PatrickPretty.com

Month: September 2010

Michael Goldberg Pleads Guilty In $100 Million Ponzi Scheme Featuring Bogus ‘Diamond’ Sales And Bogus Ties To JP Morgan Chase Bank; Gov’t Describes Scammer As Financial Predator And Pitchmen As ‘Feeders’

EDITOR’S NOTE: The story of Michael Goldberg’s long-running Ponzi scheme is one that also includes a form of domain-name fraud. Goldberg, for example, created a website that used the name of JP Morgan Chase. Scammers routinely seek to piggyback off well-known brands to separate people from their money, sometimes using the names of famous firms…

Sep 14, 2010
MLM Wireless Distributor’s Delusion Exposed: Walmart To Release Its Own Cell-Phone Plan: $45/Mo. For Unlimited Talk/Text And 100 MB Of Data — With No Contract Or Credit Check

UPDATED 9:32 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) If you’ve been bashing your brains out in an unsuccessful bid to sell cell-phone packages MLM-style — and if you believed Data Network Affiliates (DNA) when it said in April that it was offering an unlimited talk and text package for $10 a month with a free phone — you…

Sep 13, 2010
UPDATE: Ponzi ‘Shakedown’ Suspects Who Impersonated Federal Agents Get 6 Months’ Home Detention And Are Placed On Probation For 2 Years

Three people charged with conspiring to impersonate federal agents in a bid to rattle the nerves of a Ponzi scheme suspect and recover money have been sentenced to 180 days of home confinement and placed on federal probation for two years. A fourth defendant in the shakedown scheme avoided a sentence of home confinement but…

Sep 13, 2010
EDITORIAL: Animated Attack On Obama Goes Missing From MPB Today Affiliate’s Sales Arsenal; PP Blog Declines Request From Affiliate’s MLM Sponsor To Remove Story That Describes Bizarre Sales Pitch Painting President As Nazi

Regular readers of the PP Blog know that it supports the efforts of President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to weed out the purveyors of schemes who brought the U.S. and much of the world economy to its knees. Obama is a Democrat. What readers may not know is that the Blog is written…

Sep 11, 2010
MPB Today Affiliate Website That References Food Stamp Program Has Links To At Least 100 ‘Surfing’ Programs — Some Of Which Already Have Gone Belly-Up; ‘Ken Russo’ Defends Program On Ponzi Forum

A promotional website for the MPB Today multilevel-marketing (MLM) program specifically references the U.S. Food Stamp program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and includes links to at least 100 “paid to surf” programs, including programs that use domains registered offshore and programs that appear already to have failed. Separately, an MPB Today affiliate…

Sep 10, 2010
MPB Affiliate Says Members Are ‘Partners’ With Walmart And That Program ‘Guaranteed’ Not To Be Scam; Separate Promo Depicts Michelle Obama As Experiencing Oval Office Gas Attack After Sampling ‘Beans’ At Sam’s Club

UPDATED 10:42 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Using the soundtrack from the legendary rock band Heart’s 1985 hit single “What about love,” an affiliate of MPB Today is claiming on YouTube that the company’s members become “partners” with Walmart and that MPB’s multilevel-marketing (MLM) program is “Guaranteed” not to be a scam. Heart could not be contacted…

Sep 9, 2010
Images Of Walmart, Donald Trump, Warren Buffet Removed From MPB Today Website; Testimonials Go Missing, Too; Affiliate Bashes Obama, Hillary Clinton In Promo

UPDATED 7:32 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Images of a Walmart store and business tycoons Donald Trump and Warren Buffet have gone missing from the landing page of a website operated by MPB Today, a multilevel-marketing (MLM) firm that operates a 2×2 cycler matrix tied to a grocery business known as Southeastern Delivery in Pensacola, Fla. The…

Sep 8, 2010
MPB Today Operator Was Subject Of Inquiry By U.S. Food And Drug Administration For ‘Cell Rejuvenator’ Product That Claimed To Treat Lou Gehrig’s Disease, Alzheimer’s, Down Syndrome

Gary Calhoun, the operator of a multilevel-marketing (MLM) program that is targeting Food Stamp recipients, Ponzi scheme victims, foreclosure subjects and people of faith, received a warning letter in 2006 from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for his marketing of a product that claimed to treat multiple diseases, according to federal records. Calhoun, who…

Sep 7, 2010
PHOTO EDITORIAL: The MPBToday Flap: Affiliates Target Food Stamp Recipients, Ponzi Scheme Victims, People Of Faith, Foreclosure Subjects — And Say Government Backs MLM Cycler Matrix Tied To Florida Grocery Business

EDITOR’S NOTE: UPDATED 3:12 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Florida-based MPBToday is one of the programs pitched on Ponzi boards such as ASAMonitor, MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold. It also is being pitched via email and on social-media sites such as YouTube. All three of the forums are referenced in court filings — including filings in criminal cases —…

Sep 6, 2010
BULLETIN: USDA Conducting ‘Review’ Of Food Stamp Claims Made By MPB Today Affiliates; ‘We Take This Matter Very Seriously,’ Agency Says

BULLETIN: UPDATED 9:21 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has opened a “review” of claims made by affiliates of a Florida-based, multilevel-marketing company, the agency said late this afternoon. Members of MPB Today, an MLM program owned by a Pensacola-based grocery seller known as Southeastern Delivery, have targeted recipients of Food Stamps…

Sep 3, 2010
Prisoner Who Ran Scam From Florida Jail Sentenced To 21 Years In Federal Prison; Willoughby Farr of West Palm Beach Operated ‘Cramming’ Scheme

A Florida man who operated a long-distance billing scam from the West Palm Beach County Jail has been sentenced to 262 months in federal prison. Willoughby Farr, 46, used three Palm Beach companies to pull off the “cramming” scam in which consumers were billed for calls they did not make, prosecutors said. He also faces…

Sep 3, 2010