PlanB4You Ponzi admin arrested in the Netherlands
PlanB4You launched in 2014 and saw affiliates deposit €40 EUR investments on the promise of an eventual €50 EUR ROI (see PlanB4You review).
With new affiliate funds being used to pay off existing investors, it didn’t take long for authorities in the Netherlands to start investigating.
December saw that investigation result in the shutting down of the scheme by the Netherlands’ Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD).
In addition to shutting PlanB4You down, FIOD also seized multiple assets belonging to the scheme’s owner, Johny Schabregs.
Despite his assets being frozen and FIOD on the lookout for him, Schabregs remained at large. In response to FIOD seizing his assets, Schabregs defiantly announced one last-ditch attempt to fleece investors, promising them “2 for 1” investment positions in his scam.
Over the past two months FIOD have continued to monitor Schabregs, finally tracking him down and making an arrest on Friday February 20th.
Schabregs (right) has been remanded to custody for two weeks, with Prosecutors in the Netherlands claiming that ‘thousands of people in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Slovenia and Italy‘ have invested in PlanB4You.
Schabregs himself had previously boasted about having some 20,000 investors join and invest in his scam.
Now he faces charges of fraud, operating a pyramid scheme and laundering the proceeds.
Prosecutors allege that Schabregs spent funds invested in PlanB4You on ‘personal expenses, including the purchase of expensive cars.‘
I’m guessing now that they’ve got him, Schabregs can expect to spend a considerable amount of time in prison.
No word yet on how or when those who lost funds in the scheme might go about lodging a claim. At the time of publication Dutch authorities had recovered some €2.5 million EUR, along with the seizure of seven cars.
How much was invested in PlanB4You is yet to be publicly disclosed.
Update 5th May 2016 – On Wednesday May 4th, 2016, a court in Amsterdam sentenced Johny Schabregs to three years in prison.
What was truly incredible to watch was after the authorities froze all the assets, Johny kept updating the daily rate of return and actually paid a few people.
Where he got the money from is unknown, but it may have been pocket cash he had stashed away trying to keep people “believing” all was going to turn out well for them.
Just shocked that anyone didn’t see his arrest coming after all that had transpired before, but many were shocked it happened. Talk about in denial and delusional.
Of course I was vilified at MMG for daring to say this was a Ponzi when Johny had told everyone it wasn’t a Ponzi. LOL!
He was the first to tell them about the August 26 raid and the December 5 ruling, you were the second one. He told them about the court ruling one week before you did.
You both told the same story, but his story was much closer to what people wished to hear. And he was able to show it to them by continuing to update daily rate of return and pay a few people.
So you actually confirmed his story. People already knew about the “international action, searching of 6 properties, seizure of seven cars, freezing bank accounts” that happened in August. They also knew about the court decision a whole week before you told them.
We experienced the same thing here, e.g. people asking for corrections of the December 20 article.
Here info from a insider,
up to 17th Feb there where offline/online presentation forvplanb4you and these 2x Forex “Ponzi Scams”
check the FB of JS his right hand.. facebook.com/fatih.senel
hope we get our money back from the Dutch/Belgium gov and that those 20.000 people get of the Ponzi Crack pipe.
I have no clue what you are talking about. I never “claimed” to be the first one to tell them about the raid, so not sure what you are trying to say here.
And no, if you are talking about Johny, he never did say in his Dec 5 update what happened, just that there were some authorities issues. It wasn’t until another poster blew the whistle and said pb4y had been shut down and assets frozen by the authorities did anyone know what happened.
I was the only one at MMG exposing this for the Ponzi it was and did so starting back in May of last year. I had numerous “believers” telling me this was not a Ponzi because Johny had said it wasn’t a Ponzi. Couldn’t I read what he said, yada, yada, yada.
I was warned “to back off” or I would regret it by one member. This is what I was talking about, so not sure what you mentioned had to do with what I said.
Look forward to your explaining what I am missing with your statement.
I don’t believe Netherland or other European countries have the same system with Receivership and clawbacks. Ponzi schemes have been much less common in Europe (up until now recently, e.g. GetEasy and TelexFree). Pyramid schemes have been much more common.
The case seems to be handled by FIOD, the Dutch anti fraud agency (Fiscal Information and Investigation Service).
FIOD’s website, in English (with “All issues” expanded):
NOLINK://www.government.nl/issues
I had a quick look at the website, but I didn’t find what I was looking for. I checked both “News” and “Documents and Publications”, in addition to “Issues”.
That’s the right method, or one of many right methods. It took me 5 minutes to identify the “correct authority”, get some background information about it, check its website. And it took 5 minutes to post a quick overview.
FIOD doesn’t communicate specific cases via its website. It communicates them through press releases and similar methods. “News” was about quite different type of news.
CONTACT
I found “Contact” in the bottom left menu.
NOLINK://www.government.nl/contact
It seems to primarily answer questions about legislation.
Dang! And here I was gearing up to make a killing recruiting folks to distribute “the morning after” pill kits for me here in the states.
To think, winning a couple of lime green Cadillacs would’ve been delightful.
I picked up a part of your story, the part where Johny continued to post updates of daily return rates and even paid a few people after the assets had been frozen.
I identified it to be after August 26 if you told about the police raid, and after December 11 if you told about the court case.
I told about a similar experience here (link to another thread).
That article wasn’t specific enough about the dates, e.g. it gave the impression of a new police raid / assets freeze. Posts #8 and #9 in that thread both told the same story about a raid in August and a court hearing in early December.
People will often pretend that bad things haven’t happened and will try to silence questions or comments about it.
JS did something different. He published bad news in his blog and in interviews. He made sure he was the first one to tell about bad news.
What is the fate of the company after the assets and bankaccount had been frozen ?? What will happen after that ??
“What was truly incredible to watch was after the authorities froze all the assets” Not “all the assets” are frozen. The vision of the company is to
form a buyers collective and start up 25 companies.
Albeit part of funds frozen, investments in these businesses are happening. That is why the daily earnings on extra brickx are lower than in 2014.
Johny describes himself as a “liberal communist” and sincerely wishes to build up companies and share the profit.
The current imprisonment of Johny I see as a test of his vision and mission. As well the judge ordered FIOD to come up with their findings.. after all these months of waiting and uncertainty.
Ok it would be great if Oz would not censor my factual post and I love to repeat:
seems quite the contradiction in one sentence. you love an admitted communist but cry about being censored on a blog that’s not yours? lmao.
I do not think you understand what “liberal communism” is. Just look at China business model which is definition of “liberal communism”.
In that model all the political and business power stays with Communist Party. Businessmen, as long as they are not challenging Communist powers, are free to exploit workers as much as they like.
Just ask workers that build iPhones how much revenue is shared with them. Yes, those workers who have to surrender their IDs and work 12+ hours a day for minimal wage.
Owner of the factory keeps all the profits after taxes and kickbacks to Communist party officials. That is exactly “liberal communism” business model.
I covered exactly the same thing in post #7, quoting exactly the same thing you repeated. So that part of your post can clearly be deleted, because it doesn’t bring in anything new or anything important.
I have already covered that the other article gave the impression of a police action in December 2014, but in reality the police raid had happened in late August (and Johny had already told about it in early September).
The problem there was the translated sources. Some of them gave the impression of a Ponzi shutdown in December, of a new action by the police. The didn’t clearly separate between the current news (in December) and the background story (in August).
You have probably got one or more post deleted because of “low relevance”, “off topic” or something similar.
As an example, “Johny’s visions and missions” have relatively low relevance. This is not that type of blog. You will need to focus on the current program / current event. His previous schemes can be accepted as “background information”, his future schemes will be pure speculation.
what buyers collective? buying what? pb4u, is just ponzi investment, there’s no buying of anything. so, you’re saying, johny scumbag, has a ‘vision’ to raise money from a ponzi scheme and use that money to set up 25 businesses?
did johny’s ‘vision’, not tell him that he CAN raise money from the public, for business, legally, without resorting to ponzi collection? if johny scumbag cannot even figure, the correct way to set up a business, how are you going to trust his ‘vision’ on setting up 25?
on top of that, he bought seven cars? very astute for a businessman with a vision of setting up 25 businesses!
A “liberal communist” means “I talk fancy to get you to give me money so wealth can be shared”
A “facist communist” means “Just give me your money now, or you go to the gulag!”
@Emad
Not sure. Dutch regulators are leading the charge on this one.
@Alexander
Ponzi denial is cute, but you’re wasting your time. This scam is done and dusted.
The Johnny S – Trace off Failure…
The good thing is 20.000x people will get a State Tax investigation! thnx Johnny – for being active in 2x more scams – next to Planb4You while being still under surveillance by the local government!
All who had phone/email/whatsapp or offline meetings or social media contact with Johnny and his leaders are up for a FIOD surprise..
the local gov (FIOD) will take back your earnings – and will pay back the victims
But who is Johnny S? let’s look at his business Track Records Facts!
we found a trail – of businesses with went belly-up in Belgium
Traditional Failures:
Car business went bust – 10-05-2012.
faillissementen.com/registerbe.php?action=details&id=150914
BE-WOK – restaurant – 03/05/2012.
faillissementsdossier.be/nl/faillissement/513028/schabregs-comm-v.aspx
faillietinformatie.nl/register/be?period=®ion=&branch=&legal=&status=&sort_name=date&sort_type=ASC&page=12484
faillietinformatie.nl/register/be/000246656
faillietinformatie.nl/register/be/000246755
MLM Ponzi failures:
Johnny S failed in the mlm scam “Profitable Sunrise” many Dutch/Belgium people lost their money because off Johnny good and easy believe mindset.
ponzitracker.com/main/2013/4/5/sec-files-suit-against-profitable-sunrise-calls-it-fraud-and.html
Johnny S – was a high roller in Banners Brokers – trying to cover losses from before… (BB was the learning school for Johnny to start planb4you)
facebook.com/pages/Banners-Broker-Ponzi-Scam/398614356881465
so PlanB4you – was started with a 50k loan – to cover losses for his former failures… (PSunrise and BBrokers).
now PB4you failed – they enticed people to go into bancdeoptions.com
afm.nl/nl/nieuws/2013/dec/binaire-opties.aspx
mlmforum.nl/forums/topic/banc-de-options-bancdeoptions-com-alweer-een-piramidespel-scam-oplichting/
so I wish all PlanB4you a lot of wisdom – to get of the Ponzi Train – and wake up – stay away from easy money
We wish for Johnny that he also wakes up from his fairy-tale world and his borderliner Madoff a like syndrome – the difference is – Madoff stole from the rich – Johnny from the poor!
(from the desk of a 40k Belgium PlanB4you investor and now investigator because they used our good trust – my mission keep away from mlm)
ED.
These kind of scams give MLM a bad name… People are uneducated about the industry and fall for the promise of quick cash but end up loosing their cash very quickly.
MLM is not something to be avoided, people just need to understand what is MLM and what are scams.
I cringe when I read posts like this. Is MLM really an industry? Or is it a system used within the sales industry? This is what people need to understand! And then they need to evaluate that system and how well it works with factual numbers not dreams.
What irks me even more is when folks like this Johny guy have been involved with previous scams – Profitiable Sunrise and Banners Broker, are you kidding me!!! Why would anyone trust him with their money?
Maybe he told them that this one was different and definitely not MLM! Oh the irony there!!!
The main problem is that people don’t want to work for the money, they want the easy option. Even when you tell people or advise them they still continue. All they see is $$$$$$$ and if its paying, then hey, it can’t be a scam.
Real estate can drop in price, stocks and shares can drop in price. You have to go in with eyes wide open. Sadly, people just get blinded with MONEY.
I have to say, after speaking to a few people in others stuff. I’m getting to the point where I’m thinking “Some of these people deserve to lose their money and they only have themselves to blame”
I’m sorry to say it. But you have to be real dumb if 100% ROI or 200% is coming your way. I bet Warren Buffet would like returns like that lol.
i agree with you. MLM is very much a ‘method of sale’, for products.
and this different ‘method of sale’, deems MLM as an industry, with it’s own rules, checks and balances.
the FTC/SEC both speak of MLM, as an business model/industry, so the question ‘is MLM an industry?’, is answered there already.
the courts also recognize MLM, as an ‘industry’ starting from the seminal amway case of the 1970’s. recently [2014], in the burnlounge appeal, the senior ninth circuit court of appeals held that :
“Not all MLM businesses are illegal pyramid schemes. To determine whether an MLM business is a pyramid, a court must look at how the MLM business operates in practice. (Citing cases involving Omnitrition, Koscot, Amway and Gold Unlimited.)”
so, the FTC, SEC and the courts all recognize that MLM, is a legal model and an industry/viable business.
i know, that all the pyramid/ponzi schemes, out there, put us off, but this cannot make us cynical of the industry as a whole.
look at the pharma industry. is there any dearth of companies making and selling spurious medicines?
the problems with illegality, dishonesty, malfeasance, profit mongering, is not limited to MLM alone.
but, the difference is that MLM has public participation, and the public TALKS. this makes it very vulnerable to public opinion, and this is why MLM gets dissed A LOT, in unequal proportion to other ‘industry’.
I believe “newbies” usually learn after getting burned an average of 2 to 3 times in the game. If they lose large amounts of their own money, then the 1st burning incident is enough to turn them sour to the game.
Many remain ignorant for a while and keep betting, hoping to hit the “jackpot” one day.
But there can be no doubt that there are those who push ponzi’s with the intent to recupe money they’ve lost on a “bad one” regardless of legalities, ethics, and morals.
It’s only about getting the money as quickly and effortlessly as possible and moving on.
And the cycle continues.
That’s clearly a main part of the problem. A solution could be to have “correctional facilities for income opportunity seekers”. 🙂
It’s a type of belief system, a quasi-religion.
pffft. say that to the SEC, FTC and the courts who recognize MLM as a legally viable business model. since many companies use this model, it has become an industry.
you want to put MLM on your psychiatrists chair, be my guest, but know that, your hypothesis means nothing.
That didn’t make much sense?
Investopedia’s definition:
“Primary business activities” and “largest sources of revenue”.
MLM should normally be classified as a sub-sector of TRADE, the distribution of goods or services to end users.
If the primary business activity and the largest source of revenue is related to the business model itself (to the recruitment system and compensation system rather than to commercial activities), then there’s something seriously wrong with the whole idea.
That’s why I called it “belief system” and “quasi-religion”. It’s much closer related to religious ideas than to business ideas.
okay, so lets hair split and say that the MLM ‘industry’ is a subsector of the trade ‘sector’. as long as we agree it is a recognized industry/business model/rats ass.
in legal MLM, the primary business activity is the sale of products to consumers. this is what makes it legal and an industry.
when the largest source of revenue is related to the recruitment system, then those are Not MLM companies.they are ponzi/pyramid schemes. they Do Not Belong to the MLM ‘Industry’ which is a subsector of the ‘Trade’ sector.
pfft.
An industry can be divided into sectors. “Industry” is the whole, “sector” is a part of the whole. It will become rather meaningless if you try to divide sectors into industries.
The most correct definition for MLM should probably be “distribution system” or “retail distribution model”.
The term “industry” is referring to the quasi-religious parts of it, i.e. you will mostly find the term used internally among some true believers but it will meet a lot of resistance out in the normal world (just like other quasi-religious ideas).
Trade doesn’t MAKE anything become legal?
I know people may believe in that idea. It’s commonly repeated among some true believers, we have several comments here about “company X actually does have products!”.
They escalated his custody. He has to remain in jail for at least 90 days now. His main minions say they’re going to keep the scam alive though.
In the mean while, it doesn’t look like they’re has been any payments for at least a week.
Once they go beyond 90 work days delay, it’s probably all over and out (hopefully, will this scam die already?!).
Word is that his daughter is continuing the scam but will be run out of Bulgaria. They are in the process of setting up the bank accounts now.
Also supposed to launch the Johny Toko restaurant in April. I think this is the 4th date set for launch. LOL!
But it is fitting it would be on April 1 because anyone putting money into his programs are definitely fools. But at least you have a day in your honor.
The website is down, it’s displaying a notice that it’s “temporarily unavailable because of an investigation”.
Because as Lynndel said, the arrest of Johny didn’t stop PlanB. They continued operations and moved their finances to Bulgaria but had not paid anyone in about 45 days.
People are waiting about 150 days for their withdrawals at this moment.
Two weeks ago, they opened “the first” of their Toko Johny restaurant chain. Next week another one should have opened. A few weeks ago, they published financial information, claiming they were worth more than 150 million EUR.
No surprise, really. Johny may be behind bars, but he could have ceded control to whoever he “trusted” to keep it going.
Except it won’t. Whoever controls it can clone the user data and spam them with other offers and reload scams.
Heck, there’s no telling if this “moved to Bulgaria” copy is done with Johny’s consent. 😀
Of course they ain’t gonna pay a dime… They probably don’t have access to Johny’s account.
If they do, they’d be stupid to pay anybody… they’d run off with the money and let Johny take the blame. 😀
Johny just got 3 years prison.
nu.nl/binnenland/4256982/brein-achter-piramidespel-planb4you-drie-jaar-cel-in.html (Dutch)
Thanks for the update Martijn, much appreciated.