prosper

Prosper Couple Accused of ‘Scamming Tens of Millions From African American Community'

A Prosper couple is accused of bilking tens of millions of dollars from people who believed they'd be "blessed," or paid back eight-fold

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A couple from Prosper are accused of scamming tens of millions of dollars from people by allegedly operating an illegal pyramid scheme from their Prosper home over the past year or so.

Marlon Moore, also known as D.J. ASAP, and his wife LaShonda are no strangers to the spotlight.

The couple appeared on an OWN Network reality show called ‘Family or Fiance,' which brings together disapproving families of engaged couples.

This week, the couple is in a different type of spotlight again.

Monday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Marlon and LaShonda Moore as well as the company they operated called BINT Operations, LLC. BINT stands for “Blessings In No Time.”

The lawsuit accuses the Moores of operating an “illegal pyramid scheme … to scam tens of millions of dollars from members of the African American community throughout the nation.”

Rosetta Fleming says she’s one of them.

“They wanted to say it’s for Blacks, they wanted to say it’s to build the Black community is what they wanted to say,” Fleming said.

Fleming is a wife, grandmother and retired teacher in Mississippi.

She says she joined BINT after a relative told her about it, and because the Moores made a promise.

“They promised that they would give you a refund if you were not satisfied,” Fleming said.

For an initial fee of about $1,400 dollars, the lawsuit says the Moores also promised to “bless and assist needy members of the African American community in the wake of the pandemic and economic and social strife.”

In return for recruiting more people who would also pay a fee, Fleming said she was promised more than $11,000 in compensation.

She said the program appealed to her sense of faith and family.

“And need because I kept thinking to myself, ‘Oh, I need $11,400. I can get out of debt’,” Fleming said.

Members were organized into playing boards, according to a separate lawsuit filed Wednesday by the Federal Trade Commission and the Arkansas Attorney General.

The goal, Fleming says, was to move up as more people were recruited and to eventually get “blessed.” or paid.

She said members could be on many boards if they paid an additional fee which increased what she thought was earning potential.

Fleming says she, and her husband who she recruited, never got paid and never advanced.

After spending about $7,000 dollars, they requested refunds.

Seven months later, they're still waiting.

“I was so mad at them that they did all of this and they got this and they took our money,” Fleming said.

While she was an active participant in the program, Fleming says she frequently attended Zoom meetings hosted by the Moores.

In a Zoom call for members in December, the Moores discussed requests for refunds.

“Guys, we are working all refunds, we had an active refund list and before that refund list got too long we wanted to go ahead and say hey, ‘Lets go ahead and shut it down’,” Marlon Moore said.

The couple said refunds would be processed in the order they were received.

LaShonda Moore also commented the couple had received death threats.

According to the Texas AG’s lawsuit, “Since January 2021, the State has received nearly 200 consumer complaints against Defendants alleging over $700,000 in losses of monies contributed to Defendants but never refunded.”

One alleged victim wrote in the lawuit, "The Moore's SCAMMED, CONNED, HOODWINKED over 8,000 Black and Brown people during a pandemic."

Despite cleaning out their savings account, Fleming said she doesn’t want the Moores to go to jail but does want people, like her, who are unsatisfied with BINT to get their money back.

The Moores haven't responded to NBC 5's multiple attempts to reach them.

An attorney isn't listed on their online court records.

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