More Dinar Indictments

In the fall of 2012 three members of the BH Group (Brad Huebner, Charlie Emmenecker, and Mike Teal) and their cohort in a hedge fund scam Rudy Coenen were all indicted for dinar fraud.  Since that time they were all convicted and sentenced.  In June of last year we reported the federal civil complaint against Sterling Currency Group in Atlanta and the subsequent raid.  Well today that complaint was followed up with four indictments.  Ty Rhame, James Shaw, and Frank Bell from Sterling were indicted along with TerryK (Terrence Keller) from the GET Team. (pictured below in order)

 

Ty Rhames  James-Shaw  Frank Bell  Terrence Keller

 

Except for the hedge fund these are basically the same charges that the BH Group faced.  This is now officially a trend.  I believe more indictments are on the way.  Marcus and I started writing about these guys and their lies four years ago, and everything we said has been vindicated.  The dinar investment is a scam, and the people promoting it are scammers.  Feast your eyes on this.

 

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Executives and promoters of Atlanta-based Sterling Currency Group LLC were indicted Monday for their roles in an alleged $600 million scheme to fraudulently induce investors into buying the Iraqi dinar.

According to U.S. Attorney Horn, the indictment, and other information presented in court: During the scope of the conspiracy, the Iraqi dinar was touted by some as a potential investment opportunity. Information publicly available on certain internet websites, blogs, chat rooms, and conference calls fueled this speculation by predicting that a “revaluation” of the Iraqi dinar would occur imminently. A “revaluation” or “RV,” in this context, meant a sudden, exponential rise in the value of the Iraqi dinar as compared to the U.S. dollar and other relatively stable global currencies. Individuals who owned Iraqi dinar would realize potentially enormous gains if an “RV” ever occurred in this manner.

Sterling Currency Group, which also did business as Sterling Online Processing Services LLC and Dinar Banker, was a Georgia corporation with its principal place of business in Atlanta. Sterling sold and exchanged so-called “exotic currencies,” including most predominantly the Iraqi dinar.

Tyson Rhame and James Shaw were co-owners of Sterling, which began operations in 2004.

Frank Bell began working for Sterling in 2010 and became Sterling’s chief operating officer in 2011.

According to the indictment, Terrence Keller, who was also known as “TerryK,” led an Internet-based group known as “The GET Team,” which consisted of a website, an internet chat forum and weekly conference calls in which, among other things, information was disseminated to participants concerning the potential investment value of the Iraqi dinar.

Keller, through The GET Team, was one of the leading internet-based proponents of the “RV” theory. On The GET Team’s website, internet chat forum, and on weekly conference calls, Keller is alleged to have falsely claimed to have information from, and verified by, high-level confidential sources in the U.S. government, the Iraqi government, international organizations, and major financial institutions, regarding an imminent “RV.”

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2016/02/22/sterling-currency-group-execs-indicted-in-600m.html

http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga/pr/atlanta-executives-and-internet-based-promoter-charged-scheme-defraud-investors

https://www.iraqidinar.org/criminal-indictment-of-james-shaw-tyson-rhame-frank-bell/


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We are in the process of producing more podcasts on this and related material, so stay tuned over the coming days and weeks.  It’s getting very interesting.

 

458b3-sam

The Next Great Currency Scam (Mike Rothschild)

Over the past year, I’ve written quite a bit about the Iraqi dinar, the foreign currency that many self-appointed “gurus” try to convince buyers will suddenly “revalue” from being one of the most worthless currencies in the world to one of the most valuable. Dinar brokers sells bundles of the dinar that you can only buy in cash directly from Iraq, then you sit on it and wait for the Iraqi government (or President Obama, or the IMF, or whatever) to pull the trigger on boosting it hundreds of thousands of percent in value.

It doesn’t take a degree in finance to tell you that this is false. Many actual financial experts have debunked the myth of the Iraqi dinar “RV,” and while gurus have been promising for years that the magical day where millions of dinars turn into millions of dollars was right around the corner, it’s not, it never has been and it never will be. Iraq’s economy is nowhere near being able to support an electronically traded currency with serious value, and it might be a decade or more before that happens.

Fortunately, the dinar scam looks like it’s finally abating. There are numerous, well-written pieces by people at Forbes, Business Insider and others presenting well-researched and logical information about why the dinar is about as worthwhile an investment as magic beans.

The Vietnamese dong

Not only that, but law enforcement is starting to crack down on dinar brokers who exploit a loophole in currency law to sell cash as a collectable. Of the four dinar websites I mentioned in the piece, one, Sterling Currency Group has been raided by the FBI and shut down, while Bet on Iraq is now a dead link. Additionally, one of the most vocal dinar gurus, Anthony “TNT Tony” Renfrow, recently pled guilty to wire fraud in relation to a different prosperity scam – one that used many of the same techniques as the dinar.

But just as scams like the “Omega Trust” and NESARA begat the dinar scam, it’s only a matter of time before the resources put into selling and pimping this worthless currency is put toward selling and pimping some other worthless currency. Which one will it be? Here a few different national currencies to be on the lookout for as the next great money scam:

Vietnamese dong
If there’s one other currency that dinar gurus love to sell along with the dinar, it’s the dong. Vietnam has a complex history when it comes to currency, one intertwined with the fractured history of the country. Both North and South Vietnam issued their own currency, both called the dong, in the 1950s. When Vietnam was united by the communist insurgency in 1975, the dong was also unified. It went through several redenominations, lopping zeroes off the inflated exchange rate with old currency exchanged for new. For decades, Vietnam struggled with inflation, counterfeiting, and the dong’s lack of value against other currencies.

Finally, in 2003, Vietnam introduced new notes that were harder to counterfeit, and it developed a new banking system designed to handle large transactions.

Even with all of these reforms, the dong is one of the most, if not the most, worthless currencies in the world. It currently trades for around 21800 to one dollar, and only in cash, not electronically. Like the dinar, you can buy them in cash from brokers working under the “money service business” loophole. Like the dinar, the dong is massively overprinted. And like the dinar, they take a massive cut, usually charging between 20 to 25% more than the value of what you’re getting. And finally, like the dinar, the dong has lost value in the past year, as it traded at 21175 to one dollar one year ago. Dongs are becoming less valuable, not more.

But that doesn’t stop “gurus” from hyping them as the next great currency to rise when the “global currency reset” happens. They seize on minor details, like some US banks carrying dong to exchange for dollars. But there’s a simple reason for this – more and more Americans are traveling to southeast Asia, including Vietnam. While dollars are accepted, shopkeepers will usually round their prices up when dealing with dollars, making items more expensive than using the local currency. It’s not part of any massive currency reset, it’s just tourism.

The dong is a viable currency to buy if you’re going to Vietnam. Other than that, it’s useless as an investment. The Vietnamese government might attempt to redenominate it again, but as we’ve discussed with the dinar, redenomination is not the same as revaluing – one is a real and legitimate technique to bring down inflation, the other is pie in the sky nonsense.

Stacks of Indonesian rupiah

Indonesian rupiah
The rupiah is the currency of Indonesia, and while its pimping and selling are not quite at the level of the dinar or dong, don’t be shocked if it gets there. Way back in 1949, when Indonesia first gained independence, the rupiah traded for about 3.8 to one dollar. But hyperinflation hit almost immediately, and soon price controls had to be introduced. In the 70s, the rate was about 415 to the dollar, dropping even further going into the 80s. Despite Indonesia having a strong economy, the rupiah continued to drop in value, and crashed completely in August 1997.

In 2015, there was something of a gain, as money flowed into the country before its presidential election. But post-election, the rupiah crashed again, and hit a low of 13,000 to the dollar. Compare this to their value a year ago, which was 11710, and you have another currency that would have lost you much of your investment.

The country had vowed to redenominate the rupiah, but put that on hold while its economy stabilizes. In the meantime, unless you’re an experienced foreign currency trader (and chances are if you’re reading this, you’re not), stay away from the rupiah.

The infamous Zimbabwean 100 trillion dollar note

Zimbabwean dollar
Everyone likes a big number, and the bigger, the better. So it made news when Zimbabwae, hit with crippling inflation, introduced a 100 trillion dollar note, it made international headlines. It was also the beginning of the end for the currency, as in 2009, Zimbabwe announced they’d be phasing out their currency altogether, and relying on foreign currencies like the US dollar. The zim will become completely demonetized by the end of 2015, though there are unwelcome rumors that the country is experimenting with printing new (most likely much lower) denominations.

At this point, Zimbabwean dollars are worthwhile only as collector’s items. They literally are about to have no value as actual money, and the country is attempting to get the last notes out of circulation. This admittedly makes those 100 bazillion dollar notes valuable, and the highest ones go for around 20-25 bucks on eBay. But even then, the market is flooded with them. You’re not going to get rich off any money coming out of Zimbabwae. Nobody ever has.

Something else
The Chinese yuan, South Korean won, and various other Asian and Middle Eastern currencies are also mentioned as being the “next currency” to be revalued, despite nothing being the previous one. Chances are, it won’t happen, for both simple and complex reasons.

As always, be skeptical of anyone touting the benefits of buying large amounts of a cheap currency with lofty promises for the future. They’re almost certainly not true.

About Mike Rothschild

Mike Rothschild is a writer and editor based in Pasadena. He writes about scams, conspiracy theories, hoaxes and pop culture fads. He’s also a playwright and screenwriter. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/rothschildmd.

 

Rod-as-Sam sm

 

Podcast 4 – “Sam I Am” part 3

podcast 7Well now, all my cards are on the table with this latest podcast. At this point you should see that Sam is in the process of bringing his archives over. You should also see a new post from him on occasion. He has freedom to write about anything he wants to say. We are now equal partners in Iraq Currency Watch and now this is just as much his blog as it is mine. I think the merging of our two sites is a great mix. Hopefully many of Sam’s readers will be pleased with the results.

So now I give the invitation to all of Sam’s readers to subscribe. Actually, anyone who wants to can subscribe by clicking  the follow Iraq Currency Watch blue button to the right. By subscribing you will be informed whenever a new post or podcast is posted. Any email address that is provided is kept confidential and you will never receive advertisements! You will only be notified when Sam and I release a post or a podcast. You can also remove yourself from the list at any given time. Many great things are coming to Iraq Currency Watch. So if you enjoy the content you should join the hundreds of people who have already subscribed. It does not cost you anything to do this.

When I initially interviewed Sam for the Podcast we had 3 segments which became massive. So I decided to make each segment a separate podcast. I already posted the first two podcasts in my last post. Now we are releasing part 3. Some more surprises await.

podcast 4

Disclaimer

The podcast player may not display if you are using Apple’s Safari browser, but it will display in every other browser. This is a problem that is unique to the Safari browser. At this time we provide no support for this problem.

This page loads fine in every other browser and all aspects of the page are visible. Therefore we recommend that you view this site using a different browser. Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and the new Microsoft Edge browser all work well with this site and the Podcasts.

We recommend that you download one of these browsers for your Apple computer and use it in place of Safari. This is an issue with Safari. It is not a WordPress or an ICW issue. 

Just a note of clarification, I could not remember the name of the document the government served SCG. I called it a consumer complaint when it fact it was a civil complaint. I am sorry about the confusion.

Our Friend TNTBS

Sam’s blog identified many of the people who were lying about this investment. This was the reason for his identity. Since his site has closed down others have taken on his cause. Below you will see a video from our friend TNTBS. Much of this information is based on Sam’s research. He also adds his own research into the mix. TNTBS presents this information in an entertaining and amusing approach.

Podcast Notes

Defending  The Faith

http://www.amazon.com/Defending-Faith-Word-Apologetics-ebook/dp/B00ULQEOJ6

 

 

 

Jew and Greek

http://jewandgreek.com/

 

BVAWE

https://bvawe.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

cropped-06-gcr-mockup6.jpgThe Truth About The Coming Global Currency Reset

http://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Coming-Global-Currency-ebook/dp/B00RYIY21Y

Podcast 2 and 3 – “Sam I Am” Interview

Podcast 1In the last Podcast I mentioned that I was going to interview Sam I Am. Sam had one of the most popular anti-dinar blogs on the internet. He closed his site down in the spring of 2015. Now he is having a tell all interview with me. How exciting!

SamTypically on a Podcast I will have 3 segments. I typed about 17 questions down in a Microsoft Word document. I was hoping to have enough material for all 3 segments. As it turns out I recorded 3 separate segments. We talked for 3 hours and I only got to ask a few questions from the word document. We discussed many things from our dinar years. I decided to divide each segment into a totally separate podcast. So without further ado here is the first Podcast with Sam i Am

podcast 4

Disclaimer

The podcast player may not display if you are using Apple’s Safari browser, but it will display in every other browser. This is a problem that is unique to the Safari browser. At this time we provide no support for this problem.

This page loads fine in every other browser and all aspects of the page are visible. therefore we recommend that you view this site using a different browser. Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and the new Microsoft Edge browser all work well with this site and the Podcasts.

We recommend that you download one of these browsers for your Apple computer and use it in place of Safari. This is an issue with Safari. It is not a WordPress or an ICW issue.

Sam I Am – Part 1

podcast 2We had a lot of fun reminiscing about dinar days of old. As we talked about some of the people who shaped the dinar community we had a few good laughs over  the stories of what some of these guys said and did. So I am going to share the second part of the interview with Sam I Am. You will find the third podcast for this site below. There is one more segment after this but I will release it in another post. Between part 1 above and part 2 below you should get a pretty good background about Sam and his experience with the dinar.

Sam I Am – Part 2

So if you listened to both of these podcasts then you found out a lot of secrets about the dinar community. You also found out what is in store for this site. Some great changes are coming. I hope you find these podcasts entertaining. Thank you for taking the time to listen!