BULLETIN: Receiver Seizes Website Of EclipseChannel.TV ‘Advertising’ Venture, Saying Recidivist Felon And Accused Ponzi Schemer Robert Stinson Jr. Hatched New Fraud Scheme After Asset Freeze; Cash Used To Pay ‘Mansion’ Rent

BULLETIN: A federal judge in Pennsylvania blocked the launch of an online venture known as EclipseChannel.TV after reviewing evidence that recidivist felon and securities huckster Robert Stinson Jr. was at the helm and had thumbed his nose at court orders and an asset freeze.

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Inquirer, quoting federal prosecutors, reported that Stinson, who is African American, had been using the alias of Jon P. Sascha II online to solicit money for the video venture.

“The Facebook page for Sascha, who counts Stinson among his ‘friends,’ depicts a white man with short brown hair and sunglasses on a beach,” the newspaper reported.

Part of the evolving EclipseChannel fraud involved naming conventions, according to court filings. An earlier iteration of the enterprise initially was part of Stinson’s overall, $17 million fraud, which led to the SEC filing a civil lawsuit and prosecutors charging Stinson criminally.

After Stinson’s assets were frozen, new shell companies were formed to continue the fraud, and the Eclipse Channel was renamed “Eclipsechannel.tv Global Broadcasting Network Inc.,” according to court filings.

Kamian Schwartzman, the court-appointed receiver, said a “flurry of incorporations” had occurred to drive money to the scheme, but that most of the money was used to pay “past due rent” on the Philadelphia-area “mansion” of Stinson and his wife.

Prosecutors moved to revoke Stinson’s bail. That issue will be decided April 27. For now, Stinson has been placed under “house arrest” and U.S. District Judge Michael M. Baylson ordered that his computers be taken to keep him offline, according to the Inquirer.

Court filings in the SEC case quote Stinson as saying the charges against him were “bullsh*t” peddled by a “disgruntled employee.” He told people he had “proof” the case against him was false and confidently predicted he would “beat it.”

But he offered no “proof” and did not “beat it,” Schwartzman said.

Instead, he was charged criminally and failed to defend against the SEC action.

Rather than adhere to the conditions placed on him by a federal judge, “Stinson has busied himself with efforts to evade this Court’s Freeze Orders and Receivership Order,” Schwartzman said.

U.S. District Judge Berle M. Schiller authorized Schwartzman to take control of the EclipseChannel website, its Facebook and Twitter accounts and “any and all other Eclipse Channel II content or promotional material.”

EclipseChannel was positioned as an “advertising” venture and was actively soliciting money despite the swirl of litigation around Stinson.

Remarkably, a number of people continued to do business with Stinson despite the Ponzi allegations and his felonious history, according to court filings.

In 1986, he was convicted of wire fraud and larceny in U.S. Court in Delaware, according to records. In 1987, he was convicted of forgery and larceny in New Jersey state court. During the same year, he was convicted of mail fraud in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, in 1996, he was convicted of criminal conspiracy in state court in Pennsylvania. In 2001, he was convicted of bank fraud in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Stinson filed two bankruptcy petitions in 1999, one in October and another in December, according to records.

Nine years earlier, in 1990, he was charged with fraud by the SEC. He was ordered to pay a judgment of $7,680, but the judgment remains unpaid, according to court filings.

See earlier story.