DEVELOPING STORY: (Updated 8:43 p.m. ET U.S.A.) The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa, Calif., is reporting that detectives in Napa County have linked the kidnapping and murder of 44-year-old Reynaldo Pacheco to the WCM777/Kingdom777 MLM scam and as many as four suspects.
From the Press Democrat in a story dated Jan. 15 about the arrest of Angela Martinez Arias, 41, of Petaluma (italics added):
According to investigators, Pacheco had been involved in a business scam known as WCM777, or Kingdom 777. Early last year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced it to be an illegal pyramid scheme targeting Asian and Latino communities worldwide. Assets were frozen.
Pacheco apparently had gotten Arias to invest an undisclosed amount of money in Kingdom 777, according to detectives. Pacheco “owed her money from a failed business relationship,” [Napa County Sheriff’s Capt. Doug] Pike said.
The other suspects, according to the newspaper, are Mauricio Tovar-Telles, 24, and Norberto Guerrero Gonzalez, 29. Both are in custody.
A fourth suspect, Miguel Angel Garcia, reportedly shot and killed himself last year after a standoff with SWAT officers.