USFIA Update: Is USFIA involved in child labor exploitation of amber mines in Mexico?

Thanks to SierraMadreTattler, MLMSkeptic was recently made aware of an article published back in May 2015 that certain unnamed Chinese has been hiring anybody who can work (including children) in the tiny town of Simojovel, in Chiapas, Mexico, to mine amber. Children as young as 7 were hired to work in the amber mines, often during school breaks, with promise of pay of up to $500 pesos per day. Many even die in the mines.

But is there any link to USFIA? We don't know as USFIA does not specify if they use any Mexican amber. In fact, most of their amber mining references are about amber mining in Dominican Republic. However, since each affiliate prepare their own slides based on whatever sales meeting they attended at USFIA HQ, they often have additional insight, such as the one I found here:

USFIA affiliate states that Chen Yan, VP of USFIA, frequently travels to factory (mine?) in Mexico
and Dominican Republic, and stated their mine seems to be in a TINY village in Mexico. 

So here, we have an USFIA affiliate claiming (based on his attending USFIA HQ seminar) that no less than Chen Yan, Steve Chen's brother, visiting Mexico to check up on factory (mine?) of amber. And it's in a tiny village.

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: Who are they trying to fool with these "screenshots"?

A few days ago, the "official" Facebook page of Gemcoin / USFIA posted this:

Facebook post by Gemcoin / USFIA official page

Can you see the problems? No?

The "Blockchain Wallet" is the first problem.  Blockchain never heard of Germcoin.

Second one requires a bit closer look.... Look carefully:

Getting the details of one of those pictures... See the problem yet? 

Do you see the problem yet? No? Let's go a little closer:

The title says: [unreadable Chinese] Gemcoin Wallet.pdf -- Adobe Reader

That's right, you're looking at a photo of PDF being displayed on a computer screen. In fact, if you open Adobe Reader XI now, you should see the SAME toolbar. Here, I'll even show you.

Screenshot of Adobe Reader toolbar / menu bar

They're showing off a PDF file and claiming it "proves" that their cryptocurrency blockchains are working?!?!?!

How stupid do they think people really are?

Related articles

• USFIA Update: What was USFIA doing before Gemcoin? Exactly the same thing... selling promises of amber
• USFIA Update: Turns out all both the Chinese name and the English name may have been stolen
• Update on WCM777: the more we dig, the more weird stuff we find
• Scam Tactics: Evolution of a Scam, from Proto-Share to Investment Fund to Cryptocurrency

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!