wcm777-logoThings have been awful quiet over at the Phillip Ming Xu Ponzi empire these last few weeks. Following a spate of regulatory crackdowns on his darling WCM777 scheme spanning PeruColombia, Canada and the US states of MassachusettsCalifornia and Alaska, Xu appears to have now all but given up.

Well, at least that’s what he’d have you believe.

When the regulators came knocking, Xu first tried to dodge the regulatory gavel by assigning James Tenorio as puppet CEO and changing WCM777’s name to Kingdom777.

When Tenorio went AWOL and regulators didn’t back down, Xu suspended US investor payouts, ordered his investors to stop using investment terminology and opted for a second name-change to Global-Unity.

founder-xu-ming-ceo-zhi-liu-wcm777Not surprisingly that didn’t work either. Further compounding Xu’s problems were rumors indicating that his partner in crime, Zhi “Tiger” Liu (right with Xu), had run off with around $50,000,000 in WCM777 affiliate funds.

Offices were closed, staff and lawyers were fired and sources have suggested that these last few weeks Xu has been negotiating with the SEC in an attempt to escape jail time.

Confirming much of this information comes a new series of tweets from Xu, published just this morning:

phil-ming-xu-wcm777-ponzi-exit-tweets-march-2014

Xu’s recent tweets come after two weeks of Twitter radio silence, likely due to aforementioned SEC negotiations.

What I find hilarious is the notion that Xu just sold his Ponzi scheme and it’s all said and done.

Right, so that’s what you do these days when regulators come knocking, you just sell your scheme to some schmuck and move on. And claiming Tiger “designed” WCM777 is rather convenient, given that apparently nobody seems to know where he is (has anyone checked Hong Kong?).

Oh and how on Earth do you “legalize” a blatant Ponzi scheme Phil? You tried your best (two name-changes, how deviously cunning of you) and couldn’t pull it off. So what’s this new “buyer” going to do? Third name-change and hope for the best?

If I hadn’t heard from multiple sources that Xu had no idea where Tiger fled to, I’d be tempted to call his departure a co-operative exit strategy by the duo. Xu doesn’t come off as sinister as Liu (the guy who works in shadows), so him taking the public fall in exchange for a future-rendezvous to share out that $30 mill makes sense.

We’ll try to keep on top of this story but personally I think it’s well and truly over. WCM777 was an organized Ponzi scam from the get-go and now we’re just watching the end-game play out. I’d be very surprised if the SEC don’t file charges against Xu over the coming months.

As for Tiger, hats off. You managed to stay under the radar and convince Xu to be the face of your scam. When shit hit the fan you quietly slipped away with your retirement fund and  managed to leave Xu holding the bag.

Well-played sir, well-played indeed.