AdSurfDaily Cited In INetGlobal/Steve Renner Search Warrant Application; Former Company CEO Helped Agents Prior To Raid; Undercover Agent Joined Surf Program; Agents Witnessed Spectacle At New York Function
The U.S. Secret Service observed Minnesota-based INetGlobal’s operations for weeks in January, dispatched undercover agents to join the autosurf, learned that a bank recently had closed accounts tied to the firm amid money-laundering suspicions — and already had received incriminating information from the firm’s former chief executive officer prior to executing multiple search warrants Tuesday, according to records.
Agents even traveled to a company function in New York, mixed in with the audience and observed INetGlobal owner Steve Renner, according to records. The function was known as “Freedom Conference 2010.â€
Most of the attendees were Chinese, the Secret Service said.
“[C]onference registration took a long time because nobody at the registration desk spoke Chinese, and many of the conference attendees could not make themselves understood in English,” the agency said. “There was an interpreter in the main hall, but Renner often spoke over the interpreter.”
At one point, Renner started a pandemonium by holding up $20 bills, which he began handing out to attendees in exchange for $10 bills, the agency said.
“This caused a crush of people to approach the front of the hall, and Renner eventually needed assistance moving people back,” the Secret Service said. “Renner asked, through an interpreter, how many people in attendance had their own business, and only two raised their hands.”
Steven Keough, a retired naval officer who was INetGlobal’s CEO for only weeks before being fired by Renner, contacted federal prosecutors Jan. 8 to report concerns about Renner and the company, according to court documents.
Meanwhile, the search-warrant application cites the government’s prosecution of assets tied to Florida-based AdSurfDaily and a Jan. 4 order of forfeiture by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer to bolster the case against INetGlobal and related companies. The application also cites the successful prosecution of the 12DailyPro and Phoenix Surf Ponzi schemes by the SEC.
As was the case in the ASD prosecution, the Secret Service raised allegations of Ponzi fraud, wire fraud and money-laundering against INetGlobal, saying the company had grossly overstated its membership numbers, had co-mingled funds and operated the business in slipshod fashion.
Agency Assigns Veteran From ASD Case To INetGlobal Case
At least one of the Secret Service agents involved in the INetGlobal investigation also was involved in the ASD investigation, according to the search-warrant affidavit. Agents located an INetGlobal sales pitch online, and the agent involved in the ASD probe called the INetGlobal member.
Out of the gate, INetGlobal was described by the member as a wink-nod proposition, the Secret Service said — and it turned out that the INetGlobal member also had been an ASD member.
“The member said he had previously been a member of ASD . . . and said, ‘We know what happened there,'” the Secret Service said. “The member said he was reluctant to join iNetGlobal due to it being similar to ASD.
“The member said, ‘we all know what this program is.’ The member said his daughter and wife surfed the websites and the member did not care about the services provided. The member said he just wanted to put his money in and get it out. The member said you convert your earnings to V-cash and then receive payouts by check or through an ATM card you can sign up for. The member said members earn a daily return on their investment but that he was not sure what he exactly earned. The member said he has not been able to figure out the percentage of return due to the convoluted information provided on the iNetGlobal website.”
Regardless of the member’s own concerns about the program, the member nonetheless was eager to recruit the undercover Secret Service agent, according to the affidavit.
“The member pushed [the undercover agent] to join and wanted to conduct a three way call with his sponsor,” the Secret Service said. “The member said bringing in new members under you was the best way to earn maximum returns.”
CEO Met With Secret Service Prior To Raid
Keough’s holds a Bachelor of Science in Chinese from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md.; a Master of Arts in Congressional Studies from the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.; and a law degree from Boston College Law School.
After working for INetGlobal for only weeks, Keough said things going on inside the firm made no sense and he had come to believe Renner had hired him as a “good face†for the company, according to the search-warrant application.
Keough told agents he believed Renner fired him for asking too many questions, according to the filings.
“Keough described what he called his first ‘red flags,’ which were the reported size (50,000 members) and purported revenue ($100 million) of iNetGlobal; the complete disarray and disorganization of the businesses; and the seemingly small outside legitimate income,” the Secret Service said. “Keough further stated that the companies’ website never seemed to work properly, making him question what customers who purchased the advertising service alone, without the possibility of rebates, were getting for their money.
“Keough said on occasion he witnessed Renner manually manipulating the iNetGlobal system to pay out percentages that were different, and smaller, from the percentage listed on the iNetGlobal website,” the Secret Service continued. “Keough also wondered how, with so little outside income, the company could pay these outlandish returns. Keough said Renner would explain away his concerns by telling him how beneficial the advertising was and about all the different levels a member could achieve. Keough said, ‘I never really understood how it could work.’
“Renner told him iNetGlobal had 50,000 members, had been in business for 10 years, was debt free, and had made over $100 million in revenue. Keough said he later learned all these facts were ‘lies.’
“Keough further stated that Renner used the misleading information in power point presentations and webinars to recruit others,” the agency said.
Once becoming CEO, “Keough conducted his own internal audit and found, contrary to Renner’s statements, that iNetGlobal had only approximately 30,000 members, iNetGlobal had only been in business for 14 months, there were huge liabilities associated with the members’ ‘investments’ and the company’s estimated revenue was approximately $28 million, not the $100 million in revenue claimed by Renner.
“Keough said he was particularly alarmed because he knew Renner and/or representatives of iNetGlobal were using these false statements to promote and market iNetGlobal to would-be members (investors),” the Secret Service said. “Keough believed these false statements caused individuals to invest with iNetGlobal.’
“Keough said he had an iNetGlobal employee conduct an analysis to determine the member liability,” the Secret Service said. “The employee reported back to Keough that at least 87% of the company’s revenue was generated from sale of memberships to members residing in China.”
The search-warrant application also claimed that a company Renner owned provided payment-processing services for a Ponzi scheme called “Learn Waterhouse,” which was smashed by the SEC in 2004.
When a court-appointed receiver asked Renner to turn over funds to the receivership estate by converting electronic credits to cash, it was learned that Renner could not do it because he had “invested” more than $2.5 million in Learn Waterhouse V-Credits on “stamps, coins, Salvador Dali sculptures, autographed letters, guitars and amplifiers, fractional interests in motion picture companies, and fractional interests in oil wells, among other things.
“Additional sums of customers’ money had been spent by Renner personally, including on daily living expenses,” the Secret Service said.
Thank you Steven Keough, for being who you are. A man who know right from wrong. Now do you think you could get a job as the CEO of DNA lol!!!!
Ha. Insert narc,the ponzi for inetglobal and you get the thread from scam.
I bet RLG knew this was coming. He will soon post that he did…
Classic Vindictive behavior -here’s a take on what happened:
1. Steve Keough is hired to run iNetglobal – goes on Camera saying how great the company is, runs meetings, travels around the country promoting iNetGlobal.
2. Members and management realize Steve Keough is incapable of running an internet company so he is let go.
3. Steve Keough attempts to extort several 100K from iNetGlobal.
4. Steve Keough does not get the money so he fabricates lies about Steve Renner and the company to get back at the man who let him go and wouldn’t pay him on a failed extortion plot – then he brings these lies to the FBI and Secret Service.
5. Federal Government hears the word Ponzi and immediately flexes it’s muscle putting 60 employees and their families temporarily out of work without any arrests and without even a basic understanding of the business.
Steve Renner has sentencing court coming up and Feds want to bury him….what perfect timing.
6. News services are alerted to the raid and publish biased 1 sided stories without seeing any evidence.
7. Thousands of iNetGlobal members and Customers are outraged by the allegations of the company that has provided so much for them.
8. Does it matter? Now that the Government has made up it’s mind that iNetGlobal is guilty of something, can they ever be freed?
Apparently the Former Naval Officer and the Government doesn’t believe in Innocent until proven guilty – hopefully they believe in the right to free speech.
@ thetruth: You are watching too many hollywood movies. Probably you can sell this scenario to big directors.
Hi, I totally disagree with what says in this article. Looks like, that fired CEO tries to screw his ex employer. It’s enough idiots in this world and it happens every day.
I’m as the business owner and iNetglobal customer want to say that iNetGlobal provides excellent Internet Service package for a small and medium businesses. They are the only company, that I know, who combined all Internet Marketing Services under one roof: Web Hosting, Domains, Ecommerce Internet Sales, Local Business Listings, Mail Autoresponder service, Webcast&Webinar services, Newswire – news and information press release service, Online Training, and more.
Nobody else provides all this products and services as a package for a fare price!
Sean you are such a smart guy! If president Bush were to tell you that the Sun goes around the Earth you would be like YEEEEAH, YEEEEAH IT IS MY PRESIDENT, I WILL FOLLOW HIM TO DEATH, YEEEEAH! Bush himself once said at a NASA conference that “it is time for the human race to enter the Solar System”
So, my view is that Steven Keough is someone I would closely monitor and never include in my own affairs or people associations.
theturth: All of the same was said by members of CEP, 12DP, ASD, AVG, AGW, BAS, PhoenixSurf, MrsVIP, PIPS, Wealth Pools International, Wellspring/SharedProfit/MPact, shall I name more? All said the very same thing you have said almost to a T. Only one problem, just like you, they were all wrong. iNetGlobal is a scam. It always has been a scam. There is nothing legitimate about it.
But I guess you could always send tea bags to Bill O’Reilly, and write letters to Senator Leahy, the DOJ, the Inspector General, and tell them how the “evil” government shut down a perfectly legal company. Then you can join the ranks of ASD members who did all those things, and more. Actually I think you should mobilize all the members and march on Washington. This is a great time of the year to march in Washington.
The good news is they may have been able to freeze enough money and assets so the true victims of this scam will be able to get some of their money back. Otherwise they would have lost it all.
I’m also a business owner and iNetglobal customer want to say that iNetGlobal provides excellent Internet Service package for a small and medium businesses. They are the only company, that I know, who combined all Internet Marketing Services under one roof: Web Hosting, Domains, Ecommerce Internet Sales, Local Business Listings, Mail Autoresponder service, Webcast&Webinar services, Newswire – news and information press release service, Online Training, and more.
Nobody else provides all this products and services as a package for a fare price!
Do any inetglobal customers know how to spell fair?
If you are going to copy paste and spam this blog with the same comments, at least correct the spelling mistakes. lol
It’s sad the former CEO tried to screw his former emplyees
:((
@thetruth and the rest of you yahoos that have not bothered to do your homework.
Start doing your own reading of actual news articles and investigative reports, including some of the publicly accessible records from all of Renner’s “businesses” and cases brought against him. You will see that Renner is a con artist that took/takes advantage of people and especially people that do/did not understand business. He got caught on tax evasion and then someone came into his company and started questioning things within the one division and joke was over. He was shuffling money between business names, playing a shell game with other peoples money and spewing lies. Plain and simple. In the final scheme of things, these guys who think they are so smart always get caught. Why do you think we have those nice white collar crime cells? For con men like Renner….
We need more men like Steven Keough to step up in companies and be willing to call-out the black sheep. Even the banks were on to this guy!
So…. blue, iphone, Alex and the brave one known as “anonymous”…. maybe you should start looking at some of the actual facts that are out there before you start pointing fingers and name calling. For you INetGlobal “business owners” who have not YET been totally screwed…. get out now or don’t cry later.
A STEVENS!!!
I am a BRAVE iNetGlobal BUSINESS OWNER and I make MONEY! I AM HAPPY! Happy?
That would be ‘received’ money……….and no longer will. lol.
Yes “anonymous”…. you show how “BRAVE” you are by not using your real name. Are you afraid your “downline” or “customers” will read this information and find out they are caught up in a Ponzi Scheme and pull out their money (IF they can?).
It’s okay “anonymous”, some people just can not admit when they have been had. It is a hard cold truth that many just can not accept, but Renner has stripped many thousands of people of millions of dollars.
The banks -not the government- shut down his accounts due to suspected fraudulent activity. Money laundering they thought. That same day he shifted his money to yet another bank account he had under yet another business name he had. Does this still sound legitimate to you?
So you have the banks, the IRS, the Secret Service, numerous local and federal agencies investigating this man and his assorted companies and locations….. but you still believe it is all on the up and up.
Well, if you really DID make money – good for you. You are one of the bery few lucky ones, but be prepared for the tsunami that is coming when all your “customers” start cashing-out!
Good Luck to you brave “anonymous”.
$ KEEPS ON COMING, YES!
Yet you still don’t have the courage to post your name… hmmm, interesting!
Has to make one question your honesty and truth in answers/replies/postings.
Hi guys, for anything, before you’d like to comment on it, you should absolutely know it! inetglobal shows us a brand new business. It really provide essential products and service even we can’t touch it. But you can see it, such as domain, ranks serching list, promotion of online material products…That’s realization, not fudge.
Anyway, through the issue, the U.S. government can redefine virtual products. If you know just a little bit common knowledge about economics, you can tell, any product from the inetglobal is a real product. Even though the U.S. government regard it as a scam. I am very sure just in short time, maybe half an year, or 1 year, same company will appear. At that time people will accept it, because they know more and their minds are changed with the times.
Arguing is useful. But before it, we should know what we are arguing. We shoul know argued object well. How to know it? firstly, we should spend much more time on researching. For inetglobal, it is a MLM business, so we should understand what’s MLM? Does it have its essential products? and how about its products, garbage or advanced ones? Secondly, we we should know what’s the same and difference from inetglobal and others? Thirdly, if any companies, especially MLM companies’ accounts are frozen by the government, can they survive or not?
I trust inetglobal even I am not doing it well. But I am knowledgable for economics. Accounting to the definition of MLM, inetglobal is a real MLM company.It really provides essential products and service, due to virtual businese, even we can’t see it, it exists.
Now for most people, stock market is normal. Countless people get involved. You can’t imagine why most people lose their money and they are still interested in it? No matter people lose or win, the thing is: at the begining of the shares, most people at that time thought it was obviously huge Ponzi scheme. Even now, some people still think it is.
Haha, human being is human being. It will be more smart, especially after experience some “comfused” issues!
I hope U.S. government farely sapientially deal with inetglobal!
Good luck, inetglobal!
Howdy Tom and thanks for offering civil debate. I don’t see any problem with ~most~ of the services iNet offers and I doubt the government does either. Adpacs however is a direct copy of many “autosurf” type programs which the government has found to be illegal time and time again.
Imagine I owned a neighborhood corner store, I sold milk, eggs, beer and snacks. But I also sold crack cocaine. If I pointed out how many legal products I sold in a month do you expect that would in any way mitigate the charges I would face for selling an illegal one?
With most fraudulent internet companies (which I believe iNetGlobal to be) there is seldom anything like an accurate accounting of where money came from or where it goes. As this case makes it’s way through the court system keep an eye out for iNet offering into evidence any independently audited financial records. I’d be shocked if they do, I expect the best estimation of iNet’s cash flows will come from either a forensic accountant or the court appointed receiver (which may be one and the same). When the best available information about iNet’s cash flow is made public it’s very likely that only a thin fraction of their revenue comes from the sale of legitimate services and the great majority comes from the sale of “AdPacs” which is the portion of the program which generates the ponzi charges.
Doesn’t Tom235 compose like a Chinese person would?….. ” Haha, human being is human being. It will be more smart, especially after experience some “comfused†issues!” Hmmm
And what about you Miss Bellerose? What do you compose that’s so outstanding?
Having been in both Hong Kong and Mainland China, the verbal conjugation appears to be that of someone from that region. However, I was unaware that they liked “fudge”, as it is not exactly from that area of the world. Perhaps Paul was correct in his assessment.
Hi GlimDropper, we argue here just for iNet is a scam or not. Anyone can say anything here. But I like useful ones, especially knowledgeable ones. We should provide some evidence to support your idea. Not just say your conclusion. Even for the judger also should offer proof to hold his judgement.
Due to the products of iNet are virtual. So we can’t use traditional sense. We all know make advertisment on internet need to pay even we it not like a newspaper you can touch it. The business of iNet is based on it. So the products from the iNet absoluteley need to pay. The only thing we can discuss it is: the price is fare or not. If you think the products or service is garbage or worthless, you can say it is a kind of scam. Otherwise you can’t.
I hope I make sense for yous!
Wrong. We use the traditional sense. Either they have value or they do not. If they have value, there will be sales. If not, they will not have sales. These programs get in trouble precisely because they have no product or service. The money comes from sign up fees and other fees charged to distributors. Whether you or I like it, the law states that you have to get 70% of revenue from sales to end customers. Amway has been deemed to be legal.
Robbing Peter to pay Paul is just a two bit Ponzi.
I’m telling everybody on here right now, DO NOT JOIN INETGLOBAL!!! DO NOT JOIN INETGLOBAL!!!! DO NOT JOIN INETGLOBAL!!!!!
It’s a scam, 100%!!!! When me and my friend joined, we were promised big bucks for just clicking on a few ads a day. At least $8 US minimum, plus whatever our downlines click. You know how much we are getting a day? Take a wild guess!!!! $1 to $2 a day, plus we have to pay back $40 from their stupid automated repurchasing plan!!!!! That means we make $0 dollars a month!!!!
Inetglobal is B.S. I hope they’re found guilty. It’s been 4 months now, And I have not received my V-Cash card, nor have I seen a single penny. What a waste of my $2060
[…] records show that the Secret Service also employed undercover operatives in the investigation of the INetGlobal autosurf. An affidavit in the case notes that at least two operatives were present at an INetGlobal function […]
what about now somebody made money after investigation? answer, please.