USFIA investors storm Arcadia police station, demand arrests
Following encouragement from Arcadia City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto, suggesting USFIA investors contact Arcadia Police Department, several investors have taken him up on his advice.
Armed with banners similar to those that caused the cancellation of a USFIA Ponzi gala late last month, USFIA investors stormed Arcadia Police Department and called for the arrest of Steve Chen.
[00:42] Angry investors stormed the Arcadia Police Department, demanding charges be filed against this man, Steven Chen.
[01:25] These investors say when they demanded their money back from Chen, he wouldn’t give it to them. And in some cases, they were threatened with violence.
John Wuo, a local Arcadia City Councilman, has personally endorsed Steve Chen at various USFIA GemCoin events.
At one event, Wuo praised Chen for ‘his dedication and contribution to the prosperity of the California economy‘. He also told USFIA investors Chen was one of the “fastest thinking” people he knew.
Protestors at Arcadia Police Department told Fox News 11 that ‘it was an Arcadia City Official that made them comfortable enough to make that investment in the first place.‘
Fox News 11 sought comment from Wuo but “were unable to reach him”.
Long Z. Liu, an attorney purportedly representing some of USFIA’s victims, told reporters “I think that people could sue him (Wuo). I’m pretty sure people will sue him for negligence”.
Liu claims USFIA is “an elaborate Ponzi scheme”.
In response to protests and revelations that USFIA is under FBI investigation, representatives from the company told Fox 11 the company will hold a press-conference next Thursday.
The next Arcadia City Council meeting, at which it’s expected Wuo will be further grilled over his involvement in USFIA, is two days earlier on Tuesday the 15th.
Stay tuned…
LOL! Hold a ‘press conference’ in a week. That’s rich.
Epoch Times are reporting that death threats and gun violence were directed at USFIA investors asking for their money back (auto-translate):
epochtimes.com/b5/15/9/11/n4525205.htm
Time to cough up another win for you Oz, and getting this one on the map so quick. Your initial review and K Chang’s excellent digging really pulled this situation into the spotlight.
It was both impressive and an honor to watch this one unfold.
Oz, here’s a better translation for you
tuesday would be the 15th.
oz, chang, the sierra madre tattler and david arvizu should take a bow for exposing the USFIA/gemcoin scam.
i cant say this enough, but the internet has given individual voices so much reach, and made communication so instant and effective, that it has multiplied the common mans power to effect change.
just, bravo!
@Kasey Thanks for that.
I’m curious to see how this ultimately plays out. Pretty much a given the FBI will be at the Thursday conference (if it even goes ahead).
And next week was already looking pretty crazy news wise…
Lol where’d I pull the 10th from? Thanks for catching that.
continued…
Wonder what will EpochTimes reporters react to “Mannix” as security guard and gem appraiser?
Will have to see if they bother to dig that deep into it. I think it’s pretty obvious the groundwork is pretty much done and the individual players will be addressed as charges or accusations are filed.
I can’t wait to see how Wuo attending the event in Singapore to promote the business was supposedly helping Arcadia.
There is much more comedy coming – its just a matter of when
Plot thickens. A different Chinese newspaper 僑報 (Lit: Ex-pat news) USchinapress.com has a summarized version of LA Times / Epochtimes report… In Chinese.
It repeated most of the same stuff, mentioned Steve Chen also operated Amkey, and mentioned USFIA was destroyed in China, changed its Chinese name, and restarted in the US. Here’s the interesting part:
news.uschinapress.com/2015/0911/1036294.shtml
Another claimed to have been threatened by a Gemcoin company “president” 總裁 with an assault rifle 衝鋒槍，and there may be proof that there are lethal weapons stored in USFIA office of the president.
No idea if such weapons are properly permitted and all that. Lawyer started citing penalties (making threat with a lethal weapon is up to 4 years, and unpermitted assault rifle is 8 years, blah blah blah.
There is now a new Fox 11 news video. Wuo makes some lame excuses.
foxla.com/news/local-news/18957385-story
ha. wuo’s body language is so defensive, half hiding behind his door. he looks nervous as hell.
lets see if the FBI swallows his lame excuses.
“If you listen carefully … I didn’t really promote …”. 🙂
“This campaign is political … upcoming election next year”.
It’s good this is finally starting to get some press, but they are lobbing the softballs in with the questions.
Should be fun to see how this all plays out.
Hmmm… Just thought of something… Now that Mannix is being outed “somewhat”…
Who was it that wrote Wuo’s fellow councilman and countryman Tay operates a gun range in Arcadia?
Wonder what THEIR security staff uniform looks like… given that the paper that covered the May Gemcoin event probably was owned by Tay? As clearly the “instructors” were not from Southwest (different patches)?
Most of the gun shops I’ve been in don’t have security on site. You don’t need any type of permit to carry a loaded firearm in your place of business (even concealed would be okay). The employees get to handle that aspect of security.
I’m betting the security guard clothing from Mannix and Chen is a pitch to help move the Q-See DVR’s they are selling out the back.
He looks much worse. Less hair, and less “Just for Men” (hair dye).
He doesn’t seem to be much experienced in “How to handle an unexpected situation”. The other guy, Steve Chen, probably is a quicker thinker.
One of the rules …
“Get all the skeletons out of the closet at the same time. Don’t let other people find them one by one, getting more and more eager for each new skeleton, digging deeper and deeper to find new ones”.
Nazifuddin (Malaysia PM’s son) did that mistake.
There’s some other rules too, but the point is to handle situations. It’s not about following rules.
Another rule …
“Identify a problem as other people see it, not as you see it yourself. See it through their eyes”.
It isn’t meant to be interpreted too literally, but sometimes it will pay if we don’t look at problems solely from our own perspectives.
John Wuo’s tactic, “it’s a political campaign … election next year”, wasn’t a very good idea. He doesn’t handle problems as other people see them, he handle them as he prefer to see them himself.
according to the sierra madre tattler, steve chen’s USFIA/gemcoin press conference has been postponed to the next tuesday. who knows whether it will be held at all.
the SM Tattler also reports:
i think john wuo will go. ta ta.
sierramadretattler.blogspot.in/2015/09/the-very-public-burning-of-johnny.html#comment-form
good question chang!
here’s what i found:
arcadiaweekly.com/featured/candidate-endorsed-by-eight-former-arcadia-mayors/
omg, this is scary, i dont know what to make of it.
in may, 2015, a chinese guy was found shot dead on the la puente shooting range, which is supposed to belong to sho tay.
i’m saying scary, because gemcoin investors have complained that they were threatened by steve chen and his body guard that they would be shot if they made too much noise asking for refunds.
the arcadia police should get to the bottom of this issue ,NOW:
sgvtribune.com/general-news/20150512/la-puente-firing-range-shooting-death-possible-accident-or-suicide
the rules on the la puente firing range website say:
the news report does not clarify if ning pan was killed by his own weapon, which he brought to the firing range.
if ning pan rented a firearm, he must have been accompanied by someone who would have raised an alarm in case of an accident. in that case, ning pan would not have been ‘found’ by an employee of the firing range.
so, was ning pan carrying his own weapon? where are the media reports carrying this important information?
chang, has sho tay’s ‘chinese daily’ carried a report about this shooting? maybe there are more details in it?
so, what was the final conclusion of the investigating officers? it is 5 months since the incident on may 12, 2015, is the investigation still on, or complete?
what did the autopsy report of ning pan reveal? did he die instantly or bleed to death. was there no one keeping an eye on the shooting range in la puente? were there security cameras which recorded the incident?
and if there was no one watching over the shooters, and there were no security cameras, how can a public threat like la puente still be open?
ning pan was of walnut, arcadia which is an upmarket area, favored by the chinese community for building their ‘mansion’ houses.
ning pan at 29 years of age, is less likely to have built a mansion by himself. his family must still reside in walnut arcadia.
i wonder what they have to say about ‘accidental death/suicide’?
FYI for anyone interested in this, I’ve been writing about Gemcoin, USFIA and Wuo starting July 1 and have filed three additional stories:
arcadiaweekly.com/news/featured/wuo-i-feel-used/
arcadiaweekly.com/featured/arcadia-council-resumes-commercial-zoning-update-wuo-addresses-gemcoin-controversy/
arcadiaweekly.com/featured/document-illuminates-officials-ties-to-gemcoin-founder/
arcadiaweekly.com/featured/arcadia-officials-respond-to-document-connecting-councilman-with-gemcoin-ceo/
La Puente Shooting Range has a heavy Chinese presence, and is known as “Olympic Indoor Target Range” 奥运室内靶场 in Chinese, and apparently frequented by Chinese tourists who never touched a gun before (much less rifles) unless they served in military.
Wonder where the body was found?
Found it: the guy was in a firing lane. It probably was an accident.
news.uschinapress.com/2015/0514/1022647.shtml (in Chinese)
According to staff, a Mr. Poon in the same article, he did heard a shot, but there are soundproofing partitions between lanes so nobody saw anything. Ning Pan was apparently the only patron at the time?
oops, that should have been a Mr. Liang.
that must be liang ni, who is listed as the owner of la puente firing range, and who runs the place. sho tay is the absentee owner, his FB page has an invite to attend the la puente firing range 25th anniversary, on may 13th, 2015.
the firing incident happened on the night of 11th may 2015, but is not mentioned on liang ni’s, sho tay’s or the la puente’s FB page. strange. a person dies on your property, and you pretend like it hasn’t happened.
i think, in early may, the police had no reason to check for foul play, but now they should take a deeper look. what’s to lose?
i know it could be co incidental, stranger things happen in life, but it’s worth digging into. which gun killed ning pan. had he anything to do with gemcoin.
that is some great coverage, and behindmlm has been covering your articles.
whats the full story on ning pan. la puente has never had a firing accident. the timing is very suspect?
What’s this report about, something about Rolex watches at the end (Chinese)?
21uscity.com/info/237967-1-1.html
We’ll be taking it to the streets tomorrow:
sierramadretattler.blogspot.com/2015/09/will-gemcoin-protestors-be-at-tomorrow.html
well done.
as the ancient wisdom of the yoda proclaimed: may The Force be with you.
Title: John Wuo will hire lawyer to prove his innocence
Caption: USFIA investment fraud has involved multiple famous people. John Wuo will hire lawyer to prove his innocence
Recently the USFIA alleged investment fraud has rocked the Chinese community and involved John Wuo, city councilman of Arcadia. Involved investors claimed that John Wuo is a founding member of UCCA and appeared at various USFIA/UCCA functions and endorsed the scheme, so he will be also sued.
When asked, Wuo insisted to this newspaper that he has no business relationship with USFIA and he will hire a lawyer to defend himself.
YinChuan Liu, an investor, said that various Chinese pamphlets of USFIA wrote, in Chinese “US Congressman, Arcadia mayor John Wuo”, and he was apparently introduced at USFIA functions as US Congressman, and was not denied by Wuo.
A lot of Chinese investors thought if US Congressman and mayor endorses this, this can’t have problems, and they put in their money. Thus, the endorsers have legal liability.
Wuo explained to this newspaper on the 12th, that he has not endorsed USFIA. He was a local celebrity and public official, he appears in functions of Arcadia companies, and he has indeed appeared to cut ribbons, pass out awards, and said a few congratulatory things.
He had done so for many other companies. Thus, any one suing should ensure they sue the right people. They have to right to sue, but he has the right to defend oneself, and he will retain an attorney to do so, to protect his name and reputation.
As for how did UCCA pamphlet wrote him in Chinese as “US Congressman”, Wuo thinks it could be “translation error”. He never saw such pamphlets and don’t know what’s on it.
John Wuo usually wears a gold Rolex. Some said the Rolex was a gift from Solomon Yang (son of Beibin Yang). As for this, Wuo angrily denied it as “nonsense”, “crap”. He bought the watch for himself.
Many years ago his home was burglarized and stole the Rolex he kept at home. He bought a replacement. Now someone claimed that this was a gift… “Fear the rumors” (Chinese saying)
Thanks for that KC.
Gotta wonder if Wuo can hire a lawyer to defend himself, why he can’t just clear up his involvement with USFIA pre-lawsuit…
Getting up in court and having a lawyer go “herpderp my client knows nothing about GemCoin, please ignore the mountains of evidence to the contrary” isn’t going to cut it. Any more so than it has outside a lawsuit.
As I said, John Wuo doesn’t seem to have much experience in how to handle an unexpected situation, but this time he may have a more correct solution to it.
If he’s “innocent”, and he surely can be that, then he was too slow and too unprecise in his first response.
* He had the wrong focus = “I feel misused!”.
* A better focus could have been “My exact role in this is …”.
In the current situation, if investors have sued him or have threatened to sue him, bringing in a lawyer seems to be the correct solution. He’s not qualified himself, so he will need to use professionals to do the job (whatever that is).
“Media strategy”
If Wuo really is innocent, then clarifying his exact role would have been a very good strategy early in this case, and it may still be one of the best options.
But a strategy like that won’t work if his own focus is on his own feelings (“I feel misused!”), on his opponents’ motives (“It’s a political campaign!”), or on any other irrelevant perspective. It will need to be focused on facts people can identify as true or false — the factual part of his own involvement.
“Political movements”
People should separate between the Ponzi scheme case and other unrelated political issues. They are different types of issues.
* GemCoin is primarily a criminal issue, not a political one.
* “Mansions and property development” is a political issue.
They shouldn’t try to mix those two together as one issue. They will need to be clearly separated to be handled correctly. You can’t allow the criminal issue to be handled like a political one, it will only derail people’s attention from what it really is about.
“Political issue, political fight”
The political issue is about “dissatisfaction with the current Council and some of its members”, identified to be about some specific decisions or policies (as the primary factor). There’s a lot of related factors too.
The political fight will be fought more correctly if it is clearly identified like that.
Political fights can be about “Citizens of Arcadia didn’t elect its Council members for a role like this”, specified to be about something specific the majority of citizens clearly won’t support.
* People can accept property development if they will benefit from it themselves, so you can’t attack the general idea.
* What people in general won’t accept is if political leaders will try to “reward their own group at the expense of others”
“Political fights are about main questions, not about the details”
For Arcadia, it’s about whether the Council members rule the town like they own it rather than as servants of the Citizens (or similar types of behavior), whether they make decisions not in the interest of people but rather in the interest of themselves.
the first thing john wuo must instruct his lawyer to do, is sue steve chen for ‘misusing’ wuo’s name and post for selling his gemcoin.
but something tells me he wont do that. because, god knows what all steve chen will disclose in response!
also, i hope wuo has the bill of that gold rolex watch and is able to explain to the FBI how much money he was making off real estate deals in arcadia.
political issues are no doubt different from ponzi scheme issues, but in this case they are intertwined. john wuo was using his political seat to promote a ponzi scheme.
Those issues are not “intertwined”, as far as I can see.
That’s a misinterpretation of those two issues, trying to use John Wuo as some type of primary factor for both issues.
The Ponzi scheme could clearly have existed without John Wuo. He only had a minor function in it, and he CAN have been misused.
People shouldn’t try to make it become a local political issue rather than a criminal issue. Post #39 had something about “wrong focus”.
John Wuo’s political role is a different issue. It’s about some “cultural differences” and many other factors. Those factors are not very relevant for the Ponzi scheme case.
the gemcoin ponzi will be found to be a ponzi, due to its business model and not due to john wuo’s involvement in it.
had john wuo not been involved, while holding a city council seat, the gemcoin fracas wouldn’t have received this level of exposure or interest.
so, john wuo is the primary factor/catalyst, and the reach of the gemcoin ponzi into the politics of arcadia, makes this issue a blend of politics and crime. they are very much intertwined.
steve chen used john wuo as his gemcoin poster boy, and now the press/investors must use wuo as their anti gemcoin poster boy to keep the pressure on.
john wuo can prove his innocence to the FBI and courts, no one is denying him his rights.
why should only steve chen [mis]use john wuo? everyone should get a chance! 🙂
Primary factor should normally be the one “without which it wouldn’t have worked”. We only have some vague statements from John Wuo from some events.
The way he was used in advertising was most likely outside his control. Ponzi schemes will typically try to borrow credibility from celebrities, charities and others — to look safer to the investors.
We can’t make two separate issues become intertwined by adding random factors they have in common.
The Ponzi scheme issue will need one type of solution, while Arcadia’s political issues will need a different type. John Wuo isn’t a “shared solution”, e.g. the Ponzi scheme will not disappear by itself if John Wuo is removed.
yeah yeah blah blah.
in THIS case john wuo and steve chen have been/continue to be, business partners.
so, pretending john wuo’s ‘celebrity status’ was used without his assent is a bit silly.
The correct method is probably to identify John Wuo’s involvment in GemCoin / USFIA etc. as a third issue. It can probably be resolved separated from those two other issues.
Your “intertwined” idea makes it more difficult to find any solutions to those different issues.
The political focus had a function early in the case, e.g. it brought some problems out in the light where people could look at them. But it doesn’t have that same function anymore.
* The Ponzi scheme issue will need to be handled by FBI, SEC or other agencies. They will handle political connections too. But they won’t handle disputes about property development policies or some general dissatisfaction with the current City Council.
* Whether investors have been misled by GemCoin’s use of John Wuo probably belong under FBI and SEC.
* The political issue will need a different solution.
* John Wuo’s involvment in GemCoin / USFIA may be, or may not be, a part of the political issue. But that will be impossible to identify clearly from an “intertwined perspective”.
You will need to post some relevant arguments yourself. “Yeah yeah blah blah” doesn’t qualify as that.
All we have are some vague statements from John Wuo, from an event. We have some photos and videos too, showing him at events. You can try to identify other relevant factors?
Before you try to defend the “intertwined” idea, you should probably look at those other factors too.
I have pointed out that the Ponzi scheme issue and the political issue are two separate issues. They will need different types of solutions, i.e. you can’t apply the same type of reasoning to both of them.
The political issue is about the City Council as a whole, about certain decisions and certain practices.
Check out the pic of Steve Chen and his long range sniper rifle.
sierramadretattler.blogspot.com/2015/09/usfia-amber-alert-steve-chens-long.html
what is with that fake police badge?
see the article of the sierra madre tattler linked above in post#49.
there’s a photo of wuo and chen in the USFIA/gemcoin arcadia office signing some documents.
do you think john wuo was drawing a picture of his favorite icecream?
john wuos’ repeated presence at gemcoin events, the 24HD registration documents, john wuo signing some documents in the gemcoin office, all these present very strong circumstantial evidence.
john wuo has to be investigated by the FBI, all his real estate deals, all his earnings, whether he has used his political office to help chen in business in any way, have to be looked into in detail.
of course the ponzi scheme issue is different from the political issues regarding ‘development’ in arcadia. i’m not talking about that.
if john wuo has used his political office to help steve chen and gemcoin, then politics and crime are intertwined in this case. i’m referring to this.
wuo’s involvement with gemcoin, may result in him losing his arcadia city council seat, and this may effect the other politics of arcadia, by changing one vote.
so, everything is kindof linked.
that is such a nasty gun. how can people have such stuff in their offices?!!
so, the arcadia police department does not respond to death threats? that is a Civil Matter according to them?? astounding!
maybe they are afraid of steve chen’s big guns.
hey, SMTattler what about ning pan’s accidental/suicide gun death in sho tay’s la puente firing range in may, 2015?
guys, what happened to poor ning pan??
@Sierra Madre Tattler – Great reporting. It was a hoot getting off of a long overnight shift to read your post today.
Thanks LB.
Whip – According to the GemCoin Ponzi victims I spoke with yesterday Chen claimed that the badge is an indication of the special legal powers he had, granted to him by the Federal Govt in Washington.
Something he backed up with pictures of himself with gnarly looking guns.
More news. Chen and his goons have called of their press conference today. Big demo tonight at Arcadia City Hall. City Council meeting tonight should be action packed.
I’ll have a story and pics up tomorrow AM, PDT. Anyone in SoCal who is thinking of going send me an email. Love to meet you.
I thought it said Colegate Cavity Patrol..
didn’t see that one coming =)
I think the lawyers told Chen and his good squad to keep their stupid mouths shut. Either that or they’re packing their bags and heading to Indonesia. Or somewhere.
just a thought.
does steve chen have anything to do with arms dealing?
it’s not Normal, for a businessman to have such sophisticated weaponry.
we know that steve chen has an old history of scammery starting from his days in china. we know solomon yang is politically connected in china. we know john wuo has political connections in arcadia.
we saw in the DFRF/filho ponzi, that filho was probably connected to the drug underworld.
is there any chance at all, that steve chen may be involved in the underworld gun market?
i mean, is arcadia a long range, stealth wildlife hunting paradise, or something? why would an arcadia businessman have such sophisticated weaponry?
is this why the FBI is investigating, and not the SEC?
this is Just Not Normal.
My totally amateur take is it’s an Armalite AR50 .50 cal sniper rifle
dieseltruckresource.com/forums/attachments/other-94/10510d1172189352-how-about-your-favorite-gun-thread-ar-50.jpg
Armalite AR50, $3500 gun, not cheap. It is a .50 Cal BMG Sniper rifle. Not quite the cachet of the Barrett M82, but still a nice gun.
From Arcadia Weekly:
City Council meeting kicks off in T-minus 4hrs15mins.
arcadiaweekly.com/featured/gemcoin-investors-detail-allegations-against-arcadia-councilman-wuo-cryptocurrency-founder-chen/
Oh Mannix!! How could you??
Big update just now on The Tattler
Looks like USFIA/UCCA/AFG or whomever has been making some calls this morning
Probably purely coincidence… but the guy who died at the gun range if “Ning Pan”… which is the surname? I’m not sure.
Here is the link. Also included is a press release from the USFIA denying that they sell GemCoins. With a big gemCoin logo at the top of the Press Release.
sierramadretattler.blogspot.com/2015/09/update-gemcoin-protesters-pull-out-of.html
Craziest fucking shit ever.
I’m guessing calls were made and GemCoin investors who were going to attend were threatened.
Steve Chen’s GemCoin goons were probably going to stake out City Hall with cameras, recording the identity of any protesters who dared rock up.
Don’t forget, Chen has been running an immigration racket for some time now and the bulk of protesters are Chinese immigrants…
And as to that press-release, blatant outright lies.
Read our USFIA review dated June 28th – https://behindmlm.com/mlm-reviews/usfia-review-gemcoin-ponzi-points-investment/
Seriously, the USFIA bullshit level has gone apocalyptic…