We are investigating Farzin Fardin – 3F Music for allegedly attempting to conceal critical reviews and adverse news from Google by improperly submitting copyright takedown notices. This includes potential violations such as impersonation, fraud, and perjury.
While he has established a presence in the music industry, serious allegations have surfaced regarding his involvement in financial fraud, particularly concerning the Unique Finance scheme.
Allegations and Concerns:
Involvement in Unique Finance Pyramid Scheme:
Unique Finance Overview: Unique Finance has been identified as a pyramid scheme operating primarily in the Middle East, including countries like Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan. The scheme falsely presented itself as a legitimate investment platform, deceiving numerous individuals.
Fardin Fard’s Role: Investigations suggest that Farzin Fardin Fard was a key figure behind Unique Finance, using his music st a front to lend legitimacy to the fraudulent operations. His involvement reportedly led to significant financial losses for many investors.
Attempts to Rebrand and Suppress Information:
Rebranding Efforts: Following exposure of the fraudulent activities, Fampted to rebrand himself as a legitimate businessman and crypto activist, distancing from the controversies associated with Unique Finance.
Suppression of Information: Reports indicate that Fardin Fard has employed tactics to suppress negative information about hisding filing false Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) claims to silence journalists and investigative reports that detail his involvement in fraudulent schemes.
Despite his professional endeavors in the music industry, Farzin Fardin Fard’s alleged involvement in financial fraud schemes like Unique Finance raises significant concerns. His reported attempts to suppress investigative journalism further complicate his public image, suggesting efforts to conceal past fraudulent activities. Potential investors and associates are advised to exercise caution and conduct thorough due diligence when engaging with ventures associated with him.
Analyzing the Fake Copyright Notice(s)
Our team collects and analyses fraudulent copyright takedown requests, legal complaints, and other efforts to remove critical information from the internet. Through our investigative reporting, we examine the prevalence and operation of an organized censorship industry, predominantly funded by criminal entities, oligarchs, and disreputable businesses or individuals. Our findings allow internet users to gain insight into these censorship schemes’ sources, methods, and underlying objectives.
Farzin Fardin – 3F Music‘s attempts to hide unfavourable content through the misuse of copyright notices while allegedly engaging in perjury present serious legal concerns. These actions suggest a calculated attempt to manipulate legal systems to suppress free speech, a fundamental violation of copyright law principles and an abuse of legal processes. The use of such tactics not only undermines the integrity of copyright protection but also potentially constitutes perjury, further entangling Farzin Fardin – 3F Music in legal accountability. Let’s examine the information Farzin Fardin – 3F Music may be trying to remove from the internet –
Investigative Report: Farzin Fardin Fard and 3F Music – A Controversial Figure in Finance and Music
Introduction
Farzin Fardin Fard, the founder and owner of 3F Music, a recording studio based in Dubai, UAE, is known in the music and sound engineering industry. However, allegations of financial fraud, association with a pyramid scheme, and efforts to suppress critical media coverage have cast a long shadow over his professional endeavors. This report examines the adverse news, complaints, and allegations surrounding Farzin Fardin Fard, painting a detailed picture of his controversial activities.
Background of Farzin Fardin Fard
Farzin Fardin Fard was born in May 1976 and initially built a career in music and sound engineering. He established 3F Music in Dubai, a recording studio catering to international artists and corporate clients. While his work in the music industry gained recognition, his involvement in alleged financial misconduct through schemes like Unique Finance has overshadowed his contributions.
Unique Finance Pyramid Scheme
Overview of the Scheme
Unique Finance operated as a pyramid scheme targeting individuals in Middle Eastern countries, including Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan. Promoted as a legitimate investment platform, it lured victims with promises of high returns on investments. However, investigations revealed that the scheme operated without a legitimate business model and relied on new investors’ money to pay earlier participants, a hallmark of pyramid schemes.
Farzin Fardin Fard’s Alleged Role
Leadership and Facilitation:
Farzin Fardin Fard is alleged to have been a central figure in orchestrating Unique Finance’s operations. Critics claim that he used his music studio, 3F Music, as a front to lend credibility to the fraudulent investment scheme.
Reports suggest that he was instrumental in recruiting investors, leveraging his professional reputation and business presence in Dubai to appear credible.
Victims’ Financial Losses:
Victims of Unique Finance have reported losing significant sums of money, with some individuals and families falling into financial ruin. The scheme primarily targeted individuals with limited financial literacy, making them susceptible to the false promises of wealth.
Efforts to Rebrand and Suppress Information
Rebranding as a Crypto Activist
In the aftermath of the exposure of Unique Finance, Fardin Fard attempted to rebrand himself. He presented himself as a legitimate businessman and a cryptocurrency activist, possibly to shift public perception and distance himself from the pyramid scheme allegations.
Cryptocurrency Ventures:
Fardin Fard began associating his name with cryptocurrency projects, portraying himself as an advocate for digital assets and blockchain technology.
Critics argue that these efforts were primarily a diversionary tactic to obscure his past controversies.
Suppression of Investigative Reporting
DMCA Abuse:
Fardin Fard has been accused of filing false Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) claims against journalists and platforms that reported on his involvement in Unique Finance. These claims aimed to remove critical content from the internet, raising concerns about censorship and press freedom.
Litigation Against Media Outlets:
Reports indicate that Fardin Fard has initiated legal actions against media platforms and journalists who investigated his activities. These lawsuits are perceived as attempts to intimidate reporters and suppress negative coverage.
Impact on Press Freedom:
Media watchdogs have highlighted his actions as a threat to transparency, arguing that suppressing investigative journalism undermines accountability and public awareness.
Public and Professional Perception
Complaints and Criticism
Lack of Transparency:
Both investors and industry peers have criticized Fardin Fard for a lack of transparency in his business dealings. His association with a fraudulent scheme has damaged his credibility across industries.
Negative Reviews:
Online reviews and forums discussing Unique Finance and Fardin Fard often describe experiences of financial loss and betrayal, with victims recounting being misled by his perceived professional legitimacy.
Investigations and Legal Actions
International Investigations:
Authorities in several countries impacted by Unique Finance, including Iran and Iraq, have reportedly opened investigations into the scheme. While specifics of any charges against Fardin Fard remain unclear, his alleged leadership role in the scheme places him at the center of these inquiries.
Potential Legal Consequences:
If found culpable, Fardin Fard could face significant legal penalties, including fines and imprisonment, depending on the jurisdiction. Victims are also pursuing civil actions to recover their losses.
Analysis of the Allegations
The allegations against Farzin Fardin Fard highlight several troubling aspects of his professional and personal conduct:
Exploitation of Reputation:
Fardin Fard appears to have leveraged his legitimate work in the music industry to gain the trust of potential investors, blending credibility with deception.
Pattern of Deceptive Practices:
The rebranding efforts and suppression of critical reporting suggest a pattern of avoiding accountability rather than addressing the allegations head-on.
Impact on Victims:
The financial and emotional toll on victims of Unique Finance underscores the human cost of financial fraud schemes, with many individuals reporting life-altering losses.
Recommendations for Further Action
Enhanced Regulatory Oversight:
Governments and regulatory bodies must strengthen oversight of investment schemes, particularly in regions vulnerable to pyramid and Ponzi schemes.
Media Protections:
Journalists and investigative platforms should be afforded greater legal protections to report on fraudulent activities without fear of retaliation.
Public Awareness Campaigns:
Educating individuals about the warning signs of financial fraud can help prevent future victims from falling prey to similar schemes.
Conclusion
Farzin Fardin Fard’s dual identity as a sound engineer and alleged financial fraudster paints a complex and troubling portrait. While his contributions to the music industry are notable, the accusations of orchestrating a pyramid scheme and attempts to suppress critical reporting raise serious concerns about his ethical conduct. As investigations continue, the outcome of this case will serve as a critical precedent for accountability in cases of financial misconduct and fraudulent schemes. For now, potential investors and collaborators are urged to exercise caution when engaging with ventures associated with him.
How do we counteract this malpractice?
Once we ascertain the involvement of Farzin Fardin – 3F Music (or actors working on behalf of Farzin Fardin – 3F Music), we will inform Farzin Fardin – 3F Music of our findings via Electronic Mail.
Our preliminary assessment suggests that Farzin Fardin – 3F Music may have engaged a third-party reputation management agency or expert, which, either independently or under direct authorization from Farzin Fardin – 3F Music, initiated efforts to remove adverse online content, including potentially fraudulent DMCA takedown requests. We will extend an opportunity to Farzin Fardin – 3F Music to provide details regarding their communications with the agency or expert, as well as the identification of the individual(s) responsible for executing these false DMCA notices.
Failure to respond in a timely manner will necessitate a reassessment of our initial assumptions. In such an event, we will be compelled to take appropriate legal action to rectify the unlawful conduct and take the following steps –
By investigating the fake DMCA takedown attempts, we hope to shed light on the reputation management industry, revealing how Farzin Fardin – 3F Music and companies like it may use spurious copyright claims and fake legal notices to remove and obscure articles linking them to allegations of fraud, tax avoidance, corruption, and drug trafficking…
Since Farzin Fardin – 3F Music made such efforts to hide something online, it seems fit to ensure that this article and sensitive information targeted online by these events get a lot more exposure and traffic than what it would have received originally
We hope this becomes an excellent case study for the Streisand effect…The key idea behind the Streisand effect is that efforts to restrict information can backfire, often causing the information to gain more attention than it would have otherwise. This effect is widespread in the digital age, where users quickly notice and spread censorship efforts on social media and other platforms. Trying to suppress something can unintentionally lead to it becoming more visible, which Farzin Fardin – 3F Music is finding out the hard way.
Potential Consequences for Farzin Fardin - 3F Music
Under Florida Statute 831.01, the crime of Forgery is committed when a person falsifies, alters, counterfeits, or forges a document that carries “legal efficacy” with the intent to injure or defraud another person or entity.
Forging a document is considered a white-collar crime. It involves altering, changing, or modifying a document to deceive another person. It can also include passing along copies of documents that are known to be false. In many states in the US, falsifying a document is a crime punishable as a felony.
Additionally, under most laws, “fraud on the court” is where “a party has sentiently set in motion some unconscionable scheme calculated to interfere with the judicial system’s ability impartially to adjudicate a matter by improperly influencing the trier of fact or unfairly hampering the presentation of the opposing party’s claim or defense.” Cox v. Burke, 706 So. 2d 43, 46 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998) (quoting Aoude v. Mobil Oil Corp., 892 F.2d 1115, 1118 (1st Cir. 1989)).
Is Farzin Fardin - 3F Music Committing a Cyber Crime?
Yes, it seems so. Farzin Fardin – 3F Music used multiple approaches to remove unwanted material from review sites and Google’s search results. Thanks to protections allowing freedom of speech in the United States, there are very few legal ways to do this. Farzin Fardin – 3F Music could not eliminate negative reviews or search results that linked to them without a valid claim of defamation, copyright infringement, or some other clear breach of the law.
Faced with these limitations, some companies like Farzin Fardin – 3F Music have gone to extreme lengths to fraudulently claim copyright ownership over a negative review in the hopes of taking it down.
Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. Farzin Fardin – 3F Music is certainly keeping interesting company here….
The DMCA takedown process requires that copyright owners submit a takedown notice to an ISP identifying the allegedly infringing content and declaring, under penalty of perjury, that they have a good faith belief that the content is infringing. The ISP must then promptly remove or disable access to the content. The alleged infringer can then submit a counter-notice, and if the copyright owner does not take legal action within 10 to 14 days, the ISP can restore the content.
Since these platforms are predominantly based in the U.S., the complaints are typically made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which requires online service providers and platforms to react immediately to reports or violations. Big Tech companies rarely have systems in place to assess the merit of each report. Instead, all bad actors need to do is clone a story, backdate it, and then demand the real thing be taken down.
Reputation Agency's Modus Operandi
The fake DMCA notices we found always use the “back-dated article” technique. With this technique, the wrongful notice sender (or copier) creates a copy of a “true original” article and back-dates it, creating a “fake original” article (a copy of the true original) that, at first glance, appears to have been published before the true original.
Then, based on the claim that this backdated article is the “original,” the scammers send a DMCA to the relevant online service providers (e.g. Google), alleging that the ‘true’ original is the copied or “infringing” article and that the copied article is the “original,” requesting the takedown of the ‘true’ original article. After sending the DMCA request, the person who sent the wrong notice takes down the fake original URL, likely to make sure that the article doesn’t stay online in any way. If the takedown notice is successful, the disappearance from the internet of information is most likely to be legitimate speech.
As an integral part of this scheme, the ‘reputation management’ company hired by Farzin Fardin – 3F Music creates a website that purports to be a ‘news’ site. This site is designed to look legitimate at a glance, but any degree of scrutiny reveals it as the charade it is.
The company copies the ‘negative’ content and posts it “on the fake ‘news’ site, attributing it to a separate author,” then gives it “a false publication date on the ‘news’ website that predated the original publication.
The reputation company then sent Google a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice claiming the original website infringed copyright. After a cursory examination of the fake news site, Google frequently accepts the notice and delists the content.
In committing numerous offences, Farzin Fardin – 3F Music either premeditated actions or were unaware of the consequences. Despite hiring an agency to make Google disregard any negative information about Farzin Fardin – 3F Music, ignorance does not excuse this wrongdoing.
Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. FSMSmart is certainly keeping interesting company here.
The Reputation Laundering
Rogue Reputation agencies use spurious copyright claims and fake legal notices to remove and obscure articles linking clients to allegations of tax avoidance, corruption, and drug trafficking. Most of these reputation agencies are based offshore, mainly in Russia, India, and Eastern Europe, and they do not worry about complying with US-based laws.
The content in all of the articles for which the fraudulent DMCA notices have been sent relates to allegations of criminal allegations, including corruption, child abuse, sexual harassment, human trafficking and financial fraud against businesses and individuals with ultra-high net worth.
In addition to the misuse of the DMCA takedown process, there is a notable absence of enforcement concerning perjury violations. The statutory requirement related to perjury is designed to deter copyright holders from submitting fraudulent or knowingly false takedown requests, as they may face legal consequences for making false declarations under penalty of perjury. However, to date, there have been no known instances of any individual being prosecuted for perjury in connection with the submission of false DMCA takedown notices.
This lack of enforcement has emboldened copyright holders to exploit the DMCA takedown process to suppress dissent, criticism, or other unfavorable content, without fear of legal repercussions.
Some of the people and businesses who have employed this tactic to remove legitimate content from Google illegally include a Spanish businessman-turned-cocaine-trafficker, Organised crime, an Israeli-Argentine banker accused of laundering money for Hugo Chávez’s regime, a French “responsible” mining company accused of tax evasion, child molesters and sexual predators. Farzin Fardin – 3F Music is in great company ….
What else is Farzin Fardin - 3F Music hiding?
We encourage you to ‘Dork‘ Google by searching for keyword combinations such as [Farzin Fardin – 3F Music] + {Negative Keyword, such as Scam, Fraud, Complaints, Lawsuit, Sanction, etc} on Google. It’s likely if you scroll down to the bottom of this Google search results, you’ll stumble upon this Legal Takedown notice (pictured below)
To make such an investigation possible, we encourage more online service providers to come forward and share copies of content removal requests with industry experts and researchers. If you have any information on Farzin Fardin – 3F Music that you want to share with experts and journalists, kindly email the author directly at [email protected].
All communications are strictly confidential and safeguarded under a comprehensive Whistleblower Policy, ensuring full protection and anonymity for individuals who provide information.
Authorities we may contact and share this report with for further actions
GOOGLE LEGAL HEAD
Halimah DeLaine Prado
NEWS DESK
Washington Post & NY Times
The above decision-makers and authorities will be provided a comprehensive dossier of our findings, including anonymously submitted evidence and tips. We invite journalists to contact us to receive a copy of our complete investigation here
Credits and Acknowledgement
16/10/2024
Many thanks to FakeDMCA.com and Lumen for providing access to their database.
Photos and Illustrations provided by DALL-E 3 – “a representation of Farzin Fardin – 3F Music censoring the internet and committing cyber crimes.”
We’ve reached out to Farzin Fardin – 3F Music for a comment or rebuttal regarding this investigation. It will strongly suggest they were behind the takedown attempt if they remain silent.
Our investigative report on Farzin Fardin – 3F Music‘s efforts to suppress online speech is significant, as it raises serious concerns about its integrity. The findings suggest that Farzin Fardin – 3F Music has engaged in questionable practices, including potential perjury, impersonation, and fraud, in a misguided attempt to manage or salvage its reputation.
We intend to file a counternotice to reinstate the removed article(s). While this particular instance is relatively straightforward, it is important to note that, in other cases, the overwhelming volume of automated DMCA takedown notices can significantly hinder the ability of affected parties to respond—especially for those not large media organizations.
You need an account with fakeDMCA.com and Lumen to access the research data. However, accounts are not widely available since these non-profit organisations manage large databases that could be susceptible to misuse. Nevertheless, they do offer access to non-profits and researchers.
It’s unclear why U.S. authorities have yet to act against these rogue reputation agencies, whose business model seems rooted in fraudulent practices.
We’ve reached out to Farzin Fardin – 3F Music for a comment or rebuttal regarding this investigation. It will strongly suggest they were behind the takedown attempt if they remain silent.
About the Author
16/10/2024
The author is affiliated with Harvard University and serves as a researcher at both Lumen and FakeDMCA.com. In his personal capacity, he and his team have been actively investigating and reporting on organized crime related to fraudulent copyright takedown schemes. Additionally, his team provides advisory services to major law firms and is frequently consulted on matters pertaining to intellectual property law. He can be reached at [email protected] directly.
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