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Tag: FBI

  • Daniel Fernandes Rojo Filho, Accused In Alleged DFRF Enterprises Ponzi Scheme, Made Donation To 2012 Obama Campaign: What Is Platinum Trade Bancorp?

    Federal Election Commissiobn records list this donation from Daniel Fernandes Rojo Filho to the 2012 relection campaign of President Obama. Red highlights/redaction by PP Blog.
    Federal Election Commission records list this donation from Daniel Fernandes Rojo Filho to the 2012 reelection campaign of President Obama. Filho’s employer is listed as Platinum Trade Bancorp. Red highlight/redaction by PP Blog.

    In 2012, Daniel Fernandes Rojo Filho, purportedly an employee of an entity known as Platinum Trade Bancorp and using the address of a mansion in Boca Raton, Fla., made a $250 campaign contribution to Obama for America, according to Federal Election Commission records.

    The PP Blog is declining to publish the address of the 6,742-square-foot (est.) waterfront property, which appears not to have been owned by Filho. Records suggest the six-bedroom home has at least 6,200 square feet with air-conditioning and a separate quarters for domestic staff.

    It sold for $2.025 million in August 2013, but Filho was listed neither as buyer nor seller. If he ever lived in the mansion, it appears he was a tenant, not an owner.

    The donation to President Obama’s reelection campaign in Filho’s name (and listing the address of the Boca Raton mansion) was recorded on Oct. 16, 2012, just three weeks before the Nov. 6 general election that returned Obama to the White House for four more years. Obama is a Democrat.

    Filho, now implicated criminally and civilly by the FBI and the SEC in the alleged DFRF Enterprises Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that traded on an international gold-mining theme, is not a U.S. citizen, according to court filings. Rather, he is a citizen of Brazil.

    Campaign donations by “foreign nationals” are illegal under U.S. law. There is an exception for U.S. residents who have a green card “indicating his or her lawful admittance for permanent residence in the United States,” according to the FEC.

    It is unclear whether Filho has a green card and is in the country lawfully. Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts described him July 22 as an Orlando resident and fugitive arrested the day before “coming out of a restaurant in Boca Raton.”

    Sann Rodrigues, a defendant in the epic TelexFree Ponzi- and pyramid case and an alleged Filho business associate, was arrested in May 2015 on a charge of immigration fraud. Like Filho, Rodrigues is a citizen of Brazil. Prosecutors said Rodrigues lied to get a green card.

    Both men have listed addresses in Florida and Massachusetts and have been implicated in alleged frauds targeted at people who speak Portuguese or Spanish.

    FEC records show that the donation in Filho’s name lists him as “Chairman of the Board” of Platinum Trade Bancorp. Where the purported business was based is unclear. No such company appears to exist in Florida.

    The name of the purported firm, however, is similar to the name of Platinum Swiss Trust, a company the SEC said played a role in the DFRF fraud.

    Platinum Swiss Trust, the SEC alleged, is a “purported Swiss private bank that is not actually authorized to conduct banking activities in Switzerland.” It purportedly is associated with Heriberto C. Perez Valdes, 46, of Miami. Valdes is a DFRF codefendant in the SEC’s civil case.

    DFRF, the agency said, advanced a story that it has a $3.1 billion line of credit with Platinum Swiss Trust and used investors money to “leverage the credit line and generate a total return of 600%.”

    Darren Covar, a Florida immigration attorney who appeared with Filho and others in a DFRF promo, is listed in FEC records as a contributor to Democratic causes. He has not been accused of wrongdoing.

    FEC records lists Covar as having made $2,800 in 2012 contributions, though none to Obama. These contributions consisted of $300 to the Democratic Executive Committee of Florida, and $2,500 to the Kristen Jacobs for Congress campaign. Jacobs, a Democrat running for seat in the U.S. House, lost the race to Democrat Lois Frankel, the former mayor of West Palm Beach and the former minority leader of Florida’s state house.

    Whether bail has been set for Filho is unclear. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Massachusetts did not return an inquiry on the matter.

    Filho made an appearance in federal court in the Southern District of Florida yesterday. Miami defense attorney David A. Howard made a “temporary” appearance for him, according to the docket of the case.

    Howard did not immediately return an inquiry for comment on Filho’s bail status.

    Court records suggest he is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service and will be returned from Florida to face the DFRF-related criminal charge of wire fraud in federal court in Massachusetts.

    NOTE: Our thanks to the ASD Updates Blog.

     

  • BULLETIN: ‘The DFRF Fraud Is Much Larger Than It First Appeared,’ SEC Tells Court

    dfrflogoBULLETIN: (2nd Update 9:46 p.m. EDT U.S.A.) The SEC has gone to federal court in Boston, alleging that “the DFRF fraud is much larger than it first appeared.”

    The agency also alleges that at least one DFRF investor told investigators that he first heard of DFRF in May or June 2014 from TelexFree Ponzi- and pyramid figure Sann Rodrigues, who attended the same church. If the information is correct, it would mean that Rodrigues had knowledge about DFRF within weeks of becoming a defendant in the SEC’s April 2014 action against TelexFree.

    SEC investigators initially tied Rodrigues to DFRF and alleged operator Daniel Fernandes Rojo Filho in a complaint last month. New documents filed by the agency yesterday hint that other DFRF insiders also were involved in TelexFree.

    Filho, described by federal prosecutors in Boston as a fugitive, was arrested July 21 in Boca Raton, Fla.  on a DFRF-related charge of wire fraud. The FBI is leading the criminal investigation.

    From an SEC investigator in a July 23 filing in the agency’s civil case against DFRF Enterprises, Filho, Wanderley M. Dalman of Revere, Mass.; Gaspar C. Jesus of Malden, Mass.; Eduardo N. Da Silva of Orlando, Fla.; Heriberto C. Perez Valdes of Miami; Jeffrey A. Feldman of Boca Raton; and Romildo Da Cunha of Brazil (italics and bolding added/light editing performed):

    Another investor (hereafter “Investor B”) told me that he and his spouse invested a combined $61,000 in DFRF. He first heard about DFRF in May or June 2014 from Sanderley Rodrigues de Vasconcelos (“Rodrigues”). (Rodrigues is the subject of a 2007 consent judgment in a Commission enforcement action concerning the “Universo Foneclub” pyramid scheme and a defendant in the Commission’s pending action concerning the “TelexFree” pyramid scheme.) Investor B knew Rodrigues from his participation in TelexFree and as a fellow member of his church.

    Rodrigues told Investor B that the minimum investment in DFRF was $50,000. Investor B decided not to invest at that time.

    Investor B told me that in July or August 2014, defendants Dalman, Jesus and Silva approached him about investing in DFRF. He knew the three men through TelexFree, because when TelexFree was operating, he would meet with individuals involved in the company on a weekly basis at a hotel in Revere.

    Dalman, Jesus and Silva told Investor B about DFRF, explaining that Investor B could earn up to 15% per month. They also told him that he could earn a 10% commission for referring others to DFRF.

    Investor B told me that Dalman, Jesus and Silva invited him to meet with Filho at a hotel in Boston, Massachusetts in July or August 2014, which he did.

    Investor B told me that, in September 2014, he and his spouse went to a meeting at DFRF’s offices at 60 State Street in Boston. Six to ten other potential investors attended this meeting, at which Dalman, Jesus and Silva spoke about DFRF. Filho later joined the meeting and gave a presentation about investing in DFRF. One of the other attendees asked Filho how DFRF could afford to pay 15% per month. Filho responded that he could take the investors’ money and grow it by a factor of six.

    The Rodrigues tie to DFRF now brings the number of fraud schemes in which he has been involved at least to four: Universo, TelexFree, DFRF and IFreeX, described last year by Massachusetts investigators as a TelexFree reload scheme. By victims count, TelexFree may be the largest Ponzi/pyramid scheme in U.S. history, rivaled only by Zeek Rewards in 2012.

    Rodrigues, a Brazilian, is not a U.S. citizen. He was arrested at a New Jersey airport in May 2015, upon his return from a trip to Israel. He was charged criminally with immigration fraud, amid allegations he lied to get a green card.

    Like DFRF’s Filho, Rodrigues had addresses in Massachusetts and Florida. Filho also is a Brazilian.

    Prosecution filings today in the criminal case against Filho assert that he is not a U.S. citizen. He has not been charged with an immigration crime and apparently has a driver’s license issued by a U.S. state, given that he has been seen driving a Lamborghini in Florida.

    SEC: DFRF Fraud Numbers Rise

    The SEC initially pegged DFRF last month as a fraud that had hauled about $15 million. But further investigation has led to higher numbers — in both total haul and the sum Filho is alleged to have siphoned.

    Dealing with Filho first, who was alleged last month to have siphoned more than $6 million.  From an SEC filing yesterday (italics added):

    The documents we reviewed indicate that, since June 2014, Filho has taken more than $8.6 million from DFRF accounts for himself or his family: He has withdrawn more than $2.7 million in cash. He has used DFRF funds to pay more than $2.2 million of personal and family expenses. He has used DFRF funds to pay more than $2.5 million for luxury automobiles (a 2014 Rolls Royce, a 2015 Lamborghini, a 2014 Lamborghini, a 2013 Mercedes, a 2012 Ferrari, a 2006 Ferrari, a 2015 Cadillac, and a 2014 Cadillac) and automotive-related expenses. He has used DFRF funds to pay nearly $250,000 to members of his extended family. He has used DFRF funds to send more than $1.1 million to the IOLTA account of an attorney in Hollywood, Florida. On June 30, 2015, he used DFRF funds to wire more than $1.1 million to an entity in the Bahamas that is believed to be a law firm. Some of these figures are probably too low, because the documents we have received to date are insufficient to classify approximately $3.5 million of withdrawals from DFRF corporate accounts in June 2015.

    Now, dealing with DFRF, alleged last month to have hauled $15 million. From an SEC filing yesterday (italics added/light editing performed):

    The documents we reviewed indicate that, from June 2014 through June 2015, DFRF received approximately $22.8 million from more than 1,750 investors:  The total may be slightly low, because the documents we have received to date are insufficient to classify approximately $160,000 of deposits to DFRF corporate accounts in June 2015.

    The documents we reviewed indicate that none of the investors’ money has been used to conduct gold mining in Brazil and Mali, and that DFRF has received no proceeds from gold mining operations.

    The documents we reviewed indicate that DFRF has received no proceeds from a line of credit with Platinum Swiss Trust and has had no banking transactions at all with that company.

    The documents we reviewed indicate that DFRF has spent nothing on charitable activities in Africa or anywhere else.

    The documents we reviewed indicate that, from June 2014 through June 2015, DFRF had no independent source of revenue except the money received from investors.

    The documents we reviewed indicate that, from June 2014 through June 2015, DFRF paid approximately $1.94 million to approximately 250 likely investors for the return of investor principal or purported monthly payments.

    Heriberto Valdes, who allegedly hauled $551,403 out of DFRF, has not been served the complaint, the SEC said.

    “Valdes is the only defendant who has not been served and whose location is unknown,” the agency said.

    Records suggest that Valdes, like Feldman, has a criminal record.

    NOTE: Our thanks to the ASD Updates Blog.

  • Accused Ponzi Suspect Daniel Fernandes Rojo Filho Arrested, But New Mystery Emerges: NFL Draft Pick Was Seen Driving Same Car

    Screen shot from YouTube video. Red highlights by PP Blog.
    Screen shot from YouTube video. Red highlights by PP Blog.

    2ND UPDATE 6:23 P.M. EDT U.S.A. Ponzi-scheme suspect Daniel Fernandes Rojo Filho of DFRF Enterprises has been arrested in Boca Raton, Fla. after an FBI investigation — but a new mystery is emerging on how he came into possession of a gold Lamborghini bearing Florida tag DJBU10.

    The extremely pricy automobile is shown in at least two online videos that display the tag number and name of Prestige Imports/Lamborghini Miami in the rear license-plate holder. Filho is driving the car in a video that appears on YouTube. (Shown below.)

    In a separate video that appears on Instagram, the car purportedly is being driven by Vic Beasley, the Georgia native and Clemson University (South Carolina) football standout who was the first-round pick of the Atlanta Falcons in this year’s NFL draft.

    Neither the dealership nor Beasley has been accused of wrongdoing, and the car may be a marketing prop for the dealership on Biscayne Boulevard North in Miami Beach. The PP Blog left messages for comment today at both the dealership and the office of Five Star Athlete Management, the Atlanta-based agency that represents Beasley.

    The Blog will include the comments if the calls are returned. The Blog also is awaiting the return of a call it made for comment to the office of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz of the District of Massachusetts.

    Both of the videos appear to have been made by happenstance by individuals who have no DFRF ties and simply shot footage when the eye-popping Lamborghini appeared when they were nearby.

    The person who posted YouTube footage showing Filho in the car appears to be an automobile hobbyist and not to have recognized him at all. Separately, the person who shot the Instagram footage showing Beasley behind the wheel appears possibly to have recognized the football star, but the backdrop also is striking.

    In the Beasley video, the car is seen driving at a slow speed across across a grassy area that includes a fire hydrant and low curb, making a right turn onto a side road, drifting through a stop sign and then making another right turn onto a different highway. A sign that briefly appears in the video appears to read “NW 13th St.”

    There is a NW 13th Street in Miami, but the Blog could not conclusively determine that’s where the Instagram video was shot.

    There also is a discussion thread about Beasley and the Lamborghini at the website of TigerNet, which covers topics pertaining to Clemson athletics. The first post is dated Feb. 18, 2015, weeks prior to the April 30 NFL draft.  Another Feb. 18 post in the thread identifies the license number as DJBU10. Still another identifies it as a Florida tag.

    The PP Blog first observed Filho driving the car in this DFRF promotional video published May 8, 2015, on YouTube. The tag number, however, does not appear in the video.

    As noted above, an apparent car hobbyist with a YouTube account (HAW.Photography) encountered the exceptionally flashy ride while shooting footage in Boca Raton. The YouTube upload date of this video is April 4, 2015. The headline is “GOLD Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 in Boca Raton, Florida.” Most of the video appears to have been shot on U.S. Route 1, which passes through Boca Raton.

    A female in the car shooting the video exclaims, “There’s another one!” Another female voice says, “A gold one!”

    At one point the Lamborghini makes a right turn into a car wash. The videographers appear to be in a different traffic lane, but eventually make it into the same parking lot. When the video resumes in the parking lot, Filho is seen stepping out of the driver’s side door of the Lamborghini. A woman exits the vehicle from the passenger’s side door.

    Whether either of the videos has evidentiary value in the Ponzi cases against Filho was not immediately clear. Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts described him yesterday as a fugitive who met arrest Tuesday while “coming out of a restaurant in Boca Raton.”

    Filho is a citizen of Brazil. Prosecutors said Filho had evaded “arrest for more than two weeks” before being caught. The FBI had been seeking his arrest since June 25.

    In a civil case against Filho announced by the SEC on July 2, the agency describes him as having spent $2.5 million to acquire “a fleet of luxury automobiles,” including a 2014 Rolls-Royce, a 2015 Lamborghini, a 2014 Lamborghini, a 2012 Ferrari, a 2006 Ferrari, a 2013 Mercedes, a 2014 Cadillac and a 2015 Cadillac.

    The SEC has linked Filho to Sann Rodrigues, a figure in the epic TelexFree pyramid- and Ponzi scheme case. TelexFree may have gathered as much as $1.8 billion. DFRF’s haul currently is estimated at $15 million.

    Officials at the SEC today Tweeted news of the Filho arrest.

  • DEVELOPING: Herbalife V. Twitter: More Latino Polarization?

    Screen shot from Twitter.
    Screen shot from Twitter.

    UPDATED 3:33 P.M. EDT U.S.A. Herbalife International of America Inc. has sued Twitter Inc. in a reported bid to out the identity of a person posting on Twitter as @AfueraHerbaLIES and then potentially sue that person for defamation, Reuters and other media outlets are reporting.

    The PP Blog this morning identified the action as case No. 2015-L-007373. It was filed July 20 in the Law Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Ill. Dentons US LLP is listed as counsel for Herbalife. The complaint is styled a “Petition for Discovery.” It was not immediately clear if Twitter had been served.

    From Reuters (italics added):

    Herbalife said it wants Twitter to provide information such as IP addresses and account details of the user who vilified the company and its management as “thieves, pill pushing frauds and bullies”.

    The @AfueraHerbaLIES Twitter site appears to have posts in both Spanish and English and to position Herbalife as a pyramid scheme that rips off Latinos. One post — apparently from yesterday — features an image of a space alien puffing on a cigarette (or weed) while flipping Herbalife the bird.

    Another — dated July 14 — is positioned as a “Media Alert.” It tells readers “El Chapo” was seen entering Herbalife’s corporate office.

    “El Chapo” is the reputed druglord Joaquin Guzman Loera, who escaped from a prison in Mexico on July 11, prompting the U.S. Department of Justice to issue a statement on a Sunday that offered assistance to Mexico in recapturing him.

    Herbalife sued six days after the “Media Alert” post, which included a superimposed image of Guzman in a frame that also included an image of Herbalife CEO Michael O. Johnson outside an Herbalife office building.

    “Wonder what he could be doing there? $$$,” the Tweet inquired (and answered) about Guzman.

    Billionaire businessman, MLM aficionado and GOP Presidential hopeful Donald Trump last week reportedly declared he’d kick Guzman’s ass. Trump reportedly later called the FBI, when a Twitter account purportedly linked to Guzman was used to threaten him.

    Herbalife has been under fire from activist investor Bill Ackman, who has called the company a pyramid scheme that targets vulnerable population groups. (See Nov. 13, 2013, PP Blog editorial: Herbalife And Polarization In The Latino Community. Use the Blog’s search function for other references to Ackman and Herbalife.)

    Herbalife has hired former government officials as it seeks to stem the tide of attacks against the company, which faces investigations in multiple jurisdictions. As it gets more and more entrenched in politics, the MLM firm, which was ripe for parody before Ackman produced a serious analysis in 2012, now may be particularly ripe.

    If Trump, displeased with the state of immigration in America, drops out of the Presidential race, for example, might the Herbalife braintrust consider hiring him to bolster the relationship between the company and Latinos? (It might not be a good idea.)

    Might the company be in the market to hire the “two 20-week old, 48-pound” Thanksgiving turkeys President Obama pardoned last year — simply because they were available and potentially useful as part of Washington’s revolving door? Could those grossly overweight birds have benefited from a month or two on Herbalife weight-loss shakes? Will there be “before” and “after” pictures if Herbalife takes them on?

     

    An opinion piece at ValueWalk this afternoon illustrates some of the PR dangers Herbalife faces with its action aimed at  @AfueraHerbaLIES, an account that appears to have only 93 followers.

    NOTE ADDED AT 8:35 P.M. EDT U.S.A. See the first comment in the thread below, which includes a link to a report today in the Cook County Record. Herbalife appears to be bringing this action under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 224. The PP Blog has provided additional links below that contain information on Rule 224.

     

  • BULLETIN: Mass Shooting At 2 Separate Military Sites In Chattanooga, Tenn.

    breakingnews72BULLETIN: (7th Update 6:32 p.m. EDT U.S.A.) Multiple media outlets are reporting a mass shooting at two separate military centers in Chattanooga, Tenn. An early report in the Chattanooga Times Free Press says four U.S. Marines have been killed and a police officer shot and wounded.

    A gunman apparently also has been killed.

    The U.S. Navy has confirmed a shooting incident in Chattanooga.

    U.S. Attorney Bill Killian of the Eastern District of Tennessee has called the shootings an “act of domestic terrorism,” according to an AP report via the Washington Post. Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke called the shootings a “horrific incident in our community.”

    From NBC News (italics added):

    The shootings happened about 40 minutes and six miles apart, first at a military recruitment station and then at a Navy and Marines reserve center. It appeared that the Marines were killed at the reserve center.

    The U.S. Marines Corps has confirmed the deaths of four marines at the Navy & Marine Reserve Center.

    FBI identifies shooter as Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, 24. Statement from FBI (italics added):

    The FBI’s Knoxville Field Office, along with the Chattanooga Police Department and other law enforcement partners, are working jointly to investigate today’s shootings at a military recruitment center and a reserve center in Chattanooga, Tennessee in which four individuals were killed and three injured. The shooter, Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, 24, is also deceased. While it would be premature to speculate on the motives of the shooter at this time, we will conduct a thorough investigation of this tragedy and provide updates as they are available.

    U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch calls it a “national security investigation.” (Full statement/italics added):

    “On behalf of the Department of Justice, I offer my heartfelt condolences and deepest sympathies to the loved ones of the U.S. servicemembers who were murdered and the law enforcement officer who was wounded in this shameful and cowardly act of violence. I have directed the FBI to take the lead in the national security investigation of this heinous attack on members of our military. The U.S. Attorney’s office and department prosecutors are also actively involved. In the days ahead, we intend to work with our partners in law enforcement and the intelligence community to ensure that the American people are protected and that justice is served.”

  • Meet Jeffrey A. Feldman, Purported ‘Insurance’ Provider For DFRF Enterprises And Daniel Fernandes Rojo Filho

    Daniel Fernandes Rojo Filho and Jeffrey A. Feldman: Source: DFRF Enterprises' pitch on YouTube.
    Daniel Fernandes Rojo Filho (left) and Jeffrey A. Feldman: Source: DFRF Enterprises’ pitch on YouTube.

    As the PP Blog reported late yesterday, a federal warrant for the arrest of alleged DFRF Enterprises’ Ponzi- and pyramid figure Daniel Fernandes Rojo Filho has been issued. The FBI has brought a criminal charge of wire fraud against Filho, 47, a citizen of Brazil who has lived in the United States. The SEC lists an address for him in Winter Garden, Fla.

    One of Filho’s co-defendants in the SEC’s civil case filed late last month is Jeffrey A. Feldman, 56, of Boca Raton, Fla. Among other things, the SEC alleged that Feldman “is the sole officer and director of Universal Marketing Group, Inc., a Florida corporation.

    “He claims to be the U.S. representative of Accedium Insurance Company (“Accedium”), which is based in Barbados and London,” the SEC continued. “In July 2007, he filed for personal bankruptcy. In 1998, he was found guilty of fraud and forgery for having received $2.5 million in premiums from a rental car chain for insurance policies that he did not actually obtain. In 1996, the state of Florida revoked his license to sell insurance after he pleaded no contest to charges that he submitted false insurance claims for losses he supposedly suffered from Hurricane Andrew. He has made materially false and misleading statements about DFRF in public meetings and videos posted on the internet.”

    JeffreyAFeldman551606Florida state records show that Feldman served time in a Florida prison between Dec. 28, 1998, and March 2, 2001, on charges of fraud and theft. The 2001 photo at the right, sourced from the Florida Department of Corrections, is his mugshot.

    A June 24, 1993, story in the Lakeland Ledger reported that Florida state agents accused Feldman of faking “at least 15 clothing receipts from high-class stores for $76,661 and [turning] them in as part of his homeowner’s claim” after Hurricane Andrew.

    One of the ways DFRF duped investors, according to both the SEC and the FBI, was to make them believe their money was insured through the Accedium firm. In an FBI affidavit, the agency described two alleged co-conspirators. One of them appears to be Feldman, referenced as “CC-2.”

    From the FBI affidavit (italics added):

    Bank records reviewed to date indicate that no money has been paid to any entity by the name of Accedium, the company that allegedly insured investments in DFRF. In a December 8, 2014 DFRF video, which was posted on the internet, an individual identified herein as Co-Conspirator 2 (“CC-2”) was identified as an “insurance executive,” and described as “the person responsible for the insurance company.” In a subsequent DFRF video, posted on the internet on December 10, 2014, FILHO represented that DFRF obtained its Accedium insurance through CC-2. CC-2’s license to sell insurance, however, was revoked in 1996.

    The screen shot at the top of this story showing Filho and Feldman is from a YouTube video dated Dec. 8, 2014.

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: DFRF Enterprises’ Figure Daniel Fernandes Rojo Filho Wanted By FBI; Arrest Warrant Issued; Feds Conducting ‘Border Watch’

    breakingnews7210th Update 10 a.m. EDT July 14 U.S.A. Daniel Fernandes Rojo Filho, the alleged operator of the $15 million DFRF Enterprises LLC Ponzi- and pyramid scheme sued civilly by the SEC in late June, has been charged criminally with wire fraud and is wanted by the FBI. An arrest warrant has been issued.

    Court filings show that the FBI was conducting a parallel criminal probe while the SEC was conducting its civil probe. The FBI filed a criminal complaint under seal on June 25, about five days before the SEC filed its civil complaint under seal.

    The SEC announced its civil action on July 2. The complaint tied TelexFree Ponzi- and pyramid figure Sann Rodrigues to Filho. In terms of victims, TelexFree may be the largest Ponzi- and pyramid scheme in U.S. history. Having potentially gathered $1.8 billion, TelexFree may be among the largest Ponzi schemes of all time.

    Filho, like Rodrigues, is a citizen of Brazil. Both men have used addresses in Massachusetts and Florida.

    Federal prosecutors from the office of U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz of the District of Massachusetts moved to unseal the criminal complaint on July 8. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jennifer C. Boal lifted the seal on the same day, making the wire-fraud complaint and arrest warrant against Filho a public record.

    In a July 10 filing, an SEC investigator said this (italics added):

    “I have had several conversations with an FBI agent involved in the investigation and the recently-filed criminal proceeding against defendant Filho. I have been informed that the FBI has been unable to execute the arrest warrant issued for defendant Filho in this matter and that the FBI currently considers defendant Filho a fugitive. (A process server retained by the Commission has made several unsuccessful attempts to serve Filho at his residence.) I have been informed that the FBI is actively searching for Filho and has initiated a border watch.”

    Filho is 47 and has an address in Orlando, Fla., according to an FBI affidavit. The SEC complaint gives his place of residence as Winter Garden, Fla., which Wikipedia says is 14 miles west of Orlando in Orange County.

    The FBI affidavit alleges the FBI has received complaints about him from multiple individuals and that Filho has at least two co-conspirators.

    At the same time, the affidavit alleges that DFRF opened “at least 19 bank accounts at different financial institutions” since 2014 and that Filho “is a signatory” on 17 of the 19 accounts.

    Much of the FBI information is similar to the SEC’s allegations against Filho.

    From the FBI affidavit (italics added):

    Among other things, FILHO and others acting at his direction falsely represented that DFRF owned and operated gold mines in Africa and South America, that any investors’ money was 100% insured, and investors could withdraw their principal investments at any time. FILHO never invested the money as promised; instead, FILHO used the money for other purposes, including his own personal and other business expenses.

    In its complaint last month, the SEC alleged that, “[s]ince June 2014, he has siphoned more than $6 million out of DFRF — approximately 40% of the total received from investors. This includes more than $1.8 million in cash withdrawals, approximately $1.8 million for personal expenses (including $500,000 for travel), and almost $2.5 million to acquire a fleet of luxury automobiles.”

    The SEC further alleged that Filho caused more than $310,000 to flow to Rodrigues. Rodrigues, who once claimed to have hauled $3 million out of TelexFree, is not referenced in the FBI affidavit.

    In December 2014, Filho issued a bad check for $10,000 to a DFRF investor, according to the FBI affidavit.

    NOTE: Our thanks to the ASD Updates Blog.

    See PP Blog follow-up story dated July 14 here. The story discusses Jeffrey A. Feldman, one of Filho’s co-defendants in the SEC case. Feldman has an address in Boca Raton, Fla.

    In 2010, the PP Blog reported that Filho was a figure in the alleged Evolution Market Group/Finanzas Forex fraud scheme in which money was traced to the narcotics trade.

  • BULLETIN: $1.5 Billion Ponzi Alleged In Nevada

    breakingnews72BULLETIN: (5th Update 12:54 a.m. EDT July 9 U.S.A.) Three individuals have been indicted on multiple criminal charges in Nevada, with a grand jury alleging they were at the helm of a $1.5 billion Ponzi scheme targeted at Japanese victims. The criminal case follows a civil action filed by the SEC in 2013.

    Charged with eight counts of mail fraud and nine counts of wire fraud were Edwin Fujinaga, 68, of Las Vegas; Junzo Suzuki, 66, of Tokyo; and Paul Suzuki, 36, of Tokyo, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Fujinaga also is charged with three counts of money laundering.

    All of the defendants were associated with a company known as MRI International Inc. (MRI). The FBI led the criminal probe.

    The news may create consternation among cross-border scammers who venture into the United States to hatch fraud schemes.

    “The defendants allegedly preyed on thousands of unsuspecting Japanese victims to enrich themselves by operating a billion-plus dollar Ponzi scheme,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell. “This prosecution shows that the Criminal Division will pursue not only those who victimize American citizens, but also those who use the U.S. as a home base to defraud victims abroad.”

    As the PP Blog reported in 2013 (italics added):

    Part of the scam featured “tours” of MRI’s offices in Las Vegas. The alleged scam is evoking images of Bernard Madoff’s colossal Ponzi scheme, in the sense it appears to have gone undetected for years.

    At the same time, the alleged Fujinaga/MRI fraud is reminiscent of the epic Trevor Cook Ponzi scheme in Minnesota, in the sense that investors appear to have been lulled into a false sense of security because the company had a physical presence. It is somewhat common for fraudsters to tout a brick-and-mortar presence as “proof” no fraud scheme is occurring, even though case after case has demonstrated that the frauds may be buried deep inside an enterprise that at first glance appears to be legitimate.

    “These defendants are accused of using a Nevada corporation to conduct their $1.5 billion fraud scheme and falsely telling thousands of overseas victims that their investments would be safely held and managed by an independent, third-party escrow agent in Nevada,” said U.S. Attorney Daniel G. Bogden of the District of Nevada  “Fraudulent ruses and schemes perpetrated by Nevadans using Nevada corporations and entities will continue to be addressed by this office.”

    From a statement by the Justice Department (italics added):

    MRI purportedly specialized in “factoring,” whereby the company purchased accounts receivable from medical providers at a discount, and then attempted to recover the entire amount, or at least more than the discounted amount, from the debtor.

    According to allegations in the indictment, from at least 2009 to 2013, Fujinaga and the Suzukis fraudulently solicited investments from thousands of Japanese residents, and MRI currently owes investors over $1.5 billion.  Specifically, the indictment alleges that Fujinaga and the Suzukis promised investors a series of interest payments that would accrue over the life of the investment and that would be paid out along with the face value of the investment at the conclusion of the investments’ duration.  The defendants allegedly solicited investments by, among other things, promising investors that their investments would be used only for the purchase of medical accounts receivable (MARS) and by representing that investors funds would be managed and safeguarded by an independent third-party escrow company.

    The indictment further alleges that MRI operated as a Ponzi scheme, wherein the defendants used new investors’ money to pay prior investors’ maturing investments.  According to the indictment, the defendants also allegedly used investors’ funds for purposes other than the purchase of MARS, including paying themselves sales commissions, subsidizing gambling habits, funding personal travel by private jet, and other personal expenses.

    In January 2015, the SEC said a final judgment from its 2013 civil case “requires Fujinaga and MRI to pay more than $580 million.”

  • Bogus Offer To Take Over Avon Turns SEC Website Into Crime Scene

    Avon logoOn May 14, someone used the SEC’s EDGAR database to plant a bogus news release that claimed a company known as PTG Capital Partners LTD. had made an offer to buy out Avon Products Inc. for $18.75 a share. As NPR put it on May 15, this was “a huge premium.”

    DealBook, on May 14, reported that the “federal government’s system for filing securities documents may not be as secure as many on Wall Street assume.”

    Given that the typo-laden hoax that appears in part to have been a copy-and-paste job in which words were lifted from the website of a legitimate company caused Avon’s stock price to surge, the news release looked like a pump-and-dump bid. It could be that, of course.

    But it also could be something more sinister: a marketplace taunt, if not a taunt at the U.S. government itself that more or less screams, “Look what we can do! And we don’t need even to hire an editor!”

    The theatrics that effectively turned part of the SEC’s website into a crime scene appear to have gotten under way at roughly 11:30 a.m. on Thursday. Avon responded quickly, issuing a statement within about 90 minutes.

    “In response to an SEC filing made by an entity purporting to be named ‘PTG Capital Partners,’ Avon reports that it has not received any offer or other communication from such an entity and has not been able to confirm that such an entity exists,” the company said.

    Like A Ponzi-Board Scam

    Remember Profitable Sunrise, the egregious scam shut down by the SEC and state regulators in 2013? The SEC alleged that Profitable Sunrise operated from a “mail drop” in England and had a registered agent based in Seychelles, an island chain in the Indian Ocean.

    A listing for PTG Capital Partners on the SEC’s website claims the business has a street address in London and was incorporated in “BRITISH INDIAN OCEAN TERRITORY.”

    In a May 15 story, the Wall Street Journal, reporting on an FBI inquiry into the bogus Avon takeover bid and citing information from a U.K. government official, noted that “[t]here are no businesses registered in the British Indian Ocean Territory.”

    Any number of recent scams appear either to have fabricated U.K. addresses or used mail drops to reach out and pluck the masses. The utterly preposterous Rockfeller.biz was only one of them. Others include MooreFund and SummitOilProfits.

    These scams, which often use an MLM or network marketing component in which affiliates are promised recruitment commissions, are stealing millions and millions of dollars. The money disappears down ratholes.

    Now, Avon, an MLM company, appears to have been targeted in a similar scheme — one that may have the appearance of a pump-and-dump but perhaps was calculated to taunt the government.

    In March 2014, the SEC alleged that a “program” known as Fleet Mutual Wealth Limited (or Mutual Wealth) effectively had filed invalid Forms D with the commission to dupe the masses. “Pre-IPO” scams also are of concern. (See UFunClub.)

    Some international scammers allegedly have traded on American-sounding names to fleece their marks. (See ProfitsParadise.)

    The bogus PTG Capital Partners offer to buy Avon is of significant concern. It should be investigated as an attack on the free market.

     

     

     

     

  • UFUNCLUB: Securities Division ‘Will Look Into The Extent Of A Colorado Connection’

    UFunClub logo
    As Thailand investigates UFunClub and UToken, U.S. regulators may be asking questions.

    UPDATED 10:52 A.M. EDT U.S.A. The Colorado Division of Securities said it “will look into the extent” of promotional ties the UFunClub “program” now under investigation in Thailand may have in the state.

    Whether other U.S. states would follow Colorado’s lead was not immediately clear. Earlier cross-border MLM/network-marketing schemes such as Profitable Sunrise and WCM777 met stiff resistance from state-level regulators.

    The dollar volume of UFunClub’s alleged fraud may be mushrooming. Early reports pegged it at about $307 million (U.S.). Citing Thailand police, the Bangkok Post yesterday reported the sum could rise to 38 billion baht, the equivalent of more than $1.17 billion (U.S.).

    If the number holds, UFunClub would rival in dollar volume the $1.8 billion TelexFree scheme shut down by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2014 and surpass the $897 million allegedly collected by the Zeek Rewards scheme before its 2012 shutdown by the SEC.

    Prior to Monday, the Colorado Division was unfamiliar with UFunClub, said Lillian Alves, Colorado’s Deputy Securities Commissioner.

    Some UFunClub promoters have claimed that Jamison Palmer, a purported UFunClub “VIP,” moved from Colorado to Asia to promote the “program” and a companion digital currency known as “UToken.”

    Palmer, according to posts attributed to him online, has claimed UToken is the “future” of digital currency. He further has claimed the United States is using the “dollar” and its “banking system” to “blackmail the rest of the world.”

    Palmer’s full name is Michael Jamison Palmer. He is associated with several Colorado businesses and has used a Colorado Area Code and  addresses in Centennial, Broomfield and Superior. He has not been accused of wrongdoing.

    These Palmer businesses include Max Response LLC, Red Spider Media LLC, Insider Secrets Club LLC, MasculineLife, a magazine for men, and Woman’sLife, a magazine for women.

    On April 19, the PP Blog reported that an individual who spoke on an April 14 conference call for a “program” known as SVM Global Initiative made a veiled reference to UFunClub during the SVM call. The person identified himself as “Nelson” and said he was calling from “Saskatchewan, Canada.”

    Before getting off the SVM line, “Nelson” described the United States as “the Republic of the United States of America.” It is a term associated with “sovereign citizens.”

    SVM operator Sheila V. Tabarsi has claimed she is under investigation by the FBI. She also has claimed the “Bush administration” had the aim of shutting out 99 percent of the world population from wealth flows.

    Tabarsi conducted another SVM call on April 20.

    During this call, she claimed to be a “professional intuitive” — a fancy name for a psychic.

    She also repeatedly dropped the name of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and also the name of Ruth Hassell-Thompson, a state Senator who represents the Bronx in New York.

    SVM may operate in part from the Bronx and Manhattan.

    During her business career, Tabarsi said, she became “one removed” from Kerry, and “John Kerry was helping with, you know, with whatever my needs were as I was in the process of developing this further . . . That’s Secretary of State John Kerry.”

    It is not unusual for MLMers/network-marketers to drop the names of famous people or members of the government as a means of creating a veneer of legitimacy for a scheme. (As just one example, Zeek Rewards clawback defendant T. LeMont Silver, in a 2014 promo for a Bitcoin-themed scheme known as BitClub Network,  dropped the names of California Gov. Jerry Brown, “China’s Central Bank Governor” and Gerogy Luntovsky, “deputy chairman of the bank of Russia.”)

    At one point, Tabarsi referred to Kerry as just plain “John,” almost as though she could pick up the phone and get him on the line with no trouble at all.

    Tabarsi further contended that she had the ability to read minds over the Internet, perhaps particularly the minds of SVM critics who’ve raised questions about the “program” on Blogs such as BehindMLM.com, which covers emerging MLM schemes.

    “I used my own abilities as an empath and a telepath to read their body and read their feelings and read their minds and hear what they’re really thinking behind what they’re saying,” she claimed.

  • In Conference Call For ‘SVM Global Initiative,’ Speaker Makes Veiled Reference To UFunClub Cross-Border Scheme Under Investigation In Thailand: Are North American ‘Sovereign Citizens’ At Work?

    ufunclubAre “sovereign citizens” immersed in the “SVM Global Initiative” and “UFunClub” cross-border, network-marketing schemes?

    “Sovereign citizens” may have an irrational belief that laws do not apply to them. It is not unusual for them to be involved in financial fraud, and some “sovereigns” have been linked to MLM HYIP frauds and securities offering frauds.

    Individuals who join such schemes may not understand they have signed on to enterprises engaging in international fraud and that a political agenda or even political extremism may be driving events.

    In a conference call Tuesday night for SVM, a man who identified himself as “Nelson” calling from “Saskatchewan, Canada” came on the line. He explained that he’d been with SVM “from the very beginning” and was involved in “world-shaking affairs, including the global currency reset.”

    Precisely what constituted the purported “reset” wasn’t explained, but the term has been associated with banking conspiracy theorists and “sovereign citizens.” AdSurfDaily Ponzi story figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming, for instance, allegedly claimed “the Rothschilds” were hiding in a “bunker in India” while controlling the central bank of Iraq, according to a 2011 complaint against Leaming that accused him of filing bogus liens against public officials and other crimes.

    The complaint was filed by a member of an FBI Terrorism Task Force operating in Washington state. Leaming, who’d been under federal surveillance, later was convicted on charges of filing false liens, harboring two federal fugitives wanted in a separate home-business caper in Arkansas and being a felon in possession of firearms.

    Banking conditions in Iraq were causing the Rothschilds to lose money, and the “inner circle” is “jumping ship,” Leaming allegedly told a colleague, “just like body odor’s inner circle in the White House.”

    “Body odor” was a veiled reference to President Obama. ASD was a “program” that claimed a daily payout rate of 1 percent. The $119 million scheme spread over the Internet, creating thousands of victims. ASD was broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008.

    A Troubling Narrative: Was A Rallying Cry Of ‘Sovereign Citizens’ Part Of It?

    On the call hosted by SVM’s Sheila V. Tabarsi, “Nelson” further ventured that he had “many connections in the international banking arena.

    “I have many connections in law; I have many connections in military — on and on and on,” he said.

    During his fawning over SVM, “Nelson” went on to make a veiled reference to UFunClub, now the subject of a major investigation in Thailand. This leads to questions about whether he is involved in two separate cross-border schemes and whether other SVM members also are pushing multiple schemes.

    “Nelson” said this before he got off the line (italics added):

    “And God Bless the Republic of the United States of America.”

    It is a term often associated with “sovereign citizens” and, in written form, may be abbreviated and stylized RuSA. The term is closely associated with James Timothy “Tim” Turner, who was sentenced to federal prison in 2013 for his role in a bizarre tax scam. (Also see Quatloos thread on RuSA.)

    BehindMLM.com’s Review Of SVM

    Here we’ll point you to BehindMLM.com’s April 13 review of SVM. We’ll note that the Tuesday SVM call more or less was an effort to slime the online publication, which reports on emerging MLM schemes.

    SVM appears to operate out of Greater New York City, perhaps from the Bronx and Manhattan — with an arm in Costa Rica.

    Prior to “Nelson” coming on the line, Tabarsi asserted BehindMLM.com was a “pawn” and a “coward” that works with an unidentified third party to “bring network-marketing companies down.”

    “To me, this is real Illuminati kind of stuff,” Tabarsi said. “Granted, the success of Sheila V and Associates and the SVM Global Initiative could do some devastating things to the network-marketing industry.”

    svmOther MLM schemes have trotted out the theme that dark forces — usually cast as competitors unhappy that downlines are leaving one “program” because another has found the Holy Grail — are controlling things behind the scenes or secretly. It is not unusual for political rhetoric, conspiracy theories or antigovernment sentiment to become part of the narrative, and this may be happening with SVM.

    Tabarsi, for example, said during Tuesday’s call that the “Bush administration” was involved in an “effort to dismantle this world economy” and that the effort has been “so concentrated” and “so diligent.”

    The aim, she contended, was to concentrate 99 percent of the world’s wealth in the hands of 1 percent of the people.

    “We are a threat to that,” she said. “The success of Sheila V and Associates and the SVM Global Initiative is a threat to this establishment that is trying so long and so hard to take everybody down.”

    Any number of MLM schemes have advanced forms of this narrative. The $1.8 billion TelexFree scheme broken up by the SEC last year was positioned as a “revolution” that would put wealth in the hands of ordinary people. Though much smaller in scale, the Achieve Community scheme broken up by the SEC earlier this year advanced a similar narrative.

    TelexFree and Achieve — like the Zeek Rewards scheme in 2012 — were operating combined Ponzi- and pyramid schemes, the SEC has alleged.

    SVM, through Tabarsi, has positioned itself a network-marketing enterprise with three arms. Working together, these three arms — Sheila V. and Associates LLC (New York), The Marketplace at SV&A LLC (Costa Rica) and SVM Redesign Your Life America  with an organ called “The Freedom Fund” — purportedly will elevate people out of poverty.

    On her website, Tabarsi says she is a “4th Generation Native Cherokee/African American Spiritual Life Coach, Universal Life Church Minister, Business and Medical Intuitive with 17 active years of practice performing Clair-empathic healings and various forms of intuitive readings.”

    She also notes she is a “corporate administrative manager,  former U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant and Veteran of the ’91 Gulf War” who established “SVM ReDesign Your Life America, a non-profit organization to convert abandoned military bases into places to end poverty and homelessness.”

    In a March conference call, she claimed she was under investigation by a U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI, among others. She denies she has done anything wrong.

    “The FBI is involved only because I have international clients, but not that there’s too much they can really act on,” she said during the call last month.

    Because SVM says it has a presence in the Bronx and Manhattan, the PP Blog on Wednesday contacted the office of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York for comment on SVM, UFunClub and “Nelson’s” line about the “Republic of the United States of America” during the Tuesday SVM call.

    The office has not responded to the request.

    NOTE: Also see the MLM Skeptic Blog: “Is a Scam Targeting Veterans ‘to end poverty’ citing a FAKE JAG lawyer?”