BREAKING NEWS: India FINALLY moved against SpeakAsia Ponzi, SIX ARRESTED

Those in the US never heard much about SpeakAsia, because it was a hybrid pyramid/Ponzi scheme in India. And it ensnared a LOT of people and money back in 2011.  The current estimate was the SpeakAsia involved 2276 crore Rs (366.5 million USD) and 24 lakh (2.4 million) victims. 

The scheme had collapsed years before, and its head Manoj Kumar had fled the country and is believed to have died in a hospital in Singapore in January 2014. However, the wheels of justice turns slowly in India, and it was just announced that 6 arrests have been made involving this case in India on Feb 1, 2015. 

(A crore is 10 million, so you're looking a 22760 million, or 22.76 billion Rupees, roughly 366.5 million USD in today's exchange rate. And a lakh is 100000, so 24 lakh is 2.4 million)

SpeakAsia started operation in 2010, and claimed to be a 'survey organization' that were recruiting "panelists" for their opinion that can be sold to large companies for huge profit, but they need the panelists to put in money, usually explained as "tests and qualifications" and "e-newsletter subscription", and are encouraged to purchase "additional panels", up to 9.  "Panelists" are paid on the surveys they completed and on recruiting additional panelists. In fact, recruiting ONE panelist is worth 10 "reward points", while completing one week's survey only earns 7 reward points. This was clearly a pyramid/Ponzi hybrid scheme with the money cycled out to pay members who got in early. 

The scheme quickly spread from India into neighboring countries like Bangledesh, Malaysia, and so on. 

BREAKING NEWS: Indian police arrested "YOBSN" heads (3 Indians, 1 non-Indian) for International Pyramid Scheme

First reported by PatrickPretty.com

CCB, Bengaluru City @CCBBangalore Busts INTERNATIONAL MLM Fraud which collected millions of $s and arrested New... http://t.co/J0g2LwHJK0
— BengaluruCityPolice (@BlrCityPolice) December 4, 2014

The scam that was referred to "International MLM Fraud" is YOBSN, aka "Smart Media Technologies" (but also known as Social Media Technologies, Automatic Geek, and so on.)

Quoting from the BangalaruCityPolice's Facebook account:

On Dec. 3, “acting on a complaint received at the office of DCP Crime, CCB F&M squad raided Room No 225 of Hotel Capital, Raj Bhavan Road, where 4 accused persons were explaining, advertising & collecting enrollment fee from new victims of YOBSN SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORK MLM fraud web based company ( hosted from US ) and run through a website www.socialmediatechnologies.com . . .

New members are lured with promise of big money in USD $s by pushing the ‘CREATING YOUR OWN SOCIAL NETWORK’ tagline and encouraging members to bring in more members & growing their pyramid on the LEFT & RIGHT side.

They advertise by saying that when a company like Facebook etc is making billions of $s from social network, why can’t you make money.

This company runs a Web site called Smart Media Technologies. Any person can become a member by paying 8000 to 25000 INR as per their capacity. Then the person has to introduce Two persons (Left & Right member) to invest for which he would get 25% BONUS each as commission. As the pyramid grows, he would get more bonus. Each member is given a username/password and the commission earned & number of members introduced is meticulously accounted in the login itself. In fact, each user can see his pyramid and the amount of commission earned by it.

Scam Absurdities: Non-US Scams Posing as American Businesses

It is not uncommon for a scammer to pretend to be what he's not, and the recent make of "The Great Gatsby" is one such tale. In the Scamworld, many such emerging players are from outside the US, and in order to look more legitimate, they will often pretending to be Americans or Europeans, or have fake company executives that have generic American or European names, and/or even hire an American or European "mercenary" COO as a figurehead. They will often appear in the company as themselves, albeit of a lower position than they actually are.

One such player is Tarun Trikha (aka Parun Trika) of TVI Express, arrested in India in April 2013, and have not been heard since. MLM Skeptic was one of the first in the West to identify Tarun Trikha as the *real* head of TVI Express, despite he claiming to be merely a top seller. TVI Express claims to have "admiral", "vice admiral" as top leaders with generic "white guy" names such as "Bill Cooper" or "Eric Taylor". You can find a profile of TVI Express here.

(TVI Express itself spawned many clones, most of which had already been shut down, or are under investigations around the world.)

BREAKING NEWS: SpeakAsia head Manoj Kumar Sharma found dying in Singapore Hospital

IDG relayed an article from Singapore... Apparently Manoj Kumar Sharma, head of Speak Asia, and fugitive from India, is dying in a Singapore hospital, and contacted a writer, and want his story to be told in another book by the author. 

The author instead published the article, where he tried to balance MKS's view (I did nothing wrong, they just don't understand my business) and what did the Indian authorities do (it's a Ponzi scheme). 

For those of you who are already convinced that you're on the right side, this is not going to change any minds, but rather, simply add fuel to your side of the story. Neither side (MKS, or EOW) had revealed all their cards. 

So read it, for what it's worth. And read all the footnotes too.  

http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=5224F51D-B363-09BA-8F8E24AC3B9DF5B0