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• His investment broker license was revoked in 2005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)

CONTINUED COVERAGE: Interush Closed in Hong Kong, tracing news report timeline

The first report of Interush being a possible pyramid scheme first surface in Hong Kong on 1-NOV-2013. This is a line-by-line translation out of Apple Daily News of Hong Kong

http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/news/art/20131101/18488732

科技公司招會員　 Tech Company Looking for Affiliates 稱上市後可分紅百萬 Claims after IPO can share profit 1 million 400內地人　排通宵發夢 400 Mainlanders lined up overnight for dreams of riches

■大批內地人在港鐵紅磡站外排隊攞籌，希望加入Interush成為會員。梁偉權攝
Lots of Mainlanders waiting outside HKRail Homhung station hoping for a chance to join Interush, photo by WeiChuan Liang

【本報訊】港鐵紅磡站昨有數百名內地人排隊，

At the HomHang HKRail station there were hundreds of people lined up

甚至不惜通宵瞓街，

Even sleep in the street overnight

目的是想加入一間聲稱即將上市的科技公司成為會員，

Purpose to to join as affiliate, a tech company that claims it will IPO soon

該公司稱上市後會員有機會分紅過百萬元，

This company claimed when it IPO affiliates have a chance to receive over 1 million

故昨吸引近400人為此黃金夢蜂擁而至。

Thus yesterday attract nearly 400 people who dreams of gold and riches

就昨日情況，估計該公司昨一天已收取年費近1,000萬元。

Based on yesterday, this company on that one day would have received yearly fees of 10 million. 

有立法會議員促請警方調查，了解是否屬違規集資。

Parliament member request police to investigate, understand if this is illegal public offering of securities.
記者：郭美華　梁偉權　馮國良

BREAKING NEWS: Interush Hong Kong Closed by Police as Alleged Pyramid Scheme, 5 Arrested, thousands of possible victims

Hong Kong skyline from the Peak (Photo credit: xopherlance)

Hong Kong police reported that they have arrested five people, including 1 American, of a company called "Interush" in Hong Kong. The company claims to be a tech company selling cloud-based technologies, but police have found evidence that they are using pyramid selling to recruit members. Reports surfaced that on November 1st, 2013, up to 400 mainland Chinese are lined out outside Interush's Hong Kong office hoping to sign up for the income opportunity. Police moved in on the 6th and shut the whole thing down.

Initial reports from PatrickPretty.com, citing an article from South China Sea Post, did not list a company name. It took several minutes of searching Chinese news to locate the original Chinese article as reported by singpao.com, but that did not list the company name either. It took several more searches across Chinese news websites to locate the company name, Interush. That news is translated line by line below:

数百内地人排队欲入会 港警方捣破层压式推销公司

Hundreds of Mainlanders in Queue to Join Up, 

Hong Kong Police Broke Open Pyramid Selling Company

2013年11月07日 12:59　07-NOV-2013  来源：中国新闻网 Source:  China NewsNet

    香港商业罪案调查科探员在红磡都会大厦一办公室内拘捕4男1女（左图）， Hong Kong Commercial Crime Bureau Investigators arrested 4 male and 1 female in  in Hunghom Duhui office building (Left Photo)

全部涉嫌违反禁止层压式计划条例被扣查，探员并检走大量文件及计算机数据作证物（右图）。All are detained for investigation into alleged violations of "anti-pyramid selling ordinance". Investigators confiscated large amounts of documents, and several computers as evidence (right photo)

来源：香港《明报》 Source: Hong Kong "Mingbo" newspaper

　　中新网11月7日电 据香港《明报》报道，

According to Mingbo News out of Hong Kong

11月1日在港铁红磡站外有数百名内地人通宵排队，

Outside the HomHong HKRail station hundreds were lined up overnight on 1-NOV-2013

为加入一间声称即将上市的科技公司，

All to join a high tech company that claimed it will soon go under IPO

盼日后获过百万元(港币 下同)分红的机会。

Hoping for a chance to share in possibly 1 million HKD profit

香港警方商业罪案调查科调查该公司后，

HKPD Commercial Crime Bureau Investigation Unit conducted an investigation

怀疑该公司涉及层压式推销，

and suspect this company is conducting pyramid selling. 

6日晚突击搜查该公司位于红磡都会大厦的办公室，

and thus conducted a raid in the evening 6-NOV-2013 on its office located in Homhong Duhui Building. 

拘捕5人，并检获约18万元现金及检走大批文件调查。

5 were arrested, and taken into evidence 180000 HKD in cash, as well as large amounts of documents. 

　　称上市后获百万分红  Claimed if IPO split 1 million bonus

　　被捕4男1女年龄介乎27至53岁，当中包括一名外籍人士，

Arrested were 4 male and 1 female between 27 to 53 of age, including one foreign national

全部涉嫌违反《禁止层压式计划条例》被带署扣查。

All were detained for suspicion of violating "anti pyramid selling ordinance" and brought to the station. 

　　据了解，涉案的Interush声称是“云端科技公司”，

Interush, the alleged violation, claimed to be "cloud tech company"

在网上声称公司日后一经上市，其会员可获巨额分红，

Claimed online that company, if successful IPO, all members will share in a HUGE profit split

并以朋友介绍朋友的方式，不断吸引下线会员入会，

Using "friend introduce friend" method, continue to attract downlines to join

上周五(11月1人)吸引近400名内地人通宵排队取筹入会。

Last Friday (1-NOV-2013) there were up to 400 mainlanders lined up overnight waiting to join up. 

　　警方证实，商罪科正调查一宗层压式推销案件，

HKPD confirmed that Commercial Crime Bureau is investigating a pyramid-selling case

并于6日晚9时许突击搜查红磡都会大厦一间办公室，

And conducted a raid on an office in Homhong Duhui building at about 9PM on 6-NOV-2013

在现场起出约18万现金，并检走大量文件及计算机作进一步调查。

Found 180000 HKD in cash at the premises, and took into custody large amounts of documents and computers as evidence for further investigation. 

　　据《禁止层压式计划条例》订明，

According to anti-pyramid selling ordinance,

任何诱使或企图诱使他人加入层压式计划，

Any one recruiting or attempting to recruit people into pyramid selling schemes

最高可罚款100万元及监禁7年。

Can be fined up to 1000000 HKD and 7 years of jail time

警方呼吁任何市民怀疑受骗或就案件有数据提供，

HKPD is asking all victims who suspect they had been defrauded, or have concrete numbers regarding this case, 

可与商罪科联络。

Please contact the Commercial Crime Bureau 

【编辑:丁文蕾】Edited by WenLai Ding

Other reports of the same event indicated that the foreign national is an American, with first name of "Edward". No last name was given. Yet some other report claimed that he's the person in charge, acting as some sort of legal advisor or lawyer / barrister, and the other 4 detained were only junior employees.

The shocker is Interush is based in Irvine, California, which is not far from Los Angeles!