BREAKING NEWS: Water Toy Does Not Survive: Federal Judge Approves Liquidation Plan That Demolishes Parent Company Of Noobing Autosurf; Jet Ski, Car, Computers, Furniture — Even A Wastebasket Ordered Sold

A federal judge has given the go-ahead to a court-appointed receiver to sell the assets of Affiliate Strategies Inc. (ASI), the parent company of the Noobing autosurf.

U.S. District Judge Julie A. Robinson of the District of Kansas approved the plan submitted by receiver Larry Cook. The plan authorizes Cook to sell the assets in auction lots — right down to a stainless-steel wastebasket in the women’s restroom.

Robinson’s order permits Cook to 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.

AdSurfDaily, a Florida company implicated in an alleged $100 million Ponzi scheme, used money to purchase two jet skis, federal prosecutors said.

ASI’s furnishings, furniture, computer equipment, servers and related equipment all will go. Included in the equipment are the Compaq 6820 notebook computer used by ASI/Noobing President Brett Blackman, and the Lenovo SL500 notebook computer used by Noobing programmer Mike Reed, according to court filings.

Neither Noobing nor Reed was named a defendant in the July action filed by the Federal Trade Commission and the attorneys general of Kansas, Minnesota and North Carolina. Noobing’s website, however, went offline in the wake of the action against ASI and several affiliated firms and individuals, including Blackman.

One of the affiliated companies — the Grant Writer’s Institute — was alleged to have sold a fraudulent program that offered “guaranteed” government grants from economic stimulus funds. Separately, Cook said his preliminary investigation revealed that a 70-year-old Philadelphia man had been charged $995 for the names and addresses of three benevolent entities that could help him repair the aging home he shared with his wife.

Noobing targeted deaf people in promotions. Although the Noobing surf was not named a defendant in the FTC action, Cook’s preliminary assessment revealed Noobing had gathered $590,000 in revenue last year and more than $541,000 this year.

Cook estimated that the surf was in the hole nearly $550,000 since last year.

Noobing participants became furious in February, when the surf slashed daily payouts to a fraction of 1 percent after paying up to 3 percent earlier.

Some members said Noobing should provide refunds, but Reed said on the ASA forum that no refunds would be granted because the company never guaranteed a return. Regardless, some participants said they’d get their money back by filing chargebacks with credit-card companies.

Critics said the practice was contemptible, pointing out the wink-nod nature of autosurfs and the stress it puts on banks. On one hand, participants are happy to accept Ponzi payouts from the surfs. On the other, in order to perform a chargeback, they claim surfs failed to deliver the “advertising” they paid for when a surf slashes payouts.

Such an approach costs banks time and money. Some veteran autosurf pushers who position themselves as experts recommend the chargeback approach, in effect using banks to guarantee “advertising” purchases from the surfs even if surfs that slash payouts or suspend them still are displaying ads.

The ASA forum is a popular site among autosurf enthusiasts. Critics call it a Ponzi board for both autosurfs and HYIPs.

Noobing blamed its decision to slash payouts on uncertainty in the ASD case.

“If there is a bad guy in this whole story, it’s the government!” Reed exclaimed on the ASA forum in February. “Let’s get mad at them! How can sharing our revenue to help control costs for legitimate advertisers be a bad thing? How can keeping $90+ million dollars to protect the people who worked with ASD be a fair result? It’s madness!!! Our government is the bad guy here, not Noobing.

“Let’s get mad at the source of this challenge!” Reed railed. “Call your congressman, send letters, speak publicly!!”

Some ASD promoters pushed Noobing after the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from ASD last year in a wire-fraud, money-laundering and Ponzi scheme probe.

Cook said the case against ASI and co-defendants was going to take some time to unwind because of thousands of intercompany transactions and the fact that some of the entities had registered as corporations offshore.

“Of immediate concern is the large distributions and salary paid to defendant Brett Black[man] since 2008,” Cook advised Robinson in a preliminary report. “Per the QuickBooks accounting records, Blackman received $841,545 of distributions from Apex Holdings International, LLC in 2008 and made a net contribution of $491,559 into Affiliate Strategies, Inc. ($581,388 of contributions and $89,829 of distributions) for a total net distribution of $349,986, in addition to salary payments of $118,049.

“In 2009,” Cook continued, “Blackman has received $253,506 of distributions from Apex Holdings International, LLC and has made a net contribution of $113,000 into Affiliate Strategies, Inc. ($349,000 of contributions and $226,000 of distributions). The total net distributions and salary to Blackman for 2008 and 2009 is approximately $490,000.”

Cook said his assessment was ongoing. He reported that some of the accounts involved in the investigation had chargeback rates of as high as 77 percent, meaning that better than three of four customers who made credit-card charges requested refunds.

Blackman, according to Cook, recently registered several corporations offshore, including Noobing; 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.”

Robinson previously ordered all offshore assets to be repatriated.