Yes, I'd pretty much call it a hate campaign against Mark Hotchin. (NZ Herald)
There’s a particular kind of anger and outrage sparked when you feel someone has shafted you financially.
I’ve been reflecting on the strength of feeling expressed by some commenters in the thread ‘Is this how Shaun Stenning handles a request for a refund?‘ and the public and private reversal of fortunes experienced by some former financial ‘high-flyers’.
Someone who has made promises that you trusted or made claims of financial ‘strength’ or ‘integrity’ or ‘security’ … using words and documents which basically say ‘you can trust me’ or claims that things are ‘designed to withstand storms’ … really does set themselves up for a fall when things go against them.
Even more so, using the vehicle of a personal guarantee to set minds at rest about an innately risky venture you are promoting (or spruiking.)
A case in point: Hanover Finance (who we last discussed here). The fall from grace of this previously hyped-up but reasonably successful, for a time, money lender (“built to withstand the toughest conditions”) has provoked what can only be described as a hate campaign against the former director Mark Hotchin.
Reporters are door-stepping him and hassling him at the airport, and on holiday … and he receives continual news media coverage of the most intense and unflattering kind, constantly questioning why he should have any ‘luxury’ in his life when the people who trusted him have lost so much.
A gummint agency has frozen his assets and poured scorn on his claims that his weekly commitments can’t be met by $1000 per week. He is seen by many, it seems, as a figure worthy of contempt. Not a good place to be.
Journey of grief
It creates bilious feelings when someone whom you trusted (rightly or wrongly) — because they made statements, promises and ‘projections’ on which you relied — lets you down in a way that affects you financially.
It may be they may have promulgated claims of financial ‘strength’ or ‘integrity’ or ‘security’ … using words and documents like ‘first ranking debenture’, ‘security’, ‘guaranteed’ and slogans like ‘you can trust us’. (These devices along with copious declarations of their own good character are often used to soothe potential targets’ fears.)
When someone who overtly claimed superiority (moral or to do with ‘expertise’) actually proves to be weak, it hurts … especially if they gave you abundant voluble ‘reasons’ to trust them: “I am a man of high integrity, an expert, one of the best, I know what I’m doing.”
Confession time
In that context, I read the recent sobering confession (is that the right word? Maybe owning up to reality fits better) of a local personality who features in these pages from time to time.
He admitted that he’d been through ‘relative hell in many ways’ over the last two years, and, despite his sales-focused roadshows and the affirming messages he’d peddled to his followers throughout, he and several of his ‘clients’ had in fact been struggling just to ‘stay afloat‘ … and he has, sadly, found himself in a position where he can’t meet financial obligations. Continue reading →
