Again in mid September BehindMLM acquired a stop and desist from Avi Perry, an legal professional at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan (Quinn Emanuel), appearing on behalf of GSB Gold Normal Company and proprietor Josip Heit.
In a nutshell, Perry objected to BehindMLM’s ongoing reporting on GSB’s and Heit’s alleged securities fraud.
Whereas I did reply to the stop and desist I didn’t publicly report about it on the time. The notion that Heit’s attorneys would stand earlier than a Decide and argue GSB and Heit hadn’t dedicated securities fraud, in mild of receiving over a dozen regulatory fraud warnings and enforcement actions pertaining to securities fraud, was ridiculous.
On October tenth Quinn Emanuel revealed a press-release titled “A number of U.S. and Canadian regulators conform to drop fraud prices in opposition to Josip Heit and GSB Germany as a part of expanded settlement“.
Cited as a “associated matter”, Quinn Emanuel said;
In a associated matter, Mr. Heit and GSB Germany additionally served a cease-and-desist discover on BehindMLM.com, an internet site that has revealed false and defamatory statements about Mr. Heit and his firms.
Lots of BehindMLM’s posts about GSB Germany and Mr. Heit have been topic to injunctions and take-down orders in courts all through the world.
First on a matter of precept, BehindMLM is definitely not a “associated matter” throughout the context of GSB’s and Heit’s fraud prices. Dropped or no, GSB’s and Heit’s fraud prices are theirs alone.
Evidently what I assumed was too foolish to make public final month, is now a advertising and marketing level to deflect from GSB’s and Heit’s pending fraud prices settlement with North American regulators.
Within the pursuits of transparency and permitting shoppers to make up their very own minds, at the moment BehindMLM shall be publishing Quinn Emanuel’s stop and desist. This consists of subsequent e mail communication between myself and Avi Perry.
As acquired by Avi Perry (proper) on September twelfth, 2024;
Re: Stop and Desist Discover
Pricey Sir or Madam:
I symbolize Josip Heit, GSB Gold Normal Company AG, and sure different affiliated entities, a few of which do enterprise as GSPartners.
I write to demand that you simply instantly stop and desist defaming Mr. Heit and GSPartners in your web site, BehindMLM.com.
Your years-long marketing campaign of harassing and defaming my shoppers clearly exhibits malice and a whole disregard for the reality. Mr. Heit has ample grounds to deliver claims in opposition to you in the USA and elsewhere, and he’ll vigorously implement his rights.
As you might be conscious, Mr. Heit not too long ago introduced a really favorable settlement with state securities regulators in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, and Texas in reference to their civil investigations into GS Companions.
Different states and jurisdictions are becoming a member of the settlement on daily basis.
The settlement time period sheet is public, and certainly you hyperlink to the time period sheet in your September 10, 2024 weblog put up, GSPartners Settles Securities Fraud, US Investor Refunds.
The very first time period makes clear that my shoppers have made no admissions in reference to the settlement, they usually
will face no allegations of fraud upon completion of the settlement course of.The settling states have expressly agreed to “withdraw . . . all prior allegations of fraud or dishonest, unethical practices” by my shoppers.
But, regardless of your data of the settlement phrases, you insist on publishing lies on BehindMLM.com.
For instance, in your September 10 weblog put up, you falsely assert, each within the physique of the article and once more within the feedback part, that Mr. Heit is “admitting to fraud,” and has “admitted to fraud.”
He’s not. The time period sheet makes crystal clear that my shoppers haven’t, and won’t, admit to any fraud or different misconduct as a part of the settlement.
You additionally assert within the September 10 weblog put up, with no obvious foundation, that “[s]everal federal investigations into GSPartners and Josip Heit stay lively.” To my data, that declare is fake.
Lastly, in reference to unwarranted commentary about Mr. Heit’s capability to pay refunds to former GSPartners prospects as a part of the settlement, you make the disparaging remark that you simply “[c]an’t think about the Romanian mafia is simply too completely satisfied about any of this.”
Mr. Heit has no connection to organized crime, and your false insinuation that he does has precipitated emotional misery and reputational hurt.
You have to instantly retract these statements and stop and desist from making related defamatory statements about my shoppers. Please verify by no later than September 16, 2024, that you’ll achieve this.
Please take into account this letter to supply discover of your obligation to protect all paperwork, tangible issues, and electronically saved data, present in any type by any means, that could be related to your malicious defamation and harassment of Mr. Heit and GSPartners.
For the avoidance of doubt, you have to protect all paperwork and communications concerning Mr. Heit and GSPartners.
This preservation demand is constant and consists of all pc, messaging, or social media recordsdata which may in any other case be topic to computerized deletion, or metadata that may be altered or modified by pc packages.
Till instructed in any other case, you have to droop and/or disable any computerized deletion insurance policies at present in place that would outcome within the deletion of any of the above-mentioned classes of knowledge.
My shoppers reserve all rights.
If in case you have questions concerning this letter, I could also be reached on the quantity listed above.
Sincerely,
Avi Perry
On September thirteenth I replied;
Hello Avi,
BehindMLM by no means claimed Heit admitted to fraud within the Time period Sheet. We quoted a public press-release issued by the Texas State Securities Board.
Assuming the respondents efficiently return deposits to shoppers as required by the time period sheet, GSB Group and Mr. Heit will consent to the entry of an enforcement order that concludes they illegally supplied and/or offered securities that weren’t registered pursuant to state regulation.
The consent order will change any prior administrative actions filed by state securities regulators in collaborating jurisdictions solely as these prior administrative actions relate to the respondents.
BehindMLM linked to each the Time period Sheet and TSSB press-release in our article.
You may entry TSSB’s press-release on their web site:
https://ssb.texas.gov/websites/default/recordsdata/2024-09/GSB_PressRelease_1.pdf
The quoted part above is on web page 4, pg. 4.
BehindMLM has merely quoted the TSSB and mentioned their revealed statements. If in case you have a problem with one thing the TSSB has publicly said I recommend you are taking it up with the TSSB.
Josip Heit’s connections and associations with organized crime figures in Romania are well-documented and researched. The BehindMLM article beneath hyperlinks to a number of supply articles in Romania.
https://behindmlm.com/firms/gspartners/behindmlm-is-under-threat-gspartners-the-nysc/
Extra not too long ago Heit’s Romanian legal associations and enterprise companions had been researched by Croatian media masking a corruption scandal right into a hydroelectric mission Heit was concerned in.
Considered one of his associates with whom he has wonderful pleasant relations and calls him brother is Alex Bodi (within the firm of Josip Heit within the picture beneath).
Romanian Newsweek reveals that he was arrested in 2020 on suspicion of forcing a number of girls into prostitution. Bodi’s finest man is Adrian Tâmplaru , an affiliate of the notorious Romanian mobster Ioan Clămparu , who’s at present serving a 30-year jail sentence .
After his arrest, Tâmplaru began his community of human trafficking and prostitution.
Heit’s connections and associations to organized crime figures in Romania is within the public sphere and has been for a few years.
Lastly, BehindMLM reported on a number of federal investigations into Heit and GSB Group final 12 months.
https://behindmlm.com/firms/gspartners/gs-partners-josip-heit-under-federal-investigation-in-us/
Whether or not you might be personally conscious of those investigations or not is neither right here nor there.
Based mostly on the above, BehindMLM gained’t be taking any motion in your request.
Please notice BehindMLM reserves the best to ahead this communication and any future communications acquired to our US regulatory and regulation enforcement contacts.
-Oz
To which Avi replied;
Oz,
A lot of what you say beneath is demonstrably false. As an illustration, you write beneath that “BehindMLM by no means claimed Heit admitted to fraud within the Time period Sheet.”
But in your Sept. 10 put up, you state that “[i]t’s probably GSB Group and Heit admitting to fraud shall be cited in any pending federal civil and/or legal fraud prices.” To be clear, neither Mr. Heit nor any GSB entity has admitted to fraud.
Additional, the settling states have expressly agreed to withdraw all earlier fraud allegations. That’s a necessary time period of the settlement, and is evident on the face of the time period sheet.
Subsequently, you shouldn’t persist in making false claims reminiscent of “GSPartners settles securities fraud,” or “GSB Group and proprietor Josip Heit have settled allegations pertaining to their fraudulent GSPartners funding scheme,” or referring to the settlement as a “fraud settlement.”
Lastly, it’s inaccurate to report, per your Sept. 10 put up, that “A number of federal investigations into GSPartners and Josip Heit stay lively.” There aren’t, and also you lack any foundation for that assertion.
No matter sourcing you will have had for that declare in your Nov. 2, 2023 put up, you can’t depend on year-old data to help for a declare that there are lively investigations at the moment.
We reiterate our demand that you simply cease-and-desist from publishing false and defamatory statements. My shoppers reserve all rights.
Yours,
Avi
To which I replied;
Avi,
Heit admitting to securities fraud is a part of the settlement, as disclosed by the TSSB of their press-release.
Assuming the respondents efficiently return deposits to shoppers as required by the time period sheet, GSB Group and Mr. Heit will consent to the entry of an enforcement order that concludes they illegally supplied and/or offered securities that weren’t registered pursuant to state regulation.
The consent order will change any prior administrative actions filed by state securities regulators in collaborating jurisdictions solely as these prior administrative actions relate to the respondents.
Once more, BehindMLM by no means made any declare with respect to Heit admitting securities fraud throughout the context of a time period sheet.
The quoted assertion is made throughout the context of Heit admitting securities fraud as a part of the settlement. After which it’s affordable to count on mentioned act of admitting securities fraud on the state degree can be cited in any pending federal civil and/or legal prices.
I don’t know why you retain citing the time period sheet. Heit admitting to securities fraud, as disclosed by the TSSB, is within the second a part of the settlement.
The settlement is in relation to alleged securities fraud, making it a securities fraud settlement. It’s affordable to shorten this to “fraud settlement”.
Be at liberty to ahead proof from US federal authorities that there’s at present no federal investigation into Heit or GSB, as you’ve definitively claimed.
Failing which, these hyperlinks may show academic:
-Oz
To which Avi replied;
Securities fraud is NOT the identical as a registration violation. The previous requires an intent to defraud.
The latter requires solely the sale (or supply) of securities that weren’t registered. Heit’s settlement is
(1) based mostly on an alleged registration violation, NOT fraud; and
(2) doesn’t contain any admissions. That’s clear within the time period sheet and the press releases.
To which I replied;
Failure to register a securities providing is unlawful and a violation of state securities regulation. Providing/promoting unregistered securities can also be a felony on the federal degree.
Violation of state securities regulation = securities fraud. There isn’t any exemption for intent close to committing securities fraud by providing/promoting unregistered securities, both on the state or federal degree.
I’m not going to get into an argument in regards to the diploma of securities fraud your consumer will admit they dedicated as a part of the pending consent order. It’s irrelevant.
-Oz
To which Avi replied;
This isn’t a debate. Please perceive that, in the event you persist in falsely stating that my consumer has made admissions or has dedicated securities fraud, we’ll take applicable motion.
Avi’s final e mail above was on September twenty second. By then I’d forwarded Quinn Emannuel’s stop and desist to our contacts in US regulation enforcement and truthfully, hadn’t thought of it once more until at the moment.
One retrospective notice I’ll add, and I’ll forgive Avi for maybe not figuring out it on the time as I didn’t both, is that Heit (proper) is the truth is a convicted fraudster.
On September twenty second, the day of Avi’s final e mail, a Croatian journalist reported on Heit’s conviction for monetary fraud in Luxembourg and subsequent jail sentence. That is in fact previous to Heit’s involvement in Karatbars Worldwide and GSPartners.
On the subject of fraud and simply so we’re clear, that is the terminology utilized by North American regulators to explain GSB’s and Heit’s related conduct;
- “fraud, deception and the concealment of operational data”
- “fraud, deceit, and the blockfolios”
- “fraud, deceit, and the usage of inside tokens”
- “fraud and the concealment of the usage of principal”
- “fraud, deception, and the market safety system”
- “fraud, deception, and the efficiency of prior choices”
- “fraud, deception, and the LYS staking swimming pools”
- “fraud and deception and G999 coin”
- “Respondents are participating in fraud in reference to the supply for the sale of securities”
And that’s only one instance from the dozen plus securities fraud associated stop and desists and enforcement actions GSB and Heit acquired.
BehindMLM accurately maintains that violating state and federal securities legal guidelines within the US constitutes securities fraud and can proceed to take action in our reporting.
If for what different purpose do securities legal guidelines exist apart from to explicitly prohibit securities associated fraud?
One final level that I’ll handle from Quinn & Emmanuel’s October tenth press-release is:
Lots of BehindMLM’s posts about GSB Germany and Mr. Heit have been topic to injunctions and take-down orders in courts all through the world.
Formally from reminiscence there’s two or three BehindMLM URLs Heit had a court docket in Hamburg order blocked in Germany. This was performed on an ex-parte method and, based mostly on what authorized documentation I’ve seen, based mostly on nothing greater than a sworn affidavit from Heit.
When it grew to become clear Heit would proceed to focus on BehindMLM by way of German courts, Google and I got here to the settlement it was simply simpler to dam BehindMLM’s GSPartners reporting throughout Germany.
This isn’t a secret, it’s one thing I’ve publicly addressed.
It’s additionally no secret that, as a part of ongoing makes an attempt to suppress public participation and discourse on GSB and himself, Heit tried to implement his shenanigans in Germany by way of the New York Supreme Courtroom.
Throughout allegations of defamation, extortion and normal criminality, the thrust of GSB’s NYSC petition was, to cite one among Heit’s fellow countrymen, “in the event you repeat a lie typically sufficient it turns into the reality”.
As a part of the proceedings, Heit had a minimum of three alternatives to current proof to help his allegations in opposition to BehindMLM.
Heit failed to take action (as a result of there isn’t any proof). Subsequently, this was the result.
The one optimistic that got here from Heit’s NYSC petition was {that a} precedent was set, prohibiting frivolous petition filings unsupported by proof.
Sadly that doesn’t cease Heit utilizing totally different attorneys to proceed to harass, intimidate and threaten BehindMLM.
Fortunately as we’ve seen in TSSB’s GSPartners securities fraud stop and desist (par. 130-143), this conduct doesn’t go unnoticed by US authorities.
Throughout fourteen years and over ten thousand revealed opinions and information articles, BehindMLM has persistently been on the forefront of MLM associated shopper consciousness.
Our ongoing analysis has been cited in a number of US regulatory fraud lawsuits and regulation enforcement actions.
Josip Heit in the meantime:
- has been convicted of monetary fraud in Luxembourg and sentenced to jail
- is linked to organized crime pursuits in Romania (as researched and reported by journalists in Romania and Croatia)
- is the recipient of over a dozen GSB regulatory fraud warnings and/or enforcement actions within the US, Canada, Australia, South Africa, the Bahamas and New Zealand
- entered right into a settlement settlement to resolve allegations of fraud in North America, by way of which Heit and GSB “will consent to the entry of an enforcement order that concludes they illegally supplied and/or offered securities that weren’t registered pursuant to state regulation”
- is required to pay again North American GSPartners traders as a part of aforementioned settlement
Later at the moment GSB is holding a “World Group Occasion”, purportedly that includes audio system who’re nonetheless topic to fraud associated enforcement orders throughout North America.
I don’t know if BehindMLM will come up and it doesn’t matter. GSB’s, Josip Heit’s and BehindMLM’s respective monitor data communicate for themselves.