Second Life's Ginko Financial Flounders with $750,000 in Unpaid Liabilities

Second Life's Ginko Financial Bank is unable repay $L200,000,000 ($750,000 U.S.) in account holder money. The big question in Second Life lately is where did $750,000 U.S. dollars of real value in Second Life investments go? It seems the deal was too good to be true, up to 60% interest on account deposits made with Second Lifes virtual bank "Ginko Financial". Ginko is a virtual investment firm that operates like a bank, you deposit Second Life currency, the Linden dollar, and Ginko was to pay interest on that account balance.

According to Ginko Financials President, Nicholas Portocarrero, there's upwards of two hundred million Lindens on deposit with the floundering virtual bank. That's constitutes a value of $750,000 in United States currency. But where did all the money go? When Mr. Portocarrero was asked if he would publish an accounting of his investments, by Second Life Herald reporter Pixeleen Mistral, his simple statement was "Never". But he also stated that he had no intention of running away from the situation either.

In a notice, sent in Second Life by Ginko Financial employee Hinoserm Rebus, he made the following statement:

"I would like to personally try to explain some of what's been going on.

About a week and a half ago, we saw an increased number of withdrawals; the time to speculate as to why this happened has since come and gone, so I will leave it at that. No matter what started it, the result is the same: We have expended every possible short-term resource, and are still unable to meet the current demand for funds. We have attempted several different things to remedy the situation (which is in short why the interest rates and limits have fluctuated wildly), but none of them turned into a viable permanent solution.

For the time being, we have decided to continue doing business normally, but leaving the withdrawal queue in place with an expanded L$1,000,000/day limit, to give an indication as to where the end of this situation may be. However, a realistic estimate could possibly extend in to the realm of several months.

It may be hard to believe that we would expect people to stick with us, especially after how poorly this situation has been handled, but a large number of you continue to show your support, and I still have hope of a second chance at fixing the problem.

For those of you who wish to withdraw your funds, you may wait in the queue, or cash out to Ginko Perpetual Bonds, which is currently the only option if you don't wish to wait the seemingly indefinite period of time it could take to refill the reserves.

I would also like to personally apologize for the lack of communication and the diminishing customer support during all of this, but through all of the changes that were being made it is impossible to keep my support staff fully informed, and usually I am the last person down the line to receive factual information -- and too often the first person to relay that information to you.

I thank everyone for your continued support of Ginko Financial, and hopefully with time we will be able to continue through this situation and get things put back right.

-Hinoserm "

Some Second Life residents are calling for a federal investigation into the virtual banks dealings considering the huge amount of real money involved. At the time of this writing Ginko has 30,000,000 in unpaid withdrawal requests which is approximately $L110,000 U.S. dollars.