A federal jury in Sherman, Texas convicted a married couple on Thursday for operating a multi-million-dollar pyramid scheme during the COVID\u201119 pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile many Americans struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic, LaShonda and Marlon Moore orchestrated a lucrative pyramid scheme with the sole aim of enriching themselves,\u201d said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department\u2019s Criminal Division. \u201cThrough lies and deceit, the defendants recruited vulnerable people and defrauded them of millions of dollars. The Criminal Division is committed to prosecuting fraudsters who inflict substantial harm on every day Americans trying to make a living.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe defendants, through their operation of the Blessings in No Time (BINT) pyramid scheme, defrauded over 10,000 individuals of more than $25 million, using false promises and misleading statements to recruit participants,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs of the Eastern District of Texas.\u00a0\u201cThe defendants’ actions were a betrayal of trust, and the Justice Department will continue to work tirelessly to hold those accountable who engage in such schemes. I commend the efforts of our investigative partners and the team who worked to bring about a \u201cwin\u201d for the victims who suffered great losses at the hands of these defendants.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe harm caused by greed-driven, deceptive investments promising returns too good to be true cannot be overstated,\u201d said Inspector in Charge Eric Shen of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Criminal Investigations Group. \u201cThe mission of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service continues, to aggressively investigate such schemes and hold fraudsters fully accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Moores used a polished image and even a reality TV appearance to build trust, but behind the scenes, they orchestrated a multi-million-dollar pyramid scheme during the COVID-19 pandemic,\u201d said Special Agent in Charge Christopher J. Altemus Jr. of IRS Criminal Investigation\u2019s (IRS-CI) Dallas Field Office. \u201cThis scheme deliberately targeted the African American community, exploiting cultural trust and community ties. Today\u2019s conviction sends a clear message: if you abuse trust and exploit communities for personal gain, you will face justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, LaShonda Moore, 38, and Marlon Moore, 39, of Frisco, Texas, co-founded and ran BINT, known as \u201cBlessings in No Time,\u201d an illegal chain-referral pyramid scheme that targeted victims during the COVID\u201119 pandemic from June 2020 to June 2021. BINT targeted and recruited victims with false and misleading promises through weekly live-stream video broadcasts to thousands of participants across the United States during the COVID-19 shutdown. Victims were falsely promised that participants would earn 800% returns on each $1,400 investment and were guaranteed a refund if the participant was unsatisfied with BINT. The Moores falsely presented BINT as a means for new participants to help other members of their own community by paying \u201cblessings\u201d of at least $1,400 to participants who had already joined. The Moores falsely promised that new participants\u2019 \u201cblessing\u201d payments would be paid back eight fold within a few weeks. BINT was falsely presented as an altruistic invitation-only community to help others during the economic downturn from the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
The defendants structured BINT to operate on \u201cplaying boards\u201d that had positions for participants on four levels: eight Fires, four Winds, two Earths, and one Water. Once eight new participants were recruited to fill all eight Fire positions on the playing board, each Fire was directed to \u201cbless\u201d or pay at least $1,400 to the participant in the Water position. A Water participant then received eight payments totaling more than $11,000. After a Water participant received his or her payment, other participants at lower levels would move up one level on the playing board and then be required to recruit new participants into the Fire positions to perpetuate the scheme. To profit from the investment scheme, the defendants placed themselves in positions on the playing boards, so that they received the ultimate payments, and they otherwise diverted substantial money to themselves that were paid by the participants. The defendants\u2019 pyramid scheme victimized more than 10,000 people across the country and inflicted more than $25 million in victim losses.<\/p>\n
LaShonda and Marlon Moore were each convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, five counts of wire fraud, and three counts of money laundering. Their sentencings have not been set. Each face a maximum penalty of 20 years on each of the conspiracy and wire fraud counts and 10\u00a0years on each money laundering count.<\/p>\n
USPIS, the United States Secret Service, and IRS-CI investigated the case. Trial Attorneys Theodore Kneller and Adam Stempel of the Criminal Division\u2019s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Abe McGlothin, Jr. for the Eastern District of Texas are prosecuting the case.<\/p>\n
If you believe you are a victim in this case, please contact the Fraud Section\u2019s Victim Witness Unit toll-free at (888) 549-3945 or by email at\u00a0victimassistance.fraud@usdoj.gov<\/a>. To learn more about victims\u2019 rights, please visit\u00a0www.justice.gov\/criminal\/criminal-vns\/victim-rights-derechos-de-las-v-ctimas<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal jury in Sherman, Texas convicted a married couple on Thursday for operating a multi-million-dollar pyramid scheme…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-398108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}