James William Awad

A summary of what happened?

James William Awad, formerly known as Kevin Awad until a legal name change in 2019, is a Canadian entrepreneur and aspiring musician from Montreal. He is the founder of the 111 Private Club, a members-only organization that gained notoriety in early 2022 for organizing a controversial chartered flight from Montreal to Cancun. During this flight, passengers were filmed engaging in unruly behavior, including dancing, vaping, and consuming alcohol without masks, in violation of COVID-19 protocols.

Beyond this incident, Awad has faced scrutiny for his business dealings, particularly transactions involving individuals linked to organized crime. In September 2021, he purchased a property on Place du Coteau in Bois-des-Filion, Quebec, from Janie Éthier for $300,000. Éthier is the spouse of Sonny Martorana, president of Le Roi du Camion, a company based in Saint-Eustache. The Martorana family has been associated with criminal activities; Sonny Martorana was previously accused of odometer tampering and convicted of assault causing bodily harm.

Additionally, one of Awad’s ventures, Astrofit Gym, operates in a building owned by Giuseppe Borsellino, a figure known to law enforcement. Borsellino was the former head of BP Asphalte, a company that faced legal issues, including a $4 million fine for tax evasion.

Awad’s financial activities have also attracted regulatory attention. He was fined for acting as a financial broker without proper registration, and his company, KJRVS, solicited investments that were managed through his personal brokerage account.

In summary, James William Awad’s entrepreneurial ventures and associations have raised concerns due to connections with individuals linked to organized crime and regulatory violations in financial dealings. These issues have cast a shadow over his public image and business reputation.

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.

What was James William Awad trying to hide?

James William Awad‘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 James William Awad in legal accountability. Let’s examine the information James William Awad may be trying to remove from the internet –

Investigative Report: James William Awad – Controversies, Allegations, and Public Scrutiny

James William Awad, a Montreal-based entrepreneur and aspiring musician, has been the focus of significant media and public attention due to a series of controversial incidents, allegations, and questionable associations. Known for his flamboyant personality and self-proclaimed successes, Awad’s reputation has been overshadowed by incidents involving regulatory violations, financial misconduct, and connections to individuals linked to organized crime. This report delves into the controversies and adverse claims surrounding James William Awad, analyzing their implications and broader impact.

1. Background of James William Awad

A. Personal Profile

• Formerly known as Kevin Awad, he legally changed his name to James William Awad in 2019.
• Awad identifies as an entrepreneur, musician, and founder of the 111 Private Club, an exclusive members-only group promoting luxury experiences.

B. Public Notoriety

Awad gained widespread attention in January 2022 when he organized a chartered flight from Montreal to Cancun for members of the 111 Private Club. The flight, described as a “party in the sky,” quickly descended into chaos, with passengers filmed vaping, drinking, and dancing without masks in violation of COVID-19 protocols.

2. The Cancun Flight Controversy

A. Incident Details

• The flight, operated by Sunwing Airlines, was chartered to transport approximately 150 influencers and social media personalities to Cancun, Mexico.
• Videos shared on social media showed passengers:
  • Dancing and vaping in the aisles.
  • Drinking alcohol brought onboard against airline rules.
  • Ignoring mask mandates, violating Canadian pandemic travel restrictions.

B. Consequences

1. Airline Actions:
   • Sunwing canceled the return flight, citing passengers’ non-compliance with safety measures.
   • Air Canada and Air Transat also refused to fly the group back to Canada.
2. Regulatory Investigations:
   • Transport Canada launched an investigation into the incident, with potential fines of up to $5,000 per individual for violating travel regulations.
3. Public Backlash:
   • The incident drew widespread condemnation from the public, government officials, and the media. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the participants as “idiots.”

C. Awad’s Defense

• Awad defended his actions, claiming he had arranged all necessary protocols and blamed the airlines for mishandling the situation. However, his explanations failed to alleviate public criticism.

3. Financial and Regulatory Concerns

A. Unlicensed Financial Activities

Awad was fined by Quebec’s Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) for acting as a financial broker without proper registration. His company, KJRVS, solicited investments from clients, which were managed through his personal brokerage account.

• Details:
  • Awad reportedly presented himself as an experienced financial trader.
  • Clients later alleged mismanagement of funds and lack of transparency in his financial dealings.
• Implications:
  • The AMF’s actions highlighted Awad’s disregard for regulatory compliance in financial operations.

4. Connections to Individuals Linked to Organized Crime

A. Real Estate Transactions

• In September 2021, Awad purchased a property in Bois-des-Filion, Quebec, from Janie Éthier, the spouse of Sonny Martorana, president of Le Roi du Camion, a company with alleged ties to organized crime.
• Sonny Martorana has been accused of odometer tampering and was previously convicted of assault causing bodily harm.

B. Business Ties to Giuseppe Borsellino

• Awad’s gym, Astrofit Gym, operates in a building owned by Giuseppe Borsellino, a businessman with a controversial history.
• Borsellino, a former head of BP Asphalte, was fined $4 million for tax evasion, and his name has appeared in law enforcement records.

C. Concerns Over Associations

• Critics argue that Awad’s real estate and business dealings with individuals linked to organized crime raise questions about his judgment and the ethical standards of his business practices.

5. Legal and Ethical Concerns

A. Misrepresentation and Credibility Issues

• Awad has faced allegations of inflating his achievements, particularly regarding his financial and entrepreneurial ventures.
• Clients and associates have accused him of misrepresenting his expertise, leading to financial losses and dissatisfaction.

B. Public Criticism of Business Practices

• Awad’s ventures, including the 111 Private Club, have been criticized for prioritizing flashy marketing over substance, with some describing his projects as unsustainable and poorly managed.

C. Potential Legal Exposure

• Awad’s activities, including unlicensed financial dealings and questionable associations, could expose him to further regulatory scrutiny and legal action.

6. Public and Media Perception

A. Media Coverage

The media has widely criticized Awad for his involvement in high-profile controversies. Coverage has often focused on:

• The Cancun flight incident as a symbol of entitlement and irresponsibility.
• His connections to individuals with criminal backgrounds, further tarnishing his public image.

B. Social Media Reactions

• Awad’s defense of the Cancun incident on social media drew ridicule and skepticism, with many accusing him of failing to take responsibility for his actions.

C. Reputation Management Attempts

Despite the backlash, Awad continues to maintain an active presence on social media, promoting his music and entrepreneurial activities. However, his efforts to rebrand himself have been met with mixed responses.

7. Implications and Broader Impact

A. For Awad’s Ventures

• The controversies surrounding Awad have damaged the credibility of his businesses, particularly the 111 Private Club.
• Potential investors and collaborators may be deterred by the negative publicity and regulatory scrutiny.

B. For Public Perception of Influencers

• The Cancun flight incident highlighted broader concerns about the behavior and accountability of social media influencers, sparking calls for stricter oversight of their activities.

C. For Regulatory Bodies

• Awad’s unlicensed financial activities underscore the need for regulators to monitor and address misconduct in emerging financial sectors.

8. Conclusion: A Career Mired in Controversy

James William Awad presents himself as a multifaceted entrepreneur and entertainer, but his public image is marred by controversies, questionable associations, and allegations of misconduct. From the chaotic Cancun flight to financial and regulatory violations, Awad’s actions have drawn widespread criticism and scrutiny.

Key Takeaways:

1. Regulatory Violations: Awad’s unlicensed financial dealings reveal a disregard for legal and ethical standards.
2. Associations with Controversial Figures: Business transactions with individuals linked to organized crime have raised questions about his judgment.
3. Public Backlash: The Cancun flight incident exemplifies the risks of prioritizing spectacle over responsibility.

Outlook:

James William Awad’s ability to rehabilitate his reputation will depend on his willingness to address past controversies transparently and adopt more responsible business practices. Without meaningful change, he risks further alienating the public and damaging his entrepreneurial ambitions.

How do we counteract this malpractice?

Once we ascertain the involvement of James William Awad (or actors working on behalf of James William Awad), we will inform James William Awad of our findings via Electronic Mail.

Our preliminary assessment suggests that James William Awad may have engaged a third-party reputation management agency or expert, which, either independently or under direct authorization from James William Awad, initiated efforts to remove adverse online content, including potentially fraudulent DMCA takedown requests. We will extend an opportunity to James William Awad 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 James William Awad 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 James William Awad is finding out the hard way.

Potential Consequences for James William Awad

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 James William Awad Committing a Cyber Crime?

Yes, it seems so. James William Awad 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. James William Awad 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 James William Awad 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. James William Awad 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 James William Awad 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, James William Awad either premeditated actions or were unaware of the consequences. Despite hiring an agency to make Google disregard any negative information about James William Awad, 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. James William Awad is in great company ….

What else is James William Awad hiding?

We encourage you to ‘Dork‘ Google by searching for keyword combinations such as [James William Awad] + {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 James William Awad 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.