EDITOR’S NOTE: Reproduced below is the full news release by the office of North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine F. Marshall on the cease-and-desist order issued last week to “Profitable Sunrise.”
Even as the state has raised serious concerns about the “program,” Profitable Sunrise “defenders” have been seeking to minimize the issues. Some people even are hurling insults at North Carolina regulators while blanketing Ponzi-scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup with “I got paid” posts.
That a program “pays” is not evidence that no fraud scheme is occurring. (Bernard Madoff “paid” — right up until the day he didn’t.) Along those lines, collapsed “programs” such as Zeek Rewards, AdSurfDaily, Legisi, Pathway To Prosperity and Imperia Invest IBC — all of which advertised outsize returns — all had a presence on the Ponzi boards.
Some “defenders” of Profitable Sunrise appear to be scurrying to describe the alleged investment “program” as the recipient of “loans” from customers. The “loan” claims may raise altogether different issues — such as whether Profitable Sunrise is engaging in unlawful banking while commingling assets and operating as an unlawful investment pool. And despite “defenders’” claims that Profitable Sunrise is not the issuer of “securities” as investment contracts, Profitable Sunrise has advertised five investment schemes on its own website, including a bizarrely named plan known as the “Long Haul” that purported to pay 2.7 percent a day. The Legisi HYIP scheme sought to escape scrutiny in the United States by calling itself a “loan” program. Federal prosecutors described Legisi operator Gregory McKnight’s wordplay as “semantic obfuscation.” The SEC earlier described U.S.-based Legisi pitchman Matthew John Gagnon as a threat to the investing public.
Here, below, the statement by Marshall’s office . . .
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Raleigh – North Carolina Secretary of State Securities officials have issued a Temporary Order to Cease and Desist to Roman Novak, Radoslav Novak and Inter Reef LTD d/b/a Profitable Sunrise to bar them from offering and selling or attempting to sell securities in the form of investment contracts to North Carolina’s investing public.
Secretary of State investigators say the respondents promoted five different “investment plans” through a website that offered rates of return ranging from 1.6-percent per business day to 2.7-percent per business day. Investors were told their money would be used to fund short-term loans to businesses. Investors were also told their investments were “risk-free,” “with a certain rate of return and no chance of default,” and that “all funds deposited with us are insured against loss.”
Secretary of State investigators have also discovered that victims were making wire transfers of money to financial institutions in Eastern European countries.
However, the respondents were never registered with the North Carolina Secretary of State’s Securities Division to sell securities and the investment itself was not registered as a security in accordance with the North Carolina Securities Act.
“We have issued this Cease and Desist Order because we believe this solicitation poses a real danger to the investing public,” Secretary of State Elaine F. Marshall said Friday. “Proper registration of securities and the individuals selling securities is fundamental to protecting the public from con artists and investment fraud. That is why it is so important to call our Securities Division before investing your hard-earned money to make sure that the investment you are considering is registered. This case also demonstrates the perils of web-based investment marketing.”
Marshall urged anyone in North Carolina who has invested with Profitable Sunrise to contact the Secretary of State’s Securities Division at 1-800-688-4507.
