Self-described millionaire with questionable past is teaching Ukrainians the secrets of becoming a millionaire despite negative media portrayals
In many ways, Robert T. Fletcher, III is like many expats living in Ukraine, having landed a Ukrainian wife and jump-start-ed a business.
Yet, since arriving in Ukraine in June 2006, this self-declared American millionaire has been at the center of a storm of controversy, with Ukrainian media attacking him for setting up pyramid schemes behind his regular television infomercials promoting his “Millionaires’ Secrets” training programs.
In early November, he was arrested for allegedly possessing a fake Ukrainian passport.
Fletcher, who is facing civil charges in the US on multi-million-dollar securities fraud, said his recent troubles are also part of a conspiracy waged against him by business competitors whom he would not identify.
“This was not about the passport,” he told the Post.
“This was about holding me for as long as they could legally hold me, up to 15 days. The media campaign against me was paid for to destroy my image, my [credibility], and to destroy my company Global Systems Training. This was the whole plan of this attack.”
Secrets of a millionaire
The 44-year-old Fletcher, who claims to have struck it rich at the age of 22 running a direct sales company in the US vending fire extinguishers and beauty products, has since built a career in providing training to aspiring millionaires.
Fletcher said he came to Ukraine to find a wife, not to set up a business.
He decided to set up shop here nevertheless, co-founding Global Systems Training (GST), which is registered as a limited liability corporation.
The company claims to teach people how to make millions of dollars via a series of training seminars run by Fletcher himself, and top trainers working for him.
The seminars are billed as opportunities to invest in existing business projects, all the while learning investment skills.
Each course costs in the range of $50, but can run much higher, with a series of courses costing $1,500 and higher.
“I want success-minded people, people who read success books and who want to be successful,” said Fletcher, who has been accused of running pyramid schemes.
“I offer a 100 percent money back guarantee.”
What he described as bad press by several newspapers, including the daily Segodnya, escalated into problems with Ukrainian law on Nov. 9, when Fletcher was arrested for crossing the Russian-Ukrainian border with an allegedly fake Ukrainian passport issued in Ivano-Frankivsk back in 2004.
He said he was traveling with his wife, Olha Dubrovskaya, from Ukraine to Moscow at the time.
Crossing the Ukrainian-Russian border at Khutor-Mykhaylivskiy station, Fletcher was detained and subsequently spent 10 days in jail before posting $6,400 bail in the Konotop District Court of the Sumy Region.
Fletcher said he and his wife were en route to Sochi via an impending roundtrip flight through Moscow for a four-day vacation.
Asked why he didn’t fly, Fletcher pointed to a hectic schedule that made it difficult to plan trips ahead of time.
Fletcher, who resided in Alaska, California and other states, would not disclose the whereabouts of his US passport, however.
According to the US Department of State website, “A US citizen may acquire foreign citizenship by marriage, or a person naturalized as a US citizen may not lose the citizenship of the country of birth. However, a person who acquires a foreign citizenship by applying for it may lose US citizenship.”
“If I were a Ukrainian citizen with a fake passport, I would have been detained for one to two days and released for 1,000 hryvnia [$200],” Fletcher said. “And then the subsequent media campaign that ensued was paid for to discredit me and destroy my company, Global Systems Training.”
Fletcher said there are over 2,000 people currently in his GST network of trainers and employees, but the Post couldn’t verify what business projects or investments GST offers its aspiring millionaires.
The Post also couldn’t determine the nature of the relationship the businesses listed as “projects” on the GST website have with the company.
Several media and countless Web forums have labeled GST as a modern pyramid scheme, in which money simply changes hands using a product, in this case, training courses, to disguise the manipulation.
It is not clear whether GST offers a real product and simply builds on the network to expand via duplication.
A background search with Backgroundchecks.com conducted by the Post couldn’t determine whether Fletcher has a criminal record.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed federal fraud and related charges in September against Fletcher and others involved.
ProVision
They are accused of “fraudulently raising millions of dollars from investors, representing that the [Provision Operation Systems, Inc.] company was successful and expanding, and made materially false or misleading statements about the company’s business operations, profitability and financial conduction,” according to the SEC’s charges.
In the US, ProVision was a development-stage company, purportedly in the business of providing real estate investment advice and training, as well as investment opportunities.
In June 2005, the state of California issued a “desist and refrain order” to Fletcher and his company, ProVision, barring him from offering or selling franchises of his company, since he did not duly register.
According to the order, “it was necessary, in the public interest, for the protection of franchisees and consistent with the purposes, policies, and provision of the Franchise Investment Law.”
Three months prior to the order, ProVision announced it was suspending Fletcher as the company’s chairman and CEO “from all company duties and responsibilities, including board director.”
On that same day, ProVision suspended Fletcher’s stocks, voting rights, and all other possible company-controlled assets, pending the outcome of ongoing investigations by legal authorities.
ProVision’s new president and CEO, Hassan (Sam) Kassir, was instructed by the board of directors to shut down all questionable operations and restructure the company.
At the time Kassir took over, the company was in default on more than $10 million in short-term debt.
Fletcher said his lawyers are trying to settle the case out of court, claiming he was unfairly driven out of the company.
The multi-million-dollar SEC suit also alleges Fletcher “used the money for personal expenses and to support his lavish lifestyle, including purchasing jewelry and clothing, and for gambling.”
In his defense, Fletcher said he bought jewelry and gifts as rewards for his top employees and salespeople, not for personal use.
“I never spent more than $5,000 on jewelry as a bonus for my leaders,” he recalled. “What the SEC says is [b-s].”
Fletcher has a startling pattern of training businesses in the US, Russia and other countries.
According to the official State of Nevada website, 14 companies are listed with Fletcher as president, secretary or treasurer, which have all been either “revoked” or “insolvent” in 2005 and 2006.
Fletcher claimed he resigned as chairman and CEO of ProVision.
Asked whether he still owns any assets in the US, Fletcher replied, “not really.”
On whether he owes anyone money, Fletcher said investors are always losing money and referred to the Internet bubble and money-losing mutual funds as examples of money-making endeavors.
Fletcher did not know when a court date would be set to settle the issue of the alleged possession of a fake passport, but said he was satisfied with the local counsel he hired in Kyiv.
As the Post went to print, Fletcher was in Kyiv, resuming his training schedule and preparing for the court battle ahead.
