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Category: The Economy

SEC Declines To Comment On New Claims Attributed To Zeek Figure Robert Craddock

UPDATED 8:30 P.M. EDT U.S.A. The SEC this afternoon declined to comment on a confounding claim attributed to Zeek Rewards figure Robert Craddock that Zeek took in $1 billion in 12 months and that the U.S. government should have modeled a “stimulus program” after Zeek instead of shutting it down in 2012. News that Craddock…

Oct 7, 2014
TelexFree Figure Carlos Costa Trounced At Polls For Seat In Brazilian Congress

UPDATED 9:32 P.M. EDT U.S.A. TelexFree figure Carlos Costa of the state of Espírito Santo appears to have come up far short in his bid to win a seat in Brazil’s 513-member federal Chamber of Deputies, the equivalent of the U.S. House of Representatives. Although final numbers appear not to be available yet, more than…

Oct 5, 2014
KABOOM! Banners Broker MLM ‘Program’ Described As ‘Criminal Enterprise’ That Gathered Tens Of Million Of Dollars

“Affiliates found to be contributing to the negativity on the Internet will have their accounts locked, they will be banned from participating in the Banners Broker system and they will forfeit all of their inventory and revenue.” — Banners Broker threat to members, February 2014 “It is the position of investigators that this business was…

Oct 4, 2014
NEW ENGLAND PUBLIC RADIO: Secretary Galvin Talks TelexFree, Sann Rodrigues And ‘IFreeX,’ Tells Station Accused Huckster’s ‘Current Whereabouts . . . Unknown’

UPDATED 8 A.M. EDT U.S.A. New England Public Radio has a minute-long audio report on TelexFree, iFreeX and Sann Rodrigues, including comments from Massachusetts Commonwealth Secretary William Galvin. An NEPR text report is available here. Look under the byline of Kari Njiiri for a link to the audio report. Rodrigues, accused in April 2014 by…

Oct 3, 2014
Email Address In Faith Sloan’s DMCA Complaint Against BehindMLM.com Appears In 2010 Promo About Purported $10,000 Payout From Matrix Cycler; ‘You Can Do That Over And Over Again,’ Veteran HYIP Huckster Claims

The Gmail address used by TelexFree figure Faith Sloan in a Sept. 23 DMCA takedown notice filed against BehindMLM.com appears below a 2010 video promo for a “program” known as “Diamond Holiday Feeder,” part of a larger “program” purportedly engaged in the travel business while also operating a matrix cycler. Matrix cyclers sometimes are known…

Oct 2, 2014
Did iFreeX ‘Program’ Pirate T-Mobile’s Branding Material?

T-Mobile told the PP Blog today that it was looking into a situation in which images of Carly Foulkes appear to have made their way into a promo for iFreeX, an emerging “program” that became the subject of a scam warning by Massachusetts Commonwealth Secretary William Galvin yesterday. Foulkes, a Canadian model, is known colloquially…

Oct 1, 2014
BULLETIN: Zeek Receiver Issues More Than 90,000 Checks

BULLETIN: Kenneth D. Bell, the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Rewards pyramid- and Ponzi-scheme case, says he has issued and mailed 90,297 checks “to Affiliates that hold Allowed Claims as their first interim, partial distribution.” The SEC has decribed Zeek as a fraud scheme that gathered hundreds of millions of dollars. The first round of…

Sep 30, 2014
BehindMLM.com Offline

UPDATED 3:21 A.M. EDT SEPT. 30 U.S.A. The PP Blog is aware that BehindMLM.com, the popular review site that covers multilevel marketing and fraud schemes within the sphere, is offline. The precise reason why is unclear at this time. BehindMLM.com reported Sept. 26 that it had received a DMCA takedown notice from Faith Sloan, an…

Sep 29, 2014
SPECIAL REPORT: eAdGear ‘Program’ Allegedly Traded Falsely On Names Of Famous Companies And Brands; SEC Contacted Google, Yahoo, Target, Victoria’s Secret (And More) To Refute Claims; Separately, ‘Bossteam’ Enterprise In Canada Operated In Similar Fashion, Records Show

EDITOR’S NOTE: eAdGear, which had entities in California and Hong Kong, “primarily” targeted “investors in the U.S., China, and Taiwan” and gathered $129 million in a combined pyramid- and Ponzi scheme that engaged in brand-leeching, the SEC alleged last week. An MLM scam known as WCM777, which allegedly gathered more than $80 million, also engaged…

Sep 28, 2014
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: SEC Charges eAdGear, Alleging $129 Million Pyramid- And Ponzi Scheme

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (12th Update 1:28 p.m. EDT U.S.A.) The SEC has gone to federal court in San Francisco, alleging that the eAdGear “program” was a pyramid- and Ponzi scheme that gathered $129 million. The action against eAdGear is the second major pyramid-scheme prosecution announced by the SEC this week. The SEC has…

Sep 26, 2014
TelexFree Website Will Not Load

EDITOR’S NOTE ADDED 1:32 P.M. EDT SEPT. 28 U.S.A. TelexFree.com appears to be back online. At this time, why the landing page wouldn’t load remains a mystery. Our earlier story is below . . . The website of TelexFree, alleged in April by the SEC and the Massachusetts Securities Division to have operated a billion-dollar…

Sep 24, 2014