Merged [Ed] Get involved detecting the ade 651 detector / Jim McCormick arrested

If you have followed this story and know that Samuel Tree was jointly responsible for importing Quadro Tracker into the U.K. and spawning all the subsequent versions from Mole, to GT200, to ADE651 and Alpha 6, you might enjoy this comment left on my blog in respose to the sentencing of Samuel and Joan Tree:

Comment by Anonymous:

'I'm disappointed not to have been informed of the date for sentencing. We were supposed to be notified by post and would have, if we wished, sat in the box to hear and see Sam and Joan get their comeuppance. One likes to see these things through to the conclusion!
I'm fairly surprised that she didn't get a custodial sentence. After all, Joan knew as much about Sam's little/huge scam as he did. She was "tuning" the "devices" to the required frequency using sterilised scissors etc.
You're right about Sam bringing the idea to Europe although back then, nearly twenty years ago, it probably seemed like nothing more than a bit of a wheeze.
Malcolm had seen the potential to turn a novelty golf ball "finder" into something rather more lucrative and Sam had the luck/misfortune to see Roe waving his magic wand about at some police convention in the US.
In court, Sam chuckled ruefully at this first encounter with Roe, "The Bounder."
That conversation, probably, went something like this:
Tree: That's interesting! How does it work?
Roe: At this moment, it's tuned to detect mugs.
Tree: Why's it pointing at me, then?
Roe: Only kidding. I've set the frequency to "bank notes."
Tree: Wow. That's amazing. It's pointing straight to my wallet.
Roe: It appears so, yes.
Tree: How does it REALLY work, though?
Roe: Gravity combined with a low coefficient of friction in the pivot.
Tree: Oh. How dull. I didn't really do physics at school.
Roe: That's the beauty of this device. It defies the boring laws of physics that nobody's interested in. You could make a packet.
Tree: OK, what else can it detect?
Roe: *slants wrist* WIGS. That guy over there is wearing a toupée.
Tree: So he is. Wait here, sir. I must make an international call to my imports manager, Joan, and tell her the good news.
Roe: OK. *yawns*

Thus, Keygrove Intl. comes into being.
The Trees legitimate business was flogging forensics equipment to UK police forces. Plenty of contacts there, then.
Quadro® could have been nailed as fraudsters in the US fifteen? years ago but, as we have seen, not all jurys can see through the waving arial effect.
Roe jumped bail, I believe, and slummed it with his new-found friends, The Trees, in Bedfordshire for longer than he was welcome. They helped him, financially, and he went on to other projects before dying [citation needed].

Me? I kick myself for walking out on the last day without filling my back-pack with Alpha Sixes. I could've/should've done it!

Christmas would have been sorted.

Anonymous ;)

Notes: STRIKE-Code kann nicht übernommen werden '

Also the latest report from the BBC by Caroline Hawley who, along with Meirion Jones, was responsible for the Newsnight reports on the scam back in 2010 and 2011. This report highlights the fact that some of the devices are still in use in some parts of the World, and that the U.K. Government supported export sales efforts despite warnings as early as 2001.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29459896
 
Latest news re HEDD1 /Sniffex

More good news! Just heard today that David Vollmar and Frank Trier of Unival GmbH have been charged with 47 counts of fraud in Germany in relation to their marketing and selling of HEDD1, which is a renamed Sniffex.

Sniffex was 'invented' by Yuri Markov, a Bulgarian who fled the U.S. when the SEC went after him and others for stock fraud.

Let's hope these numpties get the same sort of treatment as James McCormick and Gary Bolton!

A certain person in Germany deserves a lot of credit for this! He followed up the work Lumpy Low, Techowiz and I did on trying to pin these bastards down, and really did a great job of documenting their whole damn scam, then alerting and hassling the German authorities to do something.

Here is a Google translation of this:


http://www.general-anzeiger-bonn.de/bonn/bonn/bonn-zentrum/Bonner-soll-weltweit-nutzlose-Geraete-verkauft-haben-article1552793.html

Process for fraud
Bonner said to have sold useless devices worldwide
Rita Klein

BONN. The charge of the prosecution against a merchant Bonner weighs heavily: The 42-year-old CEO of a company for safety systems, "UNIVAL group" is said to have sold around the world explosives detectors, although it did not work.
Now, the businessman was accused in 47 cases on suspicion of commercial fraud. The authorities said on Monday, a spokeswoman said.

For the prosecution is clear: Although the 42-year-old knew by the end of 2010 that the devices are not served their purpose, he sold them into other things to Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Iraq, Pakistan, China and Vietnam.

Only from February 2011 until the end of June 2013 he made so sales of two and a half million Euros. And with that he committed according to the indictment a commercial fraud.

Had set the ball rolling, the British authorities. They had taken the first in the case of the handy explosives detector with name HEDD 1 investigations. When she finally came across his name in the British partners of the Bonn merchant, they turned a German colleagues.

As the Bonn prosecutor now announced that the British had sought the opinion of an expert at the University of Cambridge, after which by the Bonn-selling explosives detector "functionless" was. Subsequently, the British occupied the unit with an operating ban, said the Bonn government spokeswoman.

You said on Monday further comprising: In Germany, the device was tested for its functionality and is doing so twice: once by experts from the Federal and also by the Federal Office for Materials Research and Testing. Both times the result is Failed: The device has no properties have been demonstrated, which served the discovery of explosive materials. Each time the Bonn manager was informed of the result, and also the British operation prohibition was told.

According to prosecutors, of Bonn, the unit has worked very well what he could demonstrate with an appraisal. But this opinion, the prosecutor came from his British partner and is therefore worthless. The Declaration of the 42-year-old, he had successfully demonstrated the device at police headquarters in Luxembourg, does not count for the Bonn investigators. For inquiries in Luxembourg had shown that the Bonn was not subject to monitoring during the action.

For the defense of the accused businessman, Norbert Gatzweiler, it is clear that his client is unjustly persecuted because the device working. He told the General-Anzeiger on Monday on request: "It is bought anywhere in the world by the police." The lawyer will apply to the competent third Great Trial Chamber to reject the opening of proceedings.

the Company

The company UNIVAL group was founded in 2008 and advertises on its website in English and Arabic with reliable safety technology of any kind. It describes itself as a group of companies with headquarters in Bonn, which operates in 35 countries worldwide.

As a German company the company promises the highest quality standards, customer-focused service and reliability. In addition to the question explosives detector, which she offers as before, she has, inter alia, fingerprint readers, bullet-proof vests and helmets and safety training on offer

For more info/background see:

http://sniffexquestions.blogspot.co.uk/

http://ade651gt200scamfraud.blogspot.co.uk/

http://explosivedetectorfrauds.blogspot.co.uk/
 
Excellent! - I hope they make him demonstrate it under controlled conditions...
 
gerdbonk said:
Did you buy one, or a thousand? Put in your claim, because

Fake bomb detector seller James McCormick to forfeit £8m
Click to expand...

The creep is getting off very light. I presume that none of the countries involved filed "friend of the court" type briefs, which is their own damned fault. The costs to Thailand, alone were four times the amount he's being told he has to make good.

The Thai government probably won't even pursue it unless there's a no question asked reimbursement. The idiots who purchased this crap are now in the Cabinet, including our P.M. who's the guy who said, "Well, they may not work, but they're all we have, so we'll continue to use them."

They also don't want any investigation, as they don't want to release the names of the middle-men/con artists, because they're likely former or current high ranking military or civil service.

Remember if/when reading the attachment that while there's no colonel with a gun sitting over the journalist, news here is censored. If the article sounds remotely critical... take that as ten-fold criticism.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1013669/gt200-scandal-refuses-to-die
 
In the aftermath of yesterday's Baghdad bombing that killed (as currently reported) over 200 people, the Iraqi Prime Minster has ordered security forces to stop using the ADE651, and will investigate their purchase for involving possible "corrupt deals."

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/040720161

Another ugly chapter in this ugly story. Maybe, though, one of the final ones.

ETA: The very first post in this thread called it, eight years ago:

These units are in the field with Police around Iraq and are putting Police and innocent lives at risk.
Click to expand...
 
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Myriad said:
In the aftermath of yesterday's Baghdad bombing that killed (as currently reported) over 200 people, the Iraqi Prime Minster has ordered security forces to stop using the ADE651...
Click to expand...


They were still using them?
 
Mojo said:
They were still using them?
Click to expand...


Apparently. Not only that, but the Iranian people have been aware of this, and already upset about it even before the bombing. It's a perfect symbol of ineffectual half-methods. That stupid dowsing stick might bring down a government.
 
The National Post newspaper here reprinted the Washington Post article.

In an interview on state television in May, Iraq’s interior minister Mohammed Ghabban said that he had inherited the problem and that a “committee” should be formed to see whether the devices work. He described the problem of the bomb detectors as “bigger than the Ministry of Interior.”

“People are waiting at checkpoints in the heat every day to pass by a fake detector, which is just a toy,” said Aws Yassin, 35, who was protesting near the scene of the bombing on Sunday night.

The protesters moved onto Abadi’s family home, which is in the area, calling him a thief and accusing him of killing the people of Karrada.

“If he had any dignity he’d resign now,” said Abbas Yassin, 45.

Politically weak, Abadi has struggled to implement his limited political reforms. It is unclear what the government plans to replace the fake detectors with, but Abadi has ordered the roll-out of U.S.-made Rapiscan scanners on roads into Baghdad.

It remains to be seen whether he can finally end the use of the fake detectors in Iraq. At the checkpoint, Timimi, the police officer, said he hoped that real devices would be brought in to protect the people.

“Many people have died because of this piece of plastic,” he said.
Click to expand...
 
Bump. Sorry to say it, but it looks like these bogus bomb detectors may have resurfaced in Iran as bogus Covid-19 detectors.

Only link I have so far is this snippet on rolling BBC News story timed at 11:38 today:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/wor...96dddf936d6e0661c64463&pinned_post_type=share
"11:38
Iran's Guards unveil 'magnetic' virus detection tool

Tasnim
Copyright: Tasnim
Maj-Gen Hossein Salami said the accuracy of the device was 80%, but provided no evidence
Image caption: Maj-Gen Hossein Salami said the accuracy of the device was 80%, but provided no evidence
The commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps has unveiled a handheld device that he said could identify people infected with the coronavirus within 100m (330ft), Tasnim news agency reports.
"The basis of this device is to create a magnetic field based on a bipolar virus inside the device, so its antenna can focus on any place within a 100m diameter that is infected by the virus, and identify the infected place in five seconds," Maj-Gen Hossein Salami was quoted as saying.
He added that its accuracy was "80%”, but provided no evidence.
Experts say the only reliable way to test for Covid-19 currently is by taking a swab of the nose or throat, which is sent off to a lab to look for signs of the virus’s genetic material."
 
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This was exactly what I remembered when I just heard this story. Can't believe people have fallen for it again.
 
shemp said:
I believe this may be the original source, picked it up from Fark:

IRGC Unveils Coronavirus Remote Detector
Click to expand...

It's a bit clearer in that picture that the magical device has been censored with a black blob over it, but the antenna is sticking out and you can see just one corner of the handle.

I have more than a suspicion that this long-range virus-detecting miracle device began its life as a $20 novelty lost-golf-ball-locating dowsing rod, and has been enhanced with a "SooPeR vIrUs DeTecTeR" sticker.
 
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