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Tag: Nicholas Kachura

  • WILLFUL BLINDNESS: With Legisi Operator Now Convicted Of Wire Fraud, HYIP Colleague And Fellow Ponzi-Forum Darling Nicholas Smirnow Of Pathway To Prosperity Listed As ‘Wanted’ By INTERPOL; Meanwhile, Cheerleading For JSS Tripler Continues

    Nicholas A. Smirnow. Source: Interpol "Wanted" notice.

    After the news broke yesterday that Gregory N. McKnight, the accused operator of the Legisi HYIP Ponzi scheme, had pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a $72 million caper, things only got worse for the serial Ponzi-forum cheerleaders — not that they’re likely to abandon their practice of willful blindness while reaching across oceans to pick the pockets of any person with cash and a pulse.

    Nicholas Smirnow, a convicted robber, burglar and drug dealer before he became an HYIP operator and darling of the TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup and ASAMonitor Ponzi forums, is listed as wanted by INTERPOL.

    How long Smirnow has been on INTERPOL’s wanted list and the circumstances under which he was placed on the list were not immediately clear. An email yesterday by the PP Blog seeking comment from federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Illinois on the status of Smirnow and the case against him was not immediately returned.

    Smirnow, 54, also is known as Nicolay Smirnow, Alexander Judizcev, Nicholas Kachura and Jeff Prozorowiczm. He was charged in the Southern District of Illinois with fraud and money laundering-related crimes in May 2010 for his alleged operation of the Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) Ponzi scheme.

    When the charges against Smirnow were announced approaching two years ago, U.S. federal prosecutors said they intended to ask the government of the Philippines to extradite Smirnow to the United States. Whether Smirnow had been jailed in the Philippines and somehow later was set free after the U.S. arrest warrant was issued could not immediately be determined.

    What is clear is that INTERPOL is publishing a “Wanted” listing with the following physical details about Smirnow:

    Height: 1.76 meter
    Weight: 76 Kg
    Colour of hair: Brown
    Colour of eyes: Green

    The INTERPOL poster for Smirnow was up even as the SEC was announcing the McKnight conviction. (See “Wanted” poster, which is active at the time of this post.)

    A U.S. Postal Inspection Service affidavit in the Smirnow case references TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup and ASAMonitor, which is now defunct. The affidavit also references AlertPay and SolidTrustPay, Canada-based processors often used by HYIP hucksters. The Smirnow criminal complaint also references the Canadian processors.

    The P2P scheme was almost unimaginably widespread, a postal inspector said in the 2010 affidavit.

    “Financial records of payment processors utilized by P-2-P to collect investment funds from investors show that approximately 40,000 investors in 120 countries established accounts with P-2-P,” the postal inspector said. “Despite the fact that the investment was supposedly ‘guaranteed, investors lost approximately $70 million as a result of [Smirnow’s] actions.”

    Ponzi-forum cheerleaders yesterday appeared either to be unaware of (or to have to ignored) the news about the guilty plea of Legisi’s McKnight and corresponding civil judgments against him totaling about $6.5 million.

    Some of them continued to focus on their efforts to promote JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, a “program” purportedly operated by Frederick Mann that also uses AlertPay and SolidTrustPay.

    AlertPay and SolidTrustPay also are referenced in court filings in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case. A 2008 promo for ASD attributed to Mann asserted that Mann was an ASD promoter. ASD operator Andy Bowdoin faces a criminal trial in September 2012 on Ponzi-related charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

    JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid asserts it pays a daily return of twice what ASD offered. ASD figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming has been linked to the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement and is jailed near Seattle on federal charges of filing false liens against public officials involved in the ASD case.

    McKnight’s base program in Legisi offered a return of .25 percent (one quarter of 1 percent) per day, according to a 2008 SEC filing.

    Mann’s purported base program offers eight times that return on a daily basis, according to JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid promos. On an annualized basis, the “program” offers a return that is between 48 and 73 times higher than the returns of imprisoned Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff.

    Madoff is serving a U.S. prison term of 150 years. McKnight faces up to 20 years, the SEC said yesterday.

    A promo for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid that appeared yesterday on a forum known as CariGold made this claim. (Italics added):

    JSS-Tripler now has 213,884 members —
    continuing to grow by over 3,000 new
    members a day. (If it hadn’t been for
    yesterday’s downtime, the number would
    have been “over 4,000.”) Thank you to
    our many promoters for doing such a
    great job!

    Purchases of new JSS-Tripler positions
    are on track for a new all-time record,
    today.

    More than a month ago — on Jan. 23 — the Italian securities regulator CONSOB announced that JSS Tripler promoters were under investigation. Ponzi-forum promoters pooh-poohed the news.

  • Nicholas A. Smirnow, Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) Operator, A ‘Convicted Burglar, Robber And Drug Dealer’ Who Fleeced At Least 40,000 People In International Ponzi Scheme

    Here is how Pathway To Prosperity (P2P), operated by Nicholas A. Smirnow, was described by members of the indefatigable, Ponzi-pushing ASA Monitor forum in 2007:

    “Just talked with Nick today on the phone,” one member said. “I always enjoy talking with him — honest and straightforward.”

    “This one is a WINNER,” another crowed. “People, you don’t know what you are missing if you aren’t in this program.”

    Here is how a member of TalkGold, another Ponzi-pushing site, described P2P:

    “[T]his program will go a long way to bringing back stability to investment sites,” he wrote. “[T]his one you can trust 100% and also the admin Nick . . . come and join our happy group.”

    Here is how P2P was described by a member of MoneyMakerGroup, yet another Ponzi-pushing site:

    “[T]his is the kind of program that is needed,” the poster wrote. “p-2-p gives the little man a chance to invest and relax knowing your money will be safe at the end of the investment.”

    And here, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, is how the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and federal prosecutors described Smirnow after charging him yesterday with operating an international Ponzi scheme that gathered more than $70 million and fleeced more than 40,000 people:

    “convicted burglar, robber and drug dealer who told a former employee that he was involved in a double homicide.”

    Smirnow, believed to be on the lam in the Philippines, used aliases such as Nicolay Smirnow, Alexander Judizcev, Nicholas Kachura and Jeff Prozorowiczm. The scam spread across the world, and P2P shielded itself by using a website in the Netherlands and a company incorporated in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

    Although the program pitched interest rates of up to 17,000 percent, a poster on ASA Monitor incongruously said, “This is not a HYIP — Nick does not believe in them.” Regardless, the same poster — despite his cheerleading — acknowledged he was worried “about the authorities getting in and shutting things down . . . but since it is not a site being heavily promoted like CEP and not so open, it may keep under the radar . . .”

    CEP was yet another Ponzi scheme.

    It has been an electrifying week for opponents of HYIP and autosurf frauds, who routinely are derided as “naysayers” by commission-grubbing pitchmen who spread Ponzi pain across the planet for a share of illegal profits.

    On Tuesday, the SEC announced it had charged Mazu.com operator Matthew J. Gagnon, 41, of Weslaco, Texas, and Portland, Ore., with helping “orchestrate a massive Ponzi scheme conducted by Gregory N. McKnight . . . and his company, Legisi Holdings, LLC.”

    The Legisi scheme raised about $72.6 million from more than 3,000 investors “by promising returns of upwards of 15% a month,” the SEC said.

    Like Pathway to Prosperity, Legisi also was promoted on ASA Monitor, TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup and other forums criminals and their shills frequent to separate people from their money.

    A U.S. warrant for Smirnow’s arrest was issued yesterday — although Smirnow is believed to have been ducking Canadian authorities for months because of an investigation into his business practices.

    Smirnow now joins Robert Hodgins — yet another international fugitive allegedly associated with the drug and HYIP trades — on the lam.

    Hodgins, who provided debit cards for the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and is believed also to have a tie to the PhoenixSurf autosurf Ponzi scheme and other autosurf and HYIP schemes, is wanted for helping a Colombian narco business launder money at ATM machines in Medellin and also for accepting $100,000 in purported drug proceeds for laundering money in the Dominican Republic.

    INTERPOL is searching for Hodgins.

    Read the Smirnow story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.