DISCLOSURE: Gregg Evans, a longtime member of the antiscam community, is a longtime PP Blog contributor. He was not compensated for this column, and his views are not necessarily the views of the PP Blog.

Who are these “Experts” anyway?

By Gregg Evans

Troy Dooly is the latest “expert” to look like an utter fool in the wake of the Zeek Rewards collapse. For months the apparently respected MLM guru has been defending Zeek against all logic, common sense or demonstrated knowledge of mathematics.

It turns out that — even though in Troy’s “expert opinion” and based upon his “inside knowledge” that he couldn’t share because he wanted to respect a “non disclosure agreement” — Zeek, Zeekler and Rex Venture Group was just another garden-variety Ponzi scheme.

This one added up to $600 million if you’re keeping score. And you should be. That’s more than half a billion dollars.

A few years ago, I decided to not actively hide my identity, but not advertise it either when 12DailyPro collapsed in a heap of scandal based solely on the figures being tossed around about how much money Charis Johnson had drawn in. It occurred to me at the time that there are people out there who will in fact kill you for that kind of coin, and more than a few of them I knew were involved in the scam. I had never received a death threat before, or at least not one I took seriously.

Here we have again a figure that frankly boggles the mind being funneled into a rather transparent Ponzi scheme by a collection of ref whores, financial illiterates and flat-out criminals posting with glee “I got paid” at all the familiar places these kind of folks hang out. As the late Everett Dirksen once said, “A billion here, a billion there, and soon you’re talking real money.”

And here again we have a list of supposed “experts” whose opinion proved that “this time, it’s legit.” I just have to ask, by what standard are these people experts at anything, beyond herding the suckers to the spend button?

I, modestly, consider myself an expert in matters of investing, accounting and how money and banking work. Not just because I think so, mind you, I have an earned PhD in International Business, a MSci in Economics, an MBA and a BBA in Finance (with a shared major in Mathematics, btw).

But honestly, if you’re taking my word for it advice-wise, you’re still a sucker, because anyone can try to impress you with what they say, you have to at least look at the motivation. My motivation is to perhaps save a few people who don’t have my background from falling for the siren song of the pimps like Ken Russo, Troy Dooly and others.

You see, I’m not asking you to spend your hard-earned money on anything. I’m not encouraging you to inform your friends, relatives and co-workers about the latest sure-fire-get-rich-with-passive-income scheme. I’m just asking you to think a bit, and trying to explain how real money and business works. I happen to some pretty spiffy credentials, but it’s more important that I’m just making common sense.

You see, some people with credentials as good as or better than mine are blinded by the easy pickings to be had if they sell out their fancy titles and initials after the name. Gerald Nehra is licensed attorney and all indications I have seen are he’s not a bad lawyer, as lawyers go. Gerry’s problem, and potentially yours, is that he’ll suspend his common sense, legal knowledge and objectivity if the check clears

Hey, I hate to judge the man, and everyone deserves good legal representation, but Mr. Nehra has not impressed me so far. I am only familiar with two companies with which he has been publicly associated with in the last few years: ASD Cash Generator and Zeek. The operator of one is in jail waiting to find out he’s going to serve what is likely going to be a life sentence based upon his age, the other one just got their offices locked up by some combination of the Secret Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the North Carolina Attorney General.

Our “expert” lawyer, one of the best reputations in MLM law around, testified that ASD wasn’t a Ponzi, and from the looks of it told Zeek that if you tell the suckers not to call it an investment, it’s Okie Dokie legally speaking. Good advice there.

Do I think Gerald Nehra believes this? Well, as much as any lawyer believes the legal theory he’s pursuing he may, but I doubt he had a lot invested in Zeek, if you get my drift. He had, over the years built a reputation, and whether he deserved it or not (and I think not) when ASD needed to show a Federal Judge that paying old investors with new investors money wasn’t a Ponzi scheme, Nehra was right there, willing to lend his expert opinion in a Federal Court that black was white, up was down and Andy Bowdoin of ASD was a business visionary who could somehow pay 1% a day legally.

If he’s trying to represent a defendant in a court of law, that’s his job and I have no problem with that, but if he believes it, well, a friend I once had used to say it was never a good idea to believe your own bar stories or “smoke your own dope” as he put it.

ASD was a cheap Ponzi scheme and anyone not blinded by greed with had enough sense to tie his own laces could see that. A few “MLM Experts” and the “All Star Team of Stupid” ASD cheerleaders, sovereign citizen nutcases and Arby’s Indians couldn’t, but that’s just the kind of people loose on the streets since they changed the laws about involuntary mental patient commitment. The Indians, Sovereigns and pimps I won’t comment on here, but the lawyers did it mostly because it paid pretty well. And Ken Russo isn’t doing it because he likes people either, for what it’s worth, he just lacks the credentials to sound like much more than a crooked used car salesman. People like Troy Dooly should know better, and I suspect they do, but they have no trouble overlooking their own knowledge as long as the check clears.