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Tag: U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade

  • EDITORIAL: TelexFree’s La-La Land Leaves Trail Of Missed Signals, Willful Blindness And MLM Arson

    MLM attorney Gerald Nehra at a TelexFree rah-rah event in California last year.
    MLM attorney Gerald Nehra at a TelexFree rah-rah event in California last year. Source: YouTube.

    In case you missed the big news yesterday, TelexFree figures James Merrill and Carlos Wanzeler were charged criminally.

    Unofficially this brings the number of charged MLM HYIP “programs” (or clients) with links to MLM attorney Gerald Nehra to three in recent years. Nehra was an “expert witness” for AdSurfDaily in 2008. He testified that ASD, a 1-percent-a-day “program,” was a legitimate business and not a Ponzi scheme.

    ASD operator Andy Bowdoin, who compared the men and women who guard the President of the United States to “Satan” and the 9/11 terrorists and clucked that “God” * was on his side, later was charged criminally and sentenced to a lengthy term in federal prison.

    Nehra was brought in for marquee value and as an adviser to Zeek Rewards, Zeek operator Paul Burks said in late 2011 or early 2012.  Zeek executives Dawn Wright-Olivares and Daniel Olivares later were charged criminally.  Zeek was a 1.5-percent-a-day “program.”

    At some point in 2012 or 2013, Nehra began to advise TelexFree. TelexFree executive Steve Labriola, like Zeek’s Burks before him, also saw marquee value in Nehra, according to Labriola’s comments in a TelexFree promo on YouTube. Now, Merrill and Wanzeler face the prospect of jail. Because the investigation is ongoing, others may, too.

    TelexFree’s bogus returns were not tied to sales of its VOIP product and computed to more than 200 percent a year, making the “program” a classic Ponzi- and pyramid swindle, according to court filings. Some promoters claimed $15,125 returned $57,200. One promoter allegedly told an undercover federal agent that he’d scored $1.6 million in TelexFree “without selling a TelexFree product.”

    News of the TelexFree criminal charges broke on an otherwise ordinary day in MLM La-La Land. Some “supporters” of TelexFree were petitioning the federal judge overseeing the SEC’s major civil action filed last month to “bail out” the “program,” for example. This occurred after TelexFree “supporters” earlier had petitioned a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for a similar “bail out,” despite the fact TelexFree was trying to “reject” its contracts with promoters.

    This is a column about willful blindness and feigned obtuseness. (Think Faith Sloan.) It’s also a column about missed signals, whether they’re missed purposely or otherwise. (Think: Why would TelexFree hire Nehra after ASD and Zeek — and why would Nehra ever accept the work, which was bound to lead to racketeering allegations? Put another way, if you’re at the scene of too many highly suspicious fires, you shouldn’t be surprised if serious people start to believe you’re the arsonist or the arsonist’s helper. Even assuming Nehra is no MLM arsonist or racketeer, accepting the TelexFree work potentially put him in the position of being extorted or otherwise abused by the trade’s arsonists and racketeers.)

    Spot any common themes or information roadmaps in the quoted material below?

    AdSurfDaily “is not” a Ponzi scheme. “It is a legally structured, direct selling business model with multilevel compensation.” — Gerald Nehra, MLM attorney, Aug. 18, 2008. (Context: Nehra’s submitted testimony as defense witness in civil forfeiture action in the $119 million AdSurfDaily MLM HYIP Ponzi case. **)

    “[AdViewGlobal] is the next iteration of the Ponzi scheme auto-surf programs, which [are] staffed with former [AdSurfDaily] executives and Bowdoin disciples.” — Class-action attorneys suing AdSurfDaily operator Andy Bowdoin and AdSurfDaily attorney Robert Garner of North Carolina, June 30, 2009. (Context: Motion in member-filed lawsuit against Bowdoin and Garner that alleged RICO (racketeering) violations.)

    “With all of our efforts to punish and deter this criminal enterprise, the rights of innocent parties are protected and will subsequently be returned.” — A.T. Smith, assistant director, U.S. Secret Service Office of Investigations, Sept. 26, 2011. (Context: Successful forfeiture actions and remission (restitution) in AdSurfDaily MLM HYIP Ponzi case.)

    “We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to bring justice to the citizens defrauded by these insidious schemes.” — Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer, U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Sept. 26, 2011. (Context: Successful forfeiture actions and remission (restitution) in AdSurfDaily MLM HYIP Ponzi case.)

    “Just having him on retainer and having him on our team, it goes a long way from keeping anybody from launching an attack. Because generally when Gerry Nehra is involved, the Feds know that he’s cleaned up the act really well.” — Paul Burks, Zeek Rewards operator, c. December 2011. (Context: Burks’ remarks to early Zeek members that MLM attorney Nehra was on board.)

    “I am pleading guilty because I am in fact guilty of the offense(s) identified in this Plea Agreement.” — Andy Bowdoin, AdSurfDaily operator, May 2012. (Context: Plea agreement to wire fraud in which Bowdoin disagreed with MLM attorney Nehra and acknowledged AdSurfDaily was a Ponzi scheme.)

    “Capitalizing on the strength of our financial task force partnerships, we aggressively pursue criminals using computer experts, forensic specialists, investigative experts and intelligence analysts.” — Dennis Ramos Martinez, special agent in charge, U.S. Secret Service Orlando Office, Aug. 29, 2012. (Context: Prison sentence imposed on AdSurfDaily operator Andy Bowdoin.)

    “While [Gregory] McKnight himself referred to Legisi as a “loan” program, and demanded that “members” not refer to their “loan” and an “investment,” Legisi was, in reality, an investment contract, which is considered a security and therefore regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This semantic obfuscation was quite obviously an attempt to sidestep the securities laws.” — Office of U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade, Eastern District of Michigan, September 2012. (Context: Sentencing memo against Gregory McKnight in Legisi $72 million HYIP swindle.)

    “I’m not sure how many of you have heard the name ‘Gerry Nehra.’ But it is a very big name in this industry.” — Steve Labriola, TelexFree executive, Newport Beach, Calif., July 2013. (Context: Labriola introducing Nehra to TelexFree members at “Super Weekend” MLM rah-rah fest.)

    “ZeekRewards used the enormous power of the Internet to rip off $850 million from hundreds of thousands of victims in less than two years. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to take down greedy scam artists who think nothing of stealing the savings of hard working people.” — U.S. Attorney Anne M. Tompkins, Western District of North Carolina, Dec. 20, 2013. (Context: The filing of criminal charges in the Zeek Rewards MLM/HYIP case.)

    “The Massachusetts Securities Division charged TelexFREE Inc., with running a Ponzi scheme targeting Brazilian-Americans that has raised over $90 million from Massachusetts residents and around $1 billion globally.” — U.S. Department of Homeland Security, April 17, 2014. (Context: U.S. financial infrastructure protection. Sourced from DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report.)

    “At this [TelexFree] ‘super weekend’ event, Attorney Nehra spoke at length to attending investors, assuring them of the legality of TelexFree’s operation stating: ‘It is legally designed . . . you are on very solid legal ground.’” — Class-action attorneys, May 3, 2014. (Context: The filing of a prospective class-action against TelexFree and Nehra that alleged RICO (racketeering) violations.)

    “Attorney Nehra’s extensive experience in multi-level marketing, and particularly his involvement with the Ponzi schemes involving AdSurfDaily and Zeek Rewards, armed him with the knowledge of what constitutes violations of United States securities law. Indeed, Attorney Nehra was well aware that the use of semantics and obscured phraseology to obfuscate securities laws fails to legitimize TelexFree’s illegal Pyramid Ponzi Scheme.” — Class-action attorneys, May 3, 2014. (Context: The filing of a prospective class-action against TelexFree and Nehra that alleged RICO (racketeering) violations.)

    “Investigating the flow of illicit money across U.S. borders and the criminal enterprises behind that money is one of our top priorities.” — Bruce Foucart, special agent in charge, Homeland Security Investigations, May 9, 2014. (Context: Comment on the filing of criminal charges in the TelexFree Ponzi- and pyramid case.)

    “As alleged, these defendants devised a scheme which reaped hundreds of millions of dollars from hard working people around the globe.” — U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, District of Massachusetts, May 9, 2014. (Context: Comment on the filing of criminal charges in the TelexFree Ponzi- and pyramid case.)

    SOURCES USED IN THIS COLUMN:

    • U.S. government filings and statements.
    • Court filings from private RICO actions.
    • Original reporting at ASD Updates.
    • Original reporting at BehindMLM.com.
    • Original reporting at the PP Blog.

    * Like jailed AdSurfDaily operator Andy Bowdoin, TelexFree figure Carlos Costa contends God is on his side. While Bowdoin talked of “Satan,” one TelexFree promoter has called a prosecutor in Brazil a “blonde she-devil.”

    ** Two members of AdSurfDaily who went on to become members of Zeek Rewards liked Nehra’s opinion so much they used it in a failed lawsuit (2011) against the U.S. government. The members, Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer, both are listed as “winners” in the $850 million Zeek Rewards’ scheme. Disner’s Zeek haul was alleged to be more than $1.875 million.

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Legisi HYIP Operator Gregory McKnight Sentenced To More Than 15 Years In Federal Prison

    McKnight. From U.S. court files.
    McKnight. From U.S. court files.

    URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Gregory N. McKnight, the operator of the $72 million Legisi HYIP Ponzi scheme popularized in part on the TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup forums, has been sentenced to 188 months in federal prison for wire fraud and ordered to pay more than $48.9 million in restitution.

    McKnight also was ordered to serve three years’ probation following his prison release. Legisi collapsed in 2008.

    Legisi pitchman Matthew John Gagnon was sentenced last month to serve five years in federal prison and to pay $4.4 million in restitution.

    The criminal cases against Gagnon and McKnight were prosecuted by the office of U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade of the Eastern District of Michigan. The civil cases were prosecuted by the SEC.

    Legisi bizarrely made members affirm they were not associated with the SEC, the IRS, the FBI and the CIA — along with “Her Majesty’s Police,” the Intelligence Services of Great Britain and the Serious Fraud Office.

    Prosecutors said McKnight engaged in “semantic obfuscation” in which investors were told they were joining a “loan program,” not making an “investment.”

    Among Legisi’s payment processors was e-Bullion. The Legisi receiver is pursuing claims tied up after the 2008 arrest of James Fayed, the operator of e-Bullion.

    Fayed was convicted in 2011 of ordering the murder of his wife, a potential witness against him. Pamela Fayed was slashed to death in a Greater Los Angeles parking garage in July 2008. The SEC brought the Legisi fraud prosecution in May 2008, just two months before Pamela was killed.

    E-bullion has been linked to several Ponzi schemes. In court filings on June 6, receiver Robert D. Gordon said more than 85 percent of the $72.6 million directed at Legisi had flowed through the defunct processor.

    The Legisi investigations were led by the SEC, the U.S. Secret Service and state regulators in Michigan.

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Legisi HYIP Ponzi Pitchman Sentenced To 60 Months In Federal Prison, Ordered To Pay $4.4 Million In Restitution

    Matthew John Gagnon
    Matthew John Gagnon

    URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Legisi HYIP Ponzi-scheme pitchman Matthew John Gagnon has been sentenced to 60 months in federal prison, ordered to pay $4.4 million in restitution and further ordered to serve three years’ supervised probation after his prison release, the office of U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade of the Eastern District of Michigan said.

    Legisi, a $72 million Ponzi scheme pushed on fraud forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup, was operated by Gregory N. McKnight, who faces sentencing in August. Gagnon’s five-year sentence was the maximum under a plea agreement with prosecutors, who’ve recommended McKnight serve 15 years.

    Gagnon pushed Legisi and other fraud schemes through Mazu.com, the SEC said in 2010. The name of MoneyMakerGroup appears in evidence exhibits in the Legisi Ponzi case.

    Gagnon will be permitted to self-report to prison, prosecutors said.

    The Legisi case — perhaps particularly events involving Gagnon — has been closely watched because it shows that MLM-style HYIP pitchmen can be held accountable criminally for pushing scams. The SEC called Gagnon a threat to the investing public, describing him as a serial fraud pitchman who lacked licenses to sell securities and pushed the unregistered securities of multiple fraud schemes.

    In civil charges announced yesterday in Ohio, prosecutors effectively made the same claims against promoters of the alleged Profitable Sunrise pyramid scheme. Included among them was Nanci Jo Frazer, who allegedly also promoted the $119 million AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and the $600 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid scheme.

    The Legisi case began as an undercover probe by state securities regulators in Michigan and the U.S. Secret Service.

    Legisi’s Terms of Service sought to make members affirm they were not an “informant, nor associated with any informant” of the IRS, FBI, CIA and the SEC, among other agencies, according to documents filed in federal court.

    Current scams such as Profit Clicking have published similar terms, which read like an invitation to join an international financial conspiracy. Ohio prosecutors said they believed Frazer also pushed ProfitClicking, in addition to Zeek, ASD and Profitable Sunrise.

    McKnight, prosecutors have said, tried to sanitize Legisi by calling it a “loan” program and engaging in semantic obfuscation. Any number of HYIP scams have employed similar linguistic sleight-of-hand, with ProfitClicking bizarrely arguing that neither itself nor affiliates can be held accountable.

    Gagnon argued in court that he’d been duped by McKnight, but a federal judge didn’t buy it.

  • BULLETIN: Michigan Ponzi Schemer Keith Epstein, Who Sanitized Caper With Charitable Donations While He Ripped Off Senior Citzens And Spent Their Money On Strippers, Sentenced To Federal Prison

    Keith Epstein, 56, told senior citizens they could trust him with their money. Some of his investors believed him — and they liquidated legitimate holdings and gave the cash to Epstein.

    But Epstein, of Farmington Hills, Mich., was running a $4 million Ponzi scheme, the FBI said.

    He took the cash from his victims, spending it on gambling and to support “multiple exotic dancers,” investigators said.

    Some investors received Ponzi payments, investigators said. Epstein plied his marks in part by visiting their homes, participating in their family functions and by putting “money toward[] charitable causes important to clients,” the FBI said.

    Epstein, who’d been held in the Macomb County lockup for violating state laws and writing a bad check, now is on his way to an unspecified federal prison. He was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds to 97 months for the Ponzi scheme.

    “We hope to send a message to investment advisors that we will aggressively prosecute those who steal from the elderly and other small investors,” U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade of the Eastern District of Michigan said.

    “Many of his victims’ retirement funds have been completely eviscerated, leaving them with nothing after lifetimes of saving and hard work,” the FBI said.

    Edmunds ordered Epstein to make resitution of $4.1 million to victims.

     

  • BULLETIN: Senior Ponzi Schemer Edward May, 75, Sentenced To 16 Years In Federal Prison; $350 Million Ponzi Swindle Called Largest In Eastern Michigan History

    BULLETIN: Edward May, 75, effectively has been sentenced to life in prison for orchestrating an elaborate Ponzi scheme that gathered about $350 million and fleeced 1,200 people. Many of his victims were fellow senior citizens, although May also altered the lives of younger victims.

    Prosecutors described the May Ponzi as the largest in the history of the Eastern Michigan District.

    U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow sentenced May today to 16 years after May’s April guilty plea to 59 counts of mail fraud. Prosecutors said May established as many as 150 LLCs to pull off the scheme, which operated for a decade. The SEC sued May in 2007.

    One of May’s victims told prosecutors that he considered suicide after being bilked by May.

    “Complex fraud schemes like this one rob investors of their savings and erode public confidence in legitimate investments,” said U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade of the Eastern District of Michigan. “This loss of public confidence in investment opportunities, in turn, depresses our economy. By prosecuting those who commit fraud, we hope to deter others from committing similar crimes.”

    May falsely traded on the name of Hilton Hotel Corp.,  MGM-Mirage Resorts Inc., the MGM Grand Hotel, Motel 6, the Tropicana Resort Casino and the Sheraton Hotels chain as part of the fraud, according to court filings. He also claimed that he was supplying telecommunications services through a purported “Norwegian” company.

    In an often-heard refrain in the Ponzi world, May went into excuse-making mode when his caper collapsed, claiming payments to investors were delayed because of the company’s growing pains.