USFIA @ BehindMLM

A joint-stipulation filed by the SEC and Steve Chen on September 30th had asked for a delay in proceedings of four months. Judge Klausner has rejected the rescheduling and preserved the original January 10th trial date.

Back in July the USFIA Receiver estimated that the Ponzi scheme took in $164 million. This was a huge increase from the $32 million the SEC estimated when they shut down the scheme. In his fourth interim report, filed on September 2nd, the Receiver now estimates USFIA took in at least $180 million.

On July 7th the USFIA Receiver filed his third report and recommendations. Spanning the first quarter of 2016, the Receiver’s report covers the scope of USFIA’s business operations, the legitimacy of USFIA, seized real-estate, Steve Chen’s lawyer funds, USFIA investor funds spent on Chen’s family and a Mercedes S550 belonging to Chen.

There is no information on the Go Luck website indicating who owns or runs the business. The Go Luck website domain (“ezgoluck.net”) was registered on the 14th of October 2015, however the domain registration is set to private. Despite the Go Luck website being entirely in Chinese, Alexa surprisingly estimates that over half of the [Continue reading…]

Following a Joint Report filed by the SEC, USFIA and Steve Chen, a trial date has been scheduled for January 10th, 2017 Note that this is the SEC civil action against USFIA and Chen, with details of criminal proceedings yet to surface.

On February 19th, Steve Chen filed a sealed motion to stay the SEC’s case against himself and USFIA. Over the course of the past month, a whole bunch of correspondence regarding the motion has been filed by both Chen and the SEC. The SEC have opposed Chen’s motion, with Chen filing several memorandums in support [Continue reading…]

As far as we know, John Wuo is still under investigation for Political Reform Act violations. Wuo was a key figure in the USFIA Ponzi scheme, which primarily targeted Chinese investors under the guise of GemCoin cryptocurrency investment. A serving politician in California at the time, the subsequent scandal ultimately saw Wuo resign from the [Continue reading…]

We last reported on USFIA late last year, covering the recovery of over $20 million dollars by the Receiver. The behind-the-scenes work of the Receiver continues, with the latest updates provided in the Receiver’s Second Report. The filing is over forty pages long, with the interesting parts headlined and covered below.

On September 29th 2015, Thomas A. Seaman was appointed Receiver through the SEC’s USFIA Ponzi case. This appointment grants the Receiver full powers of an equity receiver, including, but not limited to, full power over all assets and property belonging to, being managed by or in the possession or control of the Receivership Entities, and was immediately authorized, empowered and [Continue reading…]

Following consent by Steve Chen, a preliminary injunction was granted against USFIA and related entities on the 6th of October. The preliminary injunction makes the conditions of the previously granted TRO permanent, which freezes Steve Chen and USFIA’s assets establishes a Permanent Receiver prohibits Chan and USFIA from destroying evidence (destruction of documents) and requires [Continue reading…]