Investor Merlin was unable to generate a reasonable return from his virtual investments to cover the interest commitments being offered by his virtual bank. He is also likely to have over committed the linden dollars in his virtual bank that resulted in insufficient cash reserves to cover any withdrawal requests by his users.

The WSE is not obligated in anyway to the depositors of his virtual bank or the customers of any virtual business controlled by other avatars however we have a process for situations such as this and the process we have is that we do not transfer control of fictional assets in the WSE to any other user once an avatar is found to have gone bankrupt or breached WSE terms. Rather than an immediate liquidation of those assets, the WSE converts those assets into a large fund called the WSE Traders Fund that offers a far better opportunity for any shareholders of the fund to have an opportunity to get the best possible return through large dividends and interest payments to offset any loss from failed virtual businesses.

I look forward to receiving the final and complete list of avatar names and balances for us to begin the recovery process. The WSE would recommend that users hold their WTF shares once they have been issued rather than selling them at the current market price.

Kind Regards, Luke

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I have forwarded the final approved claims list to Mr. Vandeverre.  Anyone that wishes to get more information about what he intends to do, can contact the WSE directly.

Sorry folks,…I did my best, but it seems that not everyone wants to do the right thing here.  If anyone can help get Mr. Vandeverre to change his decision, please do so.  Thank you.