Nicholas Smirnow, the operator of the Pathway To Prosperity Ponzi-board “program” charged with fraud by U.S. authorities in 2010, has been sentenced in Canada to seven years in prison.
INTERPOL’s wanted notice for Smirnow is still active. It lists his age as 59 and says he faces charges of conspiracy, securities fraud, wire fraud and money-laundering in the United States.
In June 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice pointed to P2P as an example of international mass-marketing fraud that occurs on the Internet. The “program” was a Ponzi-forum darling. MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold are referenced in P2P-related filings in the United States as places from which Ponzi schemes are promoted.
Ponzi forums and social media continue to drive traffic to hideous schemes. Recent examples of Ponzi-board programs include Traffic Monsoon, Zeek Rewards and TelexFree. There are many more.
NOTE: Thanks to a reader for the heads-up on Smirnow’s sentencing in Canada.
UPDATED 7:41 P.M. EDT U.S.A. If the office of U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Wigginton of the Southern District of Illinois gets its way, Canada will turn over accused international Ponzi schemer Nicholas Smirnow to the United States.
An “extradition request has been submitted to the government of Canada for the extradition of SMIRNOW to the United States,” according to a March 20 update to the Smirnow victims’ site maintained by Wigginton’s office.
Ontario Provincial Police notified Wigginton’s office of the Smirnow arrest in December, according to the victims’ site. U.S. federal prosecutors and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service accused Smirnow in 2010 of operating “Pathway To Prosperity,” a $70 million Ponzi-board swindle that flowed across six continents into 120 countries and affected tens of thousands of participants.
P2P, as the scheme was known in shorthand, allegedly created victims in 48 of the 50 U.S. states and in 18 of the 38 counties that comprise the Southern District of Illinois. The concentration in the district may suggest a major P2P promoter was operating in the area.
Many HYIP schemes offer promoters commissions to round up participants. Prosecutors have described the interest rates offered by P2P as absurd.
U.S. prosecutors said this in 2010 (italics added):
According to the complaint, investors were offered their choice of seven, fifteen, thirty, and sixty day “plans.” At the daily interest rates promised by SMIRNOW, a seven day plan supposedly produced an annual return of 546% and a sixty day plan supposedly was returning an annual return of 720%. Fifteen and thirty day plans supposedly returned equally spectacular rates of return. If an investor reinvested both his original investment and the supposed earnings that Pathway to Prosperity promised on a seven day program, for instance, at the daily interest rate quoted by SMIRNOW, the annual return would have been approximately 17,000%.
Smirnow initially slipped out of Canada to the Philippines, where he ended up in jail, according to court filings. Although the United States sought to extradite him from the Philippines nearly five years ago, the process reportedly was canceled, resulting in Smirnow eventually heading back to Canada.
U.S. filings from 2010 identified him as a resident of Baysville, Ontario. Precisely why the earlier process was canceled is unclear.
What is clear is that the United States has now asked Canada to turn him over.
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (6th update 9:35 p.m. ET U.S.A.) Nicholas Smirnow, still listed by INTERPOL as a person wanted by the United States in the alleged Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) HYIP Ponzi scheme that affected people in 120 countries, has been arrested at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, Canadian media outlets are reporting.
U.S. federal prosecutors charged Smirnow, believed now to be 56 or 57, in 2010. He has been listed by INTERPOL since that time.
P2P was an instance of international mass-marketing fraud, U.S. authorities said in 2010. Though large for its time in the 2008 to 2010 time frame after allegedly gathering more than $70 million and affecting 40,000 investors, P2P since has been eclipsed in dollar volume and victims count by other mass-marketing fraud schemes such as Zeek Rewards and TelexFree.
Professor James E. Byrne, an HYIP expert consulted by the U.S. government in the P2P case, said in 2010 that “the investment scheme described in the materials that I have reviewed are not legitimate but resemble and are classic instances of so-called high yield frauds and fraudulent pyramid schemes. The proposed returns are excessive for even the most risky legitimate investments and are simply preposterous for investments whose principal is supposedly guaranteed.”
From Byrne’s P2P analyis (italics added):
The funds are turned over to the investment and “earn” returns that range from 1.5% daily for a 7 day plan Plus the return of the initial investment to 2.67% daily for a 60 day plan or 160.2% plus the return of the initial investment. The weekly returns on the 7 day investment would amount to approximately 540% per year without taking into account the principal and the 60 day plan would return approximately 950% annualized.
Like many HYIP schemes before and after, P2P had a presence on well-known Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. Both forums are referenced in P2P-related court filings. TalkGold got a mention last week in the Liberty Reserve money-laundering case.
Like current schemes with a Ponzi-board presence such as “Achieve Community,” the P2P tentacles spread far and wide and sucked in vulnerable people such as senior citizens. From a PP Blog story on May 31, 2010 (italics/bolding added):
The scheme was almost unimaginably widespread, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said in an affidavit.
“Financial records of payment processors utilized by P-2-P to collect investment funds from investors show that approximately 40,000 investors in 120 countries established accounts with P-2-P,” a postal inspector said. “Despite the fact that the investment was supposedly ‘guaranteed, investors lost approximately $70 million as a result of [Smirnow’s] actions.”
The probe began when the U.S. government received a referral from the Illinois Securities Department “concerning an elderly Southern District of Illinois resident who had made a substantial investment in P-2-P,” the postal inspector said in the affidavit.
“In addition to P-2-P’s own website, I discovered that P-2-P’s investment scheme was marketed on other websites, including High Yield Investment Program forums, which I was able to access directly through the internet,” the inspector said.
Before long, the inspector determined that the scheme cost investors losses in 48 of the 50 U.S. states, and 18 of the 38 counties that comprise the Southern District of Illinois, prosecutors said.
Such penetration in Illinois may suggest Smirnow had a promotional arm in the state. The complaint spells out a case against conspirators “known and unknown,” and the complaint notes that family members told other family members about the scheme.
“When P-2-P’s funds were depleted and when investors did not receive a return of their funds as they had been promised, [Smirnow] caused a posting on P-2-P’s private forum warning investors not to complain to payment processors about P-2-P’s failure to return their money or they would find themselves ‘on the outside looking in,’” prosecutors charged.
The postal inspector has spoken to “hundreds of P-2-P investors” during the course of the investigation, according to court filings.
“Hundreds [of people] sent me copies of printouts they had made of P-2-P’s website, postings that had been made on the P-2-P’s members forum, and internet sites touting high yield investment programs which contained postings related to P-2-P,” the postal inspector said.
With “Achieve Community,” promoters claim that $50 turns into $400 in three months or less. Participants are encouraged to roll over profits.
Achieve Community promoters have published extrapolations that show “earnings” in the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and even the millions of dollars.
The HYIP world is known for promoters’ bids to change the storyline, but this one may take the cake — or at least be a sweet complement.
There are reports in Brazilian media that a promoter of the TelexFree MLM scheme — alleged to be a massive pyramid — has named an ice cream after TelexFree to show support for the embattled firm.
“The ice cream is not a pyramid,” a person was quoted as saying in DiarioDigital, according to a translation — and neither is its namesake.
Recruitment by TelexFree is banned in Brazil while investigations by at least seven Brazilian states proceed. Payments to Brazilian participants by TelexFree likewise are blocked. The purported “opportunity,” however, still is operating in other countries and apparently gathering money and issuing payments.
Separately, Veja.com is reporting that undercover investigators in Brazil have noticed that some Brazilian promoters of TelexFree have crossed national borders into Bolivia and Paraguay to keep TelexFree investment money flowing. Here is a link to the story in Portuguese; here is the link to the English translation by Google Translate.
The United States long has warned about cross-border fraud such as was present in PathwayToProsperity, an alleged $70 million Ponzi scheme whose operator is listed by INTERPOL as an international fugitive. P2P, as the “program” was known, made its way across multiple continents and 120 countries, according to court filings.
Meanwhile, U.S. promoters of TelexFree have been busy watching a promoter’s Aug. 16 YouTube video titled, “How to register your GPG account with TelexFree.”
GPG, according to the video, stands for Global Payroll Gateway.
The company, according to its website, provides services such as loading payrolls onto debit cards. TelexFree, according to the affiliate’s video, is now a GPG client and TelexFree affiliates must “connect” their account to GPG to get paid.
A screen shown in the TelexFree affiliate’s video shows an apparent executive of TelexFree announcing that the changeover to GPG’s services “is causing a delay in our payment process for the first run.”
The FBI long has warned that certain types of debit cards can be abused and that a “shadow banking system” is playing a role in fraud schemes that affect national security.
If TelexFree is adjudicated a scam, it may be difficult for the governments of the world or the receivers/trustees they may appoint to gather proceeds for victims. HYIP money may dissipate quickly, perhaps particularly quickly if it is offloaded with debit cards. In a money-laundering case brought in 2008, federal prosecutors in Connecticut said that millions of dollars in narcotics proceeds were offloaded at ATMs in Colombia.
Robert Hodgins, a Canadian currently listed by INTERPOL as an international fugitive in the Connecticut money-laundering case, reportedly supplied the debit cards through a firm known as Virtual Money Inc. and had ties to the HYIP world and schemes such as PhoenixSurf and AdSurfDaily.
Another screen in the TelexFree affiliate’s video shows folders with titles such as “telexfree,” “Banner[s] Broker, “hyip monitors,” “forex”and “Passive peeps.”
The context of the folders shown in the video is unclear. Banners Broker, however, is a bizarre HYIP scheme. HYIP monitors are websites that monitor whether a particular HYIP site is “paying.” Meanwhile, the word “passive” often is used in HYIP scams that promote tremendous returns for investors inclined to sit back and wait for the payments to flow in, instead of recruiting other investors to earn downline commissions from a “program.”
TelexFree has been promoted on well-known Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. The names of both forums appear in U.S. court filings as places from which fraud schemes are advanced.
From a promo for the alleged $600 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid scheme.
Zeek Rewards, an alleged $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that had a Ponzi-forum presence and became the target of an SEC action last year, was promoted as a “passive” program. Like Zeek, TelexFree purportedly has a requirement that participants post ads for the “program” online.
There have been reports in Brazil that a judge and prosecutor involved in the TelexFree case have been threatened with death.
But not even those disturbing reports were enough to cause TelexFree to cancel a rah-rah event in California last month. The company says it also plans an “at sea” event in December. Earlier, some TelexFree pitchmen provided AdSurfDaily-like coaching tips to enrollees, especially on matters of how to speed the flow of money to the company.
ASD was a $119 million MLM Ponzi scheme broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008. Like Zeek and TelexFree, the ASD “program” also had a Ponzi-forum presence and was promoted as an opportunity for “passive” participants.
Some TelexFree promoters in Brazil appear to believe that TelexFree has been deemed legal in the United States by the U.S. government. This errant belief may in part have been instilled by promoters of TelexFree who worded MLM HYIP pitches to suggest that the U.S. government had authorized the “program.”
Some TelexFree promoters have claimed a payment of $15,125 to the firm will fetch a return of more than $42,000 in a year. Even the cautious “Aunt Ethels” of the world will grow to become keen on TelexFree, according to a promo.
“Investigators from [the Social Security Administration] discovered that hundreds of victims throughout the United States were losing their social security benefits and their life savings either because they believed that they had won ‘The Jamaican Lottery’ or because, as part of another telemarketing scheme, they revealed enough information about themselves that allowed the thieves to fraudulently divert their money.” — Office of U.S. Attorney James L. Santelle, Eastern District of Wisconsin, June 7, 2013
For O’Brain J. Lynch, senior citizens receiving retirement benefits from the Social Security Administration and other sources were the perfect targets of a criminal organization operating an international mass-marketing fraud scheme from Jamaica.
The scheme duped people into believing they had won “The Jamaican Lottery.” In reality, authorities said, it was an advance-fee scam designed to drain retirement accounts and to recruit cashers in the United States.
Lynch, 28, of of Montego Bay, Jamaica, now faces up to 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud, the office of U.S. Attorney James L. Santelle of the Eastern District of Wisconsin said last week. The case was investigated by SSA, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
“Americans have lost millions of dollars to criminals from countries around the world in foreign lottery scams, said Pete Zegarac, inspector in charge of the Chicago Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. “When one family member is harmed by a foreign lottery scam, the impact is felt by all. Losses can be monumental, sometimes entire life savings are wiped out. ”
From a statement by prosecutors (italics added):
A Jamaican Lottery Scheme is a form of mass-marketing fraud committed via the internet, telemarketing, or mass mailings. Jamaican criminal organizations contact victims and identify themselves as lawyers, government officials, law enforcement agents, or lottery company officials. The potential victims are led to believe they won an international multi-million dollar lottery. The fraudulent telemarketers then inform the victims that in order to receive their winnings the victim needs to pay an advance fee. This fee is usually described as a tax, insurance payment, or customs duty that must be paid to release the winnings. The victims are instructed to send the funds via mail or wire transfer.
The scammers routinely involve victims to help facilitate the laundering of financial transactions by receiving and withdrawing funds from prepaid cards and receiving and sending wire transfers. In an attempt to conceal and layer the proceeds from the lottery scams, the scammers direct victims to send funds, knowingly and unknowingly, to other victims and associates of the scammers within the United States. These victims and co-conspirators then transfer the proceeds of this fraud to the scammers in Jamaica by wire transfers. The Jamaican criminal organizations have modified the lottery scam into other variations of telemarketing schemes to include redirecting individuals Social Security Administration (SSA) benefits, direct deposit, automatic debit, re-routing schemes and other identity theft schemes.
According to documents filed in court, in March 2012, the SSA learned that a social security recipient, from Glendale, Wisconsin, was receiving social security benefits in the name of other recipients and cashing in these benefits. Special Agents from the SSA – Office of Inspector General (OIG) discovered the recipient was sending this money to Jamaica because he believed he had won “The Jamaican Lottery.” He said he was contacted by an official from Global International who informed him that he won $2.5 million and two (2) Mercedes Benz vehicles in a sweepstakes. He was then advised that in order for him to collect the money and the cars, he had to pay taxes, customs duty, and other fees. He initially sent his own money to Jamaica, and, once he had depleted his own assets, he was directed, by telephone, to accept checks, Direct Express cards, and other cash value cards in the names of other people (who were also victims), cash them out and then send the money to Jamaica. As a result, numerous victims did not receive their social security benefits, and instead they were mailed to Jamaica. Investigators from SSA discovered that hundreds of victims throughout the United States were losing their social security benefits and their life savings either because they believed that they had won “The Jamaican Lottery” or because, as part of another telemarketing scheme, they revealed enough information about themselves that allowed the thieves to fraudulently divert their money.
Prosecutors said they believed Lynch was the first Jamaican national charged in the United States with this type of fraud.
“We will continue to work with our partners in Jamaica and other law enforcement agencies to put these criminal enterprises out of business,” said Gary Hartwig, special-agent-in charge of HSI’s Chicago Division.
The Journal Sentinel newspaper (Milwaukee) reported last week that Lynch also is known as “Jake Dinero.”
International mass-marketing fraud takes many forms. In 2010, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service alleged that the Pathway To Prosperity HYIP scheme gathered about $70 million and affected 40,000 investors in 120 countries. P2P was a Ponzi-board “program” that in part gained a head of steam on the TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup fraud forums.
The alleged $600 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid scheme followed P2P as a favored “program” on the Ponzi boards, as did the alleged Profitable Sunrise HYIP scheme. Profitable Sunrise may have collected tens of millions of dollars, the SEC said in April 2013, after bringing fraud charges against Zeek Rewards in August 2012.
Reload scams have been targeted at both Zeek and Profitable Sunrise victims, authorities said.
On May 9, the PP Blog reported that an emerging scam that is seeking to tie itself to the Catholic Church is engaging in a spam campaign and seeking to lure Profitable Sunrise victims into a new trap. The scam is using the name of “ALL SAINTS CATHOLIC CHURCH LOAN FIRM” and many other names, some of which are published in the Comments thread in the story linked in the first sentence of this paragraph.
“HYIPs use an array of websites and social media — including YouTube, Twitter and Facebook — to lure investors, fabricating a ‘buzz’ and creating the illusion of social consensus, which is a common persuasion tactic fraudsters use to suggest that ‘everyone is investing in HYIPs, so they must be legitimate.’” — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), July 15, 2010
FINRA issued a warning back in 2010 against HYIP schemes, pointing out that they often trade through social-media sites such as forums, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. The warning came on the heels of the collapse of the Genius Funds “program” ($400 million) and the filing of criminal charges in the United States against Nicholas Smirnow, an alleged former bank robber in Canada who allegedly was running the Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) Ponzi scheme. P2P is alleged to have gathered more than $70 million.
P2P even got a mention on the U.S. Department of Justice Blog. That mention came in the form of a warning about international mass-marketing fraud.
Nearly three years later, Smirnow, 55, is still listed by INTERPOL as an international fugitive.
So is Robert Hodgins, 68. Hodgins, a Canadian supplier of debit cards to HYIP schemes, is charged in a money-laundering case in the United States. It is alleged that cards Hodgins supplied were used by narcotics traffickers to offload millions of dollars in “profits” at ATMs in Medellin, Colombia.
Speaking of Colombia . . . well, it was one of the staging grounds of the infamous D.M.G. Group (DMG) multilevel-marketing pyramid scheme of David Eduardo Helmut Murcia Guzman (David Murcia). Murcia, too, was tied to narcotics traffickers. His collapsed pyramid scheme gathered hundreds of millions of dollars. The anger spilled out onto the streets.
Just about all of these schemes made absurd claims. Genius Funds, for example, promised a payout of 6.5 percent a week. Compare that absurd claim to the Profitable Sunrise claim of 2.7 percent a day through its bizarrely named “Long Haul” plan with a purported payout timed to coincide with Easter. A scheme bizarrely known as Cash Tanker was operating at the same time as Genius Funds. Like Profitable Sunrise, Cash Tanker purported to be a Christian enterprise. It’s gone now, too. So is Profitable Sunrise. Their members were cast into the sea like so much chum.
Enter the Facebook boat-sharks and the contemptible “lifelines” they’re tossing toward the people struggling to stay afloat in rough seas . . .
Despite all the warnings — despite all the publicity surrounding HYIP schemes — opportunists are descending on Facebook today to recruit Profitable Sunrise members (the people struggling in the water) into new scams. The same thing has happened repeatedly, perhaps most prominently in August 2012, after the SEC described the Zeek Rewards “program” as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme.)
Boat-sharks posting on a Profitable Sunrise Facebook site today are promoting schemes such as “SuperWithdraw,” “Whos12,” Maxi-Cash,” “FairyFunds,” “Roxilia,” “OptiEarn,” “AVVGlobal,” “ProForexUnion” and “MajestiCrown.” Some of the emerging schemes promise to pay even more than Profitable Sunrise.
“[F]raudulent commercial schemes are not noted for their internal consistency.” — Professor James E. Byrne, consultant to FBI and Scotland Yard (among others) and HYIP expert hired by U.S. government to assess the alleged Pathway To Prosperity scheme in 2010
Frederick Mann
In a bizarre conference call for the JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid “program,” a caller who identified himself as a former AdSurfDaily member raised the issue of the ASD Ponzi scheme case brought by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008, questioning whether JSS/JBP was safe from regulatory scrutiny or “getting too big and drawing certain attention.”
The implication of the remark was that the attention of the U.S. government would be unwanted.
With listeners identifying themselves as U.S.-based members of JSS/JBP on the line, Frederick Mann suggested that his purported program was outside the reach of U.S. law enforcement.
“Just Been Paid is not based in the U.S.,” Mann replied to the caller, after the female host of the call had paraphrased the caller’s query to Mann. The host paraphrased the question because Mann said he didn’t catch it the first time around.
” . . . [H]e was making reference to AdSurfDaily and that they were closed down, and he wants to know what we have in place to protect Just BeenPaid for it not to happen like AdSurfDaily,” the host said to Mann.
“Just Been Paid is not based in the U.S., and our servers are not in the U.S.,” Mann replied. “We don’t have an office in the U.S.”
But Mann’s answer did not speak to costly civil and criminal litigation that could ensue against JSS/JBP’s U.S.-based members, all of whom are using wires that run through the United States to participate in the purported program and some of whom are using U.S. wires to recruit downline members. Nor did the answer speak to actions the United States could take against JSS/JBP itself.
In 2008, marketing materials identified Mann as an ASD promoter. In January 2012, the Italian securities regulator CONSOB announced a JSS/JBP-related probe and issued a 90-day suspension order. JSS/JBP purports to pay out at a daily rate of 2 percent, double that of ASD. On an annualized basis, the payout rate of JSS/JBP corresponds to a return that is between 48 and 73 times the typical rates that put Bernard Madoff in prison for 150 years. ASD President Andy Bowdoin was indicted on Ponzi scheme charges in December 2010.
Bowdoin specifically was accused of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. The U.S. Secret Service seized 10 of his personal bank accounts in August 2008, amid Ponzi allegations. Other court filings that became public in 2010 showed that the Secret Service also had seized bank accounts linked to some individual ASD promoters.
Mann previously has declined to identify JSS/JBP with a nation-state, meaning investors do not know where the “program” is operating from. JSS/JBP has no known securities registrations, and its U.S. affiliates very well could be selling unregistered securities to U.S. citizens via wire while at once implicating themselves and their recruits in a Ponzi scheme that is trying to disguise itself as a legitimate business.
Even if it is presumed to be true that the United States could not act against the company itself — and that’s a big “if” because U.S. law enforcement has a number of options should it choose to exercise them — U.S.-based affiliates of the “program” likely are running afoul of any number of civil and criminal statutes.
Internal Inconsistencies
In 2010, Professor James E. Byrne — who has consulted with the FBI and Scotland Yard and was hired by the United States to offer an expert opinion on the Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) HYIP scheme — observed that “fraudulent commercial schemes are not noted for their internal consistency” and that materials he examined in the P2P case displayed such inconsistencies.
After a probe by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, P2P operator Nicholas Smirnow was charged criminally and accused of running an international financial scam. The purported return rate of JSS/JBP is somewhat on par with the rates of the alleged Smirnow/P2P HYIP scheme.
Internal inconsistencies were on full display during the March 8 JSS/JBP call featuring Mann.
As one example, a caller who identified himself as “John” and appeared to be speaking in U.S. English asked Mann for some specifics about the program, voicing that he was confused.
“All your marketing material — your website and now this conference call — has confused me more than anything I’ve ever heard in my life,” John said.
“You don’t have any answers for the [gentlemen] that have asked questions,” John said.
Mann suggested that John “submit a help request.”
Apparently growing agitated and increasingly confused, John shot back, “I submit that I just would like to have a straight answer.”
Mann again pointed John to the company’s web-based explanations and resources.
“The basic approach” to JSS/JBP, Mann explained, is to “find one thing that you understand and then find another thing that you understand, and that way you keep on finding things that you can understand.”
Unmoved by Mann’s response, John shot back, “I have two master’s degrees and I’m telling you that I do not understand it.”
John was the seventh caller to have asked Mann questions during the March 8 call. An eighth caller then came on the line. He identified himself as “Rick” (or by a name that sounded like Rick), saying he was from “California.” (Note: Garbling during the recorded call sometimes made it difficult to hear a name clearly.)
Rick questioned whether callers such as John should be asking Mann such “basic” questions, asserting that Rick, unlike John, had no master’s degree but nevertheless understood the program.
At that point, Mann observed that online money-making programs may have a “bigger learning curve.”
After Rick exited the line, a caller who identified himself as “Michael” from “San Francisco” stepped up to the plate for Mann and JSS/JBP.
Michael asserted that, like John, he has a “master’s degree,” adding that “I have lots of degrees” but noting that his academic pedigree was “really not applicable to online money-making.”
As guidance, Michael suggested that JSS/JBP promoters sign up for “all” of the payment processors used by the program — but Michael did not tell listeners that all of the processors with which JSS/JBP has associated itself are operating offshore (from a U.S. standpoint), are known to be friendly to fraud schemes and may deny customers U.S. consumer protections.
More Internal Inconsistencies
Other examples of internal inconsistencies presented themselves during the call, a recording of which was about 48 minutes in length.
One caller who identified himself as residing in “Florida” asked Mann about the importance of the “patent” claim on JBP’s website.
Mann initially replied that the “patent” claim is “not important at all.”
The response, however, gives rise to questions about why JSS/JBP even would mention a patent if it was “not important at all,” particularly since the “program” had altered the patent claim over time.
Prior to a website alteration that appears to have occurred last month, JSS/JBP made this specious claim: “JustBeenPaid! (JBP) and its related programs, including JSS-Tripler, are licensed under United States Patent 6,578,010.”
Those words were changed to read, “JustBeenPaid! (JBP) and its related programs operate in accordance with United States Patent 6,578,010 (now public domain).”
After reflecting on the caller’s patent question, Mann said this, “In any case, the patent is public domain. It doesn’t actually protect anything. But what is relevant about it is that a patent that covers some of what we do was issued and was approved by a government agency.”
In the United States, patents are issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a government entity. The office is not the nation’s securities regulator.
It is common for scammers to try to associate a scheme with the government as a means of planting the seed that the government has full knowledge of the “program” and has endorsed it. The ASD scheme, for example, traded on the name of the President of the United States — something that caught the attention of the U.S. Secret Service, which has the twin duties of guarding the President’s life and protecting the U.S. financial system from criminals.
Callers also expressed confusion about “commission” payments from JSS/JBP and raised questions about an emerging JSS/JBP “Platinum” program that would accompany an existing “Premium” program through which some earlier members had paid higher fees believing they would “cycle” faster and make more money.
Based on comments made during the call, it appears as though the “Platinum” program is priced higher than the “Premium” program — and members are concerned that their earlier “Premium” purchases would be for naught if new “Platinum” purchasers effectively could pay more money to cut in line and “cycle” faster than them.
“You can only load money from your Alertpay account onto it. So, now I can start using AP in other programs & have an easy way to get my money to spend, by loading funds from my AP account onto the card. Then I can use the card like a regular debit card in stores, online & even withdraw the money off of the card via an ATM machine.” — MoneyMakerGroup post by JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid promoter, Feb. 16, 2012
There’s none so blind as those who will not see.
Only a little more than eight months ago — on June 3, 2011 — the U.S. Secret Service advised a federal judge in Maryland that HYIP schemes spread in part through coordinated posts on “discussion boards.” One of the boards referenced in a Secret Service affidavit aimed at seizing tens of millions of dollars in “criminal proceeds” linked to HYIP hucksters and other scammers was TalkGold.
Yes, that TalkGold, the Ponzi cesspit, the same TalkGold to which promoters of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid race to fire up “I got paid” posts to help sustain a scam that advertises an annualized return of 730 percent on top of two-tier downline commissions totaling 15 percent — more, if members choose to “compound” their “earnings” by leaving them in the system.
JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid promoters are doing this on the Ponzi forums even after CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, announced a JSS Tripler-related action late last month and certain promoters’ websites in the United States suddenly have gone missing this month. Frederick Mann is the purported operator of the scheme.
It was not the first time TalkGold’s name had been referenced as a place from which massive fraud schemes were promoted. The board was referenced in 2010 filings by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in the Pathway to Prosperity (P2) case. So was MoneyMakerGroup, another Ponzi and fraud cesspit. P2P operator Nicholas Smirnow was charged criminally, and investigators described P2P as an HYIP scheme that had spread to at least 120 countries and created as many as 40,000 victims. The alleged P2P haul: about $70 million.
Courtroom references by the Secret Service to TalkGold in the context of fraud schemes date back at least to 2007.
Here is how the Secret Service affidavit from June 2011 described the activities that occur on TalkGold and elsewhere. (Italics added):
“Most of the individual posts to the boards are from those who invest in the pyramid schemes and those who operate and promote the illegal investment scams.”
Based on the Secret Service affidavit and voluminous evidence culled in the aftermath of the 2007 E-Gold investigation that had led to 2008 guilty pleas on charges related to unlicensed money-transmitting and money-laundering, the judge authorized the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from the E-Gold accounts of alleged scammers who’d set up shop through E-Gold to fleece the masses.
On June 20, 2011, U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander ordered the money “arrested.” The forfeiture is pending, and the final sum seized is unclear. But the website of a court-appointed claims administrator includes this notation. (Emphasis added): “Approximately $90 million has been seized and/or restrained from the sale of e-metal held in accounts at E-Gold.”
These things are exceptionally noteworthy in the context of the forfeiture case:
E-Gold is assisting investigators in ridding itself of corrupt proceeds warehoused as a result of the money-laundering allegations in 2007. It has cooperated with prosecutors in identifying accounts linked to HYIP scammers and other hucksters.
The Secret Service agent who filed the affidavit is the same agent who led the 2008 AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme investigation, which resulted in the forfeiture of at least $80 million and criminal charges against ASD operator Andy Bowdoin.
Even though the agent allegedly has been targeted with false liens by so-called “sovereign citizens” for his work in the ASD Ponzi case, he continues to serve in a capacity that is vital to the security of the United States. He has conducted numerous investigations involving money-laundering and other crimes. These cases, according to court filings, have resulted in the seizure of more than $300 million in “criminally derived proceeds.” That is more than a quarter of a billion dollars. The agent and his colleagues have worked with a Task Force whose members reverse-engineer fantastically complex financial crimes.
The court-appointed administrator handing the claims process is the same company that handled a similar process in the ASD Ponzi case.
E-Gold has done the right thing in cooperating with investigators.
Coming Soon To An ATM Near You
Any person who spends so little as five minutes on the Ponzi boards knows that Canada-based AlertPay is conducting business with serial promoters of outrageous frauds — frauds that have grave consequences to individual pocketbooks and frauds that have grave ramifications to national and international security.
And now, according to posts that originate on forums referenced in multiple U.S. court filings about massive international fraud schemes, AlertPay is sending debit cards to the scammers.
“Thanks Mann & Co.,” the excited poster announcing her coup on MoneyMakerGroup said, adding five smilies to accent her glee after her earlier reference to ATMs and stores that now could be used to offload profits from a scheme that advertises a return of 2 percent a day.
In an earlier post, the MoneyMakerGroup member said she received the AlertPay debit card in her mailbox in North Carolina.
“Now I’m able 2 get my money out FAST!!!!!!!!!!!!” she roared.
Below her post was a link to a “program” known as “Expert Invest Group” that purports to pay “up to 20000% After 30 days.” The company says its accepts AlertPay, Perfect Money and “Liberty Reserver (sic).”
A (Brief) Pictorial Study In Contrasts
1.
MoneyMakerGroup post from Feb. 16 by promoter of JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid. The post highlights the utilty of AlertPay debit cards in joining other "programs" and offloading profits at ATMs and retail outlets.
2.
From Paragraph 55 of a U.S. Secret Service affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland on June 3, 2011.
This May 1 promo for Club Asteria describes its as an "investment company" and instructs prospects that "you will not again anything unless you invest." The promo advertises returns of up to 7 percent a week. "I am happy because even if I am not doing anything I still manage to earn from it," the promo claims.
P2P was promoted on the TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forums.
A little over a month later, in July 2010, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) described the HYIP sphere as a “bizarre substratum of the Internet” and issued a fraud alert. FINRA also referenced the P2P case. At the same time, it pointed to the collapsed Genius Funds Ponzi, believed to have consumed $400 million.
Genius Funds also was promoted on TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.
In December 2010, the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force led by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder specifically warned the public to be wary of social-networking sites and chat forums. The warning was part of “Operation Broken Trust,” a law-enforcement initiative in which investigators described more than $10 billion in losses from recent fraud cases.
One of the cases described was the SEC’s action against Imperia Invest IBC, a murky offshore business accused of stealing millions of dollars from the deaf.
Imperia Invest also was promoted on TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.
Last week, promoters of a Virginia-based company known as Club Asteria (CA) announced on the Ponzi boards that PayPal had frozen CA’s funds and blocked its access to the PayPal system. Although CA has been presented as a wholesome “opportunity” recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a nonprofit organization (see graphic below), the CA promoter who announced the PayPal news last week on MoneyMakerGroup simultaneously was promoting two “programs” that purportedly pay 60 percent a month.
Some CA promoters claim CA pays 520 percent a year. Even jailed Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff would blush at such advertised rates of return.
MoneyMakerGroup is referenced in federal court filings as a place from which Ponzi schemes are promoted. So is TalkGold, another well-known forum in the HYIP world.
This morning — also on the MoneyMakerGroup — a different CA promoter announced that CA’s Andrea Lucas had responded to last week’s PayPal news. Even as the CA member was announcing on a known Ponzi scheme and criminals’ forum that Lucas had issued a statement on the PayPal matter, he simultaneously was promoting two HYIPs and something called One Dollar Riches.
“OneDollarRiches allows you to parlay a small investment of just one dollar into a constant stream of cash, day in and day out!” according to its ad. “You can make 100 times your investment in just a few days by following our simple step by step instructions.”
The mere presence of CA promotions on the Ponzi boards leads to questions about whether the firm’s receipts are polluted by Ponzi proceeds. Paying members from such proceeds would put CA members in possession of tainted money — and banks into which they deposited those proceeds also would be in possession of tainted money.
Lucas, according to the CA website, now has publicly acknowledged last week’s actions by PayPal. Details, though, were spartan. CA did not say how much money PayPal had frozen. Meanwhile, the firm instructed members to fund their accounts by using offshore processors.
At the same time, CA urged members not to spread bad news about the company on forums. Members who shared negative information were subject to having their CA accounts revoked, according to the company.
“Members shall not publically (sic) disparage, demean or attack Club Asteria, its members, services or charitable activities,” CA remarks attributed to Lucas on the CA website read. The remarks were dated May 16 and appeared in the “News” section of the site.
In the same announcement, Lucas acknowledged that a “small group” of CA members “used their PayPal accounts to cheat fellow members.”
The company claimed it had turned the members “over to the authorities,” but did not identify the authorities or say whether they were based in the United States or elsewhere.
CA, which said PayPal was “acting with integrity,” then counseled its members to rely on offshore processors.
“First, if you have been paying for your membership through PayPal, please discontinue your subscription with PayPal immediately and start using one of the other approved payment processors AlertPay, Towah or CashX to ensure that your membership stays current,” the remarks attributed to Lucas read.
“Second, Do NOT use online forums, websites or social networks to lodge blame or complaints about PayPal or your Club Asteria team,” the remarks continued. “There is no benefit or purpose in this, and it only serves to create discord and spread rumors. Not only that, doing so is a direct violation of Code of Ethics & Conduct, Rule 8 and can result in immediate revocation of your membership.”
CA’s bizarre announcement occurred against the backdrop of thousands of bizarre promos for the firm that appear online. Some promos claim $20 spent with CA monthly turns into a lifetime income of $1,600 a month. Others claim CA is a “passive” investment opportunity, which raises questions about whether CA — whose members claim the program typically pays out about 3 percent to 4 percent a week or up to 208 percent a year — is selling unregistered securities as investment contracts.
Lucas has been referred to in promos as a former “chairman” and “vice president” of the World Bank. Several promos have described her as a Christian “saint.”
CA’s claims that only a “small group” of members is causing problems may be dubious. Wild claims have been made in promo after promo for the firm, which says it is not in the investment business.
This promo for CA contains a link that resolves to an active CA affiliate site. The affiliate site has a low affiliate ID number, suggesting the affiliate was one of CA's earliest members. The promo claims CA is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization recognized by the IRS.
UPDATED 12:04 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) In court filings this week in the AdSurfDaily autosurf Ponzi scheme case, federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia revealed a series of jaw-dropping numbers. The biggest of these is 500,000 — the number of pages of emails gleaned so far in the investigation, which began in July 2008.
Because prosecutors put the qualifier “at least” on the already-staggering number, it is clear the number actually could increase. Each of the pages is subject to the discovery process, meaning that attorneys from both sides and perhaps the court itself faces the monumental challenge of sifting through at least half a million pages of scheme-related correspondence.
Other big numbers in the alleged $110 million ASD Ponzi include 100,000, the number of pages of bank records, and 5,000, the number of pages of documents that emerged after the U.S. Secret Service searched ASD’s office in Quincy, Fla., and the home of company president Andy Bowdoin.
To date, investigators have identified 40,000 potential ASD victims. This number also could grow because there is reason to believe that “there may be members who provided funds to ASD but whose information ASD did not enter into its database,” according to prosecutors.
ASD’s database included information on 97,000 members. Some participants have claimed ASD actually had 120,000 members. Regardless of the final number that emerges, ASD created victims by the tens of thousands, including victims who do not live in the United States, prosecutors said.
The import — and the danger of these numbers — is that ASD is only one autosurf. There may be hundreds if not thousands of autosurfs operating in the world at any one time, along with hundreds or thousands of HYIPs. Like other autosurfs and HYIPs, ASD was promoted on Ponzi forums such as TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup and ASA Monitor. The Ponzi pitchmen love American money, and commission-grubbing American salespeople and serial promoters who play dumb to line their pockets at the expense of their fellow countrymen specialize in spreading the misery globally.
In May, the PP Blog reported on criminal charges filed against Nicholas Smirnow, the alleged operator of the Pathway to Prosperity (P2P) Ponzi and HYIP scheme. The numbers that have emerged from that alleged scheme are equally stunning: $70 million fleeced from 40,000 victims in 120 countries from “all of the permanently inhabited continents of the world,” according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
The criminal complaint filed against Smirnow specifically references the TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup and ASA Monitor Ponzi forums — the same forums from which ASD and countless other schemes have been promoted.
Legisi, yet another alleged scheme pitched at the forums, also produced some big numbers. Among them are $72.6 million fleeced from at least 3,000 victims. Matthew Gagnon, one Legisi pitchman, netted $3.8 million alone from the scheme, according to the SEC.
So, in just the three alleged schemes referenced in this column — ASD, P2P and Legisi — the numbers shape up like this: at least $252.6 million gathered from at least 83,000 victims. If the P2P and Legisi cases are shaping up like the ASD case from the standpoint of paper production, investigators, attorneys from both sides and the courts may have to go through more than a million pages of documents and corresponding bank records to make sense of it all.
Meanwhile, the wink-nod, serial promoters continue to ply their trade on the Ponzi boards — all while the U.S. and world economies are trying to navigate the choppiest waters since the Great Depression. While the serial promoters are lining their pockets at the expense of Moms and Pops from virtually every corner of the earth, they are anticipating the danger signs consistent with the implosion of their currently favorite Ponzi — and they are preparing their next round of lies to protect their illicit profit pipeline and explain away the problems that inevitably will emerge.
Some of the professional criminals will tell their marks that it is their duty to be patient when Ponzi payments slow down. They’ll add that problems affect all enterprises regardless of size, and that it’s not unusual for payment bottlenecks to occur. They’ll explain that it likely is a problem with software or the need to acquire a new server to accommodate traffic. After all, they’ll say, “growing pains” are something to celebrate because they signal the success of the enterprise.
And the serial criminals also will talk about a doubting recruit’s duty to be loyal to the enterprise. After all, they’ll explain, the company is doing the right thing by acquiring the equipment and manpower needed to streamline operations and thus return to a normal payout schedule.
While the professional Ponzi criminals are explaining all of this, investors will become further separated from their money before the final round of excuse-making begins. Investors will be cautioned not to contact the authorities and told not to contact the payment processors. After all, the serial pitchmen will explain, if the authorities seize the cash or if the payment processors freeze the accounts, no one will get paid.
When the scheme ultimately collapses, some of the serial criminals will shrug their shoulders and feign surprise. They’ll explain why they had every reason to believe that this one was different, that they’d been assured by the Christian operator it was different. No matter, they’ll say, perhaps positioning themselves as people of faith. Recruits who invested more than they could afford to lose have only themselves to blame, they’ll claim. (This is if they call it “investing” at all; many serial criminals avoid that word like the plague. After all of these years and all of this Bible-thumping, they still apparently believe that it’s possible to skirt securities laws by avoiding the word “investment” and calling it something else.)
Then they’ll unapologetically move on to the next scam. After all, they’ll explain, they have a right to make a living. Some of them will explain that the government, which refuses to see the beauty of the autosurf and HYIP models, is to blame. Along the way they’ll create some clone promoters, and the clones will multiply. The clones will add to the purported, pro-Bible (and antigovernment chorus) — and before long, investigators trying to reverse-engineer a single case will be sifting through 500,000 pages of emails, 100,000 pages of bank records and 5,000 pages of records created as the result of the execution of a search warrant or as a result of actual documents seized.
Agents then will begin the mind-numbing and time-consuming process of identifying victims by the tens of thousands.
Some of the victims will lose their homes because they borrowed against their equity to take advantage of “bonus” ad packs and to maximize their “earnings” through “compounding.” Others will have lost savings set aside to educate their children. Still others will have lost their life savings and money set aside for retirement.
Many of the people who created all the pain will sprint back to the Ponzi forums — and the government will be left to clean up the colossal mess. The Ponzi pitchfest is in constant motion as property values decline in neighborhood after neighborhood, driven by the foreclosures glut. The Stepfords among the promoters will write their Congressman or Senator or perhaps the Inspector General at the Justice Department.
They’ll more or less say that it would be in the interests of America if the Congressman or Senator or Inspector General would see fit to fire all the prosecutors and agents who made these unseemly events occur.
And then they’ll gather up their lists of suckers and try to recruit them into yet-another MLM, autosurf or HYIP nightmare. This they will call “freedom.” Some of them will be angry. Some of them will write rambling diatribes on forums. Invective will be part of the diatribes. Some of them will call public officials “Nazis” and “Socialists,” perhaps even in the same fractured paragraph. Some of them even will try to sue the government or have the prosecutors and judges charged with crimes. They’ll talk about “treason” and high crimes against the Constitution.
What they will never do is make any sense.
It is impossible to imagine that any government agency has the resources to take down all of the corrupt MLMs, autosurfs and HYIPs. But one can imagine a systematic process by which the government identifies the serial promoters and plans a litigation strategy from which will emerge the “shot heard round the world” of corrupt online investment “opportunities.”
That day cannot come soon enough — and the numbers demand it: more than $250 million gathered from victims of just the three alleged schemes referenced on this page, perhaps 1 million or more emails and other documents produced by the investigations, at least 83,000 victims from virtually all corners of the earth, an untold number of agents/investigators from multiple government entities forced to sift though monumental piles of evidence.
It is clear that wealth is being drained by the billions. It is equally clear that vast sums of money have gone missing in the Age of Terrorism.
Clearest of all, however, is that the corrupt MLMs, autosurfs and HYIPs cannot thrive without their greedy and dangerous promoters — and that highly public lawsuits and early morning raids designed to hold the wink-nod Ponzi pitchmen accountable would send an unmistakable message that pain is in your future if you promote these criminally toxic businesses. Serial promoters deserve the same treatment as mid-level drug dealers.
No economy can thrive if a single case among thousands of potential cases is producing 500,000 pages of emails and creating 40,000 victims while consuming tens of millions of dollars — and if “shell companies,” the “shadow banking system” and wink-nod, serial promoters are driving the wanton criminality and letting the cancers metastasize globally.
Here’s hoping such an operation aimed specifically at corrupt MLMs, autosurfs and HYIPs already is under way.
President Obama formed the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force in November 2009. He later became the subject of an attack ad by an affiliate of the purported MPB Today "grocery" MLM.
UPDATED 10:56 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The ASA Monitor Ponzi and criminals’ forum now is redirecting to a website operated by CashX.com, a Canadian payment processor that hawks MasterCard debit cards and says it permits customers to withdrawn money to Liberty Reserve.
Liberty Reserve is a Ponzi-friendly payment processor purportedly headquartered in Costa Rica after earlier operating from Panama.
Meanwhile, confessed Ponzi schemer Arthur Nadel — who briefly went on the lam from Florida in early 2009 as his $390 million scheme was disintegrating and became known as one of the original “mini-Madoffs” — has been sentenced by a federal judge in New York to 14 years in prison.
It is effectively a life sentence for Nadel, who is 77 and one of several senior citizens implicated in U.S. Ponzi schemes.
At the same time, a former clergyman from Indiana who told congregants it was their “Christian responsibility” to become pitchmen for his then-undiscovered bond scheme has been convicted of nine counts of securities fraud.
Vaughn Reeves, 66, is scheduled to be sentenced next month. The jury deliberated only four hours before returning the verdict against Reeves, himself a senior citizen. Congregants believed they were helping raise money for church-building projects, but it was a scam that led to foreclosure proceedings against eight places of worship. (See link to AP report below.)
Claims made by Reeves are similar to claims made by the Data Network Affiliates (DNA) MLM program, which told members that churches had the “MORAL OBLIGATION” to help bring business to the Florida-based firm and qualify for commissions ten levels deep. DNA purports to be in the license-plate data collection business, claiming it can help law enforcement and the AMBER Alert program recover abducted children.
Incongruously, DNA also purports to sell a “protective spray” that shields cameras from taking photographs of license plates. Equally incongruously, the company said that it could offer a free cell phone with unlimited talk and text for $10 a month. The company later backtracked on the claim, bizarrely saying it studied pricing structures only after announcing it had become the world’s low-price leader while acknowledging it hadn’t vetted its purported vendor for the service.
DNA figure Phil Piccolo later threatened to sue critics. Earlier, Dean Blechman, who said he was the company’s CEO before resigning in February, threatened to sue critics. DNA withheld the announcement of Blechman’s departure for nearly a week and then misspelled his name. DNA also described Blechman as the “future” CEO, even though Blechman had described himself as the current CEO.
Blechman complained to the PP Blog about “bizarre” events at DNA.
ASA Monitor, which is referenced in court filings as a place from which the alleged Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) Ponzi scheme was pitched and was a site from which the purported “grocery” MLM operated by Florida-based MPB Today was pitched, suddenly announced on Oct. 12 that it was closing.
Like MPB Today, DNA also was pitched from Ponzi and criminals’ forums.
The ASA Monitor closure announcement coincided with a flap in which an ASA forum moderator sought to muzzle critics of the MPB Today program, which is being targeted at Christians, foreclosure subjects, Food Stamp recipients, senior citizens, people of color and members of the alleged AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme.
ASD also operated from Florida before the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars in August 2008, amid allegations of wire fraud and money-laundering. Robert Hodgins, an international fugitive wanted by Interpol in a narcotics-trafficking and money-laundering case filed after an undercover probe by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Connecticut, provided debit cards to ASD, members said.
Nadel’s scheme, meanwhile, operated in the Sarasota area.
“Through his massive Ponzi scheme, Arthur Nadel greased his own pockets and financed his lavish lifestyle, using money his clients relied on him to invest,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York.
“He cheated his elderly and unwitting victims out of their retirement savings and consigned others to poverty,” Bharara said. “The message of [yesterday’s] sentence should be loud and clear — we will continue to work with our partners at the FBI to find the perpetrators of financial fraud and use every resource we have to bring them to justice.”
U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl ordered Nadel to forfeit $162 million, five airplanes, a helicopter and real estate in Florida, North Carolina and Georgia.
The prosecution of Nadel was brought in coordination with President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder traveled to Florida earlier this year to warn fraudsters that the United States was serious about putting scammers in prison.
By September, an affiliate of MPB Today had created a video in which Obama was depicted as a left-handed saluting Nazi who cowered to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was depicted as a drunk. First Lady Michelle Obama, the mother of two daughters, was depicted as having experienced an embarrassing gas attack in the Oval Office after sampling beans at a Sam’s Club store.
Clinton, depicted in the sales promo as “Hitlary,” knocked out Michelle Obama after barging into the Oval Office bawling and carrying a bottle of wine. Clinton, the mother of one, was the first woman ever appointed to the Walmart board of directors.
Some MPB Today affiliates have claimed Walmart is affiliated with MPB Today and that the government backs the MLM program, which appears to have accounts at at least two banks in the Pensacola area. One of the banks is operating under a consent agreement with the FDIC.
