Last December the My Advertising Pays sued payment processor VX Gateway for $59.6 million dollars.

The Ponzi scheme alleged VX Gateway was wrongfully withholding investor funds and sought recovery.

VX Gateway opposed legal action in Texas and sought to the have the lawsuit dismissed in favor of arbitration in Panama.

A decision was made on the dismissal  motion on May 15th, with ruling made in favor of VX Gateway.

The decision was made based on a merchant agreement between My Advertising Pays and VX Gateway.

VX-Panama and MAP entered into a Merchant Service Agreement (the
“Agreement” referred to in the First Amended Complaint).

The Agreement provides that it is to be “interpreted, construed and enforced in all respects in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Panama…”

The Agreement contains a Dispute Resolution provision that requires the parties to attempt to resolve any dispute through mediation.

This created a “forum non conveniens” issue when My Advertising Pays filed a lawsuit in Texas.

Based on a Supreme Court decision precedent, the court ruled the agreement provisions were not unreasonable and chose to uphold them.

My Advertising Pays (has) failed to satisfy their heavy burden to demonstrate that arbitration in Panama would be overly burdensome or unfair.

The parties to the Agreement and the primary parties to this lawsuit are a Panamanian company and an Anguillan company.

It appears that Deese attended his deposition in Panama and has Panamanian lawyers who represent
him.

There is no evidence that Plaintiffs cannot obtain adequate relief in the Panamanian arbitration.

With reference to public policy, Plaintiffs have not identified any public policy that would be contravened by enforcement of the forum-selection
clause. There is no evidence of Panamanian law to the contrary.

As a result, it is hereby ORDERED that Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED to the extent that this case is DISMISSED in favor of arbitration in Panama.

Left unsaid in the documents is that Panama is somewhat of a “wild west” when it comes to legal matters. After all, it’s no coincidence that a payment processor willing to service a Ponzi scheme incorporated itself there.

What this means for investors is there’s little to no chance they’re going to see any money through My Advertising Pays’ legal efforts. If the matter isn’t taken up regulators soon it’s a lost cause.

VX Gateway went into dissolution earlier this year, effectively allowing those running it to do a runner with millions of dollars.

My Advertising Pays collapsed in September, 2016. After two failed reboots the company relaunched itself as The Advert Platform in December.

At one point in time both My Advertising Pays and VX Gateway shared “representative offices” in Mauritius, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Alexa traffic estimates for The Advert Platform website show sharp growth in January, followed by a decline starting in April.

Despite investor losses believed to run into the tens of millions, to date US authorities have not taken any action against Mike Deese. Deese is a Mississippi resident and owner of both My Advertising Pays and The Advert Platform.