BULLETIN: (UPDATED 6:25 P.M. ET U.S.A.) The FTC has asked a Nevada federal judge for permission to amend the complaint in the 2010 IWorks Inc./Jeremy Johnson civil-fraud case to include Johnson’s wife, parents and five corporate entities as “relief defendants” — the alleged recipients of ill-gotten gains from Johnson’s alleged Internet fraud scheme involving hundreds of millions of dollars.
Utah has been abuzz over Johnson news since the Salt Lake Tribune reported on Jan. 11 that Johnson asserted that Utah’s new Attorney General “helped broker a deal in 2010 in which Johnson believed he was to pay Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid $600,000 to make a federal investigation into Johnson’s company go away.”
Attorney General John Swallow, who was a Deputy Attorney General under former Attorney General Mark Shurtleff when the alleged bribery bid occurred, has denied wrongdoing and has asked for an investigation by federal prosecutors in Utah. Sen. Reid, of Nevada, has issued a statement through his office that he “has no knowledge or involvement regarding Mr. Johnson’s case,” the Tribune reported.
Swallow had been Attorney General only days before the Johnson allegations surfaced. Swallow is a Republican; Reid is a Democrat. Johnson effectively made the claim at a hearing during which he was expected to plead guilty to criminal charges earlier this month, triggering a media firestorm in the state.
Johnson did not enter a guilty plea. He remains free on bond.
The FTC, a longstanding target of Johnson’s ire, announced today that it wanted to amend the complaint.
Sharla Johnson, Johnson’s wife, “received at least $5 million in funds and property” from her husband’s scheme, “including a multi-million-dollar, 20,000-square-foot mansion in St. George, Utah, subsequently used to secure a $3.1 million home equity line of credit,” the FTC said.
Kerry Johnson, Johnson’s father, “received at least $1.6 million in funds and property, including about $1 million worth of silver coins and bars,” the FTC said.
Barbara Johnson, Johnson’s mother, received at least $77,500, the FTC said.
Five other businesses with ties to Johnson and/or his family also received ill-gotten gains, the agency said. In all, the FTC is seeking $22 million from the prospective relief defendants.
Johnson long has denied wrongdoing in a case that, at a minimum, has showcased the logistical nightmares government agencies and court-appointed receivers may confront when they tackle an alleged Internet-based fraud scheme with tentacles all over the world, including shell companies allegedly set up to carry out a fraud scheme. (See Jan. 9, 2012, PP Blog editorial. See Dec. 22, 2011, PP Blog editorial.)
This Narc That Car promoters' check-waving video is now missing from YouTube's public channel, after being placed there March 1. The video, however, is said to be available through a private YouTube channel. It is unclear whether Narc That Car asked its promoter — "Jah" of the Cash For Car Plates Blog — to remove the video, which also claimed repping for Narc That Car was like working for the U.S. "Census Bureau."
First, some news: A website titled DeanBlechman.com now resolves to a parked page at the offshore registrar directNIC. As first reported on the PP Blog, the site previously redirected to the website of Data Network Affiliates (DNA).
directNIC is “based in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands,” relocating from its former base in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, according to the firm’s website. directNIC is DNA’s registrar, and also the registrar for the DeanBlechman.com domain and a DNA-associated domain known as TagEveryCar.com.
In a bizarre autoresponder message earlier this week, DNA said it had chosen “privacy” protection for $5 “to prevent management from having to “put up with 100 stupid calls a day,†a source told the PP Blog.
In an interview Wednesday with the Blog, Blechman, DNA’s former chief executive officer, said he was “surprised” to learn of the DeanBlechman.com site, painting a picture that the company was not in control of its own message and had a “back door guy” who was authoring “bizarre” communications.
Blechman did not identify the “back door guy.” Precisely when the DeanBlechman.com domain stopped redirecting to DNA’s website is unclear. It was still redirecting to the site early yesterday, but now is resolving to the directNIC page.
Meanwhile, the PP Blog contacted the office of R. Scott McKee, the district attorney of Henderson County, Texas, yesterday. McKee is training for deployment to Iraq, and was not available immediately to answer questions on his inquiry into Narc That Car, according to a woman who answered the phone.
The woman said it was possible that an assistant prosecutor would contact the Blog, but the call was not returned yesterday.
McKee’s office opened a civil inquiry into Narc That Car (NTC) more than a month ago, turning to the office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott for assistance and saying it had received “numerous calls and complaints inquiring into the legitimacy and legality” of NTC.
How that inquiry is proceeding is unclear. Two days ago, the Dallas branch of the BBB reduced its rating on NTC from “No Rating” to “F,” the worst possible rating on the BBB’s 14-step scale that begins with “A+.”
It is possible that NTC could improve its score at the BBB over time, but the score of “F” it holds now was arrived at after the company had been given more than a month to explain its compensation program to dampen pyramid concerns. The BBB also said it asked NTC to “substantiate some claims made in its advertising” Jan. 18. That inquiry remains open.
NTC does not publish the name of customers of its database product. Some affiliates have claimed the firm was associated with major automobile manufacturers, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the AMBER Alert program.
The company removed a video reference to the AMBER Alert program after the U.S. Department of Justice, which administers AMBER Alert, denied it had any affiliation with NTC.
ASD never improved its BBB score because it became consumed by a government investigation. ASD is implicated by the U.S. Secret Service in a Ponzi scheme.
Speed of Wealth, which also became consumed in government litigation, also did not improve its BBB score. It is implicated by the SEC in a Ponzi scheme involving Mantria Corp., whose BBB rating is being “updated,” according to the BBB. Mantria currently is listed as “No Rating.”
On another matter, MLM aficionado Troy Dooly now is openly challenging DNA officers Arthur Kurek and Donald Kessler to explain what is happening at the company.
Rumors are rampant that Phil Piccolo, a notorious figure in MLM, somehow had become involved in DNA. Absent a firm denial from company management, the rumors continue to fly.
For his part, Blechman, DNA’s former CEO, did not rule out that Piccolo was involved in the firm.
In the absence of a unified message from DNA and plain statements on issues such as whether Piccolo is involved and what steps have been taken to assure that DNA is compliant with state and federal law, events are controlling DNA, not the other way around.
The suggestion that “privacy” protection was chosen so management would not have to put up with “stupid” calls is patently absurd — as is the amount of hype being put out under DNA’s name.
No one at the company has emerged to speak on issues of legality and privacy. DNA says it is in the business of recording license-plate numbers. Like Narc That Car promoters, DNA promoters have made sweeping statements, asserting that affiliates could record plate numbers at places such as Walmart, Target, church parking lots and parking lots at doctors’ offices.
Company conference calls have been cheerleading sessions — with DNA’s own pitchmen leading the cheers.
Whether DNA and NTC affiliates are required to seek permission from owners of private property or the permission of local jurisdictions to record plate numbers remains unclear. Also unclear is how affiliates are required to behave if confronted by property owners or police who question what they are doing.
Sweeping assertions have been made by affiliates that plate data is “public information” available for the taking in the parking lots of large retail stores. One NTC promoter said on YouTube that his wife recorded plate numbers at a university. The PP Blog believes the university was the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
The office of Sen. Harry Reid, D.-Nev., did not return a call from the Blog seeking comment on the practice recommended by the NTC promoter. Nor did Reid’s office return an email sent by the Blog. Reid is Senate Majority Leader. One of the buildings on UNLV’s campus bears his name. The same NTC promoter recommended “libraries” as excellent sources of plate numbers.
Among the privacy concerns is whether the companies, which appear to be targeting as clients of the database product firms that repossess automobiles, could use the data to create profiles on the movement of people.
In a DNA conference call, one company pitchman said DNA hoped to attract enough affiliates to make it possible for the company to record a plate number at Walmart at noon — and the same plate number at a “doctor’s office” at 1 p.m. and the same plate number elsewhere at 4 p.m. The same pitchman suggested churches were good sources of license-plate numbers.
Adding to the fog of uncertainty is a pattern of strange communications from the firm, which is using Google’s free gmail service to conduct customer service. Emails received by DNA members do not include a street address, which brings issues of transparency into play and potentially brings issues of federal compliance into play.
The PP Blog, which is a Blog among millions of Blogs, has received repeated affiliate spam from DNA and Narc That Car promoters. For weeks, there was no way even to contact DNA to report spam. The Blog will not contact the company via the gmail address — which was made public only days ago –out of concern its email address will be harvested and added to a database controlled by an unknown party.
Narc That Car, meanwhile, has a “Span Policy” — as opposed to “Spam Policy” — link at the bottom of its website. Some of its promoters have produced check-waving videos, including a video that claimed repping for NTC was like working for the “Census Bureau,” a government agency.
One of the videos showed that NTC payments are issued by check drawn on the account of “National Automotive Record Centre Inc.” That entity, which uses the word “National” in its name and the British spelling of “Centre” — as opposed to the U.S. spelling of “Center” — is registered in Nevada. NTC also is associated with a Texas company known as Narc Technologies, which, according to a YouTube video now made private, once issued checks for affiliates.
These things hardly inspire confidence in the NTC enterprise.
Just this morning, the PP Blog received information from a DNA member that the company emailed members, claiming “D.N.A. archived e-mail communications were erased by design.
“We will send you the last 3 e-mail communications within the next 24 hours,” the email said. “If you do not wish to receive D.N.A. Daily Communications please visit your back office.”
Even if the email was perceived by management as a means of demonstrating that DNA was trying to gain control over its message, such a communication only leads to more questions. The email did not include a street address. It also implied that members needed to opt out of communications by doing so within their back offices, rather than opting out by clicking on a link at the bottom of emails they receive.
The hype from DNA and its promoters — dropping names of icons such as Donald Trump and Oprah Winfrey — and making claims that a “MEGA MILLION DOLLAR DEAL with a publicly known industry giant” and a “Top Secret Product” are on the horizon are rubbing some MLM aficionados the wrong way.
MLM has a miserable reputation. Messages from DNA are doing the industry no favors.
If DNA is attempting to seize back its communications apparatus, it needs to explain precisely why it lost control of it early on. And a corporate face must emerge for the company — one who is willing to answer the hard questions on the propriety, safety, legality and privacy concerns the firm is sparking.
For now, at least, it is a tangled web fueled by hype that ducks the issues and causes the company to look silly — day after day.
You Tube video shows the street address of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, as the site from which a license-plate number was recorded and entered into the Narc That Car database.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The PP Blog contacted the office of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, late tonight for a comment on the practices of NarcThatCar promoters. Reid’s office did not respond immediately.
UPDATED 2:34 P.M. ET (March 5, U.S.A.) A YouTube video promotion for Narc That Car gives a tour of the promoter’s secure back office, displays the names of downline members and advises viewers that the parking lots of libraries, schools and universities provide a steady stream of license-plate numbers to be harvested and entered into a database.
“So, carry a pen and paper with you,” the narrator instructs. “You can go to parking lots. You can go to libraries. You can go to schools. My wife goes to the university, and just goes through the parking lot and collects license-plate numbers.”
An address in the video suggests plate data was recorded in or around the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The address is the same street address as the UNLV campus. Among the facilities that share the address are sports complexes such as the Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion, which have large parking lots and a combined seating capacity of at least 21,248, and the Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies.
Harry Reid, a U.S. Senator, is the Senate Majority Leader. His office did not respond immediately late Saturday night to a request for comment. (Reid’s voicemail box was full, so the PP Blog contacted Reid’s office via email.)
The video, which has a headline of “NarcThatCar Training Video” on the YouTube site, provides no instruction on the propriety, safety or legality of entering either public or private property for the purpose of recording plate numbers of students, faculty, employees or visitors.
No mention is made in the video about whether Narc That Car prospects or members were required to obtain permission from library, school and university administrators, students, employees, campus police or other security forces before recording license-plate data from cars parked at such facilities.
Narc That Car does not screen promoters. U.S. residents who pay a $100 fee to the company
Screen shot: A Narc That Car promoter provided prospects a YouTube video tour of his secure back office. Frames in the video showed the names of his downline members. (The PP Blog added the red lines to the screen shot to block the identities of the downline members, which are publicly available on YouTube.)
become “independent consultants” and are encouraged to begin to record license-plate numbers. For an additional fee of $24.95 a month, members can enter the information directly into a Narc That Car database through a website the firm provides.
The YouTube video is 8:48 in length. The Narc That Car back-office tour begins at the 2:42 mark; the promoter’s comments on schools, universities and libraries begin at the 3:49 mark. UNLV’s address appears at the 4:21 mark, and the names of the promoters’ downline members appear at the 5:12 mark.
NarcThatCar is a Dallas-based firm that says it is building a database for financial companies and firms in the business of repossessing automobiles. The company is the subject of inquiries by the BBB and the district attorney of Henderson County, Texas.
In the video, the narrator said he hoped to ascend to the rank of Narc That Car “director.”
There are several tabs in the back office, including a tab labeled “Clients.” The narrator did not press the “Clients” tab.
“Don’t worry about that right now,” he said. He did not explain why members should not concern themselves about the tab.
The video suggests that the Narc That Car system checks to see if plate numbers entered by members are valid. A member must enter the address at which the plate was spotted. It appears, however, that any address can be entered, and that Narc That Car cannot tell if the car was observed at the reported address or not.
In a separate YouTube video, a Narc That Car promoter said he recorded 100 license-plate numbers in a Walmart parking lot, noting that he had enough plate numbers to give some away to incoming members, thus qualifying the members for compensation without leaving their homes.
NarcThatCar pays members $55 after reporting their first 10 plate numbers. If the Walmart promoter recorded 100, he could give away 90 to induce new recruits to join the program and receive $55 each. If the promoter lived in say, Florida — and if he recruited a member from Alaska — the Alaska member would appear to have the capacity to fabricate an address at which the car was spotted.
The Walmart promoter, however, appears to have soured on Narc That Car, and now has joined a similar company — Data Network Affiliates. (See reference in earlier story.) A DNA email to members suggested that Jeff Long, who published the Narc That Car Walmart video on YouTube, is now the top recruiter for DNA, which uses a domain registration in the Cayman Islands.
Long reportedly has recruited 628 DNA members.
“GO JEFF GO – JEFF WILL BE THE 1st PERSON IN THE WORLD TO EVER SPONSOR 1000 OR MORE ON HIS 1st LEVEL IN ANY MLM OR V.A.M. KIND OF COMPANY,” the DNA email said, according to a DNA member.
In yet another Narc That Car video on YouTube, a camera operated by a promoter in an automobile pans cars in the parking lot of a mall or shopping center.
Narc That Car promoters cruising a mall or shopping-center parking lot looking to record license-plate numbers say they did not want to appear "suspicious" while making their YouTube video.
At roughly the 0:38 mark in the video, a message pops on the screen that the promoters did not want to look “suspicious” while recording the video. At roughly the 1:10 mark, a reddish Chevrolet Camaro comes into view. At roughly 1:18 mark, the couple recording the video pulls in behind the Camaro. In the following frames, the car’s plate number is recorded in a notebook.
“And when you get your 10, what they do is send you back 50 bucks immediately,†the narrator says. “And all you gotta do to get your other $75 is just find three people that’s willing to go in and do the same thing you’re doing.â€
The narrator concludes the video by saying it’s “the New Age parking-lot†business.
See the video dubbed “training” that includes the address of UNLV, and tells prospects that libraries, schools and universities are fine places to write down the plate numbers of automobiles.
A gunman opened fire in the Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse in Las Vegas this morning. Early reports are sketchy, but a court officer is reported to have been killed and a U.S. Marshal wounded.
The gunman is reported dead. People in the building are being evacuated, and federal agents are said to be conducting a floor-by-floor sweep. It is believed initially that the gunman acted alone. What motivated the shooting, which occurred just after 8 a.m., is unclear.
“A Deputy U.S. Marshal and Court Security Officer were shot at the Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse in Las Vegas this morning,” the U.S. Marshal’s Service said. “The gunman was shot by Marshals Service personnel and has been pronounced dead. The Deputy U.S. Marshal is in stable condition at a local hospital. Unfortunately, the Court Security Officer succumbed to his wounds and passed away. We are not releasing any names until next-of-kin notifications are complete. The courthouse is still being secured. We do not know the motive for the shooting at this time and the investigation into the shooting is still underway.”
Two U.S. Senators — Harry Reid and John Ensign — have offices in the building.
“My thoughts are with the victims of today’s shooting and their families,” said Reid. “The law enforcement personnel who protect the courthouse put their lives at risk every day to keep the people who are inside safe and I greatly appreciate their service.â€
Shotgun casings reportedly were found in the lobby of the courthouse.
View on-scene YouTube video in which the shots at the Las Vegas federal courthouse can be heard:
BULLETIN: (UPDATED 6:25 P.M. ET U.S.A.) The FTC has asked a Nevada federal judge for permission to amend the complaint in the 2010 IWorks Inc./Jeremy Johnson civil-fraud case to include Johnson’s wife, parents and five corporate entities as “relief defendants” — the alleged recipients of ill-gotten gains from Johnson’s alleged Internet fraud scheme involving hundreds of millions of dollars.
