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Tag: Traders International Return Network

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Gary Calhoun, MPB Today Operator, Pleads Guilty To Racketeering Charge In Florida

    Gary Allen Calhoun
    Gary Allen Calhoun

    URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (UPDATED 1:06 P.M. ET U.S.A.) Gary Calhoun, the operator of the the MPB Today MLM “program” and a companion grocery-delivery business known as Southeastern Delivery, has pleaded guilty to a state-level racketeering charge in Florida. He was charged in December.

    Calhoun, 56, of Pensacola, was not immediately sentenced. But he is expected to turn in his passport to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement “within 48 hours,” according to the docket of the case in Escambia County. The docket also notes correspondence from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida and references a “voluntary forfeiture agreement.”

    In July, federal prosecutors filed a forfeiture complaint for a property at 8812 Grow Drive, also known as Grow Road, in Pensacola. The property is the business address of Southeastern Delivery and also the address of a Calhoun-controlled entity known as WL Property Holdings LLC. The property also is the address of MPB Today.

    MPB Today was among a number of “programs” pitched on Ponzi-scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

    The Calhoun guilty plea represents the second time in 24 hours that the name of a “program” operator whose “opportunity” was pitched on the Ponzi boards has surfaced in the news, either as a current prison inmate or potential one.

    David Merrick, the operator of the Trader’s International Return Network (TIRN) fraud scheme that was promoted from the Ponzi boards in 2008 and 2009, was sentenced in 2012 to 97 months in federal prison and was handed additional civil sanctions and a restitution order yesterday totaling more than $22.8 million.

    MPB Today was promoted on the Ponzi boards in 2010.

    Some individual MPB Today promotions were bizarre, including one that cast President Obama and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as Nazis. Another MPB Today promoter videotaped himself making a deposit of his MPB Today commissions at an FDIC-insured bank. At least one of MPB Today’s banks was operating under an FDIC consent agreement.

    Still other MPB Today affiliates taped commercials for the enterprise inside Walmart stores. Some promoters asserted Walmart was affiliated with MPB Today and approved by the government. One MPB Today affiliate videotaped a UPS driver making a delivery of a television set.

    The video’s narrator said the TV has been purchased “kind of, indirectly” with a Walmart gift card from MPB Today. Other MPB Today affiliates claimed a one-time purchase of $200 in groceries from Southeastern Delivery set the stage for MPB Today affiliates to receive free groceries and gasoline for life.

    Clinton once sat on Walmart’s board of directors. Why some MPB Today affiliates apparently believed it prudent to attack Democratic politicians in a bid to sign up MPB Today affiliates remains unclear.

    Promos for MPB Today were targeted at foreclosure subjects, Food Stamp recipients and the poor — and victims of the Florida-based AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme. In 2010, Walmart declined to comment on MPB Today-related claims.

    Some MLM “opportunities” are infamous for implying in promos that they’re endorsed by famous business people or famous companies. MPB Today used images of Donald Trump and Warren Buffett in promos, and affiliates regularly implied that Walmart had endorsed MPB Today.

    From our files:

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  • Judge Orders More Than $22.8 Million In Penalties, Restitution For Trader’s International Return Network (TIRN); ‘Program’ Was Pitched On Ponzi Boards

    breakingnews72David Merrick, the operator of Trader’s International Return Network (TIRN) fraud scheme, already is serving a TIRN-related, 97-month prison sentence for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and securities fraud, plus one count of money laundering.

    And now a federal judge has imposed addition sanctions, ordering Merrick and TIRN — a presence on Ponzi boards such as MoneyMakerGroup — to pay more than $22.8 million in civil penalties and restitution.

    One September 2008 post on MoneyMakerGroup declares this: “If you send money to TIRN using SolidTrustPay you will recive [sic] money on your account in a couple of hours!”

    The CFTC charged Merrick and TIRN civilly in October 2009. Though a onetime resident of Apopka, Fla, Merrick, 65, is serving his prison sentence in Minnesota, according to federal records.

    TIRN purported to operate from Panama as a “private investment club,” according to the CFTC.

    “TIRN has been soliciting U.S. residents, and directing them to deposit their funds in U.S. bank accounts,” the CFTC said in 2009.

    SolidTrustPay was among the financial vendors for Zeek Rewards, which also was promoted on the Ponzi forums. In August 2012, the SEC called Zeek a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid fraud.

  • KABOOM! Alleged Commodities Ponzi Scheme Run By Mexican Nationals On U.S. Soil Dumped Money Into TWO Other Failed HYIP Fraud Schemes, Investigators Say; Ruben Gonzalez, Jose C. Naranjo Charged By CFTC

    UPDATED 10:17 A.M. EDT (May 25, U.S.A.) It has been another nasty day for the HYIP and autosurf “industries” and their apologists. Investigators have charged two Mexican nationals with operating a Ponzi scheme on U.S. soil. The alleged scheme, which used names such as New Golden Investment Group LLC (NGI), NGI Group LLC, New Golden Management, New Golden Entertainment LLC, Grupo NGI International Inc. and NGI International Inc., targeted Latinos in Greater Los Angeles, authorities said.

    Charged by the CFTC is the case were the companies and their operators, Ruben Gonzalez of West Covina, Calif., and Jose C. Naranjo of La Mirada, Calif. Both men are Mexican nationals. Their ages were not immediately known. Gonzalez was jailed in October on immigration charges, authorities said.

    Gonzalez also has been indicted on criminal charges of mail fraud and wire fraud, the CFTC said.

    The alleged NGI scheme has ties to other fraud schemes, including the Traders International Return Network (TIRN) scheme and the alleged Finanzas Forex scheme, authorities said. Criminal charges have flowed from the TIRN scheme, and the Finanzas Forex scheme — allegedly part of an international scheme known as Evolution Market Group (EMG) — has resulted in allegations that proceeds from the EMG scheme found their way into bank accounts seized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in a narcotics investigation in Arizona.

    Meanwhile, the TIRN scheme, which operated from Florida and claimed a presence in Panama, also has a tie to the alleged INetGlobal autosurf Ponzi scheme. Both TIRN and INetGlobal used the same debit-card company to pay members, according to court filings.

    Gonzalez and Naranjo gathered $3.65 million in the NGI scheme beginning in August 2008, dumping at least $100,000 into TIRN and $290,000 into Finanzas Forex, the CFTC said. All of the money appears to have been misappropriated, with Gonzalez transferring “at least” $260,000 from NGI member funds to his personal bank account and Naranjo transferring “at least” $267,000 from NGI member funds to his personal bank account.

    About $62,000 transferred into Naranjo’s bank account was withdrawn in cash, the CFTC said.

    The men “used investor funds to purchase a Mercedes-Benz, airline tickets, various other retail items and to make payments on a home,” the CFTC said.

    It is possible that as much as $1 million was directed at Finanzas Forex, the CFTC said.

    Gonzalez and Naranjo tricked investors by making them believe NGI was a real commodities-trading business.

    “Gonzalez, Naranjo and NGI falsely presented NGI as a successful trading company by displaying trading software on NGI’s office computers to make it appear to customers and prospective customers that NGI was engaged in electronic commodity futures trading,” the CFTC said.

    In reality, “NGI did not trade commodity futures for customers and did not make any of their advertised profits. Instead, Gonzalez and Naranjo allegedly ran a Ponzi scheme using new investor money to pay purported profits to existing investors,” the CFTC said.

    Part of the NGI sales pitch was similar to the sales pitch of yet another Ponzi scheme: the Learn Waterhouse scheme, which operated from California and also has a tie to INetGlobal, according to court records.

    INetGlobal operator Steve Renner provided payment-processing services for the Learn Waterhouse Ponzi scheme through an entity known as Cash Cards International, according to court records.

    Learn Waterhouse talked about purported investments in “gold” in Mexico. According to the CFTC complaint in the NGI case, NGI did the same thing, falsely claiming to customers that “they would double their money within a year in oil, gold, silver and other commodities.”

    NGI stopped making payments to investors in about June 2009, the CFTC said. At least 165 investors were affected.

    Gonzalez and Naranjo told customers that the payments stopped because a bank in Mexico was holding the funds and refused to release them. The men then told investors to have patience because a new deal involving oil was on the horizon and that investors who left their money with NGI son would have “huge” profits, the CFTC said.

    Investors were encouraged to fund accounts with money from credit cards or retirement savings, the CFTC said.

    NGI had been operating since about August 2008, according to records. That’s the same month INetGlobal was coming onto the autosurf stage, and AdSurfDaily was exiting the stage.

    The U.S. Secret Service said it believed both INetGlobal and AdSurfDaily were operating Ponzi schemes.

  • BREAKING NEWS: SEC, CFTC Seek To Smash Alleged Florida-Based Ponzi Scheme With Ties To Panama; David F. Merrick Charged With Unlawfully Acting As Investment Adviser And Operating An Unregistered Foreign Investment Firm From Inside The United States

    UPDATED 12:39 A.M. EDT (OCT. 16 U.S.A.) In twin actions that may send shockwaves across the offshore autosurfing “industry,” the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission have gone to court to stop an alleged Florida-based Ponzi scheme that claimed a presence in Panama.

    Today’s announced actions by the SEC and CFTC expose the vulnerability of autosurfs that register as corporations offshore and arrange web-hosting overseas, but do not comply with securities laws of the United States and foreign countries in which they have a paper footprint or are not regulated in the foreign countries.

    The moves also demonstrate that U.S. securities regulators — no matter where a company arranges webhosting — intend to treat American owners who flout laws as issuers of unregistered securities, unregistered investment advisers and operators of unregistered foreign investment companies from inside the United States

    Named defendants in emergency actions filed yesterday in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida were David F. Merrick, Traders International Return Network (TIRN), MS Inc., GTT Services Inc., MDD Consulting Inc. and Go ! Tourism Inc.

    U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell entered orders freezing the assets of the defendants and ordering them to repatriate assets to the United States.

    Merrick, 61, lives in Apopka, Fla. On its website, TIRN lists the corporate address of Edificio Advanced 099-Piso 13, Calle Ricardo Arias, Panamá City, República de Panamá.

    “TIRN has been soliciting U.S. residents, and directing them to deposit their funds in U.S. bank accounts,” CFTC said.

    Entities Merrick controls operated a Ponzi scheme that gathered at least $22 million, the SEC said. For its part, CFTC charged Merrick and TIRN with solicitation fraud, accusing them of misappropriating customer funds totaling at least $16.4 million.

    At least $3.7 million in customer funds were diverted to pay Merrick’s personal expenses and “to pay credit cards debts of MS and GTT Services,” the SEC said.

    Millions of dollars were diverted to a firm that provides debit cards — another allegation that may cause autosurf participants to lose sleep.

    “[A]t least $8.8 million was transferred to Anres Technologies Corporation, a privately owned company that issues pre-paid debit cards,” the SEC charged.

    “Merrick and TIRN falsely represented that investors requesting a withdrawal of funds would receive a debit card loaded with their initial investment and return on their investments, when, in fact, the money loaded on the cards was money from other investors,” the SEC alleged.

    Debit cards have become increasingly popular among autosurf operators. Today’s announced actions by the SEC and CFTC, however, demonstrate that regulators are viewing the money placed on cards as money taken from Peter to pay Paul.

    Millions of dollars were moved across borders, the SEC said.

    “[A]t least $2.3 million of investor funds were transferred to accounts in Panama, Mexico, Malaysia, Switzerland and the Netherlands,” the SEC said.

    Although TIRN purported to engage in forex trading and was not an autosurf, the allegations could send a chill across the so-called “offshore” surfing industry.

    TIRN, whose servers appear to resolve to Malaysia, is a registered corporation in Panama. But the Panama National Securities Commission issued a warning that TIRN “is not authorized to act as a financial intermediary for securities and investments and that the [Panama Commission] does not supervise or regulate it,” CFTC said.

    See the TIRN warning by the Panama National Securities Commission, which says TIRN “has not been issued any kind of license.”

    AdViewGlobal (AVG), a surf with close ties to Florida-based AdSurfDaily, is among a number of surfs that use servers that resolve to Panama. Others include BizAdSplash, which says its chief consultant is Clarence Bubsy.

    Busby was the president of Golden Panda Ad Builder, whose assets were seized in August 2008 by the U.S. Secret Service as part of the investigation into ASD and ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

    Another surf company with servers in Panama is the now-defunct AdGateWorld.

    Merrick was charged by the SEC with acting as an unregistered investment adviser and operating an unregistered foreign investment company from inside the United States.

    “From at least July 2008 and continuing through at least October 2009, Merrick and TIRN have raised more than $22 million from approximately 2,500 investors through the fraudulent offer and sale of unregistered securities, in the form of investment contracts in TIRN,” the SEC charged.

    “TIRN instructs investors to deposit funds into bank accounts in the names of MS and GTT, entities controlled by Merrick, and falsely states it will invest these funds in securities and other investments such as stocks and bonds. In fact, Merrick then transfers these funds to other entities he controls, including MDD and Go Tourism, and to himself, colleagues and/or entities under these individuals’ direct control, for their own benefit. Merrick has also used investors’ funds to repay other investors. None of the investors’ funds are invested in any securities or other investments described on the TIRN website,” the SEC said.