PatrickPretty.com

Tag: David Murcia

On The High Seas Of Facebook, The Search For New HYIP Blood In The Water Intensifies After ‘Profitable Sunrise’ Goes Missing

“HYIPs use an array of websites and social media — including YouTube, Twitter and Facebook — to lure investors, fabricating a ‘buzz’ and creating the illusion of social consensus, which is a common persuasion tactic fraudsters use to suggest that ‘everyone is investing in HYIPs, so they must be legitimate.’” — The Financial Industry Regulatory…

Mar 27, 2013
International MLM Huckster Who Laundered Money For Colombian Narcotics Operation Sentenced To 9 Years In U.S. Prison; David Murcia Also Faces 30-Year Term Behind Bars In South America Upon Release

David Eduardo Helmut Murcia Guzman (David Murcia), the MLM huckster whose pyramid scheme targeted the poor in Latin America and laundered money for a Colombian narcotics operation, has been sentenced to nine years in a U.S. federal prison. Murcia, 30, also faces a 30-year prison sentence in Colombia after his release from a U.S. jail.…

Jul 12, 2011
BULLETIN: Pyramid Scheme Figure Tied To International Narcotics Traffickers Pleads Guilty In Money-Laundering Conspiracy; David Murcia And Co-Conspirators Set Up ‘Hundreds Of Companies’ To Clean Up Dirty Cash

“The so-called ‘Bernie Madoff of Colombia’ now stands convicted of money-laundering . . .” — U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara BULLETIN: The Colombian mastermind of the D.M.G. Group (DMG) pyramid scheme has pleaded guilty in New York to conspiring to launder drug money in the United States. David Eduardo Helmut Murcia Guzman (David Murcia) was extradited…

Nov 24, 2010
ANOTHER MYTH-BUSTER: U.S. Extradites ‘Legal Adviser’ To Corrupt MLM From Colombia; Margarita Pabon Castro Charged With Helping Pyramid Scheme Launder Money For Narco Businesses

EDITOR’S NOTE: It is common for fraudsters to claim that “offshore” locations insulate HYIPs, autosurfs and other investment-fraud schemes from prosecution in the United States. It is equally common for purveyors to claim the schemes are harmless. The story of the alleged DMG pyramid scheme is one in which prosecutors allege a monstrous multilevel-marketing company…

Aug 9, 2010
MYTH-SHATTERING CASE: Local Prosecutors Extradite Ronald Paul Shade From Thailand To Face Real-Estate Ponzi Charges; Shade Also Accused Of ‘Financial Elder Abuse’

EDITOR’S NOTE: The PP Blog has covered a number of stories in which U.S. residents living overseas were extradited to the United States to face Ponzi charges. The case against Ronald Paul Shade is another one — and it’s one that demonstrates that an extradition can occur even if a defendant is not charged with…

Jul 21, 2010
BLOCKBUSTER ARREST: MLM Pyramid Scheme Operator Charged With Laundering Drug Money; David Murcia Extradited From Colombia To Stand Trial In New York

EDITOR’S NOTE: Finding the United States an unfriendly environment, the so called autosurf and HYIP “industries” increasingly are relying on offshore money-exchange businesses and debit cards to entice participants, advising them that the offshore locations are “safe” havens that “shelter” U.S. residents from regulators and law-enforcement agencies. In August 2009, we reported that a Dallas-based…

Jan 6, 2010