UPDATE 8:07 A.M. EDT (APRIL 4, U.S.A.)The report did not air during the 8 p.m. or 11 p.m. broadcasts, possibly because developments in other stories took precedence. Our April 3 story is below . . .
The Blog of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 is carrying this teaser today: “360 Wednesday[:] One of the biggest financial schemes in U.S. history went down in a small North Carolina town with many losing their life savings. Watch AC360 at 8 and 11 p.m. ET.”
In August 2012, the SEC called Zeek Rewards a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that had defrauded people by the hundreds of thousands. Zeek was operated by Paul R. Burks and Rex Venture Group LLC of Lexington, N.C.
CNN’s apparent airing of a segment on Zeek will occur against the backdrop of mysterious disappearance of the Profitable Sunrise “program,” which purported to pay out more on a daily basis than even Zeek. Zeek planted the seed that it paid out an average of 1.5 percent a day; the bizarrely named Profitable Sunrise “Long Haul” plan claimed it paid out 2.7 percent a day.
Some Zeek promoters also promoted ProfitableSunrise, which traded on Bible verse
Zeek also has promoters’ ties to the $119 million, 1-percent-a-day AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, which operated from the small town of Quincy, Fla., and purported to be a Christian enterprise. ASD collapsed after the U.S. Secret Service filed Ponzi allegations in 2008.
UPDATED 1:20 P.M. EDT (APRIL 4, U.S.A.) The court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme case has warned net winners that “the time for court action is drawing closer” and that “there is an opportunity for settlement.”
The time for court action is drawing closer. I am sending this message to make sure that net-winners understand that there is an opportunity for settlement, but that the window for the opportunity is closing. To allow a reasonable time for all those who would like to pursue a settlement to do so, I am going to continue to make my team available to negotiate settlements for at least 60 more days. Therefore, if net winners want to pursue a settlement they should contact us by no later than May 31, 2013. After that date, I will assume that all net-winners that want to avoid the legal process by discussing settlement have done so, and I will move forward with court action, likely in June 2013, against the remaining net-winners.
In August 2012, the SEC descibed Zeek as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme operated by Paul R. Burks through Rex Venture Group LLC. Based on the number of victims, Zeek may be the largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history.
Bell noted in the letter that he already has discussed settlements with a “number of net-winners” and that “we have successfully negotiated payments which will, subject to Court approval, result in the release of the Receiver’s claims against those winners.”
Some winners have received significant discounts, Bell said. But he noted that settlements depend on circumstances and that not all winners will get the same deal.
“The settlements take into account the amount of the affiliate’s winnings, the nature of their involvement and their involvement of others, their cooperation, their ability to repay the money (and the time period in which the repayment can reasonably be made) and other individual factors and circumstances,” Bell said in the letter. “The amounts of the settlements have ranged from approximately 40% to 80% of the affiliate’s net winnings. However, not all net winners have been or will be offered discounted settlements and the amounts of future settlements may vary from this range. The amount of the settlement offered to each net-winner will be based on the affiliate’s particular circumstances and ultimately must – in both my and the Court’s opinion – be in the overall best interests of the victims, considering the costs associated with the legal process.”
Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen of the Western District of North Carolina is presiding over the Zeek case.
Mullen’s name also was in the news last week as a result of a different government action that alleged fraud.
On March 27, the CFTC sought an asset freeze against James Harvey Mason of Graham, N.C., The JHM Forex Only Pool (JHM) and Forex Trading at Home (FTAH).
Mullen granted the freeze, amid CFTC allegations that Mason fraudulently solicited “at least $1.1 million from at least 60 individuals to participate in off-exchange foreign currency (forex) commodity pools and misappropriat[ed] at least $600,000 of participant funds.”
The Associated Press is reporting that Zeek Rewards operator Paul R. Burks claims that he is not at fault and that Zeek participants are to blame if they lost money.
From the AP (via Yahoo News/italics added):
“I never told anyone to invest more money than they could afford,” Burks snapped. “I didn’t tell them to do that. Never.”
He said if they lost money, “it’s their fault. Not mine. Don’t blame me.”
Zeek rose in part through promotions on well-known Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. In August, the SEC alleged that Zeek was a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme operating from Lexington, N.C. Court records suggest the SEC’s Zeek probe began at least in April 2012.
Serial hucksters on the Ponzi boards often rationalize Ponzi train wrecks by claiming that no one advised participants to spend more than they could afford to lose.
Convicted Ponzi schemer Dennis Bolze — one of the original so-called “mini-Madoffs” — tried a version of the “don’t invest more than you can afford to lose” rationalization in an unsuccessful bid to reduce his 27-year prison sentence for his brick-and-mortar scheme. A judge applied a sentencing enhancement in the Bolze case because senior citizens were among the victims.
Bolze used a similar argument for a sentencing reduction, asserting that his victims invested only “discretionary money.”
He further argued that age alone was not sufficient to justify the enhancement “and that the present poor financial condition of his victims is not relevant to whether they were unusually vulnerable at the time they invested their money with him,” according to the 6th Circuit.
Meanwhile, Bolze “denied that he forced anyone to invest” and claimed “that he did not know” certain investors “because his associate dealt with them.”
The panel rejected each of those arguments.
Burks, 66, has not been charged criminally. The SEC sued Burks and Zeek parent Rex Venture Group LLC last year.
Ponzi-board hucksters have promoted numerous Internet-aided scams. AdSurfDaily, a $119 million Ponzi scheme opearting from Florida, had a presence on the boards. So did Legisi, a $72 million Ponzi scheme operating from Michigan. So did Pathway to Prosperity, a $70 million scam alleged to have penetrated 120 countries. So did Imperia Invest IBC, a shadowy entity that stole millions of dollars by targeting people with hearing impairments.
The most recent Ponzi-board scam to make major news is Profitable Sunrise, another shadowy entity purportedly operated by “Roman Novak.” Profitable Sunrise purported to pay interest of 2.7 percent a day through its bizarrely named “Long Haul” plan targeted at Christians. Members were due a purported “Easter gift” on Monday, April Fool’s Day.
The Profitable Sunrise website has been missing for more than two weeks. At least 34 U.S. states or provinces in Canada have issued Investor Alerts or cease-and-desist orders against Profitable Sunrise. The United Kingdom and New Zealand also have issued warnings.
Research shows that Profitable Sunrise had members in common with ASD and Zeek.
“In examining these facts, the Receiver has determined that because the VIP Points aspect of the multilevel marketing program did nothing more than redistribute funds among Affiliates in Ponzi-scheme fashion, points generated and/or accumulated by Affiliates will not be an includable part of an Affiliate’s claim for purposes of receiving a distribution from the Receivership Estate. Including any of these points as part of any claim of an Affiliate would merely effectuate a continued redistribution of funds from later-investing Affiliates to earlier-investing Affiliates. In other words, these Retail Profit Points were an instrument for the perpetration of the Scheme and will, therefore, not be honored as claims by the Receiver. Instead, the Receiver will solely recognize the actual cash paid to ZeekRewards by or for the benefit of an Affiliate, not Retail Profit Points accumulated by such Affiliates that were ‘earned’ through the perpetration of the Scheme.” — Kenneth D. Bell, court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme case, March 29, 2012
In a Good Friday filing, the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi-scheme case has asked a federal judge to approve the claims process and a procedure by which claimants will be notified.
Receiver Kenneth D. Bell also asked Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen of the Western District of North Carolina to set a deadline for claims to be filed (the “bar date”).
The claims process is largely designed to be handled over the Internet because there may be more than 800,000 claimants, nearly all of whom had an existing electronic relationship with Zeek, Bell advised Mullen.
It is likely to be a bittersweet day for many Zeek affiliates. Some may be be happy because the approval motion means the receivership is advancing the ball down the field, meaning a key milestone has been met in the process of putting money back in victims’ hands. But it also may be a day that brings Zeek’s alleged fraud into fuller focus, causing winces among affiliates who trusted the “program” and their purported upline leaders.
Here is the wince — and it’s one that occurs in Ponzi scheme after Ponzi scheme carried out on the Internet:
Bell advised Mullen that claimants should not be compensated for Zeek’s so-called “Retail Profit Points” (RPP), saying the points “aspect of the multilevel marketing program did nothing more than redistribute funds among Affiliates in Ponzi-scheme fashion.”
And, Bell advised Mullen, “these Retail Profit Points were an instrument for the perpetration of the Scheme and will, therefore, not be honored as claims by the Receiver. Instead, the Receiver will solely recognize the actual cash paid to ZeekRewards by or for the benefit of an Affiliate, not Retail Profit Points accumulated by such Affiliates that were ‘earned’ through the perpetration of the Scheme.”
The process calls for affiliates to provide documentation of their claims. There will be a reconciliation process by which the cash outlay to Zeek will be balanced against the money affiliates may have received from Zeek, Bell advised Mullen.
Visit the receiver’s “Case Documents” page to read the motion to approve the claims process and other filings. (The approval motion is titled, “Receiver’s Motion for Order Seeking Approval of (1) Claims Process, (2) Setting of Bar Date, and (3) Certain Notice Procedures.”
Bell also published a “Letter from the Receiver” today. Read it here. (It is dated 3-29-13.)
In August 2012, the SEC described Zeek as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that had duped people into believing they were earning an average of 1.5 percent a day on their money legitimately.
It may be an especially introspective Easter weekend for some Zeek affiliates, given they also were involved with Profitable Sunrise, now the subject of Investor Alerts or cease-and-desist orders in at least 34 U.S. states or provinces in Canada. The United Kingdom and New Zealand also have issued warnings on Profitable Sunrise, whose website has gone missing.
“HYIPs use an array of websites and social media — including YouTube, Twitter and Facebook — to lure investors, fabricating a ‘buzz’ and creating the illusion of social consensus, which is a common persuasion tactic fraudsters use to suggest that ‘everyone is investing in HYIPs, so they must be legitimate.’” — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), July 15, 2010
FINRA issued a warning back in 2010 against HYIP schemes, pointing out that they often trade through social-media sites such as forums, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. The warning came on the heels of the collapse of the Genius Funds “program” ($400 million) and the filing of criminal charges in the United States against Nicholas Smirnow, an alleged former bank robber in Canada who allegedly was running the Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) Ponzi scheme. P2P is alleged to have gathered more than $70 million.
P2P even got a mention on the U.S. Department of Justice Blog. That mention came in the form of a warning about international mass-marketing fraud.
Nearly three years later, Smirnow, 55, is still listed by INTERPOL as an international fugitive.
So is Robert Hodgins, 68. Hodgins, a Canadian supplier of debit cards to HYIP schemes, is charged in a money-laundering case in the United States. It is alleged that cards Hodgins supplied were used by narcotics traffickers to offload millions of dollars in “profits” at ATMs in Medellin, Colombia.
Speaking of Colombia . . . well, it was one of the staging grounds of the infamous D.M.G. Group (DMG) multilevel-marketing pyramid scheme of David Eduardo Helmut Murcia Guzman (David Murcia). Murcia, too, was tied to narcotics traffickers. His collapsed pyramid scheme gathered hundreds of millions of dollars. The anger spilled out onto the streets.
Just about all of these schemes made absurd claims. Genius Funds, for example, promised a payout of 6.5 percent a week. Compare that absurd claim to the Profitable Sunrise claim of 2.7 percent a day through its bizarrely named “Long Haul” plan with a purported payout timed to coincide with Easter. A scheme bizarrely known as Cash Tanker was operating at the same time as Genius Funds. Like Profitable Sunrise, Cash Tanker purported to be a Christian enterprise. It’s gone now, too. So is Profitable Sunrise. Their members were cast into the sea like so much chum.
Enter the Facebook boat-sharks and the contemptible “lifelines” they’re tossing toward the people struggling to stay afloat in rough seas . . .
Despite all the warnings — despite all the publicity surrounding HYIP schemes — opportunists are descending on Facebook today to recruit Profitable Sunrise members (the people struggling in the water) into new scams. The same thing has happened repeatedly, perhaps most prominently in August 2012, after the SEC described the Zeek Rewards “program” as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme.)
Boat-sharks posting on a Profitable Sunrise Facebook site today are promoting schemes such as “SuperWithdraw,” “Whos12,” Maxi-Cash,” “FairyFunds,” “Roxilia,” “OptiEarn,” “AVVGlobal,” “ProForexUnion” and “MajestiCrown.” Some of the emerging schemes promise to pay even more than Profitable Sunrise.
You’ll see a reference to Randal Williams in this August 2011 PP Blog story about a scheme known as “Fast Profits Daily,” a cycler matrix pitched in part from the Ponzi boards. Fast Profits Daily had promoter ties to Jeff Long’s AutoXTen cycler matrix. Two of the infamous claims surrounding AutoXTen was that $10 could fetch $200,000 very quickly and that the “program” was suited for churches.
Long was fresh from the NarcThatCar and DataNetworkAffiliates MLM scams when AutoXTen was gaining a head of steam. (Memory Lane: DNA misspelled the name of its own departing CEO while at once claiming domain registration in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven.)
There is plenty of offshore intrigue in the developing stories about eAdGear/GoFunPlaces/Williams/JubiMax matters, too.
As for Fast Profits Daily? Well, it claimed that “ALL Purchases are FINAL and NO REFUNDS or CHARGEBACKS are allowed. Any attempts to acquire a refund or chargeback constitute theft and fraud, and are grounds for legal prosecution.”
Pardon us while we vomit as we remember recent MLM history and the interconnectivity of schemes and report on some new history in the making . . .
MLMers rushed to Profitable Sunrise, too. This they did both before and after after the August 2012 Ponzi complaint by the SEC against the Zeek Rewards “program.” And they did it after the attorney general of North Carolina issued a warning on “reload scams.”
The PP Blog yesterday sought comment from the Zeek Rewards receivership on the actions involving eAdGear, GoFunPlaces, Williams and JubiMax.
And it’s also because McGuireWoods, the law firm for the Zeek receivership, also is representing eAdGear and GoFunPlaces in their lawsuit against Williams and JubiMax and 100 “Does.” (It is not the Charlotte-based Zeek receivership suing Williams, JubiMax and the Does, it is Los Angeles-based attorneys from the same national law firm hired by the Zeek receiver.)
Whether Kenneth D. Bell, the receiver in the Zeek case, was aware of the McGuireWoods-managed lawsuits against Williams and JubiMax is unclear. The receivership did not immediately reply to emails seeking comment.
Also unclear is whether the lawsuits could pose any conflict for the receivership.
In the eAdGear/GoFunPlaces lawsuit against Williams/JubiMax, the firms raise the name of T. LeMont Silver in the body of the complaint.
Silver is a former Zeek pitchman who participated in a conference call with Zeek figure Robert Craddock to condemn the SEC and the receiver for their actions in the Zeek Ponzi case.
Meanwhile, former Zeek pitchman Gregory Baker also participated in conference calls with Craddock. After Zeek, Baker became a pitchman for GoFunPlaces.
UPDATED 11:39 A.M. EDT (MARCH 21, U.S.A.) RealScam.com reports that the DDoS attack is continuing, but that measures have been taken to restore accessibility. The site is back online. Here, below, our earlier story . . .
RealScam.com, a site that concerns itself with international mass-marketing fraud, is experiencing a DDoS attack, a source told the PP Blog this afternoon.
“We’re seeing what we can do about it,” the source said.
On the plus side, the source noted, the DDoS attack suggests RealScam is meeting its mission of informing the public about scams.
The attack is occurring against the backdrop of government actions against the Profitable Sunrise HYIP “program.” RealScam posters have been following Profitable Sunrise developments closely. Forum posters also are monitoring developments concerning “Banners Broker,” another mysterious online “program.”
Precisely why RealScam.com has been targeted is unclear. At least one purported member of Profitable Sunrise — writing on another site on Saturday — said he wished the hacker’s group “Anonymous” was paying attention to negative coverage of Profitable Sunrise on the web. The poster did not reference RealScam.com in his apparent call for a DDoS attack. Instead, he referenced another site carrying negative news about Profitable Sunrise.
The attack against RealScam.com also occurs against the backdrop of remarks in Washington today by Michael J. Bresnick, executive director of President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. In an address to the Exchequer Club of Washington, D.C., Bresnick referenced mass-marketing fraud.
“. . . the Consumer Protection Working Group has prioritized the role of financial institutions in mass marketing fraud schemes — including deceptive payday loans, false offers of debt relief, fraudulent health care discount cards, and phony government grants, among other things — that cause billions of dollars in consumer losses and financially destroy some of our most vulnerable citizens,” Bresnick said. “The Working Group also is investigating the businesses that process payments on behalf of the fraudulent merchants — financial intermediaries referred to as third-party payment processors.”
Both Profitable Sunrise and Banners Broker — like many purported “opportunites” before them — have relied on banks and payment processors to keep cash flowing to the schemes. Bresnick did not mention either company in his remarks.
“The reason that we are focused on financial institutions and payment processors is because they are the so-called bottlenecks, or choke-points, in the fraud committed by so many merchants that victimize consumers and launder their illegal proceeds,” Bresnick said. “For example, third-party payment processors are frequently the means by which fraudulent merchants are able to get paid. They provide the scammers with access to the national banking system and facilitate the movement of money from the victim of the fraud to the scam artist. And financial institutions through which these fraudulent proceeds flow, we have seen, are not always blind to the fraud. In fact, we have observed that some financial institutions actually have been complicit in these schemes, ignoring their BSA/AML obligations, and either know about — or are willfully blind to — the fraudulent proceeds flowing through their institutions.”
Despite the absurd payout advertised by Profitable Sunrise (and claims that Banners Broker doubles money), some Profitable Sunrise members have complained on forums about credit unions in North Carolina and Alberta that have raised serious questions about Profitable Sunrise, a “program” that advertised a “Long Haul” plan purported to pay 2.7 percent interest a day.
Zeek Rewards, which the SEC described in August 2012 as a $600 million Ponzi and pyramd scheme operating online, complained on its own Blog about credit unions raising questions about the Zeek “program.”
The SEC later said that Zeek scammed hundreds of thousands of people by duping participants into believing that the “program’s” payout of about 1.5 percent a day came from legitimate means.
UPDATED 12:46 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The evidence against AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming was “overwhelming” and led to the purported “sovereign citizen’s” conviction on three counts of retaliating against a federal official by filing false claims, one count of concealing a person from arrest and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, a federal judge wrote in court filings.
While making a veiled reference to the ASD Ponzi case brought by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008 in the District of Columbia, U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton of the Western District of Washington wrote in an order dated March 14 that evidence showed Leaming “admitted to filing liens against a group of federal officials for absurd sums, $225 billion in one case.”
“The only link any of these officials had to each other was their participation in the prosecution of a Ponzi scheme on the east coast,” Leighton wrote. “The evidence demonstrated that Defendant was ‘helping,’ as he put it, certain individuals who were aggrieved by the prosecution of the Ponzi scheme.”
Leighton’s order did not identify the individuals Leaming was said to he helping. The order was issued in response to a bid by Leaming, 57, to be acquitted post-verdict amid assertions the evidence against him was insufficient to sustain the convictions.
But Leaming, according to the order, “admitted on the stand that he knowingly possessed the firearms in question because he wanted to challenge the law at the Supreme Court.”
And, Leighton wrote, the evidence “overwhelmingly supported Defendant’s conviction of concealing a person from arrest. The Government established that Defendant knew certain individuals were sought in relation to a postal-scam, that Defendant allowed them to stay in his home, helped them trade cars, and otherwise supported them.”
Those individuals have been identified in court filings as onetime fugitives Timothy Shawn Donavan and Sharon Jeannette Henningsen of Arkansas. They were found with Leaming in Washington state in November 2011. Donavan and Henningsen later were convicted of mail fraud in a home-business caper that gathered more than $2 million, prosecutors said.
ASD was a $119 million Ponzi scheme opearting from Florida over the Internet. ASD’s business model was similar to the model of the Zeek Rewards “program,” which the SEC described in August 2012 as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme operating from North Carolina.
ASD and Zeek are known to have had members in common. Some ASD members said that Leaming was providing them counsel, despite the fact he is not an attorney.
The PP Blog reported in November 2010 that Cornell University Law School, Justia.com and Oyez.org removed online profiles of Leaming. The sites previously had listed Leaming as an attorney who practiced law and advertised a fee structure of up to $250 an hour from Spanaway, Wash.
Leaming was arrested by an FBI terrorism task force a year later in Spanaway.
Also see Nov. 13, 2010, PP Blog report on a disturbing email some ASD members received that asserted they could be sued for filing a remissions claim in the ASD Ponzi case.
In October 2011, the PP Blog reported than some ASD members had received an email that encouraged them to file documents at the “county” level and “name” federal officials as “thieves.”
Court filings suggest that Leaming already was under investigation by the FBI when some ASD members were trumpeting him as the answer to their problems.
This disturbing ad for Profitable Sunrise is targeted at residents of South Dakota.
UPDATED 8:52 A.M. EDT (APRIL 16, U.S.A.) See related stories here (April 1) and here (March 25).
EDITOR’S NOTE: These numbers are unofficial. They are culled from media reports and/or news releases from enforcement agencies. As the PP Blog reported yesterday, the Profitable Sunrise website appears to be down. The reason why is unclear, although there are Ponzi-forum reports that the “opportunity” is switching servers, perhaps to Hong Kong.
For background, consider that the Zeek Rewards “program” operating in North Carolina until the SEC filed a Ponzi action last year allegedly planted the seed that it provided a return of about 1.5 percent a day. The bizarrely named “Long Haul” plan of Profitable Sunrise — with its purported Easter payout — purported to pay 2.7 percent a day. Indeed, the HYIP Ponzi universe has served up another doozy. Some of the Stepfordian promoters appear to have no concern at all that such “programs” undermine faith in legitimate markets and raise serious concerns about both national and international security. As noted below, HYIP “programs” are known to trade on themes of religion, patriotism and doing what’s best for a community. Despite all the fluff, the reality is that the “programs” are dangerous. Period.
Current count of state/provincial actions or investor alerts against Profitable Sunrise: 20. (Now 35, with March 15 additions of South Carolina, Alaska, Maryland, Maine, the March 18 addition of New Jersey, the March 19 additions of Louisiana and Tennessee, the March 21 additions of Oregon and Missouri, the March 25 addition of New Hampshire and the March 28 addition of West Virginia. The District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.) issued a warning on March 19. It was added to this list on March 27. Georgia issued a cease-and-desist order on March 14. It was added to this list on March 27. Idaho issued an Investor Alert on April 15. It was added to this list on April 16. Manitoba, in Canada, issued an alert on March 15. It was added to this list on March 21.)
In Canada: New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba.
In the United States: Kentucky, Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, Nevada, Minnesota, California, Indiana, New Mexico, Texas, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alaska, Maryland, Maine, New Jersey, Louisiana, Tennessee, Oregon, Missouri, New Hampshire, District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.), Georgia, West Virginia, Idaho.
Regulators in New Zealand (FMA) and the United Kingdom (FSA) also have issued warnings against Profitable Sunrise.
Here’s a sampling of what securities officials are saying:
From the office of David Goodman, director of the Ohio Department of Commerce (italics/bolding added):
The Division is concerned that these businesses could be targeting religious-based organizations. The company’s website includes Bible quotations and options for donating investment returns to charity. The website also describes various investment plans that claim to offer returns between 288% and 648% for investment periods between 180 days and 240 days. The website claims the investments are “risk-free” with “no chance of default” and provides short-term business loans in the United States.
The website also includes apparent traits of a pyramid scheme. It provides details about a “referral program” where individuals can become regional representatives for an investment group. The regional representatives are offered five percent commissions from those who join the referral program under that representative’s name.
From the Florida Office of Financial Regulation (OFR):
To attract interest in its investment offerings, Profitable Sunrise and its sub-companies may be attempting to exploit investors’ religious affinities. The organization is believed to be engaged in a marketing campaign which makes conspicuous use of biblical quotations.
From the Division of Securities at the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (DFI):
Investors in other states were informed that their money would be used to fund short-term loans to businesses and that “all funds deposited with (Profitable Sunrise) are insured against loss” by a leading investment bank. Investors were instructed to wire money to financial institutions in Eastern Europe, including one bank that was located in the Czech Republic.
From the office of Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller:
Securities officials are also concerned that the company is using a related website for the “Profitable Sunrise Team” to entice people to bring in additional investors for a commission. Secretary Miller cautions Nevada residents that “investment products must be registered or exempt from registration to be sold in Nevada, and generally those selling an investment must be licensed.”
There have also been reports that Profitable Sunrise has directed investors to wire transfer funds to a bank in the Czech Republic. Secretary Miller warns investors that it can be extremely difficult for an investor to recoup funds invested through banks in foreign countries.
From the New Brunswick Securities Commission:
Investors are warned not to send money to an offshore company called Profitable Sunrise, an entity that claims to provide high-yield investments through short-term bridge loans to businesses. The New Brunswick Securities Commission is issuing this warning following similar warnings by several Canadian and American securities regulators.
From the office of Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson. (Editor’s note: Indiana officials are describing some of the Profitable Sunrise talking points used to disarm skeptical investors. Scams often trade on patriotic themes and claims that investors are helping drive the economy. The AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme (and many others) have used similar talking points):
Profitable Sunrise founder, Roman Novak, states that the investment model is based on providing short-term loans to small businesses throughout the United States. Profitable Sunrise makes investments attractive by not only touting risk-free, high returns but also by stating that by helping these United States companies, investors are also helping revitalize the national economy and create more desperately needed jobs in the United States.
From the office of Minnesota Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman:
Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman ordered Profitable Sunrise and its operators, Roman Novak and Radoslav Novak, and Minnesotans William Nilsson (a/k/a Chad Nilsson) and Casey Dorian, today to cease and desist from selling securities in the State of Minnesota.
The Minnesota Department of Commerce, in conjunction with 19 jurisdictions throughout the United States and Canada, took coordinated action against Profitable Sunrise, an international entity allegedly operating an internet scheme to defraud investors. The Commerce Department’s investigation found that two individuals in Minnesota, Chad Nilsson and Casey Dorian, were allegedly participating in the investment scheme, currently soliciting investors but are not licensed to sell securities in the state.
(Editor’s Note: When the SEC moved in August against the alleged $600 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid scheme, the state of North Carolina warned about “reload scams.” Chad Nilsson may not have gotten the message, something that’s not unusual in the world of MLM. From WhoIsChadNilsson.com: “Of course we are all waiting patiently for our Zeekler Refunds, but now, in the meanwhile, there is a company out that is better than Zeek Rewards every [sic] was! A six year old company has just launched a new program that is even better. They are paying 2.15 percent daily and you can pull your profit out every day if you want, right from day one. If you were to put $200.00 into this new program, in 170 business days, your money would have grown to $7500.00!)
See this story/comments thread for more info on actions/alerts against Profitable Sunrise.
UPDATED AT 10:40 A.M. ET (U.S.A.) A member of the “Banners Broker” program tells The Bristol Post that he used a prepaid Banners Broker MasterCard at a NatWest ATM to withdraw £600 and that a counterfeit £20 note was in the stack of cash dispensed by the machine.
The plan, Paul Scoplin reportedly told the paper, was to withdraw the cash at NatWest and then to deposit it into an HSBC account — but the plan didn’t go swimmingly.
“I took the cash over to HSBC straight away and they flagged up one of the notes,” he reportedly told the paper.
NatWest is investigating the note, according to The Post.
Banners Broker is a “program” that gained a head of steam in part from ceaseless promotions on Ponzi-scheme boards such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. Members are complaining about not getting paid and suggesting that Banners Broker is making selective payouts to sustain a fraud scheme.
Whether Scoplin’s reported claim that counterfeit currency somehow made its way into a NatWest machine would result in additional scrutiny of the Banners Broker “program” was not immediately clear.
In June 2012, the PP Blog reported that a site purportedly selling “customers” to members of the Zeek Rewards “program” also was pushing traffic to Banners Broker and JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, the bizarre, 730-percent-a-year “program” purportedly operated by Frederick Mann.
JSS/JBP may have ties to the “sovereign citizens” movement.
In August 2012, the SEC described Zeek as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme operating online. JSS/JBP then morphed into a “program” known as “ProfitClicking,” amid reports of the sudden retirement of Mann. But now Mann, a former pitchman for the AdSurfDaily online Ponzi scheme, is back — this time as a pitchman for a “program” known as “ClickPaid.”
When Mann spoke during a recent ClickPaid conference call, the VOX identifier displayed the name “J. J. Ulrich” when Mann was speaking. Ulrich was associated with ProfitClicking, which has led to questions about whether Mann and Ulrich simply were extending an online fraud that started with JSS/JBP.
The presence of the various “programs” on forums linked to Ponzi schemes has led to questions about whether banks and payment processors are coming into possession of funds tainted by fraud. The “programs” are known to have promoters in common.
Zeek Rewards likely had a presence in all 50 U.S. states, plus U.S. territories. The High Point Enterprise, a publication in Zeek’s home state of North Carolina, today has a story about a Utah man who joined the “program” just prior to the SEC bringing allegations in August 2012 that Zeek was a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme.
From the Enterprise (italics added):
During recruitment meetings at a house in Richfield, Olsen said he was approached with a soft-sale pitch to become part of Zeek Rewards. Olsen was told that his $10,000 “would build my credit in the business” and allow him to reap greater income. The recruitment of Olsen took place over a period of months, and the approach was to build a relationship of trust rather than “twist my arm,” he said. The Zeek Rewards affiliates that Olsen met emphasized that the money he provided wasn’t an investment. But when the Securities and Exchange Commission shut down Zeek Rewards, the federal agency called it an unregistered securities business.
“They said that they would be in trouble if they called it investing,” Olsen recalls.
Read the full story in the Enterprise, which described Olsen as an individual who’d just lost his job and discussed a plan with his wife by which the couple would sell a family vehicle to join Zeek.
EDITORIAL NOTE: Ponzi schemes cause real pain to real people. Regardless, the Ponzi-board apologists for Zeek continue to demonize the court-appointed receiver, continue to engage in wordplay to sanitize “opportunities” and continue to fuel schemes such as Zeek by parroting disclaimers such as “don’t spend more than you can afford to lose.”
Blaming victims or insisting no victims exist is one of the most odious practices of the serial Ponzi pitchmen.
UPDATE 8:07 A.M. EDT (APRIL 4, U.S.A.) The report did not air during the 8 p.m. or 11 p.m. broadcasts, possibly because developments in other stories took precedence. Our April 3 story is below . . .
