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On the past four Mondays — Oct. 26, Nov. 2, Nov. 9 and Nov. 16 — the PP Blog averaged viewership from 32 countries, according to a compilation of data from Jetpack summarized by the Blog. These numbers are typical. On any given day, viewers from between 25 and 40 countries arrive here. But on Oct. […]

UPDATED 7:51 EDT U.S.A. Let’s start by giving you the roster of federal agencies involved in the investigations and prosecutions of William M. Apostelos, 54, and Connie M. Apostelos, 50, his wife: (1.) The Office of U.S. Attorney Carter M. Stewart of the Southern District of Ohio. (2.) Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation. (3.) The […]

UPDATED 7:41 P.M. EDT U.S.A. If the office of U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Wigginton of the Southern District of Illinois gets its way, Canada will turn over accused international Ponzi schemer Nicholas Smirnow to the United States. Smirnow, whom INTERPOL says in a wanted notice is 57, was arrested at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport a […]

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING:  (6th update 9:35 p.m. ET U.S.A.) Nicholas Smirnow, still listed by INTERPOL as a person wanted by the United States in the alleged Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) HYIP Ponzi scheme that affected people in 120 countries, has been arrested at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, Canadian media outlets are reporting. U.S. […]

There are reports in Brazilian media that a prosecutor in the state of Acre has received death threats over her role in the TelexFree investigation and is receiving police protection. TelexFree, which has a U.S. arm in Massachusetts, purports to be in the communications business. The MLM company is under investigation in multiple states in […]

“Investigators from [the Social Security Administration] discovered that hundreds of victims throughout the United States were losing their social security benefits and their life savings either because they believed that they had won ‘The Jamaican Lottery’ or because, as part of another telemarketing scheme, they revealed enough information about themselves that allowed the thieves to […]

The FBI has arrested Matthew Ryan Buquet, who appeared in federal court yesterday to face a charge he mailed a letter containing ricin toxin to a federal judge in Washington state. Buquet is 37. The Associated Press, via Fox News, identified the intended recipient as U.S. District Judge Fred Van Sickle of the Eastern District […]

UPDATED 1:43 P.M. EDT U.S.A. (APRIL 25) The charges against Paul Kevin Curtis have been dropped and he has been released from custody. See this April 25 story by the AP via Yahoo News. Here, below, our earlier story . . . The FBI has arrested Paul Kevin Curtis in the ricin letters probe, the […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Thanks to PP Blog reader “Tony” for pointing us to the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) warning against the Lucra Fund and Goldenarium HYIP schemes. Earlier this month, BCSC issued a warning on the Profitable Sunrise scheme. The British Columbia Securities Commission has issued warnings on HYIP “programs” known as Lucra Fund and […]

With the alleged $600 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme dominating local headlines in North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad region, including the city of Lexington in Davidson County, an earlier, smaller fraud scheme operating in the region largely fell out of the news. But the Integra Capital Management LLC Ponzi and fraud scheme operated by Nicholas Cox […]

BULLETIN: Jasen M. Snelling — who last month was sentenced to nearly 11 years in prison in a federal Ponzi-scheme case brought in Ohio — now has been sentenced in Indiana state court to 40 years. The state case was brought after an investigation by the office of Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson. Snelling […]