Man Whose Company Supplied Debit Cards To AdSurfDaily Wanted By INTERPOL In International Money-Laundering Case; Robert Hodgins On The Lam
Robert Hodgins: Source: INTERPOL
The man who supplied debit cards to the AdSurfDaily autosurf is wanted by INTERPOL on an arrest warrant issued by U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, the international police agency says on its website.
INTERPOL has published two photographs of Robert Hodgins, 65. People with information on Hodgins are urged to contact the General Secretariat of INTERPOL.
Hodgins, whom INTERPOL says was born in Shawville, British Columbia, Canada, operated a Dallas-based company known as Virtual Money Inc. He was indicted under seal in 2008 in the United States on charges of assisting a Colombian narco-business launder money. He lived in the Oklahoma City area.
His company, known as VM, was featured in advertising materials for ASD in 2007, and records suggest Hodgins or a VM designate participated in an ASD function in Orlando in late 2006. Five people have been convicted to date in the drug and money-laundering case, including two
Robert Hodgins: Source: INTERPOL
individuals from Medellin, Colombia, according to records. Medellin was the home base of the late drug lord and terrorist Pablo Escobar.
Web records suggest VM supplied debit cards to other autosurfs and HYIPs, and the company’s name in mentioned in the Ponzi scheme litigation against ASD and in court papers in the PhoenixSurf Ponzi scheme.
PhoenixSurf was sued successfully by the SEC in 2007.
The criminal case against Hodgins was brought by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration after an undercover operation.
In September 2008 — about a month after the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from ASD President Andy Bowdoin amid wire-fraud, money-laundering and Ponzi scheme allegations in the District of Colombia — the indictment against Hodgins was unsealed in Connecticut.
Some ASD members said they saw huge sums of cash and suitcases full of cashier’s checks at ASD “rallies” in American cities, leading to questions about whether the company was being used as a front for criminal enterprises.
