PatrickPretty.com

Tag: ASD

BULLETIN: Prosecution Seeks Final Forfeiture Of Guns, Badges, ‘Client’ Files And Digital Devices Of AdSurfDaily Figure And Purported ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Kenneth Wayne Leaming

Kenneth Wayne Leaming

BULLETIN: Federal prosecutors in the Western District of Washington have asked a federal judge to issue a final order of forfeiture against the property of AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming.

Leaming has agreed to forfeit the property, and a preliminary order of forfeiture already has been entered, according to prosecution filings.

The property includes six firearms, bogus law-enforcement badges and other false credentials, light bars, crime-scene tape, vests, handcuffs and nightsticks. It also includes documents related to Leaming’s “performance of legal services for third parties,” including “‘client’ files, counterfeit instruments, and similar materials,” prosecutors said.

At the same time, prosecutors are seeking the final forfeiture of “All digital devices, including computers, external hard drives, and other storage media” linked to Leaming

Leaming, 57, of Spanaway, Wash., is serving an eight-year prison sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Ind. He was sentenced in May 2013 on charges of filing false liens against government officials involved in the prosecution of the $119 million AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, harboring federal fugitives from a separate scheme and being a felon in possession of firearms. His previous felony conviction was for piloting an aircraft without being licensed.

Leaming was arrested by an FBI Terrorism Task Force in November 2011, after he filed false liens against the officials. Agents also uncovered evidence that suggested Leaming intended to serve a writ on U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts by monitoring the school his children attended. Roberts presides over the U.S. Supreme Court and is America’s top judicial officer.

Precisely how many ASD clients Leaming had is unknown. In 2010, Leaming promoted himself as an attorney on the website of Cornell University Law School, advertising a fee structure and saying he practiced “Admiralty/Maritime, Business Law, Estate Planning and Native American Law.” Cornell removed the listing after the PP Blog reported that Leaming was accused in Washington state in 2005 of engaging in the unauthorized practice of law.

In 2009, Leaming filed involuntary bankruptcy petitions against the Washington State Bar Association and a Franciscan healthcare facility in the state. (Among Leaming’s assertions was that the bar association owed him $32 billion. Through a notary public in a different venue, Leaming earlier had asserted that the hospital owed him $9.24 billion. In short, Leaming sought to attach “all tangible and intangible property” of the hospital, including its fixtures, furnishings, motor vehicles, bank accounts, passbooks, saving certificates, stock certificates, lines of credit, inventories, promissory notes, office equipment, educational equipment — and even its mineral and water rights, according to records. The hospital serves several communities in Pierce County, including Lakewood, Spanaway, Steilacoom, DuPont, University Place and others.)

Judges tossed the preposterous claims, and a federal bankruptcy judge ordered sanctions against Leaming.

In October 2011, the PP Blog reported that a Leaming-associated company — American-International Business Law Inc. — was listed in records as the registered agent of at least 73 companies. One of the firms was known as “Presidential Detail.” Another was known as “Homeland Security Service.” Two others were known as “Federal Asset Management Service” and “Federal Fleet Management.”

At least two other Leaming-connected firms used the names of the famous JP Morgan banking concern.

“Sovereign citizens” are known to engage in what has been described as “paper terrorism” against the government and its officials, banks and litigation opponents. Earlier this year, Leaming asserted the judge presiding over his criminal charges in the liens, harboring and firearms case owed him 208,000 ounces of “fine silver.”

NOTE: Our thanks to the ASDUpdates Blog.

Nov 14, 2013
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
MORE FROM THE MLM LA-LA LAND PLAYBOOK: Former ASD, NewGNI, Club Asteria, Zeek And Profitable Sunrise Pitchman ‘Ken Russo’ Coins New Acronym (NAG); Paul Darby Plants Seed FBI Backs His ‘YouGetPaidFast’ Program — AFTER Trading On Name And Likeness Of President Of The United States

Paul Darby with “President Obama,” apparently on Inauguration Day in 2009 after the U.S. Secret Service infomed the MLM world through the filing of the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case that trading on the name and image of the President of the United States might not be a good idea.

UPDATED 8:37 A.M. EDT (OCT. 21, U.S.A.) Former AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin is continuing to serve 78 months in federal prison at the age of 78 — in part because he borrowed liberally from the MLM scammer’s playbook and planted the seed that the President of the United States (then George W. Bush) backed his “program.” Some MLM prospects joined the ASD fraud scheme — a $119 million Ponzi popularized in part on the Ponzi boards and broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008 — based on pitches highlighting Bowdoin’s purported ties to the White House.

Bush left office on Jan. 20, 2009. Barack Obama then became President.

Records now strongly suggest that Obama was President for only minutes when he became an unwitting salesman for an MLM or affiliate scheme. Indeed, an online pitch featuring “Obama” is dated Jan. 20, 2009, Inauguration Day in the United States and the date upon which Obama took over from Bush.

A Blog on Google’s free Blogspot platform made this headline claim on Jan. 20, 2009: “Barack Obama visits Unimax Services.”

The Blog, which remains online well into Obama’s second term that began on Jan. 20 of this year, features a knockoff of the Seal of the President of the United States. “Presidents Club,” it screams. Recruits for a “program” known as Net Millionaires Club apparently were accorded the title of Presidents — not of the United States, but of the “Unimax States.”

This is straight out of MLM or affiliate scheme La-La Land.

Paul Darby, who describes himself as “President of the Unimax Services Corporation” on the Blogspot site with the “Barack Obama visits Unimax Services” headline, is featured alongside a cardboard cutout of Obama in a video playing on the site. In the bizarre video, Darby bizarrely describes the cutout of Obama as the “featured guest” and suggests the Net Millionaries Club he’s promoting with the knockoff of the U.S. Presidential Seal is an “economic stimulus package.”

If you don’t go any farther than the headline — if you don’t take the time to view the video showing the Obama cutout — you could reasonably conclude that Obama actually visited Unimax Services and endorsed the “program.” Put another way, it’s a contemptible, backdoor way to use the Internet to turn the White House and the Commander-in-Chief into a spokesman for a highly dubious MLM or affiliate scheme.

If all of this seems altogether too much, altogether too bizarre, consider that the Secret Service, through the filing of the ASD Ponzi case in 2008, informed the MLM world that it wasn’t a good idea to go around trying to tie the President of the United States to your scheme. Next consider that the ASD scheme had its own form of a Darby-like Net Millionaries Club; the ASD version was multipronged and was called the “President’s Circle,” the “President’s Advisory Board” and “President’s Advisory Counsel.” Then consider that the Darby Blog — in January 2009, months after the ASD case had been filed — led with the “Barack Obama visits Unimax Services” headline on the date the President was inaugurated.

Did the President of the United States really visit Unimax Services, purveyors of the Net Millionaires Club? And did the White House somehow give Darby permission to alter the Seal of the President of the United States as a means of driving traffic to the “program? Did Paul Darby learn nothing from the ASD case?

But it gets worse . . .

Flash forward to 2013 (while considering that MLM schemes such as BidsThatGive and Lyoness also have tried to tie themselves to the U.S. Presidency or the Presidency of other countries), and you’ll find Darby as the braintrust behind yet another “program.” This one is called “YouGetPaidFast.”

Like ASD before it, YouGetPaidFast has a presence on the Ponzi boards. The new “program” appears to be a cash-gifting scheme. Ponzi-forum pitchman “Ken Russo,” previously of the ASD Ponzi scheme, the GNI and NewGNI Ponzi schemes, the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme, the MPB Today pyramid scheme, the Club Asteria fraud scheme and the Profitable Sunrise fraud scheme, is helping lead the YouGetPaidFast charge.

“Ken Russo” appears even to have coined a new acronym to deflect attention away from the critical issues surrounding online fraud schemes. Critics, according to a post attributed to “Ken Russo” at the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum, are “NAG[s].” NAG stands for “Naysayers Anonymous Group.”

According to “Ken Russo,” in apparent defense of YouGetPaidFast (italics added):

“The NAG (Naysayers Anonymous Group) are doing their best to deter you from joining an excellent program which offers one of the best opportunities I have ever seen for average folks to develop a substantial additional income stream. The NAG is relentless in their efforts to denigrate this fine program . . .”

This is occurring after the United States charged three women criminally in Connecticut for pushing a cash-gifting pyramid scheme. Two of the three women were sentenced earlier this year to lengthy terms in federal prison.

It also is occurring against the backdrop of bids earlier this year by enthusiasts of other Ponzi-board “programs” to trade on images of Obama and the prestige of the U.S. Presidency. Those “programs” included Empower Network and “Ultimate Power Profits.”

Unlike his Net Millionaires Club scheme, however, Darby’s YouGetPaidFast scheme appears no longer to be interested in trading on the name of the President of the United States and the seal of the President of the United States.

No, this time Darby is planting the seed that the FBI backs his “program.”

Darby is trotting out some of the same sort of MLM La-La Land talking points advanced by self-styled Zeek Rewards consultant Robert Craddock — that is, if you speak out against a “program,” you’re going to get sued and perhaps even paid a visit by its backers in law enforcement.

As BehindMLM.com is reporting today, Darby now claims to have FBI agents on “speed dial.” And at least one of those agents purportedly has vetted YouGetPaidFast and given it the all-clear.

Beyond that, according to the BehindMLM.com report, one or more Christian pastors is encouraging Darby to sue his detractors.

If that seems altogether too odd, consider that purported Christian pastors also are backing Empower Network and its purported “Badass” content, including the reported death by suicide of a top Herbalife MLM distributor.

David Wood, one of the top dogs at Empower Network, once advised critics to “Back the fuck down.”

“Be warned: BIG, SCARY WARNING,” Wood wrote. “I’m in the process of having lawyers research into whether or not we can sue the shit out of you.”

Whether Wood lost any pastors after the remark is unclear. At least one purported pastor encouraged Empower Network affiliates to overlook the nasty language and simply concentrate on making money. Pastors also backed the ASD Ponzi scheme and the Profitable Sunrise scheme — to cite just two of the MLM fraud schemes that recently have fleeced people of faith. ASD’s Bowdoin, before becoming a pitchman for a scheme known as OneX, once described himself as a Christian “money magnet.”

There is plenty of God talk in YouGetPaidFast, too.

Also see YouGetPaidFast thread at RealScam.com.

Oct 8, 2013
BREAKING BAD: Already-Convicted Narcotics/Firearms Felon With Peripheral Tie To AdSurfDaily And Zeek Ponzi Cases Pleads Guilty In ‘Commodities Online’ Caper After Saying He Approved Another Felon’s Request To Transfer More Than $5 Million To Mexico On Heels Of SEC Subpoena

EDITOR’S NOTE: In case you haven’t seen the series finale, there are no spoilers in this post. “Breaking Bad” ended its original run on AMC, and America said goodbye (or good riddance) to Walter White, the money-launderer next door, last night. The fictional White, of course, had been pursuing clandestine wealth, recklessly disregarding the safety of his family, destroying the lives of people who got in the way of his self-consuming greed and risking U.S. national security for five TV seasons. (At one point, he’d amassed at least $80 million in cash — enough to equip a small army of thugs or terrorists had they found its hiding place. Lo and behold, a group of neo-Nazi racketeers/murderers in part supplying Czech narcotics traffickers through a Houston-based methylamine supplier and upstart meth manufacturer did find it. Put another way, a white-supremacist group that openly shot at cops and murdered a bicycle-riding child to prevent him from tattling about the heist of a train carrying a meth precursor gained unwarranted economic power in the tens of millions of dollars.)

Like the world of narcotics traffickers, the HYIP world is filled with Walter White-types, the wire fraudsters and money-launderers next door. Beyond that, claims of great faith in God and miraculous money-making systems often accompany HYIP schemes. If you’re repeatedly joining murky HYIP schemes or pushing them, you’re engaging in the same sort of self-indulgence and self-deception chronicled each week on “Breaking Bad,” a program whose greed- and desperation-driven central character — Walter White — openly defies the U.S. government, helps crime thrive in the United States, Mexico and (now) Europe, sets the stage for political instability and for hostilities to develop among friendly nations, and rationalizes it as a necessary means of making money for his family.

The MLM equivalent of a Walter White could be in your upline or downline. Such a figure also could be very close to the money flow, staying out of sight but positioning himself to influence or even extort the public face of the scheme.

White broke bad when he morphed from a mild-mannered, noble but financially struggling chemistry teacher and family man into a brutal and conniving meth kingpin after his cancer diagnosis — on the theory that manufacturing and selling meth would help him pile up some cash to provide for his family after his death. Bodies in Mexico and the United States have piled up around him ever since, including the bodies of 167 people who perished when two planes collided over Albuquerque after an air-traffic controller who couldn’t concentrate on work accidentally directed them into each other because he’d been reduced to emotional rubble by his daughter’s drug-related death. (She asphyxiated on her own vomit; the airplane death toll in Albuquerque was only one less than the real-life Oklahoma City domestic-terrorist attack in 1995, which killed 168 when the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was bombed by Timothy McVeigh.)

Another body was that of White’s own brother-in-law, a DEA agent murdered by a neo-Nazi White had hired to kill his business partner (and onetime chemistry student) Jesse Pinkman, the boyfriend of the woman who drown in her own puke. Yet-another body (actually a body part) was that of a DEA informant’s head mounted on a turtle after being severed by a Mexican cartel to send a message. The head and turtle were booby-trapped with explosives that detonated, killing a DEA agent. Still-another body was that of Gus Fring, a Chilean national, New Mexico drug kingpin and onetime White boss who laundered funds through chicken restaurants, pretended to be a supporter of the DEA and was killed by a wheelchair bomb planted by White in the nursing home in which Fring’s enemy Hector Salamanca, a onetime cartel enforcer, resided.

White’s form of money-laundering was the classic car wash. But the writers easily could have provided him a different front, perhaps that of respected teacher who’d gravitated to the commodities field and relied on MLM-style pitchmen and boiler rooms to drum up business for the side operation and help clean up the cash.

** _______________________________ **

James C. Howard III

Court documents in the Commodities Online Ponzi caper describe “purported” purchases of “iron ore” and “related equipment” by the Florida-based firm in Mexico. The documents also point out that the enterprise was led by two individuals previously convicted of narcotics crimes in the United States and that more than $5 million mysteriously was wired to “accounts in Mexico” in March 2011 after one of the felons approved the wiring “directions” of the other — this after the first felon had received an SEC subpoena and the second had found out about it.

Separately, the court-appointed receiver in the case says that, “after substantial investigation, including extensive interviews, depositions, and on-site investigation conducted both in the United States and Mexico, the Receiver concluded that the Defendants had no recoverable iron ore or related equipment in Mexico.”

What they did have in Mexico, if anything, remains unclear. Also unclear is how much of the money sent to Mexico will be recoverable

More than two years after the SEC moved against Commodities Online, the precise nature of its business remains murky. As noted above, one of the things that is known is that two of the firm’s managers were associated with narcotics earlier in their lives and had criminal records for felonies and and yet somehow had managed to become investment executives.

Now, one of those felons — James Clark Howard III — has pleaded guilty to mail- and wire-fraud conspiracy for his role in the Commodities Online scam.

And, according to Howard’s proffer in the criminal side of the case, he approved the “directions” of fellow felon Louis N. Gallo III to wire millions of dollars to Mexico after Howard had been subpoenaed by the SEC.

Gallo was in Mexico, according to the proffer — and that’s an oddity because he was on U.S. federal probation at the time. The Sun Sentinel newspaper reported in 2012 that “Gallo was sentenced in 2008 in New Jersey for bank fraud, intent to distribute cocaine and transmitting a threat to injure.”

And, according to the proffer, Howard was one of the controllers of an enterprise known as SSH2 Acquisitions Inc., which has been sued amid allegations it, too, was conducting a Ponzi scheme. Howard also has been implicated in a separate Ponzi scheme targeting Haitian-Americans in Florida.

Terralynn Hoy, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, is listed in Nevada as a onetime director of SSH2. SSH2 sued Howard, alleging he was conducting a Ponzi scheme.

Hoy earlier had been a cheerleader for AdSurfDaily, which proved to be a $119 million Ponzi scheme. After that, she became a cheerleader for AdViewGlobal, a 1-percent-a-day Ponzi scheme federal prosecutors linked to ASD President Andy Bowdoin, now serving a 78-month sentence in federal prison for the ASD scam. Hoy later was listed by Zeek Rewards as an “employee.” In August 2012, the SEC described Zeek as a $600 million Ponzi and pyramid scheme.

Bowdoin, like Howard, was a convicted felon, according to court records.

AdViewGlobal launched in 2009, even as ASD was the subject of a major federal investigation. Zeek, whose business model strongly resembled the models of ASD and AVG, launched after both ASD and AVG had collapsed. With two convicted felons linked to the narcotics business at the helm, Commodities Online appears to have gathered more than $20 million.

Sep 30, 2013
MODERN MLM PR: TelexFree Rep’s Blog On Loss Of Payment-Processing Firm: ‘We Killed Them’

The FaithSloan Blog bizarrely announces that TelexFree has “killed” GPG, a payment processor.

If continuing to recruit during multiple pyramid-scheme probes even as a judge and prosecutor reportedly had been threatened in Brazil with death were not enough, another MLM PR disaster is unfolding: The Blog of Faith Sloan, late of Zeek Rewards and Noobing, an HYIP Ponzi scheme that ripped off people with hearing impairments, wants TelexFree members to know why the alleged pyramid scheme no longer is using Global Payroll Gateway (GPG).

“We killed them,” FaithSloan.com reports flatly on the fate of GPG.

Meanwhile, there are competing reports that GPG had given the boot to TelexFree, not the other way around.

No so, according to FaithSloan.com, which is claiming TelexFree “killed” GPG because it “Could not handle the 50,000 accounts that came into their system.”

TelexFree now has turned to “ipayout’s globalewallet,” according to FaithSloan.com.

Whether TelexFree planned to “kill” IPayout if any hiccups developed in its purported processing of money for TelexFree was not disclosed in the undated post announcing that TelexFree had “killed” GPG. The apparent message in the TelexFree branch of MLM La-La Land, however, is that affiliates will ignore or downplay unsettling events in Brazil such as the pyramid probes and reported death threats and will blame any company that fails to find favor with TelexFree and its international army of cross-border pitchmen.

TelexFree appears to have sought to transition to GPG in mid-August, with affiliates trumpeting the firm on the web as the answer to TelexFree’s troubles. But problems developed within weeks (if not days), and TelexFree affiliates then announced the firm was switching to IPayout. In about a month, GPG went from the penthouse to the doghouse in the minds of certain TelexFree promoters. Now, IPayout apparently has been given the chance to occupy the penthouse in the incongruous world of TelexFree. Will it slip into the TelexFree doghouse and perhaps be “killed” by the firm, like rival GPG before it?

Within days of the announcement that TelexFree had brought IPayout aboard after the purported failure of GPG, TelexFree executive Carlos Costa announced that TelexFree was seeking bankruptcy protection in Brazil. While making the announcement, Costa curiously waved the flags of Portugal and Mediera. Like former AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin, Costa also suggested God was on the company’s side.

Bowdoin is serving a 78-month prison sentence in the United States. His ASD “program” was a $119 million Ponzi scheme. Among other things, Bowdoin claimed a 2008 raid on his “program” that promised a precompounding payout of 1 percent a day was the work of “Satan.”

Some TelexFree affiliates claim that $15,125 sent to the company fetches a profit of at least $42,075 in a year. Images of Jesus Christ have been used in TelexFree promos.

Noobing was an autosurf HYIP scheme pushed by former ASD pitchmen that tanked in 2009 after its parent company was implicated by the FTC in a government-grants scheme that led to combined judgments totaling more than $54 million. The scam even was discussed at a Senate hearing.

A court-appointed receiver determined that Noobing was impossibly upside-down. Affiliate Strategies Inc., the U.S.-based parent company, registered several corporations offshore, including Noobing, formed in the Caribbean island of Nevis; ASI Management Inc., formed in Belize on March 24, 2009; Landmark Publishing Group LLC, formed in Nevis on March 25, 2009; Landmark Publishing LLC, formed in Nevis on March 25, 2009; International Research and Writing Group LLC, formed in Nevis on July 1, 2009; and International Publishing Group LLC, formed in Nevis on July 1, 2009.

All in all, the receiver said in 2009, “the ASI defendants have formed and operated eighteen additional Kansas LLCs as subsidiaries of Defendant Apex Holdings International LLC.” The receiver proposed a plan by which all assets tied to Noobing’s parent would be sold — right down to a stainless-steel wastebasket in the women’s restroom.

In 2010, the PP Blog interviewed a 64-year-old woman with a profound hearing loss. The interview was conducted through the woman’s interpreter. The woman told the PP Blog she has lost $5,300 in Noobing and could not sleep at night. Noobing later was added as a receivership defendant. The receiver said that Noobing and 14 other companies under the ASI umbrella had become the subjects of “numerous inquiries” from “tax authorities,” creditors and “former independent contractors.”

TelexFree has U.S. footprints in Massachusetts and Nevada. The firm also now purports to be operating in England. TelexFree is the subject of multiple pyramid-scheme probes in Brazil, where it operates through an entity known as Ympactus Comercial Ltd.

There have been reports that at least one judge and one prosecutor involved in the Brazil probe have been threatened with death.

HYIP fraud schemes spread in part because promoters engage in serial disingenuousness and ignore red flags such as unusually consistent returns, claims of guaranteed payouts and the circuitous flow of money. Some TelexFree affiliates have provided ASD-like coaching tips to prospects on how to speed the flow of money to the firm.

Sep 22, 2013
Legisi HYIP Ponzi Pitchman Matthew John Gagnon Is In Federal Custody

Matthew John Gagnon

Will it be the shot heard ’round the HYIP world — or will serial Ponzi-board and social-media fraudsters continue to pretend it is meaningless?

Matthew John Gagnon, a 45-year-old pitchmen for the $72 million Legisi HYIP Ponzi scheme and other online fraud schemes, is listed as an inmate at Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Sheridan, Ore.

In July, Gagnon was sentenced to 60 months in prison, ordered to pay $4.4 million in restitution and further ordered to serve three years’ supervised probation after his prison release. He was permitted to self-report to prison. That appears to have occurred yesterday.

Gagnon colleague and Legisi operator Gregory N. McKnight was sentenced to a prison term of more than 15 years. McKnight’s age is listed as 53. He was sentenced last month and was ordered taken into custody immediately. He is listed as an inmate at the FCI in Milan, Mich. McKnight was ordered to pay more than $48.9 million in restitution and further ordered to serve three years’ supervised probation after his prison release.

Legisi was promoted on Ponzi-scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. In 2007, Legisi became the subject of an undercover investigation by state regulators in Michigan and the U.S. Secret Service. Both criminal and civil charges followed.

In court filings on June 6, Legisi receiver Robert D. Gordon said more than 85 percent of the $72.6 million directed at Legisi had flowed through e-Bullion.

e-Bullion is a now-defunct processor. One-time e-Bullion operator James Fayed is on California’s death row after being convicted of ordering the brutal contract slaying of Pamela Fayed, his wife and a potential witness against him.

AdSurfDaily, a $119 million Ponzi scheme also promoted on the Ponzi forums, also accepted money from e-Bullion, according to court filings.

Legisi’s Terms of Service read like an invitation to join an international financial conspiracy. Members had to affirm they were not associated with the SEC, the IRS, the FBI and the CIA — along with “Her Majesty’s Police,” the Intelligence Services of Great Britain and the Serious Fraud Office.

Sep 17, 2013
SPECIAL REPORT: Like AdSurfDaily And OneX Before It, Alleged TelexFree Pyramid Scheme May Be Engaging In Game Of Payment-Processor Roulette

“While reviewing the ASD website in the District of Columbia, [an undercover agent] found a posting within ASD’s News section, apparently posted by ASD on July 2, 2008. The title of the posting was, “Alert Pay & Direct Deposit are being phased out July 31, 2008.” According to ASD’s posting, “We have notified BOA not to accept cash or personal checks for deposit account – English or Spanish.” ASD further stated, “Please remember that the preferred method of purchasing Ad Packages is by mailing a Check or by Solid Trust Pay . . . Solid Trust Pay is a Canada based money transmitting and payment company that, like the e-Gold system, operates over the Internet. It appears that beginning August 1, 2008, Solid Trust Pay will be ASD’s preferred method for receiving funds from members, and for paying rebates and commissions to members . . . Within the past two weeks, ASD has wired several million dollars to Solid Trust Pay from its BOA Accounts. A TFA also learned that earlier in July 2008, a bank other than BOA closed the last account that was controlled by Bowdoin or family members after that bank determined, and explained to them, that an investigation by the bank determined that Bowdoin appeared to be operating a Ponzi scheme.” — AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme forfeiture complaint, August 2008

TelexFree affiliate promos encouraging participants to register for International Payout Systems (I-Payout) began to appear online in recent hours. Just last month, TelexFree affiliates were encouraged to register for Global Payroll Gateway, another e-Wallet vendor that supposedly would solve TelexFree’s payment problems as a pyramid-scheme probe moved forward in Brazil. There now are reports online that GPG has dumped TelexFree, leading to questions about whether TelexFree is trying to port its alleged fraud scheme to yet another vendor — I-Payout. Source: Google search results.

In 2008, the U.S. Secret Service effectively accused the AdSurfDaily MLM “program” of playing a game of payment-processor roulette as U.S. law enforcement put the squeeze on certain money-movers, the willfully blind enablers of online fraud schemes.

ASD, a $119 million HYIP Ponzi scheme that led to a 78-month prison sentence for operator Andy Bowdoin, started out by accepting “e-Gold and Virtual Money,” according to a Ponzi-scheme forfeiture complaint filed in federal court in August 2008.

But ASD, according to the complaint, realized e-Gold had come under investigation for enabling the laundering of money, something that could put the heat on ASD.

“Shortly after publicity surrounding the government’s investigation into e-Gold appeared, ASD discontinued using the e-Gold system as a means for receiving member funds,” the complaint alleged.

And even as these events were occurring, according to court filings in the ASD case and in other cases, Robert Hodgins, a supplier of debit cards and the operator of Virtual Money Inc. — now listed by INTERPOL as an international fugitive — came under investigation in Connecticut amid allegations he was assisting in the laundering of narcotics proceeds in Medellin, Colombia, and prepping himself to assist in the laundering of funds in the Dominican Republic.

Virtual Money, whom some ASD members said was supplying debit cards to ASD, also was linked to the PhoenixSurf Ponzi scheme, according to court filings.

In December 2010, federal prosecutors alleged that ASD also had accepted money from e-Bullion, a California firm that processed payments for Ponzi schemes, including the $72 million Legisi HYIP scheme in Michigan that led to prison sentences for operator Gregory McKnight and pitchman Matthew John Gagnon. E-Bullion operator James Fayed has been sentenced to death for ordering the brutal contract slaying of his wife, a potential witness against him. Pamela Fayed’s throat was slashed repeatedly in the shadows of a Greater Los Angeles parking garage, her husband seated on a nearby park bench “like he doesn’t have a care in the world.”

ASD, according to court filings, also used AlertPay and SolidTrustPay, money-movers based in Canada that have been linked to multiple Ponzi schemes, including the alleged $600 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme broken up by the SEC last year.

Not even Bowdoin’s arrest in 2010 stopped him from pitching fraud schemes, according to court filings. Facing serious criminal charges for his actions in ASD, Bowdoin (in 2011) became a pitchmen for the OneX “program,” which federal prosecutors later alleged to be a pyramid scheme recycling money in ASD-like fashion. Among Bowdoin’s fellow OneX pitchmen was T. LeMont Silver, later of Zeek and later of JubiMax and GoFunPlaces, two MLM “programs” that are suing each other amid allegations of financial fraud.

At one time, OneX claimed to have a relationship with SolidTrustPay. It then claimed to have ended that relationship and to have started a relationship with I-Payout. Earlier, I-Payout had listed the uber-bizarre TextCashNetwork MLM “program” with ties to the Phil Piccolo organization as a “selected client.” TextCashNetwork now appears to have disappeared, but still is operating with the acronym “TCN” — this time as TrueCashNetwork. How the “new” TCN is processing payments is unknown. What is known is that someone associated with the “new” TCN has sent emails to “winners” in the Zeek scheme in an apparent bid to get them to flog for the new iteration, an apparent investment arm of which is being promoted as an opportunity to earn an interest rate of 50 percent.

Now — as incredible as it seems — promoters of the alleged TelexFree pyramid scheme operating in Brazil and the United States now are claiming that TelexFree is using I-Payout, known formally as International Payout Systems Inc. Equally incredibly, this is happening less than a month after TelexFree promoters advised TelexFree participants to register with Global Payroll Gateway (GPG), another eWallet company and supplier of debit cards, as a means of getting paid after payouts to Brazilian members of TelexFree were blocked in Brazil.

Just last month, TelexFree affiliates were encouraging prospects to register with Global Payroll Gateway (GPG). In recent hours — and amid reports GPG has given TelexFree the boot — TelexFree affiliates have been urged to register with I-Payout. Source: Google search results.

There are reports online, including on Facebook from self-identified members of TelexFree, that GPG gave TelexFree the boot in recent days. No sooner did those reports surface than videos went up on YouTube encouraging TelexFree members to register for I-Payout.

One of the reports that TelexFree suddenly had shifted from GPG to I-Payout is published on the MoneyMakerGroup forum. MoneyMakerGroup’s name appears in U.S. court files as a place from which Ponzi and fraud schemes are promoted. Both FINRA and the SEC have warned that HYIP schemes spread in part through social-media sites such as forums, YouTube and Facebook.

Because international MLM HYIP fraud schemes often have promoters in common — and because the schemes are promoted on Ponzi cesspits such as MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold — proceeds from the schemes can flow into banks at the local level, putting them in the position of becoming warehouses for the ill-gotten gains of participants, including winners and insiders. The use of stored-value debit cards such as those in play in HYIP schemes can lead to the quick dissipation of assets, meaning that victims of an HYIP scheme may have limited hope (or even no hope) that a recovery can be made for their benefit.

The most recent incongruous events involving TelexFree are occurring even as at least one judge and one prosecutor involved in the TelexFree pyramid probe in Brazil reportedly have been threatened with death. And, as was the case with ASD, some promoters of TelexFree have claimed an ability to expedite the flow of money to the scheme — perhaps through back-office transactions within the TelexFree system.

Also see report on BehindMLM.com.

Sep 14, 2013
TELEXFREE: Promoters Tell Brazilian Prospects To Create Registration Address In England — And To Appear At Door Of Brazilian Supreme Court Judge

EDITOR’S NOTE: At the time of the publication of this story, the PP Blog was experiencing trouble loading graphics. The probable cause of this is a conflict between certain plugins used by the Blog. We are working to correct this problem . . .

** _____________________________ **

UPDATED 12:25 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) TelexFree, an alleged pyramid scheme operating as an MLM that has U.S. arms in Massachusetts and Nevada and effectively was shut down in June in Brazil (by court order in Brazil) but continues to operate elsewhere, seems on the cusp of cementing itself as a marquee example of cross-border fraud.

Several days ago, the company inexplicably began to publish the address of a purported office in the United Kingdom in Watford — near London. Today an apparent TelexFree promoter writing on a media site in Brazil appears to be instructing Brazilian affiliates to enroll with the firm by using any address in London, thousands of miles away. This coaching appears to originate from a hotmail address. (See story/comments thread in Portuguese; see translation of story/comments thread via Google Translate.)

The center of London is approximately 5,700 miles away from the center of Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian city that will play host to the 2016 Olympics. London hosted the 2012 Olympics. There are dozens of pyramid-scheme probes under way in Brazil, in the run-up to the 2016 Summer Games.

Even more troubling than the suggestion that Brazilians should fabricate a London address to enroll in TelexFree is a suggestion from another apparent TelexFree affiliate on the same site in Brazil that affiliates should appear at the door of a judge of the Supreme Court of Brazil. It is unclear from the English translation of the post whether any protest aimed at the judge would occur at the Supreme Court or at his personal residence. Plenty of peaceful protests occur in Brazil. But a protest at the residence of a judge potentially would introduce the specter of menacing — something that was present in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case in the United States.

Purported American “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming — a figure in the ASD story — was convicted earlier this year of multiple charges, including filing bogus liens against public officials involved in the ASD case. The evidence in the case strongly suggested that Leaming intended to stalk the children of the Chief Justice of the United States at the school they attended — as part of a plot to serve paperwork on the Chief Justice.

TheTelexFree story is similar in certain key ways to the ASD story. For starters, some ASD members refused to believe that a crime had been committed against them and taunted prosecutors and the U.S. Secret Service with threats. There have been reports in Brazil of death threats against a judge and a prosecutor. Both the ASD and TelexFree schemes were targeted at Christians. Meanwhile, members of both “programs” were promised preposterous, unusually consistent returns. In the ASD case, the precoumpounding returns computed to an annual return in excess of 300 percent. Some TelexFree promoters have claimed that sending $15,125 to TelexFree results in a tripling or quadrupling of the money in a year.

Beyond that, it almost certainly is the case that some TelexFree affiliates also were pitchmen for ASD and for Zeek Rewards, an MLM “program” described by the SEC last year as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme. This leads to questions about whether criminal MLM combines are driving business to purported “opportunities” despite the legal, financial and social consequences. In April 2013, the SEC said a “program” known as Profitable Sunrise was using a mail drop in England as part of a massive scam that used a series of offshore bank accounts potentially to fleece people of faith of millions and millions of dollars.

Now, TelexFree purports to be operating from England. The mere listing of a business address is not proof that no scam is occurring, despite repeated bids by HYIP schemes to create an air of legitimacy by publishing an address or registering it with a government. Profitable Sunrise, for instance, had a registered address. So did Zeek. So did AdSurfDaily. Both of the TelexFree addresses in the United States appear to be virtual offices or mail drops.

And TelexFree affiliates have been sending confusing messages for months on how to send money to the firm. This sometimes signals that money-laundering, wire fraud or another crime is occurring. Some of the TelexFree affiliate bids strongly resemble events at ASD — events that led to the criminal indictment and subsequent sentencing of ASD President Andy Bowdoin to a 78-month prison term. (Also see Aug. 21 PP Blog story on a TelexFree shift to yet another payment processor.)

BehindMLM.com is reporting that “rampant fraud” may be affecting TelexFree’s operations.

Sep 9, 2013
United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority Issues Warning On SolidTrustPay, An HYIP Darling On The Ponzi Boards

UPDATED 3:33 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Thanks to PP Blog reader “Tony,” who first posted a link to the FCA warning in this story thread on how a Profitable Sunrise Facebook site was being used to promote TelexFree, an alleged pyramid scheme.

In April 2013, the SEC described Profitable Sunrise as a murky offering fraud that may have gathered tens of millions of dollars. SolidTrustPay, a Ponzi-forum darling used by a stunning number of schemes, reportedly was one of the processors used by Profitable Sunrise. Zeek Rewards, alleged last year by the SEC to have been a combined Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that had gathered at least $600 million, also used SolidTrustPay, according to court filings. So did AdSurfDaily, a $119 million Ponzi scheme broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008. And so did JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid, a “program” purportedly operated by Frederick Mann that has spawned at least three reload scams and, like ASD, may have ties to the “sovereign citizens” movement. “Sovereign citizens” may be gaining a toehold in Canada, one of the bases of SolidTrustPay. (Please note that the “opportunities” referenced above constitute only a small sampling of the HYIP schemes enabled by SolidTrustPay.)

Also see this 2012 Consent Order between the Securities Department of the U.S. state of Arkansas and SolidTrustPay in which SolidTrustPay agreed to pay a $60,000 civil penalty and did not contest findings that it had been operating illegally in the state for years, had processed about $12 million in Arkansas through about 43,600 transactions and had illegally mined more than $331,000 in fees and commissions in the state.

What follows below is the warning on SolidTrustPay issued on Aug. 30, 2013, by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of the United Kingdom. From the FCA:

SolidTrust Pay Ltd

_{Published: 30/08/2013}

We believe this firm has been providing financial services or products in the UK without our authorisation. Find out why to be especially wary of dealing with this unauthorised firm and how to protect yourself from scammers.

Almost all firms and individuals offering, promoting or selling financial services or products in the UK have to be authorised by us.

However, some firms act without our authorisation and some knowingly run scams like share fraud.

This firm is not authorised by us but has been targeting people in the UK:

SolidTrust Pay Ltd

Website: www.solidtrustpay.com

How to protect yourself

We strongly advise you to only deal with financial firms that are authorised by us, and check the Financial Services Register to ensure they are. It has information on firms and individuals that are, or have been, regulated by us.

If a firm does not appear on the Register but claims it does, contact our Consumer Helpline on 0800 111 6768.

There are more steps you should take to protect yourself from unauthorised firms.

You should also be aware that if you give money to an unauthorised firm, you will not be covered by the Financial Ombudsman Service or Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) if things go wrong.

Report an unauthorised firm

If you think you have been approached by an unauthorised firm or contacted about a scam, you should contact our Consumer Helpline on 0800 111 6768. If you were offered, bought or sold shares, you can use our share fraud reporting form.

You can see more ways to report an unauthorised firm and find out what to do if you have been scammed.

Sep 4, 2013
REPORTS: Ice Cream Flavor Named After TelexFree, An Alleged Pyramid Scheme; Separately, TelexFree Affiliates May Be Crossing National Borders To Keep The Money Flowing — Even As Purported Opportunity Turns To New Payment Method

The HYIP world is known for promoters’ bids to change the storyline, but this one may take the cake — or at least be a sweet complement.

There are reports in Brazilian media that a promoter of the TelexFree MLM scheme — alleged to be a massive pyramid — has named an ice cream after TelexFree to show support for the embattled firm.

“The ice cream is not a pyramid,” a person was quoted as saying in DiarioDigital, according to a translation — and neither is its namesake.

Here is a link to the story in Portuguese; here is a link to the English translation by Google Translate.

Recruitment by TelexFree is banned in Brazil while investigations by at least seven Brazilian states proceed. Payments to Brazilian participants by TelexFree likewise are blocked. The purported “opportunity,” however, still is operating in other countries and apparently gathering money and issuing payments.

Separately, Veja.com is reporting that undercover investigators in Brazil have noticed that some Brazilian promoters of TelexFree have crossed national borders into Bolivia and Paraguay to keep TelexFree investment money flowing. Here is a link to the story in Portuguese; here is the link to the English translation by Google Translate.

The United States long has warned about cross-border fraud such as was present in PathwayToProsperity, an alleged $70 million Ponzi scheme whose operator is listed by INTERPOL as an international fugitive. P2P, as the “program” was known, made its way across multiple continents and 120 countries, according to court filings.

Meanwhile, U.S. promoters of TelexFree have been busy watching a promoter’s Aug. 16 YouTube video titled, “How to register your GPG account with TelexFree.”

GPG, according to the video, stands for Global Payroll Gateway.

The company, according to its website, provides services such as loading payrolls onto debit cards. TelexFree, according to the affiliate’s video, is now a GPG client and TelexFree affiliates must “connect” their account to GPG to get paid.

A screen shown in the TelexFree affiliate’s video shows an apparent executive of TelexFree announcing that the changeover to GPG’s services “is causing a delay in our payment process for the first run.”

The FBI long has warned that certain types of debit cards can be abused and that a “shadow banking system” is playing a role in fraud schemes that affect national security.

If TelexFree is adjudicated a scam, it may be difficult for the governments of the world or the receivers/trustees they may appoint to gather proceeds for victims. HYIP money may dissipate quickly, perhaps particularly quickly if it is offloaded with debit cards. In a money-laundering case brought in 2008, federal prosecutors in Connecticut said that millions of dollars in narcotics proceeds were offloaded at ATMs in Colombia.

Robert Hodgins, a Canadian currently listed by INTERPOL as an international fugitive in the Connecticut money-laundering case, reportedly supplied the debit cards through a firm known as Virtual Money Inc. and had ties to the HYIP world and schemes such as PhoenixSurf and AdSurfDaily.

Another screen in the TelexFree affiliate’s video shows folders with titles such as “telexfree,” “Banner[s] Broker, “hyip monitors,” “forex”and “Passive peeps.”

The context of the folders shown in the video is unclear. Banners Broker, however, is a bizarre HYIP scheme. HYIP monitors are websites that monitor whether a particular HYIP site is “paying.” Meanwhile, the word “passive” often is used in HYIP scams that promote tremendous returns for investors inclined to sit back and wait for the payments to flow in, instead of recruiting other investors to earn downline commissions from a “program.”

TelexFree has been promoted on well-known Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. The names of both forums appear in U.S. court filings as places from which fraud schemes are advanced.

From a promo for the alleged $600 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid scheme.

Zeek Rewards, an alleged $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that had a Ponzi-forum presence and became the target of an SEC action last year, was promoted as a “passive” program. Like Zeek, TelexFree purportedly has a requirement that participants post ads for the “program” online.

There have been reports in Brazil that a judge and prosecutor involved in the TelexFree case have been threatened with death.

But not even those disturbing reports were enough to cause TelexFree to cancel a rah-rah event in California last month. The company says it also plans an “at sea” event in December. Earlier, some TelexFree pitchmen provided AdSurfDaily-like coaching tips to enrollees, especially on matters of how to speed the flow of money to the company.

ASD was a $119 million MLM Ponzi scheme broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008. Like Zeek and TelexFree, the ASD “program” also had a Ponzi-forum presence and was promoted as an opportunity for “passive” participants.

Some TelexFree promoters in Brazil appear to believe that TelexFree has been deemed legal in the United States by the U.S. government. This errant belief may in part have been instilled by promoters of TelexFree who worded MLM HYIP pitches to suggest that the U.S. government had authorized the “program.”

Some TelexFree promoters have claimed a payment of $15,125 to the firm will fetch a return of more than $42,000 in a year. Even the cautious “Aunt Ethels” of the world will grow to become keen on TelexFree, according to a promo.

Aug 21, 2013
TelexFree, MLM Firm That Is Subject Of Pyramid Probe, Says It Will Offer ‘At Sea’ Event

Source: TelexFree website, Aug. 16, 2013.

TelexFree, an MLM “opportunity” under investigation in Brazil amid allegations it is orchestrating a massive pyramid scheme, says on its website that it is conducting an “at sea” event Dec. 15-18.

Perhaps accidentally providing an awkward hint of dire portent, the promo shows the TelexFree logo superimposed on the side of a luxury ocean liner that is nearly beached in the tropics. Even more incongruously, it is being published not only against the backdrop of the pyramid probe, but also against reports that a judge and prosecutor in Brazil have received death threats related to the investigation.

Promoters of MLM HYIP scams such as JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid (2 percent a day) and AdViewGlobal (1 percent a day) previously have advertised sea cruises. It is unclear if the JSS/JBP cruise ever came off.

AVG’s 2009 cruise coincided with a bid (apparently unsuccessful) by the “program” to line up another bank and wire facilitator to assist in the swindling of investors who’d previously been swindled in AdSurfDaily’s $119 million Ponzi scheme that advertised a 1-percent-a-day payout.

AdViewGlobal, which purported to operate from Uruguay, bizarrely announced its new scam on the same day the President of the United States announced a crackdown on offshore fraud. Federal prosecutors later said they’d tied AVG to ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

Some TelexFree promoters say a payment of $15,125 to the program results in a profit of at least $1,100 a week for a year. Other promoters claim they’re “100% telexfree,” which apparently means they’ll stand by their “program” no matter what.

Aug 16, 2013