usfia-logoFollowing denials by Wuo claiming he has no idea what GemCoin is, and that USFIA “used” him to promote their scheme, a resident of Arcadia citizen spent six minutes roasting Wuo at a city council meeting.

The comments directed at Wuo were given during the “public comments” section of the meeting, with David Arvizu taking to the podium to grill Wuo on his ties to USFIA.

BehindMLM recently reviewed USFIA, concluding that it was yet another Ponzi points scheme masquerading behind a faux cryptocurrency.

We also uncovered John Wuo, currently a councilman for the City of Arcadia, California, appearing and speaking at many USFIA events.

john-wuo-mayor-arcadia-usfia-gemcoin-ponzi-scheme-event-sep-20142

Wuo has since denied any knowledge of the scheme, telling a local newspaper he “doesn’t know anything about GemCoin”.

At least one resident of Arcadia wasn’t satisfied with Wuo’s explanation, using public comment time at the council meeting to raise the issue.

david-arvizu-arcadia-city-council-meeting-july-2015David Arvizu, spokesman for the Save the Arcadia Highlands organization, began his five minutes of mic time with a brief history and introduction to USFIA;

Recently I read about a company in the Arcadia Weekly and Sierra Madre Tattler called USFIA.

For the most part, the company deals in digital currency, similar to BitCoins, which it claims are backed by amber mines in the Dominican Republic.

Further reading seems to reveal that this company reveals that this company is actually a Ponzi scheme. Its main purpose is to rip people off.

A similar scheme seems to have existed in China a few years ago. When the government cracked dow on their operation, they fled to Taiwan.

When things heated up there they closed up shop and now this new scheme seems to have landed in Arcadia.

Commonly it (USFIA) can be found on the internet if you do a search under the term “gemcoin”.

And on the websites that you see there, scroll through the different websites that they have, there seems to be a recurring appearance of the City Councilman, and at that time also Mayor, John Wuo.

When he was contacted by the Arcadia Weekly, his comments were “I don’t know anything about GemCoin”.

This is the official response of Wuo to questions about his tie to USFIA we mentioned earlier.

john-wuo-gemcoin-headquarters-usfiaDespite appearing and speaking at many USFIA events, Wuo insists

he has no financial interest in and hasn’t received any compensation from the companies connected to Gemcoin, nor is he a Gemcoin investor.

Whether Wuo has received direct or indirect compensation from USFIA however is unclear.

Citing media online in which Wuo praises GemCoin and USFIA, the Arvizu called Wuo out for giving the scheme and its GemCoin a “glowing endorsement.”

Addressing Wuo’s claim that he “felt used” by USFIA, Arvizu replied:

Mr. Wuo, I’m a citizen of Arcadia. I feel that I have been used. I don’t believe you.

I do believe that you are business partners with these individuals. And that you are being compensated for these appearances, and the money you are being paid is ending up in some overseas bank account.

But I’ll let the US Treasury Department worry about that.

What I want to know is, what gives you the right to use the good name of Arcadia to promote your own financial gains?

This is the third strike. The first, as a real-estate broker with Golden Apple International, you ignored a conflict of interest and continually voted on matters regarding real-estate development in the City of Arcadia.

Then, there was the trip to China that never happened and the $30,000 in donations – that you claim the city never received, yet somehow the city returned to the donors… who, as we found out through investigative reporting, were tied to real-estate development in Arcadia.

And now, this. Three strikes.

Mr. Wuo, you are a shady politician and you don’t deserve to be associated with the city of Arcadia.

Arvizu’s comments were met by applause, which irked sitting Mayor Gary Kovacic.

Despite having no problem with applause following the two previous speaker’s addresses, Kovacic told those assembled:

Please let’s not applaud this, this is infact a business meeting.

The applause doesn’t make the message any more enforcing or clear, so let’s just try to get through this with minimal applause.

Another Arcadia resident speaking after Arvizu did not directly mention Wuo, USFIA or GemCoin, but did mention concern about Ponzi schemes in general.

john-wuo-arcadia-city-council-member-meeting-july-2015In the following agenda item of the meeting, council members were given a chance to respond to the public’s concerns. Wuo spoke for some time about a zoning lawsuit filed by residents of Arcadia (which he referred to as frivolous), but did not address his ties to USFIA or the comments made.

Wuo previously disclosed to Arcadia Weekly that he worked with USFIA President Steve Chen, as a real estate consultant for two years.

Whether or not anything further comes of Wuo’s involvement in USFIA events remains to be seen.

As evidenced by the issue coming up at a council meeting however, residents of Arcadia themselves are starting to ask questions and look into Wuo’s USFIA ties.

 

Update 9th July 2015 – Footage of the July 7th Arcadia City Meeting is now available.

Relevant timestamps are [1:03:00] for Arvizu’s address and [1:40:00] for John Wuo’s failure to address his ties to USFIA.