BULLETIN: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said this afternoon that the agency’s Food and Nutrition Service is following specific leads in the MPB Today matter and will “take appropriate action as needed.”
For the first time, the agency used the word “investigate” in its remarks about MPB Today, an MLM tied to a purported “grocery” business known as Southeastern Delivery of Pensacola, Fla. USDA previously referred to the MPB Today matter as a “review.” The agency did not explain why the Food and Nutrition Service had entered the probe.
The Food and Nutrition Service, known as FNS, says its “mission is to provide children and needy families better access to food and a more healthful diet through its food assistance programs and comprehensive nutrition education efforts.”
The announcement followed on the heels of claims by MPB Today affiliates that there are liars and thieves within the organization, that the government and Walmart endorsed the MPB Today program and that the USDA’s Food Stamp program was “affiliated” with MPB Today.
On Tuesday, the PP Blog reported that a purported “news release” promoting MPB Today suggested that Food Stamp recipients should sell $200 of their allotment to raise money to join the MLM program.
Yesterday the Blog reported that at least two MPB Today members claimed there are liars and thieves inside the organization, using the claims to suggest prospects should join the program only under specific downlines. The Blog also reported that MPB Today affiliates may have ties to the judicially declared CEP Ponzi scheme, the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and other Ponzi schemes promoted on forums such as ASAMonitor, TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.
All three forums were referenced in a criminal case filed in May by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service against the alleged Pathway To Prosperity Ponzi scheme.
In July, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued a warning about HYIP scams that use forums and social-media sites such as YouTube and Facebook to spread virally on the Internet.
MPB Today’s website says it ships “ONLY” dry goods to customers, who can expect to pay a shipping charge of up to 50 percent of an order. MPB Today affiliates have used the high shipping charges as a reason for Food Stamp recipients and other customers to join to the MLM program, saying a one-time purchase of $200 in groceries could result in free groceries for life.
Affiliates have claimed MPB Today issues grocery “vouchers” that can be converted to Walmart gift cards and cash to purchase gasoline, electronics and other nonfood products.
Among other things, the purported “news release” claimed that the idea about selling Food Stamps for cash to join MPB Today occurred “[on] a beautiful Sunday afternoon” during a drive home from “Church.”
One promo for MPB Today showed a 46-inch Samsung television and other electronics that purportedly had been acquired by an MPB Today member through the program. Other promos have show prepaid Visa cards that spend like cash.
MPB Today operates a 2×2 matrix cycler — a business model that has come under fire by the U.S. Secret Service in a Ponzi scheme probe in the Seattle area. The Seattle program was known as Regenesis2x2, and was promoted on some of the same forums MPB Today is being promoted.
At the 2:54 mark in this video that includes a guitar as a backdrop, an MPB Today sponsor informs prospects that the company includes uplines that lie to recruits to get them to join.
An MPB Today sponsor is asserting in a YouTube video that his upline is honest — but that other uplines in the company consist of liars who are “gonna tell you whatever they think you’re gonna want to hear” in a bid to get you to join the Pensacola-based multilevel-marketing (MLM) program that purports to sell groceries.
How any MPB Today payments to members could be considered untainted if the company collected money based on lies and misrepresentations by sponsors was not explained in the 4:26 video.
“And you’re going to see so many videos here, telling you, ‘Join us, we have a large upline, large [upline],’” the video’s narrator intoned.
“They’re lying to you,” he continued. “I know that ours is the second-largest upline in the company. Don’t be . . . People are gonna try to BS you to try to get you to join. They’re gonna tell you whatever they think you’re gonna want to hear.”
MPB Today is being promoted on YouTube and other social-networking sites. It also is being promoted on known Ponzi scheme forums such as ASAMonitor, TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.
It is believed that some of the promoters have ties to the judicially declared CEP Ponzi scheme, the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, the alleged Pathway To Prosperity Ponzi scheme, the alleged Regenesis2x2 Ponzi scheme and other Ponzi and pyramid schemes.
Ponzi ties are potentially catastrophic to MPB Today because promoters could be using criminal proceeds from other schemes to join the company. A public claim by a promoter that the company has upline sponsors who lie to members also is potentially catastrophic because it could be construed as an acknowledgment that the company is coming into possession of money based on falsehoods told by its own members.
Meanwhile, some MPB Today members have posted purported “proof” videos that the company is legitimate. Some of the videos show images of checks drawn on a Florida bank that is operating under an FDIC consent agreement.
At least one video shows an MPB Today member cashing a check from the MLM at an FDIC-insured bank while audiotaping the bank teller’s voice. Research suggests the affiliate’s account is at a bank in Utah.
Federal officials have said that Utah is plagued by Ponzi schemes, including schemes targeted at people of faith.
If MPB Today has come into possession of money from Ponzi schemes and is gathering money based on the lies of its members — and if affiliates are cashing or depositing MPB Today checks at banks across the United States — it means that banks external to MPB Today’s bank may be in possession of tainted money.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is conducting a “review” of claims about the MPB Today program. In July 2009, the U.S. Secret Service, which opened a probe into ASD’s business practices a year earlier, said it also was investigating a 2×2 cycler program known as Regenesis2x2.
MPB Today also operates a 2×2 cycler. It is known that at least one MPBToday affiliate also promoted Regenesis2x2.
“They helped form a series of sham business entities and then promoted fraudulent debt elimination tactics intended for the sole purpose of concealing income from the IRS.” — Victor S. O. Song, chief, IRS Criminal Investigation
As the U.S. Department of Agriculture was conducting a “review” of claims made by affiliates of a purported “grocery” business in Pensacola, Fla., that dispenses “gift cards” to winners in a 2×2 matrix cycler, a federal judge in Pensacola was handing out prison sentences to defendants convicted in a tax-fraud and debt-elimination scheme.
All in all, nine promoters were implicated in the Pinnacle Quest International (PQI) case. Four were sentenced to prison in July. Two others will be sentenced in October, and three were sentenced yesterday for their roles in an elaborate fraud in which PQI served as an “umbrella organization for numerous vendors of tax and credit card debt elimination scams,” federal prosecutors said.
Eugene Casternovia received 7 years in prison. Arthur Merino, meanwhile, was sentenced to 40 months. Mark Lyon, the third defendant sentenced yesterday, cooperated with prosecutors and received a sentence of 18 months.
Among the PQI vendors was the Southern Oregon Resource Center for Education (SORCE), which “sold bogus theories and strategies for tax evasion,” prosecutors said.
“For fees starting at $10,000, SORCE assisted its customers in the creation of a series of sham business entities in the United States and Panama,” prosecutors said. “Other tax-related PQI vendors denied the legitimacy of the income tax system on various theories and provided customers with a ‘reliance defense’ that consisted of a paper trail of frivolous correspondence which a client could allegedly use as evidence of good faith if the client were prosecuted.”
Financial Solutions, another PQI vendor, sold “fraudulent schemes for eliminating credit card debt,” prosecutors said.
“Financial Solutions charged its customers thousands of dollars for a series of letters to send to credit card companies disputing the lawfulness of the underlying debt,” prosecutors said. “The product was wholly ineffective, and customers typically were sued by their creditors and often forced into bankruptcy.”
At the same time, yet-another PQI vendor known as MYICIS “operated as a sophisticated, computerized ‘warehouse bank,’” prosecutors said.
“MYICIS was a single bank account in which customers pooled their money,” prosecutors said. “MYICIS was promoted to PQI’s clients as a method to hide their assets from the IRS as a result of the pooled nature of the account. MYICIS had 3,000 clients and approximately $100 million in deposits over a three year period.”
A veteran IRS agent declared the business entities tied to the PQI case a “sham.”
“These defendants are now being held accountable for their criminal behavior,†said Victor S. O. Song, chief, IRS Criminal Investigation. “They helped form a series of sham business entities and then promoted fraudulent debt elimination tactics intended for the sole purpose of concealing income from the IRS. Their tactics were fraudulent. There is no secret formula that can eliminate an individual’s tax obligation.â€
In July, Arnold Ray Manansala was sentenced to 12 years in prison; Dover Eugene Perry, meanwhile, was sentenced to 10 years. Michael Guy Leonard was sentenced to nine years and one month, and Mark Daniel Leitner was sentenced to five years.
The trial in Pensacola took up a full month. Wayne Hicks, the operator of My Icis Inc., already was serving a five-year prison sentence.
FBI Director Robert Mueller has warned Congress at least twice this year about a “shadow” banking system that is a threat to U.S. national security.
In November, President Obama formed the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to attack the problem with white-collar and other forms of fraud. It is billed the “broadest coalition of law enforcement, investigatory and regulatory agencies ever assembled to combat fraud.”
MYICIS was a topic of discussion on known Ponzi scheme and fraud forums such as TalkGold. In May, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service referenced the forums in filings in a criminal case against an alleged Ponzi scheme known as Pathway To Prosperity.
In recent months, a Pensacola business known as MPB Today (My Premier Business Today) has been operating an MLM program that purports to sell “groceries.” The program has been advertised on TalkGold, and other known Ponzi forums.
One MPB Today affiliate attempted to sell the program by creating a video animation and depicting President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as Nazis. Clinton was called “Hitlary” in the promo.
Others have attempted to sell the MPB Today business “opportunity” by linking it to the federal Food Stamp program administered by the Department of Agriculture. The USDA announced earlier this month that it was conducting a “review” of affiliate claims.
This video promo for Pensacola-based MPB Today is targeted at Food Stamp recipients.
Still other MPB Today affiliates have focused on recruiting prospects by telling them they’d receive “gift cards” from Walmart. At least one promo on YouTube shows an envelope inside an envelope that had been mailed through the U.S. Postal Service.
Such an approach is consistent with the practices of “cash-gifters” — people who use the mails to promote chain-letter pyramid and tax schemes. The inside envelope in the YouTube video showed that at least one MPB Today affiliate had been paid with a prepaid Visa card purchased at Walmart. The envelope also contained a Walmart gift card.
In the YouTube video, the MPB Today affiliate appeared to be surprised about what he’d just received in the mail.
One promo after another for MPB Today has emphasized the gift cards. Still other affiliates have produced videos that show checks drawn on an FDIC-insured bank in Pensacola that has been operating since January under a consent agreement with the FDIC.
Florida has been plagued by mortgage foreclosures. MPB Today is targeting foreclosure subjects in a video pitch, as are many affiliates. Affiliates also have targeted the unemployed, senior citizens, people of faith and members of the alleged AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme.
ASD also was based in Florida. The company is known to have attracted affiliates who participated in tax, debt-elimination and cash-gifting schemes. At least one ASD affiliate has been linked to a group that sought to imprison federal judges and litigation opponents in debt cases. Another affiliate filed papers in federal court that purported to show that a bank could be defeated in a foreclosure case by filing a bond consisting of $21 in “silver coinage.”
At least one MPB Today promoter positioned the grocery company as an opportunity for religious members of ASD to make up losses in the failed autosurf. The U.S. Secret Service has seized tens of millions of dollars from bank accounts linked to ASD.
Florida records show that MPB and its associated grocery company — Southeastern Delivery — have operated by at least five names since 2006. MPB Today operator Gary Calhoun was ordered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to stop violating federal law in promotions for a product marketed as a treatment for Lou Gehrig’s disease, among others.
ASD President Andy Bowdoin also operated numerous companies in Florida. according to records.
The testimonial signed "Mike DeBias" on a website pitching MPB Today purports that "Mike DeBias" sought "Divine Guidance" when using Google to find a sponsor for the purported grocery program, which operates as an MLM. Nevada records lists "Michael A. DeBias" as the operator of Alpha Market Research, the purported parent company of Websitetester.biz, which purports to have gathered 400,000 names and email addresses online in recent months. Websitetester purports to offer "jobs" and an opportunity to become a website "tester." What, precisely, WebsiteTester does is far from clear.
The Golden Panda Ad Zone forum, also known as the Online Success Zone (OSZ), appears to have died — again. Visitors are greeted with a note that says the forum is “currently unavailable.”
Like ASAMonitor, MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold, OSZ was a site that pitched Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, cash-gifting programs and other highly questionable business “opportunities” such as a “program” known as WebsiteTester.biz.
OSZ first died quietly in the spring. It resurrected itself during the summer, and a poster sang the praises of WebsiteTester, a mysterious company that claims to have gathered 400,000 names and email addresses in recent months for a purported “jobs” and website “testing” opportunity.
WebsiteTester’s business model is far from clear. Although affiliates have said there is no downside for registering because the opportunity is “free,” the company says its legitimacy can be established by watching a video that shows no faces and reading a news release published by an anonymous author.
The purported opportunity has encountered a failed launch, a failed relaunch, server problems, substantial downtime and other problems — and yet somehow has amassed more than 19,600 Twitter followers, even though registrants don’t know exactly what they’re registering for.
Records in Nevada show that Michael A. DeBias is the president of Alpha Market Research, WebsiteTester’s purported parent company. A series of websites linked to the firm, however, are registered behind a proxy.
Separately, a person purported to be “Mike DeBias” of “Las Vegas” is listed as a provider of a testimonial on a website that hawks the purported MPBToday “grocery” program. The testimonial implies that “Mike BeBias” sought guidance from God when searching Google for an appropriate MPB Today sponsor.
“. . . I thought I would google-search for a sponsor that was more to my liking . . . I asked for Divine Guidance and the Force led me to you,” the testimonial reads in part. “Thank God, and Thank you.” It was signed, “Mike DeBias – Las Vegas, Nevada.”
It was not immediately clear if the “Mike DeBias” of “Las Vegas” referenced in the testimonial was the same “Michael A. DeBias” listed at the operator of Alpha Market Research, which purports to be based in Las Vagas.
What is clear is that WebsiteTester — like MPB Today — is being promoted on forums infamous for pitching Ponzi schemes. Promos for MPB Today have been targeted at Food Stamp recipients, senior citizens, the unemployed, people of faith, churches and victims of the alleged AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme.
The OSZ forum got its start in the aftermath of the August 2008 federal seizure of tens of millions of dollars from bank accounts linked to ASD and Golden Panda Ad Builder, ASD’s purported “Chinese” autosurf. Promos for other surfs — and “opportunities” such as cash-gifting schemes — were launched from the forum, even after one surf after another crashed and burned and ASD president Andy Bowdoin was sued for racketeering.
Clarence Busby, the alleged operator of Golden Panda, was implicated in three prime-bank schemes by the SEC in the 1990s. ASD’s Bowdoin was arrested in the 1990s for bilking investors in a securities swindle in Alabama, according to court records.
The ASD scheme has been linked to tax-deniers, “patriots,” people who engage in the credit-repair business, and at least one person who sought to imprison federal judges by having a bogus “Indian” tribe issue bogus arrest warrants. At least one ASD member declared himself “sovereign” in a bizarre court case, suggesting he enjoyed diplomatic immunity and answered only to Jesus Christ.
Another person linked to ASD filed court papers in Missouri that claimed a mortgage-foreclosure case could be halted in its tracks by posting a bond of $21 in “silver coinage.”
Appeals to religion frequently were displayed on the now-defunct “Surf’s Up” forum — a forum that had ASD’s official endorsement — and one HYIP program pitched from the forum used an image of Jesus Christ in a sales pitch. The HYIP later collapsed, after collecting an untold sum of money.
Court records suggest that a person believed to have been involved in ASD and other HYIPs also was engaged in cell-phone trafficking.
Prior to its series of deaths, the OSZ forum also promoted “programs” such as Narc That Car and Data Network Affiliates, both of which purported to be able to help law enforcement and the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children. No evidence has surfaced that either Narc that Car or DNA has any capacity to help in the rescue of children. During the spring, DNA also purported to be in the cell-phone business.
Narc That Car since has changed its name to Crowd Sourcing International (CSI). Like DNA, CSI has an “F” rating from the Better Business Bureau.
Meanwhile, a separate website that is promoting MPB Today also is promoting DNA and at least 100 “surfing” programs. The programs are promoted MLM-style.
Earlier this week the PP Blog reported that members of MPB Today were using YouTube and other sites to post images of checks drawn on a distressed Florida bank. The checks, which were supplied as purported “proof” of MPB Today’s legitimacy, may expose both the posters and the bank to security breaches and identity theft.
The bank, Gulf Coast Community Bank of Pensacola, has been operating under an FDIC consent agreement since January. It did not respond to a request for comment from the PP Blog. It is possible that the bank was unaware that its name was being used as a form of purported “proof” that one of its customers — MPB Today, which operates an MLM advertised on Ponzi forums such as ASA Monitor — was above-board.
Like MPB Today, the alleged Legisi Ponzi scheme was pushed on Ponzi forums such as MoneyMakerGroup. This bizarre section of the Legisi Terms of Service purports that members must avow they are not an "informant, nor associated with any informant" of the IRS, FBI, CIA and the SEC, among others. The others included "Her Majesty's Police," the Intelligence Services of Great Britain, the Serious Fraud Office and Interpol.
In the alleged AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme in 2008, members cited ASD’s relationship with Bank of America as purported “proof” of legitimacy. Federal agents later seized more than $65.8 million from 10 bank accounts controlled by ASD President Andy Bowdoin amid allegations of wire fraud and money-laundering.
ASD also was promoted on the Ponzi boards. Robert Hodgins, who operated a company ASD members said supplied debit cards to the firm, now is wanted by INTERPOL in a case that alleges he assisted in the laundering of money for Colombian narcotics traffickers. The money was accessed with debit cards through ATMs in Medellin, according to court records.
A mysterious business opportunity known as WebsiteTester.biz also is being hawked at ASAMonitor and other Ponzi boards. WebsiteTester claims it has collected the names and email addresses more than 400,000 prospects across the world. WebsiteTester claims its legitimacy can be established by watching a YouTube video that shows no faces and by reading a news release published by an anonymous author.
In July, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued an alert about fraud schemes that use forums and social-media sites such as YouTube and Facebook to spread virally.
Among the other “programs” pushed on the Ponzi boards was Legisi, an alleged Ponzi scheme that gathered more than $70 million. Legisi members were specifically prompted to “avow” they were not “an informant” for law enforcement, including INTERPOL, the FBI and the SEC, among other agencies.
Despite repeated public warnings by authorities to exercise caution on the Internet, fraud schemes continue to proliferate globally. INTERPOL now says one of its own was targeted in an identity-theft bid on Facebook — and it was the boss himself.
“Just recently INTERPOL’s Information Security Incident Response Team discovered two Facebook profiles attempting to assume my identity,” said Ronald K. Noble, INTERPOL’s Secretary General.
“One of the impersonators was using this profile to obtain information on fugitives targeted
during our recent Operation Infra Red,” Noble said. “This Operation was bringing investigators from 29 member countries at the INTERPOL General Secretariat to exchange information on international fugitives and lead to more than 130 arrests in 32 countries.”
A Nevada-based business that appears to have collected the names and email addresses of 400,000 people worldwide scrubbed its launch and then scrubbed its relaunch, blaming it on technical difficulties.
Websitetester.biz now says it will be back online “Sunday afternoon.”
Although Alpha Market Research, the purported parent company of WebsiteTester.biz is registered as a corporation in Nevada, websites associated with the entities are registered behind a proxy and a video from the firms’ purported CEO included only his purported voice and no images of his face.
Other promos for the purported business fracture the English language, featuring awkward prose such as “Potential clients who are disturbed by trifles during the ordering process are often unaware of exactly why.”
Promos have claimed the purported program is free and that registrants can make money, but the company’s business model is far from clear.
“It is completely free, you earn through EVERYBODY who registers after you, even if you do not sponsor people; you must not sell or buy anything. Guaranteed!” a promo claimed.
Registrants expected WebsiteTester to launch Sept. 1. That launch date was delayed, and the company announced a new launch date in mid-September. WebsiteTester then announced it had encountered “unexpected server difficulties” with the relaunch, leading to grumbling among confused members.
Alpha Market has more than 19,000 Twitter followers, despite its mysterious nature and a pattern of announcing launches and delays.
The company has purported to provide jobs that pay up to $25 per hour for testing websites. It also describes “potential income” and asks members to recruit other members, even though the company exists in a sea of incongruity and uncertainty.
Affiliates have claimed there is no downside to registering because the purported “opportunity” is free. Regardless, the company now appears to have gathered information such as names and email addresses from hundreds of thousands of people across the globe — this while citing an anonymous news release on a free publicity site as an authoritative source of information about the firm.
The news release has been republished on forums that are infamous for promoting Ponzi schemes. The forums have been referenced in court filings in both criminal and civil cases. The ASAMonitor, TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forums all have promos for WebsiteTester.
Among the other business “opportunities” now being promoted on the Ponzi forums is MPB Today, a Florida-based, multilevel-marketing (MLM) company that purports to be in the grocery business.
Michael A. DeBias is listed in Nevada corporation records as director, treasurer, secretary, and president of Alpha Market Research Inc., WebsiteTester’s purported parent. The address listed for Alpha Market Research — 3651 Lindell Rd., Las Vegas, NV. — appears to be the address of a company that offers “virtual office†services, meaning Alpha Market may not actually be located in Las Vegas.
As giddy members of Florida-based MPB Today flock to YouTube to post check-waving videos as “proof” of the MLM’s legitimacy, the bank used by the purported grocery company is operating under an FDIC consent order issued in January, records show.
The FDIC had no immediate comment when asked this morning by the PP Blog about the videos, which clearly show the names of MPB Today and its purported grocery arm, Southeastern Delivery of Pensacola, along with the name of Gulf Coast Community Bank of Pensacola.
A call to Gulf Coast for comment was not immediately returned. The Blog left a detailed voicemail message with a bank official, and also left a message with an employee who answered the phone.
MPB Today appears to have paid members by issuing checks drawn on both its name and the name of Southeastern Delivery. The checks are drawn on Gulf Coast accounts, according to the videos on YouTube and other sites. Affiliates say the business opportunity has attracted more than 16,000 members since April.
Affiliates reportedly receive checks for $300 drawn on Gulf Coast when they “cycle” by recruiting new affiliates and causing $1,200 of business within an MPB Today downline group. Affiliates also receive $200 Walmart gift cards or “In Store Credit” cards.
The Walmart cards also are prominently featured in the videos that display Gulf Coast’s name.
Gulf Coast is rated “zero”stars by Bauer Financial, the tracking firm’s lowest rating on a scale of zero to five stars. The Blog confirmed the rating with Bauer this morning.
Gulf Coast is listed on the FDIC website as a party to a January consent order that raised the issue of unsound banking practices. The bank was given time to comply with the order and implement new business procedures to address the FDIC’s concerns.
Some Florida banks are being battered by the recession and a surge in nonperforming loans and mortgage foreclosures. It was not immediately clear if Gulf Coast now is operating to the satisfaction of the FDIC.
Also unclear is whether the bank knows that its name is being used on YouTube in promotions for MPB Today, and under whose authority MPB Today affiliates are acting when displaying the checks drawn on Gulf Coast. At the same time, the volume of the business MPB Today and Southeastern conduct with the bank is unclear.
MPB Today uses a 2×2 cycler matrix, a business model the U.S. Secret Service referenced in court filings in a Ponzi scheme probe last year in Seattle that involved a company known as Regenesis2x2.
Regenesis2X2 was promoted on known Ponzi forums such as ASAMonitor, TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. MPB Today’s 2×2 matrix is being promoted on the same forums. At least one of the promoters of the alleged Regenesis2x2 Ponzi scheme also is promoting MPB Today, and some of the MLM’s affiliates are targeting churches in sales pitches. Others are targeting Food Stamp recipients, foreclosure subjects and victims of the alleged AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme.
In August 2008, the Secret Service alleged that ASD, which also operated in Florida, was conducting a Ponzi scheme that gathered nearly $100 million from investors. The agency seized Bank of America deposits totaling at least $79 million in the ASD case.
Meanwhile, the ASAMonitor, TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup forums are specifically referenced in a criminal case filed by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in May. The case, which was filed in the Southern District of Illinois, alleges that a firm known as Pathway To Prosperity was operating an international Ponzi scheme that attracted more than 40,000 investors and gathered more than $70 million.
In July, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued an alert about online fraud schemes that use forums and social-media sites to spread virally.
MPB Today is a subject of a “review” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) amid affiliate claims the company is an attractive option for Food Stamp recipients and is endorsed by the government. Some affiliates also have claimed that Walmart, the retail giant, endorses the program.
Walmart has not responded to a request for comment from the PP Blog. MPB Today removed the images of a Walmart store from its website last week. Also removed from the site were images of business titans Donald Trump and Warren Buffet. It is unclear if Walmart, Trump and Buffet forced the removal.
MPB Today is operated by Gary Calhoun. Calhoun was the subject of a 2006 inquiry by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the marketing of a product that claimed to treat Lou Gehrig’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s, among other serious medical conditions.
Calhoun was ordered by the FDA to stop violating provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. His company, Trim International, later failed. Southeastern Delivery began to operate in Florida in January 2010, according to state records. The firm previously was known as William Lindsay Properties LLC.
A number of MPB Today affiliates have posted check-waving videos that clearly show Gulf Coast’s name and other identifying information. The videos potentially expose MPB and the bank, which has a high ratio of troubled assets, to security breaches. The video posters potentially are exposing themselves to identity theft.
In January, Gulf Coast agreed to a consent order that required its board of directors to meet at least monthly to review reports of “income and expenses; new, overdue, renewal, insider, charged-off, and recovered loans; investment activity; operating policies; and individual committee actions,” according to the FDIC.
Florida has one of the highest rates of bank failures in the United States and one of the highest foreclosure rates.
“Within 90 days from the effective date of this ORDER, the Bank shall have and retain qualified management,” the FDIC ordered on Jan. 28. “Each member of management shall have qualifications and experience commensurate with his or her duties and responsibilities at the Bank.”
Gulf Coast consented to the order “without admitting or denying any charges of unsafe or unsound banking practices, or violations of law or regulation relating to weaknesses in asset quality, capital adequacy, earnings, management effectiveness, liquidity, and sensitivity to market risk,” according to a stipulation.
UPDATED 7:06 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.)TO INCLUDE GRAPHIC OF SEARCH-WARRANT APPLICATION IN THEÂ U.S. SECRET SERVICE PROBE OF THE REGENESIS 2×2 MATRIX CYCLER PROMOTED AT THE ASAMONITOR FORUM.
An MPB Today affiliate is targeting churches in a video animation. MPB Today is a Florida-based multilevel-marketing (MLM) program tied to a grocery business known as Southeastern Delivery of Pensacola.
Like yet-another Florida-based MLM — Data Network Affiliates, which purports to collect license-plate data that can help law enforcement and the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children — the MPB Today program is being targeted at people of faith. DNA advised churches that it was their “MORAL OBLIGATION” to help it sell a purported mortgage-reduction program aimed at foreclosure subjects and positioned the MLM program as a “Church Fundraisers (sic) DREAM Come True.â€
A video for MPB Today titled “MPB Today . . . the movie,” meanwhile, positioned a salesperson for the purported grocery program as on the cusp of enrolling “Jill, her parents and her church.
“The church is enrolling as a fundraiser!” the video exclaims.
MPB Today also is referenced on the ASAMonitor Ponzi forum as a good opportunity for churches. ASAMonitor is referenced in court filings in a criminal case against the alleged Pathway to Prosperity Ponzi scheme as an outlet from which Ponzi schemes are promoted. Also referenced in the Pathway To Prosperity filings are the TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forums — two other places from which MPB Today is being promoted by affiliates.
In an Aug. 28 post at ASAMonitor, an MPB Today affiliate claimed he had “just signed up a minister who is going to use this as a fund raising method to help his church… should be interesting. Sure beats selling cookies or flower bulbs!”
The animated video for MPB Today, which is accessible through a website that features multiple video promotions for the firm, shows a male character apparently angry for not listening to a female promoter who earlier urged him to join.
“Ben, no need to be angry,” the video soothed, “want to know more about MBP Today (sic) call me . . .”
The video urges Ben to “call me tonight if you want to get $200 Walmart gift cards and $300 checks over and over again . . .”
A separate video accessible at the same site shows a 46-inch Samsung TV and other electronics acquired at Walmart through MPB Today’s MLM program. Walmart has not responded to a request for comment from the PP Blog. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is conducting a “review” of claims about the MLM program, which also is targeting Food Stamp recipients, foreclosure subjects, victims of the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, senior citizens and opponents of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Obama and Clinton were positioned as Nazis in a video promo for MPB Today that now has been removed from a video site. First Lady Michelle Obama, the mother of two daughters, was depicted as in need of the product “Beano” after experiencing an embarrassing gas attack in the Oval Office after consuming “beans” at a Sam’s Club Store. In the video, the First Lady apparently was knocked out after getting conked in the head by Clinton, a former First Lady and the mother of one daughter.
Clinton was called “Hitlary” in the video, and was depicted as being a whining drunk who barged into the Oval Office bawling.
In the video pitch that showed the 46-inch TV, an MPB Today affiliate said he’d initially dreamed of purchasing a 60-inch TV — but fell 14 inches short of his goal. Still, the affiliate noted, a 46-inch model was easy enough to live with.
MPB Today affiliates can get anything and everything, a promoter said — including this 46-inch TV for Monday Night Football.
“Any[thing] and everything that is at Walmart or Sam’s Club — both on- and offline — you can get at no cost because our program will put mailbox money and Walmart gift cards in your hand daily, weekly, monthly, hourly,” the narrator claimed.
“It’s really up to you how much you want to get out of this program by simply sharing the program with other people,” the narrator said.
Although the video is 4:08 in length, the word “groceries” appears to be curiously absent, even though MPB Today purports to be a grocery program.
The narrator said he’d use his new TV to watch Monday Night Football.
Countless Ponzi schemes have been promoted from ASA Monitor. In July 2009, for instance, the U.S. Secret Service alleged that a cycler program known as Regenesis 2×2 was operating a Ponzi scheme.
Among the Regenesis 2×2 promoters was ASAMonitor member “Ken Russo,” who also is promoting the MPB Today 2×2 cycler at the ASA Monitor forum.
“Ken Russo” was keeping up with MPB Today developments and commentary at ASA Monitor this afternoon, according to the forum log published at the bottom of the discussion thread on MPB Today.
Separately, yet-another video promo for MPB Today is featuring a narrator who tells prospects not to bother buying their groceries from MPB Today — even though the firm purports to be in the grocery business.
“If you’re joining this program to buy groceries, don’t bother . . .†the narrator said, lamenting MPB Today’s purportedly high shipping costs and explaining that the company sells a “grocery voucher” that is more cost-effective to use elsewhere.
“I’m guessing you turned on this video because you heard you could make a lot of money and maybe not have to ever pay for groceries or gas again. So, you’re swimming around the ship — and not even seeing the boat — if you think this is about groceries and these other perks,” the narrator said.
The narrator then recommended that prospects start recruiting other affiliates to make “serious money” in MPB Today.
A snippet from the search-warrant application by the U.S. Secret Service in the investigation of the alleged Regenesis 2×2 matrix cycler Ponzi scheme, which was pitched from the ASAMonitor forum.
EDITOR’S NOTE:UPDATED 3:12 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Florida-based MPBToday is one of the programs pitched on Ponzi boards such as ASAMonitor, MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold. It also is being pitched via email and on social-media sites such as YouTube. All three of the forums are referenced in court filings — including filings in criminal cases — as places from which Ponzi schemes are promoted. Pathway to Prosperity, just one of the schemes promoted on the forums, was alleged in May to have defrauded more than 40,000 people across the globe while gathering more than $70 million.
MPBToday is a multilevel-marketing company tied to a Pensacola grocery company known as Southeastern Delivery LLC. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Friday that it was conducting a “review” of affiliate claims. Precisely what claims USDA will review is unclear.
Some affiliates are encouraging recipients of Food Stamps to join the program, which claims a $200, one-time expense can led to free groceries for life. Other affiliates have targeted victims of the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme in sales pitches. Still others are using religion to sell the program. The program uses the word “foreclosure” in its sales pitch. Florida has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the United States. More than 9,000 people showed up at the Palm Beach County Convention Center late last month to seek foreclosure relief.
One potential area of inquiry is whether Food Stamp recipients somehow can use their allotment to qualify for MPB Today’s MLM program. Another potential area of inquiry is whether Food Stamp money somehow is being used to pay MLM commissions. Because MPB Today says Southeastern Delivery assesses a shipping charge of up to 50 percent for the home delivery of groceries — and because affiliates purport that food “vouchers” and food “credits” can be acquired, perhaps in the form of a Walmart gift card MPB Today sends in the mail — another potential area of inquiry is whether Food Stamp money somehow can be converted to pay for items such as electronics and prepaid Visa cards. One MPB Today affiliate said the firm’s high shipping costs were a reason for Southeastern Delivery’s Food Stamp customers to join the MLM program.
Claims have been made that the MLM program is “certified” by the government, “acknowledged” by the government and that Walmart is affiliated with MPB Today. Walmart has not responded to a request for comment from the PP Blog.
Here are some photos of promotions for MPB Today from around the web. (Red highlighting added by PP Blog):
In this YouTube video and text pitch, a claim punctuated with exclamation marks is made that the program is "Govt. certified with Food Stamps!" and that there is a "contract with wal mart!" The word "scam" appears multiple times in the pitch — in an apparent bid to drive traffic to the site from prospects seeking to determine if there is any scam-related information on MPB Today. MPB Today positioned on YouTube as a good opportunity for people of faith. The words "Christian" and "scam" are used to drive traffic to the site.In a money-waving Blog post, an MPB Today affiliate with a California address shows a check for $300 and a Walmart card. In this video for MPB Today on DailyMotion, visitors are encouraged to visit a .org affiliate site for the company, even though MPB Today is not a charity. The video claims members can purchase "electronics," even though MPB Today says it is in the grocery business and affiliates are targeting Food Stamp recipients in sales pitches.MPB Today affiliates display check and Walmart card on YouTube after videotaping check-opening ceremony. The program is described as a "NO BRAINER."This document on file in Florida shows that Southeastern Delivery LLC, the grocery arm of the MPB Today MLM program, once was known as William Lindsay Properties LLC. The name change occurred in January 2010. Gary Calhoun, the operator of MPB Today, is associated with both firms, according to records. On Aug. 25, the PP Blog received an unsolicited sales pitch for MPB Today via an email to the Blog's support address. Among the claims in the pitch, which did not include an unsubscribe link, was that "Walmart is thrilled" with the results of MPB Today. The pitch was targeted at members of AdSurfDaily, a company the PP Blog regularly covers because ASD is implicated by the U.S. Secret Service in an alleged Ponzi scheme involving tens of millions of dollars. A similar pitch was sent to another website that covers AdSurfDaily-related news. The names of Walmart and Sam's Club referenced by "Ken Russo" at the ASAMonitor forum, which is notorious for promoting Ponzi schemes. In this video, a check and Walmart card are displayed. Unlike other checks written in Southeastern Delivery's name, this check was written in the name of MPB Today Inc. The video, which captured a check-opening ceremony, shows a Walmart "In Store Credit" cardIn this video, an MPB Today affiliate gives a sales pitch while driving an automobile. A check and Walmart card were presented when the vehicle stopped at a highway intersection.The pitch claims a "ONE-TIME" expenditure of $200 can "TOTALLY ELIMINATE" grocery bills.
UPDATED 7:26 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A Nevada company that advertises “job” openings and is being promoted on Ponzi forums such as TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup, ASAMonitor and DreamTeamMoney has delayed its launch.
WebsiteTester.biz made the announcement on its website. Forum posters across the world had expected the launch to be under way fully today, but Website Tester says the launch now will be delayed until the company records 400,000 registrations.
The mysterious firm says it has 375,000 registrants.
Adding another layer of mystery, the company posted a video on its website that purports to feature the voice of Michael Anthony DeBias, the “CEO.” Michael A. DeBias is listed in Nevada corporation records as director, treasurer, secretary, and president of Alpha Market Research Inc., the apparent parent company of Website Tester.
The address listed for Alpha Market Research — 3651 Lindell Rd., Las Vegas, NV. — appears to be the address of a company that offers “virtual office” services, meaning Alpha Market may not actually be located in Las Vegas. Promotional material attributed to Website Tester has featured awkward phrasing, including this curious sentence:
“Potential clients who are disturbed by trifles during the ordering process are often unaware of exactly why.”
The video includes audio that purports to be of DeBias’ voice, but does not show his face. The video does not explain why a company that is asking people from across the world to register and provide private information — and says citizens of 140 countries have done so — is not showing the face of its CEO.
Meanwhile, a link at the Website Tester site is adding yet-another layer of mystery. Under a headline of “WebsiteTester.biz – Is it a Scam or Real Business,” the company is sending registrants and prospects to a purported news release posted on PRLog.org, a free news-release service.
The news release is by an author who did not provide a name, but purported to have conducted an interview with DeBias. The news release author claimed that he or she had conducted “the first official interview” with DeBias.
Why the author of the news release chose to remain anonymous was unclear. Why WebsiteTester would send traffic to a news release written by an anonymous author also was unclear.
“We contacted the initiator, Alpha Market Research, Inc. (AMR), to find some answers,” the news release began.
Although the news release used the word “We,” it did not define who “We” is — an individual, a company, a WebsiteTester affiliate, a company employee. The release included a link to yet-another anonymous release. The domain-registration data for the second anonymous release is unclear, meaning the ownership of the domain cannot be determined immediately.
Meanwhile, the websites of both WebsiteTester.biz and Alpha Market Research are registered behind proxies. Separately, Alpha Market Research’s Twitter site shows 18,178 followers.
Precisely what Website Tester and Alpha Market Research do remains unclear — weeks after the prelaunch hoopla began. The launch delay now apparently extends the hoopla.
Yet another HYIP scheme pushed on the TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup forums has been outlined by federal prosecutors — this time in Florida.
The name of the scheme was Alpha Trade Group (ATG), and web records show that the scheme was pitched on TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup beginning on Oct. 7, 2009. Court records, meanwhile, show that ATG already was under investigation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security when the first posts to promote the scheme appeared on the forums.
Just days earlier, on Sept. 25, 2009, a U.S. bank closed an account prosecutors later linked to the scheme, according to court records. Taken together, the court and web records strongly suggest that the ATG investment “opportunity” first was advertised on MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold when the scheme already was in a state of collapse because one of its key money conduits had been blocked.
This screen shot shows the first post about Alpha Trade Group appeared at the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum on Oct. 7, 2009 — days after a U.S. bank already had closed an account linked to the scheme amid fears it was being used to launder money.This screen shot, taken from Paragraph 23 of a federal affidavit in the ATG Ponzi case, shows that a U.S. bank closed an account later linked to the scheme at least 12 days prior to the ATG promo on the MoneyMakerGroup forum. Court records show the scheme already was under investigation by federal authorities before the sales posts were made on the MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold forums.
It is possible that the scheme was in a state of collapse even earlier than September 2009. Court records show that at least one bank account tied to the business was closed on June 18, 2009 — nearly four months prior to the first posts promoting the scheme on MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold.
One MoneyMakerGroup poster — apparently angry that the program was being advertised in public — scolded the poster who started the thread.
“Please take down your posts,” the scolder wrote. “ATG asked all of the members not to advertise. Otherwise your account with the company will be closed. Go to recent e-mails from the company. This is serious. Please comply.”
The post scolding the advertiser appeared on Oct. 29, more than three weeks after the original sales pitch appeared on the forum and more than a month after federal agents began their probe into ATG.
By Feb. 22, 2010, federal prosecutors and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, were in federal court in Orlando filing a forfeiture complaint.
The Feds sought the seizure of $316,418.50 in a bank account linked to the scheme, according to court records. The forfeiture complaint alleged a Forex Ponzi scheme, and prosecutors linked the fraud to ATG, a Florida company known as Online Market Solutions and at least four individuals: Jose Cecilio Martinez Beltran, Francisco Amaury Suero Matos, Yehodiz Padua Valentin and Welinton Bautista Castillo.
Unnamed “others” also were referenced in the complaint.
“Investment opportunities offered by Alpha Trade Group promised participants unusually high monetary returns on investments and for referring other persons to the programs,” prosecutors said, in a statement to victims. “In reality, the investment opportunity was little more than ‘Ponzi’ or ‘Pyramid’ scheme, in which if participants actually received funds, those funds were generated by investments made by other Alpha Trade Group investors.”
A federal judge ordered the money forfeited on July 26, according to court records.
The case was brought by the office of U.S. Attorney A. Brian Albritton of the Middle District of Florida. Albritton’s office is handing a number of highly complex financial-fraud schemes.
Websites such as TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup, ASAMonitor and MyCashForums have promoted one fraud scheme after another. TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup and ASAMonitor are specifically referenced in court documents filed in the Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) fraud scheme.
P2P’s Nicholas Smirnow was charged in May by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and federal prosecutors in Southern District of Illinois with operating a massive HYIP Ponzi scheme that affected investors across the world.
MoneyMakerGroup also is referenced in court filings by the SEC in the alleged Legisi Ponzi scheme.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that the U.S. Secret Service had helped bring about the arrest in France of an alleged international thief in part by monitoring criminal forums.
Vladislav Anatolievich Horohorin, 27, was arrested by French authorities in Nice. Court filings show that the Secret Service used undercover agents and “undercover communications” to develop the case.
Federal records show that ATG purported to be registered in Panama and was using “various corporations and fictitious names registered in Florida” to pull off the scheme.
Among the names used was “Orsa Investment Group LLC,” according to an affidavit filed in the case. The scheme began in April 2009, according to court filings.
An ICE agent said in an affidavit that the Internet and “business opportunity meetings” in Central Florida were used to promote the scheme.
Read the ATG forfeiture complaint, which paints a picture of a commission-based, multilevel-marketing (MLM)Â scheme within a Forex fraud scheme — and other schemes within schemes.
BULLETIN: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said this afternoon that the agency’s Food and Nutrition Service is following specific leads in the MPB Today matter and will “take appropriate action as needed.”
