Another HYIP Pushed By ASD Members Now DOA; Cypriot, Canadian Securities Regulators Issue Warnings About Genius Funds; Regulator Seeks Criminal Probe
Regulators in Cyprus have referred Genius Funds for criminal investigation and released a warning that the company “[is] not permitted to provide investment and ancillary services in the Republic.”
Genius Funds, a darling of the HYIP world, was heavily promoted on the Ponzi boards. The program also is known as Genius Investments. The program was referred for criminal investigation by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, which also issued the warning. The announcement that the case was referred for criminal investigation was made Friday in Cyprus.
One of the matters referred for criminal investigation pertained to a question about whether Genius Funds used a “falsified document that possibly stated that it possessed an operational license which was not authentic,” the Cypriot regulator said.
Separately, Canadian securities regulators also have acted against Genius Funds, permanently banning the HYIP “for illegally selling securities,” the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) said.
Genius Funds’ website is throwing a server error.
The program was pitched on the pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum in December by a poster who dubbed himself “joe.” Genius Funds was one of four HYIP’s pitched by “joe” in an egg-themed promotion. The egg-themed domains redirected to HYIP programs.
All of the programs appear to have failed or gone missing, but the egg-themed domain names now redirect to other HYIPs.
“ALL MY EGGS ARE NOT IN ONE BASKET,” the Surf’s Up pitchman said in all-caps. “I MAKE 2000.00 A WEEK.â€
Some ASD members continued to promote autosurfs and HYIPs after the federal seizure of tens of millions of dollars from the personal bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin in August 2008. The Surf’s Up forum went missing earlier this year.
In recent weeks, the Golden Panda Ad Zone forum (also known as the Online Success Zone forum), another website from which ASD members pitched autosurf and HYIP programs, also went missing.
BCSC opened its probe into Genius Funds after receiving a tip from “a financial institution,” the agency said.
Read the Genius Funds’ announcement from Cyprus. Read the announcement from Canada.
There will now be the usual claims from the ponzi supporters that say either:
1. The [evil government] regulators do not understand the business model
2. The [evil government] regulators are evil.
3. The [evil government] regulators are corrupt and social security is a ponzi scheme anyway.
4. These warnings don’t mean anything, it’s just a matter of clearing a simple audit.
5. Naysayers are evil.
6. Get back your Genius Funds losses by investing in the newest, latest program, but you must use my sign up link.
7. There’s more excuses but I can’t be bothered to list them.
Patrick:
On the topic of New Ponzi Schemes there is a new one that just launched in the past few days.
Launched by Clay Montgomery, a Serial Program Launcher, this one is very well designed, professional looking and even provides a semblance of value for the purchase.
The problem is, though, that he’s using the same “Rebates aren’t Guaranteed” concept to suck in people to purchase. The product is advertising and seems to have some reasonable value, but, the hook is 150% advertising “rebates” or revenue share.
Rather than earning 1% or 2% a day to achieve the 150% rebate as ASD, 12Daily Pro and others did, this system is paying out the revenue share as soon as enough money comes in from new purchases to pay it out rather than trickling it out for longevity.
According to the company itself they have already paid out $325,000 through the Revenue Share Program (RSP) in less than a week of operation.
The company (“AD-renaline.net) has multiple streams of income/compensation, some legit but most touting “Passive Income” angles which means, of course, those in first make the lion’s share of profits.
This one bears watching as the model is refinement of the doublers in the past with a much more professional front end and emphasis on the advertising.
But, it’s still a duck, quack, quack, quacking because it’s clearly an unregistered security and new purchasers are being sucked in by huge representations made by the early participants.
Here’s the link for reference: http://www.ad-renaline.net
Thanks, thought it was important to bring to the attention of this astute group. :)
ARWR
It’s not well designed & professional looking, it’s a script. Look in the T&C, then google for the phrase “Illegal activity. Members may not present”. The same T&C have been used by many, many other obvious ponzi scams. I think it’s a “forced matrix” script by “Rohit Seth”.
Tony:
Rohit Seth writes quite a few of the scripts out there in network marketing world. Not sure if this is his, if the owners have edited his core script or something completely different.
Just because it’s a forced matrix script doesn’t make it illegal. The part that makes it quite probably illegal is the revenue share program (“RSP”) portion of the system which is what is being aggressively promoted by the big dogs and by the owner/admin himself.
The forced matrix compensation plan is completely legal as long as a few caveats are included. (No reason to post those here to further educate the bad guys!)
ARWR
Genius did a runner weeks ago. It is long forgotten in the HYIP world, and was moved to the scam section at least two weeks ago, maybe more.
Their servers are in Dallas.
Registrant:
Colossal Marketing (ad-renaline.net)
9953 N 165th E Ave
Owasso, OK 74055
US
Registrar: DomainPeople Inc.
Domain Name: ad-renaline.net
Created on ………….2006-10-23-08.16.03.000000
Expires on ………….2010-10-23-11.16.03.000000
Record last updated on .2010-04-10-00.08.11.366000
Status ……………..ACTIVE
Administrative Contact:
Colossal Marketing
Clay Montgomery
9953 N 165th E Ave
Owasso, OK
74055, US
+1.9182740328
Technical Contact:
Colossal Marketing
Clay Montgomery
9953 N 165th E Ave
Owasso, OK
74055, US
+1.9182740328
Domain servers in listed order:
ns1.performancehosting.net
ns2.performancehosting.net
Hi Tony,
Don’t forget this one:
“The [evil Bloggers and commentators] who write about the [evil government’s] efforts to investigate Ponzi schemes are evil Socialists — unless, of course, it’s a Tuesday, in which case they are evil Nazis and perhaps even evil Commies.
“If they provide any context about why the [evil government] is doing what it is doing, they are the tools of Big Brother. In no case should they be taken seriously, because they are enemies of business freedom and likely cannot spell ‘God’ even if spotted the ‘G’ and the ‘d.’
“If they happen to be American, it is their duty to bad-mouth their country and its [evil government] even if they are on foreign soil when doing so, thus proving that Republican Sen. Arthur Vandenberg’s famous maxim — ‘politics stops at the water’s edge’ — was unprincipled and just another example of American folly.
“By bad-mouthing the [evil American government] on foreign soil, the citizens of foreign countries will come to know know that NOT ALL Americans are tools of the [evil American government], which clearly has an interest in repressing economic freedom all over the world and making sure no rising tide of commerce can wash against the shores of established and developing states to lift all boats.
“If a company you support or receive compensation gets caught up in Ponzi allegations by the [evil American government], it makes perfect sense to tell citizens of foreign countries that the American government is [evil] and bent on creating an international incident that pretty much puts the general wickedness of the [evil American government] on full display for all the world to see.
“It’s all the better if you imply that the [evil American government] wants to repress the Chinese people, for example, because they are too stupid to run businesses. It does not matter that the [evil American government] said no such thing or even implied it. What matters is that the Chinese people come to view the [evil American government] as, well, the [evil American government.]
“So what if language barriers and a lack of disclosure about previous criminal conduct may be elements of a Ponzi case? With the [evil American government] being such a convenient target and a hideous Democrat drinking beer instead of tea and running things in the White House, it makes perfect sense to accuse the [evil American government] of just about anything, including a lack of empathy for the Chinese people.”
So, in review:
* Demonize the media.
* Demonize the government — from both domestic and international venues.
* Exercise no restraint because the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech.
* Empower yourself to yell “Fire!” in a crowded movie house when there is no fire.
* Feel free to say one incendiary thing after another, even if there is no basis in fact for the incendiary remarks.
* Feel free to put words in quotation marks as though they were spoken by the U.S. Secret Service — when the words were not spoken by the U.S. Secret Service, and the U.S. Secret Service just happens to be investigating what it believes to be a Ponzi scheme that could have affected people who have limited or no facility in English.
* Ignore Vandenberg’s maxim.
* Engender contempt for America.
* Slime the President and imply he is insensitive to billions of human beings.
* Dangle the race card.
Patrick
NOTE: One of the things Vandenberg’s maxim led to was the postwar reconstruction of Europe after a war started by the real Nazis resulted in the deaths of an estimated 70 million human beings. He was not opposed to passionate debates on domestic soil. He believed, however, that America should speak with one voice on foreign soil, and his reasoning often was reduced to the simplest of terms: Spouses who have disputes should not air them while guests in other people’s homes. In short, it is unseemly to do so.
Vandenberg, a Republican from the U.S. heartland state of Michigan, is regarded as one of the all-time great U.S. Senators. Although suffering from lung cancer, he delayed potentially life-saving surgery because he believed his duty to the American people to address the momentous business of the Senate in the postwar era and at the dawning of the Cold War was more important than having the surgery.
Indeed, absent Vandenberg’s pivotal leadership in shaping the domestic debate between Republicans and Democrats, there might have been no Marshall Plan, no NATO, no U.S. voice in the United Nations and no U.S. strategy to contain Communism.
One more thing about Vandenberg: He demonstrated that politicians are fallible — he was an isolationist when FDR was President and the war was brewing in Europe. He had the courage to revisit his thinking, however, and demonstrated a capacity to work with President Truman, FDR’s Democratic successor, and played a significant role in rebuilding a war-ravaged world.
Vanbenberg has something in common with another great American: He spent much of his life in Grand Rapids, Mich., which became Gerald R. Ford’s home during his formative years.
Ford, a former Eagle Scout, went on to become the 38th President of the United States. He put the country back together after the Watergate scandal.
“My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over,” President Ford said immediately after becoming President on Aug. 9, 1974. “Our constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here, the people rule. But there is a higher power, by whatever name we honor Him. Who ordains not only righteousness but love, not only justice, but mercy…. Let us restore the golden rule to our political process and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and hate.”