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Tag: Just Been Paid conference calls

  • DEVELOPING STORY: JSS/JBP’s Frederick Mann Tells Americans, Canadians That Company Is Paying Them With Money From ‘New Members’ And That Firm’s Theoretical Income Streams May Be Insufficient To ‘Pay The 2 Percent’

    “Where does JustBeenPaid get the money to pay that kind of interest?” — Caller “Michael” from “San Francisco” in March 15 JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid conference call

    “Well, first of all, JBP or JSS Tripler is a revenue-sharing program, so that means some of the money comes from new members buying positions. Then, we are in the process of developing additional income streams, so that’s relevant. And eventually the additional income streams may be sufficient to pay the 2 percent — maybe not.” — Response by Frederick Mann, purported JBP/JSS operator, to “Michael’s” question, March 15, 2012

    Frederick Mann

    UPDATED 7:26 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) In yet-another bizarre conference call for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, the “program’s” purported operator told listeners from the United States and Canada (and possibly from Jamaica) that JSS/JBP is paying them with money sent in by “new members.”

    Using “new” money to pay “old” members is the central element of a Ponzi scheme — although Frederick Mann did not use the phrase. Still, it was the white elephant in the conference room, and Mann’s explanations during the March 15 call became increasingly complex, vague and incongruous.

    Mann, for instance, declined to say where the program was operating from, repeating his practice of nondisclosure from previous calls.

    What’s important, he explained, “is that our programs are not U.S.-based. We don’t have any offices in the U.S. Our servers are not in the U.S.”

    The explanation caused a chuckling U.S. caller to quip, “Yeah. I agree. Somewhere out in the galaxy.”

    “Yes,” Mann replied to the caller’s “galaxy” remark. The caller earlier had described himself during the March 15 call as a “financial planner” for 22 years. In a previous call, the caller said he was in “California” and had family in Iowa.

    And Mann advised listeners that it was OK to call JSS/JBP an investment program when they were recruiting new members — guidance that seemed to catch even the conference-call host off-guard.

    “And I know that, in the [separate conference] room, we do try to say ‘purchase’ and ‘repurchase’ as opposed to ‘invest’ and ‘reinvest,’” the female host said.

    It is common for HYIP scams and their purveyors to seek to avoid the language of investments when promoting “programs” — on the errant belief that avoiding such language insulates them from prosecution.

    The female host did not say why the other room was giving one set of instructions and Mann another. Regardless, internal inconsistencies are one of the hallmarks of HYIP scams, and it is well-known that wordplay designed to disguise securities fraud cannot insulate purveyors from prosecution — rather like a robber who uses a gun to snatch the purse of an 80-year-old woman cannot avoid prosecution by calling the robbery an innocent exercise in arranging a loan and insisting that the gun was a harmless piece of metal that just happened to be at the scene.

    Mann, whose name appears in 2008 materials identifying him as a promoter of the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme,  said nothing about whether JSS/JBP had any securities registrations or whether promoters of the “program” were risking a legal calamity by recruiting downlines into a scheme that does not identify itself with a nation-state and whose payout corresponds to a preposterous annualized return of 730 percent .

    The bank accounts of some individual ASD promoters were seized by the U.S. Secret Service in the ASD Ponzi case, according to court filings. JSS/JBP purports to pay a daily return double that of ASD.

    Income Streams Are Theoretical; ‘Free’ Members Dominate JSS/JBP

    The most troubling explanation — among any number of troubling explanations during the 1:11 call — was Mann’s assertion in response to a question from “Michael” of “San Francisco” about where JSS/JBP gets the money to pay a return of 2 percent a day. (The exchange is noted in the breakout quotes at the top of this story.)

    Conceding that the company uses money from “new members” who buy “positions” to make the payouts, Mann simultaneously acknowledged that the “program” was “in the process” of developing new income streams and that those still-theoretical streams may be insufficient to sustain the scheme.

    But the company’s “restart” feature, Mann suggested, was enough to defeat any concerns that the firm’s liabilities exceeded its assets.

    “The 2 percent that the company pays is effectively a liability to the company,” Mann said. “But what the ‘restart’ makes possible is to convert some or even all of these liabilities into assets in the form of JSS positions.”

    Even so, members needed “to bring in new members with new money,” Mann said. He later asserted that only “about 25 percent” of new registrants “put in money.”

    “Maybe 75 percent of people do nothing,” Mann said, a problematic response because the program advertises that it provides registrants a $10 credit (described during the March 15 call as a loan) for joining and pays them interest of 20 cents a day until they realize a profit of $5 after 75 days.

    When JSS/JBP debits a member’s account to recapture the purported loan, which apparently is made at an interest rate of zero percent, the company still is on the hook for the $5 due the new subscriber.

    Speaking with a South African accent but using an American baseball metaphor, Mann said the lion’s share of JSS/JBP new members (about 75 percent) do nothing after enrolling

    If the JSS/JBP program were baseball, Mann suggested, “The pitcher would pitch the ball, and they would watch it go by, they would just stand there.”

    If Mann’s assertions are true, it means that only 25 percent of JSS/JBP’s members are propping up 100 percent of the enterprise, including the purported $5 profit due new registrants in 75 days and much larger payments due other members. Even if JSS/JBP enforces a cash-out minimum higher than $5 to prevent a flood a small redemptions, such a device leads to questions about whether the purported $10 credit is just a smaller scam within a larger scam that permits accrued liabilities to be ignored.

    Much remains mysterious about JSS/JBP’s purported restarts and its in-house accounting methods. Other HYIPs have used similar devices to duck the Ponzi issue. But with its “restart” explanation, JSS/JBP may be inviting questions about whether is has introduced Enron-like accounting tricks into the morass.

    Enron’s 2001 collapse revealed one of the greatest financial scandals in U.S. history. It destroyed not only the company, but also the Arthur Andersen accounting firm. (See “Enron scandal” Wikipedia entry.)

    Is JSS/JBP a miniature Enron-in-waiting?

    Among the callers who asked questions during the call was a JSS/JBP member who described himself as “Earl,”  a 79-year-old man interested in leaving money for his daughter.

    Also on the line was a man who suggested he hailed from Jamaica and wanted to start a JSS/JBP account for a “nonprofit, for a school that I have, that I attended in Jamaica.”

    Other callers identified themselves as residents of the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta and the U.S. states of California, South Dakota, Texas, Georgia, Missouri and Louisiana.

    One caller asked Mann why electronic payments from JSS/JBP came from “Michael” at a BigBooster.com email address, not an email address associated with the JSS/JBP domains.

    “Michael is a business partner, and he handles some of the finances,” Mann said. He did not identify “Michael” by a last name.

    Mann also advised callers that JSS/JBP had two representatives in Italy, but did not speak to the JSS/JBP-related probe involving the program’s affiliates announced by the Italian securities regular CONSOB in January.

    One caller informed Mann that his downline recruits has put in “substantial” sums. Another complained that his account had been debited weeks in advance of the anticipated debit. Another complained that the website was unattractive to potential recruits and looked like a scam. Yet another fretted that the site appeared to lack a secure connection (https). Still another complained that his “matrices” did not appear to be cycling properly.

    HYIPs are infamous for creating one set of expectations and then changing the rules at midstream. They’re also infamous for their convoluted explanations and fuzzy — if not downright impossible — math.

    Like ASD’s Andy Bowdoin — now under indictment amid charges that he orchestrated an international Ponzi scheme that had gathered at least $110 million — Mann has been accorded the description of “genius” in promotions for the program.

     

  • SPECIAL REPORT: Hollow Claim: Caller Brings Up AdSurfDaily Ponzi Prosecution In JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid Conference Call; Frederick Mann Tells Affiliates Operating In United States That ‘We Don’t Have An Office In The U.S.’

    “[F]raudulent commercial schemes are not noted for their internal consistency.” — Professor James E. Byrne, consultant to FBI and Scotland Yard (among others) and HYIP expert hired by U.S. government to assess the alleged Pathway To Prosperity scheme in 2010

    Frederick Mann

    In a bizarre conference call for the JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid “program,” a caller who identified himself as a former AdSurfDaily member raised the issue of the ASD Ponzi scheme case brought by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008, questioning whether JSS/JBP was safe from regulatory scrutiny or “getting too big and drawing certain attention.”

    The implication of the remark was that the attention of the U.S. government would be unwanted.

    With listeners identifying themselves as U.S.-based members of JSS/JBP on the line, Frederick Mann suggested that his purported program was outside the reach of U.S. law enforcement.

    “Just Been Paid is not based in the U.S.,” Mann replied to the caller, after the female host of the call  had paraphrased the caller’s query to Mann. The host paraphrased the question because Mann said he didn’t catch it the first time around.

    ” . . .  [H]e was making reference to AdSurfDaily and that they were closed down, and he wants to know what we have in place to protect Just BeenPaid for it not to happen like AdSurfDaily,” the host said to Mann.

    “Just Been Paid is not based in the U.S., and our servers are not in the U.S.,” Mann replied. “We don’t have an office in the U.S.”

    But Mann’s answer did not speak to costly civil and criminal litigation that could ensue against JSS/JBP’s U.S.-based members, all of whom are using wires that run through the United States to participate in the purported program and some of whom are using U.S. wires to recruit downline members. Nor did the answer speak to actions the United States could take against JSS/JBP itself.

    In 2008, marketing materials identified Mann as an ASD promoter. In January 2012, the Italian securities regulator CONSOB announced a JSS/JBP-related probe and issued a 90-day suspension order. JSS/JBP purports to pay out at a daily rate of 2 percent, double that of ASD. On an annualized basis, the payout rate of JSS/JBP corresponds to a return that is between 48 and 73 times the typical rates that put Bernard Madoff in prison for 150 years. ASD President Andy Bowdoin was indicted on Ponzi scheme charges in December 2010.

    Bowdoin specifically was accused of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. The U.S. Secret Service seized 10 of his personal bank accounts in August 2008, amid Ponzi allegations. Other court filings that became public in 2010 showed that the Secret Service also had seized bank accounts linked to some individual ASD promoters.

    Mann previously has declined to identify JSS/JBP with a nation-state, meaning investors do not know where the “program” is operating from. JSS/JBP has no known securities registrations, and its U.S. affiliates very well could be selling unregistered securities to U.S. citizens via wire while at once implicating themselves and their recruits in a Ponzi scheme that is trying to disguise itself as a legitimate business.

    Even if it is presumed to be true that the United States could not act against the company itself — and that’s a big “if” because U.S. law enforcement has a number of options should it choose to exercise them — U.S.-based affiliates of the “program” likely are running afoul of any number of civil and criminal statutes.

    Internal Inconsistencies

    In 2010, Professor James E. Byrne — who has consulted with the FBI and Scotland Yard and was hired by the United States to offer an expert opinion on the Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) HYIP scheme — observed that “fraudulent commercial schemes are not noted for their internal consistency” and that materials he examined in the P2P case displayed such inconsistencies.

    After a probe by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, P2P operator Nicholas Smirnow was charged criminally and accused of running an international financial scam. The purported return rate of JSS/JBP is somewhat on par with the rates of the alleged Smirnow/P2P HYIP scheme.

    Internal inconsistencies were on full display during the March 8 JSS/JBP call featuring Mann.

    As one example, a caller who identified himself as “John” and appeared to be speaking in U.S. English asked Mann for some specifics about the program, voicing that he was confused.

    “All your marketing material — your website and now this conference call — has confused me more than anything I’ve ever heard in my life,” John said.

    “You don’t have any answers for the [gentlemen] that have asked questions,” John said.

    Mann suggested that John “submit a help request.”

    Apparently growing agitated and increasingly confused, John shot back, “I submit that I just would like to have a straight answer.”

    Mann again pointed John to the company’s web-based explanations and resources.

    “The basic approach” to JSS/JBP, Mann explained, is to “find one thing that you understand and then find another thing that you understand, and that way you keep on finding things that you can understand.”

    Unmoved by Mann’s response, John shot back, “I have two master’s degrees and I’m telling you that I do not understand it.”

    John was the seventh caller to have asked Mann questions during the March 8 call. An eighth caller then came on the line. He identified himself as “Rick” (or by a name that sounded like Rick), saying he was from “California.” (Note: Garbling during the recorded call sometimes made it difficult to hear a name clearly.)

    Rick questioned whether callers such as John should be asking Mann such “basic” questions, asserting that Rick, unlike John, had no master’s degree but nevertheless understood the program.

    At that point, Mann observed that online money-making programs may have a “bigger learning curve.”

    After Rick exited the line, a caller who identified himself as “Michael” from “San Francisco” stepped up to the plate for Mann and JSS/JBP.

    Michael asserted that, like John, he has a “master’s degree,” adding that “I have lots of degrees” but noting that his academic pedigree was “really not applicable to online money-making.”

    As guidance, Michael suggested that JSS/JBP promoters sign up for “all” of the payment processors used by the program — but Michael did not tell listeners that all of the processors with which JSS/JBP has associated itself are operating offshore (from a U.S. standpoint), are known to be friendly to fraud schemes and may deny customers U.S. consumer protections.

    More Internal Inconsistencies

    Other examples of internal inconsistencies presented themselves during the call, a recording of which was about 48 minutes in length.

    One caller who identified himself as residing in “Florida” asked Mann about the importance of the “patent” claim on JBP’s website.

    Mann initially replied that the “patent” claim is “not important at all.”

    The response, however, gives rise to questions about why JSS/JBP even would mention a patent if it was “not important at all,” particularly since the “program” had altered the patent claim over time.

    Prior to a website alteration that appears to have occurred last month, JSS/JBP made this specious claim: “JustBeenPaid! (JBP) and its related programs, including JSS-Tripler, are licensed under United States Patent 6,578,010.”

    Those words were changed to read, “JustBeenPaid! (JBP) and its related programs operate in accordance with United States Patent 6,578,010 (now public domain).”

    After reflecting on the caller’s patent question, Mann said this, “In any case, the patent is public domain. It doesn’t actually protect anything. But what is relevant about it is that a patent that covers some of what we do was issued and was approved by a government agency.”

    In the United States, patents are issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a government entity. The office is not the nation’s securities regulator.

    It is common for scammers to try to associate a scheme with the government as a means of planting the seed that the government has full knowledge of the “program” and has endorsed it.  The ASD scheme, for example, traded on the name of the President of the United States — something that caught the attention of the U.S. Secret Service, which has the twin duties of guarding the President’s life and protecting the U.S. financial system from criminals.

    Callers also expressed confusion about “commission” payments from JSS/JBP and raised questions about an emerging JSS/JBP “Platinum” program that would accompany an existing “Premium” program through which some earlier members had paid higher fees believing they would “cycle” faster and make more money.

    Based on comments made during the call, it appears as though the “Platinum” program is priced higher than the “Premium” program — and members are concerned that their earlier “Premium” purchases would be for naught if new “Platinum” purchasers effectively could pay more money to cut in line and “cycle” faster than them.