This, however, did not deter the staunch supporters and investors of Pathway 2 Prosperity. Months later, the scam started to unravel and cracks in the scheme appeared as more complaints from investors about not being able to get their funds back increased. Unfortunately for these duped folks, they will probably never see their invested money again.

Today, Nick Smirnow is no where to be found, the website is offline and Nick is being hunted by the authorities. As of April 29, 2009 there is no question as to whether Pathway-2-Prosperity.com and Nick Smirnow was running a scam or not. It was.

Here is the full story from the Bracebridge Examiner.

Baysville man wanted for illegal investment scam
April 29, 2009 – by Laura MacLean

Police are on the hunt for a Baysville man who is wanted for an illegal investment scheme that he was operating as a pathway to his own personal prosperity.

According to Huntsville OPP Const. Lynda Cranney, at the beginning of April members of both the Muskoka Crime Unit and the OPP’s Asset Forfeiture Unit executed a search at 51-year-old Nicholas Smirnow’s home, located on Fairy Falls Road. The search resulted in the seizure of property and assets related to the large-scale investment scam. Through his online investment business, Pathway-2-Prosperity, also known as the P2P Network, which he had operated from 2007 to 2008, Smirnow made over $1 million in illegal profit, police said. Known as a high-yield investment program, the scam promised high rates of return over short periods of time.

At the beginning of December, a local victim of the scam was the first to be interviewed by police. Since then, a handful of other area residents have come forward.

Huntsville OPP detective Andy Muller told this newspaper that Smirnow had been living at his Baysville residence since 2005 with his wife Diana, who is wanted by police for defrauding the Ontario Disability Support Program of $55,000.

“Once we got that first call, it really started to snowball after that,” said Muller. Two more victims of the fraud, both from the United States, were identified through the national fraud call centre Phone Busters, he continued. “Things really skyrocketed in March when I posted information on financial forums in relation to my P2P scam investigation. That’s when the gates opened and I had about 30 inquiries a day about it. Once the police got involved, the Internet chatter really started to increase. Some investors don’t know what to believe and others are still waiting for their money and believe it’s not a scam. Some people invested $100 and some $50,000. We even have a few victims from the United Kingdom, South America … a guy even called me from Nigeria.”

Victimized investors who have come forward have lost a total of about three-quarters of a million dollars, he said.

Muller indicated that when Smirnow first started Pathway-2-Prosperity in early 2007, some investors were getting paid because money was rolling in. However, he said, when it comes to scams like this, it’s only a matter of time before “the whole system folds.”

He added that the scam is a prime example of a business operator getting greedy.

“He left the area prior to us being aware of the scam, but we know where he is. He’s in the Philippines and his wife is with him. His passport has been flagged by the federal government, so if he travels over a border and his passport gets swiped or scanned, we can track his movements. (Smirnow) knows the investigation is going on.”

The U.S. postal service in the state of Illinois has launched a criminal investigation into the scam. The Securities and Exchange Commission is also aware of the scam and is monitoring it.

In August of last year, the North Dakota Securities Department issued a cease and desist order for Pathway-2-Prosperity and declared it an illegal investment scheme. According to the department’s website, commissioner Karen Tyler announced that the department was actively investigating a Canadian-based Internet fraud scheme that was being promoted in several communities in North Dakota. The website stated that Pathway-2-Prosperity was “promising returns of 1.5 per cent to 2.67 per cent per day. An example hyped in its website of $100 invested in the 60 Day Plan would return over $260 in just two months.”

Smirnow is believed to be of Russian descent and is originally from the Niagara/Hamilton area.

Those who have been victimized by the Pathway-2-Prosperity scam are encouraged to call the Huntsville OPP detachment at 705-789-5551.

http://www.gravenhurstbanner.com/article/134551

It is also surprising to read that Nick’s own wife Diana is also wanted for “defrauding the Ontario Disability Support Program of $55,000″. I suppose crime runs in this family.

Good luck to those that have lost money in this scam in trying to recover your losses. To those that are still “cheerleading” this scam, don’t worry, the next big investment is right around the corner.

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Pathway 2 Poverty, The Disappearance of Nicholas Smirnow?

In April of 2008, we wrote about HugeROI and their plans in revamping the website and offering their own in-house investments to the members. A year later and the contents of their homepage has not changed, except for the announcement that the “new HugeROI is around the corner”.

If you missed it, the revamped website came online in early fall of 2008. HugeROI did offer some investments with incredible returns. Maybe you have seen this message from one of their founders, Clifton Alexander, in various investment forums.

From the desk of Clifton Alexander the investment guru.

Hi,

If you want a 100% real investment program registered in Tennessee and soon with the SEC, then this is it. You have a choice now, keep getting scammed or join a real investment club. It’s up to you.

We would like to introduce our profitable investment club which we have been working on for years.

We have two investment options available, conservative and aggressive.

Under the Conservative Option, we aim to produce 20% net profit every month
using an extremely conservative trading plan which aims to protect your
capital and take profit for the month once the profit target is met.

Under the Aggressive Option, we do not aim for a specific monthly target
and will execute our full trading plan monthly. The highest return on investment so far in one month is 313% which can be verified, Just ask us to show you.
You will receive more performance details when you visit our site.

HugeROI Inc. is located in the United States and registered in Tennessee (Reg# is available on our site), our traders are registered in New York and Singapore. Our trades are a hedge fund company specializing in private equity management and imparting of short term option swing trading knowledge through proprietary trading systems.

We even show you the trading charts of every stock option we choose and how we produced profits.
So if your tired of those so called “investment programs” closing down and running with your funds, join a real investment club and profit.

If you would like to see our past stock option results just contact us.

Thanks for your time,

Clifton Alexander
www.hugeroi.com

1877-HUGEROI
1877-484-3764
HugeROI Inc.
PO Box 9252
Memphis, TN 38190-0252

A few months after opening the site up for investors, an announcement was made that the business would be under new management. (We have yet to see any registration with the SEC at this time.)

In the meantime, unfortunate investors were submitting their funds into the HugeROI investments for trading and expecting a huge return for their money. At the end of January 2009, HugeROI investors were shocked to find out they could no longer log in to the site.

A message was displayed on the homepage stated that all funds in the investments were lost by their hired trader and the site would be closed for now. It directed the investors to send an email to hugeroi@yahoo.com to obtain proof that this is really what has happened. (One wonders why they would use a Yahoo email address when they own the HugeROI.com domain.)

Sending an enquiry email to this address resulted in a prompt autoresponder message. The contents of this message is quoted below verbatim.

Hello,

If your replying about your account in December we took a major loss and it wiped out all funds including our own. We will have to close the site down for a while until the market gets better. We hate to do this but the traders lost everything in the stock and forex market. Please visit this link below to verify the loss. http://www.photohost.info/public/viewset/259

We visited the photohost site and found what are supposedly the screenshots of the trading account that lost all the funds.

So there you have it, another unregulated online investment site that bit the dust. Their claims of SEC registration and high returns were nothing more than a “pie in the sky” dream or an outright scam. A third reason may be that they did not have years of experience liked they claimed or just plain incompetent to have lost all the funds.

Now that they have announced that a “New HugeROI” is just around the corner, can you trust them with your hard earned money?

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Is HugeROI.com Private Investment Club A Scam?

Does this “robot” work is the question? Well, we tried to answer that question for the past couple of months and our answer is… Yes. But before you go out and spend your money on this product, we would like to set the stage and make sure you understand what this “robot” is all about.

Among the many investments that we are involved in with this blog, including stocks and yes, Forex as well. Four accounts at four different brokers to be exact. As the editor of this blog, I trade the Forex both manually and with Expert Advisors or EAs as they are known in the Forex lingo. Expert Advisors are nothing more than scripts that are written to automate the trading using the MetaTrader platform used by most Forex Brokers. If a broker doesn’t use MetaTrader, you can not use the Expert Advisors.

Most Expert Advisors are programmed to trade using algorithms based on trading systems that are done manually. For example, if you have a manually traded system that is successful by trading the market trend, you can write an Expert Advisor to check the indicators that you use and do the trading for you automatically if the setup meets your conditions. If you do not know how to program, you can hire a professional to do this for you for a fee.

FapTurbo the robot, is one such expert advisor. While we do not completely know the trading method involved in creating this expert advisor since it is proprietary and the source code locked, we do know that it does work, however, there are some cautions to be aware of.

In the world of automated investing, everyone is searching for the “Holy Grail” system. One that will work in any type of market be it volatile or flat; at any time and making a profit without any losses. Stop searching for this Holy Grail because one does not exist. The idea of any successful trading system or Expert Advisor is to make more winning trades than you make in losses therefore having a net profit.

The proof that no one has ever found or created the “Holy Grail” system of investing in the Forex market is the fact that over 90% of retail Forex traders lose their money. If there was such a system, then everyone would be making money.

FapTurbo is not a “Holy Grail”, but it does make a net profit after losses. Yes, FapTurbo does make losing trades.  There are some things that we do know about this EA after we have purchased two licenses to run on our accounts and visiting their forums. Do not expect to become rich overnight by making huge profits as represented in their live trading performances.   Here’s the live $5000 trading account since October ‘08.

While it is possible to achieve this performance like they have done, it is not without taking on bigger risks. Most professional traders will tell you that you should never risk more than 3% of your balance in a trade. The folks at FapTurbo admits that the results they have achieved has been done with constant tweaking of their risk settings. One can set the risks at 30% or more and if you are lucky, you will achieve the same performance. If you are unlucky, your account will be wiped out in 3 to 5 losing trades. FapTurbo is shipped with a default risk of 5%, and even that is a bit too high for our taste.

Other things you should know about the FapTurbo EA. It is shipped with two strategies, a short term and a long term. The short term only trades with the EURGBP, GBPCHF, EURCHF and USDCAD four days a week from around 9pm GMT to 2am GMT. The long term trades the EURUSD 24/5. At this time, the long term EURUSD trade has been disabled because of performance issues. The USDCAD trades has also been recommended not to be traded because of market volatility and poor performance.

This is a testament that FapTurbo is not a perfect system, but one that is affected by market conditions and that the developers and traders at FapTurbo will have to constantly make changes and tweaks to the system. This is one of the reasons there has been new releases of the Expert Advisors since it’s initial launch of version 16 to the current version 36. Market conditions and broker terms will always have an effect on any system. FapTurbo is no exception.

One thing that you should be aware of is that this is a software script that runs on a computer connected to your broker. This means, for it to work properly your computer and the trading platform must be on and connected to your broker during trading times. Twenty four seven if you are trading the long term strategy. It is a risky proposition if your computer is prone to problems, have an unreliable internet connection or have power issues in your neighborhood. It is possible that you can lose a lot of money if an open trade goes against you and any of the situations mentioned happens where you lose connection and the position can not be closed out.

We recommend using a VPS (Virtual Private Server) if you are going to be serious about trading the Forex with FapTurbo or any other expert advisor. The trading platform is hosted remotely on a virtual server that is monitored for uptime and all the necessary redundancy like fast internet connections, backups and UPS for power outage. Disaster can still happen, but at least you are a bit more secure than running at home. FapTurbo does provide recommendations for Forex specific VPS on their site. If you look for your own VPS provider, make sure it is one that specializes in online trading, otherwise, you will get a provider that does not understand that they can not just reboot your system at any time to install patches or perform maintenance while you have trades open.

Another valid concern that we have is the massive number of customers that are using FapTurbo and its effect on Forex brokers.  Forex brokers and dealer desks are in the business of making money. It is true that the Forex market is huge, to the tune of 3 Trillion dollars a day. However, most of these trades are interbank, meaning trades between the big banks and investment firms. It is estimated that only around 20 to 30 Billion is being traded by small retail investors like you and I.  A broker acts as the middleman and takes all the trades of the retail traders and combines them to make a single aggregate trade with the bigger players. The bottom line is that there are a number of Forex brokers that are now banning and dis-allowing the use of FapTurbo. This may be case of a product being a victim of its own success.

This growth in FapTurbo is causing major support issues. Imagine being swamped with thousands of new users, ones with no experience with investing on the Forex and add in technical issues with software setup, licensing and activations. The complaints from customers have risen lately because of lack of support. It leaves us wondersing if FapTurbo is more concerned with increasing sales or helping their customers make money.

We do not know how long this Expert Advisor will work or if it will eventually be banned by all Forex brokers.  (A solution to this problem would be if FapTurbo itself becomes a Forex broker. )

If you still want to try it out, we suggest you start trading using a demo account and get a feel for it, then decide the risk amount you are comfortable with when you go live.  If nothing else, start small and learn about Expert Advisors and branch out to the hundreds of other available EAs out there. Some are free, some are scams and then some costs in the thousands. FapTurbo is priced reasonable for its performance to get your feet wet in the world of Forex trading. Visit FapTurbo.com for more details.

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FAPTurbo, Forex Auto Pilot Trading Robot Review

On October 17th, Lahde passed along his “goodbye” letter, a biting “F-you” message to the financial establishment, hedge funds, government and privileged “prep” school kids.

It’s really entertaining. Below is the letter in it’s entirety as found on FT Alphaville and Portfolio.com. Few can disagree with his sentiments in our current economic crisis.

“Today I write not to gloat. Given the pain that nearly everyone is experiencing, that would be entirely inappropriate. Nor am I writing to make further predictions, as most of my forecasts in previous letters have unfolded or are in the process of unfolding. Instead, I am writing to say goodbye.

Recently, on the front page of Section C of the Wall Street Journal, a hedge fund manager who was also closing up shop (a $300 million fund), was quoted as saying, “What I have learned about the hedge fund business is that I hate it.” I could not agree more with that statement. I was in this game for the money. The low hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale, and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government. All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy, only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America.

There are far too many people for me to sincerely thank for my success. However, I do not want to sound like a Hollywood actor accepting an award. The money was reward enough. Furthermore, the endless list those deserving thanks know who they are.

I will no longer manage money for other people or institutions. I have enough of my own wealth to manage. Some people, who think they have arrived at a reasonable estimate of my net worth, might be surprised that I would call it quits with such a small war chest. That is fine; I am content with my rewards. Moreover, I will let others try to amass nine, ten or eleven figure net worths. Meanwhile, their lives suck. Appointments back to back, booked solid for the next three months, they look forward to their two week vacation in January during which they will likely be glued to their Blackberries or other such devices. What is the point? They will all be forgotten in fifty years anyway. Steve Balmer, Steven Cohen, and Larry Ellison will all be forgotten. I do not understand the legacy thing. Nearly everyone will be forgotten. Give up on leaving your mark. Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life.

So this is it. With all due respect, I am dropping out. Please do not expect any type of reply to emails or voicemails within normal time frames or at all. Andy Springer and his company will be handling the dissolution of the fund. And don’t worry about my employees, they were always employed by Mr. Springer’s company and only one (who has been well-rewarded) will lose his job.

I have no interest in any deals in which anyone would like me to participate. I truly do not have a strong opinion about any market right now, other than to say that things will continue to get worse for some time, probably years. I am content sitting on the sidelines and waiting. After all, sitting and waiting is how we made money from the subprime debacle. I now have time to repair my health, which was destroyed by the stress I layered onto myself over the past two years, as well as my entire life — where I had to compete for spaces in universities and graduate schools, jobs and assets under management — with those who had all the advantages (rich parents) that I did not. May meritocracy be part of a new form of government, which needs to be established.

On the issue of the U.S. Government, I would like to make a modest proposal. First, I point out the obvious flaws, whereby legislation was repeatedly brought forth to Congress over the past eight years, which would have reigned in the predatory lending practices of now mostly defunct institutions. These institutions regularly filled the coffers of both parties in return for voting down all of this legislation designed to protect the common citizen. This is an outrage, yet no one seems to know or care about it. Since Thomas Jefferson and Adam Smith passed, I would argue that there has been a dearth of worthy philosophers in this country, at least ones focused on improving government. Capitalism worked for two hundred years, but times change, and systems become corrupt. George Soros, a man of staggering wealth, has stated that he would like to be remembered as a philosopher. My suggestion is that this great man start and sponsor a forum for great minds to come together to create a new system of government that truly represents the common man’s interest, while at the same time creating rewards great enough to attract the best and brightest minds to serve in government roles without having to rely on corruption to further their interests or lifestyles. This forum could be similar to the one used to create the operating system, Linux, which competes with Microsoft’s near monopoly. I believe there is an answer, but for now the system is clearly broken.

Lastly, while I still have an audience, I would like to bring attention to an alternative food and energy source. You won’t see it included in BP’s, “Feel good. We are working on sustainable solutions,” television commercials, nor is it mentioned in ADM’s similar commercials. But hemp has been used for at least 5,000 years for cloth and food, as well as just about everything that is produced from petroleum products. Hemp is not marijuana and vice versa. Hemp is the male plant and it grows like a weed, hence the slang term. The original American flag was made of hemp fiber and our Constitution was printed on paper made of hemp. It was used as recently as World War II by the U.S. Government, and then promptly made illegal after the war was won. At a time when rhetoric is flying about becoming more self-sufficient in terms of energy, why is it illegal to grow this plant in this country? Ah, the female. The evil female plant — marijuana. It gets you high, it makes you laugh, it does not produce a hangover. Unlike alcohol, it does not result in bar fights or wife beating. So, why is this innocuous plant illegal? Is it a gateway drug? No, that would be alcohol, which is so heavily advertised in this country. My only conclusion as to why it is illegal, is that Corporate America, which owns Congress, would rather sell you Paxil, Zoloft, Xanax and other additive drugs, than allow you to grow a plant in your home without some of the profits going into their coffers. This policy is ludicrous. It has surely contributed to our dependency on foreign energy sources. Our policies have other countries literally laughing at our stupidity, most notably Canada, as well as several European nations (both Eastern and Western). You would not know this by paying attention to U.S. media sources though, as they tend not to elaborate on who is laughing at the United States this week. Please people, let’s stop the rhetoric and start thinking about how we can truly become self-sufficient.

With that I say good-bye and good luck.

All the best,

Andrew Lahde”

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Sayonara Sub-Prime Suckers from Andrew Lahde

According to the original litigation, Global Online Direct Inc. took in $45Million from at least 9000 investors. On October 6, 2008, the latest declaration from the Grassmueck Group, the court appointed receivership, only $1.5M is available to return to the investors from what has been recovered.

Now for the bad news, only investors that had invested at least $2000 are authorized to submit a claim. This would leave out at least 50-90% of the investors because when this program was online, the minimum investment to participate started at $150 and later raised to $500. Most people will usually go in with the minimimun to “test the waters”. Unfortunately, the majority of them will receive zilch from the recovery efforts.

This begs the question, does government intervention and meddling really for the protection and benefit of the investors? To rub it in, the biggest winners in this whole fiasco are the receivership, attorneys, accountants and various consultants hired by the government to provide “relief” to the bilked investors. How much was their windfall? Read the first “Notice of First Applications for Professional Fees and Expenses“.

Receiver :                    $124,558.00 + $ 6,158.67 in expenses
Receiver Counsel :        414,982.00 + 25,285.93 in expenses
Local Counsel :               26,754.00 + 1,876.14 in expenses
Receiver Accountant :  158,632.95 + 2,501.82 in expenses
Total:                 $724,926.95 + $30,322.56 in expenses

It appears that the investors got duped twice, once by Global Online Direct Inc. and then again by our own trusted government that are elected to serve and protect its citizens. If the distribution were to be fair and all the investors got something back, $1.5M/9000 that would be a pittance of $167.00 vs the $755,000.00 being paid to our SEC and government representatives.

One blaring question remains. Where is the rest of the missing $42,744,750.49? Our government went through great expense and can not seem to find it. It is as if the paper trail ended and the money went into thin air.

Our theory is that this money is probably safely hidden offshore somewhere just waiting for Global Online’s defendants to withdraw and spend once they come out of prison in a few years. This is a testament that to protect your hard earned money and wealth you will have to put some offshore. The scammers do it, why shouldn’t you?

What are the lessons to be learned from this experience for the small investor? If you are going to participate in risky investment programs, ones that falls in the gray area of SEC jurisdiction; make sure it is located offshore. If the SEC litigates and halts the program, you can kiss your investment good-bye. (This is not to say all offshore investments are legit either, one will have to do the same amount if not more due diligence and work within your country’s tax laws.)

Secondly, educate yourself on how to safe guard your wealth from the leeches and predators by going offshore. Global Online Direct has demonstrated clearly they know how to do this, after all $42 Million is still missing.

This whole experience has us wondering what if the SEC had practiced a bit of “laissez faire”? Would the 9000 investors have gotten more than what they are getting now, which is practically nothing? What if the intentions of Global Online Direct was really honest and attempting to make good on what they were promising? We will really never know.

One thing we do know for sure is our U.S. government doesn’t really have the best interest of small investors in mind. Just look at the current financial crisis. Literally overnight, investors were wiped out in the stocks of IndyMac (INDC), Freddie Mac (FRE), Fannie Mae (FNM), Lehman Brothers (LEHMQ), Washington Mutual (WAMUQ) and the list goes on. All from the actions of our elected officials and employees of the taxpayer at the Federal Reserve, Treasury, SEC and FDIC. If they had done their job of watching over the real crooks on Wall Street, we wouldn’t be in this mess. So much for serving and protecting the people.

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SEC vs. Globalonlinedirect a Bad Deal For Small Investors

The last email sent out from Worldlpp.net was rather ominous. It was purporting to be from an employee of ITConsultinglive.com on behalf of Worldlpp because Conrad Addison was incapacitated as a result of a stroke. The employees of ITConsultingLive had now taken over the management and operations of Worldlpp.

No explanation was given as to what will happen to all the investor’s money and as to the future of Worldlpp. Investors are entitled to know as much since it is their money that funded and capitalized ITConsultingLive as one of the investments.

As of today ITConsultingLive.com is still online and apparently in business. The various sites that were under the Worldlpp portfolio are also online, however, no updates to investors as to the status for over six months. Vivamin.com, BidHire.com, BidSnarf.com, and StripLivePoker.com were all part of this Worldlpp investment project.

It should be noted that Conrad Addison is also a principal of TakeTheInternetBack.com and WorldAdGroup.com. Worldlpp was also involved in MegaBonusClub.com. The following question and answer is found in the FAQ of TakeTheInternetBack.com site.

Q: Okay, who are the principals and who is backing this?
A: How about 3 successful businessmen? Our backers are Winston Price, a retired hedge fund manager; Conrad Addison, a retired businessman currently active with internet programs, and J. Brian Bailey, a retired automotive consultant.

At the bottom of each of these sites, one can see the “Website development by IT Center” badge which corresponds to ITConsultingLive.com. Each site is also cross linking to the various sites that are all developed by ITConsultingLive.

So what does all this mean? We can only deduce that ITConsultingLive.com is alive, well and functioning. As an entity of Worldlpp they should be held accountable to its investors. Lack of communication and the shutdown of Worldlpp.net/.com only confirm that the investors have been left high and dry.

If Conrad Addison and the principals of ITConsultingLive.com are profiting from the use of investors’ funds and using the money to invest in other businesses like TakeTheInternetBack.com and the WorldAdGroup.com, they are committing fraud.

It is our opinion that the Worldlpp program was set up as an elaborate scam to steal monies from investors to finance their separate online ventures. As a public service, we are warning potential customers and clients to steer clear of any websites or businesses that are developed by IT Live aka ITConsultingLive.com. Stay away from any business that has Conrad Addison’s name attached and or an address of IT Center, 22811 Meridian Ave E., Suite B-19, Graham, Washington, 98338, USA.

There were several other websites being sold as an investment opportunity from Worldlpp that were being developed before the main site went offline. HotEuropeanCams.com and a supposedly payment processing portal in Romania called PlatiVirtuale.ro. Both never came into fruition, however, investors’ funds went with it.

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Losing Money with WorldLPP.net Investment Scam

A question often asked by our readership is where we come up with some of these alternative investment ideas. Well, besides being bombarded by a ton of financial related snail mail and newsletters, we get quite a bit of investment newsletters that we are subscribed to. If we see something interesting, we will take a closer look and write about it.

Unfortunately, we also get a ton of unsolicited emails regarding investing opportunities as well. Some are either promoting their programs or asking us to review it. It’s a jungle out there in the online investment world and we are not always capable of doing an in depth due diligence on every single one of them.

Here is an example of a recent paid advertisement for NetVestFund.com that was attached to a newsletter that we are subscribed to. This is neither an endorsement nor a recommendation by OWI, just information. We have not done a complete due diligence on this company. Attached below is the actual email ad from the newsletter.

PAID NEWSLETTER ADs: (Full registered Investment company)

Investors from around the world seeking alternatives to investment in US based Equities and Real Estate, have found that http://www.netvestfund.com operates a fully regulated and transparent fund for investors. It offers opportunities with funds paying two, three, and four times as much as they are receiving from most US-based funds and financial services groups. Visit their website at http://www.netvestfund.com, and their sister site-developing daily, and investment programs at
http://www.theNVFund.com.

Panamanian-based and administered http://www.theNVFund.com offers an alternative to the historically acceptable “average HYIP fund.” With regulations in place and professional management running the fund, choices have never been clearer as to the exponential upside available to investors.

Accounts Director Steve Chez, VP of Trading Services Sheldon Mackinnon and Fund Manager Terrence House offer one stop shopping with funds generating double digit increases and investments diversified throughout the world.

Unlike other HYIP investments that offer only email addresses-and a hope and a prayer that they are legitimate, www.theNVFund.com offers full information on the principals, their track records, and the upside potential the fund represents.

http://www.TheNVfund.com is offering 3 daily programs to meet your cash generating needs

The Cash Creation Daily — The Market Edge Daily — The Flying Eagle Daily
For more information on our portfolios and our referral set-up please contact us anytime!
The NetVest Investment Fund, Inc. — The World’s Premier Investment Portal

http://www.thenvfund.com
phone 1: +1-347-482-1717
phone 2: +1-519-342-5341
fax: +1-519-488-1199
Skype ID: NetVestFund
Yahoo ID: NetVestFund

A quick glance at their website gives a sense of legitimacy with published contact details. The mailing address is in Canada, while the Articles of Incorporation is in Panama making this program offshore. There is one thing that needs a bit of clarification. This is what the home page says:

“Our Portfolios offer various rates of return that range from an average of 1% a month all the way up to 15% a month!

We have portfolios that offer compounding for the longer term investor, and we also offer portfolios that can offer a monthly income, also knows as “Cash Generating” portfolios.”

We appreciate the fact that they can generate such returns and it’s possible in the realm of FOREX trading, but are we missing something here from the charts shown on the page about the returns for their various funds?

Maybe is much ado about nothing, however, there is a 10 year performance chart but a quick WHOIS check on NetVestFund.com and TheNVFund.com shows that both sites have been registered this year in March and July respectively. Are they saying they have been around for more than 10 years?

A closer look shows that NetVestIF.com is also related to this program which was registered in June and has the same mailing address as NetVestFund in Canada.

We cannot say for certainty that this is a safe and legitimate offshore investment. The one pause we do have is the appearance of NetVestFund advertisements and paid forum sponsorship on a number of “HYIP” forums and websites that historically has a bunch of short lived scam programs advertised.

There’s enough information here that if an investor wants more due diligence, feel free to do some “Googling” and calling the company. If anyone has some positive or negative experiences with this company, please share.

[Editor's Note] We were contacted by one of the company’s principal to remove information from the article that they said was no longer valid. To our loyal subscribers, we recommend you thoroughly do your research on this company before making an investment.

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The NetVest Funds, New or Old?

If the ND Securities believes that P2P is operating illegally in their state, other states will follow suit if there are investors within their borders promoting the program. Some will say the U.S. SEC has no jurisdictions on a Canadian company. While this may be true, there are partnerships between securities regulators of differing countries.

It is in the best interest of each country to enforce compliance on businesses that are violating the laws of a partner country. In return for example, the U.S. would shut down a business in it’s own country if the Canadian SEC deems that it is violating or operating illegally in Canada.

The dominoes may have started to fall, however, no one can be sure what the outcome of the investigation by the ND SEC will amount to. The only facts that we know is that Pathway-2-Prosperity is operating illegally and not registered in North Dakota. It is also stated that those that are promoting the program in North Dakota are also breaking the securities laws.

Will this be enough to start a panic among its membership causing a mass withdrawal? If so, then the death knell for P2P has been rung. Here is the complete warning from the North Dakota Securities Commission in its entirety.

SECURITIES COMMISSIONER WARNS OF INTERNET FRAUD
Posted: August 6, 2008

Bismarck, ND – North Dakota Securities Commissioner Karen Tyler announced today that the Securities Department is actively investigating a Canadian-based, internet fraud scheme currently being promoted in several communities in North Dakota, including Bismarck and Jamestown. “Pathway-2-Prosperity” or “P-2-P Network” promises returns of 1.5% to 2.67% per day. An example hyped in its website of $100 invested in the “60 Day Plan” would return over $260 in just two months. “This has all the earmarks of a classic Ponzi scheme with money from later investors used to pay unrealistically high returns to early investor/promoters, who then bring in their family members, friends and co-workers for a ‘referral fee’,” said Tyler.

The scam claims to be a legal, private investment club and not subject to state and federal securities laws. This is completely false. “P-2-P Network” is not registered with the North Dakota Securities Department and offering for sale an unregistered, non-exempt security to a North Dakota resident is a direct violation of the North Dakota Securities Act. Local investors encouraging the scheme and referring others to invest for a fee are also violating the Securities Act as unregistered agents of the foreign promoter and could expose themselves to civil or criminal liability. Commissioner Tyler warned that investor money is leaving the country and when the scheme collapses, as they always do, it will be almost impossible to recover any part of it.

“The key to avoid getting harmed by an investment scam is to make sure you understand the product being offered and thoroughly check both the salesperson and the product with our Department,” said Commissioner Tyler. “Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.” The investigation by the Securities Department is ongoing and individuals with information concerning this activity are encouraged to contact the North Dakota Securities Department at (800) 297-5124 or 328-2929 (Bismarck local).

As if that was not enough, more undue publicity about the warnings from the ND SEC hit the Associated Press and mentioned on an affiliated MSNBC site as well. Here is the blurb:

State Warns Of Internet Investment Scam
By Associated Press
KVLY-TV
updated 2:46 a.m. CT, Thurs., Aug. 7, 2008

Investigators are warning the public about a Canadian-based internet fraud scheme that’s popped up in Jamestown and Bismarck.

The Pathway 2 Prosperity Network website says $100 invested into a 60-Day plan could return more than $260 in two months.

North Dakota Securities Commissioner Karen Tyler says the P-2-P is operating illegally in the state and investors who recruit more people into the scam could face criminal charges.

So there you have it folks, this “investment” is starting to not sound like an investment but an illegal scam.

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North Dakota Securities Commission Investigates Pathway-2-Prosperity

We have written about M-Commerce in the past and still believe it is the wave of the future in regards to payment processing. Self Bank Mobile is the newest player on the block that appears to have the infrastructure and management in place to take it to the next level. They could possibly be the next “PayPal”, but much better.

Why would we write about an M-Commerce payment processor in our blog about alternative investments? Here is why, it is all a matter of reading the fine print and seeing the hidden opportunity. Self Bank offers both a free user account and paid merchant accounts. While we like the affiliate program that earns residual monthly commissions from referring new users, we really like the opportunity to own an equity stake in the company.

Just those two factors alone have set them apart from other online payment processors like PayPal, Alert Pay, Safepay or standard credit card merchant accounts. When was the last time you got paid from your current online payment processor for introducing your friends to them? The opportunity to earn residuals month after month and being able to receive equity shares in what will become a powerhouse is enticing. To find out more you will have to sign up for a free account to get all the details.

There is much more to this company that will ensure their eventual success. Among the benefits are lower transaction fees, no charge backs, a rewards program and a soon to be launched world’s first mobile social networking site called Meet Franklin. A percentage of interchange fees and advertisement revenue will go to the affiliates that help promote their services.

Self Bank will soon launch in the USA/Canada & UK first in early 2009 then to all other countries internationally. The time to get involved is now while it is still on the ground floor. This is a secure service that millions of people will want and need. Ask yourself this:

How many people around the world do not have credit cards?
How many people around the world do not have a banking account?
There are 10 times more people with a mobile phone than there are PCs!

Unlike many of the current M-Commerce competitors, the service will be hardware and telco independent. Self Bank Mobile is the killer app solution for all people to be able to buy and sell both online and offline. It is in our opinion that they will capture a large share of the multi Trillion dollar payment processing market in the next few years. Wouldn’t you like to own shares in this company when that happens? They are definitely in the right place and at the right time.

$100 Dollar Sign Up Promotion:

The company has a goal of giving out $100,000,000 dollars in ‘Cash Advance Dollars’ ($100 per user or $500 per merchant signup) in the next 90 – 120 days. When the program goes live after the BETA launch, then you will be able to redeem your ‘Cash Advance Dollars’ at participating SelfBank Mobile Merchants through your own personal spending. When you spend money at participating SelfBank Mobile merchants, above all other discounts provided by the merchants, 25% of the interchange fee collected by SelfBank Mobile from your purchases, will go back to you.

Why pay more for transaction fees than you have to? For more information and get your sign up bonus, visit Self Bank Mobile.

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Self Bank Mobile’s M-Commerce Service, The PayPal Killer App?

Sometimes an investor has to be in the right place at the right time to take an opportunity by the bullhorn. If you are still not convinced that offshore investing can be safe and profitable, look no further than the family of mutual funds offered by Orbis.

Based in Bermuda, their equity and absolute return funds have been doing quite well since inception. Earlier funds like the Orbis Global Equity Fund has returned a compounded 1100% since it’s start date. The performance of both Absolute Retun Funds were not too shabby either coming in at 700 and 1200% since inception.

Unfortunately, if you are looking at getting in to any of these funds, you are out of luck since they have closed them for new subscriptions since March of 2006. This is not to say an opportunity to participate will not be available in the near future.

Being a savvy investor means being prepared when the opportunity does arrive. Consider that their latest fund was started in 2006 and filled up quickly. Should they start a new fund, the doors will be open once again. It should be noted that their current funds have taken a hit this year in a turbulent market. Occasionally, closed funds often open up during a downturn. (This is not to say that it will happen here.)

While past performance can not guarantee their future results or success of new funds, their track record for the past 18 years speaks highly of their fund management.

If you are interested in being notified when the Orbis funds are reopen for new clients, follow this link and register: http://www.orbisfunds.com/FundNotification.aspx In the meantime, you will need to open up an offshore account to participate if you are not in a country that they accept clients from.

For information regarding the Orbis Funds please contact the Investor Services team at:

Orbis Investment Management Limited
LPG Building
34 Bermudiana Road
Hamilton HM 11
Bermuda

Mailing address:
P.O. Box HM571
Hamilton HMCX
Bermuda

Telephone: +1 (441) 296 3000
Facsimile: +1 (441) 296 3001
E-mail: clientservice@orbisfunds.com
Web site: www.orbisfunds.com

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Offshore Mutual Funds with Orbis