Hola mis amigos!

You have no way of knowing that we’re so close to a very special date... Can you guess, amigos? No, it’s not the anniversary of anything related to money, you can relax. It’s, actually, a more private matter. Let me give you a hint: I’d like to congratulate you for sticking with me and my ramblings, because... Yes, amigos, in a matter of days we should be celebrating my one year anniversary as your newsletter aficionado!

I can’t believe that it’s been this long. You probably can believe since you’re the ones who had to deal with my crazy ideas all year long. As life’s irony is everywhere, it just so happens that next week newsletter would mark exactly one year since I started and, at the same time, it will be the first newsletter in a year that I won’t write because I’m planning on having in my life some sunny beaches and lots of drinks with those cute little umbrellas. I will drink to you, though, amigos!

NEW PROGRAM ADDED: UNITEDAMG

The only newcomer this week was UnitedAMG, the “creator” of one of the most prolific “About Us” sections I’ve read in a very long time. Here it goes, amigos:

“United AMG is an independent financial services groups in the East of Asia [...] founded in 1997 in the wake of the Asian currency crisis, and is credited with creating the asset management industry within South Korea. Our wholly owned affiliate in South Korea is licensed with the Monetary Authority of Korea [but UnitedAMG also] has a presence in England (headquarters), in addition to our home office in Incheon, Korea. Our affiliate in the U.K. (United Asset Management (UK) Group) is authorized as an investment manager with the UK Financial Services Authority. [...] As of 30 April 2013, our group employs as many as 43 investment professionals around the globe”.

And imagine that it’s not even all of it, just the more important pieces of information. Despite being founded in 1997, the domain was registered just recently on May 13, 2013 and was bought for three years in advance. As far as dates go, Thawte SSL certificate was issued on May 21, 2013 and lasts for a year. When it comes to the investment options, there are three plans to choose from: A, B, or C. Each plan lasts 40 calendar days, compounding is always available while the returnable principal is never an option ("As your investment principal is involved with our daily business, then we are not able to refund your initial investment").

Plan A is for those who want to invest $10-$1,999 and earn 4% daily. To join Plan B you need at least $2,000 and you get 4.5%, which gives one 180% total return. The most expensive plan, Plan C, takes $5,000-$200,000 and offers the total return of 200% (5% daily). Interest is paid 7 days a week. UnitedAMG cooperates with Solid Trust Pay, EgoPay and Perfect Money; the payouts take up to 24 hours and transactions are handled manually. You can withdraw the interest anytime you want, payouts start at $1. UnitedAMG offers the rare option of opening more than one account per investor under only one condition: “you are NOT Allowed to ‘Invite’ yourself using your personal invitation link”.

Hola mis amigos!

As you have probably anticipated, the Liberty Reserve affair is a gift that keeps on giving. Everybody is trying to deal with the fallout of the LR in their own way: some programs simply went down, others are still trying to catch a breath, but there were those who took the bull by its horns and dealt with the issue accordingly by, for instance, letting the users switch to another payment processor.

The last days saw many admins playing the waiting game, testing the waters and doing their best to adapt to the new post-LR reality. For now it seems that they are keeping quiet about their new projects, staying in the shadows and examining possible scenarios. It may seem that what we can expect, amigos, is yet another lull period in the business. What do you think?

NEW PROGRAM ADDED: CAPITAL A LIMITED, EUROTRADEINVEST

The first new program this week, Capital A Limited, is a “British investment company specializing in UK real estate market and investing in construction and real estate objects with the aim to re-sell the ready-to-use apartments, townhouses and homes”. Sounds clear enough, so let’s follow up.

With a domain bought on April 26, 2013 for the period of five years and GlobalSign issued SSL certificate valid from June 6, 2013 to January 15, 2018, and having already earned the PAYING status with us, Capital A Limited signals that it wants a long-term commitment. The plans, on the other hand, offer a less abiding deal: you can stay with CAL for 30 or 7 days. The first plan promises 5% daily and is “specifically designed for large investors with large sums to invest”.

Accordingly, the minimum investment is set at $20 and goes as high as $50,000. If you choose the 7-day plan, “where for a week you will get 10% of the capital invested”, you can start at $20 as well, but only go up to $300. The deposit is returnable if you go with the short-term option, but compounding is never the possibility. Minimum to withdraw is $1 and you can use EgoPay, Perfect Money or bank wires to do so. The process should not take more than the regular 24 hours. In case you have any questions, you may use the online contact form to send a “callback request”.

The company’s address can also be found there (Lynton House 304,Bensham Lane, Thorton Heath Surrey, United Kingdom CR7 7EQ), as well as its registration info (“we are an officially incorporated investment company and we are registered with the Companies House under number 07046218”).

The second program, EuroTradeInvest, has already earned the PAYING status on money-monitor. Perhaps that is why the creators are quite confident and claim that it’s “the best investment plan online and a unique opportunity for safe and very profitable online fund investing”. EuroTradeInvest is a relatively new program, the domain was created on April 11 and expires within two years. As far as the daily profits go, they vary between 1.5%-2.5% daily, depending on which of the four investment plans you choose. EuroTradeInvest has something for the ones who avoid committment: 24 hours and 7 days plans that start at $5 and $10 and go as high as $9.99 and $999.99; but there is also something for those who intend to stay with EuroTradeInvest longer, that is 30 or 90 days. When it comes to the 30-day plan, you can invest from $1,000.00 to $9,999.00, get 2.10% daily profit and get a 5% bonus. The last and most expensive plan, with the minimum set at $10,000.00 and maximum at $100,000.00, offers 2.50% profit and a 10% bonus. According to the FAQ section, the profit is “ calculated by calendar days, regardless of weekends and holidays”. What one needs to remember is that the principal will be returned and that the minimum withdrawal “at one time” is $5 and the maximum is $15,000, but the you can only withdraw as much as $500,000 a day. Anytime you withdraw any amount of money is $1. To deposit your money you need an EgoPay or Perfect Money account, but PM seems to be reserved “for non-US citizens”.

The e-currency world is still in the shock after unannounced seizure of Liberty Reserve domain and their server and after arresting the owner - Arthur Budovsky Belanchuk.

But this is not the only effect of the recent US goverment actions. They claim also that not only LibertyReserve is responsible for money laundering, but exchange services too. I'd like to remind that funding and withdrawals of LibertyReserve were only possible by means of exchange services. In US gov. opinion, this is the reason of their shared responsibility and Liberty Reserve's exchangers maitained direct financial relationships with LR. They were registered in such countries like Malaysia, Russia, Nigeria and Vietnam and they operated without a financial license. Their responsibility based on the fact that without exchangers there would not have been money for LR to launder and they help to keep a better anonymity for cyber criminals. They also work in conspiracy with LR.

Source

Here is the list of blocked exchangers' domains:

Wm-center.com, e-naira.com, ecardone.com, ebuygold.com, getemoney.com, epaymonster.com, instantgoldng.com, jtgold.com, goldnairaexchange.com, superchange.ru, webmoney.co.nz, m-gold.com, goldmediator.com, absolutexchange.eu, mewahgold.com, centregold.ca, electrumz.com, tukarduid.com, entelnova.com, tacoauthorized.com, intexchange.com, ukrnetmoney.com, wmirk.com, nigeriagoldexchanger.com, edealspot.com, duyduychanger.com, magnetic-exchange.com, moneyexchange.vn, abc-ex.net, mi-billetera.com, nicciexchange.com, exhere.com, alertexchanger.com, velaexchange.com, goldexpay.com

But so far only .com domains were seized.

As the fight of U.S. government against cybercrime can be understood, it is overused the situation, when legal exchange services and their domains are seized.

On what grounds the U.S. government did claim that these services operate in the conspiracy with LR? Why did they also blocked ecardone.com domain which belongs to a legal and licensed EU company? Fortunately, Ecardone is working under a new domain: dagensia.eu

Hola mis amigos!

Right about now I should be receiving tons of money since I – OK, only in a way, but still – had predicted this week’s greatest online tragedy. Didn’t I tell you that last week’s silence was nothing but an ominous sign of things to come?

I did, didn’t I? And did you listen to me, amigos? I honestly hope so. I hope that you had caught wind of what was going on with Liberty Reserve, the biggest story this week, and took the necessary precautions.

No new programs to introduce this time, amigos. It’s been tough, as you know, so we’re going to concentrate on the Liberty Reserve issue, which is a story that keeps on giving, unfortunately. Let’s go back and see what exactly happened.

We started the week with an article on the possible demise of Liberty Reserve since LR’s website wasn’t working for a couple of days and the rumors about its owner arrest kept on spreading.

LIBERTY RESERVE DEAD, OWNER ARTHUR RUDOVSKY ARRESTED?

First of all, what has to be said is that it’s not the first time such malfunction has appeared. However, usually a similar situation seemed planned, because LR had informed the users beforehand on its blog or, in instances when it was simply an unforeseen fault, such piece of information would appear in a matter of hours. What is different this time is that neither the website, nor the official blog – which, by the way, was not working properly for some time as well – provide us with any kind of update on the situation.

The domain, libertyreserve.com, is practically not even resolving DNS names into the IP addresses.

Here’s the up-to-date whois information:

Domain Name: libertyreserve.com Created On: 2001-07-27 Expiration Date: 2018-07-27

Registered via: XS Global Trade & Service B.V. Registrant Name: Allan Garcia

Registrant Organization: Liberty Reserve S.A. Registrant Street: Edificio 4 Registrant City: Santa Ana Registrant Postal Code: 1000 Registrant Country: cr

Registrant Phone: +506.88462868

Name Server: ns1.sinkhole.shadowserver.org

Name Server: ns2.sinkhole.shadowserver.org

As you can see, what we seem to have here is a major change of DNS servers from dynect.net to sinkhole.shadowserver.org. Furthermore, the owner of the shadowserver.org is The Shadowserver Foundation, which is known as an agency fighting cybercrime. Thus, the question remains, whether the FBI has taken over Liberty Reserve’s domain since such rumours were appearing each time LR failed to perform in the past. Why should it be anything more than gossip this time? Because as soon as LR’s website went down, the news coverage started suggesting that LR’s owner, Arthur Budovsky, was in fact arrested.

According to the sources such as ticotimes.net and teletica.com, as a result of Spanish and Costa Rican police cooperation regarding an investigation into money laundering, Arthur Budovsky was taken into custody on May 24 in Spain. What’s more, as ticotimes.net and teletica.com claim, Budovsky’s Costa Rican estate, offices, servers, documents, computers and telephones were also secured by the police.

The case against Bydovsky, a Costa Rican citizen born in Ukraine, was launched in 2011 by the New York district attorney. Due to the fact that Budovski’s business was supposedly thought to have been financed by child pornography websites and drug trafficking, the major focus seemed to be the payment processor and its financing. What still seems unclear, however, is whether Arthur Budovsky is, in fact, the owner of Liberty Reserve.

As we announced and expected libertyreserve domain was seized by US goverment (oficially by the United States Global Illicit Financial Team.) This was only a matter of time when this happens.

Liberty Reserve, its founder and associates (Vladimir Kats) have been indicted in U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

According to the indictment, Arthur Budovsky was using the aliases “Eric Paltz” and “Arthur Belanchuk,”, Vladimir Kats vel "Ragnar", Ahmed Yassine Abdelghani vel "Alex", Allan Esteban Hildago Jimenez vel "Allen Garcia", Azzeddine El Amine and Mark Marmilev, also known as "Marko".

According to the indictment LibertyReserve was managed by people who "intentionally created, structured. and operated Liberty Reserve as a criminal business venture, one designed to help criminals conduct illegal transactions and launer the proceeds of their crimes [...]".

The United States goverment has seized the Liberty Reserve domain name and five others: ExchangeZone.com; SwiftExchanger.com; MoneyCentralMarket.com; and Asianagold.com

Liberty Reserve and its cooperators are accused of such crimes “credit card fraud, identity theft, investment fraud, computer hacking, child pornography, and narcotics trafficking.”

According to the indictment between 2006 and May 2013, Liberty Reserve processed an estimated 55 million transactions and is believed “to have laundered more than $6 billion in criminal proceeds.”

Detailed documents:

http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/May13/LibertyReserveetalDocuments.php

2 days ago we wrote the article about the arrest of Arthur Budovsky, the supposed owner and founder of LibertyReserve payment processor. We confirmed his ownership by providing the link to the first LibertyReserve interview published by PlanetGold.

Our information were based on the two CostaRica's newspaper sources: ticotimes.net and teletica.com. We still have no confirmation from any other official sources except csi-8.com - Consulting International Services in Costa Rica and this is unusual situation. Why people responsible for the current situation leave victims without any official update? If Spanish police and FBI were involved in this matter why they do not publish any official statememnt? Today is a business day but not for the United States. Today is Memorial Day and all offices are closed, so maybe this is the reason of no reaction.

There are still some questions without the answer:

Why FBI didn't publish their splash page about a domain seizure on libertyreserve domain as they usually do?

Why sinkhole.shadowserver.org is not online?

Is it really FBI job or just DDoS or hijack domain attack?

I don't like to speculate without some proofs or reliable information, you can find many on other blogs an forums (competitors job, domain hijacking). However I did some research and found some interesting information that proof FBI activity.

Let's start from the current dns information of libertyreserve.com domain:

http://who.is/dns/libertyreserve.com

Name Server                          IP Location
ns1.sinkhole.shadowserver.org 74.208.64.145 Wayne, PA, US
ns2.sinkhole.shadowserver.org 74.208.15.160 Wayne, PA, US
ns1.libertyreserve.com 74.208.15.160 Wayne, PA, US

There is the same ip address for two dns' addresses 74.208.15.160 which you can find also when you ping or nslookup libertyreserve.com domain:

Name: libertyreserve.com

Address: 74.208.15.160

Let's verify this ip:

As you have probably notices, the Liberty Reserve’s website has not been working for a couple of days. Since the users of this most popular payment processor have been wondering what is going on behind the curtains, money-monitor is there to shed some light on the problem.

First of all, what has to be said is that it’s not the first time such malfunction has appeared. However, usually a similar situation seemed planned, because LR had informed the users beforehand on its blog or, in instances when it was simply an unforeseen fault, such piece of information would appear in a matter of hours. What is different this time is that neither the website, nor the official blog – which, by the way, was not working properly for some time as well – provide us with any kind of update on the situation.

The domain, libertyreserve.com, is practically not even resolving DNS names into the IP addresses.

Here’s the up-to-date whois information:

Domain Name: libertyreserve.com

Created On: 2001-07-27

Expiration Date: 2018-07-27

Registered via: XS Global Trade & Service B.V.

Registrant Name: Allan Garcia

Registrant Organization: Liberty Reserve S.A.

Registrant Street: Edificio 4

Registrant City: Santa Ana

Registrant Postal Code: 1000

Registrant Country: cr

Registrant Phone: +506.88462868

Name Server: ns1.sinkhole.shadowserver.org

Name Server: ns2.sinkhole.shadowserver.org

As you can see, what we seem to have here is a major change of DNS servers from dynect.net to sinkhole.shadowserver.org. Furthermore, the owner of the shadowserver.org is The Shadowserver Foundation, which is known as an agency fighting cybercrime. Thus, the question remains, whether the FBI has taken over Liberty Reserve’s domain since such rumours were appearing each time LR failed to perform in the past. Why should it be anything more than gossip this time? Because as soon as LR’s website went down, the news coverage started suggesting that LR’s owner, Arthur Budovsky, was in fact arrested.

Hola mis amigos!

Wow. It’s always said that silence is golden, but when it is this silent all I get is anxious. I’d really rather be showered with gold, amigos, this scarcity of incoming information is making me uncomfortable. 

Is there a huge storm coming or what? Do you know what’s going on? Make sure to let me know if you do, OK? I feel deprived of everything...

NEW PROGRAMS ADDED: FIBO TRADE GROUP AND AYOP INC.

The first program, Fibo Trade Group, reportedly has been working for three years and “has been launched by the team of professional traders and investors”. The domain was created just recently, on May 13, and expires within a year. This New York-stationed company offers two major investment plans: you can either earn 4-6% daily for 40 business days or 200-300% after 40 days for 40 business days. Each plan has three sub-plans, depending on the amount of money you’re willing to invest.

The minimum is set at $10 and the maximum is $100000. Bear in mind that there is no returnable principal or compounding available. You can fund your Fibo wallet using Solid Trust Pay, Liberty Reserve, Perfect Money and EgoPay. Payments are handled instantly and payouts shouldn’t take more than 24 hours. If you have any questions you may contact Fibo via e-mail (support@fibotradegroup.com), phone (+1 (212) 487-1044) or using the online contact form.

Hola mis amigos!

I have so much to tell you today with regard to the newest addition to our lovely list of programs, that without further ado... Here we go!

NEW PROGRAMS: SILVEROZ, 40DAYSFOREX, ADRO CAPITAL, VICTOR TRANSPORT, FINSTEEL GMI

To start with, SilverOz which, according to its website, “holds strong positions on the world market of silver production and trading” and was named so that we’d remember that ounce (or “oz”) is “a common measure of precious and semi-precious metals and bullion coins”, at the time being holds a waiting status on money-monitor’s list. With a domain created in March 2013 that expires within 5 years, it may seem that SilverOz plans on staying here for a while. The SLL certificate issued by Thawte on April 10, 2013, however, expires within a year, so you never know.

What we do know is that the rules are simple: you invest $1-$25000 for 150 days and you get 2% daily. Compounding is available and so is a returnable principal. Payouts should not take more than 24 hours and start at $0.01. You can use all the most commonly recognized payment processors, that is STP, PM, LR, EgoPay and the payments are done instantly.

Another new “waiting” addition, 40DaysForex, does not seem as optimistic about its longevity as the previous one. I mean, naming a program “40 days” does not boost one’s confidence, right? 40DaysForex domain was created just recently, on May 14, 2013, and expires within a year. With what looks like a partially implemented Comodo Positive SSL certificate also issued on May 14 and which expires within a year as well, 40DaysForex sends a very concise message. This “international investment company” offers 3.5%-4% daily payouts for 40 calendar days or 1.4%-2% daily for 40 days. It takes at least $20 to start investing, but only $0.1 to start withdrawing (shouldn’t take more than 12 hours) the money using all the major players (STP, PM, LR, EgoPay). The principal can be withdrawn afterwards.

The first thus far paying program on today’s list, ADRO Capital Ltd., provides one with “solutions [...] to generate returns without any need to have the ability, experience or knowledge in Forex trading”. The minimum investment is set at an unusual number, $9, and there is no maximum. ADRO Capital can pride itself in having an extremely well-developed and user-friendly website secured with a one-year valid Comodo High-Assurance Secure Server certificate issued on April 19, 2013.

Hola mis amigos!

Since there isn't much that I know about metals that are not adorned with precious stones and can be worn regardless of the season, this time I think I'm just going straight to the point. Why, you ask?

Well, if you're an expert at steel from Finland, feel free to jump anytime you want. Wait, you can’t, sorry. See? You just have to sit there and read my ramblings.

First of all, you need to know that “the best way to get exposure to steel is by investing in companies that produce steel, specifically globally integrated steel companies”. Did you know that, amigos? I sure as you-know-what didn’t. According to FINSTEEL Global Mind Investment’s official website, that’s the way to go. What you should also bear in mind is that “not all of the leading companies are available for investment”, because “some of the top steel-producing operations are private” while “others trade on foreign exchanges that do not issue American Depository Receipts (ADRs)”. I’m somewhat confident that it’s all news to you, right? So far I kind of feel like I’m just watching a foreign movie without subtitles, how about you? Fortunately, FINSTEEL’s website is truly straightforward, as if in anticipation of such problems, one may start to think...

you have probably deduced by now, the name of the company might be understood quite literally: it may a company that deal with steel from the lovely, albeit rather cold, country called Finland or it may be all about the finances as well as the steel. In addition to being simple, finsteel.biz is a neatly designed website. With one of the most “on message” sliders I’ve ever seen, the colors are bright and appealing, and the whole browsing experience is fairly pleasant. Nevertheless, there is not much to read there, which I always find more or less annoying, depending on the quality of the reading material at hand. Here, it’s less irritating than usually, but since I know nothing about the steel business per se, I would greatly appreciate some less general information.