It is equally the investors fault for not doing their due diligence. Investors were greedy and got caught. Any sane person who have alarm bells ringing when some company tells you they can convert agriculture land into residential/commercial land in faraway places like Canada, no? These people are greedy and failed to do any due diligence now they pay the price. Don't blame anyone for what amounts to TS own mistake.
I have to respectfully disagree with this.
I don’t think “willing buyer, willing seller” is a good principle for retail investor protection. Most people aren’t able to “do the due diligence” like the denizens of this forum are; the average person isn’t going to know who to call in Calgary or wherever to find out whether the land actually exists, they’re not going to know how to read an audit...
The average person is just going to see a salesman and assume “oh, they must know what they’re talking about, they wouldn’t lie to me”... and they won’t know any better.
My opinion is that there should be very strong protections around investments that are sold to retail investors. This doesn’t just go for insane land-banking scams; it goes for insurance, it goes for financial planning services, it goes for everything.
Certainly it was a dumb investment, and there needs to be
some degree of self-reliance; but I don’t think it’s realistic to expect every average person to become a financial expert just because a friend-of-a-friend became a salesman for Walton and needs to hit their quota.