THE NON-FINANCIAL LEDGER

The balance sheet of Ascend shows a $25 million liability owed to the people it betrayed. That number, however, is a sterile accounting of a far deeper, more human bankruptcy. The real cost is measured in sleepless nights, in the corrosive acid of fear that drips into your soul when your business partner threatens your family. It’s the moment a “business dispute” escalates into a text message containing a picture of a severed head, sent to your spouse, with a note about your child. This is the ledger entry for pure, calculated terror, an entry written by men who decided that silencing a negative review was worth inflicting unimaginable psychological trauma.

Imagine the sequence of emotions. First, the spark of hope. In an economy that feels rigged, a “surefire” path to passive income seems like a lifeline. You scrape together your savings, maybe take out a second mortgage or a high-interest loan. You trust the polished presentations, the confident voices of co-founders William Basta and Jeremy Leung. You sign the contract, believing in their “risk-free” buyback guarantee. You hand over tens, sometimes hundreds, of thousands of dollars, believing you are building an asset for your family’s future.

Then comes the cold dread of realization. The promised profits never appear. The online store, supposedly managed by experts, gets suspended for policy violations. Your emails and calls go unanswered. The “passive income” dream becomes a gaping financial wound, hemorrhaging money you don’t have. You are left with nothing but depleted bank accounts and credit card bills that feel like concrete blocks chained to your ankles. The lifeline was a noose.

When you try to speak out, to warn others by posting an honest review of your experience, the final, most brutal phase of the scam begins. The professional facade shatters, revealing something monstrous beneath. An email from a co-founder, Jeremy Leung, warns you about a new business associate with supposed links to “Russian organized crime.” Your phone is disabled by a flood of spam texts. Legal-sounding threats arrive, citing non-disparagement clauses buried in the contract you signed in good faith. You are not just a victim of a financial scam; you are the target of a campaign of intimidation designed to guarantee your silence. The debt is a burden. The fear is a prison.

The final injury is the gaslighting. After taking your money, failing to deliver, and terrorizing you into silence, the company puts you into collections. They claim you owe them for phantom shipping and inventory fees. The people who stole your financial security now come for your credit rating. They want to ruin you completely, to erase you financially and ensure you have no platform from which to ever fight back. This is a systematic dismantling of a person’s financial and emotional well-being for profit.

LEGAL RECEIPTS

The following are direct statements and allegations contained within the Federal Trade Commission’s complaint (Case 2:24-cv-07660-SPG-JPR), filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. They form the evidentiary basis of this investigation.

On the Core Fraud: “Since 2021, Defendants have used deceptive earnings claims to persuade consumers to shell out tens of thousands of dollars each to invest in what Defendants claim is a surefire business opportunity in e-commerce, or online stores… The promised gains never materialize, and consumers are left with depleted bank accounts and hefty credit card bills. Defendants’ scheme has defrauded consumers of at least $25 million.”

On Criminal Intimidation via Text Message: “After one consumer posted a negative review, his spouse received a text that showed an image of a severed head and that contained detailed information about the consumer’s child. It said: ‘Your husband has angered some people with his ignorance. The type he does not wish to anger. I suggest you have him remove the reviews. He will know what you mean.’”

On Threats from a Co-Founder: “One consumer who removed negative reviews in exchange for a refund received a threatening email from Jeremy Leung in July 2023, claiming that the client had not transferred the store back to Ascend. The email said, in part: ‘[T]he person who bought the store off you is extremely pissed off and is, a little crazy, and has told us they are going to send you a message which I do not know what means. I googled their name and they have some links to Russian organized crime. I’m just lucky they are not holding me accountable, but just wanted to send you a word of warning.’”

On Fabricating Evidence: “Defendants submitted at least one fabricated ‘Brand Authorization’ letter to consumers and to Amazon, falsely stating that a brand had given permission for a consumer’s store to sell its products. Defendants submitted at least one fabricated invoice to Amazon in an unsuccessful attempt to prove that it had legitimately purchased branded merchandise.”

On Gag Clauses in Contracts: “The Client agrees to refrain from any disparagement, defamation, libel, or slander of any of the Service, deliverable, Manager or any of their affiliates and agrees to refrain from any tortious interference with the contracts and relationships of any of the Services provided by the Manager.”

On Gag Clauses for Refunds: “Explicitly, Client is prohibited from making any disparaging remarks or posts on platforms including but not limited to Discord, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and other public forums or message boards. Moreover, Client further agrees to remove any existing negative postings on any of the aforementioned social networks or any other online platforms.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT MAPPING