“Pizza Gate” involves a conspiracy theory that prominent Democrats and the Hillary Clinton campaign were involved in sex crimes against children and that the ring used a pizza place as a cover.
At approximately 2:58 pm, members of the Second District received a call for a man with a firearm. The suspect entered the location and pointed a firearm in the direction of the victim who is an employee of the restaurant. The victim was able to flee and notify police. The suspect proceeded to discharge the rifle inside of the establishment. Members of the Second District responded and arrested the suspect without incident. Two firearms were recovered inside the location. An additional weapon was recovered from the suspect’s vehicle. There were no reported injuries.
.@DCPoliceDept press release on arrest of Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, of Salisbury, NC for assault w/dangerous weapon at Comet restaurant. pic.twitter.com/IkSJUeHM2y
In the HYIP sphere, hucksters routinely try to sanitize fraud schemes by claiming the endorsements of politicians. False stories about Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama backing online “programs” have circulated for years on the Internet.
After the schemes make the enforcement radar and collapse, the scammers typically claim that the U.S. government grew unhappy because it wasn’t getting a large-enough cut and/or decided to undermine free enterprise to keep workers in chains.
Roger Alberto Santamaria Del Cid, an apparent nominee director for offshore companies who is listed as a corporate “subscriber” for VX Gateway in Panamanian business records, is referenced at least three times in the “Panama Papers.”
VX is a payment processor for the MyAdvertisingPays (MAPS) cross-border scheme that touts Anguilla registration after earlier operating from the U.S. state of Mississippi. MAPS purportedly pulled out of the United States last year, potentially leaving thousands of American affiliates expecting payouts holding the bag.
In April 2015, the PP Blog reported that MAPs, a purported “advertising” program similar to the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, was trading on the name of President Obama after ASD previously had traded on the name of President George W. Bush. MAPS is known to have members in common with the judicially declared TelexFree Ponzi- and pyramid scheme, which also traded on the names of government officials.
It is somewhat common in the HYIP sphere for “programs” and their affiliates to drive traffic to schemes by suggesting the endorsement of government agencies or prominent government officials.
TelexFree, which may have generated $3 billion in illicit cross-border business, collapsed in 2014.
The Facebook site for the TaraTalksBlog, a MAPS critic, reported on May 7 that it had received “numerous reports that MAP has closed members accounts, with no redress, after members have requested payment withdrawals.”
In short, non-U.S. affiliates of MAPs also may be having trouble getting paid.
Then-Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole also said (bolding added):
“Because of the sophistication of the world economy, organized crime groups have developed an ability to exploit legitimate actors and their skills in order to further the criminal enterprises. For example, transnational organized criminal groups often rely on lawyers to facilitate illicit transactions. These lawyers create shell companies, open offshore bank accounts in the names of those shell companies, and launder criminal proceeds through trust accounts. Other lawyers working for organized crime figures bring frivolous libel cases against individuals who expose their criminal activities.”
As noted above, the Panama Papers database shows Del Cid’s name at least three times. On April 14, the PP Blog reported (italics added):
Del Cid’s name has appeared on the PP Blog a couple of times. On Feb. 8, 2011, the Blog reported that his name had appeared in court filings in a federal forfeiture case involving assets linked to the notorious EMG/Finanzas Forex scheme in the Middle District of Florida. (See Paragraph 10 of this affidavit by a Task Force investigator.)
Money from EMG/Finanzas was linked to the international narcotics trade. OpenCorporates lists del Cid here as a Finanzas “subscriber.” The site lists Tatiana Itzel Saldaöa Escobar as another Finanzas subscriber, and the same name appears alongside Del Cid as a VX subscriber.
Scotland Yard has identified the weapon as a knife, but the deck of a story in the Telegraph reports it was a machete and that a male suspect had yelled, “This is for Syria.”
From an early statement by Scotland Yard, attributed to Com. Richard Walton, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command (italics added):
“We are treating this as a terrorist incident. I would urge the public to remain calm, but alert and vigilant.
“The threat from terrorism remains at severe, which means that a terrorist attack is highly likely.
“I would appeal to anyone who was in the vicinity of Leytonstone underground station earlier this evening at around 7pm who saw anything suspicious to call the Anti-Terrorist Hotline on 0800 789 321.
“Anyone who may have captured video or photographic footage of the incident is also urged to make contact with the Counter Terrorism Command via the Anti-Terrorist Hotline.”
The suspect, who is in custody in East London and whose name has not been released, was subdued by an officer with a TASER, Scotland Yard said.
“One man has sustained serious knife injuries; these are not believed at this stage to be life-threatening,” the agency said. “Two other people have sustained minor injuries.”
“This is now a federal terrorism investigation, led by the FBI,” FBI Director James Comey said yesterday about the San Bernardino mass shooting. “The reason for that is that the investigation so far has developed indications of radicalization by the killers and of the potential inspiration by foreign terrorist organizations.”
In a statement, the White House said this evening that President Obama will address the American people tomorrow at 8 p.m. from the Oval Office.
On Sunday, December 6th at 8:00PM EST, President Obama will address the nation from the Oval Office about the steps our government is taking to fulfill his highest priority: keeping the American people safe. The President will provide an update on the ongoing investigation into the tragic attack in San Bernardino. The President will also discuss the broader threat of terrorism, including the nature of the threat, how it has evolved, and how we will defeat it. He will reiterate his firm conviction that ISIL will be destroyed and that the United States must draw upon our values – our unwavering commitment to justice, equality and freedom – to prevail over terrorist groups that use violence to advance a destructive ideology.
From PP Blog archives: On April 2, a video depicting President Obama as a fan of the MyAdvertisingPays “program” appeared on YouTube. An “Obama voice” was dubbed into the video, which also shows the Presidential Seal. Text below the video reads, “Mr. President speaks about the new advertising revolution.”
“My AdvertisingPays pays its members every 20 minutes,” a mimicked voice of Obama said in the promo. “I highly recommend you to join MyAdvertisingPays.”
Like many things in network marketing, this was reckless beyond measure. MAPS, as it is known, is reminiscent of the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008. ASD, sued by some of its own members amid allegations of racketeering and described by the Secret Service as a “criminal enterprise,” thought it prudent to trade on the name of President George W. Bush to drive dollars to its $119 million scam.
It proved to be very imprudent for ASD to suggest a White House vetting and endorsement. The indictment against ASD operator Andy Bowdoin even referenced the bid to dupe members and prospects in this fashion . (Also see: “THE DAY ‘WINK-NOD’ DIED,” from the PP Blog on Dec. 2, 2010.)
MAPS Suddenly Says It Is Withdrawing From United States
After one or more MAPS’ promoters lifted footage of a Presidential address and used technology to put words in Obama’s mouth to help an MLM scheme spread its tentacles, it now has come to pass that MAPS — purportedly led by American Mike Deese of Mississippi via Anguilla, a British overseas territory — says it is pulling out of the United States.
In an announcement dated yesterday and titled “THE MOST IMPORTANT UPDATE EVER RELEASED,” MAPS more than hinted it is not wanted in America: “We are going to focus on the place where we are wanted and are making huge strides,” MAPS said.
That place is Europe, according to MAPS.
“The decision comes on the heels of a declining marketplace in the US for our company.,” MAPS said. “It simply isn’t profitable for us to remain engaged there. Over 90% of our business already comes from Europe, while we are catering to the US members by operating in US currency. It doesn’t make good business sense to continue operating in a place and expending valuable resources in a market that’s steadily declining.”
If MAPS is right — if it’s not wanted in America and if the U.S. market is steadily declining — we take this as good news that suggests MAPS perceives a serious threat from American law enforcement and class-action lawyers interested in suing under the federal RICO (racketeering) statute. Even so, it’s troubling that MAPS apparently sees a welcome mat for itself in Europe.
About 50,000 Spaniards reportedly got sucked into the TelexFree scheme. TelexFree pain, in fact, lingers across Europe and the world. It is possible that it affected 1 million people or more. MAPS currently brags that it has “209805+ Users.”
Like the other “programs,” MAPS now is planting the seed it is lining up people to sue.
From the MAPS Oct. 15 announcement (italics added):
On a different note, it has come to our attention that there exist multiple internet-based avenues being used for defamatory and libelous speech against MAP. Through our research, we have found many, if not all, of these claims to be without merit and simply an attempt by certain individuals to exploit the MAP name in order to heighten the popularity of their own product. MAP has served demand letters upon those individuals who engage in defamatory and slanderous rhetoric, and in anticipation of litigation, has prepared complaints against all such individuals. MAP would like to emphasize and reassure you that their decision to cease operations in the United States is in no way connected to the aforementioned defamation and libel claims.
One of the knives: Source: Boston Police Department.
At 5 a.m. yesterday — two hours before he died in the Boston neighborhood of Roslindale — Usaamah Abdullah Rahim called David Wright of the Boston-area community of Everett, according to an FBI affidavit from a member of Boston’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Wright, 25, also is known as Dawud Sharif Wright and Dawud Sharif Abdul Khaliq, the office of U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz of the District of Massachusetts said.
During the 5 a.m. call, according to the FBI affidavit, 26-year-old Rahim told Wright he was going to “go after” the “boys in blue” and that he “planned to randomly kill police officers in Massachusetts either yesterday (June 2) or today (June 3).”
A little more than a year ago, while feting the Boston Red Sox at the White House for winning the 2013 World Series, Obama reminded the audience once again of the valor on display by police during the Marathon bombing. He noted that Officer Richard Donahue of the MBTA Transit Police was shot and nearly killed in a battle with the terrorists and was fighting back from his injuries.
Despite the Marathon attacks against innocent human beings — and despite the fact the police are the thin blue line that protects society — Rahim apparently wanted to kill Boston-area cops. And Wright, according to the FBI affidavit, apparently had so little regard for the lives of police officers that he instructed Rahim to wipe his smartphone and computer to make sure the plan was not detected.
Wright now has been charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice. A day earlier, in Roslindale at 7 a.m. outside a CVS pharmacy, Rahim allegedly approached cops and the FBI “while brandishing his weapon, and he was shot by law enforcement.”
There are reports that Rahim worked at the store as a security guard.
As alleged in the complaint affidavit, Rahim, a 26-year-old private security officer, was planning to engage in a violent attack in the United States, and had purchased three military-style fighting knives and a sharpener in furtherance of this plan. In intercepted calls between Wright and Rahim, the men discussed a knife attack on an individual not named in the complaint, and suggested that the target was to be beheaded and have his/her head placed on his/her chest. According to the complaint, such beheadings are a tactic of some foreign terrorist organizations which use such killings in propaganda videos.
The implication, of course, is that Rahim had been inspired by ISIS and/or the beheadings carried out by the terrorist group. America and other nations have been on guard for such gruesome aggression — and police are the first line of defense.
Before shifting focus to police, Rahim had talked about “beheading” a person in another state.
CNN is reporting tonight that the planned victim was conservative Blogger Pamela Geller.
As CNN reported: “Geller drew national attention last month after an off-duty police officer working security thwarted an attack at her organization’s contest for Prophet Mohammed drawings in Garland, Texas. She’s president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which includes subsidiary programs Stop Islamization of America and Stop Islamization of Nations.”
The probe also extends into Rhode Island, according to the FBI affidavit. That’s allegedly because Rahim met with Wright and an unidentified third person on a beach during “inclement weather.” The date of the meeting was May 31, just days after Rahim had acquired three knives on Amazon.com and a device to sharpen them.
Here’s how the affidavit describes the knives:
An Ontario Spec Plus Marine Raider Bowie fighting knife. “The Marine fighting knife Rahim purchased is 15 inches long when opened, contains a 9.75” blade, and weighs 22.4 ounces.”
A second Marine fighting knife.
An Ontario Knife SP6 Spec Plus Fighting Knife 8325. “The SP6 Spec Plus Fighting Knife Rahim purchased is 13 inches long and has an eight inch blade.”
Shortly after the 7 a.m. 5 a.m. (June 6 edit) conversation yesterday with Wright, according to the affidavit, “Rahim was on a public street in the Boston area, when he was approached by Boston Police Officers and FBI special agents. [Rahim] took out one of the knives he had purchased from Amazon.com when he saw the officers and agents. One of the officers told [Rahim] to drop his weapon and [Rahim] responded, ‘you drop yours.’
“[Rahim] then moved towards the officers while brandishing his weapon, and he was shot by law enforcement.”
Rahim also called Wright on May 26. This from the affidavit (italics added):
Later in the conversation, Wright told Rahim something was “like thinking with your head on your chest.” Both men then burst out laughing. Based upon my training, experience, and involvement in this investigation, I believe this is a reference to the practice of some foreign terrorist organizations to be head targets and place their heads on their chests in propaganda videos.”
Are “sovereign citizens” immersed in the “SVM Global Initiative” and “UFunClub” cross-border, network-marketing schemes?
“Sovereign citizens” may have an irrational belief that laws do not apply to them. It is not unusual for them to be involved in financial fraud, and some “sovereigns” have been linked to MLM HYIP frauds and securities offering frauds.
Individuals who join such schemes may not understand they have signed on to enterprises engaging in international fraud and that a political agenda or even political extremism may be driving events.
In a conference call Tuesday night for SVM, a man who identified himself as “Nelson” calling from “Saskatchewan, Canada” came on the line. He explained that he’d been with SVM “from the very beginning” and was involved in “world-shaking affairs, including the global currency reset.”
Precisely what constituted the purported “reset” wasn’t explained, but the term has been associated with banking conspiracy theorists and “sovereign citizens.” AdSurfDaily Ponzi story figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming, for instance, allegedly claimed “the Rothschilds” were hiding in a “bunker in India” while controlling the central bank of Iraq, according to a 2011 complaint against Leaming that accused him of filing bogus liens against public officials and other crimes.
The complaint was filed by a member of an FBI Terrorism Task Force operating in Washington state. Leaming, who’d been under federal surveillance, later was convicted on charges of filing false liens, harboring two federal fugitives wanted in a separate home-business caper in Arkansas and being a felon in possession of firearms.
Banking conditions in Iraq were causing the Rothschilds to lose money, and the “inner circle” is “jumping ship,” Leaming allegedly told a colleague, “just like body odor’s inner circle in the White House.”
“Body odor” was a veiled reference to President Obama. ASD was a “program” that claimed a daily payout rate of 1 percent. The $119 million scheme spread over the Internet, creating thousands of victims. ASD was broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008.
A Troubling Narrative: Was A Rallying Cry Of ‘Sovereign Citizens’ Part Of It?
On the call hosted by SVM’s Sheila V. Tabarsi, “Nelson” further ventured that he had “many connections in the international banking arena.
“I have many connections in law; I have many connections in military — on and on and on,” he said.
During his fawning over SVM, “Nelson” went on to make a veiled reference to UFunClub, now the subject of a major investigation in Thailand. This leads to questions about whether he is involved in two separate cross-border schemes and whether other SVM members also are pushing multiple schemes.
“Nelson” said this before he got off the line (italics added):
“And God Bless the Republic of the United States of America.”
Here we’ll point you to BehindMLM.com’s April 13 review of SVM. We’ll note that the Tuesday SVM call more or less was an effort to slime the online publication, which reports on emerging MLM schemes.
SVM appears to operate out of Greater New York City, perhaps from the Bronx and Manhattan — with an arm in Costa Rica.
Prior to “Nelson” coming on the line, Tabarsi asserted BehindMLM.com was a “pawn” and a “coward” that works with an unidentified third party to “bring network-marketing companies down.”
“To me, this is real Illuminati kind of stuff,” Tabarsi said. “Granted, the success of Sheila V and Associates and the SVM Global Initiative could do some devastating things to the network-marketing industry.”
Other MLM schemes have trotted out the theme that dark forces — usually cast as competitors unhappy that downlines are leaving one “program” because another has found the Holy Grail — are controlling things behind the scenes or secretly. It is not unusual for political rhetoric, conspiracy theories or antigovernment sentiment to become part of the narrative, and this may be happening with SVM.
Tabarsi, for example, said during Tuesday’s call that the “Bush administration” was involved in an “effort to dismantle this world economy” and that the effort has been “so concentrated” and “so diligent.”
The aim, she contended, was to concentrate 99 percent of the world’s wealth in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
“We are a threat to that,” she said. “The success of Sheila V and Associates and the SVM Global Initiative is a threat to this establishment that is trying so long and so hard to take everybody down.”
Any number of MLM schemes have advanced forms of this narrative. The $1.8 billion TelexFree scheme broken up by the SEC last year was positioned as a “revolution” that would put wealth in the hands of ordinary people. Though much smaller in scale, the Achieve Community scheme broken up by the SEC earlier this year advanced a similar narrative.
TelexFree and Achieve — like the Zeek Rewards scheme in 2012 — were operating combined Ponzi- and pyramid schemes, the SEC has alleged.
SVM, through Tabarsi, has positioned itself a network-marketing enterprise with three arms. Working together, these three arms — Sheila V. and Associates LLC (New York), The Marketplace at SV&A LLC (Costa Rica) and SVM Redesign Your Life America with an organ called “The Freedom Fund” — purportedly will elevate people out of poverty.
On her website, Tabarsi says she is a “4th Generation Native Cherokee/African American Spiritual Life Coach, Universal Life Church Minister, Business and Medical Intuitive with 17 active years of practice performing Clair-empathic healings and various forms of intuitive readings.”
She also notes she is a “corporate administrative manager, former U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant and Veteran of the ’91 Gulf War” who established “SVM ReDesign Your Life America, a non-profit organization to convert abandoned military bases into places to end poverty and homelessness.”
In a March conference call, she claimed she was under investigation by a U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI, among others. She denies she has done anything wrong.
“The FBI is involved only because I have international clients, but not that there’s too much they can really act on,” she said during the call last month.
Because SVM says it has a presence in the Bronx and Manhattan, the PP Blog on Wednesday contacted the office of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York for comment on SVM, UFunClub and “Nelson’s” line about the “Republic of the United States of America” during the Tuesday SVM call.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The MLM “program” known as Wings Network is alleged to have operated through two business entities that used the name “Tropikgadget.” The SEC’s case, announced Friday, is filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. That’s the same venue in which the agency’s epic TelexFree case was filed last year.
There can be no doubt — zero, none — that vulnerable immigrant populations in Massachusetts are being targeted in one MLM scheme after another. Speakers of Spanish or Portuguese may be particularly at risk. It’s also apparent that Asian, Haitian and African population groups are being targeted and that the risk is not unique to Massachusetts residents. The WCM777 “program,” for example, brushed through Massachusetts, where it was aimed at speakers of Portuguese and was stopped by the Massachusetts Securities Division in late 2013.
MSD also has squared off against a “program” known as EmGoldEx. In this scam, investors were promised returns of up to 1,105% and photos of children “getting paid” were used as lures to drive dollars.
One of the Tropikgadget entities — Tropikgadget Unipessoal LDA — allegedly was set up in the Madeira Free Trade Zone in November 2013 and later abandoned. Madeira, whose largest city is Funchal, is a North Atlantic Portuguese archipelago slightly closer to continental Africa than continental Europe. It is worth pointing out that the SEC publicly thanked both Portugal’s securities regulator (Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários) and the office of Portugal’s Attorney General (Procuradoria-Geral da República of Portugal) for assistance in the American probe.
The other Tropikgadget entity — Tropikgadget FZE — appears to have been set up in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, also in November 2013. Sharjah, on the Persian Gulf, is the UAE’s third most populous city, behind Dubai and Abu Dhabi, according to WikiPedia. The paper presence of these companies at geographic points on the North Atlantic and the Persian Gulf more than 4,300 miles away from each other and how they enlisted Massachusetts residents to do their bidding probably is a story unto itself, but it is a story for another day. What’s news today is that Wings Network was operating in Massachusetts at Ground Zero for TelexFree after the TelexFree action and, like TelexFree, is accused of fleecing vulnerable immigrant populations.
At least seven of the 12 charged Wings Network promoters had addresses in Marlborough, Mass. This is potentially important because TelexFree’s U.S. operations were based in Marlborough. TelexFree operated through various U.S. entities and a Brazilian entity known as Ympactus. Brazil-based TelexFree/Ympactus figure Carlos Costa has TelexFree business partners in Massachusetts, waved the flags of Madeira and Portugal in a 2013 TelexFree promo and invoked God in appeals to support TelexFree. Sann Rodrigues, a charged TelexFree promoter associated with an MLM entity known as iFreeX that also operated in Massachusetts and has come under scrutiny, has claimed “God” invented MLM and “binary.” Rodrigues, according to the SEC, is a recidivist pyramid-schemer.
There’s also evidence that the Zeek Rewards “program” taken down by the SEC in 2012 targeted vulnerable people.
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Funchal, Madeira, to Sharjah, UAE. Source: Google Maps.
UPDATED 11:32 A.M. ET U.S.A. The SEC’s “Wings Network” case announced Friday is the latest example of the MLM world’s intolerable capacity to deceive. Though the facts alleged by the SEC are alarming, the action against two companies, three officers and 12 promoters is not an indictment of the trade. Indeed, the agency worked with the Direct Selling Association to expose one of the most mind-numbing lies.
But you still have to wonder if MLM and network marketing in general are on the road to perdition. This is because the horrifying abuses and thematic lies that propped up Wings Network are so common across the larger MLM trade that one can be forgiven for wondering if targeting vulnerable population groups and institutionalizing prevarication is Rule No. 1.
How DSA Got Involved In The Wings Network Case
Adolfo Franco, the trade association’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, sits at the intersection of commerce and government affairs. He’s an old political hand and has worked as a Republican strategist and assistant administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Franco wants the MLM industry to prosper, and he wants to make sure he has a wholesome story to tell in government corridors.
Wings Network didn’t give him one, to be sure.
You see, Wings Network is accused by the SEC of using the DSA’s name to sugarcoat a creeping, cross-border fraud scheme that ultimately gathered at least $23.5 million. What actually happened, according to the SEC and an affidavit prepared by Franco, is that DSA received an “e-mailed request” for a DSA membership “application.” It then sent out the application, which was never returned. Not only was the application not returned, according to the affidavit, DSA never even heard back from Wings Network.
What allegedly happened next will surprise no one who follows the bizarre dramas MLM has been serving up for the past several years. This simple request for a membership application was conflated by Wings Network and affiliates as an endorsement by DSA of Wings Network.
By April 2014, according to the SEC, DSA became aware of this ribald deception. The association reacted by sending Wings Network a cease-and-desist letter, directing Wings Network and affiliates to stop claiming membership in DSA and stating point-blank that “any indication that Wings Network is a member of the DSA is fraudulent.”
Multiple Layers Of Deception
Could it get worse? Sure. Wings Network hucksters also are accused of duping participants into believing the “program,” which advertised guaranteed income, had the additional benefit of insuring them against loss.
Anyone who’s been following the unbelievably noxious example of TelexFree can tell you that the same thing allegedly happened there. The same thing currently is happening in a “program” known as “MooreFund,” and it previously happened in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme in 2008 broken up by the U.S. Secret Service.
The MLM scammers look for a tiny kernel of truth and then wrap a lie around it: A “program” may have a bank account, for example. Money in the account may be insured by the FDIC in the event of a bank collapse.
From this, the “programs” themselves and affiliates conflate a fantastically malignant construction by which no one can lose money because of the “insurance.” It is just a contemptible lie. It’s also one that has been bettered by new versions of the lie. These versions — as is the case with Wings Network, TelexFree and MooreFund — hold that private insurers or even software companies such as Symantec have the companies’ backs and that these private insurers never would do business with a fraud scheme.
Supplementing this lie are companion lies — advanced by Wings Network, TelexFree and others — that a business registration with a Secretary of State or equivalent agency domestically or overseas is proof that there is no underlying scam. (One need only to look at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC to understand just how preposterous this type of lie is.)
Here’s the thing: The type of lies advanced by Wings Network are not unusual for “opportunities” using an MLM or network-marketing business model. DSA happened to be the victim of brand-leeching and runaway disingenuousness in this case, but other cases show it’s hardly alone. Even the names of the U.S. government and various U.S. agencies have been dropped in this fashion.
Not even the “brands” of God and Jesus Christ are off-limits in the MLM sphere. Sometimes an asserted endorsement by a deity is supplemented by suggestions that living legends of entertainment and business have piled aboard a “program” train.
This is a short summary of these tactics as employed by recent MLM or network-marketing schemes that either cratered on their own or collapsed after regulatory intervention. (Note: Some background information also appears in the summary):
WCM777. Operated by Ming Xu. Targeted people who spoke Spanish, Portuguese, English and Asian languages. Dropped names of God, “Yahweh,” Jesus Christ, Al Gore, Steve Wozniak, Sylvester Stallone, “Rocky,” Eric Garcetti, Siemens, Goldman Sachs, the Denny’s restaurant chain and many, many more famous companies. (As many as 700.) Basic sales message: Send us money. Get rich. Estimated haul: $80 million in less than a year. Estimated number of victims: tens to hundreds of thousands.
TelexFree. Operated by James Merrill, Carlos Wanzeler and Carlos Costa. Largely targeted people in the United States and internationally who spoke Spanish, Portuguese and English. Global penetration at an almost unfathomable level. Appears to have created black market and back-alley economy in Massachusetts. Became subject of undercover investigation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Dropped names of God, Jesus Christ, MLM Attorney Gerald Nehra, President Obama, Massachusetts Commonwealth Secretary William Galvin, the SEC, the U.S. Attorney General. Basic sales message: Send us money. Get rich. Estimated haul: $1.82 billion in about two years. Estimated number of victims: hundreds of thousands to more than 1.8 million.
Zeek Rewards. Operated by Paul R. Burks. Targeted people who spoke Spanish, Portuguese, English and Asian languages. Global penetration at an almost unfathomable level. Affiliates targeted Christians. Dropped names of the Association of Network Marketing Professionals, MLM attorneys Gerald Nehra and Kevin Grimes, plus MLM consultants Keith Laggos and Troy Dooly. Basic sales message: Send us money. Get rich. Estimated haul: $897 million in less than two years. Estimated number of victims: hundreds of thousands. “Clawback” cases to return alleged ill-gotten gains may affect 10,000 or more affiliates.
eAdGear. Operated by Charles Wang and Francis Yuen. “Primarily” targeted “investors in the U.S., China, and Taiwan,” according to the SEC. Dropped names of Google, Yahoo, Target Corp., Lbrands (Victoria’s Secret), Avon, Sears, Nordstrom, eBay, QVC, HSN, J.C. Penney, Banana Republic, Dillard’s, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Amazon.com, Men’s Wearhouse, Kmart, New York magazine and many, many more. (As many as 253 brands were abused.) Basic sales message: Send us money. Get rich. Estimated haul: $129 million. Estimated number of victims: tens of thousands.)
Wings Network now stands accused of targeting “many members of the Brazilian and Dominican immigrant communities in Massachusetts” in a combined pyramid- and Ponzi scheme that raised at least $23.5 million.
If that sounds familiar, perhaps it is because the TelexFree “program” was accused last year by the SEC of doing the same thing in the same place. Like Wings Network, TelexFree reached across national borders to plunder investors. Recent filings by the court-appointed trustee in the TelexFree bankruptcy case — and these filings are subject to amendment in part because there are more than 1 trillion disparate data points involved in the reverse-engineering of TelexFree — list the “nature” of the company’s business as “pyramid scheme.”
Other filings by Stephen B. Darr, the trustee, suggest that TelexFree gathered more than $1.8 billion in about two years of operation through a series of entities in the United States and an affiliate in Brazil known as Ympactus. The dollar volume alone is simply mind-boggling, more so when one considers the records so far denote “1,894,940 Participant names, spanning 35,110 pages.”
Some readers who sift through the TelexFree material will need a name-pronunciation guide and a world atlas. TelexFree didn’t just mow down Americans. The records suggest, for example, that the “Embassy Of Nigeria P O Box 1019 Addis Ababa Ethiopia” has contacted Darr. One document lists “Baker Island,” which WikiPedia says is an uninhabited Pacific atoll tended to by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as the “country” of an investor.
It is clear that TelexFree had investors (at least) in Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, France, French Polynesia, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, San Marino, Serbia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Turks and Caicos, U.S. Virgin Islands, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, “Unknown” country, Uruguay, Uzbekistan and Venezuela.
MLM in this form is “fraud creep” running wild. It is posing dangers to individual participants, including those who can ill afford to take a financial hit. Beyond that, it is posing a danger to the U.S. financial infrastructure.
Economic security is national security, friends. These MLM HYIP “programs” pose an untenable security threat. Many of them are shrouded in multiple layers of mystery.
DSA Needs To Do More
It is good to see that the DSA worked with the SEC on the Wings Network case. It would be better yet if the organization studied why so many MLM HYIPers appear to move from fraud scheme to fraud scheme to fraud scheme.
Where did these people start their “MLM journeys?” Did they start at, say, Herbalife or Amway after buying into the dream and the attendant hype? And did they get churned by those “traditional” MLMs, only to become shark bait for the HYIPs?
With so many of the scams selling the message that it’s nearly impossible to make money in “traditional” MLMs and that 97 percent of people who latch onto the MLM dream of riches emerge as losers or highly vulnerable treaders of water in rough seas, isn’t it time for those traditional MLMs to question whether they are creating the refugees and providing the training for the targeting?
Herbalife is not an HYIP. But it sells a dream and has a high burn rate. The most recent scheme to sell against traditional MLM is “Achieve Community,” taken down by the SEC last month.
Whether or not “the 97 percent” claim is precisely true is immaterial. What’s material is the ready availability of vulnerable population groups and refugees from “traditional” MLMs.
TelexFree even may have channeled Herbalife, calling its cheerleading sessions “extravaganzas” and latching onto the sport of soccer.
Stemming this hurtful tide should be a top priority at DSA. The wave of scams is not docile. It very well might be eroding protective shores in violent fashion and creeping up on the road to perdition.
North Korea has described President Obama as a “monkey,” providing a flashback to a 2010 ad script for the MPB Today MLM “program.”
Today we provide a glimpse into the world of coded pandering as it exists in North Korea, the country blamed by the FBI last week for orchestrating the cyber attacks on California-based Sony Pictures. Turns out that coded pandering in North Korea is not all that different from coded pandering in the United States.
It now has emerged that North Korea apparently believes that describing President Obama as a person who “always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest” is a PR masterstroke.
So, Kim Jong Un is passing the word that Obama has the qualities of a talking “monkey” out to make things even harder on his fellow monkeys. And where do these talking monkeys live? Why, the jungle, of course.
It wasn’t the first time North Korea has used crude insults against Obama and other top U.S. and South Korean officials. Earlier this year, the North called U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry a wolf with a “hideous” lantern jaw and South Korean President Park Geun-hye a prostitute. In May, the North’s official news agency published a dispatch saying Obama has the “shape of a monkey.”
Words Mean Things
The bizarre situation evolving in North Korea is reminiscent of a bizarre situation surrounding the MPB Today MLM “program” that played out in the United States beginning in 2010. Indeed, an affiliate of the Ponzi-board cycler “opportunity” whose operator later went to jail on a state charge of racketeering in Florida apparently believed that using the word “monkey” in the context of Obama was a winning business message. For apparent good measure, the term “Brown-noser” also was used in the deplorable script.
From Scene 1 in the 2010 script (italics added):
michelle_obama O’ Barry Baby, since we’ve joined MPB TODAY your popularity has increased in the polls! Who runs these polls, monkeys??
From Scene 16 (italics added):
obama hillary You’re no loser, Hil, and besides… no one loses with MPB Today, not even you… OMG, What a Brown-noser
MPB Today was positioned by affiliates in general as a “program” in which a one-time purchase of $200 could morph into free groceries and gasoline for life. The author of the offensive script, however, apparently couldn’t let the already-dubious narrative end there.
For whatever reason, it became important to depict a black family that happens to be the First Family of the United States as welfare recipients.
This from Scene 6 of the script (italics added):
michelle_obama obama Hmm, I should prolly call my Food Stamp worker now that I’ve joined MPB
Could it get worse? Sure. It also became important to depict the President as a left-handed saluting Nazi who answers to a bawling and wine-drunk U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Nazi-in-Chief.
And why not paint the Obama family as aspiring to eat “real dog food” while at once attacking the President’s then-9-year-old daughter? This from Scene 4 (italics added):
michelle_obama obama I’m so relieved we’ve totally eliminated our grocery bill! You’re relieved? Now I’ll finally get some real dog food instead of just Sasha’s scraps
Hell, if there’s MLM hay to be made, why not make First Lady Michelle Obama flatulent in the Oval Office from the consumption of “beans” while the First Dog laments the absence of unoffensive air?
Like North Korea’s messaging, the messaging for MPB Today was the stuff of spectacular idiocy on display for all the world to see. Here’s the decoded shorthand: Hillary (dubbed “Hitlary” in one version of the script) might be a Nazi drunk, but at least she’s a white drunk and the black President answers to her. Send the black President and his welfare family back to Wal-Mart where they belong. The black family is stinking up the White House and even offending the First Pet.
The ad, which was designed to drive business to MPB Today but offended Democrats and Republicans alike, eventually was pulled by the creator, who caught some hell on the Internet for being such an idiot in the name of MLM. With or without the ad, MPB Today was such an obvious fraud that it was a virtual certainty that its operator would be held accountable for his money-cycling scheme.
Contrast what happened with the MPB Today video to what happened at Sony Pictures during the run-up to the release of “The Interview,” a scalding and satirical poke at Kim Jong Un.
Sony effectively was crippled for weeks by hackers. Its intellectual property and email files were stolen. Its employees were threatened. Patrons were threatened with 9/11-style terrorist attacks. Theaters backed out of screening “The Interview.” Obama went on TV to explain North Korea was not going to dictate what Americans could watch in U.S. movie houses. Sony, which initially withdrew the Christmas Day release of the film, reversed course and put it out in more than 300 theaters and released it online.
It now comes to pass that Americans have seen their President depicted by North Korea in much the same way he was depicted by the MPB Today promoter in 2010. (In fairness, it must be pointed out that North Korea didn’t go the extra mile and make Obama a welfare-enabled Nazi.)
We wonder today just how many MLMers have been swept into in a North Korea-style cult of personality and imprisoned in the same way Kim’s people are imprisoned.
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: The “North Korean government” is responsible for the catastrophic hack at Sony Pictures Entertainment last month, the FBI says.
As pressure mounts for the United States to retaliate, President Obama is expected to take questions on the matter at 1:30 p.m. today.
The FBI said it was “deeply concerned about the destructive nature of this attack on a private sector entity and the ordinary citizens who worked there. Further, North Korea’s attack on SPE reaffirms that cyber threats pose one of the gravest national security dangers to the United States.
“Though the FBI has seen a wide variety and increasing number of cyber intrusions, the destructive nature of this attack, coupled with its coercive nature, sets it apart. North Korea’s actions were intended to inflict significant harm on a U.S. business and suppress the right of American citizens to express themselves. Such acts of intimidation fall outside the bounds of acceptable state behavior. The FBI takes seriously any attempt—whether through cyber-enabled means, threats of violence, or otherwise—to undermine the economic and social prosperity of our citizens.”
Threats of 9/11-style terrorist attacks against movie patrons and theaters that screened a comedic film that mocks North Korea leader Kim Jong Un and depicts him as an assassination target first caused theaters to bail on “The Interview,” a Sony film scheduled to open Christmas Day. Sony itself later withdrew the film, triggering an avalanche of criticism that it had caved into the demands of terrorists.
As the situation evolved, it became clear that the United States viewed the attack on Sony as an attack against the country itself.
The actual hacking of Sony appears to have occurred in November, with “Guardians of Peace” taking credit. Troves of private emails and records were stolen, Sony and its employees were threatened and Sony’s computers effectively were rendered inoperable. Sony has been in PR damage-control mode for weeks, even as the firm’s intellectual property such as films not yet released fell into the hands of the hackers.
Sony quickly reported the incident to the FBI, and the swiftness aided in the probe, the agency said.
Here’s more from the FBI’s statement (italics added):
As a result of our investigation, and in close collaboration with other U.S. government departments and agencies, the FBI now has enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is responsible for these actions. While the need to protect sensitive sources and methods precludes us from sharing all of this information, our conclusion is based, in part, on the following:
Technical analysis of the data deletion malware used in this attack revealed links to other malware that the FBI knows North Korean actors previously developed. For example, there were similarities in specific lines of code, encryption algorithms, data deletion methods, and compromised networks.
The FBI also observed significant overlap between the infrastructure used in this attack and other malicious cyber activity the U.S. government has previously linked directly to North Korea. For example, the FBI discovered that several Internet protocol (IP) addresses associated with known North Korean infrastructure communicated with IP addresses that were hardcoded into the data deletion malware used in this attack.
Separately, the tools used in the SPE attack have similarities to a cyber attack in March of last year against South Korean banks and media outlets, which was carried out by North Korea.
UPDATED 8:42 A.M. ET NOV. 9 U.S.A. Many Americans will have only a vague recollection of her name. Others will not be able to place her at all. But they’ll remember cases with which she has been involved.
One of those involved the prosecution of New York City police officers, including Justin Volpe, implicated in the brutal and unthinkable attack against Haitian immigrant Abner Louima in 1997. Americans of all races and creeds were infuriated at the news cops had assaulted Louima — and then hatched a coverup. The assault and the efforts to hide it embarrassed police agencies and prosecutors in New York and across the land because law enforcement is supposed to safeguard and champion civil rights, not violate and dispose of them.
The White House announced yesterday that President Obama today will nominate Loretta Lynch, a member of the team that brought justice to one of America’s most famous crime victims, to replace Eric Holder as Attorney General of the United States. Holder, in September, announced that he is stepping down. Lynch currently is the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Local residents think of her as the U.S. Attorney for Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island.
If confirmed by the Senate, Lynch will become the first African American female Attorney General in U.S. history. She was born in North Carolina 55 years ago.
Here are two statements from Lynch that have appeared on the PP Blog:
“As alleged in the complaint, the defendant came to this country intent on conducting a terrorist attack on U.S. soil and worked with single-minded determination to carry out his plan. The defendant thought he was striking a blow to the American economy. He thought he was directing confederates and fellow believers.” — U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch, Eastern District of New York, Oct. 17, 2012
In 2011, Lynch’s office became involved in the prosecution of Vincent P. McCrudden. He was accused of threatening to to kill 47 current or former market regulators from the SEC, FINRA and others, and of publishing an “Execution List” on his website. McCrudden, later convicted, allegedly also encouraged others to kill regulators.
Here is what Lynch said when the charges were brought:
“In this day and age, there is no such thing as an idle threat. Those who threaten injury or worse to the lives of others will be promptly investigated and vigorously prosecuted.” — U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch, Eastern District of New York, Jan. 14, 2011
McCrudden’s arrest occurred just five days after a gunman in an unrelated incident had opened fire at an Arizona constituent event hosted by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords was critically wounded in the attack. U.S. District Judge John Roll and five others were shot and killed.
BULLETIN: (Updated 2:09 p.m. EDT U.S.A.) The White House has announced that President Obama will address the American people at 9 p.m. EDT tomorrow on the threat posed by ISIS, a terrorist group that has seized lands in Iraq and Syria. ISIS, the asserted Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, also is known as ISIL.
ISIS is responsible for the beheadings of two American journalists overseas and is believed to be holding other individuals captive.
The President will deliver an address to the nation from the State Floor of the White House Wednesday night at 9:00 PM EDT to discuss with the American people the threat posed by ISIL and to lay out the United States’ strategy for degrading and ultimately destroying the terrorist group.
Also see AP story dated today via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that quotes a New York City police official talking about the “mass marketing of terrorism.”
Thursday is the 13 anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Roger Alberto Santamaria Del Cid, an apparent nominee director for offshore companies who is listed as a corporate “subscriber” for VX Gateway in Panamanian business records, is referenced at least three times in the “Panama Papers.”
