Archive for October 2011

BIZARRE ON TOP OF BIZARRE: Andrey C. Hicks, Boston-Area Man Charged Civilly By SEC Last Week In Alleged ‘Locust’ Hedge-Fund Scheme, Now Charged Criminally, Feds Say; Separately, TMZ.com Reports Hicks Was Guest At Kim Kardashasian/Kris Humphries August Wedding — And That Kardashian Filed For Divorce Today

BIZARRE ON TOP OF BIZARRE: Andrey C. Hicks, Boston-Area Man Charged Civilly By SEC Last Week In Alleged 'Locust' Hedge-Fund Scheme, Now Charged Criminally, Feds Say; Separately, TMZ.com Reports Hicks Was Guest At Kim Kardashasian/Kris Humphries August Wedding -- And That Kardashian Filed For Divorce Today

Andrey C. Hicks, accused civilly by the SEC last week of orchestrating a domestic and offshore fraud, now has been charged criminally with wire fraud, federal prosecutors in Massachusetts said. Separately, TMZ.com is reporting that Hicks was a guest at the $10 million, August wedding of reality-TV star Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries, a professional […]

MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi Forum ‘Temporarily’ Closes ‘JustBeenPaid’ Thread After Bickering Between Former Club Asteria Pitchman And Pitchman For ‘New’ Program Trading On JustBeenPaid’s Name

MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi Forum 'Temporarily' Closes 'JustBeenPaid' Thread After Bickering Between Former Club Asteria Pitchman And Pitchman For 'New' Program Trading On JustBeenPaid's Name

We’ve mentioned it before — and we’ll mention it again. In July 2010, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) described the HYIP sphere as a “bizarre substratum of the Internet.” It was as good a description as any, and here is yet another case in point: The MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum said today that it “temporarily” […]

UPDATE: No Updates On Club Asteria Blog Since Oct. 15, No ‘News’ Site Updates Since Sept. 12; Firm Continues To Publish Red Cross Logo In House Organ And On Purported ‘Philanthropic’ Site Despite Cease-And-Desist Letter; 2008 Cash-Gifting Video With Hank Needham Emerges

UPDATE: No Updates On Club Asteria Blog Since Oct. 15, No 'News' Site Updates Since Sept. 12; Firm Continues To Publish Red Cross Logo In House Organ And On Purported 'Philanthropic' Site Despite Cease-And-Desist Letter; 2008 Cash-Gifting Video With Hank Needham Emerges

Is anybody at home at Club Asteria and the purported Asteria Philanthropic Foundation? And where, precisely, is home? The Club Asteria Blog on a .US domain has not been updated since Oct. 15. In the recent past, the Blog had been updated approximately every three (or so) days, according to the date notations on the […]

DEVELOPING STORY: Message Board For Members Of ‘OneX’ Scheme Pushed By Accused Ponzi Schemer Andy Bowdoin Claims ‘Transfer Funds’ Option Disabled Because Members Are Using ‘Stolen Credit Cards,’ Source Says

DEVELOPING STORY: Message Board For Members Of 'OneX' Scheme Pushed By Accused Ponzi Schemer Andy Bowdoin Claims 'Transfer Funds' Option Disabled Because Members Are Using 'Stolen Credit Cards,' Source Says

A bulletin board accessible only through the back offices of members of the purported  “OneX” program includes a message that the program has disabled a “Transfer Funds” option because a “recent investigation” has determined that members “have been depositing funds from stolen credit cards and transferring this tainted money to hundreds of other members of […]

BULLETIN: California Man, Wife And 68-Year-Old Mother Arrested In Alleged Bail-Bond Ponzi Scheme Tied To Bogus Company

BULLETIN: California Man, Wife And 68-Year-Old Mother Arrested In Alleged Bail-Bond Ponzi Scheme Tied To Bogus Company

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you’ve been keeping a “Bubba Blue” notebook on ways to have your Ponzi scheme as opposed to shrimp, here is another entry . . . BULLETIN: A California man, his wife and his Indiana-based mother have been arrested in an alleged $2.5 million Ponzi scheme tied to a bogus insurance company known […]

UPDATE: AdSurfDaily’s Andy Bowdoin Has Participated In At Least 3 Webinars For ‘OneX’ This Week; Calls Murky Business A ‘Financial Bailout Program For The Average Person’; Accused Ponzi Schemer Implies ASD Was ‘Tremendous’ Success And That People Who Listen To Him Are In ‘Top 10 Percent’

UPDATE: AdSurfDaily's Andy Bowdoin Has Participated In At Least 3 Webinars For 'OneX' This Week; Calls Murky Business A 'Financial Bailout Program For The Average Person'; Accused Ponzi Schemer Implies ASD Was 'Tremendous' Success And That People Who Listen To Him Are In 'Top 10 Percent'

UPDATE: Awaiting his Ponzi scheme trial on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities, AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin has participated this week in at least three webinars for a mysterious program known as “OneX.” OneX is a program pushed on Ponzi boards such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. It appears to be an […]

BULLETIN: Already Sentenced To 30 Years In California Ponzi Caper, Purported ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Thanh-Viet ‘Jeremy’ Cao Gets More Time In Nevada False-Liens Case

BULLETIN: Already Sentenced To 30 Years In California Ponzi Caper, Purported 'Sovereign Citizen' Thanh-Viet 'Jeremy' Cao Gets More Time In Nevada False-Liens Case

BULLETIN: Thanh-Viet “Jeremy” Cao, the California Ponzi schemer and purported “sovereign citizen” who was sentenced in May to 30 years in federal prison for the Ponzi caper, now has been sentenced to an additional 41 months for a Nevada crime in which he filed false liens for hundreds of millions of dollars against government officials. […]

SEC: Federal Judge Orders Asset Freeze Amid Allegations That ‘Locust Offshore Fund Ltd.’ Was A Fraud Pulled Off By Man Who Falsely Claimed 2 Harvard Degrees; Andrey C. Hicks Accused Of Faking Academic And Employment Pedigrees And Sanitizing Fraud Through Website

SEC: Federal Judge Orders Asset Freeze Amid Allegations That 'Locust Offshore Fund Ltd.' Was A Fraud Pulled Off By Man Who Falsely Claimed 2 Harvard Degrees; Andrey C. Hicks Accused Of Faking Academic And Employment Pedigrees And Sanitizing Fraud Through Website

In yet another bizarre and disturbing development on the fraud front, the SEC went to federal court in Massachusetts yesterday, leveling spectacular allegations of financial deceit against Locust Offshore Management LLC of Delaware and Cambridge, Mass., and its principal, Andrey C. Hicks of Boston. Named a relief defendant was Locust Offshore Fund Ltd., a purported […]

STATEMENT: PP Blog Experiencing Unusual Traffic Pattern During Anniversary Week Of Last Year’s Crippling Attack; Blog Confirms It Received A Claim Of Responsibility In April For Springtime Outage

STATEMENT: PP Blog Experiencing Unusual Traffic Pattern During Anniversary Week Of Last Year's Crippling Attack; Blog Confirms It Received A Claim Of Responsibility In April For Springtime Outage

At approximately 2:06 p.m. EDT Monday, the PP Blog began to experience an unusual traffic pattern. In the past, such patterns have been the precursors of sustained electronic assaults against the Blog. The unusual pattern reoccurred yesterday, and the Blog contacted a federal law-enforcement agency.  The agency is aware of a server-killing assault on the […]

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: American Red Cross Sends ‘Cease-And-Desist’ Letter To Asteria Foundation

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: American Red Cross Sends 'Cease-And-Desist' Letter To Asteria Foundation

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: The American Red Cross, which opened a probe last week into the potential misuse of its name and logo by the Asteria Philanthropic Foundation, has sent the foundation a letter to cease and desist. Anne Marie Borrego, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross in Washington, D.C., said this morning that […]

DEVELOPING STORY: Awaiting Trial, Accused AdSurfDaily Schemer Andy Bowdoin Resurfaces As Pitchman For OneX, ‘Opportunity’ Flogged On Ponzi Forums; ‘I Believe That God Has Brought Us OneX To Provide The Necessary Funds To Win This Case,’ Indicted ASD Patriarch Claims; ‘This Program Can Provide You With Earnings Beyond Your Wildest Imagination . . .’

DEVELOPING STORY: Awaiting Trial, Accused AdSurfDaily Schemer Andy Bowdoin Resurfaces As Pitchman For OneX, 'Opportunity' Flogged On Ponzi Forums; 'I Believe That God Has Brought Us OneX To Provide The Necessary Funds To Win This Case,' Indicted ASD Patriarch Claims; 'This Program Can Provide You With Earnings Beyond Your Wildest Imagination . . .'

EDITOR’S NOTE: The PP Blog may have more on this developing story in the coming days. In a bizarre development, accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin of AdSurfDaily told webinar listeners yesterday that he intended to fund his criminal defense to charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities through a purported business opportunity […]