Wealth4AllTeam, a scheme promising a 1.6% daily return, suspended all withdrawals until September 2013, CEO Danny Cianciulli announced. The company attributed the payment halt to an alleged theft by an "outside consultant" and a system hack. This follows a recent relaunch of the program, which faltered after just two months.
Ponzi schemes inherently face a challenge when payouts begin to exceed new investor funds. This imbalance eventually forces a halt to withdrawals. Wealth4AllTeam had just restarted its "total passive investment only program," explicitly stating that new deposits would fund the guaranteed daily ROI.
Within two months, this rebooted program failed. Wealth4AllTeam cited "low membership," indicating a lack of new investor money, as the primary cause. Rather than acknowledge the scheme's unsustainable structure, a notice published on the company website laid out a series of explanations.
On April 17, Wealth4AllTeam informed members that an external consultant, hired to manage investments in Forex and other vehicles, "literally stole most of the money" from these accounts. The company claimed it was now "dealing with the authorities" to recover the "very damaging loss," which left them in a "financially precarious position."
This alleged loss prompted the company to suspend all withdrawals for several months. "Because of that, we will suspend all withdrawals until September 2013, so that we have time to recover from the loss," the notice stated. Despite the suspension, the company continued to solicit new investments, with no indication that deposits were similarly halted.
Wealth4AllTeam also reported a system hack, claiming the database was compromised. This damage, projected to cost thousands of dollars to repair, rendered the site's back office unavailable "until further notice." The company stated the hackers "damaged the main pointers to the database."
The combined claims of theft and hacking effectively cut off investors from their funds and account access. The company explicitly stated it would "not respond to emails or requests for withdrawals." CEO Danny Cianciulli asked for "continued support and patience during this transition."
Cianciulli added, "It has always been my intention that no one would lose money."