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Tag: Pathway To Prosperity

  • As Promos On Ponzi Forums Continue And Members Claim IRS Recognition, Club Asteria Acknowledges That Its Members Used PayPal ‘To Cheat Fellow Members’; Says Fraudsters Were Turned Over To Unidentified ‘Authorities’; Existing Members Of Virginia-Based Firm Told To Use Offshore Processors

    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.

    In June 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice used its Blog to warn about the emerging threat of “mass marketing fraud,” specifically citing the criminal allegations of a $70 million Ponzi fraud against Nicholas Smirnow of Pathway To Prosperity (P2P).

    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.

  • PRIMING THE PUMP: TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup Publish String Of ‘I Got Paid’ Posts From Club Asteria Members; ‘It’s No Scam Now,’ Poster Declares

    Two forums listed in federal court documents as places from which Ponzi schemes are promoted have published a series of “I got paid” posts from commentators who say they are members of Club Asteria (CA).

    The “I got paid” posts on MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold appeared after CA members had complained publicly about not getting paid and fretted about the firm’s slow-loading website.

    Both the complaints and the “I got paid” posts lead to questions about whether CA’s revenue stream is polluted by Ponzi proceeds.

    “It’s no scam now,” a poster on MoneyMakerGroup confidently opined after the “I got paid” posts began to appear. A link under the comment led to the affiliate’s CA registration page,  which implied prospects were receiving guidance from an “Investment” company or professional financial adviser.

    This Club Asteria affiliate's sign-up page is accessible from a link on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum. The registration page implies that CA prospects are receiving guidance from a professional "Investment" company or adviser. In May 2010, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service identified MoneyMaker group as a site from which the alleged Pathway To Prosperity Ponzi scheme was pushed. Pathway To Prosperity gathered more than $70 million, creating about 40,000 victims from "all of the permanently inhabited continents of the world," according to federal court filings in the Southern District of Illinois.

    Separately on MoneyMakerGroup, another CA poster declared, “I am in over 35 forums and everyone is posting paid.”

    In July 2010, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued an alert about investment scams and how they spread on the Internet.  Separately, court filings from May 2008 in the SEC’s case against an alleged $70 million Ponzi scheme known as Legisi include a handwritten note from a Legisi enrollee.

    “Money Maker Group.com,” the note read in part. The note was part of a 267-page evidence exhibit the SEC presented a federal judge. The SEC alleged that Legisi created thousands of victims.

    On both MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold, posters have repeatedly noted that CA payments come from “Asteria Holdings Limited (Hong Kong).”

    CA says it accepts money through SolidTrustPay and AlertPay, both of which are Canada-based payment processors. Both companies are referenced in federal court filings in the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, which the U.S. Secret Service said gathered at least $110 million and created as many as 40,000 victims.

    ASD also was promoted on MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold. Solid Trust Pay and AlertPay also are referenced in court filings in the Pathway To Prosperity Ponzi case.

    CA also notes that it conducts business with CashX, another Canadian firm. When the ASAMonitor Ponzi scheme and criminals’ forum mysteriously vanished in October 2010, the site’s landing page initially redirected to CashX.

    Some CA members are selling the “program” by describing what it is not. It is not a Ponzi scheme, and it is not an investment, they claim.

  • SEC Chief Makes Veiled Reference To Imperia Invest Case In Congressional Testimony: Will Ongoing Law-Enforcement Initiatives Spell More Trouble For Serial Online Scammers And Their Enablers?

    SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro

    SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro alluded to the agency’s investigation of the alleged Imperia Invest IBC scam in testimony before Congress this morning, a development that may signal more bad news is in the offing for serial scammers online.

    Without mentioning Imperia by name, Schapiro told members of the House Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government that the agency, which is a member of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, participated in “Operation Broken Trust.”

    In December, the U.S. Department of Justice noted that the Imperia case brought by the SEC in October was part of the operation. Imperia was promoted on Ponzi and criminals’ forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup, both of which have been identified in federal court filings as places from which family-destroying international Ponzi and HYIP fraud schemes are promoted.

    Schapiro said today that the SEC has been aggressively pursuing “Ponzi scheme operators and perpetrators of offering frauds.” The Imperia case, which the SEC brought in Utah, is an example of an Internet-based offering fraud, as are many of the “programs” pitched on the Ponzi boards.

    In December, members of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force identified Ponzi Scheme "hot spots" in the United States. Pictured here are FBI Executive Assistant Director Shawn Henry (foreground), with Attorney General Eric Holder (right) and Chief Postal Inspector Guy Cottrell. The Task Force specifically warned investors to be wary of social-networking sites and chat forums. And officials noted that "we continue to use sophisticated investigative techniques—like undercover operations and court-authorized electronic surveillance—to collect evidence in ongoing cases and to identify and stop criminals before they prey on others."

    Salt Lake City was identified in December by the Task Force as one of the “top five Ponzi scheme hot spots in the country.” Other Ponzi hot spots include Los Angeles, New York, Dallas and San Francisco, the Task Force said, cautioning Americans that the fraud hardly was limited to those cities.

    “Be wary of people you meet on social networking sites and in chat rooms, where investment fraud criminals have been known to troll for victims,” the Task Force urged.

    In June 2010, the Justice Department used its Justice Blog to create awareness about the emerging threat of mass-marketing fraud, specifically referencing the alleged Pathway To Prosperity Ponzi scheme. Pathway To Prosperity, which the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said created tens of thousands of victims from virtually all corners of the world, also was promoted on TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

    In October, before the public knew Operation Broken Trust was under way, the SEC said Imperia had stolen millions of dollars from thousands of Americans with hearing impairments. The firm used a payment processor known as Perfect Money, a favorite among international scammers who populate the Ponzi boards. Imperia also purported to have a relationship with Visa, but was using the name “without authorization” to disarm skeptical investors, the agency said.

    Not a “single penny” was paid to Imperia investors, the SEC said.

    Money from the Imperia scheme is believed to have been funneled into accounts in Cyprus and New Zealand. Imperia purported to have operated from the Bahamas and Vanuatu, but the business addresses were “fake,” the SEC said.

    The Justice Department said Imperia used “a series of offshore PayPal style bank accounts to raise “in excess of $7 million from at least 14,000 investors worldwide, including 6,000 investors in the U.S. who have invested in excess of $4 million.”

    Earlier this year, the CFTC turned its attention to purported Forex programs that were promoted on TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. Some of those programs also used PerfectMoney. Like the SEC, the CFTC is part of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.

    Tips From The Task Force

    • Be careful of any investment opportunity that makes exaggerated earnings claims, especially during a short period of time.
    • Ask for written information about the investment, such as a prospectus, recent quarterly or annual reports, or an offering memorandum.
    • Consult an unbiased third party, like an unconnected broker or licensed financial adviser, before investing.
    • Don’t be fooled into believing an investment is safe just because someone you know is recommending it. So-called “affinity scams” are one of the favorite methods used to lure people in.
    • If you feel you are being pressured into investing, don’t do it.
    • Be wary of people you meet on social networking sites and in chat rooms, where investment fraud criminals have been known to troll for victims.

  • TalkGold Ponzi And Criminals’ Forum Deletes ‘Sticky’ Thread On InstaForex; Firm Named Defendant In CFTC Sweep Used Payment Processor Whose Contact Person Is Referenced In International Money-Laundering And Narcotics Case

    The TalkGold Ponzi scheme and criminals’ forum has deleted a “sticky” thread reportedly paid for by InstaForex, a dubious company named a defendant in a registration sweep conducted by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission last month.

    The PP Blog reported two days ago that InstaForex was using TalkGold to promote a scheme by which participants who sent InstaForex at least 1,000  U.S. dollars could qualify to win a Lotus Elise valued at more than $50,000. Although sweepstakes that require a purchase are illegal in the United States, InstaForex bizarrely instructed investors that they could improve their odds of winning the car by opening up to 100 accounts each.

    Some of the InstaForex promoters used photographs of attractive women to promote the scheme. It was unclear whether the photos were actual pictures of the promoters or whether they were stage props designed to lure skeptical investors.

    Why any investor from any country would open a single account — let alone 100 accounts — with a firm that advertises on TalkGold was left to the imagination. TalkGold and similar sites such as MoneyMakerGroup are referenced in multiple filings in U.S. federal courts as places from which international Ponzi and fraud schemes are pushed.

    A separate ad for which InstaForex apparently paid TalkGold $95 remains operational on the forum. The ad shows an image of a red Lotus and claims the company is “THE BEST BROKER IN ASIA.” Directly below the ad is an ad for a company that claims to provide a return of 525 percent “After 1 Minute” and 9,860 percent “After 6 Hours.”

    Just four of the thousands of schemes pushed on TalkGold — Imperia Invest IBC, EMG/Finanzas Forex, Legisi and Pathway to Prosperity — created tens of thousands of victims globally while gathering hundreds of millions of dollars, according to court records.

    The precise time at which TalkGold deleted the paid “sticky” thread on InstaForex and the precise reason why the thread of at least 109 pages was deleted were unclear. Records suggest the thread was deleted in the past 24 hours. The once-massive thread now returns a “No Thread specified” error.

    Among other things, InstaForex advertised that it accepted payments through Perfect Money, a murky money-services business purportedly operating from Panama. Imperia Invest, which the SEC accused in October of stealing millions of dollars from thousands of participants, also used Perfect Money, according to court filings.

    Included among the Imperia Invest victims were thousands of Americans with hearing impairments, according to the SEC.

    Meanwhile, the name of Roger Alberto Santamaria del Cid — the purported contact person of Perfect Money — appears in federal court filings in the EMG/Finanzas Forex forfeiture case.

    A Florida-based task force that specializes in detecting and uncovering massive fraud schemes brought the EMG/Finanzas Forex case last year. Del Cid, Perfect Money’s purported contact person in Panama, is listed as EMG’s “Secretary” in court filings that allege that tens of millions of dollars seized in the probe were tied to the international narcotics trade.

    EMG/Finanzas Forex was so corrupt that some participants were told the only way they could get their money out was to recruit new investors, have the new investors pay them directly — and use the proceeds from the new investors to recover their initial outlays, according to court filings.

    The very first EMG post on the now-shuttered ASA Monitor Ponzi and criminals’ forum referenced yet-another widely promoted Ponzi scheme: 12DailyPro. The 12DailyPro case, brought by the SEC in February 2006, also is cited in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi prosecution brought by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008. ASD also was promoted on TalkGold.

    Writing on ASA Monitor, an EMG/Finanzas Forex aficionado claimed to have learned the ropes from 12DailyPro.

    “I have been in internet business for 3 years now and in autosurf industry from 12dailypro,” the ASA poster began. He (or she) then proceeded to tell readers about how they could earn commissions by recruiting for EMG/Finanzas, which the Feds later described as an international menace with tentacles in Central America, South America and Europe.

    Court filings in the EMG/Finanzas case paint a picture of an incredibly elaborate maze of companies and bank accounts set up to confuse both investors and law enforcement. At least 59 bank accounts, 294 bars of gold and nine luxury vehicles were seized.

    The EMG allegations were explosive because they showcased the undeniable fact that people who promote programs such as HYIPs and autosurfs because such programs may pay “commissions” to recruit new members may be operating as fronts or conduits for international drug dealers and money-launderers.

  • EDITORIAL: On Club Asteria, FxPowerPro And DisasterClub — And What The U.S. State Department Could Do To Contain The Danger Posed By The Talk Gold Ponzi And Criminals’ Forum And Others Of Its Ilk Worldwide

    Let’s start with the chaos in Egypt this week. Protesters have streamed into the streets to demand that President Hosni Mubarak step down after three decades of autocratic rule. The government initially reacted by shutting down the Internet. As tensions rose, protesters, activists and journalists covering the events were beaten. Some of the protesters were killed.

    When a government shuts down the Internet and starts chilling its people and journalists, it’s for a reason: It does not want the world to witness events, and it wants journalists to know they’ll pay a price for trying to report anything other than the government line to the masses. State-run TV beamed images of tranquility, not images of unrest. When the chaos became impossible to sanitize or ignore, the government blamed events on impure thinkers and their media lackeys, planting the seed that “foreign agendas” were at work.

    It was the cue the loyalists needed to start threatening journalists with death by beheading. Fearing for their safety, the journalists abandoned the immediate turf — but not the story. They started reporting from “undisclosed locations.” The word was still getting out, just not the pictures in the degree desired.

    The immediate events in Egypt, of course, are much more serious than, say, the immediate events at the TalkGold Ponzi scheme and criminals’ forum. Even so, some of the parallels are striking.

    The Egyptian government, for example, is trying to control the message. So is the TalkGold forum, which wants the Ponzi shills and criminals who’ve involved the worldwide masses in one catastrophic fraud scheme after another to know they have a safe haven. TalkGold also wants the critics to know the Mods regard them as naysayers and trolls who can be “banned” without notice, rather like the Mubarak regime regards those muckraking reporters and their “foreign agendas.”

    It won’t work at TalkGold for the same reason it won’t work in Egypt: People still have eyes and ears and the ability to be discerning. There may be only one Tahrir Square in central Cairo to control, but “undisclosed locations,” voices, cell phones, cameras and reporters’ pads and tape recorders are in plentiful supply. They can’t be controlled.

    Egypt’s bid to control the message has resulted in a catastrophic PR problem on top of a political crisis. Meanwhile, TalkGold’s ineptitude, ham-handedness and arrogance has set the stage for its own PR disaster. You can read about it on RealScam.com, which sides with the afflicted masses, not the people who’d afflict the masses.

    While state-run TV in Egypt is airbrushing the dangers of autocratic rule and beaming images of tranquility as the country’s inhabitants try to figure out how they’ll get by for yet-another year on the wages of poverty, TalkGold is airbrushing the economic and security dangers of viral criminality and seeking to tranquilize (and recruit) the masses by using flowery language and even flattery to tell them that opening an account with an offshore payment processor and sending money to any one of hundreds of schemes is their ticket out of the ranks of hopelessness.

    Poster “Ken Russo,” for example, would have the people of Egypt — and the poverty-stricken people of the United States and other countries  — know that the latest “program” he is promoting is one of the “best” he has ever seen.

    One of “Ken Russo’s” current favorites is Club Asteria, which claims to “care” and contends that its “100,000 PLUS MEMBERS CAN’T BE WRONG.” Meanwhile, Club Asteria further claims to “Empower our Members” and to “help expatriates and immigrants to become more successful in their personal and professional lives and enable them to send money home to their loved ones.”

    Tugging at heartstrings, Club Asteria further claims that “[t]hrough our philanthropic efforts we make an immediate difference for struggling individuals, families and communities by focusing on improving nutrition, housing, health care and education.”

    That performing legitimate due diligence on Club Asteria is virtually impossible doesn’t seem to compute with “Ken Russo” and other affiliates. The mere fact the “program” is being promoted on TalkGold is reason enough to avoid it. Any business the company generates from TalkGold likely is radioactive. Club Asteria, for example, could find itself in possession of money that has flowed from fraud scheme to fraud scheme. Even if Club Asteria were legitimate, the fact it is being promoted on TalkGold puts it at one of the principal intersections of crime and fraud.

    About the only good thing about the Internet being down in Egypt this week while its people took to the streets was that “Ken Russo” and his fellow promoters couldn’t sell Club Asteria and other highly questionable “programs” to the disaffected Egyptian masses. (On a side note, one of the companies named in a Forex lawsuit by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission(CFTC)  just days ago announced on TalkGold that the shutdown of the Internet in Egypt had disrupted its ability to interact with Egyptian clients and other clients in the region. A poster purporting to represent FXOpen — under an underlined  heading of “Arabic Live Chat Disruption” — noted that “[o]ur hopes and prayers go out to the Egyptian people.”)

    And even as the Egyptian government is inciting violence against journalists — to the degree that the U.S. Department of State issued a special statement on the matter — the TalkGold forum is banning posters who speak ill of Ponzi and fraud schemes that are gathering untold sums of money, channeling cash to some of the darkest corners of the Internet and keeping people in financial bondage.

    Here is an idea for the Department of State and Secretary Hillary Clinton: Warn Americans — and other peoples of the world — about sites such as TalkGold. Mention them at a Congressional hearing. Instruct U.S. diplomats the world over to inform their host governments about the security and economic dangers posed by TalkGold and a sea of similar sites. Tell elected officials that the State Department is serious about monitoring sites that are keeping people in human bondage by spreading financial misery globally. Define Talk Gold as a global pariah, an enterprise without a state that would be proud to claim it. Inform the world regularly that the only form of diplomacy on TalkGold is robbery without a gun.

    TalkGold has been named repeatedly in court filings that identify it as a place from which fraud schemes are openly pushed. The ink on recent CFTC lawsuits that identify two of TalkGold’s paid Forex advertisers as the purveyors of unregistered offerings targeted at U.S. citizens is barely dry, and yet the unabashed cheerleading continues.

    The alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, which also was pushed from TalkGold, gathered at least $110 million. It caught the attention of the U.S. Secret Service and resulted in civil and criminal probes that could put people in prison for decades, and yet the unabashed cheerleading continues.

    All the autosurfs prominently touted on TalkGold are just recycled forms of ASD, which itself allegedly was a recycled form of 12DailyPro, which the SEC smashed five years ago this month.

    It’s the same thing with Pathway To Prosperity, yet-another alleged scheme promoted on TalkGold that gathered tens of millions of dollars and could put people in jail for decades. All of the HYIPs promoted on TalkGold are just recycled forms of Pathway to Prosperity, which was busted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and Legisi, which was busted by the SEC after the U.S. Secret Service infiltrated its operations by using an undercover operative. The state of Michigan also used an undercover operative in the Legisi probe.

    The best way to deal with TalkGold and similar sites is to tell the world that they promote global criminality and rank illicit profits above human rights and common human decency.

    Like Egypt in its current state, TalkGold is not about freedom — financial or political. It is about the institutionalization of corruption. If TalkGold were an oncological hospital, its doctors would be cheerleading for the cancer to spread and its nurses would be rooting for the highest death rate because intervening to cure the disease and comfort the afflicted would be bad for institutional and personal profits.

    A purported Forex program known as FxPowerPro currently has a 20-page thread on TalkGold. Among other things, FxPowerPro is claiming that “YOUR STABILITY IS OUR PURPOSE.” Its website appears to come from an editable script kit used by hundreds of sites globally, and it says it will accept any sum between $5 and $20,000. FxPowerPro proudly displays a link the the TalkGold forum.

    A few days ago an eagle-eyed PP Blog reader passed along some information about yet-another incongruous program known as “Disaster Club.” Disaster Club appears to be a new wrinkle on cash-gifting schemes. It purports to arrange member-to-member “grants,” asking visitors if they’d like to turn a “One-Time $100 into $17,700.”

    Bizarrely, Disaster Club uses a presentation by which it names four hypothetical members: “Job,” and “Cain, Abel and Eve.”

    “After joining the Club you will receive the name of your assigned member, and each week on Monday you are to send a grant in the amount shown in the grant schedule directly to that assigned member,” Disaster Club says.

    “Should you join the Club between Tuesday and Sunday, send your grant as soon as you receive your assigned name, do not wait until Monday,” Disaster Club coaxes. “Every grant thereafter will be sent according to the Monday schedule. To create a cash explosion from your home three members will each be given your name to send their $100 grants to ($100 X 3 = $300) and each stage you will keep the stated amount shown from the amount you received from the 3 members $100 + $100 + $100 = $300 you keep $50. Then according to the grant schedule shown, you are to send your grant directly to the same member (Job), and the same three members (Cain, Abel and Eve) will each send their grants directly to you.”

    Disaster Club purports to be headquartered in Florida and claims to be a “club that allows like minded members to pool their resources together to help the hurting and homeless victims of any Disaster in any State, or even help others anywhere in the world.”

    The “opportunity” does not appear to have its own thread at TalkGold yet, but there are plenty of disasters already waiting there for its readers. Just don’t expect to get a warm reception if you have a “foreign agenda” — you know, like those muckraking enemies of the Mubarak regime in Egypt.

    Although it’s not likely you’ll be threatened with beheading at TalkGold, you might get deleted if you tangle with “Ken Russo” and others and challenge readers to use their heads for something other than a hat rack.

    There is nothing decent about Talk Gold and its cancer-spreading cousins worldwide. Only the broadest public-awareness campaign can succeed against the threats they pose to the governments of the world and billions of Internet users globally — and the U.S. State Department could make a difference by describing the criminal forums as places from which human rights are set up to be trampled 24/7/365.

    Any true diplomat from any country worldwide who spent so much as 15 minutes on TalkGold could see the danger to countries, governments and citizens worldwide. The world’s diplomatic corps are uniquely positioned to do something the world’s law-enforcement corps cannot do: be at all places at all times.

    A sustained effort by the world’s diplomats to identify and monitor the fraud sites — and openly share the information with the people of the world — could go a long way toward containing a plague that only will mushroom into a catastrophe if left alone.

  • EDITORIAL: ASD By The Numbers: Why America And The World Should Be Shocked — And Why Serial Autosurf And HYIP Promoters Should Be Prosecuted

    ASD's Andy Bowdoin.

    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.

  • Egg-Themed Domains Used To Promote HYIPs That Flushed Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars Go Missing — Plus, An Update On Data Network Affiliates Amid Suggestion Thyroid Cancer Sufferers Can Benefit From Product Called ‘O-WOW TurboMune’

    Four egg-themed domain names used to drive business to HYIPs that ended in spectacular flameouts and foreshadowed a warning from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) have gone missing.

    The domains — including one that redirected to an HYIP site known bizarrely as Cash Tanker, which used an image of Jesus Christ to promote a purported payout of 2 percent a day — first were promoted on the pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum  by a poster who used the handle “joe” in December 2009.

    The egg-themed promo featured a pitch that HYIP participants were wise to spread risk by not keeping all of their eggs in “ONE BASKET.” It also hawked Gold Nugget Invest (7.5 percent a week); Saza Investments (9 percent a week); and Genius Funds (6.5 percent a week).

    Despite an active criminal investigation into the business practices of ASD President Andy Bowdoin and alleged co-conspirators — and despite a RICO lawsuit filed by members against Bowdoin and repeated warnings from various regulators about the dangers of HYIPs and autosurfs — the egg-themed promo claimed in all-caps that “I MAKE 2000.00 A WEEK” and directly solicited ASD members to part with their money.

    One Surf’s Up member dissed critics of the promo, calling them “dead wrong.”

    “I also make a lot of money from those four and your remarks tell me you don’t know anything about them,” the member claimed. “[T]hey are very reputable [companies] who have been around for years….and the money is NOT made from ‘new’ people’s money….google them and look at various forums and see what others have to say about them….I don’t even know Joe, but I can vouch for the programs!”

    A  series of spectacular collapses that consumed each of the HYIPs then followed over a period of just weeks, demonstrating that spreading risk across multiple HYIPs by putting eggs in multiple HYIP baskets was spectacularly poor advice that had produced a recipe for financial disaster.

    In July, FINRA said that Genius Funds cost investors about $400 million. The regulator launched a public-awareness campaign, one component of which was an ad campaign on Google designed to educate and inform the public about HYIP fraud.

    “Open the cyber door to HYIPs, and you will find hundreds of HYIP websites vying for investor attention,” FINRA said. “It is a bizarre substratum of the Internet.”

    Records show that the government of Belize had issued a warning about Gold Nugget Invest nearly a month before the egg-themed promo had appeared on Surf’s Up and at least two members had vouched for the program.

    FINRA also pointed to criminal charges filed by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in May against Nicholas Smirnow, the alleged operator of an HYIP Ponzi scheme known as Pathway To Prosperity that fleeced more than 40,000 people across the globe out of an estimated $70 million.

    Gold Nugget Invest (GNI) collapsed in early January 2010, about a month after the egg-themed promo had appeared on Surf’s Up. Surf’s Up went offline just days prior to the collapse of GNI, which was explained in bizarre fashion.

    Using baffling prose, a purported GNI manager claimed the program ended after it had attempted to gain “a crystal clear vision of our financial vortex” during the fourth quarter of 2009.

    After the collapse of the programs in the original egg-themed pitch on Surf’s Up, the domains then were set to redirect to other HYIPs.

    Some ASD members later turned their attention to promoting MLM programs such as Narc That Car/Crowd Sourcing International (CSI), Data Network Affiliates (DNA) and MPB Today.  CSI and DNA purport to be in the business of paying people to write down the license-plate numbers of cars for entry in a database. MPB Today purports to be in the grocery business.

    DNA, which once instructed people of faith that it was their “MORAL OBLIGATION” to hawk a purported mortgage-reduction program offered alongside the purported license-plate program, now appears to have morphed into a program known as One World One Website or “O-WOW.”

    An email received by members of the O-WOW program this weekend purported that a man suffering from terminal thyroid cancer had derived benefit from an O-WOW product known as “TurboMune” and that members somehow can earn “24% Annual Interest on their money” by giving it to O-WOW.

    If members don’t pay O-WOW before Nov. 30, they’ll earn a lower rate of interest (18 percent), according to an email received by members.

    Like DNA, O-WOW is associated with Phil Piccolo. During a radio program in August, Piccolo threatened critics with lawsuits and planted the seed that he could cause critics to experience physical pain. DNA has an “F” rating from the Better Business Bureau. So does CSI. So does United Pro Media, a company formerly operated by MPB Today’s Gary Calhoun.

    See the PP Blog’s Dec. 4, 2009, story on the egg-themed pitches on the Surf’s Up forum.

  • DISTURBING: Email Received By Some ASD Members Suggests They Could Be Sued For Participating In Refund Program; Records Suggest ‘Legal Opinion’ Was Offered By Man Named In Complaints For ‘Unauthorized Practice Of Law’ And Linked To ‘Extremist Group’ By Anti-Defamation League

    In a bizarre and unsettling development, some members of AdSurfDaily who may be planning to file for restitution through the official claims administrator have received a confusing and threatening email from a “group” of ASD members.

    The email, which appears to be a compendium that cobbles together communications from the group and asks ASD members to pass along the information, implies that ASD members who file for restitution through the government-approved process may face legal action from the group, which has or will file claims against the “illicit UNITED STATED (sic) OF AMERICA INC. et al” for its prosecution of the ASD Ponzi scheme case brought by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008.

    The lawsuit threat appears to be targeted at ASD members who are planning to file a restitution claim through Rust Consulting Inc. of Minneapolis. Rust Consulting is under contract with the government to administer the restitution program through a process known as remission in which ASD members must certify they are crime victims.

    Pasted into the email is a purported “legal opinion” by a person described as “Keny” of “AMERICAN-International Business Law inc. (sic).”

    “Keny” does not appear to be the source of the lawsuit threat. Rather, the email quotes a purported “legal opinion” by “Keny” — and then implies members who file through Rust Consulting may be sued by members of the group. The email asks members not to file for a refund through the official process.

    “Please send me your response(s) and I will manage the feedback timely,” says an email signed “MYHUB.” “Again, we are asking that our Claimants do not engage in the DOJ’s Remission Process, as long you want to maintain being part of our Group Claims whatsoever. If you are indeed wanting to eat on the other side of the fence, you must let us know before you submit anything to the DOJ, without causing us potential harm and further damages. In case you were to fail to notify us, we would have a possible claim against you, and that’s not what you want us to do in the first place.

    “We very much appreciate your understanding in this rather sensitive time of legal dealings,” the email continues. “No worries, we are just getting started to fight for and along with you. If you feel that this email could help some of your friends in ASD that are not part of our Group Claims, we are allowing you to share and forward this email as long it doesn’t end up in Blogs et al., but then again, people need to be informed since they can’t read and or understand the legal language or the meaning of words any longer.”

    Google search results include multiple references to “AMERICAN-INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS LAW INC” and a person referenced as “Keny.”

    One of the references appears on a website operated by Cornell University Law School under a heading of “Legal Services & Lawyers.” The Cornell reference identifies a person named Kenneth Wayne Leaming of AMERICAN-INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS LAW INC. of Spanaway, Wash. The Cornell site notes that correspondence should be sent to the attention of “Keny” and that Kenneth Wayne Leaming practices “Admiralty/Maritime, Business Law, Estate Planning and Native American Law.”

    Records at the Practice of Law Board at the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) say that Kenneth Wayne Leaming, also known as Kenneth Wayne, was accused of the unauthorized practice of law by clients in 2005.

    One client accused Leaming of “actively market[ing] legal services via seminars and the internet” and of providing “legal advice” and preparing “pleadings for many clients,” according to WSBA.

    Another client accused Leaming of contracting with him “to assist him in avoiding an IRS lien on his home” and failing to provide the services.

    On Dec. 20, 2005, WSBA said in a letter to Leaming that his “conduct constitutes the unauthorized practice of law.” The final disposition of the matter was not immediately clear. Also unclear is whether Leaming ever was a licensed attorney or authorized to practice law in any state.

    Separately, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) lists Leaming as a member of an “extremist group” known as “Little Shell Pembina Band of North America.”

    Leaming, according to ADL, is a “self-described ‘recognized international lawyer’ who once served as a deputy sheriff and member of the Civil Rights Task Force, a “sovereign citizen group that has used badges and raid jackets to resemble law enforcement officers.”

    “His CRTF partner, David Carroll Stephenson, was ordered by a federal court in March 2004 to stop promoting an alleged tax scam that allowed people to avoid an estimated $43 million in federal income taxes,” according to ADL.

    The identity of “MYHUB” was unclear in the email received by ASD members. Portions of the email were pieced together by a sender known as “Sara.” A person named Sara Mattoon once served as ASD’s official spokeswoman and is referenced in a court filing by the Secret Service in 2009.

    In the email, “Sara” referenced remarks attributed to “Keny” as a “legal opinion about why it may be unwise for you to fill out the [Rust Consulting] form, aside from it working against ASD.”

    The “Sara” email then reproduces the “MYHUB” email and the purported “legal opinion” by “Keny.”

    The purported legal opinion describes the Rust Consulting website, which is listed in court documents as the official site for ASD victims, as “almost exclusively a propaganda site to get the viewer to ‘believe’ the gov’t LIE that advertising via network marketing on the internet is somehow bad business and fraudulent, and solicit false testimony from the viewer based on the false information!”

    In yet-another email received by ASD members, a fellow member referenced as “Robert” also referred to the claims program administered by Rust Consulting. The email from “Robert” includes an unattributed opinion, meaning the identity of the person who offered the opinion is unclear.

    “If members feel it absolutely necessary to complete the remission form now instead of waiting a little longer for the legal process to be completed then they may want to write on a separate piece of paper and have it notarized saying that they were not an investor,” according to the opinion contained within the email from “Robert.”

    Members also should swear that “they purchased advertising for their website and that they were happy with their purchase,” according to the unattributed opinion circulated by “Robert.”

    “The govt is trying to trick people into saying it was an investment,” the opinion claimed.

    Separately, an apparent ASD member known as MMG7 who posts on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum left a scathing missive yesterday in an ASD thread at the forum.

    “The same people who abused their power, under the color of law, back in August of 2008 and basically *shut down* the company without due process are up to yet additional tactics to *CREATE VICTIMS* out of thin air,” the post read in part.

    “The general consensus is that once they can *create victims* they can then turn around and use it against ASD or even YOU.

    “It is VERY HEALTHY to question their motives. Remember, these are the same people that ruined the lives of 100,000+ people in the blink of an eye without so much as having to provide an explanation for their actions.

    “Could it be they thought ASD would roll over and play dead so they could put a feather in their cap and claim victory? Not to mention being able to keep a hefty sum of members monetary property.”

    The MoneyMakerGroup forum is referenced in a May filing by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service as a place from which Ponzi schemes are promoted. The filing accused an entity known as Pathway To Prosperity of conducting an international Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 40,000 investors across the globe.

    MMG7 did not explain in his post how he arrived at the conclusion that ASD was denied due process in a court case that has featured more than 175 filings and a hearing called at ASD’s request to free seized money.

    ASD’s request was denied in November 2008 because it did not demonstrate at the hearing it requested to prove its legitimacy that it was operating lawfully and was not a Ponzi scheme, according to court records.

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin later met with federal prosecutors over a period of at least four days. Bowdoin, according to court filings, signed a proffer letter and acknowledged the government’s material allegations in the case were all true.

    Although Bowdoin initially contested the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars seized in the case, he submitted to it in January 2009. By the end of February 2009, however, Bowdoin reentered the case, acting as his own attorney and seeking to reassert his claims to the money. Months of legal wrangling followed, and Bowdoin was forced to hire new attorneys. A federal judge ruled last fall that Bowdoin would not be permitted to reenter the case, and an order of forfeiture was signed in January 2010.

    Nor did MMG7 explain how he had arrived at his conclusion that the government “ruined the lives of 100,000+ people in the blink of an eye without so much as having to provide an explanation for their actions.”

    Court records plainly show that that the government explained in considerable detail to at least two federal judges why it sought the authority to seize tens of millions of dollars contained in the personal bank accounts of Bowdoin, who was accused of swindling investors in an Alabama securities caper in the 1990s. Moroever, the government has said all along that it intended to establish a restitution pool from the assets seized in the case.

    The implementation of both the pool and the restitution/remission process were delayed by appeals filed by Bowdoin.

    Bowdoin was sentenced to prison in the Alabama case, but avoided jail time by agreeing to make restitution, according to records.

    Clarence Busby, his business partner in the AdSurfDaily/Golden Panda Ad Builder venture, also swindled investors in a separate securities scheme in the 1990s, according to the SEC.

    At the same time, MMG7 did not explain how he arrived at his conclusion that the government “shut down” ASD. Records show that ASD was permitted to continue to display advertising after the seizure, but that Bowdoin chose not to do so.

    Prosecutors say that, despite ASD’s claims to a federal judge that it had no money to operate, the company had $1 million in an account under a “different name” on the island nation of Antigua.

    Records show that Bowdoin did not reveal the existence of the Antigua money to members until after ASD had asked the court for emergency cash to pay its rent and webhosting bill.

    U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer, whom Bowdoin and another member later tried to have removed from hearing the case, refused to release funds to ASD.

  • UPDATES/NEWS: ASA Ponzi Forum Now Redirects To CashX.com; Arthur Nadel Gets 14 Years In Florida Ponzi Case Brought By Obama Task Force; Former Indiana Pastor Who Bilked Christians Convicted Of Securities Fraud

    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.

    Read the AP story on the Vaughn Reeves scheme in Indiana.

  • Did MPB Today Have Predecessor Company Known As ‘MyPremierBiz’ In 2009? Wellness, ‘Apps’ Programs Pitched From Ponzi Boards Last Year Prior To Birth Of ‘Grocery’ MLM

    This video promo from June 2009 hawks "My Premier Biz," a site now associated with the MPB Today "grocery" program. My Premier Biz was pitched on Ponzi forums more than a year before promos for MPB Today began to appear on the Ponzi forums. MyPremierBiz was a purported opportunity for distributors to pay up to $3,456 to have wellness products associated with MPB Today operator Gary Calhoun placed in retail stores.

    A website known as MyPremierBiz.com was hyped on Ponzi boards last year and videos were produced to drive traffic to a confusing “opportunity” that included both a straight-line and a 2×2 matrix cycler and a hard-to-decipher sales and compensation program.

    Affiliate links were created for the program, which was purported on the MoneyMakerGroup forum to gather between $312 and $3,456 from distributors to place “Pro Packs” — cases of wellness products — in retail stores. The more a prospect sent in to acquire purported retail space for “Pro Packs,” the more he or she purportedly would earn. As of yesterday, some of the links redirected to the website of the purported MPB Today “grocery” program, research shows.

    The product line-up for the MyPremierBiz opportunity is associated with products offered by Gary Calhoun of MPB Today. One promoter on a Ponzi board claimed MyPremierBiz had lined up “outlets” that are “independent nutrition and health food stores, specialty wellness shops, holistic or independent pharmacies, spas, salons, etc.

    “We have a certain number right now, but NOT ENOUGH members to cover the sales! Talk about a GROUND-FLOOR OPPORTUNITY!” the affiliate exclaimed. “As this gets rolling, you will be a part of a small, elite nucleus of people who will have THOUSANDS of STORES in your downline within 12-36 months!”

    Incongruously, a video on YouTube displayed photos of several retail outlets, but included a disclaimer in tiny type that “Stores shown are for example only and are not affiliated with our company.”

    The root of the domain — MyPremierBiz.com — displayed this message this morning: “MPB Today is off-line for site maintenance.” However, other URLs at the site served pages, including a page that included a link for the MPB Today “grocery” program. The fate of the “Pro Packs” offer first advertised last year was not immediately clear.

    The development strongly suggests that MPB Today, which itself is being promoted on the Ponzi boards, had a predecessor site more than a year ago that also was pitched from the Ponzi boards. Receipt of any revenue from Ponzi schemes or criminal business opportunities is potentially catastrophic for MPB Today because the company could be paying members with proceeds from other online schemes.

    Separately, MPB Today Inc. has canceled its Florida incorporation, according to documents on file in the state. The company now is known simply as “MPB Today” — without the “Inc.” designation — according to  a filing dated Sept. 24. MPB Today is operating as a fictitious entity owned by Le330 Inc., another entity associated with MPB Today operator Gary Calhoun.

    Whether MPB Today Inc. actually ever was incorporated in Florida is unclear. A filing by the firm in July suggests the fictitious entity assigned itself a corporate designation under Le330’s designation. Checks recently received by MPB Today members no longer have the “Inc.” designation. Earlier images of checks posted online by affiliates included the “Inc.” designation. New checks simply list “Mpb Today” as the account-holder.

    Like promos for MPB Today, promos for MyPremierBiz were filled with hype and began with a proposition.

    In March 2009, a poster at MoneyMakerGroup wrote, “Would you spend $312, ONE-TIME ONLY, to EARN at least $360 in PROFIT, from Retail Store sales, year after year?”

    MPB Today uses a similar pitch to plant that seed that a $200, “one-time” purchase can lead to free groceries for life.

    MyPremierBiz was positioned last year as “a new division of a six-year-old company that is turning heads both on and off the internet,” according to a promoter writing on the MoneyMakerGroup forum. MoneyMakerGroup is referenced in court filings in the Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) case, amid allegations that P2P was an international Ponzi scheme that fleeced more than 40,000 participants across the globe.

    Writing about MyPremierBiz on MoneyMakerGroup in June 2009, a promoter said that “I am the #2 person in the company. I’m building the TOP Team and I want you to have the same success. Together, I KNOW we can do it!

    “We have SO MANY ways you can get paid and I am going to get you off to an INCREDIBLE START with my MPB Team Build,” the promoter continued. “Here’s what I will do for you. I’ll put two people under you and that will get you off to a ROCKET START! If you join MPB, you will pay $11.50 for the annual website fee, plus $20 for your first monthly order, plus a little shipping for that order, and you can also purchase your way right into our 2 x 2 matrix for only $50 (just one part of our comp plan, but a VERY exciting and rewarding part). So your total expense, to get started is only $89. And you will now be part of several PASSIVE RESIDUAL Compensation Components, and you will be earning a check the very NEXT week!”

    One of the Ponzi-forum references to MyPremierBiz included a tie-in to a program known as “Froggy Apps,” which purported to be a downloads service.

    “FROGGY APPS are HERE!” a pitchman roared on the MoneyMakerGroup forum on July 9, 2009. “APPS are just getting started. People are downloading them at an ASTOUNDING rate, and iPhones, and other ‘Smart Phones’ are selling at a PHENOMENAL CLIP!”

    Links to the MyPremierBiz promos placed in the MoneyMakerGroup forum during the summer of 2009 redirect to the current MPB Today grocery program. So do links to the FroggyApps program.

    All three websites — MyPremierBiz.com, MPBToday.com and FroggyApps.com — are registered behind proxies. When the PP Blog visited the FroggyApps site, it was redirected to the MPB Today site.

    Not all affiliate links formed under the MyPremierBiz domain, however, appear to resolve to an MPB Today affiliate site. The PP Blog clicked on an old MyPremierBiz affiliate link yesterday, and was sent to a page that said, “The page or associate name was not found on this server. Please click the link below to continue.”

    The link below led to the MPB Today site.

  • BULLETIN: SEC Gains Asset Freeze, Seeks Shutdown Of Imperia Invest In Emergency Action; Program Pitched On Same Ponzi Forums Promoting MPB Today; Agency Says Imperia Defrauded Thousands Of Deaf Americans

    BULLETIN UPDATED 5:02 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.): The SEC has gone to federal court in Utah to halt the operations of Imperia Invest IBC, alleging a spectacular fraud that fleeced money from thousands of Americans with hearing impairments.

    Imperia was promoted from the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum — one of the Ponzi forums promoting the MPB Today “grocery” MLM. Imperia also was the topic of discussion and defenses on TalkGold and ASAMonitor, two other forums that are pitching MPB Today.

    The SEC’s allegations against Imperia are stunning. More than 14,000 investors were defrauded worldwide, the agency said.

    Among the victims were thousands of deaf investors in the United States, the SEC said.

    Imperia gathered relatively small sums from thousands of people, the SEC charged, noting that “no evidence has been found that any of the investors have received a single payment.”

    “Imperia Invest IBC is a web-based entity that claimed, until late 2009, to be located in the Bahamas,” the SEC charged. “The Bahamian address listed by Imperia is fictitious. Imperia now claims to be located in Vanuatu. However, Imperia is not registered to do business in Vanuatu and the address listed on its website appears also to be fictitious. Neither Imperia nor its securities are registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Imperia is not licensed or registered with the Commission, with any state, or with any Self Regulatory Organization.”

    Categorically absurd representations of earnings and the program’s potential were made to investors, the SEC said.

    “Investors were promised eye-popping amounts of money in return for a simple $50 or $100 investment, and Imperia has made numerous excuses on its website about why these returns haven’t been paid,” said Ken Israel, director of the SEC’s Salt Lake Regional office.

    “The Imperia website shows an example of such earnings in which a $50 investment will return $134,000 to the investor in six months,” the SEC charged. At the same time, the agency said some investors were told that spectacular sums were due them for doing business with Imperia.

    “Imperia represented to one investor who invested $150.00 with Imperia that Imperia owed him $36,610,755.20 within a two year time frame,” the SEC charged. “Another individual’s account statement who invested $500 in July 2007 showed he is owed $43,907,652.20 as of May 2010.”

    It was not immediately clear how so many deaf investors became involved in Imperia. A federal judge has approved an asset freeze.

    Imperia called its product Traded Endowment Policies (TEP), which the SEC described as “the British term for viatical settlements.”

    “A TEP or viatical settlement involves the sale of an insurance policy by the policy owner before the policy matures, and policies are sold at a discount from face value in an amount greater than the current cash surrender value,” the SEC said.

    “There are at least 14,000 [Imperia] investors worldwide with a total investment exceeding $7 million,” the SEC said. “In the United States, there appear to be approximately 6,000 investors, most of whom belong the hearing impaired community, who have invested in excess of $4 million with Imperia.”

    Imperia used offshore payment processors such as “Liberty Reserve, located in Costa Rica; Perfect Money, located in Panama; and Procurrex, located in the British Virgin Islands,” the SEC charged. “Once Imperia received funds from Investors, it appears that Imperia then transferred amounts from these accounts to foreign bank accounts, including but not limited to accounts located in Cyprus and New Zealand.”

    Even as Imperia was ripping off investors, it also was infringing trademarks and the intellectual property of Visa, the credit-card service, the SEC charged..

    “Imperia also requires that investors purchase a Visa debit card to access their investment proceeds,” the SEC said. “Imperia charges customers a fee to purchase the Visa debit card ranging from $145 to $450.

    “Visa has not authorized Imperia to use its name or trademarks and has sent Imperia a cease-and-desist letter to halt its unauthorized use of the Visa name and logo,” the SEC said. “There is no evidence that any investor who has ordered a Visa debit card from Imperia has actually received such a card.”

    One poster on the MoneyMakerGroup forum advised prospects that he would keep an “open mind” about Imperia, according to web records.

    “Anyway, in the final analysis each person must make their own decision,” the poster said in 2007.

    While the MoneyMakerGroup poster was holding forth about keeping an “open mind,” Imperia was cloaking itself to siphon millions of dollars, according to web records and court records.

    “Imperia took proactive steps to conceal the identity of its control persons by using an anonymous browser to host its website, by communicating with all investors via email without disclosing the identity of any control persons and by establishing off-shore Paypal-style bank accounts to conceal the recipient of the investment proceeds,” the SEC charged.

    In July, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority issued a warning about HYIP schemes pitched online. In May, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service accused an HYIP known as Pathway To Prosperity of defrauding more than 40,000 people in a scheme that took in about $70 million.

    Pathway To Prosperity also was promoted on the Ponzi and criminals’ forums. ASAMonitor, TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup are specifically referenced in court filings in the Pathway to Prosperity case.

    MoneyMakerGroup is specifically referenced in court documents in the alleged Legisi HYIP and Ponzi scheme, a fraud that allegedly gathered more than $70 million.

    Read the SEC complaint against Imperia.