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Convicted iComTech Ponzi scammer David Brend has been sentenced to $195,305 in forfeiture. Following his conviction, Brend (right) was sentenced to ten years in prison in December 2024. At the time of sentencing, the court ordered restitution but specified “the final amount” would be set at a later date. Following a proposed forfeiture order from…
Affiliate Mentor fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website. In fact as I write this, Affiliate Mentor’s website is nothing more than an affiliate log in page: Affiliate Mentor’s website domain (“affiliatementor.com”), was first registered on July 12th, 2004. The private registration was last updated on May 28th, 2024. Further research reveals…
Trevon James Brown’s BitConnect settlement conference has been delayed till April 2025. After telling the court he couldn’t pay his BitConnect fines last year, James was appointed pro-bono counsel on January 2nd. On January 23rd, James’ new counsel filed a consent letter with the court, requesting the upcoming February 7th settlement conference be postponed. As…
Holton Buggs has been sanctioned for failing to cooperate with the Traders Domain Receiver. As detailed by the Receiver in his February 5th Second Report; Defendant Buggs refused to provide information regarding his assets as required by the Court’s orders, and he refused the Receiver’s attempts to depose him regarding his assets. As a result,…
Manifest has received a securities fraud warning from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Citing Manifest by its parent UK shell company Manifest Ventures Ltd., the FCA’s January 29th warning states; [Manifest Ventures Ltd] may be providing or promoting financial services or products without our permission. You should avoid dealing with this firm and beware…
Payza’s Firoz Patel has been sentenced to 41 months in prison for obstruction (~3 years and 5 months). Patel pled guilty to obstruction in September 2024. The charges were in relation to Patel stashing 450 bitcoin prior to beginning his Payza prison sentence. Patel pled guilty to Payza money laundering charges in 2020. He was…
Jason Cardiff has been declared a fugitive on the run from US authorities. The court’s declaration follows a February 4th ex-parte motion from the DOJ, seeking fugitive status and an arrest warrant. In its February 5th order the court advised “an arrest warrant will issue”. Cardiff’s fugitive status was confirmed following failure to return to…
Following an internal investigation, Argentina’s CNV has acquitted Generation Zoe founder Leonardo Cositorto. The CNV found that, although Generation Zoe was an MLM crypto Ponzi that defrauded consumers out of $747 million pesos (~$36.1 million USD), Cositorto didn’t “operated with bonds, shares or other negotiable securities”. CNV finding that Ponzi schemes are not unregistered securities…
Optimus VIP, aka Optimus Invest, fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website. Optimus VIP’s website domain (“optimus.vip”), was privately registered in August 30th, 2024. Of note is Optimus VIP’s official FaceBook page being managed from Brazil: This coincides with Optimus VIP’s offsite marketing naming Antonio Salas as CEO in off-site marketing: Salas…
Tarracos fails to provide verifiable ownership or executive information on its website. While Tarracos does provide a list of executives, they are stolen identities that have nothing to do with the company: Tarracos’ website domain (“tarracos.com”), was privately registered on October 18th, 2024. As of December 2024, SimilarWeb was tracking 100% of Tarracos’ website traffic…