Saturday, February 13, 2021

The weirdness of the Rebel News "loan," Part Deux.

(Not so much a legitimate Part Two as an entertaining postscript to Part One back here, where we simply have fun with numbers while I research the living shit out of the next real installment.)

Back in Part One, we were introduced to the head-scratching oddities involved in Rebel News/Ezra Levant's 2017 loan(s) for a total of $380,000, wherein we were puzzled to note that, after trousering a cool 380 grand from someone described only as a generous benefactor and loyal fan, Ezra admitted to repaying, on a monthly basis, "around $2,500 a month," which would not even cover the interest on that amount given the listed interest rate of eight and a half per cent (any decent mortgage calculator would tell you that you would need to hork up just under $2,700 per month to simply stay even with interest). But since Ezra used the monthly figure of $2,500, we'll go with that and see where it takes us, and it takes us to a very profitable place, as simple arithmetic will now demonstrate.

Starting in late 2017, we see that, upon receipt of all that dosh, Ezra now had almost $400K to swim around in and do with as he pleased:



Granted, Ezra was repaying the loan at $2,500 per month but, over the course of the loan's three years, that represents a total repayment of only $90,000, which still leaves Ezra with a whopping $290,000 in the vault, at which point (as we learned in Part One) Ezra convinced the gullible suckers^H^H^H^H^H^H^H patriots of Rebel Nation to foot the entire bill to pay off the loan. And not just the outstanding amount, but more than $70,000 above and beyond what was needed:



thus handing Ezra another $71,812.00 in free money. To recap then, Ezra borrowed $380,000, paid back a total of only $90,000 and got everyone else to not only pay off the entire loan, but gift him with another $70,000 for his troubles, leaving him with a pure profit of just over $360,000. Don't we all wish we had that kind of deal?

In any event, check back for the upcoming Part Three, where we dig into the mystery benefactor and ask all sorts of shocking and irrelevant questions.

P.S. It's worth pointing out that one does not even need to give Ezra credit for the $90,000 in repayments since, given the capital he had on hand, he could have invested a sizable chunk of it and made enough interest on his own investment to cover the majority of each monthly payment, making his final profit considerably larger.

I love math.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jesus Christ. So if I read this right, Ezra borrowed $380,000 in 2017/2018 from someone who was a friend but still charged him 8.5%, then let Ezra repay not even the interest for three years so that Ezra paid off NONE of the principal, and then Ezra got his viewers to not only pay off the entire principal, but kicked in another $70K for no reason? Who said grift doesn't pay? Jesus, what a mooch.

Anonymous said...

It's such a weird coincidence that the "mortgage" owed and called in by the mysterious lender is $380,000.00, isn't it? Isn't that roughly the amount that various contractors were trying claim for unpaid work on Ezra's million+ house around three years ago, just when these loans were allegedly made?
I'm sure the fact that Ezra keeps referring to these as "mortgage" payments (when as far as I know the Rebel doesn't actually own real estate) is just a slip of the tongue.