DMG, the alleged pyramid scheme that defrauded hundreds of thousands
of Colombians, now is a political party. It’s name no longer are the
initials of its jailed founder David Murcia Guzman, but stands for
Dignity, Morality and Guarantees.
The party, in full called Partido Apertura Liberal-DMG, has candidates for the 2010 elections of Congress and the Presidency.
Its presidential candidate, Jairo Calderon is a former Bogota councilman and former secretary of the Cesar government. If he gets the chance he will initiate a reform of the current Colombian banking system and make sure that those who lost their money when DMG was forced to shut down can continue their “investment,” he told newspaper El Espectador.
“The people who took part in DMG have the right to a proposal that solves their problems. If I am President we are going to legalize the way to do business as proposed by David Murcia; how to make clients loyal, how to to be able to sell prepaid goods, products and services, how to do mouth-to-mouth publicity and how the company can really share utilities with its clients. It’s a form to make the Colombian economy more dynamic,” Calderon says.
DMG’s business model — selling DMG prepaid cards with which clients later could buy products in special DMG shops for a multitude of the money paid for teh card — was not illegal and Murcia is in jail because he was threatening the traditional bankers, the DMG candidate says.
“David Murcia was the victim of an unfair trial because he had touched the banks’ structures, harmed their interests and they did not see it as a great opportunity but a threat. When noticing this, they mounted political pressure and forced the government to sign the decrees that allowed the shutdown of DMG.”
When President, Calderon hopes to set up a bank for the people, different than the existing Bank for the Poor that allows lower class families to apply for micro credit. “Our idea is that the people present a project and the bank supports this through teh universities and facilitates the resources,” says Calderon.
According to the DMG presidential hopeful, his party and he as candidate have the support of David Murcia.