PatrickPretty.com

Tag: RealScam.com

Embezzled Banners Broker Pyramid Funds Allegedly Ended Up In ‘KulClub,’ Another Ponzi-Board MLM Program

2ND UPDATE 2:25 P.M. EDT U.S.A. More horrible PR for the MLM trade: Banners Broker international pitchman and pyramid-scheme figure Kuldip Josun embezzled at least $3.6 million from affiliates, according to a receiver’s report.

The money was deposited into a Swiss bank account held by an entity known as World Web Media Inc. and appears to have been used to start an “MLM program” known as “KulClub,” the receiver advised a court in Canada.

Like the alleged $156 million Banners Broker scheme, KulClub had a presence on the MoneyMakerGroup forum, records show. U.S. authorities have alleged MoneyMakerGroup is a place from which fraud schemes are promoted.

KulClub purports to be a “unique revenue sharing program in which KulClub shares the majority of its revenue with all its members. No other club can match it!”

But msi Spergel inc., the Toronto-based Banners Broker receiver, said KulClub likely was started with stolen Banners Broker funds that never were recovered from the Swiss account.

“The Receiver believes that Josun has since used the Swiss bank account funds for personal purposes, including the launching of his own MLM program called ‘KulClub,’” Spergel alleged. The receiver is seeking a sweeping order preventing the dissipation of assets.

How did Josun end up with affiliate funds? After becoming the “main representative among international affiliates” of Banners Broker, the huckster allegedly hosted web events, flew to events in Europe, gathered money from hopefuls and kept it for himself.

From the receiver (italics added/light editing performed):

In that role, Josun would travel to meet with international affiliates, or potential affiliates, and conduct conference calls and seminars via videoconferencing. His day-to-day occupation with Banners Broker was to maximize Affiliate investment into the program, as well as to establish an international network Banners Broker Network. That is, he was responsible for encouraging the development of overseas affiliates into `super-affiliates’ (or “Resellers”), who would establish their own networks of affiliates.

In his role as Banners Broker’s international representative, Josun would frequently fly to overseas locations with a significant amount of company funds. Those funds were used to advertise a lifestyle of success and luxury to potential affiliates. Josun spent existing affiliate funds lavishly in maintaining this facade, as he carried out a campaign to woo wealthy new affiliates to the Banners Broker enterprise.

Josun’s spending in his role as Banners Broker’s international spokesperson lacked any effective oversight. No budgets were set for Josun’s business trips on behalf of Banners Broker, nor was there any control over his expenses.

The Receiver asserts that Josun would regularly receive funds from affiliates meant to be spent on Banners Broker products. Rather than remit these funds to the company, Josun would redirect the funds to his own personal accounts in offshore jurisdictions, intending to place them beyond the reach of creditors.

Similar allegations of cherry-picking have surfaced in the TelexFree Ponzi- and pyramid case. Like Banners Broker and KulClub, TelexFree had a presence on the Ponzi boards.

Josun was hardly alone in misappropriating Banners Broker funds, the receiver alleged.

Rajiv Dixit, a Banners Broker principal charged criminally, “purchased six watches from Weir & Sons in Dublin, Ireland: three Rolexes and three Breitfings,” the receiver alleged. “Two of the watches were women’s watches.”

The receiver’s allegations against Josun appear to be yet-another example of a scammer within a purported revshare “program” scamming both the “opportunity” itself and incoming participants. Although Banners Broker allegedly terminated Josun, it made little difference because the “program” itself was a scam.

Read the receiver’s report.

NOTE: Also see RealScam.com Banners Broker thread and this June 19 “Harrison” post.

Jun 21, 2016
IN MEMORY: Paul Schlegel, 1963-2015

Paul Schlegel, a St. Louis-based musician and composer and longtime member of the antiscam community, has died. He was 52.

Word of Paul’s Dec. 7 passing was received from Lynn Edgington of Eagle Research Associates, via a post today at the RealScam.com antiscam forum.

Paul had assisted Eagle for years in its dual mission of educating the public about scams and working proactively with law enforcement. Paul also supplied administrative support to RealScam.

“He truly had a servant’s heart,” RealScam administrator Soapboxmom wrote today.

The PP Blog fondly remembers Paul for his support during a bizarre and concerning hectoring campaign orchestrated here by a cyberstalker who called himself “Almighty Joseph (the risen)” in 2009. The Blog was told it would be “scrambling to put out fires.”

The stalker was a supporter of the AdViewGlobal Ponzi scheme, later tied by federal prosecutors to the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, a $119 million caper that affected thousands and thousands of people globally.

Paul also supported the Blog during the crippling DDoS attacks here in 2010. RealScam.com later would be targeted.

Paul supported the Blog’s efforts to report on a bid by a purported Zeek Rewards’ consultant to disable the HubPage of K. Chang of the MLM Skeptic. The page eventually returned. Zeek was a combined Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that gathered more than $850 million, according to the SEC.

Zeek affected hundreds of thousands of people.

In 2014, RealScam and the PP Blog again were targeted in a bizarre hectoring campaign. So was Quatloos. Paul’s support never wavered.

It is the nature of Ponzi schemes to bring out “blind-faith craziness” in some otherwise normal people, Paul once observed.

Here is Paul Schlegel’s obituary. He is described as a loving family man whose life was filled with music from his heart.

We’d add to these loving words that Paul helped lots of people in the development of their online knowledge base about scams. He was there day after day to help his fellow human beings avoid the pain of losses, so that the music could continue to play in their lives.

Dec 21, 2015
EDITORIAL: Uber Isn’t MLM, But It Sure Acts Like It

From a letter by Sen. Al Franken to Uber. Franken, a Democrat, is a member of the powerful Senate Committee on the Judiciary. He also is chairman of the Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law.

We’ll begin by pointing out that Uber, the popular ride-sharing company and darling of venture capitalists, is not an MLM firm. But it sure is acting like one, even briefly vomiting one of MLM’s most familiar and reflexive responses to critics: HatersGonnaHate.

Can MLM enterprises and MLMers in general learn from Uber’s bizarre missteps?

You see, both Uber and MLM have a common problem: a certain internal recklessness coupled with a tin ear for PR, one that serves up one spectacular gaffe after another. Uber’s latest self-inflicted wound now has the attention of Sen. Al Franken, the Minnesota Democrat. Franken wants to know why “Uber’s Senior Vice-President of Business Emil Michael recently made statements suggesting that Uber might mine private information to target a journalist who had criticized the company.”

As BuzzFeedNews reported on Nov. 17 (italics/bolding added):

A senior executive at Uber suggested that the company should consider hiring a team of opposition researchers to dig up dirt on its critics in the media — and specifically to spread details of the personal life of a female journalist who has criticized the company.

Put another way: make the lady sweat that some skeleton might surface and lead to her demise should she dare continue to write pieces Uber found unflattering.

One Uber executive, BuzzFeed reported, planted the seed that Uber could prove “a particular and very specific claim about her personal life.”

The journalist is Sarah Lacy, the editor-in-chief at PandoDaily and a Mom. Here we’ll mention that, in addition to the Uber thuggishness, she’s also had to deal with the sidebar contention that Pando just might be funded by the CIA.

As a journalist who has been accused by MLMers of being on the CIA payroll and told by MLMers that my supposed secrets dealing with my supposed homosexuality and supposed porn addiction will be outed even as “sovereign citizens” threaten me with $500,000 fines for alleged trademark infringement, it will come as no surprise to PP Blog readers that I’m more than a little sympathetic to reporters who encounter thugs.

This sympathy extends whether the thugs are in the Ivory Tower or operating from the sewers.

The BuzzFeed Uber revelation set off a media firestorm now in its fourth day, putting Uber’s name in the papers for all the wrong reasons. Now, at least one reporter has come forward to claim that Uber tracked her without her permission as she rode in a Uber car. The device Uber uses to perform this tracking is known as “God View.”

In September, venture capitalist Peter Sims wrote that he’d been tracked by Uber without his permission. Sims says he was in a Uber car in New York City and that Uberites in Chicago were monitoring his movements. What this means, in essence, is that Uber was using him as a stage prop without his knowledge and consent from halfway across the country while also invading his privacy.

This reminds me of two crackpot MLM schemes making the rounds in 2010. These “programs” were known as NarcThatCar and Data Network Affiliates. Both schemes bizarrely reimagined mass invasions of privacy as exciting new products — and then wrapped pyramid schemes around their creations for good measure.

The schemes worked approximately like this: Armies of MLMers would hit neighborhoods across the land and write down the license-plate numbers of cars parked on streets and the addresses at which they were parked. They’d also hit the parking lots of grocery stores, big-box retailers, restaurant chains, pharmacies, doctors’ offices, bookstores, libraries, theaters, video-rental companies and universities.

All of this information would be entered in a database, purportedly to assist the AMBER Alert system of locating abducted children. AMBER Alert purportedly would get the data for free, but clientele purportedly including banks and companies in the business of repossessing cars during the height of the recession would pay for it.

MLM recruits were told to try not to attract too much attention while writing down all these plate numbers. They also were falsely told they were helping the U.S. Department of Homeland Security track terrorists.

Yes. MLM went in the spy business, using the pretext that it was one’s patriotic duty to monitor license plates and that enormous profits would flow from neighbors keeping track of automobiles in their neighborhoods. As the story was told, the database could tell the police what cars were parked at a fixed address at the time a child was snatched. This information then could be compared to the next sighting of the tag as entered in the database from a different fixed address, thus purportedly providing clues as to where the kidnapped child was being held.

If anyone had the temerity to raise a stink or even make a polite inquiry about why a stranger was recording their plate number in a parking lot, the recorders were trained to respond that no one had anything to fear if they hadn’t done anything wrong.

Both Narc and DNA were filled with such Orwellian outrageousness (and were such obvious pyramid schemes) that reporters began to hound both “programs.” The Better Business Bureau was subjected to bizarre attacks from the MLM sphere for raising questions about the “programs,” and some MLMers got the idea that the reporters, rather than the companies pulling off obvious scams, should be investigated.

Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels couldn’t have imagined greater allies than the MLM Stepfordians.

By 2012, MLMer and Zeek Rewards Ponzi-scheme figure Robert Craddock got the bright idea of putting himself in the opposition-research business — the opposition being reporters who wrote anything bad about Zeek. One of his targets was Zeek critic K. Chang, who briefly lost control over his HubPages site because Craddock had filed a complaint alleging copyright infringement, trademark infringement and libel.

K. Chang eventually prevailed, but not without experiencing downtime while the Zeek scheme was still gathering cash. The SEC eventually shut down Zeek, alleging that it was operating a fraud that had gathered $850 million.

Still sensing there was money to be made in the MLM cottage business of harassing reporters or soliciting dirt on them, Craddock eventually established a website known as “InternetClowns” that purportedly would serve all MLM firms. The supposed “clowns” included the PP Blog and BehindMLM.com, two sites that report on MLM frauds.

At the beginning of this column I noted that perhaps MLM could learn something from the experience of Uber in the subject area of tracking reporters and soliciting dirt on them. It strikes me now that maybe it should be the other way around: that Uber could learn from MLM.

One of the things Uber could learn is not to do anything MLMish if it wants to maintain its standing as a venture-capital darling.

By MLMish, we mean something crazy and outlandish such as tracking reporters, bringing in opposition-research teams to menace them and telling a group of people in the Second City that you’re using your “God Machine” to spy on a venture capitalist in the Big Apple.

And perhaps Uber also might want to avoid the most recent practice associated with “defenders” of outrageous MLM “programs” and HYIP schemes.

This would be the practice of trying to smear critics by using online forums to plant false stories about critics’ ties to Islamic terrorist groups and otherwise attacking human beings based on their Muslim faith.

Uber can read all about that one on RealScam.com, a site that concerns itself with international mass-marketing fraud. RealScam.com currently is being hectored by a person known as “Happy Customer” who is making outrageous claims against critics, filing bogus reports at RipoffReport and trying to keyword stuff the forum with words such as “Islamic Forum” and “haven for Islamic Terrorists !”

Happy Customer’s mind appears to be telling him (used presumptively) that, if only he can use the words “Islamic” and “Muslim” enough times — while mixing in words such as “terrorist” and “terrorism” — the eavesdropping and text-reading National Security Agency might just buzz by and turn off RealScam’s server.

Study the strange MLM circus, Uber. What you’ll learn should be more than enough to help make most unwanted headlines go away.

Nov 20, 2014
No Immediate Comment From Federal Reserve On Claims Related To Emerging BitClub Network ‘Program’

UPDATED 12:27 A.M. EDT SEPT. 22 U.S.A. The PP Blog today contacted the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, owing to claims concerning the emerging BitClub Network “program” that is being pitched by certain members of the $850 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid scheme.

Known in shorthand as the Fed, the Federal Reserve is the central bank of the United States.

Someone is posting on the RealScam.com antiscam forum as “Fedman” and purporting to be “Steve,” a “Vice President” of a federal reserve bank. Fedman purports to have been employed by the Fed “for over 30 years,” to “manage large operations” and to “work with monetary policy.”

Fedman appears to be defending pitches for BitClub Network by Brian Spatola, a New Jersey-based alleged “winner” in the massive Zeek scheme that may have affected hundreds of thousands of people. The court-appointed receiver in the Zeek case is suing more than 9,000 alleged Zeek winners in the United States and has said he’ll also sue international winners in the “program.”

The Fed did not immediately comment on the claims being made by Fedman.

It is sometimes the case in HYIP schemes that promoters and defenders of “programs” drop the names of individuals and entities that have no ties whatsoever to a “program” as a means of sanitizing scams. The name-dropping associated with BitClub Network has been furious and now appears even to include the name of the U.S. central bank.

After missing a series of advertised launch dates — including one on Sept. 1, the 75th anniversary of the beginning of World War II and another on Sept. 10, the eve of the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks — BitClub Network now appears to have launched.

Promoters claim the scheme pays out between 0.3 and 0.8 percent a day for 1,000 days on invested sums of between $500 and $3,500. In addition, promoters claim there are recruitment commissions on top of the daily payout, a claim that accompanies many HYIP Ponzi- and pyramid swindles.

Among the BitClub Network promoters are Spatola and T. LeMont Silver, late of Zeek. Silver also promoted the OneX pyramid scheme, an exceptionally murky program that used an image of a bomb in its logo.

AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming, a purported “sovereign citizen,” was a Federal Reserve conspiracy theorist and an overall banking conspiracy theorist. Leaming was arrested by an FBI terrorism task force in 2011, after filing bogus liens against federal officials who had a role in the ASD Ponzi prosecution that began in 2008.

Leaming now is serving a lengthy prison sentence.

Sep 19, 2014
Quatloos Mod, RealScam.com, PP Blog Targeted In Bizarre Hectoring Campaign

(3RD UPDATE 2:43 P.M. EDT U.S.A.) wserra, an attorney, Quatloos moderator and occasional poster on the PPBlog and RealScam.com, appears recently to have been targeted by a crackpot who desires to hector wserra with complaints to the bar association.

Among other things, Quatloos publishes information on the bizarre undertakings of “sovereign citizens” in the United States and Canada.

It is not uncommon for “sovereign citizens” and/or “supporters” of HYIP “programs” and/or bizarre MLM “programs” to hector sites such as Quatloos and RealScam and the PP Blog.

Whoever advanced the hectoring campaign against wserra appears also to be interested in simultaneously hectoring RealScam and the PP Blog. The PP Blog occasionally posts on RealScam.com, typically providing context on scams-in-progress or comparisons with previous scams.

Over the years, both RealScam.com and the PPBlog have been targeted with DDoS attacks and bizarre forms of menacing.

The most recent campaign includes a conspiracy theory that the PP Blog and Lynn Edgington, an antiscam activist, own RealScam individually or jointly. The bogus theory further holds that the PPBlog fraudulently joined the JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid HYIP “program” (2 percent a day/precompounding) to “gain access to all the conference call recordings.”

In addition, the theory seems to hold that JSS/JBP was a legitimate “program” and that the PP Blog was engaged in espionage in violation of U.S. law.

JSS/JBP may have links to the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement.

In November 2013, the PP Blog received a threat that federal authorities would move against it over its coverage of the Profitable Sunrise “program” if the Blog did not meet certain conditions imposed on it by fiat by an apparent “supporter” of the “program.”

The Blog also has been threatened with astronomical fines by individuals who appear to believe they can trademark their names as a means of assuring that reporters cannot use them when covering matters of public record or public discussion.

Whoever is carrying out the hectoring campaign against wserra, RealScam.com, Edgington and the PPBlog appears to believe it prudent to encourage HYIPers to purchase firearms, apparently out of concern that the antiscam community may organize a flash mob and appear at the homes of HYIP purveyors.

The individual, for instance, asserts that it is important “legally to stand your ground” and to “go purchase a firearm right away [l]egally if it gets that serious to protect your home or place of business.”

And, the individual further suggests, the White House should be brought into the loop about perceived plots in the antiscam community to harm the HYIP trade.

Apparently after determining there was a need for HYIP purveyors to conduct a swift intelligence-gathering operation on critics who post on RealScam, one or more HYIP colleagues “have dissected this [RealScam.com] group in the matter of 2 days,” the individual asserted.

This apparently led to a determination that the RealScam posters who advocate against HYIP schemes come “down to . . . maybe 2-6 lonely, depressed, lousy, white, obese, out of shape, old, uneducated group of Losers.”

The individual offered no guidance on how to deal with RealScam posters who may, for example, have no issues with social rejection, depression or head lice while at once being African American or of another race, trim, in shape, young or youngish and educated.

RealScam, according to the individual, also includes “dedicated snitches,” a line that plants the seed such snitches should be dealt with harshly by HYIP purveyors.

And, the individual suggests, the HYIP field could benefit by carrying out extortion campaigns against RealScam and some of its posters — perhaps particularly those who may live in fear of being outed for being gay, aged, bigoted, afflicted with disease and living in poverty while serving their porn addictions. (Italics added to the individual’s claim below):

RealScam admins have deep secrets amongst each other. Some are gay, some are OLD, some are Fat, Some have HIV, Some are addicted to Drugs, Some are Racist, Some are Broke/Poor, Some are addicted to the internet but mainly addicted to the realscam website and a few porn sites. It gets deep once you really sit down and ask yourself why are these strange group of losers out to harm so many innocent individuals?”

Part of the individual’s “strategy” — if it can be called that — appears to be to overwhelm authorities with complaints about RealScam and some of its posters. Such an approach may be consistent with the approach of a “sovereign citizen” or a person who has fallen down a “sovereign citizen” rabbit hole. One of the “sovereign” strategies is to overwhelm courts and agencies with paperwork and to make false claims against individuals.

The approach has been described as “paper terrorism.”

Coinciding with the most recent attack on RealScam and some of its posters is an apparent bid to encourage complaints to RipoffReport. These events are taking place against the backdrop of continued efforts by a well-known cyberstalker to use lurid sexual innuendo in attacks against the antiscam community, including the depiction of one antiscam advocate as a diaper-wearing pole dancer.

Jun 19, 2014
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Zeek Receiver Sues Alleged Insiders, Winners; Emails, Skype Chats Helped Expose Fraud; ‘We’ve Already Attracted A Great Many Big Fishes,’ Wright-Olivares ‘Excitedly’ Told Paul Burks Early In Scheme, Kenneth D. Bell Alleges

Dawn Wright-Olivares

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (8th Update 2:40 p.m. ET March 4, U.S.A.) The court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid-scheme case has sued alleged insiders and net winners, including members of the 2008 AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme.

Parts of the complaint read like a re-living of the ASD scheme, with Zeek Receiver Kenneth D. Bell alleging Zeek’s penny-auction arm (Zeekler) was in trouble early on and that Zeek operator Paul Burks borrowed money from another insider to keep things going. The fraud later expanded massively, Bell alleged.

At one point, according to Bell, former Zeek COO Dawn Wright-Olivares “excitedly” told Burks, “I think we can blow this OUT together — we’ve already attracted a great many big fishes.”

But the insiders “were aware that the payouts to Affiliates would be funded by new participants rather than retail profits from the penny auctions,” Bell alleged.

Named defendant “insiders” were Burks of Lexington, N.C.; Wright-Olivares of Clarksville, Ark.; Daniel Olivares of Clarksville, Ark.; the estate of the late Roger Anthony Plyler of Charlotte; Alexandre “Alex” de Brantes, the husband of Wright-Olivares and a resident of Clarksville, Ark.; and Darryle Douglas of Orange, Calif.

Burks, the receiver alleged, received “in excess” of $10 million from Zeek; Wright-Olivares received more than $7.8 million; Daniel Olivares received more than $3.1 million; Plyler, who once lent money to Burks, received more than $2.3 million; Douglas received more than $1.975 million. An amount was not listed for de Brantes.

Named winners were former AdSurfDaily member Todd Disner of Miami (more than $1.875 million); former ASD member Jerry Napier of Owosso, Mich. (more than $1.745 million); Trudy Gilmond of St. Albans, Vt. (more than $1.75 million); Durant Brockett of Las Vegas (more than $1.72 million); Darren Miller of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho (more than $1.635 million); Rhonda Gates of Nashville (more than $1.425 million); Michael Van Leeuwen, also known as “Coach Van” of Fayetteville, N.C. (more than $1.4 million); David Sorrells of Scottsdale, Az. (more than $1 million); T. Le Mont Silver Sr. of Orlando, Fla. (more than $773,000 under at least two user names, and more than $943,000 through a Florida shell entity known as Global Internet Formula Inc. with one or more Zeek user names).

One of Silver’s usernames was “mentor,” Bell alleged.

Also named winners were Karen Silver, Silver’s wife (more than $600,000); veteran HYIP pitch team Aaron and Shara Andrews of Lake Worth, Fla. (more than $1 million through a Florida shell entity known as Innovation Marketing); David and Mary Kettner of Peoria, Az. (more than $930,000 via one or more user names and shell companies known as Desert Oasis International Marketing LLC and Kettner & Associates LLC); Lori Jean Weber of Land O’Lakes, Fla. (more than $1.94 million through a shell company known as P.A.W.S. Capital Management LLC).

Bell also sued a “Net Winner Class” of as many as 9,000 U.S. residents or entities who allegedly harvested illicit gains of $1,000 or more from Zeek. Lawsuits against international winners will come later, Bell said.

In December 2013, Wright-Olivares and Olivares were charged criminally. They pleaded guilty last month for their roles in the scheme and are liable for more than $11.4 million in restitution and penalties, the SEC said.

As the SEC previously alleged, Zeek relied on a so-called “80/20” program to sustain the Ponzi deception. Bell today built on that theme. From the complaint against insiders (italics added/spacing modified):

Dawn Wright-Olivares explained and promoted the plan in a Skype chat as follows:

Here’s a scenario here where you could be receiving $3,000 per month RESIDUALLY. Let’s use a 1% daily cash-back figure in this example (Please note: This is only an example and the actual amount will vary day to day).

When you reach 50,000 points in your account, then you could start doing an 80/20 cash-out plan. Pay close attention? When you hit 50,000 points in your account, if the daily cash-back percentage is 1%, ZeekRewards will be awarding you with $500.00 each day. First of all, did you catch that? … you’re making $500 per day … it’s your money! Ok, the 80/20 plan works like this, take 80% of that $500 (or $400) and purchase more VIP bids to give away to new customers as samples to continue growing your points balance.

Then, keep doing what you’ve been doing every day, which primarily consists of giving free bids away as samples and placing one free ad per day for Zeekler.com’s penny auctions and submitting into your ZeekRewards back office. Then, pull out 20% of the $500 (or $100) and request a check weekly. That’s $700 per week, or about $3,000 per month in residual income! And keep in mind, these amounts can continue to grow day after day and month after month.

HYIP schemes, including ASD and Zeek, often implement deceptions such as 80/20 programs as part of a bid to reduce cashout amounts to let the scheme continue to live. Insiders and veteran Ponzi pushers typically know they’re a crock.

Daniel Olivares, Bell said, has a Zeek user name of “dcolive.”

On June 14, 2012, about two months prior to the collapse of Zeek, RealScam.com moderator and PP Blog poster “Glim Dropper” posted a link on the PP Blog that established a tie between Zeek promoters and ASD promoters. ASD was a $119 million Ponzi scheme operated by now-jailed operator Andy Bowdoin.

RealScam.com is an antiscam forum.

The link “Glim Dropper” posted was at a URL styled “dcolive.com.”

From “Glim Dropper’s” observations at the time (italics added):

I’d draw your attention to about five minutes into the call when Dawn recalls a conversation with Jerry Napier. Jerry was quoted as loving ZR and never wanting to have to build another organization with another program and mentioned a previous program and the litigation it was still facing and he mentioned “similarities” between ZR and that previous program.

It is common in the HYIP sphere for promoters to move from one fraud scheme to another.

Napier’s exposure to ASD is unknown. But the Zeek receiver now says Napier received illicit gains of more than $1.745 million. The alleged illicit Zeek gains of former fellow ASD member Todd Disner are even higher: $1.875 million.

Precisely how many ASD members went on to join Zeek is unclear. What is clear is that both firms used similar business models and sweetened the deal for certain members.

Bell alleged today that Zeek had a “Sweet 16” deal in which participants paid $999 to mine even more “passive” gains.

“The Sweet 16 was another means by which [Rex Venture Group] made payments on a passive investment,” Bell alleged. “It did not involve the sale of a product, nor did it require a member to recruit other participants into the program.”

Zeek operated through Rex Venture.

To read the lawsuits, visit the ASD Updates Blog.

Disner once filed suit against the United States, alleging its ASD Ponzi case was a “tissue of lies” and a “house of cards.” A federal judge tossed the lawsuit, after Bowdoin pleaded guilty to wire fraud and admitted ASD was a Ponzi scheme.

Visit the receiver’s website.

Mar 3, 2014
PROFITABLE SUNRISE CASE: Did Fake Reporter Use Photo Of Real Reporter In ‘Story’ Titled ‘Nanci Jo Frazer WINS in Court – A Case Of Innocent Ignorance?’

“The judge ruled in Nanci & David Frazer’s favor along with Albert Rosebrock (ministry board members) . . . to release frozen funds. The FBI and the Federal government is categorizing Frazer as having suffered from a case of ‘innocent ignorance’ as she worked for nine months doing customer support for a UK Collateral Loan company.” — Lede from “story” on Topix.com, Oct. 5, 2013

Is a photo of a real reporter being used by a fake reporter in the aftermath of the Profitable Sunrise scheme? (Screen shot brushed by PP Blog.)

This is what is known from the publicly accessible court docket in Ohio’s July 8 fraud case against alleged Profitable Sunrise promoter Nancy Jo Frazer (also known as Nanci Jo Frazer), Focus Up Ministries and others: On Sept. 24, the docket of the case noted that the judge had ordered the release of $20,000 to Frazer and her husband (David Frazer) to pay legal bills. Another $8,000 was made accessible to Albert Rosebrock, another defendant, to pay legal bills.

The $20,000 ordered returned to the Frazers was in the form of a cashier’s check David Frazer had surrendered to the court after Ohio’s July action. Rosebrock’s money came from a bank account the judge ordered frozen after the Ohio action was filed. The docket shows that the judge authorized $8,000 from this frozen account to be made accessible to Rosebrock, but the freeze remains on any other money in the account. Freezes also remain on seven other accounts Ohio authorities have associated with the defendants. (Of the eight accounts originally ordered frozen in July, all eight remain frozen.)

Importantly, Ohio’s civil case remains ongoing. So does a civil case by the SEC at the federal level. The SEC action does not name the Frazers or Rosebrock defendants, but suggests that pitchmen could have promoted Profitable Sunrise without even knowing who was running the purported “opportunity.”

Purported Profitable Sunrise operator “Roman Novak” and his brother “Radoslav Novak,” a purported attorney associated with Profitable Sunrise, may be fictitious, according to the SEC, which has described Profitable Sunrise as a murky and massive international pyramid scheme that potentially gathered tens of millions of dollars.

“Profitable Sunrise operates for the benefit of unknown individuals and/or organizations doing businesses through companies formed in the Czech Republic and using bank accounts in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, and China, among other places,” the SEC alleged in April.

“There is more than a slight possibility, as with many offering frauds, that the people described in the [Profitable Sunrise] website, including the Novak brothers, do not exist,” the SEC said.

Enter ‘scampoliceinsider’

On Oct. 5, 11 days after the Sept. 24 Ohio docket entry, someone using the handle “scampoliceinsider” and a photo of a news reporter posted something that resembles a news story on the Topix.com site for Ogdensburg, NY., near the Saint Lawrence Seaway and the border with Canada.

Gregg Evans, a poster and occasional guest columnist at the PP Blog and a regular poster at the RealScam.com antiscam forum, posted a link to the Topix story at RealScam.com on Oct. 13.

Among other things, “scampoliceinsider” asserts on Topix that “I WILL GIVE YOU THE INSIDE SCOOP YOU DID NOT KNOW” and that “I am investigating a fraud within a fraud. I am the one who does what others won’t bother to do.” Moreover, “scampoliceinsider” asserts that he or she believes in “The truth backed by facts.”

Here is the headline on the Topix “scampoliceinsider” story: “Nanci Jo Frazer WINS in Court – a Case of Innocent Ignorance.” The headline stressed the word “WINS” in uppercase. Nowhere does the story mention that Ohio’s case is ongoing and that any money ordered unfrozen was further ordered to be used for the express purpose of paying legal bills. Instead, the story contends that Ohio authorities had known since October 2012 that Profitable Sunrise was a fraud and that the authorities “failed to inform the public and especially Nanci Frazer.”

It further positions Frazer as a victim of harassment from “A tight group of online individuals [who] have been targeted to be running their own bitcoin scheme” and claims the purported bitcoin schemers “stole Frazer’s image, identity and training videos while she was on vacation” in a bid to drive traffic to their own websites “and cash in on their own fraud.”

Meanwhile, a strangely worded passage in the story contends that “The FBI and the Federal government is categorizing Frazer as having suffered from a case of ‘innocent ignorance’” while she “worked for nine months doing customer support for a UK Collateral Loan company.” (This would be Profitable Sunrise, which perhaps would be better described as a purported collateral-lending company.)

Like the bitcoin and associated claims, the story does not substantiate the “innocent ignorance” claim. At the same time, the story ventures that “The last straw was watching Toledo 11 Fox News put her children in harms way by airing a hateful and false, damaging, home made video story from one of the online stalkers- James L Paris is was a convicted criminal for Securities fraud(they never checked out his background).” (Unedited by PP Blog.)

The Fox Toledo outlet now is “in position to be turned in to be put under regulators [sic] scrutiny and to be liable for a full investigation which connects them to another scam,” according to the Topix story.

Paris is the editor of ChristianMoney.com and recently published an ebook on what he describes as his pressure-packed, nerve-racking experience writing about Profitable Sunrise and the enmity directed at him from certain members of the Christian community. Paris denies he is a convicted criminal, saying that he once was named in a civil securities action in Maine after his brother embezzled money from a Paris company and hid the act from Paris and accountants.

(DISCLOSURE: The PP Blog is referenced in the Paris ebook. The Blog does not personally know Jim Paris, has no business association with him and does not benefit from the book, which was offered by Paris for free online for several days earlier this month and now costs $4.99 at Amazon.com. The book is titled, “Exposing The Ponzi Masters – The Profitable Sunrise Scam: How I Exposed It, How They Tried To Stop Me.” The Blog obtained the book free on Oct. 9 through a link supplied by Paris at RealScam.com. On Oct. 11, the Blog posted to RealScam.com about the book, opining that it believed the Paris book would “serve his intended audience in the Christian community well.” In its RealScam.com post, the Blog also drew some comparisons to the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme. ASD, like Profitable Sunrise, was targeted at people of faith.)

Now, back to the Topix story referenced above . . .

The photo of the reporter that appeared alongside the Frazer story on Topix in Ogdensburg, near the Canadian border, appears to be a low-resolution copy of a professional portrait/publicity still of a real reporter, a broadcast journalist who started her career at a California TV station in 2010 and accepted a job in 2012 at a station in Nevada, where she works as a weekend anchor. The photo does not identify the reporter by name and appears to have been taken while the reporter was working for the California TV station prior to moving on to the Nevada station.

It may be the case that a fake reporter posting at Topix found an image of the real reporter online and used it as an avatar to add credibility to the story on Frazer published at the site. The PP Blog believes it has established the identity of the real reporter and emailed her yesterday to determine if the image on Topix was being used without her knowledge and consent and to rule out that she was the author of the Topix post. As of the time of this post, the Blog has not heard back from the reporter, which is not unusual. Media people have busy schedules. (For the purposes of this post, the Blog is not identifying the real reporter by name and has brushed the screen shot above to obscure her face and the identity of a TV station that, like the reporter, may have no knowledge of Frazer or Profitable Sunrise or the Ohio case.)

In the Blog’s view, the Topix story does not read like one prepared by a trained, working journalist. Rather, the story on Topix reads like fractured marketing and PR fluff of the type often seen in the HYIP sphere. At least part of it seeks to demonize both the media and the government. Similar situations occurred after the action by the United States against ASD in 2008. Online scammers have been known to pose as legitimate members of the media to add presumptive authority to a scheme.

In 2011, the famous brand of Consumer Reports was appropriated by scammers to drive dollars to an acai-berry scheme, the FTC said. Meanwhile, “fake” news sites in the United States using the image of a real reporter from France were used in the acai scheme.

The PP Blog would be very surprised if the Topix story was authored by a real reporter, especially one using the handle “scampoliceinsider” and trying to stick it to a TV station in Toledo, other media outlets and Ohio authorities in this bizarre fashion.

Oct 15, 2013
RealScam.com, Antiscam Site, Is Under DDoS Attack

UPDATED 11:39 A.M. EDT (MARCH 21, U.S.A.) RealScam.com reports that the DDoS attack is continuing, but that measures have been taken to restore accessibility. The site is back online. Here, below, our earlier story . . .

RealScam.com, a site that concerns itself with international mass-marketing fraud, is experiencing a DDoS attack, a source told the PP Blog this afternoon.

“We’re seeing what we can do about it,” the source said.

On the plus side, the source noted, the DDoS attack suggests RealScam is meeting its mission of informing the public about scams.

The attack is occurring against the backdrop of government actions against the Profitable Sunrise HYIP “program.” RealScam posters have been following Profitable Sunrise developments closely. Forum posters also are monitoring developments concerning “Banners Broker,” another mysterious online “program.”

Precisely why RealScam.com has been targeted is unclear. At least one purported member of Profitable Sunrise — writing on another site on Saturday — said he wished the hacker’s group “Anonymous” was paying attention to negative coverage of Profitable Sunrise on the web. The poster did not reference RealScam.com in his apparent call for a DDoS attack. Instead, he referenced another site carrying negative news about Profitable Sunrise.

The attack against RealScam.com also occurs against the backdrop of remarks in Washington today by Michael J. Bresnick, executive director of President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. In an address to the Exchequer Club of Washington, D.C., Bresnick referenced mass-marketing fraud.

“. . . the Consumer Protection Working Group has prioritized the role of financial institutions in mass marketing fraud schemes — including deceptive payday loans, false offers of debt relief, fraudulent health care discount cards, and phony government grants, among other things — that cause billions of dollars in consumer losses and financially destroy some of our most vulnerable citizens,” Bresnick said. “The Working Group also is investigating the businesses that process payments on behalf of the fraudulent merchants — financial intermediaries referred to as third-party payment processors.”

Both Profitable Sunrise and Banners Broker — like many purported “opportunites” before them — have relied on banks and payment processors to keep cash flowing to the schemes. Bresnick did not mention either company in his remarks.

“The reason that we are focused on financial institutions and payment processors is because they are the so-called bottlenecks, or choke-points, in the fraud committed by so many merchants that victimize consumers and launder their illegal proceeds,” Bresnick said. “For example, third-party payment processors are frequently the means by which fraudulent merchants are able to get paid. They provide the scammers with access to the national banking system and facilitate the movement of money from the victim of the fraud to the scam artist. And financial institutions through which these fraudulent proceeds flow, we have seen, are not always blind to the fraud. In fact, we have observed that some financial institutions actually have been complicit in these schemes, ignoring their BSA/AML obligations, and either know about — or are willfully blind to — the fraudulent proceeds flowing through their institutions.”

Despite the absurd payout advertised by Profitable Sunrise (and claims that Banners Broker doubles money), some Profitable Sunrise members have complained on forums about credit unions in North Carolina and Alberta that have raised serious questions about Profitable Sunrise, a “program” that advertised a “Long Haul” plan purported to pay 2.7 percent interest a day.

Zeek Rewards, which the SEC described in August 2012 as a $600 million Ponzi and pyramd scheme operating online, complained on its own Blog about credit unions raising questions about the Zeek “program.”

The SEC later said that Zeek scammed hundreds of thousands of people by duping participants into believing that the “program’s” payout of about 1.5 percent a day came from legitimate means.

Mar 20, 2013
WHACK-A-MOLE: In Aftermath Of Zeek Collapse, ‘ProfitableSunrise’ Emerges

EDITOR’S NOTE: For the definition of “whack-a-mole,” see the Online Slang Dictionary . . .

UPDATED 6:12 A.M. ET (U.S.A.) ProfitableSunrise will take you and provide an extraordinary interest payment daily in the form of numbers on a screen — but only if you “fully accept the fact that all communication between you and Profitable Sunrise is absolutely confidential and cannot be disclosed to any third parties,” according to the “opportunity’s” website.

Given that the many governments of the world could be considered third parties, you agree to be gagged if regulators or agencies with the power of criminal arrest ever contact you, according to the PP Blog’s reading of the ProfitableSunrise Terms of Service.

ProfitableSunrise also advises incoming members they must “confirm” they “are not involved in any business related to alcohol, firearms, tobacco, gambling and abortion.” There is no mention of drugs/narcotics or prostitution.

After apparently qualifying members via the Terms based on their beliefs about booze, guns, cigarettes, dice and abortion without disclosing why such information was needed by a purported investment firm , ProfitableSunrise says you can open various “Investment Accounts.” “Starter” accounts touted to pay 1.6 percent daily can be opened for as little as $10. But you also may plunk down greater sums of between $500 and $2,500, apparently through the “Regular” (1.8 percent daily) “Advanced” (2 percent daily) and “Long Haul” (2.7 percent daily) plans.

Here is part of what ProfitableSunrise says about the Long Haul (italics added/no editing performed):

The interest rate paid under the Long Haul is 2.7% per business day.
– The Long Haul can only be started from November 1, 2012 till March 1, 2013.
– The minimum deposit in the Long Haul is $500.00
– The deposit options available in the Long Haul are bank wires and deposits from existing account principals in other plans – for group members, bank wire transfers only – for regular members.
– E-currency deposits are not accepted in the Long Haul.
– The Easter Gift Balance will be paid to all customers during the Easter week. You will not be able to leave it in your account principal.
– After the Easter, the daily interest rate will be reduced to 2.35% in the Long Haul.
– The compounding can be disabled or limited in any account at our sole discretion.
– After March 1, 2013, you will not be able to make an additional deposits into the Long Haul.

ProfitableSunrise appears to have become a refuge for certain members of the collapsed ZeekRewards “program,” which the SEC described in August as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that duped members into believing they got a legitimate return that averaged about 1.5 percent a day.

Meanwhile, over at RealScam.com, an antifraud forum, an apparent ProfitableSunrise “defender” known as “Myriad Force” is advancing an argument that antiscam posters are members of a “Cult of Uncertainty.”

“Think of all the antichrists that are watching this program in terror,” Myriad Force ventures. “They won’t become involved because the owner is a Christian that loves Jesus Christ, and does not back down to the antichrists.”

Dec 30, 2012
LETTER TO READERS: Our Choice For The Most Important PP Blog Post Of 2012

Dear Readers,

The PP Blog’s choice for the “Most Important” story to appear on the Blog in 2012 is this one, dated July 28: “Site Critical Of Zeek Goes Missing After HubPages Receives Trademark ‘Infringement’ Complaint Attributed To Rex Venture Group LLC — But North Carolina-Based Rex Not Listed As Trademark Owner; Florida Firm That IS Listed As Owner Says It Has ‘No Knowledge’ Of Complaint.”

The story tells the bizarre tale of how purported Zeek “consultant” Robert Craddock, beginning on July 22, tried to gag K. Chang, a Zeek critic.

Our reasoning for selecting the Craddock tale appears below . . .

** __________________________________ **

UPDATED 1:30 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) This Blog is well aware that some MLMers would have you believe that nothing that appears here is important. The “case” against the Blog normally involves ad hominem attacks, along with bids to change the subject or cloud issues. Some of the campaigns against the PP Blog have been almost comical, falling along lines such as these: ASD can’t be a Ponzi scheme because it rained on Tuesday. Your [sic] an idiot and looser [sic] !!!!!

Other campaigns have been much more menacing.

One of the least-appreciated aspects of the Zeek Rewards story is that Zeek launched after Bernard Madoff made the word “Ponzi” a part of the national (and international) consciousness. Setting aside Zeek’s epic legal problems, Zeek and its “defenders” have a PR problem from which they’ll never recover. In short, it is fatal. The reason that it’s fatal is that it creates a dynamic that is virtually unique to the MLM HYIP sphere: While the rest of the world rails against Ponzi schemes and Ponzi schemers, the MLM HYIP sphere defends them.

But it gets stranger than that. Certain inhabitants of the HYIP sphere in effect are lobbying for the legalization of Ponzi schemes to make their lives more convenient. To this group, the answer to Ponzi schemes is even more Ponzi schemes. Their message is remarkably similar to the message of the gun lobby, which appears to be arguing that the answer to gun violence is even more guns — in strategic locations, of course, perhaps in educational institutions at the grade-school level through college. (And maybe at movie theaters and at the scene of rural house fires, in case first responders such as firefighters and EMTs encounter an ambush.)

You’ve heard by now that the rural town of Webster, N.Y., turned into Israel last week, we’re sure.

In fairness to the gun lobby, it must be pointed out that HYIP “defenders” who are lobbying for more Ponzi schemes even as the gun lobby lobbies for more guns have less legal standing than the gun lobby. Guns already are legal. Ponzi schemes are not.

But, getting back to Zeek’s PR problem . . .

Madoff was exposed in 2008 as a Ponzi schemer, a financial criminal of unprecedented hubris. Not only did Zeek debut after Madoff, it came after Scott Rothstein was exposed (in 2009) as a racketeer/Ponzi schemer — and after AdSurfDaily, a purported MLM “advertising” company, was exposed (in 2008 and 2009) as the largest online Ponzi scheme ever and was sued by its own members amid allegations of racketeering.

For some Zeek promoters, this well-known fact set makes them vulnerable to charges they are nothing less than members of an organized mob of habitual criminals who thrive by choosing to be willfully blind.

But, incredibly, it gets even stranger . . .

Zeek had members in common with AdSurfDaily and, like AdSurfDaily, told members that a purported “advertising” function was central to its business model. Meanwhile, Zeek became popular in North Carolina, after the infamous Black Diamond Ponzi caper was exposed in that very state. (Among other things, the Back Diamond fraud led to criminal charges being filed against a bank.)

Along those lines, Zeek (in May) began to show signs that it was experiencing banking problems after it had become popular in a region known to have served up another colossal mess, this one in nearby South Carolina. (The South Carolina mess was known as the “3 Hebrew Boys” scheme. It resulted in the longest Ponzi scheme sentences in the history of the South Carolina federal courts and, like AdSurfDaily and Zeek, served up a heaping helping of the bizarre, including claims by “sovereign citizens” that prosecutors had no authority over them.)

Moreover, the Zeek scheme for which some “defenders” continue to cheer featured recruitment commissions on two levels (like AdSurfDaily) and an “RPP” payout (like ASD’s 1-percent-a-day “rebates”). Finally, the Zeek scheme came to the fore after the U.S. Secret Service described ASD as a “criminal enterprise” and after the Attorney General of the United States made a special public appearance in Florida — fertile recruitment grounds for schemes such as Zeek and the stomping grounds of Madoff and Rothstein — to announce that the Justice Department was serious about putting people in jail for ravaging the U.S. economy with their Ponzi schemes.

“Palm Beach is, in many respects, ground zero for the $65 billion Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Bernard Madoff — the largest investor fraud case in our nation’s history,” Eric Holder said on Jan. 8, 2010, in southern Florida. “Before the house of cards Madoff built collapsed in 2008, before he was sentenced to 150 years in prison last June, before he became a notorious criminal on the cover of newspapers around the world, he was one of your neighbors.

“His former home sits just north of us,” Holder continued. “An 8,700-square-foot mansion that’s worth . . . well, we’ll know what its worth once the U.S. Marshals Service auctions it off and the proceeds are distributed to Madoff’s victims.”

Holder’s words are best viewed as a warning against willful blindness: Neither victim nor perpetrator be. There is unqualified pain and misery for both.

Despite Holder’s appearance in Florida — despite his reference to Madoff’s “house of cards” — AdSurfDaily promoters Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer later sued the United States, claiming that its Ponzi case against ASD was a “house of cards.” Naturally they made this claim even as they were promoting Zeek.

And from what region were they promoting Zeek? Why, Southern Florida, of course, the same region Holder visited in 2010 to throw down the gauntlet against Ponzi schemers and their enablers.

Amid the historical circumstances cited above, Zeek Rewards began to encounter some heat from the media and from its own members. Some of the members did not understand why things at Zeek appeared to be so circuitous and why they were being asked to use payment processors such as AlertPay and SolidTrustPay that had been associated with fraud scheme after fraud scheme operating online, including ASD.

What to do if you’re Zeek?

Well, according to Florida resident Robert Craddock, a self-described Zeek consultant, you hire, well, Robert Craddock — and you use Robert Craddock to go after Zeek critics such as K. Chang.

The Most Important Story Of 2012

In the PP Blog’s view, the most important story to appear on the Blog in 2012 is this one, titled, “Site Critical Of Zeek Goes Missing After HubPages Receives Trademark ‘Infringement’ Complaint Attributed To Rex Venture Group LLC — But North Carolina-Based Rex Not Listed As Trademark Owner; Florida Firm That IS Listed As Owner Says It Has ‘No Knowledge’ Of Complaint.”

The story details efforts in July by Craddock to have K. Chang’s Zeek “Hub” at HubPages removed from the Internet just weeks before the SEC accused Zeek of being a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid fraud. By early estimates, the alleged Zeek fraud was about five times larger than ASD in pure dollar volume ($600 million compared to $120 million) and perhaps 20 times larger in terms of the membership base (2 million compared to 100,000).

Incredibly, Craddock went after K. Chang after Deputy Attorney James Cole, speaking in Mexico, said that international fraud schemes have been known to “bring frivolous libel cases against individuals who expose their criminal activities.” And Cole also pointed out that fraudsters have a means of “exploit[ing] legitimate actors” and may rely on shell companies and offshore bank accounts to launder criminal proceeds.

If ever a company exploited legitimate actors, it was Zeek. Kenneth D. Bell, the court-appointed receiver, says there were approximately 840,000 Zeek losers who funded the ill-gotten gains of 77,000 winners. And Bell also says he has “obtained information indicating that large sums of Receivership Assets may have been transferred by net winners to other entities in order to hide or shelter those assets.”

There can be no doubt that some of those winners are longtime residents of the woeful valley of willful blindness. Not only do they “play” HYIP Ponzis for profit, they now publicly announce their intent to keep their winnings. Zeek has exposed the epicenter of willful blindness, the criminal underworld of the Internet. It is easy enough to view Craddock’s efforts as a means of institutionalizing willful blindness, first by seeking to chill speech and, second, by scrubbing the web of information that encourages readers to be discriminating so they won’t be duped by a Ponzi fraudster.

Bizarrely, it appears as though someone inside of Zeek believed it prudent to hire Craddock to go after K. Chang. If that weren’t enough, only days later Zeek used its Blog to plant the seed that unnamed “North Carolina Credit Unions” were committing slander against Zeek.

After the SEC brought the Zeek Ponzi complaint in August, Craddock quickly went in to fundraising mode. As incredible as it sounds, ASD’s Todd Disner — also of Zeek — was on the line with him.

What Craddock did was deplorable. It was as though he slept through the past four years of Ponzi history, all the cases that showcase the markers of fraud schemes and all the government warnings to be cautious. (Nongovernment/quasigovernment entities such as FINRA also publish such warnings, like this one on HYIP fraud schemes outlined by the PP Blog.)

The FINRA warning was published in 2010, prior to Zeek but after the Legisi, Pathway To Prosperity and ASD schemes were exposed. Legisi operator Gregory McKnight potentially faces 15 years in federal prison. He was charged both civilly (SEC) and criminally (U.S. Secret Service) — and Legisi pitchmen Matthew John Gagnon also was charged civilly and criminally by the same agencies. The SEC called Gagnon a “threat to the investing public.”

Any number of Zeek promoters pose a similar threat. They are at least equally willfully blind.

It is clear that some Zeek promoters also were promoting JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid, the debacle-in-waiting purportedly organized by Frederick Mann, a former ASD promoter. JSS/JBP has morphed into “ProfitClicking” amid reports of the “retirement” of Mann. Now, ProfitClicking “defenders” are threatening lawsuits against critics.

Naturally the stories advanced by ProfitClicking “defenders” are being improved by “defenders” of other obvious fraud schemes such as BannersBroker. A BannersBroker “defender” is over at RealScam.com — an antiscam site — suggesting that RealScam is a terrorist organization.

My God.

These claims are being made just days after Zeek figure Robert Craddock suggested he had contacts in law enforcement who were going to charge Blogger Troy Dooly with cyber harassment.

It wouldn’t sell as fiction.

Craddock’s bid to gag K. Chang easily was the most important story on the PP Blog in 2012. It’s the one that signaled that things are destined only to get crazier in MLM La-La Land and that the threat to U.S. national security only will grow.

Dec 27, 2012
UPDATE: Teetering ‘Wealth4AllTeam’ Scheme Reportedly Was Using I-Payout, Same Facilitator Cited By ‘OneX’ Scheme In July

Screen shot: I-Payout website showing logos of "Global Strategic Partners." Ponzi-forum reports surfaced yesterday that the Wealth4AllTeam HYIP scheme was using I-Payout. In July, a scheme known as "OneX' that federal prosecutors previously described as a fraud and a "pyramid" announced that it was transitioning to I-Payout.

UPDATE: Wealth4AllTeam, one of the many HYIP schemes pushed by Zeek Rewards “I Got Paid” cheerleader “Ken Russo,” reportedly was using I-Payout as a payment facilitator, according to new Ponzi-forum reports.

Wealth4AllTeam appears to have suspended operations, leaving the Ponzi forums in an uproar amid claims that it is transitioning to a new business model that incorporates something called “Project Genesis.”

Earlier this year, Wealth4AllTeam planted the seed that it would sue the RealScam.com antifraud forum for publishing information unfriendly to Wealth4AllTeam.

“I-payout quick links has been removed….all the attached bank account has been deactivated..there is no option left to deposit or withdraw…Looks like W4all have a hold on I-payout,” MoneyMakerGroup poster “jhakas22” claimed yesterday.

If the report is true — and MoneyMakerGroup poster Tobwithu claimed that he (or she) “can confirm that all links at i-payout are gone!’ — then it means that Wealth4AllTeam was using the same facilitator to which the mysterious “OneX’ scheme claimed it was transitioning.

In April, federal prosecutors described the purported OneX “program” as a “fraudulent scheme” and “pyramid” pushed by former AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin. ASD was a $119 million Ponzi scheme. In August, Bowdoin was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison.

On July 19, the PP Blog reported that OneX claimed it had dropped SolidTrustPay — a Canada-based processor linked to fraud scheme after fraud scheme — in favor of I-Payout. That announcement was made by “J.C.,” later identified by federal prosecutors as James C. Hill.

I-Payout’s website publishes the logos of HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Barclays and other “Global Strategic Partners,” including Bank of America.

“J.C.” made the OneX I-Payout announcement on July 17, the same day the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations was grilling HSBC executives on HSBC’s anti-money-laundering practices, including an executive who announced his resignation in front of the panel.

(Also see June 20 PP Blog report about OneX claim that it was working with a processor with a tie to Bank of America. Given events that occurred after the dropping of Bank of America’s name and the appearance of the bank’s name on the I-Payout site, it appears “J.C.” was alluding to I-Payout in June.)

Any number of ASD Ponzi-scheme pushers used Bank of America’s name to sanitize the ASD fraud. In raising Bank of America’s name in June and announcing the I-Payout transition in July, OneX appears to have been doing the same thing.

Name-dropping to sanitize fraud schemes is common in the HYIP sphere. So are lawsuit threats and other bids to chill websites that publish information critical of HYIPs.

In July, Robert Craddock, a purported “consultant” for Rex Venture Group LLC — the operator of the Zeek Rewards MLM scheme — sought to have a HubPages site operated by Zeek critic “K. Chang” removed from the web by filing a complaint with HubPages about purported copyright and trademark infringement and libel. Craddock’s efforts succeeded temporarily.

In a bizarre Blog post on Aug. 4, Zeek claimed that “all” criticism of Zeek was unfair and planted the seed that unspecified “North Carolina Credit Unions” were circulating a purported “internal memo” that allegedly was “at once unfavorable to Zeek Rewards and false.”

The Zeek post, attributed to then-acting COO Gregory J. Caldwell, complained the credit unions were slandering Zeek and warned Zeek members to toe the company line.

Thirteen days later, the SEC filed an emergency court action that described Zeek as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme.

Craddock now is involved in a purported effort to defend Zeek affiliates from clawback actions by the court-appointed receiver in the SEC’s Zeek case. That effort began after the SEC’s actions against Zeek and also included name-dropping. During a pitch for Zeek members to send in money, Craddock dropped the name of former Florida Attorney General (and former U.S. Rep.) Bill McCollum.

McCollum, now a partner at the SNR Denton law firm, no longer is in public office. Precisely why Craddock mentioned McCollum’s name is unclear, although Craddock initially said that the Zeek affiliates were hiring SNR Denton. That effort appears now to have fallen through.

As Florida’s Attorney General, McCollum sued ASD for fraud in August 2008. Some ASD members countered that McCollum should be sued for Deceptive Trade Practices for holding the view that ASD was a fraud. Although McCollum’s office later dropped the ASD lawsuit, it said it had gathered names of ASD fraud victims and provided them to the U.S. Department of Justice, which had established a remissions process through which ASD victims could receive compensation from proceeds seized by the U.S. Secret Service in the ASD Ponzi case filed at the federal level in the District of Columbia.

Zeek is known to have members in common with the ASD Ponzi scheme. Some Zeek members also promoted OneX, the scheme promoted by ASD’s Bowdoin after his December 2010 arrest by the U.S. Secret Service on Ponzi-related charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

Bowdoin told prospects that OneX was good for “college students.”

“Ken Russo” also is known as “DRdave.”

Sep 13, 2012