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  • UPDATE: Jeffery L. Groendyke, Michigan Man Accused In Forex Ponzi Scheme, Ordered To Pay Nearly $1.4 Million In Restitution And Penalties

    Jeffery L. Groendyke, the Michigan man accused by the CFTC in May of targeting people of faith and others in a Forex Ponzi scheme, has been ordered to pay $963,141 in restitution and a $420,000 civil penalty.

    U.S. District Judge Robert J. Jonker issued the order against Groendyke by consent, finding that he fraudulently solicited $1,009,844 from 42 individuals, lost some of it trading and making Ponzi payments and sent $501,510 to an entity known as Capstone FX.

    The CFTC last month charged Captone and its operator Nicholas Trimble with fraud, amid allegations Trimble spent investors’ money in Las Vegas casinos, fabricated an office in Utah (and a miraculous trading platform) — and told other lies to separate people from their money.

    Groendyke’s scheme caused an apparent Groendyke supporter to visit the PP Blog in the spring and claim “I can’t wait to laugh at the CFTC.”

    The same poster demanded, “Do some homework bitch.”

    For the breakdown on how investor funds were dissipated in the Groendyke scheme and how investors were hoodwinked by false statements, read the judicial order against Groendyke.

     

  • UPDATE: Criminal Prosecutors Say Jason Bo-Alan Beckman Stole Nearly $4 Million From Elderly Husband And Wife; Wife A Stroke Victim With ‘Hemispheric Paralysis,’ According To Court Records; Beckman’s Manipulations Amount To ‘Contumacious Disobedience,’ SEC Says

    UPDATE: Facing a margin deficit of more than $10 million and at risk of having his trading account closed in February 2008, Jason Bo-Alan Beckman — a figure in the Trevor Cook Ponzi scheme — sought to address the whopping shortfall and prop up the monumental fraud by stealing about $3.9 million from an elderly couple, federal prosecutors in Minnesota now say.

    Separately, a federal judge has denied Beckman’s bid for the court to release $3,000 for living expenses. Chief Judge Michael J. Davis ruled Beckman could not have the money after receiver R.J. Zayed and the SEC claimed Beckman had failed to repay an earlier loan of more than $5,120 made to him from receivership proceeds and had shown no proof that $1,248 of that sum had gone to pay child-support obligations as required.

    Beckman, 41, has been charged both civilly and criminally, amid allegations he was a central figure in Cook’s $194 million fraud, believed to among the largest in Minnesota history. Victims have complained that Beckman is thumbing his nose at them, and prosecutors say he “has provided shifting and inconsistent rationalizations” for his conduct.

    The SEC chose a different phrase to describe Beckman’s alleged manipulations of victims and the courts: contumacious disobedience. (See definition below.)

    In shocking new allegations, criminal prosecutors said Beckman stole millions of dollars from an elderly husband and wife now in their nineties and tried to make it appear as though the wife — a stroke victim with “hemispheric paralysis” — had become his business partner.

    Beckman sold two life-insurance policies on the woman’s “then 92-year old husband” for about $3.9 million, and then converted “the proceeds of that sale for his own benefit,” prosecutors alleged.

    He told neither the wife nor the husband about the sale, but later claimed that the woman — described by prosecutors as “C.O.” — had become an investor in Oxford Private Client Group, an advisory firm controlled by Beckman that allegedly fed Cook’s Ponzi.

    “Put differently,” prosecutors alleged, “Beckman now claims that C.O., who was a stroke victim in her eighties, knowingly contributed millions of dollars to the Oxford Private Client Group capital so that she could become Beckman’s partner in high finance.”

    The woman, prosecutors said, resides with her husband at an assisted-living facility and suffers from partial paralysis on her left side.

    She “can transfer herself from one place to another only with significant assistance,” prosecutors said.

    Prosecutors interviewed the woman at the facility last month and now are seeking court approval to take her formal deposition at the facility and preserve it for trial, saying it was “doubtful that she would be able to give live testimony in a federal courtroom without great hardship to herself.”

    Prosecutors argued that she was a “critical witness” who’d told them that “Beckman arranged for the purchase of the life insurance policies” on her husband’s life in 2005, telling the couple that he would sell the policies “at a substantial profit.”

    But Beckman “subsequently told her that the policies had no value,” prosecutors said. “She reported that Beckman did not tell her that he sold the policies or that their sale had generated almost $4 million in proceeds. She reported that she certainly did not give Beckman permission to use the proceeds. Perhaps most importantly, she reported that she never purchased an interest in the Oxford Private Client Group. On this point she was unequivocal.”

    In successfully arguing against the release of funds to Beckman, the SEC said his victims “face a dire situation.”

    “The Court has already accommodated Beckman by ordering that some of the limited, frozen funds be advanced to him,” the SEC argued. “Beckman has returned the Court’s leniency with contumacious disobedience.”

    See definition of “contumacious” here.

  • SENIOR FRAUD CAVALCADE CONTINUES: Alleged ‘Airplane Parts’ Ponzi Scheme Lands 78-Year-Old Man In Florida Jail; Roger Green And Alleged Accomplice Charged With Racketeering

    Roger Green: Source: Broward County Sheriff's Office.

    Saying that money-laundering and securities fraud were part of a $7 million Ponzi scheme involving aircraft parts, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) has arrested two men, charging them with racketeering.

    Roger Green, 78, remains in custody at the Broward County Jail. Alleged accomplice Victor Brown, 55, of Hollywood, was freed after posting bail. The men were arrested Wednesday.

    Green and Brown were accused of obtaining funds fraudulently from investors and using proceeds from the scheme “to gamble and for the purchase of expensive cars and other items.”

    The arrests, FDLE said, came as a result of “Operation Usual Suspects,” which began in 2009 and focused on a company known as Military Air Parts International.

    Web records tie the men to a now-defunct site known as C130Spares. Among other things, the site featured a photo of a U.S. Air Force C130 transport plane with the words “Welcome Aboard” appearing in the image.

    “You will soon find how committed we are to the aviation industry,” the site promised. “We serve the C130 Military and L100 Commercial aircrafts exclusively! As founders, we look forward to supporting your parts and flight requirements world wide.”

    But “Green and Brown did not acquire, nor were they in possession of, the aircraft parts they were offering to sell,” FDLE said. “The few aircraft parts they did obtain were used to acquire funds from additional victims.”

    All in all, the swindle ensnared 24 “victim investors in Florida and elsewhere,” operating between 2004 and 2007, FDLE said.

    Investors were told Green and Brown could generate returns of up to 18 percent within three to six months, FDLE said.

  • BULLETIN: NOTRE DAME HEARTBREAKER: Legendary Fighting Irish Football Walk-On Daniel ‘Rudy’ Ruettiger Charged With 12 Others In Alleged $11 Million ‘Pump And Dump’ Penny-Stock Swindle

    BULLETIN: The SEC has charged Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger and 12 others — including a disbarred attorney — in an alleged penny-stock swindle that gathered $11 million.

    The civil case is filed in U.S. District Court in Nevada.

    Ruettiger, 63, of Las Vegas, was the inspiration behind the movie “Rudy,” which depicted his drive to make the Notre Dame football team as a walk-on despite being undersized.

    A motivational speaker who became famous after the movie, Ruettiger founded a company known as Rudy Nutrition, positioning its sports drink against Gatorade, the SEC said. The stock traded under the symbol RUNU, and stock promoter Stephen DeCesare of Las Vegas “put the RUNU scheme together,” the agency charged.

    “Investors were lured into the scheme by Mr. Ruettiger’s well-known, feel-good story but found themselves in a situation that did not have a happy ending,” said Scott W. Friestad, associate director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “The tall tales in this elaborate scheme included phony taste tests and other false information that was used to convince investors they were investing in something special.”

    The SEC identified the disbarred attorney as Kevin J. Quinn of Santa Monica, Calif.

    As part of the scheme, the SEC said, potential investors received a promotional mailer that “falsely claimed that in ‘a major southwest test, Rudy outsold Gatorade 2 to 1!”

    A promotional e-mail, the SEC said, “falsely boasted that in ‘several blind taste tests, Rudy outperformed Gatorade and Powerade by 2:1.’”

    At the same time, “the scheme’s promoters engaged in manipulative trading to artificially inflate the price of Rudy Nutrition stock while selling unregistered shares to investors,” the SEC said.

    Ruettiger has agreed to pay $382,866 to settle the charges without admitting or denying the allegations, the SEC said. Ten other defendants also entered settlement agreements without admitting or denying wrongdoing, and all of the agreements must meet with court approval.

    In bringing the complaint, the SEC described a “classic pump-and-dump” swindle that featured a reverse merger, fraudulent touting, bogus press releases, videos, ceaseless hype and Internet postings.

    See full list of defendants here.

    Read the SEC complaint here.

  • UPDATE: Alleged Minnesota Shooter Left Courthouse To Retrieve Handgun After Conviction In Sex Case; Daniel Schlienz Returned And Repeatedly Shot Prosecutor, Witness, Sheriff Says

    Daniel Schlienz: Minnesota courthouse shooting suspect.

    Cook County, Minn., prosecutor Timothy Scannell survived three gunshot wounds yesterday afternoon and remains hospitalized. A second person shot three times at the Cook County Courthouse also survived and remains hospitalized, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis/St. Paul reported.

    Sheriff Mark Falk laid out some chilling details in a statement today on the arrest of Daniel Schlienz, 42, the accused gunman. Falk also released Schlienz’s mugshot.

    Schlienz was found guilty yesterday of criminal sexual conduct, but was not immediately remanded into custody, according to Falk’s statement.

    After the jury’s finding of guilt, Schlienz left the courthouse and retrieved a “handgun” from his vehicle, according to Falk’s statement.

    Schlienz then went back inside the courthouse “and went to County Attorney Timothy Scannell’s office with the loaded weapon,” according to the sheriff’s statement.

    Scannell is 45, according to Falk’s statement.

    Once inside the office, Schlienz shot Greg Thompson — a subpoenaed witness in the sex-crime case — in the leg, according to the sheriff’s statement.

    Thompson is 53 and, like Schlienz and Scannell, lives in Grand Marais, Minn. Thompson fled the office after being shot, according to Falk’s statement.

    Schlienz then shot Scannell, Cook County’s elected prosecutor, inside the prosecutor’s own office, according to the sheriff’s statement.

    Still not done, “Schlienz then left the office and saw the witness Thompson on a nearby landing,” according to Falk’s statement.

    Schlienz then shot Thompson a second time, according to Falk’s statement.

    “At that point Schlienz’s defense attorney came to Scannell’s aid,” according to the sheriff’s statement.

    Deputy Gary Radloff — a 70-year-old bailiff who heard the shots and cleared “the jury and the judge from the courtroom” for their safety — then followed the sound of the gunfire and confronted Schlienz.

    “[A] struggle ensued, during which Deputy Radloff was injured but was not shot,” according to the sheriff’s statement. “Another Cook County deputy and a Minnesota State Patrol trooper arrived on the scene and took Schlienz into custody.”

    Falk’s statement was issued through the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. The office of Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson is handling the prosecution of Schlienz. Charges are expected to be filed Monday.

    Schlienz is being held at the Cook County jail.

     

  • FEDS: Man Sentenced Yesterday To 105 Years In Offshore Scam That Endangered U.S. Military Filed ‘Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars Of Fraudulent Default Judgments’ After Arrest In Previous Scam

    Though not using the phrase “sovereign citizen” when describing the courtroom actions of Roger Charles Day Jr., the Department of Justice said yesterday that Day “filed hundreds of billions of dollars of fraudulent default judgments against more than 100 people who Day claimed had prosecuted him unfairly.”

    Included among Day’s targets were “investigating agents, the prosecuting attorneys, Day’s former defense counsel and the U.S. district judge who sentenced him” in a New Jersey fraud case in federal court in the late 1990s, the Justice Department said.

    But not even a 97-month prison term handed down from the New Jersey caper deterred Day from a life of crime, the Justice Department said.

    Day, 47, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge John Gibney of the Eastern District of Virgina to 105 years in federal prison for a parts scam top U.S. officials said endangered the U.S. military.

    “Mr. Day’s greed put the men and women in the U.S. military in harm’s way,” said U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride of the Eastern District of Virginia.

    In August 2011 — after Day was found guilty on federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to engage in international money laundering and conspiracy to smuggle gold out of the United States — Assistant U.S. Attorney General Lanny Breuer said this:

    “Mr. Day masterminded a sophisticated and dangerous conspiracy to profit from the sale of defective parts to the U.S. military. He foolishly put our nation’s security at risk for the sake of personal riches.”

    Day, a fugitive, was captured in Mexico after “America’s Most Wanted” broadcast a story on him. He was extradited from Mexico in December 2010, the Justice Department said.

    Gibney yesterday ordered Day to forfeit 3,496 ounces of gold bars and coins, two sport utility vehicles and $2.1 million, the proceeds from the scheme targeted at the Defense Department.

    Meanwhile, Gibney ordered a $3 million fine and $6.2 million in restitution to the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA).

    “It is unpardonable that individuals endeavor to enrich themselves by stealing from the U.S. taxpayer through fraud, especially by denying critical goods to our warfighters combating terrorism in a hostile overseas environment,” said Robert E. Craig and Edward T. Bradley of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), in a joint statement.

    Day and coconspirators in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Belize, “formed at least 18 separate companies that posed as legitimate contractors and collectively used a computer program to win nearly 1,000 lucrative contract awards for the various companies.

    “Day and his conspirators then shipped defective parts to the [Department of Defense] on more than 300 of those contracts, receiving more than $4.4 million in payment on parts that Day purchased for less than $200,000,” the Justice Department said.

    The New Jersey case against Day in the 1990s also involved a bid to scam the Defense Department, the Justice Department said.

    And Day also was sentenced to 84 months in New Jersey state prison in the 1990s for a scam aimed at the city of Newark the Newark Board of Education, the Justice Department said.

    In his most recent scheme aimed at the Defense Department, “Day and his co-conspirators compounded the fraud by concealing their identities through the use of multiple nominee companies and by assuming others’ identities to operate the companies,” the Justice Department said.

    “When [the Department of Defense] requested proof that the companies had purchased and intended to supply the correct parts from approved manufacturers, Day and others submitted fabricated documents that falsely represented that the correct parts had been purchased,” the Justice Department said.

    After detecting the fraud,   the Defense Department “debarred several of the companies from doing further business with the military, the Justice Department said.

    But not even that caused Day to end his dangerous scheming, which had put the military and the American people at risk.

    Day simply “directed his conspirators to discontinue bidding through those companies and instead form and use new companies,” the Justice Department said.

  • ‘AutoXTen,’ Ponzi Forum Darling And Scheme Linked To Former DNA And Narc That Car Pitchman Jeff Long, Goes Missing After Long Traded On Patriotism And Claimed ‘Opportunity’ Was Appropriate For ‘Churches’

    AutoXten came out of the gate during the summer, amid claims $10 could turn into nearly $200,000. Promos claimed the "opportunity" was using Canada-based AlertPay to avoid PayPal restrictions and that AutoXten was suited for "churches."

    AutoXTen, the absurd matrix cycler that came to life this summer even as the state of Oregon was issuing a public warning against pyramid schemes and ordering a $345,000 penalty against a cycler pitchman, has gone missing.

    The AutoXTen website is registered in the name of Jeff Long, an MLM huckster who sang the praises in 2010 of both the Narc That Car (NTC) and Data Network Affiliates (DNA) license-plate schemes before abandoning both programs and warning his followers to “Stay away from ‘EZ MONEY’ pitches and claims.”

    Long, though, appeared not to have followed his own advice. After the failures of Narc That Car and DNA, AutoXTen came out of the gate with a claim that members could “Turn $10 into $199,240.”

    Prior to the apparent collapse of AutoXTen, remarks attributed to Long on the AutoXTen help desk claimed the program was appropriate for “churches.” DNA made similar claims about one of its “programs” last year.

    In 2010, Jeff Long's YouTube video for Narc That Car was referenced by Fox News 11 in Los Angeles as part of the station's Narc coverage. The original Narc video was repurposed by Long into a YouTube text pitch for DNA, but later edited to insert an announcement Long had left both Narc and DNA.

    DNA’s website also has gone missing. The DNA program was associated with MLM huckster Phil Piccolo, as was a program known as One World One Website (OWOW). OWOW emerged last month as a launch ground for the emerging Text Cash Network (TCN) scheme.

    Despite the appearance online of a photo of a glistening building in Boca Raton, Fla., with the words “TEXT CASH NETWORK” affixed in large letters near the crown of the building, the Boca Raton Police Department said Wednesday that the company’s name does not appear on the building.

    Questions have been raised about whether Long performs any due diligence on the “opportunities” he embraces or blindly defaults to the company line or manufactures a convenient truth while recruiting participants by the hundreds into scheme after scheme.

    Long was among the conference-call cheerleaders for DNA, along with Joe Reid, who went on to become a cheerleader for TCN.

    Reid also was a cheerleader for OWOW, a company Piccolo positioned as the provider of a “magnetic” product that could prevent leg amputations and help tomatoes grow to twice their normal size.

    This video in which Jeff Long was driving an automobile and pitching the MLM license-plate schemes of DNA and Narc That Car was edited to insert the red balloon and annoucement from Long that he had dumped both DNA and Narc — and to warn prospects to stay away from "EZ MONEY'" MLM schemes. Long then turned to AutoXTen amid claims the firm's matrix cycler could turn $10 into nearly $200,000 and was appropriate for "churches."

    Whether Long participated in OWOW and TCN was not immediately clear. What is clear is that the AutoXTen website is not resolving to a server only months after the purported miracle program’s launch.

    When pinged, both the AutoXten and DNA websites are returning this message: “Unknown error: 1214.”

    Both NTC and DNA carded scores of “F” from the Better Business Bureau. Some NTC members then attacked the BBB, and DNA changed the name of one of its purported offerings to “BBB” in an apparent bid to trick search engines.

    AutoXTen was hawked in part through posts on Ponzi forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

    AutoXTen gained a head of steam in part through promos by well-known Ponzi forum pitchmen “Ken Russo” (as “DRdave”), and “manolo,” both of whom also promoted Club Asteria.

    Club Asteria, which purports to have a philanthropic arm, suspended member payouts months ago and acknowledged its PayPal account had been suspended.

    An AutoXTen email attributed to Long, Scott Chandler and Brent Robinson as the opportunity’s “Founders/Owners” also shows the firm traded on U.S. patriotism.

    “This weekend here in the United States of America, we celebrate our freedom and independence as a nation and a Country,” the email read in part. The email was posted on the TalkGold Ponzi forum by “manolo” on July 1, 2011, during the run-up to the Independence Day holiday in the United States.

    “We want to wish EVERYONE a HAPPY Independence weekend, please be safe, have fun and as you are celebrating, know that you are also celebrating your new life should you choose to step into it here with AutoXTen!” another part of the email exclaimed.

  • BULLETIN: 3 People Shot At Cook County Courthouse In Minnesota; Suspect In Custody, County Website Says; Prosecutor Is Among Victims, Newspaper Reports

    BULLETIN: Three people were shot this afternoon at the Cook County Courthouse in Grand Marais, Minn., the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said.

    Two gunshot victims were taken to Essentia Health Hospital in Duluth, St. Louis County, about 110 miles southwest of Grand Marais.  Their conditions are unknown, and their names were not released.

    A third gunshot victim was treated at Cook County North Shore Hospital in Grand Marais and released, said Doug Neville, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety.

    The Duluth News Tribune is reporting that Cook County Attorney Timothy Scannell is one of the shooting victims. Scannell is Cook County’s elected prosecutor. The AP is reporting that Scannell is in stable condition.

    Precisely where the shooting took place in the courthouse and the motive behind the shooting were unclear. The courthouse will be closed tomorrow, the county said on its website.

    The shootings occurred just after 4 p.m. local time, Neville said.

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: SEC Says Utah Father And Son Were At Helm Of $220 Million Ponzi Scheme That Traded On Faith

    URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: The SEC has gone to federal court in Utah to halt what it described as a $220 million real-estate Ponzi scheme that appeared to grow in part because the alleged operators used their membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to disarm skeptics.

    A “complex web of over 200 entities” were part of the scheme, which involved purported opportunities “to invest in limited liability companies in order to share ownership of large apartment communities in eight states,” the SEC said.

    Charged civilly with securities fraud were Wendell A. Jacobson, 58, and his son Allen R. Jacobson, 33. The Jacobsons operated from Fountain Green, Utah, and the scheme operated under an umbrella company known as Management Solutions Inc., the SEC said.

    U.S. District Judge Bruce S. Jenkins approved an asset freeze, the agency said, adding that about 225 investors were ensnared in the scheme.

    “Wendell and Allen Jacobson misled investors to believe they were financially supporting what was portrayed as a widespread and reputable operation to revamp apartment communities and turn a significant profit,” said Ken Israel, director of the SEC’s Salt Lake Regional Office. “Their promises were anything but truthful.”

    The scheme, according to the SEC, began at least in 2008 and involved “material and pervasive misrepresentations.”

    Read the SEC complaint.

  • DONATION POST: The Ponzi/Fraud Scourge Continues

    Dear Readers,

    We’re midway through December and are facing the challenge of carving out a tolerable existence and the costs of keeping the PP Blog going into the new year. The cupboard is bare, and today we’re once again asking for your help.

    Today began as do so many days: A quick look in our queue to see how relentless the spammers were overnight, followed by a quick look at our email for the purposes of pruning spam and finding the notes readers submit. The spammers have been particularly relentless lately. The Blog received 13,167 spams in November alone. It has received 8,787 so far this month, a pace that promises to top the November standard.

    Sifting through the mess creates an additional maintenance chore during these lean times. The situation places a demand on labor and time. There are very few short days at the PP Blog.

    It has struck me recently how bizarre certain fraud cases continue to be; it’s as though there is no ceiling to the absurdity and that no human being is off-limits. In Illinois, for example, a man scammed a woman — now 85 — who survived a Nazi labor camp.

    At the moment, this question cannot be answered: How low will they go.

    Longtime readers probably have noticed we’ve also been covering more and more stories involving purported “sovereign citizens.” Navigating that thicket is important because it shows Ponzi and fraud madness sometimes are symptoms of a larger madness. In any event, the universe that emerges is one in which the adjectives contradict the nouns. It is worrisome because the crimes are borderless, which is to say the madness can spread electronically from state to state and even country to country.

    We are doing our best to keep you informed.

  • Police Confirm That Name Of Text Cash Network Does Not Appear On Building In Boca Raton, Fla.

    One of the mysteries surrounding an upstart MLM business known as Text Cash Network (TCN) only is getting deeper. Despite photos published online that show the name of “TEXT CASH NETWORK” in large letters near the crown of its purported headquarters building in Boca Raton, Fla., the Boca Raton Police Department said this morning that the firm’s name “does not appear on the building.”

    What actually appears in the area in which the firm’s name is depicted in photographs is the number “2255” — the address of an office facility at 2255 Glades Rd. in Boca Raton. The large building is a multitenant, multiuse property that counts the U.S. government among its users, according to public records and information contained in Google web searches. (The U.S. Probation Office lists an office at the facility, for example.)

    Precisely when the photograph showing Text Cash Network’s name exclusively affixed to the building began to circulate online is unclear. Someone, though, appears to have doctored the photo in an apparent bid to plant the seed that TCN owned the building or was its most prestigious tenant. Several companies use the street address of the building, in disciplines ranging from the practice of law to real estate, financial services, debt counseling  and more.

    A street photo Google says was taken in May 2011 shows only the number “2255” affixed near the crown of the building and not the words “TEXT CASH NETWORK,” a circumstance police said remained the reality today. (If you click on the link in the previous sentence, it will load a Google page. Look for the letter “A” roughly in the center of the Google page. If you click on the “A,” a window showing the street view will load. Clicking on the photo in the street view will take you to ground level, where you’ll see the building with “2255” near the crown.)

    Adding to the mystery is that TCN is publishing a photo of the same building on its website — and that photo contains neither the company’s name nor the numerals “2255” near the crown. All three of the photos — the one displayed on TCN’s website, the one displayed on certain Blogs and the one from Google’s street view — show an American flag that appears to be in the same wind-buffeted, unfurled position, which may mean the same original was used to alter the photo to show the name of “TEXT CASH NETWORK” as though the company enjoyed ownership or exclusive occupancy of the premises.

    It is common in MLM schemes for affiliates or upstart companies themselves to create the impression of size, scale and success where little or none exists. TCN’s website was registered less than two months ago, and the firm spent weeks in “prelaunch” phase while conducting conference-call cheerleading sessions.

    Tens of thousands of MLMers are said to have signed up for the TCN program.  Affiliates say the firm is owned by “The Johnson Group,” but much about that company remains a mystery, too.

    Research suggests that individuals can rent a “virtual office” that uses the address at 2255 Glades Rd. and that fully furnished offices can be rented in eight-hour increments, with longer-term leases and a graduated level of virtual services also available.

    TCN says on its website that “TCN Processing” is located in Suite 324 at the Glades Rd. address.

    Separately, a virtual-office company that promotes its offerings in online promos displays a photo of the same multitenant facility TCN references as the address of “TCN Processing.”  The virtual-office company notes that fully furnished offices can be rented in eight-hour increments — with longer-term leases and graduated service levels also available.

    The name of MLM huckster Phil Piccolo has surfaced in web stories and discussions about TCN. The website of Data Network Affiliates (DNA), a firm associated with Piccolo that purported last year to be in the business of helping the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children, has not resolved to a server for at least the past two days.

    Like TCN, DNA promoted a payment plan 10 levels deep. TCN appears to be listed in Wyoming records as a corporation registered last month, but Florida records do not appear to include a corresponding listing that TCN is operating in the state as a foreign corporation.