BREAKING NEWS: Receiver In FTC Case Against Parent Company Of Noobing Autosurf Seeks Wholesale Demolition Of Firm; Asks Judge To Approve Plan To Sell Assets — Right Down To Restroom Wastebasket
Assets of the parent company of an autosurf firm that targeted customers with hearing impairments would be sold at auction — up to and including a stainless-steel wastebasket in the women’s restroom, according to a plan proposed by the receiver in the case against Affiliate Strategies Inc. (ASI) and other companies.
ASI is the parent company of the Noobing autosurf. U.S. District Judge Julie A. Robinson of the District of Kansas would have to approve the plan submitted by Larry Cook, the court-appointed receiver.
Robinson previously ordered ASI to repatriate to the United States all assets and documents held on foreign soil, and cleared the way for any safe-deposit boxes to be opened and inspected. The judge also ordered assets not to be concealed or dissipated and records not to be destroyed.
In a coincidence that conjures images of another autosurfing company embroiled in litigation, Cook revealed in the plan that ASI owns a jet-ski. Federal prosecutors said in December that money from Florida-based AdSurfDaily Inc. (ASD) was used to purchase two jet-skis.
Prosecutors seized ASD’s jet-skis in a forfeiture complaint and may choose to liquidate them later, if court approval is gained.
Cook’s plan would sell ASI’s jet-ski, a 2005 Yamaha, along with a 2003 Saturn automobile owned by the firm.
“[Cook] previously determined the Receivership Defendants’ business operations could not be operated legally and profitably,” the receiver’s attorney, Brian M. Holland, said in a court filing.
The Grant Writer’s Institute — another company affiliated with ASI — was accused in August of charging a 70-year-old Philadelphia man $995 for the names and addresses of three benevolent entities that could help him repair the home he shares with his wife.
One of the addresses proved to be the address of the Philadelphia Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which had been misidentified by the Grant Writer’s Institute as a benevolent organization known as “World Changers,†according to court filings.
In July, ASI, the Grant Writer’s Institute and several affiliated firms and individuals were accused by the FTC and the attorneys general of Kansas, Minnesota and North Carolina of participating in a scheme that promised “guaranteed†grants of $25,000 from economic-stimulus funds provided by the government.
Brett Blackman, president of Noobing, is the head of ASI.
In August, Cook advised Robinson that the companies were insolvent and that attorneys had received “thirty two US Mail crates†filled with consumer complaints on a single day.
Blackman, according to Cook, recently registered several corporations offshore, including Noobing, which was registered on the Caribbean island of Nevis on March 25, 2009; ASI Management Inc., formed in Belize on March 24, 2009; Landmark Publishing Group LLC, formed in Nevis on March 25, 2009; Landmark Publishing LLC, formed in Nevis on March 25, 2009; International Research and Writing Group LLC, formed in Nevis on July 1, 2009; and International Publishing Group LLC, formed in Nevis on July 1, 2009.
All in all, Cook said, “the ASI defendants have formed and operated eighteen additional Kansas LLCs as subsidiaries of Defendant Apex Holdings International LLC.â€
Sounds like Andy had best have his dentures in his mouth when the receivers take inventory of ASD’s assets.
Maybe they’ll confiscate that ghastly tan suit and replace it with prison blues. I liked Madoff’s jumpsuit.