Achieve Community preliminary injunction granted
We reported on the 20th of February that the SEC, Troy Barnes and Kristi Johnson had all filed stipulation agreements requesting a preliminary injunction be granted.
The SEC filed this action to halt an ongoing Ponzi scheme.
The injunction would replace the current temporary ex-parte injunction, maintaining the fund freeze the temporary injunction granted. Barnes and Johnson would also prohibited from further committing and acts of fraud.
At a hearing on Monday February 23rd, the SEC was granted an injunction against Troy Barnes.
The assets, funds, or other property of Troy A. Barnes, wherever located, which derive, directly or indirectly, from any investor funds obtained by or on behalf of the Defendants or Relief Defendant in connection with the scheme alleged in the SEC’s Complaint, are frozen.
At the time of publication, some $2.5 million in invested funds have been frozen. No word yet on the status of Johnson’s injunction but a hearing is scheduled today on the matter (February 24th).
The SEC has requested the court to permit witness testimony via telephone in support of their request, should it be required.
As the SEC’s civil investigation continues, it’s become evident that the agency will need to finely dance between their own interests and that of an ongoing criminal investigation.
Depositions for both Barnes and Johnson were scheduled for February 20th and 23rd, however the duo both responded by informing the agency they’d ‘invoke their Fifth Amendment privileges in response to questions during their depositions.‘
As such both depositions were cancelled.
For those unfamiliar with the amendment,
The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides, “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
Either Barnes and Johnson are facing a grand jury indictment, or they’re not wishing to serve as witnesses against themselves in a concurrent criminal case.
Who is conducting the criminal investigation at this stage is unclear, however history tells us it’s likely to be the Department of Justice. We’ll keep an eye out for developments on that front.
One interesting aspect of the SEC’s civil case meanwhile is the response, or lack thereof, from Work With Troy Barnes and Achieve Community International LLC.
Both companies were named defendants in the SEC action, with Work With Troy Barnes used to launder funds in the US and Achieve Community International set up by Johnson with the aim of laundering funds internationally.
From a declaration filed by an SEC attorney in support of their preliminary injunction request;
The SEC has learned that Defendant Barnes has discussed moving victim funds in this matter outside of the United States in a manner that would make recovery for the benefit of investors particularly difficult or impossible.
Whether the pair failing to reply to the SEC’s action is an oversight or deliberate ploy by Barnes and Johnson is unclear.
On February 6, 2015, Defendant Johnson withdrew approximately $80,000 in TAC investor funds in cash from a TAC-related account or accounts.
Ditto funds attached to these companies and where they might be hidden.
Footnote: Our thanks to Don@ASDUpdates for providing a copy of the SEC’s Motion For A Preliminary Injunction and supporting documents.
i’m not sure about work-with-troy-barnes, but achieve international LLC, is is listed on the case papers, as a ‘relief defendant’:
so, maybe the SEC will only forward an ‘asset freeze order’ to achieve international.
These thieves must be jailed along with Rodney Blackburn.
@anjali
Achieve Community International and WWTB = Troy Barnes and Kristi Johnson.
Basically it’s to stop the flow of money through these companies. Barnes and Johnson aren’t the smartest cookies in the jar, so despite injunctions on them both they might still try to launder funds through the shell companies.
The SEC are watertighting their case, lest they have to waste time recovering funds from whatever hidey-hole Barnes and Johnson might move funds to. Barnes telling people he was looking to move Achieve funds offshore supports this.
kristi johnson is using the lawfirm davis,graham&stubbs, LLP, to defend herself. DGS has an expertise in white collar crime and securities enforcement cases, among other things.
now, DGS is a top law firm of colorado, with a hundred year history. such firms don’t come cheap.
from the SEC complaint, we know, kristi withdrew approx 80.000$ from TAC related funds. where is this cash stashed? is this the secret fuel funding the legal fight?
I can’t comment on Johnson but Barnes has been unemployed for some time.
If it isn’t already, the issue of Achieve Ponzi funds being used to fund his defense is likely to be an issue.
The same is probably true of Johnson, but I can’t confirm that based on what is publicly known at this time.
depositions are testimony of defendants [or witnesses], during the discovery process, of a civil trial.
i think troy/kristi are expecting criminal charges to be filed, and are going to plead ‘not guilty’, and have refused deposition, for that reason. we can see that they are cooperating with the SEC otherwise.
so, by refusing deposition in the civil case, troy/kristi are weakening their civil case, so as to not incriminate themselves in the criminal case. this also hints, that they may have some sort of settlement with the SEC, in the civil matter.
like burks/zeek, they may quietly handover everything, and be left to defend themselves, only in the criminal case.
I’m not 100% sure but I don’t think you can plead the fifth because you expect criminal charges to be filed.
Either criminal charges have been filed against you or they haven’t.
american citizens can plead the ‘fifth amendment’ as a matter of right, they do not have to disclose any reason for it.
but, by not giving a deposition, and weakening their civil trial case, it follows that kristi/troy, are looking to protect themselves in the criminal trial. they are preparing for it, so it means the criminal charges, are coming up soon.
this is the email response by troy barnes, to the deposition notice sent to him, by Nicholas Heinke,of the Denver Regional Office [SEC] :
since the achieve scam was a small one, i had doubts about whether criminal charges would be brought against troy/kristi. but troys email confirms that criminal charges are on their way.
i think the SEC wants to send a strong message to all these low lying scams, that life wont be easy for them anymore.
further, nicholas heinke, has sent subpoenas to various ‘financial institutions’, but no names are named. i’m guessing firstbank, citizensbank, stripe processor, payoneer processor, ipay DNA, binary wallet etc?
i think binarywallet, may have transferred the 800.000$ to an offshore account. those guys are too shady, to hand back the money quietly to the SEC.
asdupdates.com/wordpress/archives/category/achieve-community
No one has any comments besides this anjali person?
what comments do you want or expect. This thing is a wrap since OZ exposed it from the start.
Stand in line for your refund if that will ever happen.
I think you only need look at the zeek comments to see where it’s headed. Most are content to watch things actually play out and comment rather than play the ‘hypothetical’ game.
This is just one of those situations where it’s all been said by Oz, so there is not much to comment on..
However, the civil and criminal proceedings are unrelated. Testimony in the civil action can be used later against the party in the criminal investigation.
In other types of actions, the criminal case usually comes first. In financial matters, the civil case commonly comes first and leads to the criminal.
What I meant was can someone else please have a viewpoint on this matter. I provide the documents, Oz provides the articles. These two nimrods are nothing new in the scam business, they are upset because they got caught. I would not be surprised if there is a sealed criminal case.
And WWTB has a Preliminary Injunction ordered today after failing to show at the “Show Cause” hearing.
‘anjali person’?? how bloody rude!
how about uploading documents to asdupdates on time, you, you, ‘person’ ??!!
Let’s not chastise Don for running his database shall we. He does it in his own spare time and asks for nothing in return.
I can’t express enough personal appreciation for the work he puts in supplying legal documents in the various cases he’s following. Lord knows I’d have trouble keeping up with even half the cases on my own.
yeah right, anjali person thanks the don ryan person 🙂
And I thank both persons. And our Mr. Oz. (unless he’s Dr. Oz, or something, but my guess is we would avoid *that* designation since Mehmet Oz has been pitching different sorts of fraud.)
Speaking on behalf of the Sheepdog people over on Facebook, I want to express our continued thanks for what’s being done here.
The thing that bugged me about Achieve and Achievniks from the very beginning? (Once twenty seconds of observation made it clear it was a Ponzi.)
Is that people who were getting involved with Achieve were 180 degrees removed from the actual meaning of that word!
They *achieved* nothing – that is, produced no value whatsoever. Not just T&K, but any investor. Oh, some made money, of course – that’s structurally required of Ponzis to function at all.
But they were the absolute opposite of “achieve” – rather than adding to the aliveness of the world, they were subtracting from it.
For what it’s worth, here is a web site with archived Achieve Facebook pages, both before and after the implosion (when Troy dissed Kristi).
TheDayTheAchieveMusicDied series shows peoples’ reactions in real time, for about 24 hours before Achievnik moderators realized these things could not stay up. But there was that little window with no censorship to speak of. Kind of like when the USSR imploded and you had a free press for a while.
Now? The achieve Facebook page – still 19000 strong – is a secret group with an MLM, Ponzi or business opportunity wafting by many times per hour.
None of the old-school moderators appear to be present.
Thanks again, for everything.
sites.google.com/site/achievecommunityunofficial/
Can’t remember when I’ve seen so much stupid in one place.
Then there’s the “Behind MLM Reviews – Revealing the Truth of BehindMLM.com ~ Oz and his Lies” site a ponzi player put up.
I guess that guy doesn’t “own” his foolishness, greed and unethical ways … it’s all Oz’s fault.
orders granting preliminary injunction, and asset freeze etc have been released for both WWTB and achieve international, over the last two days.
sites.google.com/a/asdupdates.com/files-website/achieve-15-cv-229-sec-case
I’ve seen that “Behind MLM Reviews” thing mentioned quite a few times – never looked into it. (This site is so self-evidently valuable – why would I?)
Anything good in it?
Did you see the MusicDied postings? A decent number were rational; the rest, so sad to see. The Herd. Briefly Uncensored.