Comment/Respond
ADDED FEB. 12, 2011: We’re pleased that readers take the time to comment on PP Blog posts and to reply to comments from other readers.
The PP Blog uses a WordPress plug-in known as “Quote Comments.” The software places the word “Quote” in red type below individual comments. If you’d like to respond to a reader’s comment, select and highlight the passage of text. Press the “Quote” prompt, and the highlighted passage will appear in the reply box.
Because the PP Blog uses iCopyright protection software, a prompt will appear if you copy more than 50 words when using the “Quote Comments” function. This prompt will ask you if you want to obtain a license. Please click on the “Quit asking me” button, recopy the passage and press the “Quote” prompt again. This will enable you to copy more than 50 words when responding to a reader’s post.
The iCopyright protection we employ is designed to guard against large sections of the Blog’s stories being copied, posted on other sites or used in ways that undermine the value of intellectual property. If you intend to use the PP Blog’s content elsewhere, you must acquire a license. Several options are available, and each story provides links or prompts that show the reuse options.
Theft of content and copyright infringement are big problems on the Internet. Please support the craft of writing by honoring copyrights.
Thank you.
Patrick
G’day Patrick
I keep receiving your news letters; which is good. However I do not see anything about Mrs VIP and how they ripped off thousands of people or are a couple of so called ladies immune from your investigations.
Look Forward to your reply
Paddy Meboy
Paddy(Quote)
I can’t cover them all, Paddy. There are simply too many. But you’re welcome to let the folks know about Mrs VIP, which others have done in the Comments threads.
Patrick
admin(Quote)
What everhappened to Patrick “Pat” Kiley, radio host of “Follow the Money?
Bill(Quote)
Please can you tell me where you got your information from as my money was paid into Roy Kessels Account and he was the primary contact i dont see any thing about him on your web site
Sherry(Quote)
Hi Sherry,
Look here:
http://sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2011/comp21989.pdf
Patrick
admin(Quote)
Do you know of an attorney engaged in a class action suit relating to recovering monies lost in the Genesis forex fund fiasco in California?
Thanks, Frank
Frank E Grant(Quote)
I am a victim in the Mexbank Forex scam. How can I find out if anything is happening here? It appears as if the CFTC and SEC have brought suit here. My money was invested through an IRA account.
I have been told that I must keep this account open if I have any hope of having funds returned to me. If there is no account, there is no place for the funds to be returned.
So, is there any chance of monies being recovered and returned?
Gary Fromowitz(Quote)
I heard about a gifting program called perpetual cash and read lots about it and its creator Erik somethining. It doesnt sound like anyone makes any money with it except the promoter – how come we havent heard anything about that being taken down? Is it still around?
Thom
Thomas(Quote)
I would like a ponzi scheme and bad people exposed and prosecuted for their rip offs; Paul Burks, CEO former mlm’s lighthouse and others and major con man scammer Darryl Doughlas, sales manager and master hypster of Zeek Rewards ….. they say put in $100 and wait 2 years to see it grow / compound to $225,000 meanwhile everyday you have to post their ads to help promote them and …. well who knows in 2 years but its bull as they really only pay if you bring others in (push no sponsoring required but no one can cash out any money!!! and they manipulate it daily so they can pay out the top people (PONZI) and some are putting in thousands and tens of thousands???? remember ad surf daily got shut down and funds froze by fed’s , they have millions of people’s money they put in for the pipedream
Barbara Turner(Quote)
Hi, you did a story on this guy in May. Is someone going to locate him to interview him and find out how he got away with it for 12 years.
Thanks, JERRY Hendickson. I’m just a relative of Arthur’s.
Arthur Allen Ferdig Register #73780-004 White Male 71 – He was released on 10/19/2011
BULLETIN: Arthur Ferdig, Operator Of Collapsed Tradex Ponzi Scheme, Sentenced To Federal Prison For Tax Evasion; IRS Says Money Diverted To Offshore Accounts And Shell Companies
By PatrickPretty.com 8:30 pm May 5, 2011
Arthur Allen Ferdig has been released!(Quote)
Jerry,
My GUESS is that Mr. Ferdig, who was sentenced in May to 18 months, was given credit for time served prior to the conviction. He was jailed in 2010 while awaiting trial.
https://patrickpretty.com/2011/05/05/bulletin-arthur-ferdig-operator-of-collapsed-tradex-ponzi-scheme-sentenced-to-federal-prison-for-tax-evasion-irs-says-money-diverted-to-offshore-accounts-and-shell-companies/
Patrick
admin(Quote)
Patrick, PLEASE SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT. I am a lawyer and have never been disbarred. I received a 3 month suspension of my licence to practice law in Connecticut for what even the court described as a technical violation. I had already moved to Miami to be the Publisher of a newspaper long before this suspension.
If I thought I had committed an ethical violation I would simply have filed my retirement papers when I left Connecticut (before the grievance was even filed) and if I had, the bar would have had no jurisdiction over me. I could also have asked that the suspension be lifted at any time after the three months had I chosen to meet the requirements.Had I the slightest thought that I would be the victim of the Internets ability to spread inaccuracies and falsehoods I would have cleared this up long ago.
Please publish this prominently.
Dwight Owen Schweitzer, Esquire
Dwight Owen Schweitzer(Quote)
Dwight,
I have republished your message in the thread below:
https://patrickpretty.com/2011/11/07/have-the-games-begun-adsurfdaily-members-todd-disner-dwight-owen-schweitzer-file-lawsuit-against-government-that-claims-undercover-agents-violated-firms-terms-of-service-federal-prosecutors-s
Patrick
admin(Quote)
Patrick, it appears that Michael Anthony DeBias, formerly of MyTesterJobs, is behind the latest viral marketing craze “Wazzub”, though he had carefully hidden his tracks and used another MLMer “Gee DaCosta” as his frontman. Unfortunately, Wazzub thus far just wants a LOT of personal info, including real name, e-mail, birthdate, city, state, and country… Everything except the street address, merely for the “promise” of 50% share of the profits (if any).
kschang(Quote)
If you investigate ponzi schemes, please investigate the US Government and Social Security. This is ponzi on a global scale and is unforgivable.
Dennis Knox(Quote)
Patrick since you seem to be the unofficial watchdog of Ponzi’s
How does Zeekrewards differ from ASD .The only way I see is they have products they auction and share the “profit” if you will.I would be interested in your comments on this one.
Bebop(Quote)
Patrick,
Why do most stories say JOHN LEE “escaped” to Thailand in November of 2006? I met John Lee in Thailand in November 2006 and he had been here at least a year already!
And why did it take five years for Interpol/FBI/LA Sheriff five years to track done a guy who was in and out of Thailand multiple times using the same name, albeit different pass ports. During that time, many others in Thailand lost money.
jim becker(Quote)
Seriously? You’re going to question why it took an agency ‘x’ amount of time to track someone down that was being intentionally deceptive by your own admission?
Whip(Quote)
2010 Population Thailand = 69,122,234
Thailand: Area: total: 513,120 sq km
land: 510,890 sq km
water: 2,230 sq km
Number of criminals intent on remaining free = 1
littleroundman(Quote)
The gov’t has $110 million. Why don’t investigate that? Would you please investigate where this money is currently? Please get back to me on that asap- they have my money! So much for protecting the people from shisters- whose the real shisters? And the “illegal” sytem. Confessing your guilt is just to get less time- not because your guilty. But you knew that right?
Two sides to every story. Why don’t you present both?
Joe(Quote)
Joe,
You seem to be talking about the AdSurfDaily case, but even that isn’t entirely clear.
So, please clarify. What case are you talking about?
Patrick
admin(Quote)
I have still problems posting comments to “normal” articles, but those I can find through the menusystem works (like this one).
My system:
Windows Vista + IE8 (normal security settings, I haven’t changed anything).
Java version 6 update 32. I have one deactivated Java(tm) plugin 2 SSV-helper object, but this has been deactivated by Java under an update, so I’ll believe it’s just a safety copy.
I have tried the normal tricks:
Restart browser, reboot, Windows update
Related symptom:
I cannot mark/highlight text with the mouse (to copy the text). I have experienced the same symptom on 1 other website in the last 6 months. The frontpage or articles like this are not affected by this symptom.
Main symptoms:
The inputboxes (Name, Email, Website) receives focus on mouseclick, but the cursor only show 1 blink before it disappears. I can’t paste text into them either, but the premade choices works (the username and Email I have used here).
The messagebox works in the same way (no cursor, no input, no paste). Quoting a whole comment works, but it will gradually become very boring if I’m only able to repeat other people’s comments. :)
“Enter” will execute the default Submit-button.
Now you have a description of the symptoms and the system affected, and I will also post solutions if I find any.
M_Norway(Quote)
M_Norway,
Please see if the Contact form works for you. As a test, just try to send a word or two. Click on the Contact PatrickPretty.com link near the top of the page.
If you’re able to submit through the Contact form, I can accept the comments you want to make on an individual story and report them in the appropriate thread.
If the Contact form doesn’t work for you, I’ll send an email to you and you can submit comments that way for reposting.
That’s perhaps two temporary ways to handle the posting problem.
My apologies for the trouble you’re experiencing with the Comments form. This has happened about five or six times over the years, and I’ve never been able to pinpoint the cause.
Patrick
admin(Quote)
@Patrick
I think I have found a solution to bypass the input problem:
1. Click in one of the inputboxes (Name, Email, Website)
2. TAB to move the control to the next box in the group (and Shift Tab if you want to move in the other direction).
Atleast the cursor shows up in the boxes with this method, and I’m able to write comments. This method can be used as a “workaround”.
So a description of the problem will be that SOME parts of this website won’t handle mouseclicks from SOME computers, but it will accept keyboard commands.
M_Norway(Quote)
Thanks for letting me know about this, M_Norway.
Patrick
admin(Quote)
At 11:40 a.m. today, a would-be poster directed a comment at this thread complaining about “pukes like you” trying to take down an unspecified program.
The post clearly was designed to harass.
Patrick
admin(Quote)
This man, Arthur Ferdig, clearly needs to be frequently checked on. His fraud was not for just 12 years, it has been since 1963. He has caused three deaths due to his ripoffs–all suicides. I married (then divorced) this brother in the ’70s. Also, someone needs to take a closer look at his (former) wife, Elaine. She has also benefitted from his unlawful endeavors, as have his three daughters and their husbands.
Sue Ferdig(Quote)
I enter zeekrewards through friend and I bought 5000.00 bits may 30 I try to cash some money It did not happen the same week the site was closed no one can access it please help me. I would like to know how I am going to get my money back address [deleted by admin].
Evelyne Germain(Quote)
Evelyn,
Didn’t your up line / friend.explained to you that you are purchasing bids and that it is
Not refundable?….you are supposed to sign a form that states” that you are not
Buying an investment, stocks or Bond nor an equity… You signed this form that you are aware of this before you can buy bids…. These bids are credited to you and will be
“retired” after 90 days, but you can share in the retail sales profit for 90 days based on the purchases of $5,000….
Winnie Pijuan(Quote)
Evelyn,
Your share of the retail sales profits for 90 days from the date that you purchased the bids are the earnings that you can withdraw and the original $5000 will be “retired”, meaning it will be deducted from your total VIP point balance… If and when you cashed out your 90 days earnings and your 5000 VIP Points are retired, you have then a zero balance on your VIP points and Zeekrewards doesn’t owe you any money at all…
Then if you don’t want to have a zero balance, that’s when you re-purchased bids from part of your retail sales profit share… If you have any other questions, I would be more than glad to answer or explain to you…
Winnie Pijuan(Quote)
Winnie is speaking as a Zeek. This is a plain-speak version:
Zeek was closed by the Feds as a huge scam. Your money is now in the hands of court-appointed receiver whose job is to return your money… AFTER he gets it back to wherever Zeek had scattered it to (at least 8 places have been publicly identified, more to come) and registered all of you, how much you lost, and all that. THEN he’ll be able to pay you back. This will take 2-3 years. Remember, there’s up to 2 MILLION of you affiliates.
Any one telling you “you’re not buying investment” is repeating the SAME line Zeek had once spread. As Zeek is determined to be fraud, and its owner plead no contest (i.e. “I’m not gonna fight”) figure who’s speaking the truth yourself.
K. Chang(Quote)
What are your thoughts on Receiver, Ken Bell cashing all the uncashed cashier’s checks that could have been rightfully returned to the owners instead of being cashed? Looks like it could have saved them a lot of work in figuring out where that money came from and to whom it belonged to. Seems criminal to me, but what do I know…I thought ZR was a legitimate company!
Disgruntled(Quote)
My thoughts are that Ponzi = Pain. There is just no escaping it. Under the principles of equity, the victims of Ponzi schemes share the pain equally and the money gets placed in a pool from which pro rata shares will be distributed to the victims one day.
The blame for this is the burden of the Ponzi schemer, not the receiver. Lots of folks will try to shift blame to the receiver and poison the well in other ways. There was no receiver in the AdSurfDaily case, but uncashed checks also were involved. ASD’s apologists immediately tried to shift blame away from Andy Bowdoin and to the U.S. Secret Service.
One of the emerging sidebars in the still-new Zeek story is that some of the celebrated Ponzi pimps on MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold are trying to demonize the receiver and his purported “cronies.”
Zeek benefited from its Ponzi-board cheerleaders, including cheerleaders who turn a blind eye to fraud scheme after fraud scheme. Now, they want the world to believe that both the government and the receiver are evil.
Patrick
admin(Quote)
Nope. Consider this. There are THREE groups of people:
G1) People who already sent money to Zeek
G2) People who sent money to Zeek, and funds are in transit
G3) People who had NOT sent money to Zeek.
G2 belongs with G1, not G3.
Furthermore, receiver’s job, returning all of Zeek’s money to all the victims, means exactly that: ALL of the victims. If he doesn’t cash all the checks in transit and add all of them to Zeek’s assets, then G1 is NOT treated the same as G2.
G2 wants to be classed separately even though they ALREADY SENT IN THEIR MONEY and thus belong to G1.
Finally, in the Madoff case, at least one group, who put money into Madoff’s scheme in the last 20 days, tried suing the trustee Irving Picard claiming they should get their millions back because it hadn’t been co-mingled with all the Madoff funds. That argument was rejected.
Blame Zeek for fraud. Anything else is bogus.
K. Chang(Quote)
It’s probably naive to think we would get all of our money back? If they do a clawback to cover the victims’ losses it seems there would be enough to get everyone’s money returned. I wonder how long it will actually take to sort through all of it? What is your opinion of the lawsuit against SEC that they wrongfully charged Zeek? Are they wasting our money we put in Zeek? Is that lawful to use the victims’ money to fight the lawsuit?
Disgruntled(Quote)
It’s hard to say, Disgruntled. I’ve seen recoveries from pennies on the dollar to dimes on the dollar.
You should not make that assumption. Money almost always goes missing in Ponzi schemes — for instance, a winner might have bought a new house or new car with the fraudulent proceeds. Even if the receiver forces the sale of the house or car, the proceeds may not be enough to satisfy the obligation to the receiver estate.
Remember: Ponzi = Pain:
This story is an illustration of that:
https://patrickpretty.com/2010/06/13/apologists-interrupted-two-court-rulings-show-that-hyip-operators-players-setting-stage-for-painful-downfalls-foreclosures-woman-loses-home-while-new-mom-loses-everything/
No easy answer to this. It could take years. On occasions, receivers will provide an interim distribution. It’s often just pennies on the dollar.
One of the most infamous recent Ponzi schemes is the 3 Hebrew Boys Case in South Carolina. The case devolved into a sovereign-citizens sideshow, but the receiver was able to recover about 46 cents on the dollar. That’s a high amount, as these things go:
https://patrickpretty.com/2012/05/16/bulletin-victims-of-3-hebrew-boys-forex-ponzi-swindle-that-devolved-into-sovereign-citizen-sideshow-will-get-back-46-cents-on-the-dollar/
My opinion is that the “winners” may try to gum up the mix, something that happened in the ASD case. I’d further say there may be some overlap between ASD winners and Zeek winners and that there is panic within a certain Zeek sphere.
I’m not sure who you mean by “they.”
Patrick
admin(Quote)
Thank you Patrick for your insight, hopefully they will do an interim distribution and it will be $.50 on a $1 at least, that will help a lot of people.
Disgruntled: Are they wasting our money we put in Zeek? Is that lawful
to use the victims’ money to fight the lawsuit?
Patrick: I’m not sure who you mean by “they.”
“They”=SEC using Zeek assets to fight the lawsuits against them (i.e. SNR Denton). The exZeek people are talking like that may be the only way we’ll ever see our money again because they fear the receiver will spend all Zeek’s assets on shuffling papers so to speak. I just don’t want the lawsuit to cause undo spending of Zeek’s assets so we get as much back as possible.
I’m still so confused on how this went as far as it did, we assumed since there were so many “good lawyers”, SEC (supposedly) approving this business; they had the compliance course we had to take, a lot of MLM watchdogs approved of it; even some judges and attorneys were involved in Zeek; I called the Attorney General’s office to check on the legitimacy of it and all they said is they can’t recommend or not recommend a company. I wish they’d given a warning, I wouldn’t have even thought about doing this! Who gets involved in a ponzi scheme?? Not me!! (At least I didn’t think something like this would ever happen to me! Craziness!)
I know there has GOT to be some legitimate MLMs out there. If I ask you about some of them, you’ll tell me if they are legitimate? If not, WHO does a person ask when the SOS, AG or anyone else doesn’t tell it to you straight?
Thanks for your help!
Disgruntled(Quote)
The receiver will be funded from Zeek assets. That way, the cost isn’t passed on to taxpayers. As I noted earlier, the demonization of the receiver already has begun on the Ponzi boards.
I am not privy to any SNR Denton plans. I noticed in one of the early fundraising calls from the Zeekers, the name of former Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum was dropped. Some of the Zeekers appear to be trying to create the impression that Zeek couldn’t possibly be a Ponzi scheme if McCollum’s law firm was willing to take on the Zeekers as clients.
A similar thing happened in the ASD case when Akerman Senterfitt, a prominent firm, emerged as Andy Bowdoin’s lawyers. Name-dropping is a big part of Stepfordian MLM.
The ASDers initially positioned Akerman Senterfitt as the “Perry Mason” team, with the government positioned as led by “Gomer Pyle.” When things didn’t go ASD’s way, the ASDers quickly sought to slime Akerman Senterfitt. After that, the ASDers slimed Bowdoin’s first criminal attorney.
The Zeek receiver is a former federal prosecutor who also has worked on the defense side of the aisle. He is well-known at the Justice Department for his work on a terrorism case in North Carolina about 10 years ago. Of course, the Ponzi board enthusiasts already are trying to smear him.
I don’t know how the Zeekers plan to proceed and what SNR Denton plans to do for them. If it involves litigating against the receiver, it likely will cost the Zeek victims money.
The Zeekers had better be careful, IMHO. It’s not as though the SEC and Justice Department haven’t seen this type of thing before. It was present as a nearly constant sidebar during four years of the ASD case, and resulted in delay after delay in victims receiving justice.
Patrick
admin(Quote)
Thank you. Well, I have to make some money to make up for what I have lost. What is your opinion of these businesses?
Vitel
Cash Texts
Lyoness
Wealth4all
Ultimate Power Profits
Thanks in advance if you can warn me of anything that could be potentially dangerous.
Disgruntled(Quote)
Doubt the interim distribution is going to be anywhere close to that. You’re looking at maybe 5%. Irving Picard, Madoff’s trustee (almost same as receiver) initial distribution was only 4% because the rest was tied up in court battles.
SNR Denton haven’t sued anybody yet. In fact, the only one saying so is Craddock and Kettner. There has been NO confirmation from Denton. In fact, Craddock and Denton even put up notice that tells everybody stop asking Denton to confirm this. Smelly anything fishy yet?
The only thing lawsuit will do is DELAY the distribution… if they ever get into court. Irving Picard, the Madoff trustee, just got permission to disburse another 40+ percent of losses, making his total to close to 50% distribution, amazing performance considering that Madoff spent the his 100+ billion Ponzi down to a mere 200 million… and confessed back in 2008.
None of which proves compliance with the law. All that “compliance courses” is aimed at affiliates, NOT at the company itself. Only ONE MLM advocate was a total fan of it. Another did an interview and called it a ‘review’. Others either had no opinion, or considered it be shaky and flaky. SEC never vetted the company. Supposedly Zeek hired a lawfirm that had an ex SEC guy, but this was never confirmed either.
In other words, none of that can be believed. With apologies to Ronald Reagon, “you trusted, but you did not verify.”
AG’s office cannot vet companies. Also, by the time you call them, they are probably sworn to secrecy due to SEC investigation already. It was clear SEC had its eyes on Zeek for MONTHS before August 17th.
BehindMLM may be a good place to start. Oz is not afraid to offend a few bosses of schemes (and the scheme defenders).
My own blog, amlmskeptic.blogspot.com, has a lot of short articles on how schemers trick people, what sort of excuses they use, and some analysis of the genre of MLM (but not specific companies).
K. Chang(Quote)
Patrick,I have been remiss in not emailing you earlier once I came across your awesome website and blog. Thank you for educating potential victims about frauds and Ponzi schemes. I am sure that the work you do has kept thousands of people from making the same mistake others have made and regretted. Your information on investment frauds, affinity frauds, Ponzi schemes etc. is invaluable to alert people (potential targets and victims) so they recognize a potential fraud and avoid it. Just wanted to say thank you and recognize you for your great work. Keep it up! Regards, Cathy Lerman
Cathy Lerman(Quote)
Where are the names of these people who hustled so many of us out of our money? I live in North Carolina and along with my 82 year old mother and many of my family and friends we got ripped off. Why don’t you go after this arrogant clown Coach Van who claimed he had 400,000 people in Zeek. What about another hustler who scammed hundreds of people out of $10,000 each and was bragging about all his money, Marty Muns. They guys were the BIG TIME promoters here in North Carolina and no one even mentions their names. PLEASE step up Patrick and expose these scam artists. They have not stopped. They are just doing more scam and defrauding more people out of their money. They need to pay back the money the stole and the AG here in NC needs to put them in jail or the they need a long vacation at Club Fed. I am angry as HELL and I am not going to take this anymore.
Bill Phillips(Quote)
Actually all ponzi schemes should be legal if the U.S. Government can operate the largest ponzi known to history – Social Security. The definition of ‘ponzi’ certainly fits. Early contributors reaping the benefits of those who put in later and will never see their money. ‘Stimulus Package ?’ Taking money from those who earned it and throwing it at companies who mismanage funds with no consequence? And the Federal Bank. Worst scam of all. The Federal Bank is owned by PRIVATE BANKERS, has NO connection to government, has no congressional oversight, is regulated by NO AGENCY, and answers to NO ONE! Just prints money as a ‘loan’ to the US Government increasing the debt interest that can never be repaid. See the ‘Debt Clock’ spinning away? That is the monstous runaway interest piling up for the printing of that money that is backed by nothing.
Kim Rapp(Quote)
You are waaaaaay late to the party. Not the governments fault you lost money in a scam.
Whip(Quote)
Have the victims reported these people through the FBI?
scratchycat(Quote)
Dear Patrik,
You shared last year some information on Text Cash Network.
The wyoming secretary of State website gives today the information that Text Cash Network inc is administratively dissolved for tax purposes .What does this mean exactly?
https://wyobiz.wy.gov/Business/FilingDetails.aspx?eFNum=124140054248244202106130196003083025054100091089
Many thanks
Regards
charles(Quote)
Hello Charles,
It perhaps means that yet another scam linked to Phil Piccolo soon will have to find yet another corporate shell to dupe the public.
Patrick
admin(Quote)
If the SEC started it’s investigation in April, WHY were affiliates not notified in someway. Had I known, I would have NEVER presented what, I thought, was a great opportunity to my friends and family. I feel that the State has some responsibility in this. At the very least, their $4 million fee should be added back to the “pot” to repay victims. I just hope the receiver realizes that everyone loses something, and does not use up valued assets on pursuing folks with (say) $100 or less invested. It would cost more to just reimburse them a nickel than it would to just take them out of the equation. Percentage is certainly NOT fair: I know that there are a high number of folks who puchased just $10 in bids – so 50% of their loss is $5, 50% of a $10,000 investor is $5,000. Where is the fairness in that? I just hope Bell has the brass to tell some folks to just suck it up and be real. Also, I do hope the folks who were big earners do have to return some of their earnings. I am fairly confident that a number of top earners, who also were “friends” with office folks, KNEW that something was up because I know of at least 2 who “suddenly” started taking 100% of earnings even though they were advising others not to. This did not pass the smell test!! It DID sound like a good thing, and the actual “penny auction concept” sounded so real. We were all lied to.
Nell Thrower(Quote)
With the greatest respect, Nell, but, how on earth do you propose the SEC could accomplish such a thing without tipping off the criminals behind Zeek ???
All it would take is one affiliate to slip up, the information would be all over the ‘net in seconds and the criminals would be laying on a beach in some country with no extradition treaty in hours.
Please direct your anger at the people who really are responsible for your losses and not those who are doing their darndest to stop it happening again and ensuring victims get at least something back.
Rest assured, the victims were the very least of Burks and Cos’ consideration.
littleroundman(Quote)
Perhaps Nell would find this story useful. Among the allegations is that millions got spirited offshore when the alleged hucksters got word that a probe was under way:
https://patrickpretty.com/2011/04/23/special-report-sec-sues-commodities-online-llc-alleging-massive-fraud-firm-that-listed-surfs-up-mod-terralynn-hoy-as-director-says-it-plowed-39-million-into-alleged-ponzi-scheme-operated-by/
Meanwhile, here’s a story about a scammer who was wiring funds even as a raid was under way:
https://patrickpretty.com/2010/11/09/feds-charge-robert-stinson-criminally-on-heels-of-sec-lawsuit-prosecutors-say-lifes-good-operator-stole-more-than-17-million-in-ponzi-scheme-wired-money-even-as-fbi-was-conducting-raid/
Now, imagine the two cases above with an additional plot twist. In the Commodities Online case, money allegedly got spirited away after the issuance of subpoenas. In the Stinson case, Stinson was trying to wire money during a raid.
Sounds strange, right? Well, Nell, perhaps you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
AdSurfDaily figures Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer — later of Zeek — once argued in court that undercover agents who’d joined ASD had a duty to inform ASD management of their presence.
The HYIP world is a very dark one, Nell.
Patrick
admin(Quote)
To would-be poster “Stacy”:
I am not publishing your would-be comments about the Patrick Cody Morgan case in this thread.
I’ll review the comments and consider them for publication if you post them in either of these two threads:
https://patrickpretty.com/2013/02/15/2-days-after-judge-cites-specific-web-domain-and-declares-kenneth-wayne-leaming-filing-undecipherable-pp-blog-receives-would-be-comment-with-link-to-page-that-references-same-domain-and-case-agai/
https://patrickpretty.com/2012/11/02/jury-returns-verdicts-against-purported-texas-sovereign-citizen-in-less-than-3-hours-patrick-cody-morgan-potentially-faces-decades-in-jail-after-conspiracy-and-bank-fraud-convictions-in-condo-swi/
The first time you tried to post a comment in this thread, well, it purported to be in response to a comment by a PP Blog reader nearly two years ago. That comment had nothing whatsoever to do with Patrick Cody Morgan. I treat such efforts as spam.
Regardless, you’ve now returned to this thread, insisting I publish links you’ve spammed and that this Blog tell the “WHOLE story.”
It’s simple: If you want to post about the bum rap you appear to believe Patrick Cody Morgan is getting, do so in the appropriate thread. Don’t try to turn the top of this Blog into a link farm for your spam.
Patrick
admin(Quote)
Hello,
My name is Dar and i am a journalist in Israel (at the Kolbotek Tv program).
Kolbotek is the main invesigative Tv program at the Israeli channel 10 (a commercial broadcasting television channel).
We are investigating the story of the Principality of New Utopia.
We will appriciate your urgent help:
As we saw, you have published in the past lots of information about the scam of New Utopia. Recently we got an info that one Israeli guy was involved in the “so called” principality of NU.
I would kindly ask for your help with referring me to the sources and/or people who gave you the info regarding New Utopia and may help us too.
Thanks alot.
With kind regards,
Dar at the name of the Kolboek team
Channel 10
+972-99566666
kolbotek5090@gmail.com
Kolbotek(Quote)
Hello Dar,
The public information the PP Blog has on New Utopia is available in the archives. You’ll find the search function near the upper-right corner. Simply type in “New Utopia” — without the quotes.
As a brief update, “Prince” Lazarus Long reportedly has passed away.
One of my memories about covering events related to New Utopia was a message I received from the purported “Protector” of the nonexistent, undersea nation.
You’ll find that story here:
https://patrickpretty.com/2011/03/10/pp-blog-operated-by-self-appointed-idiot-fan-of-nonexistent-nation-of-new-utopia-suggests-blog-invited-then-univited-to-ceremony-at-palace/
New Utopia would make a fine story for Channel 10.
Thank you for your note.
Patrick
admin(Quote)
Dear Dar
I am wondering, if you any work related to the one of the greatest scan Profitable Sunrise. If you have any tips and advises, please do share. I am a victim with 20+ downlines victimized and 10,000s of US$ in Roman Novac’s hands. Any assistance provided help 20+ and greately appreciated.
Thank you
Mathews Valliaveetil [deleted by PP Blog]
Mathews Valliaveetil(Quote)
https://patrickpretty.com/tag/profitablesunrise/
Patrick
admin(Quote)
I am interested in hearing more about the FELMINA ALLIANCE scam, there are so many investors swindled worldwide and we have to submit complaints. One of the “companies” behind the FELMINA ALLIANCE scam is SLADBO BAUSERVICE Gmbh, based in Berlin, Germany.
Gabriel(Quote)
SEC Filing against CKB Promoters
The SEC was right to move against many of those individuals charged in it’s Oct 2013 filing for making highly deceptive claims of profitablility from the growth of “PRPT”. The SEC was only partially correct to state in its filing “PTPT” is worthless. Investors were able to convert PRPT to shares of stock to be issued in an IPO purportedly to occur in July, 2014.
The SEC is entirely wrong to state that shares will increase as the as the amount of PRPT increases. If 1 PRPT would have converted to 1 share at the outset, but instead that PRPT was left to double and redouble numerous times, say to 360 PRPT before converting, it would still convert to only 1 share. Many investors, such as myself, saw the potential of a large number of Asian consumers, who highly value education, purchasing on-line lessons and paying to visit learning centers where their children and grandchildren would learn English, Personal Finance, Ethics, Mathematics, Memory Skills, Creativity, etc.
This is presently all underway, with numerous courses develpoed and two learning centers opened to date. Unfortunately the company failed to maintain control over its marketing arm, and those people have tarnished an otherwise very worthy business venture. If the SEC doesn’t understand the PRPT issue, which they clearly don’t based on the statements in its filing, how beleivable is their statement that the company lacks the financial wherewithall to go public.
Do they have access to company records in Hong Kong? I think not. As to their allegations of impropriety because of bank deposits and transfers, do they understand that is how most U.S. investors transferred money into their CKB accounts in Hong Kong, ie., by transferring money into the U.S. bank accounts of existing investors, who then had that amount of money tranferred out of their Hong Kong CKB account into the new investor’s Hong Kong CKB account? To save otherwise costly foreign exchange and bank transfer fees. This is not illegal, but the SEC makes it look like money laundering.
Further, the SEC trys to make this look like a Ponzi scheme by showing the pyramid relationship of those charged. Pyramid sales structures are not illegal. Ponzi schemes are. I don’t think this comes close to a Ponzi. So while the SEC is right to stop the illegal marketing practices, which I have witnessed first hand, the SEC should not destroy a potentially viable and profitable business venture in its inception.
The SEC should be protecting its U.S. investors, not acting in a manner to harm them. Regardless of whether an investor was misled into thinking his investment will grow like Jack’s beanstalk, such investor was still given shares in the company, and there is every chance the investment will return some level of profit, if the SEC doesn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.
John(Quote)
John,
I added carriage returns to your comment and deleted the URL you posted because it would confuse readers.
In the future, please use carriage returns and post your comments in this thread:
https://patrickpretty.com/2013/10/17/urgent-bulletin-moving-sec-charges-3-executives-8-promoters-of-alleged-worldwide-pyramid-scheme-operating-from-hong-kong-canada-and-british-virgin-islands-ckb-and-ckb168-frauds/
I’ll respond to your comment when I get a chance.
Thank you.
Patrick
admin(Quote)
John,
I see this case as a textbook offering fraud. A “blueprint” for this type of fraud has existed at least for a couple of years. It has been used in British Columbia, Canada, for instance.
What you describe as “not illegal,” I’d describe as a crystal-clear marker of a scam. It’s a sort of maximum red flag, variations of which have been present in infamous Ponzi schemes such as AdSurfDaily and ZeekRewards and outrageous securities-fraud schemes such as Imperia Invest IBC.
There’s little doubt that something similar is occurring with the WCM777 “program,” which is under investigation in multiple countries.
On a side note, the securities angle is just one concern. When this type of circuitous money movement is in play, tax fraud also is a concern.
I see it as an issue of national security because it creates “money mules.” The banks may think they’re doing business with a legitimate customer, but the tiering may add layers and layers of murkiness.
The Profitable Sunrise scam is another case in point. In that case, investors were paying their uplines and the uplines were sending money via wire offshore to an exceptionally murky individual.
Patrick
admin(Quote)
Quick note: Forgot to mention that the PP Blog story on CKB has been getting pounded by nasty travelers; it’s as though the URL for the story had been loaded into a cannon. Wave after wave of resource-straining traffic shows up at that thread — far as I can tell, in groups of 10 or more IPs at a time.
Patrick
admin(Quote)
Here’s a screen shot of a wave that arrived at the CKB thread at about 8:45 a.m. today:
https://patrickpretty.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ckbwave011614small.jpg
Patrick
admin(Quote)
Patrick,
Thanks for the response to my post, which I just now belatedly read. First, I
appreciate the information on all these nefarious activities which cheat
innocent people out of their money. Keep up the good work.
I respectfully disagree with some of your comments regarding CKB.
I stated above there are two severable issues here, one bad, one not.
The bad side, the marketing approach used by those charged by the SEC
was clearly illegal and the SEC rightfully moved in to stop the fraudulent claims regarding the growth of “PRPT” and its economic value, which it clearly lacked. This deserves all the light you can shine on it.
What frustrates me is that the SEC and you cannot see or choose to ignore
the legitimate aspect of CKB168, the marketing of products and services to teach children valuable lessons in language skills, memory improvement, basic
finance and personal ethical conduct. If you would care to read the company’s
vision statement you would see that this is what it is all about. Unfortunately
the founder lacked the business sense and judgement to realize she allowed
a bunch of crooks to devise a fraudulent mechanism for promoting huge returns to legitimate investors who very much liked the idea of the educational
products being marketed to a huge Asian populace that places high value on
education.
Please log onto the CKB website and read the vision statement. It will take only
a few minutes. It’s your job to do so, to understand the background. Then
tell me, would this not be a completely legitimate endeavor were it not for
how it was marketed using “PRPT” and the promise of extremely inflated gains, but instead a simple solicitation to invest in a company that is developing
educational products for children in Asian countries, a company that will go public on the HK exchange?
You are following a lot of different entities. I doubt you’ve had the time to
really understand the “PRPT” issue, but that’s the whole story here with
CKB168. If you do understand that, you can easily separate the good from the
bad.
Thanks for your time.
John(Quote)
Need to have direct contact with David myrland. Very very important. Thank you.
Lite Rex(Quote)
Dear Patrick,
several scammed investors including me have been trying to post in the FELMINA ALLIANCE threads, however, many of our contributions remain unposted. Could you please open your fórums for our submission?
Thanks in advance
Jose Gabriel Zaka(Quote)
Hello Jose,
I just tested two threads that reference Felmina Alliance. They appear to be working properly — and I haven’t seen any Felmina pending posts near the top of a holding queue that safeguards against spam.
Spam is incredibly thick, though — so much so that I’m mostly doing mass deletions, as opposed to my former practice of reading page after page of spams to make sure a legitimate comment didn’t get lost.
It is POSSIBLE that some legitimate comments on Felmina were lost in a mass deletion. My apologies, if that was the case.
Please try again.
Patrick
PatrickPretty.com(Quote)
Thank you Patrick for your prompt response! Will be submitting my posting again.
We have followed our actions against the FELMINA ALLIANCE mega-scam in several lines including the SEC. I wonder where are the many scammed investors of FELMINA ALLIANCE? There used to be so many and now there are only a few of them.
José Gabriel(Quote)
About your story about Loretta Lynch and my case. Firstly, don’t you think its strange that I was charged with a crime supposedly done in Singapore, but yet Loretta Lynch raided the home of my ex-wife and interrogated my 19 year old daughter while I was 10k miles away? A place I had not lived in 4 years? Don’t you think its strange that I was denied bail when I was never convicted of a crime in my life? Don’t you think its strange that the Government of Singapore sent a letter to Lynch telling her I could not have committed the crime, but yet Judge Hurley still denied me bail? I have proof that Lynch worked with the FBI and NSA in framing me. I never sent that email from September 2010. Why would I? I had just moved to Singapore. All the answers you need to know are in my federal lawsuit against Lynch (14-cv-1047 EDNY). Lynch is nothing more than a criminal and if she is confirmed, God help this country. I have complained about Lynch for over 10 years now, so this is nothing new. As far as your reports linking some shootings in Arizona indirectly to me, well that’s just bullshit and you know it. People like you are cowards in that your report just what the Government gives you, but don’t even look at the docket or follow up with any investigative reporting. It is not credible, but of course you knew that already.
Vincent McCrudden(Quote)
This comment is in response to this story:
https://patrickpretty.com/2014/11/08/president-obama-to-nominate-loretta-lynch-to-replace-eric-holder-as-attorney-general/
Please put follow-up comments in that thread:
Patrick
PatrickPretty.com(Quote)
Should check your facts before slamming MMR21. This is a truly faith based organization. The purpose of the study is to gather data, to present to the FDA, etc. This is understood when they sign up. The ingredients are FDA approved. However, Rexall Drug is doing the compounding, which is the way it was originally done, and it is tailored to the individual. It’s not a one size fits all like big pharma pitches. An average of 22 warriors per day commit suicide, and that is directly linked to a lot of the toxic drugs the VA has them on.
Scott Brantley(Quote)
Note: Scott is talking about this story:
https://patrickpretty.com/2015/02/02/promos-by-achieve-community-huckster-for-military-medical-relief-21-go-missing-from-youtube/
Patrick
PatrickPretty.com(Quote)
I have money left in spotfn and have been contacted re “insurance” with Allianz Tiriac. Is that also a scam?
Is there any way I can get my money back?
John Griffiths(Quote)
Here’s a little tip for you:
never, ever, EVER try to get your money back through anyone except a court appointed receiver..
There is NO insurance company in the world which will insure ponzis or ponzi participants, but, there are many criminal fraudsters who will try to fleece fraud victims by pretending to have a way for victims to recover their losses.
There IS no way, the fraudsters are long gone, along with your money.
littleroundman(Quote)
What do you know about SportsArb.com
gerrit(Quote)