BULLETIN: (UPDATED 4:58 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The state of Utah has proposed that Rayda Roundy of Hurricane be fined $81,250 and ordered to cease and desist from selling securities unlawfully in the state for her alleged role in hawking Safevest LLC.
Roundy later became a figure in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme story. In August 2008, the U.S. Secret Service described ASD as a massive Ponzi scheme operating online. By April 2012, Roundy was tied in court filings in the ASD case to the mysterious “OneX” scheme, which federal prosecutors described as a financial pyramid that was recycling money in ASD-like fashion.
ASD’s Andy Bowdoin started pitching OneX while he was awaiting trial on Ponzi-related charges flowing from the ASD case. Federal prosecutors said ASD had gathered at least $119 million in its scam. Bowdoin was sentenced in August 2012 to 78 months in federal prison.
In September 2008 — just a month after the Secret Service had seized more than $80 million in the ASD Ponzi case — the Utah Division of Securities accused Roundy in a civil filing of hawking Safevest unlawfully. Roundy denied the assertions.
The case dragged on from 2008 into 2013. Roundy missed a hearing scheduled for March 6 after being warned the presiding officer would hold her in default if she did not attend, the state said.
Utah proposed that the fine could be used to provide restitution. Roundy’s alleged Safevest target was described only as “ME.”
In August 2011, the court-appointed receiver in the Safevest case announced that he “does not anticipate any distributions to the investor/victims as no significant funds have been recovered or are anticipated.”
News about the proposed sanctions against Roundy occur against the backdrop of Investor Alerts or cease-and-desist orders being issued in at least 33 states and provinces in the United States and Canada against the Profitable Sunrise “program.”
Profitable Sunrise allegedly was targeted at Christians. Its website has been offline for two weeks.
Retooling as it hatches a plan to launch anew? Huddling with its mysterious lawyer because the U.S. Department of Justice called it a “fraudulent scheme” and “pyramid” pushed by an accused felon awaiting trial in his Ponzi scheme case?
The website of “OneX” has been displaying an “under maintenance” message for days. The development occurs against the backdrop of former OneX pitchman and AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin’s guilty plea to wire fraud in the ASD Ponzi case May 18. In April, federal prosecutors said ASD stalwarts Rayda Roundy and Tari Steward had helped Bowdoin pitch OneX.
Those pitches began in October 2011, with Bowdoin saying he’d use his OneX earnings to pay for his criminal defense in the ASD Ponzi case. Steward is listed in court filings as a potential witness for Bowdoin in his trial on Ponzi-related charges.
Bowdoin, though, pleaded guilty prior to his trial date, which had been set for Sept. 24.
Just days before his guilty plea, a fellow OneX pitchman known as “Alan” asserted that Bowdoin was “our Mentor,” according to an email some ASD members received.
In at least one of the OneX pitches, Roundy asserted that OneX had a “top attorney.” She did not identify the attorney.
Bowdoin claimed “college students” were great prospects for OneX. But the ASD patriarch did not identify the operators or braintrust behind OneX or say where the “program” was operating from. Instead, he told prospects that they could earn $99,000 very quickly through OneX.
Federal prosecutors now say OneX was recycling money in ASD-like fashion. They also say they’ve linked Bowdoin to AdViewGlobal, an autosurf that launched after the seizure of tens of millions of dollars in the ASD Ponzi case in 2008 and disappeared in the summer of 2009 under mysterious circumstances.
Like ASD’s website during its Ponzi run, the OneX website has a history of going missing for days. It was offline and reportedly under maintenance during the 2011 Holiday season. Now, it’s under maintenance on the heels of Bowdoin’s guilty plea.
In 2009 — after the ASD seizure — Bowdoin also pitched a mysterious “program” known as Paperless Access. Much about Paperless Access remains mysterious. Its website also vanished.
As part of his plea agreement in the ASD case, Bowdoin has been banned from MLM, Internet programs and mass marketing.
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.
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 MLM-style 4×4 matrix feeder program for a purported Panamanian entity known as QLxchange, which may be operating a gold- and silver-themed investment program and 3×9 matrix from Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.
“Tonight we’ll be talking about a financial bailout program for the average person,” Bowdoin said last night, in preliminary remarks about OneX.
In presentations that appear to have been heavily scripted, the accused Ponzi schemer sang the praises of OneX in at least two webinars Monday, touting it as a way for ASD members to make $99,000 “very quickly” by joining what effectively would be an ASD downline group in OneX through which incoming recruits could benefit through leverage delivered by Bowdoin and former members of the defunct autosurf.
Bowdoin or his handlers, however, appear to have altered the script after a listener raised a concern in Monday’s first webinar that purported “leads” for incoming OneX recruits would come from ASD’s database and be awarded to new enrollees in violation of members’ ASD agreements.
On Monday, Bowdoin said he intended to use proceeds that flowed from OneX to pay for his criminal defense. Last week, U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer set the ASD patriarch’s trial date for Sept. 24, 2012.
In yesterday’s webinar, Bowdoin told listeners who perhaps were members of OneX prior to the creation of an ASD downline group that they could create a second OneX account that would be placed in the ASD group. The accused Ponzi schemer suggested that it was possible to create even more OneX accounts.
“You can create a new [OneX] account in your spouse’s name, family-member name or friends,” Bowdoin coached, noting that the accounts would require the use of different email addresses and usernames.
“You can work both at the same time,” Bowdoin said.
Earlier in the Thursday pitch, he offered his congratulations to webinar attendees who’d purportedly exercised the prudence to listen to him and become “more successful in life.”
“This puts you in the top 10 percent, because most people never look outside the box to improve their financial situation,” he assured listeners.
Bowdoin faces up to 125 years in federal prison if convicted of the Ponzi charges announced by federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia in December 2010. Bowdoin previously was implicated in an Alabama securities swindle, according to court records. One of his business partners was implicated in three prime-bank swindles.
Despite the serious criminal charges against him and civil judgments totaling tens of millions of dollars against ASD-related assets, Bowdoin suggested yesterday that he and ASD had a “tremendous” success record for marketing on the Internet.
In yesterday’s webinar, Bowdoin introduced Rayda Roundy, whom he identified Monday as a former ASD trainer.
Roundy thanked Bowdoin for the introduction.
“I appreciate being here with you,” Roundy said of Bowdoin.
Whether OneX is thrilled to have Bowdoin, an accused Ponzi schemer who has been formally indicted for wire fraud and securities-related crimes, driving traffic to its scheme is unclear.
AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin told members yesterday that they could "earn $99,000 very quickly" in a program known as OneX. The Florida-based ASD patriarch claimed to hope he could fund his defense to U.S. securities-related charges through OneX, which appears to be tied to a Panamanian firm that uses a domain name with a Montenegro extension and may operate from Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.
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 known as OneX, the PP Blog has learned.
OneX, which uses a domain extension assigned to the European country of Montenegro and a webserver apparently positioned in the Irish Sea nation of Isle of Man, is described in MLM-style web promos as a 4X4 matrix feeder program for a Panamanian investment firm and commodities enterprise known as QLxchange.
Whether OneX or QLxchange have any securities or commodities registrations in the United States or other countries was not immediately clear.
Serving as the webinar host, ASD figure Tari Steward, who is helping Bowdoin raise funds for Bowdoin’s criminal defense and is listed in Bowdoin court filings as a potential ASD witness, described OneX as a winner while introducing Bowdoin.
OneX has “already proven to be hugely successful here in the U.S.A. and all around the world,” Steward said.
Mixing commentary on his Ponzi case with his OneX sales pitch, Bowdoin, 76, managed to work in a dig against the federal judge presiding over the criminal case against him. Bowdoin also chided federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia.
Saying he was pleased that his trial date had been set nearly a year from now in September 2012 and describing it as an act of divine providence made possible after prayerful introspection, Bowdoin suggested the judge and prosecutors were disappointed that Collyer’s busy scheduled did not permit an earlier trial date.
Both “Judge Collyer and the prosecution was wanting the closest time possible because they didn’t want to give us much time to prepare,” Bowdoin claimed, shortly after greeting webinar listeners with a “Hi, Folks.”
Isle of Man highlighted in red: Source: Wikipedia.
And Bowdoin, who did not identify the operators of OneX or speak to whether the purported program was required to be registered to market securities and commodities to U.S. inhabitants, sang the praises of the firm.
“This program can provide you with earnings beyond your wildest imagination . . .” he claimed.
Bowdoin further ventured that OneX “will produce the legal fees we need and make each one of you a ton of money.”
“Now, when you finish this webinar,” he continued, “you’ll be so excited that you won’t be able to stop thinking about it.”
ASD members will “wake up in the morning thinking about [OneX],” Bowdoin claimed. “For the next three days, you’ll be thinking about it constantly.”
At a May 2008 ASD “rally” in Las Vegas prior to the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from his personal bank accounts, Bowdoin — describing himself as a Christian “money magnet” — urged members to imagine payments from ASD flowing to them “constantly.”
Federal prosecutions referenced Bowdoin’s Las Vegas remarks in the Ponzi indictment announced against him in December 2010. He has been free awaiting trial since his arrest.
Bowdoin went on to claim in yesterday’s OneX pitch that “you’ll soon see how you can earn $99,000 very quickly.”
As part of his OneX pitch, Bowdoin described the firm as “one of the greatest financial vehicles on the Internet today” and asked a series of questions:
“Do you want to get out of debt?”
Do you need to catch up on some house payments?”
“Do you want to pay cash in the next 90 days for a new automobile . . .”
Bowdoin’s pitch also mixed in quotations from scripture.
Based on its research, the PP Blog is reporting today that members of the purported Club Asteria business opportunity and the purported JustBeenPaid opportunity also have promoted OneX. An image of Club Asteria principal Hank Needham appeared in an ad for ASD in 2008. Meanwhile, web records show that Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JustBeenPaid, also was an ASD pitchman.
Among the Club Asteria pitchmen who turned their attentions to OneX are “strosdegoz.” Club Asteria-related claims came under fire from CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, in May.
Also participating in Bowdoin’s webinar was Rayda Roundy, whom Bowdoin described as a former ASD “trainer.”
Roundy told listeners that a “pay it forward” strategy with OneX will help participants make money and help Bowdoin raise defense funds.
OneX participants could create their own “bailout” program, Roundy claimed.
After Bowdoin took back the webinar helm from Roundy, the ASD patriarch reminded members to send questions about OneX to a Gmail email address.
And then Bowdoin said this:
“Now, from time to time, people ask me, ‘Andy, how do you remain so peaceful?’ My answer is God.”
He went on to claim that God had led him to his strategy of using OneX to raise defense funds.
“I believe that God has brought us OneX to provide the necessary funds to win this case,” Bowdoin said.
BULLETIN: (UPDATED 4:58 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The state of Utah has proposed that Rayda Roundy of Hurricane be fined $81,250 and ordered to cease and desist from selling securities unlawfully in the state for her alleged role in hawking Safevest LLC.
