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  • HYIP Spammer Hits Profitable Sunrise Facebook Site With Drive-By Offers For ‘AdHitProfits,’ A Ponzi-Board ‘Program’ Whose Thread-Opener Bragged, ‘Payza, STP & Liberty Reserve Accepted !!’

    ponziglareUPDATED 5:41 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A spammer hit a Profitable Sunrise Facebook site yesterday with five drive-by offers for “AdHitProfits.” All five of the machine-gunned theft bids claimed the same thing: “make money every half an hour…100% commission let your money grow for you at high speed.”

    The AHP “program” also is being pitched on the Ponzi boards, with the thread-starter at MoneyMakerGroup bragging that “Payza, []STP & Liberty Reserve Accepted !!”

    LibertyReserve was described last week by federal prosecutors in New York as a criminal enterprise that had laundered more than $6 billion for Ponzi schemers, credit-card fraudsters, identity thieves, investment fraudsters, computer hackers, child pornographers and narcotics traffickers.

    The names of Payza predecessor AlertPay and SolidTrustPay, meanwhile, appear in U.S. court files as payment processors for Ponzi schemes. In August 2012, the SEC accused Ponzi-board “program” Zeek Rewards of orchestrating a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid fraud. Earier in 2012, Zeek Rewards was auctioning sums of U.S. cash and telling successful bidders they could receive their winnings through AlertPay and SolidTrustPay.

    Forums such as MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold are referenced in U.S. court filings as places from which HYIP frauds/Ponzi schemes are promoted. AHP also has a presence on both forums. It also has a presence on DreamTeamMoney, yet another Ponzi forum.

    Like other recent Ponzi-board “programs,” AHP is triggering a security warning from McAfee Site Advisor. The warning declares the AHP site a “Dangerous Site.”

    “Whoa!” the warning begins. “Are you sure you want to go there?”

    In March, the SEC described Profitable Sunrise as a murky pyramid scheme that may have gathered tens of millions of dollars through offshore bank accounts. Court filings show that money tied to Profitable Sunrise and Liberty Reserve ended up in offshore bank accounts. Whether Profitable Sunrise had a Liberty Reserve account is unclear.

    Although HYIP schemes always are dangerous, they may be particularly dangerous now as operators scramble for new, Ponzi-sustaining cash after a series of seizures related to the Liberty Reserve investigation. The amount of HYIP-related cash seized in the Liberty Reserve probe is unknown. A well-known scam that has operated under at least three names — JSS Tripler, JustBeenPaid and ProfitClicking — claimed it accepted Liberty Reserve and now appears to have wiped out investors’ purported holdings and perhaps zeroed out the purported earnings of many of them.

    In an April 6 thread-starting post for AHP at MoneyMakerGroup, the claim is made that “You Purchase 1 Or More Revenue Share Ad Spot(s) For $45 !!” and that “You Earn $56.25.” The pitch also claims that a return of 125 percent is “More Stable For Long Term !!”

    Separately, the thread-starter’s forum signature tries to lure visitors to a “program” known as “AddWallet,” with a claim that it is “Better Than Zeek (( A Complete Passive Income With Best Advertising Revenue Income Ever )).”

    AHP shills have paraded to TalkGold to make “I Got Paid” posts for the purported “opportunity.” Shills did the same thing for Zeek and the other “programs.”

    An emerging Ponzi-forum darling like Zeek and Profitable Sunrise before it, AHP appears to have debuted in April, just weeks after the website of Profitable Sunrise went missing.

    A series of reload scams are been targeted at Profitable Sunrise victims via a Facebook site. Many of the “programs” claimed to accept LibertyReserve, PerfectMoney, Payza or SolidTrustPay.

    PerfectMoney, which purportedly operates from Panama, now claims it is banning new registrations from U.S. prospects.

  • ULTIMATE INSULT? ‘ProfitClicking,’ A ‘JSSTripler’/’JustBeenPaid’ Reload Scam That Surfaced After Collapse Of Zeek Rewards, Now Called ‘ProfitCrapping’ On Ponzi Boards

    Frederick Mann
    Frederick Mann

    A “program” the PP Blog reported may have ties to the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement appears to have wiped out investors and perhaps zeroed out the purported earnings of many of them, according to posts at the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi-scheme forum.

    In fact, according to one post, the “ProfitClicking” program perhaps now can be best described as “Profitcrapping.”

    ProfitClicking listed Liberty Reserve as one of its payment processors. On Tuesday, federal prosecutors in New York described Liberty Reserve as a massive criminal enterprise involved in the laundering of more than $6 billion. The effect of the Liberty Reserve action on Profit Clicking was not immediately clear.

    What is clear is that ProfitClicking was a fraud from the start. The “program” traces its roots to JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid, which promised a daily payout of 2 percent and purportedly was operated by Frederick Mann, a one-time pitchman for the collapsed, 1-percent-a-day AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme. ProfitClicking surfaced after Mann purportedly retired suddenly in the days after the SEC took down Zeek Rewards in August 2012, amid allegations it had operated a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid fraud that had duped investors into believing it provided a legitimate payout averaging about 1.5 percent a day.

    Prior to the emergence of ProfitClicking, Mann speculated that his JSS/JBP “program” could come under attack by American cruise missiles. He also has described U.S. government employees as “part of a criminal gang of robbers, thieves, murderers, liars, imposters.”

    Taking the time to ensure JSS/JBP was operating legally was a concession to slavery, Mann contended. Fellow AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming, a purported sovereign convicted in a plot to file false liens for billions of dollars against U.S. government employees, later contended that he was being held as a slave against his will.

    But even as Mann was sliming the U.S. government and calling its employees slavemasters, one of his JSS/JBP pitchmen was operating a site known as Vatican Assassins that contended “Majority Savage Blacks were never taught to behave in civil White Protestant culture and thus have been released upon us Reformation Bible-believing Whites to further destroy our once White Protestant and Baptist American culture founded upon the Reformation’s AV1611 English Bible and a White Protestant Presbyterian Constitution with its attached White Baptist-Calvinist Bill of Rights.”

    Some analysts have speculated that the name “Frederick Mann” (emphasis by PP Blog) is longhand code for “free man.” Purported “sovereign citizens” sometimes calls themselves “free men of the land.”

    Among other things, both JSS/JBP and ProfitClicking made members affirm they were not with the “government.” Mann declined to say where his “program” was operating from, a development that drew comparisons to the infamous BCCI banking scheme of the 1990s. BCCI, shorthand for Bank of Credit and Commerce International, purportedly was designed to be “offshore everywhere,”

    Liberty Reserve also has drawn such comparisons. (Link is to May 28 article in Vanity Fair.)

    Mann fell out of the Ponzi spotlight for a brief time after his purported retirement from JSS/JBP as ProfitClicking was gaining a head of steam.

    He soon was back, however — this time as a pitchmen for a “program” known as ClickPaid.

    The ClickPaid Terms — like the Terms of JSS/JBP and ProfitClicking — made members affirm they are not with the “government.”

    On May 29, the PP Blog reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission of the Republic of the Philippines had issued a warning on the JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid and ProfitClicking scams. JSS/JBP also came under investigation in Italy.

    A Ponzi-board program known as “Profitable Sunrise” also experienced the same fate in Italy.

    The U.S. SEC has described Profitable Sunrise as a murky “program” that may have collected tens of millions of dollars through offshore bank accounts. Profitable Sunrise had five HYIP plans, including one bizarrely dubbed the “Long Haul,” which purported to pay 2.7 percent a day — more than Zeek, more than ASD, more than JSS/JBP, more than ProfitClicking, more than ClickPaid.

    A website linked to Mann once linked to videos featuring Francis Schaeffer Cox, a purported “sovereign” and “militia” man implicated in a murder plot against public officials in Alaska.

  • UPDATE: 2 Liberty Reserve Figures Jailed In New York; 1 Of Them Has Lawyer Experienced In Mob Cases

    recommendedreading1Two defendants in the alleged $6 billion Liberty Reserve money-laundering conspiracy are listed as inmates at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in New York. They are Vladimir Kats, also known as “Ragnar,” and Mark Marmilev, also known as “Marko” and “Mark Halls.”

    Kats is 41; Marmilev is 33. Their release dates are listed as “unknown.” Filings in the case show that both men are jailed by “consent” and have reserved their rights to apply for bail later.

    Attorney James R. Froccaro Jr. has entered an appearance notice for Marmilev. Froccaro previously has represented clients implicated in schemes involving organized-crime figures. He also has represented clients caught up in bizarre and incongruous crimes, such as the case of Dr. Felix Lanting, an 85-year-old physician accused of running a pill mill on Staten Island.

    From SILive on Jan. 13, 2013 (italics added):

    Prosecutors said Dr. Lanting wrote a staggering 3,029 oxycodone prescriptions for various patients through his private practice over more than six months that year. He sold the scripts, at an average of $200 each, to patients who didn’t need them, with the help of “bouncers” to keep recipients in line.

    Three of the so-called bouncers — all with criminal records — often worked out deals with their own “patients” to get oxycodone pills, which they allegedly sold for $10 to $15 on the street.

    Marmilev, who was arrrested last week in Brooklyn, was described by prosecutors as a designer of Liberty Reserve’s technological infrastructure. Liberty Reserve was described as a criminal enterprise.

    Liberty Reserve founder Arthur Budovsky was arrested last week in Spain. Seven individuals with ties to Liberty Reserve have been charged criminally. The others include Ahmed Yassine Abdelghani, also known as “Alex”; Allan Esteban Hildago Jimenez, also known as “Allen Garcia”; Azzeddine El Amine; and Maxim Chukharev.

     

     

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Liberty Reserve, Founder, Others Indicted In New York

    breakingnews72URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (15TH UPDATE 2:31 P.M. EDT U.S.A.) Liberty Reserve, its founder and several others have been indicted in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

    The charges, which include conspiracy to commit money-laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, were confirmed this morning by the office of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

    Liberty Reserve founder Arthur Budovsky was using the aliases “Eric Paltz” and “Arthur Belanchuk,” according to the indictment.

    Co-conspirators, according to the indictment, include Vladimir Kats, also known as “Ragnar”; Ahmed Yassine Abdelghani, also known as “Alex”; Allan Esteban Hildago Jimenez, also known as “Allen Garcia”; Azzeddine El Amine; Mark Marmilev, also known as “Marko”; and Maxim Chukharev.

    Marmilev also is known as “Mark Halls,” according to an affidavit that accompanies the indictment.

    Budovsky and El Amine were arrested Friday in Spain, Bharara’s office said today. Kats and Marmilev were arrested Friday in Brooklyn. Chukharev was arrested Friday in Costa Rica. Hildago and Abdelghani are “at large” in Costa Rica.

    “As alleged, the only liberty that Liberty Reserve gave many of its users was the freedom to commit crimes — the coin of its realm was anonymity, and it became a popular hub for fraudsters, hackers, and traffickers,” Bharara said. “The global enforcement action we announce today is an important step towards reining in the ‘Wild West’ of illicit Internet banking. As crime goes increasingly global, the long arm of the law has to get even longer, and in this case, it encircled the earth.”

    Added Steven G. Hughes, special agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service. “These arrests are an example of the Secret Service’s commitment to investigate and apprehend criminals engaged in the misuse of virtual currencies to conduct global monetary fraud. Cyber criminals should be reminded today that they are unable to hide behind the anonymity of the Internet to avoid regulated financial systems.”

    The IRS and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)) also are involved in the probe, as are multiple nations, Bharara’s office said.

    Liberty Reserve and its co-conspirators “intentionally created, structured, and operated Liberty Reserve as a criminal business venture, one designed to help criminals conduct illegal transactions and launder the proceeds of their crimes,” according to the indictment.

    The United States has seized the Liberty Reserve domain name along with several others, according to an affidavit that accompanies the indictment. The others include: ExchangeZone.com; SwiftExchanger.com; MoneyCentralMarket.com; and Asianagold.com. As part of the seizure process, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Secret Service to point the domain nameservers to a “sinkhole” URL at ShadowServer.org.

    News about the seizures destroys various examples of wishful thinking advanced by online HYIP hucksters at forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup since LibertyReserve’s domain went offline Friday. On Saturday, reports surfaced that Budovsky had been arrested in Spain and that Liberty Reserve was under investigation in Costa Rica and the United States.

    Seizure notices are expected to appear on the domains, although the timing was not clear.

    The indictment ties Liberty Reserve to the crimes of “credit card fraud, identity theft, investment fraud, computer hacking, child pornography, and narcotics trafficking.”

    Among other things, the indictment alleges that “virtually all of Liberty Reserve’s business derived from suspected criminal activity” and that the scope of the fraud is “staggering.”

    Between 2006 and May 2013, according to the indictment, Liberty Reserve processed an estimated 55 million transactions and is believed “to have laundered more than $6 billion in criminal proceeds.”

    Supporting affidavits in the case show that the indictment was returned under seal on May 20 and that prosecutors applied for an injunction barring Amazon Web Services Inc. from providing services to Liberty Reserve. The affidavit also shows that the United States is seeking forfeiture of sums on deposit in at least 42 accounts in various countries

    These banks are in countries such as Costa Rica, Cyprus, Russia, Hong Kong, China, Morocco, Spain, Latvia, Australia and the United States. Tens of millions of dollars are being sought in forfeiture actions, although the final sum is unclear.

    Liberty Reserve, according to the indictment, used “exchangers” in countries with little oversight, including Malaysia, Russia, Nigeria and Vietnam. The process was part of a criminal scheme to bury evidence of fraud while providing anonymity for the fraudsters.

    The enterprise, according to the indictment, functioned “in effect as the bank of choice for the criminal underworld.”

    Link to documents posted by Bharara’s office. Read statement by Bharara’s office.

    In a separate but related action, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced it had identified Liberty Reserve as a “Financial Institution of Primary Money Laundering Concern.”

    “Treasury is determined to protect the U.S. financial system from cyber criminals and other malicious actors in cyberspace, including overseas entities like Liberty Reserve that facilitate online crime and hope to evade regulatory scrutiny,” said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen. “We are prepared to target and disrupt illicit financial activity wherever it occurs – domestically, at the far reaches of the globe or across the internet.”

     

     

  • BULLETIN: ‘PerfectMoney,’ Fraud-Scheme Processor Purportedly Based In Panama, Says It Is Banning U.S. Customers

    breakingnews72BULLETIN: On the heels of the apparent shutdown of Costa Rica-based Liberty Reserve as part of an international money-laundering investigation, “PerfectMoney” says it is banning users from the United States. Perfect Money purportedly operates from Panama. (More below.)

    In an announcement dated today on its website, Perfect Money says that “due to changes in our policy we forbid new registrations from individuals or companies based in the United States of America. This includes US citizens residing overseas. If you fall under the above mentioned category, please do not register an account with us.”

    How PerfectMoney intends to treat existing U.S. users was not immediately clear, and the firm did not explain why it suddenly had changed its policy. The company is favored by criminals and HYIP scammers and has a history of advertising on behalf of purported Forex “opportunities” that have been the subjects of sweeping court actions in the United States.

    In January 2013, the Superintendency of the Securities Market of the Republic of Panama (SMV) warned that Perfect Money “has not been granted any kind of license by the SMV, nor has been authorized to carry on activities of intermediation, administration, or advisory in securities, financial instruments or forex, in or from the Republic of Panama, within the scope of the Securities Law.

    “PERFECT MONEY FINANCE CORP. does not have [its] own offices in Panama, the office and its P.O. Box claim in its website [deleted by PP Blog], belong to the companies Azuero Business Center, Inc. and Panama Net Buy, which provides online shopping services,” SMV said.

    In 2011, the PP Blog reported that an individual referenced as a Perfect Money contact person is referenced in federal court filings that tie money from the alleged EMG/Finanzas Forex fraud scheme to an international narcotics probe that led to the seizure of at least 59 bank accounts in the United States and the companion seizure of 294 bars of gold and at least seven luxury vehicles.

    PerfectMoney’s name also is referenced in case filings from the SEC’s 2010 fraud complaint against Imperia Invest IBC, a scam purportedly operating offshore. Deaf people lost millions of dollars to Imperia, the SEC said.

    A quick check today by the PPBlog showed dozens of HYIP sites that claim to accept PerfectMoney. Many of the same sites also claimed to accept LibertyReserve. How the “programs” — all of which advertise preposterous returns — will contend with the absence of LibertyReserve and the new restrictions imposed by PerfectMoney was not immediately clear.

    Liberty Reserve operator Arthur Budovsky Belanchuk is reported to be under arrest in Spain as part of a probe by authorities in Costa Rica and the United States.

    Based on U.S. court files and certain extrapolations, murky HYIPs may be raking in billions of dollars. In August 2012, the SEC alleged that the Zeek Rewards “program” gathered at least $600 million. Legisi, another HYIP scam, gathered at least $72 million before its 2008 collapse. Pathway To Prosperity appears to have churned at least $70 million prior to its 2010 collapse. The 2008 AdSurfDaily scheme gathered at least $119 million, according to federal prosecutors.

    Zeek and ASD — at least — did business with AlertPay and SolidTrustPay, processors based in Canada.

    In April 2013, the SEC alleged that a murky “program” known as Profitable Sunrise may have gathered tens of millions of dollars. Profitable Sunrise is the subject of regulatory actions or Investor Alerts in at least five countries: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy and New Zealand.

    Profitable Sunrise pitchmen may not even have known for whom they were working to glean commissions, the SEC alleged.

    There may be hundreds or perhaps thousands of HYIP scams operating online at any given point in time. Some of them — like Profitable Sunrise — even advertise they accept bank wires. HYIP scams often have promoters in common, a situation that sets the stage for banks to come into possession of funds tainted by a revolving door of fraud schemes.

    In recent weeks, the PP Blog has reported on a number of reload scams aimed at victims of the Profitable Sunrise scheme. Virtually all of the schemes accepted PerfectMoney, LibertyReserve or both. Some also advertised they accepted SolidTrustPay and EgoPay.

    These schemes included BiwakoBank Limited, SuperWithdraw, Whos12, Fairy Funds, Roxili, OptiEarn, AVVGlobal, ProForexUnion, MajestiCrown and TelexFree.

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Liberty Reserve Payment Processor Offline Amid Reports Of Arrest Of Operator In Spain On Money-Laundering Charges

    breakingnews72URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Costa Rica-based Liberty Reserve, a payment processor favored by HYIP scammers and other criminals, is offline — and there are reports that its operator is under arrest in Spain on money-laundering charges.

    “We lost Huge $$$,” a poster on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum complained. The poster’s forum signature was advertising AdHitProfits, with a pitch of “125% – Superfast Earning.” It also was promoting GoldAllianceFunds, with a pitch of “4.5% for 45 Business Days.”

    From The Tico Times, a newspaper published in Costa Rica (italics added):

    Arthur Budovsky Belanchuk, 39, on Friday was arrested in Spain as part of a money laundering investigation performed jointly by police agencies in the United States and Costa Rica.

    Costa Rican prosecutor José Pablo González said Budovsky, a Costa Rican citizen of Ukrainian origin, has been under investigation since 2011 for money laundering using a company he created in the country called Liberty Reserve.

    Local investigations began after a request from a prosecutor’s office in New York. On Friday, San José prosecutors conducted raids in Budovsky’s house and offices in Escazá, Santa Ana, southwest of San José, and in the province of Heredia, north of the capital.

    Budovsky’s businesses in Costa Rica apparently were financed by using money from child pornography websites and drug trafficking.

    Separately, BehindMLM.com is reporting that Liberty Reserve’s website is throwing a server error. The PP Blog confirmed the site will not load and that there appears to be no page-source information on the landing page.

    Recent scams that have used Liberty Reserve include JustBeenPaid/JSSTripler, “Expert Invest Group,” T2MoneyKlub (one of Ponzi schemer “Dave’s”) purported “programs,” Insectrio, Imperia Invest IBC and many more.

    Imperia scammed deaf people, the SEC said in 2010.

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: AdSurfDaily Figure And Purported ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Kenneth Wayne Leaming Sentenced To 8 Years In Federal Prison

    Kenneth Wayne Leaming
    Kenneth Wayne Leaming

    URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (UPDATED 10:55 P.M. EDT U.S.A.) AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison. His former business associate and fellow purported “sovereign” David Carroll Stephenson has been sentenced to 10 years.

    Stephenson already was serving prison time for a tax scam.

    “These defendants tried to mask their crimes with the cloak of free speech and beliefs,” said U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan of the Western District of Washington. “They thought they were immune from the law or the justice system, but now their frauds aimed at taxpayers and public servants need to come to an end. A lengthy prison term is the best way to protect the public from their schemes.”

    Stephenson, Durkan’s office said, received a sentence longer than the recommended guidelines.

    U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton said that Stephenson “cannot, will not live his life without doing harm to others,” prosecutors said. “He is the master manipulator, the puppeteer . . . He is in my mind a very dangerous man.”

    Leaming, the judge said, flaunts authority and “harasses law abiding people who have an obligation to the people to serve,” according to prosecutors.

    Leaming, like Stephenson, is 57. Although it never was clear whether Leaming was a member of the $119 million ASD Ponzi scheme broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008, it became crystal clear that he was trying to derail the prosecution by filing bogus liens against public officials involved in the ASD case and had worked with Stephenson to file fraudulent liens against two U.S. prison officials.

    Prosecutors had asked for Leaming to be sentenced to 10 years.

    When the FBI executed search warrants at Leaming’s Spanaway home in November 2011, they found six firearms — this despite the fact Leaming was a convicted felon banned from possessing guns. Leaming previously has been convicted of piloting an aircraft without a license.

    One of the weapons Leaming possessed was described by prosecutors as a “street sweeper” style shotgun. He also had an “assault rifle,” according to prosecutors.

    Leaming also was found to be harboring two federal fugitives from Arkansas wanted in a home-business caper separate from ASD.

    During his criminal trial, Leaming was channeling deceased cop-killer Christopher Dorner in a veiled bid to intimidate law enforcement, prosecutors said. Dorner is the former member of the Los Angeles Police Department who promised warfare against cops in February. The Dorner story stunned the nation.

    Leaming, according to the FBI, also has a history that includes discussing a plot by which he’d serve U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts with a purported writ at a school attended by Roberts’ young children.

    From a statement by Durkan’s office tonight (italics added):

    The men (Stephenson and Leaming) identify themselves as members of the ‘Sovereign Citizen’ movement. ‘Sovereign Citizens’ profess a belief that both state and federal government entities are illegitimate. Members of this group often engaged in so-called “freedom driving,” i.e., driving about without state-required licenses, either for their vehicles or themselves. When contacted by local law enforcement, members of the group often bombard local officials (from the officer, to local judges, to mayors and other members of local government) with frivolous liens, false claims, and sometimes threats of violence. Many members of this same group had previously come to the attention of federal law enforcement for engaging in various fraudulent tax schemes, wire fraud schemes, and (occasionally) inappropriate communications with various members of federal law enforcement and the judiciary.

    In asking for a ten year sentence for both men, prosecutors wrote to the court that only a long prison term would protect the public. About STEPHENSON they wrote, “This is not the case of a defendant who continues to run afoul of the law because of a substance abuse addiction or a history of childhood abuse. Rather, this is a defendant who simply chooses to remain defiant, despite court after court telling him that he must stop, and despite multiple stints in prison. At this point, removal from society is the only way in which the public can be kept safe from the defendant’s crimes.”

    As for LEAMING, prosecutors provided information to the court about his repeatedly holding himself out to victims as a lawyer who could solve their problems, when in fact his actions may have damaged their case. About the crimes from the March 2013 conviction prosecutors wrote: “Defendant’s possession of firearms is particularly disturbing in light of several facts. First is obviously his disdain for government. Second is his possession of various items of police equipment, including numerous badges, light bars, and a Crown Victoria sedan modified to appear to be a police vehicle. Last but not least is Defendant’s repeated invocation of the shooting of government officials in Southern California by a disgruntled former police officer – which again appeared to be a veiled threat to engage in violence himself if he is prevented from pursuing his “‘petitions for redress,’” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo.

  • Zeekers Targeted As Early Ponzi-Board Rift Develops Over Promo For ‘My Fun Life’; Lawsuits Involving Other MLMs Make Headlines

    This attractive blonde woman is featured on the landing page of My Fun Places.
    This attractive blonde woman is featured on the landing page of My Fun Life.

    UPDATED 4:04 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) It has been another miserable PR week for MLM.

    Some members of the alleged Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid scheme now are receiving over-the-top emails for an emerging travel-membership “program” known as “MyFunLife,” a source tells the PP Blog.

    Meanwhile, executives from a longstanding MLM company are suing each other in Utah while other baffling cases involving upstart MLMs remain in the courts.

    The nascent My Fun Life “program” appears already to have sparked a thread deletion at the DreamTeamMoney Ponzi forum — after two posters complained that a huckster had purloined sales content and used it to recruit downline members. (More on the DreamTeamMoney pitch below. First, the email pitch . . .)

    According to a PP Blog source, Zeekers were emailed a MyFunLife affiliate offer that blared, “There is a CHANGE taking place in our industry . . .  Something SO BIG, SO NEW, and SO COMPELLING I just have to SHARE IT with you . . .”

    The email hype-fest went on to declare My Fun Life “a revolutionary company in the emerging MOBILE APP Industry that’s about to take the world by STORM. They are in the process of building the largest GLOBAL NETWORK of their kind by introducing the HOTTEST APPS in the HOTTEST MARKETS!”

    The pitch appeared below a subject line of “This will be BIGGER and SAFER then Zeek, and it’s LEGAL! You’ll thank me later! ONLY $21 THAT’S IT!!!” The 19-word subject line was backed by five exclamation points.

    Here’s how another part of the email pitch read (italics added):

    The company is using a 3X10 Forced Matrix Compensation structure with up to 50% check matching (on all your personals) with upfront coding bonuses that pay out weekly! And you can earn up to 7 Levels in the Matrix without having to sponsor or talk with anyone! Hello??? (Sponsoring is only required to get paid on levels 8,9 &10) Its INCREDIBLE and its gonna BLOW UP and it’s only $21 to get in.

    As of today, the only content visible on the MyFunLife.com landing page are the words “Coming Soon.” Those words are backed by a series of rotating photographs, including a photo of an attractive blonde woman taking in some sun from a hammock under palm trees.

    “They are positioning several big global leaders now and anticipate 200,000 members in the first 6 months!” the email pitch contended. “Please get back with me asap so I can secure YOU a Top position in my matrix prior to launch!”

    The now-missing pitch on DreamTeamMoney urged prospects to GET IN “EARLYYYY!!” — in part because the “COMP PLAN” for My Fun Life called for “‘matching’ bonuses up to 50%, and ‘coded bonuses’ to die for -> they are UNREAL!! Launching in 45 countries. Major money and talent behind this.”

    As part of the Ponzi-board pitch, the poster shared a plan to “build it fast and hard with . . .  solo ads, FB, Craigslist, my list, and more.”

    In its early days, MyFunLife appears not to have a presence on other well-known Ponzi boards. Like TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup, DreamTeamMoney is infamous as a launch pad for scores and scores of fraud schemes, including a bizarre “program” known as “Insectrio.”

    Zeek also was promoted widely on the Ponzi boards.

    News of the impending debut of MyFunLife came during the same week that MLM was generating more bad headlines in the mainstream press. XanGo co-founder and board member Bryan B. Davis accused the Utah-based firm of looting. Meanwhile, XanGo accused Davis of extortion and incompetent lawyering.

    Those lawsuits followed a lawsuit and counter-lawsuit earlier this year by the purported Go Fun Places and JubiMax opportunities, both of which have a presence on the Ponzi boards.

  • ‘OPERATION SWILL’ — Is It The Greatest Name Ever For An Undercover Probe? Hard-Working New Jersey Revelers Allegedly Ripped Off In Their Purchases Of High-End Spirits

    operationswillUPDATED 4:13 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) If you repaired to your favorite New Jersey tavern on your way home after a hard day of work — and if you ordered a high-end spirit because it was payday or you simply preferred a premium brand — you might have been suckered in a “dishonest ruse to increase profits,” the state Attorney General said.

    As part of a undercover probe by the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC), investigators posing as ordinary revelers ordered “neat” drinks of premium brands, saved samples, tested them with a device called a “True Spirit Authenticator” and tested them further at “the laboratories of the brand manufacturers,” investigators said.

    Of the 150 samples tested, “30 were not the brand they purported to be,” investigators said. A “neat” drink contains no ice or mixers.

    The spirits probe was dubbed “Operation Swill,” Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa said.

    operationswillfunnelsInvestigators believe at least 29 establishments were pouring cheap stuff into premium bottles to dupe patrons. Potentially even worse than brand-swapping, Chiesa said in a video on the website of USA Today, was that “dirty water” allegedly was used as a substitute in one of the taverns and that “rubbing alcohol and caramel color to simulate a scotch” also was used.

    The state has released a map of evidence seizures in Operation Swill, along with a photo of funnels seized as evidence.

    “Consumers should have the peace of mind of knowing that they will get what they spent their hard-earned money on every single time — no exceptions,” Chiesa said. “I believe Operation Swill will go a long way towards restoring that peace of mind and will also serve as a warning to anyone currently engaging in, or thinking about engaging in, this fraudulent practice.”

    From a statement by the Attorney General’s Office (italics added):

    The operation focused on the 29 establishments because of information from confidential informants, consumer complaints and testing of samples conducted by both the ABC and the manufacturers of the brands. The samples were taken in January and February when ABC investigators visited 63 licensed establishments across the state and covertly took 150 samples. The undercover ABC detectives visited these establishments and secured samples of premium brand spirits by paying for drinks ordered “neat” – that is with no ice or mixer. Some of the locations visited had previous complaints against them, and some were chosen at random.

  • RECOMMENDED VIEWING: ‘American Greed’ To Air Story On Trevor Cook Ponzi Scheme Tonight

    “Talk Radio Takedown” from CNBC’s “American Greed” program is expected to air at 10 p.m. EDT today, after a National Hockey League playoff game concludes.

    Visit the CNBC site.

    Watch the teaser (part of which features the taped voice of one of Cook’s radio pitchmen and chief bloviators) . . .

    The Cook/Kiley Forex fraud largely was aimed at conservative Christians and senior citizens.

  • Letter Sent To Federal Judge In Washington State Contained Ricin, FBI Says; Matthew Ryan Buquet Arrested

    americaatrisk4The FBI has arrested Matthew Ryan Buquet, who appeared in federal court yesterday to face a charge he mailed a letter containing ricin toxin to a federal judge in Washington state.

    Buquet is 37. The Associated Press, via Fox News, identified the intended recipient as U.S. District Judge Fred Van Sickle of the Eastern District of Washington. Van Sickle presides over cases in Spokane. He was appointed to the bench by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 and now serves as a senior judge. Prior to his appointment to the federal bench, Van Sickle was a state-court judge in Washington.

    It was not immediately clear whether the FBI suspects a broader crime. Nor was it clear whether Van Sickle ever presided over a case in which Buquet had a role. Washington state is known to be the site of an investigation into the activities of purported “sovereign citizens.” The word “sovereign” does not appear in a statement by the FBI yesterday on the Buquet arrest, but purported “sovereigns” have been linked to cases of domestic terrorism and extremism in the United States.

    “Our coordinated team acted swiftly to resolve a potentially dangerous situation and continues working tirelessly around-the-clock to investigate the origin of the letter and to address any remaining, potential risks,” said Laura M. Laughlin, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle Division.

    “The U.S. Postal Inspection Service quickly deployed resources dedicated to find those responsible for this suspicious mailing to ensure the safety of U.S. Postal Service employees and the American public,” said Bradley J. Kleinknecht, inspector in charge of the Seattle Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

    The Spokane ricin investigation follows on the heels of an April incident in Mississippi allegedly involving ricin and the mails. President Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and a state judge in Mississippi allegedly were targets of the April letters.

    News of Buquet’s arrest came during the same week federal prosecutors in the Western District of Washington alleged that AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming was channeling deceased cop-killer Christopher Dorner in the courtroom.

    Leaming, 57, was convicted March 1 on charges of filing false liens against public officials involved in the ASD case, harboring two federal fugitives from Arkansas wanted in a separate multimillion-dollar fraud scheme and being a felon in possession of firearms. Based on their bizarre court pleadings, the Arkansas fugitives found with Leaming appear either to be “sovereigns” or people acting under the influence of “sovereigns.”

    “Sovereign citizens,” known to network over the Internet, may have an irrational belief that laws do not apply to them and may draft others into “sovereign” schemes, sometimes for a fee. Though typically linked to financial crimes, some individuals linked to the purported “sovereign citizen” movement also have been involved in sex crimes. In November 2011, a Florida man listed as a registered sex offender was jailed after the allegedly filed a bogus lien against a judge.

    In a separate case involving a purported “sovereign,” Bruce Chalmers Hicks was jailed in Florida last week. The Tampa Bay Times reported that Hicks served seven years in prison after his 2004 conviction for molesting a child under the age of 12.

    MailOnline reported yesterday that Buquet “was listed as a sex offender following an ‘indecent liberties’ charge in 1998.”

    The office of U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan of the Western District of Washington prosecuted Leaming, the ASD figure and purported “sovereign.” Leaming now claims a federal judge owes him 208,000 ounces of fine silver. Durkan’s office recently has prosecuted other purported “sovereigns,” including David Russell Myrland.

    In 2011, Myrland was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison for threatening the mayor of the Seattle suburb of Kirkland and other public officials. He later bizarrely claimed (apparently) that the government was engaging in a grammar conspiracy against him.