BULLETIN: Gary Calhoun, Operator Of MPB Today ‘Grocery’ Program, Arrested On Racketeering Charge

Gary Calhoun: Source: Escambia County Booking photo.

Gary Allen Calhoun was arrested and booked in Escambia County, Fla., on a racketeering charge last month, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.

Details of the case were not immediately clear early this morning. Calhoun, 56, of Pensacola, appears to have been released on bond. A note in the booking information references the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. It was not immediately clear if FDLE was the agency that carried out the arrest. Calhoun was the operator of the MPB Today MLM “program.”

Whether the arrest had anything to do with MPB Today also was not immediately clear. The “program’s” website has been offline for weeks, and there were reports that an MPB Today-related investigation was under way.

Calhoun’s arraignment is set for Jan. 17.

MPB Today became a popular “program” in 2010, fueled in part by regular check-waving videos on YouTube by affiliates. Critics of the “opportunity,” which was popular on the Ponzi boards, were described as “idiots.”

Among the MPB pitchmen was “Ken Russo,” later of Zeek Rewards. In August 2012, the SEC described Zeek as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid fraud.

The MPB Today “program” was marked by strangeness, including an affiliate promo that depicted President Obama as a Nazi, First Lady Michelle Obama as an embarrassment to the family dog and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a bawling drunk.

In 2010, MPB Today described Calhoun as 2003’s “Businessman of the Year” as recognized “by the National Republican Congressional Committee’s [NRCC] Business Advisory Council.”

Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin of Florida-based AdSurfDaily also claimed to be an NRCC award recipient. ASD was a $119 million Ponzi scheme.