Can you trust this new company called TresMore? Investigation Part 1

Recently, MLMSkeptic came upon something called TresMore. It sparked my interest because it is heavily marketed toward Asians, with a Chinese name 特利多 (te-li-duo, lit: special profit plenty) and websites in Taiwan, China, and even Malaysia, this thing was basically promising $$$$ for merely shopping, which, as you can imagine, can't possibly work. The premise of paying 20% of retail value just to get your shopping data makes absolutely no sense! Even supermarkets and such don't give you 20%... more like... 2% and coupons.

In fact, this is almost an exact clone of a suspect scheme call Saivian. You can do research on that yourself. Or just read the BehindMLM review.

Researching Tresmore

First, let's look up Tresmore.com  Wow, all these "business partners", eh?

Screencap of Tresmore.com  official Tresmore website. Claims all these
 are business partners. But which ones are real, and which ones are fake? You may be
surprised at the results, once we do a little research, and you can verify for yourself. 

But which one is real? And which ones are pretenders? Let's look a little closer.

TresMore address is 3235 Satellite Blvd, Ste 290, Duluth, GA 30096

That means they rent an office from that building. Suite 290, remember?

Now let's look up their corporate info via Georgia State Website  https://ecorp.sos.ga.gov/BusinessSearch

Registered 3/11/2017 by Chae Chang, why 290B vs 290?
What about filing history?

Well, there is a Tresmore LLC... registered March 2017 by a Chae Chang. Hmmm...  However, if you go into filing history and access the company formation papers, you'll see another name, Sang Lee.

Two people responsible, a Chae Chang, and a Sang Lee, for Tresmore. 

Let's go down the list. So what is EsolutionTG? (item 1)

What you can learn from the EuroFX scam that targetted Chinese victims

EuroFX is supposedly a forex trading company that started in 2012, has 13 year experience, and promised fat returns. It was shut down as a pyramid scheme in China in 2014, with possibly tens of thousands of victims that spread from the US to Phillippines, with possible amounts exceeding 2 billion USD.

What's interesting is the scope of the fraud: this involved Britons, Aussies, Singaporeans, and possibly more, with possible fake names and dozens of companies registered in UK and New Zealand and Australia.

The alleged head was a Briton by the name of David Byrne, and they promise returns of 6 -16% PER MONTH if you can invest up to 250K.  He presented himself as either CEO or Acting CEO. However, when investors caught up with him later after EuroFX's collapse, he claimed either he was only onboard for less than a year, or he's only "consultant CEO".

Whether David Byrne was guilty of collusion was NOT the issue. It's the matter of perception.


Myth: Companies registered in the UK are required to follow all UK law. 

Reality: Companies registered in the UK, but not sell to UK citizens, are NOT governed by UK law. In other words, a UK registered company can cheat and scam non-UK people, and UK law enforcement can do NOTHING about it.

That's what happened in EuroFX, were ActionFraud, the UK fraud hotline, received multiple tips about EuroFX, and even investigated, but ultimately determined that it is NOT within UK jurisdiction as it sold nothing to UK residents and citizens.

Basically, UK biz registration is worthless.

Not that you can rely on just a biz registration to determine if a business is legit any way.

But the point that companies can hire temporary CEOs is the other thing to take away... the alleged CEO is just a part of marketing.


Also see following links:

http://fortune.com/2016/08/13/eurofx-pyramid-scheme-china/

https://atozforex.com/news/why-the-west-ignores-british-ponzi-schemes/

http://eurofxvictim.weebly.com/ (Chinese/English site set up by victims to preserve evidence)

Another article of how WCM got smashed in China (AGAIN), translated

Previously #MLMskeptic translated the article from LegalDaily.com.cn about how WCM got smashed. This time we're translating a different article of the same event, with additional details.

http://tech.ifeng.com/a/20160514/41608055_0.shtml

海归硕士开空壳公司 以“虚拟货币”连环套诈骗数亿

Master Degree Open Shell Companies, "Cryptocurrency" Scammed Hundreds of Millions

2016年05月14日 08:17  14-MAY-2016 08:17来源：澎湃新闻 作者：邢丙银   Source: Pengpai News  Author: Xing Bing

2015年5月，广东肇庆市公安局鼎湖分局经侦大队接群众谢某报案称：其听信嫌疑人梁某花之言，以26000元的价格购买了万通奇迹社交资本云计算平台（以下简称“万通奇迹”）套装产品。开通万通卡成为会员后申请提现，原本每天可分红32美元，但至今未收到分红款项，本金也无法退回。

In May 2015, Zhaoqing City, Dinghu Branch, Economic Investigation Unit (EIU from now on), in Guangdong province received report from citizen Xie, who claimed that he was fooled into believe a Ms. Liang and purchased several Wantong Miracle  (WM from now on) Suites for 26000 RMB, received the WM card, and was supposed to receive daily profit of 32 USD, but so far received nothing, and there's no sign of his original investment.

经广东省公安厅经侦总队组织广州、深圳、肇庆三市警方同时开展行动，一起未经有关部门批准，假借投资原始股权理财、电子商务等新概念，以承诺还本付息来吸引公众投资的特大非法吸收公众存款案由此揭开。

With economic investigation unit of three cities: Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Zhaoqing cooperating, they revealed a huge illegal securities crime, that never was approved or licensed by authorities, and uses buzzwords such as protoshare investment product, e-commerce, and so on, with promises of huge profits.

近日，深圳市公安局经侦支队向澎湃新闻透露，这起案件涉及全国28个省147个县市区5800多名投资人，涉案金额数亿元。目前该案在进一步侦办中。

Recently, Shenzhen EIU told Penpai News that this scam has victims in 28 provinces, 147 jurisdictions, and over 5800 victims, with amount of scam in the hundreds of millions of RMB. Investigation is ongoing.

办案民警介绍，2013年5月，万通奇迹系列融资产品由所谓某投资银行控股集团董事长徐某、CEO刘某及执行董事徐某忠、“金融学家”孙某等人策划成立。
Police investigator said in May 2013, WM series of securities was established by Mr. Xu, president of some investment bank holding group, a Mr. Liu, CEO, an executive director Mr. Xu something Zhong, and a "financial scholar" Mr. Sun

轻信万通奇迹投资收益高被套牢
Belief in WM Investment Profit, Ensnared in Trap


湖南长沙的陈女士是万通奇迹的投资者之一。2013年9月，好友陈某芬告知她称，有一个叫万通的公司发布了万通奇迹系列产品，投资收益高，让她了解一下。

Ms. Chen of Changsha, Hunan province, was an investment in WM. In September 2013, a friend Chen (something) Fang told her that this Wantong (WT from now on) company released a series of WM products, promised huge profits if invested. Asked her to look into it.

随后，陈女士在网上查询了有关万通公司老总徐某的资料。“网上的徐某是天使投资人，作为投资银行的董事，曾帮助7家中国公司在国外上市。”

Later, Ms. Chen searched the boss of Wantong, a Mr. Xu online. "Xu, online, is an angel investor, CEO of an investment bank, helped 7 Chinese companies get listed in foreign exchanges."

陈女士信以为真，加入了一个万通奇迹的QQ群，看到有消息称万通公司将于2013年11月在深圳举行招商会，禁不住诱惑的她从长沙赶到深圳参会。

Ms. Chen believed all these to be true, and joined a WM related QQ Chat group, and learned of a recruiting meeting held by Wantong in Shenzhen coming in November 2013. Unable to resist, she went to Shenzhen to attend the meeting.

据其回忆，当天有几百人参会，万通公司的执行董事周某口若悬河，描绘了一番美好前景，并回答了参会人员的提问。

Based on memory, there were hundreds of people there. Wantong's executive direct, Mr. Zhou, promised the sun and the moon, described a bright future, and answered all of the questions from the attendants.

“投资13000元，每天收益近100元，收益挺高。”会后不久，陈女士即出资39000元买了三套万通奇迹WCM705（每份1999美元）产品。

"If I invest 13000, I can profit 100 per day, that's very high profit." Not long after the meet, Ms. Chen bought in with 39000 RMB and bought three of the WM suite called "WCM705", at $1999 USD each.

陈女士介绍，万通奇迹系列套餐有5种投资金额，分别为399美元、799美元、1999美元、1599美元和1999美元，金额不同每日分红也不同。如购买一套1999美元产品，每日可分红16个电子币，相当于16美元。

Ms. Chen explained that WM suite has 5 amounts: $399, $799, $999, $1599, and $1999. Daily profit is dependent on the amount invested. For the $1999 suite, daily share is 16 E-points, worth 16 USD.

购买万通奇迹产品后，陈女士还在万通公司网站注册成为会员，登陆后可浏览个人资料及账户上的电子币。最初她还能正常提现，不料没几日，提现就出了问题。

After the purchase of these suites, Ms. Chen registered in WM website, and can view her account and accumulated e-points, and even cash out at the beginning, but soon, cashing out became a problem.

“先是被拖延，后来干脆就不能提现了，2014年4月，连网站都打不开了。”陈女士遂询问好友陈某芬的上线王某波，但对方也没说出个所以然来。

"First it was delays, then later all cashing out was stopped. By April 2014, the entire website is gone." Ms. Chen asked her friend's upline, a Mr. Wang (something) Po, but he had no explanation.

2015年5月，陈女士获悉徐某在深圳新开了万怡通国际投资发展（深圳）有限公司（下称“万怡通公司”），而且还将在一五星级酒店召开投资宣传会，她又赶了过去。

In May 2015, Ms. Chen hard that Mr. Xu has established a new company in Shenzhen called WanYiTong (WYT from now on), and will do a promo event at a 5-star hotel. She went to check it out.

BREAKING NEWS: WCM777 smashed AGAIN in China, is Phil Ming Xu in custody?

PatrickPretty.com spotted a news in ShanghaiDaily that a Mr. Xu of "World Capital Market" was arrested by Chinese police for pyramid scheme in China. It appears that Phil Ming Xu of WCM777 has moved back to China and restarted his scam which collapsed in 2014 in the US. Below is a bilingual version of the news, with English version provided by me.


http://www.legaldaily.com.cn/index/content/2016-05/15/content_6626584.htm?node=20908

会员遍布28省 涉案金额数亿

Members spread across 28 provinces, amount into hundreds of millions

“万通奇迹”涉嫌非法吸存被查

Wantong Miracle suspected of illegal securities, being investigated

发布时间：2016-05-15 20:42 星期日   来源：法制日报——法制网

Posted: May 15 2016 Sunday 20:42     Source: LegalDaily.com,cn

法制网记者 李想  Reporting for LegalDaily Xiang Li

2015年5月27日，广东省肇庆市鼎湖区居民周华（化名）走进当地经侦大队报案。情绪激动的周华告诉警方，自己听信他人投资了万通奇迹社交资本云计算平台。孰料，不仅没有收到一分钱分红，连2.6万元本金也“打了水漂”。

On May 27, 2015, Ms. Zhou Hua (pseudonym) who resided in Guandong, reported to the local Police Economic Crime Detachment to report that she had been defrauded. The frustrated Ms. Zhou told police that she trusted others and invested in "Wantong Miracle Social Capital Cloud Computing Platform", and not only did not get any promised profit, the 26000 investment is "gone with the wind".

    警方顺藤摸瓜，一个披着投资原始股权理财、电子商务等新概念外衣的特大非法吸收公众存款犯罪团伙浮出水面。据调查，此案涉及万通卡会员5800余人，分布于全国28省，涉案金额达数亿元人民币。

Police followed the leads, and revealed this humongous illegal securities crime syndicate that used various new concepts such as "protoshare money management", "e-commerce" to disguise itself. Based on investigation, this crime involved over 5800 Wantong Card members, spread across 28 different provinces (in China), involving hundreds of millions in RMB. 

    精心包装欺骗群众

A exquisite facade to deceive the masses

    据警方介绍，2014年1月，周华听信犯罪嫌疑人梁某、陈某的话，投资购买两份“万通奇迹”WCM705套装，价值1999美元，按照“万通奇迹”公布的人民币和美元6.5:1的汇率，折合人民币13000元，对应1999个电子积分。对方向周华承诺，她可以获取每天16美元的分红，可累计100次分红。

According to police, in January 2014, Ms. Zhou believed suspects Mr. Liang and Mr. Chen, and purchased two of the Wantong Miracle "WCM705" suite at cost of $1999 each. Based on the then published rate of 6.5 RMB to 1 dollar that's about 13000 RMB. This would give the investor 1999 "points". According to the then promises, she can get 16 USD every day as profit share, and can do it 100 times. 

    《法制日报》记者登录网页搜索“万通奇迹”，发现有不少人在网上询问投资“万通奇迹”是否靠谱。那么，“万通奇迹”到底是怎样的一家公司呢？

Legal Daily reporter searched the Internet about "Wantong Miracle", and found there were many people asking online is Wantong Miracle" legal. So what sort of company is Wantong Miracle? 

    5月6日，在深圳市第二看守所，记者见到了在押犯罪嫌疑人徐某。据徐某称，大学毕业后他曾在媒体做过编辑，后来转行到金融领域工作。

May 6th (2016), in Shenzhen 2nd detention center, reporter met the suspect Mr. Xu, who had been arrested. Mr. Xu claimed, after graduating from university he worked as producer in media, then transferred to finance. 

    据肇庆市公安局经侦支队副大队长张朝晖介绍，2013年5月，“万通奇迹”系列融资产品由某投资银行控股集团董事长徐某等人策划成立。徐某等人宣称，“万通奇迹”进行的是社交资本革命，利用互联网云服务、云计算和全球零售折扣系统，为全球客户提供资本放大。

According to Zhang Zhaohui, deputy chief, economic investigation detachment, Zhaoqing Public Security, Wantong Miracle's various products was introduced to China in May 2013, by a Mr. Xu (supposedly some "investment bank holding group CEO") and others. Xu, et al, claimed that "Wantong Miracle" is a social capital revolution, using Internet, cloud computing, and world retail discount system, to provide "capital magnification" to global customers. 

Scam Hilarity: How Gemcoin Scammer "Interprets" the American Justice System (HINT: It's VERY hilarious)

In the interest of all Gemcoin sheeple or perp, Chinese or otherwise, this post will be bilingual.

爲了大家的利益，珍寶幣是真是賤，讀者在中國或外國，以下中英雙文對比．

Recently there were a post on Sina blog (PDF linked) that claimed "there was no FBI raid" at USFIA and "SEC was just doing routine inspection". I took a look. It's hilarious. This clearly written by someone with "motivated reasoning".

最近有在新浪博客的一篇文章 (PDF) 聲稱美國富豪USFIA “沒有被FBI調查”和“美國證券交易委員會只是做例行檢查”。我親自看一看。它真的好笑。這顯然是“有動機推理”的人寫的。

Due to size constraints, I'll just explain the important parts. I don't quote out of context.

由於尺寸的限制，我選重要部份解釋。我不斷章取義。

What he wrote will be in blue.

他寫的用藍色

First, the title:

第一，文章標題

＂受联合国70周年大会邀请AFG公司副总裁等8人参加了联合国成立70周年大会＂

UN 70th anniversary celebration invited AFG VP et al 8 people to attend

Anyone can take a photo in front of the UN building. There are even shops inside the UN building. These photos of Leonard S. Johnson and two unidentified individuals can only prove they were in New York recently.　It has no other value.

任何人都可以在聯合國大廈前拍照。聯合國大樓內甚至有商店。照片只可以證明Leonard S. Johnson 和兩個身份不明的人最近去過紐約。沒有其他價值．

（FBI的战士们英姿飒爽哦，这张图片被媒体刊登在报端网络，渲染AFG公司被查封。可是，去过美国AFG公司的人一眼就能看出，这显然不是美国AFG公司背景的照片，媒体用好莱坞拍电影常用的移花接木、蒙太奇手法进行创作，实在让我们见识了美国的言论自由）

Translated; FBI Warriors, so fierce, so cool! This photo was published by media, claiming AFG was closed. However, those that went to AFG can see that this is not at AFG. Media use Hollywood fast cut to create false impressions, such as freedom of press in America. 

This photo is of FBI agents assisting in the Boston Marathon bombing in May 2013, when they searched Norfolk St. in Cambridge area of Great Boston.  The actual title of the photo is fbi-norfolk-street-cambridge.jpg  I have seen no American media use this photo with the Gemcoin story. If there is, please point me at the article. Otherwise, I must conclude that the blogger was the one who falsely inserted a photo, exactly what he's accusing "American media" of doing.

這張照片是聯邦調查局探員協助2013年5月波士頓馬拉松爆炸案，他們在搜查諾福克(Norfolk) 街在大波士頓的劍橋(Cambridge)地區。照片的實際名稱是FBI-norfolk-street-cambridge.jpg 我沒有看到任何美國媒體使用這張照片在珍寶幣故事上。如果有請指點我文章在哪。不然我必須定論這位珍寶幣博客才是插入不相干照片捏做新聞用來反指責“美國媒體”捏做新聞。（惡人先告狀）

（这张图片被媒体刊登在报端网络，渲染AFG公司被查封，但这显然不是美国AFG公司背景的照片，媒体用好莱坞拍电影常用的移花接木、蒙太奇手法进行创作，实在让我们见识了美国的言论自由。无怪乎刘因全之流可以肆无忌惮的拼接各种图片在媒体攻击AFG公司。美国报纸竟然和大陆文革中的大字报十分相似可以随便造谣惑众）

Translation: This photo was published by the media claiming AFG was closed by law. This is clearly not AFG in the background. Media use Hollywood special effects creatively and we have witnessed American freedom of press. How dare "Michael Liu" and his ilk publish all sort of photos to attack AFG. American newspapers are much like the hated paper in the Culture Revolution to spread rumors and lies. 

Those of you who can use Google image search will quickly realize this is a photo of the deputies in Lee County Florida. Again, I have not seen this photo in relation with Gemcoin, and again, I have to conclude that this Gemcoin blogger is the one who inserted irrelevant photos to accuse "american Media" of making up news.

那些會用谷歌圖片搜索的會發現這是佛羅里達州李縣(Lee County) 警長部 (Sheriff's Department) 的照片。同樣，我沒有看過此照片與珍寶幣報導有關，再次我必須做結論，這位珍寶幣博客才是插入了不相干照片捏做新聞用來反指責“美國媒體”捏做新聞。（惡人先告狀）

Here comes the hilarious part!

現在才是滑稽的料到了！

USFIA Update Continued

Previously, we have covered how Amkey exited China after series of scandals (product problems, repeated changes of comp plan, sudden reversal of "opening stores" plan)  and never received the direct sales license it needed to operate in China, leaving thousands of distributors stranded and disillusioned.

What was surprising though is Amkey continued to operate outside of China, and attracted a following in Singapore and nearby countries.

Amkey and AllianceNGN 

Despite Amkey quietly withdrawing from China, it apparently enjoyed several years of continued growth, or at least fast recruitment, in places such as Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, and places that speaks Chinese, mainly by adding something called "NGNTalk", an IP talk product for long distance calling without the long distance fees.

NGN Talk's parent company, Alliance NGN, has a very intriguing Chinese name 美国联邦环球通which literally translates to US Federal Global Talk. Really official sounding, isn't it?

Various Chinese fan websites claimed that "Alliance NGN" has received FCC and EC certification. Searching FCC website shows no such certification.

The NGNTalk fan sites (in Chinese, example here, and here), and blogs littered all over the place about NGNTalk hinted at the level of recruiting. The deeper the tree, the higher the share (up to 20% if you go beyond level 8) as well as direct reward for recruiting per head, and so on.

If you look at the main menu of the alliancengn.com, it was actively soliciting investments. Why else would it have "Investor Guide" on its website as a main menu item?

Alliance NGN website, courtesy of web designer MartinMa
Note the section above: Investor information

This was confirmed when one digs into Alliance NGN's innards, where you discover that you can sign up and "invest" and even trade and receive "guidance".

Alliance NGN backoffice screenshot courtesy of MartinMa
Apparently one can invest money into "brokerage accounts" at Alliance NGN, which
was supposed to be a "telecom" company... Hmmmm.... 

USFIA Update: Turns out USFIA itself is a reload scam... Successor to Amkey

Some readers have posed the question... How did Steve Chen got so big, involving possibly hundreds of millions of dollars?

The answer is... he's been at this for much longer than USFIA. USFIA (as either "American Royal 美洲富豪" or "American Mining 美洲礦業") was only his latest scheme.  His previous scheme was "Amkey 安旗" , which started in 2004, and was basically forced to exit China after repeated scandals, but continued in Asia for many more years.

So what exactly was Amkey? According to Amkey's website...

A leading nutritional supplement products corporation, Amkey, Inc, is the provider of the world’s only cell renewal and protection products with multiple international patents. We are a US company established in June 2003 headquartered in Los Angeles, California. We are an e-commerce network marketing company combining R&D, production and the sales of high-tech nutritional supplement products, skin care products and daily sundry items.

It claims to be a member of the Direct Selling Association (US), but searching through DSA.org as of today (27-SEP-2015) shows no such company listed.  Searching through news archives seems to indicate that Amkey was accepted by DSA in June 2005, but there is no press release about when it was ejected.

Current US address is the Steve Chen building... 135 E. Live Oak, Arcadia. But let's start from the very beginning...

Amkey in China

Amkey entered China in October 2004 by registering "Amkey (Beijing) Technology Development Ltd." 安旗（北京）科技发展有限公司 in a business park in Beijing. It apparently bought some factory in Shenzhen in 2005 and started selling its products after approval process. 

According to an expose penned by an ex-member (PDF of article in Chinese) , Amkey was guilty of multiple misrepresentations.

On 14-SEP-2005, Premier Hu Jintao, attending a UN meeting, apparently met with over 600 local who's-who in the Chinese community, and Steve Chen was apparently among the crowd.

This was immediately plastered all over the Amkey news channels as "Premier Hu and Wife Welcomed By Amkey US CEO, Chinese-American Elite Merchant Council Chairman Steve Chen", claiming that 7 members of the company representing the three branches of Amkey (US, Beijing, and Hong Kong) to attend "US-China CEO Summit", claiming only the top 50 CEOs of the world can attend and they got 3 out of the 50 seats.

So what's the reality? According to the expose writer, Amkey attended a "US China Commerce Summit" at the Waldorf, not the Top 50 CEO summit. As for "welcomed Premier Hu"? A photo of Hu's motorcade driving past an Amkey banner streamed along the route was the "proof" provided by Amkey's website.

Another bout of hilarity ensued regarding the 2004 "Xiamen Direct Sales Legislation Proposal Seminar" 厦门直销立法座谈会.  Twenty-two companies were invited to talk with Chinese legislators about what sort of legislations and regulations the direct sales industry needs in China. Amkey, who was NOT among the 22 invited companies, falsely claimed to be among the attendees by inflating the company count to 23 (link in Chinese). This was not done by affiliates, but by Amkey corporate website.  The officials were not amused. Furthermore, the only time Amkey appeared in the news is it was on a BLACKLIST of 20 companies that was investigated for possible pyramid schemes.

Scam Tactic: Speak in Half-truths, or how Vemma is trying to create value out of bull****.

Speaking in half truths is the best way to scam. You sound as if you are telling the truth, esp. if that's all the truth you know. You can't be lying if you don't even know the other half, right?

That's why you should fact-check any PR claims, esp. those without any links for you to verify the claims, and if the evidence themselves need to be fact-checked.

Let's take one recent example, when a Vemma fan (what I'd refer to as a Vembot) posted basically a cut-n-paste PR speech "how dare you compare Verve to Red Bull". Okay, I made up that title, but that is accurate.  His words in blue, my comment will be in red.

For those trying to do a cost comparison with Red Bull, you are obviously missing the entire concept of Vemma.

Oh, I think we understand you all too well. It is you who don't understand Vemma... 

The clinically studied nutritional supplement Vemma cost about $2.00 per serving, if you purchased the stand alone Vemma product. 

But did you actually read the two "clinical studies"? (NOTE 1)

Verve has the same 2 ounces of Vemma, plus the components of the energy drink. Yes the price is about $2.80 a can, but $2.00 is the Vemma supplement. So the energy drink component is really only $.83.

You set your own prices. You can say it's worth $1000 if you'd like. There's nothing to compare it to. In fact, there's not even any proof that mangosteen has any benefit on the body. But more on that later. (NOTE 2)

You show me where red bull has 12 vitamins, 63 minerals, mangosteen, aloe vera and green tea. Show me where Red Bull paid 250000 to run full clinical studies to see exactly what happened in your blood after drinking it.

You show me what those "63 minerals" are, and what effect they have on the body. Show me how ECGC is not harmful to the body. Show me how two little studies in China, on self-reported results prove "what happened in blood". (NOTE 3 again)  

Until you can show me that trying to compare the to is like comparing a Ford Fiesta to a Ford Mustang. They are both Fords (energy drinks), but they are not the same thing and they dont cost the same thing.

Vemma is no-name energy drink with an unproven secret ingredient. The analogy is bull****. 

Now let's look at the footnotes...

Will US Recognize a new mental disorder: Cult Sales Addiction?

While researching a different topic, I came across this interesting article in Changsa, China, where the local hospital had to treat at least two cases of a mental disorder that was previously unrecognized: addiction to cult sales.

The story can be read here in Chinese, but I'll give you the gist of it:

Hunan Province 2nd People's Hospital Addiction Treatment Center back in December 2014 had to treat a patient who was apparently brainwashed by a cult sales (pyramid sales / pyramid scheme ) organization. The victim, 27-yr old female, lost her job in October 2014 when her company lost the product distributorship, and was recruited by a friend to go to Nanning where supposedly things are better. About two months later, she called home and want her mom to come along and make lots of money. Her mom went for a visit, and realized victim was in the clutches of a pyramid sales organization and had been brainwashed for two months and is totally under their control, with full personality shift.

(article continues after this break)

JM Ocean Avenue: Why did Ocean Avenue merge with a suspect scheme out of China called JM International?

Ocean Avenue *was* a nutritional supplement based MLM that started in roughly 2012. After a rough tossle with Visalus due to some people jumping ship, which culminated apparently with a theft of laptop from Ocean Avenue office in 2013, Ocean Avenue apparently merged with a Chinese company called JM International in 2014, according to a member:

OK JM International did a take over of Ocean Avenue back in 2014.
JMOA is part of Joy May who is owned by Joe Zhou, Bruce Fang and Jackie Zhang – JMOA is a $2 Billion company based out of china.
The Ocean Avenue managment stayed after the take over but it was not a happy merger and although Hop Rocket was initially going to be part of JMOA, it was decided that the US team would relinquish their interest in JMOA and everyone in the US office wanted to move to Hop Rocket which soft launched just 1 week ago.

Comment posted by Dottie Lotto on 6-AUG-2015

But who/what is JM International? Seems all we know are some Americanized names, and "it's out of China". (The 2 billion can't be trusted as it's unclear it's revenue, profit, products sold, cumulative or single year, etc.)

So who is JM International? If you search for JM International, , you will find ONLY "JMOA" (JM Ocean Avenue). In fact, you can't even find what JM stands for.

What's really interesting is how the "board of directors" change depending on which site you access, as you can't tell which is official and which is not. Some pages include Tim Richerson and Fred Ninow, others included two other Chinese names (Peter Li and Gary Ren).

However, after a bit of searching, I found an alternate domain, jmtop.com, which appears also to be a global corporate site. However, what's REALLY interesting is for a company allegedly started in China, it has NO CHINESE WEBSITE. It has Hong Kong and Taiwan, but none for Mainland China.

JM Ocean Avenue "select country" page as of 7-AUG-2015 ... No China? 

Next stop... Youtube, as I need to find the CHINESE name of this allegedly Chinese company, so I can research it on Chinese media. Searching for "JM International" found an alleged official channel, and following videos:

So we now know that the Chinese name for JM International is 中脉国际

So what does the Chinese Media Say about them?

USFIA Update: If you or family or friend invested in Gemcoin, a US Reporter Would Like to Talk To You

Following comment was left on BehindMLM website, and the email address is verified.

Posted by: Carol Matlack
Jul 16th, 2015 at 10:16 pm  (Q)
Hello, I am a journalist with Bloomberg Businessweek magazine. I’ve been doing some research on USFIA and the Gemcoin, and I’m interested in speaking with investors and friends & families of investors, about their experience.
The moderator of this forum has kindly agreed to post my email address so you can contact me: cmatlack@bloomberg.net (This address will only be posted here for a week, so please make a note of it if you plan to contact me.) Thank you.

And just in case, here's Chinese version:

您好我是彭博商业周刊(Bloomberg Businessweek) 的记者。我一直在做关于USFIA和Gemcoin珍寶幣研究，而我想知道投资者和投资者家庭朋友的经验。本次论坛的主持人也欣然同意貼我的电邮地址，以便你可以与我联系：cmatlack@bloomberg.net（此地址将只被张贴在这里一个星期，所以请记下它，如果你打算与我联系。 ）谢谢。

I have no doubt some Gemcoin supporters will spam her account with promo material, about how nothing is wrong and a couple haters are spreading "lies" about Gemcoin. Good, show her why you tell the truth and everybody else ain't.

And if you are on the side of justice and truth, and you have some personal experience on Gemcoin (maybe you were in that "motorcade" that went to Quail Ranch?) let her know.

And as original comment stated, this will only stay up for ONE WEEK STARTING TODAY.

EDIT: And a shoutout to the SierraMadreTattler.blogspot.com, fellow blogger keeping track of the situation in Sierra Madre, neighbor of Arcadia! Thanks for the repost! I added the Chinese translation after you reposted it, sorry!

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.

USFIA Update: Turns out both the Chinese name and the English name may have been stolen

Today, MLMSkeptic takes a deep dive into the Interwebs, to dig up who is the REAL "American Mining" (it's NOT USFIA), by looking at various corporate listings as well as news from Asia to prove that the name "American Mining" was stolen by USFIA.

USFIA which supposedly stands for US Fine Investment Arts, was known as 美洲礦業／美洲矿业 in Chinese, which translates to American Mining. Chinese Commercial Yellow Pages (CCYP) shows that they are the same:

Screen cap of Google Search Results for 美洲礦業, confirms that USFIA
is 美洲礦業, which translates to American Mining

Furthermore, when the scam was active in China, it used the same logo and Chinese name. This is primary rep Ho Peng at such a seminar in Macao. Ho Peng was arrested in China in June 2014 along with 21 other promoters of USFIA 美洲矿业 in China.

Ho Peng, USFIA top rep in China, at a promo event in Macao April 2014.
Ho was arrested in June 2014 for his role in 美洲矿业 scam. 

And just to confirm, this always has been USFIA's logo. This is the current rendition of the logo:

"USFIA Inc. US Fine Investment Arts"

The address matches. This is indeed the USFIA in question. And this is a US Corporation registered in California by Steve Chen.

Profile for USFIA in California, which used Chinese name 美洲矿业
which means American Mining, even though USFIA
supposedly stands for "US Fine Investment Arts"

However, we do have a problem as there is already a 美洲礦業 in Shenzhen, China. As this is in China, the proper way to write it is 美洲矿业 (simplified Chinese).

And yes, they have a logo. This was from a talent wanted ad they posted earlier:

America Mine Holding Talent Wanted ad in China, short profile on company in Shenzhen, China

And this one is easy to verify via third party sources. Search for AA Mine Mexico brought up an official Mexican government listing of mining projects in Mexico with Foreign Capital:

Official Mexican Government website confirming AA Mine Holding is Chinese owned

Okay, sounds legitimate enough. Is there yet OTHER sources to prove this is the "real" 美洲矿业 , i.e America Mine Holding?

Absolutely!

USFIA Update: Denial in Spain (and fun Spanish Vocabulary)

As previously mentioned, Spain Official Agency CNMV (La Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores trans: National Commission on Markets and Values/Investments) issued a warning against USFIA (i.e. AFG / Gemcoin ) back on May 18th.

In Spain, such illegal unregistered investments, basically HYIP, are known as chiringuito financiero or "financial snack bars".  Chiringuito is an open air snack bar often found on Spanish beaches serving snacks and drinks where you order from a counter and find your own seats. Some are even mobile on a tricycle. Thus, a chringuito financiero is a ramshackle unregistered investment, often without even a physical presence, and only exists via phone calls, email, and websites.  And USFIA (AFG / Gemcoin) was identified as a chringuito financiero.

Normally that's hardly noticeable, as the commission issues dozens of warnings every year. However, one of the comments was quite interesting, on a newspaper called "ValenciaPlaza".

Translation: Israel G. Gomez wrote That is not the website of USFIA.  I see they have contrasted the news and have little idea of ​​what they say, deplorable!

So what website was CNMV talking about? "Usfiamlm.com"

FWIW, usfiamlm.com is now a parked Godaddy domain.  Well, if it wasn't guilty, why is it parked so early? It's not as if Guardia (Spanish Police) raided it, right?

USFIA Update: Who is this security guard and was he also identified as gemstone appraiser?

Previously, we've identified the USFIA shindig in Arcadia, where Steve Chen threw a party for "USFIA Club Grand Opening", where he threw a party, then started up a motorcade  to visit his closed Quail Lodge golf course and promised this will be developed into a huge profitable enterprise. This was back on May 29, 2015. John Wuo was present.

Also present was this security guard, in no less than three photos.

Security guard, photo 1 of 3, hiding in background to left

Security guard photo 2, posing with fellow guards and motorcade control, far right

Security guard photo 3 of 3, posing with fans with thumbs up sign

Do we agree that these three shows the photo of the same guy? Taller than most Chinese, stocky.

USFIA Update: Was in China earlier than previous reported, but definitely originated in the US

Searching for signs of USFIA, known in China as  美洲矿业 (American Continental Mining Industries, or just 'American Mining' for now), yielded a couple more links.

The earliest mention of American Mining was not in China, but in the US. A poster "Harryyu" posted a wanted ad in Southern California about "seeking USFIA sales rep for gemstone mining" dated 06-SEP-2013.

The earliest mention in China was a forum post in February 9th, 2014, where Mr. Ho Peng 候鵬 (surname is "Ho") made a big presentation in Qingdao, Shangdong province, China. You are welcome to Google translate the link, but I'll give you the TL;DR version:  Ho held a big meeting in the local 5-star hotel called Le Meridien  ( 青岛万达艾美酒店)  where Mr. Ho presented to a packed house full of MLMers from all over China for two hours. Ho claimed he had been in various MLM things for two years, and made over 20 million RMB and this American Mining will be the biggest next thing, and he had already made millions in this one, and he guarantees this is a sure win. Ho kept talking about his "aunt" 姨媽 from Guizhou 貴州, who's a local fortune teller and told him he will make tens of millions. Everybody can believe this fortune.

Alleged insider claimed that Ho is the local Judas Goat and may be part owner. He was shifting money out of the country and already got a divorce to emigrate. He had to make "one last job" before disappearing from China. Another accused Ho Peng of swindling people using his aunt's name.

Ho Peng, in Macao 22-APR-2014, promoting USFIA

I won't bother translating the comp package, except to explain that if you buy in at packages of 2K, 5K, 10K, or 30K (RMB of course), you get either protostock, or actual amber, and you can trade the protostock with their platform.

Other news sources claimed that Ho Peng was doing the same schtick all over China, and claimed to be a standing member of UCCA. USFIA name was mentioned prominently. Here is Ho Peng doing his schtick in Macao in April 22, 2014. You can see USFIA and 美洲矿业 in the background. You can view the entire video here. Chrome users: Use incognito mode to bypass the "missing plugins" error.

Note that the video title is 美洲矿业中美政治协商促进会—侯鹏 which translates to "American Mining UCCA -- Ho Peng"

In a different copy of the video, Ho Peng got a different title: 美洲矿业中美政治协商促进会常务委员—侯鹏 which translated to "American Mining UCCA standing member -- Ho Peng"

And he apparently got an ID card from UCCA shown at the same event, vidcapped from a different video.

Back in the US, also on the ChineseInLA website, a user by the name of "Amber Dream" posted an ad copy under "China-US Commerce" topic on 20-FEB-2014.

Another forum post in China was made on March 8th, 2014 where similar allegations was mentioned and the meeting in Qingdao was again referenced, but this time with a promise that Ho will do a presentation in Beijing. It also mentioned that his biggest downline is a Mr. Wang  王軍 Wang Jun who also made millions.

The fortunes started to turn for USFIA in China around March 2014, as they are starting to attract the attention of the authorities all over China.

USFIA update: Who is Leonard S. Johnson and was he really invited to Dubai to speak about alternative currencies such as Gemcoin? (Hint: No)

One of the most interesting (yet ridiculous) HYIPs based out of the US is USFIA, i.e. "American Mining" 美洲矿业, which was apparently kicked out of China in 2014. USFIA claimed to be a part of AFG (Alliance Financial Group USA) and controlled by UCCA, headed by Mr. Steve Chen.

Leonard S. Johnson
as shown on aimcongress.com

One of the frequent faces for USFIA is Mr. Leonard S. Johnson, who were mentioned multiple times as a stand-in for the head of USFIA Steven Chen at various seminars in Chinese-heavy cities such as SF Bay Area, Toronto, and so on.

There are various posts touting him being "invited to Dubai in UAE to attend AIM Congress, a gathering of the world's top economists, investors, and money big shots, and to speak there."

Is this real, or merely someone embellishing the facts? Let's find out.

If you search for Leonard S. Johnson Dubai, you will come across this page under aimcongress.com:

Which appears to be legitimate, until you realize it never said anything about what he will be speaking about. Indeed, there's no listing for him to speak AT ALL under "Speakers and Partners' contribution"    Searching the website for Leonard brought up that exact profile page, and nothing more. He's not listed on any sort of itinerary, speaker schedule, and so on. He's certainly not in the "Conference Programme" which lists every event, or in the brochure either.

If we search for AFG, we find a listing for GEMCOIN even though the profile is for AFG and USFIA. Even the website link goes to AFGroupUS.com.

There are two more mentions of AFG besides Leonard's profile and Gemcoin page though.

More Idiots Who Don't Check the Information They Pass On: UFUN Edition

UFUN is a multi-national alleged ponzi scheme that has ties in Thailand, Malaysia, China, and other countries. In the past three weeks Royal Thai Police have swept up a lot of the heads of the company, but the company's real headquarters is in Malaysia, and at least three of the heads escape through Malaysia. One's remaining in the limelight, supposedly celebrating some signing documents with some developement project, while the other other two have fled Malaysia as well. A retired Thai General that's involved has escaped to the US.

Its primary American cheerleader appears to be a guy by the name of Rodney Burton, who gave himself the title "Global Ambassador", and recently posted something like this on Facebook:

The problem is the link was in Thai, and he clearly does not read Thai, as a different link describing the same announcement reads VERY VERY differently. As you can see, same three guys, just a very different angle. Follow me so far? Here's the link:  

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/UFUN-case-a-transnational-crime-police-30259107.html

And a quote from the article:

Suwira quoted prosecutors as saying that the UFUN case would be regarded as a transnational crime if police were able to present to the OAG clear evidence that the company had been involved in similar criminal offences outside the country as well.  

If the attorney-general deems it a transnational crime, the punishment will be harsher than under normal law. The attorney-general will be the person setting the interrogation method and there will be more complicated steps in the probe, he explained. 

For now, police will gather more documents and interview those claiming damages to confirm whether there were criminal offences outside Thailand, Suwira said, urging affected persons to file complaints with police during the May 1-5 holiday period.

So basically, this Mr. "GlobalAmbassador" Burton got it completely wrong. There is plenty of evidence of UFUN's guilt in Thailand. There's not quite enough evidence of victims OUTSIDE Thailand for Thai Office of Attorney General (OAG) to elevate the case to "Transnational Crime" and invoke ASEAN and Interpol international assistance to end this scheme once and for all.

BIG SOLID CASE AGAINST UFUN
PLENTY OF EVIDENCE IN THAILAND

Which proves that if you don't read or understand Thai, you should not pretend to understand what the video actually said. Liar, liar, hair on fire...

Right now there's no mention of how will Thai Police gather victim reports from outside of Thailand.

I personally would suggest that if you are a victim of UFUN outside of Thailand, and have a local Thai Embassy, you should write up your report and ask your local Thai Embassy to turn it over to Thai Police. I can't think of any other way at the moment. If there is an address or such where you can send such reports published, I will update the method here. 

OLD NEWS: World Ventures busted in China, Taiwan, and Malaysia back in 2014

According to Chinese news (Hunan TV) World Ventures, i.e. "WV", was investigated by Changsa Public Security back in October 2014. Other sources indicate that World Ventures was also met with legal challenges in Taiwan, and Malaysia, where it was accused of operating illegally.

Ministry of Labor and Commerce Enforcement Agents along with Public Security raided a facility that had a huge sign with the WV Logo and slogan outside, and asked the two present, a male and female, to show the business registration papers for WV. The two refused, claiming they had nothing to do with WV, but is instead a university career training workshop, and thus is not licensed and not for profit.

When confronted with the sign outside, the male "supervisor" deny any and all knowledge about the banner, claimed they had nothing to do with the banner. During the search, a business card was discovered with the supervisor's name on it, and even had the WV logo, but the man still refused to admit he runs a local WV branch, but instead tried to explain "I merely suggested some trip ideas to my friends and relatives."  PS personnel then found the documents saved on the company computer and printed them out, which contains WV promotional material and comp plan. When confronted, the man continue to deny, claiming it was left by visitors. He was then confronted that his own printer printed those off his own computer. Then he had nothing else to say.

Labor and Commerce enforcement bureau spokesperson explained that WV is suspected of illegal pyramid selling, but most of the websites used to promote such are located outside of China, and thus making investigation and enforcement difficult.

BREAKING NEWS: SEC shuts down eAdGear (GoFunPlaces / GoFunRewards)

According to latest article on BehindMLM, eAdGear, the folks behind GoFunPlaces / GoFunRewwards are done... shut by SEC, with help of FBI, and authorities in Hong Kong, China, Canada, and United Kingdom.

This would mark the FOURTH Ponzi shut by SEC in this year alone (WCM, Zhunrize, and TelexFree)

See http://behindmlm.com/companies/sec-shuts-down-eadgear-gofunplaces-gofunrewards/