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Global Prosperity Group (Gpg)At the bottom of multi-level marketing -- a scummy business at best -- lurks Global Prosperity. The slimy-est of the slimy, Global Prosperity marks the absolute rock-bottom low of the MLM programs. There simply is no MLM program which is more of a scam, or has such a disreputable background, as Global Prosperity and its many equally-sordid spin-offs. The people associated with GPG are the bottom of the bottom, too. Many of the people have criminal pasts, others are lifelong network marketers. In other words, you have to be a total scumbug to be affiliated with GPG -- that is, creating relationships with hardened criminals and a programs which has a reputation for scamming young and old, rich and poor alike. If somebody actually admits they are in Global Prosperity, you know you are dealing with a lowlife, so run! Global Prosperity's reputation is so bad that other network marketers will often add a disclaimer to the bottom of their own spams and advertisements which says "Not Global Prosperity" -- now that is pretty bad! And Global Prosperity really had to work at being the Black Sheep of the multi-level marketing industry, which is like being the really dislikeable guy in a lineup of child molesters. Global Prosperity Group ("GPG") was formed by a scam artist named Keith Anderson formerly of Tulsa, Oklahoma (before he fled the United States). Essentially, Anderson put together a bogus "three-tiered" trust system, relying heavily on discredited tax protestor theories and whatever common law terms he could pick up out of Black's Law Dictionary (a generic reference source for 1st year law students and paralegals, but not much else). Anderson then took this trust system and began to market it, multi-level style, by creating different tiers of membership in GPG, and with people awarded only when they -- or someone in their "downline" brought in some new sucker who purchased the GPG materials. The GPG trust system being absolutely bogus, Anderson relied on the MLMers who flocked to GPG reading "scripts" (prepared speeches to be read over the phone to new prospects) as well as audiotapes and a bunch of glossy materials which would have been laughed at by any tax attorney or legal academician. But, by powerful marketing and PROMISES that people who sold GPG would go on to great riches, GPG blossomed and literally thousands of completely-worthless trusts were created, mostly in the early 1990s. By the mid-1990s however, only a Anderson and a few of the people at the top of the GPG hierarchy made any money, and many people at the lower levels were left being prosecuted for tax evasion and trying to figure out how to get their money out of bank debenture programs and other bogus investments promoted by GPG. Then, GPG splintered into a bunch of equally bogus programs, most notably Global Prosperity 2000 (GPG2000), Global Prosperity 2001 (GPG2001), Investors Alliance, Financial Legacy Alliance, and others. All of these program follow essentially the same recipe: Selling bogus trust or other questionable legal structures and investments, selling "memberships" to be able to sell to your friends and family and whatever suckers you come across, by reading carefully drafted scripts and sending out audiotapes, and of course aiding and abetting tax evasion and securities fraud, depending on the time of day. Soon after the collapse of GPG, even Keith Anderson admitted that "Big Mistakes" had been made in that program. Nonetheless, within a couple of years some of the old leaders of GPG had banded back together, and despite the fact that the original GPG was a complete bust that left many people scammed and other being prosecuted for tax evasion, GPG is back on track (?) holding overpriced seminars, spamming the internet with "offshore opportunity" and reading scripts to suckers over the phone. Go figure. The first time GPG went around, it was probably easy to be suckered into the newness of it all. But to get suckered into GPG this second time around, well you'd have to be a real fool. So what does GPG sell? Well, mostly they sell seminars which tell you how you can sell their seminars to others. Which is funny, because the GPG seminars do little more than promote so-called Pure Trusts (a quick ticket to lose your wealth in IRS fines and penalties, and perhaps even spend some Club Fed time) and various shady investments in condos, etc. From our April 2000 Newsletter Speaking of abusive trusts, lately there has been a resurgence of the old Global Prosperity Group, a group which offered Pure Trusts (a sham trust sold by scam artists) and unreported Offshore Trusts (deemed to be tax evasion by the IRS) on a multi-level marketing basis. GPG, as it was known, is a version of an MLM scam known as the aussie-2-up, basically because it offers two levels to which a network marketer could climb if they scammed enough people OR that suckers who mistakenly thought the GPG seminars and materials were valuable, could buy into. GPG was famous for suggestions that its network marketers spam e-mails like crazy, advertise in newspapers, etc., and then when a prospective dupe would call, a long script would be read over the telephone which extolled the virtues of GPG as a tax-free business opportunity that would lead many to riches. And lead it did, but not to riches. GPG proved to be a notoriously difficult program for people to sell, because most people didnt want to commit tax evasion. Still, by sheer persistence the program sold into the tens-of-thousands, only perhaps a dozen or less were destined to walk away net ahead, the others losing big in thousands of dollars in bogus seminars and materials, not to mention lost time. Even worse, as GPG progressed, many people took advantage of the people in it by getting them into bank debenture roll programs, historical bonds, and all sorts of other fraudulent investments, where the investors didnt even get a dime back. Many of these schemes were later busted up the SEC, and the rest simply didnt pay. GPG finally collapsed around 1997, with 99% of the people in it being utterly disgusted with the lies and lost investments. But like any bad social disease, GPG kept coming back, in the form of some equally fraudulent programs known respectively as Global Prosperity 2000, Global Prosperity 2001, Investors Alliance, and several other similar programs all lead of course by former GPG leaders, who were as shameless about telling blatant lies in the marketing of these programs as they were with GPG. The history of GPG and its spin-off programs is a lesson in sham programs, and how the idea of tax free offshore trusts and multi-level marketing can blend together to make a nightmare for those involved. Lately, we have seen a resurgence of one of the spin-off groups, Global Prosperity 2001, which has apparently been given overpriced seminars in the Caribbean again. This is amazing, giving GPGs proven track record of being both fraudulent and notoriously difficult to sell (bad amongst other MLM programs!). So, we will wait again for the inevitable cease-and-desist order and prosecutions. If you are approached to buy into any GPG spin-off group, just tell them that youre not interested and that they can shove their scripts.
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