PatrickPretty.com

Day: November 13, 2015

  • Black December Fears Over AdClickXPress, Successor Scam To ‘JustBeenPaid’ And Others

    adclickxpressAs the PP Blog reported nearly a year ago, AdClickXpress (ACX) was a continuation of an absurd scam that began years ago as JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid, with antigovernment zealot and “sovereign citizen” sympathizer Frederick Mann at the helm.

    Just in time for the 2015 holiday season, there are reports that ACX has suspended payouts or is making selective payouts. In HYIP Ponzi Land, this is consistent with “Black December,” the collapse of a “program” because too many people are trying to withdraw or the operator just decides to keep all the Ponzi cash.

    “I have not be able to withdraw,”  a self-identified ACX membeer told the PP Blog today. “They keep changing their withdrawal policy and now we are all [convinced]  it is a scam.”

    See the PP Blog’s tag archive of references to “JustBeenPaid.”

    From the PP Blog on Nov. 29, 2014 (italics added):

    By the Terms alone, ACX makes co-conspirators of its members. And after this artifice is carried out, it divines a construction by which it will penalize “significantly” and unilaterally calculate damages purportedly caused by those same members who’d dare post “negative information . . . even if it’s absolutely true.”

    Separately, there are unconfirmed reports on MoneyMakerGroup that Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSS/JPB and the de facto inspiration behind the follow-up scams, has died. Mann, a former pitchmen for the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme,  once directed traffic to videos featuring Francis Schaeffer Cox, the now-convicted Alaska “sovereign citizen” and militia man implicated in a plot to murder public officials.

    In 2012, Mann described government workers as “part of a criminal gang of robbers, thieves, murderers, liars, imposters.”

  • ‘WINGS NETWORK’: Court Orders Disgorgement Of Tens Of Millions Of Dollars In Pyramid/Ponzi Case — Plus, Prison Sentences Ordered In eAdGear Case

    wingsnetworkBack in February 2015, the SEC brought a Ponzi- and pyramid action against the alleged operators of “Wings Network,” alleging a cross-border MLM fraud that had gathered tens of millions of dollars.

    Massachusetts Commonwealth Secretary William Galvin, head of the Massachusetts Securities Division, charged Wings Network and some individuals in 2014.

    The SEC announced today that it had obtained final judgments by default against alleged operators Tropikgadget FZE and Tropikgadget Unipessoal LDA, collectively Tropikgadget, both of Portugal. A federal judge “ordered Tropikgadget to pay disgorgement of $25,213,990, representing profits gained as a result of the conduct alleged by the Commission, plus prejudgment interest of $961,742, and a third-tier civil penalty of $725,000,” the SEC said.

    At the same time, the agency said, relief defendants who’d received ill-gotten gains from the fraud were assessed liability of more than $9 million. These include Portugal-based entities known as “Compasswinner” ($8,125,235) and Happy SGPS SA ($1,102,711).

    Litigation against individual operators and promoters continues, the agency said.

    Like many securities-fraud schemes, Wings Network used social media to lure in the masses, the agency said.

    “After establishing a network of lead promoters, recruitment of new members surged through the use of social media such as Facebook and YouTube,” the SEC said earlier this year. “The promoters used Facebook to publicize ‘business meetings’ that took place at hotels and other locations in Connecticut, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Texas, Georgia, and Utah. The promoters also set up storefronts or ‘training centers’ to lure investors into attending Wings Network presentations. For example, one promoter used a storefront in downtown Philadelphia to make presentations to prospective investors, and another promoter rented office space in Pompano Beach, Fla., and spread the word in the local Latino community to attract prospective investors to come in and hear presentations.”

    Read the SEC’s statement today.

    Separately, BehindMLM.com reported today that two individuals who operated the eAdGear MLM fraud each were sentenced to 46 months in federal prison.

    The SEC charged eAdGear civilly in September 2014, alleging it had gathered $129 million. Among the named defendants were Charles S. Wang of Warren, N.J., and Francis Y. Yuen of Dublin, Calif. In December 2014, news broke that Wang and Yuen had been indicted criminally.

    They pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy and structuring transactions to evade bank-reporting requirements.

    NOTE: Thanks to the ASD Updates Blog.