Aspiritus tiedottaa

Aspiritus; Renamed version of the infamous WGI pyramid scam.

Aspiritus is a direct descendant (or renamed version) of World Games Incorporated (WGI), a pyramid scam which was very active in Scandinavia, UK, and Canada from 2001 to early 2005.
It originated in Australia, as Virtual Games Global (VGG), but changed its name and its “hunting grounds” after the Australian authorities stopped its operation in Australia.

The “chairman” and owner of this pyramid scam is the Australian fraudster Gregory James Kennedy, who was previously operating property and loan frauds in Western Australia. You may find some information about him at these links:

Debates from the state parliament in Western Australia, where Gregory James Kennedy’s frauds became a political issue: http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/hansard/hans35.nsf/(ATT)/26EEE05CE0D3B7DA48256838001B3310/$file/A1124010.PDF
http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/hansard/hans35.nsf/(ATT)/0B147CEBAA0CA19F482568EE00107F31/$file/A0524003.PDF
http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/hansard/hans35.nsf/(ATT)/19A911E3DF09AE8A482568EE001076C6/$file/A0524002.PDF

There are also indications that around 2001/2002, Gregory James Kennedy committed several credit card frauds, known as “Indian Runs”:
http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=732

WGI used to claim that propery/loan fraudster Greg Kennedy is not the same person as WGI pyramid scheme boss Greg Kennedy, despite the fact that the names are exactly the same, “both” are of the same age, and “both” were involved in illegal activities.

Initially, WGI had large growth (around 450 000 members maximum), and early entrants earned money from recruitment rewards and rising “share” prices in a Ponzi-style “Stock Market Game”.

After significant losses were incurred by Australian victims of the VGG pyramid scam, VGG operation against Australian customers was denied by Australian authorities in 2002. The pyramid scam was renamed to World Games Incorporated (WGI), and it now targeted customers in the UK, Canada and the Nordic countries, particularly Norway.

During the early period of the pyramid scheme operation as WGI, Gregory James Kennedy claimed to be director of a “five billion dollar company” called Harroford Developments Ltd. However, as references to this company can only be found on web sites related to the pyramid scheme WGI, it is highly probable that this company was fictious and never existed. The only assets ever attributed to Harroford Ltd, gemstone mining concessions in Tanzania claimed to be worth between 5 and 15 billion dollars by Harroford/WGI, were in fact owned by the Canadian company Great Southern Enterprises. These mining concessions were later sold to a Tanzanian company for 517 778 dollars, i.e. 1/10000 of the value claimed by WGI/Harroford.

During the early period of WGI, Mr. Kennedy was closely connected with a Mr. Quentin George, who was vice-president of WorldPlay Services. A warrant for the arrest of Mr. Quentin George, issued by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, is still in effect.

In 2003, Australian authorities started legal proceedings against WorldPlay Services and its director Gregory James Kennedy, to prohibit the pyramid scheme WGI from operating out of Australia against foreign customers. WorldPlay Services was at that time located in Brisbane, Queensland.

As Greg Kennedy and his cohorts realised that they would probably lose the legal battle with Australian authorities, the pyramid scheme WGI was transferred to the mailbox company Pacific Delta Investments Limited, located in the Caribbean tax evasion and money laundering haven British Virgin Islands.

In September 2004, the local court in Brisbane found WorldPlay Services and Greg Kennedy guilty of operating an illegal pyramid scheme, and ordered them to stop this illegal activity.
In May 2005, a full federal court upheld the decision of the local court, again finding WorldPlay Services and Gregory James Kennedy guilty of operating an illegal pyramid scheme.
As WGI had by this time been moved out of Australian jurisdiction, Greg Kennedy blatantly ignored the Australian court rulings, and continued to run the WGI pyramid scheme.

In mid-2004, recruitment into the WGI pyramid scheme fell dramatically, and “share” prices in the Ponzi-style “Stock Market Game” (SMG) dropped by more than 90%.
Without ever increasing recruitment into the pyramid scheme, WGI got into great financial difficulties, and the promised payments to members (except for a few top dogs called World Leaders) virtually ceased.
It was also strongly suspected that Greg Kennedy and other WGI leaders had syphoned off most of the WGI funds into their own personal bank accounts.

Greg Kennedy tried to counter the payout problems with less and less credible “explanations” about bank and pay card difficulties, and with repeated, but often ridiculed, promises that the members would be paid “very soon”.

During the second half of 2004 and early 2005, the members’ confidence in WGI, Greg Kennedy and the other WGI leaders fell dramatically, and it became clear that the names “WGI” and “Greg Kennedy” were liabilities, rather than assets to the scheme.

WGI stopped operating in early 2005, and it was announced that its “assets” had been bought by a company called Aspiritus N.V., based in the Netherlands Antilles (well-known tax evasion and money-laundering haven): http://www.worldgamesinc.com/
In reality, this takeover was only a renaming and reorganisation of the pyramid scheme, because the majority of Aspiritus is owned by Greg Kennedy’s company Pacific Delta Investments Ltd (PDIL), which previously ran the pyramid scam WGI.
In particular, Greg Kennedy controls the (voting) A-shares of Aspiritus N.V., through Pacific Delta Investments Ltd. The foundation document of Aspiritus even has a clause which states that if PDIL sells some of its A-shares, those shares will be converted into (non-voting) B-shares. Thus, Greg Kennedy will stay in control even if he sells most of his shares.

As a part of the change/renaming from WGI to Aspiritus, Aspiritus presented an amazing valuation of itself: Based on the maximum number of members that it had once had, approximately 450 000, and actually double-counting these members, Aspiritus valued itself at incredible 750 million Euro!!

In reality, only 173 000 members joined Aspiritus (most of them in the vain hope of trying to recover the money that WGI owed to them), and at the Infomatec AG general assembly meeting, Greg Young stated that only 15 000 members are now active (i.e. by visiting the Aspiritus web site once monthly or more).

Aspiritus is run by the same people that ran WGI; Notable personalities are WGI “president” (now Aspiritus Operations Director) Greg Young, WGI press spokesman (now Aspiritus Marketing Director) Conall McSorley, a swiss Aspiritus figurehead Jost Steinbruchel (involved with VGG/WGI since 2001), and with Gregory James Kennedy lurking in the shadows behind it and controlling all, as ‘Non-executive Chairman’. Conall McSorley left Aspiritus in August 2006, and was replaced by Mr. Billy Wilcox.

The activities in Aspiritus continued very much the same as in WGI: Gambling (casino, poker), lotteries, recruitment of members by pyramid scheme (officially “MLM”) methods, and a “stock market game” in which “virtual” shares in fictious companies were traded for real money.

WGI owed large sums of money to its members when it stopped operating. The money in the members’ accounts was not paid out, but were converted to “units”, which (it is claimed) can later be sold or converted to shares in Aspiritus.
However, these “units”/shares are extremely overpriced (by a factor of at least 10), and no members have managed to sell such “units”.
However, when Aspiritus was established, Jost Steinbruchel promised that Aspiritus will be listed on a stock exchange, and that the “units” held by members, would be converted into shares in Aspiritus.

Because Aspiritus N.V. is located as an offshore company in the tax evasion and money laundering haven Netherlands Antilles, it is not required to present audited financial records, and Aspiritus has never presented such records. Without such audited financial records, it is impossible for Aspiritus to be listed on any respectable stock exchange.
Therefore, Jost Steinbruchel recently stated that the stock exchange listing of Aspiritus will be in the form of a “reverse IPO”, or by a purchase of Aspiritus by a stock exchange listed company.

This is what Aspiritus attempted in early 2007, trying to introduce WGI/Aspiritus to the German stock exchange, by the merger of the unknown Cyprus-registered company Infospirit LLC (planned to be the new "owner" of Aspiritus) into the insolvent, scandal-ridden German company Infomatec AG, through a fictious increase of shares capital.

From the notes from the general assembly meeting of Infomatec (http://www.gsc-research.de/gsc/research/hv_berichte/detailansicht/index.html?tx_mfcgsc_unternehmen%5Buid%5D=577&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=58851&cHash=665f8fed24 ) it is pretty obvious that it was Aspiritus or Greg Kennedy who was paying to get Infomatec out of insolvency, paying the convicted criminals Gerhard Harlos and Alexander Häfele to give up their control of Infomatec AG, and who were arranging the “merger” of Infospirit LLC into Infomatec AG and the so-called shares capital increase of Infomatec.

In practice, Greg Kennedy was selling Aspiritus to Greg Kennedy and changing its name, which is the same thing that he did with WGI.

However, this attempt to sneak Aspiritus into the German stock exchange through the back door, collapsed in early August 2007.
At that time, the court in München ruled that the decisions taken in the Infomatec AG were invalid, because of major voting irregularities.
WGI/Aspiritus then gave up its attempt to be listed on a the stock exchange, and Jost Steinbruchel resigned from the company.

There have been convictions against WGI and its promotors for illegal pyramid selling activities in Australia, Canada, Sweden and Finland, plus a trial in preparation against WGI promotors in Denmark. All these court rulings clearly stated that WGI was an illegal pyramid scheme. However, it was never possible to charge WGI itself, because WGI was not a legal entity; Despite the word “Incorporated” deceptively used in its name, WGI was not a registered company, only a pyramid scheme operated by the companies WorldPlay Services and (later) Pacific Delta Investments Ltd.

Here are links to court decisions in Brisbane, Australia: WorldPlay Services (the company which originally ran WGI) and its director Gregory James Kennedy were convicted of illegal pyramid selling. They also lost the appeal.
www.findlaw.com.au/news/default.asp?task=read&id=21545&site=LE
www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/federal_ct/2004/1138.html (full text of the court decision)
Appeal reference: http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/682257
“Full Federal Court upholds finding Gold Coast company part of international pyramid selling scheme
Gold Coast company Worldplay Services Pty Ltd breached the Trade Practices Act 1974 by participating in an international online pyramid selling scheme, the Full Federal Court upheld today.
The decision also upheld that the company’s director, Mr Greg Kennedy, was found to be knowingly concerned in the contravention.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission began proceedings in December 2003 alleging that World Games Inc, which operated internationally using a website, was an illegal pyramid scheme.”

Link to court ruling convicting Canadian WGI promotors of pyramid selling:
www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/scams/pyramid_warning_e.htm
www.lotterypost.com/news-102404.htm
“The eight people in the Alberta scheme were charged in September with conducting or managing a pyramid scheme and an illegal lottery for their alleged involvement with an organization known as World Games Inc. Investigators allege that World Games took in millions of dollars in illicit revenues. The organization at one point boasted an international membership of over 400,000. The total number of Canadians victimized by this activity is as yet unknown.”

Other convictions against WGI recruiters:

Örebro, Sweden, March 2004:
A woman from Örebro was convicted of promoting an illegal pyramid or “chain-letter game”, which is the Swedish legal term. In this case the court clearly ruled that WGI is an illegal “chain-letter game”. http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=147&a=250295&previousRenderType=1 , in Swedish language.

Lahti, Finland, September 2005:
19 WGI promotors (one Norwegian) were convicted of operating or participating in an illegal pyramid scheme, and of illegal money-collecting. 7 were sentnced to suspended prison sentences and fines, the remainder were fined. They were also sentenced to have illegaly earned pyramid income confiscated by the Finnish State, a total of 250 000 Euro. The court clearly ruled that WGI was an illegal pyramid scheme.

In order to try to appear as a legitimate gambling site, Aspiritus claims “Aspiritus is not associated with WGI.”
However, very few believe this statement.

But Aspiritus has realised that the names “WGI” and “Greg Kennedy” are now negative images for Aspiritus, and some time after January 2006, Aspiritus started to pronounce that it no longer had a Chairman of the Board (!)
Later on, it was prohibited for members of Aspiritus to use the words “WGI” and “Greg Kennedy” on its internet discussion forum.
This became really ridiculous when Aspiritus introduced automatic censorship on its discussion forum, so that every time someone writes “WGI”, it is automatically changed into “The Business Aspiritus acquired”. Likewise, “Greg Kennedy” (or variations of the name) automatically gets changed into “The former Chairman of the Business Aspiritus Acquired”.

However, Gregory James Kennedy still owns/controls the majority of the shares in Aspiritus, and is therefore the real boss of this pyramid scheme. An important other company of Greg Kennedy is EastWest Management Ltd, registered in England (London). In reality, Aspiritus is run from the London offices of EastWest Management Ltd.

The Lawsuit in Norway:
Norwegian lawyer Olav Sylte is representing some former WGI members in legal action against major WGI recruiters (the so-called “World Leaders”).
After the change/renaming from WGI to Aspiritus, Mr. Sylte publicly characterized this change as “swindle and trickery”.

Aspiritus eventually responded with a libel lawsuit against Mr. Sylte. This case was tried in the local court of Kristiansand, Norway in November 2006.
The court unanimously aquitted Mr Sylte, and concluded that Mr Sylte’s allegations of “swindle and trickery” were justified and had been proven.
The court also stated that the creation of Aspiritus was simply a re-naming of WGI, and Aspiritus’ valuation of itself at 750 million Euro was dismissed as completely unrealistic, as the only assets in Aspiritus was the WGI member list.

The court ordered Aspiritus to pay Mr. Sylte’s legal costs of 290 000 NOK (http://www.fvn.no/na24/article414692.ece , nespaper article in Norwegian language, translated at http://www.aspwatcher.com/viewtopic.php?t=173 )

Aspiritus stated that they would appeal this verdict.
However, this appeal was rejected by the regional court, because Aspiritus was ordered by the court to provide surety for the legal costs of Mr. Sylte, and when Aspiritus was not able or willing to provide such surety, the court rejected the appeal.
The ruling of the local court is therefore final.

The result of these legal proceedings is that it is now legally acceptable in Norway to characterize WGI/Aspiritus as “swindle and trickery”.
It is not known if Aspiritus has paid the legal cost that the company was ordered the court to pay to Mr. Sylte.