The Achieve Community

Paul Burks, the 70-year-old operator of the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme, now is listed as prisoner No. 29723-058 at FMC Lexington. The facility is an administrative security federal medical center with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp in Lexington, Ky. After being sentenced in February to more than 14 years, Burks was ordered to report to […]

Troy A. Barnes ran “The Achieve Community” (TAC) scam along with Kristine L. “Kristi” Johnson. Barnes, 53, of Riverview Mich., now has been sentenced to 33 months in federal prison, the office of U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose announced. Johnson, of Colorado, earlier was sentenced to 21 months. Achieve was a Ponzi-board program that used a […]

2ND UPDATE 8:38 P.M. EDT U.S.A. Kristine Louise “Kristi” Johnson, one of the two principals of “The Achieve Community” (TAC) Ponzi- and pyramid scheme, has been sentenced to 21 months in federal prison, the office of U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose of the Western District of North Carolina said moments ago. The SEC sued Johnson […]

The last time the PP Blog covered something such as this was in February 2015. That’s when “Moore Fund,” a preposterous Ponzi-board “program” that later vanished with an unknown haul, was using a “Norton Secured” logo unauthorized by Symantec to fool the masses. Unfortunately, the masses included members of The Achieve Community, who’d already been ripped […]

“These frauds are easily duplicated, and at times, we find ourselves playing ‘whack-a-mole,’ chasing the same set of fraudsters who, after feeling a bit of heat, simply close down one scheme and quickly set up a new one under a different name.” — Andrew Ceresney, SEC Enforcement Division director, March 2, 2016 EDITOR’S NOTE: Type […]

Still promoting your securities scam on YouTube? As the PP Blog reported on Oct. 3, YouTube promos for the alleged DFRF Enterprises’ Ponzi scheme were cited in two of three wire-fraud counts against accused operator Daniel Fernandes Rojo Filho. Filho, allegedly at the helm of a fraud that gathered tens of millions of dollars, has […]

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (13th Update 1:43 p.m. EDT U.S.A.) After an investigation by the U.S. Secret Service, Kristi Johnson (Kristine Louise Johnson) of the “Achieve Community” has been charged criminally with wire-fraud conspiracy and has agreed to plead guilty, federal prosecutors said. “By the time the scheme collapsed in February 2015, the conspirators […]

UPDATED 6:17 A.M. EDT APRIL 21 U.S.A. The Colorado Division of Securities has directed an “Order to Show Cause” to “Achieve Community,” alleged in February 2015 by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to be a combined Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that gathered at least $3.8 million. Colorado’s order cites a “Division Case No.” of […]

UPDATED 12:20 P.M. ET U.S.A. Two websites associated with the “Achieve Community” — ReadyToAchieve.com and TheAchieveCommunity.com — are inaccessible this morning. Achieve Community is under investigation by the Colorado Division of Securities. The PP Blog asked the Division this morning if it was aware of the outage and whether the inaccessibility of the sites had […]

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (5th Update 5:35 p.m. ET U.S.A.) The “Achieve Community” money-cycling scheme is under investigation in Colorado. “We do have an open investigation,” said Lillian Alves, Colorado’s Deputy Securities Commissioner. It is the first official public confirmation that Achieve Community, a Ponzi-board program that claims to turn $50 into $400, is […]

The “Achieve Community,” a Ponzi-board money-cycling “program” targeted at Christians and positioned by some network marketers as an alternative for people who don’t want to “sell out” to banks and their “tiny little 1% annual return,” would like you to know that Santa Claus and an elf are on the team. By buying one “EXTRA” […]