Why Do Investors or Participants NOT Use Google Enough?

Google 貼牌冰箱（Google Refrigerator） (Photo credit: Aray Chen)

One of the most powerful tools against fraud is Google.

Every bit of the evidence, example, illustrations, etc. presented here  of possible or alleged fraud came from simple Google research, that anybody could have done for themselves.

I freely admit that I have the advantage of being a polyglot... that is, I read multiple languages, including Chinese, Spanish, and of course, English. However, there's always Google Translate. You just have to know not to rely on them.

Fraudsters generally have a history of failures or sanctions by the law. And those histories are now online to be searched, if not by Google, then by some official records search facility offered by the government.

And very often, you just have to connect the dots.

In a case that spanned across the US, Janamjot Singh Sohdi, ran a ponzi scheme called Elite Financial Services from 2005 to 2011. He told people he can manage their money to pay handsome returns, but what he really did is to pay return to early joiners with money from the late joiners. He was finally caught in Fresno California, but not before stealing 2.4 million dollars.

Yet the warning signs had been there.

• He went by multiple names, such as Jimmy Singh, or Jimmy Sohdi
• His investment broker license was revoked in 2005
• He was permanently disbarred from New York Stock Exchange in 2006
• He was issued a "cease and desist" in California 2009 as any sort of investment advisor

You can find more about "Jimmy" here. 

Why do people not use Google? Are they afraid of what they will find? 

What about WCM777? Warning signs that been there all along.

BREAKING NEWS: WCM777 settles with US State of Massachusetts for Securities Violations

PattrickPretty.com spotted this news first. 

WCM and WCM777 have accepted an consent order with US State of Massachusetts Securities Division, that it will refund any and all residents of Massachusetts, which is believed to number about 160, almost all exclusively in the state's Brazilian community. Apparently the state has been aware of of WCM777 since at least September 2013, and backtracked violations since March 2013.

Without admitting guilt, WCM777/WCM agrees to stop marketing their illegal securities in MA, and offer to refund all participants their money. Company has 15 days to submit a report that it has contacted all participants, with proof, that it has refunded, or attempted to do so.

Actual press release by State of Massachusesetts can be read here:

http://www.sec.state.ma.us/sct/current/sctworldcapital/world-capital-markets-consent-order.pdf

Are Latinos Defending Herbalife Making Sense?

Rafael Fantauzzi is head of NPRC (National Puerto Rico Coalition) and recently he penned a piece for Fox Business Latino, where he basically claimed that Herbalife is merely misunderstood. You can read his piece here, as I may have misunderstood his message, but I doubt it:

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/opinion/2013/11/04/herbalife-successful-business-model-for-latinos-or-predatory-pyramid-scheme/

Is he making any sense? My answer to that is absolutely not.

His primary praise for Herbalife is heavy involvement of the Latino community. To quote him:

Herbalife has succeeded at something that quite a few companies, and the Federal government for that manner, have failed, and that is to achieve real Hispanic inclusion. Hispanics make up at least 60 percent of Herbalife’s direct selling workforce – better known as distributors.

Okay, what's the next thing Fantauzzi said however, is a bit more controversial:

The big problem I see is that the critics of Herbalife and multi-level marketing companies are confusing business ventures with a welfare program. They assume that everyone must have equal outcomes, not just equal opportunity.

He then went on claiming that Herbalife rewards hard work, and he can't denounce a company that is the embodiment of American dream.

Does his points actually make sense though? I say no. Let me explain why.

CONTINUED COVERAGE: Interush was ALREADY declared illegal in China in 2012, fined in Taiwan in 2010!

Emblem of Hong Kong
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Further research on Interush's asian ventures hit a bit of a snag as Interush apparently used multiple transliterations and thus, multiple names, which made research more difficult. However, once the proper search terms are found, all the evidence of crime started showing up on Baidu, Bing, and Google searches.

The keys are their Chinese names... one used  英达锐  (pronounced In-da-zuey) and another is 英特USH  (prnounced In-te-ush). Sometimes, the product, that "IRIS suite" is called "讯联网" which is just "comm net". 
Once these terms are located, following 4 news items popped up.

Don't Let the Comm Net Scam Catch You!  (12-DEC-2012)
http://www.jjxw.cn/2012/1212/74770.shtml

Summary: a grandma in the Jiaojiang region of China, who never touched computer before, much less take a trip, was enticed by a saleswoman to get a visa to Hong Kong to attend a 3-day class and invested thousands of RMB into this "comm net" with promises of being a net millionaire. This turned out to be illegal pyramid selling under prosecution around China. However, the money, being paid outside of mainland, is impossible to get back.

Comm Net Scam Investigation; IPO Lie Scammed Tens of Thousands  (20-AUG-2012)
http://finance.sina.com.cn/chanjing/gsnews/20120820/100512895571.shtml

Summary: Comm Net scam is an illegal pyramid selling scheme that relies on recruitment speech that claims that this will be the big chance to score Internet riches after Google, Amazon, and Baidu. Many recruiters posted ads around Southern China around Guanzhou (aka Canton). Scheme was already outlawed in Nanning, Jenzhou, and Inner Mongolia. "Subscribe" and become stock owners, then when company IPO members will earn lots of money. It is illegal, and it is against the law. Police do what they can, but due diligence is up to the citizens. Report any potential wrongdoing.

Even More Signs You Are In a Sales Cult

An article in Hong Kong revealed a standard script given to pyramid selling members to recruit even more members...

You may be in a sales cult if...

• You are "sharing" an opportunity to your friend, not selling him something
• Your doing your friend a favor by "sharing" this great opportunity
• You are intentionally keeping something hidden (but not outright mysteries)
• You only have 1 friend at a time (for the opportunity pitches)
• You consider any adult not asleep as potential "friend" to share opportunity with
• You only talk in elevator speeches (entire pitch is within 60 seconds)
• You handle rejection by being magnanimous: remember me, it's okay you're not ready

Wait, there's more!

BREAKING NEWS: WCM Ming Xu Threatens Siemens and skeptic on Twitter with Lawsuit

Generally, when someone's statement was refuted by no less than an official press release, most people give a proper explanation. Not Ming Xu of "World Capital Market", otherwise known as "US Vantone Investment Bank" (except it's not a bank). Instead, he threatens to sue people he may have misrepresented as doing business with him, as well as people asking questions.

Yep, this guy, who uses the Chinese name of a SCAM COMPANY VNTI (which he said he helped setup), is threatening to sue Siemens, the global conglomerate and a skeptic who's asking questions did WCM777 really signed an agreement with Siemens for cloud storage solutions.

When one of the sub-schemes in WCM, called WCM777, claimed have cloud storage and such powered by Siemens IT technology, per WCM777's own press release and news dated November 2012, Siemens released a statement stating that it is clearly IMPOSSIBLE as they SOLD their IT division in 2011!

(See Details here)

CONTINUED COVERAGE: Interush Hong Kong closed for possible pyramid scheme, more Hong Kong reports

The Chinese characters for "Hong Kong". (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hong Kong's Apple Daily has multiple tiny articles on their website

Here's one that reported that some mainlanders had been on a train for 24 hours straight trying to get to Hong Kong

http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/news/art/20131101/18488734  (in Chinese)

People in China apparently already dumped plenty of money into the company all in the belief that the company will go IPO like Google and Facebook and thus return their investment 100 fold. They are even claiming that Baidu as example how no Chinese benefited from its IPO.

This is virtually IDENTICAL tactic used by Vantone scam in China to push worthless woo products at vastly inflated prices. And who's involved in Vantone scam? "Tiger" Zhi Liu and Ming Xu of WCM. (See below for related links)