The "savings trust" is a Ponzi scheme. I'm not talking about "oh, but maybe the poor fella will default" or something on that level. Everything from the cheap building of trust, the friendly update messages and the time-scale of the thing is nothing but textbook fraudster routine. The funds are hardly flowing enough for good money laundering, there are cheaper means to do that anyway, and even if it were to work there's simply no reason to still pay out this sort of interest to lenders. Ever heard of "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"?