URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Gary A. Calhoun is the subject of a criminal probe linked to a civil-forfeiture action in federal court in the Northern District of Florida, according to court filings by his attorney.
Calhoun, 56, is the operator of the MPB Today MLM, which is tied to a grocery-delivery business in Pensacola known as Southeastern Delivery. In July, federal prosecutors filed a forfeiture action against a property at 8812 Grow Drive, also known as Grow Road, in Pensacola. The property is the business address of Southeastern Delivery and also the address of a Calhoun-controlled entity known as WL Property Holdings LLC.
The affidavit in the forfeiture case was filed under seal. But the forfeiture case, according to prosecution filings, was brought to enforce 18 USC § 1028 and 18 USC § 1029, statutes dealing with access-device fraud and fraud in connection with identification documents.
Calhoun was arrested last month in Florida on a state-level charge of racketeering. The existence of the federal documents may mean that Calhoun also has exposure under federal criminal law. The forfeiture complaint also cites the federal wire-fraud and conspiracy statutes.
Some promos for MPB Today in 2010 were targeted at federal Food Stamp recipients. The U.S. Department of Agriculture told the PP Blog in 2010 that it had opened a “review” into claims about the MPB Today “program.” The agency later described the matter as an investigation.
A news release apparently authored by an MPB Today affiliate in 2010 encouraged impoverished prospects to sell $200 worth of Food Stamps to a “friend, family member or whoever” to raise cash to join the the MPB Today program.
In September, Calhoun asked for the forfeiture case to be stayed because of a parallel criminal probe. A federal judge granted the request.
When prosecutors filed the July forfeiture action, they noted that “[t]he facts and circumstances supporting the seizure and forfeiture of the defendant property are contained in a sealed affidavit, so as not to publish the facts of an ongoing criminal investigation.”
On Sept. 24, Calhoun’s lawyer noted in a court filing that he “has confirmed that Mr. Calhoun is, at a minimum, a subject in the related criminal investigation.”
DEVELOPING STORY: The website of MPBToday — a Ponzi forum darling featuring a 2X2 matrix cycler in 2010 — has been inaccessible for at least 24 hours.
Fabled Ponzi huckster “Ken Russo” — later of Zeek Rewards — was among MPBToday’s promoters.
Although the MPBToday site returns this message — “Site temporarily unavailable. Connection timed out – please try again.” — it is returning a ping. MPBToday’s domain registration is not expired. The reason the site will not load is unclear.
MPBToday, operated by Gary Calhoun and tied to a home-delivery grocery business known as Southeastern Delivery in Pensacola, Fla., was the subject of controversy since its inception.
Some MLMers promoted the purported “opportunity” in bizarre fashion. In one promo, for example, President Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were depicted as Nazis — with First Lady Michelle Obama depicted as having experienced an embarrassing gas attack in the Oval Office after having sampled beans at a Sam’s Club store.
In another bizarre pitch, an MPB Today affiliate claimed there were scammers within the company’s ranks, a circumstance that made it important for prospects to enroll in an honest downline.
An investigation of MPBToday was said earlier this year to be under way. The website continued to appear online after vague reports of the probe surfaced. Now, however, the website is offline.
In 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it was conducting a review of MPBToday.
Questions also have been raised about whether MPBToday was conducting a pyramid or Ponzi scheme or both.
Members of the purported MPB Today “grocery” program now are touting company President Gary Calhoun as 2003’s “Businessman of the Year” in promotional news releases and articles online.
The company itself is doing the same thing on its website, explaining that Calhoun “was chosen as ‘Outstanding Young Men (sic) in America 1982’ . . . and in 2003 was selected as ‘Businessman of the Year’ by the National Republican Congressional Committee’s [NRCC] Business Advisory Council.”
None of the promos explains how one obtains either award. Regardless, the promos plant the seed that the awards are important.
Various references to the NRCC “Businessman of the Year” award appear online. The award is linked to Republican fund-raising, although it is unclear if all people who’ve claimed the award actually have contributed funds. It was not immediately clear if Calhoun donated money to NRCC in either his name or the name of a company to receive the award in 2003.
AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin, accused of operating a Ponzi scheme that gathered at least $110 million and making NRCC donations with Ponzi proceeds, claimed a similar award known as the “Medal of Distinction.” Like the “Businessman of the Year” award, the “Medal of Distinction” is doled out by NRCC.
The award can be obtained for writing a check for what amounts to the purchase of banquet tickets.
MPB Today claims that members who pay $200 to the MLM company one time can receive free groceries for life. Promoters have claimed that liars and thieves exist within MPB Today, but that prospects nevertheless should join the company.
At least one bank whose name has appeared in MPB Today promotions is operating under an FDIC consent agreement, according to federal records. MPB Today purports to have tens of thousands of members while enjoying an “unprecedented expansion.” Other promos show that MPB Today also has a relationship with a second bank.
Calhoun was the subject of a 2006 inquiry by the Food and Drug Administration, amid allegations he was selling a product that purported to treat multiple diseases, including “Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, axonal and other neuropathies, Down’s and other syndromes.”
The MPB Today program has been hawked on Internet boards associated with Ponzi schemes. The program has been targeted at senior citizens, foreclosure subjects, Food Stamp recipients, people of faith, college students and victims of the ASD Ponzi scheme.
Promoters of MPB Today have been linked to bizarre sales presentations, including one in which President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were depicted as Nazis. One script for an MPB Today promo suggested the Obamas aspired to eat dog food and table scraps left by the family pet and emerge from the ranks of welfare recipients.
“Hmm, I should prolly call my Food Stamp worker now that I’ve joined MPB,” the script read in part, depicting the First Family as welfare recipients. It also used the words “monkeys” and “Brown-noser” in the context of the Obama presidency.
Despite the claim that Calhoun was a top businessman, MPB Today has not issued a news release to distance itself from the bizarre promotion that pilloried the Obamas and Clinton, who was depicted as a drunken Nazi-In-Chief who received a left-handed salute from Obama and a greeting of “Heil Hitlary.”
Michelle Obama was depicted in the ad as having been knocked out by Clinton a short time after the First Lady experienced an embarrassing gas attack in the Oval Office after sampling beans at a Sam’s Club store.
MPB Today has not publicly disclaimed and disassociated itself from the ad, even though some members have insisted the firm is associated with Walmart and routinely have used Walmart’s intellectual property in sales promos. Hillary Clinton was the first woman to serve on Walmart’s board of directors.
The company removed an image of a Walmart store from its website in September. It also removed images of business tycoons Donald Trump and Warren Buffet. Regardless, MPB today promoters continue to use the images in sales promotions, giving rise to questions about whether the company has come into possession of money tainted by serial deceptions.
Agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission say it is not uncommon for fraudsters to use the names of famous people and entities when promoting scams. In September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it was investigating certain claims about the MPB Today program.
MPB Today now appears to refer to Walmart as a “national grocery retailer.”
Other promos from MPB Today have asked members to lay down their “pipe bombs” when contemplating doing business with Walmart. Still other promos have insisted that MPB Today is associated with the federal Food Stamp program.
MPB Today now references the Food Stamp program on its website — in the context of Calhoun emerging from the ranks of Food Stamp recipients after lean times passed.
“Gary has experienced his share of failures as well,” the site notes. “There’s a 2-picture frame on the wall in his office. In one of the picture openings, it states, ‘Remember Where God Brought You From” and in the other opening . . . his old Food Stamp card.
“And as many successful business people have stated, it was adversity and failure that caused them to rise,” the site notes. “Gary firmly believes this. ‘Losing it all then getting up and going again brings a resolve like nothing else.
“I really believe the success we are experiencing today is a direct result of the adversity I’ve been through[,]” Gary says.
The NRCC “Businessman of the Year” award and the “Medal of Distinction” have been linked to scandals and bids to create legitimacy by establishing purported ties to prominent politicians.
ASD members, for example, claimed that Bowdoin had received an important award for business achievement from the President of the United States. Meanwhile, Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, convicted of financing terror and fleecing participants in an investment scheme, also appears to have claimed to be a person whose counsel the Republican party valued.
Earlier this month, the CFTC charged Ryan A. Nassbridges with operating a precious-metals scheme. A website registered in the name of Nassbridge’s wife purports that he was the recipient of both the “Medal of Distinction” and the “Businessman of the Year” award.
Four egg-themed domain names used to drive business to HYIPs that ended in spectacular flameouts and foreshadowed a warning from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) have gone missing.
The domains — including one that redirected to an HYIP site known bizarrely as Cash Tanker, which used an image of Jesus Christ to promote a purported payout of 2 percent a day — first were promoted on the pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum by a poster who used the handle “joe” in December 2009.
The egg-themed promo featured a pitch that HYIP participants were wise to spread risk by not keeping all of their eggs in “ONE BASKET.” It also hawked Gold Nugget Invest (7.5 percent a week); Saza Investments (9 percent a week); and Genius Funds (6.5 percent a week).
Despite an active criminal investigation into the business practices of ASD President Andy Bowdoin and alleged co-conspirators — and despite a RICO lawsuit filed by members against Bowdoin and repeated warnings from various regulators about the dangers of HYIPs and autosurfs — the egg-themed promo claimed in all-caps that “I MAKE 2000.00 A WEEK” and directly solicited ASD members to part with their money.
One Surf’s Up member dissed critics of the promo, calling them “dead wrong.”
“I also make a lot of money from those four and your remarks tell me you don’t know anything about them,” the member claimed. “[T]hey are very reputable [companies] who have been around for years….and the money is NOT made from ‘new’ people’s money….google them and look at various forums and see what others have to say about them….I don’t even know Joe, but I can vouch for the programs!”
A series of spectacular collapses that consumed each of the HYIPs then followed over a period of just weeks, demonstrating that spreading risk across multiple HYIPs by putting eggs in multiple HYIP baskets was spectacularly poor advice that had produced a recipe for financial disaster.
In July, FINRA said that Genius Funds cost investors about $400 million. The regulator launched a public-awareness campaign, one component of which was an ad campaign on Google designed to educate and inform the public about HYIP fraud.
“Open the cyber door to HYIPs, and you will find hundreds of HYIP websites vying for investor attention,” FINRA said. “It is a bizarre substratum of the Internet.”
Records show that the government of Belize had issued a warning about Gold Nugget Invest nearly a month before the egg-themed promo had appeared on Surf’s Up and at least two members had vouched for the program.
FINRA also pointed to criminal charges filed by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in May against Nicholas Smirnow, the alleged operator of an HYIP Ponzi scheme known as Pathway To Prosperity that fleeced more than 40,000 people across the globe out of an estimated $70 million.
Using baffling prose, a purported GNI manager claimed the program ended after it had attempted to gain “a crystal clear vision of our financial vortex” during the fourth quarter of 2009.
After the collapse of the programs in the original egg-themed pitch on Surf’s Up, the domains then were set to redirect to other HYIPs.
Some ASD members later turned their attention to promoting MLM programs such as Narc That Car/Crowd Sourcing International (CSI), Data Network Affiliates (DNA) and MPB Today. CSI and DNA purport to be in the business of paying people to write down the license-plate numbers of cars for entry in a database. MPB Today purports to be in the grocery business.
DNA, which once instructed people of faith that it was their “MORAL OBLIGATION” to hawk a purported mortgage-reduction program offered alongside the purported license-plate program, now appears to have morphed into a program known as One World One Website or “O-WOW.”
An email received by members of the O-WOW program this weekend purported that a man suffering from terminal thyroid cancer had derived benefit from an O-WOW product known as “TurboMune” and that members somehow can earn “24% Annual Interest on their money” by giving it to O-WOW.
If members don’t pay O-WOW before Nov. 30, they’ll earn a lower rate of interest (18 percent), according to an email received by members.
Like DNA, O-WOW is associated with Phil Piccolo. During a radio program in August, Piccolo threatened critics with lawsuits and planted the seed that he could cause critics to experience physical pain. DNA has an “F” rating from the Better Business Bureau. So does CSI. So does United Pro Media, a company formerly operated by MPB Today’s Gary Calhoun.
This video promo from June 2009 hawks "My Premier Biz," a site now associated with the MPB Today "grocery" program. My Premier Biz was pitched on Ponzi forums more than a year before promos for MPB Today began to appear on the Ponzi forums. MyPremierBiz was a purported opportunity for distributors to pay up to $3,456 to have wellness products associated with MPB Today operator Gary Calhoun placed in retail stores.
A website known as MyPremierBiz.com was hyped on Ponzi boards last year and videos were produced to drive traffic to a confusing “opportunity” that included both a straight-line and a 2×2 matrix cycler and a hard-to-decipher sales and compensation program.
Affiliate links were created for the program, which was purported on the MoneyMakerGroup forum to gather between $312 and $3,456 from distributors to place “Pro Packs” — cases of wellness products — in retail stores. The more a prospect sent in to acquire purported retail space for “Pro Packs,” the more he or she purportedly would earn. As of yesterday, some of the links redirected to the website of the purported MPB Today “grocery” program, research shows.
The product line-up for the MyPremierBiz opportunity is associated with products offered by Gary Calhoun of MPB Today. One promoter on a Ponzi board claimed MyPremierBiz had lined up “outlets” that are “independent nutrition and health food stores, specialty wellness shops, holistic or independent pharmacies, spas, salons, etc.
“We have a certain number right now, but NOT ENOUGH members to cover the sales! Talk about a GROUND-FLOOR OPPORTUNITY!” the affiliate exclaimed. “As this gets rolling, you will be a part of a small, elite nucleus of people who will have THOUSANDS of STORES in your downline within 12-36 months!”
Incongruously, a video on YouTube displayed photos of several retail outlets, but included a disclaimer in tiny type that “Stores shown are for example only and are not affiliated with our company.”
The root of the domain — MyPremierBiz.com — displayed this message this morning: “MPB Today is off-line for site maintenance.” However, other URLs at the site served pages, including a page that included a link for the MPB Today “grocery” program. The fate of the “Pro Packs” offer first advertised last year was not immediately clear.
The development strongly suggests that MPB Today, which itself is being promoted on the Ponzi boards, had a predecessor site more than a year ago that also was pitched from the Ponzi boards. Receipt of any revenue from Ponzi schemes or criminal business opportunities is potentially catastrophic for MPB Today because the company could be paying members with proceeds from other online schemes.
Separately, MPB Today Inc. has canceled its Florida incorporation, according to documents on file in the state. The company now is known simply as “MPB Today” — without the “Inc.” designation — according to a filing dated Sept. 24. MPB Today is operating as a fictitious entity owned by Le330 Inc., another entity associated with MPB Today operator Gary Calhoun.
Whether MPB Today Inc. actually ever was incorporated in Florida is unclear. A filing by the firm in July suggests the fictitious entity assigned itself a corporate designation under Le330’s designation. Checks recently received by MPB Today members no longer have the “Inc.” designation. Earlier images of checks posted online by affiliates included the “Inc.” designation. New checks simply list “Mpb Today” as the account-holder.
Like promos for MPB Today, promos for MyPremierBiz were filled with hype and began with a proposition.
In March 2009, a poster at MoneyMakerGroup wrote, “Would you spend $312, ONE-TIME ONLY, to EARN at least $360 in PROFIT, from Retail Store sales, year after year?”
MPB Today uses a similar pitch to plant that seed that a $200, “one-time” purchase can lead to free groceries for life.
MyPremierBiz was positioned last year as “a new division of a six-year-old company that is turning heads both on and off the internet,” according to a promoter writing on the MoneyMakerGroup forum. MoneyMakerGroup is referenced in court filings in the Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) case, amid allegations that P2P was an international Ponzi scheme that fleeced more than 40,000 participants across the globe.
Writing about MyPremierBiz on MoneyMakerGroup in June 2009, a promoter said that “I am the #2 person in the company. I’m building the TOP Team and I want you to have the same success. Together, I KNOW we can do it!
“We have SO MANY ways you can get paid and I am going to get you off to an INCREDIBLE START with my MPB Team Build,” the promoter continued. “Here’s what I will do for you. I’ll put two people under you and that will get you off to a ROCKET START! If you join MPB, you will pay $11.50 for the annual website fee, plus $20 for your first monthly order, plus a little shipping for that order, and you can also purchase your way right into our 2 x 2 matrix for only $50 (just one part of our comp plan, but a VERY exciting and rewarding part). So your total expense, to get started is only $89. And you will now be part of several PASSIVE RESIDUAL Compensation Components, and you will be earning a check the very NEXT week!”
One of the Ponzi-forum references to MyPremierBiz included a tie-in to a program known as “Froggy Apps,” which purported to be a downloads service.
“FROGGY APPS are HERE!” a pitchman roared on the MoneyMakerGroup forum on July 9, 2009. “APPS are just getting started. People are downloading them at an ASTOUNDING rate, and iPhones, and other ‘Smart Phones’ are selling at a PHENOMENAL CLIP!”
Links to the MyPremierBiz promos placed in the MoneyMakerGroup forum during the summer of 2009 redirect to the current MPB Today grocery program. So do links to the FroggyApps program.
All three websites — MyPremierBiz.com, MPBToday.com and FroggyApps.com — are registered behind proxies. When the PP Blog visited the FroggyApps site, it was redirected to the MPB Today site.
Not all affiliate links formed under the MyPremierBiz domain, however, appear to resolve to an MPB Today affiliate site. The PP Blog clicked on an old MyPremierBiz affiliate link yesterday, and was sent to a page that said, “The page or associate name was not found on this server. Please click the link below to continue.”
This pitch for MPB Today positions it as the Walmart Freedom Club. The pitch misspells the word "prosper" as "prospour." The website registration is hidden behind a proxy, and uses Walmart's name in the domain name. It is unclear if Walmart authorized the domain name or the use of its intellectual property in the MPB Today promo.
Yet-another domain linked to the purported MPB Today “grocery” program is using Walmart’s name in its domain name. The domain name is registered behind a proxy and uses images of Warren Buffet, Donald Trump and Sam Walton to position the opportunity as a “Freedom Club.”
Sam Walton is the late founder of Walmart. It is unclear if the owners of the website have Walmart’s permission to use its name and the likeness of Sam Walton in a pitch for the MPB Today program. Also unclear is whether the website owners have the permission of Trump and Buffet to use their images in promos for MPB Today.
Separately, yet another pitch for MPB Today features a narrator who notes that food is necessary to stay “alive” and laments, “I wish we could sell air too.” The “air” video is on a restricted YouTube site maked as “unlisted.” An unlisted video “means that only people who know the link to the video can view it (such as friends or family to whom you send the link,” according to YouTube.
MPB Today is a multilevel-marketing (MLM) program based in Pensacola, Fla. The “opportunity” is tied to a grocery business in Pensacola known as Southeastern Delivery. Both companies are linked to Gary Calhoun, who has a poor track record with the Better Business Bureau and was the recipient of a warning letter from the Food and Drug Administration for his marketing of a product that purported to be a treatment for Lou Gehrig’s disease, Herpes and Alzheimer’s, among others.
The new domain that uses Walmart’s name is at least the third linked to the MPB Today program — and the second to position MPB Today as a “club” tied to Walmart. The domain was registered Sept. 9, after MPB Today itself removed images of Walmart, Buffet and Trump from the homepage of its website.
Other MPB Today-linked websites branded with Walmart’s name imply the retail giant offers free groceries or that Walmart is partnered with MPB Today.
Meanwhile, still-other websites linked to the MPB Today program position it as a “Grocery Assistance” program and a program linked to the Food Stamp program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. MPB Today also is being pitched from known Ponzi and criminals’ forums such as ASA Monitor, TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.
On Wednesday, the SEC filed an emergency action in federal court in Utah to stop a program known as Imperia Invest IBC dead in its tracks, amid allegations it had fleeced millions of dollars from thousands of Americans with hearing impairments. Like MPB Today, Imperia was promoted on the Ponzi forums.
Among the allegations in the Imperia case were that the operators were using trademarks and the intellectual property of a major company — Visa Inc. — without the company’s authorization. All in all, more than 14,000 Imperia investors were fleeced, the SEC said.
In this separate promo for MPB Today, a narrator notes that food is necessary to stay "alive" and laments that he wishes members also could sell "air" through the MPB Today MLM program.
“They helped form a series of sham business entities and then promoted fraudulent debt elimination tactics intended for the sole purpose of concealing income from the IRS.” — Victor S. O. Song, chief, IRS Criminal Investigation
As the U.S. Department of Agriculture was conducting a “review” of claims made by affiliates of a purported “grocery” business in Pensacola, Fla., that dispenses “gift cards” to winners in a 2×2 matrix cycler, a federal judge in Pensacola was handing out prison sentences to defendants convicted in a tax-fraud and debt-elimination scheme.
All in all, nine promoters were implicated in the Pinnacle Quest International (PQI) case. Four were sentenced to prison in July. Two others will be sentenced in October, and three were sentenced yesterday for their roles in an elaborate fraud in which PQI served as an “umbrella organization for numerous vendors of tax and credit card debt elimination scams,” federal prosecutors said.
Eugene Casternovia received 7 years in prison. Arthur Merino, meanwhile, was sentenced to 40 months. Mark Lyon, the third defendant sentenced yesterday, cooperated with prosecutors and received a sentence of 18 months.
Among the PQI vendors was the Southern Oregon Resource Center for Education (SORCE), which “sold bogus theories and strategies for tax evasion,” prosecutors said.
“For fees starting at $10,000, SORCE assisted its customers in the creation of a series of sham business entities in the United States and Panama,” prosecutors said. “Other tax-related PQI vendors denied the legitimacy of the income tax system on various theories and provided customers with a ‘reliance defense’ that consisted of a paper trail of frivolous correspondence which a client could allegedly use as evidence of good faith if the client were prosecuted.”
Financial Solutions, another PQI vendor, sold “fraudulent schemes for eliminating credit card debt,” prosecutors said.
“Financial Solutions charged its customers thousands of dollars for a series of letters to send to credit card companies disputing the lawfulness of the underlying debt,” prosecutors said. “The product was wholly ineffective, and customers typically were sued by their creditors and often forced into bankruptcy.”
At the same time, yet-another PQI vendor known as MYICIS “operated as a sophisticated, computerized ‘warehouse bank,’” prosecutors said.
“MYICIS was a single bank account in which customers pooled their money,” prosecutors said. “MYICIS was promoted to PQI’s clients as a method to hide their assets from the IRS as a result of the pooled nature of the account. MYICIS had 3,000 clients and approximately $100 million in deposits over a three year period.”
A veteran IRS agent declared the business entities tied to the PQI case a “sham.”
“These defendants are now being held accountable for their criminal behavior,†said Victor S. O. Song, chief, IRS Criminal Investigation. “They helped form a series of sham business entities and then promoted fraudulent debt elimination tactics intended for the sole purpose of concealing income from the IRS. Their tactics were fraudulent. There is no secret formula that can eliminate an individual’s tax obligation.â€
In July, Arnold Ray Manansala was sentenced to 12 years in prison; Dover Eugene Perry, meanwhile, was sentenced to 10 years. Michael Guy Leonard was sentenced to nine years and one month, and Mark Daniel Leitner was sentenced to five years.
The trial in Pensacola took up a full month. Wayne Hicks, the operator of My Icis Inc., already was serving a five-year prison sentence.
FBI Director Robert Mueller has warned Congress at least twice this year about a “shadow” banking system that is a threat to U.S. national security.
In November, President Obama formed the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to attack the problem with white-collar and other forms of fraud. It is billed the “broadest coalition of law enforcement, investigatory and regulatory agencies ever assembled to combat fraud.”
MYICIS was a topic of discussion on known Ponzi scheme and fraud forums such as TalkGold. In May, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service referenced the forums in filings in a criminal case against an alleged Ponzi scheme known as Pathway To Prosperity.
In recent months, a Pensacola business known as MPB Today (My Premier Business Today) has been operating an MLM program that purports to sell “groceries.” The program has been advertised on TalkGold, and other known Ponzi forums.
One MPB Today affiliate attempted to sell the program by creating a video animation and depicting President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as Nazis. Clinton was called “Hitlary” in the promo.
Others have attempted to sell the MPB Today business “opportunity” by linking it to the federal Food Stamp program administered by the Department of Agriculture. The USDA announced earlier this month that it was conducting a “review” of affiliate claims.
This video promo for Pensacola-based MPB Today is targeted at Food Stamp recipients.
Still other MPB Today affiliates have focused on recruiting prospects by telling them they’d receive “gift cards” from Walmart. At least one promo on YouTube shows an envelope inside an envelope that had been mailed through the U.S. Postal Service.
Such an approach is consistent with the practices of “cash-gifters” — people who use the mails to promote chain-letter pyramid and tax schemes. The inside envelope in the YouTube video showed that at least one MPB Today affiliate had been paid with a prepaid Visa card purchased at Walmart. The envelope also contained a Walmart gift card.
In the YouTube video, the MPB Today affiliate appeared to be surprised about what he’d just received in the mail.
One promo after another for MPB Today has emphasized the gift cards. Still other affiliates have produced videos that show checks drawn on an FDIC-insured bank in Pensacola that has been operating since January under a consent agreement with the FDIC.
Florida has been plagued by mortgage foreclosures. MPB Today is targeting foreclosure subjects in a video pitch, as are many affiliates. Affiliates also have targeted the unemployed, senior citizens, people of faith and members of the alleged AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme.
ASD also was based in Florida. The company is known to have attracted affiliates who participated in tax, debt-elimination and cash-gifting schemes. At least one ASD affiliate has been linked to a group that sought to imprison federal judges and litigation opponents in debt cases. Another affiliate filed papers in federal court that purported to show that a bank could be defeated in a foreclosure case by filing a bond consisting of $21 in “silver coinage.”
At least one MPB Today promoter positioned the grocery company as an opportunity for religious members of ASD to make up losses in the failed autosurf. The U.S. Secret Service has seized tens of millions of dollars from bank accounts linked to ASD.
Florida records show that MPB and its associated grocery company — Southeastern Delivery — have operated by at least five names since 2006. MPB Today operator Gary Calhoun was ordered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to stop violating federal law in promotions for a product marketed as a treatment for Lou Gehrig’s disease, among others.
ASD President Andy Bowdoin also operated numerous companies in Florida. according to records.
This promo for MPB Today claims affiliates become "partners" with Walmart and that business owners are "Granted FREE Groceries" for referring business to the MLM program. The promo appeared last night on a site that is heavily advertising the program — even after Walmart's name had gone missing from the landing page on MPB Today's website.
UPDATED 10:42 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Using the soundtrack from the legendary rock band Heart’s 1985 hit single “What about love,” an affiliate of MPB Today is claiming on YouTube that the company’s members become “partners” with Walmart and that MPB’s multilevel-marketing (MLM) program is “Guaranteed” not to be a scam.
Heart could not be contacted immediately to determine if the MPB affiliate was authorized to use the song, which features the voice of Ann Wilson, in a sales promotion for an MLM program tied to a Florida-based grocery company known as Southeastern Delivery.
Walmart has not responded to a request last week from the PP Blog that asked the company to comment on legal and regulatory issues surrounding the use of its name in promotions for MPB Today. The Blog specifically asked Walmart if it knew that MPB Today was using the company name in sales pitches and that at least one affiliate had claimed that Walmart gift cards distributed by MPB to its purported customers could be converted to Walmart prepaid Visa cards, which can be used the same as cash.
The Blog also asked Walmart if it was affiliated with MPB Today and whether it approved of the use of its brand in the MPB Today MLM program.
On Tuesday, the MPB Today website removed images of a Walmart store and business titans Donald Trump and Warren Buffet. It was unclear if Walmart, Trump and Buffet had forced the removal.
Even after MPB Today removed the images, an affiliate promo appeared online last night that claimed MPB Today members were “partners” with Walmart. Ads for MPB Today have targeted Food Stamp recipients, senior citizens, Ponzi scheme victims, foreclosure subjects, people of faith and members of the public who are unhappy with the administration of President Barack Obama.
One animated ad for MPB Today depicted First Lady Michelle Obama as having experienced a gas attack after sampling “beans” at Sam’s Club. Sam’s Club operates under the Walmart flag.
This animated pitch for MPB Today depicts First Lady Michelle Obama as having an embarrassing gas attack in the Oval Office after sampling "beans" at a Sam's Club. In the promo, Michelle Obama later gets knocked out by a drunken Hillary Clinton, who is portrayed as a Nazi. President Obama gives Clinton a left-handed Nazi salute in the promo.
The ad, which portrayed President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as Nazis, potentially could alienate customers regardless of their political views. Why an affiliate would imply in an ad that MPB Today prefers Obama opponents as customers is unclear. Such a caustic ad potentially could injure multiple brands because MPB affiliates have claimed Walmart is affiliated with the firm and the name of Sam’s Club appears in the anti-Obama promo.
MPB Today operator Gary Calhoun has a poor record with the Better Business Bureau for his operation of a previous company, United Pro Media. The company’s predecessor firm, Trim International, was ordered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to stop violating federal law in its marketing of a product positioned as a treatment for Lou Gehrig’s Disease, cancer and other severe medical conditions.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said last week that it was conducting a review into claims made about MPB Today. The agency said yesterday that its review was ongoing.
MPB Today is being marketed on social-media sites. It also is being marketed on at least three forums that are infamous for promoting Ponzi schemes.
This MPB Today pitch claims a $200, "ONE-TIME" grocery purchase from Southeastern Delivery can "TOTALLY ELIMINATE" future grocery bills.
Gary Calhoun, the operator of a multilevel-marketing (MLM) program that is targeting Food Stamp recipients, Ponzi scheme victims, foreclosure subjects and people of faith, received a warning letter in 2006 from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for his marketing of a product that claimed to treat multiple diseases, according to federal records.
Calhoun, who now operates an MLM program known as MPB Today and a grocery business tied to the program, was ordered by the FDA to stop violating provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The grocery business is known as Southeastern Delivery LLC.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said it was opening a “review” of claims made in the MPB Today program and the associated grocery business.
The FDA’s letter pertained to a Calhoun-operated business known as Trim International and a now-defunct website known as MyTrim.com. Calhoun also operated a business known as United Pro Media LLC, which became a subject of complaints to the Better Business Bureau and was given an “F” rating, the BBB’s lowest rating on a 14-step scale.
In 2006, according to the FDA, Calhoun was marketing a product known as “TCR Cell Rejuvenator.” The agency said the product was positioned as a treatment for “Neurodegenerative diseases: Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, axonal and other neuropathies, Down’s and other syndromes.”
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) commonly is referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, in recognition of the famed New York Yankees’ first baseman, the subject of the tear-jerking 1942 movie “The Pride of the Yankees,” which starred Gary Cooper. Gehrig died in 1941.
TCR Cell Rejuvenator also was positioned as a treatment for “recurrent Herpes, common cold and flu,” amid MyTrim claims it could be used “to treat patients with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer and other infectious diseases and neurological disorders,” according to the FDA.
Meta tags on the site also referenced “prostate cancer,” the FDA said.
Calhoun was ordered by the FDA to notify it “in writing within 15 working days of receipt of this letter about the steps that you have taken to correct” violations. The company eventually went out of business.
“[T] he introduction or delivery of a new drug into interstate commerce without an FDA-approved application is a prohibited act,” the FDA advised Calhoun. “No such applications exist for this product.
“Furthermore, many of the diseases or conditions for which this product is offered are not amenable to self-diagnosis and treatment by individuals who are not medical practitioners,” the FDA said. “Therefore, adequate directions for use for these conditions cannot be written so that a layman can use this drug safely for its intended purposes.”
The agency said Calhoun had misbranded the product because the “product’s labeling fails to bear adequate directions for its intended uses for those diseases or conditions which are not amenable to self-diagnosis and treatment.”
MPB affiliates claim a single grocery purchase of $200 through Southeastern Delivery can result in free groceries for life.
EDITOR’S NOTE:UPDATED 3:12 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Florida-based MPBToday is one of the programs pitched on Ponzi boards such as ASAMonitor, MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold. It also is being pitched via email and on social-media sites such as YouTube. All three of the forums are referenced in court filings — including filings in criminal cases — as places from which Ponzi schemes are promoted. Pathway to Prosperity, just one of the schemes promoted on the forums, was alleged in May to have defrauded more than 40,000 people across the globe while gathering more than $70 million.
MPBToday is a multilevel-marketing company tied to a Pensacola grocery company known as Southeastern Delivery LLC. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Friday that it was conducting a “review” of affiliate claims. Precisely what claims USDA will review is unclear.
Some affiliates are encouraging recipients of Food Stamps to join the program, which claims a $200, one-time expense can led to free groceries for life. Other affiliates have targeted victims of the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme in sales pitches. Still others are using religion to sell the program. The program uses the word “foreclosure” in its sales pitch. Florida has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the United States. More than 9,000 people showed up at the Palm Beach County Convention Center late last month to seek foreclosure relief.
One potential area of inquiry is whether Food Stamp recipients somehow can use their allotment to qualify for MPB Today’s MLM program. Another potential area of inquiry is whether Food Stamp money somehow is being used to pay MLM commissions. Because MPB Today says Southeastern Delivery assesses a shipping charge of up to 50 percent for the home delivery of groceries — and because affiliates purport that food “vouchers” and food “credits” can be acquired, perhaps in the form of a Walmart gift card MPB Today sends in the mail — another potential area of inquiry is whether Food Stamp money somehow can be converted to pay for items such as electronics and prepaid Visa cards. One MPB Today affiliate said the firm’s high shipping costs were a reason for Southeastern Delivery’s Food Stamp customers to join the MLM program.
Claims have been made that the MLM program is “certified” by the government, “acknowledged” by the government and that Walmart is affiliated with MPB Today. Walmart has not responded to a request for comment from the PP Blog.
Here are some photos of promotions for MPB Today from around the web. (Red highlighting added by PP Blog):
In this YouTube video and text pitch, a claim punctuated with exclamation marks is made that the program is "Govt. certified with Food Stamps!" and that there is a "contract with wal mart!" The word "scam" appears multiple times in the pitch — in an apparent bid to drive traffic to the site from prospects seeking to determine if there is any scam-related information on MPB Today. MPB Today positioned on YouTube as a good opportunity for people of faith. The words "Christian" and "scam" are used to drive traffic to the site.In a money-waving Blog post, an MPB Today affiliate with a California address shows a check for $300 and a Walmart card. In this video for MPB Today on DailyMotion, visitors are encouraged to visit a .org affiliate site for the company, even though MPB Today is not a charity. The video claims members can purchase "electronics," even though MPB Today says it is in the grocery business and affiliates are targeting Food Stamp recipients in sales pitches.MPB Today affiliates display check and Walmart card on YouTube after videotaping check-opening ceremony. The program is described as a "NO BRAINER."This document on file in Florida shows that Southeastern Delivery LLC, the grocery arm of the MPB Today MLM program, once was known as William Lindsay Properties LLC. The name change occurred in January 2010. Gary Calhoun, the operator of MPB Today, is associated with both firms, according to records. On Aug. 25, the PP Blog received an unsolicited sales pitch for MPB Today via an email to the Blog's support address. Among the claims in the pitch, which did not include an unsubscribe link, was that "Walmart is thrilled" with the results of MPB Today. The pitch was targeted at members of AdSurfDaily, a company the PP Blog regularly covers because ASD is implicated by the U.S. Secret Service in an alleged Ponzi scheme involving tens of millions of dollars. A similar pitch was sent to another website that covers AdSurfDaily-related news. The names of Walmart and Sam's Club referenced by "Ken Russo" at the ASAMonitor forum, which is notorious for promoting Ponzi schemes. In this video, a check and Walmart card are displayed. Unlike other checks written in Southeastern Delivery's name, this check was written in the name of MPB Today Inc. The video, which captured a check-opening ceremony, shows a Walmart "In Store Credit" cardIn this video, an MPB Today affiliate gives a sales pitch while driving an automobile. A check and Walmart card were presented when the vehicle stopped at a highway intersection.The pitch claims a "ONE-TIME" expenditure of $200 can "TOTALLY ELIMINATE" grocery bills.
