USFIA pay out $100,000s in car bonuses at Ponzi pageant
Continuing the tradition of Asian-run Ponzi schemes intertwining themselves with lavish displays of ceremony, USFIA recently held a “jewelry queen pageant” in Singapore.
Present at the event appears to be someone of significance who, following in the footsteps of John Wuo before him, handed out oversized checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars to USFIA’s top GemCoin investors:
USFIA’s guest of honor also awarded GemCoin investors (Wang Wei and Lionel Wong pictured) with some sort of certificate:
The large text on the award reads “piagam penganugerahan”, which is Malay for “charter award”.
The specifics of USFIA’s pageant, such as when it was held or where, are unclear. What we do know though is that it was primarily billed as an Ammine event.
Ammine is purportedly based in Dominican Republic and is believed to be used by USFIA to launder GemCoin Ponzi funds through.
Curiously, USFIA principal Steve Chen was nowhere to be seen at the event.
Perhaps the FBI investigation into USFIA and GemCoin has him avoiding airports?
Anyone from Arcadia recognize any locals in the crowd, or was this strictly an “offshore investors” event?
I spotted the Chinese and Vietnamese ([8:26]) flags draped from the second story of the venue in background shots… presumably there were others too.
Wang Wei is one of the VP’s in USFIA. She used to be a big actress in China like 30 some years ago. Not sure how did she get involved in this.
Steve Chen do this pageant every year, and selects some girl from various Chinatowns around the world as local reps.
He hires the loser locals as company spokesgirls. The two young ladies presenting at that May event? Former pageant losers.
I believe the dude you see walking in at around 1:25 to be Sam Chen (a relative of our good buddy Steve Chen).
I’ll have to go through the grab of the video but it looks like Alicia Gesier and Julia Zhu are also present.
Will do some screen shots and side by sides after a bit..
Actually, I can’t even confirm that, as there’s at least three or four famous ones.
There’s people of same name in Hong Kong (lost Miss HK pageant) and Taiwan (former news anchor) as well as the one in Shanghai, China (former actress).
The RUMOR was the one in Shanghai is the current one with USFIA, but that may be a rumor spread by Steve Chen.
Also, USFIA paid for a press conference in February 8th, 2015 in San Diego Marriott to announce USFIA Currency Fund Gemcoin, and hired a local Chinese dance school for a performance.
zhibay.com/v/xingjiandancestudio/5105
the registration for the 2015 beauty pageant was open from april 4, 2015 to may 31, 2015, so the event would have been after these dates.
a corene lau posted on instagram that she was ‘attending’ the event 4 days ago:
another post puts the event at over two weeks ago
the event may have been within the last one month or so IMO. is there any place or hotel called ‘clarendon’ in singapore?
this is a photo of steve chen attending the 2014 ammine beauty pageant:
queen.usfiainc.com/images/contest/slider/1.jpg
the main sponsor of the 2015 amine event are listed as AHome Real Estate LLC and Amkey LLC, both of which are steve chen companies.
If you mean Chen Yan 陳岩, that’s Steve Chen 陳力 ‘s brother.
I think “Connie” (unknown surname) is also there, another VP.
Apparently USFIA did sponsor 1 (yes, 1) H1B visa this year… They need a part-time international trade analyst they can’t seem to find locally, but they’re only paying 18.50 an hour for NON-full-time work. Muahahahaha.
icert.doleta.gov/index.cfm?event=ehLCJRExternal.dspCert&doc_id=3&visa_class_id=1&id=3525465
I’m referencing the guy identified here as Sam Chen, who has similar facial features
life416.com/index.php?Itemid=342&catid=207:2011-06-21-20-24-18&id=13750:2015-01-24-02-20-37&option=com_content
Let me find a picture of Chen Yan…
here you go:
i.imgur.com/pq1hDHY.png
And here’s allegedly the last page contract of him buying a mine in Dominican Republic…
i.imgur.com/KEWK6f0.png
And here’s Connie, and two of the lovely “Amber gem queens” now merely USFIA sales ladies:
i.imgur.com/ptKHhTm.png
@Kasey – Great work there as usual.
I tell people all the time there is nothing more dangerous than social media and geeks who can run search engines and have time on their hands..
According to a forum in Malaysia (Lowyat) Wang Wei was the head promoter of Amkey (Steve Chen’s previous company) about 10 years ago and got into big problem there and had to leave China.
Searching for her name and Amkey yielded this photo:
i.imgur.com/IfjpnkE.jpg
That’s her, tall in the middle in the striped dress.
Incidentally, here’s Steven Chen, from 2009, when Amkey was running strong. Hair’s a little darker, but otherwise, same guy.
i.imgur.com/R3wLtEC.jpg
Checking the photo albums of Amkey shows that Connie had been with Steve for a long time. She was a leader in Amkey too. Seem to hold the title “Global Number Two” in Amkey, supposedly direct downline of Steve Chen?
i.imgur.com/W7pANvd.jpg
Found a reference to both USFIA “American Mining” and Amkey, in Chinese.
There’s more at dsbaike.com/article/view/id/9026.html (in Chinese)
It appears that the blonde Kim was far more involved than we ever suspected.
I’m working on a blogpost listing Steve Chen’s Amkey antics (how they screwed over tens of thousands in China, back around 2004-2006) and how Amkey no longer appears on the DSA.org as a member.
Better you than me. The Chinese stuff goes over my head!
the ammine USFIA beauty pageant was held on september 7th, 2015 at the orchid country club singapore.
the guests of honor were some indonesian royalty:
facebook.com/387257104802634/photos/pcb.420043044857373/420042511524093/?type=3
in a video uploaded on sept 17th, 2015, our multi talented john bao ping zhang, who has previously played the role of a security guard and gem appraiser at USFIA/gemcoin events, shows up a judge at a beauty pageant [ 0:16 mins]
the video is titled:
does this mean ^^ an event took place in LA or is expected to take place in LA?
youtube.com/watch?v=ek_Qe_aPlIc&fb_action_ids=10206728774874585&fb_action_types=og.shares&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B691768594258615%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.shares%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D
the semifinals of the ammine beauty pageant were held in los angeles, california sometime prior to the final event on sept 7th in singapore.
a video of the semi final event shows john bao ping zhang, involved in the ‘training’ of the contestants and handing out jewellery. at approx 1:00 minute, there is a shot of steve chen, sitting in the background, ogling.
youtube.com/watch?v=L8Cj9QOkYvk
the indonesian royalty present at the ammine beauty pageant is Raja Gontar IV DR. Syafri Fadillah M,SE.MPd.
i thinks he lives in singapore and gets invited to officiate at many events and lend some ‘grandeur’.
here’s raja gontar at the ammine event:
facebook.com/327121794160279/photos/pcb.426419910897133/426418754230582/?type=3&permPage=1
Confirmed, it is indeed Kim R. Holland. She was previously Amkey’s “Asia Region Chief Representative” 安旗公司亞洲區首席代表.
Got a photo of her presenting at an Amkey Taiwan 1 year anniversary extravaganza.
Connie’s surname appears to be Cheng, definitely was a part of Amkey circa 2005, and now, USFIA.
Don’t know if she’s related to Steve though. On one blog for Amkey China she’s referred to as group leader 团队领袖 “connie Cheng”.
Weird, here’s a company you haven’t heard about Steve Chen… NGNTalk. it was apparently a telecom company, and pushed with Amkey around 2008.
Now for a bit of a flashback… youtu.be/wVc7OjHrzFE
Aha, the actual company name is “Alliance NGN”, or NGNT.
Holy ****. this guy was doing TelexFree before TelexFree! And it even claimed FCC approval!
alliancengn.com/FrontEnd/EN/Pages/InvestmentProjects/Ngnt.aspx
I think I figured out what’s the logic Steve Chen used to claim he founded China Unicom.
From 1989-1992 he was CEO of Beijing Kaichi Communications 北京凯奇通信 and I did find an article that did mention him by name. A Chinese economic magazine “Outlook” 聊望 said Kaichi Comm was the fastest growing among Beijing Telecoms, and specifically mentioned 陳力 (Steve Chen) as company CEO.
Steve Chen’s bio claimed that he was the one to represent Beijing for the formation of China Unicom and served as one of the directors for the new China Unicom. I think that means he served as a director (i.e. board of directors), but was not an actual founder.
Speaking of Kaichi Com, no idea what happened to Steve after China Unicom was founded, but there’s a mention in China’s People’s Daily (official paper) that the company defaulted on loans totally over 50+ million USD was was due in 1997 and 1999, respectively. Bank of China, which owned the debt by that point, tried to collect at 2001, but Kaichi Comm just ignored them. Bank of China then went to court and got a judgement, and Kaichi Comm didn’t even contest that. So the judgement, which by now has ballooned to 90 million due to fees and interest, apparently will never be paid.
Maybe that’s why Steve Chen won’t ever set foot in China, eh?
steve chen’s USFIA/gemcoin uses the banking facilities of the Bank of America situated at:
169 E Foothill Blvd, Arcadia, 91006
i wonder if the bank of america, arcadia still continues its relationship with gemcoin, in the face of all the negative press, and the high probability of gemcoin being a ponzi scheme?
i bet at some point the bank of america must have wondered about funds coming into USFIA accounts from malaysia, china indonesia, and even tunisia!
facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1411352059172169&set=a.1379682345672474.1073741828.100008921646362&type=3&theater
This ain’t Steve’s first time playing with official sounding names.
Alliance NGN’s Chinese name is 美国联邦环球通
Which, if you translate it with Google Translate, will get you “Federal Global” and if a Chinese were the read the Chinese name, it would sound like an official American national company (like Amtrak).
Tsk tsk tsk.
steve chen has a penchant for setting up companies.
may of these companies appear to be ‘briefcase’ set ups and may have been used to launder his ponzi money over the years:
Part 1 update on Amkey, Gemcoin’s predecessor scam in China, is now live:
amlmskeptic.blogspot.com/2015/09/usfia-update-turns-out-usfia-itself-is.html
Guess what, Lionel Wong was a Diamond-level distributor in Amkey.
very interesting chang. generally we see ponzi scamsters run a mile and a half from the US, but here we have steve chen who decided to hide in plain sight in arcadia, USA.
USFIA has an office in singapore too, apparently from sept 2014 onwards:
a strange update from a malaysian gemcoin investor, about ‘govt officials’ in the US giving anti money laundering training to USFIA employees.
steve chen&co’s ability to tell tales is incredible!
‘our brother’ adnan from malaysia, who was famously photographed with john wuo at the USFIA headquarters in arcadia, was in the US again recently attending a gemcoin conference at the hilton hhonours hotel [los angeles?] around the sept 2nd-3rd, 2015.
steve chen and leoardo johnson gave away oversized keys to mercedes cars.
steve chen and gemcoin seem completely unaffected by all the noise around their ponzi scheme:
facebook.com/Gemcoininvestment/photos/pcb.439620332891063/439619222891174/?type=3&permPage=1
facebook.com/Gemcoininvestment/photos/pcb.439446966241733/439446496241780/?type=3&permPage=1
the blonde ‘kim’ can also be spotted in the pics, so she’s still in business with steve chen&co.
we know that arcadia city council member sho tay, removed an article from his ‘chinese daily USA’ newspaper which had covered a gemcoin event in which steve chen and john wuo were present.
sho tay recently threw john wuo under the bus, when his newspaper carried a long coverage of the city council meeting in which wuo was questioned about his gemcoin ties, and asked to resign.
further, sho tays facebook page, had listed approximately 30 friends, one of which was john wuo.
probably embarrassed to just ‘unfriend’ john wuo, sho tay has gone and deleted his entire friend list!
does sho tay think his incredibly childish behavior will go unnoticed?
huh?
there was a post about the la puente firing range on sho tays FB page around the may 13th, which has also disappeared!
and the official FB page of la puente firing range has also disappeared!
Guess who I found on Amkey’s website… Gerald Nehra, but ONLY on the KOREAN page of Amkey.
Weird, huh?
The pages don’t even agree in content. On the primary English page the team is Steve Chen, Dr. Iris Wang, Dr. Xiao Tang, and “Clinician” Rumi K. Lakha DO (Doctor of Osteopathic)
On the Korean page you have Steve Chen, Gerald Nehra (chief counsel?) Dr. Xiao Tang, Dr. Su Yen Yang, and Mr. Murray Thomas (who?)
Their Amkey Singapore office closed in December 2009. Since a law group was involved in “wind up” and in court, can it be assumed that they skipped out on the rent and more?
bankrupt.com/TCRAP_Public/091228.mbx
That was the event chased away by the protesters on August 30th. Apparently they found a smaller ballroom and finished it any way.
Earlier in his timeline you’ll see tickets for Ammine Pageant event on August 29th, and USFIA Leadership Conference on 30th, both at Ontario center.
Kinda makes you wonder, if not even Gerald Nehra would touch the company… how low had Amkey sunk?
Switching gears a little here – but did anyone else see this and find it as depressing as I did??
nolink://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmFD-0PwFGM
@K Chang, I received your email and will be working with that document. Thank you.
Honestly, no. UFUN did an orphanage run in Hainan island before the Thai crackdown. IIRC
@LB there is another related document on that topic dated October. Appear Steve didn’t deign to respond.
And why are all of the reward vehicles used? Luxury rentals or perhaps Wou still has buddies in the used car industry.
sierramadretattler.blogspot.com/2015/09/you-mean-it-isnt-only-gemcoins-and.html
@Kasey – we should really start thinking and working on the wiki idea we have spoken about in the past.
I have plenty of server space, but need help in picking a wiki we can start pushing this all together in to (along with your great articles regarding the mechanics of the scams).
Let me know..
Breaking!! Feds raiding Wuo and Chen’s offices:
sierramadretattler.blogspot.com/2015/09/breaking-feds-raid-offices-of-john.html
And so it begins…
Photos damn it, we want photos!
I guess there goes my weekend.
SEC complaint filed. Standby…
Tattler has an image of the SEC complaint filed under seal on the 22nd. I can’t find anything on Pacer…
Still sealed on Pacer… will have more when it’s unsealed.
It ain’t over until the fat lady sings.
To be a fly on the wall when Wuo’s house was raided.
The loss of face… my god. RIP political career.
Also someone should do a followup interview with that old lady from the last city hall meeting…
And didn’t Sho Tay start deleting stuff around the 22nd? Wonder if he’s in for it too…