BOMBSHELL: Drug Enforcement Administration Reportedly Has Photographic Evidence That Man Who Provided Debit Cards To AdSurfDaily And Other Surfs Accepted Cash To Launder Money Offshore In Narcotics Sting
UPDATED 10:56 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Autosurf participant? Fan of international “stored value” debit cards to offload your profits? You should have a lump in your throat about the size of, say, the Dominican Republic right now.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has audio and photographic evidence of Virtual Money Inc. President Robert Everett Hodgins accepting $100,000 and agreeing to launder drug money in the Dominican Republic for a fee of 10 percent of the amount, according to court documents cited by The Oklahoman (see link to story below).
The transaction was part of a DEA sting last year known as “Operation Highwire.”
Hodgins lives in Oklahoma, although his current whereabouts is unknown. Nolan Clay, the veteran, award-winning reporter who wrote the VM story, covered the Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people in 1995 and the execution of home-grown terrorist Timothy McVeigh in 2001.
VM was indicted last year under seal for helping a Colombian drug operation launder money at ATM machines. There was little media coverage of the indictment. We learned about it only yesterday by fluke. Within a short while, it became evident that VM had a considerable presence in the autosurf trade.
Connecting The VM Autosurf Dots
Virtual Money Inc., known simply as VM, is the company that provided debit cards to AdSurfDaily Inc. Research shows that VM also provided cards to other HYIPs and autosurfs.
As part of our research into a separate matter yesterday — and before we learned of the VM indictment — we viewed the source code from an ad for ASD that appeared in early 2007. We observed a link to the VM website in the source code, tried to follow it and eventually arrived at a message that explained VM no longer was operating. At the time, ASD also advertised that it accepted CEP Trust and e-Gold as payment methods. CEP later was implicated in its own Ponzi scheme, and e-Gold was indicted for money-laundering.
Screen shot: snippet of source code from 2007 ad for ASD showing URL for Virtual Money Inc.
The VM hyperlinks caught our interest, and we researched the matter further. Eventually we came upon Clay’s story about the alleged VM drug ties. The story did not mention autosurfs.
We obtained copies of the indictments against VM, which were filed in April 2008 in Connecticut under seal, superseded in June 2008 under seal and then made public in late September, about seven weeks after the forfeiture complaint was served in the ASD case. The VM indictments in the Medellin drug case got very little media attention.
One outlet that did pay attention was The Oklahoman, which published Clay’s story about the drug and money-laundering allegations. Clay reported that the government believed Hodgins had been laundering money for a “major Colombian drug operation” for years.
VM, which offered “stored value” debit cards, was accused in the indictments of laundering money for a drug enterprise in Medellin. Yes, that Medellin, a Medellin that once was home base for drug lord and terrorist Pablo Escobar.
Genesis
In addition to providing cards for ASD, VM also provided debit cards to the failed Phoenix Surf Ponzi scheme and other surfs and HYIPs, according to web records. VM’s name is mentioned in Paragraph 22 of the August forfeiture complaint against ASD, and also in Government Exhibit 2Â in the ASD case, which cites the PhoenixSurf Ponzi prosecution.
What this means is that autosurf and HYIP participants were using the same debit card a Colombian cocaine enterprise allegedly was using. It also means that VM recognized the utility its card would have in the autosurf world and that the autosurf world embraced the card.
These development became even more troubling today. Research suggests that Robert Hodgins or a VM designate participated in an ASD function about a month after ASD began its rollout in October 2006.
“Virtual money owner was there and ASD will be the only accepted autosurf by them,” a forum poster wrote Nov. 15, 2006. The post was a bit fuzzy, but seemed to suggest Hodgins or a designate participated on a conference call or an ASD physical function in Orlando.
It’s now clear from reading the Ponzi boards that VM — despite the poster’s claim that ASD would be its exclusive customer — had developed a significant presence in the surf/HYIP worlds in 2006.
During that same year, according to the DEA court filings unsealed in September 2008 after a two-year investigation, VM cards were used in Medellin to withdraw at least $7.1 million in drug proceeds at ATMs between April 2006 and August 2006.
If the allegations are true, it means that the company that provided the debit cards ASD used was in the business of laundering money for at least one international narco business before ASD even launched. Because the drug investigation overlapped into 2008 and featured the handover of money by an informant to Hodgins (see below), it means that VM continued to be in the business of laundering drug proceeds after ASD’s launch.
Ten names appear in the federal indictment against VM and Hodgins, including the names of alleged drug brokers and importers in Medellin.
What can’t be ruled out now is that narco businesses also were using autosurfs to launder money — perhaps without the knowledge of the autosurf operators — owing to the VM ties and use of the VM debit card.
A drug enterprise or exporters/importers could pose as autosurf customers, for example, to “hide” illegal drug profits in the surf, only to extract the drug profits (plus additional surf profits) later by reclaiming the money via wire, or offloading it from debit cards.
The Bombshell
Among other things, Clay reported in The Oklahoman Oct. 19, 2008, that the DEA infiltrated VM through a confidential informant who befriended Hodgins.
“The informant claimed an uncle needed drug proceeds transferred overseas,” the newspaper reported, citing government documents. “Hodgins agreed to conduct this and other transfers for a fee of 10 percent of the amount.”
In March 2008, the informant “gave Hodgins $100,000 in undercover funds and asked that the ‘drug proceeds’ be moved to a Dominican Republic bank,” the newspaper reported, citing government documents. “Hodgins agreed, while the informant secretly recorded him and surveillance agents photographed them.”
What this means, if the allegations are true, is that the DEA has audio and photographic evidence of the man who provided debit cards to ASD and other surf enterprises accepting money to participate in international drug transactions and international money-laundering.
There are many “What ifs” here — for example, What if the international drug trade has latched onto the illegal surf business to launder proceeds from the international sale of narcotics? What if the person standing in front of you at an ASD rally was an international drug trafficker who was using ASD to increase profits and launder the drug proceeds?
Kneejerk autosurf defenders naturally will dismiss such questions, but they are important — and the DEA might have evidence that shows a known figure in the debit-card business, a figure with obvious ties to the autosurf business, was willing to launder proceeds for a Medellin cocaine operation for a fee. The autosurfs could have aided in the laundering.
Feel that lump yet?
If not, you should consider that Pablo Escobar — now dead — was implicated in the assassination of a Colombian presidential candidate and an airline bombing that killed 110 people.
We always have been struck by how quickly the U.S. Secret Service entered the ASD case. It is not clear if the Secret Service and the DEA have shared information, but it could not be more clear that international criminals are well aware of the utility of “stored value” debit cards.
Such cards are becoming a fixture in the autosurf trade.
I’ll go one better, Imagine you’re the “admin” of a ponzi scheme who suspends payouts the day after the drug dealer drops a large amount into “advertising”. Forget the authorities, now you have real problems.
Which makes one wonder why Andy Bowdoin had a sudden change of heart and tried to withdraw his acceptance of the forfeiture, after the existance of his proffer letter became public.
Having heard of people bringing down sums in the region of a quarter of a million dollars and more to the ASD Las Vegas rally, and having heard of the vast amounts of cash that were accepted by ASD until they changed the rules, it is fairly obvious that ASD neither knew nor cared where the money for their “advertising” sales came from.
I must now go to the Surf’s Up site and remind them of how the were so upset that the government treated them like terrorists or drug dealers and how totally unfair it was. Oh, wait. So Andy did business with people that helped drug dealers and terrorists.. Not so far off the mark now, was it??
Slightly off topic –
Names Deal Cracks Swiss Bank Secrecy
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/business/global/20ubs.html?_r=1
…the Justice Department was preparing criminal cases against some of the Swiss agents and intermediaries who set up offshore entities for clients and funnel their money to private banks. They take a referral fee in the process – sometimes up to 50 percent, according to a former UBS private banker.
A little-known I.R.S. program, the Offshore Identification Unit, is helping to build a map of this world. It recently began tracking all disclosures of wealthy Americans who, unnerved by the UBS situation, have come forward to declare their assets and account details, often naming the private banks and intermediaries they used.
Alao “slightly off topic” but relevant.
Since 2006, Australia has had in place Project Wickenby, which is a cooperative partnership between the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), Australian Federal Police (AFP), Australian Crime Commission (ACC), Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) with support from the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) and the Australian Government Solicitor (AGS).
Operation Wickenby develops intelligence on and investigates and prosecutes promoters and participants who facilitate and profit from abusive tax haven arrangements and those who use “offshore” credit and debit cards to facilitate money laundering scams.
Operation Wickenby lead to the development of specialty software to identify and flag usage of such overseas issued credit and debit cards, particularly via ATM transactions.
Don……You know as well as I that ‘Surfs Up’ will only post items that are not detrimental to their views! I can understand why the Mods don’t want their list of people seeing this website……..If they did, most would probably think the Mods were part of the regime that kept people from filing complaints against God-fearing Andy(yeah, right). It’s one thing to give everyone hope for an eventual end to this fiasco..but it’s another thing when you try to blame the govt for taking the money from bowdoin and associates (it was not our money in the first place!). And when you read about all the other principals that were involved in ASD that are now trying to start other schemes…well it just shows that they are all trying to make a fast(illegal) buck from common folks and have no conscience…One things for sure though…..if they cross the drug cartel someone will be pushing up daisies very quickly!
I just got a recorded call from a “David Moses” (1-866-285-xxxx). He was calling me saying that it was sad that ASD no longer exists, but that he has a Great opportunity to replace ASD.
I never heard of a “David Moses” before. I wonder if he somehow got my phone number from the ASD database. Disgusting.
He’s not getting my money.
Martin,
The ASD database has been sold multiple times, according to various posts. David Moses is connected at least with selling “snake oil”, Gano Excel. The company that pushes Gano Excel is an MLM company, and their product has been the subject of an FDA warning (to the company) that the company was violating the FDA rules regarding false claims of health benefits (in other words, snake oil). Staying away is a good idea…..
[…] 2006 and 2007, AdSurfDaily Inc. used the services of Virtual Money Inc., a debit-card provider accused last year of laundering money for a major narco business in […]
Look at my research on VM at http://virtualmoneyincscam.blogspot.com/
The people running the company now are Donna Andrew (Robert Hodgins wife) and the judge appointed people ann and katy hubener! They are working with hodgins to start a new autosurf type thing at http://www.oicworldtrade.com/
MORE TERRORISM!! Please forward this information to your justice people!!!
Finding the allusive Robert Hodgins is not that hard if you know where to look. Firstly Donna Andrews is his wife and on paper it may say she is his business partner, but reality will show anyone that Donna Andrews does not have the mental capacity or intelligence to run such a business, her head is way up in the clouds and to focussed on saving the missing Bee’s from Cell Phone Antenna’s. It’s just a front people. The real business partners of Robert Hodgins are Ian Simm http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ian-simm/11/861/441 VM Master Agent Dubai and Australia and David Bradley http://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-bradley/7/676/543. or http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=David+Bradley&init=quick#/db.bradley?ref=search&sid=1390656446.4158458401..1 VM Master Agents Malaysia and Australia.
Ian Simm was in USA in February last year with Robert Hodgins and attended a press release in LA, during this trip over dinner one night Robert Hodgins told Ian Simm quite a lot about his Columbian Master Agent and ATM machines.
In late July 2008 Ian Simm went to Malaysia and met with Dato’ Paduka Sri Mir Khan, the request was for delivery of a payment system that would provide the Islamic World with a free trade platform that would enable the Islamic world to do 100% confidential and private transactions between 57 Islamic Countries for all business owners. The 1st order via a signed Letter of Intent was 1 million ATM cards. At 1st Ian Simm did not want to give this deal to Virtual Money because they were based in USA and OIC did not want any tracings of their transactions to go through USA or be in $USD and was planning to attempt to contract a private team of IT Developers to biuld a new payment System, but because of his lack of knowledge in the IT world he found this quite difficult. http://www.oicworldtrade.com/ and http://www.cougarworldtrade.com/
When VM was shut down in August by US officials this was a blessing in disguise for Ian Simm as it meant he could suggest to Hodgins to relaunch VM out of Malaysia where they would get assistance via the OIC.
The partnership was formed in August 2008 in Bali at David’s wedding. Which Robert and Donna attended. From Bali, Robert went back to Malaysia and has stayed in Malaysia living at David Bradleys home. The reason why these guys are attempting to build new VM payment system in Malaysia is to deliver a new payment system to the OIC http://www.oicworldtrade.com/ which has a signed Letter Of Intent from Dato’ Paduka Sri Mir Khan the head of OIC World Trade. http://www.tokohindonesia.com/aneka/tokohdunia/mirkhan/index.shtml
Ian Simm who was at the time residing in Dubai UAE, left Dubai owing $20 Million USD from a failed Property Investment Business, called Cougar Holdings LTD and fled back to Melbourne Australia where he now resides and travels between Australia and Malaysia meeting with OIC, and his business partners Robert Hodgins and David Bradley
So if I was a FBI agent or any other US agent I would do these simple steps.
1/ Go to Malaysia and speak to Dato’ Paduka Sri Mir Khan ask him for the where abouts of Ian Simm and David Bradley and also get details of there so called OIC World Trade Platform.
2/ Question Ian Simm about his knowledge of the Columbian Master Agent and ATM scheme that Hodgins told him about over dinner in LA.
3/ Get David Bradley’s address and you will find Robert Hodgins.
4/ Go to Melbourne Australia and find Ian Simm.
Cougar World Trade is a paid membership web portal developed primarily to enable businesses located anywhere in the world to access the 57 OIC Member Countries currently trading within their closed-loop trading community portal at http://www.oicworldtrade.com
As well as empowering all businesses to trade with each other, Cougar World Trade will also offer resources including how-to articles, business forms, contracts and agreements, expert advice, blogs, business news and forums, business directory listings, product comparisons, business guides and more.
Cougar World Trade will progressively open up opportunities with all reputable businesses and organisations across nearly 200 countries.
Cougar World Trade is part of the Cougar Group of Companies and currently has offices in Dubai and Kuala Lumpur with others being planned.
We are entering an exciting growth phase
One of the Master Agents of VMI (Eric Anderson) contacted me a couple of years ago, and requested I get involved in out exchanging digital gold currencies to VMI plastic. I was leery at first, but after dealing with VMI for over 18 months (and issuing their cards) I was happy to sign up as a reseller, and paid my $8k USD fee. They requested I attend a training session in Dallas, which I duly did. AT that training, the feds raided the joint. So much for my investment. I lost a total of approx. $15k USD. But many others lost substantially more. It’s taken me a year to replace the VMI card with another card program.
Digital gold currencies & digital currencies are here forever. Many people are now preferring to use DGC’s instead of fiat paper, as most fiat is now massively devaluing. In any want to speak with me, you can find the phone numbers at my site.
Good grief! Graham Kelly is reading this blog. Still I shouldn’t be surprised. Ponzi scams go well with Graham Kelly’s past operations.
Graham Kelly promoted Osgold, along with others. I read somewhere once that he was on the run from the law and was living in New Zealand. I don’t know how true it was. I think I’m right in saying that he was also trading in IntGold before, during, and after it got closed down a few years ago.
VMI is just the sort of dodgy operation that would appeal to G.K. Goldnow accepts payments from just about every dodgy ponzi friendly payment processor around. I don’t know the full current list, but in the past it has included the likes of IntGold, E-Gold, E-Bullion, Stormpay etc.
Graham Kelly. Barge pole. Do not touch.
Good grief, who the heck is Tony H? Yes, I admit it, I promoted e-gold,
and many other digital currencies, all in the name of free enterprise.
Lots failed, for various reasons. Generally, I will deal in a digital
currency if enough of my customers demand it. I’ve been in the same
business for over 10 1/2 years. I’ve learnt many lessons, and sadly I
had to effectively become a private investigator, to avoid getting
defrauded.
On the run from the law? LOL All my 9 kids were born in NZ, but I only
spend 3 months per annum there. No, I don’t break laws (actually,
recently, I DID; I refused to give a breath test to a NZ police officer
(I had not drunk any alcohol for 9 months previously) So, eventually, I
lost my drivers license for 6 months, and was fined a total of $380).
But my US issued pilots licence is still intact, and I now get
chauffeured around… much better! Apparently, the NZ police will send
your licence back after 6 months, but I wouldn’t care if they didn’t.
“I don’t care what they say about me, as long as they spell my name
right” – PT Barnum
There’s plenty of rumours around about the digital currency, hyip, surf, and other types of matrixes. These are the boogeymen of the mainstream press to talk about money laundering, etc. But it is all just a bait-and-switch. The fact is that most money laundering happens right through the mainstream banks like JP Morgan Chaseyourmoney, and Bank of scAmerica. Blaming fledgeling online industries for the phenomenal failings of the mainstream banks is at best stupid and at worst disingenuous.
[…] a follow-up story, we asked if autosurf and HYIP enthusiasts who describe the enterprises as harmless despite the […]
Withdrawing $7.1 million in five months via ATM debit cards with a maximum daily withdrawal of $1000 doesn’t make sense. It means you’d have 50 guys with 50 different accounts withdrawing $1000 a day every day for the whole time. And the SOPs for VM wouldn’t have, COULDN’T have let that happen. Red flags would have been flying everywhere.
I think you need to get the facts straight before sensationalizing this stuff.
PJ
The Blog has copies of the indictment and the superseding indictment and stands behind its reporting.
I don’t know what the daily withdrawal limit is in Medellin or how many people were involved in the alleged conspiracy; I do know that the Feds used the plural — “ATM machines in Medellin, Colombia” — listed a specific bank, and cited these amounts:
* $2.43 million in April 2006
* $2.43 million in June 2006.
* $2.25 million in August 2006.
Patrick
Welcome to 7 months ago.
You may want to actually read the whole article and since you have comprehension issues, have someone explain it to you. Especially this part:
What is the new card program? I also lost about US$120K :( But I don’t think the case against Hodges is justified and hold DPG responsible for my loss.
Thanks in advance.
Thanks again. I am just pointing out the VMI ATM limits for ALL cards. No matter which country the ATM withdrawal was made, the VMI computers will not allow a withdrawal of over US$1000 a day. If there were a number of such withdrawals made from one account (or even multiple ATTEMPTS made) in a short period the account would raise red flags in the IT Dept and eventually shut the account down.
So at the end of the day I think the case against Hodgins is either a beat up or reported wrongly. He personally had no control of the IT Dept. Others who were part of the DPG main team were. In fact Compliance Dept was headed up by Korinne Moore, Brian Moore’s wife. BOTH were part of the DPG thing and have since scrammed leaving a lot of promises unfulfilled and questions unanswered.
It seems you have some information that could be useful. Have you contacted the authorities?
Peter Johnson,
It is a question of responsibility. If you feel comfortable involving yourself in a business that launders money for drug dealers and assassins, that’s your problem. Most of us would prefer that it isnt ours and take positive steps to avoid this kind of implication. Some don’t bother and make excuses – you choose.
LOL. Allegedly launders. As I said, the VMI technology would prevent it and if it was tweaked to allow SOME cards a greater withdrawal limit than $1000 a day then that would mean not just Hodgins but a number of people from IT techs to compliance officers would have been involved. It doesn’t hold water.
They are all allegations. DEA say they have proof of Hodgins agreeing to launder drug money but I say bullshit. What you have here is one guy supposedly sent by the DEA giving Hodgins $100K to launder. The $100K was sitting there unmoved because the guy didn’t produce the necessary identification to establish an account. When asked to supply the government required identification he scrams and the next thing you know is the DEA claiming they have Hodgins cold.
If $7.1 million was going to be moved through VM cards you’d need IT techs and compliance officers who deal with authorizations daily to arrange it. Instead you have ALL of those involved at that level standing AGAINST Hodgins with their bogus attempt to access VMI money through their DPG offshoot company. They had access to all the VM funds after the DEA allegations. So why weren’t the funds frozen? Instead you had the people who would have been necessary to make the whole Medilin thing possible there in Dallas holding the purse strings whilst Hodgins and his wife try nd expose it all.
Oh and don’t forget the 50 or so drug lords hanging around ATMs in Columbia every day withdrawing $1,000, then going home and coming back the next day to do it again, day in and day out. As if…
The whole reason VM was even able to operate with government approval was because they had strict compliance regs with these very low daily limits precisely to stop the money laundering you’re claiming. Not to mention compliance restrictions on the amount of money allowed in any one account at any time. Especially with the Home Security being as it is, why would Hodgins risk everything including a strong and promising future in international debit card funds transfer worth tens of millions a year, maybe more, in legal and honest transfer fees for 10% of a highly illegal operation that by its nature is so obvious even Stevie Wonder could have spotted it.
BTW I have to say that’s a damn “holier-than-thou” attitude. If you stick by that you wouldn’t be able to do business with most banks. Are you so certain the bank the bank you use daily doesn’t have any customers involved with criminal activities?
Again, it is alleged and there is no proof and our good Constitution ascertains that we are innocent until proven guilty. What about your affairs behind your wife’s back? Now, just because I SAY it doesn’t make it true. right? But someone will pick it up and make it sound like you are guilty anyway. That’s what everyone here is doing with Hodgins. Let’s see the proof, not alleged this and alleged that.
Fair points Mr Johnston. I would welcome further input from either side. I also have a VM account with a few thousand in it. I used it to travel widely and withdrew funds in numerous countries so am aware of the strict daily withdrawal limits. Withdrawing $7million $1000 at a time is impractical, yes.
An investigation was done years ago, an indictment was handed down, and from what it seems only Robert Hodgins is being sought after. Were other employees of VM’s homes raiding by DEA task force, Mr. Johnston? You seem to have some inside information. Please share.
It looks like the US Gov did a press release several weeks ago.
http://www.justice.gov/usao/ct/Press2010/20100330-2.html
Hodgins is still “being sought by law enforcement”. Correct me if I am wrong, but this makes him a fugitive that is running from the law. If others are at fault for everything, why is he the one on the run after almost 2 years? Maybe you can email the Government about your theory and show them this massive mistake they have overlooked?
[…] PP Blog reported in August 2009 that VM’s name appeared in advertising materials for ASD in 2007. Research showed that VM also provided cards to other autosurfs and HYIPs, including the […]
Patrick: Another release from doj on this topic. Virtual Money CEO still being sought.
http://www.justice.gov/usao/ct/Press2010/20100809.html
[…] August 2009, the PP Blog reported that VM’s name appeared in advertising materials for ASD in 2007. Records suggest that Hodgins or a VM designate attended an ASD function in Orlando in […]
Thanks for this, GoldCash.
Story here:
https://patrickpretty.com/2010/08/15/update-robert-hodgins-still-wanted-by-interpol-co-defendant-in-narcotics-probe-with-link-to-adsurfdaily-case-sentenced-to-prison-colombian-drug-business-used-same-debit-card-as-asd/
Patrick