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Tag: Cayman Islands.

  • EDITORIAL/ANALYSIS: Events Are Controlling DNA, Not The Other Way Around; Prosecutor’s Office Mum On Narc That Car Inquiry In Texas

    This Narc That Car promoters' check-waving video is now missing from YouTube's public channel, after being placed there March 1. The video, however, is said to be available through a private YouTube channel. It is unclear whether Narc That Car asked its promoter — "Jah" of the Cash For Car Plates Blog — to remove the video, which also claimed repping for Narc That Car was like working for the U.S. "Census Bureau."

    First, some news: A website titled DeanBlechman.com now resolves to a parked page at the offshore registrar directNIC. As first reported on the PP Blog, the site previously redirected to the website of Data Network Affiliates (DNA).

    directNIC is “based in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands,” relocating from its former base in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, according to the firm’s website. directNIC is DNA’s registrar, and also the registrar for the DeanBlechman.com domain and a DNA-associated domain known as TagEveryCar.com.

    In a bizarre autoresponder message earlier this week, DNA said it had chosen “privacy” protection for $5 “to prevent management from having to “put up with 100 stupid calls a day,” a source told the PP Blog.

    In an interview Wednesday with the Blog, Blechman, DNA’s former chief executive officer, said he was “surprised” to learn of the DeanBlechman.com site, painting a picture that the company was not in control of its own message and had a “back door guy” who was authoring “bizarre” communications.

    Blechman did not identify the “back door guy.” Precisely when the DeanBlechman.com domain stopped redirecting to DNA’s website is unclear. It was still redirecting to the site early yesterday, but now is resolving to the directNIC page.

    Meanwhile, the PP Blog contacted the office of R. Scott McKee, the district attorney of Henderson County, Texas, yesterday. McKee is training for deployment to Iraq, and was not available immediately to answer questions on his inquiry into Narc That Car, according to a woman who answered the phone.

    The woman said it was possible that an assistant prosecutor would contact the Blog, but the call was not returned yesterday.

    McKee’s office opened a civil inquiry into Narc That Car (NTC) more than a month ago, turning to the office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott for assistance and saying it had received “numerous calls and complaints inquiring into the legitimacy and legality” of NTC.

    How that inquiry is proceeding is unclear. Two days ago, the Dallas branch of the BBB reduced its rating on NTC from “No Rating” to “F,” the worst possible rating on the BBB’s 14-step scale that begins with “A+.”

    NTC now joins companies such as AdSurfDaily and Speed of Wealth as firms that have scored an “F.”

    It is possible that NTC could improve its score at the BBB over time, but the score of “F” it holds now was arrived at after the company had been given more than a month to explain its compensation program to dampen pyramid concerns. The BBB also said it asked NTC to “substantiate some claims made in its advertising” Jan. 18. That inquiry remains open.

    NTC does not publish the name of customers of its database product. Some affiliates have claimed the firm was associated with major automobile manufacturers, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the AMBER Alert program.

    The company removed a video reference to the AMBER Alert program after the U.S. Department of Justice, which administers AMBER Alert, denied it had any affiliation with NTC.

    ASD never improved its BBB score because it became consumed by a government investigation. ASD is implicated by the U.S. Secret Service in a Ponzi scheme.

    Speed of Wealth, which also became consumed in government litigation, also did not improve its BBB score. It is implicated by the SEC in a Ponzi scheme involving Mantria Corp., whose BBB rating is being “updated,” according to the BBB. Mantria currently is listed as “No Rating.”

    On another matter, MLM aficionado Troy Dooly now is openly challenging DNA officers Arthur Kurek and Donald Kessler to explain what is happening at the company.

    Rumors are rampant that Phil Piccolo, a notorious figure in MLM, somehow had become involved in DNA. Absent a firm denial from company management, the rumors continue to fly.

    For his part, Blechman, DNA’s former CEO, did not rule out that Piccolo was involved in the firm.

    In the absence of a unified message from DNA and plain statements on issues such as whether Piccolo is involved and what steps have been taken to assure that DNA is compliant with state and federal law, events are controlling DNA, not the other way around.

    The suggestion that “privacy” protection was chosen so management would not have to put up with “stupid” calls is patently absurd — as is the amount of hype being put out under DNA’s name.

    No one at the company has emerged to speak on issues of legality and privacy. DNA says it is in the business of recording license-plate numbers. Like Narc That Car promoters, DNA promoters have made sweeping statements, asserting that affiliates could record plate numbers at places such as Walmart, Target, church parking lots and parking lots at doctors’ offices.

    Company conference calls have been cheerleading sessions — with DNA’s own pitchmen leading the cheers.

    Whether DNA and NTC affiliates are required to seek  permission from owners of private property or the permission of local jurisdictions to record plate numbers remains unclear. Also unclear is how affiliates are required to behave if confronted by property owners or police who question what they are doing.

    Sweeping assertions have been made by affiliates that plate data is “public information” available for the taking in the parking lots of large retail stores. One NTC promoter said on YouTube that his wife recorded plate numbers at a university. The PP Blog believes the university was the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

    The office of Sen. Harry Reid, D.-Nev., did not return a call from the Blog seeking comment on the practice recommended by the NTC promoter. Nor did Reid’s office return an email sent by the Blog. Reid is Senate Majority Leader. One of the buildings on UNLV’s campus bears his name. The same NTC promoter recommended “libraries” as excellent sources of plate numbers.

    Among the privacy concerns is whether the companies, which appear to be targeting as clients of the database product firms that repossess automobiles, could use the data to create profiles on the movement of people.

    In a DNA conference call, one company pitchman said DNA hoped to attract enough affiliates to make it possible for the company to record a plate number at Walmart at noon — and the same plate number at a “doctor’s office” at 1 p.m. and the same plate number elsewhere at 4 p.m. The same pitchman suggested churches were good sources of license-plate numbers.

    Adding to the fog of uncertainty is a pattern of strange communications from the firm, which is using Google’s free gmail service to conduct customer service. Emails received by DNA members do not include a street address, which brings issues of transparency into play and potentially brings issues of federal compliance into play.

    The PP Blog, which is a Blog among millions of Blogs, has received repeated affiliate spam from DNA and Narc That Car promoters. For weeks, there was no way even to contact DNA to report spam. The Blog will not contact the company via the gmail address — which was made public only days ago –out of concern its email address will be harvested and added to a database controlled by an unknown party.

    Narc That Car, meanwhile, has a “Span Policy” — as opposed to “Spam Policy” — link at the bottom of its website. Some of its promoters have produced check-waving videos, including a video that claimed repping for NTC was like working for the “Census Bureau,” a government agency.

    One of the videos showed that NTC payments are issued by check drawn on the account of “National Automotive Record Centre Inc.” That entity, which uses the word “National” in its name and the British spelling of “Centre” — as opposed to the U.S. spelling of “Center” — is registered in Nevada. NTC also is associated with a Texas company known as Narc Technologies, which, according to a YouTube video now made private, once issued checks for affiliates.

    These things hardly inspire confidence in the NTC enterprise.

    Just this morning, the PP Blog received information from a DNA member that the company emailed members, claiming “D.N.A. archived e-mail communications were erased by design.

    “We will send you the last 3 e-mail communications within the next 24 hours,” the email said. “If you do not wish to receive D.N.A. Daily Communications please visit your back office.”

    Even if the email was perceived by management as a means of demonstrating that DNA was trying to gain control over its message, such a communication only leads to more questions. The email did not include a street address. It also implied that members needed to opt out of communications by doing so within their back offices, rather than opting out by clicking on a link at the bottom of emails they receive.

    The hype from DNA and its promoters — dropping names of icons such as Donald Trump and Oprah Winfrey — and making claims that a “MEGA MILLION DOLLAR DEAL with a publicly known industry giant” and a “Top Secret Product” are on the horizon are rubbing some MLM aficionados the wrong way.

    MLM has a miserable reputation. Messages from DNA are doing the industry no favors.

    If DNA is attempting to seize back its communications apparatus, it needs to explain precisely why it lost control of it early on. And a corporate face must emerge for the company — one who is willing to answer the hard questions on the propriety, safety, legality and privacy concerns the firm is sparking.

    For now, at least, it is a tangled web fueled by hype that ducks the issues and causes the company to look silly — day after day.

  • Data Network Affiliates Now Says Launch Is ‘Beta Test’; Adds ‘JK Wedding Entrance Dance’ Video To Sales Pitch; Former CEO May Make Statement This Week

    After delaying its launch twice in February and finally settling on a March 1 launch date, Data Network Affiliates (DNA) now describes tomorrow’s launch as a “Beta Test.”

    Meanwhile, the company has added a hugely popular YouTube video known as “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” to its website, using the video to promote DNA.

    On the YouTube site, the video and a related webpage that solicits donations for the Sheila Wellstone Institute are are used to create awareness about domestic violence. Because the video is is miniaturized on DNA’s site, the violence-prevention message is not visible unless viewers expand the size.

    At the same time, a person who identified himself as Dean Blechman, DNA’s former chief executive officer, has emailed the PP Blog, saying he no longer is affiliated with DNA in any way.

    “I am no longer the CEO of DNA,” the email said. “I have no affiliation with the company whatsoever.”

    The email could not immediately be confirmed as authentic, but the PP Blog believes the sender was Blechman. The sender did not respond immediately to a request to explain matters pertaining to DNA, saying via email  he was on vacation with his wife until Tuesday and adding that he would contact the Blog again after he returns home.

    DNA does not explain Blechman’s departure on its website, which lists an address in the Cayman Islands. Nor does the company explain why it now is describing the launch date as a “Beta Test.”

    The company, which says it is in the business of recording license-plate numbers for entry in a database, repeatedly has advertised various launch dates. Critics have raised questions about privacy matters and the propriety, safety and legality of DNA.

    Some critics have said that Phil Piccolo, a notorious figure in multilevel marketing, is associated with the firm.

    It was not immediately clear if DNA was authorized to post the “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” video on its website and use it in the context of advertising DNA. The video has received more than 43.7 million views on YouTube. Its producers created the video to share the joy of their wedding, and also to create awareness about domestic violence, according to a message linked to their YouTube website.

    An email to the producers — Jill and Kevin Heinz — by the PP Blog was not immediately returned. Among other things, the couple has appeared on the Today Show to explain their joyous, music-rich video, which features the entire wedding party dancing to the altar and has been a spectacular hit on YouTube — one with a serious message attached.

    In a page that accompanies the couple’s video, Jill is described as a PhD candidate whose work focuses on breaking cycles of violence in society. Kevin is described as a law student with a passion for social justice. The site includes a link to donate to the Sheila Wellstone Institute.

    Sheila Wellstone was a human-rights advocate. She and her husband, Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., were killed in a plane crash in 2002. Their daughter, Marcia, died in the same crash.

    DNA’s site does not reference the serious message associated with the YouTube video. Instead, it uses the video to promote DNA, under a headline of “WARNING: What happens when The Wedding Party found out about D.N.A. 5 minutes before THE WEDDING WAS TO TAKE PLACE…”

  • Data Network Affiliates (DNA) Changes Launch Date; Shares Vision Of Americans Recording License-Plate Numbers At Walmart, Doctors’ Offices; Now Praises AMBER Alert After Earlier Claiming Program Had ‘Astronomical’ Budget

    UPDATED 10:53 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Its domain name registered in the Cayman Islands, Data Network Affiliates (DNA) envisions an America in which members will record the license-plate number of the same cars multiple times a day as the vehicles move from destination to destination, a recorded company pitch says.

    Meanwhile, the DNA countdown clock on its website now says the launch has been delayed. The countdown clock previously said the program would launch today, a date that was changed to a later date in February and now has been changed to March 1.

    At the same time, the recording speaks glowingly of AMBER Alert, after an earlier recording suggested the famous child-protection system managed by the Justice Department was wasting taxpayers’ money. In the new recording, a pitchman says DNA has no affiliation with AMBER Alert, although the company continues to use its name in sales pitches, suggesting that DNA could provide AMBER Alert a helping hand.

    “That’s a great, great system,” the pitchman said of AMBER Alert in the new recording. “We have no association with AMBER Alert.”

    In an earlier recording, the same pitchman said, “I’m pretty sure you heard of AMBER Alert. It saved over 497 people. But guess what? AMBER Alert, I think, costs about over $100 million a year or some kind of astronomical number.”

    Walmart, Target, Doctors’ Offices

    The new recording includes remarks that the company’s aim was to create a database that tracked the movement of cars. A pitchman talked about a hypothetical “red corvette” being spotted at Walmart at noon, at a “doctor’s office” at 1 p.m. and somewhere else at 4 p.m. — with DNA members recording the plate number at all three locations.

    Other pitchmen in the recording said DNA had soared to more than 25,000 members in only days and expected to recruit “millions.” One pitchman said he had sponsored more than 700 members and had an organization that contained more than 4,000.

    Earlier in the recording, a pitchman also talked about recording plate numbers at Target, another major American retailer. He suggested that members “open up” their eyes when leaving stores to see a “couple hundred” cars parked in the lots.

    His voice quieting briefly, the pitchman talked about writing down plate numbers in the parking lots, suggesting that some members might prefer to return to the privacy of their own cars before recording the numbers.

    “If you want to be inconspicuous . . . you can do that, too,” he said. “Just look around you. Be more vigilant, and just take some information. If you can read and write, that’s it. Just jot down a license-plate tag.”

    Recording license-plate numbers in the parking lots of major retailers, he said, “can lead to some serious financial wealth for you.”

    No mention was made about whether DNA members needed the permission of major retailers or physicians to record the plate numbers of shoppers or patients.

  • While Asking Members To Input License-Plate Numbers And Citing U.S. Based AMBER Alert In Promos, Data Network Affiliates Lists Domain-Registration Address In Cayman Islands

    UPDATED 2:37 P.M. ET (March 5, U.S.A.) If the United States or any U.S. based police agency were to purchase database entries from Data Network Affiliates (DNA), the government and the agencies would be purchasing information from a company that uses a Cayman Islands address.

    Even as it suggests the U.S.-based AMBER Alert program is wasting taxpayers’ money and encourages U.S. residents to write down the license-plate numbers of their neighbors for entry in a database, DNA is using a service in the Cayman Islands to keep the registration data of its domain name hidden.

    The street address in the registration data is used by an untold number of businesses, including porn sites and malware sites, according to Google search results. On May 4, 2009, President Obama specifically cited the Cayman Islands in remarks on his initiative to combat offshore tax fraud.

    Using capital letters on its website, DNA said the U.S.-based AMBER Alert system had recovered “ONLY” 492 abducted children, saying “DNA could help in such safe recoveries at a fraction of cost of Amber Alert.” Meanwhile, a DNA pitchman in a conference call questioned AMBER Alert’s effectiveness, even as DNA was using an address in the Cayman Islands.

    “I’m pretty sure you heard of AMBER Alert,” he said. “It saved over 497 people. But guess what? AMBER Alert, I think, costs about over $100 million a year or some kind of astronomical number.”

    The same pitchman also has suggested that U.S. church parking lots and the parking lots of giant retailers such as U.S.-based Walmart were places DNA members could harvest license-plate numbers for entry in DNA’s database.

    Why the company chose a Cayman Islands address for its website is unclear. Also unclear is why DNA would at once criticize AMBER Alert while repeatedly using its name to generate business for a company that lists its address as George Town, Grand Cayman, the capital city of the Caribbean nation in the British West Indies.

    AMBER Alert is managed by the U.S. Department of Justice. Its secondary program is managed by the U.S.-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

    Like Narc That Car — another company that is urging members to write down license-plate numbers — the DNA pitchman implored prospects to view the company as an excellent tool for “law enforcement.”

    “We’ll be able to reunite families,” he said. He did not reference the Cayman Islands domain registration in his pitch.

    DNA says it has an “Executive Power Team,” identifying Dean Blechman as its chief executive officer, board chairman and founder.

    “In the early 1990’s Mr. Blechman served as Director and Board Member of the National Nutritional Foods Association (NNFA),” DNA says on its website. “Mr. Blechman was a key strategist and lobbyist for the NNFA and was influential in the team that was responsible for the passage in 1994 of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act through the United States Congress and Senate. This bill still stands today as one of the most important pieces of legislation in the Health Food and Natural Food Supplement Industry.”

    Troy Dooly, a multilevel-marketing (MLM) aficionado who runs the MLM Help Desk website, issued a Scam Alert on DNA yesterday. Dooly’s Scam Alert followed on the heels of an earlier one he issued for Narc That Car, which is the subject of an inquiry by the BBB in Dallas and an inquiry by the district attorney of Henderson County, Texas.

    “Data Network Affiliates aka DNA makes Narc That Car look like saints,” Dooly said on the MLM Help Desk website.

    Meanwhile, MLM aficionado Rod Cook, who was threatened with lawsuits for publishing information on AdSurfDaily, which later was implicated in a $100 million Ponzi scheme, also has labeled Narc That Car a scam.

    Narc That Car is “one of the cutest pyramid tricks ever pulled!!!!” Cook exclaimed on his MLM Watchdog website.

    Separately, a You Tube site featuring a Jeff Long video for Narc That Car in which Long informs viewers that he recorded 100 license-plate numbers for Narc That Car on his iPhone as he strolled though a Walmart parking lot, now says that he has jumped ship to DNA.

    In the Narc That Car video, Long said he collected so many license-plate numbers at Walmart that he could give some way to Narc That Car prospects, perhaps even enough for them to qualify for a $55 payout without leaving home.

    Long, though, now has turned sour on Narc That Car, according to a screaming message on the YouTube site.

    “This video talks about NARC That Car,” a message on the YouTube site says. “IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON MARKETING THIS BUSINESS ON THE INTERNET DO NOT JOIN!!!!! NarcThatCar CANCELED AND DISABLED My distributorship because I put this video YouTube…I’m now the #1 leader and sponsor in their BIGGEST COMPETITOR’S BUSINESS…DataNetworkAffiliates. Again…don’t join NarcThatCar if you plan on marketing on the internet!!!!!! JOIN DNA WITH ME FOR 100% FREE!”

    Long’s name was referenced in a recent DNA conference call.

    In other Narc That Car news, promoter “Jah” says he has received a check for $70 from Narc That Car.

    Jah, who says he has a Narc That Car team of 100 members, posted a video of the check on YouTube.

    In May 2009, Obama announced a crackdown on offshore fraud. On the same date — May 4 — the AdViewGlobal autosurf announced it had secured a new international wire facility. AVG crashed and burned in June 2009. The company it identified as its facilitator — KINGZ Capital Management Corp. (KCM) — later was banned by the National Futures Association (NFA) amid allegations that it failed to uphold high ethical standards and failed to supervise its operations.

    NFA’s specific ban on KCM centered on Minnesota Ponzi scheme figure Trevor Cook, who allegedly managed a KCM investment pool. Cook is one of two central figures in an alleged Ponzi scheme and financial fraud involving at least $190 million. The other central figure is Pat Kiley, a former host on Christian radio.

    Promotions for Narc That Car have appeared on the former Golden Panda Ad Zone forum, now known as the Online Success Zone. A pitch for DNA also appears on the site, as well as a promoter’s link to DNA conference calls.

    Golden Panda was implicated in the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme.

    At least three promos for Narc That Car and DNA have appeared on the former Golden Panda forum in recent days. One of the promos for Narc That Car was deleted. Two remain: one for Narc That Car, another for DNA.

    “UPDATE: D.N.A – FREE Method of Earning GOOD Money…Just surpassed 19,000 Members and Climbing,” says the headline in the DNA promo on the former Golden Panda site.

  • FBI: Investigators ‘Wrapping Up’ Decade-Long Probe Into ‘Pump And Dump’ Penny-Stock Schemes That Caused ‘Hundreds Of Millions’ In Losses

    Source: FBI

    UPDATED 2:46 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) And to think a cheerleader for AdSurfDaily once boasted online that Megalido was “offshore” and therefore safe from government meddling, after earlier suggesting that ASD members who did not support the company after Ponzi allegations surfaced perhaps would get dragged off in handcuffs while supporters remained free.

    To further chill ASD defectors, the cheerleader even shared his version of lyrics from the television program “COPS.”

    “Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do?” he chanted on the now-defunct AdSurfZone forum, a predecessor site to the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum. “Whatcha Gonna Do>WHEN<THEY COME FOR YOU ?!!!”

    Could an adult be so out of touch he actually believed law enforcement did not have a clue about how fraudsters operate and had no experience at all investigating intricate and elaborate crimes that touched all 50 U.S. states, Canada, the Caribbean and other parts of the world?

    The plain answer is yes.

    Even as the apologist chanted, however, the FBI was in the seventh year of one of the most intricate and exhaustive probes in its history, a history that dates back to 1908.

    Now the FBI, which has 456 satellite offices in the United States and 60 offices overseas, says it is “wrapping up” a penny-stock investigation “that was so massive it took the better part of a decade to unravel.”

    Operation “Shore Shells” included probes into 40 separate schemes and, to date, has resulted in 40 convictions, the agency said. The FBI and partner agencies chose the “Shore Shells” name because the probe originated on New Jersey’s Atlantic coast and involved “fake” companies or “shell” firms.

    Targeted in the probe were CEOs, stock brokers, CPAs, financial advisers and attorneys who conspired to pump up the price of penny stocks with bogus news releases, false postings on Internet forums and fraudulent information delivered in newsletters, the FBI said.

    Perhaps the most notable conviction to date was that of Robert P. Gordon, 57, of
    St. Petersburg, Fla. Gordon was sentenced in New Jersey to 20 years in prison, after a jury found him guilty of conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money-laundering.

    Investors lost $15 million in the pump-and-dump scheme, which included company names such as TeleServices Internet Group Inc. (TSIG) and Phoenix Information Systems Inc.

    “Gordon and several of his co-conspirators executed fraudulent agreements between TSIG and offshore entities, which they secretly controlled,” prosecutors said. “Typically, the offshore entities were located in the Cayman Islands.”

    The elaborate scheme involved fraudulent consulting agreements with other entities, and co-conspirators “caused millions of shares of the TSIG stock to be issued in the name of the entities,” prosecutors said. The conspirators attempted to skirt securities laws, and
    fraudulently received shares that were laundered in Canada and the United States.

    “Afterward, the ill-gotten proceeds were often laundered by wire transferring those funds from the brokerage accounts to an attorney trust account located in Denver and then dispersed to the co-conspirators,” prosecutors said.

    Investors dump their life savings into pump-and-dump schemes, which deliberately are designed to be elaborate to line the pockets of insiders.

    Now the FBI has disclosed some details about the victims — the people the AdSurfZone poster would have ASD members believe were the “Bad Boys” for not cheerleading for the international scammers.

    Here, according to the FBI, are some victims’ stories in brief:

    • A man suffering from multiple sclerosis. His stockbroker liquidated the man’s pension and IRA, “and left him nearly penniless.”
    • A woman who invested her savings and pension. She also took out a second mortgage to bolster her stake, and “lost everything.”
    • A husband and wife who both developed dementia during the probe. FBI agents spent hours with the victims and their family members at a nursing home, while also meeting with the victims’ accountants to reverse-engineer their losses.
    • A physician from a “prestigious hospital.” The doctor “began suffering from severe depression after learning of the scam and became unable to work.”

    As operation “Shore Shells” expanded, it grew to include more than 100 seizure and forfeitures actions totaling more than “$70 million in cash, artwork, jewelry, homes, cars, and other valuables.”

    The real “Bad Boys” have been ordered to pay more than $130 million in restitution.

    “We expect millions more to be forfeited and repaid to the victims,” the FBI said. “We spent years interviewing more than 600 mainly elderly victims, painstakingly documenting their sometimes heartbreaking losses.”

    Others convicted in operation “Shore Shells” include Gary Brown, 61, of Sarasota, Fla.; Joseph Morgan, of St. Pete Beach, Fla.; and Gary Brown, also of Florida, for their roles in a scheme involving a company known as Skylynx Communications.

    Brown pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. His sentencing is set for for May 7.

    “At his plea hearing, Brown admitted that beginning in May 2002 and continuing through October 2005, he operated a sophisticated scheme, involving more than five co-conspirators, which used deceptive and manipulative practices in connection with the fraudulent issuance, purchase, and re-sale of shares of stock of Skylynx Communications,” prosecutors said.

    More than 50 Skylynx investors were defrauded. Brown admitted that he conspired with Morgan, who already has been sentenced to two years in prison, and McPhee, whose sentencing is pending, prosecutors said.

    Brown agreed to forfeit about $650,000, as part of his plea.

    Read more about operation “Shore Shells” and pump-and-dump schemes.