USFIA Update: What was USFIA doing before Gemcoin? Exactly the same thing... selling promises of amber

Previously, we have established that the Arcadia based USFIA is the SAME "American Mining" scam that plagued China in 2014, and was destroyed in multiple raids in China as of June 2014. Its head in China, Ho Peng, was arrested in Hunan. The initial reporting agency, Changde police, even went to Thailand to arrest two that escaped there in November 2014.

USFIA had since published disclaimer that they never endorsed the company name being used for illegal purposes and basically disowned Ho Peng. 

But let us examine... Was USFIA doing anything different then vs. now? What was USFIA doing before 2015?

Here's the earliest mention of USFIA 美洲矿业... in California.

ChineseinLa.com classified ad in Chinese: American Mining needs gem commerce reps, dated 06-SEP-2013
They need reps to join US and Chinese markets, no requirements other than speak clearly and be nice

Note that they were looking for 加盟商 / Franchisee (30 of these), and 業務代表 / business rep.

Selling what? Gemstones? Or protoshares of whatever USFIA offers? Interesting, as we have no record of this.

What we *do* know is by March 2014, reps have indeed reached China, and is attracting official attention, because they do *not* have a direct sales license in China. So the reps all lied, claiming "it's coming soon". They attracted enough attention in Liaoning that local newspaper wrote an article on them, leading them to clear out overnight.

And this is their comp plan:

• Invest $1000, $2000, $5000, $10000, or $20000, get "merchandise" and "business center", plus $100 yearly "maintenance fee". 
• Get referral bonus (8% to 15% depending on how big the package your referral bought) 
• Get Leadership bonus (get referral bonus of your upline and downlines down 3 generations)
• Get Passive Monthly bonus (refer 1, get 1.75 shares, refer 2 get 2 shares)
• Management monthly bonus (if you got 2 downlines who brought in 300K each (10000 USD = 1 point, so 30 pts) you get 20000 that month, and it goes up from there. 
• Autoship bonus -- get a share of downline's purchases, if they maintain minimum of $100 per month, going down 12 generations
• Travel bonus and Car bonus

Let's keep this in mind while we check into a bit of history. 

First, let us examine the an old Chinese news on sina.com.cn, reposting news from Hunan Daily:

hunan.sina.com news of 12-NOV-2014, reporting arrest by Changde police
in Thailand regarding the USFIA "American Mining" scam

The part I highlighted in blue is:

据常德市公安局透露，2013年10月，黑龙江人陆巍加入陈力、所罗门杨等人在美国洛杉矶设立的传销组织“美洲矿业”，并成为其在中国地区的传销组织领导人之一。“美洲矿业”在北京、新疆、湖南等地以投资琥珀期权、原始股为名，大肆招募会员。他们将其所销售的劣质琥珀冒充多米尼加蓝珀欺骗会员，还多次以“美洲矿业”之名，在中国举办传销宣传聚会。

Which translates to:

According to Changde Ministry of Public Security, Mr. Lu Wei (from Heilongjiang) joined in October 2013 the pyramid sales organization "American Mining" (USFIA) established in US Los Angeles by Chen Li and Solomon Yang, and became one of pyramid sales leaders in the China region. "American Ming" (USFIA) recruited heavily in Beijing, Xinjiang, and Hunan using the promise of profit from investments in amber options as well as protostocks. They used bad quality amber to pass for Dominican blue amber and defrauded the members, and several times used "American Mining" (USFIA) name to hold pyramid sales promotion and recruitment meetings in China. 

Li Chen (i.e. Chen Li 陳力）is Steve Chen, head of USFIA, UCCA, AFG, and so on and so forth. 

Thus, there is absolutely NO DOUBT this is the same organization, same head, same company. Arcadia is a suburb of Los Angeles. In fact, some Spanish speakers are known to have mistaken John Wuo, then mayor of Arcadia, as "mayor of Los Angeles". Tsk tsk tsk, can't they even check Wikipedia?

USFIA posted an announcement dated June 2014 that Ho Peng was a rogue operator and the company disclaimed any and all relations with him. Then in late 2014 they launched Gemcoin, allegedly "backed by amber". 

Frankly, this already smells like "same wine, new bottle", but let's make absolutely sure... what was AFG / USFIA / WHATEVER doing BEFORE the crackdown in China? 

Here is an video found on Tudou (Chinese Youtube), believed to have been uploaded by a Spanish affiliate of USFIA back around February or March 2014, of their visit to AFG/USFIA HQ in Arcadia California. And they were speaking Spanish, not Chinese. As Chinese New Years decorations are still in display this can't be much later than March, and it was showing AFG, so this is before the introduction of Gemcoin. The video was then reuploaded to China's Tudou by a USFIA affiliate in China who added an overlay for his own website (no longer in service).

AFG / USFIA lobby, circa approx. March 2014. Note this is pre Gemcoin, and around Chinese New Years

And just for comparison, this is USFIA lobby now:

Seems they replaced the back sign to say AFG / Gemcoin, but kept some of those Chinese lanterns in the back. But there's no doubt it's the same desk, same lobby.

NOTE: Following video uses the EMBED tag. If that doesn't work, use this link

Synopsis: The member, identified at the end as linked to "EdgarMotta.com", was lead around by two "great leaders", the male was "Geraldo" (Campos?), female was not identified. They were showing U-S-fia, which is obviously USFIA. They walked through the banquet room, then the amber showroom, with claims that some are million of years old, another claimed one of the amber there is worth millions. They also claimed that owner has owned mines in DR for years. Geraldo wanted people to join as fundadores, or "founders" (which may be referring to the protostocks).  Then they showed off leader "Aida", "practically a millionaire", Colombia? One door says "Great Eastern Immigration Services", where Geraldo claimed to provide EB-5 investment immigration visas. Another office was for Amauction but that was glossed over. Geraldo claimed that the main conference room was used to received President of China and President Obama. Geraldo then walked the group upstairs, to the real estate section of the business, with the plans of the houses and so on. Geraldo piled on 'these are the houses of your dreams' and so on. They even showed off the Quail Ranch Golf Club (closed) as "for members". Then they showed off the classrooms and conference rooms. The guy ended by emphasizing the thing is 100% legal, profitable and is the dream of various families to get ahead.

Just to reiterate the players:

Geraldo (surname unknown)

Geraldo, Spanish speaking leader of USFIA

Geraldo's fellow saleslady, name unknown

Spanish speaking leader of USFIA, name unknown

"Aida" 

Aida, "almost millionaire" in USFIA, maybe linked to Colombia

and finally, "Edgar Motta"

Edgar Motta, was from Colombia, now resides in Miami FL

Checking Google revealed that Edgar Motta was indeed in USFIA, as he used to have a Facebook avatar that shows this:

Google Cache of Edgar Motta's Facebook Avatar (no longer active)

Although his current avatar shows he's moved on to "TLC" a nutritional MLM. On the other hand, the picture is still available elsewhere:

Photo on USFIA Mundial, Motta sitting in USFIA's conference room CEO seat

Which Linked us to a Google + Group called USFIA Mundial. (USFIA World).

Promo slide on USFIA Mundial's website. 

And here is him showing off with "Rodrigo Meza" in the USFIA offices, which is, of course, also the offices of UCCA, as shown behind them:

Since the lobby still says AFG (between them in front of the entrance) this is in 2014 before Gemcoin. It is also interesting to note that the photos shared in the G+ group has NO mention of HOW the money's made, just that "amber is certified", and this company will help you live your dream of living in the US with your family to earn money and join a legal opportunity if you join (his) team. 

Please note that Motta was mentioning "founders" in the video, which means investing. USFIA is NOT registered investment with the SEC. Some of the real estate REITs may be, but not USFIA. No mention of Gemcoin at all. The whole video is a feel good piece, about how real the company is, how big, how solid, how diversified, how your money will be secure, how families will be helped, blah blah blah.

Makes you wonder why there is absolutely NO MENTION of USFIA on his webpage and Youtube channel, hmmm? Even this video was copied and uploaded by somebody to China's Tudou, not the US.

Seems even they realized they joined a scam, doesn't it?

But that's actually besides the point. Now, remember I've shown you the comp plan for the OLD USFIA, as used in China. Remember?

So what's USFIA's comp plan now? BehindMLM has a full com plan, but let me give you the summary:

• Invest $1000, $2000, $5000, $10000, or $30000 of Gemcoins (0.05 cents each)
• Get referral bonus (flat 10% commission for each package)
• Get additional commision bonus down 12 levels
• Leadership bonus (if you recruit 7 affiliates, or recruited 2 who each brought in 2 more, you get 100% match of their upline's "binary" earnings)
• Get residual / binary commission depending on amount put in, from 8 to 15%
• Get matching bonus going down 3 levels on the binary bonus
• Management Monthly Income star system
• Travel bonus and Car bonus based on binary earnings over 3 consec cycles

As you can see, this is SUBSTANTIALLY the same comp plan that was busted in China, with only MINOR variations, like flat 10% instead of varies between 8-15%, and so on.

USFIA's model never changed. It has always been "invest in the company, get a share of our amber profits". After they got busted in China, they added a layer of Gemcoin, so it's now "invest in Gemcoin (owned by the company), get a share of our amber profits."

In China they've already been accused of using lousy amber to pass for DR blue amber by the authorities. I seriously doubt they would have reformed much.

Beware. The real insiders already quit. Solomon Yang is no longer with the company. These Spanish speaking guys appear to be gone too. That's why they're sending the black dude Johnson out and going after new markets... like the Chinese American market in US and Canada, and European market, where they hopefully don't read Chinese news.

But now you know the truth. Use it wisely. 

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