BitClub Network apparently has found its first crop of 500 suckers willing to throw down $3,599 to become “Founders.”
A link from a new post on Twitter suggests BitClub Network now is trying to line up 500 new suckers who’ll purportedly earn half of what the core group was promised. The new suckers will be called Founder[s]2.”
Buy-in pricing for the Founders2 positions wasn’t immediately clear. BitClub Network is a purported mining-pool “community” with a Bitcoin theme.
From the claim on the page linked from Twitter (italics added):
“If you came to the party late you still have another chance to be in the second wave of Bitclub Network Founders. This group will split an additional 0.5% of total mining profits paid out to the next 500 members who become a ‘Bitclub Network Founder2.’”
A week ago today, some existing BitClub Network promoters were trawling for suckers to let 100 percent of their money ride in the “program” by setting the repurchase scheme to 100 percent. BitClub Network’s repurchase scheme is similar to so-called “80/20” programs seen in Ponzi schemes such as Zeek Rewards.
BitClub Network is being promoted by some former Zeek members, including clawback defendant T. LeMont Silver.
In the affiliate pitch accessible today through Twitter, the claim was made that BitClub Network participants had to exercise patience because what the “program” is doing is like “building a home-made space ship to explore outer space.”
Though not Bitcoin-themed, an emerging “program” known as The Achieve Community also is trading on a community theme. As is the case with BitClub Network, Achieve Community members are encouraged to let a percentage of their money ride.
A video promo for Achieve Community viewed by the PP Blog today suggested that $50 plowed into the scheme could return $25,600 in 170 days or so by employing a 50-percent rollover strategy.
Affiliates of the BitClub Network “mining” scam have taken to Twitter today with news asserted to be glorious: Participants can leave 100 percent of their money in the “program.”
“The reason why you should consider setting all your bitclub network mining pool repurchases to 100% is the fact that you will build up your amount of bitclub network shares in those different bitclub network pools, hence the amount of bitcoins you will have in your bitclub network e-wallet [over time],” a website accessible through a Twitter link counsels. “What if like some experts claim the bitcoin price will go up to $10.000 a coin in a few years time? What if….?”
This, of course, is madness that trades on an appeal to greed. Ponzi schemes routinely use artifices such as this to stem the outflow of cash. The fewer cashout windows open to the masses, the better it is for the individual scammers and teams of scammers who race from fraud scheme to fraud scheme to fraud scheme.
BitClub Network is calling its artifice the “repurchase or recapitalization feature.” Even before planting the seed that good things would come to people who kept 100 percent in the system, the “program” appears to have forced members to make mandatory repurchases of between 30 percent and 50 percent, depending on which of three purported “pools” they purportedly owned “shares” in.
In addition to being another marker of a scam in progress, the “repurchase or recapitalization feature” also may suggest BitClub Network already is having severe cash-flow troubles. Early adopters already could have plundered the system, and headlines about BitCoin-themed scams and a criminal prosecution in New York sure aren’t helping.
Some members of the $850 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid scheme are pushing BitClub Network. Advertised buy-in sums have ranged from $500 to $3,500. Recruits are told they’ll earn for 1,000 days. Precisely who is operating BitClub Network is unknown.
Because that is unknown, it’s also unknown if members could recover anything when the BitClub Network train derails.
In the first U.S. criminal prosecution involving a Bitcoin-themed scheme, Trendon Shavers has been arrested and charged with securities fraud and wire fraud.
Shavers, 32, of McKinney, Texas, was charged civilly by the SEC in July 2013. He is known as “pirateat40,” and allegedly pushed his Bitcoin Savings and Trust Ponzi scheme from a forum.
FBI agents arrested him today at his Texas residence.
“As alleged, Trendon Shavers managed to combine financial and cyber fraud into a Bitcoin Ponzi scheme that offered absurdly high interest payments, and ultimately cheated his investors out of their Bitcoin investments,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York. “This case, the first of its kind, should serve as a warning to those looking to make a quick buck with unsecured currency.”
A top FBI official threw down the gauntlet.
“Shavers used a new currency, but the same old reprehensible tricks,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos. “He claimed to offer a Bitcoin market-arbitrage strategy. In reality, it was nothing more than an insidious scheme motivated by greed. Today, Shavers’ jig is up. He finds himself under arrest and charged in Manhattan federal court.”
Some HYIP schemes appear now to have moved away from payment processors such as the now-shuttered Liberty Reserve and are moving toward Bitcoin.
From a statement by Bharara’s office, which previously prosecuted Liberty Reserve, calling it a $6 billion money-laundering operation that enabled HYIPs and others forms of fraud (italics added):
From at least September 2011 up through and including September 2012, SHAVERS operated a Ponzi scheme. Specifically, SHAVERS solicited investments in BCS&T on the “Bitcoin Forum” – a public, Internet-based forum where, among other things, Bitcoin investment opportunities were posted. SHAVERS’s offer to investors was straightforward: investors who lent Bitcoin to BCS&T would be paid up to seven percent interest weekly – an annualized interest rate of 3,641% per year – and investors could withdraw their investments in BCS&T at any time. SHAVERS claimed that the Bitcoin invested by BCS&T investors would be used to support a Bitcoin market-arbitrage strategy, which included (i) lending Bitcoin to others for a fixed period of time; (ii) trading Bitcoin via online exchanges; and (iii) selling Bitcoin locally via private, off-markets transactions – i.e., “over-the-counter transactions.” SHAVERS also personally guaranteed to cover any losses in the event of a market change. In truth, SHAVERS largely failed to execute the claimed market arbitrage strategy, failed to honor all of his investors’ redemption requests as well as his personal guarantee, and failed to deliver the agreed upon rates of interest.
In the end, BCS&T was a Ponzi scheme in which SHAVERS used Bitcoin from new investors to make purported interest payments to existing investors and to cover investors’ requests to withdraw Bitcoin from existing BCS&T accounts. In addition, SHAVERS diverted investors’ Bitcoin for day trading in his own account on a Bitcoin currency exchange, and exchanged investors’ Bitcoin for U.S. dollars to pay certain of his personal expenses. At the peak of the scheme, SHAVERS raised, and had in his possession, about seven percent of all the Bitcoin that were then in public circulation. In the end, at least 48 of approximately 100 investors lost all or part of their investment in BCS&T.
Some Bitcoin enthusiasts have fretted that dark forces and criminal organizations are seeking to use Bitcoin in the same way they used Liberty Reserve. Criminal activities could undermine confidence in Bitcoin and affect its perception in the marketplace.
In late August, some affiliates of the collapsed $850 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme began pushing a Bitcoin-themed “program” known as BitClub Network, a purported “mining venture” with an investment arm attached that purportedly supplies a payout for 1,000 days.
Prospects were encouraged to buy in with sums ranging from $500 to $3,500.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Beginning in late August, some promoters of the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme said they were moving to a “program” known as BitClub Network, a purported “mining” venture that purportedly was selling “Founders’” positions for $3,599 and offering memberships at buy-in rates of $500, $1,000 and $2,000. By some accounts, the “program” would pay “passive” earnings of between 0.3 percent and 0.8 percent a day for 1,000 days, with “compounding” possible.
UPDATED 5:44P.M. EDT U.S.A. There are reports on Bitcoin-themed websites and across Twitter that an enterprise known as “BitcoinTrader” has collapsed and that management has disappeared.
Activities at BitcoinTrader purportedly included a “mining” venture, according to the reports.
BitcoinTrader, according to the reports, used a domain name styled bitcoin-trader.biz that now is offline.
The reports suggest BitcoinTrader was operating as an HYIP and that at least one figure associated with the operation has claimed some sort of hacking or extortion plot occurred and that a bankruptcy filing in Panama is in the offing.
In what might be an exceptionally optimistic outlook, at least one report suggests that battering winds from Typhoon Vongfong might explain events at BitcoinTrader. Previous HYIPs have blamed the disappearance of websites or the absence of payouts on events such as hurricanes, the contraction of diseases such as Dengue Fever and the sudden need to travel to attend funerals in faraway places.
From a publication known as CryptocoinsNews (italics added):
Bitcoin-Trader.biz has disappeared overnight with the only communication being a letter sent out to all of their victims claiming that a hacker stole all of their funds and that they offered to comply with the hacker’s ransom notice. Bitcoin-Trader closed all of their social media accounts as well as their website almost overnight, while ducking under the cover of playing the victim of a hacker and claiming to file for bankruptcy.
From a Tweet:
Do not trust your coins on an exchange or third parties. Here is why: http://t.co/JIc1j0l7sg 3rd Bitcoin company has collapsed this year
From an SEC exhibit filed last week in the SEC’s case against eAdGear, an alleged international pyramid- and Ponzi scheme that gathered $129 million. Redactions by PP Blog.
EDITOR’S NOTE: eAdGear, which had entities in California and Hong Kong, “primarily” targeted “investors in the U.S., China, and Taiwan” and gathered $129 million in a combined pyramid- and Ponzi scheme that engaged in brand-leeching, the SEC alleged last week. An MLM scam known as WCM777, which allegedly gathered more than $80 million, also engaged in brand-leeching while targeting Asian communities, according to court filings. The SEC sued WCM777 in March 2014. Among the SEC’s alarming allegations against WCM777 was that it planted a false seed that it had partnerships “with more than 700 major companies such as Siemens, Denny’s, and Goldman Sachs.”
“This new approach to Internet advertising has businesses of all sizes, from small home based businesses to large corporations such as Google, Starbucks, Kodak, etc., joining ASD,” a 2008 promo for ASD read. “Not only are there over 75,000 small businesses advertising with ASD, but now major corporations are as well. Remember, a part of the daily rebate comes from the revenue corporations pay to advertise with ASD.”
It was all a crock. The U.S. Secret Service, which opened an undercover probe in July 2008, went on describe ASD as a “criminal enterprise.” ASD President Andy Bowdoin was convicted of wire fraud in the ASD Ponzi case. He is serving a lengthy term in federal prison.
Even while it was operating, ASD talked about a nascent “Chinese” arm known as Golden Panda Ad Builder. In retrospect, it now appears that plans to involve Asian populations in HYIP schemes were well under way at least by 2008 and since have evolved into frauds that were even larger than ASD. (ASD gathered $119 million and has been eclipsed in dollar volume by at least three Internet-based investment scams since then: TelexFree (possibly $1.2 billion); Zeek Rewards (c. $850 million); and eAdGear ($129 million). Falling just short of making this list were Zhunrize (allegedly $105 million) and WCM777 (allegedly $80 million). It is clear from court filings that Zeek also had a presence in Asian communities.)
There also was a tertiary scam inside the ASD scam. Indeed, promos for an entity known as ASD Offer Universe encouraged members to click on Google ads so ASD would earn fees of up to $5 a click. Here’s now that promo began (italics added):
“ASD ENTERS INTO AGREEMENT WITH GOOGLE FOR NEW CONSUMER SITE. Months ahead of schedule, Google and ASD Offer Universe are now teaming up to show Google ads on the site. Google, after seeing all of the major advertisers already being shown on ASD Offer Universe agreed to enter into a relationship with ASD.”
Did the eAdGear “program” channel long-ago events at ASD to help its massive pyramid scheme grow?
ASD was a purported “advertising” firm that operated a “rotator.”
Let’s compare what happened at ASD in 2008 to what the SEC now says happened at eAdGear, accused by the agency last week of operating a $129 million pyramid- and Ponzi scheme and positioning itself as an advertising company and an SEO firm.
By at least March 2014, the SEC says in court filings, investigators learned of a promo for eAdGear that read, “Google and Yahoo are partnering up with eAdGear for SEO services!!”
In the land of serial promoters of MLM or direct-sales HYIP scams, it’s as though the ASD case never happened.
The name-dropping and toxic disingenuousness associated with eAdGear hardly were limited to the abuse of the names of Google and Yahoo, according to SEC exhibits filed in the eAdGear case. It appears there were at least 253 incidents of brand-leeching associated with eAdGear. Indeed, eAdGear appears to have planned its ascent to the upper echelon of the fraud sphere by deliberately placing bogus ads for famous companies into its ad “rotator” to create a false sense that its “program” was legitimate.
Target Corp., the famous retailer, had its brand leeched, the SEC alleged. So did Lbrands, the Columbus, Ohio-based company that owns Victoria’s Secret
Now, let’s look at some of the behind-the-scenes investigative work performed by the SEC. Court filings by the agency show that, on July 1, 2014, the SEC issued a subpoena to Yahoo to check on the eAdGear-associated claims.
Yahoo responded on July 10 by advising the SEC that it had “identified no contracts or agreements with eAdGear[].”
Meanwhile, according to court filings, the SEC made an inquiry at Google on June 30. Google responded on July 22, advising the agency that it “is not aware of any commercial relationship between [eAdGear] and Google.”
Because ads for famous companies, including Target, Gap Inc. and Victoria’s Secret, had appeared in the eAdGear “rotator,” the SEC contacted those companies. (The response by L Brands Inc., owners of Victoria’s Secret, is shown above.)
Target responded by searching its database of vendors to which it had issued payments. No records surfaced for eAdGear, according to the SEC. Gap, similarly, informed the SEC that it had no record of doing business with eAdGear.
What else does the SEC have? Well, according to court records, it has internal eAdGear email correspondence that shows an employee was instructed to place 253 links to famous companies in its rotator.
These companies included Avon, Sears, Nordstrom, eBay, QVC, HSN, J.C. Penney, Banana Republic, Dillard’s, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Amazon.com, Men’s Wearhouse, Kmart, New York magazine and more.
These are among BCSC’s assertions — under a subheading titled “False impression of paid advertisements and advertising revenue”:
Bossteam described itself on its websites, in documents and in presentations as an online advertising business having huge growth potential and ready to become a leading global online advertising company. It referred to well-known online businesses such as Google, Amazon and eBay, and to the fast-growing advertising revenues of these businesses.
Although hundreds of “ads” appeared on the advertising platforms, the majority of the ads posted on Bossteam’s websites were associated with Bossteam’s own administrative accounts (accounts accessible by those controlling its systems) and not to accounts for advertisers or members who had paid to post links to their websites on Bossteam’s websites.
Ads associated with Bossteam’s administrative accounts included webpages for well-known local and international businesses.
Local businesses whose webpages appeared on Bossteam’s websites included a restaurant, a security systems company, a heating company and a private career college. Websites of well-known businesses and personalities included World Wrestling Entertainment, Miriam Webster and Britney Spears.
Posting the websites of local and international businesses on Bossteam’s websites without payment created a false impression that such businesses were advertising on Bossteam’s websites and paying Bossteam to do so.
Because Bossteam and eAdgear were similar businesses and appear largely to have targeted members of the Asian community, one has to wonder whether the schemes had promoters in common. For now, at least, the answer is unclear. What is clear is that some promoters simply move from one fraud scheme to an another when the “program” of the moment craters or encounters regulatory scrutiny.
Serial HYIP huckster and Zeek figure T. LeMont Silver currently is in name-dropping overdrive for BitClub Network, one of his latest “programs.” Silver’s name has surfaced in private lawsuits involving eAdGear and an interconnected enterprise known as Go Fun Places, which is referenced in the SEC’s eAdGear case. (For one instance, see the reference to Go Fun Places within the letter from L Brands to the SEC in the graphic above.)
From a Zhunrize slide as viewed through Open Office. Red highlight by PP Blog.
2ND UPDATE 5:25 P.M. EDT U.S.A. Purported “Plans B” are one of the core signatures of the the MLM HYIP sphere, which is known for incredibly toxic global frauds such as Zeek Rewards and AdSurfDaily. In 2009, an ASD reload scam known as AdViewGlobal was positioned as a “Plan B.”
The individual schemes of Zeek and ASD took in a combined sum of at least $969 million. AdViewGlobal appears to have disappeared with millions of dollars — after targeting ASD victims for a second time.
Laggos’ listeners were told that, if things went south at Zeek, Lyoness would be an excellent hedge through which $10,000 directed at the scheme might return “a quarter-million dollars.”
“Plan B” also is known as “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” HYIP prospects often are told to join more than one scheme or to quickly get in another if something goes wrong with the current scheme, sometimes known as “Plan A.”
Plan B schemes typically are a means by which prospects are lured into a continuous cycle of MLM frauds. Zeek and OneX promoter T. LeMont Silver later went on to “Plan B” schemes such as GoFunPlaces/GoFunRewards and JubiMax/JubiRev. Those schemes cratered or encountered difficulties. Silver now is pushing the exceptionally murky BitClub Network “opportunity” as a Plan B.
MLM HYIP schemes may switch forms. They may appear as straight-line investment-fraud schemes such as Legisi, which collapsed after an SEC intervention in 2008. ASD was an “autosurf advertising” scheme that collapsed in 2008 after an intervention by the U.S. Secret Service. Zeek, a purported “penny auction” company, collapsed in 2012 after an SEC intervention.
The trend now appears to be to wrap traditional products such as cosmetics and diet shakes into murky and confusing schemes that pay recruitment commissions. No specific payout may be mentioned.
The phrase “Plan B” even appears in promo material for Zhunrize. The material also references Plan A. Based on this information, it appears as though Zhunrize was touting itself as both a “Plan A” and “Plan B” scheme.
“Do you know anyone who would like to develop a plan ‘A’ Or plan ‘B’?” the Zhunrize promo queries.
In the promo, Zhunrize prospects are told they can earn “thousands each month by helping others to save time, gas, money and avoiding crowds.”
One of the problems in this bizarre sphere of MLM is that tainted money from earlier scams may flow into emerging scams, in effect making banks and payment vendors warehouses for a continuous stream of fraud proceeds that flow between and among pyramid schemes and Ponzi schemes.
Like Lyoness, Zhunrize is involved in the shopping-portal business. Like Zeek and other “programs,” Zhunrize also was positioned as a “profit-sharing” or “revenue-sharing” opportunity.
Case files associated with various recent HYIP/revenue-sharing schemes put losses in the billions of dollars. Because some promoters simply move from one scam to another, they are eviscerating wealth on a global scale.
If someone pitches you on an MLM “Plan B,” run like the wind.
UPDATED 12:27 A.M. EDT SEPT. 22 U.S.A. The PP Blog today contacted the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, owing to claims concerning the emerging BitClub Network “program” that is being pitched by certain members of the $850 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid scheme.
Known in shorthand as the Fed, the Federal Reserve is the central bank of the United States.
Someone is posting on the RealScam.com antiscam forum as “Fedman” and purporting to be “Steve,” a “Vice President” of a federal reserve bank. Fedman purports to have been employed by the Fed “for over 30 years,” to “manage large operations” and to “work with monetary policy.”
Fedman appears to be defending pitches for BitClub Network by Brian Spatola, a New Jersey-based alleged “winner” in the massive Zeek scheme that may have affected hundreds of thousands of people. The court-appointed receiver in the Zeek case is suing more than 9,000 alleged Zeek winners in the United States and has said he’ll also sue international winners in the “program.”
The Fed did not immediately comment on the claims being made by Fedman.
It is sometimes the case in HYIP schemes that promoters and defenders of “programs” drop the names of individuals and entities that have no ties whatsoever to a “program” as a means of sanitizing scams. The name-dropping associated with BitClub Network has been furious and now appears even to include the name of the U.S. central bank.
After missing a series of advertised launch dates — including one on Sept. 1, the 75th anniversary of the beginning of World War II and another on Sept. 10, the eve of the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks — BitClub Network now appears to have launched.
Promoters claim the scheme pays out between 0.3 and 0.8 percent a day for 1,000 days on invested sums of between $500 and $3,500. In addition, promoters claim there are recruitment commissions on top of the daily payout, a claim that accompanies many HYIP Ponzi- and pyramid swindles.
Among the BitClub Network promoters are Spatola and T. LeMont Silver, late of Zeek. Silver also promoted the OneX pyramid scheme, an exceptionally murky program that used an image of a bomb in its logo.
AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming, a purported “sovereign citizen,” was a Federal Reserve conspiracy theorist and an overall banking conspiracy theorist. Leaming was arrested by an FBI terrorism task force in 2011, after filing bogus liens against federal officials who had a role in the ASD Ponzi prosecution that began in 2008.
From a BitClub Network promo on a page in Indonesian today. Red blocks by PP Blog.
Much remains murky about BitClub Network, a Bitcoin-themed “program” that in typical HYIP fashion missed at least three advertised launch dates earlier this month.
The launch, however, now appears to have gotten under way shortly after “2 p.m. EST” today, a possible indicator that the “program” is using Panama time.
One promo the PP Blog observed shortly after the launch time was in Indonesian. It appeared to claim that BitClub Network paid between 0.3 percent and 0.8 percent a day. If we are reading this claim correctly, it appears as though the promoter is saying recruits who send in $3,000 will earn somewhere between $9 and $24 a day — or between $270 and $720 a month.
We ran the Indonesian claim through Google Translate. Here is part of what the English translation reads (italics added):
. . . the process is run by experts [mining?] bitcoin Digital Currency you just sit at home and receive a daily income of about 0.3 to 0.8% everyday.
The Indonesian pitch also referred to “compounding.” Many HYIP schemes purport that “earnings” can be compounded and that relatively small sums will be become tremendous fortunes over time. Zeek Rewards, which allegedly collected on the order of $850 million in a combined Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that lasted less than two years, was such a “compounding” program.
If our reading of the early info on BitClub Network is correct, it is an upstart offering fraud with a lower daily payout rate than Zeek, which averaged about 1.5 percent. Promos for Bitclub Network claim recruits will get paid for 1,000 days. Zeek had a much shorter term, absent “rollovers.” BitClub Network also may have a rollover feature.
Alleged Zeek Rewards winner Brian Spatola of Randolph, N.J., appears to be on the front lines of BitClub Network. So does alleged Zeek winner T. LeMont Silver, a named defendant in a clawback action by the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek case.
The BitClubNetwork site itself today was using rolling headlines from other sites. One read, “United Way Becomes Largest Nonprofit to Accept Bitcoin.”
Some scams trade on the names of reputable entities as a means of creating a veneer of legitimacy. The names of other famous companies easily could appear in the rolling headlines on BitClub Network, which is presented as a “mining” venture that offers “shares.”
That famous entities may use Bitcoin does not mean that BitClub Network itself is legitimate. Prior to the emergence of Bitcoin, the scammers who promote HYIPs routinely traded on the names of famous banks and credit-card companies, hoping the legitimacy of those enterprises would rub off on the emerging scams.
Here is part of what BitClub Network says about itself on its website (italics added):
BitClub is not owned by any one person, we are a team of experts, entrepreneurs, professionals, network marketers, and programming geeks who have all come to together to launch a very simple business around a very complex industry. Anyone can join BitClub and begin earning a passive income by taking advantage of our expertise in Bitcoin mining and other Bitcoin related services.
Fuzzy ownership and claims about “passive income” lead to questions about whether a “program” is conducting an offering fraud, selling unregistered securities as investment contracts and permitting recruits who have little or no net worth to direct whatever safety blanket they have to murky enterprises with long reach.
It further claims to operate “virtually with contributors from all over the world.”
And, it claims, “[o]ur main servers and technology for digital mining is located in a very secure and private location that will only be made available by pictures and a live video feed in the near future.”
An earlier HYIP “program” known as JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid appeared to use servers in the Netherlands. Frederick Mann, its murky purported operator, once fretted that the JSS/JBP servers could be subjected to a “cruise missile” attack.
This is from the FAQs at the BitClub Network site (italics added):
Q – If BitClub is already successful at mining Bitcoin then why are you sharing profit? Great Question!s [sic]
A: Because of how mining works it is always getting harder and harder for smaller mines to make great profits. This is quickly turning into a game for the big boys. Bigger orders mean bigger discounts on hardware, less electricity and rent per Ghz, more flexibility in what is mined and many other factors. By starting BitClub Network we know that over the next couple of years we could become one of the largest most profitable mines in the world. We will actually make more money sharing the profits with you. That’s why there are so many mining pools, we are just doing things a little differently. We believe in the motto “Making money is a team sport.”
Despite the fact BitClub Network says it does not promote that “a share will have set return and we don’t offer 100% ROI claims,” the site in Indonesian is making a claim that the daily payout will range between 0.3 percent and 0.8 percent. If people send in $3,000 and purportedly make between $9 and $24 a day with it, they’d make between $9,000 and $24,000 in BitClub Network’s purported term of 1,000 days.
Bernard Madoff would not have dared to be so bold.
A graphic of a smiling miner wearing a button-down shirt and swinging a pick appears on the site in Indonesian. Another graphic at the site shows Bitcoin and an Automated Teller Machine — as through BitClubNetwork will be the easiest thing in the world, that laborers worldwide will be smiling.
The site in Indonesian also carries graphics of nice automobiles. A photo displays people standing in front of a “HOLLYWOOD” sign — presumptively in California. The banner in part reads, “MALAYSIA.”
Another “MALAYSIA” banner appears in the foreground of a shot that shows people and pine trees set against a backdrop of snow.
Following a recent pattern in HYIP promos, famous landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe also appear on the site in Indonesian.
UPDATE: There are reports on Twitter that the launch of the murky BitClub Network “program” has been delayed.
This would be the third postponement.
A purported “enormous opportunity in Bitcoin Mining,” according to veteran HYIP huckster and alleged Zeek Rewards Ponzi “winner” T. LeMont Silver, BitClub Network advertised a Sept. 1 launch date.
Promoters of the scheme then claimed it would launch on Sept. 3 or Sept. 4, but that didn’t happen. The purported launch date then was moved up to Sept. 10, the eve of the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Now, promoters say the 9/10 launch is off. A Facebook post this afternoon claims the launch will be “slightly delayed” and that the “program” will “give 24 hour notice before launch once everything is ready to go.”
Whether Silver — or any BitClub Network promoter — knows who is running things remains unclear.
Prospects are being told they’ll earn money for 1,000 days.
The advertised Sept. 1 launch date coincided with the 75 anniversary of the beginning of World War II.
A pitch accessible through Twitter claims the”launch will be delayed for a few days more.”
Regardless, Silver might have to dial up his efforts if he hopes to become be the new standard-bearer in the category of name-dropping to sell a purported MLM/direct-sales “opportunity.” That record is held unofficially by the WCM777 “program,” which the SEC described in March as an international pyramid scheme.
But even longtime MLM huckster Phil Piccolo — known as the “one-man Internet crime wave” in part for the ceaseless dropping of names such as Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, Groupon, Walmart and Apple — must be shaking his head in begrudging awe at Silver’s recent efforts to foist the emerging BitClub Network brand on the consuming public.
With BitClub Network, Silver has put his name-dropping into overdrive, joining the likes of the scamming chieftains of WCM777, the collapsed pyramid scheme that traded on the names of Siemens, Goldman Sachs, the Denny’s restaurant chain and a series of hospitality companies with famous flags.
Distressingly, Silver assures his audience in a recent promo that “people from all across the globe” were listening to his webinar and to promos of other affiliates. The named countries included the Philippines, Russia “and all over Europe, Australia, Canada.”
The Silver promo session was titled, “Make Money With No List Featuring BitClub Network Webinar.”
Silver hasn’t topped 700 yet in the unofficial name-dropping calculus, but he’s off to a good start, essentially positioning BitClub Network as a company that will create profit opportunities for the same sort of visionaries who spotted the genius behind one-time emerging brands such as Google, AOL, Microsoft (Internet Explorer), Amazon.com, Apple’s iPhone, Apple’s iPod, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogger and more.
It’s all about “being at the right place at the right time,” Silver bleats. He even suggests in text that BitClub Network could be the next “email.”
As the video proceeds, Silver talks about Bitcoin, using slides to drop the names of Tiger Direct, the Sacramento Kings NBA franchise, Lord & Taylor, Dish Network, Expedia, Newegg and Gyft. He also works in the names of CVS Pharmacy, Sears, Target, Home Depot, Whole Foods Market and more.
Along the way, Silver also drops the names of California Gov. Jerry Brown, “China’s Central Bank Governor” and Gerogy Luntovsky, “deputy chairman of the bank of Russia,” according to text Silver displays.
From a promo for BitClub Network featuring T. LeMont Silver.
The BitClub Network “program” — originally set to launch Sept 1, the 75th anniversary of the beginning of World War II — reportedly now will launch on Sept. 10.
That’s the eve of the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The Sept. 10 launch time is pegged for “2pm EST,” which possibly means the “program” is using Panama time. Panama, part of the Americas, does not use Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).
Some of the money from the Profitable Sunrise HYIP swindle last year went to an entity in Panama City, the SEC said last year. Other Profitable Sunrise money ended up in Australia and the Czech Republic, according to court filings.
Profitable Sunrise operated through a “mail drop” in England and had a “director” in Seychelles, according to court filings.
Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid-scheme figure T. LeMont Silver, an early adopter of BitClub Network who is promising a $600 sign-up bonus and “training” for the “program,” now is using a Seychelles address, according to an email pitch he sent last week.
Seychelles is a known money-laundering haven. Silver may be operating from the Dominican Republic after parachuting into the nation after the collapse of Zeek in 2012 and the later collapse of two other purported “revenue-sharing programs” he was pitching.
Those “programs,” which ended up suing each other amid allegations of fraud, were GoFunPlaces/GoFun Rewards and JubiMax/JubiRev. Silver described disaffected prospects as “low-hanging fruit.”
BitClub Network, which purportedly offers “shares” of “mining pools,” has a Bitcoin theme. The reported buy-in levels are $500, $1,000 and $2,000, with “Founders’” positions going for $3,599.
Whether Silver even knows precisely who is operating the BitClub Network “program” is unclear. Also unclear is why the “program” chose start dates that corresponded with the starting dates of World War II in Europe and the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States.
Are the dates merely coincidences?
Hitler’s Nazi Third Reich was hoped to last 1,000 years. BitClub Network, early bird MLM HYIPers say, will pay a daily dividend for 1,000 days.
HYIP schemes in general are exceptionally murky propositions, with narratives, descriptions and actions that may be designed as taunts against both prospects and regulators. Profitable Sunrise, for example, used images of Jesus Christ in promos and offered a purported “Long Haul” plan with a purported Easter gift to be paid out on April 1, 2013 — April Fool’s Day.
March 31 of that year was Easter Sunday.
WCM777 also used images of Jesus Christ. A follow-up scam used images of a golden pyramid.
John Neil Hirst was charged by the U.K. Serious Fraud Office in 2011 with running a Ponzi scheme that targeted British, French and Americans through a company registered in Panama and Seychelles.
A 2010 scam known as “Alpha Trade Group” that was promoted on well-known Ponzi-scheme forums purported to be registered in Panama and was using “various corporations and fictitious names registered in Florida” to pull off the scheme, according to court filings.
David F. Merrick of Traders International Return Network (TIRN) was charged in a 2009 Ponzi scheme that was operating in the United States while funneling money to Panama, Mexico, Malaysia, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
It was promoted alongside the bizarrely named “Cash Crop Cycler.” Among the provocative claims on the CashCropCycler website was that the “program” was interested in building “a network that ticks.”
A 2011 scam known as OneX used an image of a bomb in its logo.
Silver was a OneX pitchman, alongside Andy Bowdoin, the operator of the $119 million AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme that he positioned as a “revenue-sharing” program.
At least one promo for Bitclub Network claims “All Countries” and prospects are accepted for “Legal Passive Income.”
