myadvertisingpays-logoFollowing up on a threat made to the TaraTalks blog earlier this year, the Ponzi scheme My Advertising Pays filed a lawsuit against the blog on April 6th.

My Advertising Pays’ lawsuit lists the company and owner Michael Deese as plaintiffs and was filed in a District Court of Illinois.

As they stated they would back in February, My Advertising Pays filed the lawsuit based on diversity jurisdiction.

As per Wikipedia;

In order for diversity jurisdiction to apply, complete diversity is required, where none of the plaintiffs can be from the same state as any of the defendants.

In BehindMLM’s coverage of the lawsuit, I observed;

Unless I’m missing something, My Advertising Pays citing diversity jurisdiction, when they acknowledge they don’t know where the author of Tara Talks resides, makes little sense.

Guess how the Judge assigned the case ruled on the matter…

In an effort to silence TaraTalks’ ongoing coverage of their Ponzi scheme, My Advertising Pays’ lawsuit accuses the blog of publishing ‘continuous defamatory and libelous statements‘.

By pointing out My Advertising Pays was a Ponzi scheme, the company alleged TaraTalks was damaging its ‘reputation as a company, and Deese’s reputation as a businessman.‘

The “facts” as alleged by My Advertising Pays are as follows:

(My Advertising Pays is) , an Anguilla international business company engaged in the business of online marketing and advertising.

(Michael) Deese (is) a citizen of the United States and a resident of Harrison County, Louisiana.

On or about September 13, 2013, Deese, as CEO, created and incorporated My Advertising Pays under the laws of the State of Mississippi.

On or about March 6, 2014, My Advertising Pays dissolved as a Mississippi corporation and reincorporated under the laws of Anguilla.

Since its inception, My Advertising Pays has been forced to combat critics of the online marketing and advertising industry.

Up until the spring of 2014, most critics were relatively civil and merely expressed their beliefs and opinions on their respective personal internet profiles.

BehindMLM is no doubt one of those critics, having published a review of My Advertising Pays in May, 2014.

Based on My Advertising Pays offering a $60 ROI on $49.99 investments, we concluded it was a Ponzi scheme.

In or around April of 2014, the activity and hostility of the My Advertising Pays critics grew, and My Advertising Pays was forced to confront numerous blogging sites and online accounts viciously attacking My Advertising Pays’ integrity as a business and the morality of its executives.

In or around June of 2015, My Advertising Pays executive Tony Booth, was responsible for addressing the increasingly inflammatory and libelous comments being posted on line.

Upon investigation, it appeared that the blog known as TaraTalks was the primary source of the libelous statements.

As TaraTalks gained more attention and followers, he/she initiated a campaign towards destroying My Advertising Pays’ reputation and business relationships.

Cited events attributed to the TaraTalks blog include My Advertising Pays being refused service by hotels in England, as well as their withdrawal from the US.

In or around June of 2014, My Advertising Pays planned an event scheduled for July 4, 2014 at the Park Plaza Victoria Hotel in London, England.

The purpose of this event was to provide potential My Advertising Pays affiliates an opportunity to get to know each other and form a My Advertising Pays community face-to-face as opposed to behind a computer screen.

My Advertising Pays confirmed a reservation with the Park Plaza Victoria Hotel and deposited a payment of $1,600.00.

After securing a venue, My Advertising Pays posted the event date, time, and location on its website.

Shortly after posting the time and location of the event, the Park Plaza Victoria Hotel contacted My Advertising Pays stating that they could no longer serve as the venue due to a high influx of harassment and negative publicity.

Scrambling to find another venue, My Advertising Pays subsequently booked the Cumberland Hotel in London, England for July 4th.

Again, My Advertising Pays updated their website post with the new venue shortly after.

Almost immediately after posting the new location, My Advertising Pays received an email from the Cumberland Hotel stating that they also could no longer host the event due to multiple complaints from unknown callers and threats to the hotel and its employees.

For a third time, My Advertising Pays attempted to find a venue for the event booking the Holiday Inn located in London.

Shortly after confirming availability at the Holiday Inn, My Advertising Pays received an email from the hotel stating that they no longer had any availability.

A representative of the Holiday Inn informed My Advertising Pays that the Cumberland Hotel contacted them regarding the My Advertising Pays event and the controversy surrounding it.

That controversy stems from My Advertising Pays being a Ponzi scheme, a point not addressed in the lawsuit.

After causing three hotels to breach contract with My Advertising Pays, TaraTalks and her army of followers achieved their goal to sabotage the July 4th My Advertising Pays event.

Since the July 4th event cancellation, TaraTalks and her army of followers have continued to contact venues hosting My Advertising Pays events urging them to cut ties with My Advertising Pays.

Consequently, TaraTalks and her followers have made it nearly impossible for My Advertising Pays to successfully schedule recruitment and community events for My Advertising Pays members.

A Ponzi scheme unable to promote itself to potential victims? Oh what a terrible world we live in.

Amusingly, in an attempt to explain their retreat from US regulators, My Advertising Pays offer up a garbled explanation as to why they fled the US.

For the year of 2014 and beginning of 2015, My Advertising Pays averaged Seventy-Five Million (75,000,000) “page views” per month in the United States and Eighteen Million (18,000,000) “hits” per month in the State of Illinois.

The term “page views” refers to the amount of online traffic and users visiting the My Advertising Pays site that often times result in new My Advertising Pays members and/or affiliates.

Throughout 2015 and as TaraTalks continued to attack My Advertising Pays’ business practices, My Advertising Pays experienced a severe decrease in activity not only in Illinois but nationwide.

In light of the calculated decision to reincorporate in Anguilla a year earlier in 2014, the above makes little sense.

Ignoring the eventuality that all Ponzi schemes collapse, My Advertising Pays also offer up no correlation between TaraTalks and a decline in investor recruitment.

My Advertising Pays continued to track the decreased activity on its site in Illinois, and it became apparent that the cost of doing business, and the requisite protective measures to maintain the site grossly exceeded the total profits earned.

As a direct result of the low “page views” volume, My Advertising Pays was unable to recuperate its operating costs. Subsequently, My Advertising Pays withdrew from doing business in the United States entirely.

Nevermind the fact that the US is one of the cheapest places in the world to conduct legitimate online business, at no point in My Advertising Pays’ lawsuit do they address or explain why they are not a Ponzi scheme.

Rather, the scheme simply states TaraTalks coverage of My Advertising Pays is

libelous and defamatory per se, because (it) directly attack(s) My Advertising Pays’ business practices and integrity as a corporation, as well as Plaintiff Deese’s morality as a corporate executive and founder of My Advertising Pays.

As per the My Advertising Pays case docket, Judge Gottschall was assigned the case the same day it was filed.

According to an April 7th minute entry;

The court has screened the complaint in this matter to determine if it shows that diversity jurisdiction is proper.

Plaintiffs have not alleged the citizenship of Defendant. Therefore, the court cannot determine whether diversity exists in this case.

Accordingly, Plaintiffs’ complaint is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, with leave to refile an amended complaint by April 21, 2015.

If Plaintiffs fail to file a timely amended complaint addressing the court’s jurisdictional concerns, the court will close the case.

Whether My Advertising Pays files an amended complaint remains to be seen.

Personally I think they got off lucky. Had the case of proceeded, all TaraTalks would have had to do is serve discovery on My Advertising Pays requesting their detailed accounting.

That’d reveal their use of newly invested funds to pay off existing investors, confirming My Advertising Pays is a Ponzi scheme.

As is often lost on Ponzi proponents, truth is the ultimate defense against defamation and slander suits.

 

Update 17th April 2016 – A blog update has appeared on the My Advertising Pays website, suggesting the company might refile in state court.

A major hurdle for our legal team has been uncovering the identity of those behind the TaraTalks mob. It has become quite apparent that establishing the proper jurisdiction for suit, when progressing forward in litigation against those that hide behind the anonymity of a blog or website, can slow the proverbial wheels of justice.

In light of this hurdle, our legal team has elected to move our fight, temporarily, to a State court venue in order to establish sound jurisdiction.

No word yet on how My Advertising Pays plans to win any filed cases, seeing as they are little more than an AdSurfDaily Ponzi clone.