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Tag: Will Smith

  • BULLETIN: General Counsel’s Office Of American Red Cross Investigating Potential Case Of Brand Leeching By Club Asteria After Red Cross Logo Appears On Purported ‘Philanthropic’ Site And Inside Club Asteria’s October House Organ

    BULLETIN: The Office of the General Counsel of the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C., has opened a probe into the potential misuse of the Red Cross logo and name by Club Asteria and an entity known as the Asteria Philanthropic Foundation or the Asteria Foundation.

    Depending on how the investigation evolves in the coming days, Club Asteria could be on the receiving end of a cease-and-desist order, said Red Cross spokeswoman Anne Marie Borrego.

    “The case has been sent to the Office of General Counsel,” Borrego said.

    The Red Cross logo appears on a domain known as Asteria-Foundation.org. Meanwhile, the Red Cross logo also appears on the inside front cover (Page 2) of Club Asteria’s October house organ, which the purported business “opportunity” uses as a recruitment tool.

    “So far, no one has been able to confirm a [Club Asteria] link to the Red Cross,” Borrego said.

    Club Asteria claims in the electronic publication that the Red Cross is a “partner.”

    Last month, Club Asteria produced a story in the house organ that used an image of actor Will Smith. Club Asteria later removed both the image of Smith and a purported “interview” with him, reconfiguring the publication to remove any reference to the “Independence Day” star.

    Prior to the removal, the image of Smith was directly above a Club Asteria “JOIN NOW” button.

    There appears to be no entry for the Asteria Philanthropic Foundation in a database maintained by the IRS, even though the Asteria-Foundation.org domain makes this claim — using the copyright symbol as opposed to a lowercase “c.”

    “The Asteria Foundation is a charitable, tax-exempt 501©(3) organization. Contributions are tax deductible in accordance with IRS rules and regulations.”

    An undated “press release” on the site with a dateline of Reston, Va., claims the foundation “was launched today and signals a crucial step in the organization’s fight against poverty around the world.”

    The undated release quotes Club Asteria’s Andrea Lucas. (Verbatim from release; indent added by PP Blog.)

    “Funds raised by Club Asteria are donated by The Asteria Foundation to a variety of different organizations that have the same goal and vision as we do,” said Club Asteria Founder Andrea Lucas. “Basically, we want to eliminate poverty around the world by getting funds into the hands of those who need them the most.”

    Separately, the Asteria-Foundation.org domain claims the foundation uses a Hong Kong address, but a fax number associated with the entity uses an area code in Virginia.

    Earlier this year, Club Asteria encouraged members to spend money on the firm’s purported services and to work harder on recruiting as a means of helping earthquake victims in Japan.

    Borrego said today that people who wanted to donate money to the Red Cross could do so directly at the Red Cross website.

    Questionable entities trading on the name of the Red Cross “happens all the time” because of the power of the Red Cross name, Borrego said.

    In May, CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, opened a probe into claims made about Club Asteria. Club Asteria acknowledged that its PayPal account had been frozen, later saying the firm was experiencing a cash crunch.

    Club Asteria blamed members for the developments. The purported “opportunity” was widely promoted on boards associated with Ponzi schemes.

    Authorities in Virginia were checking this afternoon to determine if Club Asteria was registered to sell securities, the PP Blog has learned. Ponzi forum posters claimed Club Asteria paid out up to 10 percent a week before suspending cashouts earlier this year.

    The Asteria-Foundation.org website was registered on May 19, 2011.

    In the face of thousands of affiliate claims that Club Asteria was a “passive” investment program that provided a weekly payout, Club Asteria denied it was an issuer of securities.

  • INCREDIBLE: Month After Will Smith Debacle, Club Asteria Turns To Mahatma Gandhi To Drive Traffic — And Misspells Name Of Assassinated Champion Of Freedom While Turning Him Into A Pitchman; House Organ Also Includes Photo Of Richard Branson

    Last month, it was famed actor Will Smith. This month, it is Mahatma Gandhi, the civil-rights champion and beacon of freedom in India who was assassinated at a prayer meeting in 1948.

    After placing a “JOIN NOW” button under an image of Smith in its September house organ and later removing both the  image and a purported “interview” with Smith, Club Asteria has turned to Gandhi in its October issue.

    Although the promo features no image of Gandhi, it does include a quote attributed to him: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

    The promo misspells the slain leader’s last name, and a “JOIN OUR MISSION” button appears directly below the quotation, which appears on Page 37 of the October house organ.

    Club Asteria became a darling of the Ponzi boards earlier this year before slashing payouts and later eliminating them. Promos for the firm were banned in Italy, and Club Asteria acknowledged its PayPal account had been suspended.

    The developments were blamed on members.

    Club Asteria and thousands of its members have traded on the name of the World Bank. The firm announced a cash crisis in June, comparing the situation to a run on the bank.

    A spread on Pages 26 and 27 of the October Club Asteria house organ features a photo of famed entrepreneur Richard Branson posing with a group of mostly younger people. An accompanying story asserts that a group of Club Asteria members conversed with Branson at an entrepreneurial event in Richmond, Va., “a few weeks ago.”

    “Both Richard Branson and Club Asteria share a common link and that link is GRATITUDE,” the story claimed.

    The story appears to have been written by a Club Asteria staffer. A “JOIN NOW” button appears on Page 27, though not directly below the image of Branson.

    Ponzi forum boosters such as “Ken Russo” repeatedly sang the praises of Club Asteria.

    The PP Blog reported yesterday that a separate program promoted on the Ponzi boards — Just Been Paid — was using images of Oprah Winfrey to drive traffic. JustBeenPaid also is using images of Warren Buffett.

    In 2008, a “program” with the bizarre name of Cash Tanker used images of Jesus Christ in sales pitches. Cash Tanker ultimately tanked.

    Many of the “programs” on the Ponzi boards — Club Asteria, Just Been Paid and AdSurfDaily, for instance — have or had promoters and members in common. Promo posts for Cash Tanker appeared on the now-defunct, pro-ASD “Surf’s Up” forum, and Club Asteria executive Hank Needham has been linked to promo for ASD.

    The October 2011 Club Asteria house organ, which includes the Gandhi quote and attached  sign-up button and the image of Branson with a sign-up button on the same page, also features a photo of Needham. A button below the Needham photo reads, “ABOUT COURAGE.”

     

     

  • UPDATE: ‘JustBeenPaid’ Promos Trading On Name, Likeness Of Oprah Winfrey; ‘Click On The Oprah Banner Below,’ Ad Instructs

    Screen shot: Pitchmen now are trading on the name of Oprah Winfrey to hawk JustBeenPaid. The name and likeness of Warren Buffett also have been used in JustBeenPaid pitches, and Ponzi forum chatter also includes the name of Charlie Sheen.

    UPDATE: In addition to trading on the name of Warren Buffett, the JustBeenPaid “program” is trading on the name of entertainment icon and business titan Oprah Winfrey.

    Actor Charlie Sheen’s name also has been referenced in Ponzi forum chatter about JustBeenPaid, an “opportunity” whose braintrust once recruited members for Florida-based AdSurfDaily. ASD, according to the U.S. Secret Service, was operating a $110 million Ponzi scheme.

    YouTube recently has been deleting JustBeenPaid promos.

    JustBeenPaid became a darling of the Ponzi scheme boards earlier this year. The Winfrey development occurs against the backdrop on a September incident in which Club Asteria — another Ponzi board darling — published a likeness of actor Will Smith in a promo.

    Club Asteria later removed the image, which featured Smith’s likeness over a “JOIN NOW” button. It is common for schemes to plant the seed that a famous person or entity endorses a “program” — even when no such endorsement exists.

    Winfrey’s name and likeness repeatedly have been used by scammers to sanitize their fraud schemes, leading to litigation filed by Winfrey herself, the Federal Trade Commission and the attorney general of Illinois.

    “Click on the Oprah banner below,” a prompt for a current JustBeenPaid promo urges. A likeness of Winfrey appears below the prompt, which creates the appearance that she has endorsed the “program.”

    “The Profit Program for the Most Special Moneymakers!” the promo exclaims.

    When the image is clicked, a page for a JustBeenPaid affiliate loads.

    An appeal for visitors to join “OneX” appears on the same page that abuses Winfrey’s name and likeness. OneX and Club Asteria, which trades on the name of the World Bank, were among the “programs” pitched on the Ponzi boards by “manolo” earlier this year.

    In April, “manolo” used the name of JPMorgan Chase when pitching a “program” known as ThatFreeThing.

    In 2010, the DataNetworkAffiliates “program” linked to Phil Piccolo traded on the name of and likeness of Winfrey. Piccolo has been called the “one-man Internet crime wave.”

  • Image Of Famed Actor And Grammy-Winner Will Smith Appears In Club Asteria House Organ Just Above ‘JOIN NOW’ Button; No Immediate Comment From His Publicist

    "ABOUT US" and "JOIN NOW" buttons — each punctuated with exclamation points — appear below this image of actor Will Smith in Club Asteria's September 2011 house organ. The PP Blog has cropped this screen shot not to show Smith's face, but his face appears in the Club Asteria promo.

    UPDATED 1:47 P.M. EDT (U.S.A. OCT. 29, 2011.)  An image of famed actor and rapper Will Smith appears in Club Asteria’s September house organ, an online glossy used by the firm to recruit affiliates across the world. It was unclear if Smith had knowledge of the promo or had authorized Club Asteria to use his likeness.

    A link to the publication featuring the image of Smith appeared on the TalkGold Ponzi forum yesterday. TalkGold is referenced in federal court filings as a place from which international fraud schemes are promoted.

    Smith’s publicists at the 42West agency in Los Angeles had no immediate comment on the promo when contacted today by the PP Blog, which provided a link to the Club Asteria publication. The entertainer’s image appears on Page 7 of the September gusher.

    Buttons using the words “LEARN MORE!”  “ABOUT US! and “JOIN NOW!” appear a short distance below the image of Smith. But readers who press the buttons do not receive information about Smith. Rather, the buttons forward to Club Asteria’s website. The “JOIN NOW” button, for instance, takes readers to Club Asteria’s registration page.

    The presence of the image of Smith, the wording and design of the page and the positioning of the buttons lead to questions about whether the “Independence Day” and “Men in Black” star had endorsed the purported Club Asteria opportunity or whether Club Asteria was trying to create the impression among readers that he was a spokesman for the company.

    In May, Club Asteria promotions were banned in Italy by the Italian securities regulator CONSOB. The agency has published its orders and findings on Club Asteria affiliate websites in Italy.

    It is common for shady promoters of multilevel-marketing (MLM) “opportunities” to plant the seed in promos that a particular product or service is endorsed by a celebrity when no actual endorsement exists.

    A headline of “Will Smith Inspires the World With Enthusiasm for Life, Work & People!” appears above the image of Smith in the Club Asteria promo.

    A deck below the headline uses these words, “An Interview With Will Smith,” suggesting that Club Asteria itself had a direct connection to him. In a short blurb below the deck, readers are told that the “interview” and “discussion” with Smith will inform them about the wisdom he gained “throughout his journey to success” and that Smith will explain “the importance of extraordinary dreams.”

    A button to a video —  apparently one that appeared on YouTube and is being reframed inside the house organ — appears below the image of Smith. When clicked, the video loads footage of an interview with Smith conducted by 60 Minutes reporter Steve Kroft (NOTE: This paragraph was edited on Oct. 29, 2011, to reflect that Kroft, not Scott Pelley, conducted the 60 Minutes’ interview.) As the video proceeds, it loads footage of Smith being interviewed by broadcaster Charlie Rose. It then works in footage of a Smith interview on NBC’s Today show and a Smith interview on the “Ellen” show. Footage from other shows also are spliced into the video.

    Club Asteria reportedly recruited more than 300,000 members in a worldwide promotional blitz that traded on the name of the World Bank. Hundreds — if not thousands — of promos for the firm claimed Club Asteria was a program that provided a weekly return on investment of between 3 percent and 10 percent. The offers were targeted at the world’s poor, with Club Asteria positioned as a company that could lift them out of poverty.

    Club Asteria was widely promoted on forums associated with Ponzi schemes and the sale of unregistered securities. Members said Club Asteria first slashed weekly payouts to members in the spring and then eliminated them. Club Asteria announced in May that its PayPal account had been frozen, a development it blamed on members.

    In various promos prior to the PayPal freeze, Club Asteria affiliates preemptively denied Club Asteria was operating a Ponzi scheme. Club Asteria managing member Andrea Lucas, whom the World Bank said in March once held a staff position at the bank, last worked for the bank in 1986 — 25 years ago.

    Lucas was described in promos for Club Asteria as a former “Director,” chairman and vice president of the World Bank. Images of Hank Needham, another Club Asteria principal, appeared in 2008 promos for AdSurfDaily.

    In August of that year, the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from the personal bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin, alleging that he was presiding over an international Ponzi scheme.

    Bowdoin was arrested on criminal charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities in December 2010. His trial is pending. Like Club Asteria, ASD also was promoted on Ponzi boards such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup, which is listed in federal court filings as a place from which the alleged Pathway To Prosperity and Legisi Ponzi schemes were promoted.

    ASD, Pathway To Prosperity and Legisi created tens of thousands of victims globally and fraudulently obtained a combined total of about $250 million, according to court filings.