PatrickPretty.com

Category: Writing And Branding

  • UPDATE: More Red Flags At ‘Text Cash Network’; Firm’s ‘Official’ Video Has YouTube Upload Date Of Nov. 15, 2011 — But Same Video With Nearly 3-Year Old Upload Date Also Appears On YouTube For Same ‘Opportunity’

    In this Nov. 13 post, the PP Blog published a list of red flags concerning online promos for Text Cash Network (TCN), purportedly an emerging business “opportunity” involving text advertising and cell phones. A promo for TCN appeared — and then vanished — from a website linked to huckster Phil Piccolo, known online as “the one-man Internet crime wave.” Piccolo has been associated with other schemes that involved cell phones, namely Data Network Affiliates (DNA).

    This post raises another red flag — and once again, the issue is about Piccolo’s potential TCN involvement or the involvement of Piccolo associates. In the DNA scam, the purported firm used generic YouTube videos to drive traffic to its purported opportunity. In 2010, for example, DNA incongruously posted a YouTube video known as “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” to its website, using the video to promote DNA.

    The “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” video — a You Tube smash — had absolutely nothing to to with DNA. The video was designed in part to create awareness about domestic violence and to publicize the Sheila Wellstone Institute.

    Sheila Wellstone was a human-rights advocate. She and her husband, Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., were killed in a plane crash in 2002. Their daughter, Marcia, died in the same crash.

    After conducting a “prelaunch” event with much fanfare on Nov. 11 — Veterans Day in the United States — TCN now has added a You Tube video to its website. An all-caps line of “OFFICIAL LAUNCH 12/12/2011” appears below the video, which plays in miniature on TCN’s site.

    But the video also is playing in full size on YouTube’s site. Text on the YouTube site dubs it “THE OFFICAL TEXT CASH NETWORK (TCN) – RIGHT HERE – RIGHT NOW” site. The upload date of the video is listed as Nov. 15, 2011: yesterday.

    The same video, however,  appears elsewhere on YouTube — and its upload date is listed as Jan. 26, 2009, nearly three years ago. Despite the upload date, the video also is promoting TCN, whose website appears to have been registered just last month.

    Both videos raise questions about whether YouTube is being gamed by TCN and affiliates. Meanwhile, the videos use the same soundtrack by Fat Boy Slim: “Right here, right now.”

    Among other things, Piccolo is known to use all-caps presentations and to hype “prelaunches” and “launches” for weeks. He also is known to hype launches by publishing the names of top promoters — something TCN is doing — and to try to stay in the background of “opportunities,” as opposed to becoming the public face of them.

    Joe Reid, a known Piccolo associate, has served as a conference-call host for TCN. Reid also hosted conference calls for DNA, which was linked to Piccolo last year and served up Theatre of the Absurd and a sea of incongruities.

    DNA, for example, misspelled the name of its own CEO — and didn’t advise members that the CEO had left the company for nearly a week. The former CEO told the PP Blog last year that the firm was engaging in “bizarre” conduct and a campaign of “misinformation and lies.”

    After the former CEO agreed to an interview with the PP Blog, a PR handler who described himself as a conflict-management strategist” sought to intervene. As the year proceeded, DNA appeared to have both entered and exited the cell-phone business in a matter of weeks — while planting the seed that it would pay enormous rates of return to customers who provided it money, even as it purportedly entered businesses such as mortgage writedowns and offshore “resorts” after apparently abandoning its purported core business of helping police recover kidnapped children.

    At one point, DNA was urging members to record the license-plate numbers of cars in a purported bid to assist the AMBER Alert program — while it was selling a purported “protective spray” that would make it impossible for cameras placed by police at intersections to snap usable photographs of the plates.

    In 2009, another purported “advertising” opportunity known as Biz Ad Splash (BAS) used the same Fat Boy Slim soundtrack. Walter Clarence Busby Jr., the purported operator of BAS, is a figure in the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and is the former operator of Golden Panda Ad Builder. Golden Panda surrendered more than $14 million in the ASD Ponzi case, and the SEC said that Busby was involved in three prime-bank schemes in the 1990s.

    The SEC has not responded to requests for comment on the emerging TCN “opportunity.”

    As of now, it can be said that two “advertising” schemes — BAS and TCN — are using the same music in what appears to be largely generic promos for business “opportunities.”

    It also can be said that DNA, one of the “businesses” associated with Piccolo, also used generic videos and caused them to play in miniature on “prelaunch” and “launch” sites for “opportunities.”

    It also seems possible — if not likely — that certain MLM promoters have found a way to edit YouTube sites to make the content appear “current” or to store generic videos and use them for multiple “opportunities.”

    Questions

    Why does one video for TCN show an upload date of January 2009 while the “official” site shows a video upload date of yesterday — when it is the same video and TCN purportedly is a “new” opportunity?

    Did TCN exist in an earlier form as far back as 2009? If so, what happened back then — and why is it reemerging now?

    Are certain MLMers simply using generic videos they uploaded earlier to YouTube — and then editing the YouTube sites when a new “opportunity” comes along, thus potentially maintaining a search-engine advantage no matter what “opportunity” comes along?

    Why would a company that purports to be a market and technology leader use what appears to be a generic video as its “official” video?

    Why did a promo for TCN that appeared on the website of OWOW — a site linked to Piccolo — suddenly go missing last week?

    Why does TCN appear to be closely following “prelaunch” and “launch” strategies associated with purported Piccolo “opportunities?

    Screen Shot 1

    This YouTube video for Text Cash Network bears an upload date of Jan. 26, 2009, even though TCN claims it is a new company proceeding from a "prelaunch" in recent days to "launch." The video is a duplicate of a video dated Nov. 15, 2011 that claims to be TCN's "official" video.

    Screen Shot 2

    This YouTube video for Text Cash Network bears an upload date of Nov. 15, 2011, even though the same video for the purported TCN opportunity appears elsewhere on YouTube and bears an upload date of Jan. 26, 2009, nearly three years ago. TCN claims it is a new company proceeding from "prelaunch" to "launch." TCN claims the Nov. 15, 2011 video is its "official" one. Both video sites feature all-caps when addressing prospects and content that is virtually the same.

    Screen Shot 3

    This 2009 YouTube video for the purported Biz AdSplash "advertising" program used the music of Fat Boy Slim. An emerging "advertising" opportunity known as Text Cash Network is using the same Fat Boy Slim music: "Right here, right now." While BAS purported to deliver "advertising" to computers, TCN purports to deliver it to cell phones.

  • ‘TEXT CASH NETWORK’: RED FLAGS GALORE: New ‘Opportunity’ Linked To Ponzi Boards And To Phil Piccolo-Associated ‘Firms’: Hype, Vapid Claims, Alexa Charts, Launch Countdown Timer, Brand Leeching — And Possible Ties To Long-Running SEC Case

    Until four days ago, the OWOW website associated with Florida-based huckster Phil Piccolo shared this message about Text Cash Network (TCN) with visitors. Joe Reid, a Piccolo associate, is leading conference call-cheerleading for TCN. Reid previously led cheers for Data Network Affiliates, another business linked to Piccolo.

    EDITOR’S NOTE: A “program” known as Text Cash Network (TCN) that purports to share “advertising” revenue from text messages is spreading virally on the Internet. This column includes information prospective TCN members might want to consider before joining and asking others to join. There are red flags galore. Last week, the PP Blog compiled some research and sought comment from the SEC about the emerging program because the name of Brett Hudson, billed in TCN promos as the firm’s “president,” appears in a 2005 “press release” that quotes Hudson and Richard A. Altomare. The SEC acknowledged receipt of the Blog’s inquiries, but did not comment.

    Altomare, of Boca Raton, Fla., was sued in this 2004 SEC action amid allegations of penny-stock fraud coupled with bogus press releases. The case, which involved an Altomare company known as Universal Express Inc., evolved to become an exceptionally ugly one. Altomare ultimately was found in contempt of court for flouting judicial orders and ordered jailed in New York. The court-appointed receiver in the case allegedly received threatening emails from individuals unhappy about the SEC’s action and follow-up events.

    Here are quotes from two of the threatening emails, which allegedly were sent by investors. The quotes appear in an exhibit filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York:

    1.) ” . . . you are going to be hit with a shit load of lawsuits, and if justice doesn’t prevail the good old American way then I will make it my personal duty to enforce the justice and I along with others will come and beat your ass to a bloody pulp, along with Judge (jackass) Lynch . . .”

    2.) . . . you fu[!!!!!] slut . . . don’t get smart . . . you have no idea what could happen to you . . .”

    Hudson, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, was not named a defendant in the SEC case. TCN promoters have identified him as president of Universal Cash Express, a company with a name similar to Altomare’s Universal Express Inc. entity. The 2005 “press release” that quotes Hudson and Altomare also identifies Hudson as the president of Universal Cash Express. Altomare’s title was not listed in the 2005 release, but the document was issued under the name of Altomare’s Universal Express entity ensnared in the SEC probe.

    Until a few days ago, TCN was prominently featured on the website of OWOW (OneWorld, One Website), a site linked to Data Network Affiliates (DNA) and serial MLM scammer Phil Piccolo. Piccolo is known online as the “one-man Internet crime wave.”

    Like Altomare’s Universal Express Inc. entity, DNA was registered as a Nevada company. DNA, like  Universal Express Inc., also conducted business from Boca Raton. (See the Better Business Bureau listing for DNA, which purported to be in the business of helping the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children — while also purporting to be in the cell-phone, mortgage-reduction and “resorts” businesses. Although DNA appears to be defunct, it maintains a website — one that once redirected to the OWOW website. While actively conducting its purported business, DNA made bizarre claims about “going public.” Such claims have been associated with penny-stock scams and securities fraud.)

    Joe Reid, a Piccolo business associate who helped DNA flog its mind-numbing mess to the international masses, was one of the speakers on a Nov. 11 TCN conference call. TCN is proceeding out of the gate in largely the same fashion DNA came out of the gate: conference calls featuring Reid, claims of rapid expansion involving tens of thousands of new recruits in days, a launch-countdown timer (now removed), suggestions of incredible earnings potential 10 levels deep, Blog and website posts, YouTube videos.

    Here, now, a list of  additional red flags and some additional background . . .

    RED FLAG: Piccolo has a history of threatening to sue critics and of planting the seed that, if lawsuits do not work, he knows people who can cause critics to experience physical pain. He is known to operate in the area of Boca Raton, although Piccolo also has been known to operate in California.

    RED FLAG: DNA promos in 2010 referenced a purported texting and data expert by the name of Anthony Sasso. Sasso, a convicted felon arrested in a 2005 racketeering case in Broward County, Fla.,  was described in DNA promos as “The King Of Data For Dollars” and was said to be the “owner of the largest database of text numbers in the world.” Although Sasso appears not to have been referenced in the context of TCN, both DNA and TCN purport to be in businesses that involve texting.

    RED FLAG: Early affiliates of TCN have identified Brett Hudson as the president of Text Cash Network Inc. Records in Wyoming show a company by that name was registered in the state on Nov. 8, 2011 — just days ago. Affiliates also have vaguely described Text Cash Network Inc. as “a new division of a five year old communications company owned 100% by The Johnson Group.” No state of registration was listed in promos that referenced The Johnson Group, and the “communications company” and the “division” under which Text Cash Network Inc. purportedly operates are far from clear.

    Wyoming records show a company by the name of The Johnson Group Inc., but it is unclear if it is the same company referenced by TCN affiliates. The Wyoming records of The Johnson Group entity contain this notation: “Standing – Tax: Delinquent.” The firm appears to have used a residential dwelling in New Jersey as the address of its corporate headquarters.

    RED FLAG: TCN’s website design and “prelaunch” approach are similar in a number of key ways to the tactics employed by DNA, which planted the seed last year that it could help the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children by paying DNA members to record the license-plate numbers of automobiles for entry in a purported database. (Some of these commonalities are referenced lower in this story.)

    Until four days ago, a promo for TCN appeared on the website of OWOW, a site linked to Piccolo. (Referenced in Editor’s Note above.) The TCN promo then vanished mysteriously, possibly because Ponzi forum posters were questioning whether Piccolo was involved with TCN. The OWOW website previously was linked to the DNA scam, and also was linked to purported cancer cures.

    DNA — as is a Piccolo signature — sold the purported tax benefits of joining the DNA “program,” which traded on the names of Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump and also purported to offer a “free” cell phone with “unlimited” talk and text for $10 a month. The purported cell-phone “program” used the intellectual property of Apple Inc., claiming that DNA had a “branding” relationship with the company led by the late Steve Jobs. No DNA cell phone appears to have emerged in the marketplace. No branding deal with Apple appears to have existed.

    RED FLAG: On its pitch page, TCN currently is publishing the logos of Groupon, Google Offers and Bing Shopping, among others. Last year — in addition to using the intellectual property of Apple and the images of Winfrey and Trump — DNA  used email pitches to compare itself to “FACEBOOK, GOOGLE & WALMART…” It is common for hucksters to tie an upstart business to an established business as a means of creating the appearance of legitimacy. Brand leeching is common in the worlds of MLM scams and securities swindles.

    RED FLAG: Joe Reid, the Piccolo business associate, has led the conference-call hype for TCN and has suggested TCN is the next Groupon, which recently conducted an IPO.  Reid also led the conference-call cheerleading last year for DNA, which purported to be “going public”  while making a bizarre reference to Martha Stewart. DNA appears never to have gone “public.” Some members said the firm never paid them, but continued to charge them — and at least one website is claiming that Piccolo (aka “Mr. P.”)  stiffed it on orders for bottled water in the OWOW program.

    Things got so strange at DNA that the firm asked members to imagine that an earlier “launch” (March 2010) had not occurred and to reimagine a relaunch that occurred last summer (July 2010) as the only time the company had launched.

    DNA members were told it was the “MORAL OBLIGATION” of churches to pitch the firm’s purported “program.” Some DNA promos accented DNA commissions purportedly paid 10 levels deep. TCN also is accenting a 10-level payment plan.

    RED FLAG: In November 2010, the PP Blog published a story about the FBI foiling a Thanksgiving holiday bombing plot at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Ore. The Blog’s report was wholly unrelated to DNA or OWOW.

    An OWOW/DNA/Piccolo apologist who identified himself to the PP Blog as “John” took great exception to the Blog’s report on the Portland plot, despite the fact the Blog’s report did not reference OWOW, DNA or Piccolo in any way.

    RED FLAG: Like DNA, TCN also is being promoted on Ponzi scheme forums such as MoneyMakerGroup.

    When things went south at DNA last year, the DNA site began to redirect to the OWOW site, which was hawking products linked to Piccolo, including a purported “magnetic” product that prevented leg amputations while also helping garden vegetables grow to twice their normal size.. The DNA site then mysteriously stopped redirecting to the OWOW site — on a date uncertain, but after Piccolo started promoting OWOW products as cancer cures or treatments. At least one OWOW affiliate was trading on the name of the National Institutes of Health.

    RED FLAG: Both the TCN site and the DNA site are using Alexa charts that provide viewers the same sort of fundamentally meaningless comparisons — while the sites accent the word “free.”

    RED FLAG: Like the DNA site, there is no obvious way on the TCN site for prospects to contact Support.

    RED FLAG: Like the DNA site, the TCN site is using Google Translate. The use of the Google service — along with other commonalities on both sites — leads to questions about whether TCN and DNA are using the same designer.

    DNA, like TCN, is using an Alexa chart. Both sites use Google Translate software.
    TCN, like DNA, is using an Alexa chart. Both sites use Google Translate software.

     

  • THE ‘CORROSIVE CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY’ OF KENNETH MARSH/GRYPHON HOLDINGS: Among 5,000 Fleeced Victims Are Alzheimer’s Patient, Quadriplegic, Widows: A Terrible Tale Of Retirement Savings Gone, Children’s College Tutition Vaporized, Bankruptcies, Crippling Debt, Divorces, Failing Marriages, Embarrassment

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Although this story largely is about Kenneth Marsh and victims of his massive fraud scheme, the PP Blog hopes readers will visit Leagle.com (link below) to read an updated sentencing memo in the Marsh/Gryphon Holdings case. In many ways, the document tells the terrible story of our times . . .

    So, you’re running a fraud scheme and paying commissioned salespeople to pass on your lies — and you want to sanitize your scheme by using fancy phrases such as “holdings company” and making investors believe that say, a billionaire or famous institution, are on board?

    That’s what Kenneth Marsh pulled. It didn’t work in the long term — not for him, not for the pitchmen. In the short-term, though, it worked well enough to destroy lives and alter futures — while Marsh and some of his criminal pitchmen cackled about their brilliance.

    Marsh, now a convicted felon, was the ringleader of the Gryphon Holdings Inc. scam in New York that falsely traded on the names of billionaire investor George Soros and academic institutions such as Harvard and Oxford. He was sentenced in September to eight years in federal prison. Prosecutors say he ran the scam from a strip mall on Staten Island while making investors believe he was a fixture on Wall Street with a top academic pedigree and marquee business connections.

    The government wanted more prison time, and Marsh wanted less. Marsh, 44, ultimately received a middle-range sentence — with U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein explaining that the Marsh sentence was a harsh one that would jail him for nearly a decade, but later would free him under close supervision to get a job so he could address making restitution to victims.

    No Plausible Deniability For Fraud Pitchmen

    Seventeen pitchmen or Marsh associates were charged criminally in the case and sentenced to jail sentences ranging from three months to two years and a month. The defendants also were sentenced to long terms of supervised release. More than 5,000 victims were identified. The life-shattering case is mindful of many of the fraud schemes pitched on Ponzi forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup — with the hucksters gleaning commissions while trying to shroud themselves in the cloaks of plausible deniability. (Emphasis added.)

    “Defendants were attracted into the conspiracy by the promise of an easy dollar,” wrote Weinstein. “They had to know almost immediately that they were engaged in criminal fraud. Nonetheless, they continued to participate because of the large sums they were earning.”

    It was a case of garbage in, garbage out., with some of the pitchmen later playing dumb and claiming they only were repeating what they were told by the company — including an assertion the enterprise was “entirely legal” and had been vetted by an “attorney.”

    But is was a sham, the judge ruled. (Emphasis added.)

    “Defendants made gross misrepresentations about almost every aspect of the business,” Weinstein found. “Promotional materials painted the picture of an established, multi-national operation, replete with endorsements from people like George Soros. In reality, the company’s history, international locations, testimonials, purported in-house hedge fund, and research facilities were entirely fabricated.”

    And Weinstein’s memo also destroyed the notion of plausible deniability on the parts of the pitchmen and business associates. (Emphasis added.)

    “Many of the smaller players in the fraud contend that they did not know that what they were doing was wrong,” Weinstein wrote. “If these defendants acted out of ignorance, they willfully rendered themselves blind.”

    And, the judge noted (emphasis added), “Those who cross the line from legal occupation to illegal acts are rarely shielded from criminal liability because they acted in conformance with the instructions of supervisors or the advice of legal counsel. This is particularly so in the high-risk, highly regulated financial industry. Puffery of the sort that may be winked at when utilized by a used car salesperson can constitute a serious crime when made in connection with the sale of securities.”

    Information about the victims and their statements that appears below is taken from an updated sentencing memo issued Monday. The document is a painful read, one that speaks to a disgusting enterprise that targeted vulnerable populations and pilfered retirement and college savings while causing bankruptcies and divorces and destroying family relationships. It also speaks to what Weinstein described as the greed of Marsh’s fellow pitchmen.

    Victims’ Statements (Abridged)

    Here is how several of the victims of the $20 million fraud described how their lives were altered. (Please note that some of the statements are direct quotes from victims; others are summaries of their experiences taken from quoted material in court files.)

    • “[Gryphon] took my retirement money and I have serious doubts now that I will ever be able to retire. I am 59 years old and I don’t have enough time to make this money loss up . . . I fear for my family’s well-being and future.”
    • “Prior to the crime, my financial house was in order and I had saved plenty of money for retirement. Now, I have to ‘start over.’”
    • “I informed [pitchman] Mr. Leveir [sic] that I was going to use my daughters’ college tuition money and asked him to please not be scamming me as a loss of this money was detrimental to me.” (NOTE: The judge found that James Levier, 36, earned $20,000 a month as a fraud pitchman, after previously earning $35,000 a year as an assistant manager at Burger King. Levier created “at least” 250 victims as a Gryphon pitchman. Levier cooperated with prosecutors and has medical problems. The judge sentenced him to three months in prison, three years’ supervised release — and ordered him to forfeit $516,000 and be “jointly and severally liable” for more than $10.5 million in restitution.)
    • “My children were saddled with college loans they should never [have] had to take out because their father was stupid enough to fall for all the misleading advertising they sent out via e-mail. Getting involved with these crooks was the stupidest and most financially devastating thing I have ever done.”
    • “[The fraud] left us in bankruptcy for our credit cards, our savings, were no more. We had to give up [our] dreams, to remodel our home, to give money to our sons so they could get a good start at life. After my husband died it [left us] almost destitute.”
    • “These people completely stole my dignity and my self-worth as I just had to keep going to try and get my money back. I was totally desperate. I have never been treated for depression until this affair with Gryphon happened to me.”
    • Another victim said he “became so depress[ed] that [he] stayed in bed for days at a time. Now [he] do[es] not trust anybody.”
    • Yet another “developed a sleeping disorder and was suffering with stomach issues due to the stress.” Still another “is addicted to sleeping pills now and [has] to take two a night to sleep.” A third “accumulated several thousand dollars of medical bills as a result of the fraud.”
    • One victim stated “that his wife of twenty-eight years left him soon after he admitted that defendants’ scheme had caused him to go $125,000 into debt, $100,000 of which resulted from fees and failed trades. “I’ll never forget her look of disgust with me. For what I have done with Gryphon Financial,” the man said.
    • Another victim put it this way: “I have also lost my marriage of 28 years due to solely the loss of over 33 thousand dollars of my wife’s and my retirement account. She has called me an idiot for good reason and this has been the hardest part. I truly let her down and it now has caused our separation. She still thinks I am a complete moron. I can’t even look her in the eye due to extreme embarrassment.”
    • In some cases, “when victims’ marriages survived the terrible losses, they did so in a weakened state.” One victim “stated that his wife prevented him from having a nervous breakdown when he discovered that they had been defrauded . . . However, she no longer trusts him, especially with regard to financial decisions.”
    • Another victim put it this way: “My wife and I rarely speak. Before this, we ran several businesses as a couple. We now have the business (bar and grill), but work different shifts so we don’t argue. Yes, our marital relations have also suffered. I guess that’s called loss of consortium.”
    • Still another — a wife of a Marsh target whose husband “suffers from progressive dementia and Alzheimer’s” — put it this way: “I was involved in the traumatic events as I tried to recover the funds from Gryphon Financial after discovering that [my husband] paid $25,000 for investment consulting services we did not want or need. When we attempted to cancel the services, even explaining my husband had dementia and was not of the capacity to understand fully what he was purchasing . . . we were told the funds were non-refundable and then we were threatened with legal action from attorneys.”
    • Meanwhile, a different woman put it this way: “I’m 80 years old, a widow, living with . . . part time care workers. My soc. security, and small widow pensions etc. are my current situation. I’m in a wheelchair. They were well informed of my health and age.”
    • Yet another victim was described as “a quadriplegic who was saddled with large medical bills.”
    • Still another victim — a husband, father and grandfather — put it this way: “At the time this unfolded my only daughter was killed in a car accident not of her fault and we were left with two beautiful twin boys aged three. My wife and I are in our mid-sixties. I informed [fictitious pitchman] John Stevens of this happening and that I wanted to be left alone but they continued to press me and I folded. . . . I hoped to help the family but obviously I did not.”

    “Defendants used victims’ vulnerabilities to their own advantage,” according to the Judge Weinstein’s memo.

    “What is particularly striking about the case is [this,]”, the judge wrote: “First, how many people earning decent livings were so easily induced to become members of this corrosive criminal conspiracy, and how cruelly they acted towards the customers they dealt with.

    “Second, how naïve were many of the victims and how easily they were suckered into turning over their fortunes to unknown, bodiless voices and emails.”

    Read the full memo at Leagle.com

  • A BRIEF STUDY IN CASH-GIFTING CONTRASTS: The Attorney General, The BBB — And Hank Needham (Before The Club Asteria Brainstorm And CONSOB Probe)

    In this June 2008 video, Hank Needham — later to emerge as a Club Asteria principal — counts out a stack of £20 British notes delivered in a cash-gifting scheme. Using the pronoun "we" without defining who "we" was, Needham told viewers that "we" intended to open a cash-gifting "school." About three years later, Club Asteria positioned itself as an online "education" leader. In a March 2008 cash-gifting video, Needham was featured counting out a small stack of U.S. $100 bills. What was needed, Needham coached, was "training" on how to post cash-gifting videos on the Internet. Prosecutors say cash-gifting is illegal. The BBB calls it a pyramid scheme. In May 2011, CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, blocked promos for Club Asteria in Italy. Needham has called himself a Club Asteria owner, and Club Asteria had described him as the director of sales and marketing “responsible for establishing Country, Regional and Network Team Leaders."

    In this post, we included a March 2008 Dailymotion video of Hank Needham — later to emerge as one of Club Asteria’s purported owners — hawking a cash gifting scheme in which five $100 bills (U.S.) spilled out of an envelope tucked inside an envelope delivered by overnight courier DHL. (Please note that March 2008 video also appears on a separate site. The date notation on that site is May 2008.)

    Another cash-gifting video from Needham — this one  dated June 2008 — has surfaced. In the June 2008 video, Needham is holding an envelope from FedEx, another overnight courier. “Now, we have another [envelope] — I won’t really go through the courier — I don’t think we’re supposed to use this courier anymore,” Needham tells viewers, after making sure they notice what he describes as a “little pile of cash that’s accumulating” to his left.

    As the June 2008 video proceeds, Needham removes cash that has been packed snugly in the FedEx envelope. It’s British pounds as opposed to U.S. currency this time — and this time the money has come from “Robin” (or Robyn?) in the “British Isles.” Unlike the March (and May) 2008 video in which “George,” presumably an American, is reported by Needham to have sent five large U.S. bills, “Robin,” presumably a Brit, has chosen to send 25 twenty-pound notes. Needham counts out all 25 bills, creating five rows with five bills in each row. Why Needham was reluctant the mention the name of FedEx was not made clear in the video. What was clear was the Needham wanted viewers to know that “we’re opening up a website called CashGiftingSchool.com.”

    He did not define “we.” The “school” website, which appears to have been registered in April 2008 while Needham was pushing the AdSurfDaily scheme in addition to cash-gifting, now resolves to a page that beams ads. (It’s worth noting that Needham, in 2008, was wearing casual attire while hawking the cash-gifting “school,” apparently from his home. Flash forward three years to 2011: Club Asteria is positioning itself as an “education” leader and featuring Needham on video. He is wearing a crisp, black suit in the 2011 video — and the backdrop is a board room. A button promoting the 2011 Club Asteria video in which Needham is showcased in the black suit is labeled “ABOUT COURAGE.” The button appears in Club Asteria’s October 2011 recruitment house organ.)

    Various Club Asteria-related entities have been trading on the names of various charities, including the American Red Cross. The Red Cross sent the purported Asteria Philanthropic Foundation a cease-and-desist letter 11 days ago, and the relief agency said yesterday that the foundation agreed to stop using the Red Cross  logo and other materials. How long it will take the Asteria-themed enterprises to comply is unclear.

    Needham’s image also appeared in 2008 promos for AdSurfDaily, an autosurf the U.S. Secret Service called an international Ponzi scheme.

    The Attorney General

    Before you take a look at the June 2008 Needham video — which appears to have been placed on Dailymotion just two months before the spectacular seizure by the U.S. Secret Service of tens of millions of dollars in the ASD Ponzi case — we’d like you to take a look at what the attorney general of Michigan says about cash gifting. Bill Schuette notes that purveyors can be charged with felonies. Mike Cox, Schuette’s predecessor as attorney general, said the same thing.

    Needham does not mention the law in either of his videos; he’s too busy counting bills. He appears to be less than pleased that “Robin,” unlike “George” in the other video, packed the bills tightly. It is unclear in either video whether DHL or FedEx left the envelopes in a secure place before Needham retrieved them. In other words, had the envelopes been left on Needham’s doorstep, they could have been stolen, an outcome sure to have created an unpleasant situation for both the senders and Needham.

    The BBB

    Now — to accent this brief study in contrast before you view Needham’s June 2008 cash-gifting video — take a look at this brief video on cash-gifting fraud by the Better Business Bureau:

    Hank Needham


    The CASH PROOF by hankneedham

  • EDITORIAL: Another Dark Day For ‘Asteria Foundation’ And Related Entities As American Red Cross Issues Statement Suggesting It Was Duped: ‘We Have No Record Of Receiving A Donation From This Organization And Have Not Partnered With Them’ On Japan Earthquake Relief ‘Or Any Other Projects’

    UPDATED 9:36 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The American Red Cross is a national treasure whose powerful and noble name never should be diluted or trifled with. But it is now apparent that various Club Asteria-related entities have done exactly that by not revealing certain critical information to the Red Cross while at once shamelessly seeking to build the Asteria brand across multiple platforms by tying it to the Red Cross — beginning in the spring during a period in which the agency was responding to a crisis in Japan.

    To describe what the Asteria entities have done as spectacularly parasitic with equally disgusting measures of greed and ham-handedness thrown in would be a gross  understatement. In any event, the Asteria entities have created a deplorable situation that sparked the Red Cross to issue a statement today. (You’ll see the full statement beginning four paragraphs below.) The statement was issued this afternoon from Washington, D.C., and emailed by the Red Cross to the PP Blog. The statement concerns the purported Asteria Philanthropic Foundation, which is linked to the purported Club Asteria business “opportunity” and other Asteria-themed enterprises. The Asteria enterprises are using the Red Cross name and logo in promos across multiple websites — while calling the Red Cross a partner. No partnership exists, the Red Cross made clear today.

    Members of Club Asteria — participants in any of the Asteria-themed enterprises — need to know that at least one of Club Asteria’s purported owners, Hank Needham, has been linked to promotions for online Ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes. (You’ll see a cash-gifting video starring Needham below.) The stench lives on three years after the taping, and it cannot be dissipated by leeching off the name of the Red Cross.

    This is a story that only is getting uglier. Ten days ago — after becoming concerned that its name and logo were being misused — the Red Cross sent the purported Asteria Foundation a cease-and-desist letter. It later developed that Needham had appeared in a May 2008 video that advertised a cash-gifting scheme. Needham, whose face also appeared in a 2008 promo for the alleged $110 million AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, is seen in the video opening an envelope from a courier service. A smaller envelope was packaged in the courier envelope — and five $100 bills spilled out of the smaller envelope. Needham fanned them for the camera. Cash-gifting schemes are prosecutable under pyramid-scheme statutes, despite what prospects are led to believe. U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., called cash-gifters “parasites” when he was attorney general of Connecticut.

    The PP Blog has added the italics to today’s statement by the Red Cross:

    The Asteria Foundation contacted the American Red Cross in April and said it wanted to make a donation to aid relief efforts in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami. At the time, the organization requested information on how the donation might be put to use and we directed their representative to published information on Red Cross recovery efforts. The organization also requested the ability to mention its donation to us in its own press materials, which we felt was appropriate.

    However, we have no record of receiving a donation from this organization and have not partnered with them on that or any other projects. We have requested that the organization remove our logo and other materials from its web site, and they have agreed to do so.

    In September, Club Asteria removed an image and purported “interview” with famed actor Will Smith from its recruitment emagazine amid questions about whether the purported “opportunity” was trying to plant the seed that Smith had endorsed the company.

    Scores of promos for Club Asteria, which trades on the name of the World Bank, have appeared online this year. The promos described Club Asteria as a “passive” investment opportunity that generated a weekly return of up to 10 percent. Club Asteria suspended member cashouts in June, after acknowledging its PayPal account had been suspended — and after claims about Club Asteria came under investigation in Italy.

    Club Asteria was widely promoted on Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. Members said payouts were routed through a Hong Kong entity known as Asteria Holdings Limited. When things turned sour at Club Asteria, the Ponzi-forum promoters turned their attentions to other HYIP “programs” that offered absurd returns that translated into purported yearly gains in the hundreds of percent.

    The Asteria Foundation also has used a Hong Kong address — tying it to a fax number in Virginia. Asteria Corp., Club Asteria’s apparent parent company and also the apparent driving force behind the purported Asteria Foundation, is based in Virginia.

    State authorities said last month that neither Club Asteria nor Asteria Corp. was registered to sell securities. Club Asteria has blamed its members for promotional blunders and for PayPal’s decision to suspend its account. That explanation, however, strains credulity — given Needham’s history of pushing multiple fraud schemes. It is inconceivable that Club Asteria did not know that its growth was being fueled by serial hucksters on Ponzi forums and by thousands of promos on the independent websites of Club Asteria affiliates, many of whom preemptively denied Club Asteria was conducting a Ponzi scheme. They could not possibly know whether Club Asteria was on the up-and-up without seeing the books and records from banks and as many as four separate payment processors.

    How much money Club Asteria gained as a result of promos that positioned the company as a cash cow is unclear. Scores of members claimed that paying Club Asteria $19.95 a month would produce a yearly income of more than $20,000. Club Asteria is believed to have gained considerable traction in the Third World. Club Asteria pitchman “Ken Russo,” who also is known as “DRdave” and is believed to operate from the United States, claimed on Ponzi boards to have received thousands of dollars in recruitment commissions via wire from Hong Kong.

    Club Asteria, which has described itself as a revenue-sharing program, does not publish verifiable financial information. The firm now appears to be branching out into social networking, positioning itself as an education leader and “cause” marketing company.

    Ponzi forum promoters, whom some critics describe derisively as “pimps” and “referral whores,” shilled for Club Asteria for months before the company suspended cashouts.

    2008 Hank Needham Video On Cash-Gifting

    Please note that the URL advertised in the Dailymotion video below — ptigift.com — no longer resolves to a server.


    What is all the fuss about Cash Gifting? by hankneedham

  • BIZARRE ON TOP OF BIZARRE: Andrey C. Hicks, Boston-Area Man Charged Civilly By SEC Last Week In Alleged ‘Locust’ Hedge-Fund Scheme, Now Charged Criminally, Feds Say; Separately, TMZ.com Reports Hicks Was Guest At Kim Kardashasian/Kris Humphries August Wedding — And That Kardashian Filed For Divorce Today

    Andrey C. Hicks, accused civilly by the SEC last week of orchestrating a domestic and offshore fraud, now has been charged criminally with wire fraud, federal prosecutors in Massachusetts said.

    Separately, TMZ.com is reporting that Hicks was a guest at the $10 million, August wedding of reality-TV star Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries, a professional basketball player in the NBA — and that Kardashian filed for divorce today.

    Hicks was arrested in Canada, TMZ reports.

    Kardashian and Humphries have been married barely two months. The divorce papers were filed today: Halloween Day. TMZ said Kardashian cited “irreconcilable” differences” with Humphries.

    Hicks operated a purported hedge fund known as Locust Offshore Fund Ltd. and an entity known as Locust Offshore Management LLC of Delaware.

    “Locust” is a term associated with a destructive bug capable of wiping out vegetation. How the firms allegedly operated by Hicks got their names was not immediately clear.

    Trading on the names of destructive insects, however, is not unprecedented in the fraud sphere.

    In May, a bizarre firm known as “Insectrio” was promoted on Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup and DreamTeamMoney. Insectrio apparently collapsed in late August.

    The SEC said Hicks made up two degrees from Harvard as part of his “Locust” scam, which involved more than $1.6 million, according to court filings.

  • MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi Forum ‘Temporarily’ Closes ‘JustBeenPaid’ Thread After Bickering Between Former Club Asteria Pitchman And Pitchman For ‘New’ Program Trading On JustBeenPaid’s Name

    We’ve mentioned it before — and we’ll mention it again. In July 2010, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) described the HYIP sphere as a “bizarre substratum of the Internet.”

    It was as good a description as any, and here is yet another case in point:

    The MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum said today that it “temporarily” closed its thread for the “JustBeenPaid” Ponzi scheme owing to bickering between “10BucksUp” and “lolalola.” JustBeenPaid, which is trading on the names of Warren Buffett and Oprah Winfrey, makes users affirm they are not government spies and purportedly began a transition in August to “offshore” servers. Members have been grumbling for weeks.

    “10BucksUp” rose to Ponzi forum prominence earlier this year through his efforts to promote the Club Asteria HYIP, which is trading on the names of the World Bank and the American Red Cross. “10BucksUp”  also promoted the JustBeenPaid HYIP while discouraging members from filing chargebacks with AlertPay for the good of all JustBeenPaid investors.

    “lolalola” now is hawking something called JSSTRIPLER2 or T2, which apparently is trading on the name of JustBeenPaid’s purported JSS Tripler arm.

    Although “10BucksUp” insists the purported new program is merely a “copycat” of the JustBeenPaid program, “lolalola” claims that, “[F]rom what I understand from the Admin is they did not trademark the brand or do they hold a copyright on the name… so he is free to use it.”

    In essence, two fraud programs now appear to be trading on the same name — but both “10BucksUp” and “lolalola” appear to be more concerned about clashing with each other than whether the schemes have (or are) stealing cash on a grand scale.

    Or something like that . . .

    “lolalola” is simultaneously promoting something called Zeek Rewards.

    “10BucksUp” recently has promoted Club Asteria, JustBeenPaid, Ad2Million and Cherry Shares. All of the programs are in a state of decay or outright disappearance. Cherry Shares is cited in litigation in Canada, and Club Asteria is cited in litigation in Italy.

    MoneyMakerGroup is listed in U.S. federal court filings as a place from which Ponzi schemes are promoted. So is TalkGold, another Ponzi forum.

  • UPDATE: No Updates On Club Asteria Blog Since Oct. 15, No ‘News’ Site Updates Since Sept. 12; Firm Continues To Publish Red Cross Logo In House Organ And On Purported ‘Philanthropic’ Site Despite Cease-And-Desist Letter; 2008 Cash-Gifting Video With Hank Needham Emerges

    In this frame from a cash-gifting video dated May 3, 2008, then-AdSurfDaily pitchman Hank Needham opens an envelope from a cash-gifing scheme — and five $100 bills purportedly from "George" spill out. The date on the video coincides with a period of time in which Needham's image appeared in an ad for ASD. Needham later would emerge as a Club Asteria principal and purported owner of the "program," which suspended cashouts earlier this year and caught the attention of regulators in Italy.

    Is anybody at home at Club Asteria and the purported Asteria Philanthropic Foundation? And where, precisely, is home?

    The Club Asteria Blog on a .US domain has not been updated since Oct. 15. In the recent past, the Blog had been updated approximately every three (or so) days, according to the date notations on the site. Updates were posted on Oct. 15, Oct. 12, Oct. 9, Oct. 6, Oct. 3, Sept. 30, Sept. 27, Sept.  24, Sept. 21, Sept. 16.

    Fifteen full days have passed since the most recent update.

    Separately, the Club Asteria “News” page on its .com domain has not been updated since Sept. 12, a period that encompasses more than a month and a half.

    Although the American Red Cross sent the Asteria Philanthropic Foundation a cease-and-desist letter six days ago amid concerns of brand leeching, Club Asteria continues to publish the Red Cross logo and name in its October house organ. The firm uses the publication, an emagazine, for recruiting.

    It is common for fraud schemes to plant the seed they are affiliated with a legitimate entity.

    Meanwhile, the Asteria Philanthropic Foundation, which also is known as the Asteria Foundation and uses street addresses in the United States and Hong Kong, also continues to publish the Red Cross name and logo on the foundation’s .org site.

    Before suspending member cashouts earlier this year, Club Asteria issued payments via wire from a purported Hong Kong entity known as Asteria Holdings Limited, according to “I Got Paid” posts on infamous Ponzi scheme forums.

    Last month, Club Asteria removed from its house organ an image and purported “interview” with actor Will Smith. A “JOIN NOW” button had been placed near the Smith-related content. In this month’s house organ, a “JOIN OUR MISSION” button was placed inside a quotation from Mahatma Gandhi, the slain Indian champion of freedom. Gandhi’s name was misspelled in the promo.

    Virginia authorities said on Oct. 20 that Club Asteria was not registered as an issuer of securities in the state. They declined to say whether a Club Asteria probe was under way.

    In May, CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, banned promos for the firm in Italy.

    In a video dated May 3, 2008 — prior to the apparent formation of Club Asteria and the Asteria Foundation but during a period of time in which Club Asteria principal Hank Needham’s image appeared in a promo for AdSurfDaily — Needham appeared in a video for cash gifting, the PP Blog has learned.

    Needham is seen in the cash-gifting video opening an envelope from a courier service that contained a smaller envelope. The package purportedly was sent by “George.”

    When Needham opened the smaller envelope, five $100 bills spilled out.

    “Thank you, George, ” Needham said.

    Needham then fanned the bills in front of the camera.

    In August 2008, the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars in the ASD case, amid Ponzi allegations. It is known that some ASD members also were cash-gifting enthusiasts. After the ASD-related seizures, some ASD members sought to recruit others for cash-gifting, autosurf and HYIP schemes, claiming the schemes were excellent ways to make up for ASD losses while highlighting the purported “offshore” locations of some of the “programs.”

  • SEC: Federal Judge Orders Asset Freeze Amid Allegations That ‘Locust Offshore Fund Ltd.’ Was A Fraud Pulled Off By Man Who Falsely Claimed 2 Harvard Degrees; Andrey C. Hicks Accused Of Faking Academic And Employment Pedigrees And Sanitizing Fraud Through Website

    In yet another bizarre and disturbing development on the fraud front, the SEC went to federal court in Massachusetts yesterday, leveling spectacular allegations of financial deceit against Locust Offshore Management LLC of Delaware and Cambridge, Mass., and its principal, Andrey C. Hicks of Boston.

    Named a relief defendant was Locust Offshore Fund Ltd., a purported hedge fund in the British Virgin Islands that is alleged to have been the bogus recipient of ill-gotten gains.

    Neither of the Locust entities was registered with the SEC, and claims that Locust was properly registered and in good standing in the British Virgin Islands were false, the agency alleged.

    Although Hicks, 27, planted the seed he had both undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard, the claims were false, the SEC said.

    Nor was Hicks ever employed by Barclays Capital as he claimed, the agency charged.

    Meanwhile, Ernst & Young — contrary to the claims of Hicks — was not the auditor of the Locust Fund, the SEC charged. At the same time, Credit Suisse was not the fund’s prime broker and custodian, and the fund was not incorporated in the British Virgin Isles as Hicks had claimed, the agency added.

    The scheme operated in part through a website designed to trick investors, the SEC said. Despite high-sounding claims on the site that the “firm’s quantitative strategies are based on mathematical models developed by the fund’s manager, Andrey C. Hicks, during his tenure at Harvard University and are executed by computer software,” Hicks attended Harvard for only three semesters as an undergraduate — and flunked out twice, the SEC alleged.

    He was not permitted to re-enroll after his second dismissal, the SEC charged. During his brief time at Harvard, Hicks took only one math course, carding a D-minus, the agency said, quoting records from the prestigious university.

    None of these things, however, kept Hicks from creating a website and using it to mask the fraud and sanitize the scheme, establishing Locust Offshore Management LLC  as a Delaware corporation, opening business and personal checking accounts, creating offering materials for his unregistered firm purportedly operating offshore — and hawking his fraud scheme, the SEC charged.

    Hicks met one of his customers on an “airplane,” telling his fellow voyager that Locust had $1.5 billion under management , that he had a PhD in “applied mathematics” from Harvard and had developed his trading skills at Barclays before setting out on his own at Locust, the SEC charged.

    Among other things, Hicks told his airplane mark that Barclays was a “large investor” in the Locust fund and touted the Locust website. The pair exchanged business cards, the SEC said.

    After meeting Hicks on the plane, the investor visited the Locust website last month, viewing purported data about the firm, including a claim that the fund had more than $1.2 billion under management and had generated  “an incredible year-to-date return of 78.59 percent,” the SEC alleged.

    “All of the financial data appeared on web-pages that described the data as ‘powered by Credit Suisse,’ creating the false and deceptive impression that the data came from Credit Suisse,” the SEC charged.

    In reality, the SEC charged, bank records showed that the enterprise had only about about $1.7 million under management.

    Based on the false information provided by Hicks, the investor plowed $100,000 into the scheme, the SEC said, alleging that, within days of the September investment, Hicks moved the money into his personal checking account.

    Between June 2, 2011 and Oct. 11, 2011, other investors from Massachusetts, Minnesota and Iowa appear to have plowed more than $1.6 million into the scheme — with $83,000 being the low-end investment and $500,000 being the high end, the SEC alleged.

    “Substantially all” of the money was transferred to to “checking and savings deposit accounts in the sole, personal name of Hicks,” the SEC charged.

    U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns ordered an asset freeze, the SEC said.

     

  • STATEMENT: PP Blog Experiencing Unusual Traffic Pattern During Anniversary Week Of Last Year’s Crippling Attack; Blog Confirms It Received A Claim Of Responsibility In April For Springtime Outage

    Part of today's unusual traffic pattern of multiple international IPs simultaneously pulling the same "old" story. (Also see screen shot below.)

    At approximately 2:06 p.m. EDT Monday, the PP Blog began to experience an unusual traffic pattern. In the past, such patterns have been the precursors of sustained electronic assaults against the Blog.

    The unusual pattern reoccurred yesterday, and the Blog contacted a federal law-enforcement agency.  The agency is aware of a server-killing assault on the Blog that began a year ago this week. It also is aware of subsequent attacks. The Blog believes that one or more criminals is responsible for the unusual traffic pattern, which mostly features multiple international IPs attempting to pull the same “old” stories simultaneously.

    Although Monday and Tuesday’s unusual traffic eventually dissipated, the pattern resumed today and caused the Blog’s server briefly to exceed its normal operating parameters. Not all of the unusual activity is captured in the screen shots published in this post.

    PP Blog Today Discloses Nature Of April Incident

    In April 2011, the Blog reported an unusual incident to the same federal law-enforcement agency referenced above.  The incident involved a claim of responsibility for a crippling springtime botnet flood against the Blog by a person who claimed to have carried out the attack on behalf of a specific, U.S.-based company with an international presence. The “opportunity” purportedly provided by the company was widely promoted on Ponzi scheme boards earlier this year, and the person also claimed to represent other companies. In making the claim of responsibility, the person described the Blog as “your little vicious blog.”

    The Blog provided the agency information about the April event, which the Blog viewed as a bid to chill its reporting. The implication of the April incident was that the attacks could continue at the will of a self-described “master of execution” for online investment schemes until such a time the Blog devoted between $60,000 and $72,000 a year to deflect the traffic.

    In the claim of responsibility, the self-described attacker used the phrase “TOP HYIPs” and the name of an HYIP purveyor.  He described himself in menacing language.

    Although the Blog is maintaining a full publishing schedule and its server has returned to normal operating parameters today, the signatures of certain “calls” to the Blog’s editorial well are troublesome and will be monitored closely in the coming hours and days.

     

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: American Red Cross Sends ‘Cease-And-Desist’ Letter To Asteria Foundation

    URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: The American Red Cross, which opened a probe last week into the potential misuse of its name and logo by the Asteria Philanthropic Foundation, has sent the foundation a letter to cease and desist.

    Anne Marie Borrego, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross in Washington, D.C., said this morning that the letter went out yesterday. The Asteria Philanthropic Foundation, also known as the Asteria Foundation, uses a Hong Kong street address and has issued at least one undated “press release” that uses a dateline of Reston, Va.

    The foundation is linked to Club Asteria, a purported earnings “program” that traded on the name of the World Bank and became a darling of the Ponzi boards earlier this year before suspending cashouts.

    The Red Cross logo and name appeared in Club Asteria’s October 2011 house organ, which the firm uses for recruiting. The Red Cross name and logo also appears on the Asteria foundation’s .org domain.

    Claims about Club Asteria caught the attention of CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, in May. Officials in Virginia last week said that neither Club Asteria nor Asteria Corp. was registered to sell securities in the state. Asteria Corp. is Club Asteria’s apparent parent company.

    Virginia officials declined to say whether a state-level probe into the activities of Club Asteria was under way.

    A 2008 promo for AdSurfDaily features an image of Hank Needham, a purported Club Asteria principal. ASD later was implicated by the U.S. Secret Service in an alleged Ponzi scheme involving at least $110 million.

    Club Asteria was widely promoted on Ponzi boards such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. Promoters later turned their attention to “programs” such as Centurion Wealth Circle and JustBeenPaid, which is trading on the names and images of Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, Benjamin Franklin and “Mr. Spock” of the Star Trek movie and televison series.

    Last month, Club Asteria removed an image of actor Will Smith from its house organ. This month, the company is trading on a quote from Mahatma Gandhi, the slain champion of freedom in India. A “JOIN OUR MISSION” button was placed inside a quote from Gandhi, whose name was misspelled in the publication.

    See earlier story.