There are reports in Brazilian media tonight that authorities may be on the cusp of identifying the person responsible for using Facebook in a ghastly campaign to menace a prosecutor involved in the TelexFree pyramid-scheme probe.
Quoting investigators in the state of Acre, Globo.com is reporting that authorities have isolated the computer used in the campaign, which included photos of a mutilated body and reports the prosecutor had been murdered.
In an update to victims of the $850 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme, federal prosecutors said Dawn Wright-Olivares and Daniel Olivares will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office while out on bond.
Wright-Olivares, 45, was Zeek’s former COO. She pleaded guilty last week to investment-fraud conspiracy and tax-fraud conspiracy.
Daniel Olivares, the 31-year-old stepson of Wright-Olivares, pleaded guilty to investment-fraud conspiracy.
Both Olivares and his stepmother were released on $25,000 unsecured bond. They are believed to be cooperating with the government.
The office of U.S. Attorney Anne M. Tompkins of the Western District of North Carolina is leading the criminal probe. The SEC is spearheading a civil probe that was announced in 2012.
Zeek operator Paul R. Burks was charged civilly in August 2012 with securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. Wright-Olivares and Olivares were charged civilly and criminally in December 2013.
Kenneth D. Bell, the court-appointed receiver in the civil case, also has been appointed special master in the criminal case.
In terms of the number of victims, Zeek may be the largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history. Zeek operated as an MLM “program.” In the end, losers could have filled California’s Rose Bowl to capacity approximately 10 times over.
Banners Broker members who log into their accounts are seeing this pop-up message: Source: Graphic published at RealScam.com
Whoever is pulling the linguistic strings at the Banners Broker HYIP cult operating globally online now is channeling Zeek Rewards, AdSurfDaily and AdViewGlobal in their final days.
Zeek, an $850 million Ponzi- and pyramid fraud that once suggested participants should change their toilet-paper dispensing habits if instructed to do so, threatened to ban members who didn’t stick to the company’s insidious, Stepfordian chant. It also planted the seed that it would use the courts to gag doubting voices and sue credit unions that dared to speak ill about its “program” that averaged a payout of 1.5 percent a day. And through proxies, Zeek made sure that other MLM companies and executives who’d dare question its outrageous claims knew that the Zeek eye in the sky was watching them.
AdSurfDaily, a $119 million Ponzi scheme that promised to pay 1 percent a day, announced that it had filled a pot with $750,000 in cash and would sue critics for tens of millions of dollars. (The U.S. Feds were so moved by the claim that they made sure it was included in an evidence exhibit used to seize more than $80 million in ASD cash.) Prior to the seizure, ASD’s Stepfordian wing made sure that doubters knew their doubts would be reported by right-thinking loyalists to “ASD legal.” After the seizure, some of the ASDers planted the seed that any fellow member who filed a remissions claim through the U.S. Department of Justice would get sued by their fellow members.
In 2009, after forming itself from the carcass of ASD’s MLM fraud scheme and on the brink of collapse itself, AdViewGlobal threatened to sue critics for purported copyright infringement. (Zeek, through purported “consultant” Robert Craddock, later would work the “infringement” gambit into its arsenal while planting the seed one or more Zeek lawyers would go after critics.)
To cement its thuggery, AVG, a Zeek- and ASD-like 1-percent-a day “program” that gathered millions of dollars, said it was watching what members said about it online and planted the seed it would seek to have the Internet connections of in-house critics shut down. AVG bizarrely (and incongruously) did these things while purporting to have “protectors” in its ranks and while purporting to enjoy U.S. and Florida Constitutional speech and commerce protections from its purported base of operations in Uruguay.
Now comes word that Banners Broker, an almost indescribably bizarre “program” whose online steroidal puppeteers have been stringing people along and picking pockets since at least 2012, has accidentally announced that it, too, has become a factory from which MLM thuggery is manufactured. Not only is Banners Broker watching members, the “program” says, its members also are watching members. The news first appeared on the RealScam.com antiscam forum.
Banners Broker, of course, wants members of its cyberspace cult to remain in their Stepfordian trances and not to notice they’re being manipulated like robots, so it has given its strong-arm bid an innocuous (if not wholesome-sounding) name: “Community Watch.”
Ready to projectile vomit?
Given the monitoring policy, individual members who’ve posted negative content should remove it, the “program” instructs. And members who observe other members posting negative content should contact the doubters and provide a copy of the “program’s” policy that bans negativity and threatens management-led account seizures.
On Feb. 12, Banners Broker will begin to take “a firmer stance against people that are speaking badly against Banners Broker,” the “program” bizarrely bleats.
“Affiliates found to be contributing to the negativity on the Internet will have their accounts locked,” the “program” threatens. “[T]hey will be banned from participating in the Banners Broker system and they will forfeit all of their inventory and revenue.”
Banners Broker appears also to be trying to chill nonmember critics.
“If you know of a site with content that is negative towards Banners Broker, we ask that you report it to the Community Watch,” the “program” instructs.
In June 2012, the PP Blog reported that a website selling “customers” to Zeek recruiters also was directing traffic to double-your-money Banners Broker and the 2-percent-a-day (precompounding) JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid HYIP scam purportedly operated by Frederick Mann.
On Jan. 17, 2013, the PP Blog reported it was receiving menacing communications about Banners Broker.
For additional background on bids to chill reporters or program members who publish information about scams and highly questionable “opportunities,” see this Dec. 27, 2012, PP Blog post: Our Choice For The Most Important PP Blog Post Of 2012.
Sann Rodrigues (right) will be a headliner at a TelexFree event scheduled next month in Spain. Source: TelexFree rolling promo on website.
Calling Sann Rodrigues its “TOP PROMOTER IN THE WORLD,” the alleged TelexFree pyramid scheme curiously has announced that Rodrigues will be a headliner at a TelexFree rah-rah session in Spain on March 1 and 2.
An image of Rodrigues now rolls across TelexFree’s website. But the promo does not mention that Rodrigues was successfully sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in federal court in Massachusetts in 2006. The agency alleged that he was presiding over a pyramid scheme known as FoneClub and engaging in affinity fraud targeted at the Brazilian and Brazilian-American communities in Massachusetts.
A federal judge held Rodrigues, also known as Sanderley R. De Vasconcelos, “jointly and severally liable” with FoneClub for “$3,269,459 in disgorgement plus $151,928.49 in prejudgment interest,” the SEC said in 2007.
Prosecutors in Brazil have alleged that TelexFree is a massive pyramid scheme. The purported “opportunity” operates from Massachusetts, the same venue from which Rodrigues was sued by the SEC.
In the AdSurfDaily Ponzi-scheme case in 2008, the U.S. Secret Service alleged that neither ASD nor a business partner disclosed that the partner had been an SEC defendant in a successful 1997 prosecution that alleged the partner had pitched three prime-bank swindles, including one that advertised a return of 10,000 percent.
ASD was a $119 million Ponzi scheme targeted in part at the Christian community, federal prosecutors alleged.
In the $850 million Zeek Rewards’ Ponzi- and pyramid scheme in 2012, former SEC defendant Keith Laggos emerged as a key cheerleader. Laggos was sued by the SEC in 2004 in a case that alleged he didn’t disclose he was being paid to tout stock.
BULLETIN: (3rd Update 1:46 p.m. ET U.S.A.) Dawn Wright-Olivares and Daniel Olivares pleaded guilty this morning for their roles in the $850 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid scheme, the office of U.S. Attorney Anne M. Tompkins of the Western District of North Carolina said.
Wright-Olivares, 45, was Zeek’s former COO. Her stepson, Olivares, 31, was a Zeek programmer.
The Zeek pair appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge David S. Cayer.
“Defendants accepted their pleas and were released on bond pending sentencing, which has not been scheduled yet,” Tompkins’ office said minutes ago.
In December, prosecutors said, Wright-Olivares agreed to plead guilty to investment-fraud conspiracy and to tax-fraud conspiracy. Daniel Olivares agreed to plead guilty to investment-fraud conspiracy.
Their criminal prosecutions were the first in the Zeek Ponzi case.
From the 2010 MPBToday MLM scam. Like Zeek Rewards, MPBToday traded in part on Walmart gift cards.
Ah, those serially disingenuous MLM hucksters and commission-based Ponzi pitchmen: They’ll ultimately destroy their own brands while picking millions of pockets. Before doing so, they’ll use your brand as a temporary means of sanitizing themselves, bring PR disasters to your legitimate company and perhaps even find an insidious way to turn the government into their banker.
Longtime PP Blog readers will recall the outrageous scam of MPBToday. MPBToday duped the MLM masses in part by planting the seed that Walmart gift cards or prepaid Visa cards would flow to members in unlimited supply if they sent $200 to the Florida-based “program” for a “one-time” purchase of “groceries” and if the members recruited two others who’d also recruit two others to do the same.
In addition to being a pyramid scheme that sent operator Gary Calhoun to prison in Florida on a racketeering charge, MPB Today could have been a scam that disguised “program” earnings as nontaxable “gifts” to dupe Uncle Sam.
It’s almost axiomatic in MLM Scam Land that an “opportunity” and/or its Stepfordian promoters will imply a tie to a major brick-and-mortar business or even the government, when no such ties exist or the ties are no more official than ties any consumer can enjoy — purchasing a gift card from a major retailer, having a bank account or renting a room at a major hotel chain, for instance. It happened at MPB Today in 2010, and it’s happening now within the Stepfordian wing of TelexFree — a wing in which promoters have suggested that TelexFree has been “authorized” or “approved” by the government.
It also happened both internally and externally at WCM777, now the subject of cross-border investigations in both North America and South America. In an apparent bid to sanitize the WCM777 scheme, alleged operator Ming Xu arranged to have himself photographed with celebrities such as former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Meanwhile, WCM777 promoters rushed to YouTube and other social-media sites to claim that WCM777 had ties to famous businesses such as Siemens and a host of hospitality companies with famous flags.
Such rank MLM disingenuousness also occurred within the $850 million Zeek Rewards scheme. In the PP Blog’s view, Zeek’s maximum expression of such deception occurred when it was auctioning sums of U.S. cash and telling successful bidders they’d get paid through offshore payment processors such as AlertPay and SolidTrustPay. By divining sums up for auction and accepting bids for U.S. currency, Zeek implied it had been approved by the U.S. government, perhaps specifically the Treasury Department.
And by sending the incongruous (and bizarre) message that the Treasury-approved Zeek MLM scheme would pay members via offshore processors linked to the equally outrageous AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme broken up by a Task Force consisting of the U.S. Secret Service and the Treasury Department (IRS) in 2008, Zeek served up another colossal mess for MLM.
Zeek, of course, followed the footsteps of MPBToday — whose operator lost his liberty after pushing all those Walmart cards out the door — by leeching off the names of major American retailers. In addition to auctioning cash, Zeek auctioned gift cards.
And this brings us to an interesting footnote in a quarterly report filed Jan. 30 by Kenneth D. Bell, the receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi-scheme case. Zeek operated through Rex Venture Group (RVG).
“Unlike other retailers the Receiver Team approached, Wal-Mart and Home Depot readily agreed to refund the full amount of their gift cards held by RVG at the time of shut-down,” Bell advised Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen. “The remaining gift cards were sold at auction, and their value is included in the gross receipts from the personal property portion of the Receivership auction.”
Walmart and Home Depot know a PR disaster when they see one. They ponied up quickly when the receiver asked them, thus making his job of gathering funds for Zeek victims a bit easier. Some other companies that perhaps have less PR savvy did not. The receiver auctioned their gift cards in public.
Bell’s examination of Zeek’s money flow continues, according to the Jan. 30 report. The report reveals that lawsuits against alleged insiders and winners had not been filed as of the 30th, but remain pending.
The receivership is “on the brink of filing,” Bell said.
Some Zeekers who choose to see instead of turning a blind eye perhaps can gain an understanding of just how dangerous the “program” was to the U.S. financial system — and not just the relatively small segment in which retailers that issue gift cards reside. Not only did Zeek create legal and PR dilemmas for itself, it created them for others, including gems of U.S. commerce and banking.
During 2013’s fourth quarter, attorneys for the receiver “sent demand letters to fifty-four (54) financial institutions seeking reimbursement for teller’s checks on which financial institutions were believed to have improperly stopped payment under Section 3-411 of the Uniform Commercial Code and in violation of the Freeze Order,” Bell advised the court.
“As of December 31, 2013, thirty-one (31) financial institutions had not responded to the Receiver’s demand(s) for payment of stopped payment cashier’s checks and bank money orders,” Bell continued. “Additionally, fifteen (15) issuers of teller’s checks had not responded to demand letters.”
Let’s hope these financial institutions develop the PR savvy of Wal-Mart and Home Depot. Zeek not only was a train wreck unto itself, it set the stage to involve legitimate enterprises in its own bizarre drama. Company after company that conducted business with Zeek or whose customers did so has had to lawyer up or at least rely on in-house counsel to determine how much exposure the “program” brought to legitimate enterprises.
The Zeek story is far from being over and likely will reverberate for years in the financial community. Bell now says that he’s “discovered additional RVG financial accounts during the fourth quarter.”
Zeek money, according to the report, circulated onshore and offshore.
“All transactional information received from financial institutions through the end of the fourth quarter has been included in the creation of the financial books and records,” Bell advised the court. “However, communications with financial institutions are ongoing, and there are outstanding requests by the Receiver for transactional information.”
When will other shoes drop?
“The Receiver Team continued its investigation into potential claims against RVG insiders and third-party advisers as a part of its ongoing fact investigation, continuing its analysis of documentary evidence that will be used in proving such claims,” Bell advised the court. “The Receiver Team also responded to requests for assistance and information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office that aided the government in obtaining plea agreements from both Dawn Wright-Olivares and Daniel Olivares.”
Wright Olivares, Zeek’s former COO, was charged criminally and civilly in December 2012 2013 (Feb. 5, 2014 edit). Olivares, her stepson, also was charged criminally and civilly. They are expected to appear in court this week to enter formal guilty pleas to criminal conduct.
Federal prosecutors say tax fraud occurred at Zeek.
Here, we’ll point you to an unrelated story by Jordan Maglich at PonziTracker.com. The story is about an alleged pitchman for Ponzi schemer Nicholas Cosmo, now serving 25 years in federal prison for his epic Agape World fraud. (Quick side note: Agape World was a purported “bridge lender,” similar in some ways to the outrageous “Profitable Sunrise” MLM fraud scheme broken up by the SEC last year.) The PonziTracker story on Agape World developments is titled, “Ponzi Associate Jailed For ‘Mind-Boggling’ Money Laundering Scheme.”
The story explains why alleged Cosmo pitchman Anthony Ciccone now is in jail. A snippet from the story:
According to prosecutors, Ciccone overpaid approximately $1.7 million in federal and state income taxes beginning in 2008 that was comprised of Ponzi scheme proceeds. Several years later, the funds were returned to Ciccone in the form of tax refunds, and Ciccone subsequently had his wife and mother-in-law launder the refund money through their bank accounts.
We wonder: Could some of the Zeekers effectively have been doing the same thing — deliberately overpaying taxes and using the government as a de facto bank that temporarily would conceal and warehouse Ponzi proceeds for return later in the form of tax refunds?
And for the 2011 tax year, according to the charging documents, “P.B.,” Wright-Olivares and others reported to the IRS that Zeek investors had received more than $108 million from the scheme when Zeek had paid out only about $13 million.
This caused Zeek victims to file “false tax returns with the IRS reporting phantom income that they never actually received,” according to the charging documents.
Zeek used the “false tax notices to perpetuate the Ponzi scheme,” according to the charging document.
UPDATED 12:08 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) The WCM777 and Kingdom777 websites appear to be back online. Our earlier story is below . . .
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Websites linked to WCM777 and Kingdom777 are showing a “Service Unavailable” message this morning. The precise reason why is unclear.
WCM777 now operates as Kingdom777. California securities regulators have called WCM777 an “investment scam” that gathered at least $20 million. California, Colorado and Massachusetts have banned the “program.” Louisiana and New Hampshire have issued Investor Alerts.
Ming Xu has been identified in securities actions as the operator of WCM777. Some promoters have called him Dr. Phil Ming Xu and Dr. Philip Ming — or just plain Dr. Phil. At a business event in California last year, Ming Xu was photographed alongside former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
Some MLM scams try to gain a head of steam by associating themselves with famous politicians, famous people and famous businesses. Promos for WCM777 have sought to tie to firm to several famous companies.
A Twitter account in the name of Dr. Phil Ming Xu says this this morning: “You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a large place.”
A Jan. 27 Tweet said this: “Though an army should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, even then I will be confident.”
Meanwhile, a Jan. 25 Tweet said this: “Confidence in someone unfaithful in time of trouble is like a bad tooth, or a lame foot.”
Based on promos that have appeared online, it is possible that individual WCM777 sponsors were accepting wire transfers from their recruits and then somehow forwarding the money to WCM777, which reportedly has a presence in Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands.
Circuitous flow of cash is a key marker of scams and may signal money-laundering or other crimes are occurring.
Please use the PP Blog’s search function near the upper-right corner to find more information on WCM777.
From the Colorado C&D against the WCM777 MLM “program.”
UPDATED 6:33 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) The state of Colorado has issued a cease-and-desist order against the WCM777 “program,” saying the Ming Xu-led enterprise was selling unregistered securities.
Ming Xu also is known as Dr. Phil Ming Xu, according to WCM777 promoters.
In issuing the C&D, Colorado now has joined at least two other U.S. states in banning WCM777. The other states are California and Massachusetts. Louisiana has issued an Investor Alert. (Edit 6:33 p.m. New Hampshire also has issued an Investor Alert on WCM777.)
Gerald Rome, Colorado’s acting securities commissioner, announced his state’s ban on Jan. 21. Paperwork is here. Ming Xu consented to the action without admitting or denying wrongdoing.
From a statement by Rome’s office (italics added):
Named in the Order are World Capital Markets, Inc., WCM777, Inc., and their founder and chairman, Ming Xu, all of Pasadena, California.
The Staff of the Division of Securities (the “Staff”) alleged that World Capital sought Colorado investors through websites, webinars, and live presentations to purchase packages that allow the purchaser to access World Capital’s cloud media services and earn commissions or profits with advertised returns of more than 90%. The program operated much like a multi-level marketing program where purchasers received bonuses for referrals, purchase of stock options, and other bonuses based on how many referrals obtained by a purchaser.
The Staff alleged that World Capital failed to register either security offering and, by offering the investment opportunity to the public at large by soliciting on the internet, World Capital violated the registration provisions under the Act.
Meanwhile, it turns out that California didn’t have to venture too far to find WCM777.
The WCM777 MLM scam was operating from Suite 900 at 150 S. Los Robles Ave., according to a Desist and Refrain Order the state issued last week.
But the state itself has an office in the same building. The Pasadena branch of the California Department of Rehabilitation occupies suite 300, according to the DOR’s website. The agency says it “administers the largest vocational rehabilitation program in the country.”
From the California order announced last week on the state’s website.From a Consumer Alert issued by the California Department of Business Oversight. (Red highlight by PP Blog.)
BULLETIN: (Updated 10:36 a.m. ET U.S.A.) The state of California has called the WCM777 MLM “program” a “scam” and issued a Desist and Refrain Order that bans the enterprise in the state. The Department of Business Oversight (DBO) has issued a companion Consumer Alert and is “strongly” encouraging California investors to file a formal complaint.
Named in the Jan. 8 order announced late last week on the state’s website are WCM777 executives Ming Xu and Zhi Liu. Harold Zapata, an alleged WCM777 YouTube pitchman with an address in Hanford, Calif., also is named in the order. Corporate entities named in the order include World Capital Market Inc., WCM777 Inc. and WCM777 Limited, all of Pasadena.
Zapata, California alleged, identified himself as “CEO at WCM777 Global Stars,” something that suggests he was the leader of an upline group. On July 15, 2010, the PP Blog reported that FINRA warned the investing public about scams that spread on social-media sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
WCM777 was targeted at people of faith and members of minority communities. California investors can file a complaint by dialing 866-275-2677, the state said.
In November, the state of Massachusetts accused WCM777 of selling unregistered securities.
California now has done the same thing.
“The WCM777 membership units offered and sold by Respondents constitute securities,” the state charged.
And, it alleged, “Respondents offered and sold securities by means of written and oral communications which included untrue statements of material fact and which omitted to state material facts necessary in order to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading.”
WCM777 now is operating as Kingdom777, and has been associated with a series of bizarre events. On Jan. 17 via Twitter, the “program” issued a declaration of love to the people of Peru after a police raid on a WCM777 outlet there. The announcement was attributed to “Dr. Phil Ming Xu” and claimed the enterprise now “has a promotion plan with a payout ratio of 130%.”
In issuing the announcement, WCM777 appeared to be ignoring the securities issues altogether. California publicly announced the order six days later, on Jan. 23. The California order is dated Jan. 8. A day earlier, on Jan. 7, WCM777 published an announcement of the name change to Kingdom777, claiming “Kingdom777 has acquired the assets of WCM777.”
As is typical in HYIP scams, the announcement blamed affiliates for WCM777’s woes.
“Some members failed to represent WCM777 correctly and distorted our vision and mission to be a social capital company whose goal is to build a global community of trust and love,” the new company said.
But California’s order, which in part echoes suggestions in Massachusetts that WCM777 was steering recruits to avoid lower levels of buy-in in favor of the highest level of $1,999, makes it clear that the state viewed WCM777 itself as a fraud.
From the California order (italics/bolding added):
9. The most expensive and, by far, the most popular WCM777 membership unit costs $1,999. The $1,999 membership unit provides the purchaser five years of access to WCM777’s alleged online cloud services. In addition, WCM777 claims that a purchaser of the $1,999 membership unit will receive up to $32 per day over a 100-day period in the form of profit-sharing payments, bonuses and commissions. Thus, over a 100-day period, a purchaser of the $1,999 membership unit would allegedly earn $1,200 more than the original cost of the unit—an alleged 60% return in only 100 days.
10. The vast majority of purchasers buy the five year unit, rather than the less expensive units that generate lesser returns. In fact, over 95% of purchasers in the United States bought the $1,999 membership unit.
11. There is no limit to how manyWCM777 membership units an individual may purchase at one time. In fact, a significant number of purchasers buy multiple WCM777 membership units at the same time.
12. After the purchaser’s 100-day daily returns cycle expires, the purchaser may “re-up” by purchasing another membership unit at a 50% discount, which then restarts the 100-day cycle. A purchaser can “re-up” indefinitely. Therefore, over a 300-day span, a purchaser of a single $1,999 WCM777 membership unit who “re-ups” at the end of each 100-day cycle would allegedly earn up to $5,600 more than the cost of buying the membership units—an alleged 140% return in about 10 months.
Precisely how California learned that 95 percent of U.S. purchasers allegedly bought in at the maximum level of $1,999 is unclear. What is clear is that the state has accused WCM777 of engaging in a rank deception and gathering at least $20 million between March 2013 and September 2013.
Among WCM777’s fraudulent claims was that the “Respondents’ activities were not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States Securities & Exchange Commission or the United States Federal Trade Commission,” California alleged.
Moreover, the state claimed that the respondents failed “to disclose that WCM777 had no other significant sources of income but for its sale of membership units.” Meanwhile, they failed to disclose “that WCM777 did not have an enforceable contract with Siemens under which Siemens would provide the alleged online cloud services that WCM777 advertised.” (See Oct. 30, 2013, PP Blog story, which reports on the issue with Siemens and notes that WCM777 was being targeted at a Latino church in Rialto, Calif.)
Siemens, the state said in its order, “has publicly disavowed any relationship or contract with WCM777. In a press release, Siemens stated that it disavowed a relationship with WCM777 “[i]n order to help . . . investors avoid making any investments based on false assumptions[.]”
And despite claims by the respondents that “WCM777’s alleged daily returns are backed by the global banking business of its parent company, WCM,” the state charged, “WCM777 and WCM had no significant income outside of sales of WCM777 membership units.
“From March 2013 to the end of September 2013, WCM777 and WCM generated over $20 million in sales of WCM777 membership units,” the state alleged. “During the same period, over 99% of the income of WCM777 and WCM came from sales of WCM777 membership units, while less than 1% of their income came from WCM’s alleged global ‘merchant banking’ or any other business.”
Some WCM777 promoters have claimed that the WCM enterprise had handed out more than $1 billion in loans. In a bizarre example of MLM hucksterism, the promoters identified several companies that allegedly had borrowed great sums from WCM — and even how much the firms purportedly had borrowed.
News of the California order first was reported today by BehindMLM.com.
The PP Blog has received information that suggests a WCM777 group in Greater Dallas may be trying to port members to Lucrazon, a purported revenue-sharing “program.”
WCM777 now is known as Kingdom777.
“Same team leaders want to encourage us to invest $8000.00 and we can get 15 units and they said that it will be similar to kingdom777,” a source told the Blog. “In other words they see us as uneducated people who have excavated money from underground or group of dumb people who will trust them again. Believe me that amount of people who invested are already falling for it.”
It is common for “revenue-sharing” promoters in the MLM sphere to try to switch downline members from one scheme to another. Zeek Rewards and AdSurfDaily — both massive Ponzi schemes — are examples of MLM “programs” pitched as revenue-sharing “opportunities.”
The issue with Lucrazon’s MLM business model is the basic mechanic of new affiliate money flowing in at $1000 a pop and being paid out to those who have already paid $1000 a pop for “positions”.
WCM777 is targeting people of faith. Promoters appear to be targeting Brazilians, Brazilian-Americans, members of the U.S. Latino community and Latinos at large, Asian-Americans and Asians in general.
Separately, the PP Blog received information today that suggests WCM777 also has a presence in Canada. A person who emailed the PP Blog said a loved one had plowed $8,000 into the WCM777 scheme.
The “payout stopped, she was never able to withdraw,” the sender said.
The sender was contemplating reporting WCM777 to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, according to the email.
In November, securities regulators in Massachusetts accused the “program” of selling unregistered securities. The WCM777 scheme also is under investigation in Peru and Colombia.
Meanwhile, a source told the PP Blog today that something called KingdomTrade.org is being discussed in WCM777/Kingdom777 circles.
“They claim they will also be trading Oil, [G]ems, Gold and Art as well as Stock/Options in Kingdom777,” the source said.
There are reports in Brazilian media tonight that authorities may be on the cusp of identifying the person responsible for using Facebook in a ghastly campaign to menace a prosecutor involved in the TelexFree pyramid-scheme probe.
