“The obligations to investors drastically exceed the company’s cash on hand, which is why we need to step in quickly, salvage whatever funds remain and ensure an orderly and fair payout to investors. ZeekRewards misused the power of the Internet and lured investors by making them believe they were getting an opportunity to cash in on the next big thing. In reality, their cash was just going to the earlier investor.” — Stephen L. Cohen, Associate Director, SEC Division of Enforcement, Aug. 17, 2012
Our best wishes to Stephen L. Cohen, who delivered the words above nearly four years ago. Cohen is leaving the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission after nearly 12 years of service.
“Throughout his career at the SEC, Steve has made substantial and long-lasting contributions to the Commission’s mission,” said Andrew J. Ceresney, director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division. “He has supervised significant cases involving a wide variety of misconduct and has been closely involved in the implementation of various enhancements to the enforcement program. His keen intellect and enthusiasm will be missed.”
One of the cases he supervised — as the SEC noted today — was Zeek Rewards.
UPDATED 3:11 P.M. EDT U.S.A. A report dated today at ShanghaiDaily.com says an individual “surnamed Xu” and associated with “World Capital Market Inc.” is “now in custody” after a police action against a “pyramid scheme” in China.
The PP Blog has contacted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to determine if the person reportedly under arrest in China is “Phil” Ming Xu of the World Capital Market/WCM777 scheme from 2014.
If the individual proves to be the Xu in the SEC case, it would mean that Xu left the United States sometime after being charged civilly by the SEC in March 2014 with a fraud alleged to have gathered tens of millions of dollars. It also potentially means the scheme, which allegedly operated under different names and resulted in the appointment of a receiver by a U.S. federal court, continued offshore after the U.S. action.
Phil Ming Xu resided in Temple City, Calif., the SEC said in 2014.
Last June and August, police received alerts from the People’s Bank of China and the Guangdong branch of China Securities Regulatory Commission that the company and its owners were not qualified to conduct public financing, and a criminal investigation began.
The WCM777 story in the United States has been consistently bizarre. MLM hucksters, for example, pitched the “program” in churches and claimed the company had given loans for spectacular sums to some top American businesses.
UPDATE 2:03 P.M. EDT MAY 17 U.S.A. The SEC said today that it didn’t have anything on whether the Xu reportedly under arrest in China is the Xu from the agency’s March 2014 case.
From a 2014 YouTube promo for iFreeX. Masking by PP Blog. In 2014, T-Mobile told the PP Blog that it was seeking to determine if IFreeX was misusing T-Mobile’s intellectual property.
The website of IFreeX.com is offline. The PP Blog could not immediately determine why. Visitors are seeing a GoDaddy.com page.
Google cache suggests IFreeX.com was online earlier today.
As part of its reporting, the PP Blog has reviewed certain documents pertaining to the criminal prosecution of TelexFree figures James Merrill and Carlos Wanzeler and documents pertaining to the immigration arrest of Rodrigues. The documents show that the same U.S. federal prosecutor is involved in both the Merrill/Wanzeler case and the immigration case involving Rodrigues.
At the same time, the documents show that the same Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent also is involved in both prosecutions. In addition to filing paperwork against Rodrigues in the immigration case, the agent filed paperwork that led to the 2014 arrest on a TelexFree-related material-witness warrant at JFK Airport in New York of Katia Wanzeler.
Katia is the wife of Carlos Wanzeler, who has been described by the United States as an international fugitive. Katia later was released. HSI, which conducted a TelexFree-related undercover operation beginning in 2013, is an arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Merrill and Carlos Wanzeler were indicted in July 2014 on eight criminal counts of wire fraud and one criminal count of wire-fraud conspiracy. Earlier, in April 2014, Merrill, Carlos Wanzeler, Rodrigues and five others were charged civilly with fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
TelexFree, which hawked a VOIP service, has been described in Bankruptcy Court filings by a court-appointed trustee as a cross-border pyramid scheme that gathered $1.8 billion in about two years.
Separately, BehindMLM.com is reporting in a story dated May 26 that a website known as 2PayNet also is offline. The site may be connected in some way with IFreeX.
Intellectual property rights theft is not a victimless crime. It threatens U.S. businesses and robs hard-working Americans of their jobs, which negatively impacts the economy. It can also pose serious health and safety risks to consumers, and oftentimes, it fuels global organized crime.
Sann Rodrigues. From a promo for the TelexFree international convention in Spain in 2014.
BULLETIN: (Updated 9:27 p.m. EDT U.S.A.) TelexFree and iFreeX figure Sann Rodrigues has been arrested in New Jersey, according to the Blog of Joaldro Dalla “Billy” Costa, citing a report on radio station WSRO 650 AM in Framingham, Mass.
Rodrigues — listed as Devasc Sanderley Rodrigues in online booking records and believed to be a native of Brazil who has lived in the U.S. states of Massachusetts and Florida — appears to have been arrested May 18.
On the same day, U.S. and Brazilian law-enforcement officials met in Washington, D.C. Whether the international talks and the arrest were a coincidence was not immediately clear.
The records suggest Rodrigues was detained at the Essex County Correctional Facility.
Billy’s story suggests the booking was immigration-related. The PP Blog could not immediately confirm the information.
No release date appears, suggesting Rodrigues, 43, still is being held. Information on bond and a specific charge was not posted.
Rodrigues was one of eight TelexFree figures charged civilly with securities fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He is a recidivist securities violator, according to the SEC.
TelexFree, an alleged Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that may have gathered on the order of $1.8 billion in about two years, is under investigation by the SEC and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Alleged TelexFree operators James Merrill and Carlos Wanzeler have been charged criminally.
U.S. authorities have called Wanzeler an international fugitive perhaps living in Brazil.
On May 18, officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, met in Washington with officials from the Brazilian National Police.
The officials “discussed the joint commitment to continued information-sharing and conducting investigations into child exploitation, financial fraud and human trafficking, among other topics,” according to an ICE news release dated May 21.
Headline Updated 12:15 p.m. EDT Published reports in the Dominican Republic say authorities there are trying to determine if a man arrested in a Colombian money-laundering case involving the Clan Úsuaga narcotics cartel also was involved in TelexFree.
Early reports are sketchy. Dominican media have identified the man as Jorge Mercedes Cedeño, describing him as an evangelical pastor in the Dominican Republic. Whether he had a specific church affiliation is unclear, but media reports say Colombian authorities believe churches in both Colombia and the Dominican Republic were used to wash cocaine cash.
All in all, four people with alleged ties to the cartel were arrested in Colombia this week. At least one of them is a woman.
From a May 12 Tweet by Colombian National Police:
Capturamos a “la jefa”, cabecilla de una red de lavado de activos del “Clan Úsuga”. pic.twitter.com/vI2sS5YTN6
— Policía de Colombia (@PoliciaColombia) May 12, 2015
TelexFree may be the largest combined Ponzi- and pyramid scheme in the history of MLM/networking-marketing. It may have gathered on the order of $1.8 billion in about two years of operation. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security both are involved in a U.S.-based probe of TelexFree, and TelexFree also is under investigation in Colombia and the Dominican Republic.
A TelexFree-related raid carried out last year by Dominican police occurred in the area of San Pedro de Macoris. That’s the same area in which Cedeño reportedly conducted his apparent ministry.
The PP Blog reported on May 9 that a court filing in the TelexFree bankruptcy case references “reports related to Colombian investigation.” Although the nature of the Colombian probe is not spelled out in the filing, one individual from Colombia appears to have filed a claim for $3 million.
TelexFree’s penetration of the Dominican Republic appears to have been staggering. One document in the bankruptcy case consists of 2,329 pages — a list of potential Dominican creditors. With about 55 potential creditors listed per page, the document suggests that TelexFree could have on the order of 128,000 creditors in that nation alone. Any number of individuals may have multiple TelexFree accounts.
Here’s the lede in a May 13 story in Dominican Today that reports on the arrests in Colombia and local concerns over a possible TelexFree tie (italics added/verbatim):
Santo Domingo.- The Justice Ministry’s Anti-money Laundering Unit on Wednesday reviewed computer files looking for evidence that a Colombian cartel used a local evangelical church to launder money is the same on that swindled hundreds of Dominican out of millions of dollars in the Telexfree scandal last year.
Unit director Germán Miranda said they don’t rule out that the “pastor” Jorge Mercedes Cedeño, arrested in Colombia along with others, is the same being sought in connection with the Telexfree case since last year.
UPDATED 9:37 P.M. EDT U.S.A. David Ian MacGregor Fraser, a New Zealand resident who allegedly used the Zeek Rewards’ username of “sovlife,” has challenged a U.S. Court’s jurisdiction over him in a clawback lawsuit filed in February by Zeek receiver Kenneth D. Bell.
Bell alleged that David Ian MacGregor Fraser received $89,722 from Zeek’s “unlawful combined Ponzi and pyramid scheme.” The receiver, who contends the U.S. Court has jurisdiction in international clawback actions in part because Zeek operated from North Carolina and sent money from the state to participants such as MacGregor Fraser, is seeking a judgment in that amount, plus interest. He alleges the money came from Zeek victims.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission described Zeek in 2012 as a massive, cross-border fraud scheme that had gathered hundreds of millions of dollars. In October 2014, alleged Zeek operator Paul R. Burks was charged criminally with wire- and mail-fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud, and tax-fraud conspiracy.
Earlier in 2014, Zeek figures Dawn Wright-Olivares and her stepson Daniel Olivares pleaded guilty to criminal charges filed in 2013 — Wright-Olivares to investment-fraud conspiracy and tax-fraud conspiracy and Olivares to investment-fraud conspiracy.
Web records suggest MacGregor Fraser used the shortened name of “David MacGregor” when pitching Zeek online through GetResponse.com, an email service sold in the United States and other countries.
A Zeek promo in which the username “sovlife” and the name “David MacGregor” appear begins in this fashion, according to Google search results. (Italics added):
Hi Friend
If you haven’t caught up with the latest news, or weren’t on the conference call the other day, then I just wanted to highlight the main points.
Screen shot of promo for Zeek. Red highlight by PP Blog.
MacGregor Fraser, who is represented in the clawback lawsuit by North Carolina attorney June K. Allison of Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick in Charlotte, answered Bell’s complaint as “David Fraser.” The answer, however, acknowledges the longer version of the name as it appeared in Bell’s complaint. So does an affidavit submitted to the U.S. court by David Ian MacGregor Fraser.
The moniker “sovLife” appears repeatedly on the website theclassifiedsplus.com through which videos play. Some of these videos point to MLM “programs” such as the Empower Network in which “sovLife” is used as the affiliate ID.
Other videos at theclassifiedsplus point to a web entity known as sovereignlife.com. This domain is styled “SovereignLife” and identifies its operator as “David MacGregor.” There is a corresponding YouTube account in that name through which videos viewable through theclassifiedsplus.com play.
One of them with an upload date of July 3, 2013, is titled “My July 4 Message for the America That Was.” In the video, a man (presumptively “David MacGregor”) holds forth that he once was a big supporter of the United States. That support, however, apparently has evaporated in that the man contends in the video that the United States is “Dare I say it? A force for evil.”
Other videos in the David MacGregor account have titles such as “Bitcoin Debit Card – How to Get One,” “You Can Now Be a Reseller For SovereignLife And Keep All The Money!,” “Tax Slave or Sovereign Individual?”
Some individuals who may identify with the word “sovereign” have participated in various fraud schemes, have painted their fellow human beings as slaves (see Frederick Mann) or government-owned property (see Kenneth Wayne Leaming) and have expressed an irrational belief that laws do not apply to them.
Other “sovereigns” have made wild claims that they hold diplomatic immunity and thus cannot be prosecuted or are answerable only to Jesus Christ.
Zeek Clawback Defense
Compared to the “David MacGregor” video suggestion that America is evil, the David Fraser response to Bell’s clawback complaint before Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen of the Western District of North Carolina includes no inflammatory rhetoric or claims of evildoing by the United States.
Fraser, through the American law firm, is seeking dismissal of the complaint for lack of jurisdiction. He also is seeking to quash process in New Zealand, even though he acknowledges he has been served.
Among Fraser’s specific defense claims is that he was an “innocent participant” in Zeek, having joined the program in “November 2011” while he was a “resident of Malaysia” and maintaining “a Post Office Box in New Zealand.”
In possible conflict with the information shown in the screen shot above that references a sum ($5,000 in U.S. cash), the Super Bowl played in the United States and Super Bowl tickets that have “cash-out values for those not in the USA,” Fraser further contends he had “no specific knowledge that ZeekRewards was initiated from the United States.”
He also contends he was “unaware that ZeekRewards originated in North Carolina.” This, too, may be in possible conflict with information generally known about Zeek, in that Zeek openly operated from North Carolina and invited participants to events held in that state.
At one point in its history, Zeek openly advertised auctions for sums of U.S. cash — even as it preemptively denied it was operating a pyramid scheme and complained that the U.S. Social Security system was a “legal” and “collapsing” pyramid scheme.
Precisely why Zeek was making political statements on its website is unknown.
Accused Zeek Ponzi schemer Paul R. Burks lived in North Carolina. In 2012, Federal Election Commission records showed that Burks gave money to the campaign of U.S. Presidential hopeful Rep. Ron Paul.
From a U.S. standpoint, Zeek used offshore payment processors such as SolidTrustPay and AlertPay, both of which provided services for the $119 million AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008.
Now-jailed AdSurfDaily Ponzi-scheme operator Andy Bowdoin also made donations to a political cause, according to the 2010 indictment against him.
In his defense filings, Frazer said he “made or received” Zeek payments through AlertPay over the Internet, but maintained he’d never set foot in North Carolina.
Now, he contends, he unfairly is being “haled” to appear in court in North Carolina.
“To ask him to defend this suit halfway around the world on account of falling into the [Zeek] Insider’s international Internet scheme would clearly offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice,” his lawyer argued.
“Defendant Fraser never ordered or directed that anything of value be sent to him in either Malaysia or New Zealand from North Carolina,” his lawyer argued. “Rather, based on the way the website operated, amounts he earned on-line were credited to his on-line Payza account by ZeekRewards . . . Defendant Fraser did not know from what country or state the funds originated . . .”
In court filings, Fraser says he has been a citizen of New Zealand since 1978 and was born in Great Britain. He is a citizen there, too, according to his affidavit.
More lawsuits against international “winners” in the Zeek Rewards cross-border Ponzi-and pyramid-scheme case are coming, receiver Kenneth D. Bell has advised a federal judge.
Bell also signaled to Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen that lawsuits may be coming against alleged international Zeek vendors such as Payza and SolidTrustPay, both of which earlier were involved in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and are Ponzi-forum darlings.
On another front, Zeek’s former COO — Dawn Wright-Olivares — doesn’t get to keep her cars.
“In the first quarter, the Receiver also took possession of several motor vehicles as part of the settlement with Defendant Dawn Wright-Oliveras,” Bell informed Mullen. “The Receiver has retained an auctioneer and intends to liquidate these vehicles during the second quarter of 2015.”
Bell’s forensic team has tracked Zeek money all over the world. The receiver already has sued alleged “winners” with addresses in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the British Virgin Islands and Norway.
It won’t end there, he advised Mullen in a quarterly update to the court filed yesterday.
“The Receiver expects to file lawsuits against foreign net winners in additional countries during the second quarter of 2015,” he wrote.
News that Bell intended to expand his efforts to gather money for an estimated 800,000 victims of Zeek’s cross-border scheme was received while the nation of Thailand was squaring off against UFunClub/UToken, yet another scheme pushed by MLMers/network-marketers.
So-called “sovereigns” were involved in the $119 million AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme in 2008. ASD was pushed in part by Frederick Mann, the purported operator of multiple fraud schemes. Mann appears to have had sympathy for Francis Schaeffer Cox, an Alaskan “sovereign” and militia man implicated in a plot to murder public officials.
A scheme known as Profitable Sunrise also appears to have been pushed in part by “sovereign citizens.”
BULLETIN: (3rd Update 3:44 p.m. EDT U.S.A.) The Colorado Division of Securities has issued a cease-and-desist order to “Achieve Community” and accused the network-marketing “program” of securities fraud and selling unregistered securities while conducting “a pure Ponzi and pyramid scheme.”
The order applies to Achieve, Achieve International LLC, Work with Troy Barnes Inc. and Achieve founders Troy Barnes of Michigan and Kristine “Kristi” Johnson of Colorado, the Division said.
Achieve was known in shorthand as TAC.
Johnson already has settled without admitting or denying the allegations, the Division said.
Barnes did not respond to the action, the Division said.
It added that the first complaints against Achieve were submitted to the state in October 2014. The state confirmed publicly in January that Achieve was under investigation.
“Given the location of Achieve in Colorado, we believe that it is important to address this fraudulent activity on a local level and ensure that state investors are protected by barring any further illegal sale or solicitation of these securities by the respondents in this state,” said Colorado Securities Commissioner Gerald Rome.
Colorado’s action is believed to be the first state-level action brought against Achieve, which the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged with fraud in February 2015. A federal judge imposed an asset freeze in the SEC case.
From a statement today by the Division (italics added):
Complainants alleged that they had bought shares in TAC after information on the company’s website promised 800-percent returns on “positions” in the TAC “matrix” costing $50 each.
According to an official complaint compiled by the Division, Barnes and Johnson both allegedly appeared in videos promising that investors would receive an unlimited 800-percent return on positions based on the funds of others who obtained new positions. Further, the founders stated that TAC was “a lifetime income plan,” that members could make “as much as you like with us, as often as you like with us,” and expressly claimed that they were not operating a pyramid or Ponzi scheme.
The Division alleged, however, that the respondents committed securities fraud because the business was, in fact, a pure Ponzi and pyramid scheme. Unlike lawful multi-level marketing businesses, TAC did not sell a product. The proceeds paid to investors and to Johnson and Barnes were derived from funds obtained from later participants in the TAC matrix.
The Division asserts that, despite acting as broker dealers in order to sell the positions, neither Barnes nor Johnson were licensed with the state, as required by the Colorado Securities Act. Furthermore, respondents violated the Act with the sale of unregistered securities products in the form of the $50 positions.
The PP Blog reported on April 20 that an order to show cause had been issued against Achieve and that a cease-and-desist order appeared to be pending.
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 “XY 15-CD-08.” This may mean the Division has filed a crease-and-desist order against Achieve. Details were not immediately clear, but a hearing was scheduled for April 17.
“We do expect to issue orders in Achieve community this week,” said Lillian Alves, Colorado’s Deputy Securities Commissioner.
And, she noted, “We plan on doing a statement later this week.”
Based on information on Colorado’s website, the Show Cause order applies to “The Achieve Community; Achieve International, LLC; Work with Troy Barnes, Inc.; Kristine Johnson ( Also known as Kristi Johnson).”
Johnson, of Colorado, and Barnes, of Michigan, were the alleged operators of Achieve Community.
The SEC complaint described Achieve Community as a “pure Ponzi and pyramid scheme” whose revenue “has consisted entirely of investor-contributed funds.”
Achieve International, an entity named a relief defendant in the SEC’s case, has been tied by the SEC to Johnson. At noted above, Achieve International likewise is cited in Colorado’s state-level proceeding.
The action at the state level shows that scams using an MLM or network-marketing business model also may face local trouble — in addition to the trouble they encounter through actions filed by federal agencies such as the SEC.
Some Achieve Community promoters pushed multiple HYIP schemes simultaneously. Some of them, including “Bring The Bacon Home” and “Trinity Lines,” appear already to have gone belly-up. RockFeller.biz, also pushed by some Achieve Community hucksters, may be experiencing payout delays, a source told the PP Blog last week.
Payout delays typically are a sign of doom in the HYIP sphere.
Americans and other peoples of the world who push HYIP schemes may be helping criminal networks gain size — and therefore the ability to steal larger and larger sums of money.
Some Americans are known to have pushed “UFunClub,” a scheme now under investigation in Thailand. Arrests have been made overseas in the UFunClub case, and the dollar volume involved may be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
The PP Blog reported yesterday that a veiled reference to UFunClub was made last week in a conference call for a “program” known as “SVM Global Initiative.” This may suggest the two cross-border “programs” have promoters in common.
Some of the language on the SVM call was reminiscent of language used by “sovereign citizens,” groups of individuals that — though perhaps loosely connected — may push scams and engage in antigovernment extremism.
UPDATED 7:10 A.M. EDT APRIL 18 U.S.A. A year has passed since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced the prosecution of TelexFree. Here’s the lede from the PP Blog’s story on April 17, 2014:
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed charges against the alleged TelexFree pyramid scheme and a federal judge has granted an asset freeze.
TelexFree was a sham to mask an investment scheme known as “AdCentral” in which affiliates were told they could earn money without selling anything as long as they placed “meaningless ads” for the the program’s VOIP product on the Internet “and recruit[ed] others to do the same,” the SEC charged.
The TelexFree “program” was targeted mainly at “Dominican and Brazilian immigrants in the U.S.,” the SEC alleged.
We learned later that TelexFree had been under investigation since at least October 2013 by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. This probe was part of an undercover operation. A criminal complaint was filed against alleged TelexFree principals James Merrill and Carlos Wanzeler in May 2014. They were indicted in July 2014.
Merrill is free on bail and is awaiting trial. U.S. prosecutors say Wanzeler ducked out of the United States via Canada in April 2014 and boarded a flight to Brazil. They describe him as a fugitive.
Some TelexFree members sent doodles to the federal judge presiding over the SEC’s fraud case. Redaction by PP Blog.
Carlos Costa, a TelexFree figure in Brazil, tried to turn the tables on investigators by running for a seat in Brazil’s Congress. This occurred alongside claims by U.S. prosecutors that TelexFree “has a disturbingly cult-like quality.”
In a February 2015 filing in the TelexFree bankruptcy case, trustee Stephen B. Darr called TelexFree a “pyramid scheme” that may have involved 1 million or more participants globally and gathered as much as $1.8 billion in about two years of cross-border operation.
If the numbers hold up, it would mean that TelexFree has surpassed the Zeek Rewards scheme in both victims’ count and haul. Zeek is estimated to have created about 800,000 victims, while gathering about $897 million. Zeek was shut down by the SEC in August 2012. Zeek also operated for about two years.
Prior to Darr’s February 2015 observations about TelexFree, the SEC — in January 2015 — tweeted that its April 14, 2014, announcement about the TelexFree prosecution was the “#1 most-viewed news” item on the agency’s website last year.
Regardless, any number of American MLMers appear to have ignored important lessons that could be learned from the TelexFree and Zeek cases. “Programs” such as “Achieve Community” and “Wings Network” and “UFunClub” rose to the fore.
The SEC has brought charges against Achieve and Wings. UFunClub is under investigation in Thailand. There have been reports about arrests and suspects fleeing. Early reports put the U.S. dollar sum involved at $307 million.
This is the logo at GooBets.com. It is not the same as the logo at GooBets.biz. (See below.)
As the PP Blog reported yesterday, photos of National Basketball Association players and team jerseys are appearing on the .com (https://www) website of “GooBets,” a purported betting entity in which recruits are being told “Everybody Makes 25% to 31% Per Week. Period!!!”
The NBA said today that the matter had been forwarded to “our Legal department, which will follow up with the company appropriately.”
It is not unusual for fraud schemes to seek to create a veneer of legitimacy by trading on the names of famous brands.
Images of National Football League players and jerseys also appear on the GooBets site. The NFL said yesterday that it had no comment on the matter. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission declined to comment.
GooBets appears to be targeted at speakers of Portuguese and English. It may be operating from multiple websites, providing confusing information in the process. A site styled GooBets.biz (https:/www) claims the enterprise is part of something called “Nordic Market Services Limited.” The CEO is identified as Steven Martinez.
A separate site at GooBets.com claims Miguel Carvalho, a “famous [P]ortuguese trader,” is “Main Trader Goobets.”
A phone number that appears on the .biz version of GooBets — 44 203 514 6959 — also shows up on the site of an enterprise known as DirectBull.com. DirectBull’s site claims it operates as a “subsidiary of Nordic Market Services Limited which manages and serves large scale investors from Northern Europe and North America. With Direct Bull, Nordic Market Services Limited offers the opportunity to small scale investors to take part in the trading on the world financial markets and earn significant profits.”
Among the claims on the DirectBull site is that investors can earn between 103 percent and 125 percent in one day, with a minimum investment of $5 and a maximum of $20,000. A 30-day plan at the same minimums and maximums promises earnings of between 370 percent and 1,600 percent.
Portions of the DirectBull site resemble the sites of HYIP scams known as MooreFund and as “Rockfeller.biz.”
These individual schemes may be parts of much larger frauds that are evolving as circumstances warrant. If one pipeline runs dry, the organizers simply open another one.
This is the logo at GooBets.biz. It is not precisely the same as the logo at GooBets.com.The DirectBull site publishes the same phone number as GooBets.biz.
UPDATED 3:11 P.M. EDT U.S.A. A report dated today at ShanghaiDaily.com says an individual “surnamed Xu” and associated with “World Capital Market Inc.” is “now in custody” after a police action against a “pyramid scheme” in China.
