Siemens AG, the German engineering and electronics conglomerate, has taken the unusual step of issuing an “official statement” on its public website that “no form of cooperation exists between Siemens and the World Capital Market company and its affiliated businesses.” The statement appeared yesterday and was announced on Twitter, after the multibillion-dollar firm had received repeated tweets inquiring about its purported ties to WCM and WCM-related web entities, including an MLM “program” known as WCM777.
Among other things, WCM and its MLM affiliates have asserted that Siemens, beginning in 2012, assisted WCM in the development of cloud-computing products. Siemens, however, said it sold the business unit to which WCM and affiliates have referred in 2011.
“The World Capital Market (WCM/WCM7/WCM777) company is not entitled to use the Siemens name or trademark,” Siemens said.
It added, “In order to help other investors avoid making any investments based on false assumptions, we would urge you to pass on this information.”
The WCM entities may be operating out of Hong Kong.
Siemens did not say whether it had received any inquiries from law enforcement about the claims made by WCM and its apparent worldwide group of MLM promoters, some of whom have claimed WCM has business ties to other famous companies, perhaps particularly companies in the hospitality industry. News about the Siemens statement appeared on the MLM Skeptic antiscam Blog.
Based on its research, the PP Blog is reporting today that text below a YouTube video dated Aug. 18, 2013, references Siemens as a technology supplier to the WCM777 MLM “program” and further claims that WCM has provided loans totaling in excess of $1 billion to nine jewels of American business, including at least two that trade on NASDAQ. One concern, a national restaurant chain, was said to have borrowed $908 million from WCM. Another concern, a convenience-store chain founded in Texas, was said to have borrowed $75 million. A famous American toy company that trades on NASDAQ and is an S&P 100 component was said to have borrowed $50 million.
Five hotel chains with famous flags were said to have borrowed a cumulative sum in excess of $134 million. A famous soft-drink concern was said to have borrowed $60 million. The YouTube text pitch further asserts: “World Capital Market (WCM) is the parent company for WCM777. WCM is a private bank managing and lending money to over 700 institutions.”
But if WCM is indeed a “private bank,” it’s apparently one that has no concerns about the privacy of its own borrowers if MLM money is to be made. WCM777 affiliates now are parading in Stepfordian fashion around the Internet and claiming not only to know the identities of WCM’s famous borrowers, but also to know precisely how much they borrowed.
Assuming any of the purported deals actually exist and that anything about WCM is real, the precedent has been set for any future WCM customer to face repeated privacy invasions and repeated episodes of brand leeching as part of bids to legitimize an MLM “program.” Such incidents would be untenable for any enterprise that values its brand and marketplace reputation.
In the video pitch, the WCM promoter suggested that prospects should ignore lower affiliate levels and buy in at $1,999 because the position would pay $3,200 in 100 days. He also suggested that reentry at the $1,999 level would cost only $20 out-of-pocket and that the position would continue to return $3,200 every 100 days.
“Most people are coming in with three units, seven units, 15 units and above,” the narrator said.
“I just had some[one] wire me from Mexico . . . $6,000 for three units,” the narrator said. “I’m signing up another person [in] [Florida?] for six units as well — excuse me, three units as well — another $6,000. And this is just going nuts.”
A “kickoff meeting” was being held in Mexico for WCM777, the narrator said. (Based on the date of the video, this event might have been held in late August, perhaps on the same date as a companion event at a church in California. See below.)
Each of WCM’s famous purported borrowers now may face undeserved embarrassment or a PR problem because an MLMer trying to sell the WCM777 “program” on YouTube is claiming that they borrowed a combined sum of more than $1 billion from the purported parent company of an enterprise now under investigation in Colombia, amid pyramid scheme allegations.
What’s potentially worse is that the YouTube pitchmen claimed in a promo for WCM777 that he had “a presentation in Rialto, California, with a church of 500 people where the entire church is going to be there, Spanish church in Rialto.”
He could not attend the kickoff event in Mexico because it conflicted with the church event in Rialto, the narrator said.
Rialto is a Southeast California community of about 100,000 in San Bernardino County. In 2010, the PP Blog interviewed a 64-year-old woman from San Bernardino County. She’d been ripped off of $5,300 by the Noobing MLM scam operating online. The woman was deaf.
Like similar schemes, WCM777 almost certainly will bring securities concerns into play. “Programs” such as Zeek Rewards, for example, have been accused by the SEC of securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. Based on the YouTube promoter’s claims that WCM is venturing “into selling shares” and “pre-IPOs,” those concerns may only become heightened.
WCM also reportedly permits members to transfer money or the equivalent of money through an in-house system, which raises questions about whether it is setting the stage for money-laundering to occur. Colombia long has had problems with narcotics traffickers. Colombian MLMer David Murcia was extradited to the United States in 2010 to face charges that his D.M.G. Group of companies laundered narcotics cash in the United States. He later was sentenced to nine years in federal prison. Murcia also faces 30 years behind bars in Colombia.
U.S. prosecutors pointedly called DMG “a vehicle for a multi-level marketing scheme.” Participants were told to buy prepaid debit cards that operated on a points system and would permit them to buy electronics and other merchandise at DMG retail stores and enable them to get back 100 percent of what they paid in and perhaps more.
WCM777 also operates a points system and is tied to something called the “Kingdom Card” highlighted at a site known as 1And300.com.
The PP Blog has observed at least one instance in which Craigslist pulled an ad for WCM in Atlanta. Ads in other American communities, including Dallas and Orange County, Calif., continue to appear.
In addition to making a veiled reference to Siemens, the ad screams in all caps: “WHAT IF I TOLD YOU I CAN SHOW YOU A WAY TO TAKE SOME OF YOUR MONEY RIGHT NOW AND PUT IT TO WORK AS AN INVESTMENT AND TURN IT IN A FIRM PROFIT AMOUNT YOU CAN GET OVER AND OVER AGAIN EVERY 100 DAYS. NOT JUST MAKE MONEY WITH YOUR MONEY BUT ALSO HAVE NO SALES TO DO AND YOU WON’T HAVE NO NEED TO RECRUIT PEOPLE. . .?”
WCM, according to the Dallas ad, stands for “WE CREATE MARKET.”
