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Tag: CashFlowBot

  • Zeek Rewards’ Dawn Wright-Olivares Loses ‘Several Motor Vehicles’ To Receiver In Cross-Border Ponzi Case; More Actions Coming Against International ‘Winners’ And Vendors

    zeekpassivesmallMore lawsuits against international “winners” in the Zeek Rewards cross-border Ponzi-and pyramid-scheme case are coming, receiver Kenneth D. Bell has advised a federal judge.

    Bell also signaled to Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen that lawsuits may be coming against alleged international Zeek vendors such as Payza and SolidTrustPay, both of which earlier were involved in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and are Ponzi-forum darlings.

    The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia has been soliciting information on Payza since at least December 2013. Last month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission identified SolidTrustPay as a vendor for the alleged CashFlowBot (Dollar Monster) Ponzi scheme that operated out of the U.S. state of Georgia.

    On another front, Zeek’s former COO — Dawn Wright-Olivares — doesn’t get to keep her cars.

    “In the first quarter, the Receiver also took possession of several motor vehicles as part of the settlement with Defendant Dawn Wright-Oliveras,” Bell informed Mullen. “The Receiver has retained an auctioneer and intends to liquidate these vehicles during the second quarter of 2015.”

    Wright-Olivares, an alleged Zeek “insider,” has been charged criminally and civilly by U.S. authorities. She has settled the federal civil charges and pleaded guilty in the criminal case. In addition, she faced litigation from Bell.

    Bell’s forensic team has tracked Zeek money all over the world. The receiver already has sued alleged “winners” with addresses in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the British Virgin Islands and Norway.

    It won’t end there, he advised Mullen in a quarterly update to the court filed yesterday.

    “The Receiver expects to file lawsuits against foreign net winners in additional countries during the second quarter of 2015,” he wrote.

    Bell has raised concerns that some MLMers/network-marketers are pitching one fraud scheme after another.

    News that Bell intended to expand his efforts to gather money for an estimated 800,000 victims of Zeek’s cross-border scheme was received while the nation of Thailand was squaring off against UFunClub/UToken, yet another scheme pushed by MLMers/network-marketers.

    UFunClub/UToken possibly gathered more than $1.17 billion, according to reports in Thai media. Questions have been raised about whether North American “sovereign citizens” were involved in the “program” and a separate venture known as SVM Global Initiative.

    So-called “sovereigns” were involved in the $119 million AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme in 2008. ASD was pushed in part by Frederick Mann, the purported operator of multiple fraud schemes. Mann appears to have had sympathy for Francis Schaeffer Cox, an Alaskan “sovereign” and militia man implicated in a plot to murder public officials.

    A scheme known as Profitable Sunrise also appears to have been pushed in part by “sovereign citizens.”

    NOTE: Our thanks to the ASD Updates Blog.

     

     

  • RECOMMENDED READING: ‘Bank Of The Underworld’

    recommendedreading1UPDATED 12:12 P.M. EDT U.S.A. A thoughtful reader sent this along this morning. It’s a story by Jake Halpern in The Atlantic titled, “Bank of the Underworld[:] Liberty Reserve was like PayPal for the unbanked. Was it also a global money-laundering operation?”

    Here’s a snippet (italics added):

    Costa Rica was also increasingly known as a place where dirty money could be cleaned. The country’s geography—with drug producers to the south and their customers to the north—was ideal for money launderers. According to Global Financial Integrity, a nonprofit that monitors international money laundering, Costa Rica exported $5.4 billion in laundered money in 2006, equivalent to 24 percent of its GDP. By 2012, that number was up to $21.6 billion—a whopping 48 percent of GDP. Ólger Bogantes Calvo, the deputy director of the country’s anti-narcotics enforcement agency, told me that the government simply never has the funds, manpower, or materiel to fight the criminal elements it faces. “Realistically, [the criminals] will always be a step ahead,” he said.

    Liberty Reserve, the choice of HYIP Ponzi schemers and other criminals, is DOA, of course. Post-Liberty Reserve, however, it might be a good time for investors and prospects of SVM Global Initiative to question why a purported arm of the New York City-based enterprise extends into Costa Rica.

    Such a question might help educate the MLM/network-marketing masses who continue to push one bizarre scheme after another. After all, the highly publicized Liberty Reserve case was brought in the Southern District of New York, the same venue in which SVM appears to be operating with a purported “professional intuitive” at the helm.

    SolidTrustPay, an offshore processor that had been friendly to the AdSurfDaily and Zeek Rewards Ponzi schemes, reportedly is in the SVM fold. (In a complaint announced April 14, the SEC said a Ponzi scheme known as CashFlowBot and perhaps better known as DollarMonster was using STP.)

    While they’re at it, MLMers/network marketers might want to question why SVM appears to be contemplating a “advertising” module of some sort.

    And they also might want to question why AdSurfDaily “advertising” Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin allegedly once hopped on a plane and ventured to Costa Rica.

    Meanwhile, they might want to question why cross-border schemes such as TelexFree ($1.8 billion) and Zeek Rewards ($897 million) had “advertising” components.

    Speaking of “advertising”: The emerging MAPS cross-border scheme has the word in its name — along with promoters’ ties to Zeek and TelexFree. Like Zeek and ASD, MAPS, short for My Advertising Pays, says it takes SolidTrustPay.

     

     

     

  • BULLETIN: SEC Hits Another Ponzi-Board Scam; Action Against CashFlowBot (DollarMonster) May Cause Restlessness Among ‘Small’ Operators

    breakingnews72BULLETIN: The SEC has gone to federal court in Atlanta, charging the alleged operator of CashFlowBot (DollarMonster) with operating a Ponzi scheme. The “program” had a presence on Ponzi-scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

    James A. Evans, 33, of Villa Rica, Ga., has been charged with selling unregistered securities and securities fraud. The SEC accused him of making misrepresentations to investors and operating CashFlowBot as a Ponzi scheme dating back at least to 2012.

    CashFlowBot, according to the SEC complaint, used the SolidTrustPay payment processor.

    From the SEC complaint (italics added):

    The underlying mechanics of the DollarMonster scheme were simple: investors deposited funds into their Solid Trust accounts and then transferred those funds to a Solid Trust account controlled by Defendant Evans. Defendant Evans then transferred a portion of the funds to his personal bank account, and also redistributed funds to investors’ Solid Trust accounts as purported investment returns.

    Investors were able to log into their DollarMonster accounts, which included the purported dollar value of their accounts (without identifying any underlying securities or ownership interests), including purported earnings.

    The DollarMonster website did not contain language limiting investors to accredited or sophisticated investors, nor did the process of registration or creating an account require information indicating whether investors were sophisticated or accredited.

    The scam gathered about $1.15 million, the SEC alleged. The agency’s action is the second this year against a Ponzi-board scheme that, relatively speaking, appears not to have collected a tremendous sum of money. (Not that $1.15 million is anything to sneeze at.)

    In February, the SEC sued Achieve Community, alleged to have gathered about $3.8 million. The actions against Achieve and CashFlowBot may demonstrate that the agency is tracking schemes large and small, something that could cause fitful sleep in the HYIP sphere.

    Some schemes such as TelexFree (2014/$1.8 billion) and ZeekRewards (2012/$897 million) gathered tremendous sums of money before interventions by law enforcement.

    After he was subpoenaed in July 2014, Evans appeared to be hatching a new scheme at TheInvestorsExchange.com, the SEC said.

    “Theinvestorsexchange.com purports to match investors looking for an investment return with individuals and companies that need capital,” the SEC alleged. “Theinvestorsexchange.com website also lists various advertisements for purported investment opportunities, with links to email addresses that potential investors can contact for further information.”

    Read the SEC’s statement on CashFlowBot.