PatrickPretty.com

Category: The Economy

  • BULLETIN: Zeek Receiver Sues Nearly 2 Dozen Aussies

    breakingnews72BULLETIN: (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 . . .

  • 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.

    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.

  • 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." A link to the script appears in the story below. A second script resulted in the publication of a finished ad that was equally deplorable.
    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

    mpbtodayobamalarge11Could 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?

    mpbtodayobamabeanssmall1Like 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.

     

     

  • SPECIAL REPORT: ‘Achieve Community’ Promoter On YouTube Shows Her Back Office For ‘Unison Wealth,’ Revealing Ponzi-Board Bonanza

    As "Achieve Community" promoter Jristen Jennifer shows her back office in the "Unison Wealth" program, ads for other "programs" appear, including some "programs" on well-known Ponzi-scheme forums.
    As “Achieve Community” promoter Kristen Jennifer shows her back office in the “Unison Wealth” program, ads for other “programs” appear, including some “programs” on well-known Ponzi-scheme forums.

    EDITOR’S NOTE: In litigation related to Zeek Rewards, a Ponzi-board “program,” court-appointed receiver Kenneth D. Bell has raised a concern that network-marketers may be proceeding from one fraud scheme to another. Bell has asked a federal judge to take “judicial notice” of certain YouTube videos.

    ** ______________________**

    UPDATED 10:07 P.M. ET U.S.A. “Unison Wealth” is a “program” on MoneyMakerGroup from which a promoter claims “Turn $35 One-Time Into $1545.” It’s also on TalkGold. Both MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold are forums listed in U.S. federal court files as places from which Ponzi schemes are promoted.

    One such reference to the forums is in the context of Nicholas Smirnow, the operator of the Pathway To Prosperity HYIP fraud who was arrested in Canada this month after being charged by the United States in 2010 and spending time in the Philippines.

    Pathway To Prosperity allegedly plucked people from 120 countries for $72 million. An affidavit by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in the Smirnow case specifically references MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold. The affidavit has been available online for more than four years and is published by the office of Stephen R. Wigginton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois.

    A “program’s” presence on the Ponzi boards is a crimson-red flag that a scam is occurring. Thousands of promoters of Zeek Rewards, a Ponzi-board “program” alleged to gave gathered on the order of $897 million, now face litigation aimed at clawing back their “winnings” from Zeek. At least one payment vendor for Zeek claims it was rendered insolvent through its business relationship with North Carolina-based Zeek.

    The individual litigation nightmares for Zeek fans and vendors may include crushing legal bills, the need to respond to subpoenas and sit for depositions or otherwise make an appearance in North Carolina federal court even if the litigation targets do not reside in North Carolina. The experience alone can be financially and emotionally draining, perhaps even more so if a person is deemed an “insider” or “winner” who received in excess of $1,000 from the Zeek enterprise.

    On another Ponzi-board front, promoters and vendors of TelexFree — an alleged $1.2 billion fraud — also are facing Zeek-like litigation nightmares.

    Like Pathway To Prosperity, Zeek and TelexFree, “Achieve Community” also has a Ponzi-board presence. This potentially sets the stage for new HYIP litigation nightmares from law-enforcement, receivers mandated by court order to round up fraud proceeds and class-action lawyers. And because some Achieve Community promoters are simultaneously promoting other Ponzi-board “programs,” any litigation that emerges could be amplified across multiple courts. Achieve, for example, appears to be operating in Michigan and Colorado.

    In theory, an Achieve promoter living in, say, Florida (or any other state) could be compelled by court order to appear in a federal court in another state to produce documents, sales materials, promos and business records.

    Back-Office Tour By Achieve Promoter Is Revealing

    Promoting Achieve is bad enough. But some Achieve promoters now are pitching other Ponzi-board “programs.” One YouTube promo dated Dec. 20 for Unison Wealth by an Achieve promoter takes prospects inside the Unison Wealth back office.

    Remarkably — and without comment from Achieve/Unison promoter Kristen Jennifer — the promo shows one ad after another for HYIP schemes loading in the Unison back office. (The ads load as Kristen pitches Unison.)

    The first of these is “MyTrafficValue.” As Kristen tries to sell viewers on Unison, a banner ad for MyTrafficValue claims “invest to earn 110% within 4 days or daily payments until 125%.”

    Who placed the ad is unknown, but the mere presence of the ad shows that Unison is driving traffic to a Ponzi-board “program” with a 141-page thread at MoneyMakerGroup.

    On Dec. 17, the PP Blog reported that an ad for a Ponzi-board “program” known as Cycles 24/7  was appearing inside a promo for Achieve by Mike Chitty. The Chitty ad showed the Achieve back office.

    Lo and behold, an ad for Cycles 24/7 also appears in the Unison back office of Achieve promoter Kristen. (BehindMLM.com has a report dated today on Cycles 24/7.)

    What obviously is occurring is that one scam is giving synergy to another. It hardly ends with Cycles 24/7.

    Indeed, even as Achieve promoter Kristen is narrating her ad for Unison, ads for other Ponzi-board “programs” load on the screen. Ads for each of these “programs” (and others) appear:

    • BitcoinCycler.
    • TrinityLines.
    • OneTenMethod. (URL appears to be OwnMatrix.com, with “OWN” an acronym for Online Wealth Network.)
    • HeavenPaid. (“THIS DONT [sic] SUCK” is among the claims.)
    • MyAdvertisingPays.
    • ClickAdPays.
    • Super 2×7 Matrix.
    • EveryoneCycles.

    During the same 13:18 YouTube promo by Achieve member Kristen for Unison, ads for other “programs” appear on the screen. (In some cases, these may include descriptors, rather than the actual “program” name.) This lineup includes Auto Mass Traffic, Dollar Funnel, $20 Quality AdPack, AdBoardMarketing, Private Cycler, Seven Save In Gold & Silver from $25 (edited Jan. 5, 2015), NetPennyStocks.com (” . . . Makes You Earn 101,970.75 And Get Paid Weekly”).

    A couple of ads for what appear to be “leads” program also appear. Some other names that appear in the ad are too fuzzy to be recognizable.

    Regulators have been warning for years about scams spreading on social media.

    In the Unison Wealth video, Kristen says, “I’m gonna keep you posted on this, but I have to be mindful of YouTube because YouTube doesn’t really like me posting result videos for some reason.”

    Perhaps Kristen hasn’t heard about the SEC’s warnings about scams spreading on YouTube.  (See April 8, 2014, PP Blog story: BULLETIN: In New ‘Advertising’ Ponzi-Scheme Takedown, SEC Points To YouTube Video Allegedly Used By Scammers To Drive Sales — And Feds File Criminal Charges

    Also see April 30, 2014, PP Blog story: SEC: TelexFree’s Sann Rodrigues On YouTube: God Started MLM And Made ‘Binary’; ‘I Am Never Going To Stop This’

    Also see June 5, 2013, PP Blog story: YouTube Video Pitchmen For Profitable Sunrise Hit By Subpoenas From SEC.

    There are other instances, including the eAdGear case in which the SEC contacted YouTube owner Google for information. The eAdGear case speaks to the issue of a scam trying to sanitize itself by touting supposed links to legitimate companies. Achieve promoters are doing the same thing when they assert Achieve couldn’t possibly be a scam because certain well-known financial vendors do business with it.

    Think of Enron, a colossal fraud. That famous financial firms did business with it was immaterial to the issue that Enron itself was a huge scam.

    Kristen also ventures there may be certain tax advantages when one joins Unison Wealth. Veteran MLM huckster Phil Piccolo of TextCashNetwork, DataNetworkAffiliates and OWOW — disasters one and all — is infamous for making such claims.

    Is there any doubt that network marketers are falling off one cliff after another and, in one “program” after another, putting on blindfolds? These scams are gathering billions of dollars.

    Friends, Kristen very well could be one of the nicest, most sincere people you’d ever want to meet. But she is grossly misinformed about Achieve and Unison Wealth.

    The Zeek and TelexFree litigation alone offers compelling examples of decidedly unpleasant things that can happen when HYIP “programs” crater or attract regulatory scrutiny. For promoters to ignore these cases is to ignore peril.

    Achieve promoters currently are explaining away criticism as the tool of “haters.” Zeek and TelexFree promoters did the same thing.

     

  • BULLETIN: Lucrazon ‘Program’ Sued In Massachusetts, Amid Allegations Of Fraud

    breakingnews72BULLETIN: (Updated 10:18 a.m. ET Dec. 24 U.S.A.) Lucrazon Global, a purported revenue-sharing program pushed on Ponzi boards such as MoneyMakerGroup, has been sued in federal court by private plaintiffs who allege fraud.

    Named defendants in the Dec. 9 complaint in Massachusetts federal court are Lucrazon LLC and Lucrazon Global LLC, both of Delaware and California. Plaintiffs are Scott Bonarrigo of Massachusetts and Todd Betlejewski of California.

    Oscar Garcia and Alex Pitt are identified in the complaint as officers or employees of Lucrazon.

    Former TelexFree huckster Faith Sloan at one time pushed Lucrazon. Sloan was accused by the SEC of securities fraud earlier this year in a case that alleged TelexFree was a massive, international fraud.

    Some promoters of the WCM777 Ponzi scheme broken up by the SEC earlier this year also were targeting prospects for Lucrazon and seeking to get them to buy in at $8,000. The PP Blog noted in April that Lucrazon was promoting “Luxury Car Giveaways” and touting appearances by politicians/business figures such as Carlos Gutierrez, Mitt Romney and Vicente Fox at a Los Angeles confab.

    Garcia and Pitt are accused in the complaint of making repeated false and misleading representations “that the [Lucrazon] daily bonuses ‘could go to $20 a day, $50 a day . . . who knows.’” However, this was never possible and based upon faulty (as well as meticulously and deliberately skewed) mathematical statistics promulgated to entice Plaintiffs and others into buying into Defendants’ scheme.”

    Bonarrigo bought in for $46,000, with Betlejewski paying Lucrazon “approximately $110,000,” according to the complaint.

    “Further, Defendants and Oscar Garcia and Alex Pitt (again, falsely and in an attempt to mislead Plaintiffs) represented that Defendants would assemble some 10,000 merchant accounts each making $10,000 into a $100 million bundle, akin to mortgage bundles, and then sell them to the banks at many times monthly recurring commissions,” the complaint alleges. “This never happened and Defendants never intended to do so.”

    From the complaint (italics added):

    Defendants also advised Plaintiffs that online accounts were worth 10 times the monthly commissions, retail accounts were worth 30 times commissions, and medical accounts were worth 60 times monthly earnings, and that Plaintiffs could sell those accounts every month, or keep them for an alleged large payoff when the bundles were sold. This was not true [sic?] never offered to Plaintiffs nor did Defendants make any attempts to secure such sales that would provide Plaintiffs the ability to elect to either sell or retain their merchant accounts . . .

    . . . As further enticement, Defendants repeatedly advised Plaintiffs and others that when these “bundles” were sold, each Brand Partner position (to which both Plaintiffs purchased several) was entitled to a share of this pool of money, and that leaders of said accounts, like Plaintiffs, would be offered interest into another bundle. This was not true [sic?] never offered to Plaintiffs nor did Defendants make any attempts to secure such sales that would provide Plaintiffs the ability to elect to either sell or retain their merchant accounts or be offered the opportunity to re-invest their proceeds towards another endeavor . . .

    Despite Defendants’ false and misleading representations, and due solely to Plaintiffs’ own work ethic and business acumen, Plaintiffs began to successfully develop business accounts and profit, which, per Defendants’ representations, was to be passed onto Plaintiffs as part of the aforementioned “daily bonuses.” In fact, said “bonuses” were to commence in January of 2014. Not surprisingly, Defendants never paid any amount of “bonuses” to either Plaintiff . . .

    Despite this, and for vague and illusory reasons, these bonuses owed and due to Plaintiffs were then postponed to February of 2014, then yet again to March of 2014, then again in April of 2014 . . .

    As such, Plaintiffs [believe] that there simply was no intent whatsoever to actually pay out these “bonuses” but instead Defendants’ representations to the contrary were simply part and parcel of an overall fraudulent scheme to secure as much monetary benefit as possible from Plaintiffs at Plaintiffs’ expense and detriment.

    What is more, when daily bonuses did finally begin to commence, they were nothing like what was promised to issue, both in terms of amount and frequency of disbursement. Then mysteriously, all bonus payments simply stopped . . .

    However, despite this demonstrable cessation of payments, Plaintiffs’ back office reporting evidences that Defendants falsely and deceptively reported these payments or “bonuses” has having been successfully transmitted, when no such payments were in fact issued to Plaintiffs in any fashion. Put bluntly, Defendants is intentionally and knowingly withholding money that rightfully belongs to Plaintiffs.

    NOTE: Our thanks to the ASD Updates Blog. View complaint here.

  • UPDATE: In Impossibly Butchered Messaging, ‘Achieve Community’ Promos Marry Three-Month, 800-Percent ROI ‘Program’ To Santa Claus While Encouraging Participants Not To ‘Sell Out’ To Banks For ‘Tiny’ Annual Returns

    From an Achieve Community promo.
    From an Achieve Community Facebook promo posted Dec. 20.

    The “Achieve Community,” a Ponzi-board money-cycling “program” targeted at Christians and positioned by some network marketers as an alternative for people who don’t want to “sell out” to banks and their “tiny little 1% annual return,” would like you to know that Santa Claus and an elf are on the team.

    By buying one “EXTRA” $50 Achieve position on Christmas Day, Achievers will come into possession of “the gift that Keeps On Giving!” according to a bizarre new promo published on Facebook Saturday by Achieve co-founder Kristi Johnson.

    A fellow Facebook poster, however, laments, “Kristi, Can you please answer this question? I tried the whole weekend to purchase new positions. But every time it says, an error occur[r]ed, your payment is declined. I called already to MasterCard and nothing is wrong with my Card. Problem seems to be with readytoachieve. I sent already 4 messages to readytoachieve, but i get no answer.”

    Volunteers purportedly now are assisting Achieve, which appears to be transitioning to new financial vendors after parting company with Payoneer weeks ago, with support duties.  Johnson has claimed she’s typically too busy to answer questions, that members should turn to the website FAQs and a recently installed private forum for assistance and that co-founder Troy Barnes “won’t be around much anymore” because of pressing family issues.

    Separately, Achieve boosters parroting each other continue to circulate a promo that reads, “We are not investing in a stock or buying shares in a company. We are using our God given universal right to spend our money the way we want. We choose not to sell out to the banking system for their tiny little 1% annual return.”

    The claim appears in both video and text form. It is common for HYIP promoters to invoke God and seek to fuel contempt against banks. Some Achieve promoters appear to have hijacked the original claim and worked it into their individual promos. The original source of the claim is unclear.

    No authority that God had granted any such “universal right” is provided.  Nor does the promo explain why banks are not doing the same thing Achieve is doing or how Achieve will get by if banks and payment vendors it relies on pull the plug on Achieve. If the assertion that banks pay 1 percent annually is true, however, it would mean that Achieve pays 800 times that percentage in three months or less.

    Because banks have greater economies of scale than Achieve and greater opportunities to employ vertical integration, they could pound Achieve into the sand by simply adopting the Achieve business model — and yet they don’t do it.

    The reason why is that the banks would be creating a liability of $400 for every $50 they accepted for the purchase of “positions” and that regulators and class-action litigants would attack any disclaimer language as an obvious attempt to sanitize a Ponzi scheme and create a license to steal tremendous sums of money.

    Even though Achieve appears to have generated cash flow by switching to an offshore processor known as iPayDNA after the Payoneer divorce in late October or early November, Achieve very well could be insolvent today. This is because it is not meeting obligations when they become due. Payouts due Achieve members who joined or repurchased positions on Sept 12 were due to be paid in early November, but reportedly have not been paid.

    That Achieve also appears to be playing payment processor roulette potentially adds to its attractiveness for class-action litigation against both itself and payment vendors on the theory of racketeering and “deepening insolvency.” (See this document from private litigants in the TelexFree bankruptcy case. Like Achieve, TelexFree was promoted on Ponzi boards such as MoneyMakerGroup. So was Zeek Rewards, a “program” that also has encountered class-action litigation. )

    Achieve says $50 turns into $400. Multiple “positions” can be purchased. Some promos have extrapolated returns in the hundreds of thousands of dollars or even in excess of $1 million.

    Members reportedly have not received payouts from Achieve since the relationship with Payoneer ended.

    From an Achieve promo playing on YouTube. Masking by PP Blog.
    From an Achieve promo playing on YouTube. Masking by PP Blog.

    Also see Dec. 17 PP Blog report: UPDATE: Competing Cycler Advertised Inside ‘Achieve Community’ Forum Collapsed At Launch Yesterday

    Also see Dec. 12 PP Blog report: Federal Prosecutors Have No Immediate Comment On ‘Achieve Community’ Call In Which Senior Citizen With 86-Year-Old Ailing Husband Was Told, ‘You Are Exactly The Type Of Person That The Achieve Community Is Built Around And For’

    Also see Dec. 9 PP Blog report: SPECIAL REPORT: We’re Like ‘A Ride At Disney World,’ Achieve Community Cycler Bizarrely Claims

    Also see Dec. 7 PP Blog report: ‘The Achieve Community’ Promoter Records Commercial At ATM In Hawaii; YouTube Text Promo Claims Achieve A ‘True Lifetime Income Plan!’

    Also see Nov. 17 PP Blog report: RECOMMENDED READING: Two Stories/Threads At BehindMLM.com On ‘The Achieve Community’

  • ‘They Were, Quite Simply, Assassinated’

    Officer Wenjian Liu.
    Officer Wenjian Liu.

    At 2:47 p.m. Saturday, New York Police Department officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were very much alive. They were seated in their cruiser in Brooklyn. It was parked curbside.

    No one knows what they were talking about or thinking about. They expected to return to their loved ones after work, though. Liu, 32, was a newlywed; Ramos, 40, was married and had two sons.

    Neither officer would live to see 2:48. Police Commissioner William Bratton — on national TV Saturday — said Liu and Ramos “may never have actually even seen their assailant — their murderer.”

    That’s because Ismaaiyl Brinsley, the assailant and murderer, ambushed them. He did so after announcing his intent on Instagram and apparently even publishing a photo of the gun he intended to use. This he did after shooting his ex-girlfriend in Maryland earlier in the day.

    Any two cops would do.

    Officer Rafael Ramos.
    Officer Rafael Ramos.

    Brinsley, 28, “walked up to the police car,” Bratton told the New York public and the American people. “He took a shooting stance on the passenger side and fired the weapon — his weapon — several times through the front passenger window, striking both officers.”

    “They were, quite simply, assassinated — targeted for their uniform, and for the responsibility they embraced to keep the people of this city safe,” Bratton said.

    By yesterday it had become clear that using Instagram to announce his plan to execute two police officers — or, as he put it, “Putting Wings On Pigs” — would not be enough. Seconds before he ambushed Liu and Ramos he reportedly told passerby, “Watch what I’m going to do.”

    After shooting a human being in Maryland and killing two others in New York, Brinsley then took another human life: his own.

     

     

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: ‘North Korean Government’ Responsible For Sony Pictures Hack, FBI Says

    URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: The “North Korean government” is responsible for the catastrophic hack at Sony Pictures Entertainment last month, the FBI says.

    As pressure mounts for the United States to retaliate, President Obama is expected to take questions on the matter at 1:30 p.m. today.

    The FBI said it was “deeply concerned about the destructive nature of this attack on a private sector entity and the ordinary citizens who worked there. Further, North Korea’s attack on SPE reaffirms that cyber threats pose one of the gravest national security dangers to the United States.

    “Though the FBI has seen a wide variety and increasing number of cyber intrusions, the destructive nature of this attack, coupled with its coercive nature, sets it apart. North Korea’s actions were intended to inflict significant harm on a U.S. business and suppress the right of American citizens to express themselves. Such acts of intimidation fall outside the bounds of acceptable state behavior. The FBI takes seriously any attempt—whether through cyber-enabled means, threats of violence, or otherwise—to undermine the economic and social prosperity of our citizens.”

    Threats of 9/11-style terrorist attacks against movie patrons and theaters that screened a comedic film that mocks North Korea leader Kim Jong Un and depicts him as an assassination target first caused theaters to bail on “The Interview,” a Sony film scheduled to open Christmas Day. Sony itself later withdrew the film, triggering an avalanche of criticism that it had caved into the demands of terrorists.

    As the situation evolved, it became clear that the United States viewed the attack on Sony as an attack against the country itself.

    The actual hacking of Sony appears to have occurred in November, with “Guardians of Peace” taking credit. Troves of private emails and records were stolen, Sony and its employees were threatened and Sony’s computers effectively were rendered inoperable. Sony has been in PR damage-control mode for weeks, even as the firm’s intellectual property such as films not yet released fell into the hands of the hackers.

    Sony quickly reported the incident to the FBI, and the swiftness aided in the probe, the agency said.

    Here’s more from the FBI’s statement (italics added):

    As a result of our investigation, and in close collaboration with other U.S. government departments and agencies, the FBI now has enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is responsible for these actions. While the need to protect sensitive sources and methods precludes us from sharing all of this information, our conclusion is based, in part, on the following:

    • Technical analysis of the data deletion malware used in this attack revealed links to other malware that the FBI knows North Korean actors previously developed. For example, there were similarities in specific lines of code, encryption algorithms, data deletion methods, and compromised networks.
    • The FBI also observed significant overlap between the infrastructure used in this attack and other malicious cyber activity the U.S. government has previously linked directly to North Korea. For example, the FBI discovered that several Internet protocol (IP) addresses associated with known North Korean infrastructure communicated with IP addresses that were hardcoded into the data deletion malware used in this attack.
    • Separately, the tools used in the SPE attack have similarities to a cyber attack in March of last year against South Korean banks and media outlets, which was carried out by North Korea.

  • Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office: Florida Woman Arrested For ‘Felony Aggravated Battery On An Elderly Person’; Victim Refused Facebook ‘Friend’ Request

    Rachel Anne Hayes is accused of repeatedly slapping a 72-year-old woman for refusing a Facebook "friend" request. Photo source: Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
    Rachel Anne Hayes is accused of repeatedly slapping a 72-year-old woman for refusing a Facebook “friend” request. Photo source: Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.

    Rachel Anne Hayes, 27, became “enraged” and repeatedly slapped a 72-year-old woman who refused her Facebook “friend” request, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said.

    The incident occurred Dec. 17 at a home in Seminole, Fla., after the older woman told the younger one “she felt the name that Hayes was using on Facebook was inappropriate,” authorities said.

    “Hayes became upset when the victim refused and walked out of the home,” authorities said. “When she returned the two re-engaged in an argument at the front door of the home. Deputies say Hayes slapped the victim several times, before the victim was able to retreat into the home and lock the door.

    “When deputies responded, the suspect had already left the residence,” authorities continued. “Through their investigation, deputies subsequently arrested the suspect for Felony Aggravated Battery on an Elderly Person. Hayes was transported to the Pinellas County Jail without further incident.”

    The Sheriff’s Office tweeted news of the Hayes arrest. Hayes was taken into custody at 4 a.m. on Dec. 18.

  • DEVELOPING STORY: More Than $800,000 In Funds Potentially Due Zeek Victims May Have Been Stolen By Credit-Card Vendor’s California Lawyer

    From a filing by Plastic Cash International in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi case. The screen shot above reflects a partial page from "Exhibit P," a copy of an investigative report by the California State Bar dated July 28, 2014.
    From a filing by Plastic Cash International in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi case. The screen shot above reflects a partial page from “Exhibit P,” a copy of a report by the California State Bar dated July 28, 2014.

    UPDATED 9:15 A.M. ET DEC. 19 U.S.A. If its presence on the Ponzi boards and similarity to the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme were not enough, the morass surrounding Zeek Rewards and operator Rex Venture Group may be getting even muddier.

    A Zeek credit-card vendor being pursued by the court-appointed receiver in the SEC’s 2012 Ponzi- and pyramid case says a California lawyer facing multiple bar investigations has stolen at least $800,000 that originated in Zeek transactions.

    It is possible that the number could be even higher, potentially on the order of $1 million or more, according to an estimate by the State Bar of California.

    A July 28 report by the Bar says the lawyer — Scott Stone Mehler of Long Beach — has invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Mehler, according to records, already has been recommended for disbarment for the alleged misappropriation of $1.4 million in funds from other clients.

    Whether a criminal investigation into Mehler’s alleged activities is under way was not immediately clear.

    Zeek receiver Kenneth D. Bell has been pursuing Plastic Cash International, formerly represented by Mehler, to return millions of dollars Bell alleges to be receivership assets. But PCI claims it is a victim of both Mehler and Zeek and, in any case, is unable to pay because working with Zeek destroyed its reputation in the financial community.

    “As a direct result of [Rex Venture Group’s] criminal and otherwise fraudulent conduct, all of PCI’s partners and customers eventually ceased doing business with PCI, ultimately resulting in PCI’s involvency,” Paul Schafer, PCI’s director of brand partnerships, said in a Dec. 17 affidavit.

    The Bar has alleged moral turpitude, misrepresentation to client, falsification of accounting, failure to maintain entrusted funds and failure to account against Mehler in the PCI matter involving Zeek funds. Bar documents strongly suggest that Mehler was using client funds, including PCI funds that originated via Zeek-related transactions, to play a shell game.

    If that proves to be the case, it would mean that Zeek Ponzi funds were being used to prop up Mehler’s personal scam.

    PCI, which says it first learned about Zeek operator Rex Venture Group in March 2012, five months before the SEC’s fraud complaint, potentially faces questions about whether any due diligence it conducted into Zeek was adequate.

    On Nov. 19, Bell asked Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen for an order directing PCI to turn over more than $8.3 million to the receivership that PCI allegedly “failed to freeze and return to the Receivership Estate.” Bell also is seeking a contempt finding against PCI.

    For its part, PCI contends that it “never” held receivership assets and that “any” funds in dispute are not recoverable assets. The firm also contends that, through Mehler, it paid more than $1.1 million in fines issued by VISA. It also said it paid legal fees in excess of $600,000 and  Zeek-related chargebacks in excess of $2 million.

    NOTE: Our thanks to the ASD Updates Blog.

  • IRONY: Scheme Whose Actual Name Is ‘PlanB’ Tackled By European Authorities

    planb4youOne of the core signatures of an HYIP scam is highlighted when a “program” is presented as a “Plan B,” typically in the context of creating “multiple income streams” or “in case Plan A fails, you’d better have a “Plan B.”

    Zeek Rewards A-lister Keith Laggos gushed about Lyoness, his “Plan B” program. Zeek collapsed in a pile of Ponzi rubble and Lyoness later caught the attention of authorities in Australia.

    Fellow Zeek A-Lister T. LeMont Silver pushed an ill-fated series of Plans B such as JubiMax/JubiRev and GoFunRewards/GoFunPlaces.

    Zhunrize, remarkably, touted itself as both a “Plan A” and a “Plan B” scheme.

    Now it has come to pass that a “program” whose actual name is Plan B reportedly has encountered a police raid in Europe in which money and expensive cars were seized. Perhaps showcasing its Stepfordian mindlessness, the “program” added “4you” to its name, becoming “PlanB4You.”

    AdVentures4U, a similar MLM fraud, tried a similar tactic before crashing in 2009. That “program” was a “Plan B” for MLM scammers who earlier had joined the AdSurfDaily and AdViewGlobal MLM scams.

    This story about PlanB4You is in Dutch.  An English translation by Google Translate suggests there were police raids in the Netherlands and perhaps other countries, including Belgium.

    If the PlanB4You name wasn’t enough of a giveaway that the “program” was one to be avoided, PlanB4You’s presence on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum provided another one. (It’s on TalkGold, too.)

    Or you could have read the July 2014 BehindMLM.com review of PlanB4You as yet another scam in progress.