Alleged Ponzi Schemes

REPORT: Nicholas Smirnow, Pathway To Prosperity Operator, Sentenced To Prison In Canada

REPORT: Nicholas Smirnow, Pathway To Prosperity Operator, Sentenced To Prison In Canada

Nicholas Smirnow, the operator of the Pathway To Prosperity Ponzi-board “program” charged with fraud by U.S. authorities in 2010, has been sentenced in Canada to seven years in prison. News of the sentence appeared Sept. 30 at MuskokaRegion.com. Smirnow was arrested in Canada for P2P-related crimes in 2014. The United States has submitted an extradition […]

EDITORIAL: Traffic Monsoon Apologist Goes All-Trump, Calls Receiver ‘Piggy’ And ‘Lying Cow’

EDITORIAL: Traffic Monsoon Apologist Goes All-Trump, Calls Receiver 'Piggy' And 'Lying Cow'

UPDATED 3:51 P.M. EDT U.S.A. Peggy Hunt, a partner at Dorsey & Whitney in Salt Lake City, is the court-appointed receiver in the SEC’s Ponzi- and securities-fraud case against Traffic Monsoon and Charles David Scoville. Her impressive Dorsey bio says she has worked in the areas of bankruptcy and receivership law for more than 25 years […]

BULLETIN: Judge Certifies Class-Action Lawsuit Against 15,000 Alleged TelexFree ‘Winners’ In United States

BULLETIN: Judge Certifies Class-Action Lawsuit Against 15,000 Alleged TelexFree 'Winners' In United States

BULLETIN: U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Melvin S. Hoffman has certified a defendant class-action lawsuit brought by TelexFree Trustee Stephen B. Darr against about 15,000 alleged TelexFree “net winners” in the United States. The ruling means “clawback” cases against alleged U.S. winners will proceed. Darr has alleged aggregate payments to the domestic net winners exceed $100 million and must […]

Payments To 41,000 Zeek Participants At Risk

If you were a claimant in Zeek Rewards — and if you did not submit the required OFAC certification and release — you are at risk of not receiving a payment from the court-appointed receiver. OFAC stands for the Office of Foreign Assets Control. As receiver Kenneth D. Bell explained on the FAQs section of the receivership […]

TELEXFREE: Prosecutors Docket Prospective Witness List And Exhibits Against James Merrill: Understanding The Background

TELEXFREE: Prosecutors Docket Prospective Witness List And Exhibits Against James Merrill: Understanding The Background

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story, which easily could be titled “What NOT To Do In MLM,” summarizes a few of the witnesses and exhibits the U.S. government may use against TelexFree’s James Merrill when his trial gets under way Oct. 24 in Massachusetts. The background provided below is based on research by the PP Blog. Prosecutors filed their witness/exhibit […]

BULLETIN: Sann Rodrigues, TelexFree Figure, Agrees To Plead Guilty To Immigration Fraud

BULLETIN: Sann Rodrigues, TelexFree Figure, Agrees To Plead Guilty To Immigration Fraud

BULLETIN: (4th Update 7:23 p.m. EDT U.S.A.) Sann Rodrigues, a figure in the TelexFree Ponzi- and pyramid-scheme case, has agreed to plead guilty to a charge of immigration fraud, court documents say. The agreement potentially puts the native Brazilian at risk of deportation and a U.S. prison term of up to 10 years. He last was […]

Traffic Monsoon Apologist Declares ‘Revenue Shares Matter’ Campaign With ‘RIOT’ As Slogan

Traffic Monsoon Apologist Declares 'Revenue Shares Matter' Campaign With 'RIOT' As Slogan

A former pitchman for the Traffic Monsoon “program” declared a Ponzi scheme by the SEC is using Facebook to promote a “Revenue Shares Matter Campaign.” This is occurring against the backdrop of three nights of civil unrest in Charlotte, N.C., after a police shooting of an African American man. The purported Revenue Shares Matter campaign, which […]

BULLETIN: Judge Extends TelexFree Claims Deadline

BULLETIN: Judge Extends TelexFree Claims Deadline

BULLETIN: At the request of Trustee Stephen B. Darr, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Melvin S. Hoffman has extended the deadline to file TelexFree claims until Dec. 31, 2016, at 4:30 p.m. Prevailing Eastern Time. The deadline had been Sept. 26. Darr asked for the extension on Sept. 21. Why was the extension needed? “The Trustee has […]

Alleged ‘Key Figure’ In TelexFree Declares Bankruptcy

Alleged 'Key Figure' In TelexFree Declares Bankruptcy

UPDATED 1:05 P.M. EDT U.S.A. SEPT. 23 In April 2014, TelexFree declared corporate bankruptcy. Now, an alleged “key figure” in TelexFree being pursued by the court-appointed trustee has declared personal bankruptcy. Jay Borromei of Opt 3 Solutions Inc. filed his petition Sept. 13 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, according to […]

Dawn Wright-Olivares Of Zeek Rewards Sentenced To 7.5 Years In Federal Prison

Dawn Wright-Olivares Of Zeek Rewards Sentenced To 7.5 Years In Federal Prison

BULLETIN: Dawn Wright-Olivares, the former COO of Zeek Rewards, has been sentenced to seven and one-half years in federal prison. The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. of the Western District of North Carolina. The office of U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose prosecuted Wright-Olivares for investment- and tax-fraud conspiracy. Daniel Olivares, […]

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Superseding Indictment Against TelexFree’s Merrill and Wanzeler

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Superseding Indictment Against TelexFree's Merrill and Wanzeler

UPDATED 4:21 P.M. EDT U.S.A. With trial set to begin on Oct. 24, an eye-popping superseding indictment has been returned in Massachusetts federal court against TelexFree figures James Merrill and Carlos Wanzeler. The indictment adds eight counts of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity and includes a money-laundering forfeiture allegation. Merrill […]