Complaint Review: National Audit Defense Network - NADN - Oryan Management - ADA Associates - Las Vegas Nevada

My Name is (Removed) Thomas H. I am a victim of the NADN scam. You had requested info from people that were involved with this. Here is what happened. Back in December of 2003, a friend of mine, Rudolph S(removed), told me and my roommate about NADN and how he has been a customer for a number of years and has saved money. Interested I looked up NADN on the web and found the main page, www.awayirs.com I called the main number and asked for sales. I got a answering machine that told me to leave my name and number and they would call me back. Later that week, I got a call from a man named Will Smith. Will Smith told me that by using a $5,000 tax credit for owning an internet business that caters to the handicapped called "Mall for All", along with their aggressive tax strategies, I could get back $9,500 for my 2003 tax return. I asked him what the tax strategies consisted of? He told me that I would keep a record of miles I travel, dinners I purchase and many other things to get more money back at the end of the year. He had requested $2,995 for the "Mini-Elite" membership which included 2 years of tax preparation and 3 years of the Mall for All. I send him a check to the address listed on the website and waited. Weeks went by and no response. I called about 1 time a week and still nobody called back. Finally around February 15th, Will Smith called back and said that they never received my check. (It was never cashed luckily) I asked him, "Now that 2003 is already over, can I still get money back using the Mall for All credits on my 2003 Tax Return even though it's Feb 2004?" Will Smith said" Yes, that would be no problem. We can easily backdate that for you since you already tried to sign up earlier in the year." On February 17th 2004, I wired the amount of $2,995 to NADN so that the money would not get lost. I called Will Smith many times in the next 2 weeks because I was extremely nervous about this whole thing. He kept reassuring me that everything is going fine, and that I will definitely be able to get around $9,500 back for my 2003 Tax Return. During this time, I even had my roommate, Gary S(removed), listen in on a conference call with Will Smith and myself and Gary S signed up also. Will also promised that I would get $100 for signing him up too! (I never saw that money) Will also mentioned that because I am inthe USAF, that they could give special privlages and tax breaks for the Military and that I would have an easier time extending my time limit for the Tax returns. Around March 1st, I received a welcome packet from NADN including a badly made intro video on a CD, (I threw that out, sorry), booklets about NADN and how to make money with them, referral cards, and a log book to record miles driven and dinners and things. I still have not heard a word about when the Mall for All will be set up in my name. I called and called about 3 times a day or more and rarely even got a hold of an operator. When I finally got through I was told by someone that I can no longer speak with Will Smith because he is only a sales rep. (All my future attempts were unsuccessful at contacting him. I even called pretending to be a new customer with a fake name and told the sales dept. that Will Smith was my sales rep and they said they knew of him but always transferred me to a sales manager.) Now that I could no longer speak with Will Smith, my new contact would be Ann Vaughn. I was only able to speak with Ann once but she was the only person that EVER e-mailed me from this company. I received 3 separate E-Mails from her talking about Will Smith, what he promised and was told there is no deadline for me to fill out the tax prep information for 2003. Ann Vaughn E-mailed me my contract. Unfortunately it had some other client's name on it. Their names are "Mr. and Mrs. Morris M(removed)" out of San Jose California. I have their info from the attachment she sent me and these E-Mails. I figured you know this already but there is a name on the bottom of the welcome letter from a "Al Rodrigues " Who claims he is the Vice President/General Manager of NADN. I filled out all the info they had required me to from the "Tax Organizer" that I downloaded off of their website. I attached my W-2s and all other Tax paperwork but did not send it in just yet because I was waiting on info for the Mall for All business. I tried calling Ann a few times but never got a reply and started to become angry that I have to call 5-6 times a day to get a hold of anyone. When I finally got a hold of an operator, they transferred me to one of the managers, "Brad McCloud". Brad told me that things are going along slowly because of the number of people they have this year and that I should just send in what I have for information so they could start working on it right away. I never talked to Ann Vaughn again. Over the next few weeks I started receiving calls from sales people at NADN asking me to buy a "Golden Generator" and other things. I told them that I am still waiting for the Mall for All paperwork to go through and that I have not received my $100 referral for signing up Gary Sullivan. They said that the would look into it. I would receive similar calls about 2 or 3 times a week from different people. Two of the people that called me frequently were "Alan Smith" and his boss, "Jimmi Marraza". Jimmi had a boss too and said they all used to work for Brad McCloud before but I never got his name. Irritated, I called Brad McCloud again saying that people are trying to sell me things and that I have not even set up my Mall for All business yet. He told me I should contact Orayan Management personally and see if they need any info from me. Brad gave me "Trey Croom"'s name and phone number and told me to give him a call. After a few days of non-stop calling I was finally able to get a hold of Trey. Trey told me that the paperwork is almost done but they are waiting for my signature on the contracts. I told him I never got any contracts for the Mall for All. Trey said that he would send them by Mail and by Fax, which he did. When I got the contracts that Trey Croom sent me for the Mall for All, the date of the contract said that it was for Feb 2004 and not for Dec 2003 like what I was told. I called Trey and he said that he can't backdate the contracts unless he talks with his boss or Brad McCloud. I was smart enough to always try to call both Trey and Brad on 3-way calling every time. We had a three way call between Brad McCloud, Trey Croom and myself. Brad said that he did see I signed up back in 2003 and that he would fix that. Anoter week went by and still no contract or any calls. I called Trey Croom at Orayan and he told me that when he called the admin people at NADN, they would not confirm my start date of Dec 2003? I argued with him about what Will Smith told me and what Brad told both of us. Trey then connected me on a three way call with Trey's boss, Chris Conner. Chris said that he would personally call Brad and Brad's boss Michael Kalvin. Chris Conner called me back a few times in the next 2 days saying he got everything he needed. When the contracts came again they still were not fixed with the correct date of 2003. (Neither myself nor Gary S ended up signing any contracts at NADN or Orayan because I refused to sign incorrect contracts.) I called Michael Kalvin and Brad McCloud on a three way call and they promised to fix the contracts if I resubmitted my check stubs and info. I resent everything again for the 4th time and waited. More time passed and Trey called me up and said that he can't start the Mall for All until I sign the paperwork and that i should just sign the paperwork in the meantime for 2004 and send it to him. I refused to do that. Later that week, I was looking at some news articles about how NADN is in court with the government about the tax credits with the Mall for All. I called Trey Croom worried and he said that everything was all right and that Mall for All is still good for a Tax write off even if they lose the case. I called Brad McCloud and never called back. A few days later I was able to talk to Brad McCloud and he said that he had good news. Brad told me that "Not only did NADN win the court case against the government but the Judge ordered the IRS to work more personally with NADN so that no mistakes were made by the IRS again." I asked Brad what he thought of all the court cases against NADN from other people and NADN's record on the Better Business Beaurea website. Brad told me that a few people had paperwork errors and were lazy filling out the tax books in their package and that NADN would not give the the full tax refund for people who had no legal taxes coming because they don't make up records like that. He told me some more BS about the cases and what NADN does. I decided to call the main NADN number again and pretend like I was a new client to see what is going on. I told them I was interested in the Mall for All. The salesman said that NADN no longer works with Orayan management and that they no longer offer the Mall for All and instead use something called a "Virtual Mall" that has no promissary note. I called Brad the next day and told him that I want my money back. He told me that as long as I have not signed the paperwork for the Mall for All that I could transfer my credit over to this new "Virtual Mall" instead and that I would have to pay an additional $1,000 because the Virtual Mall is $4,000 total. I said that I still want my money back and he said that he would have to have a meeting with Mike Kalvin because the 3 day limit has passed for refunds. I told him I don't care because I never signed up for anything and that NADN essentially stole $2,995 from me because they never came through with thier promise. The next day Brad McCloud told me that he still has not gotten any word from Mike Kalvin. But in the meantime, he would wave the extra $1,000 fee for the Virtual Mall and that what he was doing was a better deal because the Virtual Mall had no promissary note attached to it and I would make money on websites and sales and other things. (Yeah, I knew this was not making any kind of sense.) I told him I would call him later. Later that day, the sales manager Jimmi Marraza and his buddy Alan Smith, called me wanting to see me a $8,000 generator again for the 20th time... I asked how this generator works and how you can get money off of it? They stumbled through thier explanation and made no sense. They explained that the Web Search engine Google.com can't handle all the requests that it gets everyday and that it has to send some of that traffic to it's partner servers on the "Mind Slide" or he might have said "Mine Slide" network. (Yeah I know this makes no sense) I looked these up and could not find any reference to any of this. The generator is part of this "Mine Slide" thing and that any traffic that randomly gets directed to your servers, you would collect a small fee each time. The higher priced generator's would direct more traffic your way making you even more money. I told them they were full of s**t and not to call me anymore, but they did, alot. I was waiting for Brad McCloud to call me back and tell me what the progress is of him getting my money back and not to set me up with a Virtual Mall but he never called. Then on June 1st, I called the customer service number at NADN to see if they could locate Brad McCloud for me so I could talk to him and I hear this message that "NADN is no longer doing business and that they filed for Chapter 7, please leave a message." The Mailbox was full. That is my whole story. I never received any kind of business or anything besides advertisements from NADN and I am hiring a Attorney "Charles Cannon III" to press criminal charges against NADN and all the people involved. I have everything they sent me except the goofy advertisement movie on CD that came with the welcome package. I have phone numbers, Fax numbers, faxes, Mr. and Mrs. Morris Munson's info, bank records, mail and E-Mail from all the people I mentioned above. If you need to speak with me, or my 2 friends Gary S and Rudy S that were also involved feel free to E-Mail me back or call me at the number at the top of the E-Mail. Would you know if I could receive any money back if I sued them? I am not expecting to get anything back. I do want ALL of these people brought to justice and would glady take the stand against them. I would make a good witness because I talked with almost everyone I mentioned here more than a few times. I am a USAF Non Commisioned Officer so I think that my testimony might hold more weight due to my core values of Honesty and Integrity. (Removed)

Contrary to Rodney D.'s message, above, NADN and a number of other defendants remain in the lawsuit and the Justice Department is still very actively pursuing obtaining injunctions against them. Oryan Management and some related defendants signed an agreed injunction order, which is the subject of the press release mentioned in Rodney D.'s message. This agreed injunction against Oryan has no effect on the Justice Department's continuing lawsuit against NADN and other defendants. The federal court heard arguments on May 6 regarding the Justice Department's requested temporary restraining order against NADN and other defendants. As of today, May 25, the Court has not ruled on that request.

In addition, we are seeking information from customers of NADN, Success Matrix Group, CPR Business Solutions, Oryan Management & Financial Services, and Keyword Gold. We are collecting e-mail information about these entities (some of which are not currently defendants in the injunction lawsuit but may have some connection to the suit) so we can use customers as witnesses in our case. Please note that we cannot assist you in obtaining a refund of funds paid to NADN or to figure out any personal tax issues. You may want to contact the Federal Trade Commission, Nevada Attorney General's Office, and the US Bankruptcy Court for refund issues and either a tax professional or the IRS with your tax questions.

If you are willing to share your experiences with us, please e-mail back to us your name, address, and telephone number, along with any details about your involvement with NADN, Oryan, Success Matrix, CPR Business Solutions, and/or Keyword Gold that you think we should know about. To give you guidance about the type of information that would be most helpful to us, we have listed some questions below. Please answer as many questions as you can in a reply e-mail. We are also interested in receiving from you copies of any documents that you have relating to NADN or Oryan. Please contact us by e-mail, although we have provided our telephone numbers in case any difficulties arise.

Address/info:

Evan J. Davis & Phyllis Jo Gervasio
U.S. Department of Justice
[email protected]
[email protected]
Tel: (202) 514-0079
Tel: (202) 514-6539

Our mailing address is:

U.S. Department of Justice, Tax Division
P.O. Box 7238
Washington, D.C. 20044

Questions:

How did you hear about NADN, Oryan Management, Success Matrix Group, Keyword Gold, and/or CPR Business Solutions?


If you were referred to any of these entities by someone else, please state that person's name, address, and phone number, and explain how you know that person.


How and when were you contacted by (or did you contact) any of these entities?


What specifically were you told about the products and services offered by these entities, including about the tax benefits of purchasing the products? Please be as detailed as possible with the specific statements, promises, etc. that were made. Please also include any questions that you asked and the answers given, to the extent you remember.


Which products or services did you purchase, when did you purchase them, and how much did you pay for each?

If you paid in part with a promissory note, please state what you were told regarding how the promissory note would or could be paid off.


Can you recall the names of any of the individuals you spoke with about the products and services of these entities?


Have you been contacted recently or are you still being contacted by any of these entities? If so, please describe the contact(s), providing names of sales persons and dates and subjects discussed.


Has a representative from any of these entities told you anything about the Justice Department lawsuit? If so, please describe.

If you have purchased a MallforAll or Shopn2000 website product, has any representative of any entity tried to sell you any product or service related to the website? This could include search-engine optimization and/or a "hit generator."

In particular, what if anything did the representative say about these website-related products? Did they make any claims about the IRS or taxes? Did they make any claims about whether the products would make your website more profitable?

We look forward to hearing from you. Please distribute this list of question to whoever else may be interested.

I think the reason that NADN is not mentioned specifically is because Oryan and NADN are the same bogus company. By going after Oryan they are in effect going after NADN, too. NADN knew very well that these bogus websites they sold us were created by Oryan for this scam. The website that you and I bought was the same website sold to hundreds or thousands of people. The chances of anyone finding your specific site by remembering your specific mallforall zipcode are nil. Oryan and NADN are the same thing. Just like anyone who calls us claiming to offer a way out of the promissory note is working with NADN.

I wouldn't have anything to do with NADN or Oryan again.

Make sure that if NADN or anyone claiming to offer assistance regarding NADN contacts you again you get names and phone numbers and contact dates and info and be sure to inform the person who contacts you that you will be providing this information to Evan J. Davis from the dept. of Justice who is the one investigating NADN.

[email protected] is very interested in anyone who has a information regarding NADN.

On April 14th, 2004, the US Department of Justice, filed an Injunction against NADN, Oryan Management including their dba, G&J Eagle Enterprises, to seek permanent and temporary restraint against the defendants to "...BAR ALLEGED TAX SCAMS SOLD BY NATIONAL AUDIT DEFENSE NETWORK TELEMARKETING FIRM". This can be found on the USDOJ.gov/tax webpage.

I answered the telephone days later when a NADN "consultant" wanted to speak to me about my expired "Elite Client" membership. Michael Kalvert, (supposedly a sales supervisor), was not ready for my well informed questioning. Michael, if this is really his name, and who speaks like an attorney stated that his people at NADN felt sure that the NADN, et al, would be exonerated of all the charges. Michael stated that "in his opinion, the DOJ tax division was sent to do the dirty work because the IRS knew this was a weak case." Michael even stated that in his opinion the DOJ had "screwed up". Please note that the DOJ webpage states the name "National Audit Defense Network".

On the DOJ May 7th, 2004 Tax Division News release the headline reads:

""COURT BARS ORYAN MANAGEMENT AND FOUR INDIVIDUALS FROM SELLING ABUSIVE TAX SCHEMES".

California-Based Company Sold Websites for Scheme that Allegedly Cost U.S. Treasury an Estimated $99 Million

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced that a federal court in Las Vegas, Nevada, has issued permanent injunctions against Oryan Management and Financial Services (based in Ontario, California), ADA Adventure, and four individuals, barring them from organizing or selling abusive tax shelters or arrangements that advise or encourage customers to attempt to evade federal taxes. The orders also permanently bar the defendants from preparing federal income tax returns for others, require the defendants to give copies of the orders to their customers and require some defendants to post the orders on their websites. The defendants must also give lists of their customers' names, addresses, and social security numbers to the Justice Department.

The four individual defendants covered by today's court orders are all California residents-Daniel W. Porter of Chino, Robert Goetsch of Hayward, Michelle M. Hernandez of Upland, and Joseph Prokop of Mt. Baldy. The defendants agreed to the orders, which were signed by senior U.S. District Judge Lloyd George of the U.S. District Court for Nevada, without admitting wrongdoing.

Today's order is the result of a civil lawsuit filed by the Justice Department on April 14 against a telemarketing firm, the National Audit Defense Network, known as NADN, and other defendants, including Oryan, ADA Adventure, and the individuals included in today's order. In that suit, court papers allege that Oryan sold a sham-website scheme designed to enable customers to claim a bogus disabled-access credit on their income tax returns. Justice Department filings say that the websites were designed to help customers claim to have a business with a website, and then improperly claim tax deductions and credits for supposedly modifying the website-purportedly to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)."

Can anyone out there tell me what in the world happened that Oryan Management, et al, is suddenly the defendant alone? Can anyone else explain the extreme confidence in the voice of this Michael Kalvert from NADN as he tells me that the promissary notes from Oryan Management would not be valid as contractural documents because Oryan would be out of business?

Oryan did NOT get us into this mess. Why should NADN be not mentioned in the judgement? Please call the Las Vegas Federal Court and help yourselves correct this injustice!

This is an update to my previous details. NADN employees Stephen Shanks, John Burleson, Richard Gutierrez, and Peter Kowalski are or were employed in NADN's "sales" department afer the 2003 bankruptcy date. All continued to sell or attempted to perpetuate the sense of company viability to me.

My assumption is that they considered me to be a cooperative dupe, since I had been purchasing their products without challenge. Stephen Shanks and Peter Kowalski even had a good laugh (according to Mr. Kowalski) in a breakroom about Mr. Shanks "stealing" me away from Mr. Kowalski. In December 2003, Mr. Shanks "pitched" another website sale.

I recall the conversation becoming very heated, as I was getting tired of NADN calling and costing me more each time we spoke. I told him that I would contact him in a few days with a decision.

Instead, I FAX'd a nastygram to NADN calling Stephen Shanks a liar (among other things). I actually got a response from his "supervisor", Richard Gutierrez. Mr. Gutierrez and I had spoken before and I told him so. Mr. Gutierrez then proceeded to convince me that Mr. Shanks was "okay". Stephen Shanks sold me another necessary MallForAll, Mr. Kowalski sold me a Corporate MallForAll and Mr. Gutierrez sold me two "GoldenHits Generator"'s designed to drive traffic to these specific websites. For brevity, these generators only send traffic to the website's "Main Page", not to my MallPartner's banners that pay for my Promissory Note. I have had massive traffic sent by these generators, (almost a million hits), but only 153 to my Partner banners on one website and 2 hits to Partner banners on the second. John Burleson called me a few days later, (possibly due to the NastyGram), with this advice: "Purchase 2004 Corp MallForAll in 3rd Qtr., Also Purchase Gold Hits Generator for this. Send bp4_01 & bp4_02 (Business Plan info)ASAP to Sharon Jacobs. File 2003 Tax Return (prepared by NADN's John Howe) and sit back & wait for now. When Malls make money, then reinvest. Consider 5-10 year "Elite Client" membership to save money. ($600/yr instead of 995.00/yr).

On April 6th, 2004, I FAX'd a complaint about my 2003 Tax Return (showing a tax debt of $6700.00). I called "Tim" at Customer Service to confirm receipt. He acted puzzled and commenteed that "this was very strange", but the FAX was lost.

I then, on April 7th, 2004 FAX'd the same letter (with an addendum) three times in a row to make sure it was received. "Tim" stated that he would get the FAX and forward it on to his department. On April 12th, I inquired of "Tim" about the FAXes and he again stated in the same puzzled voice that he had no record of them.

I became extremely agitated and demanded in a VERY nice way that I wanted to speak with the Department Manager. As you can imagine, the "Compliance Department" does NOT take calls. I then asked, (nicely this time), for a mailing address and Name of the manager. The next day I sent the faxes by Certified, Signature required USPS mail c/o his "manager", Christopher Cotner. 8 days later I received the confirmation receipt signed "HENRY" in child-like script.

Now I am very upset! I have two days ago contacted Mr. Trey Croom of Oryan Management to inquire about these websites, the "generators", and the lack of hits paying for the websites as promised.

Mr. Croom said something vague about wanting to take issue with NADN about the "generators" not doing what was promised.

I am writing this to help inform others about this VERY elaborate setup. I have inquired of the Nevada Branch of the US Bankruptcy Court, checked this website about the NADN, Oryan, the BBB (now there's a shocker!) and am in process of contacting the IFCC-FBI to file a complaint. Although I may have been duped by this scheme and may not recover a red cent, I am hopeful some might learn from my mistakes. (I really want to offer a reward for someones' scalps on a stick!)