A few weeks ago, I blogged about the financial troubles afflicting ePassporte, an online payment provider whose sudden disconnection from the Visa network left many account holders without access to millions of dollars. I became interested in ePassporte because it kept popping up as I was investigating stories related to affiliate programs that reward people who peddle things like rogue anti-virus products and spam.
Since then, I’ve heard from a large number of disgruntled ePassporte account holders, most of whom were or are in the online porn industry, a market that ePassporte’s CEO Chris Mallick helped to nurture. In fact, as I noted in that original blog entry, Mallick produced “Middle Men,” a movie released by Paramount in August that is a fictionalized account of his experiences in the porn billing industry.
Many of those readers have been asking for an update on this story, and I’m afraid I don’t have a whole lot more to report. But the old adage about following the money led me to at least try to understand a bit more about how ePassporte is structured, and where its money may be.
Before I get to that, it makes sense to restate what’s been said by the parties involved. On Sept. 2, ePassporte owner Chris Mallick sent an e-mail to account holders saying the company was notified that effective immediately, Visa International had suspended the ePassporte Visa program, a card issued by St. Kitts Nevis Anguilla National Bank that ePassporte customers could use to withdraw cash at ATMs worldwide.
I contacted Visa for comment on that story, and the following Tuesday received a statement from Visa via e-mail saying that it had disconnected ePassporte at the request of St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank to “address certain program deficiencies.” Neither Visa nor SKNA Bank has been willing to discuss what those deficiencies may have been. A story in the St. Kitts Nevis Observer quotes a St. Kitts National Bank representative as saying Visa had cleared them of any wrongdoing, although that official – Patricia Wilkinson – declined to say who had accused them of wrongdoing or answer any other questions when I reached her by phone on Monday.
In checking out numerous forums and looking up bank and incorporation records online, I learned that ePassporte is incorporated in Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Venezuela. Indeed, the ePassporte Visa cards themselves include this information, indirectly at least, with the statement:
“This card is issued by St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank Limited” (“Bank”) pursuant to a license from Visa International and under a co-branding agreement between ePassporte N.V. and the bank.”
The Web site for the Curaçao Chamber of Commerce & Industry says ePassporte N.V. is registered at the address Kaya Richard J. Beaujon Z/N, Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles. The managing director of the company is a man named Gregory E. Elias (the same information is included in a old WHOIS records search for epassporte.com).
According to multiple ePassporte users with whom I’ve corresponded, any wires or bank transfers used to deposit funds in ePassporte accounts are sent to ePassporte N.V. via an entity called United International Bank N.V., an organization founded in 2009. Interestingly, United International Bank also lists the same Curaçao address, and lists Mr. Elias as a director, among others. So, on the surface at least, it appears that ePassporte and its primary bank are owned and operated by the same entity and directors.
I was able to locate a phone number for Mr. Elias and reached him this morning at United International Trust. Elias said he had no idea ePassporte customers were having trouble withdrawing their money from the bank, but he declined to answer direct questions about the situation.
“The only thing we can tell you is if you send your inquires and questions in writing to us, we will pass them on to Mr. Mallick and his lawyers,” Elias said. “We cannot go over queries over the phone. We never do that.” Elias declined to give me his e-mail address, saying I should be able to find it if I really were an investigative reporter.
Mallick and ePassporte have yet to respond to requests for comment. Mallick issued another statement Sept. 10 via an adult Webmaster forum, urging customers who were having trouble withdrawing their funds to be patient. “Our staff is all working diligently to resolve these issues and the many moving and complicated parts of getting the funds returned,” Mallick wrote. “Therefore, please do not mistake our silence as hiding, avoiding or stringing you along. We too have funds that are stuck in the system as well as massive costs of operation without any income.”
But bereft of any hard information from ePassporte, the company’s customers have begun spinning conspiracy theories about what could have fueled the entire fiasco. Some have pointed to Mallick’s film, which according to Web site boxofficemojo.com cost an estimated $20 million but grossed less than $800,000 in a three week run at the box office that ended in late August.
In any event, I put some of the information I found into a spreadsheet (a portion of which is included below), mainly to help me understand the relationship between the various interested parties as I followed the trail of other stories I’ve been working on. It may be useful to some ePassporte customers: It includes Mr. Elias’ e-mail address and phone number.
Jeepers Brian…I hope you are taking steps to protect yourself. You’re mixing it up with some seriously nasty people!
Keep up the great work though!
Based on his comment: “Elias declined to give me his e-mail address, saying I should be able to find it if I really were an investigative reporter.”
and your last line: “It may be useful to some ePassporte customers: It includes Mr. Elias’ e-mail address and phone number.”
I’m guessing that Mr. Elias will soon figure out that you really are an investigative reporter. Especially when his inbox starts filling with all the nasty comments from the disgruntled victims who were here a few weeks ago, and their friends….
Interesting. This is classic roll up your sleeves reporting that we need more of. Can’t imagine these nasty people can hold anyone accountable for reporting on what is plain as day obvious. The system is already shut down and all the info is out there to put together. Nobody uncovered anything special, just reported on it. Love it!
Should i considered my funds lost? I’ve got over 20.000 USD in my ePassporte account and I am unable to get them anywhere right now, Maybe this will end up like with e-gold, having to exchange all the money for terrible rates, I really hope this will be solved otherwise I’ll have to personally visit Mr. Mallick.
Good report Mr Krebs.
I have a considerable amount (4 figures) in the ePassporte account. I have been scammed before by another shadowy company: gCard / NYCCU Ontario. I lost 5 figures that time and promised myself I would never make the same mistake. Fool me once, shame on them; fool me twice, shame on me.
More info here: https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=gcard+nyccu
With ePassporte I predict that the same thing is going to happen:
ePass/uibbank goes bankrupt, clients rush for their money, the lucky will get paid, others will have to hire lawyers and fight for their piece, and the losers will look at the sky for flying pigs.
Don’t worry about protecting yourself, they have nothing to hide…
Grin. I guess by now Mr Elias is breathing a sigh of relief that he didn’t challenge you to find out his home address, private bank account, or social security number.
(off topic alert)
BK, do you have a scoop for us about what’s up with the Bank One online banking outage? I’m wondering if they had some sort of legitimate computer network trouble, or if they got hit by some sort of online attack.
Here’s a Chicago Tribune blog post about this:
http://chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2010/09/chase-banking-web-site-back-online.html
oh wow. I hadn’t heard about that. There was an extended JP Morgan Chase outage the last couple days as well. i wonder if they were related?
Bankone merged into JPMChase around 2005, they are the same entity (I’d thought Bankone’s identity had disappeared by now actually, everything branded Chase)
epc’s correct.
Something to add to the chart:
Chris Mallick owns 24-7 Commercial Marketing, the U.S. entity that operates ePassporte. The company’s website (www.n247cm.com) is not publicly accessible.
The ePassporte Terms and Conditions state that “ePassporte has a contractual relationship with 24-7 Commercial Marketing, Inc. (“24-7″) pursuant to which it provides all administrative services for ePassporte.” (https://www.epassporte.com/secure/legal.cgi?action=as_go_privacy).
24-7 Commercial Marketing lists its address as a P.O. Box in Marina del Rey, CA, but it has fancy offices in a different part of town.
Mallick made a political donation to John Edwards in 2007 and listed his business/employer as “24-7 Commercial Marketing.” (http://www.city-data.com/elec2/08/elec-MARINA-DEL-REY-CA-08.html).
Interestingly, 24-7 Billing was the name of the billing company in the Middle Men movie, and the tag number on the private jet used in the movie was N247CM (as can bee seen in these two screen captures from the movie trailer: http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/8541/screenshot247.png http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/8251/screenshot247plane.png).
Interesting, the plane from the movie is actually Chris Mallick’s:
http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=N247CM
MALLICK JC
13428 MAXELLA AVE STE 563
MARINA DEL REY
CALIFORNIA
90292-5620
LOS ANGELES
UNITED STATES
I was hoping to be able to track its movement through Flight Aware but it looks like he shut down tracking in 2007:
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N247CM
Curacao is a nice island – I have been to nearby Bonaire a few times (a sort of SCUBA divers mecca), and I am told that Curacao has more tourist ameneties. And for that matter, cruise ships routinely visit these islands.
So what would happen if you just went down there for vacation and tried to walk into the bank to demand your money?
“Elias said he had no idea ePassporte customers were having trouble withdrawing their money from the bank”
Don’t expect to see that money again.
The U.S. legal system can’t protect you from being defrauded if you put your money in places where it’s hard for the U.S. legal system to prove you own it
Yes. I am sympathetic to the victim whenever anyone gets ripped off, but I always shake my head at how many people hand so much money over to these offshore banks. It almost seems like this is the final act of all of these virtual payment systems sooner or later.
I will never be so naive with my money ever again. This has taught me a hard yet valuable lesson
Hi, I’ve been an Epassporte member for about 4 years now and I’m fortunate to only have a little over $200 frozen up – as opposed to the other members with massive amounts frozen. So check this out. I googled, “united international bank” and found this link:
http://www.ifgroup.com/
…now on the left side of the page, go down about 4 links until you see the bold heading:
IFG welcomes new Associated Partner, United International Bank NV.
Published 03/09/2010
Hmm, September 3, 2010 was 1 day after all this began.. This info might be nothing but maybe someone can tie this in with the other collected info, so we can get to bottom of this…
Impressive investigative work BK! Gregory Elias will be biting his tongue, and I can’t wait to email him! LOL
“Elias declined to give me his e-mail address, saying I should be able to find it if I really were an investigative reporter.”
And of course.. it’s right there at the end of the article. Brilliant!
Nice cover Brian, as always a pleasure to read your articles. Keep up the good work.
Interesting post. We have over $270.000 there so it’s bad. In any case, if United International Bank N.V. was founded in 2009, and ePass is workin since 2003.
So maybe all these recent changes led to this situation or it’s just a bad luck.
In any case, it’s pretty clear that this problem caused the Bank, not ePass… ? Hard to say.
Milka, are all your funds on your Wallet or VISA account? If they are on Wallet you can request bank wire and get your money back…
Whilst I’m sorry for the people who have money they can’t get hold of – I hope it’s temporary – I’m enjoying reading some proper investigative reporting; keep up the great work BK…
A tidbit of interesting info if anyone feels like sending their rage to good old Christopher directly.
chris.mallick@epassporte.com
A SideNote: Most regular users probably do not know this but are now understanding there are quite a bit of shady business dealings involving Epassporte, the people with large amount of $ stuck up in the system are the kind of guys if you get pissed you better have a way to disappear yourself out of existence before they find you. With this in mind (and knowing of a few of the ‘shady’ people) I am not worried about regaining my funds, but it may take awhile…
A 2nd SideNote: Since Sept. 2nd funds are still being pushed through Epass, however to withdrawal them you must add your cc or bank account and previous funds (only if they were in your wallet) can also be withdrawn.
A 3rd SideNote: Knowing quite a few people that use Epass it is becoming known that Epass is doc requesting ‘ALOT’ of their users (even if they have been requested in the past). With this in mind and the elongated wait to access funds, I bet that users unable to provide docs funds are going to be used to repay everyone else once enough $ has been reclaimed.
A final SideNote: In reference to getting information about this issue, Epass and anyone directly affiliated with Epass will be useless. Your best bet is to harass the shit out of the Manager/Senior Managers over at SKNANB. Why? With some pushing they were able to tell me the exact date/time Epass was releasing their next announcement to all users.
SKNANB direct extensions and contact info are located here: https://www.sknanb.com/directory.htm
Main Phone #: (869) 465-2204
Everything we have there is on Virtual Visa account. Also, everything withdrawed in the past was always taxed out, so no anything shady on our side…
Since the plastic cards issuing the bank directly, I’am afraid that they do not have any other records about end-users/accounts holders, in other words, account holder can’t contact the bank directly – please correct me if I’am wrong!
Hey Brian: got this email this very morning in the account dashboard a scant few minutes ago:
Sep 16, 2010 AM PDT
Subject: ePassporte Message from Chris Mallick
We at ePassporte are as distressed as you, our valued cardholders, over an action that we did not see coming and as of today we still have received no good basis for it.
First, be assured that your funds are fully safe and protected. You are owed that and it will be fulfilled. The funds are secure.
Second, ePassporte is working with the St. Kitts bank to work out how all payments will be made and when. The details are complicated, because there are funds in motion and where and when they settle requires us to all be careful that we fully and properly account for all those funds and their rightful owner. This issue stems from our processing and reporting ability through the Visa system and their processor.
Third, ePassporte’s most important asset has always been our account holder’s. We are not going to undermine that asset by treating cardholders in any manner other than the best we can.
Most of us have had the unfortunate experience of dealing with banks and card associations that simply “cut us off” and did not pay us. Those actions were limited to card acquiring (merchant accounts), not card issuing, which is what we do. We can all take some comfort in the fact that this situation is not anything like the acquiring side of the business.
We all fully understand that communication to our cardholders is critical. However, it does not help any of us if we are constantly updating you on the basis of the calls that take place almost hourly. It seems to us that giving you facts, based on agreements we are working on is the best form of communication. This is what we will be doing. When we know something, that is a fact, we will report it, quickly. Our staff is all working diligently to resolve these issues and the many moving and complicated parts of getting the funds returned. Therefore, please do not mistake our silence as “hiding”, “avoiding” or “stringing you along”. We too have funds that are stuck in the system, as well as massive costs of operation without any income.
Rest assured that when we know, you will know and you will all be satisfied with the results. Again, your money is safe.
For those of you that have been in the industry for many years, I hope you will recall that I have a very strong track record of fighting for the rights of webmasters, program sponsors, billing companies, merchants and the industry; that dedication continues.
Thanks you for your understanding in this difficult time and for your support over the last 8 years of our operations.
Chris Mallick
For ePassporte
……..
Thanks for that, Webmaster, but I think that message is actually about a week old.
I have tried to email and call the Epassporte support number many times only to receive the same generic message ‘our account verification department is working on this issue’.
Has anyone received a more detailed reply from this department “account.verification@epassporte.com”, or actually visited their account verification department offices located at 333 Washington Blvd. Suite 345, Marina Del Rey CA?
To “webmaster” this reply from Epassporte is many days old and was issued on Sept 10 (not earlier today as your post claims).
To “Milka” you are wrong, and “EpassUser” is right in this area… according to supervisors from the Epassporte Personal Line (“310-301-2001”), currently all of the funds are possessed by St. Kitts (Not Epassporte, or Epassporte’s Bank “United Internat’l Trust”).
**
the correct email address is : accountverification@epassporte.com
**
@Epass user I think you have provided some useful information and from what I’ve seen you are correct about users being requested to upload a whole bunch of various documents to prove the account is really theirs.
If the Epassporte team had no intention of returning/allowing access to the locked funds… Why would they bother trying to confirm that the current accounts are owned by real people?
At the very least, it seems the “program deficiencies” must have to do with a large amount of accounts being used that have never been properly identified to belong to a specific individual and Epassporte is attempting to rectify this problem as we speak.
The Epassporte Team (in the past) has allowed up to two weeks once they have put in a document request for the account owner to upload the proper documents and if the account owner fails the account in question is locked. Possibly the time it takes for this process to complete and purge the “fake” account is what we are all waiting for.
J C Mallick (24/7 Commercial Marketing/Owner), (Zip code: 90292) $1000 to OBAMA FOR AMERICA on 06/30/07.
Chris Mallick
24 Hour Commercial Marke
Ceo
Updated
Q1/2008
Hillary Clinton
$4,600
13428 MAXELLA AVE
Marina Del Rey CA
OMG! People with money give to politicians?
I happen to be one of the people on this situation with Epassporte and I have been
following this blog and have some questionsregarding this matter.Are you saying I
have to contact them via ” email account.verification@epassporte.com” and/or both
Epassporte Personal Line (“310-301-2001″) and confirm my account to get my money?
Does it seem possible to any of you weare getting our money back in a timely manner
say by the end of the month and/or is there another venue I sohould be going to
get the money I tried to do a wire transfer one day one of them said they could and
I got the account setup for them to wire itto me then the next person said no it
was not possible.Could anyone on this blog please help me I am desperate.thanks I
n advance for any information or help I can get.
As someone else mentioned if your funds are in wallet you can withdraw via wire or bank xfer or cc (your own of course). If not you are screwed until there is a resolution of some sort. I said I agree with @EpassUser because I have a few friends who have only recently (after Sept. 2nd and for no apparent reason) which have been asked to upload various documents to prove they really own the account. If you haven’t gotten a message requesting to upload documents then of course you don’t have too… You can call their # or email the account verification department but I doubt they will tell you anything you already don’t know.
Also to do the wire xfer, there is a fee of 50$ USD, and you must fill out a wire request then email or fax it along with a scan of a photo ID, you must wait for that department to OK the wire xfer, then you must wait the additional 7-10 business days to actually receive $ as stated on their site.
it’s pretty obvious what’s going on here. epassporte is having liquidity problems, and they’re (rightly) worried that if they let people have easy access to their funds right now that there will be a “run” on epassporte’s accounts, and there will be nothing left. so, the company is making it as difficult as possible for people to retrieve their funds. it’s that simple.
thanks JasonT for the information appreciate it
I think EPassUser answered JasonT’s question: “If the Epassporte team had no intention of returning/allowing access to the locked funds… Why would they bother trying to confirm that the current accounts are owned by real people?”
It’s still worth telling account holders to forward their documents, so that “the people with large amount of $ stuck up in the system [who] are the kind of guys if you get pissed you better have a way to disappear yourself out of existence before they find you” can’t complain about not getting their money when they never sent legitimate documents.
It would be interesting if anyone has any contacts who can find out if they are actually checking the documents they receive, or just letting them pile up under the fax machine.
For those of you who are talking about the new epassporte greeting asking to Upload the Documents.. Kind of strange because when I login to my Epass account – I am not presented with this request nor have I ever been presented with with this request. And although I currently have around $200 tied up, in the past I’ve had up to $7000. Maybe its because I live in the US. hmm. not sure… Keep up the great work KOS crew…