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Category: The Economy

  • Police Officers Attacked By Gunman After Swearing-In Ceremony In New Hope, Minn.

    Jan. 29 Editor’s Note: Updates appear at the bottom of this story . . .

    This is the early statement of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office on a shooting last night that occurred at City Hall in New Hope, Minn. New Hope has a population of about 20,000, according to its Wikipedia entry. It is a Minneapolis suburb.

    **__________________**

    January 26, 2015 (New Hope) At approximately 7:00 p.m. tonight, the city of New Hope held a swearing in ceremony for two officers with the New Hope Police Department during the scheduled City Council meeting.

    Shortly following the ceremony, at approximately 7:15p.m., an adult male entered City Hall with a gun and began firing at the officers inside the building. During this exchange, two New Hope Police officers were struck by gunfire. Subsequently, additional New Hope Police officers who were on scene returned fire, killing the lone suspect.

    Both officers who were shot were transported to a local hospital and are receiving medical attention. They are both expected to survive their injuries.

    The identity of the suspect will be released by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.

    No further information will be available at this time.

    The incident is under investigation by the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office.

    **__________________**

    Police officers Joshua Eernisse and Adam Johnson were sworn in at last night’s meeting. Their New Hope careers appear almost immediately to have begun with gunfire directed at themselves and fellow officers. Precisely who the targets were was not immediately clear.

    The Star Tribune has a video of part of the incident, plus print coverage.

    Among the New Hope Council members attending the meeting was John Elder. After gunshots rang out near council chambers and a bullet reportedly penetrated the door, he appears to have been pressed into a most unexpected duty. Elder, according to his bio on New Hope’s website, had “worked for 21 years in law enforcement for the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, Lakeville Police Department and New Hope Police Department. He is currently a Public Information Officer (PIO) for the Minneapolis Police Department.”

    From the Star Tribune (italics added):

    New Hope City Council Member John Elder, a former police officer and currently a public information officer for the Minneapolis Police Department, appears in the video, behind the council desk with his gun drawn and pointed toward the door to the chambers. The audio on the video then goes silent.

    Elder and others were eventually escorted to safety nearby.

    The motive for the attack is unclear.

    Jan. 29 updates: The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office has identified the wounded officers as Joshua Eernisse and Beau Schoenhard, saying they are out of the hospital. Eernisse formerly worked as a police officer in Mason City, Iowa, and is one of the New Hope officers who’d just been sworn in. Schoenhard has been with the New Hope force since 2008.

    KARE has identified the deceased shooter as Raymond Kmetz, 68. NBC News, meanwhile, is reporting that Kmetz was armed with a “pistol-grip shotgun” whose serial number had been “scrubbed off.”

    From NBC News: “The Minnesota man who opened fire during a police swearing-in ceremony this week, wounding two officers, had a history of mental illness and was on the state’s list of people prohibited from owning a gun, authorities said Wednesday.”

  • BULLETIN: Quebec’s AMF And Other Agencies Issue Warnings On ‘GetEasy’ And ‘iGetMania’ Program

    igetmaniaBULLETIN: Canada’s province of Quebec has issued a warning on an increasingly bizarre and evolving scheme once known as “GetEasy” and now known as “iGetMania,” calling it an “investment program” that has “not filed a prospectus” and is “not registered with the [Autorité des marchés financiers] in any capacity.”

    AMF is Quebec’s securities regulator. The action appears to mark the first official warning about iGetMania in North America.

    Separately, CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, has published a warning on iGetMania that is based on Jan. 21 information received from Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), the regulator in Luxembourg.

    The PP Blog has observed an ad for iGetMania on craigslist in Rome.

    At the same time, the Malta Financial Services Authority is spreading the word about the iGetMania warning from Luxembourg.  (See MFSA warning dated Jan. 22 here.)

    From a statement by AMF (italics added):

    The Autorité des marchés financiers (“AMF”) is cautioning investors in Québec about an investment program connected to the Portuguese firm GetEasy Limited and the British firm iGetMania Limited. Their investment products are tied in particular to the leasing of global positioning equipment and are promoted via conferences, the web and social media.

    Through membership programs, members of GetEasy and iGetMania can subscribe to packages (or “packs”) via the Internet. The investment helps finance the acquisition of global positioning equipment for leasing by the firm. Revenues are shared between investors and the firm, and investors are not required to handle any management matters. In turn, investors are urged to recruit two other members and thereby create two teams. New members are then encouraged to recruit two other members each, and so on. Revenue is distributed based on the activity generated by members of each team by way of bonuses, commissions and a point system. Members are lured by promises of hefty profits.

    The AMF wishes to inform investors that GetEasy and iGetMania have not filed a prospectus and are not registered with the AMF in any capacity. Investors should therefore be very cautious with investment offers from these firms since they might incur losses for which remedies are highly restricted or non-existent.

    The AMF is closely monitoring this matter and will take any measures deemed necessary in the event of violations under the laws it administers.

    See story dated yesterday on BehindMLM.com titled “iGetMania Review: GetEasy go from Ponzi bad to Ponzi worse.”

    A snippet:

    “GetEasy took off in the wake of the regulatory shut down of TelexFree.

    “Seeking to scoop up disenfranchised investors who lost funds in the billion dollar Ponzi scheme, GetEasy successfully attracted a significant number of investors from Portugal, Spain and to a lesser extent, South America and greater Europe.”

  • DEVELOPING STORY: Post On EgoPay Blog Claims Hack, ‘Gap In The Cash Reserves,’ Embezzlement And Staff Suspensions; Some ‘Achieve Community’ Promoters Are Pushing Other Ponzi-Board Schemes That Claim EgoPay Tie

    "BRING THE BACON HOME," a Ponzi-board "program" pushed by Achieve Community promoter Rodney Blackburn, says EgoPay is among its payment processors. An EgoPay Blog post claims it was hacked and subjected to embezzlement by itw owner -- and that the CEO has stepped down. The PP Blog cannot verify the claims.
    “BRING THE BACON HOME,” a Ponzi-board “program” pushed by Achieve Community promoter Rodney Blackburn, says EgoPay is among its payment processors. A Blog post on the EgoPay site claims EgoPay was hacked and subjected to embezzlement by its owner — and that the CEO has stepped down. The PP Blog cannot verify the claims.

    UPDATED 1:09 P.M. ET U.S.A. The Blog on the website of the EgoPay payment processor claims in a Jan. 22 post that the company was hacked on Dec. 28. The claims, which the PP Blog cannot confirm, read like a spy novel that marries insidious financial fraud and escalating computer fraud to uber-bizarre palace intrigue.

    After the hack, the post claims, EgoPay could trust no one. So it disabled its “transaction interface,” suspended staff, called in an unidentified “investigation team,”  let support tickets go unanswered and interacted with “Astropay and Payza as well a few key merchants to gauge interest in helping remedy this situation.”

    “Egopay was looking for help to discover the truth of the hack, for funding or liquidity, as well as to help consult on how to resolve this situation,” the Blog post claims.

    Whether any “interest” was forthcoming was unclear in the post.  Also unclear is how the asserted events would affect a range of schemes on the Ponzi boards.

    Given companion assertions on the Blog that EgoPay “owner” Amir Aziz effectively had hijacked EgoPay servers to delete evidence of a crime and that the hack “exposed a gap in the cash reserves of Egopay,” using EgoPay in any fashion would seem an exceptionally risky proposition.

    It was unclear in the Blog post whether EgoPay was blaming Aziz for the Dec. 28 hack. The post claimed that EgoPay determined on Jan. 5 that Aziz had been embezzling from the company, but it further claimed that (italics added):

    On January 18th, 2015 Amir Aziz social engineered his way with the hosting provider to reset his accesses and grant him access again to the servers which he used in turn to delete his Egopay account from the system (we would assume to cover his scheme) and removed all other Administrative accesses.

    The EgoPay Blog, which did not identify who wrote the post describing the hack and the post-hack actions and claims the company is back in full control of the servers, did not say whether it called police or regulatory authorities.

    The post further claims that Tadas Kasputis, the onetime CEO of EgoPay, has stepped down, “allowing for a new team to come onboard to make or break this situation.”

    The post did not say who was stepping in to fill the asserted leadership vacuum. Nor did it say who currently was running the company. The Blog post is attributed to the “Egopay Team.”

    On Friday, the PP Blog reported that the state of Colorado had opened an investigation into “Achieve Community,” a money-cycling scheme with a Ponzi-board presence. Although Achieve appears not to have advertised EgoPay, some Achieve promoters are pushing Ponzi-board schemes that claim to accept EgoPay.

    One such “program” is bizarrely called “BRING THE BACON HOME” and has a curious catch phrase of “We Do Bacon Right.” Achieve promoter Rodney Blackburn now is pushing “BRING THE BACON HOME.”

    “Are you ready to make some Yummy Money?!” Rodney asks in a text line below his Jan 14 YouTube promo titled “Bring The Bacon Home- Comp Plan and Review!!!” The video has a play time of 14:53.

    “Unison Wealth,” another Ponzi-board “program” pushed by Blackburn, also says it accepts EgoPay.

    Despite the Jan. 22 EgoPay Blog post asserting the company could trust no one — not even its own staff — the same page on which the post appears contends that “EgoPay.com is your safe way to Pay.”

    Here’s how the Blog post on the EgoPay site begins to explain the asserted hacking (italics added):

    On December 28th, during the holiday period, Egopay suffered a hack that greatly impacted key merchants and partners.  False values were made available in the merchants platform, when no actual value was transmitted in Egopay.  This hacker then proceeded to convert this fake value into irreversible currencies all within a one hour window.   These merchants believed that this value was in their Egopay account, but unfortunately it was not.  Upon discovery, at this point, Egopay immediately put restrictions in place and placed transactions from being automatically completed, to manual review to contain further damage and impact on our merchants.  The Shopping Cart Interface (SCI) was also restricted.  The impact amount was between 1M to 1.5M total for a handful of merchants.

    We concluded, that this hack must have been perpetrated by someone from within who knew the inner workings and had privileged access, so we took immediate actions and suspended everyone that we suspected while this investigation was underway.  Unfortunately, this resulted in our support services being delayed or non-existent.  Support tickets were not being answered and our transaction interface was taken down to stop any further exploit.  Considering the evidence on hand, Egopay was left with no choice but to take these drastic actions.

  • Costly Sanctions Imposed Against Profitable Sunrise HYIP Figures In Ohio, Settlement Documents Show; Fallout Could Last Years

    EDITOR’S NOTE: A PP Blog story dated yesterday includes other details.

    ** _________________________**

    From a promo for Profitable Sunrise.
    From a promo for Profitable Sunrise.

    Still pitching HYIP schemes and Ponzi-board “programs?” Positioning them as a means of helping a charity and/or ministry raise funds?

    Becoming a promoter of Profitable Sunrise — an absurd  Ponzi-board HYIP scheme with a purported payout of up to 2.7 percent a day plus “compounding” — may have long-term financial consequences on Nancy Jo Frazer of Bryan, Ohio.

    And the fallout is not limited to Frazer, a wife, mother, beauty-pageant champion and network-marketing enthusiast with a clientele that includes members of the faith community.

    Not counting legal bills from defense counsel, Frazer’s foray into Profitable Sunrise cost her, her husband David and Nancy’s Profitable Sunrise colleague Albert Rosebrock at least $108,146.61. That’s the sum due the Ohio Attorney General’s office as part of a supplemental settlement agreement finalized in recent days.

    The PP Blog obtained the supplemental settlement agreement through a public-records request with the state of Ohio yesterday. The document was received today, along with other settlement documents requested by the Blog. There was a slight delay in obtaining the material because sensitive information in the documents such as bank-account numbers had to be redacted before they could be sent.

    The supplemental settlement agreement shows that Profitable Sunrise may affect the two Frazers and Rosebrock for 10 years to come, given that the state has agreed to accept payments from them totaling a minimum of $844.02 a month for the next 120 months. The trio optionally may choose to pay a higher monthly sum to retire the debt faster.

    Slightly more than $6,864 of the $108,146.61 due has been satisfied through the application of previously frozen funds. The Frazers and Rosebrook, however, must begin paying down the balance within 60 days.

    The supplemental agreement has an enforceability provision that calls for the entire unpaid sum to become due in the event of a default and adds a fee of 10 percent if default occurs.

    Separate documents obtained by the Blog through a public-information request show that Ohio has used a second set of enforcement teeth to assure compliance with a separate agreed order. That agreed order provides the state the authority to bring a contempt proceeding before the Williams County Court if prosecutors come to believe Nancy Frazer and Rosebrock aren’t holding up their end of the agreed order.

    The agreed order specifies that financial sanctions against them could total $710,000 if a judge who conducts an evidentiary hearing at the request of the state holds them in contempt.

    From the agreed order (italics added):

    If any of the Defendants fail to comply with any of the conditions as set forth in this Agreed Entry and Order, the State may file a Motion to show cause why Defendants should be held in contempt. In such case, the Court will conduct an evidentiary hearing on the State’s Motion. If the State demonstrates after an evidentiary hearing by a preponderance of the evidence that Defendants Nancy Jo Frazer, Albert Rosebrock, and/or Defendant Defining Vision Ministries, Inc., individually or in any combination, through their own actions or through the actions of their agents, representatives, or assigns, violated any of the conditions set forth in this Agreed Entry and Order, the Court shall order a judgment in an amount up to $710,000.00, in favor of the Attorney General. In any such action for contempt of Court, the State need not establish whether or not any damages were appropriately awardable under the claims set forth in the Complaint.

    Under the separate agreed order, Nancy Frazer and Rosebrook are required to dissolve Defining Vision Ministries and to turn over whatever assets it has left to the state. (Defining Vision Ministries formerly was known as Focus Up Ministries, the supposed beneficiary of proceeds from Profitable Sunrise.)

    The order also reveals that a freeze on a Rosebrock bank account in July 2013 resulted in a payment of $910.30 to him from Social Security being made inaccessible, a circumstance that demonstrates that unpleasant things can happen if investigators believe tainted funds are mixed with legitimate money. The Social Security funds have been released to Rosebrock.

    It clearly could have gone harder on Nancy Frazer et al, but it’s equally clear Ohio won on the enforcement front. The message: Pitching utterly preposterous HYIP schemes and presenting them as charitable fundraisers or endeavors simply will not be tolerated. There will be costly, potentially embarrassing litigation. There will be serious financial consequences (at least).

    Concluding note:  For reasons of competitive journalism and security, the PP Blog is declining to publish the settlement documents. This is a story about a ribald HYIP fraud — Profitable Sunrise — that appears to have been operated through a mail drop in England by a person using the identity of a ghost. Even with the redactions, the Blog is concerned that HYIP scammers and dens of thieves could use certain information in the documents to start harm anew. The Blog therefore is choosing to err on the side of caution.

     

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Colorado Division of Securities Confirms ‘Achieve Community’ Investigation

    breakingnews72URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (5th Update 5:35 p.m. ET U.S.A.) The “Achieve Community” money-cycling scheme is under investigation in Colorado.

    “We do have an open investigation,” said Lillian Alves, Colorado’s Deputy Securities Commissioner.

    It is the first official public confirmation that Achieve Community, a Ponzi-board program that claims to turn $50 into $400, is under investigation in the United States. In Colorado, the Division of Securities operates as part of the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA).

    In a story earlier today, BehindMLM.com reported that Colorado appeared to be setting the stage to open a probe. Alves confirmed the investigation to the PP Blog at 4:23 p.m. today.

    For the time being, she said, Colorado would not provide additional details. In January 2014, Colorado issued a cease-and-desist order against the WCM777 “program” operated by Ming Xu. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission later accused Xu of orchestrating a massive fraud scheme.

    Achieve Community purportedly is operated by Kristi Johnson of the Denver area and Troy Barnes of the Detroit area.

    At least one Achieve Community promoter recorded an ad for Achieve and two other Ponzi-board “programs.” The ad included footage from the SEC’s website. The SEC declined Jan. 12 to comment on the ad, which implied Achieve would have no trouble with securities issues.

    Colorado officially confirmed a securities investigation 10 days later.

    Visit the complaint area of the Colorado Division of Securities website.

  • BULLETIN: Profitable Sunrise Figures Nancy Jo Frazer And Albert Rosebrock Admitted They Sold Securities; Injunction Imposed; Charity Is Dissolved

    breakingnews72BULLETIN: (3rd Update 4:16 p.m. ET U.S.) Profitable Sunrise HYIP figures Nancy Jo Frazer and Albert Rosebrock have admitted they sold securities, the state of Ohio said.

    As part of a settlement agreement with prosecutors, a charitable enterprise known as Defining Vision Ministries Inc. (formerly known as Focus Up Ministries Inc.) will be dissolved, with its assets turned over to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office “to be used for charitable purposes,” the office of Attorney General Mike DeWine said.

    Frazer and Rosebrock further agreed “not to hold a position with a charitable organization and not to sell securities in Ohio,” DeWine’s office said.

    If the terms of an injunction are violated, Frazer and Rosebrock “will be subject to a judgment in the amount of $710,000,” DeWine’s office said.

    “The Ohio Attorney General’s Office is charged with ensuring that charitable funds are used as intended,” DeWine said. “Under this settlement, these individuals agree to dissolve their charity, to cease all charitable activities in Ohio, and to stay out of the securities business in Ohio. We believe this is a fair resolution to a case that underscores the importance of researching charities and being skeptical of claims that are too good to be true.”

    Ohio, through DeWine’s office and the Ohio Department of Commerce’s Division of Securities, charged Frazer and Rosebrock civilly in July 2013.

    News broke last week that a settlement agreement had been reached, but details were not immediately available. The Division of Securities said today that the injunction was entered yesterday in Williams County, Ohio, and that “Frazer and Rosebrock admitted they sold securities in a manner that violated the Ohio Securities Act.”

    “Through the hard work and teamwork of the Division of Securities enforcement staff and the Ohio Attorney General’s office, we were able to prevent any more Ohioans from falling victim to this scheme,” said Ohio Division of Securities Commissioner Andrea Seidt. “We would encourage any potential investors in Ohio to call the Division’s Investor Protection hotline before they invest.”

    Profitable Sunrise purportedly was operated by “Roman Novak” and used a mail drop in England, the SEC said in 2013. The “program” purported to pay up to 2.7 percent a day.

    Frazer also is known as Nanci Jo Frazer.

    From a statement by the Ohio Division of Securities today (italics added):

    Profitable Sunrise was prohibited from the further sale of securities by a federal court in Georgia in April, 2013. Profitable Sunrise operated as a pyramid scheme by paying investors referral bonuses up to 5 percent for any new investors who invested funds through the website. The website offered rates of return between 1.6 percent and 2.7 percent compounded daily. Thousands of investors nationwide invested in Profitable Sunrise through local solicitors like Frazer and Rosebrock.

    The Ohio Division of Securities would like to hear from anyone who may have been affected by this scheme who have not yet come forward. They can call the Division’s Investor Protection Hotline at (877) 683-7841.

  • ACKMAN: ‘We Can Fight Pyramids With Our Own Pyramid’

    From the Pershing Square news release today.
    From the Pershing Square news release today.

    2ND UPDATE 3:23 P.M. ET U.S.A. In another swipe at Herbalife and perhaps MLM recruiting schemes in general, activist investor Bill Ackman says he’s out to combat pyramid schemes by creating one himself.

    Ackman’s apparent tongue-in-cheek approach adopts a typical “tell five” MLM marketing technique as part of a bid to create Internet virality for a video released last week that is designed to educate the public about pyramid schemes. The video is available in English and Spanish. It was produced by Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management LP.

    “This video will help consumers avoid being defrauded,” Ackman said today in a news release issued through BusinessWire. “I encourage you to send it to five friends and encourage them to send it to five friends who can send it to five friends and so on, and we can fight pyramids with our own pyramid.”

    BusinessWire is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, the Warren Buffett-led company that also owns Pampered Chef, an MLM company. Pershing Square previously has used BusinessWire to spread Ackman’s long-running contention that Herbalife is a pyramid scheme that incentivizes recruits to gather more recruits.

    Buffett’s name has been used in any number of promos for commission-based MLM or network-marketing schemes, even when the legendary investor has no ties to the “opportunity” being promoted. The disingenuous message has been that Buffett’s corporate interest in Pampered Chef means that all MLM schemes pass muster.

    In 2011, Buffett’s image was hijacked by the JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid scheme, a Ponzi-board “program” with possible ties to the “sovereign citizen” movement. Earlier, in 2010, Buffett’s image was appropriated by MPBToday, a “get two” MLM “program.”

    MPB Today operator Gary Calhoun later was charged in Florida with racketeering and banned from MLM.

    Herbalife denies it is a pyramid scheme.

    As the PP Blog reported last week, Ackman’s video also channels an approach used by promoters of TelexFree, an alleged Ponzi/pyramid scam that may have gathered more than $1.2 billion in about two years of operation. The video also may provide a subtle reminder of Zeek Rewards, an MLM venture and alleged Ponzi/pyramid scheme that traded on images of the American Flag on its way to raising about $897 million in less than two years.

    Ackman’s video also shows a representation of the American Flag, suggesting that franchise companies such as Burger King, H&R Block and Midas legitimately are part of the American Dream but that MLM schemes such as Herbalife may not be.

    “Some of the start-your-own business offers you’ll see are legitimate opportunities,” according to the narration in the Ackman video. “But some are scams, designed to take advantage of you.”

    Herbalife is not mentioned in the video, but one of the animated characters looks suspiciously like Herbalife CEO Michael O. Johnson.

    The accompanying news release from Ackman does mention Herbalife, noting that “Funds managed by Pershing Square are short the stock of Herbalife Ltd and own put options on the Company. Pershing Square may increase, decrease, dispose of, or change the form of its investment in Herbalife for any or no reason, at any time.”

  • TelexFree/iFreeX Figure Sann Rodrigues Appears In Car With Emerson Fittipaldi; Is Brazilian Racing Legend Being Duped By MLM Huckster?

    Racing legend Emerson Fittipaldi somehow ended up in a car with TelexFree figure Sann Rodrigues. Source: Video on DailyMotion.
    Racing legend Emerson Fittipaldi somehow ended up in a car with TelexFree figure Sann Rodrigues. Source: Video on DailyMotion.

    UPDATED 2:14 P.M. ET U.S.A. It is not unusual for financial fraudsters to seek to rub elbows with famous people or to imply ties to them as a means of sanitizing purported “opportunities” or accenting their own bona fides. Recent examples of this include Florida-based Ponzi-schemer/racketeer Scott Rothstein, who mixed with the elite as his epic fraud scheme spiraled out of control.

    Florida-based AdSurfDaily Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin (and any number of his promoters) falsely implied that then-President George W. Bush was on ASD’s train. The Mantria Corp. Ponzi scheme in Colorado traded on images of former President Bill Clinton and famous politicians or business executives.

    The WCM777 scam traded on purported ties to Siemens and scores of famous companies. Siemens publicy refuted the WCM777 claims.

    TelexFree, alleged to have gathered hundreds of millions of dollars in a combined Ponzi- and pyramid scheme targeted in no small measure at Brazilians and people who speak Portuguese or Spanish, aligned itself with the Botafogo soccer club in Brazil. The PR results were disastrous.

    Now comes word that Sann Rodrigues, a figure in both the TelexFree and iFreeX schemes, is seen in a video in which he is driving a car. That in itself wouldn’t be unusual, in that Rodrigues previously has recorded one or more videos that put him behind the wheel of a flashy ride.

    But in this case the passenger in the car is Emerson Fittipaldi, the Brazilian racing legend who won the Formula One World Championship twice and also is a two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500.

    The PP Blog has sought comment from Fittipaldi through multiple channels and hopes to hear back from the legend. If Fittipaldi or his organization responds, we’ll make sure you see that response.

    Rodrigues was charged by the SEC in April 2014 with securities fraud for his alleged role in the massive TelexFree swindle. This marked the second time the SEC had implicated him in a fraud scheme. The first was a 2006 scam known as Universo Foneclub Corporation. Like TelexFree, Universo Foneclub allegedly was targeted at the Brazilian community.

    TelexFree also is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Federal Police in Brazil. At the same time, the Securities Division of Massachusetts Commonwealth Secretary William Galvin also is investigating TelexFree.

    In September 2014, Galvin issued a warning about iFreeX, another “program” associated with Rodrigues. T-Mobile, the famous phone company, later said it was checking to see if its branding material was being misused by iFreeX.

    Precisely how Fittipaldi ended up in a car with Rodrigues is unclear. Early research suggests Fittipaldi made an appearance at a hotel in the area of Orlando, Fla., on or around Jan. 6 of this year. Rodrigues may reside in the Orlando area.

    The Orlando event appears to have been arranged by a venture known as DFRF. The asserted operator of that venture is Daniel Fernandez Rojo Filho. (The Ferdandez name also has been spelled with a trailing “s,” as opposed to a “z.”) His name surfaced as part of the Evolution Market Group/Finanzas Forex case in 2010.

    (Also see PP Blog article. Also see Palm Beach Post article.)

    It is clear that some Brazilians interested in the TelexFree case are closely following the appearance of Fittipaldi alongside Rodrigues, wondering if the racing legend is being duped by an alleged recidivist swindler.

  • DEVELOPING STORY: Kidnapping, Murder Linked To WCM777/Kingdom777 Scam, Newspaper Reports

    wcm777DEVELOPING STORY: (Updated 8:43 p.m. ET U.S.A.) The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa, Calif., is reporting that detectives in Napa County have linked the kidnapping and murder of 44-year-old Reynaldo Pacheco to the WCM777/Kingdom777 MLM scam and as many as four suspects.

    From the Press Democrat in a story dated Jan. 15 about the arrest of Angela Martinez Arias, 41, of Petaluma (italics added):

    According to investigators, Pacheco had been involved in a business scam known as WCM777, or Kingdom 777. Early last year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced it to be an illegal pyramid scheme targeting Asian and Latino communities worldwide. Assets were frozen.

    Pacheco apparently had gotten Arias to invest an undisclosed amount of money in Kingdom 777, according to detectives. Pacheco “owed her money from a failed business relationship,” [Napa County Sheriff’s Capt. Doug] Pike said.

    The other suspects, according to the newspaper, are Mauricio Tovar-Telles, 24, and Norberto Guerrero Gonzalez, 29. Both are in custody.

    A fourth suspect, Miguel Angel Garcia, reportedly shot and killed himself last year after a standoff with SWAT officers.

  • CHARLOTTE OBSERVER: Jonathan Davey, Figure In ‘Black Diamond’ Ponzi Caper, Sentenced To 21 Years In Federal Prison

    ponzinews1EDITOR’S NOTE: Thanks to a PP Blog reader for pointing us to the Charlotte Observer’s story on the sentencing of Jonathan Davey.

    One of the key figures in the bizarre “Black Diamond” Ponzi caper in North Carolina has been sentenced to 21 years in federal prison.

    Here is the URL from the Charlotte Observer on the sentencing of Jonathan Davey.

    Snippet from the Observer (italics added):

    At Davey’s sentencing Thursday, U.S. District Judge Robert Conrad focused on how Davey’s actions caused “life-wrecking damage” to the scheme’s elderly and vulnerable clients.

  • York Regional Police (Ontario) Ask For Assistance In Ponzi Case Allegedly Involving Salim Damji And Female Accomplice

    Salim Damji. Source: XX
    Salim Damji. Source: York Regional Police Major Fraud Unit

    The York Regional Police Major Fraud Unit in Ontario, Canada, has arrested Salim Damji and a female accomplice in an alleged “romance and investment Ponzi scheme” that fleeced at least eight victims out of about $400,000.

    Damji, 45, allegedly uses multiple names. Police have released a photo of him and have asked the public for assistance in the probe “as investigators believe victims may recognize his image as he was known to use various aliases.”

    The aliases include Sal Palermo, Sal Darsee, Santos Palermo, Rico Palermo and Santos Salvatore, police said.

    His female accomplice was identified by police as Tatiana Krainova, 39, of Whitchurch-Stouffville. Damji allegedly resided in the same town. Damji and Krainova were arrested Monday at the same residence in Whitchurch-Stouffville.

    From a statement by police (italics added):

    In April 2014, the York Regional Police Major Fraud Unit became aware of a suspect who had befriended a victim at a bar in Aurora. After several meetings with the victim, the suspect convinced her that if she invested money with him, he could generate significant short-term returns on those investments. The victim agreed and gave the suspect more than $50,000 which was transferred into various accounts the suspect provided.

    It is believed the suspect used portions of funds collected from victims to pay other victims smaller amounts of money to show return on their investments with him. As the investigation continued, seven additional victims were identified who had all in vested similar amounts of money.

    In these cases, once the money had been sent by cheque, cash or wire transfer, the suspect could no longer be reached. The investigation also revealed that the suspect was working with a female accomplice who was assisting the suspect with accepting funds from victims and depositing the funds into various accounts. She would then transfer portions of those funds back to the suspect.

    Damji is charged with Fraud Over $5,000, Public Laundering Proceeds of Crime and False Pretence. Krainova is charged with the same offenses.