Author: PatrickPretty.com

UPDATE: SEC Declines To Comment On Pitchman’s Video Promo For ‘Achieve Community’ And 2 Other Ponzi-Board ‘Programs’ That Used Footage From Agency’s Website

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission declined this morning to comment on a Jan. 9 YouTube pitch from an “Achieve Community” promoter who mixed nearly six minutes of footage from the SEC website into a pitch for Achieve and two other Ponzi-board “programs.”

Rodney Blackburn implied in the 14:27 production that the SEC did not have jurisdiction over “programs” such as Achieve, Unison Wealth and Trinity Lines. Parts of the Blackburn promo were recorded inside his back office of Unison Wealth.

“[D]ecline comment,” the SEC succinctly said today.

Achieve purports that $50 sent to the “program” fetches back $400. Members reportedly were permitted to buy multiple $50 “positions” and to roll a percentage of “earnings” back into the “program,” a straight-line money-cycling scheme.

A similar rollback feature was an element in the Zeek Rewards scheme shut down by the SEC in 2012.

Blackburn says he prefers “passive” programs. The SEC and state-level regulators have a history of acting against such ventures. Zeek, for example, was promoted as a “passive” scheme.

At about the 0:51 mark of Blackburn’s Jan. 9 video, ads for “programs” called “Paradox Cash” and “GlobalAdShare” appear, meaning that people such as Blackburn who sign up for Unison Wealth are being shown promos for still-other Ponzi-board schemes.

“GET PAID DAILY FOR DOING NOTHING,” the ad for GlobalAdShare blares.

Blackburn’s Jan. 9 video is at least the second confirmation that Unison Wealth is beaming ads for other HYIPs.

On Dec. 12, the office of then-U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Heaphy of the Western District of Virginia had no immediate comment on an Achieve Community call in which Blackburn was a host. The call demonstrated that Achieve was driving business by reaching across state lines and that one or more senior citizens had signed up, including a woman who claimed her 86-year-old husband of 53 years had been “in the hospital for a full year and six months in the nursing home.”

Achieve reportedly suspended payouts to members more than two months ago after losing its ability to conduct business through Payoneer. Although it announced a purported deal with Global Cash Card on Dec. 18 to resume payouts, that deal appears to have fallen through.

The “program” said last week that it would resume payouts on an unspecified date through a “temporary” processor. The “temporary” processor was not named.

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy recently has dialed up its efforts to educate the public about scams that spread on social-media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Achieve and its promoters have or had a presence on all three.

Jan 12, 2015
Network-Marketing Pitchman Camps Out At SEC Website, Produces Commercial For Achieve Community, Unison Wealth And Trinity Lines; ‘They’re Passive . . . You Just Kind Of Put Your Money Down’ And Receive Payouts

EDITOR’S NOTE: The screen shots below show that Rodney Blackburn ends his “Unison Wealth” promo at the 8:29 mark of a 14:27 video. At the 8:30 mark, the website of the SEC becomes the feature and remains so for nearly the next six minutes as Blackburn touts Achieve Community, Unison Wealth and Trinity Lines, Ponzi-board “programs” one and all. It is Saturday. The PP Blog did not immediately hear back from the SEC on a request for comment.

1. From ‘Unison Wealth’ . . .

2. . . . To The SEC

“We’re leaving the markets of these crazy MLM companies, and there are people like the Achieve Community, Trinity Lines, Unison Wealth, many of these other companies are coming out. And they are making programs that are very simplistic, they’re passive, they’re residual incomes. They’re just so simple you just kind of put your money down.” — Rodney Blackburn, Jan. 9, 2015.

A 14:27 YouTube video from an “Achieve Community” member now promoting at least two other Ponzi-board schemes includes nearly six minutes of continuous footage from the website of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The latest promo by Rodney Blackburn focuses on “Unison Wealth” and has a publication date of Jan. 9, 2015. It is titled “Network Marketing & MLM Programs Are Getting Better!!!” The promo suggests that ordinary MLM creates an environment in which 97 percent of participants lose and that new, smarter, better schemes are emerging to replace them.

“You don’t have to do any marketing, for the most part,” he says of the purported new way of network marketing. “You don’t have to jump through any hoops and recruit people. You don’t have to go through any of these things.”

In short, Blackburn says, in the new way of network marketing, participants “just kind of put [their] money down” and payouts flow back to them. What’s more, he implies, the SEC doesn’t have jurisdiction, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, including several concurrent active prosecutions involving network-marketing or MLM schemes with passive components.

Blackburn even dares individuals to complain to the SEC about the “programs” he’s promoting.

“There’s people on here who think that the SEC can shut companies down,” Blackburn says as part of his narration. “Guys, [the] SEC is designed for, again, Securities and Exchange Commission, what they do — it shows it right here in back and white.”

Blackburn proceeds to click on an “ABOUT” tab and a “What We Do” subtab at the SEC website. He then cherry-picks a quote from the agency’s site, wholly ignoring sections on SEC enforcement that detail various cases brought against network-marketing or MLM schemes.

“The mission of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets,” Blackburn says, reading from the SEC site.

That’s true, of course — but the cherry-picking ignores the much larger whole.

Had Blackburn simply typed “MLM” into the search box in the upper-right corner of the SEC site, he’d have gained instant access to information that undermines his jurisdiction theory.

Without perusing the enforcement section that has information on recent schemes such as Zeek Rewards, TelexFree, WCM777, eAdGear, Zhunrize, CKB168 and others, Blackburn switches back to his personal narrative.

“Guys, it’s about investors,” Blackburn continues, apparently concluding that the SEC would have no interest in the schemes he’s promoting. “It’s about efficient markets. If others of you who want to complain to your governments about these companies that are out there — you know what, go right ahead. It’s not going to do any good, unless they’re doing illegal activity. Unless you have substantial, proven evidence that any of these companies — any of them, OK — are doing anything illegal, it’s futile. You’re just blowing fear out there to the rest of us, OK, because it’s not going to do any good. Come up with something better. Come up with a fact.”

It is a fact that the SEC, on Oct. 1, 2013, issued an “Investor Alert” titled “Beware of Pyramid Schemes Posing as Multi-Level Marketing Programs.” As part of its outreach, the SEC warned about schemes with “Promises of high returns in a short time period” and “Easy money or passive income.”

Meanwhile, it is a fact that Achieve Community has been positioned as a “passive” program with an 800 percent ROI in as few as 55 days. It’s also a fact that a Dec. 27, 2014, promo for Unison Wealth published on YouTube by Blackburn is titled, “Unison Wealth – Review 100% Passive Automated Play for just $40!”

Blackburn’s Jan. 9 video appears to be a compendium of two, with the first 8:29 focused on Unison Wealth. When Blackburn’s Unison pitch ends, the scene shifts abruptly to the SEC website. SEC visuals appear continuously for nearly the next six full minutes as Blackburn discuses his “programs.”

Even as Blackburn tries to make the case that the “programs” are outside the purview of the SEC, he tells his audience that he prefers “passive” programs.” Somehow lost by Blackburn in all of this is that the passivity of a scheme and how it behaves in practice are what confer jurisdiction on the SEC.

This has been the law in the United States since at least 1946.

Less than a year ago — on Feb. 28, 2014 — the court appointed receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid case as brought by the SEC in a highly publicized action in August 2012 — alleged that “ZeekRewards succeeded be cause it promoted a lucrative ‘compensation plan,’ offering large amounts of passive income to entice individuals to participate in the scheme.”

Kenneth D. Bell, the receiver, is suing thousands of individuals for the return of hundreds of millions of dollars, saying their “winnings” came from hundreds of thousands of victims defrauded by Zeek.

Resources

Aug. 17, 2012, SEC News Release on Zeek action. (Headline: “SEC Shuts Down $600 Million Online Pyramid and Ponzi Scheme.”)

Oct. 17, 2013, SEC News Release on CKB168 action. (Headline: “SEC Halts Pyramid Scheme Targeting Asian-American Community.”

April 17, 2014, SEC News Release on TelexFree action. (Headline: “SEC Halts Pyramid Scheme Targeting Dominican and Brazilian Immigrants.”

March 28, 2014, SEC News Release on WCM777 action. (Headline: “SEC Halts Pyramid Scheme Targeting Asian and Latino Communities.”

Sept. 26, 2014, SEC News Release On eAdGear/Zhunrize actions. (Headline: “SEC Announces Cases Targeting International Pyramid Scheme Operators.”

Jan 10, 2015
Battling Zeek-Related Malpractice Claim, MLM Attorney Kevin Grimes Now A New Partner At Thompson Burton

“It is the biggest announcement I’ve ever made in my career.” — MLM attorney Kevin Thompson on the hiring of Kevin Grimes, Jan. 9, 2015.

2nd UPDATE 5:35 p.m. ET U.S.A. Zeek Rewards receiver Kenneth D. Bell accused Idaho MLM attorney Kevin Grimes last year of providing “substantial assistance” to Zeek’s Ponzi scheme and, in effect, attempting “to put lipstick on the ZeekRewards pig.”

Grimes, formerly of the now-defunct Grimes & Reese law firm, is battling Bell’s contentions that he engaged in legal malpractice, created a “bogus ‘compliance course’” and participated in “leadership calls” that helped sanitize Zeek.

It is against this backdrop that Grimes, whom Bell is suing for $100 million, has landed at suburban Nashville’s Thompson Burton as a new partner after being flown in to discuss joining the firm. The announcement was made by managing partner Kevin Thompson in both text and video forms. The news appears first to have been published elsewhere on the MLMHelpDesk Blog of Troy Dooly.

Dooly also encountered trouble owing to alleged Zeek ties.

Thompson appears only to make an allusion to Zeek in the 4:28 YouTube video announcing the hire. But he mentions it directly in a Blog post at the Thompson Burton site.

Grimes, whose qualities include experience and depth, is a good person and good lawyer who fosters at-risk teens and is “very open about his faith” and “very passionate about serving people,” Thompson said.

A well-known MLM lawyer in a field often associated with PR blunders, Thompson appears not to be concerned that his 16-member firm whose practice isn’t limited to MLM could take a hit by bringing on Grimes with Zeek matters still unresolved. Three Zeek executives were charged with federal crimes in the aftermath of SEC civil actions in 2012 and 2013.

“I’m excited for what this means,” Thompson said of the hiring of Grimes. “I think in the industry, iron sharpens iron. He can make me better; I can make him better. There’s some things that he’s not doing very well, such as communicating. He’s hasn’t communicated at all. Most of you don’t even know who he is. We’ve got to fix that. So, you’re going to get to know him better. He’s going through some issues right now, and he’s dealing with them. And there going to be a day when he’s not dealing with them and he can focus on doing what he does best. He’s been practicing for close to 25 years without any single bar complaints. So, he knows what he’s doing.”

Grimes has not been named a defendant in the SEC’s civil actions and has not been charged with a crime. But Bell, the Zeek receiver, has alleged in court filings that Grimes missed important clues that something was seriously amiss at Zeek.

The SEC has described Zeek as a combined Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that gathered hundreds of millions of dollars. Zeek insiders Paul Burks, Dawn-Wright-Olivares and Daniel Olivares have been charged criminally, with Wright-Olivares and Olivares already entering guilty pleas.

Jan 9, 2015
BULLETIN: Achieve Community Says It Has Suspended Sign-Ups, Repurchases

BULLETIN: (7th Update 1:52 p.m. ET Jan. 7 U.S.A.) The Achieve Community says it has suspended “sign ups” and “repurchases” through iPayDNA, a credit-card processor based in Asia.

PP Blog reader “Secwatchin” first reported the news at 2:44 p.m. ET today. The Blog confirmed that orders for “positions” could not be placed by visiting the ReadyToAchieve website, clicking on the “Sign Up” tab and clicking again on a “Join Now!” button. The message we received is reproduced in the graphic at the top of this story.

Colorado-based Achieve co-founder Kristi Johnson reportedly advised Achieve members that its “merchant” — iPayDNA — needed to “get caught up.”

Why iPayDNA purportedly had fallen behind in processing credit-card transactions wasn’t explained.

On Jan. 4, Johnson announced to Achieve members that Global Cash Card, which Achieve had claimed to be its new “payout” processor, “is not going to work with us after all.” On Dec. 18, Achieve had positioned its relationship with U.S.-based GCC as a done deal.

Why Achieve, a money-cycling “program” operating in the United States with a presence on well-known Ponzi-scheme forums, needed separate vendors to process “money in” and “money out” transactions has not been explained.

Here is what Johnson reportedly told members today (italics/carriage returns added):

Hello Achieve Community!

We are going to stop sign ups and repurchases for a few days beginning in about 30 minutes, so that our merchant can get caught up. And we won’t be doing more sign ups until we have more information about payout options for us.

I hope to have some good news on that in the next few days! Thursday I’ll be meeting again with the lawyers and that will give me a better time frame for when Achieve will be completely ready to go again. I will keep letting you know how things are going as the information becomes available to me.

In the meantime, while this process is going on, there is very little that I can tell you without risking hurting the entire process. So please, keep the speculation quiet, you will hear everything, just be patient please. Although we won’t be doing sign ups, you all will still have access to the members area, your banners, the Forum, and your products. Thank you all for taking care of each other! Achieve is the best Community ever!

Kristi

Some Achieve members have turned to promoting other Ponzi-board “programs” such as Unison Wealth and Trinity Lines. Promos from Achieve members also promoting Unison Wealth show that Unison Wealth is beaming ads for HYIP schemes inside the back offices of its members.

Jan 6, 2015
RODNEY’S FOLLY: ‘We Want Achieve To Work So Badly,’ But Sign Up For ‘Trinity Lines’ While You’re Waiting

“They want so badly to believe in the tooth fairy.” — Fred Joseph, then-Colorado Securities Commissioner, February 2013. (As told to the Durango Herald in “For a Ponzi payout, call the tooth fairy.”)

Achieve Community promoter Rodney Blackburn laments developments with that “program,” and now is encouraging prospects to sign up for “Trinity Lines,” another Ponzi-board “opportunity.” Like other Achievers, Rodney also is promoting “Unison Wealth,” yet another Ponzi-board “program.”

UPDATED 1:27 P.M. ET U.S.A. Fred Joseph announced his retirement in December 2013, after 30 years in public service. He’d seen it all during the course of his career, including the case of Frederick H.K. Baker, infamous as an instance in which an HYIP scammer tried to “scam the scammers.”

Now comes word that “Achieve Community,” a Ponzi-board “program” that appears to be operating out of Colorado and Michigan, is in an even deeper crisis than the one it confronted after reportedly losing its ability to do business with Payoneer in late October or early November.

This is because Global Cash Card, which Achieve apparently envisioned as a substitute “payout” processor after the Payoneer debacle, reportedly is unwilling to work with Achieve — this after Achieve sold the asserted GCC arrangement as a done deal on Dec. 18.

Achieve promoter Rodney Blackburn, in our view, is a classic example of a person who wants badly to believe in the tooth fairy.

“Quite honestly, there’s a lot of upset people out there, and rightfully so,” Rodney says of the GCC development, attributing the news to Colorado-based Achieve co-founder Kristi Johnson. “I can understand where everybody is upset. There was a lot of rumors going on out there. There has not been a lot of transparency, as far as the details . . .”

“Kristi has brought out information that’s in the forum [pertaining to the GCC development]; I can’t dispute that. But as far as what’s been going on with Global Cash Card — that has been declined, for whatever reason we don’t know.”

Rodney says Achieve owes him $90,000.

“We all just have to wait it out,” he says, adding that he “trust[s] Kristi enough to where she is going to make this wrong right, that she is going to give everything that she’s got to get Achieve up and running. She had a vision from the beginning. The vision has never, you know, swayed. But definitely something going on in the background, and it would be nice if she was a little bit more open about what’s going on. I know she likes to kinda hold everything to the vest close to her. But . . . it’s tough because there are so many of us out there that are really needing the money. That’s why we get into this industry. We want Achieve to work so badly . . .

“The best thing I can tell everybody as of right now is to look into other options.”

Rodney’s remarks are contained within a 11:59 YouTube video published Jan. 4 and titled “LIST – Achieve Community Update 1/ 4 /2015.” LIST stands for Legendary Income Solutions Team, a group that pushes “programs.” Just seconds after Rodney laments the situation at Achieve, it becomes clear that he won’t be just sitting around. No, Rodney is now pushing “Trinity Lines,” another Ponzi-board “program.”

As noted earlier, Rodney also is pushing Unison Wealth. It, too, is a Ponzi-board “program.”

Because Ponzi-board “programs” often have promoters in common, this sets the stage for fraudulent proceeds to circulate between and among scams.

Little wonder GCC appears not to be keen on Achieve. Its promoters may be polluting the money stream at multiple points of contact by pushing other scams, even as Achieve appears to be boxed in.

Jan 5, 2015

6th Anniversary Of PP Blog!

Dear Readers,

The sixth anniversary of the PP Blog passed in the run-up to Christmas last month. I decided to wait until the first of the year to publish a subscription post that commemorates the sixth anniversary.

As was the case with our 2,500th-post commemoration two months ago, there are four subscription options. In the spirit of that post, I’m returning to the “penny a post” theme. We’re asking readers who believe in what this Blog is doing to take out a one-year subscription for either $25, $50, $75 or $100.

The $25 fee constitutes a penny a post for our current editorial well of 2,500+ articles. There’s a pull-down menu in case you decide you’d like personally to value the editorial well at 2 cents a post ($50), 3 cents a post ($75) or 4 cents a post ($100).

There is no paywall at the PP Blog. By purchasing a subscription that automatically renews in one year, you’ll be helping me personally. And, as I noted in November, you’ll be helping a Blog that publishes an average of 416 stories a year and keeps matters important to readers a bookmark away remain free for other readers.

This “penny-a-post” idea has helped me scotch the very real concern about affecting readership. The readers who subscribe will be helping keep the Blog free for those who cannot afford to subscribe and for those who simply choose not to.

My sincere thank you for your continued interest in the PP Blog.

Patrick

Jan 4, 2015

India’s Central Bank Issues MLM Caution

It didn’t take long for MLM to get some bad press in 2015. The Reserve Bank of India, the nation’s central bank, cautioned the public “against Multi Level Marketing Activities” on the first day of the new year.

RBI issued the statement less than a month after police in Bangalore arrested four individuals associated with a “program” known as YOBSN (Your Own Branded Social Network). In November, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged an India-based “program” known as “Profits Paradise” was a fraud.

Some Ponzi analysts are questioning whether an emerging cycler scheme known as Unison Wealth may be Indian in origin. Unison Wealth is lauded by promoters of the Achieve Community scheme. (See K. Chang comment at PP Blog and thread below this Dec. 9 Unison Wealth Story at BehindMLM.com.)

At least one previous MLM scheme — Club Asteria — traded on the venerated name of Mahatma Gandhi. A recent scheme known as 8Elos that may have ties to TelexFree Ponzi-scheme hucksters has traded on the venerated name of Abraham Lincoln.

Here is RBI’s full statement (italics added):

The Reserve Bank of India has cautioned the public against Multi-level Marketing (MLM) activities so that investors do not fall prey to unscrupulous entities.

Explaining the functioning of these entities, the Reserve Bank stated that MLM/Chain Marketing/Pyramid Structure schemes promise easy or quick money upon enrolment of members. Income under such schemes majorly comes from enrolling more and more members from whom hefty subscription fees are taken rather than from the sale of products they offer. It is incumbent upon all members to enroll more members, as a portion of the subscription amounts so collected is distributed among the members at the top of the pyramid. Any break in the chain leads to the collapse of the pyramid, and the members lower down in the pyramid are the ones that are affected the most.

The Reserve Bank has advised that members of public should not to be tempted by promises of high returns offered by entities running Multi-level Marketing/Chain Marketing/Pyramid Structure Schemes. The Reserve Bank has reiterated that falling prey to such offers can result in direct financial losses and they, in their own interest, should refrain from responding to such offers in any manner.

The Reserve Bank has also said that acceptance of money under Money Circulation/Multi-level Marketing/Pyramid structures is a cognizable offence under the Prize Chit and Money Circulation (Banning) Act 1978. Members of public coming across such offers should immediately lodge a complaint with the State Police.

Alpana Killawala
Principal Chief General Manager

Jan 1, 2015
‘Achieve Community’ Heads Underground In Run-Up To New Year, As Promoters Switch To New Ponzi-Board Scams

A link to Facebook flashes on the screen in a Dec. 30 YouTube promo for Achieve Community, Unison Wealth and LIST. Rodney Blackburn assures viewers that all is OK with Achieve, but then appears to take back his remarks.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Legisi HYIP scheme was a Ponzi-board “program” that tried to hide underground in 2007/08, even as state and federal investigators were conducting an undercover probe that eventually led to the arrests and subsequent convictions of the purveyor-in-chief and a pitchman for the $72 million fraud.

In this evidence exhibit given to a federal judge prior to the Legisi asset freeze in 2008, a Legisi prospect writes the name “Money Maker Group.com” in longhand. State and federal probes into Legisi were under way long before members knew — and undercover agents were part of the probe.

One of the evidence exhibits in the case included the words “MoneyMakerGroup.com” written out in longhand by a Legisi investor. Case files used in an SEC exhibit also show page after page of postings from Legisi’s so-called “private” forum. In addition to prison sentences, millions of dollars in civil judgments were imposed in the Legisi prosecution.

Like Legisi, Achieve Community is a Ponzi-board “program” that has installed a “private” forum.

**_______________________**

2ND UPDATE 12:38 P.M. ET U.S.A. As the PP Blog noted on Dec. 11, Achieve Community appeared to be prepping to follow a playbook used by predecessor scams such as AdViewGlobal and others — that is, compartmentalize information by creating a members-only private forum to make it the only source of info from the “opportunity” itself.

This typically occurs when a scam begins to sense it has been entirely too public in its scamming through public venues such as Facebook or Ponzi forums and that members themselves — through individual promos — are hastening the day of a “program’s” final demise.

Achieve Community now appears to have turned its back on (or is in the process of retreating from) the once-ballyhooed “TheOfficialAchieveCommunity” Facebook site. At the same time, it appears to be discouraging individual promoters from continuing to use Facebook for their Achieve pitchfests.

“We are no longer able to be a Facebook program – and that is not up for debate – there are several reasons for this – and most have to do with our processors,” Achieve Community co-founder Kristi Johnson reportedly has written.

A real head-scratcher, that one.

“If you have questions about our program come to the [Achieve private] Forum to ask them,” Kristi continues. “If you are a member with time, come to the Forum to help answer your community members please.”

And, she adds, “If our information continues to be shared through unofficial Facebook groups or timelines or questions about everything Achieve anywhere on Facebook, we will not get the processors that we want to work with. It’s that simple.

“You all can decide if you want to see Achieve continue or not. If you do want us to continue come to the Forum. If not, stay on Facebook with these unofficial groups and questions. I’ll leave it to our community.”

Kristi did not identify any of the “unofficial groups.” Nor did she say whether she was concerned about individual promos on YouTube such as those from Rodney Blackburn.

Like many “cycler” promoters on the Internet, Rodney is a one-person PR train wreck. For example, he now has announced on YouTube that he’s promoting “Unison Wealth” and, in the process, joining other Achievers who are doing so.

In Rodney’s promo, a link to Facebook flashes on the screen at about the 8:35 mark.

“As far as I can see, as far as I understand . . . everything is fine with the Achieve Community,” Rodney ventures in his 10:30 YouTube combo promo for Achieve, Unison Wealth and the “Legendary Income Solutions Team or LIST.

The promo, complete with three exclamation marks, is titled “LIST – Achieve Community Update and More!!!”

But as soon as Rodney utters soothing words about Achieve, he seems to take them back. “Kristi is under a tremendous amount of stress as far, in my opinion, [as] trying to get everything up and running. But, guys, we can’t lose focus that she has done everything that she says she’s gonna do. Has it been at the exact timelines all the time? No.”

He then talks about debit “cards” purportedly from Global Cash Card not being “out” and “all these [Achieve] delays” over the past few weeks after Achieve reportedly lost its ability to conduct business through Payoneer weeks ago.

Talking about damning someone with faint praise.

Regardless, Rodney then switches course again, assuring his audience that Kristi isn’t responsible for any of the problems at Achieve. He further ventures that the MLM trade/networking marketing business in general has been impressed by the way Achieve does business and therefore would adopt Achieve practices.

“That tells you something,” Rodney asserts. “Kristi was onto something when she created this. And so, you gotta tip your hat to her.”

Unison Wealth” is “an excellent opportunity for people to come in,” Rodney says — this after noting his LIST downline group stresses “passive” programs.

The passivity of a scheme is an element in what constitutes an “investment contract” under U.S. and state-level securities laws. A recent example of this can be found in the lawsuits against alleged “winners” in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid scheme, including lawsuits filed this week against alleged Zeek winners who hail from Australia.

Zeek’s court-appointed receiver is seeking the return of the alleged winnings, saying they came from Zeek victims. The receiver also has sued U.S. and Canadian alleged winners.

Achieve “winners” potentially could experience the same outcome if litigation emerges.

Like Achieve, Unison Wealth is a Ponzi-board program. The TalkGold forum got a prominent mention in court filings earlier this month in the U.S.-led prosecution of Liberty Reserve, a defunct money-moving business once used by criminals the world over.

So, the following bizarre circumstance has evolved: Achieve — a “program” with an 800 percent ROI and targeted at senior citizens and promoted on Ponzi forums — suddenly says it’s “no longer able” to be a Facebook “program” and that the issue is “not up for debate” because post-Payoneer processors might get the wrong idea about Achieve.

This appears to be occurring as Achieve is engaging in a Zeek Rewards- and TelexFree-like game of payment-processor roulette, potentially now including iPayDNA and Global Cash Card.

Nothwithstanding the bizarre assertion that Achieve once was “able” to be a Facebook “program” but now cannot be, Achieve will be no less a Ponzi scheme whether it goes underground or not.

Dec 31, 2014
BULLETIN: Zeek Receiver Sues Nearly 2 Dozen Aussies

BULLETIN: (10th Update 11:20 p.m. ET U.S.A.) Zeek Rewards receiver Kenneth D. Bell has sued nearly two dozen Australians, alleging they were “winners” in the Zeek Ponzi- and pyramid scheme and that money they received came from victims.

Bell previously sued winners in the United States and Canada.

One Aussie is alleged to have received nearly $827,000 through Zeek, a sum on par with some of the alleged top U.S. winners.

All in all, the top Australian winners allegedly received a combined sum of more than $3.14 million.

Here is a list of Australian defendants and their alleged winnings:

Gert Bjerring, Gold Coast, Queensland, though a shell company known as Dancon Pty. Ltd., $826,801.73 under one or more usernames, including “globalvision1.”

David Mitchell, Tyalgum, New South Wales, $298,802.10 under one or more usernames, including “davemitchell.”

Nicola Holloway, Hope Island, Queensland, $273,009.36 under one or more usernames, including “globalnetworks.”

Sam Fawahl, Melbourne, Victoria, $232,564.55 under one or more usernames, including “TeamUnited.”

Warren Hickey, Hope Island, Queensland, through a shell company known as Health and Success Pty. Ltd., $159,757.73 under one or more usernames, including “GlobalProfitShare.”

Lars Frederiksen, Willetton, Western Australia, $139,365.49 under one or more usernames, including “perth.”

Paul Mandelt, Hillarys, Western Australia, $128,913.02 under one or more usernames, including “sunray.”

Kelvian Hansen, Gold Coast, Queensland, $111,799.43 under one or more usernames, including “Kellil.”

Anni Thompson, Yandina Creek, Queensland, $95,566.00 under one or more usernames, including “teamliberty.”

Ann Audrey Hickey, Hope Island, Queensland, $83,487.05 under one or more usernames, including “GlobalProvenPattern.”

R&J Thumm Family P/L as Trustee for Thumm Investment Trust, (R&J), a proprietary limited company organized under the laws of Australia, $80,130.26 under one or more usernames, including “GlobalWealthSystems.”

David Cane, Hope Island, Queensland, through a shell company known as Karanda Holdings Pty. Ltd., $77,296.57 under one or more usernames, including “GlobalCashFlow.”

Donna Walton, Beaudesert, Queensland, $76,730.36 under one or more usernames, including “Candyamore.”

Michael Georghiou, Cheltenham, Victoria, $74,968.93 under one or more usernames, including “4ever.”

Thomas von Eitzen, Brisbane, Queensland, $74,854.07 under one or more usernames, including “tomve.”

Bradley Ferries, Hope Island, Queensland, $72,325.96 under one or more usernames, including “GlobalAdvantage.”

Robin Reid, Hope Island, Queensland, $61,114.41 under one or more usernames, including “Globalstar.”

Linda Welch, Lower Beechmont, Queensland, $60,274.22 under one or more usernames, including “DailyReward.”

Maureen Fisher, Dicky Beach, Queensland, $55,797.49 under one or more usernames, including “Globalsuper.”

Barry Goodsell, Bertram, Western Australia, $53,650.26 under one or more usernames, including “barryandsue.”

David Joseph, Mount Claremont, Western Australia, $52,581.70 under one or more usernames, including “dkjoseph.”

Birthe Seaton, Goulburn, New South Wales, $52,477.31 under one or more usernames, including “jobiperry.”

NOTE: Our thanks to the ASD Updates Blog.

More . . .

Dec 30, 2014
Los Angeles Police On Alert After Patrol Officers Targeted By Rifle Fire; Florida Deputies Also Targeted

The Los Angeles Police Department went on tactical alert late last night after two patrol officers in a squad car reportedly were targeted by rifle fire. Neither officer was hit, and returned fire.

In a separate incident earlier on Sunday, Pasco County deputies in Florida reportedly also were shot at — this as they sat in patrol cars parked at Northside Baptist Church in Dade City. Neither officer was hit.

Crime Stoppers of Tampa Bay is offering a reward of up to $3,000 for information that leads to the identification and arrest of the unknown suspect(s) in this case, the organization said on Facebook.

Also see CNN report.

Bullets Fired at Pasco Sheriff`s Office Deputies Sunday Morning Three shots were fired at two Pasco Sheriff's… http://t.co/agUznxPGI1

— Crimestoppers TB (@crimestopperstb) December 28, 2014

These incidents occurred about a week after two police officers in New York City were assassinated while seated in their car in broad daylight on a Saturday afternoon.

In October, NYPD officers were targeted in a hatchet attack.

A similar attack later occurred in Washington, DC.

Dec 29, 2014
North Korea’s ‘Monkey’ Slur Against President Obama Reminiscent Of 2010 Ad Script For Ill-Fated MPB Today ‘Program’

North Korea has described President Obama as a “monkey,” providing a flashback to a 2010 ad script for the MPB Today MLM “program.”

Today we provide a glimpse into the world of coded pandering as it exists in North Korea, the country blamed by the FBI last week for orchestrating the cyber attacks on California-based Sony Pictures. Turns out that coded pandering in North Korea is not all that different from coded pandering in the United States.

It now has emerged that North Korea apparently believes that describing President Obama as a person who “always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest” is a PR masterstroke.

So, Kim Jong Un is passing the word that Obama has the qualities of a talking “monkey” out to make things even harder on his fellow monkeys. And where do these talking monkeys live? Why, the jungle, of course.

As the AP reports, via the Washington Times (italics added):

It wasn’t the first time North Korea has used crude insults against Obama and other top U.S. and South Korean officials. Earlier this year, the North called U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry a wolf with a “hideous” lantern jaw and South Korean President Park Geun-hye a prostitute. In May, the North’s official news agency published a dispatch saying Obama has the “shape of a monkey.”

Words Mean Things

The bizarre situation evolving in North Korea is reminiscent of a bizarre situation surrounding the MPB Today MLM “program” that played out in the United States beginning in 2010. Indeed, an affiliate of the Ponzi-board cycler “opportunity” whose operator later went to jail on a state charge of racketeering in Florida apparently believed that using the word “monkey” in the context of Obama was a winning business message. For apparent good measure, the term “Brown-noser” also was used in the deplorable script.

From Scene 1 in the 2010 script (italics added):

michelle_obama O’ Barry Baby, since we’ve joined MPB TODAY your popularity has increased in the polls! Who runs these polls, monkeys??

From Scene 16 (italics added):

obama hillary You’re no loser, Hil, and besides… no one loses with MPB Today, not even you… OMG, What a Brown-noser

MPB Today was positioned by affiliates in general as a “program” in which a one-time purchase of $200 could morph into free groceries and gasoline for life. The author of the offensive script, however, apparently couldn’t let the already-dubious narrative end there.

For whatever reason, it became important to depict a black family that happens to be the First Family of the United States as welfare recipients.

This from Scene 6 of the script (italics added):

michelle_obama obama Hmm, I should prolly call my Food Stamp worker now that I’ve joined MPB

Could it get worse? Sure. It also became important to depict the President as a left-handed saluting Nazi who answers to a bawling and wine-drunk U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Nazi-in-Chief.

And why not paint the Obama family as aspiring to eat “real dog food” while at once attacking the President’s then-9-year-old daughter? This from Scene 4 (italics added):

michelle_obama obama I’m so relieved we’ve totally eliminated our grocery bill! You’re relieved? Now I’ll finally get some real dog food instead of just Sasha’s scraps

Hell, if there’s MLM hay to be made, why not make First Lady Michelle Obama flatulent in the Oval Office from the consumption of “beans” while the First Dog laments the absence of unoffensive air?

Like North Korea’s messaging, the messaging for MPB Today was the stuff of spectacular idiocy on display for all the world to see. Here’s the decoded shorthand: Hillary (dubbed “Hitlary” in one version of the script) might be a Nazi drunk, but at least she’s a white drunk and the black President answers to her. Send the black President and his welfare family back to Wal-Mart where they belong. The black family is stinking up the White House and even offending the First Pet.

The White House didn’t intervene to prevent the American public from seeing the idiocy. Nor did it intervene to protect the First Family from decidedly less-than-hagiographic treatment. No cyber war was launched against MPB Today, not even after its operator sought to stoke his purported bona fides by claiming to have been named the 2003 “Businessman of the Year” by the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Business Advisory Council.

The ad, which was designed to drive business to MPB Today but offended Democrats and Republicans alike, eventually was pulled by the creator, who caught some hell on the Internet for being such an idiot in the name of MLM. With or without the ad, MPB Today was such an obvious fraud that it was a virtual certainty that its operator would be held accountable for his money-cycling scheme.

That’s exactly what happened.

Contrast what happened with the MPB Today video to what happened at Sony Pictures during the run-up to the release of “The Interview,” a scalding and satirical poke at Kim Jong Un.

Sony effectively was crippled for weeks by hackers. Its intellectual property and email files were stolen. Its employees were threatened. Patrons were threatened with 9/11-style terrorist attacks. Theaters backed out of screening “The Interview.” Obama went on TV to explain North Korea was not going to dictate what Americans could watch in U.S. movie houses. Sony, which initially withdrew the Christmas Day release of the film, reversed course and put it out in more than 300 theaters and released it online.

Some Americans sang patriotic songs in support of the film.

It now comes to pass that Americans have seen their President depicted by North Korea in much the same way he was depicted by the MPB Today promoter in 2010. (In fairness, it must be pointed out that North Korea didn’t go the extra mile and make Obama a welfare-enabled Nazi.)

We wonder today just how many MLMers have been swept into in a North Korea-style cult of personality and imprisoned in the same way Kim’s people are imprisoned.

Dec 27, 2014

Author: PatrickPretty.com

1. From ‘Unison Wealth’ . . .

2. . . . To The SEC

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Words Mean Things