Money?

by Smokeandmirrors 04.09.11 16:04

Locum GP's can earn up to £1,500 per day (more likely around £800-900 in my health authority, and this info from an NHS worker of my aquaintance). Therefore, notwithstanding the ludicrous amounts of money paid to extradited criminals who masqueraded as detectives and high quality merchandise for sale in an exclusive online boutique, the volume of which sold is uncertain, and so on and so on, the fund is really not the big-bucks that have been implied.

There are easier ways to make serious money without going to the lengths that have been implied over the years. In fact, I wager that if certain people wanted to make money they could make the fund look piffling with a little bit of effort.

I contest that the fund is not quite as important to this case as has been discussed but more likely a course that took on a life of it's own. After all, the book alledgedly netted in a short space of time (a month or two) what had previously been raised in years.

Incidentally, does anyone know if the McCanns have had any PR advice outside of the McGuinness/Mitchell species? And if so, who else do they advise?

by Gillyspot 04.09.11 20:57

Somewhere on this site I have worked out how much the McCanns were earning (around £100k between them) and after mortgage and tax was about £65k yet in May 2007 they couldn't afford to pay their mortgage let alone their living expenses whilst in PDL.

From McCann files (quoting [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] in 2009)

"13. I've heard that Kate and Gerry McCann might benefit from the Fund. Is this true?

Yes – the fund has provided support to Kate and Gerry. One of the reasons the fund was established was to support Madeleine's family and such financial assistance is one of its specific objectives. This assistance to Kate and Gerry was a subsistence allowance, provided whilst they were on unpaid leave from work and enabled them to push forward the campaign to find Madeleine. The directors approve all payments to Kate and Gerry, with family members not having a vote. Financial support given to Kate and Gerry since Gerry returned to work is negligible."

14. What is the money being spent on?

The Fund is supporting the McCann family during their search for Madeleine and in ensuring a high profile of Madeleine's abduction is maintained. Money spent to date has been on :

- supporting the private investigation to find Madeleine;
- ongoing public awareness raising ;
- establishing and updating the website ;
- family expenses; and,
- professional fee, including concerning international law on child abduction and the costs of setting up the Fund

The directors continue to review the future strategy of the Fund to ensure effective use of the funds

By 2009 obviously Gerry was back in full time work yet fund stated "The Fund is supporting the McCann family during their search for Madeleine"

Neither points are mentioned in the current website but of course the 2008 (completed and filed in 2009) was the last remotely transparent accounts issued by the fund.

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by **tigger** 04.09.11 21:23

IMO - When I saw Gerry standing by the easel with 'the wider agenda' it looked to me like someone putting a delayed plan into action.
The whole thing looked like it was at long last Gerald's turn, his time to shine. Blindingly obvious even with him being ready with plans for the 1st year anniversary and intermediate dates.

A quote from Macbeth: What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account.

by Smokeandmirrors 04.09.11 22:20

I think a consultant cardiologist would earn over £100k a year and if the McC's were hard up, Kate could have done, say, 2 days a week as a locum. Just looking online a grand a day is not unusual for a locum, so £500 after tax nd NI, £4k a month, that more than pays the mortgage. And they could downsize if hard up. I imagine their "take" out of the fund is a pittance by comparison to their income and therefore what they have set in motion in the media and it's resultant backlash and suspicion is an extremely high price for a small amount of money.

I respect that others have given this a lot of consideration and have drawn a different conclusion, but I cannot see that a couple of mil over a few years would be worth the aggro. Gerry's income could be quite high if he is on advisory Comare, hospital consultant wage and maybe some academic research. Kate as a GP could have done locum work for excellent pay so the fund being a reason/motive doesn't add up to me.

Personally, I think the fund could be a way of maintaining the public image of many supporters. While you have an active fund, it diminishes the notion as far as publicity is concerned, that there are many thousands of sceptics, but keeps the focus on how supportive the public are of the McCanns. And it is proving useful for libellawyers payments (BK's pockets can't be that deep for 4 yrs) plus half a mil went to Oakley.

The fund is a red herring IMHO.

by Gillyspot 04.09.11 23:00

If they aren't interested in the fund then why keep the publicity high and not hide away at the first opportunity.

This would leave only 2 reasons for keeping the fund and exposure high.

1. They are innocent and either need the fund money purely for searching or for themselves also
2. They are guilty and are keeping awareness high as want money from the fund. (a large number of articles about the McCanns in the media are about "fund running low")

Of course it could simply be because they like the limelight (or specifically Kate McCann does).

by **tigger** 05.09.11 7:35

Gillyspot wrote:If they aren't interested in the fund then why keep the publicity high and not hide away at the first opportunity.

This would leave only 2 reasons for keeping the fund and exposure high.

1. They are innocent and either need the fund money purely for searching or for themselves also
2. They are guilty and are keeping awareness high as want money from the fund. (a large number of articles about the McCanns in the media are about "fund running low")

Of course it could simply be because they like the limelight (or specifically Kate McCann does).

I understand Smokeandmirrors' argument, but as another poster said, the sum total they got yearly wasn't much more than 65 k. Plenty for the likes of us perhaps but not for the McCs.
But why didn't they even have money to pay the mortgage in June and July? Kate didn't actually work that much, I think. Time off having babies etc.
Then they had a nanny, probably a cleaner, but even so, Bonnie and Clyde could have lived well enough.
I'm saying it was all about the money because that was all they were doing, they were raising cash from the word go, when they didn't even need it for the search. They had a website up in no time (asking for donations) and Maddie was made a trademark on the 17th May.
At that time they didn't need any money at all to search for Madeleine, half of Portugal was looking for her and her picture was all over the world.

What puzzles me is the planning. Because: had it been an accident and a PM had to be avoided, all the powerful protection they got after 3/5, would also have been there. So why did the girl have to disappear for ever?
Powers that can squash the FSS results, could easily fudge a PM. There would have been pity, little publicity and a normal life.

I'm thinking that a 'normal life' is not what the McCanns wanted.
Besides, I don't think G would have gotten very far in his field. I read his report on the MRI study, it's average. Same with a short report on drugging of athletes.

Money?

Money?

Re: Money?

It was always about the money

Re: Money?

Re: Money?

smoke and mirrors

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