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Tag: Mantria

  • EDITORIAL: Want To Build Your U.S. TelexFree Downline While An Active Pyramid-Scheme Investigation Is Under Way In Brazil? Ignore Or Downplay The Probe And Tell A ‘Carlos Danger’ Joke

    Scott Miller goes for a "Carlos Danger" laugh line at a TelexFree event in California.
    Scott Miller goes for a “Carlos Danger” laugh line at a TelexFree event in California.

    EDITOR’S NOTE: TelexFree has two executives named Carlos — Carlos N. Wanzeler, and Carlos Costa. Neither of them is “Carlos Danger.”

    TelexFree, an MLM “opportunity,” has been under investigation in multiple states in Brazil since at least late June. There have been reports of death threats against a judge and a prosecutor — and there have been reports of assaults against journalists covering the alleged scam in Brazil.

    None of this appears to have motivated TelexFree to cancel/postpone a California MLM rah-rah session in late July.

    Scott Miller, according to a video playing on YouTube, was one of the featured TelexFree speakers at the Newport Beach event. Members of his group claim in videos that, if one sends $15,125 to TelexFree to purchase a “contract,” one will emerge with guaranteed earnings of at least $1,100 a week for a year. The math of the claim is basically this: $1,100 a week for 52 weeks equals $57,200. Subtract the original outlay of $15,125, and emerge $42,075 on the plus side.

    Put another way, plunk down a little more than $15,000 and watch it virtually triple or quadruple in a year. Would Bernard Madoff have dared to be so bold?

    The plain answer is no. Madoff roped in his Ponzi victims with suggestions of vastly lower annual returns.

    But all of this TelexFree tripling or quadrupling of money is possible — to hear the firm’s cheerleaders tell it on YouTube — if recruits carry out a simple task: place an ad for the “opportunity” at free classified sites online. And you can make more in pure dollar terms by sending more, the cheerleaders say.

    If you find it strange that TelexFree is continuing to conduct business in the United States against the backdrop of alleged threats against judicial officers in Brazil even as some TelexFree promoters try to drive business to the firm by videotaping a statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, you may find it stranger yet that New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner’s name has made its way into a TelexFree sales pitch.

    Nothing suggests that confessed sexting aficionado and former Congressman Weiner has anything whatsoever to do with TelexFree. But his in-the-news name apparently was one too rich for Miller to ignore from the stage in Newport Beach.

    Miller told the assembled TelexFree masses in California that 75 percent of the people in MLM are women.

    “Even Anthony Weiner — ‘Carlos Danger’ — can meet someone in this industy,” Miller cracked. Carlos Danger reportedly was an online name name used by Weiner.

    MLM and/or affiliate schemes have been known to trade on the names of famous politicians of both major American political parties, occasionally even planting the seed that the famous politicians even had endorsed the “opportunity.” The $119 million AdSurfDaily MLM Ponzi scam traded on the names of (Republican) President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, for example. The Mantria Ponzi scheme ($54.5 million) traded on the name of former President Bill Clinton, with one of the pitchmen encouraging prospects to join the [Donald] Trump network after the 2009 collapse of Mantria. Clinton is a Democrat who continues to be a major figure on the world stage after an affair with an intern nearly toppled his Presidency; Trump is a billionaire, an occasional MLM cheerleader and an often-rumored GOP Presidential candidate who appears to enjoy trying to tweak President Obama, a Democrat, by pandering to the “Birther” conspiracy-theory vote.

    In 2010, an affiliate of the MPB Today MLM “program” tried to drive traffic to the now-shuttered “opportunity” whose operator is jailed by positioning Obama and then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as Nazis, with Obama’s family being positioned as welfare recipients eager to eat dog food.

    With each passing day, MLM seems to be creating bigger and bigger PR disasters for itself.  We’re left wondering: What is funnier? The joke about Anthony Weiner or the fact it was told by an MLMer whose group apparently believes that sending an entire year’s salary for many Americans to TelexFree during an active investigation will cause the investment to mushroom while Bernard Madoff is knocking another year off his 150-year sentence?

    In any event, the apparent message in some U.S. MLM circles today is that you can build a downline in TelexFree even during an offshore pyramid probe by ignoring or downplaying the investigations and deflecting the attention of the audience further by trotting out your best “Carlos Danger” lines.

    And you can triple or quadruple your money while doing so, of course.

  • BULLETIN: Mantria Ponzi Scheme Pitchmen Hit With Millions Of Dollars In Disgorgement And Penalties — And Principals Ordered To Pay Tens Of Millions

    Mantria CEO Troy Wragg in a music video by ICEBLOC.

    BULLETIN: Two pitchmen for the Mantria Corp. “green” Ponzi scheme have been ordered to pay millions of dollars in disgorgement and penalties, including a purported wealth coach who advised people who contacted him after the 2009 collapse of Mantria to join the Trump Network MLM “opportunity.”

    Mantria purportedly was an environmentally friendly investment opportunity. In reality, the SEC said, it was a massive Ponzi scheme that was selling unregistered securities through unregistered broker-dealers.

    Any returns paid to investors “were funded almost exclusively from other investors’ funds,” the SEC said.

    Wayde M. McKelvy of Speed of Wealth LLC was ordered by U.S. District Judge Christine M. Arguello of the District of Colorado to pay $6,273,632.78 in disgorgement, interest of $869,141.87 and a civil penalty of $6,273,632.78.

    McKelvy, an MLM pitchman who also was pushing Mantria, described himself as a wealth coach with “Wealthalete[s]” as pupils and prospects.

    McKelvy’s former wife — Donna McKelvy — was ordered to pay $429,731.84 in disgorgement, interest of $55,172.93 and a civil penalty of $214,865.92.

    Arguello ordered even greater disgorgement and penalties against Mantria principals Troy B. Wragg and Amanda E. Knorr.

    “The Court ordered Wragg and Knorr to pay $37,031,035.36 in disgorgement plus interest of $3,713,772.06 jointly and severally with Mantria Corporation and a civil penalty of $37,031,035.36 each,” the SEC said today.

    All in all, Arguello ordered more than $135 million in monetary relief in the Mantria/Speed of Wealth case, the SEC said.

    The agency brought the Mantria Ponzi case in 2009, saying the “promoters fraudulently exaggerated Mantria’s green initiatives and used high-pressure tactics to convince investors to chase the promise of lucrative returns.”

    Strangeness marked the early days of the Mantria case. When reporters contacted Wayde McKelvy by email for comment, they received back a pitch for the Trump Network.

    “I am totally focused on one thing right now which I believe will be very, very fun and the opportunity to put money in your pocket by owning you’re [sic] own business with the help of ‘The Donald,” one of the McKelvy pitches claimed.

    Among other things, Mantria traded on the name of former President Bill Clinton, along with a host of other politicians and celebrities. It is not unusual for scams to attach their names to prominent individuals.

     

     

  • MOTHER’S DAY FANTASY POST: Legendary MLM Scammer Phil Pumpernickel Says He’ll Package ‘Troll Spray’; Fraudster Announces He’ll Coax Affiliates To Trade On Donald Trump’s Name To Reel In The ‘Birthers’

    EDITOR’S NOTE: The “story” below is not real. The PP Blog occasionally presents fantasy posts, parody and satire as a means of advancing the discussion about issues in the world of online crime and marketing schemes.

    SOUTH FLORIDA (PPBlog) — Phil Pumpernickel, the unapologetic scammer who once started an “opportunity” that hawked caskets MLM-style after telling the world he was moved to do so after being reduced to tears by the “fine Christian” conducting his “sainted grandmother’s” funeral, is getting in the “troll spray” business.

    Pumpernickel said he decided to “seize the moment” and launch a new frauduct after being impressed by a photographic depiction of troll spray used as an avatar on Scam.com by a fellow MLM aficionado doing battle with critics.

    “Those people who speak out against MLM and all the so-called ‘scams’ are just a bunch of bigots,” Pumpernickel said. “They’re all a bunch of mindless trolls. Many of them not only are anti-MLM, but are anti-American.

    “I mean, they actually think Obama was born in the United States,” he protested. “I’m so glad I saw that avatar. It’s important for trolls to be put in their place and dressed down in public. All the best MLMers are doing that now — that and coming up with great, highly descriptive terms such as ‘bigots’ and ‘haters’ and ‘whiners’ to describe the self-appointed critics. All of these things are helping  to paint MLM in the most favorable light. The pro-MLMers at Scam.com are PR geniuses, I’ll tell you, and I can’t thank them enough. In any event, I decided to build an entire new scam around a ‘troll-spray’ theme.”

    Although the MLM casket business failed during “prelaunch” in no small measure “because of the trolls,” Pumpernickel said, the troll-spray business would be different.

    “What I’m going to do,” he said, “is plant the seed that affiliates should use more pictures of Donald Trump this time to help sanitize the opportunity. I can get the ‘Birthers’ that way, and make people believe Trump has endorsed the program.”

    The failure of affiliates to take full advantage of Trump’s celebrity to hawk the casket “opportunity” was one of its biggest shortcomings, Pumpernickel conceded.

    “People can call me a lot of things — and I’m well aware of my reputation as a serial scammer — but they’ll never be able to claim this time that my affiliate’s efforts to trade on Trump’s name without authority were insufficient,” the celebrated scammer said. “My fellow scammers made it perfectly clear to me that I need to ‘Trump’ up my next fraud scheme, and I listened.”

    Pumpernickel added that he was considering advice from a “group” of fellow scammers who recommended he add the names and images of Oprah Winfrey and former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to the troll-spray promos. He declined to name members of the group, except to say “they are all veteran scammers who’ve made millions and millions and millions.”

    But Pumpernickel hinted that there is some early dissension in the ranks about how best to proceed with the troll-spray scam.

    “Some of these people are convinced that trading on Oprah’s name without permission ‘works’ because of the chain-letter scams and the impressive success of the recent acai-berry scams,” Pumpernickel said. “My take is a bit different at the moment, given what the FTC did in the acai cases, but I’ve agreed to take the matter under advisement. In this early, pre-prelauch stage, though, I’m given to believe that Oprah may be a little too hot right now. The FTC is playing hardball.”

    Pumpernickel said he was less concerned about using the names of the former presidents.

    “Hey,” he said, “the Mantria people used Clinton. And the AdSurfDaily people used Bush. No one can doubt the success of those schemes — and the scams are old enough now that trotting out the Presidents again to plant the seed that they endorse troll spray just might be viewed as a fresh approach.”

    Among the lies he intended to make go viral were that the troll-spray product not only was useful in keeping anti-MLM trolls at a distance in person and on forums, but also could be used to improve a car’s gas mileage, grow apples the size of “Washington state” and cure cancer, Pumpernickel said.

    “What I’ll do,” he revealed, “is simply plant the seed that the product has all of these benefits. My affiliates have proven over time that they can be relied upon to do no checking or independent research whatsoever. Marketing online is beautiful in this way. They’ll take the ideas I plant, and before it’s all over, they’ll have Trump as the president of the company, Bush as director emeritus and a famous cancer hospital not only saying the product cures the disease, but also that the entire hospital staff is warding off the disease by consuming apples that are bigger than pumpkins.”

    Ultimately, Pumpernickel said, “the goal of any good scam is to plant the seed that fabulous wealth is possible.

    “We’ll do that, too, of course,” he promised. “I’ve had success in the past by rambling on and on about commissions 10 levels deep and talking about the ‘millions’ I’ve made. But the best viral scams are the ones that mix those elements with what I call the ‘Real Unreal.’

    “For example, Trump is a ‘real’ person,” Pumpernickel said, “but it’s ‘unreal’ that he”ll be involved in the troll-spray product. My best promoters will be the ones who make the best use out of all the ‘Real-Unreal’ elements out there. I mean, the possibilities are endless.”

    Pumpernickel said he was in the process of negotiating with a vendor to brand and package the troll spray, which a newly created shell company likely would market for $19.95 per can, with volume discounts if the product is purchased by the case.

    Prospects will be told they can join the opportunity for “free” and will be encouraged to invite their mothers to do so.

    “It’s always best when we have a good group of mothers helping us market our scams,” Pumpernickel said. “We should be ready to start the prelaunch by Father’s Day next month. If something goes wrong with the actual prelaunch and launch and people don’t get paid, I’ll just change the rules and tell the folks to pretend it never happened. I learned that by observing the launch and prelaunch of Data Network Affiliates last year.

    “And if people ask too many questions,” he concluded, “I’ll plant the seed that I know leg-breakers and call all the critics ‘bigots.’ It’s great PR.”

  • RECOMMENDED READING: Blogger Recalls His Real-Life Encounter With An MLM Stepfordian And Wonders Whether The Cadillac Ever Will Arrive At His House

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Blogger Chuck Miller, who posts on the website of the Albany (N.Y.) Times Union, has a post today on the unique circumstances under which he became a self-described “mark” for an MLM pitch nearly 20 years ago. Seems Miller’s MLM memories linger after nearly two decades. (You’ll learn why by clicking on the link to Miller’s column at the bottom of this post.)

    First, though, some introductory remarks are in order . . .

    Although Miller’s column is not on point with this August 2010 PP Blog column on the unique circumstances under which it was invited to check out the purported MPB Today “grocery” MLM, it reminded me that some MLM purveyors simply live for the pitch: Any person — at any time and in any context — is viewed as the warm market by the Stepfordians of the trade.

    Miller’s column also reminded me of a December 2009 column by Renee McGaw of the Denver Business Journal. McGaw got pitched to join the Trump Network after she sent an email to Wayde McKelvy, a figure in the alleged Mantria/Speed of Wealth Ponzi scheme.

    McKelvy is a defendant in the Mantria/Speed of Wealth case, which the SEC filed in November 2009. Just days after the case was filed, McGaw began to receive a steady stream of email from McKelvy, who had a $30 million Ponzi scheme case hanging over his head and still was pitching offers for MLMs.

    “How the heck can I help you become financially independent if you do not take the action steps that I recommend to you?” McKelvy memorably nudged the columnist just days after the SEC announced its intent to sue McKelvy back to the Stone Age.

    Of course, untold numbers of Stepfordian members of Florida-based AdSurfDaily continued to pump autosurf MLMs — even after ASD President Andy Bowdoin had tens of millions of dollars seized from his personal bank accounts and was accused by some of his own members of racketeering.

    Read Chuck Miller’s post about the circumstances under which he was cornered by a Stepfordian MLMer.

  • KABOOM! FTC Says ‘Medical Discount’ Hucksters Used Images Of Obama, Words From Congressional Speech To Fleece Customers; Receiver Already Has Seized Website; Feds, 24 States Launch Fraud Crackdown

    The FTC said today that images of President Obama were used to help a bogus "medical discount plan" trick customers into believing they were purchasing health insurance.

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Some readers will recall that one of the Secret Service’s allegations in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case is that pitchmen tried to sanitize the scheme by making false claims that ASD President Andy Bowdoin had received an award for business acumen from President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

    Others will recall that Mantria Corp. — implicated in a Ponzi scheme by the SEC — used images of former President Clinton and other world figures to sanitize a “green” energy scheme.

    Now comes word that the FTC has brought a fraud case against a company amid allegations it used images of President Obama, the White House, the U.S. Capitol and lawmakers to sanitize a bogus “medical discount plan”  marketed as health insurance.

    Here, now, the story . . .

    A company that used images of President Obama and the White House — along with logos that resembled the logos of government agencies — has been charged by the Federal Trade Commission with marketing a bogus “medical discount plan” as healthcare insurance.

    At least two other firms and their operators and associates have been charged separately with running discount scams, and a nationwide crackdown involving at least 24 states is under way. The FTC has dubbed the sweep “Operation Health Care Hustle.”

    “With so many Americans struggling to deal with the costs of health care, these medical discount benefit plans sound appealing because they masquerade as health insurance,” said David Vladeck, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “But they are not insurance. They don’t offer the benefits of health insurance, and victims don’t know they’ve been ripped off until after they’ve tried to use the service and paid their bill.”

    The fraud case against Health Care One LLC and associated firms illustrates the dangers not only of promoting scams, but also of of trying to recruit customers into them by implying a product or service is endorsed by the President, members of Congress or the government in general.

    Indeed, Health Care One’s website already has been seized by a court-appointed receiver — and content that once appeared on the site and affiliated sites has vanished. In a remarkable news presentation today, the FTC released a video pitch used by the company.

    Healthcare One LLC used images of the White House while scamming customers, the FTC said.

    The pitch features video of Obama addressing Congress about healthcare issues on Sept. 9, 2009. Heathcare One makes Obama the star of the video, showcasing remarks in which the President stated, “No one should go broke because they get sick.” Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are in the background of the video.

    The video then cuts away to a passage in which Obama said, “That is heartbreaking. It is wrong, and no one should be treated that way in the United States of America.”

    The video then quickly cuts away again to an image of the U.S. Capitol. Official-looking logos appear on the screen, along with the words “REGISTRATION NOW OPEN[:] NATIONAL HEALTHCARE DISCOUNT PROGRAM[:] FOR ALL UNINSURED AMERICANS.”

    A narrator simultaneously declares that “registration is now open for a national healthcare discount program.” The narrator — as an image of the White House replaces an image of the Capitol — goes on to say that “Citizens4Healthcare is now authorized to offer you savings of 20 to 60 percent on doctors, hospitals, prescription drugs and more.”

    As the video proceeds, the narrator declares that “there are daily registration limits for this program, so call now for immediate acceptance . . .”

    Healthcare One was specifically charged with claiming it sold health insurance when it did not — and of misleading the public into thinking it was affiliated with the federal government.

    “Defendants’ advertisements lead consumers to reasonably believe that Health Care One’s program is affiliated with, or endorsed or sponsored by, the federal government,” the FTC said.

    “It is not,” the agency said flatly in court filings, accusing the company of selling a scam.

    Read more about “Operation Health Care Hustle.” (Look in the upper-right corner of the screen when you land on the FTC page. You”ll find links to other cases announced today — and also a link to the video cited above.)

  • Better Business Bureau Revokes Accreditation Of Speed Of Wealth After SEC ‘Green’ Ponzi Action; Firm Experiences ASD-Like PR Disaster In Wake Of Allegations

    The accreditation of a Colorado company implicated in an alleged $30 million “green” Ponzi scheme by the SEC has been revoked by the Denver/Boulder branch of the Better Business Bureau.

    BBB now gives Speed of Wealth a rating of “F” — the worst possible score on a scale of “A+” to “F” — and says the accreditation was revoked because the company did not comply with BBB standards.

    Speed of Wealth’s BBB accreditation was revoked on Dec. 16, precisely one month after the SEC accused the firm of selling a Ponzi scheme for Philadelphia-based Mantria Corp. A rating for Mantria was not immediately available. The BBB of the Mid-Atlantic region, Metro Washington, D.C., and Eastern Pennsylvania says on its website that the organization is in the process of updating its report on Mantria.

    Under “Government Actions” in Speed of Wealth’s BBB listing, the organization summarizes the SEC allegations against Speed of Wealth and Mantria and provides links to the SEC’s charging document and news release in the case (emphasis added):

    On November 16, 2009 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission “SEC” filed a complaint with charges against Mantria Corporation, Troy B. Wragg, Amanda Knorr, Speed of Wealth LLC, Wayde M. McKelvy, and Donna M. McKelvy alleging that they are involved in perpetrating a $30 million Ponzi Scheme, which they persuaded more than 300 investors nationwide to participate in purported environmentally- friend[ly] investment opportunities.

    Click below view the entire press release and the complaint from the “SEC”:

    http://denver.bbb.org/Storage/33/Documents/9-16-09%20SEC_Complaint_Speed%20of%20Wealth.pdf

    http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2009/2009-247.htm

    PR Disasters Mark Speed Of Wealth, AdSurfDaily Cases

    Speed of Wealth’s website now throws a server error and appears to have been disabled. In a column in the Denver Business Journal last month, reporter Renee McGaw said she attempted to email Wayde McKelvy, a Speed of Wealth principal, to get his comments on the SEC action.

    McGaw reported that her email to McKelvy resulted in a steady stream of pitches to join wealth-building programs.

    “YOU MUST START YOUR OWN BUSINESS Renee!” McKelvy exclaimed to McGaw in one email. “What You Have Been Taught About Building Wealth is DEAD WRONG!”

    The Denver Post also wrote about the Trump Network emails from McKelvy in the wake of the SEC action. A college professor interviewed by the newspaper said words such as “amazing,” “unbelievable” and “phenomenal” used by McKelvy to describe the Trump Network should be considered red flags.

    The emails demonstrated that a crisis affecting one company can bring an unwanted spotlight on wholly separate brands. Indeed, the Denver Post reported that it contacted the Trump Network for comment on McKelvy’s emails. The calls were not returned.

    Even the names of President Obama, former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton became part of the Mantria/Speed of Wealth story. The companies used a video that included images of Obama, the Clintons and other politicians and media figures in promotional materials.

    Meanwhile, the McKelvy emails were reminiscent of the experiences reporters had when they tried to contact Florida-based AdSurfDaily for comment after federal prosecutors seized tens of millions of dollars from the firm amid Ponzi allegations in August 2008.

    Like Speed of Wealth, ASD also has a rating of “F” from the BBB, which cites government actions against the autosurf firm. Unlike Speed of Wealth, ASD has unresolved consumer complaints, according to the BBB.

    Reporters who called ASD got a recording featuring the voice of ASD President Andy Bowdoin. Bowdoin, whom prosecutors later said had “followers,” intoned in the recording that that God was on the company’s side.

    Thirteen months later, Bowdoin told an audience listening to a conference call that his ongoing legal fight against the government was inspired by the story of a former Miss America who now operates a Christian organization. The PP Blog contacted both the Miss America Organization and the Christian organization for comment.

    The Miss America Organization did not return the call; the Christian organization, Salem Family Ministries, responded by saying it had no comment, except to say it did not recognize Bowdoin’s name. The Secret Service transcribed Bowdoin’s remarks in the conference call and presented them to the federal judge hearing the forfeiture cases against the firm.

    Companies in legal crisis can lose the PR war quickly if their initial actions lead to more questions than answers. Within days of the federal action against ASD, Bowdoin invoked “Satan,” comparing the U.S. Secret Service to the 9/11 terrorists who killed nearly 3,000 people.

    In a Nov. 19 conference call with participants, McKelvy described the SEC allegations as “ridiculous,” but at the same time acknowledged he possibly sold securities without a license, according to the Denver Business Journal.

    But in the same conference call — just days after the SEC action — McKelvy also said he was turning his attention to the Trump Network, an MLM opportunity. The comment — and the emails Speed of Wealth sent out to promote the Trump Network — led to more headlines in newspapers, forums and Blogs.

    Read Speed of Wealth’s BBB report.

    Read ASD’s BBB Report.

  • Judge Enters Injunction Against Mantria/Speed Of Wealth Figure Donna McKelvy In ‘Green’ Ponzi Scheme Case; Speed Of Wealth Website Goes Missing

    breakingnewsA federal judge has issued an order that enjoins Speed of Wealth principal Donna McKelvy from breaking securities laws and disgorges her ill-gotten gains from the alleged Mantria Corp./Speed of Wealth Ponzi scheme.

    McKelvy, 43, of Parker, Colo., consented to the order without admitting or denying the allegations in a complaint filed by the SEC Nov. 16. The Speed of Wealth website, which once prominently featured a video containing images of President Obama, former President Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, now is returning a server error and will not load.

    U.S. District Judge Christine M. Arguello entered the order against McKelvy yesterday.

    “Donna M. McKelvy is prohibited, directly or indirectly, from accepting funds from investors for investment in any investment program,” Arguello wrote in the order.

    She further ordered McKelvy to “pay disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, prejudgment interest thereon, and a civil penalty.” The amounts will be determined later, and Arguello said McKelvy “will be precluded from arguing that she did not violate the federal securities laws as alleged in the Complaint” and “may not challenge the validity of the Consent or this Order of Permanent Injunction.”

    The SEC said McKevly was a principal in Speed of Wealth and used “the titles of president of Speed of Wealth in charge of investor relations and vice president of Speed of Wealth in charge of investor relations.

    “She is a 25 percent owner of Mantria Industries LLC, one of the Mantria subsidiaries that has actively raised funds from investors, as well as three other Mantria subsidiaries. She does not hold any securities licenses, and she has never been associated with a registered broker-dealer,” the SEC said.

    Also charged in the SEC complaint last month were McKelvy’s ex-husband, Wayde McKelvy, 46, of Sunny Isle Beach, Fla.; Mantria CEO Troy Wragg, 28, of Philadelphia, and Amanda Knorr, 26, also of Philadelphia. Knorr is Mantria’s COO.

    Wayde and Donna McKelvy “particularly targeted elderly investors or those approaching retirement age to finance” Mantria’s “green initiatives,” the SEC said.

    The SEC alleged that Mantria operated a $30 million Ponzi scheme pushed by Speed of Wealth.

    Mantria’s biochar, a carbon-negative charcoal, was used to appeal to environmentally conscious investors, the SEC said.

    “Despite claims that Mantria was the world’s leading manufacturer and distributor of biochar and had multiple facilities producing it at a rate of 25 tons per day,” the SEC said, “Mantria has never sold any biochar and has just one facility engaged in testing biochar for possible future commercial production.”

    Both Mantria and Speed of Wealth showcased a video assembled in part from materials published by the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), one of President Clinton’s signature undertakings since leaving office in 2001.

    Wragg appeared alongside President Clinton and Secretary of State Clinton at the CGI annual meeting in New York in September, and images of prominent attendees were placed in the video, including an image of President Obama.

    Less than two months later the SEC alleged that Mantria was a Ponzi scheme.

    Mantria and Wayde McKelvy have denied wrongdoing.

  • RECOMMENDED READING: ‘Speed Of Wealth’ Defendant In Ponzi Scheme Case Pounds Denver Reporter With Offers To Join Trump Network, Other Opportunities

    EDITOR’S NOTE: The story below references a column by Renee McGaw in the Denver Business Journal. Make sure you read the column. The link is at the bottom of this story.

    The column reminded us of what occurred in the opening hours of the prosecution against the assets of Florida-based AdSurfDaily Inc., accused in August 2008 of operating a $100 million Ponzi scheme. Reporters who called ASD got a recording featuring the voice of ASD President Andy Bowdoin and intoning that God was on the company’s side.

    Within hours, Bowdoin’s supporters were complaining on Internet forums that the media refused to take ASD’s side of the story seriously.  Rather than questioning why the media might find such a recording important enough to mention in stories, Bowdoin’s apologists then sought to discredit reporters by casting them as conspirators in a plot to defame Bowdoin and to discredit members of law enforcment by painting the government as “evil.” The attack even featured a campaign to have a Florida television station and Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum charged with Deceptive Trade Practices for daring to raise the issue of the legitimacy of ASD.

    McGaw’s column on a Colorado company, Speed of Wealth LLC, is remarkable in a number of ways, perhaps principally in the sense that it shines a light on relentless email pitches to join online money-making “opportunities.” Not even serious Ponzi scheme allegations against Speed of Wealth principal Wayde McKelvy prevented McGaw from receiving pitches for other programs from him. The column leaves us with this question: Is it any wonder that much of America and the world views Internet Marketing as a vast wasteland filled with fraudsters and schemers?

    On a side note, readers of the PatrickPretty.com Blog occasionally have chided us about our view that exclamation points should be used like garlic — sparingly. We’ve enjoyed the banter on the topic. McGaw’s column also raises the issue of exclamation points in marketing pitches.

    Here, now, the story . . .

    Denver Business Journal reporter Renee McGaw says she is being pounded with offers from Wayde McKelvy, a defendant in a Ponzi scheme lawsuit filed by the SEC last month.

    McKelvy’s Colorado firm, Speed of Wealth LLC, was accused by the SEC of pitching a “green” Ponzi scheme for Mantria Corp. of Pennsylvania. The names of President Obama, former President Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were prominently featured in a Mantria video that played on the Speed of Wealth website. The video, now missing from the site, was based on events that occurred in September at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), one of President Clinton’s signature undertakings after he left the White House in January 2001.

    McKelvy describes himself as a wealth coach — and not even the assertion he was part of a $30 million fraud has slowed him down, McGaw reports.

    In a column yesterday, McGaw said she sent McKelvy an email Nov. 16 to inquire about the SEC allegations. (The SEC had brought the allegations earlier on the same day.) McGaw’s email to McKelvy triggered what she described as automated pitches describing her as a “fellow Wealthalete” and urging her to join money-making programs.

    “I am totally focused on one thing right now which I believe will be very, very fun and the opportunity to put money in your pocket by owning you’re own business with the help of ‘The Donald’,” McGaw quoted McKelvy as writing in an email Nov. 18, two days after the SEC filed civil charges against McKelvy, his former wife, and Mantria officers Troy Wragg and Amanda Knorr.

    The columnist noted she did not correct McKelvy’s spelling or punctuation when reproducing the email for readers of the Denver Business Journal.

    “Yes, I am talking about the ‘Trump Network,’” McKelvy stressed to McGaw.

    McGaw reported that McKelvy’s pitches often featured subject lines consisting of all capital letters and ending with exclamation points.

    “YOU MUST START YOUR OWN BUSINESS Renee!” McKelvy advised McGaw in one email. “What You Have Been Taught About Building Wealth is DEAD WRONG!”

    Through the Mantria video, Speed of Wealth also dropped the names of former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, President Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast, Mike Duke, CEO of Wal-Mart, Muhtar Kent, CEO of the Coca-Cola Co. and actor Matt Damon.

    All of the individuals were among the prominent attendees of President Clinton’s CGI function. The video featured footage of Wragg appearing on stage next to Clinton.

    Mantria was a “supposed ‘carbon negative’ housing community in rural Tennessee,” the SEC said.

    Screen shot: Troy Wragg, whom the SEC said today was a manager at a janitorial company before becoming CEO of Mantria Corp., next to President Clinton at the annual meeting on the Clinton Global Initiative in New York on Sept. 25.
    Screen shot: Troy Wragg, whom the SEC said was a manager at a janitorial company before becoming CEO of Mantria Corp., next to President Clinton at the annual meeting on the Clinton Global Initiative in New York on Sept. 25.

    But the “green” representations “were laced with bogus claims, and investors were falsely promised enormous returns on their investments ranging from 17 percent to ‘hundreds of percent’ annually,” the SEC said.

    The agency charged that “Mantria’s environmental initiatives have not generated any significant cash, and any returns paid to investors have been funded almost exclusively from other investors’ contributions.”

    “These promoters fraudulently exaggerated Mantria’s green initiatives and used high-pressure tactics to convince investors to chase the promise of lucrative returns,” said Don Hoerl, director of the SEC’s Denver Regional Office. “In reality, the only green these promoters seemed interested in was investors’ money.”

    Read McGaw’s column in the Denver Business Journal.

  • Federal Judge Issues Restraining Order, Asset Freeze In Alleged Mantria Ponzi Scheme; Video Featuring President Obama, Former President Clinton And World Business Leaders Pulled From ‘Speed Of Wealth’ Website

    In a day of notable irony, the Obama administration announced the creation of an Interagency Financial Fraud Task Force led by the Department of Justice. Critical support functions will be provided by the Treasury Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    One of the first cases the new Task Force may find itself discussing is the alleged Mantria Corp. Ponzi scheme — a scheme in which a video featuring an image of President Obama and recorded remarks by former President Clinton was used in marketing materials by the alleged schemers.

    Even as the Task Force announcement was being made, the SEC was announcing that a federal judge had granted a Temporary Restraining Order and asset freeze in the alleged “green” Ponzi operated by Mantria Corp. of Pennsylvania and sold by Speed of Wealth LLC of Colorado.

    Within minutes, a video featuring a snapshot of President Obama and recorded remarks by President Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting in New York Sept. 25 went missing from Speed of Wealth’s website. Meanwhile, the Mantria website defaulted to a message that read, “We Are Rebuilding this Site to Make it the Most Informational Site Possible. Please check back with us in 10 days.”

    Only yesterday the Mantria website showcased a PDF that appeared to have been assembled in part from CGI press materials to spotlight President Clinton’s efforts to improve the world.

    The Speed of Wealth video, a marketing prop that dropped the names of famous politicians and international celebrities such as former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and actor Matt Damon, still had been accessible this morning.

    That changed quickly after the announcement of the TRO and asset freeze. The SEC announced civil charges against Speed of Wealth and Mantria yesterday. Speed of Wealth’s video highlighted Mantria’s purported devotion to the environment, under the headline “Mantria Honored by President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.”

    In the video, Mantria CEO Troy Wragg appeared on the stage next to President Clinton, Secretary of State Clinton and others. CGI had lauded Mantria for helping to “mitigate global warming through the use of its Carbon Fields site, where Mantria will perform trials on their product BioChar, a carbon-negative charcoal, to prove how this product can sequester carbon dioxide, improve soil quality when buried, and reduce emissions in developing countries.”

    Regulators said yesterday that BioChar was part of a $30 million Ponzi fraud.

    Despite claims that “Mantria was the world’s leading manufacturer and distributor of biochar and had multiple facilities producing it at a rate of 25 tons per day,” the SEC said, “Mantria has never sold any biochar and has just one facility engaged in testing biochar for possible future commercial production.”

    Others featured in the Speed of Wealth video included President Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast, Mike Duke, CEO of Wal-Mart and Muhtar Kent, CEO of the Coca-Cola Co.

    All of the individuals were among the prominent attendees of President Clinton’s CGI function.

    It is not unusual for companies to promote themselves by trying to establish ties to prominent figures. AdSurfDaily, a Florida company accused by the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors of operating a $100 million Ponzi scheme, was featured in promotions that claimed company President Andy Bowdoin had received a special award for business achievement from President George W. Bush.

    Prosecutors said the claim was false. What ASD promoters had called an important award from the White House, investigators called a souvenir for donations to the National Republican Congressional Committee.

    What was unusual about the Speed of Wealth video is that it shamelessly dropped so many names of well-known people who attended the CGI event, a dignified function hosted by President Clinton that annually draws global political and business leaders.

    Some of the snap shots used in assembling the video appeared to have been pulled from media materials on CGI’s website.

    Along with showcasing the video cobbled together from one of President Clinton’s signature events, the Speed of Wealth website announced what it described as “the Partnership of the Century!” between itself and Mantria.

    Speed of Wealth said money was to be made while itself and Mantria were saving the environment and “helping Middle America secure its financial future!”

    Topics covered included:

    • Why investing in foreclosures today will make you rich and the only way you should be doing it is sitting on the beach in Bermuda while your foreclosure empire grows.
    • How to build $2,000,000 dollars of wealth with absolutely no money out of your pocket ever.
    • How to easily receive up to 25% returns on your money annually in an investment that I believe to be safer than a bank CD.