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URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Colorado Division of Securities Confirms ‘Achieve Community’ Investigation
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (5th Update 5:35 p.m. ET U.S.A.) The “Achieve Community” money-cycling scheme is under investigation in Colorado. “We do have an open investigation,” said Lillian Alves, Colorado’s Deputy Securities Commissioner. It is the first official public confirmation that Achieve Community, a Ponzi-board program that claims to turn $50 into $400, is…
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BULLETIN: Profitable Sunrise Figures Nancy Jo Frazer And Albert Rosebrock Admitted They Sold Securities; Injunction Imposed; Charity Is Dissolved
BULLETIN: (3rd Update 4:16 p.m. ET U.S.) Profitable Sunrise HYIP figures Nancy Jo Frazer and Albert Rosebrock have admitted they sold securities, the state of Ohio said. As part of a settlement agreement with prosecutors, a charitable enterprise known as Defining Vision Ministries Inc. (formerly known as Focus Up Ministries Inc.) will be dissolved, with…
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ACKMAN: ‘We Can Fight Pyramids With Our Own Pyramid’
2ND UPDATE 3:23 P.M. ET U.S.A. In another swipe at Herbalife and perhaps MLM recruiting schemes in general, activist investor Bill Ackman says he’s out to combat pyramid schemes by creating one himself. Ackman’s apparent tongue-in-cheek approach adopts a typical “tell five” MLM marketing technique as part of a bid to create Internet virality for…
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DEVELOPING STORY: Kidnapping, Murder Linked To WCM777/Kingdom777 Scam, Newspaper Reports
DEVELOPING STORY: (Updated 8:43 p.m. ET U.S.A.) The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa, Calif., is reporting that detectives in Napa County have linked the kidnapping and murder of 44-year-old Reynaldo Pacheco to the WCM777/Kingdom777 MLM scam and as many as four suspects. From the Press Democrat in a story dated Jan. 15 about the arrest…
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CHARLOTTE OBSERVER: Jonathan Davey, Figure In ‘Black Diamond’ Ponzi Caper, Sentenced To 21 Years In Federal Prison
EDITOR’S NOTE: Thanks to a PP Blog reader for pointing us to the Charlotte Observer’s story on the sentencing of Jonathan Davey. One of the key figures in the bizarre “Black Diamond” Ponzi caper in North Carolina has been sentenced to 21 years in federal prison. Here is the URL from the Charlotte Observer on…
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York Regional Police (Ontario) Ask For Assistance In Ponzi Case Allegedly Involving Salim Damji And Female Accomplice
The York Regional Police Major Fraud Unit in Ontario, Canada, has arrested Salim Damji and a female accomplice in an alleged “romance and investment Ponzi scheme” that fleeced at least eight victims out of about $400,000. Damji, 45, allegedly uses multiple names. Police have released a photo of him and have asked the public for…
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Ontario Securities Commission Issues Warning On ‘Rockwell Partners,’ A Ponzi-Board ‘Program’
Rockwell Partners SA, an HYIP “program” that has a 218-page thread at the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum, now is the subject of a warning from the Ontario Securities Commission. A Facebook site that claims an association with Rockwell Partners asserted in March 2014 that “[w]e would like to remind you that Rockwell Partners is not just…
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OHIO AG’S OFFICE: Parties Have Negotiated In Profitable Sunrise-Related Litigation, But No ‘Final Settlement Document At This Time’
Although the court docket in Williams County, Ohio, indicates that a settlement has been reached in a July 2013 civil case brought against Profitable Sunrise figure Nancy Jo Frazer and others, the office of Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said this afternoon that there was nothing to announce immediately. The PP Blog contacted DeWine’s office…
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TelexFree Case Announcement Was No. 1 ‘Most Viewed News’ From SEC In 2014
Moving forward, it might become harder for willfully blind, serial promoters of MLM HYIP schemes to claim surprise that the “programs” they’re pitching are engaging in securities fraud and the sale of unregistered securities. Indeed, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s halting of the TelexFree MLM scheme in April 2014 was the “#1 most-viewed news”…
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Ackman Channels TelexFree Ad Technique In New Herbalife Slam
Perhaps you remember the TelexFree ad by a promoter who introduced “Aunt Ethel” by way of an artist’s rendering and accompanying narration. Ads for MLMs and network-marketing “programs” that depict an artist’s hand “drawing” the story are somewhat common. The ads are designed to make you want to jump right in. After all, if the…
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