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Tag: Albert Rosebrock

Costly Sanctions Imposed Against Profitable Sunrise HYIP Figures In Ohio, Settlement Documents Show; Fallout Could Last Years

EDITOR’S NOTE: A PP Blog story dated yesterday includes other details.

** _________________________**

From a promo for Profitable Sunrise.

Still pitching HYIP schemes and Ponzi-board “programs?” Positioning them as a means of helping a charity and/or ministry raise funds?

Becoming a promoter of Profitable Sunrise — an absurd Ponzi-board HYIP scheme with a purported payout of up to 2.7 percent a day plus “compounding” — may have long-term financial consequences on Nancy Jo Frazer of Bryan, Ohio.

And the fallout is not limited to Frazer, a wife, mother, beauty-pageant champion and network-marketing enthusiast with a clientele that includes members of the faith community.

Not counting legal bills from defense counsel, Frazer’s foray into Profitable Sunrise cost her, her husband David and Nancy’s Profitable Sunrise colleague Albert Rosebrock at least $108,146.61. That’s the sum due the Ohio Attorney General’s office as part of a supplemental settlement agreement finalized in recent days.

The PP Blog obtained the supplemental settlement agreement through a public-records request with the state of Ohio yesterday. The document was received today, along with other settlement documents requested by the Blog. There was a slight delay in obtaining the material because sensitive information in the documents such as bank-account numbers had to be redacted before they could be sent.

The supplemental settlement agreement shows that Profitable Sunrise may affect the two Frazers and Rosebrock for 10 years to come, given that the state has agreed to accept payments from them totaling a minimum of $844.02 a month for the next 120 months. The trio optionally may choose to pay a higher monthly sum to retire the debt faster.

Slightly more than $6,864 of the $108,146.61 due has been satisfied through the application of previously frozen funds. The Frazers and Rosebrook, however, must begin paying down the balance within 60 days.

The supplemental agreement has an enforceability provision that calls for the entire unpaid sum to become due in the event of a default and adds a fee of 10 percent if default occurs.

Separate documents obtained by the Blog through a public-information request show that Ohio has used a second set of enforcement teeth to assure compliance with a separate agreed order. That agreed order provides the state the authority to bring a contempt proceeding before the Williams County Court if prosecutors come to believe Nancy Frazer and Rosebrock aren’t holding up their end of the agreed order.

The agreed order specifies that financial sanctions against them could total $710,000 if a judge who conducts an evidentiary hearing at the request of the state holds them in contempt.

From the agreed order (italics added):

If any of the Defendants fail to comply with any of the conditions as set forth in this Agreed Entry and Order, the State may file a Motion to show cause why Defendants should be held in contempt. In such case, the Court will conduct an evidentiary hearing on the State’s Motion. If the State demonstrates after an evidentiary hearing by a preponderance of the evidence that Defendants Nancy Jo Frazer, Albert Rosebrock, and/or Defendant Defining Vision Ministries, Inc., individually or in any combination, through their own actions or through the actions of their agents, representatives, or assigns, violated any of the conditions set forth in this Agreed Entry and Order, the Court shall order a judgment in an amount up to $710,000.00, in favor of the Attorney General. In any such action for contempt of Court, the State need not establish whether or not any damages were appropriately awardable under the claims set forth in the Complaint.

Under the separate agreed order, Nancy Frazer and Rosebrook are required to dissolve Defining Vision Ministries and to turn over whatever assets it has left to the state. (Defining Vision Ministries formerly was known as Focus Up Ministries, the supposed beneficiary of proceeds from Profitable Sunrise.)

The order also reveals that a freeze on a Rosebrock bank account in July 2013 resulted in a payment of $910.30 to him from Social Security being made inaccessible, a circumstance that demonstrates that unpleasant things can happen if investigators believe tainted funds are mixed with legitimate money. The Social Security funds have been released to Rosebrock.

It clearly could have gone harder on Nancy Frazer et al, but it’s equally clear Ohio won on the enforcement front. The message: Pitching utterly preposterous HYIP schemes and presenting them as charitable fundraisers or endeavors simply will not be tolerated. There will be costly, potentially embarrassing litigation. There will be serious financial consequences (at least).

Concluding note: For reasons of competitive journalism and security, the PP Blog is declining to publish the settlement documents. This is a story about a ribald HYIP fraud — Profitable Sunrise — that appears to have been operated through a mail drop in England by a person using the identity of a ghost. Even with the redactions, the Blog is concerned that HYIP scammers and dens of thieves could use certain information in the documents to start harm anew. The Blog therefore is choosing to err on the side of caution.

Jan 23, 2015
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 its assets turned over to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office “to be used for charitable purposes,” the office of Attorney General Mike DeWine said.

Frazer and Rosebrock further agreed “not to hold a position with a charitable organization and not to sell securities in Ohio,” DeWine’s office said.

If the terms of an injunction are violated, Frazer and Rosebrock “will be subject to a judgment in the amount of $710,000,” DeWine’s office said.

“The Ohio Attorney General’s Office is charged with ensuring that charitable funds are used as intended,” DeWine said. “Under this settlement, these individuals agree to dissolve their charity, to cease all charitable activities in Ohio, and to stay out of the securities business in Ohio. We believe this is a fair resolution to a case that underscores the importance of researching charities and being skeptical of claims that are too good to be true.”

Ohio, through DeWine’s office and the Ohio Department of Commerce’s Division of Securities, charged Frazer and Rosebrock civilly in July 2013.

News broke last week that a settlement agreement had been reached, but details were not immediately available. The Division of Securities said today that the injunction was entered yesterday in Williams County, Ohio, and that “Frazer and Rosebrock admitted they sold securities in a manner that violated the Ohio Securities Act.”

“Through the hard work and teamwork of the Division of Securities enforcement staff and the Ohio Attorney General’s office, we were able to prevent any more Ohioans from falling victim to this scheme,” said Ohio Division of Securities Commissioner Andrea Seidt. “We would encourage any potential investors in Ohio to call the Division’s Investor Protection hotline before they invest.”

Profitable Sunrise purportedly was operated by “Roman Novak” and used a mail drop in England, the SEC said in 2013. The “program” purported to pay up to 2.7 percent a day.

Frazer also is known as Nanci Jo Frazer.

From a statement by the Ohio Division of Securities today (italics added):

Profitable Sunrise was prohibited from the further sale of securities by a federal court in Georgia in April, 2013. Profitable Sunrise operated as a pyramid scheme by paying investors referral bonuses up to 5 percent for any new investors who invested funds through the website. The website offered rates of return between 1.6 percent and 2.7 percent compounded daily. Thousands of investors nationwide invested in Profitable Sunrise through local solicitors like Frazer and Rosebrock.

The Ohio Division of Securities would like to hear from anyone who may have been affected by this scheme who have not yet come forward. They can call the Division’s Investor Protection Hotline at (877) 683-7841.

Jan 22, 2015
OUR ANSWER: ‘Nuts!’ PP Blog Receives Threat That ‘Authorities’ Will Move Against It If It Doesn’t Remove Content About Profitable Sunrise Figure Nanci Jo Frazer And Others; Email Claims FBI ‘Fully Aware Of All Your Consistent Attempts’ To Harm Frazer Group

“No!” Make that “Hell no!” — or, as Gen. Anthony McAuliffe once famously scribbled at the prompting of Gen. Harry W.O. Kinnard during the Battle of the Bulge, after soldiers for the Nazi Third Reich demanded surrender: “Nuts!”

At 12:11 a.m. ET today, the PP Blog inexplicably received five duplicate emails from an IP in the vicinity of Tiffin, a city in North Central Ohio. The emails were sent through the Blog’s contact form and threatened that “the authorities” would get involved if the Blog did not remove content about Nanci Jo Frazer and other Profitable Sunrise story figures by Nov. 15, nine days from today. The emails were signed “Nanci Jo Frazer,” but the Blog cannot independently confirm Frazer was the sender.

Why the Blog received five emails is unknown. The Blog tested the form after receiving the duplicated submissions, and it appears to be working properly, meaning it does not appear to be sending multiple copies of inquiries from readers. The Blog, however, did experience an outage that lasted approximately two hours yesterday. The outage occurred shortly after an IP from Ukraine made an appearance here at approximately 1:50 p.m. (Bots that leave a Ukranian signature have been circling the Blog for weeks.) The precise cause of yesterday’s outage, which occurred after the Blog reported on an HYIP/prime-bank scam in California outed as part of an FBI undercover operation that began in 2006, remains unclear.

In any event, the Blog will not remove any Frazer or Profitable Sunrise-related content unless ordered to do so by a U.S. federal judge. Nor will it submit to threats that incongruously are mixed with appeals to the Christian faith to make posts go missing. HYIP schemes are all about incongruities and preposterous constructions: “secret” or “safe” or “guaranteed” or “insured” investments that purportedly are “offshore” and able to deliver Christians and other people of faith legitimate interest rates of hundreds or even thousands of percent each year, for instance.

For security reasons, the Blog will not reply to the emails at the Gmail address entered by the sender. Instead, it will publish the content of the emails in this space. The FBI is free to make its own assessment about acts attributed to the agency by the sender in or around Tiffin. The Blog also will continue to publish Profitable Sunrise-related stories. Such stories are in the public interest.

The emails build on a conspiracy theory that has been circulating for weeks: that the Blog somehow acts in concert with fraudsters, cyberstalkers and at least one felon posing as a Christian do-gooder to subject Nancy Jo Frazer and her ministry to harm. Meanwhile, the emails plant the equally false seed that the Blog is part of a group involved in Bitcoin scams.

Among other things, the emails seek to chill the Blog’s reporting by contending that “The FBI is fully aware of all your consistent attempts to keep my name and our FocusUp Ministries Board members, our staff, voluteers and even my husband (who had no connection) tagged to negative , damaging words (such as scam, fraud and Ponzi) along with negative press and stories we are not connected to at all.” (No editing performed by PP Blog.)

“Last week through a phone conversation, the Senior investigator from the FBI, instructed me to have my attorney send you a Cease and Desist and demand for immediate removal of your unauthorized usage of materials, videos, audio, all radio & TV media, articles and all types of communication connected to FocusUp Ministries and our Board Members, staff and volunteers: including Nanci Jo Frazer (Nancy Frazer) and Albert Rosebrock, David Steckel (volunteer), Jon Simmons (staff pastor) also my husband David Frazer,” the emails read in part. (No editing performed by PP Blog.)

The emails did not identify the purported “Senior investigator from the FBI” who purportedly gave the sender instructions on how to accomplish the deletion of PP Blog content the apparent Frazer group supporter finds both objectionable and actionable. The PP Blog is willing, however, to voluntarily provide the IP address of the sender to the FBI, the SEC, the Ohio Office of the Attorney General or other law-enforcement agency in the United States that has an interest in the Profitable Sunrise case.

No subpoena will be necessary; we’ll simply provide the information and copies of the email, once the Blog verifies the request is genuine.

Over the years, the PP Blog has encountered various bids to chill its reporting on the HYIP sphere, including a sustained DDoS attack in 2010 and traffic floods in 2011 for which the Blog received a claim of responsibility. The Blog forwarded the claim to a U.S. law-enforcement agency.

In 2012, during a period of heavy reporting on two specific HYIP schemes, the Blog received repeated threats believed to be from different senders. Two of the threats were not aimed at the Blog. The first was received Aug. 6, 2012, and was aimed at three prominent U.S. politicians: one Democrat and two Republicans. This communication appeared to have been sent from Switzerland and questioned why the American politicians are “still alive and running around.” The email further described an American subject of the PP Blog’s crime reporting as a “true Patriot[]” who, like other purported “Patriots,” believed in “sending out mercenaries to take out those corrupt bankers, USG politicians, agents, judges and attorney’s [sic].”

Such content is consistent with members of the so-called Patriot Movement or similar U.S. extremists who identify themselves as “sovereign citizens.” Because the communication appears to have originated in a country famous for banking secrecy, it leads to questions about whether U.S. domestic extremists were networking with counterparts in Europe or perhaps were there themselves to “defend” HYIP schemes and chill reporting on the outrageous frauds by suggesting that mercenaries and assassins were at their disposal.

The second communication, received Aug. 29, 2012, was aimed at the alleged operator of a huge international Ponzi scheme. This communication appears to blame the accused operator for not properly defending the purported opportunity from investigations by the U.S. government.

“why you don’t stand to back [program name deleted by PP Blog][?]” the communication read in part.

“we lost our money. we will kill you . . .”

The communication concluded by slurring the alleged Ponzi operator as a “dog.” It appears to have been sent from Pakistan.

Yet-another 2012 communication believed to be from a different sender suggested that members of the PP Blog’s family might die if the Blog continued to report on HYIP schemes. The Blog forwarded all of these communications to a U.S. law-enforcement agency.

In 2009, the Blog repeatedly was stalked by an apologist for the AdSurfDaily and AdViewGlobal Ponzi schemes who sought to engineer an SEO campaign against the Blog. This tactic was repeated in 2012 by an apologist for the JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid scheme which, like ASD and AVG, may have ties to the “sovereign citizens” movement.

This specific individual appears to have been inspired in part by an infamous troll whose posts and visits bear an IP signature from the United Kingdom. The troll has been attacking antiscam sites since at least 2009, often incorporating sexual innuendo, antiChristian themes and elements of misogyny into his bizarre and vulgar game plan. In any event, the JSS/JBP apologist he inspired asserted he’d defend purported operator Frederick Mann “so help me God.” He also targeted specific PP Blog readers in an SEO campaign carried out on a free Blogger site — all while spreading absurd conspiracy theories and utterly preposterous lies. At the same time, he appears to have embedded code in certain communications as a means of trying to identify potential federal witnesses and perhaps even obtain/isolate the identities undercover federal agents may use online.

Requests for the Blog to delete content are not always menacing, but can be described fairly as mind-bogglingly bizarre. In 2010, an affiliate of the MPB Today MLM scheme asked the Blog to delete a story that reported President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton were being depicted as Nazis in a promo designed to recruit MPB Today affiliates. A separate script from the same MPB Today recruiter described the Obama family as welfare recipients who aspired to eat dog food and put these words into the mouth of First Lady Michelle Obama: “Hmm, I should prolly call my Food Stamp worker now that I’ve joined MPB.”

The Blog declined the deletion request.

MPB Today operator Gary Calhoun later was jailed in Florida on state-level racketeering charges. Federal prosecutors contended in July 2012 that crimes such as access-device fraud and fraud in connection with identification documents had occurred. Some MPB Today affiliates claimed the purported grocery “program” had been endorsed by the U.S. government and Walmart and that impoverished prospects should sell their Food Stamps to raise the $200 needed to join MPB Today. At least one MPB Today affiliate referenced pipe bombs in a promo.

In May 2009, the PP Blog reported that the AdViewGlobal scam announced it had secured a deal with a new offshore wire facilitator. The AVG announcement was made on the same day the President of the United States announced a crackdown on offshore fraud. The PP Blog later was asked by AVG’s purported facilitator to remove the story. The Blog refused.

The purported AVG facilitator — KINGZ Capital Management Corp. — later was linked to the epic Trevor Cook Ponzi scheme in Minnesota and was booted from the National Futures Association. AVG earlier had collapsed in a pile of Ponzi rubble. Even as it was going down, critics of the “program” and even members concerned about where their money had gone were threatened with lawsuits and ISP terminations for speaking out online.

Federal prosecutors later linked the AVG scam to the $119 million AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008. ASD story figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming, a purported “sovereign citizen,” is serving a federal prison sentence for targeting federal employees involved in the ASD case with bogus liens seeking billions of dollars, assisting a known tax fraudster in the filing of false liens, harboring federal fugitives in a case unrelated to ASD and being a felon in possession of firearms.

HYIP schemes are a cancer on America and the rest of the globe because they permit the murkiest of figures to acquire tremendous sums of money that endanger the United States and other nations. They are a scourge on society in no small measure because they attract “sovereign citizens” and other extremists whose intent is to undermine legitimate markets and create widespread confusion, if not anarchy. People of faith often are targets of HYIP scammers. The scams often switch forms, but the criminality remains largely the same.

In the case of Profitable Sunrise, the SEC has alleged that potentially tens of millions of dollars were driven to an individual potentially operating overseas. This individual’s identity may not be known. The allegations alone are chilling.

Frazer and her associates are not named in the SEC civil action. But Frazer and two of her alleged business associates — husband David Frazer and Nancy Frazer business associate Albert Rosebrock — are named in a Profitable Sunrise-related civil fraud action filed by the state of Ohio in July.

As noted above, the PP Blog will not remove any Frazer or Profitable Sunrise-related content. Here, now, the verbatim content of the emails received by the Blog at 12:11 a.m. today. (The Blog added carriage returns to make the contents more readable.)

The Emails

Dear Patrick;

I am send you this private (not to be published or shared) email to you as a Christian brother, from your Christian sister, in hopes to have your assistance to stop all media coverage concerning our Ministry and our volunteer board members without having to get the authorities involved to get this accomplished.

We understand that you have been trying to find the truth about Profitable Sunrise. The FBI has fully reviewed every document, communication and record we have and has returned everything to us. Our lead investigator stated that it is clear that we were a victim of “innocent ignorance”.

The investigation resulted in no criminal charges being filed. The Federal Government has confirmed we are not being named in this case. Kansas is in the process of dismissing the case and Ohio has stated they do not have enough information to move forward (after losing the majority of the assets at our hearing on August 30th, 2013). We are so thankful that we are finally being vindicated and can speak out soon.

2013 has been a refining year but so many awesome miracles have occurred that I cannot just feel there was no positive purpose. We believed that Profitable Sunrise was the “real deal”. We know that many of you believe that BitCoin is the “real deal” but in Texas, it is now declared a security and to some- part of a Ponzi? We sometimes learn things the hard way.

The FBI is fully aware of all your consistent attempts to keep my name and our FocusUp Ministries Board members, our staff, voluteers and even my husband (who had no connection) tagged to negative , damaging words (such as scam, fraud and Ponzi) along with negative press and stories we are not connected to at all. Thus driving traffic to your website for your own purpose.

Last week through a phone conversation, the Senior investigator from the FBI, instructed me to have my attorney send you a Cease and Desist and demand for immediate removal of your unauthorized usage of materials, videos, audio, all radio & TV media, articles and all types of communication connected to FocusUp Ministries and our Board Members, staff and volunteers: including Nanci Jo Frazer (Nancy Frazer) and Albert Rosebrock, David Steckel (volunteer), Jon Simmons (staff pastor) also my husband David Frazer.

I am requesting that Patrickpretty.com and all associate websites, blogs and media… Cease and Desist immediately from using images, text, tags,YouTubes, Powerpoints, articles, documents and recordings associated in any way with the patrickpretty.com website, which is containing or referring to Nanci Jo Frazer, Nancy Frazer, David Frazer, Albert Rosebrock, David Steckel, Jon Simmons and FocusUp Ministries and/or any of our associate Ministries, as you are not authorized to use our names or image for any purpose without written permission.

We have spent hundreds of hours of research to help authorities in everyway to fully understand and solve this case. We are almost to the point whereas I can share what I have learned to help avoid this event from happening again. I believe in going to my Christian brother first to resolve an issue. I believe that your heart is in the right place.

We need to see that everything is deleted and completely removed from the Internet by Friday, November 15th, 2013 so we can all move on. I hope you honor this and that we can start over and have this be a much better story for all.

Thanks Patrick!
Nanci Jo Frazer

Nov 6, 2013
PROFITABLE SUNRISE CASE: Did Fake Reporter Use Photo Of Real Reporter In ‘Story’ Titled ‘Nanci Jo Frazer WINS in Court – A Case Of Innocent Ignorance?’

“The judge ruled in Nanci & David Frazer’s favor along with Albert Rosebrock (ministry board members) . . . to release frozen funds. The FBI and the Federal government is categorizing Frazer as having suffered from a case of ‘innocent ignorance’ as she worked for nine months doing customer support for a UK Collateral Loan company.” — Lede from “story” on Topix.com, Oct. 5, 2013

Is a photo of a real reporter being used by a fake reporter in the aftermath of the Profitable Sunrise scheme? (Screen shot brushed by PP Blog.)

This is what is known from the publicly accessible court docket in Ohio’s July 8 fraud case against alleged Profitable Sunrise promoter Nancy Jo Frazer (also known as Nanci Jo Frazer), Focus Up Ministries and others: On Sept. 24, the docket of the case noted that the judge had ordered the release of $20,000 to Frazer and her husband (David Frazer) to pay legal bills. Another $8,000 was made accessible to Albert Rosebrock, another defendant, to pay legal bills.

The $20,000 ordered returned to the Frazers was in the form of a cashier’s check David Frazer had surrendered to the court after Ohio’s July action. Rosebrock’s money came from a bank account the judge ordered frozen after the Ohio action was filed. The docket shows that the judge authorized $8,000 from this frozen account to be made accessible to Rosebrock, but the freeze remains on any other money in the account. Freezes also remain on seven other accounts Ohio authorities have associated with the defendants. (Of the eight accounts originally ordered frozen in July, all eight remain frozen.)

Importantly, Ohio’s civil case remains ongoing. So does a civil case by the SEC at the federal level. The SEC action does not name the Frazers or Rosebrock defendants, but suggests that pitchmen could have promoted Profitable Sunrise without even knowing who was running the purported “opportunity.”

Purported Profitable Sunrise operator “Roman Novak” and his brother “Radoslav Novak,” a purported attorney associated with Profitable Sunrise, may be fictitious, according to the SEC, which has described Profitable Sunrise as a murky and massive international pyramid scheme that potentially gathered tens of millions of dollars.

“Profitable Sunrise operates for the benefit of unknown individuals and/or organizations doing businesses through companies formed in the Czech Republic and using bank accounts in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, and China, among other places,” the SEC alleged in April.

“There is more than a slight possibility, as with many offering frauds, that the people described in the [Profitable Sunrise] website, including the Novak brothers, do not exist,” the SEC said.

Enter ‘scampoliceinsider’

On Oct. 5, 11 days after the Sept. 24 Ohio docket entry, someone using the handle “scampoliceinsider” and a photo of a news reporter posted something that resembles a news story on the Topix.com site for Ogdensburg, NY., near the Saint Lawrence Seaway and the border with Canada.

Gregg Evans, a poster and occasional guest columnist at the PP Blog and a regular poster at the RealScam.com antiscam forum, posted a link to the Topix story at RealScam.com on Oct. 13.

Among other things, “scampoliceinsider” asserts on Topix that “I WILL GIVE YOU THE INSIDE SCOOP YOU DID NOT KNOW” and that “I am investigating a fraud within a fraud. I am the one who does what others won’t bother to do.” Moreover, “scampoliceinsider” asserts that he or she believes in “The truth backed by facts.”

Here is the headline on the Topix “scampoliceinsider” story: “Nanci Jo Frazer WINS in Court – a Case of Innocent Ignorance.” The headline stressed the word “WINS” in uppercase. Nowhere does the story mention that Ohio’s case is ongoing and that any money ordered unfrozen was further ordered to be used for the express purpose of paying legal bills. Instead, the story contends that Ohio authorities had known since October 2012 that Profitable Sunrise was a fraud and that the authorities “failed to inform the public and especially Nanci Frazer.”

It further positions Frazer as a victim of harassment from “A tight group of online individuals [who] have been targeted to be running their own bitcoin scheme” and claims the purported bitcoin schemers “stole Frazer’s image, identity and training videos while she was on vacation” in a bid to drive traffic to their own websites “and cash in on their own fraud.”

Meanwhile, a strangely worded passage in the story contends that “The FBI and the Federal government is categorizing Frazer as having suffered from a case of ‘innocent ignorance’” while she “worked for nine months doing customer support for a UK Collateral Loan company.” (This would be Profitable Sunrise, which perhaps would be better described as a purported collateral-lending company.)

Like the bitcoin and associated claims, the story does not substantiate the “innocent ignorance” claim. At the same time, the story ventures that “The last straw was watching Toledo 11 Fox News put her children in harms way by airing a hateful and false, damaging, home made video story from one of the online stalkers- James L Paris is was a convicted criminal for Securities fraud(they never checked out his background).” (Unedited by PP Blog.)

The Fox Toledo outlet now is “in position to be turned in to be put under regulators [sic] scrutiny and to be liable for a full investigation which connects them to another scam,” according to the Topix story.

Paris is the editor of ChristianMoney.com and recently published an ebook on what he describes as his pressure-packed, nerve-racking experience writing about Profitable Sunrise and the enmity directed at him from certain members of the Christian community. Paris denies he is a convicted criminal, saying that he once was named in a civil securities action in Maine after his brother embezzled money from a Paris company and hid the act from Paris and accountants.

(DISCLOSURE: The PP Blog is referenced in the Paris ebook. The Blog does not personally know Jim Paris, has no business association with him and does not benefit from the book, which was offered by Paris for free online for several days earlier this month and now costs $4.99 at Amazon.com. The book is titled, “Exposing The Ponzi Masters – The Profitable Sunrise Scam: How I Exposed It, How They Tried To Stop Me.” The Blog obtained the book free on Oct. 9 through a link supplied by Paris at RealScam.com. On Oct. 11, the Blog posted to RealScam.com about the book, opining that it believed the Paris book would “serve his intended audience in the Christian community well.” In its RealScam.com post, the Blog also drew some comparisons to the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme. ASD, like Profitable Sunrise, was targeted at people of faith.)

Now, back to the Topix story referenced above . . .

The photo of the reporter that appeared alongside the Frazer story on Topix in Ogdensburg, near the Canadian border, appears to be a low-resolution copy of a professional portrait/publicity still of a real reporter, a broadcast journalist who started her career at a California TV station in 2010 and accepted a job in 2012 at a station in Nevada, where she works as a weekend anchor. The photo does not identify the reporter by name and appears to have been taken while the reporter was working for the California TV station prior to moving on to the Nevada station.

It may be the case that a fake reporter posting at Topix found an image of the real reporter online and used it as an avatar to add credibility to the story on Frazer published at the site. The PP Blog believes it has established the identity of the real reporter and emailed her yesterday to determine if the image on Topix was being used without her knowledge and consent and to rule out that she was the author of the Topix post. As of the time of this post, the Blog has not heard back from the reporter, which is not unusual. Media people have busy schedules. (For the purposes of this post, the Blog is not identifying the real reporter by name and has brushed the screen shot above to obscure her face and the identity of a TV station that, like the reporter, may have no knowledge of Frazer or Profitable Sunrise or the Ohio case.)

In the Blog’s view, the Topix story does not read like one prepared by a trained, working journalist. Rather, the story on Topix reads like fractured marketing and PR fluff of the type often seen in the HYIP sphere. At least part of it seeks to demonize both the media and the government. Similar situations occurred after the action by the United States against ASD in 2008. Online scammers have been known to pose as legitimate members of the media to add presumptive authority to a scheme.

In 2011, the famous brand of Consumer Reports was appropriated by scammers to drive dollars to an acai-berry scheme, the FTC said. Meanwhile, “fake” news sites in the United States using the image of a real reporter from France were used in the acai scheme.

The PP Blog would be very surprised if the Topix story was authored by a real reporter, especially one using the handle “scampoliceinsider” and trying to stick it to a TV station in Toledo, other media outlets and Ohio authorities in this bizarre fashion.

Oct 15, 2013
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Ohio Calls Nanci Jo Frazer’s Focus Up Ministries ‘Front’ For Profitable Sunrise HYIP Fraud Scheme; State Says It Believes Frazer Was An AdSurfDaily Pitchwoman With History Of Promoting Fraud Schemes Such As Zeek Rewards And Profit Clicking

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (Fourth update 9:10 p.m. EDT U.S.A.) In court papers, the state of Ohio has called Nanci Jo Frazer’s Focus Up Ministries a “front” for the Profitable Sunrise HYIP scheme and alleges that Focus Up changed its name to Defining Vision Ministries Inc. in June 2013 — two months after the SEC brought the Profitable Sunrise fraud action in federal court in Atlanta.

Records suggest Nanci Jo Frazer also is known as Nancy Jo Frazer. The Ohio court documents list the “Nancy” spelling. Other documents list the “Nanci” spelling.

A judge in Williams County, Ohio, has ordered Frazer, Focus Up and other entities associated with Frazer to “[i]mmediately cease all activities on behalf of any charitable organization/trust in the state of Ohio,” to preserve assets and to return assets that already may have been dissipated.

The judge also ordered Frazer and others to cease selling unregistered securities. Meanwhile, the judge ordered three Ohio banks to take eight accounts linked to Frazer and others into “actual and/or constructive possession.” Frazer resides in Bryan, Ohio.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and the Ohio Department of Commerce said today that the state has brought civil fraud charges against Frazer, Focus Up, Defining Vision and others. Documents say the state believes Frazer was a pitchwoman for the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and other “programs,” including Zeek Rewards and Profit Clicking.

“This case involves a worldwide pyramid scheme that defrauded Ohioans and others out of millions of dollars,” DeWine said. “These individuals brought the scheme to Ohio by promising outrageous returns and telling investors that their donations and investments would help charities. We will continue to work closely with the Department of Commerce to hold the defendants accountable for their actions.”

Also charged were David Frazer, Frazer’s husband, and Albert Rosebrock, a member of Frazer’s NJF Global Group. Rosebrock also was alleged by Ohio to be an AdSurfDaily and Zeek affiliate.

Purported Profitable Sunrise operator “Roman Novak” is called “John Doe” in Ohio’s complaint, leading to continuing questions about whether “Novak” actually exists. In April, the SEC said that Profitable Sunrise pitchmen may not even have known with whom they were doing business. Profitable Sunrise purported to pay up to 2.7 percent interest a day. The SEC said it was using a “mail drop” in England and offshore bank accounts potentially to scam tens of millions of dollars.

Frazer’s group may have driven $30 million to the scam, according to court files.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting that Rosebrock is blaming the SEC for the collapse of Profitable Sunrise.

From a statement by Ohio prosecutors (italics added):

Profitable Sunrise is an international pyramid scheme recently shut down by federal and international authorities. Profitable Sunrise claimed to be a Christian company that would use investment proceeds to help charities and provide investors with large returns. According to the state’s complaint, the Frazers, of Bryan, and Rosebrock, of Sherwood, used Focus Up Ministries’ status as a charity to solicit donations and investments into Profitable Sunrise. They also claimed that invested funds would compound at 1.6 to 2.7 percent daily, growing at annual rates of 5,000 to more than 75,000 percent.

The complaint also alleges that the defendants used funds donated to Focus Up Ministries for personal expenses and other unlawful purposes. These included financing for personal business ventures, the purchase of a big screen television, no-interest personal loans, and compensation for agents who solicited on behalf of the Profitable Sunrise pyramid scheme. The complaint contains counts of misrepresentation, deceptive acts and practices, conversion, falsification, securities fraud, and unlicensed sale of securities, among other violations.

The SEC has described Zeek Rewards as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid fraud. AdSurfDaily was a $119 million Ponzi scheme, according to the U.S. Secret Service. Meanwhile, ProfitClicking is a “program” linked to Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid, which has come under regulatory scrutiny in Italy and the Philippines.

If Frazer was a pitchwoman for ASD, Zeek and ProfitClicking/JSS/JBP, it would mean she was pushing Profitable Sunrise after various well-publicized regulatory or law-enforcement actions against those “programs,” which purported to pay interest of between 1 percent and 2 percent a day. (ASD = 1 percent/day; Zeek = 1.5 percent/day; ProfitClicking/JSS/JBP = 2 percent/day.)

Beyond that, it would mean Frazer pushed the purported 2.7 percent a day Profitable Sunrise “Long Haul” plan, even though agencies filed various actions against the “lower-paying” programs with which she allegedly was involved previously.

Some HYIP promoters move from one fraud scheme to another, while engaging in willful blindness. ASD is known to have had ties to the “sovereign citizens” movement. Mann, of ProfitClicking/JSS/JBP, once used a website to drive traffic to videos featuring Francis Schaeffer Cox, a purported “sovereign citizen” and “militia” man implicated in a murder plot against public officials in Alaska.

Jul 9, 2013