Indicted Payza Announces ‘Restructuring’
As one of its operators sits in a Michigan federal prison and the other is listed “at large” by U.S. authorities, Payza today announced a purported “restructuring” as a “European service” that has ceased serving U.S. customers.
“This means that no transactions are allowed for US members at this time and Payza will no longer be servicing businesses registered in the US, neither providing US payout services or US based withdrawals,” Payza said in a Blog post accessible via Twitter.
Precisely who is running things at the company is unclear. The Blog post had a byline of “Payza Writer.”
Ferhan Patel, 37, is listed as an inmate at the federal correctional institute in Milan, Mich. He was arrested Sunday in Detroit. Firoz Patel, his brother and co-defendant in a major money-laundering case announced Tuesday by U.S. prosecutors, appears neither to have surrendered or been arrested. Firoz Patel is 43. The brothers are citizens of Canada and reportedly lived in the Montreal area.
The office of U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu of the District of Columbia confirmed Wednesday that Payza’s dotcom domain had been seized.
Prosecutors said Payza had helped fuel Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, a child-porn site and other criminal activities. Homeland Security Investigations is leading the probe.
Payza and a predecessor company known as AlertPay have been referenced in Ponzi-scheme litigation dating back at least to 2008’s AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, a $119 million fraud. More recent “programs” with ties to Payza include Traffic Monsoon and Zeek Rewards.
I just wonder how many more shell companies they have registered around the globe they can keep changing the domain to keep operational? Just like OneCoin has about 44 of them, I would not be surprised if the Patel’s have that many or more.
Now the game is chase the rabbit to see where it is going to pop up next, or like playing whack-a-mole.
One thing is for sure. Every time they use another one, it is flooded with people informing them of the arrest and that Firoz is on the lam. They’ve already got two of the service providers to stop doing business with them.