PatrickPretty.com

Day: March 13, 2015

BULLETIN: CLAIM: Former CIA Operative Was Paid More Than $400,000 By Companies Linked To WCM Ponzi Scheme

UPDATED 9:44 P.M. EDT MARCH 14 U.S.A. How strange were things in the universe of WCM777, an MLM “program” accused by the SEC last year of pulling off an $80 million, cross-border Ponzi swindle?

Would you believe that a former CIA operative with two felony convictions ended up on the payroll?

Robert Sensi, the former operative, received $403,000 from companies linked to WCM777, according to an amended lawsuit filed against Sensi in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

WCM777 was operated by Ming Xu of Temple City, Calif. A forensic accounting has determined that the WCM777 entities used 77 domestic bank accounts and 23 foreign ones, according to filings by court-appointed receiver Krista L. Freitag.

Sensi was paid six times through ToPacific Inc. and one time through World Capital Market Inc. between Jan 30 and March 25, 2014, according to court filings.

Alleged payments to Robert Sensi from WCM777-related firms. Source: Screen shot from federal court filing.

Freitag is suing Sensi for return of the money. She initially sued him for the return of $385,000 (excluding interest and costs) in November 2014, alleging that he claimed he “used to work” for the CIA and was hired by WCM777-related companies to address complaints about the program by authorities in Peru, Taiwan and Dubai. She further alleged that Sensi was “well aware” that various WCM777-related business were engaged in a Ponzi scheme.

Sensi responded to the November complaint on Feb. 9. He did not expressly deny Freitag’s claim that he had claimed to have worked for the CIA, but he did deny the allegations he’d been hired by the Xu entities to address the concerns about WCM777 in Peru, Taiwan and Dubai. He further denied he had knowledge of a Ponzi scheme.

In his answer, Sensi admitted “services were rendered pertaining to Peru, Taiwan, and Dubai.” But he did not describe the services. On March 12, Freitag filed an amended complaint, asserting in the filing that Sensi had received $403,000 from the WCM777 entities, not the $385,000 specified in the original complaint.

Court records or published reports from the past two decades show that Sensi has been sentenced to prison twice — once for stealing millions of dollars from Kuwait Airways, a second time for a “Nigerian letters” scam in which a German businessman was swindled.

Larry J. Kolb, an author and former CIA agent, has written extensively about Sensi, his ties to the CIA and further ties to Republican politicians and Republican political causes, including fundraising.

Chapter 1 of “America at Night,” a 2007 book by Kolb, is available for free on Kolb’s website. The chapter references a meeting Kolb had in California with attorney “Vince Messina” in May 2004.

A snippet (italics added):

Vince was late for lunch, and I wish he’d never shown up. But, then again, all indications are if Vince hadn’t sucked me back into the secret world, somebody else would’ve. So I don’t hold it against him. Vince Messina. Washington tax and immigration attorney, international dealmaker, bon vivant. Based on what I know of his background, he has to be as old as the hills. But somehow he doesn’t seem it. Bald on top, short dark hair on the sides, olive skin, smiles a lot, constantly on the move. Vince is on the up and up, but spends much of his time in strange lands working for mysterious clients.

During the lunch meeting, Messina asked Kolb if he knew Sensi, a somewhat startling question, Kolb wrote.

After Kolb answered yes, Messina called his nephew, Gary Messina, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security official, to enable Gary to listen in, Kolb wrote.

Ten years later, in May 2014, Vincent Messina would become a relief defendant in the WCM777 Ponzi case. The SEC alleged that Messina was WCM’s asserted “general counsel” and had come into possession of $5 million from the fraud scheme.

More than $941,000 of the $5 million went to International Market Ventures (IMV), a company operated by Gary Messina, according to court filings.

U.S. District Judge John F. Walter declared the $5 million that flowed to Vincent Messina “ill gotten” and ordered it disgorged. IMV was held jointly liable with Vincent Messina for disgorgement of $941,505 of the $5 million sum.

Mar 13, 2015
‘MyAdvertisingPays’ And A Bromide Thrice Vomited

It turns out that a hackneyed expression currently in play within MyAdvertisingPays (MAPS) is a lightly remixed version of one used in the collapsed Zeek Rewards and Achieve Community schemes.

Will this thrice-vomited bromide become a kiss of death for MAPS?

Back before the SEC shut down Zeek in 2012, the $897 million scheme traded in part on “If you want things in your life to change, you have to change things in your life.”

With Achieve prior to its shutdown by the SEC last month, it was “If you do not GO after what you want, you’ll never have it.”

On Twitter, a promoter of the emerging MAPS scheme is prospecting for recruits with a similar line. “If you want something you’ve never had, then you’ve got to do something you’ve never done!”

The PP Blog reported on March 9 that the name of MAPS appears in a TelexFree-related class-action lawsuit originally filed in federal court in New York and later transferred to Massachusetts. Even though MAPS isn’t named a defendant, it is clear that both private lawyers and government lawyers are aware of MAPS.

With an alleged haul of more than $1.8 billion, TelexFree likely is the largest MLM HYIP fraud of all time. Zeek, the previous title-holder in terms of its alleged haul, probably now is second. Both schemes may have created hundreds of thousands of victims.

Zeek’s receiver currently is involved in an international paper chase to round up assets for victims. Some of the money allegedly was routed to the Cook Islands (South Pacific) through a California company and then used to buy property in the Turks and Caicos (North Atlantic).

MAPS, which appears to have a paper presence on the Caribbean island of Anguilla but likely operates from the United States, recently claimed to have “110676+ Users.” Given its business model and the presence of serial promoters of fraud schemes in its membership ranks, MAPS very well could be a litigation target-in-the-making.

Regardless, many MLM HYIP Ponzi promoters will pretend that the membership should not be concerned — as they did with Zeek and Achieve Community.

Mar 13, 2015
BULLETIN: To Hinder Recovery, Zeek Assets Were Funneled To Cook Islands And Used To Purchase Property In Turks And Caicos, Receiver Says

Zeek receiver Kenneth D. Bell has filed a land claim in the Turks and Caicos Islands on behalf of Zeek victims, according to this evidence exhibit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. (Masking by PP Blog.)

BULLETIN: The court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid case says millions of dollars in Zeek assets were transferred from the United States to the Cook Islands in the South Pacific by a former Zeek vendor known as Preferred Merchants Solutions LLC. At least part of the money allegedly then was used to purchase and renovate a “water-view vacation home” in the Turks and Caicos Islands in the North Atlantic.

Receiver Kenneth D. Bell hired local counsel in the Turks and Caicos to bottle up the property through the filing of a “Caution,” which Bell says “forbids any action with respect to the title of the Turks & Caicos Property” until the matter is resolved in the United States.

Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen has frozen the island property, which Bell said he intends to sell to benefit Zeek victims.

Zeek was operated by Paul R. Burks through Rex Venture Group LLC. Preferred is operated by Jaymes Meyer of Napa, Calif.

Events that led to the island freeze involve a bizarre circumstance that allegedly occurred in June 2012, when tens of millions of dollars in undeposited checks — enough to fill six to eight mail bins — had backed up at Zeek, starving the Rex enterprise for cash during a period in which Zeek was having banking problems in North Carolina and its alleged Ponzi was crumbling.

As the PP Blog reported in October 2014, Burks allegedly hired Preferred to solve the problem and also to provide trust services. Bell contends that Preferred effectively transferred Zeek Ponzi cash to itself after it learned from the SEC on Aug. 16, 2012, that an order freezing Zeek assets was imminent.

Bell now says Preferred Merchants, “a single-member LLC owned entirely by Jaymes Meyer, transferred $7,737,402 of RVG assets from an RVG trust account . . . for which Preferred Merchants served as trustee. Prior to receiving the RVG Trust Funds, Preferred Merchants had a total of $2,790 in its bank account on August 1, 2012. Preferred Merchants is Meyer’s only source of income.”

The SEC moved against Zeek on Aug. 17, 2012, securing an asset freeze.

“On October 5, 2012,” according to Bell, “Meyer transferred $300,000 from Preferred Merchants to a Scottrade account held in the name of Fidus, LLC, a Delaware entity for which Meyer is the managing member, but was owned by ‘The Spiritum Holdings Irrevocable Trust,’ . . . a ‘Cook Islands Trust’ that Meyer set up in September 2012” after the Zeek freeze.

“On October 9, 2012, Meyer transferred an additional $6,100,000 from Preferred Merchants to the Scottrade Fidus account,” Bell said. “All or nearly all of the money held or transferred by Preferred Merchants or Meyer to the Scottrade Fidus account were RVG Trust Funds.”

More asset-shielding shenanigans occurred as 2013 was getting under way, months after the court-imposed freeze in August 2012, Bell alleged.

“On February 21, 2013, Meyer wired $6,000,000 from the Scottrade Fidus account to an account owned by the Spiritum Trust at Capital Security Bank Limited located in the Cook Islands,” Bell alleged. “On July 3, 2013, Meyer wired the $400,000 remaining in the Scottrade Fidus accounts to the same Spiritum Trust account in the Cook Islands.

“On or about June 28, 2013, Bella Vita Ltd., an entity in the Turks & Caicos Islands that was created and owned by the Spiritum Trust, purchased real property in the Turks & Caicos Islands designated as Title # 60609/24/Norway & Five Cays Section / Providenciales Island (‘Turks & Caicos Home’).”

What are the specs on the home?

It “is described as a 5 bedroom 5 bath home, which Meyer testified has views of the water,” Bell said. “The money used to purchase this real property were RVG Trust Funds that Meyer had deposited into various accounts owned by the Spiritum Trust.”

What else did Zeek victims allegedly pay for?

“Since the purchase of the Turks & Caicos Home, Meyer has coordinated and supervised improvements and renovations to the home and property, purchased furniture and fixtures, and purchased a boat, scuba equipment, and other personal property to be used with the Turks & Caicos Home . . .

“Meyer claims that over $1.5 million . . . has been spent ‘renovating’ the property and making these additional purchases,” Bell said. “All of these purchases were made with RVG Trust Funds that had come directly or indirectly from the Spiritum Trust or Meyer. However, Meyer and Preferred Merchants disclaim any ownership interest or control over Bella Vita, Ltd. or the Turks & Caicos Property.”

Bell has asked Mullen to “impose and enforce an equitable lien by ordering transfer of title to the Turks & Caicos Property to the Receivership Estate to ensure that there is no more evasion or hindrance of the Receiver’s recovery of these assets by Preferred Merchants and Meyer. The Receiver can then sell the Turks & Caicos Property to collect additional funds for the benefit of the victims of the ZeekRewards scheme.”

NOTE: Our thanks to the ASD Updates Blog.

This map, created by the PP Blog through ZeeMaps, depicts the headquarters of Zeek Rewards in Lexington, N.C., the headquarters of of Preferred Merchants Solutions LLC in Napa, Calif., the Cook Islands’ island of Rarotonga in the South Pacific, and the island of Providenciales (Turks and Caicos) in the North Atlantic.

Mar 13, 2015