Liberty Reserve

EDITORIAL: Ponzi schemers, Wall Street fraudsters and corrupt politicians must be taking comfort in the reported abrupt firing by the Trump administration of Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. There is no question that President Trump had the power to ask Bharara and dozens of other U.S. Attorneys who […]

News came early this morning that the SEC had moved against Traffic Monsoon, calling it a Ponzi scheme. Both the “program” and alleged operator Charles Scoville were charged civilly yesterday in Utah federal court with securities fraud and selling unregistered securities to unaccredited investors. Scoville also was the braintrust behind AdHitProfits, a Ponzi-board “program” in part […]

UPDATED 12:12 P.M. EDT U.S.A. A thoughtful reader sent this along this morning. It’s a story by Jake Halpern in The Atlantic titled, “Bank of the Underworld[:] Liberty Reserve was like PayPal for the unbanked. Was it also a global money-laundering operation?” Here’s a snippet (italics added): Costa Rica was also increasingly known as a […]

Mark Marmilev, the technology specialist for the cross-border Liberty Reserve money-laundering operation favored by HYIP scammers and other criminals before its May 2013 collapse, shilled on the TalkGold Ponzi forum, U.S. federal prosecutors said in a sentencing memo. Marmilev, 35, of Brooklyn, N.Y., also hired forum shills and separately tried to hatch an SEO scheme […]

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (Updated 9:33 p.m. ET U.S.A.) The SEC has charged two Indian nationals with running an HYIP scheme known as “Profits Paradise” that reached into the United States and offered “extraordinary” returns of up to 480 percent in 240 days, plus “compounding.” As is typical in HYIP schemes, the “program” gained […]

In the first U.S. criminal prosecution involving a Bitcoin-themed scheme, Trendon Shavers has been arrested and charged with securities fraud and wire fraud. Shavers, 32, of McKinney, Texas, was charged civilly by the SEC in July 2013. He is known as “pirateat40,”  and allegedly pushed his Bitcoin Savings and Trust Ponzi scheme from a forum. […]

4th UPDATE 8:09 A.M. EDT OCT. 30 U.S.A. In the past several hours, Tweets sourced to Bitcoin-themed publications such as CoinFire, CryptoCoinsNews and CoinTelegrah claim the SEC has opened preliminary inquiries into hundreds of Bitcoin-themed enterprises. On the CoinTelegraph website, the publication asserts there is a “gag order attached to these requests for voluntary cooperation.” […]

With Cyber Monday and the traditional online sales coming up a few days from now on Dec. 2, this is what we know: Payza, the successor brand to Montreal-based AlertPay, a Ponzi-forum darling and chronic HYIP- and fraud-enabler, suddenly says this in a headline on its Community forum: “US Funds Frozen | Obopay/Ultralight FS. issue.” […]

Before Liberty Reserve and its alleged co-conspirators were indicted in May, the company was involved in several horror-filled propositions. These included laundering $6 billion as part of schemes involving “credit card fraud, identity theft, investment fraud, computer hacking, child pornography, and narcotics trafficking,” federal prosecutors said. Now, Liberty Reserve figure Vladimir Kats, also known as […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: KrebsOnSecurity is written by Brian Krebs, who worked as a reporter for the Washington Post from 1995 to 2009. Our thanks to a PP Blog reader who brought our attention to information highlighted in the story below. Although the PP Blog is focusing on the TalkGold angle, the KrebsOnSecurity report covers much more, […]

A “program” with the bizarre name of “CashCropCycler” (Triple C) is being pushed on the Ponzi forums, amid claims it issues cashouts through offshore payment processors linked to fraud scheme after fraud scheme and gives enrollees $10 just for signing up. An earlier HYIP scam known as JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid that appears to have morphed into at […]