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SPECIAL REPORT: How The SEC Silently Squared Off Against ‘Achieve Community’ In The Days Leading Up To The Asset Freeze

EDITOR’S NOTE: The personnel information in the first section below is gleaned from public records in the SEC’s pyramid- and Ponzi case against the “Achieve Community” and alleged principals Kristi Johnson and Troy Barnes. Some of the numbered points include additional notes by the PP Blog. These notes are based on public records or information in the public domain, including a Feb. 18 statement by the SEC.

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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Feb. 18 it had filed a pyramid- and Ponzi complaint that alleged securities fraud against “Achieve Community” and that a federal judge had granted an emergency asset freeze.

Supporting documents filed by the SEC paint a picture of significant legwork that took place at the agency as it studied how Achieve had evolved from its alleged start in April 2014 through the days immediately prior to the freeze. This column focuses on human assets, the public servants who played a role in stopping the harm caused by Achieve by applying their individual specialties.

The SEC assigned (at least) the following individuals to the case prior to filing a complaint under seal against Achieve and requesting an emergency asset freeze on Feb. 12:

1.) An IT specialist assigned to the Division of Enforcement in Washington, D.C. This person performed website/video-capture duties involving public sections of two Achieve sites (TheAchieveCommunity.com and ReadyToAchieve.com) and at least one YouTube video. (Longtime readers will recall the 2012 Zeek Rewards probe that led to spectacular allegations of pyramid-and Ponzi fraud also involved website capture.)

2.) A senior paralegal employed by the Division of Enforcement and assigned to the SEC’s Denver Regional Office. This person reviewed and transcribed 11 Achieve-related public video files and one public audio file. Some of the video files were on the Achieve sites. Others were on YouTube. The audio file was on the Achieve site. (A segment of a transcript shown a federal judge from the audio file shows “Rodney” serving up softball questions to Kristi Johnson and Troy Barnes, Achieve’s accused operators. The segment was on the topic of Achieve’s purported “triple algorithm.” It is referenced in “Exhibit D.” The screen shot that introduces this column is from a pdf of Exhibit D. More from Exhibit D appears in the form of a screen shot below.)

3.) An attorney/investigator employed by the Division of Enforcement at the SEC’s Denver Regional Office. This attorney reviewed web sources of information on Achieve, bank statements and source material provided by Achieve vendors, including FirstBank and Payoneer. He filed a 28-page declaration in advance of the asset freeze. This document distilled key pieces of evidence from Achieve sales pitches and financial records, calculating that investors had directed at least $3.829 million to Achieve and that Johnson and Barnes had taken “a minimum” of $336,975 “of investor funds.” (That’s roughly 9 percent, a circumstance that suggests Achieve’s Ponzi was digging a deeper and deeper hole.)

4. Two other SEC attorneys assigned to the Denver office. These attorneys brought the 17-page complaint against Achieve that alleged Achieve had “no legitimate business operations” and that “the sole source of repayments to earlier investors is funds contributed by newer investors.” (Though not referenced on the court docket of the Achieve case, the SEC, in a Feb. 18 public statement, confirmed a fourth agency attorney is involved in the probe.)

5. An SEC staff accountant employed by the Division of Enforcement and assigned to the Denver office. This person has been with the SEC for 20 years and examined and summarized records from at least five Achieve-related bank accounts, including “underlying detail” such as account-opening forms, statements, checks, wire transfers and deposit slips. (No criminal wrongdoing has been alleged and it is unclear if a criminal investigation is under way, but this information shows that the SEC, in part, halted Achieve the same way Internal Revenue halted Al Capone: with an accountant’s skill and experience in understanding numbers and tracking money flow. The same SEC accountant was involved in the memorable prosecution of recidivist con man Larry Michael Parrish, accused in 2011 of going to a Colorado hospital room to swindle a man dying of cancer.)

6. An SEC financial economist who holds a Ph.D in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (This individual also studied in Chile and the Dominican Republic. She is a native speaker of Spanish, is fluent in English and also understands French. Based on her CV, I wouldn’t describe her as a secret weapon. But I do note that her international experience in areas that know poverty is a bonus, given that so many HYIP/Ponzi-board scams are targeted at people of limited means or people desperate for a positive economic result. Her MIT dissertation was titled, “Essays on Entrepreneurship” and was based in part on “survey data on the portfolios of U.S. families to study the tightness of borrowing constraints for entrepreneurs.” This may be important in context, because some Achievers already are making the absurd claim the SEC stands in opposition to entrepreneurship. One Achiever has claimed the agency’s Achieve action was a “systemic destroy tactic.” The same person has suggested the 9/11 terrorist attacks were a “false flag set up,” repeating a conspiracy theory that bizarrely accompanies just about any action that U.S. government takes against an HYIP scheme.)

Friends, Ponzi schemes are fraud per se — that is, they exist for no other reason than to commit fraud by theft. In the Internet Age in the network-marketing sphere, they have become organized schemes to defraud that are capable of involving thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of people. There is no such thing as a benevolent Ponzi scheme or a Ponzi scheme with “good intentions.”

Creating legions of victim-investors is only part of the problem.

The SEC’s supporting documentation suggests Achieve itself polluted the commerce stream at at least nine points of contact: three banks, one credit union, four payment processors and one brokerage firm. This number does not take into account the fact that some Achieve participants were issued debit cards onto which their “earnings” were loaded, thus putting any number of financial institutions in the position of becoming either dispensaries or warehouses for fraud proceeds.

At least one Achieve promoter recorded a video of himself offloading Achieve money at an ATM in Hawaii. The SEC says bank records indicate Johnson gave $10,000 to a church, a circumstance that suggests the church came into possession of tainted funds.

Prior to filing the Achieve action, the SEC says in supporting filings, the agency did not contact “any” Achieve investors. Nor did it subpoena Achieve for information or personally view information in the private areas of Achieve’s websites.

Why not?

Because there was a “need to not alert Defendants of the investigation,” the SEC said in supporting materials. Beyond that, the agency said, “if investors were alerted to the SEC’s investigation, they would quickly disseminate that information to other TAC investors, as well as Defendants, which could risk additional dissipation or misappropriation of investor funds.”

An Outtake From The Paralegal’s Transcription

Image source: pdf from U.S. court filings by the SEC.

The next section of the PP Blog’s Special Report seeks to anticipate and then answer questions Achieve members may have. The answers are gleaned from supporting documents the SEC provided a federal judge as part of the process of bringing the Achieve complaint and seeking an emergency asset freeze. This section includes some commentary/analysis by the PP Blog.

Q: When did the SEC open its investigation into Achieve?

A: At least by January 2015. The specific date is unclear.

Q: Did the SEC receive tips about the operations of Achieve?

A: Yes. The number of tips and the identities of persons who provided them are not disclosed.

Q: Prior to the Feb. 12 asset freeze, did Achieve know it was under investigation by the SEC?

A: The agency said it did not advise Achieve of the probe. However, Kristi Johnson knew at least by Jan. 13 that the Colorado Division of Securities, the state-level regulator, was asking questions about Achieve, according to the SEC. On that date, the Division learned in an “interview” with Johnson that Achieve did its banking at FirstBank. The Division shared this information with the SEC. By Feb. 2, the SEC had obtained Achieve’s banking records. The SEC accountant then began to examine the records, sharing information with the SEC attorney/investigator.

Moreover, the SEC has alleged Johnson is a former “registered representative.” With experience in the securities industry and with Achieve already under investigation by a state regulator, Johnson must have contemplated that the SEC was hot on the Achieve trail. The SEC alleges she lives in Aurora, Colo. That’s only about 25 minutes away from the agency’s regional headquarters in Denver. It goes without saying that the SEC is particularly unfriendly to Ponzi schemes, perhaps particularly ones operating in its own back yard.

Q: Why the asset freeze?

A: Direct quote from SEC filings: “In light of the egregiousness of Defendants’ conduct, the ongoing and active Ponzi scheme, Defendants’ increasingly desperate attempts to make Ponzi payments and misappropriate investor funds, and the concern that Defendants will dissipate or misappropriate the remaining investor funds if they become aware of this action prior to the entry of the requested order, the Commission respectfully requests that the Court grant ex parte relief freezing the assets of Defendants and Relief Defendant, prohibiting them from soliciting additional investors or otherwise continuing their fraudulent scheme, and ordering other relief to ensure a prompt, fulsome, and fair hearing on Plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction.

“Absent an order granting such emergency ex parte relief, there is no reason to think Defendants’ fraudulent scheme, and their misappropriation and dissipation of the remaining investor funds, will cease, or that there will be any funds available to compensate investor victims at the conclusion of this litigation.”

Q: What did the SEC accountant discover?

A: Plenty, including banking records pertaining to this Achieve International LLC check for $90,000 made payable to “Cash” on Jan. 8, 2015. (Note: The check is dated Jan. 8, 2014, but that’s a new-year mistake. The banking records themselves note the correct date. The black redactions appear in a pdf of an SEC evidence exhibit. The PP Blog added the red redaction in this screen shot from the pdf. The $90,000 allegedly ended up in Kristi Johnson’s personal account at the Credit Union of Colorado.)

An SEC attorney/investigator who reviewed the accountant’s work across multiple Achieve-related bank accounts alleged in a declaration to the court that the “bank records indicate that on at least thirteen occasions, Johnson went to a FirstBank branch and withdrew cash in the form of currency, or cash in the form of a check written to ‘cash.’ Virtually all of thee funds ended up in an account at the Credit Union of Colorado . . . that is Johnson’s personal account.” Such transactions involved $153,300.

Q: Will I get my money back or a percentage of it from Achieve?

A: Possibly. How that would occur is unclear. No receiver has been appointed. The SEC investigation is ongoing.

Q: Will Achieve “winners” be treated like Zeek Rewards “winners” — i.e., sued for return of the funds?

A: Too soon to tell. The SEC investigation is ongoing. An ongoing investigation sometimes means an amended complaint or additional complaints will be filed that names additional defendants or “relief defendants” — those in alleged possession of ill-gotten gains.

Q: I’ve read online that the best practice with these programs is to throw in my stake with affiliates promoting them on YouTube and Facebook. These purported experts also say not to risk more than I can afford to lose and to quickly remove my “seed money” to create a situation that I’m only playing with “house money” — “profits” from the scheme. What am I to believe?

A: Believe the SEC and FINRA. They have been warning about fraud schemes that use social media for years. The receiver in the Zeek Rewards case has raised concerns that “serial” promoters are moving from one fraud scheme to another. At least four promoters of the TelexFree scheme have been charged with securities fraud by the SEC.

NOTE: Our thanks to “NikSam” at RealScam.com and to the ASD Updates Blog.

Feb 23, 2015
BULLETIN: ‘Trinity Lines,’ A ‘Program’ Pushed By ‘Achieve Community’ Huckster Rodney Blackburn, Goes Missing After Targeting People Of Faith
From a Jan. 4 promo for Achieve Community by Rodney Blackburn that included a pitch for “Trinity Lines.”

BULLETIN: (2nd Update 2:35 p.m. ET U.S.A.) A Ponzi-board “program” known as “Trinity Lines” that was targeted at people of faith and was pushed by “Achieve Community” huckster Rodney Blackburn has gone missing.

The domain name now resolves to a GoDaddy page, despite claims from Trinity Lines just two days ago that “[e]xciting times are coming for us” and that a “PURCHASE PARTY” would be held today.

A post dated today and attributed to Trinity Lines on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum claims the “program” folded because of “the current circumstances that are surrounding Trinity Lines and the attacks, abuse and threats that is being aimed at both the admin and the owner.”

Precisely who is operating Trinity Lines never has been clear.

The news appears first to have been reported on the RealScam.com antiscam forum.

Achieve Community and alleged operators Kristi Johnson and Troy Barnes were charged last week with securities fraud in a complaint filed under seal. The SEC said Achieve was a combined pyramid- and Ponzi scheme. The complaint was made public this week.

Among other things, Trinity Lines claimed to be the purveyor of “high quality scriptural vignettes.” It also claimed:
- “Although this opportunity is geared for those who appreciate the Scriptures, we welcome anybody to join our community.”
- “We at Trinity Lines do believe in God and believe in the power of ‘His Word.’”
Trinity Lines was mentioned by Blackburn in a January video in which he used about six minutes of footage from the SEC website in a curious bid to sanitize schemes he was promoting. The SEC last month declined to comment on the Blackburn production.

“We’re leaving the markets of these crazy MLM companies, and there are people like the Achieve Community, Trinity Lines, Unison Wealth, many of these other companies are coming out,” Blackburn said in the promo. “And they are making programs that are very simplistic, they’re passive, they’re residual incomes. They’re just so simple you just kind of put your money down.”
Feb 20, 2015
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: SEC Charges ‘Achieve Community,’ Troy Barnes, Kristi Johnson; Federal Judge Approves Asset Freeze

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (17th update 3:07 p.m. ET U.S.A.) The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged “Achieve Community” (as Work With Troy Barnes Inc.) and alleged operators Troy A. Barnes and Kristine L. Johnson with operating a combined pyramid- and Ponzi scheme that raised more than $3.8 million. A federal judge in Colorado has ordered an asset freeze and granted a temporary restraining order.

“Johnson and Barnes allegedly claim to be operating a successful investment program when in fact they are taking funds from new investors to pay phony profits to earlier investors,” said Julie Lutz, director of the SEC’s Denver Regional Office.

Achieve’s internal structure is part of the probe.

“Johnson is one of the two founders of TAC, and handles the majority of TAC’s finances,” the SEC charged. “Johnson is an authorized agent of WWTB and has acted as the sole signatory on at least three bank accounts that she opened in the name of WWTB.”

Meanwhile, the Colorado Division of Securities confirmed minutes ago that it was working with the SEC on the Achieve probe.

“We continue to have our own open investigation regarding possible violations of the Colorado Securities Act,” said Lillian Alves, Colorado’s Deputy Securities Commissioner. “The factual basis of our investigation parallels that of the SEC case.”

In a 17-page complaint that was filed under seal on Feb. 12, the SEC described the Achieve Community as a “pure Ponzi and pyramid scheme” whose revenue “has consisted entirely of investor-contributed funds.”

“Johnson and Barnes have made no effort to generate profits from any legitimate business operations from which they could repay earlier investors,” the SEC charged. “Instead, the sole source of repayments to earlier investors is funds contributed by newer investors.”

The Feb. 12 filing date likely means that Achieve still was trying to raise money even as the SEC was in court to request an emergency asset freeze. On Feb. 12, a Barnes-narrated video appeared on YouTube. The 11:06 video was titled “Thursday Update 2 12.” The video provided Achieve members instructions on how to register for a purported new payment processor.

By Feb. 14, Achieve members were quoting a forum post attributed to Barnes that Achieve’s assets had been frozen. Whether a criminal probe is under way is unclear.

Barnes is 52. He resides in Riverview, Mich., according to the complaint. Johnson, known as “Kristi,” is 60. She resides in Aurora, Colo.

Johnson also is associated with an entity known as “Achieve International LLC,” which has been named a relief defendant as an alleged recipient of funds from the fraud.

“Johnson formed Achieve International as a Colorado entity, is an authorized agent of Achieve International, and, on information and belief, is the sole member, and managing member, of Achieve International,” the SEC said. “Johnson has acted as the sole signatory on at least one bank account that she opened in the name of Achieve International. Johnson is a former registered representative, and was last associated with a registered entity in 1996.”

Some Achieve members have described Johnson as a “former stockbroker.” The SEC’s allegation that she is a former registered representative may be particularly problematic for her, leading to troubling questions about whether she simply ignored the very real possibility that the SEC would do exactly what it did: charge her with securities fraud and allege she and Barnes made “material misrepresentations and omissions” about the nature of Achieve.

The SEC accuses both Johnson and Barnes of misappropriating funds sent in by Achieve investors.

From the complaint (italics added/light editing performed):

In addition to making Ponzi payments to investors, Defendants have misappropriated investor funds for Johnson and Barnes’ own personal use.

On more than a dozen occasions, Johnson made significant cash withdrawals or wrote checks to “Cash” from the WWTB and Achieve International accounts, and made corresponding cash payments to her personal accounts.

Johnson used these investor funds to pay her personal expenses, including paying nearly $35,000 in cash for a new car, and making personal credit card payments.

To date, Johnson has misappropriated at least $150,000 in investor funds.

Similarly, Barnes has misappropriated investor funds. Using thirteen separate transfers reflected on WWTB bank statements as “Visa Paypal *Troy Barnes,” Johnson transferred approximately $40,000 to Barnes.

The seal on the complaint was lifted yesterday afternoon in Colorado federal court. Achieve’s websites went offline yesterday. Whether the outage was related to the TRO was not immediately clear.

What is clear is that the SEC wasn’t impressed by Achieve’s claims that a “triple algorithm” somehow made a 700-percent ROI possible. It’s also clear that the SEC spent plenty of time listening to and transcribing recordings used to sell the scheme.

Johnson said this in a conference-call pitch, the SEC alleged: “I thought, what can I do, what can I make, what can I design, that has only what works and none of what doesn’t, and one day, honestly this is what happened, I just saw it. I just saw it in my head. This matrix is 3D, which is why we can’t put it on paper. It’s a triple algorithm. And I can’t for the life of me tell you why I could figure that out in my head. But I could.”

Barnes claimed he hired a programmer “who spent three months perfecting the ‘triple algorithm’ investment formula,” the SEC said.

The trouble, the agency said, was that Achieve had “no legitimate business operations; the only available funds to pay the promised investment returns come from new investors lured into the scheme.”

With their “triple algorithm” cover story, Johnson and Barnes went on to fleece Achieve members, the SEC said.

“In a short video on TAC’s website, again narrated by Johnson, Johnson encourages investors to repurchase new ‘positions’ with their investment returns rather than taking money out of TAC,” the SEC alleged. “Johnson explains that by purchasing one $50 ‘position,’ and then using the $400 investment return to repurchase 8 positions, the investor would earn $3,200. Johnson goes on to explain that, if the investor used the repurchase strategy again, she would then have 64 positions worth more than $25,000. Johnson states that this strategy will ‘give you the same income over and over again, forever.’”

She was hardly alone, the SEC charged.

“Barnes makes similar statements about TAC’s ‘Re-Purchase’ strategy,” the agency alleged. “For example, in a video posted online touting TAC, Barnes states that investors can repurchase more ‘positions’ to make more money. In another online video, Barnes claims that, with the ‘Re-Purchase’ strategy, it is ‘very easy to make six figures.’”

The SEC said its investigation was ongoing. Johnson is the only person alleged in the Feb. 12 complaint to have hauled $100,000 or more out of Achieve.

Johnson and Barnes are charged with securities fraud. And despite claims online that Achieve wasn’t selling an investment or a security and therefore the SEC would have little or nothing to say on the matter, the filing of the complaint shows those claims were a crock.

Achieve’s “positions” are “securities under federal law,” the agency charged.

U.S. District Judge Robert E. Blackburn granted the TRO and asset freeze.

The SEC is seeking an order “that each of the Defendants and the Relief Defendant disgorge any and all ill-gotten gains, together with pre-judgment and post-judgment interest, derived from the activities set forth in this Complaint.”

At the same time, the agency is seeking “civil money penalties.”

Achieve had a presence on well-known Ponzi-scheme forums such as MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold. Some Achieve promoters created YouTube videos and have moved to other Ponzi-board scams.

Here is a link to the SEC’s statement on Achieve and complaint. The agency also posted a Twitter link (below).

News release: SEC halts Colorado-based #pyramidscheme: http://t.co/U2yfWQPShY

— SEC_News (@SEC_News) February 18, 2015

Feb 18, 2015
Post Attributed To Troy Barnes In ‘Achieve Community’ Private Forum Claims ‘Achieve Assets Have Been Frozen’

This 2014 promo for “Achieve Community” asked members to purchase “one EXTRA position” on Christmas Day.

UPDATED 4:36 A.M. ET FEB. 16 U.S.A. “Achieve Community” members this evening are circulating on Facebook a screen shot from a forum post attributed to Michigan-based co-founder Troy Barnes that claims “Achieve’s assets have been frozen.”

Members say the post appeared earlier today in Achieve’s recently installed private forum.

“I am facing criminal charges,” the post reads in part. It is dated today (Feb. 14), includes the Achieve logo and is headlined, “Weekend Update.”

The post did not identify the agency that purportedly launched a criminal investigation into Barnes. Nor did it say how long Barnes had been under investigation, when he found out about it and what person or agency informed him he was facing criminal charges.

Nor did the post identify the agency that requested the freeze and the judge who imposed it.

Whether an action by a specific law-enforcement agency led to the asserted freeze also was not addressed in the post. The post claims “Kristi has fled from USA” after she “had been talking to the Attorney general in Colorado for many weeks.”

The post did not substantiate the claim “Kristi” had fled. Nor did it substantiate the claim “Kristi” had been talking to Colorado’s Attorney General for weeks or say why they’d been talking. It is unclear if Achieve still was gathering money while these purported talks occurred. Achieve appears to have been trying to create and implement a new payment conduit as recently as Friday.

Kristi Johnson of the Denver region is Achieve’s other co-founder, according to Achieve’s websites at ReadyToAchieve.com and TheAchieveCommunity.com. The sites remains online. For at least two days, this message has appeared when the “Join Now!” button is accessed through the “Sign Up” page: “We are temporarily under maintenance – sorry for the inconvenience.”

The office of Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman did not immediately return a call from the PP Blog Saturday night requesting comment. The Blog confirmed in January that Achieve was under investigation by the Colorado Division of Securities, which is not part of the Attorney General’s office.

The two Colorado agencies, however, have a history of working together on cases involving allegations of securities fraud. From time to time, such cases have led to criminal charges of theft and racketeering.

County-level prosecutors in Colorado also have worked with state and federal investigators to bring racketeering charges in securities-fraud cases.

Andrea Bitely, the communications director and press secretary for Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, said yesterday that the Attorney General’s office does not comment on investigations. BehindMLM.com reported yesterday that Achieve was under investigation by Schuette’s Consumer Protection Division.

Like Colorado, Michigan has a racketeering statute that has been used in investment-fraud cases. (See one example. See another. See a third.)

In 2013, a now-former Michigan state Legislator pleaded no contest to criminal charge of Neglect of Duty by a Public Official. Schuette’s office said the onetime lawmaker carried a cell phone provided by a scammer running a $9 million Ponzi scheme and “answered calls from potential investors even while on the House floor.”

At least one Achieve member has claimed on Facebook that Johnson has not fled and that Barnes is telling vicious lies, according to a post on the RealScam.com antiscam forum.

A Twitter account linked to Johnson disappeared today. So did at least one Facebook site.

Feb 14, 2015
‘Achieve Community’ Now Serving Up Spectacle In Which Confusion Reigns; Video On Sign-Up Instructions For Purported New Processor Goes Missing From YouTube, As Report Of New Investigation Surfaces

3RD UPDATE 4:02 P.M. ET U.S.A. The “Achieve Community,” an 800-percent ROI Ponzi-board “program” apparently hamstrung by problems with payment processors, now is serving up a spectacle in which confusion and delay are the only consistent themes.

BehindMLM.com reported late last night (or early today, depending on your time zone) that the office of Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette had confirmed an “open investigation” into Achieve involving the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division.

The PP Blog this morning sought comment from Schuette’s office.

“We don’t comment on investigations,” said Andrea Bitely, the Attorney General’s communications director and press secretary.

The response appears to confirm the report on BehindMLM.com that Achieve is under investigation in Michigan.

Because the Colorado Division of Securities has confirmed a probe into Achieve, the PP Blog sought comment yesterday from Michigan’s Corporations, Securities & Commercial Licensing bureau on whether Achieve was under investigation in that state. The bureau referred the Blog to the communications division of its parent agency, the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA).

A LARA spokeswoman said only that the bureau neither confirms nor denies investigations.

But if the bureau is working with the Attorney General’s office, it would mean that Achieve might have two types of trouble in Michigan: consumer fraud and securities fraud — and at the same time it faces the Colorado investigation.

Given information on two websites linked to Achieve, the “program” appears to operate through a Delaware corporation known as Work With Troy Barnes Inc. Barnes is a Michigan resident, and the two websites linked to Achieve list a Riverview, Mich., address for the “program.” Although Work With Troy Barnes Inc. appears in Delaware records as a company domiciled in that state, there appears to be no corresponding registration as a foreign corporation in Michigan.

Precisely how Achieve is operating through Work With Troy Barnes is unclear. The two Achieve websites — ReadyToAchieve.com and The Achieve Community.com — have Korean lettering near the bottom. IP addresses for the web properties resolve to Iceland.

Any number of Achieve members have shown blind faith in Achieve. Some “defenders” of the “program” have spoken of faith in God and Jesus Christ. Achieve, though, appears repeatedly to have encountered struggles with payment processors after reportedly losing its ability to do business through Payoneer in late October or early November.

And this brings us to today . . .

Instructional Video Goes Missing

Barnes — along with Kristi Johnson of the Denver area — are the purported operators of Achieve.

At some point yesterday (Feb. 12), a Barnes-narrated video appeared on YouTube. The 11:06 video was titled “Thursday Update 2 12.” The video provided Achieve members instructions on how to register for a purported new payment processor.

This video now mysteriously has gone missing, amid concerns expressed by some Achievers that even registering for the processor might open the door to identity theft. What’s more, the identity of the processor itself, how it is operating and where it is operating from are murky.

The now-missing Troy Barnes’ video for Achieve showed fields soliciting notarized passport and driver’s license photo identification and other sensitive information, raising the specter of identity theft.

The narration by Barnes was disjointed, at once advising members they had to submit all information requested in the information fields but backtracking to insist certain information was optional.

In the video, fields requesting standard identification such as name and address were shown. But there also was a field that requested the submission of notarized color copies of a passport or driver’s license with a signature, “OR an un-notarized copy of one of the previous AND a copy front and back of a valid credit card OR another type of government issued picture identification which shows a signature and birth date.”

There also were fields that solicited information on income and a letter from the employer of an Achieve member addressed “To Whom it May Concern” to verify employment.

With respect to the field soliciting an employment-verification letter, Barnes said this: “Don’t even worry about this. You don’t need it, all right. This is going to disappear off of here. For now, it’s there. Don’t worry about it.”

Despite those words, Barnes also said, “Remember: When you submit, everything’s gotta be filled out. Everything.”

He also said, “If you have a PO Box and you’re in the United States, so, you’re [going to] need to go to the bank. Take your driver’s license. Any bank will do this. Tell them you [want to] get your driver’s license notarized. They’ll take it and make a copy of your driver’s license. I understand your mail may go to a PO Box, but your address should have your driver’s license on it [sic]. And that’s it. Just upload it here, and you’re all set.”

About a field soliciting address verification, Barnes said this: Address verification is “very important. A utility bill. Anything that has your address on it that you’re billed for. You need to upload that here.”

Barnes described a field soliciting information on estimated annual total deposits in this fashion: “You know: What do you think you’re gonna make [through Achieve?] Put whatever you want. It doesn’t matter. You know, for me, I put a hundred thousand. So, put whatever.”

At a minimum, the video suggested Achievers who successfully submitted information would receive some sort of debit card to offload profits — perhaps in a couple of weeks. Achieve appears not have have made a payout for more than three months while at once engaging in payment-processor roulette.

The FBI has warned for years that certain types of debit cards and shell companies can be used for the purposes of money-laundering, handing economic strength to criminals or worse.

Some Achievers have joined other Ponzi-board schemes and published YouTube promos for the schemes.

Feb 13, 2015
‘ACHIEVE COMMUNITY’: Stranger And Stranger, Murkier and Murkier

An “Achieve Community” promoter recorded a commercial for the purported opportunity at an FDIC-insured bank last year. Photo source: YouTube screen shot.

UPDATED 11:41 A.M. ET U.S.A. On Nov. 12, 2013, an entity known as “The Universal Church of Charitable Life Inc.” filed articles of incorporation in Florida. It listed its base of operations at a street address in Saint Petersburg, a city in the Tampa region.

Its nonprofit mission, according to the Florida filing, was to “act with charity providing relief to homeless and distressed people locally and internationally while providing spiritually educational resources.”

How much relief the firm provided is unclear: Florida dissolved the purported church in September 2014 for failure to file an annual report.

Certain managers or agents of the church also are listed in Florida filings by a company known as Binary Wallet LLC. Binary filed articles of organization on July 15, 2013, listing an address in Palmetto Bay, a Miami suburb.

Binary appears also not to have filed an annual report, because the word “reinstatement” appears in 2014 Florida records for the firm. Binary subsequently filed a report for 2015, listing an address in St. Petersburg and the names of at least three people whose names also appear in the church filing.

One person listed in the church’s articles of incorporation — but not in the articles of organization for Binary — is James T. Lovern. This perhaps is because Lovern had been implicated in a telemarketing/government-grants swindle. The case was prosecuted by multiple states, including Florida and North Carolina.

Also involved in the prosecution of Lovern, according to a document on file at the Federal Communications Commission, was the state of North Dakota. Massachusetts also prosecuted Lovern.

On Jan. 28, 2009, The Tampa Tribune reported that Lovern had pleaded guilty to tax evasion. The church, Florida records show, would come later.

A website styled BinaryWallet.com appears online and features photos of credit cards, debit cards and gift cards emblazoned with or surrounded by “BW” branding. The site is listed in the name of Sagar Kotak at an address in Palmetto Bay. The name Sagar Kotak also appears in Florida filings for the defunct church. Those filings list an address in India for Kotak and include a curious geographic detail: “near Bytco Hosp.”

Binary’s Florida filings list Sagar Kotak at an address in South Carolina.

Multiple links at BinaryWallet.com generate “404 Not Found” errors.

These things may take on increasing importance, because reports surfaced yesterday that suggest Binary Wallet somehow now is involved in payment processing for “Achieve Community,” a Ponzi-board “program” currently under investigation by the Colorado Division of Securities.

It appears that these reports first surfaced on a Facebook site known as “the Sheepdog,” which produced a screen shot showing the BinaryWallet domain loading a page that included graphics from a payment processor known as AeraPay.

Achieve Community has attracted many members of the faith community. Since at least early November — when reports first surfaced that Achieve had lost its ability to do business through Payoneer — the “program” appears to have been playing a game of payment-processor roulette. This has been a signature of other HYIP fraud schemes, including Zeek Rewards and TelexFree.

Those two Ponzi-board “programs” alone appear to have gathered a combined sum on the order of $2.7 billion — yes, BILLION. Achieve purports to turn $50 into $400 repeatedly through a process of rollovers.

People of faith also were targeted in the Zeek and TelexFree scams. Multiple payment vendors have been subpoenaed or sued.

At least one Zeek vendor that is the target of litigation from the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek case has claimed it was rendered insolvent through its relationship with Zeek.

The FBI has been warning since at least 2010 that certain types of debit cards can be used to launder money and to put undeserved wealth in the hands of criminals who may be using shell corporations.

What’s going on at Achieve right now isn’t clear. What can be said, at a minimum, is that individuals associated with a defunct Florida church appear also to be involved in a payment-processing business.

“GlimDropper,” a RealScam.com moderator posting at BehindMLM.com, observes that “Jim Lovern” has a LinkedIn page that asserts he is an “[Executive Vice President] in Binary Wallet.”

The LinkedIn page shows someone posing with Mitt Romney, formerly a candidate for President of the United States.

Lovern, according to the profile, also is associated with entities known as “Upside Client Solutions,” “World Charity Trust” and “Biznetonweb.”

Achieve Community purportedly is operated by Kristi Johnson of Colorado and Troy Barnes of Michigan.

DOCS:

Florida articles of incorporation for “The Universal Church of Charitable Life Inc.”

Florida reinstatement for Binary Wallet LLC.

Feb 11, 2015
‘Achieve Community’ Websites Inaccessible

From a promo for Achieve Community on YouTube.

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 anything to do with the investigation.

“I cannot comment further at this time,” said Lillian Alves, Colorado’s Deputy Securities Commissioner.

Reports surfaced yesterday on a Facebook site known as the “NonOfficialAchieveCommunity” that Achieve had shut down its own private forum and that a page linked to a purported new payment processor for Achieve was carrying a “server maintenance” message.

The maintenance message continues to appear today.

Some Achievers have condemned the NonOfficialAchieveCommunity Facebook site, which also is known as “the Sheepdog” and does not echo the company line. In recent days, one poster made the preposterous assertion that the Sheepdog was responsible for ruining 10,000 lives and could be held financially liable by Achievers.

Achieve purportedly is operated by Kristi Johnson of Colorado and Troy Barnes of Michigan. The “program,” backed by hucksters such as Rodney Blackburn, reportedly has not made payouts for nearly three months after encountering trouble with payment processors.

Blackburn is pushing multiple “programs” with a presence on well-known Ponzi-scheme forums — and even camped out on the website of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to record a promo.

The SEC last month declined to comment on Blackburn’s commercial.

Feb 4, 2015
UPDATE: In Impossibly Butchered Messaging, ‘Achieve Community’ Promos Marry Three-Month, 800-Percent ROI ‘Program’ To Santa Claus While Encouraging Participants Not To ‘Sell Out’ To Banks For ‘Tiny’ Annual Returns

From an Achieve Community Facebook promo posted Dec. 20.

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” $50 Achieve position on Christmas Day, Achievers will come into possession of “the gift that Keeps On Giving!” according to a bizarre new promo published on Facebook Saturday by Achieve co-founder Kristi Johnson.

A fellow Facebook poster, however, laments, “Kristi, Can you please answer this question? I tried the whole weekend to purchase new positions. But every time it says, an error occur[r]ed, your payment is declined. I called already to MasterCard and nothing is wrong with my Card. Problem seems to be with readytoachieve. I sent already 4 messages to readytoachieve, but i get no answer.”

Volunteers purportedly now are assisting Achieve, which appears to be transitioning to new financial vendors after parting company with Payoneer weeks ago, with support duties. Johnson has claimed she’s typically too busy to answer questions, that members should turn to the website FAQs and a recently installed private forum for assistance and that co-founder Troy Barnes “won’t be around much anymore” because of pressing family issues.

Separately, Achieve boosters parroting each other continue to circulate a promo that reads, “We are not investing in a stock or buying shares in a company. We are using our God given universal right to spend our money the way we want. We choose not to sell out to the banking system for their tiny little 1% annual return.”

The claim appears in both video and text form. It is common for HYIP promoters to invoke God and seek to fuel contempt against banks. Some Achieve promoters appear to have hijacked the original claim and worked it into their individual promos. The original source of the claim is unclear.

No authority that God had granted any such “universal right” is provided. Nor does the promo explain why banks are not doing the same thing Achieve is doing or how Achieve will get by if banks and payment vendors it relies on pull the plug on Achieve. If the assertion that banks pay 1 percent annually is true, however, it would mean that Achieve pays 800 times that percentage in three months or less.

Because banks have greater economies of scale than Achieve and greater opportunities to employ vertical integration, they could pound Achieve into the sand by simply adopting the Achieve business model — and yet they don’t do it.

The reason why is that the banks would be creating a liability of $400 for every $50 they accepted for the purchase of “positions” and that regulators and class-action litigants would attack any disclaimer language as an obvious attempt to sanitize a Ponzi scheme and create a license to steal tremendous sums of money.

Even though Achieve appears to have generated cash flow by switching to an offshore processor known as iPayDNA after the Payoneer divorce in late October or early November, Achieve very well could be insolvent today. This is because it is not meeting obligations when they become due. Payouts due Achieve members who joined or repurchased positions on Sept 12 were due to be paid in early November, but reportedly have not been paid.

That Achieve also appears to be playing payment processor roulette potentially adds to its attractiveness for class-action litigation against both itself and payment vendors on the theory of racketeering and “deepening insolvency.” (See this document from private litigants in the TelexFree bankruptcy case. Like Achieve, TelexFree was promoted on Ponzi boards such as MoneyMakerGroup. So was Zeek Rewards, a “program” that also has encountered class-action litigation. )

Achieve says $50 turns into $400. Multiple “positions” can be purchased. Some promos have extrapolated returns in the hundreds of thousands of dollars or even in excess of $1 million.

Members reportedly have not received payouts from Achieve since the relationship with Payoneer ended.

From an Achieve promo playing on YouTube. Masking by PP Blog.

Also see Dec. 17 PP Blog report: UPDATE: Competing Cycler Advertised Inside ‘Achieve Community’ Forum Collapsed At Launch Yesterday

Also see Dec. 12 PP Blog report: Federal Prosecutors Have No Immediate Comment On ‘Achieve Community’ Call In Which Senior Citizen With 86-Year-Old Ailing Husband Was Told, ‘You Are Exactly The Type Of Person That The Achieve Community Is Built Around And For’

Also see Dec. 9 PP Blog report: SPECIAL REPORT: We’re Like ‘A Ride At Disney World,’ Achieve Community Cycler Bizarrely Claims

Also see Dec. 7 PP Blog report: ‘The Achieve Community’ Promoter Records Commercial At ATM In Hawaii; YouTube Text Promo Claims Achieve A ‘True Lifetime Income Plan!’

Also see Nov. 17 PP Blog report: RECOMMENDED READING: Two Stories/Threads At BehindMLM.com On ‘The Achieve Community’

Dec 23, 2014
Federal Prosecutors Have No Immediate Comment On ‘Achieve Community’ Call In Which Senior Citizen With 86-Year-Old Ailing Husband Was Told, ‘You Are Exactly The Type Of Person That The Achieve Community Is Built Around And For’

3RD UPDATE 11:30 A.M. ET U.S.A. A female senior citizen from the 434 Area Code in South-Central Virginia dialed into a Dec. 10 “Achieve Community” conference call, according to an audio recording of the call playing on YouTube.

She explained that she had a heart condition, that she had trusted in God and joined Achieve and that her 86-year-old husband of 53 years had been “in the hospital for a full year and six months in the nursing home.

“And it took every penny of money that we had and could get together just to be able to pay those bills and live. For four years, we haven’t been living. We’ve been existing. We did not have enough money to pay our bills, to buy medicine, food, gas . . .”

The woman explained that she had been paid by Achieve, had “nowhere to go” and “couldn’t get this kind of return on my money even if I could.”

One of the hosts then said her tale was “very inspiring,” that he hoped things worked out with her husband and that (italics added):

“I think your attitude is absolutely fantastic. You are exactly the type of person that the Achieve Community is built around and for . . .”

Area Code 434 services Lynchburg and other communities in the Western District of Virginia.

The office of U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Heaphy of the Western District of Virginia had no immediate comment on the call. The RealScam.com antiscam forum was the first to publish a link to the recording of the call. The PP Blog listened to the call and then contacted Heaphy’s office, which handles the Lynchburg area.

Achieve Community, a money-cycler “program,” may be operating from Michigan. The purported co-founders are Troy Barnes and Kristi Johnson. Achieve enthusiasts Rodney Blackburn and Mike Chitty appear to have been the lead hosts on the call. Johnson briefly was on the line at the beginning of the call.

The call demonstrates that Achieve Community, which purports to be an international company, is driving business in the United States by reaching across state lines. Callers on the Dec. 10 call were identified by their respective Area Codes.

One female caller came on the line from Area Code 615, which serves the Nashville, Tenn., region. Another woman came on the line from Area Code 504, which covers Greater New Orleans in Louisiana. Yet another woman came on the line from Area Code 702, which serves the Las Vegas region in Nevada.

The woman from 702 complained that Achieve, which claims that $50 turns into $400, was being elusive and capricious.

Also on the line was a man who said he was from Baltimore. He raised concerns about problems Achieve had been having after reportedly losing the ability to use the Payoneer payment processor more than a month ago.

Next up was a man from the 347 Area Code in the Greater New York City region. He complained that a “position” purchase he made hadn’t been credited. The elderly woman from 434 described above then came on, followed by a man from the 407 Area Code in the region of Orlando, Fla. The call concluded with a woman from Area Code 718 in the New York City region coming on the line.

Achieve Community targeting is wide, covering twenty-somethings to eighty-somethings. One of the call hosts said Achieve money could be used to build churches, take care of families and pay off student loans.

See the RealScam.com post with the YouTube video attributed to “washable jones,” who may be an antiscam activist.

Also see Dec. 9 report on the PP Blog, plus PP Blog reports on Dec. 7 and Dec. 2 and Nov. 17.

Dec 12, 2014