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- Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC
PARTIES INVOLVED: Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC
ALLEGATIONS: Perjury, Fraud, Impersonation
INCIDENT DATE: 10 Oct 2024
INVESTIGATED BY: Ethan Katz
TOOLS USED: Lumen, FakeDMCA, SecurityTrails
CASE NO: 4314/A/2024
CRIME TYPE: Intellectual Property Scam
PUBLISHED ON: 16 Oct 2024
REPORTED BY: FakeDMCA.com
JURISDICTION: USA
A summary of what happened?
Gavriel Yitzchakov, connected to BMF Advance LLC, has faced scrutiny due to serious accusations regarding the company’s practices in the merchant cash advance industry. First, Yitzchakov and BMF Advance are accused of predatory lending—using exploitative financial practices that target small businesses by offering quick funding but imposing crushing repayment terms and severe penalties. Second, they face allegations of racketeering under the RICO Act, suggesting involvement in fraudulent schemes to defraud clients. Lastly, unconscionable contracts are another major complaint, with businesses claiming that the company enforces one-sided, oppressive terms designed to trap borrowers in debt
Based on available reports, here’s an overview of the major complaints and concerns regarding Gavriel Yitzchakov and BMF Advance LLC:
- Predatory Practices: BMF Advance LLC, led by Yitzchakov, has been accused of offering merchant cash advances to businesses with high-interest rates and unfavorable terms. These predatory lending practices allegedly trap businesses in cycles of debt, where they struggle to keep up with excessive repayments.
- Threats and Intimidation: One of the most troubling accusations involves threats and aggressive collection tactics. Businesses have claimed that when they fall behind on repayments, BMF Advance resorts to intimidation, with some alleging threats of lawsuits, asset seizures, and even violence, creating a toxic and fearful environment for borrowers.
- Unlawful Seizure of Bank Accounts: Several lawsuits have alleged that BMF Advance engages in illegal activity by debiting funds from business bank accounts without proper authorization, effectively draining accounts and leaving businesses in financial ruin. This practice has raised concerns about the legality of their contracts and enforcement methods.
These issues have led to lawsuits and investigations, tarnishing the reputation of Yitzchakov and his company within the merchant cash advance industry. Many have voiced concerns that attempts to “censor the internet” could involve silencing or suppressing the visibility of these complaints and legal challenges, likely to protect their business operations from further scrutiny.
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.
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What was Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC trying to hide?
Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC‘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 Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC in legal accountability. Let’s examine the information Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC may be trying to remove from the internet –
Here’s a more detailed breakdown of allegations, lawsuits, and complaints that have been reported against Gavriel Yitzchakov and BMF Advance LLC from various sources in the public domain.
1. Predatory Lending Practices
BMF Advance LLC, under Gavriel Yitzchakov’s leadership, has been widely accused of engaging in predatory lending through its merchant cash advance (MCA) business. MCAs are loans or cash advances offered to businesses in exchange for a percentage of future sales. These loans typically come with exorbitantly high-interest rates, often far surpassing traditional lending caps. As a result, businesses accepting such advances often find themselves caught in cycles of debt, struggling to keep up with the repayment terms.
Complaints:
- High-interest rates and fees trap small businesses in unsustainable financial conditions.
- Payment structures are sometimes designed to prioritize lenders over borrowers, leaving little room for business growth or recovery.
- Many clients report being unaware of the long-term consequences of signing such contracts, claiming they were not fully informed.
2. Aggressive Collection Tactics and Intimidation
One of the most alarming accusations involves the alleged use of threats and intimidation to collect debts from borrowers. Numerous small businesses have come forward to accuse BMF Advance and Gavriel Yitzchakov of leveraging aggressive and sometimes illegal tactics to ensure repayment.
Allegations:
- Borrowers have claimed that representatives from BMF Advance have issued threats of lawsuits and asset seizures in case of delayed or missed payments.
- There are reports that physical threats or veiled threats of violence were made, leaving small business owners in fear.
- Court documents and lawsuits have cited instances where misuse of legal mechanisms—such as fraudulent judgments and excessive claims—were used to extract payments or seize assets from businesses.
3. RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Allegations
Yitzchakov and BMF Advance LLC have faced legal scrutiny and lawsuits involving claims of racketeering. Under the RICO Act, businesses can be prosecuted for engaging in fraudulent or illegal business practices that are structured to operate like organized crime.
Legal Claims:
- RICO lawsuits allege that BMF Advance LLC was involved in a fraudulent scheme designed to deceive and exploit small businesses for financial gain.
- These lawsuits claim that the company’s operations were conducted in a manner resembling a criminal enterprise, with numerous businesses falling victim to deceptive agreements and illegal debt collection practices.
- BMF Advance has also been accused of creating a network of shell companies to further confuse borrowers and complicate legal recourse, adding to the complexity of lawsuits.
4. Unauthorized Bank Account Seizures
BMF Advance has also been accused of illegally withdrawing funds from businesses’ bank accounts without their knowledge or proper authorization. In many cases, businesses reported sudden and unexpected withdrawals that drained their accounts, leaving them without the capital necessary to continue operations.
Complaints and Lawsuits:
- Numerous business owners have filed complaints that BMF Advance engaged in unauthorized automatic debits, withdrawing funds directly from their accounts.
- Some lawsuits claim that BMF Advance violated the terms of its contracts by withdrawing more than the agreed-upon percentages of revenue or sales, resulting in unexpected financial hardship for borrowers.
- Legal challenges allege that the company used vague and misleading contract language to justify these unauthorized debits, making it difficult for small businesses to fight back.
5. Fraudulent Judgments and Legal Manipulation
Another frequent complaint against BMF Advance is the company’s use of confessions of judgment, a legal tool that allows lenders to quickly obtain a judgment against a borrower without going to trial. Critics argue that this tool has been abused by BMF Advance and others in the merchant cash advance industry.
Concerns:
- Confessions of judgment were reportedly used to fast-track legal judgments against borrowers without giving them a fair chance to defend themselves.
- Borrowers claim they were unaware that they had signed such documents, which effectively waived their rights to contest legal action, leaving them defenseless when BMF sought to enforce the judgment.
- In some cases, these judgments led to garnishments or asset seizures without prior notice to the businesses, often resulting in business closures or significant financial losses.
6. Negative Public and Online Reviews
Public reviews and online forums are flooded with negative feedback from former customers of BMF Advance. Many reviews center around the company’s poor customer service, misleading sales tactics, and lack of transparency.
Typical Complaints:
- Many borrowers complain that they were not given adequate explanations of the terms they were agreeing to when they signed contracts with BMF Advance.
- Businesses that defaulted or struggled with payments reported being harassed and treated poorly by the company’s collections teams.
- Several reviewers have labeled the company as untrustworthy, warning others not to do business with them due to their underhanded methods and exploitative practices.
7. Attempts to Censor Negative Publicity
Reports suggest that BMF Advance has engaged in efforts to suppress negative information about their business practices, possibly by attempting to censor online reviews or silence complaints. These actions include:
- Potentially influencing or requesting content takedowns to protect the company’s reputation.
- Engaging in legal threats or actions against individuals or organizations that publish negative content, further contributing to concerns about transparency and ethics within the company.
The allegations against Gavriel Yitzchakov and BMF Advance LLC paint a troubling picture of a company accused of using exploitative lending practices, intimidation, and legal manipulation to profit from struggling businesses. From claims of unauthorized account withdrawals to RICO lawsuits and alleged attempts to censor online criticism, BMF Advance has faced numerous legal battles and widespread public dissatisfaction. As investigations and lawsuits continue, more details are likely to emerge regarding the company’s controversial business practices.
How do we counteract this malpractice?
Once we ascertain the involvement of Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC (or actors working on behalf of Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC), we will inform Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC of our findings via Electronic Mail.
Our preliminary assessment suggests that Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC may have engaged a third-party reputation management agency or expert, which, either independently or under direct authorization from Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC, initiated efforts to remove adverse online content, including potentially fraudulent DMCA takedown requests. We will extend an opportunity to Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC 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 –
Since Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC 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 Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC is finding out the hard way.
Potential Consequences for Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC
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 Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC Committing a Cyber Crime?
Yes, it seems so. Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC 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. Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC 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 Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC 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. Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC 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 Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC 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, Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC either premeditated actions or were unaware of the consequences. Despite hiring an agency to make Google disregard any negative information about Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC, 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. Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC is in great company ….
What else is Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC hiding?
We encourage you to ‘Dork‘ Google by searching for keyword combinations such as [Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC] + {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 Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC 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.
Credits and Acknowledgement
Many thanks to FakeDMCA.com and Lumen for providing access to their database.
Photos and Illustrations provided by DALL-E 3 – “a representation of Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC censoring the internet and committing cyber crimes.”
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- Our investigative report on Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC‘s efforts to suppress online speech is significant, as it raises serious concerns about its integrity. The findings suggest that Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC has engaged in questionable practices, including potential perjury, impersonation, and fraud, in a misguided attempt to manage or salvage its reputation.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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 Gavriel Yitzchakov at BMF Advance LLC 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
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.
References used for this investigation
- 1
- https://lumendatabase.org/notices/45424891
- 15/10/2024
- Other
- 2
- http://thecity.nyc/2022/09/21/merchant-cash-advance-new-york-threats-courts
- 21/09/2022
- Adverse Media
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