We recommend these two stories/Comments threads at BehindMLM.com on “The Achieve Community.” Access the first here. Access the second here.
BehindMLM.com covers emerging MLM fraud schemes. Naturally the site separates some MLMers from their senses because it so neatly debunks cover stories and magical constructions that have helped MLM scams trading on the Internet thrive for years.
We’d point out that, like other apparent “supporters” of other “programs,” an apparent “supporter” of Achieve Community “defending” the “program” at BehindMLM.com is arguing that “The Achieve Community is not a scam [because] I GOT PAID . . .”
Such arguments tend to reflect the coaching of willfully blind promoters and typically are seen on well-known Ponzi boards such as MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold.
All successful Ponzi/pyramid schemes “pay.” Those payments are used as “social proof” no scam exists and help to drive new dollars to scams. HYIP-flavored scams are among the most dangerous in the world. They pollute banks and payment processors with illicit proceeds, turning them into warehouses for fraud schemes. And because bad money follows bad money in the HYIP fraud sphere, the proceeds affect the commerce stream at multiple points of contact.
Money purportedly “earned” in one “program” is used to join another. The banks and processors, in effect, end up warehousing radioactive financial waste. If that’s not bad enough, many of the schemes are exceptionally dark and murky. Money disappears down ratholes or ends up in the hands of ghosts. Such was the case at “Profitable Sunrise” and “Secure Investment” and many more.
There are “I got paid” posts for both of those “programs” on the Ponzi boards.
At Achieve Community, $50 somehow miraculously turns into $400, purportedly in 55 days or so. Our research shows that promos claim people can buy multiple “positions.” There also is a claim that, at some point in the future — a point at which Achieve Community lines up another payment processor — recruits will be able to buy 200 “positions” with two separate transactions of $5,000 each.
This could be construed as an attempt to evade reporting requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act and to “structure” transactions to evade those reporting requirements. The Massachusetts Securities Division has raised the issue of structuring in its action against the TelexFree “program.”
Structuring is dangerous because it accommodates both “micro” and “macro” scams. Some people may buy in at the “micro” level of $50, sometimes known in HYIP Ponzi Land as a “test spend.” Enough “I got paid” posts from cheerleaders at “micro” levels could cause others to buy in at “macro” levels of thousands of dollars.
Some people in TelexFree appear to have made a series of purchases, effectively turning “micro” transactions into “macro” positions. The same thing likely also occurred with the Zeek Rewards and WCM777 MLM “programs.” Like TelexFree, Zeek and WCM777 cratered.
MLMers should reject any contention that no scam exists because a program “pays” or that a member getting “paid” is proof that nothing untoward is occurring. HYIP schemes are infamous for fuzzy if not nonsensical math and for hiding scams behind green curtains.
Beyond that, all successful Ponzi/pyramid schemes “pay.” Ever hear of Bernard Madoff? He “paid.”
At the moment, 9,000 or so alleged winners are confronting clawback lawsuits to recover alleged fraudulent transfers from the c. $850 million Zeek Rewards scheme.
Put another way, Zeek “paid.” After that, Zeek caused people it “paid” to have to hire lawyers and respond to subpoenas and prepare to sit for depositions — all at their own expense.
Imagine Bernard Madoff, who “paid” far less than Zeek on an annualized percentage basis, strolling into court and addressing the judge at sentencing:
“But . . . but, Your Honor,” he begins. “You don’t understand. I paid. This is so unfair! I’ll tell you what this is! It’s a [freaking] conspiracy by the government against people just trying to help their fellow man!”
Next imagine the judge, after repairing from the bench to the restroom to projectile-vomit, returning to the courtroom and ordering the bailiff to escort Mr. Madoff through the side door to begin his 150-year tour of the prison system.
Finally, imagine Madoff sitting in his cell and having the following conversation with himself.
“If only the Achieve Community cycler had been around at the time. I could have rolled in all my clients’ money and, for each $50, I’d get paid $400 — in just two months or so, no less!”
If you can imagine these things, you can imagine the insidious world of the HYIP universe. Madoff, no stranger to chicanery, might actually be mortified at the goings-on in certain MLM circles. Even so, he never would have insulted a judge by insisting no Ponzi scheme existed because he “paid.”
Put another way, the greatest Ponzi schemer in U.S. history was more honest than the average HYIP purveyor and willfully blind promoter hoping to carve off profits from the mass production of scams on the Internet.
“Secure Investment lured customers by creating its own good reputation and by publishing a seemingly successful trading record on its elaborate website. It was all a lie. The company’s claims to have offices and a large staff were also false. At least some of its so-called customer testimonials were actually delivered by actors.” — Bloomberg News, Nov. 13, 2014
From promo for ‘Secure Investment’ on YouTube.
Dear Readers,
We’re about to provide you a link to a Bloomberg News story on a purported Forex-trading entity known as “Secure Investment.” Get ready: You’re about to read the maximum tale of how a nation’s security and faith in the legitimate marketplace can be undermined by criminals (or worse).
We did a quick check. Sure enough, Secure Investment had a presence on Ponzi boards such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup before it disappeared in May, possibly with $1 billion or more. At first glance, the Ponzi-board penetration appears not to have been particularly deep. Still there are “I got paid” posts, including one dated June 18, 2013. It says, “*** Great News ! *** You have successfully received money from a registered SolidTrust Pay member! Keep this email as your receipt.”
The purported SolidTrustPay sender’s email address was from Yahoo, not from the SecureInvestment.com web domain.
SolidTrustPay operates from Canada and has been associated with more scams than one has time to count.
Congressional investigations over Secure Investment are a virtual certainty. The SEC, just yesterday, announced that yet-another scam trading on social media had plundered investors with a fantastical narrative about “1.5% daily returns for 100 days” and accompanying artifices to pull it off — things such as fake business addresses, fake names, fake domain registrations. That “program” was called “Profits Paradise” and allegedly was operating out of India.
“Profits Paradise” also had a presence on the Ponzi boards.
In terms of fantastical constructions, Secure Investment crushes Profits Paradise. As things stand, persons or persons unknown have consumed wealth on an epic scale.
Read the Bloomberg News story, which is being widely quoted by the financial media today. A YouTube promo for Secure Investment appears below. Please note the link to the promo is featured in the very first MoneyMakerGroup post about Secure Investment. The MoneyMakerGroup category was “MoneyMaking: Markets, Real Estate, Banking, and Investments » Forex » Technical & Fundamental Analysis, Daytrading, & Other Strategies.”
From an SEC exhibit in the Profits Paradise complaint.
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 a head of steam on social media, the SEC charged. (A quick Google search shows that ProfitsParadise also had a presence on well-known Ponzi forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.)
ProfitsParadise operated between April 2013 and early February of 2014 and offered “guaranteed” payouts, the SEC alleged.
The scam “invited investors to deposit funds that supposedly would be pooled with money from other investors and traded on foreign exchanges as well as in stocks and commodities,” the SEC alleged.
Pitches on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter were “pervasive” and resulted in investors being exploited, the SEC charged.
The named respondents are Pankaj Srivastava of Mumbai and Nataraj Kavuri of Hyderabad. They also are accused of promoting the scam through Google Plus.
Srivastava “used the pseudonym “Paul Allen,” the SEC charged. Kavuri called himself “Nathan Jones.”
It was not immediately clear from the complaint whether the HYIP scammers intended to trade on the name of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. HYIP schemes, however, are infamous for trading on the names of prominent individuals.
“Srivastava and Kavuri used excessive secrecy in their effort to swindle investors through social media outreach and a website that attracted as many as 4,000 visitors per day,” said Stephen Cohen, associate director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “Our investigation stopped the constant solicitations once the website disappeared, and successfully tracked down the identities of the perpetrators behind those fraudulent solicitations.”
Bogus names also were used to register websites, the SEC charged.
Srivastava caused the Profits Paradise website to be registered through GoDaddy in the name of “Jane Roe” of Seattle, the SEC charged.
“Jane Roe is a fictitious name, and there is no connection between Profits Paradise and the dwelling at 300 Boylston Ave E., in Seattle, Washington, or its residents,” the SEC charged. “The telephone number provided to GoDaddy is a toll-free number for a conference call center that is unrelated to Profits Paradise,” the SEC charged.
Meanwhile, a Gmail email address linked to the supposed Seattle street address was associated with IPs “located in India, not Seattle,” the SEC charged.
At the same time, the agency charged, “Kavuri disguised Profits Paradise’s physical location by providing the false ‘whois’ data, indicating that Profit Paradise’s operations were within the United States when they were not.”
From the SEC’s civil administrative complaint (italics added):
“The phony name and address served a dual purpose. In addition to concealing the fact that Srivastava and Kavuri were behind the Website, the domain name registration to Jane Roe at a Seattle address was meant to attract American investors. Additionally, to create the illusion that mainly American investors were visiting the Profits Paradise Website, Srivastava instructed the web designer to ensure that the ‘Alexa detail’ showed the Website’s ‘rank in the United States’ rather than its ‘rank in India.’ “Alexa” refers to a website (www.alexa.com) that ranks other websites, by country, based on the amount of Internet traffic directed to the website.”
Also typical of HYIP scams, payment processors such as Liberty Reserve, PerfectMoney and EgoPay were used. Dates cited in the SEC complaint suggest Profits Paradise opened its Liberty Reserve account just prior to federal prosecutors bringing criminal charges against Liberty Reserve in May 2013.
Srivastava, in 2005, worked for Quixtar.com in Minneapolis, but returned to India in 2007, the SEC said.
Read the SEC complaint, which alleges the Profits Paradise scheme also was “structured so that under certain conditions investors could never recover their principal investments.”
3rd Update 12:58 P.M. EDT U.S.A. The office of Massachusetts Commonwealth Secretary William Galvin has issued a subpoena to Wings Network, the Boston Globe is reporting.
From the Globe (italics added):
“We attended one of their events,’’ Galvin said. “We had heard from some investors who, in light of TelexFree, had become concerned — and we’re concerned.’’
Galvin’s office alleged that TelexFree was a combined Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that had gathered more than $1.2 billion.
Both TelexFree and WCM777 were targeted at the Brazilian community in Massachusetts, according to filings. In addition, the “programs” targeted speakers of Spanish and Chinese. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also filed charges against the “programs.”
No charges have been brought against Wings Network. The Massachusetts probe is ongoing, the Globe reports.
Like WCM777, Wings Network says it is in the cloud-computing business. Like TelexFree, Wings Network says it’s involved in “apps.” TelexFree also pushed a VOIP product.
Galvin’s office issued a warning on pyramid schemes last month, saying that investigators have encountered “recent schemes” involving “products related to internet services, mobile marketing platforms, app sales, cloud computing services, and voice-over-internet applications.”
The HYIP world is infamous for reload schemes in which victims of previous scams are targeted again by purveyors of purported emerging “opportunities.”
There is a Wings Network outlet in Framingham, Mass., according to a photo in the Globe.
The Framingham area appears to have been a TelexFree stronghold.
Like TelexFree, AdSurfDaily, Zeek Rewards, Profitable Sunrise and other schemes that have come under regulatory scrutinty, Wings Network has a presence on well-known Ponzi-scheme boards such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.
Faith Sloan as shown in a YouTube video promoting TelexFree, an alleged pyramid scheme that “mainly targeted Dominican and Brazilian immigrants in the U.S.,” the SEC said.
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (19th Update 5:45 p.m. ET U.S.A.) The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed charges against the alleged TelexFree pyramid scheme and a federal judge has granted an asset freeze.
TelexFree was a sham to mask an investment scheme known as “AdCentral” in which affiliates were told they could earn money without selling anything as long as they placed “meaningless ads” for the the program’s VOIP product on the Internet “and recruit[ed] others to do the same,” the SEC charged.
The TelexFree “program” was targeted mainly at “Dominican and Brazilian immigrants in the U.S.,” the SEC alleged.
One of its key promoters, Sanderley Rodrigues de Vasconcelos, also known as Sann Rodrigues, has a history of both pyramid-scheming with telephone products and affinity fraud, the SEC said.
On March 9, after TelexFree had received subpoenas on Jan. 22 and Feb. 5 from the Massachusetts Securities Division, according to assertions in TelexFree’s bankruptcy case filed earlier this week, TelexFree changed its compensation scheme. The Securities Division is the state-level regulator in Massachusetts and is overseen by Commonwealth Secretary William Galvin.
Galvin filed a state-level civil action against TelexFree on Tuesday that alleged an epic Ponzi and pyramid scheme that had gathered more than $1.2 billion. Records now show the SEC was in court on the same day, filing a federal case under seal and seeking an asset freeze. A federal judge granted the freeze yesterday, and the seal was lifted today, the SEC said.
“Prior to the rule change on March 9, 2014, there was no requirement that AdCentral promoters actually sell any VoiP packages in order to receive their weekly payments,” the SEC charged. “Indeed, TelexFree and its promoters repeatedly emphasized that AdCentral members did not have to sell anything — they simply had to post the internet ads. The slogan repeated over and over was “everybody gets paid weekly.”
Named defendants in the SEC’s action are TelexFree Inc., TelexFree LLC, TelexFree co-owner James Merrill of Ashland, Mass., TelexFree co-owner and treasurer Carlos Wanzeler of Northborough, Mass., TelexFree CFO Joseph H. Craft of Boonville, Ind., and TelexFree’s international sales director, Steve Labriola of Northbridge, Mass.
Also charged were four individual promoters: Sanderley Rodrigues de Vasconcelos, formerly of Revere, Mass., now of Davenport, Fla., Santiago De La Rosa of Lynn, Mass., Randy N. Crosby of Alpharetta, Ga., and Faith R. Sloan of Chicago.
How much they allegedly earned was not immediately clear.
The SEC is the top securities regulator in the United States.
“This is one of several pyramid-scheme cases that the SEC has filed recently where parties claim that investors can earn profits by recruiting other members or investors instead of doing any real work,” said Paul G. Levenson, director of the SEC’s Boston Regional Office. “Even after the SEC and other regulators have alleged that such programs are a fraud, the promoters of TelexFree continued selling the false promise of easy money.”
Named a relief defendant as the alleged recipient of fraud proceeds from TelexFree was TelexFree Financial Inc. of Coconut Creek, Fla.
“It was incorporated by Craft on December 26, 2013,” the SEC alleged. “Its officers and directors are Wanzeler and Merrill, and Wanzeler is its registered agent. On December 30 and December 31, 2013, it received wire transfers totaling $4,105,000 from TelexFree, Inc. and TelexFree, LLC.”
Also named a relief defendant was TelexElectric LLLP of Las Vegas. “It was formed on December 2, 2013,” the SEC charged. “Its general partners are Wanzeler and Merrill. Financial statements prepared by Craft indicate that TelexFree made a $2,022,329 ‘loan’ to TelexElectric.”
In addition, Telex Mobile Holdings Inc. of Las Vegas was named a relief defendant.
“It was incorporated on November 26, 2013,” the SEC alleged. “Its officers are Wanzeler and Merrill. Financial statements prepared by Craft indicate that TelexFree made a $500,870 ‘loan’ to Telex Mobile.”
The PP Blog reported the existence of asserted TelexFree intracompany loans on March 9.
Craft, the SEC said, “has been the chief financial officer of other multi-level marketing companies.”
The Boston Globe is reporting this afternoon that during a raid of the TelexFree Massachusetts office Tuesday by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, Craft “tried to leave the scene with a laptop and cashier’s checks totaling nearly $38 million.”
In its complaint, the SEC said that “on April 11 (just before TelexFree filed for bankruptcy), Merrill and the wife of Wanzeler obtained cashier’s checks in the total amount of $25,552,402. The checks are payable to TelexFree, LLC.”
Citing information it had received from a bank, “TelexFree, LLC sent $10,389,000 to an entity known as TelexFree Dominicana, SRL,” the SEC alleged. Records suggest this transaction occurred on April 3, 2013.
And federal “wire transfer records show that Wanzeler wired $3.5 million to the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation in Singapore on January 2, 2014, the SEC alleged.
“The Commission has not yet been able to obtain a complete set of statements from the defendants’ banks, brokerage firms, and credit card payment processing services,” the SEC said in its complaint. “However, the information available to date, from bank records and other financial records as well as from statements made by various defendants, indicates that Merrill and Wanzeler, who had sole authority to transfer TelexFree corporate funds until the bankruptcy filing, have caused more than $30 million to be transferred from TelexFree operating accounts to themselves and to affiliated companies in the past few months.”
Merrill received $3,136,200 on Dec. 26 and Dec. 27, 2013, the SEC alleged, citing bank statements. On the same dates, Wanzeler “received $4,317,800,” the SEC alleged.
Again citing bank statements, the SEC alleged that approximately $14.3 million “was transferred to newly-created brokerage accounts in the name ofTelexFree, LLC” in December 2013. The complaint outlines other money routes prior to the bankruptcy filing, which seeks the “authority to reject all existing AdCentral contracts” with TelexFree promoters.
The PP Blog reported on Monday that TelexFree was seeking to reject the contracts.
SEC investigators, according to the fraud complaint, plucked a number of online videos featuring TelexFree’s top promoters.
“When telling his success story in an internet video on March 13, 2013, Rodrigues stated, ‘Just place your ads every day and everyone gets paid weekly,’” the SEC charged. “He also asked and answered the following question: ‘What company in the country, in the world, you can make money . . . you don’t need to sell anything? Now it exists. TelexFree.’”
In April 2013, Crosby was quoted in a video as saying, “What if you were with a company that would pay you just to advertise the service? . . . They’re paying us to advertise the service. It’s just that simple.”
He added that members do not have to “worry about selling to the public,” the SEC charged.
Just two months after the Profitable Sunrise action, Sloan allegedly was flogging TelexFree.
“Sloan stated in an internet video on June 12, 2013, ‘Place your ads, and you go about your day,’” the SEC charged.
“You do that for seven days a week, you get paid every single week,” the SEC continued, quoting Sloan.
She added, “You don’t have to build,” the SEC charged. “You don’t have to sell.”
Like similar schemes before it that had collected hundreds of millions of dollars — AdSurfDaily, Zeek Rewards, Imperia Invest IBC, Pathway To Prosperity and Profitable Sunrise — TelexFree had a presence on well-known Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.
And what about the photos showing Merrill posing in front of a large building In Massachusetts? The SEC said they were part of the scheme to defraud.
From the SEC’s complaint (italics added):
The “Founder” section of the TelexFree website includes a photo of Merrill standing in front of a large three-story building, with the caption “Mr. Merrill in front of the headquarters of Telexfree in the USA.” At least two versions of the marketing presentation on the company website contained a photo of Merrill and a photo of the same building with the caption “The Company HS: United States.” The use of the building photo is misleading. TelexFree, Inc. does not own or occupy the entire building. In fact, it originally shared a single suite (consisting of a receptionist, conference rooms, and cubicles) with 28 other companies. Only in December 2013 did it move into its own suite, which occupies a portion of the first floor. TelexFree, LLC has no physical office at all, just a mailing address in Nevada.
From the SEC’s statement on the TelexFree case (italics added):
According to the SEC’s complaint, the defendants sold securities in the form of TelexFree “memberships” that promised annual returns of 200 percent or more for those who promoted TelexFree by recruiting new members and placing TelexFree advertisements on free Internet ad sites. The SEC complaint alleges that TelexFree’s VoIP sales revenues of approximately $1.3 million from August 2012 through March 2014 are barely one percent of the more than $1.1 billion needed to cover its promised payments to its promoters. As a result, in classic pyramid scheme fashion, TelexFree is paying earlier investors, not with revenue from selling its VoIP product but with money received from newer investors.
A website styled MutualWealth.com is fraudulent and is part of an international pyramid scheme, the SEC says.
BULLETIN: (7th Update 8:51 p.m. ET U.S.A.) Entities known as Fleet Mutual Wealth Limited, MWF Financial Limited and Mutual Wealth are frauds that filed invalid forms with the SEC to dupe the masses, the SEC said.
An associated web domain styled MutualWealth.com also is a fraud, the SEC said in a statement and emergency court filing that alleges a pyramid scheme in which promoters become referral agents or purported “accredited advisors” to earn recruitment commissions.
“Mutual Wealth used Facebook and Twitter as well as a team of recruiters to spread a steady stream of lies that tricked investors out of their money,” said Gerald W. Hodgkins, an associate director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.
Some recent scams have purported to operate out of Hong Kong, something that appears also to be the case with Mutual Wealth.
“[A]lmost nothing that Mutual Wealth represents to investors is true,” the SEC said. “The company does not purchase or sell securities on behalf of investors, and instead merely diverts investor money to offshore bank accounts held by shell companies. Mutual Wealth’s purported headquarters in Hong Kong does not exist, nor does its purported ‘data-centre’ in New York. Mutual Wealth also lists make-believe ‘executives’ on its website, and falsely claims in e-mails to investors that it is ‘registered’ or ‘duly registered’ with the SEC.
And, the SEC said, Mutual Wealth may operate through entities in Panama and the United Kingdom “and through Russian or Belarussian nationals.”
From the SEC complaint (italics added):
Investors who complete an account application are instructed to transfer money to Mutual Wealth either by wire transfer to banks located in Latvia and Cyprus or through third-party payment processors such as SolidTrust Pay, EgoPay, or Perfect Money.
Like other fraud schemes, Mutual Wealth has a presence on the MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold Ponzi forums.
U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee of the Central District of California has ordered an asset freeze on all accounts “at any bank, financial institution, brokerage firm, or third-payment payment processor (including those commercially known as SolidTrust Pay, EgoPay, and Perfect Money) maintained for the benefit of Mutual Wealth,” the SEC said.
Assisting in the probe are the FBI, the Financial and Capital Market Commission of Latvia, the Ontario Securities Commission and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, the SEC said.
According to the SEC’s complaint, Mutual Wealth operates through entities in Panama and the United Kingdom and uses offshore bank accounts in Cyprus and Latvia and offshore “payment processors” to divert money from investors. Mutual Wealth’s sole director and shareholder presented forged and stolen passports and a bogus address to foreign government authorities and payment processors.
As in previous scams, the Mutual Wealth fraud spread on social media, the SEC said.
“Mutual Wealth maintains Facebook and Twitter accounts that link to its website and serve as platforms through which it lures new investors,” the SEC said. “Some of Mutual Wealth’s ‘accredited advisors’ then use social media channels ranging from Facebook and Twitter to YouTube and Skype to recruit additional investors and earn referral fees and commissions.
“Mutual Wealth’s Facebook page spreads such misrepresentations as ‘HFT portfolios with ROI of up to 250% per annum. Income yield up to 8% per week,’” the SEC said. “A Facebook post on Aug. 12, 2013, boasted ‘$1000 investment into the Growth and Income Portfolio made on April 8th, 2013 is now worth $2,112.77.’ Mutual Wealth regularly posts status updates for investors on its Facebook page, and the comment sections beneath the posts are often filled with solicitations by the accredited advisors. Mutual Wealth also tweets announcements posted on its Facebook page.”
Scammers recently have been purporting they are conducting IPOs or pre-IPOs or are registered with the SEC.
“Mutual Wealth has filed three Securities Act Forms D with the Commission,” the SEC said. “Each Form D purports to give notice of offerings of securities that are exempt from registration with the Commission under Regulation D of the Securities Act.
“But Mutual Wealth’s offers and sales of securities do not qualify for the exemptions cited in the Forms D or any exemption under from registration under Regulation D of the Securities Act. Consequently, the Forms D are invalid and of no legal effect,” the SEC said.
About 150 U.S. investors opened Mutual Wealth accounts, plowing “at least” $300,000 into the scheme, the SEC said.
The purported TataAgro entity had a presence on the Ponzi boards and appears to have used trading screens to dupe the worldwide investing public. Image source: Google cache.
BULLETIN: (3rd Update 8:32 a.m. ET, Feb. 20 U.S.A.) The Tata Group, a global conglomerate based in India, says its name has been stolen by an HYIP Ponzi scheme. The fraud scheme is associated with a domain styled TataAgro.com and has a presence on the MoneyMakerGroup, TalkGold and DreamTeamMoney Ponzi forums, according to search results.
Like the recently exposed WCM777 fraud scheme, the TataAgro scam claims a business presence in the British Virgin Islands. WCM777 also traded on the names of famous companies, including Siemens, the German conglomerate. Siemens issued statements warning the public about WCM777. Tata now has done the same thing with the purported TataAgro entity.
The TataAgro website “claims that ‘Tata Agro Holding is a subsidiary of the globally known Tata group, [and is] one of the top 10 agro investment players in Asia’s financial market,’” the real Tata says. “It goes on to offer a wide range of investment plans with a monthly profitability of up to 100%.
“Members of the public are hereby cautioned that the information provided on the website is absolutely false, misleading and intended to defraud innocent and unwary members of the public,” the real Tata says. “Neither Tata Sons nor any other Tata company has any connection whatsoever with the aforesaid Tata Agro Holding. Tata Sons is initiating appropriate action in the matter.”
PonziTracker.com was among the first outlets to report the news of the Tata warning.
The TataAgro site appears not to be loading.
It is somewhat common for fraud schemes to try to steal the identities of major figures on the world financial stage. CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, regularly publishes information on purported “opportunities” that adopt the names of legitimate firms to create confusion and fleece the masses.
A post dated Dec. 3, 2013, at the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum claims the purported TataAgro entity pays “1.9-3.1% daily for 15-90 days” and accepts Perfect Money, BitCoin, EgoPay and Qiwi.
Meanwhile, a post dated Dec. 17 at the DreamTeamMoney Ponzi forum makes this claim (italics added):
Tata Agro is an agricultural investment company founded in 2012 in British Virgin Islands. We are a subsidiary of transcontinental conglomerate Tata Group that has been established in India back in 1868 and now boasts the combined market capitalization of $96 bln.
We have retained only the best things from a rich and long experience of our ancestor: the unique corporate culture, client-oriented and customized approach, and understanding of the market through retrospective analysis. Our fundamental aim is to help you grow your capital.
We work with assets like barley, soya, soya oil and meat, corn, wheat, and livestock and currently operate in CME Group, TOCOM, and MGEX exchange houses.
We are eager to offer you four investment plans with the daily ROI of 1.9% to 3.1% and investment term of 15 to 120 days. You can invest from 5 to 10,000 USD. Apart from that, we offer you a profitable referral program that lets you earn more and work side by side with your family and friends.
A post dated Dec. 17 at the TalkGold Ponzi forum makes these claims (italics added):
Invest 5 to 100$ for 15 days and earn 1.9% ROI daily;
Invest 100 to 1000$ for 30 days and earn 2.3% ROI daily;
Invest 1000 to 5000$ for 60 days and earn 2.5% ROI daily;
Invest 5000 to 10,000$ for 120 days and earn 3.1% ROI daily.
Collapsed fraud schemes such as Zeek Rewards, AdSurfDaily, Legisi, Pathway to Prosperity, Profitable Sunrise, Imperia Invest IBC and many more also had a presence on the Ponzi boards.
The TelexFree “program” currently has a presence on the Ponzi boards.
YouGetPaidFast, a Texas-based “program” that plants the seed it has the blessing of the FBI, is benefiting from a pitchman who is handing out flyers at an “unemployment office,” according to a post from an apparent naysayer at the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum.
The poster says his friend is the one handing out the flyers — and won’t listen to reason because he is desperate for money.
If the claim is true, it would follow an incendiary circumstance that surfaced in the Women’s Gifting Tables pyramid scheme in Connecticut that resulted in lengthy prison sentences for two pitchwomen.
Such schemes typically target vulnerable populations. Similar schemes such as HYIP frauds have been known to target people facing mortgage foreclosures and recent job losses.
YouGetPaidFast is operated by Paul Darby, a Texan who claims he is friendly with FBI agents and has them on “speed dial.”
At least one FBI agent has vetted his “program,” Darby has claimed.
Unlike the Women’s Gifting Table scheme, which asked for $5,000 at a time, YouGetPaidFast appears to be seeking the much-smaller sum of $28. Participants reportedly are instructed to mail $7 to each of four names of individuals or entities that appear on a list and advised they are purchasing products.
Gifting and other fraud schemes that assert they sell inexpensive “products” appear somewhat regularly on the Internet. Such an approach is consistent with micro-fraud, a scam by which hucksters gather small sums from participants, rather than seeking large sums. The hope is that the small sums will add up to a large sum over time and investigators will perceive a micro “program” as less toxic than a jugular-vein fraud and won’t bother to look into it.
The JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid HYIP “program” purportedly operated by AdSurfDaily Ponzi pitchman and cash-gifter Frederick Mann was an example of micro fraud. Participants were told that JSS/JBP would give them $10 to get started in the “program.” After payout and other problems developed at JSS/JBP, the “program” started seeking “purchases” of tens of thousands of dollars at a time.
Claims that a “program” sells “products” and that participants make “purchases” long have been associated with bids to mask the true nature of the “program” — a gifting scam or HYIP fraud disguised as a merchant doing legitimate business, for example. Meanwhile, claims that the government or an important politician or business person have vetted or endorsed a “program” are common in the fraud sphere.
An earlier Darby “program” featured a knockoff of the Seal of the President of the United States and suggested that something called Net Millionaires Club was an “economic stimulus package.”
The marketing efforts of Net Millionaires Club were reminiscent of those of the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme exposed by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008. (ASD traded on the name of former U.S. President George W. Bush; Darby has traded on the name of President Obama.) In 2010, a Phil Piccolo-linked scam known as Data Network Affiliates planted the seed that it had been endorsed by Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump.
Meaningless, Bizarre, Piccolo-Like Claims
YouGetPaidFast now screams it is “SETTING RECORDS WORLD WIDE,” pointing to an Alexa traffic ranking and “Video Views by You Tube 30 Days” as purported proof of legitimacy. Despite the claim it is setting records, however, YouGetPaidFast does not appear to specify precisely what records it is setting. Nor does it appear to say precisely what authority had certified the marks as “records.”
Such incongruities litter the cash-gifting and HYIP landscapes, which are lined with the carcasses of collapsed “programs.” Sometimes the “programs” come back with a new name or a name designed to instill new confidence such as XXX Scheme 2.0 XXX Scheme Web 3.0.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) warned in 2010 that fraud schemes were spreading online through social-media sites such as YouTube. A year earlier — in 2009 — the Better Business Bureau reported there were 22,974 cash-gifting videos on YouTube.
Those videos, the BBB said at the time, had garnered an “astounding 59,192,963 views.” (Also see June 2009 report on cash-gifting by KIII-TV. The report includes an interview with an official from the Better Business Bureau of Central Texas.)
Cash-gifting purveyors are “targeting people with some form of an affinity — such as as women’s clubs, community groups, church congregations, social clubs and special interest groups,” the BBB warned four years ago.
On Oct. 8, BehindMLM.com, citing a Darby claim, reported that one or more Christian pastors was encouraging Darby to sue his detractors.
Pointing to Alexa rankings and YouTube videos to sanitize frauds is one of the oldest tricks in the scammer’s playbook in the Information Age. Veteran online huckster Phil Piccolo, known for bizarre schemes such as Data Network Affiliates, OWOW and Text Cash Network, has been doing it for years.
Piccolo also has planted the seed he’ll sue his critics. In 2010, he planted the seed on Troy Dooly’s radio program that he could bring in leg-breakers if lawsuits didn’t work. Piccolo earlier had threatened to sue Dooly.
Paul Darby with “President Obama,” apparently on Inauguration Day in 2009 after the U.S. Secret Service infomed the MLM world through the filing of the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case that trading on the name and image of the President of the United States might not be a good idea.
UPDATED 8:37 A.M. EDT (OCT. 21, U.S.A.) Former AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin is continuing to serve 78 months in federal prison at the age of 78 — in part because he borrowed liberally from the MLM scammer’s playbook and planted the seed that the President of the United States (then George W. Bush) backed his “program.” Some MLM prospects joined the ASD fraud scheme — a $119 million Ponzi popularized in part on the Ponzi boards and broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008 — based on pitches highlighting Bowdoin’s purported ties to the White House.
Bush left office on Jan. 20, 2009. Barack Obama then became President.
Records now strongly suggest that Obama was President for only minutes when he became an unwitting salesman for an MLM or affiliate scheme. Indeed, an online pitch featuring “Obama” is dated Jan. 20, 2009, Inauguration Day in the United States and the date upon which Obama took over from Bush.
A Blog on Google’s free Blogspot platform made this headline claim on Jan. 20, 2009: “Barack Obama visits Unimax Services.”
The Blog, which remains online well into Obama’s second term that began on Jan. 20 of this year, features a knockoff of the Seal of the President of the United States. “Presidents Club,” it screams. Recruits for a “program” known as Net Millionaires Club apparently were accorded the title of Presidents — not of the United States, but of the “Unimax States.”
This is straight out of MLM or affiliate scheme La-La Land.
Paul Darby, who describes himself as “President of the Unimax Services Corporation” on the Blogspot site with the “Barack Obama visits Unimax Services” headline, is featured alongside a cardboard cutout of Obama in a video playing on the site. In the bizarre video, Darby bizarrely describes the cutout of Obama as the “featured guest” and suggests the Net Millionaries Club he’s promoting with the knockoff of the U.S. Presidential Seal is an “economic stimulus package.”
If you don’t go any farther than the headline — if you don’t take the time to view the video showing the Obama cutout — you could reasonably conclude that Obama actually visited Unimax Services and endorsed the “program.” Put another way, it’s a contemptible, backdoor way to use the Internet to turn the White House and the Commander-in-Chief into a spokesman for a highly dubious MLM or affiliate scheme.
If all of this seems altogether too much, altogether too bizarre, consider that the Secret Service, through the filing of the ASD Ponzi case in 2008, informed the MLM world that it wasn’t a good idea to go around trying to tie the President of the United States to your scheme. Next consider that the ASD scheme had its own form of a Darby-like Net Millionaries Club; the ASD version was multipronged and was called the “President’s Circle,” the “President’s Advisory Board” and “President’s Advisory Counsel.” Then consider that the Darby Blog — in January 2009, months after the ASD case had been filed — led with the “Barack Obama visits Unimax Services” headline on the date the President was inaugurated.
Did the President of the United States really visit Unimax Services, purveyors of the Net Millionaires Club? And did the White House somehow give Darby permission to alter the Seal of the President of the United States as a means of driving traffic to the “program? Did Paul Darby learn nothing from the ASD case?
But it gets worse . . .
Flash forward to 2013 (while considering that MLM schemes such as BidsThatGive and Lyoness also have tried to tie themselves to the U.S. Presidency or the Presidency of other countries), and you’ll find Darby as the braintrust behind yet another “program.” This one is called “YouGetPaidFast.”
Like ASD before it, YouGetPaidFast has a presence on the Ponzi boards. The new “program” appears to be a cash-gifting scheme. Ponzi-forum pitchman “Ken Russo,” previously of the ASD Ponzi scheme, the GNI and NewGNI Ponzi schemes, the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme, the MPB Today pyramid scheme, the Club Asteria fraud scheme and the Profitable Sunrise fraud scheme, is helping lead the YouGetPaidFast charge.
“Ken Russo” appears even to have coined a new acronym to deflect attention away from the critical issues surrounding online fraud schemes. Critics, according to a post attributed to “Ken Russo” at the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum, are “NAG[s].” NAG stands for “Naysayers Anonymous Group.”
According to “Ken Russo,” in apparent defense of YouGetPaidFast (italics added):
“The NAG (Naysayers Anonymous Group) are doing their best to deter you from joining an excellent program which offers one of the best opportunities I have ever seen for average folks to develop a substantial additional income stream. The NAG is relentless in their efforts to denigrate this fine program . . .”
This is occurring after the United States charged three women criminally in Connecticut for pushing a cash-gifting pyramid scheme. Two of the three women were sentenced earlier this year to lengthy terms in federal prison.
It also is occurring against the backdrop of bids earlier this year by enthusiasts of other Ponzi-board “programs” to trade on images of Obama and the prestige of the U.S. Presidency. Those “programs” included Empower Network and “Ultimate Power Profits.”
Unlike his Net Millionaires Club scheme, however, Darby’s YouGetPaidFast scheme appears no longer to be interested in trading on the name of the President of the United States and the seal of the President of the United States.
No, this time Darby is planting the seed that the FBI backs his “program.”
Darby is trotting out some of the same sort of MLM La-La Land talking points advanced by self-styled Zeek Rewards consultant Robert Craddock — that is, if you speak out against a “program,” you’re going to get sued and perhaps even paid a visit by its backers in law enforcement.
As BehindMLM.com is reporting today, Darby now claims to have FBI agents on “speed dial.” And at least one of those agents purportedly has vetted YouGetPaidFast and given it the all-clear.
Beyond that, according to the BehindMLM.com report, one or more Christian pastors is encouraging Darby to sue his detractors.
If that seems altogether too odd, consider that purported Christian pastors also are backing Empower Network and its purported “Badass” content, including the reported death by suicide of a top Herbalife MLM distributor.
David Wood, one of the top dogs at Empower Network, once advised critics to “Back the fuck down.”
“Be warned: BIG, SCARY WARNING,” Wood wrote. “I’m in the process of having lawyers research into whether or not we can sue the shit out of you.”
Whether Wood lost any pastors after the remark is unclear. At least one purported pastor encouraged Empower Network affiliates to overlook the nasty language and simply concentrate on making money. Pastors also backed the ASD Ponzi scheme and the Profitable Sunrise scheme — to cite just two of the MLM fraud schemes that recently have fleeced people of faith. ASD’s Bowdoin, before becoming a pitchman for a scheme known as OneX, once described himself as a Christian “money magnet.”
There is plenty of God talk in YouGetPaidFast, too.
Will it be the shot heard ’round the HYIP world — or will serial Ponzi-board and social-media fraudsters continue to pretend it is meaningless?
Matthew John Gagnon, a 45-year-old pitchmen for the $72 million Legisi HYIP Ponzi scheme and other online fraud schemes, is listed as an inmate at Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Sheridan, Ore.
In July, Gagnon was sentenced to 60 months in prison, ordered to pay $4.4 million in restitution and further ordered to serve three years’ supervised probation after his prison release. He was permitted to self-report to prison. That appears to have occurred yesterday.
Gagnon colleague and Legisi operator Gregory N. McKnight was sentenced to a prison term of more than 15 years. McKnight’s age is listed as 53. He was sentenced last month and was ordered taken into custody immediately. He is listed as an inmate at the FCI in Milan, Mich. McKnight was ordered to pay more than $48.9 million in restitution and further ordered to serve three years’ supervised probation after his prison release.
Legisi was promoted on Ponzi-scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. In 2007, Legisi became the subject of an undercover investigation by state regulators in Michigan and the U.S. Secret Service. Both criminal and civil charges followed.
In court filings on June 6, Legisi receiver Robert D. Gordon said more than 85 percent of the $72.6 million directed at Legisi had flowed through e-Bullion.
e-Bullion is a now-defunct processor. One-time e-Bullion operator James Fayed is on California’s death row after being convicted of ordering the brutal contract slaying of Pamela Fayed, his wife and a potential witness against him.
AdSurfDaily, a $119 million Ponzi scheme also promoted on the Ponzi forums, also accepted money from e-Bullion, according to court filings.
Legisi’s Terms of Service read like an invitation to join an international financial conspiracy. Members had to affirm they were not associated with the SEC, the IRS, the FBI and the CIA — along with “Her Majesty’s Police,” the Intelligence Services of Great Britain and the Serious Fraud Office.
“While reviewing the ASD website in the District of Columbia, [an undercover agent] found a posting within ASD’s News section, apparently posted by ASD on July 2, 2008. The title of the posting was, “Alert Pay & Direct Deposit are being phased out July 31, 2008.” According to ASD’s posting, “We have notified BOA not to accept cash or personal checks for deposit account – English or Spanish.” ASD further stated, “Please remember that the preferred method of purchasing Ad Packages is by mailing a Check or by Solid Trust Pay . . . Solid Trust Pay is a Canada based money transmitting and payment company that, like the e-Gold system, operates over the Internet. It appears that beginning August 1, 2008, Solid Trust Pay will be ASD’s preferred method for receiving funds from members, and for paying rebates and commissions to members . . . Within the past two weeks, ASD has wired several million dollars to Solid Trust Pay from its BOA Accounts. A TFA also learned that earlier in July 2008, a bank other than BOA closed the last account that was controlled by Bowdoin or family members after that bank determined, and explained to them, that an investigation by the bank determined that Bowdoin appeared to be operating a Ponzi scheme.” — AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme forfeiture complaint, August 2008
TelexFree affiliate promos encouraging participants to register for International Payout Systems (I-Payout) began to appear online in recent hours. Just last month, TelexFree affiliates were encouraged to register for Global Payroll Gateway, another e-Wallet vendor that supposedly would solve TelexFree’s payment problems as a pyramid-scheme probe moved forward in Brazil. There now are reports online that GPG has dumped TelexFree, leading to questions about whether TelexFree is trying to port its alleged fraud scheme to yet another vendor — I-Payout. Source: Google search results.
In 2008, the U.S. Secret Service effectively accused the AdSurfDaily MLM “program” of playing a game of payment-processor roulette as U.S. law enforcement put the squeeze on certain money-movers, the willfully blind enablers of online fraud schemes.
ASD, a $119 million HYIP Ponzi scheme that led to a 78-month prison sentence for operator Andy Bowdoin, started out by accepting “e-Gold and Virtual Money,” according to a Ponzi-scheme forfeiture complaint filed in federal court in August 2008.
But ASD, according to the complaint, realized e-Gold had come under investigation for enabling the laundering of money, something that could put the heat on ASD.
“Shortly after publicity surrounding the government’s investigation into e-Gold appeared, ASD discontinued using the e-Gold system as a means for receiving member funds,” the complaint alleged.
And even as these events were occurring, according to court filings in the ASD case and in other cases, Robert Hodgins, a supplier of debit cards and the operator of Virtual Money Inc. — now listed by INTERPOL as an international fugitive — came under investigation in Connecticut amid allegations he was assisting in the laundering of narcotics proceeds in Medellin, Colombia, and prepping himself to assist in the laundering of funds in the Dominican Republic.
Virtual Money, whom some ASD members said was supplying debit cards to ASD, also was linked to the PhoenixSurf Ponzi scheme, according to court filings.
In December 2010, federal prosecutors alleged that ASD also had accepted money from e-Bullion, a California firm that processed payments for Ponzi schemes, including the $72 million Legisi HYIP scheme in Michigan that led to prison sentences for operator Gregory McKnight and pitchman Matthew John Gagnon. E-Bullion operator James Fayed has been sentenced to death for ordering the brutal contract slaying of his wife, a potential witness against him. Pamela Fayed’s throat was slashed repeatedly in the shadows of a Greater Los Angeles parking garage, her husband seated on a nearby park bench “like he doesn’t have a care in the world.”
ASD, according to court filings, also used AlertPay and SolidTrustPay, money-movers based in Canada that have been linked to multiple Ponzi schemes, including the alleged $600 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme broken up by the SEC last year.
Not even Bowdoin’s arrest in 2010 stopped him from pitching fraud schemes, according to court filings. Facing serious criminal charges for his actions in ASD, Bowdoin (in 2011) became a pitchmen for the OneX “program,” which federal prosecutors later alleged to be a pyramid scheme recycling money in ASD-like fashion. Among Bowdoin’s fellow OneX pitchmen was T. LeMont Silver, later of Zeek and later of JubiMax and GoFunPlaces, two MLM “programs” that are suing each other amid allegations of financial fraud.
At one time, OneX claimed to have a relationship with SolidTrustPay. It then claimed to have ended that relationship and to have started a relationship with I-Payout. Earlier, I-Payout had listed the uber-bizarre TextCashNetwork MLM “program” with ties to the Phil Piccolo organization as a “selected client.” TextCashNetwork now appears to have disappeared, but still is operating with the acronym “TCN” — this time as TrueCashNetwork. How the “new” TCN is processing payments is unknown. What is known is that someone associated with the “new” TCN has sent emails to “winners” in the Zeek scheme in an apparent bid to get them to flog for the new iteration, an apparent investment arm of which is being promoted as an opportunity to earn an interest rate of 50 percent.
Now — as incredible as it seems — promoters of the alleged TelexFree pyramid scheme operating in Brazil and the United States now are claiming that TelexFree is using I-Payout, known formally as International Payout Systems Inc. Equally incredibly, this is happening less than a month after TelexFree promoters advised TelexFree participants to register with Global Payroll Gateway (GPG), another eWallet company and supplier of debit cards, as a means of getting paid after payouts to Brazilian members of TelexFree were blocked in Brazil.
Just last month, TelexFree affiliates were encouraging prospects to register with Global Payroll Gateway (GPG). In recent hours — and amid reports GPG has given TelexFree the boot — TelexFree affiliates have been urged to register with I-Payout. Source: Google search results.
There are reports online, including on Facebook from self-identified members of TelexFree, that GPG gave TelexFree the boot in recent days. No sooner did those reports surface than videos went up on YouTube encouraging TelexFree members to register for I-Payout.
One of the reports that TelexFree suddenly had shifted from GPG to I-Payout is published on the MoneyMakerGroup forum. MoneyMakerGroup’s name appears in U.S. court files as a place from which Ponzi and fraud schemes are promoted. Both FINRA and the SEC have warned that HYIP schemes spread in part through social-media sites such as forums, YouTube and Facebook.
Because international MLM HYIP fraud schemes often have promoters in common — and because the schemes are promoted on Ponzi cesspits such as MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold — proceeds from the schemes can flow into banks at the local level, putting them in the position of becoming warehouses for the ill-gotten gains of participants, including winners and insiders. The use of stored-value debit cards such as those in play in HYIP schemes can lead to the quick dissipation of assets, meaning that victims of an HYIP scheme may have limited hope (or even no hope) that a recovery can be made for their benefit.
The most recent incongruous events involving TelexFree are occurring even as at least one judge and one prosecutor involved in the TelexFree pyramid probe in Brazil reportedly have been threatened with death. And, as was the case with ASD, some promoters of TelexFree have claimed an ability to expedite the flow of money to the scheme — perhaps through back-office transactions within the TelexFree system.
We recommend these two stories/Comments threads at BehindMLM.com on “The Achieve Community.” Access the first here. Access the second here.
