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Tag: IBNN

  • No Stranger To Controversy, Donald Allen Says He Is Cooperating With Secret Service In INetGlobal Probe And Has ‘One Hell Of A Story’ To Tell

    Donald Allen

    UPDATED 6:08 P.M. ET (U.S.A. JAN. 20, 2011.)

    EDITOR’S NOTE: The story below includes an assertion by Donald Allen that his IBNN.org website was knocked offline Sunday by a company with ties to INetGlobal. Moments before the story was set for publication, the IBNN website returned. The story does not reflect this later event, and it is possible that the site is not viewable in all parts of the world owing to an apparent change in nameservers. Events surrounding the apparent change in nameservers are unclear.

    Acknowledging he had been advised that he potentially has “exposure” in the INetGlobal Ponzi scheme investigation, Donald Allen II said this morning that he had nothing to hide and would cooperate with the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors “100 percent.”

    That cooperation already has begun, Allen said. He added that his thinking about INetGlobal has evolved since the Feb. 23 raid of company headquarters in Minneapolis, and he insisted he was out of the loop on INetGlobal’s financial affairs and that his efforts to promote the firm were legitimate.

    “Let me make it perfectly clear,” Allen said this morning. “I did the Global News Distribution and was never let in to the ‘workings’ of iNetGlobal. I met with the US Secret Service and [its] position is that I ‘shielded’ [Steve Renner] to operate a Ponzi, which is untrue.”

    Allen, a vice president with V-Newswire, an entity in the INetGlobal family controlled by Renner, claimed this morning that the company had blocked his access and the access of readers to a public-affairs Blog he operates. The Blog is known as the Independent Business News Network (IBNN).

    The company, Allen asserted, was penalizing him “for coming forward to answer ANY questions the Government has regarding iNetGlobal.”

    Renner has not been charged with a crime and has denied wrongdoing. The Secret Service said in court documents filed in February that “there is probable cause to believe that Renner is operating a large, Internet-based, Ponzi scheme through his umbrella corporation, InterMark, and some of its subsidiaries, particularly Virtual Payment Systems [LLC of Wisconsin/Brackets Denoting the LLC Designation added Jan. 20, 2011], V-Media, Cash Cards International, and V-Local.”

    NOTE IN BOLD ADDED JAN. 20, 2011: An Indianapolis-based company known as Virtual Payment Systems Inc. has contacted the PP Blog to let it know it is not affiliated with the Renner company Virtual Payment Systems LLC of Wisconsin, which is referenced in the paragraph above.

    The Secret Service alleged INetGlobal was the “primary vehicle for the perpetration of this fraud.”

    INetGlobal, which features an advertising rotator, is the so-called “autosurfing” platform of the Renner companies. The government has prosecuted several autosurf companies in recent years, saying they were selling investment programs disguised as advertising programs and engaging in wire fraud and money-laundering.

    Renner’s company has a high concentration of Chinese members who may have limited or no facility in English, the agency said. At least one INetGlobal member has said Americans flocked away from Renner’s autosurfing enterprise after the Secret Service, in August 2008, raided a similar company in Florida known as AdSurfDaily (ASD).

    The ASD litigation is referenced in court papers in the INetGlobal case.

    Allen said this morning that he also had performed work for V-Media and V-Local — both of which the Secret Service said had ties to the alleged INetGlobal fraud — but he insisted that he had done nothing wrong.

    “I wasn’t privileged to know anything about the compensation program” of InetGlobal, Allen said. “I could not explain it to this day.”

    An error message that reads “This Account Has Been Suspended: Please contact the V-Webs.com billing/support department as soon as possible” now appears on the IBNN site. In the early hours after Allen lost control of the Blog, the site would not return a ping and produced a “bad destination” error message, according to records.

    Even though Allen moved the content of the site from a hosting company controlled by Renner weeks ago, Renner controlled the domain registration and thus has the ability to block access, Allen asserted this morning.

    Allen’s access to the site was blocked sometime after “noon on Sunday,” two days after he met with the Secret Service, Allen said.

    Agents appeared at his home Friday unannounced, Allen said.

    He described his initial meeting with agents as “excellent.” Allen added that he is consulting with an attorney.

    “[The Secret Service] asked me if I would like legal representation,” Allen said. “I said yes.”

    A second meeting with the Secret Service occurred yesterday. Allen said he was consulting with his attorney again today, saying a characterization that described him as cooperating with the agency was “totally accurate.”

    The move to block IBNN also followed on the heels of a letter Allen gave to Renner April 22, Allen said. The letter claimed that Allen had “clear and documented” evidence of violations of the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity laws in a hiring decision it made.

    In the letter, Allen suggested he was not given an opportunity to interview for a job that went to an INetGlobal member with a large downline. The letter also questioned the operations of the company’s board of directors and claimed an INetGlobal “receptionist” was performing “confidential” work that should have been handled by the firm’s Human Resources department.

    Moreover, Allen said this morning that nothing in his employment contract with the Renner entity permitted the company to block access to the IBNN site. He claimed that the company now wants him to sign an agreement not to write about INetGlobal and also to inspect his computer.

    Allen Questions INetGlobal’s Operations

    Allen said this morning that he questioned how the company was paying its bills in the aftermath of the federal seizure of its assets. He claimed a member of INetGlobal with a Chinese name had received a promotion to a position that purportedly paid $120,000 a year after the seizure. This member, Allen said, also may have a seat on the board of directors and also purportedly had a downline organization in the company that purportedly paid $10,000 a day.

    His first question for Renner, Allen said, is “how is that possible with the current funds frozen by the US Government?”

    Allen said his position with the company was supposed to pay $75,000, but that he had not seen “a penny.”

    “I’m a little upset, a little traumatized by this attempt to shut me down, because I had one hell of a story,” Allen said. “I’m kind of devastated; I have a civil-rights Blog. A lot of people read it.”

    No Stranger To Controversy

    Allen and his IBNN Blog have been the subjects of controversy. He used an offshoot of the Blog to claim in March that “federal officials” were leaking information about the INetGlobal case to the PP Blog. After the PP Blog began to report on INetGlobal, Allen began to post comments on the PP Blog without initially identifying himself as a Renner employee, claiming that the PP Blog was “minor league” and engaging in a “witch hunt.”

    Separately, Allen used the IBNN Blog to attack the Star Tribune newspaper of Minneapolis St. Paul for its coverage of the INetGlobal raid. Meanwhile, Allen’s name is listed in the Secret Service affidavit filed in February to obtain search warrants at the firm’s headquarters. In the affidavit, the agency painted Allen as a person who provided confusing information to an INetGlobal prospect at a January event in Flushing, N.Y.

    Undercover agents attended the Flushing event, and one agent’s observations of Allen are noted in the affidavit.

    An INetGlobal prospect “stated she was struggling to understand how the business worked and explained that the person who brought her to the conference was not able to explain it either,” the agency said in the affidavit. “She asked what would happen if she sold iNetGlobal products to someone who had a website and they did not see an increase in their profits.

    “Donald Allen asked her what type of products the person was selling and the woman gave the example of beauty products,” the agency continued in the affidavit. “Donald Allen replied that if she was advertising beauty products and not selling any, then maybe she should be in a different business. The woman further challenged Donald Allen on people not truly viewing the websites, just simply opening them. Patricio Diez, iNetGlobal’s marketing director for Spanish-speaking countries, then stated that ‘that doesn’t matter for you.’

    “When the woman pressed further, stating that it does matter to whomever she sold the package to, Donald Allen simply stated ‘we have solutions for that’ but failed to expand upon those solutions,” the agency said.

    After the raid at INetGlobal’s offices in Minneapolis, Allen used the IBNN Blog to criticize both the media and the government for what he described as unfair treatment of the company — without disclosing his tie to the firm. Allen later told the PP Blog he should have disclosed the tie.

    Allen said this morning that his thinking about INetGlobal has evolved. He added that he also had revisited certain events at INetGlobal and had come to believe that things were not quite right.

    At an event in Las Vegas last year, for example, Allen was not given time to talk to attendees about V-Local, he said. In recent days he has publicly questioned why few if any members were interested in purchasing the company’s editorial products.

    “I can’t recall ever selling a press release to a Chinese member of iNetGlobal,” Allen said in a comment on the PP Blog April 23. “My yearly budget was in-part based on iNetGlobal members buying a press release from V-Newswire — hasn’t happened yet.”

    Meanwhile, Allen said this morning that he was sympathetic to Steven Keough, INetGlobal’s former chief executive officer and potentially the government’s star witness in the case. The company has claimed Keough tried to hatch an extortion plot after he was dismissed for incompetence.

    “Keough understood that INetGlobal members needed to buy the products,” Allen said this morning. “Steven Keough was the best thing that ever happened to that company,” adding that he believed Keough saw “noncompliance” with laws and was dismissed for pointing them out.

    See earlier story.

  • Website Of Spokesman For Renner Entity Claims Government ‘Leaking’ Info To PP Blog About INetGlobal Ponzi Probe; ‘Didn’t Happen — Ever,’ Blog Says; Meanwhile, A Bogus ‘Apology’ Claim

    UPDATED 2:20 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Did people associated with a company implicated by the U.S. Secret Service in a Ponzi scheme, wire-fraud and money-laundering case participate in a misinformation campaign?

    A Twitter website with a tie to the Inter-Mark companies operated by Steve Renner claims that federal officials are “leaking” information to the PP Blog.

    “Didn’t happen — ever,” the PP Blog said today. “The information we published was not leaked to the Blog. The Blog obtained the information from a public source, through the normal course of its reporting, and the information was available to reporters and the public before the Blog even published its first story based on the information.”

    Meanwhile, another website with a tie to a Renner’s Inter-Mark Corp. is making the claim that a Blogger Inter-Mark is targeting in a lawsuit for calling INetGlobal a “scam” issued an “apology.”

    The apology claim appears on a domain titled CheapClix.net, whose domain registration lists V-WEBS.COM as its nameserver. A Renner company dubbed V-Webs LLC appears to be an inactive Minnesota corporation that used the same Minneapolis street address as InetGlobal and other Renner companies, according to public records.

    A CheapClix.net post headlined “HOSPITALERA.COM APOLOGIZES TO iNetGlobal” and dated Feb. 4 claims that the Hospitalera Blog issued an apology to INetGlobal on a date uncertain and implies that Hospitalera now even endorses INetGlobal.

    “We are deeply saddened by the actions taken by this blog to defame iNetGlobal,” the CheapClix.net site says, apparently quoting from the purported apology. “iNetGlobal is one of the top Internet Marketing firms in the United States. We reach out to them with a sincere apology in hopes that we too can use the iNetGlobal products and services.

    “After careful review of iNetGlobal’s services and products, we find the company is real and the services are true to what iNetGlobal represents. Again, we apologize.”

    The apology claim is dubious because Sybille Yates, who operates the Hospitalera Blog from the Czech Republic, told the PP Blog last week that she was not even aware that Renner’s company was suing her until Feb. 25 — three weeks after the date of her purported apology.

    Yates did not immediately return an email from the PP Blog today seeking comment on the apology claim and whether she had, in fact, apologized. A Feb. 16 post  from Yates on the Hospitalera Blog, however, describes the news release that announced the apology as “faked.”

    Whether the apology claim somehow sprouted from some fantastic reshaping of facts by an INetGlobal supporter or was just an outright lie that was part of a misinformation campaign was not immediately clear.

    It has been common in the so-called autosurf “industry” for lies, misstatements, misrepresentations, misinformation and claims not based on facts to spread virally on the Internet as though they were truth.

    In the AdSurfDaily case, for instance, claims were made that the prosecution admitted ASD was not a Ponzi scheme, that ASD President Andy Bowdoin had received an award from the President of the United States for business acumen, that Google and ASD were partners and that ASD had the backing of huge corporations with huge advertising budgets.

    All of the claims were untrue.

    The CheapClix.net claim about the purported apology adds another strange twist to the INetGlobal story. If Yates never issued such an apology — and Yates’ Blog says no such apology was issued — it leads to questions about why someone would claim such an apology had been issued and even go so far as to issue a news release to announce an apology that had not been made.

    The introduction to Hospitalera’s purported apology as reported by CheapClix net begins, “We appreciate this step taken by the people at the hospitalera web-site to make amends for their erroneous publications.”

    The CheapClix.net post from Feb. 4 includes a link to what appears to have been a news release issued by an unknown party to herald Hospitalera’s purported apology. The news release link to PRLog.org resolves to an error page. PRLog.org is a free news-release distribution service.

    Yates’ Blog says she contacted PRLog to have the fake news release removed, and that PRLog took down the bogus release “in a heart beat.”

    UPDATE 2:20 P.M. Yates has confirmed she never issued an apology.

    “I never issued said apology, nor did I ever authorize anybody to do so in my name,” Yates said.

    “I never issued or published a press release on prlog.org. As I came across the forged and false press release, I contacted prlog.org immediately and they took it down. I have no information who published/submitted said press release to prlog.org.”

    A second link in the CheapClix.net post that heralded the purported apology resolves to TweetMeme.com, a site that aggregates Twitter links. A small icon that reads “V News Network” appears below a headline of “iNetGlobal Scam: Hospitalera Blog apologizes to iNetGlobal.”

    Records suggest that “V News Network” may be yet another Renner entity.

    A headline heralding a purported apology from the Hospitalera Blog for calling INetGlobal a scam appears on a website known as CheapClix.net. The Hospitalera Blog says the apology was "faked."

    ‘Leaking’ Claim

    Why the Twitter site, which is tied to IBBN.org, made the claim of that the government was “leaking” to the PP Blog is unclear. The Twitter post is dated Feb. 28. IBNN, which stands for The Independent Business News Network, is registered in Renner’s name. The site is operated by Donald W.R. Allen II, IBNN’s editor-in-chief and the the vice president and director of public relations for V-Newswire — a company in Renner’s INetGlobal family.

    Renner is listed as the IBNN domain registrant.

    Allen did not comment Friday when the PP Blog advised him that the government leaked no information to the Blog. The Twitter site does not list a source for its claim that federal officials “leaked” information to the Blog, but asserts that such an event was possible “Only in America!” The Twitter site continues to make the claim.

    The site also claims “iNetGlobal not a Ponzi.” No source is listed for the denial. It is unclear if IBNN has access to audited and certified balance sheets and financial statements of the Renner enterprise that could destroy the government’s Ponzi assertions.

    IBNN previously skewered the Star-Tribune newspaper of Minneapolis/St. Paul, asserting that the paper, which covered the INetGlobal raid, was displaying  “defamatory contempt [for the Renner entities] prior to a full investigation and a Grand Jury inquiry.”

    Allen, who signed the IBNN opinion piece, did not disclose his tie to the Renner companies when the piece was published. The piece went missing after the PP Blog published a story in IBNN’s tie to Renner, but since has been restored — with a few lines added.

    The U.S. Secret Service, which raided Renner’s operations in Minneapolis last month, asserted that INetGlobal and other Renner companies were part of an international Ponzi scheme that was engaging in wire fraud and money-laundering.

    The PP Blog cited as its source a Secret Service affidavit for a search warrant. The affidavit was published openly on a government website.

    At various times in its history, the PP Blog has been accused by participants in alleged Ponzi schemes of being part of a government operation. The Blog has reported on paranoia that often accompanies Ponzi scheme participants, some of whom become preoccupied with thoughts about government “plants.”

    Such claims about the PP Blog have been made from one Ponzi scheme case to the next, but they simply are not true. Ponzi promoters have accused the Blog of idiocy, occasionally resorting to name-calling or posting under multiple identities in a bid to create the appearance that a particular company caught up in Ponzi allegations the Blog was covering had more supporters than it actually had.

    As was the case with AdSurfDaily, a Florida company implicated in an autosurf  Ponzi scheme by the Secret Service in 2008, the Secret Service used undercover agents as part of the investigation into INetGlobal, according to a court affidavit. At least one of the undercover agents also was involved in the ASD investigation, according to court filings.

    Other court filings reviewed by the PP Blog have described various investigative techniques the agency uses, including surveillance from automobiles of subjects under investigation at places such as residences, parking lots and post offices — and even trash Dumpsters.

    At least two Secret Service agents were in the room to observe an INetGlobal function in New York, according to court filings. Agents also observed an ASD function in Miami in 2008, according to court filings.

    An agent involved in the ASD case listened to an INetGlobal sales pitch by an ASD member, according to the affidavit in the case.  It is plain from multiple public filings that the Secret Service is well aware of the so-called autosurf “industry” — and also the so-called “matrix” industry.

    It was publicly known that Renner had been under federal indictment for income-tax evasion since September 2008, a month after the ASD raid. There also is a considerable, public paper trail consisting of court filings, news releases and other information that links Renner to a Ponzi scheme known as Learn Waterhouse, elements of which were prosecuted by both the SEC and the U.S. Department of Justice.

    The public paperwork in the Learn Waterhouse case dates back to 2004. A Renner entity known as CCI provided payment-processing services for the Learn Waterhouse Ponzi scheme.

    Visit the Hospitalera site.

    Read about the purported apology on CheapClix.net.

  • Spokesman For Renner-Related Company Did Not Disclose Tie In Opinion Piece That Attacked Star-Tribune Newspaper; Name Is Referenced In Secret Service Affidavit; Declines To Answer Questions From PP Blog

    UPDATED 2:25 P.M. ET (March 2, U.S.A.) The vice president and director of public relations for V-Newswire — a company in Steve Renner’s INetGlobal family — authored an opinion piece lambasting a Minnesota newspaper’s coverage of a Secret Service raid at INetGlobal’s Minneapolis offices last week on his personal Blog, but did not disclose his tie to the firm.

    Donald W.R. Allen II operates a Blog known as The Independent Business News Network (IBNN). Allen did not disclose his INetGlobal tie when authoring an editorial titled, “Minneapolis’ Star Tribune newspaper’s bias reporting causes defamatory speculation at Internet marketing firm.”

    The piece began, “If the Star Tribune newspaper can use its ‘power’ to taint a company’s image prior to investigation by authorities, whose (sic) to say the news you get is true and accurate?”

    The Star-Tribune was among the first media outlets to report that federal agents believed INetGlobal was operating a Ponzi scheme.

    Information gleaned during the federal probe led to allegations that INetGlobal also was engaging in wire fraud and money-laundering.

    Allen, whose name is referenced in a search-warrant application in the INetGlobal case, now says he should have disclosed the tie in the IBNN editorial.

    “I will give full disclosure on the iNetGlobal piece today because I have 3 more follow up stories,” he said this morning. He asserted that the IBNN domain, which is registered in Renner’s name under the organization of V-Webs LLC, “has nothing to do with iNetGlobal other than being registered by the company as part of my employment agreement.”

    Allen defined the IBNN Blog as a “Civil Rights, Politics and News Blog for mostly the Twin Cities area.” IBBN’s site content includes an endorsement of the Tea Party Movement in the United States and a “Declaration of Tea Party Independence.”

    Allen emailed the PP Blog Sunday after appearing at the Blog, posting comments and using the IBNN URL, not a URL associated with the Renner companies. He dismissed the Blog as “minor league,” writing it was engaging in a “witch hunt.” The Blog responded to Allen’s email by asking him to comment on a number of issues concerning INetGlobal and inquiring why he was using the IBNN URL if he was a spokesman for a Renner entity.

    Later in the day, Allen responded to the Blog’s questions by saying he would answer questions about his role at V-Newswire, but he did not address the questions the Blog asked previously.

    The Blog then resubmitted the questions, adding several more questions to a list of four it previously had asked. Allen responded to the email, but chose not to answer a number of questions.

    Among the questions Allen declined to answer was whether INetGlobal, in the aftermath of the Ponzi scheme allegations, believed it should inform members about Steve Renner’s December conviction on four felony counts of income-tax evasion. Allen also declined to answer a question on whether INetGlobal had a duty to inform members that Cash Cards International (CCI) — a payment processing firm once operated by Renner — could not return money to Ponzi scheme victims in a case brought by the SEC against a California company known as Learn Waterhouse because Renner had spent the customers’ money.

    Allen did say he saw “nothing illegal with V-Newswire or the V-News Network.”

    The Blog asked Allen whether he was the “Donny Allen” referred to in an INetGlobal news release and the “Donald Allen” referred to in a Secret Service affidavit that alleged “Donald Allen” provided confusing information to a person who attended an INetGlobal function in New York.

    Allen did not answer the question, which the Blog posed twice.

    Undercover Secret Service agents also attended the New York function, according to the affidavit.

    The PP Blog also asked Allen whether he believed he should disclose his tie to INetGlobal when responding to Blog and forum posts. He declined to answer the question, which was posed twice.

    He also declined to answer a question about how it served INetGlobal’s PR ends to dismiss as “minor league” Blogs that report the serious allegations against the company.

    AdSurfDaily, a Florida company implicated in a $100 million Ponzi scheme, employed a similar PR approach. The ASD case is referenced in the Secret Service affidavit, amid allegations that an ASD member described INetGlobal as a wink-nod enterprise and attempted to have an undercover Secret Service agent participate in a three-way call with the ASD members’ sponsor for the purpose of recruiting the agent into INetGlobal.

    Allen also declined to answer a question on whether he was the author of an INetGlobal news release after the raid that said federal agents had arrived at Renner’s offices “looking for something to substantiate their claim that illegal activity was occurring in the business.”

    The news release used Allen’s email address, which he described as temporary in an email to the PP Blog, but did not mention Renner’s income-tax conviction and the allegations that Renner had spent money belonging to CCI customers.