WCM777/’Joseph Global Institute’: More Strange Turns Potentially Involving More Colleges And A Push Toward Offshore ‘Cryptocurrency’

SWIU.edu call itself Southwestern University and claims it is showing its front gate for its “main campus,” but it’s actually a gate at Eastern Connecticut State University.

UPDATED 4:06 P.M. ET U.S.A. Campus police departments at Southwestern University, Eastern Connecticut State University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Texas Tech University had no immediate comment today on a developing story that may be flowing from the bizarre WCM777 Ponzi scheme allegedly operated by SEC defendant Phil Ming Xu, also known as Dr. Phil Ming Xu.

In addition to pushing WCM777, Xu pushed something called the “Joseph Global Institute” alongside a former reputed member of the Mafia named “Dr. Bruno Caporrimo.” Joseph Global purportedly was a California University in Pasadena that offered a “College of Engineering,” a “College of Health, ” a “College of Media Arts” and a “College of Business.”

Everything about Joseph Global appears to have been bogus

On Saturday, the PP Blog reported that an entity that is calling itself “Southwestern University” and purports to have a campus in Georgetown, Texas, claimed it had taken over Joseph Global. This entity, which appears to have no affiliation with the actual Southwestern University in Georgetown, is using SWIU.edu as a URL. The actual Southwestern University uses Southwestern.edu.

Not only does SWIU appear fraudulently to be trading on the name of Southwestern University, it appears also to have ripped off images from the websites of Eastern Connecticut State University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Texas Tech to create a veneer of legitimacy.

At the SWIU site, for example, what is described as a photo of the “USA Main Campus Front Gate” appears actually be be a photo from the website of Eastern Connecticut showing its entryway.

Another photo at SWIU purports to be that of the “Main Library,” but it appears to be a photo from Wisconsin-Madison. Still-another SWIU photo depicts a statue of a man with a horse. This appears to be a photo of the statue of Will Rogers and “Soapsuds” at Texas Tech. There may be other misappropriated photos at the SWIU site.

Though SWIU calls itself “Southwestern University,” it developed today that an entity perhaps based in Singapore that calls itself the “WOW School of Excellence” is pointing visitors toward an entity dubbed SWIU — for “Southwestern International University.”

The reference at the WOW School site appears to be a reference to the SWIU domain, despite the fact the SWIU domain calls itself “Southwestern University” as opposed to “Southwestern International University.”

The WOW school website purports to train students in “cryptocurrency.” At the same time, it suggests it operates a “School of Business (School of Excellence in Digital Currencies for Asian Students.”)

“Our courses are currently affiliated with Southwestern International University (SWIU) and WOW Digital Academy,” the site claims.

WCM777 was a scam targeted in part at Asian communities. At the moment, any number of purported cryptocurrency schemes are targeting Asians and other population groups.

The SWIU website purports to be that of a Christian university led by individuals who hold doctorates in various academic disciplines. Videos for the Joseph Global Institute positioned Xu as the “dean” and Caporrimo as the “chancellor.”