With federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia now saying AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin was involved in multiple fraud schemes after the U.S. Secret Service seized $65.8 million from his personal bank accounts in August 2008 in a Ponzi probe, the ASD patriarch now faces a bond-review hearing in Washington.
U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer has scheduled the hearing for May 8.
Prosecutors pointedly asserted on April 17 that Bowdoin, 77, was promoting a “fraudulent scheme” known as “OneX,” informing Collyer that Bowdoin’s OneX pitches began in 2011 –after Bowdoin was indicted in 2010 on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities in his operation of ASD.
Collyer now has ordered prosecutors to present “all evidence (written and testimonial) regarding Defendant’s alleged involvement in OneX or any other alleged Internet scheme since the Indictment in this case.”
Bowdoin’s OneX pitches, which mixed in commentary about his criminal case, began in October 2011. The ASD-related indictment against him was unsealed in November 2010 and announced publicly on Dec. 1, 2010.
Prosecutors also say Bowdoin was involved in AdViewGlobal, an autosurf that came to life in late 2008 and early 2009 — after the August 2008 Secret Service seizure. At the same time, prosecutors say Bowdoin, Clarence Busby and “others” were involved in the operation of the Golden Panda Ad Builder autosurf, the so-called “Chinese” version of ASD.
Money from at least five Golden Panda bank accounts was seized as part of the ASD probe in 2008. All in all, the combined sums seized from ASD and Golden Panda totaled about $80 million.
I drove to my sister’s house this morning to make this quick post. The past few days have brought about a crisis . . .
On Friday, both of the computers used to publish the Blog developed problems with condensation. Precisely how and why this happened remain a mystery. Our desktop machine became wet on the inside. The screen on the laptop, meanwhile, literally was dripping with water.
The bottom line is that both machines got fried. The situation also is affecting our ability to read and return correspondence and access email. Although the site remains online, we have no ability to access the Internet. This probably will be the case through Wednesday or Thursday.
Friends, this is occurring while we’re facing our usual end-of-the-month obstacles. Although my family is going to help me get a replacement computer, the hosting bill is coming due and there are other expenses that must be addressed.
UPDATED 11:40 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Federal prosecutors say they’ve tied AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin to the failed AdViewGlobal autosurf and intend to introduce evidence of “uncharged misconduct” at Bowdoin’s trial for the alleged ASD Ponzi scheme.
Meanwhile, prosecutors say “OneX” — a “program” Bowdoin said he was pitching to help pay for his criminal defense in the ASD Ponzi case — is a “fraudulent scheme.”
The OneX organization and its “matrix,” prosecutors said, are more accurately described as a “pyramid” and the purported opportunity “simply re-distributes funds among participants.”
“In this latest venture, Bowdoin has again partnered with Tari Steward and Rayda Roundy, both of whom were involved in the operation of ASD,” prosecutors said.
Prosecutors’ references to AdViewGlobal and OneX are believed to mark the first time the government has acknowledged publicly it was gathering information about the schemes. The government says its probe into Bowdoin continues and that it intends to introduce other evidence of criminal conduct at his September Ponzi trial.
“The government is aware of additional criminal matters lodged against Bowdoin,” prosecutors said.
Precisely what those alleged matters entailed was not immediately clear.
Here (below) are some highlights from an April 17 letter and an April 24 list of exhibits prosecutors filed with the court and sent to Charles A. Murray, Bowdoin’s defense attorney. The letter and exhibits inform Murray about certain matters the government intends to introduce at trial. (Italics and/or bold emphasis added by PP Blog):
Bowdoin’s history involves at least four instances in which he was charged with securities-related crimes during the 1990s in Alabama. Three indictments were returned in Montgomery County, and one was returned in Wilcox County. There were multiple victims. Bowdoin accepted plea agreements, agreed to testify for the state against at least five defendants and agreed to make restitution to his fleeced investors. (Note: These assertions by the government may be aimed at short-circuiting any claim by Bowdoin that he was ignorant of securities laws when he started ASD. At the same time, the assertions are potentially useful in making a case that Bowdoin was committed to making a living from securities fraud even after agreeing to testify against alleged securities fraudsters.)
Bowdoin allegedly paid some of the Alabama restitution with proceeds from the ASD Ponzi scheme.
In one of the Alabama cases, a grand jury accused Bowdoin of not telling investors he was using their money to make “full and/or partial refunds to investors in earlier projects” involving a cell-phone business.
Bowdoin solicited $600,000 from an Alabama investor, but allegedly did not disclose that his company had been sued four times under a previous name. (Note: Lack of disclosure and a name change also are alleged parts of the ASD scheme.) Moreover, Bowdoin allegedly sold the $600,000 contract despite the fact that neither cell-phone entity had the required license to operate from the Federal Communications Commission.
Bowdoin was “permanently barred” from engaging in the securities industry in Alabama. (This point leads to questions about whether Bowdoin potentially could face state-level charges for selling ASD in Alabama after his ban in the 1990s.)
Included in Bowdoin’s history are a bankruptcy filing and string of lawsuits naming him a defendant. (Details of these are unclear, but the government says it expects to produce additional documents in the “near future.”
Although Bowdoin claimed to have run successful mobile-phone, GPS-tracking and dry-cleaning businesses, “those businesses were not successful and on several occasions were the subject of civil and criminal proceedings.”
“After the United States Secret Service seized ASD’s bank accounts in August 2008, Bowdoin, Gary Talbert . . . and others began operating another version of ASD over the Internet at adviewglobal.com (‘AVG’).” (Talbert was a former ASD executive, according to court filings.)
In 2009, AVG “ceased operation when allegations arose that an individual associated with AVG purportedly stole money from AVG.” (Note: A purported theft of $1 million at the purported hands of “Russian” hackers is an alleged element of the ASD case.)
Bowdoin’s claims about OneX are “inherently deceptive.” Like ASD, OneX “does not generate income by selling a product to consumers outside the system. Instead, it simply re-distributes funds among participants.” (Note: The letter strongly suggests that the government is well-versed on the internal operations of OneX.)
Bowdoin is targeting former ASD members in his OneX promos and offered “leads” from the ASD database.
One of the exhibits filed by the government is the AVG Terms of Service.
With May approaching , the PP Blog once again is at the edge of an abyss. In July 2011, the Blog enabled a donation button. We’ve stayed online to fight the good fight — thanks to readers.
As was the case last month, key bills are coming due and core essentials are in short supply. It is never easy to pass the hat. But with the state of publishing, pass it we must.
Our current editorial well consists of 1,620 posts, including 137 through the first 116 days of 2012. It is our hope there will be many more in the days, weeks and months ahead.
“Defendant Trebor Company (Robert spelled backward) is a sole proprietorship owned by [Robert C. Brown Jr.] and is the name he has used for his ‘investment group.’” — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in civil complaint against Trebor and Brown, July 23, 2008
“Evidence at trial established that much of the investor money was funneled through the ‘WISE’ account (wise investors simply excel) opened by Duane Allen Eddings.” — Office of U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner of the Eastern District of California, April 24, 2012
It was a Ponzi scheme involving a purported expert, a shill and at least $17 million — and it featured wordplay: A business entity known as TREBOR got its name from spelling “Robert” backward, and WISE was a limited-liability company that stood for Wise Investors Simply Excel. Now, TREBORS’s namesake Robert C. Brown Jr., 59, of Vallejo, Calif., has been sentenced to 15 years and eight months in federal prison.
Meanwhile, Duane Allen Eddings, 52, of San Francisco, has been sentenced to 17 years and six months. Federal prosecutors said Ponzi cash was funneled through a WISE account he opened, setting the stage for money-laundering to occur through an account Eddings controlled in the name of CDC Global Inc. He is listed in records as the managing member of WISE, and prosecutors said he effectively was shilling for Brown by painting him as a stock-market “expert.”
Eddings was found guilty by a jury last year on Ponzi-related charges of money-laundering, wire fraud, bankruptcy fraud and tax evasion. Ponzi colleague Brown pleaded guilty to wire fraud.
In bringing a civil action in 2008, the SEC said investors believed Brown would invest their money in the stock market. But most of the funds never were invested.
Instead, “Brown deposited investors’ money into accounts that he treated like personal piggy banks, using the money to pay for luxurious personal expenses such as upkeep on his Ferrari, limousine services, and expensive shopping trips with his girlfriend,” the SEC alleged in 2008.
After the SEC brought its 2008 civil case, Brown and Eddings were charged criminally in 2009. The investigation that led to the charges was conducted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and IRS-Criminal Investigation.
False statements and omitted details critical to prudent investment decisions were part of the Brown/Eddings scam, prosecutors charged.
Eddings showcased his wealth to investors, claiming Brown was the “expert” who made it possible, prosecutors said.
As the probe moved forward, however, investigators discovered that Eddings had invested only $1,000 with Brown and had been using investor cash to live the high life by funneling client money that did not belong to him through WISE — and then transferring it to the CDC Global account to make personal purchases.
“In sentencing Brown, [U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez] expressed sympathy to the victims stating, ‘This is a crime among the worst that I see,’” prosecutors said. “And he said that what Brown had done to his victims was ‘evil.’ Judge Mendez later said that this comment applied equally to Eddings. He further said that he was not convinced that the defendants were ‘no longer a danger to the public.’”
About 400 victims were defrauded by the Brown/Eddings Ponzi, which operated between September 2005 and May 2007, prosecutors said.
Making matters worse was that Brown and Eddings “encouraged investors to raise additional funds by taking out mortgages and home equity lines of credit on their homes,” prosecutors said.
“Many” investors lost their homes, prosecutors said.
In reverse-engineering the complex caper involving Brown and Eddings, investigators discovered that “Edding’s personal spending habits led to the collapse of the Ponzi scheme” and that Eddings had grossly understated his taxable income during one of Ponzi years and claimed to have a taxable income of zero during two of the years.
Some of the Ponzi money went to “lulling payments to earlier investors” in a failed bid to keep the scheme afloat and prevent its detection, prosecutors said.
“It can be devastating when the financial well-being of an individual falls into the wrong hands through trickery and deceit,” said Marcus Williams, special agent in charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation Unit.
Postal Inspector Oscar Villanueva described the Brown/Eddings scheme as “complex.”
“Fraud schemes like the one perpetrated in this case are devastating to victims,” said U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner.
The three Ponzi schemers who duped investors in a scam in which milk purportedly would be sold to Disneyland. The "opportunity" was targeted in part at PTA members in Greater Los Angeles. Photo source: Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office via the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
The three California women who hatched a Ponzi scheme involving purportedly “exclusive” milk sales to Disneyland and allegedly recruited investors from the ranks of local PTA members at an elementary school in the Los Angeles region now have been sentenced to jail terms. (PTA stands for Parent-Teacher Association.)
The PP Blog first reported on Maricela Barajas, 42, Juliana Menefee, 51, and Eva Perez, 52, here.
Barajas also is known as Maricela Torres.
Authorities identified Perez as the “ringleader” of the fraud. She was ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution and handed combined prison sentences in two counties totaling 13 years.
Barajas and Menefee each pleaded no contest, according to Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Each was sentenced to three years in state prison. The sentences will be served at the county jail, prosecutors said.
Both Barajas and Menefee also were ordered to make restitution that totals a combined $590,000.
Deputy District Attorney James Belna of the Major Fraud Division said all three women told victims that they were investing in a contract with the Alta Dena Dairy to sell milk exclusively to Disneyland.
More than 30 people from throughout Los Angeles County invested between $2,000 to $100,000 with the three women and were promised extraordinary rates of return, Belna said.
The Ponzi scheme, which also reached into San Bernardino County, operated between June 2008 and August 2010. Perez was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to her role in San Bernardino, and was sentenced to an additional three years in Los Angeles County after pleading no contest.
Those sentences will be served consecutively, prosecutors said.
Investigators from the Commercial Crimes Bureau of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department did the legwork on the fraud inside the county’s borders, prosecutors said.
As the Ponzi was unraveling and payments stopped, the scammers “organized informational meetings, and attempted to pacify investors by explaining the delays in payment were a result of an internal audit of the business,” investigators said last year.
It is somewhat common for Ponzi scammers to claim payments have been delayed by audits.
Barajas and Menefee were described by investigators as Ponzi pitchwomen who defrauded seven investors. All in all, more than 30 people from within Los Angeles County got scammed.
BULLETIN: The SEC is tackling another bizarre securities-fraud case in which the alleged elements read like fiction. In May 2011, the agency charged Allen E. Weintraub of Aventura, Fla., in a bogus “tender offer” caper in which he fraudulently claimed to have backers to purchase (for purported billions of dollars) Eastman Kodak Co. and AMR Corp., the parent company of American Airlines.
Weintraub, who declared bankruptcy in 2007, submitted the bogus tender offers while he was on probation for two felony counts of organized fraud and one felony count of money-laundering, the agency charged.
If that weren’t enough, the offers were submitted through a dissolved shell company known as Sterling Global Holdings while Weintraub was coming off a 2008 mortgage foreclosure. His criminal record dates back at least to 1992, according to records.
Weintraub and Sterling Global were ordered in January 2012 to pay civil fines totaling $400,000 for the bizarre Kodak/AMR takeover fraud — and Weintraub once again was enjoined from violating federal securities laws. The January order followed a 2002 order in which Weintraub was banned from being an officer or director of a public company as a result of a previous scam, according to records.
Alleged New Weintraub Fraud Emerges
Now — incredibly — the SEC says Weintraub is presiding over yet-another fraud, this one involving the use of the alias “William Lewis” and three companies: Private Stock Transfer Inc., PST Investments III Inc. and World Financial Solutions.
The latest scam involve the selling of “worthless shares” in an enterprise known as “PST Investments,” with Weintraub claiming he could arrange for customers to get pre-IPO shares of Facebook. The IPO scam operated at least in part through a website styled PrivateStockTransfer.com, the SEC alleged.
As part of an emergency order and asset freeze, a federal judge has ordered the site taken offline. It was serving a blank page this morning, but Google cache suggests the site was active at least through April 10. The April 10 cache entry shows the logos of Twitter and Facebook, which potentially means that Weintraub was using two social media-platforms, including Facebook, to commit fraud against Facebook and possibly Twitter.
Various government agencies have warned about social-networking fraud.
Here is how the Google cache for the landing page of PrivateStockTransfer.com read (in part) on April 10 (italics added):
Welcome to the leading company in PRIVATE STOCK buying and selling of the hottest PRIVATE COMPANIES. In the past only celebrities and big funds were invited to purchase shares in the hottest PRE-IPO companies. Today any accredited investor can have that opportunity as well. Today you can own stock in FACEBOOK, TWITTER, and other explosive pre-ipo companies.
If you currently own stock in these companies and want to sell, Private Stock Transfer, can match you up to waiting buyers. No need to wait for the IPO to cash out. Today there is a Market for your Private Stock, and buyers waiting to buy.
Another page on the site read (in part) on April 2 as follows, according to Google cache (italics added):
FACEBOOK STOCK
Currently available: April 1-30, 2012 or until sold
100,000 Shares of common stock, PRICED at $38.00 a share and a minimum investment of 3,000 shares
The April 2 page, according to the Google cache, asserted the offer was a “private placement” and, despite the offer of a specific number of shares and a “minimum investment” of 3,000 shares, asserted that “None of the information displayed represents a public offer to buy or sell any securities.”
Regulators long have warned that scammers engage in wordplay and publish disclaimers to disguise the fraudulent sale of securities.
Registration data for the domain shows it was registered to “bill lewis” of Tampa. The street address used in the domain registration appears to be the address of an office complex in Tampa that has a video-conferencing center among its amenities. The website was registered on Oct. 3, 2011, about five months after the SEC brought the “tender-offer” fraud case against Weintraub.
As part of its latest Weintraub probe, the SEC has published the phone number and name of a specific senior attorney — and is asking the public for help.
“The Division of Enforcement urges anyone who believes that Allen Weintraub may have recently defrauded them to contact John Rossetti, Senior Counsel, at 202-551-4819,” the agency announced — in bold type.
In fleeing to Thailand, becoming a fugitive listed by INTERPOL and leaving dozens of U.S. victims in his wake when his Ponzi scheme collapsed, John Chiyuan Lee shattered the Ponzi-forum myth that “offshore equals safe.”
“Safe — for a while while INTERPOL is beaming your picture 24/7 and U.S. authorities at the local, state and national level are on your trail” — might be more accurate
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Det. Simeon Plyler tracked Lee to Thailand, and U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Marshals Service worked with the sheriff’s office and Thailand’s government to locate and arrest the fugitive.
He was found last year in Pataya, Thailand. U.S. Marshals brought him back to the United States to face justice.
Lee, 40 at the time of his arrest, now has accepted responsibility for his crimes and accepted an early plea deal in Los Angeles Superior Court that includes a six-year sentence in California state prison and a restitution order of about $1.5 million, the Sheriff’s Department announced yesterday.
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, has banned promos for JSS Tripler, the purported arm of a “program” known as JustBeenPaid that has advertised a daily return of 2 percent and a monthly return of 60 percent.
In an English translation on CONSOB’s website this morning, the regulator described JSS Tripler as an “investment programme” and named an individual promoter. The wording may have global significance because it suggests that the Italian government views JSS Tripler as a venture that is offering unregistered securities through unregistered brokers.
“Opportunities” similar to JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid have triggered both civil and criminal prosecutions in the United States.
Here is what CONSOB published in English:
“In accordance with Art. 101, section 4, letter c) of Italian Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 (the “Consolidated Law on Finance”), Consob has prohibited marketing the offering to the public of the investment programme named JSS Tripler, implemented by Mauro Messina through the website http://gruppounitoworld.com and, in accordance with Art. 101, section 4, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance, suspended for a further thirty-day period, marketing the offer to the public of the investment programmes named JSS Tripler, RicoChet Riches, System Explosion and Macro Trade implemented through the website < http://vizconsigli.com (resolutions nos. 18178 and 18179 of 18 April 2012).
The marketing activities in question had previously been subject to a 90-day suspension under resolutions 18075 and 18076 of 20 January 2012 (see “Consob Informs” no. 4/2012).
(In Consob Informa n. 17/12 – 23 April 2012)
JSS Tripler-related claims first came under the CONSOB lens in January.
In online conference calls, Frederick Mann — JSS/JBP’s purported operator — has declined to identity the purported opportunity with a nation-state. At least one website linked to Mann showcases content about a purported “sovereign citizen” under indictment in Alaska in an alleged murder plot targeting public officials.
This cash came from the Trevor Cook Ponzi scheme and was stashed, according to filings in the civil case against Cook. Cook is serving a 25-year-sentence in federal prison. Photo source: Court records.
EDITOR’S NOTE: As America’s fraud plague continues, some of the scammers are polluting the free market with incongruous and even bizarre schemes — even as they purport to represent the best that freedom offers.
The PP Blog highly recommends that readers check out this September 2011 document from the SEC that warns about scammers targeting holders of self-directed IRAs. Reading the document may help improve your understanding of the story below. There are differences between IRAs (emphasis added below):
“An Individual Retirement Account (IRA) is a form of retirement account that provides investors with certain tax benefits for retirement savings,” the SEC says. “Some common examples of IRAs used by investors include the traditional IRA, Roth IRA, Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) IRA, and Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees (SIMPLE) IRA. All IRA accounts are held for investors by custodians or trustees. These may include banks, trust companies, or any other entity approved by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to act as a trustee or custodian.
“A self-directed IRA is an IRA held by a trustee or custodian thatpermits investment in a broader set of assets than is permitted by most IRA custodians,” the SEC continues. “Most IRA custodians are banks and broker-dealers that limit the holdings in IRA accounts to firm-approved stocks, bonds, mutual funds and CDs.
“Custodians and trustees for self-directed IRAs, however, may allow investors to invest retirement funds in other types of assets such as real estate, promissory notes, tax lien certificates, and private placement securities.While self-directed IRAs may offer investors access to an array of private investment opportunities that are not available through other IRA providers, investments in these kinds of assets may have unique risks that investors should consider. Those risks can include a lack of disclosure and liquidity — as well as the risk of fraud.”
Here, now, a story about how holders of self-directed IRAs allegedly had their pockets picked . . .
Meanwhile, there’s William Wise, a onetime international fugitive charged in California with a massive Ponzi scheme centering on offshore CDs. (Wise surrendered earlier this week.) And then there’s Robert Stinson Jr., the Pennsylvania Ponzi swindler now doing more than 33 years for his “Life’s Good” scam. (The FBI said he was wiring money even as a raid was under way.)
And who could forget Californian Daniel C.S. Powell, implicated by the SEC in a life-settlement scam? (The venture became known as “Christian Stanley,” and its website traded on the name of former President Bill Clinton.)
Then there’s Chris Cornett, implicated by the CFTC in a Forex swindle.
Here’s why these names are important: All of these individuals — and more — are listed as scammers or alleged scammers in a proposed class-action lawsuit against Ephren W. Taylor II, now implicated by the SEC in a massive Ponzi swindle known as “City Capital.” The alleged City Capital targets were people of faith.
Though not defendants in the Taylor/City Capital lawsuit, the other alleged (or proven) scammers all had something in common beyond their abilities to separate people from their money, according to the complaint: complicit bankers and/or a means of plowing customers’ money from self-directed IRAs (SDIRAs) into their fraud schemes.
SDIRAs are sold as freedom-celebrating devices that encourage personal responsibility and permit their holders to be more flexible in their investment choices. By law, the accounts are held by a custodian or trustee. Even so, sharks allegedly swim in these waters — and the worst of the worst may deny they have any duties to their customers and may be turning a blind eye to fraud schemes as a means of keeping a fee-generating, steady supply of fresh meat and blood in the water.
“I am encouraging our plaintiffs to raise their voices and to make their legislators and regulators aware of how Ponzi schemes continue to be perpetrated through the use of self-directed IRA investment vehicles,” said Cathy Lerman of Cathy Jackson Lerman PA, one of the firms involved the prospective class action.
Other attorney/firms involved in the litigation include California local trial counsel David Dorenfeld of Snyder Dorenfeld LLP; Michael W. Brown, an associate at Snyder Dorenfeld; and Jim Gitkin, principal of Salpeter Gitken LLP.
Among the defendants named in the Taylor class action are Bank of America; Missouri Bank and Trust of Kansas City; Equity Trust Corp. of Ohio (an SDIRA provider); Entrust New Direction IRA Inc. of Colorado; The Entrust Group of California (an SDIRA provider); Entrust Administration Inc. of California; and Sunwest Trust Inc. of New Mexico. Other defendants also are named, and there is an allegation that Taylor used as many as 50 shell companies as part of his long-running fraud.
A separate proposed class action has been filed against SDIRA providers named in the Taylor class action. That lawsuit alleges that as much as $94 billion may be tied up in SDIRAs nationwide, suggesting that fresh meat and blood could churn in the waters indefinitely.
In effect, the lawyers are arguing that SDIRAs, which are lightly regulated or not regulated at all, have become the tools of criminals and are being used to separate investors from their money in one scam after another. Unlike traditional IRAs, SDIRA vessels may end up steering vast sums of cash into “opportunities” that not only may be exceptionally risky, but also may be downright crazy — such as Taylor’s purported “sweeps machines.”
The Taylor lawsuit, for instance, argues that African American Christians effectively found themselves owning machines used in illegal gambling parlors and that churches that had invited Taylor to speak also got swept into incongruous schemes.
Liberty City Church of Christ in Miami lost $100,000, owing to Taylor’s scams, the lawsuit contends. William Lee of Raleigh, N.C., got duped of $160,000 because Taylor and associates caused him to believe he was making a “socially conscious” investment that would help the public at large while at once resulting in an individual profit.
The same thing happened to Gennet Thompson of Delray Beach, Fla. Thompson entrusted $17,200 to Taylor in one “opportunity” and $10,500 in another, according to the complaint.
Trudy Morgan of Lithonia, Ga, had a similar experience — one that sucked away $30,000, according to the complaint.
Edgar Rodgers And Diane Rowe: Source: Booking photos at Fulton County Jail.
Bond has been set at a combined $130,000 for a Georgia couple arrested Thursday by Atlanta police on charges they tried to sell homes that did not belong to them in an alleged paperwork scam involving bogus courthouse filings.
In recent years, Georgia has been near the top of the list in both bank failures and foreclosures. A number of scams have evolved, including “squatters” divining themselves a right to sell or move into homes that do not belong to them and foreclosure-rescue schemes in which foreclosure subjects are told they can remain in their homes by paying “rent” to purported third-party deed-holders who somehow whisked ownership rights away from banks.
Bond for Edgar Lee Rodgers was set at $85,000, according to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office. Meanwhile, bond for Diane Rowe was set at $45,000. Both Rodgers and Rowe — purported “sovereign citizens” — are detained at the Fulton County Jail.
Rodgers has been charged with a single count of racketeering and five counts of theft by deception. His wife was charged with one count of racketeering and one count of theft by deception.
Here is how the Atlanta Journal Constitution put it in a story yesterday:
“Edgar Lee Rodgers and Diane Rowe are accused of filing false adverse possession documents — essentially claiming squatters’ rights — to homes that were vacant, likely due to foreclosure.”
Also see coverage at CBS Atlanta, which quoted Atlanta Police Sgt. Paul Cooper on the arrest of the couple.
