UPDATED BREAKING NEWS: US SEC Charges WCM777 and Phil Ming Xu with multiple Violations, 54 accounts frozen

The hammer finally dropped:

The SEC alleges that three entities collectively operating under the business names WCM and WCM777 are posing as multi-level marketing companies in the business of selling third-party cloud computing services, which can include website hosting, data storage, and software support.  The entities are based in California and Hong Kong and controlled by “Phil” Ming Xu, who is a resident of Temple City, California.  

According to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in Los Angeles, WCM and WCM777 have raised more than $65 million since March 2013 by falsely promising tens of thousands of investors that the return on investment in the cloud services venture would be 100 percent or more in 100 days.  Investors were told they would receive “points” for making investments or enrolling other investors.  The points would be convertible into equity in initial public offerings of high-tech companies their money would help launch.  However, rather than building out cloud services or incubating high-tech companies, Xu and the WCM entities used investor funds to make Ponzi payments of purported investment returns to some investors.  They also spent investor money to purchase golf courses and other U.S.-based properties among other unauthorized expenditures.

There are, currently, no mention of the various reincarnations, such as Kingdom777, Global Unity, or Visinova, or other colleagues such as Harold Zapata and and "Tiger" Liu.

Here's Reuter's report  http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/03/28/sec-pyramidscheme-cloudcomputing-idINL1N0MP1J820140328

MLM Skeptic is among the first to investigate the WCM777 scam and the reach of such scam is truly staggering. Please check  the WCM777 tag for previous efforts.

UPDATE: PatrickPretty.com reported that at least 54 different financial accounts have been frozen, and Ming Xu have attempted to put proxies and cronies to lead the companies, but in reality he maintained control. Receiver has been appointed and any and all affiliates and associates are warned NOT to destroy records or you can be charged with contempt of court and/or obstruction of justice.

Accounts have been frozen by SEC in Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Comerica, Merrill Lynch, HSBC, E*Trade, JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, East West Bank, and American Continental.

Scam Psychology: Can Your Spot Your Own Self-Delusions?

Huff-Post has a great short article on 5 self-delusions you need to spot in yourself.

Right there at #3 is "money for nothing". That is the heart of all money scams.

Read it. Learn from it. 

BREAKING NEWS: Uganda Warns of TelexFree pyramid scheme

Uganda news New Vision published an opinion / editorial by a member of the President's office: TelexFree is a scam, do not join.

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/653880-beware-of-telexfree-operations.html

The website was hit hard for 24 hours and the text was unreadable until recently, by either frantic people trying to read it, or deliberate attack to prevent the warning from being read.

Do NOT join TelexFree anywhere. If you are in, get out ASAP.

Scam Absurdities: Non-US Scams Posing as American Businesses

It is not uncommon for a scammer to pretend to be what he's not, and the recent make of "The Great Gatsby" is one such tale. In the Scamworld, many such emerging players are from outside the US, and in order to look more legitimate, they will often pretending to be Americans or Europeans, or have fake company executives that have generic American or European names, and/or even hire an American or European "mercenary" COO as a figurehead. They will often appear in the company as themselves, albeit of a lower position than they actually are.

One such player is Tarun Trikha (aka Parun Trika) of TVI Express, arrested in India in April 2013, and have not been heard since. MLM Skeptic was one of the first in the West to identify Tarun Trikha as the *real* head of TVI Express, despite he claiming to be merely a top seller. TVI Express claims to have "admiral", "vice admiral" as top leaders with generic "white guy" names such as "Bill Cooper" or "Eric Taylor". You can find a profile of TVI Express here.

(TVI Express itself spawned many clones, most of which had already been shut down, or are under investigations around the world.)

MLM and SCAM NEWS 24-MAR-2014: WCM777 evil spawn, NuSkin Fined in China, KaratBars Warning in Canada

Three bits of scam and MLM related news...

Is Phil Ming Xu Still Involved in Global Unity Despite Tweeting He Got Out?

Phil Ming Xu, who had previously claimed he's no longer involved in WCM 777, Kingdom 777, or Global Unity (or Qianxi, or whatever name they changed to) on Twitter, may have been play word games, according to BehindMLM. A blog in Germany stated outright that Global Unity's "product line" called "Vizinova", is founded by none other than Phil Ming Xu, and has a similar investment structure: put in money, get lots of money out later.

See BehindMLM for details.