PatrickPretty.com

Author: PatrickPretty.com

  • BULLETIN: SEC Gains Asset Freeze, Seeks Shutdown Of Imperia Invest In Emergency Action; Program Pitched On Same Ponzi Forums Promoting MPB Today; Agency Says Imperia Defrauded Thousands Of Deaf Americans

    BULLETIN UPDATED 5:02 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.): The SEC has gone to federal court in Utah to halt the operations of Imperia Invest IBC, alleging a spectacular fraud that fleeced money from thousands of Americans with hearing impairments.

    Imperia was promoted from the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum — one of the Ponzi forums promoting the MPB Today “grocery” MLM. Imperia also was the topic of discussion and defenses on TalkGold and ASAMonitor, two other forums that are pitching MPB Today.

    The SEC’s allegations against Imperia are stunning. More than 14,000 investors were defrauded worldwide, the agency said.

    Among the victims were thousands of deaf investors in the United States, the SEC said.

    Imperia gathered relatively small sums from thousands of people, the SEC charged, noting that “no evidence has been found that any of the investors have received a single payment.”

    “Imperia Invest IBC is a web-based entity that claimed, until late 2009, to be located in the Bahamas,” the SEC charged. “The Bahamian address listed by Imperia is fictitious. Imperia now claims to be located in Vanuatu. However, Imperia is not registered to do business in Vanuatu and the address listed on its website appears also to be fictitious. Neither Imperia nor its securities are registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Imperia is not licensed or registered with the Commission, with any state, or with any Self Regulatory Organization.”

    Categorically absurd representations of earnings and the program’s potential were made to investors, the SEC said.

    “Investors were promised eye-popping amounts of money in return for a simple $50 or $100 investment, and Imperia has made numerous excuses on its website about why these returns haven’t been paid,” said Ken Israel, director of the SEC’s Salt Lake Regional office.

    “The Imperia website shows an example of such earnings in which a $50 investment will return $134,000 to the investor in six months,” the SEC charged. At the same time, the agency said some investors were told that spectacular sums were due them for doing business with Imperia.

    “Imperia represented to one investor who invested $150.00 with Imperia that Imperia owed him $36,610,755.20 within a two year time frame,” the SEC charged. “Another individual’s account statement who invested $500 in July 2007 showed he is owed $43,907,652.20 as of May 2010.”

    It was not immediately clear how so many deaf investors became involved in Imperia. A federal judge has approved an asset freeze.

    Imperia called its product Traded Endowment Policies (TEP), which the SEC described as “the British term for viatical settlements.”

    “A TEP or viatical settlement involves the sale of an insurance policy by the policy owner before the policy matures, and policies are sold at a discount from face value in an amount greater than the current cash surrender value,” the SEC said.

    “There are at least 14,000 [Imperia] investors worldwide with a total investment exceeding $7 million,” the SEC said. “In the United States, there appear to be approximately 6,000 investors, most of whom belong the hearing impaired community, who have invested in excess of $4 million with Imperia.”

    Imperia used offshore payment processors such as “Liberty Reserve, located in Costa Rica; Perfect Money, located in Panama; and Procurrex, located in the British Virgin Islands,” the SEC charged. “Once Imperia received funds from Investors, it appears that Imperia then transferred amounts from these accounts to foreign bank accounts, including but not limited to accounts located in Cyprus and New Zealand.”

    Even as Imperia was ripping off investors, it also was infringing trademarks and the intellectual property of Visa, the credit-card service, the SEC charged..

    “Imperia also requires that investors purchase a Visa debit card to access their investment proceeds,” the SEC said. “Imperia charges customers a fee to purchase the Visa debit card ranging from $145 to $450.

    “Visa has not authorized Imperia to use its name or trademarks and has sent Imperia a cease-and-desist letter to halt its unauthorized use of the Visa name and logo,” the SEC said. “There is no evidence that any investor who has ordered a Visa debit card from Imperia has actually received such a card.”

    One poster on the MoneyMakerGroup forum advised prospects that he would keep an “open mind” about Imperia, according to web records.

    “Anyway, in the final analysis each person must make their own decision,” the poster said in 2007.

    While the MoneyMakerGroup poster was holding forth about keeping an “open mind,” Imperia was cloaking itself to siphon millions of dollars, according to web records and court records.

    “Imperia took proactive steps to conceal the identity of its control persons by using an anonymous browser to host its website, by communicating with all investors via email without disclosing the identity of any control persons and by establishing off-shore Paypal-style bank accounts to conceal the recipient of the investment proceeds,” the SEC charged.

    In July, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority issued a warning about HYIP schemes pitched online. In May, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service accused an HYIP known as Pathway To Prosperity of defrauding more than 40,000 people in a scheme that took in about $70 million.

    Pathway To Prosperity also was promoted on the Ponzi and criminals’ forums. ASAMonitor, TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup are specifically referenced in court filings in the Pathway to Prosperity case.

    MoneyMakerGroup is specifically referenced in court documents in the alleged Legisi HYIP and Ponzi scheme, a fraud that allegedly gathered more than $70 million.

    Read the SEC complaint against Imperia.

  • EDITORIAL: Prized Magazine ‘Newsweek’ Acquired For $1; Publishing Continues To Bleed — Even As Autosurf Cheerleaders Say They Have The Answer To Lagging Ad Sales

    The Associated Press reported yesterday that the Washington Post sold Newsweek magazine — an American treasure — for $1. The Post also absorbed $10 million in debt for Newsweek, which lost nearly $30 million last year.

    How much is $30 million? Well, it’s about $1.6 million less than AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin had in a single bank account from his alleged “advertising” Ponzi scheme. It’s also less than one-half the total sum ($65.8 million) the U.S. Secret Service seized from 10 Bowdoin bank accounts.

    This is painful to watch on a couple of levels: First, American publishing companies continue to bleed profusely, leading to a situation in which American treasures are being sold for $1 and skilled administrative, management, editorial, production, sales and advertising professionals are losing their jobs or working for far less money.

    Second, problems in the U.S. economy in general are providing a launching ground for hucksters who would have you believe that Newsweek, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and many other cherished publications could have saved themselves a lot of heartache by turning to the “autosurf” business model.

    In the autosurf business model as practiced by ASD, a company such as Microsoft that perhaps had relied on Newsweek  to advertise in print could have paid ASD $1 million to advertise online. ASD would have placed Microsoft’s ad in its magical advertising rotator. From that $1 million, Microsoft would have “earned” $10,000 a day more or less for the next 125 days, thus not only “earning” back the full $1 million, but also fetching a “profit” in the neighborhood of $250,000 on top of it.

    And Microsoft also would have sold a bunch of software by advertising on ASD, which purported to have a “captive” audience consisting of advertisers it was paying to view the ads of their fellow ASD advertisers. With Microsoft as a theoretical ASD advertiser, it could have boosted its bottom line by watching ads from a theoretical Apple, for example. The “rebates” Microsoft earned — coupled with the profits from the sale of software products displayed in ASD’s rotator — would have made both Microsoft and America happy, according to ASD’s devoted flock of commission-based, MLM salespeople.

    ASD, its fans said, had the perfect solution: Microsoft would have been paid more money than it spent, meaning it would have emerged in a better cash position within 125 days of doing business with ASD.  The ASD salesperson who recruited Microsoft also would have been paid — $100,000 for the $1 million sale alone. ASD would have made money. The U.S. economy would have continued to gain steam.

    Except it was not perfect, of course. In fact, is was all a colossal lie, according to the U.S. Secret Service, which accused ASD in August 2008 of operating a massive Ponzi scheme. Any money that ASD advertisers received from ASD came from other advertisers.

    So, it is plain to see that ASD was not a good deal for “advertisers” — theoretical or otherwise. ASD could have killed off Microsoft had its management been uninformed enough or desperate enough to trust a single word ASD ever said. Horror of horrors: Why would Microsoft want to limit its ASD ad spend to $1 million? Why not $10 million or $100 million — or more? Why not plow its “profits” right back into ASD, which advertised dramatically higher profits than, say, Bernard Madoff?

    After ASD killed off Microsoft, it would have killed off that MLM salesperson, the one who was paid $100,000 for Microsoft’s $1 million in business while Microsoft itself was paid $1.25 million more or less.

    Indeed, like Microsoft, the ASD MLM salesperson pitching ASD’s cancer would have had to return the “profit” he was paid from the proceeds of a criminal enterprise, even if it meant selling his home to raise the cash.

    But how to sell a home in this economic environment — you know, with all the foreclosures and such, all the bank failures and such — and all of the falling prices of real estate and such because of all the foreclosures and such?

    Want to add an extra layer to the ASD madness? Some ASD promoters who declared themselves committed, free-market Capitalists insisted that companies such as Microsoft would not be interested in profits, that they’d be happy enough just to display their ads and not get paid.

    The corporate benevolence of companies such as Microsoft would have resulted in ASD profits that were redistributed to smaller companies and Mom-and-Pop advertisers, thus creating wealth across the social spectrum. Some of the very same Capitalists who made these claims later complained about what they described as the Socialist redistribution schemes of the U.S. government.

    It also seemed not to occur to the autosurfing Capitalists who were rooting for a Socialist redistribution scheme — a scheme whereby big companies such as Microsoft would finance the profits of smaller players — that companies such as Microsoft could have started an autosurf at any time they wanted and crushed ASD like a bug.

    It’s a pretty safe bet that Microsoft, unlike ASD, could have kept its autosurfing site from going offine and could have produced a site that didn’t look as though it had been assembled by amateurs using a script kit. Meanwhile, it’s also a pretty safe bet that Microsoft wouldn’t have been looking for ways, say, to peel off cash to put Bill Gates in a new Lincoln or a relative of Bill Gates in a sporty, new Honda.

    Along those lines, it’s also a pretty safe bet that Microsoft would not have been seeking ways, say, to route millions of dollars offshore so it could be retrieved later by “management” who suddenly found themselves cash poor and without a country.

    Ay, just another day in Ponzi America, a country that has more than a few people who believe the business cure for what ails America is an ASD-like scheme that runs 24/7/365. You can read all about such schemes on the Ponzi boards — and you can induce people into the schemes and get paid a commission, which you can deposit into your FDIC-insured bank.

    Newsweek, like the Post Intelligencer, didn’t go the autosurf route, despite the fact it could have done exactly what ASD did: Lied to its advertisers by telling them that NewsweekDailyProSurf.com was the cure for all their ills, a cure that would have returned 125 percent more or less in 125 days more or less.

    No, Newsweek sold itself for $1 in a bid to save itself. We wish this American treasure the best as it seeks to retool.

    Finally, did you hear that the affiliate braintrust pitching the purported MPB Today “grocery” program on the ASA Monitor Ponzi and criminals’ forum is promoting an MPB Today “rebate” program?

    Read the AP story on the sale of Newsweek for $1.

  • EDITORIAL: Sundays Aren’t What They Used To Be: Is The MPB Today Matrix Stalling? Was A ‘Rebate’ Plan Advanced On Ponzi Forum A Bid To Reinvigorate It? (And Why Is The Matrix Being Plugged As A ‘Grocery Assistance’ Program On A .Org Site?)

    Sundays aren’t what they used to be.

    “Ken Russo” announced Sunday on the ASA Monitor Ponzi and criminals’ forum — a forum from which other promoters are targeting people of faith to join the MPB Today “grocery” program — that a member of his “team” is offering $50 “rebates” to entice prospects to sign up. (Read more about the “rebates” program below.)

    On the same day, known in the Christian faith as the Lord’s Day, MPB Today members who apparently were wooed by the company and its affiliates’ sales pitches came to the PP Blog to describe MPB Today critics as “roaches,” “IDIOTS,” “clowns,” “terrible” people, “misleading” people, people who have led a “sheltered life,” people who have been “chained up in a basement,” people who have “chips” on their shoulders, spewers of “hot air,” “naysayers,” “complainers,” “trouble maker[s]” and “crybabies.”

    And these remarks came from just three people in the MPB Today organization, which promoters say has 30,000 members. One of them denied on Sunday that MPB Today pays participants to recruit, something that MPB Today itself does not deny. MPB says commissions are “banked” until promoters sign up at least two other participants, and that no one cycles until a downline group becomes populated by seven members, only one of whom “cycles” and earns a matrix payout.

    For good measure, the same affiliate claimed on Sunday that she is paid for “grocery” sales, but chose not to answer a question about how many people within her organization actually bought groceries by overpaying for them through MPB Today. At the same time, she claimed MPB Today is sustainable because “[inherently] there is hard data that a certain % of people just will not get 2 people and cycle.”

    It was easy to read that as a Sunday concession that MPB Today relies on matrix “losers” to create matrix “winners.” In any event, it wasn’t much of an endorsement for the company, a company the member also described as a “blessing.” Blessings, like Sundays, aren’t what they used to be, it seems.

    Another MPB Today member claimed on Sunday that there are “[rogues]” in the organization. He did not explain whether he was being paid from rogue money or money sent in by honest affiliates.

    MPB Today members should be worried. A “rebate” program may signal that the MLM firm’s 2×2 matrix cycler is stalling and that the only effective way for average members to recruit two members who can recruit two other members in order to “earn” cycler commissions is to bribe them to join the program.

    It also may signal that promoters are trying to plant the seed that it’s time for their downlines to start spreading the word that MPB Today’s shipping costs are such a deal-killer that the only effective way for members to recruit is to tell prospects they’ll help them defray the shipping charges in the unlikely event they’re actually keen on buying overpriced groceries from a company that offers no money-saving generic products, ships dry goods “ONLY” and may charge customers who just overpaid for name-brand groceries up to $300 for $200 worth of food.

    “Ken Russo” said the “rebate” program was limited to four participants and that his “team” member would go $50 out-of-pocket for each of the four new recruits swayed by the offer. “Ken Russo” advertised that MPB Today’s shipping charges could be up to $50, a claim at odds with what MPB Today itself claims.

    Indeed, MPB Today says shipping charges may amount to up to 50 percent of the cost of a grocery order and perhaps may be even higher. MPB Today supplies only an “average” and plants the seed that perhaps customers should choose “lighter” items, as opposed to “heavy” items that are more expensive to ship. It’s even unclear how MPB Today arrived at its published “average”  of up to 50 percent, considering the company does not say how many of its purported 30,000 MLM customers actually get their groceries from the firm.

    MPB Today is operated by Gary Calhoun. Calhoun once was the subject of a warning letter from the Food and Drug Administration for hawking a product that purported to treat Lou Gehrig’s disease and, for good measure, Herpes and Alzheimer’s.

    “Ken Russo” doesn’t seem keen on telling prospects about Calhoun’s FDA experience. What he seems keen on, apparently, is talking about the “rebate” program started by someone on his “team” — and posting the news on the ASA Monitor Ponzi and criminals’ forum on a Sunday.

    If other MPB Today affiliates borrow the idea announced on a Sunday and the “rebate” program takes off and expands, it means that MPB Today sponsors who offer the “rebates” are absorbing additional costs in an enterprise that already is impossible mathematically.

    Any money MPB Today’s affiliates pay in the form of rebates inures to the benefit of the company — a company that already operates a matrix heavily weighted in its favor. Do you really want to go out-of-pocket even more for a 2×2 matrix cycler that uses a business model that came under fire by the U.S. Secret Service in the alleged Regenesis 2×2 Ponzi scheme last year?

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investigating specific claims about the MPB Today program, which has been targeted at Food Stamp recipients. What’s next? Recruiting America’s poor by enticing them with rebates and asking them also to offer rebates?

    Whether the “rebates” idea advanced from a Ponzi and criminals’ forum on a Sunday will go viral is unknown. Some affiliates easily could latch onto it, persuading themselves it’s better to ply prospects with rebates than take the chance MPB Today’s matrix will perform the magic itself.  Our reading of the Sunday “rebates” idea is that it is an inducement to separate people from their money on all seven days of the week on the theory that it’s better to pay $50 on top of the $200 (plus website costs) you’ve already paid to plumb a commission.

    If the MPB Today “grocery” program already is stalling, prospects may be few and far between if you’re aren’t willing to bribe them to overpay for groceries on the theory that doing it one time eliminates their grocery costs forever.

    Here is another reason for MPB Today members to worry: Because the “rebate” program purportedly exists to defray the shipping costs MPB Today charges for the home delivery of groceries, it can be construed as an acknowledgment that MPB is not actually serious about selling groceries, that it is more interested in selling the “opportunity.”

    If you’re an MPB Today member — and if you have not applied any sort of “reasonable person” standard to the program and instead have relied on hype from the company and your upline — you have made a mistake.

    Any claim that a $200, “one-time” purchase of groceries from MPB Today can result in free groceries for life is absurd. Spin it as you will. Argue that it is theoretically possible. Argue that you’re already in “profit” and can vouch that the program “works.” Argue that members of your downline can make the same claim.

    It is still absurd. No reasonable person would invest in such an argument and assign it any credibility at all. Jurors would laugh at such an argument. They shop at grocery stores. They know that a $200, one-time purchase and an accompanying claim that this relatively modest expense can result in free groceries for life is the precise sort of claim that exists only in the realm of the huckster.

    Wait until they’re told about the “catch” — i.e., that an MPB Today member must get two who can get two (or produce $1,200 in sales volume in some other combo) to set the stage for “free” groceries for life. And wait until they’re told that an MPB Today shopper perhaps has to pay up to $300 for $200 worth of groceries and that lots of the purported “grocery” money seems to have been converted to Walmart gift cards that can be used to buy big-screen TVs and laptop computers.

    And wait until they’re told that the conditions above have to be repeated, well, repeatedly, in order for members to continue to get paid.

    Speaking of Sundays: We noticed on Sunday that an MPB Today affiliate was promoting the opportunity through a .org domain. The promo shows a cart full of groceries and a bag of groceries of the sort not available through MPB Today, along with a bag of money.

    The promo on the .org site positions MPB Today as a “Grocery Assistance” program.

    “Our Grocery Assistance Program is helping thousands of families earn CASH and FREE groceries!” the page screams.

    It is not unusual for MLM participants to register a .org domain in a bid to plant the seed that prospects will be aiding a charity by enrolling in a program and paying a sign-up fee. Members of Narc That Car and Data Network Affiliates, for instance, registered .org sites and sought to link the MLMs to the national AMBER Alert program administered by the U.S. Department of Justice.

    The .org domain in the MPB Today program we noticed on Sunday — and please note that we have observed several other .org domains linked to MPB Today — hints that it is a government program by using the word “assistance” in its title.

    On a closing note, the .org domain we noticed on a Sunday also was registered on a Sunday — Sunday Aug. 22, 2010, according to records.

    So, no, Sundays aren’t what they used to be.

  • Florida Drops State-Level Pyramid Case Against AdSurfDaily; Says It Has Supplied Victims’ List To Claims Administrator For Restitution From Assets Seized By Secret Service In Federal Case

    Andy Bowdoin

    UPDATED 7:40 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Certain members of Florida-based AdSurfDaily began crowing last week that the office of Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum had dropped the pyramid-scheme case it had filed against ASD in August 2008.

    “The State of Florida has dropped all charges against Ad Surf Daily, Inc. This is wonderful news!” an email received by some ASD members exclaimed.

    Florida prosecutors, however, tell a different story.

    Although McCollum’s office confirmed today that the pyramid case has been dropped “without prejudice” — meaning it can be refiled — it noted that state investigators have forwarded a list of Florida victims of ASD to a federal claims administrator “for processing and reimbursement purposes.”

    Florida initially had sought restitution for victims, along with the dismantling of ASD. ASD essentially dismantled itself in September 2009 by not filing required forms with the state, which revoked its corporate registration. Less than four months later, in January 2010, the federal government was awarded title to more than $65.8 million seized in the case. The government earlier had been awarded title to more than $14 million. In March 2010, the government was awarded title to more than $600,000 that had been seized in a separate forfeiture action filed against ASD connected assets in December 2008.

    All in all, the federal government was awarded title to more than $80 million seized in the ASD case, gaining a clean sweep in the forfeiture proceedings.

    The U.S. Secret Service raided ASD on Aug. 5, 2008.  Florida followed up with a lawsuit of its own a day later, but federal prosecutors later said they intended to form a restitution pool from seized assets. That process now has begun, although ASD President Andy Bowdoin is appealing the January 2010 forfeiture order entered by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer.

    In its paperwork to dismiss the pyramid case, McCollum’s office pointed to Collyer’s forfeiture order, saying ASD victims from Florida and elsewhere had been provided an opportunity for restitution by the federal government.

    On Sept. 28, 2009 — three days after Florida revoked ASD’s corporate registration and dissolved the registration of a shell company known as Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises — federal prosecutors filed a U.S. Secret Service transcript of a conference call ASD had recorded Sept. 21.

    In the call, Bowdoin told members that the government had seized their money. In his court filings, however, Bowdoin claimed the money was his.

    Federal prosecutors said the recording was evidence that Bowdoin could not keep his stories straight, arguing that he had told members one story and a federal judge another. Collyer issued the forfeiture order for more than $65.8 million less than four months later.

    Although an email some ASD members received in recent days claimed that “It looks like things are moving in the right direction” with the Florida dismissal, the email urged members to “only share this with those whom you trust.

    “Do not post on forums or blogs,” the email urged.

    Federal prosecutors noted last month that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had dismissed one of two appeals Bowdoin had filed in the forfeiture cases, noting his second appeal was pending before the same court.

    The court should reject that appeal as well, prosecutors argued.

    With the federal procedure for restitution established, ASD victims now have a remedy for reimbursement, McCollum’s office advised a state judge.

    In late 2008, Bowdoin told ASD members that Florida had dropped “Ponzi scheme” allegations against the firm. McCollum’s office immediately countered with a statement that it never even had accused ASD of operating a Ponzi scheme, noting that it had alleged a pyramid scheme only.

    When Bowdoin made the 2008 claim, some ASD members raced to forums and websites to spread the news, which turned out not to be true. He later tried to sell members a VOIP telephone service, explaining the price he offered was a gift to his loyal supporters.

    Even as Bowdoin was telling members in September 2009 that he had big plans for ASD, he did not explain why he had permitted its corporate registration to lapse or explain that the state had revoked the registration.

    Instead, Bowdoin told members that the government had seized their money — a claim in opposition to his own court filings that advised a federal judge the seized money belonged to him.

  • Man Who Posed As Fraud Investigator And Blew Up His Own Mailbox Convicted In Bizarre Bid To Extort Ponzi Scheme Victims To Pay Him For Information

    A Washington state man has been convicted of nine federal felonies in a bizarre case in which he attempted to fleece Ponzi scheme victims by blowing up his own mailbox and taking guns and bomb-making components to Atlanta.

    Kevin W. Williams, 45, of Chehalis, was found guilty of three counts of wire fraud, extortion, possession of a firearm without a serial number, destruction of a letter box, making a false official statement and two counts of possession of an unregistered firearm. The unregistered firearms included a pipe bomb and a zip gun, federal prosecutors said.

    Williams’ plot began in 2007 and featured a claim that he was an investigator who knew where the loot from a $90 million Ponzi scheme in Greater Atlanta had been hidden, prosecutors said.

    In a bid to make his claims sound credible, Williams, an unemployed logger, blew up his mailbox with a homemade bomb. He apparently reasoned that Ponzi victims and attorneys involved in the case would give him money if they came to believe his information was so valuable that someone tried to maim him to make him turn silent, prosecutors said.

    Williams was slightly injured in the mailbox detonation that he arranged with an accomplice, prosecutors said. After the mailbox exploded, emergency responders were summoned to make the story more plausible.

    The trouble with the story, prosecutors said, was that the “blast was so powerful that Williams would have been badly injured if it had occurred as he described. He was checked at the hospital and released the same day having suffered only a few minor scratches on his forehead and ringing in his ears as injuries.”

    With no one willing to pay him for his purported information, Williams dialed up the scheme, prosecutors said.

    First, he sent emails “with a threatening tone,” prosecutors said.

    And then Williams traveled to Atlanta for the Ponzi trial.

    “He was arrested by law enforcement with a variety of guns, ammunition and explosive components in his car,” prosecutors said. “Following that arrest, one of Williams’ cohorts contacted law enforcement, and admitted lying to the police about Williams being the victim of the mail box bomb.

    Assisting in the probe were the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) and the Lewis County Sheriff’s Department.

    The case was prosecuted by the office of U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan of the Western District of Washington.

    Williams’ step-mother was a victim of the Atlanta-area scheme, prosecutors said.

  • INCREDIBLE: Florida — Again: SEC Files Complaint Against Purported ‘Gold’ Mining Operation In Miami Known As Quri Resources And Its CEO, Jaime Santiago Gomez

    BULLETIN: The SEC has gone to federal court in Florida to accuse Quri Resources Inc. and its Chief Executive Officer Jaime Santiago Gomez of operating a pump-and-dump scheme to drive up the price of Quri’s unregistered stock.

    It was the second major action in Florida today against companies and individuals who allegedly were running stock-fraud schemes. Named defendants in a separate SEC case were Atlantis Technology Group and CEO Christopher Dubeau of Weston, Fla.

    “Investors were duped into believing that Quri Resources was a successful mining company and that Atlantis Technology Group was selling cutting-edge technology services,” said Eric I. Bustillo, director of the SEC’s Miami Regional Office.

    “Both companies misled investors with exaggerated claims while their respective senior executives illegally dumped shares into the market,” Bustillo said. “We will continue to crack down on companies that promote misleading information.”

    The SEC said that Quri purported to be a “mining company headquartered in Miami, Florida, and operating in Ecuador.”

    As was the case with Atlantis and Dubeau, Quri and Gomez were accused of issuing “a series of false press releases and other misleading public statements” as part of the scheme, the SEC charged.

    From February to July 2009, Quri claimed in several press releases that, among other things:

    • It was ready to begin drilling on a mining project in Ecuador with a probable gold reserve worth over $1 billion.
    • It had signed letters of intent to acquire two valuable mining projects in Arizona.
    • It had acquired a second mining project in Ecuador and anticipated producing gold within three months.
    • It had signed a letter of intent to acquire a third valuable mining project in Ecuador.

    “[A]t the same time, Quri’s website and other public statements described Quri as having ongoing operations, employees worldwide, and an impressive management team,” the SEC charged. “The complaint alleges that these claims were grossly misleading because, among other things:

    • The exact value of the gold reserves in Ecuador could not be known without further detailed exploration.
    • Quri never acquired any mining projects in Arizona, and it acquired, at most, only one project in Ecuador.
    • Quri never developed any of its purported mining projects and was never in a financial position to do so.
    • Quri had no money, was never able to raise any funds, had no reasonable expectation of any funding, and was heavily indebted.

    The SEC said the scheme also involved the misuse of a website and a social-networking site.

    “Gomez also authored Quri’s internet website and approved its profile on the social network website LinkedIn,” the agency alleged. “These falsely described Quri as having ongoing operations, 28 employees worldwide, a geologist with a PhD on staff, and an impressive management team led by Gomez, a college graduate. None of these claims were true.”

    Gomez simply fleeced investors, the SEC charged.

    “[T]aking advantage of Quri’s artificially inflated stock price, Gomez, through an entity he controlled, dumped over half a million shares of Quri stock on the unsuspecting public, selling Quri stock in unregistered transactions, earning at least $17,500 from the sale of the stock,” the SEC charged.

    See earlier story about Atlantis.

    Read the SEC complaint against Quri.

  • Sales Video For MPB Today Uses Class Envy To Target Food Stamp Recipients; ‘Refer Your Friends,’ Promo Urges

    EDITOR’S NOTE: A YouTube video that encourages Food Stamp recipients to become affiliates of the MPB Today MLM program has been online for more than a month. The video implies MPB Today’s purportedly high shipping costs are a good reason for people who receive government aid to become MPB Today affiliates. MPB Today says it charges up to 50 percent of the cost of an order for shipping. Members who order groceries only and do not join the MLM component potentially would lose $100 in purchasing power on an order of $200, the price of the program. Other MPB Today affiliates have advised prospects that it is best to avoid buying groceries from MPB Today and simply concentrate on recruiting prospects. Still others say MPB Today issues food “vouchers,” enabling registrants to purchase their groceries elsewhere and even convert the purported voucher into cash that can be used to purchase electronics. MPB Today purports to ship “ONLY” dry goods. The Food and Nutrition Service, an arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is investigating claims about the MPB Today program. What specific claims the agency is examining is unclear. USDA administers the federal Food Stamp program for low-income Americans.

    The screen shots below are from frames of the YouTube video. The file is named “Food Stamps Online.avi.”

  • BULLETIN: Florida — Again: SEC Sues Atlantis Technology Group In Alleged Online Television Pump-And-Dump Scheme; CEO Christopher M. Dubeau Threatened ‘Bashers’ For Making ‘Slanderous’ Postings, March News Release Says

    BULLETIN: UPDATED 10:51 A.M. EDT (U.S.A., Oct. 1.) About six months after the chief executive officer of Atlantis Technology Group (Atlantis) was quoted in a Marketwire news release that threatened online commentators for “making slanderous postings” about the company, the SEC has gone to federal court in Florida to accuse Atlantis CEO Christopher Dubeau and the firm of running a penny-stock swindle.

    The SEC’s lawsuit concerns the operations of an Atlantis subsidiary known as Global Online Television (GOTV), which allegedly used a commission-based sales force to promote the purported TV company.

    Dubeau and Atlantis actually were operating a “pump-and dump” stock fraud, the SEC charged in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

    “From at least August 7, 2009 through April 5, 2010 . . . Atlantis and Dubeau issued numerous false and misleading press releases that artificially inflated the trading volume and price of Atlantis’s stock,” the SEC charged. “Dubeau benefited financially from Atlantis’s artificially increased trading volume and stock price. In December 2009, he sold more than 60 million shares of Atlantis stock for proceeds of about $240,000, and in August 2009 he received $77,000 of the proceeds from an associate’s sale of more than 16 million shares.”

    A Marketwire news released dated March 26, 2010, and issued under the names of Atlantis and Dubeau accuses “bashers” of making “slanderous” remarks about the company online.

    “I can assure you I will not play the bashers’ games,” Dubeau was quoted as saying. “Atlantis has Launched an Investigation into these Individuals that are attacking the Company and its Associates. Atlantis has Identified at least 3 of these Participants in what we deem to be manipulation of the Company’s Stock price by making slanderous postings. We will seek every avenue available to bring these persons of interest to the forefront of the Judicial System.”

    Now, six months later, the SEC has accused Dubeau of operating a large-scale fraud by fabricating news about the company’s ability to offer online TV and video-phone services.

    “Atlantis’s press releases were false because Atlantis’s subsidiary has never offered
    Internet protocol television service or video phone services,” the SEC charged. “At the time the company and Dubeau issued these press releases, the subsidiary did not offer (and was not able to offer) either service, and it did not have relationships with television networks to offer content to Atlantis’s subscribers. In fact, until March 1, 2010, neither the subsidiary nor Atlantis had any product or service to offer to consumers.”

    Threats against critics who voice concerns about business opportunities online are common, as is the issuance of news releases to spread false information. In the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, for example, ASD President Andy Bowdoin threatened critics with lawsuits. ASD operated from Florida.

    An operation known as AdViewGlobal (AVG) that has close ASD ties and also operated at least in part from Florida also threatened critics. AVG even threatened its own members with lawsuits.

    Critics of Data Network Affiliates (DNA), a Florida company that purports to offer an MLM program that collects license-plate data to aid law enforcement and the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children, also were threatened.

    DNA figure Phil Piccolo used an online radio program last month to threaten critics.

    Convicted Florida Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein, who ran one of the largest scams in U.S. history, also threatened critics. Rothstein pleaded guility to racketeering.

    Read the SEC complaint against Atlantis and Dubeau of Fort Lauderdale and Weston, Fla.

  • ASA Monitor Ponzi And Criminals’ Forum Locks MPB Today Thread — Again; Naysayers Scolded By Mod For Challenging ‘Ken Russo’

    EDITOR’S NOTE: The ASA Monitor Ponzi forum now has reopened its thread on the MPB Today MLM program — with a warning in red to “Play nice . . .”

    UPDATED 9:54 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A forum infamous for promoting Ponzi schemes and other criminal pursuits has locked the thread from which the MPB Today 2×2 matrix cycler is being pitched.

    The official explanation for locking the thread was that naysayers challenging ASA Monitor member “Ken Russo” needed a “temporary cooling off period.” (See Editor’s Note above: The thread now has been unlocked.)

    “Ken Russo” is a reliable cheerleader for Ponzi schemes and highly questionable business pursuits on ASA Monitor and other forums. ASA Monitor’s name is referenced in a May criminal case filed against the alleged Pathway To Prosperity Ponzi scheme. Prosecutors said the scheme mushroomed globally, gathering about $70 million and defrauding more than 40,000 participants.

    A similar program known as Legisi gathered more than $70 million and also fleeced thousands of participants, according to the SEC. It, too, was promoted on the Ponzi forums. A court filing in the Legisi case specifically references the MoneyMakerGroup forum, another venue from which MPB Today is being promoted.

    This marks the second time the MPB Today thread has been locked at ASA Monitor. It was locked earlier this month and then reopened amid similar circumstances. ASA Monitor initially deleted several references to the PP Blog in the initial closure of the thread, but later restored them.

    One of the principal incongruities of the MPB Today program is that it is being targeted at people of faith from a known Ponzi forum. Because ASA Monitor members routinely promote Ponzi schemes, some of the funds being passed to MPB Today could be criminal proceeds from Ponzi and other fraud schemes.

    “Ken Russo,” for example, promoted the alleged Regenesis 2×2 Ponzi scheme. Like MPB Today, Regenesis used a 2×2 matrix cycler. The U.S. Secret Service executed search warrants in the Regenesis case in July 2009. The agency said in court filings that it had linked the scheme to a convicted felon.

    Spectacular international frauds have been promoted at ASA Monitor. Meanwhile, some of MPB Today’s own members have said there are liars and thieves in the organization, including liars and thieves who are using false information to recruit prospects. The claims have been made in public on YouTube. Incongruously, they have been positioned as reasons to join the program under specific uplines that purport to be honest.

    How MPB Today’s payments to members could be clean if it has come into possession of money tainted by the lies of its own pitchmen and money tainted by Ponzi schemes promoted on forums such as ASA Monitor is left to the imagination.

    Last week the PP Blog reported that a “news release’ that appeared online encouraged MPB Today prospects to sell $200 worth of Food Stamps to raise money to join the program. One of the URLs referenced in the release also was being promoted on ASA Monitor by “Ken Russo.” Other information suggests that promoters of the judicially declared CEP Ponzi scheme are promoting MPB Today.

    Some ASA Monitor members use a strategy of playing dumb to promote Ponzi schemes. One form of the strategy is to repeatedly accept at face value whatever a company says in sales literature — and then blame the company and dishonest affiliates if a scheme collapses or is taken down by law enforcement.

    Another form of the strategy is to include links to the sites of other promoters, apparently on the theory that favorable commentary about an “opportunity” demonstrates that no scam could be occurring. If the opportunity later proves to be a Ponzi or a fraud scheme, promoters who employ the play-dumb method point out that others got taken, perhaps through the actions of a fraudster who was particularly clever.

    Yet another form of the play-dumb method is to position an opportunity as a matter of free choice. Such wink-nod efforts are part of numerous Ponzi schemes.

    In February 2010, the Secret Service said in a search-warrant application in Minnesota that it believed a company known as INetGlobal was operating a Ponzi scheme. In court filings, the agency said an undercover agent was introduced to INetGlobal by a member of the alleged AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme, describing the introduction as a wink-nod deal.

    ASD, which was accused of operating a $100 million Ponzi scheme, also was promoted from websites and forums. Federal agents seized about $26 million in the INetGlobal case, which is still under investigation. Steve Renner, the operator of INetGlobal, is in federal prison for income tax-evasion in a case linked to his money-services business.

    Court records show Renner-related ties to at least four Ponzi schemes.

    Among the targets of promotions for MPB Today were victims of the alleged ASD Ponzi scheme, foreclosure subjects, the unemployed, Food Stamp recipients, senior citizens, college students and other vulnerable populations.

  • Affiliate Promo Says MPB Today Website Fee Will Increase From $10 To $39 Oct. 1; Another Promo Claims ‘It Doesn’t Matter How’ The Program Works

    An upline promo for MPB Today says the company soon will raise the cost to join from $210 to $239, an increase of $29. The purported increase applies to the MPB Today fee for a replicated website, which the affiliate says will increase from $10 annually to $39.

    Will a new price increase that ups a website fee from $10 to $39 cause scores of MPB Today affiliates to change their promos to reflect the price change?

    Or will the MPB Today affiliates behave like some promoters of Data Network Affiliates (DNA) and just leave old information in videos and on websites and Blog posts to recruit customers based on false information?

    An affiliate video for MPB Today claims the price increase will occur Oct. 1.

    “So, in order to get started with MPB Today, the first thing you’ll need to do is pay $239,” the promoter claimed in a YouTube video. “Now, the $39 is an annual fee, and that gives you a replicated website with the company.

    “Some of you might be confused, because that was previously only $10,” the promoter continued. “But, as of Oct. 1, 2010, it will now be $39.”

    MPB Today operates a 2×2 cycler matrix. If incoming prospects soon will have to pay more than original members to join the company, it sets the stage for them to lose more should the program collapse. One analysis of MPB Today’s mathematics shows that 86 percent of the MLM’s members were in position to lose money before the advertised price hike. Incoming members will be among the 86 percent, but stand to lose more because they paid more.

    Some promoters have said MPB Today also is tweaking its program to pay out bonuses. In myriad online scams, program tweaks have signaled trouble or an effort by a company to come into compliance after the fact.

    In early April, DNA announced a cell-phone plan that would provide customers a free phone and unlimited talk and text for $10 a month. “GAME OVER — WE WIN,” the MLM firm declared in all-caps. Members flocked to the web to promote the offer to prospects.

    By the end of April, however, DNA, which has a reputation for bizarre sales pitches, announced it had not studied cell-phone pricing before publicly announcing unlimited service for $10 a month with a free phone. It blamed a vendor for making it believe such a plan was possible, an acknowledgment it had not vetted its purported supplier before instructing members to sell a service.

    There would be no free phones and unlimited service for $10 a month, the company said. It then announced a May debut for a new cell-phone plan, later changing the debut date to June.  No plan has emerged. By July, however, DNA was claiming that churches have the “MORAL OBLIGATION” to help it sell a new mortgage-reduction service that purportedly pays downline commissions 10 levels deep.

    Even after DNA unannounced its “GAME OVER” declaration and the cell-phone plan, affiliates continued to promote the nonexistent plan. At the same time, images of Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey and Apple Inc. continued to appear in DNA promos, despite the fact there is no evidence to support suggestions that the business titans and the Steve Jobs-led technology giant have any ties to the firm.

    MPB Today and affiliates also beamed images of Trump from the homepages of their  websites, along with an image of Warren Buffet and a Walmart store. The company removed the images from its homepage earlier this month. Affiliates continue to display images of Trump, Buffet and Walmart.

    Separately, an MPB Today affiliate who appears to belong to the same downline group that announced the price increase is claiming that “It Doesn’t Matter How it Works[:] It just does.”

    Why the promoter apparently believes that it “does not matter” how a company that claims a $200, one-time purchase can result in free groceries for life “works” was not immediately clear.

    A short video that makes the claim spells the word “whether” without a leading “h,” and the word “jobs” as though it were a possessive. Among the claims in the promo is that MPB Today works whether prospects “need $500 a month or every day.”

  • Another MPB Today Pitch Page That Uses Walmart’s Name In Registered Domain Surfaces; More Check-Waving Promos Using Name Of Distressed Bank Elsewhere On Web

    Another website that pitches the MPB Today MLM program and uses Walmart’s name in a registered domain name has surfaced. This one was registered Sept. 11, and uses an address in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Walmart is not the registered owner of the domain, and it is unclear if the registrant has the retail giant’s permission to use its name in a domain name.

    Separately, check-waving videos and Blog posts using the name of a distressed Florida bank continue to appear online in promos for MPB Today. The promos show checks and the name of Gulf Coast Community Bank of Pensacola.

    Promos for MPB Today that show Walmart gift cards and prepaid Visa cards also continue to appear online.

    Gulf Coast has been operating under an FDIC consent agreement since January. The bank did not respond to requests for comment from the PP Blog last week. Neither did the FDIC.

    The most recent website to use Walmart’s name in its domain name positions the opportunity as a free shopping club.

    “Almost Everyone within the USA is saying ‘YES!” the pitch page proclaims.

    “Please Help Me!” it urges. “I need FREE Food AND a way to Create some Serious Cash NOW!”

    MPB Today operates an “Amazing ‘Recycling Matrix,’” according to the pitch page.

    “Warning!” the page says. “Once you watch this Video, you won’t be able to sleep tonight!”

    A Blog post by a separate MPB Today promoter displays both a check drawn on Gulf Coast Community Bank and a Walmart gift card.

    Some MPB Today affiliates have urged Food Stamp recipients, the unemployed, senior citizens, victims of the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, people of faith and opponents of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to join the MPB today program.

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Friday that its Food and Nutrition Service unit was investigating specific claims about the MPB Today program, which is being promoted widely online.

    Among the places from which the program is being promoted are forums known for pitching criminal enterprises and Ponzi schemes.

    In yet-another pitch for MPB Today, a promoter is shown opening an envelope mailed through the U.S. Postal Service. Inside the envelope was another envelope, which appeared to include U.S. postage.

    The inner envelope contained a prepaid Walmart Visa card and a Walmart gift card.

    Walmart has not responded to a request for comment about the MPB Today program. MPB promoters have claimed the company is “affiliated” with Walmart — and also affiliated and endorsed by the USDA’s Food Stamp program for low-income Americans.

    Some MPB Today affiliates have claimed in public promotions for the program that liars and thieves exist in the organization.

    Eight U.S. banks have failed since Sept. 10, including two in Florida. Only three bank failures occurred in the entire United States in 2007.