Mantria CEO Troy Wragg in a music video by ICEBLOC.
BULLETIN: Two pitchmen for the Mantria Corp. “green” Ponzi scheme have been ordered to pay millions of dollars in disgorgement and penalties, including a purported wealth coach who advised people who contacted him after the 2009 collapse of Mantria to join the Trump Network MLM “opportunity.”
Mantria purportedly was an environmentally friendly investment opportunity. In reality, the SEC said, it was a massive Ponzi scheme that was selling unregistered securities through unregistered broker-dealers.
Any returns paid to investors “were funded almost exclusively from other investors’ funds,” the SEC said.
Wayde M. McKelvy of Speed of Wealth LLC was ordered by U.S. District Judge Christine M. Arguello of the District of Colorado to pay $6,273,632.78 in disgorgement, interest of $869,141.87 and a civil penalty of $6,273,632.78.
McKelvy, an MLM pitchman who also was pushing Mantria, described himself as a wealth coach with “Wealthalete[s]” as pupils and prospects.
McKelvy’s former wife — Donna McKelvy — was ordered to pay $429,731.84 in disgorgement, interest of $55,172.93 and a civil penalty of $214,865.92.
Arguello ordered even greater disgorgement and penalties against Mantria principals Troy B. Wragg and Amanda E. Knorr.
“The Court ordered Wragg and Knorr to pay $37,031,035.36 in disgorgement plus interest of $3,713,772.06 jointly and severally with Mantria Corporation and a civil penalty of $37,031,035.36 each,” the SEC said today.
All in all, Arguello ordered more than $135 million in monetary relief in the Mantria/Speed of Wealth case, the SEC said.
The agency brought the Mantria Ponzi case in 2009, saying the “promoters fraudulently exaggerated Mantria’s green initiatives and used high-pressure tactics to convince investors to chase the promise of lucrative returns.”
Strangeness marked the early days of the Mantria case. When reporters contacted Wayde McKelvy by email for comment, they received back a pitch for the Trump Network.
“I am totally focused on one thing right now which I believe will be very, very fun and the opportunity to put money in your pocket by owning you’re [sic] own business with the help of ‘The Donald,” one of the McKelvy pitches claimed.
Among other things, Mantria traded on the name of former President Bill Clinton, along with a host of other politicians and celebrities. It is not unusual for scams to attach their names to prominent individuals.
For starters, Zeek affiliates being approached by upline sponsors and email/website appeals to send in money “to defend Zeek Rewards and all of our independent businesses as per our legal rights of due process” might want to read this July 25 PP Blog post.
It’s about how wordplay was used to sanitize HYIP scams.
For additional background, Zeek affiliates might want to read this July 28 PP Blog post.
It’s about how purported Zeek “consultant” Robert Craddock sought to disable the Hub of Zeek critic “K. Chang.” Craddock now is part of the effort to raise funds to “defend” Zeek affiliates.
Zeek and untold thousands of its minions are known to have a tin ear for PR. That tin ear is on full display again today, with a “warning” from the leaders of the effort to “defend” Zeek from the SEC’s Aug. 17 allegations that it was a $600 million Ponzi and pyramid scheme not to contact the SNR Denton law firm.
“We have asked the firm to provide us the names of the individuals that are calling; we will refund your donation and will remove you from the group to be represented if you call. The law firm is only going to discuss the case with the 12 leaders and we will put out the information to the entire group on this site.”
“This site,” as it were, is this site, which calls itself ZTeamBiz.
ZTeamBiz, which calls itself a “professional organization,” says its has hired SNR Denton. The precise reason why is unclear, although ZTeamBiz says the “SEC has tried to make us all believe that Zeek Rewards was an ‘investment’ and a Ponzi scheme. All the pages that were submitted by the SEC indictment has all been one sided and what we believe to be a misrepresentation of the truth and facts of what Zeek Rewards was as a viable and legal business.”
And ZTeamBiz also accused the SEC of misleading a federal judge.
One of the persons on the ZTeamBiz squad — although it’s unclear if his presence is formal or informal — is Todd Disner. Disner is a former pitchman for the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and, along with former attorney Dwight Owen Schweitzer, sued the government in November 2011. Disner and Schweitzer alleged that prosecutors and a U.S. Secret Service agent presented a “tissue of lies” to a federal judge when bringing the civil portion of the ASD Ponzi case in August 2008.
Disner and Schweitzer made that claim after ASD had lost the case in U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals. Among other things, Disner and Schweitzer claimed the government had gone shopping for a friendly judge when it brought the forfeiture proceedings.
That judge allegedly was targeted with a false lien by Kenneth Wayne Leaming, who also targeted three federal prosecutors and a Secret Service agent with false liens, according to the FBI. Leaming was arrested by an FBI Terrorism Task Force in November 2011. He is a purported “sovereign citizen.” All five of the federal officials targeted in the alleged lien campaign have ties to the ASD case.
ASD President Andy Bowdoin pleaded guilty seven months later to a Ponzi-related charge of wire fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday.
Zeek is known to have members in common with ASD, which federal prosecutors have described as a $119 million Ponzi scheme that created at least 9,000 victims before its 2008 collapse amid allegations by the U.S. Secret Service of Ponzi fraud.
Like Zeek, ASD claimed it was not offering an investment program. And like Zeek, ASD planted the seed it offered a daily payout rate of 1 percent a day or more.
Like Zeek, ASD came under investigation by the U.S. Secret Service. The agency has referred to ASD as a “criminal enterprise,” with the U.S. Department of Justice calling ASD “insidious.”
Those descriptions apparently were not enough to dissuade investors from throwing money at Zeek, which has listed ASD members as “employees.”
On Aug, 4, Zeek itself blasted unspecified “North Carolina Credit Unions” for raising concerns about Zeek. Zeek warned members to toe the company line.
The SEC was in federal court 13 days later.
Zeek also is known to have members in common with JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, which appears now to have morphed into something called “ProfitClicking.” Both JSS/JBP and ProfitClicking may have ties to the sovereign-citizens movement.
A domain registered in the name of purported JSS/JBP operator Frederick Mann once linked to videos featuring Francis Schaeffer Cox, a purported sovereign citizen implicated in a murder plot against public officials in Alaska.
Because HYIP scams typically are promoted on Ponzi-scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup — and because Zeek, JSS/JBP, ProfitClicking and ASD all had a presence on those forums — questions have been raised about whether cash was circulating between and among various fraud schemes and placing U.S. banks in the position of possessing fraudulent proceeds.
A receiver has been appointed to marshal the assets of the alleged Zeek fraud.
Despite the appeal by ZTeamBiz for Zeek affiliates to send in money to “defend” themselves and the company, the interests of all Zeek affiliates almost certainly are not equivalent. Net “winners” almost certainly are at risk of clawback lawsuits from the receiver. Such court actions are used to enlarge the pool through which victims of a Ponzi fraud receive a disbursement designed to make them as whole as possible.
It’s often the case that victims never are made whole and receive disbursements of dimes or even pennies on the dollar. Such is the case to date for victims of the 2009 Trevor Cook Ponzi caper in Minnesota. That scheme was a form of affinity fraud targeted largely at people of faith, including senior citizens.
Post-Ponzi receiverships sometimes turn into an international paper chase because scammers hide money offshore. Reverse-engineering a Ponzi caper can take years. Even as Zeek receiver Kenneth D. Bell begins his duties, scammers on the Ponzi boards are planting the seed that the receivership cannot be trusted.
In the 2009 Mantria/Speed of Wealth Ponzi scheme case, which in part was pushed MLM-style, a federal judge issued a specific order not to interfere with the receiver.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Blogger Chuck Miller, who posts on the website of the Albany (N.Y.) Times Union, has a post today on the unique circumstances under which he became a self-described “mark” for an MLM pitch nearly 20 years ago. Seems Miller’s MLM memories linger after nearly two decades. (You’ll learn why by clicking on the link to Miller’s column at the bottom of this post.)
First, though, some introductory remarks are in order . . .
McKelvy is a defendant in the Mantria/Speed of Wealth case, which the SEC filed in November 2009. Just days after the case was filed, McGaw began to receive a steady stream of email from McKelvy, who had a $30 million Ponzi scheme case hanging over his head and still was pitching offers for MLMs.
“How the heck can I help you become financially independent if you do not take the action steps that I recommend to you?” McKelvy memorably nudged the columnist just days after the SEC announced its intent to sue McKelvy back to the Stone Age.
Of course, untold numbers of Stepfordian members of Florida-based AdSurfDaily continued to pump autosurf MLMs — even after ASD President Andy Bowdoin had tens of millions of dollars seized from his personal bank accounts and was accused by some of his own members of racketeering.
Mantria CEO Troy Wragg in a music video by ICEBLOC.
A federal judge has issued an order that effectively puts a court-appointed receiver in control of dozens of entities related to Mantria Corp. and Speed of Wealth LLC in a search for “recoverable assets.”
One of the receiver’s duties is to determine if fraudulent transfers occurred between or among companies, according to the order.
The order, which is designed to prevent the dissipation of assets and maneuvering to hide or transfer money, is breathtaking because it covers not only Mantria and Speed of Wealth, but also “all of their subsidiaries, parent companies, and. . . interests in any affiliated entities of any kind.”
All in all, the order applies to a staggering total of at least 55 entities, a figure that demonstrates the enormous task of unraveling a modern-day fraud amid a maze of corporations.
The SEC sued Mantria and Speed of Wealth in November, amid allegations that Mantria was running a “green” Ponzi scheme that focused on biochar and a “carbon negative” housing community in rural Tennessee that purported to be environmentally friendly. Speed of Wealth allegedly helped Mantria get investment clients.
Appointed receiver in the case was John Paul Anderson of Alvarez & Marsal Dispute Analysis & Forensic Services LLC.
U.S. District Judge Christine M. Arguello listed dozens of names, perhaps signaling that the order could become even broader by noting that it was “not limited to” the names on the initial list. She also ordered Anderson to come up with a liquidation plan and warned the entities and their agents not to meddle in receivership affairs.
Anderson was granted the authority to seek the court’s permission to place the entities in bankruptcy if the circumstances warrant such an approach. Arguello minced no words when ordering parties not to meddle. She specifically warned them not to “harass” Anderson or interfere in his duties as receiver (italics/bold added).
“The Receivership Defendants and all persons receiving notice of this Order by personal service, facsimile or otherwise, are hereby restrained and enjoined from directly or indirectly taking any action or causing any action to be taken, without the express written agreement of the Receiver, which would:
A. Interfere with the Receiver’s efforts to take control, possession, or management of any Receivership Property; such prohibited actions include but are not limited to, using self-help or executing or issuing or causing the execution or issuance of any court attachment, subpoena, replevin, execution, or other process for the purpose of impounding or taking possession of or interfering with or creating or enforcing a lien upon any Receivership Property;
B. Hinder, obstruct or otherwise interfere with the Receiver in the performance of his duties; such prohibited actions include but are not limited to, concealing, destroying or altering records or information;
C. Dissipate or otherwise diminish the value of any Receivership Property; such prohibited actions include but are not limited to, releasing claims or disposing, transferring, exchanging, assigning or in any way conveying any Receivership Property, enforcing judgments, assessments or claims against any Receivership Property or any Receivership Defendant, attempting to modify, cancel, terminate, call, extinguish, revoke or accelerate (the due date), of any lease, loan, mortgage, indebtedness, security agreement or other agreement executed by any Receivership Defendant or which otherwise affects any Receivership Property; or
D. Interfere with or harass the Receiver, or interfere in any manner with the exclusive jurisdiction of this Court over the Receivership Estates.
Here is the initial list of entities covered under Arguello’s order:
Mantria Realty LLC
Mantria Communities Inc.
Mantria Real Estate Opportunities Group LLC
Mantria Investments LLC
Mantria Financial LLC
Mantria Capital Advisors LLC
Mantria Industries LLC
Carbon Diversion Inc.
Mantria Records LLC
The Mantria Foundation Inc.
Mantria Realty FL LLC
Mantria Communities LP
Mantria Real Estate Opportunities Group I LP
KITN Investments LLC
The Mantria Renewable Energy Fund LP
The Mantria Place Renewable Energy Site Development LP
The Mantria Industries Hohenwald Tennessee Eco-Industrial Center Site Development L.P.
Earth Mate Technologies LLC
Clean Energy Components LLC
EternaGreen Capital LLC
The EternaGreen International Carbon Economy Network LLC
EternaGreen University
EternaGreen Global Corporation
C&M Industrial Center LLC
Mantria Industries II LLC
Carbon Diversion Carlsbad New Mexico Manufacturing Plant LLC
Indian Trail Estates LLC
Mantria Village LLC
Mantria Bluffs LLC
IronBridge Properties LLC
Legacy Ridge LLC
Iris Village LLC
Mantria Place LLC
The Mantria Group LLC
Mantria Indian Trail Development LLC
Indian Trail Estates Phase I LLC
Indian Trail Estates Phase II LLC
Indian Trail Estates Phase III LLC
Indian Trail Estates Homeowners Association Inc.
Legacy Ridge Homeowners Association Inc.
The Mantria Place Homeowners Association Inc.
SOW Trust Deed LLC
SOW Hard Money Loans Investment Club LLC
SOW Hard Money Loans II LLC
SOW Trust Deed Group II LLC
Trust Deed Group I LLC
SOW Hard Money 50 Economic Stimulus Investment Club LLC
SOW Mantria Income LLC
SOW Mantria Diversification LLC
SOW Mantria 5% LLC
SOW Mantria Place 25% LLC
SOW Mantria 25% LLC
Speed of Wealth Investments Gold Club LLC
Trust Deed 3.0 LLC
SOW MI 25% Sale of Systems LLC
Arguello said she recognized “that not all of Speed of Wealth, LLC’s assets and/or business may be related, directly or indirectly, to the conduct alleged in the Commission’s Complaint.”
Named individual defendants in the alleged $30 million fraud by the SEC in November were Mantria CEO Troy Wragg and Mantria COO Amanda Knorr, along with the company itself. Also named defendants were Speed of Wealth and its principals, Wayde and Donna McKelvy, formerly husband and wife.
One of the companies under the Mantria umbrella was Mantria Records LLC, which purportedly promoted a hip-hop duo known as ICEBLOC.
Two months after Troy Wragg accepted a kudo from former President Bill Clinton for environmentally friendly business practices, Wragg was implicated by the SEC in an alleged "green" Ponzi scheme. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) later issued an Investment Alert warning the public about a relatively new form of fraud: “green energy investments†that trade on investors’ affinity for keeping the planet clean.
The case became notable for reasons beyond its size and scope. Wragg, for instance, appeared alongside former President Bill Clinton at the 5th Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in New York Sept. 25.
CGI had lauded Mantria in part for helping to “mitigate global warming” through its business practices. Just two months later Mantria and Speed of Wealth were accused of a colossal fraud.
After the CGI event in New York, Mantria and Speed of Wealth seized on Clinton’s name and the names of prominent individuals who attended the event to produce marketing materials used to entice investors.
Even after the SEC brought the charges, reporters who tried to contact Speed of Wealth received email pitches to join money-making opportunities.
Video promotions by Mantria and Speed of Wealth were notable for dropping the names of President Obama, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, President Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast, Mike Duke, CEO of Wal-Mart, Muhtar Kent, CEO of the Coca-Cola Co. and actor Matt Damon.
Leeching off the names of celebrities, famous businesspeople and politicians to sell fraudulent financial schemes is a common tactic among multilevel marketing (MLM) and Ponzi scammers. By implying that prominent people endorse a product or service, the fraudsters hope to turn skeptics into clients.
Claims were made in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme case, for example, that ASD President Andy Bowdoin had received an award from President George W. Bush for a lifetime of business achievement. The award proved to be the so-called Congressional “Medal of Distinction,” which is given for campaign contributions to the National Republican Congressional Committee and signifies only the ability to write a check for the purchase of banquet tickets.
In an SEC case last month, the agency alleged that a Staten Island investment-advisory business known as Gryphon Holdings Inc. told clients that famed businessman George Soros backed the company. A purported “testimonial” from Soros was fraudulent, the SEC said.
A federal judge has issued an order that enjoins Speed of Wealth principal Donna McKelvy from breaking securities laws and disgorges her ill-gotten gains from the alleged Mantria Corp./Speed of Wealth Ponzi scheme.
McKelvy, 43, of Parker, Colo., consented to the order without admitting or denying the allegations in a complaint filed by the SEC Nov. 16. The Speed of Wealth website, which once prominently featured a video containing images of President Obama, former President Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, now is returning a server error and will not load.
U.S. District Judge Christine M. Arguello entered the order against McKelvy yesterday.
“Donna M. McKelvy is prohibited, directly or indirectly, from accepting funds from investors for investment in any investment program,” Arguello wrote in the order.
She further ordered McKelvy to “pay disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, prejudgment interest thereon, and a civil penalty.” The amounts will be determined later, and Arguello said McKelvy “will be precluded from arguing that she did not violate the federal securities laws as alleged in the Complaint” and “may not challenge the validity of the Consent or this Order of Permanent Injunction.”
The SEC said McKevly was a principal in Speed of Wealth and used “the titles of president of Speed of Wealth in charge of investor relations and vice president of Speed of Wealth in charge of investor relations.
“She is a 25 percent owner of Mantria Industries LLC, one of the Mantria subsidiaries that has actively raised funds from investors, as well as three other Mantria subsidiaries. She does not hold any securities licenses, and she has never been associated with a registered broker-dealer,” the SEC said.
Also charged in the SEC complaint last month were McKelvy’s ex-husband, Wayde McKelvy, 46, of Sunny Isle Beach, Fla.; Mantria CEO Troy Wragg, 28, of Philadelphia, and Amanda Knorr, 26, also of Philadelphia. Knorr is Mantria’s COO.
Wayde and Donna McKelvy “particularly targeted elderly investors or those approaching retirement age to finance” Mantria’s “green initiatives,†the SEC said.
The SEC alleged that Mantria operated a $30 million Ponzi scheme pushed by Speed of Wealth.
Mantria’s biochar, a carbon-negative charcoal, was used to appeal to environmentally conscious investors, the SEC said.
“Despite claims that Mantria was the world’s leading manufacturer and distributor of biochar and had multiple facilities producing it at a rate of 25 tons per day,†the SEC said, “Mantria has never sold any biochar and has just one facility engaged in testing biochar for possible future commercial production.â€
Both Mantria and Speed of Wealth showcased a video assembled in part from materials published by the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), one of President Clinton’s signature undertakings since leaving office in 2001.
Wragg appeared alongside President Clinton and Secretary of State Clinton at the CGI annual meeting in New York in September, and images of prominent attendees were placed in the video, including an image of President Obama.
Less than two months later the SEC alleged that Mantria was a Ponzi scheme.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The story below references a column by Renee McGaw in the Denver Business Journal. Make sure you read the column. The link is at the bottom of this story.
The column reminded us of what occurred in the opening hours of the prosecution against the assets of Florida-based AdSurfDaily Inc., accused in August 2008 of operating a $100 million Ponzi scheme. Reporters who called ASD got a recording featuring the voice of ASD President Andy Bowdoin and intoning that God was on the company’s side.
Within hours, Bowdoin’s supporters were complaining on Internet forums that the media refused to take ASD’s side of the story seriously. Rather than questioning why the media might find such a recording important enough to mention in stories, Bowdoin’s apologists then sought to discredit reporters by casting them as conspirators in a plot to defame Bowdoin and to discredit members of law enforcment by painting the government as “evil.” The attack even featured a campaign to have a Florida television station and Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum charged with Deceptive Trade Practices for daring to raise the issue of the legitimacy of ASD.
McGaw’s column on a Colorado company, Speed of Wealth LLC, is remarkable in a number of ways, perhaps principally in the sense that it shines a light on relentless email pitches to join online money-making “opportunities.” Not even serious Ponzi scheme allegations against Speed of Wealth principal Wayde McKelvy prevented McGaw from receiving pitches for other programs from him. The column leaves us with this question: Is it any wonder that much of America and the world views Internet Marketing as a vast wasteland filled with fraudsters and schemers?
On a side note, readers of the PatrickPretty.com Blog occasionally have chided us about our view that exclamation points should be used like garlic — sparingly. We’ve enjoyed the banter on the topic. McGaw’s column also raises the issue of exclamation points in marketing pitches.
Here, now, the story . . .
Denver Business Journal reporter Renee McGaw says she is being pounded with offers from Wayde McKelvy, a defendant in a Ponzi scheme lawsuit filed by the SEC last month.
McKelvy’s Colorado firm, Speed of Wealth LLC, was accused by the SEC of pitching a “green” Ponzi scheme for Mantria Corp. of Pennsylvania. The names of President Obama, former President Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were prominently featured in a Mantria video that played on the Speed of Wealth website. The video, now missing from the site, was based on events that occurred in September at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), one of President Clinton’s signature undertakings after he left the White House in January 2001.
McKelvy describes himself as a wealth coach — and not even the assertion he was part of a $30 million fraud has slowed him down, McGaw reports.
In a column yesterday, McGaw said she sent McKelvy an email Nov. 16 to inquire about the SEC allegations. (The SEC had brought the allegations earlier on the same day.) McGaw’s email to McKelvy triggered what she described as automated pitches describing her as a “fellow Wealthalete” and urging her to join money-making programs.
“I am totally focused on one thing right now which I believe will be very, very fun and the opportunity to put money in your pocket by owning you’re own business with the help of ‘The Donald’,†McGaw quoted McKelvy as writing in an email Nov. 18, two days after the SEC filed civil charges against McKelvy, his former wife, and Mantria officers Troy Wragg and Amanda Knorr.
The columnist noted she did not correct McKelvy’s spelling or punctuation when reproducing the email for readers of the Denver Business Journal.
“Yes, I am talking about the ‘Trump Network,’†McKelvy stressed to McGaw.
McGaw reported that McKelvy’s pitches often featured subject lines consisting of all capital letters and ending with exclamation points.
“YOU MUST START YOUR OWN BUSINESS Renee!†McKelvy advised McGaw in one email. “What You Have Been Taught About Building Wealth is DEAD WRONG!â€
Through the Mantria video, Speed of Wealth also dropped the names of former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, President Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast, Mike Duke, CEO of Wal-Mart, Muhtar Kent, CEO of the Coca-Cola Co. and actor Matt Damon.
All of the individuals were among the prominent attendees of President Clinton’s CGI function. The video featured footage of Wragg appearing on stage next to Clinton.
Mantria was a “supposed ‘carbon negative’ housing community in rural Tennessee,†the SEC said.
Screen shot: Troy Wragg, whom the SEC said was a manager at a janitorial company before becoming CEO of Mantria Corp., next to President Clinton at the annual meeting on the Clinton Global Initiative in New York on Sept. 25.
But the “green†representations “were laced with bogus claims, and investors were falsely promised enormous returns on their investments ranging from 17 percent to ‘hundreds of percent’ annually,†the SEC said.
The agency charged that “Mantria’s environmental initiatives have not generated any significant cash, and any returns paid to investors have been funded almost exclusively from other investors’ contributions.â€
“These promoters fraudulently exaggerated Mantria’s green initiatives and used high-pressure tactics to convince investors to chase the promise of lucrative returns,†said Don Hoerl, director of the SEC’s Denver Regional Office. “In reality, the only green these promoters seemed interested in was investors’ money.â€
In a day of notable irony, the Obama administration announced the creation of an Interagency Financial Fraud Task Force led by the Department of Justice. Critical support functions will be provided by the Treasury Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
One of the first cases the new Task Force may find itself discussing is the alleged Mantria Corp. Ponzi scheme — a scheme in which a video featuring an image of President Obama and recorded remarks by former President Clinton was used in marketing materials by the alleged schemers.
Even as the Task Force announcement was being made, the SEC was announcing that a federal judge had granted a Temporary Restraining Order and asset freeze in the alleged “green” Ponzi operated by Mantria Corp. of Pennsylvania and sold by Speed of Wealth LLC of Colorado.
Within minutes, a video featuring a snapshot of President Obama and recorded remarks by President Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting in New York Sept. 25 went missing from Speed of Wealth’s website. Meanwhile, the Mantria website defaulted to a message that read, “We Are Rebuilding this Site to Make it the Most Informational Site Possible. Please check back with us in 10 days.”
Only yesterday the Mantria website showcased a PDF that appeared to have been assembled in part from CGI press materials to spotlight President Clinton’s efforts to improve the world.
The Speed of Wealth video, a marketing prop that dropped the names of famous politicians and international celebrities such as former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and actor Matt Damon, still had been accessible this morning.
That changed quickly after the announcement of the TRO and asset freeze. The SEC announced civil charges against Speed of Wealth and Mantria yesterday. Speed of Wealth’s video highlighted Mantria’s purported devotion to the environment, under the headline “Mantria Honored by President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.”
In the video, Mantria CEO Troy Wragg appeared on the stage next to President Clinton, Secretary of State Clinton and others. CGI had lauded Mantria for helping to “mitigate global warming through the use of its Carbon Fields site, where Mantria will perform trials on their product BioChar, a carbon-negative charcoal, to prove how this product can sequester carbon dioxide, improve soil quality when buried, and reduce emissions in developing countries.â€
Regulators said yesterday that BioChar was part of a $30 million Ponzi fraud.
Despite claims that “Mantria was the world’s leading manufacturer and distributor of biochar and had multiple facilities producing it at a rate of 25 tons per day,†the SEC said, “Mantria has never sold any biochar and has just one facility engaged in testing biochar for possible future commercial production.â€
Others featured in the Speed of Wealth video included President Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast, Mike Duke, CEO of Wal-Mart and Muhtar Kent, CEO of the Coca-Cola Co.
All of the individuals were among the prominent attendees of President Clinton’s CGI function.
It is not unusual for companies to promote themselves by trying to establish ties to prominent figures. AdSurfDaily, a Florida company accused by the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors of operating a $100 million Ponzi scheme, was featured in promotions that claimed company President Andy Bowdoin had received a special award for business achievement from President George W. Bush.
Prosecutors said the claim was false. What ASD promoters had called an important award from the White House, investigators called a souvenir for donations to the National Republican Congressional Committee.
What was unusual about the Speed of Wealth video is that it shamelessly dropped so many names of well-known people who attended the CGI event, a dignified function hosted by President Clinton that annually draws global political and business leaders.
Some of the snap shots used in assembling the video appeared to have been pulled from media materials on CGI’s website.
Along with showcasing the video cobbled together from one of President Clinton’s signature events, the Speed of Wealth website announced what it described as “the Partnership of the Century!” between itself and Mantria.
Speed of Wealth said money was to be made while itself and Mantria were saving the environment and “helping Middle America secure its financial future!”
Topics covered included:
Why investing in foreclosures today will make you rich and the only way you should be doing it is sitting on the beach in Bermuda while your foreclosure empire grows.
How to build $2,000,000 dollars of wealth with absolutely no money out of your pocket ever.
How to easily receive up to 25% returns on your money annually in an investment that I believe to be safer than a bank CD.
For starters, Zeek affiliates being approached by upline sponsors and email/website appeals to send in money “to defend Zeek Rewards and all of our independent businesses as per our legal rights of due process” might want to read this 
