HYIP RIPPLES: FBI Issues ‘Wanted’ Poster For Florida Attorney Implicated In ‘Commodities Online’ Caper; Michael Ralph Casey Called ‘Armed And Dangerous’

Michael Ralph Casey. Source: FBI.

A Florida attorney the SEC has described as “anything but lawyerly” is now the subject of an FBI “Wanted” poster and is considered “armed and dangerous.”

The FBI issued the poster after Michael Ralph Casey “failed to appear for a court hearing and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest by the United States District Court, Southern District of Florida.”

Casey, 67, was required to appear in court on April 29, but did not show, the FBI said. Along with James C. Howard III and Louis N. Gallo III, Casey was charged both civilly and criminally in September 2012 for his alleged role in Commodities Online.

The SEC has described Commodities Online as a securities swindle led by two convicted felons (Howard and Gallo) with narcotics rap sheets. The “program” allegedly was married to a boiler-room operation and tried to sanitize itself by bringing in Casey, who allegedly turned a blind eye to the scam.

Commodities Online is alleged to have gathered tens of millions of dollars. The “program” operators were accused of moving millions of dollars offshore while the SEC was closing in in 2011.

The alleged Commodities Online swindle also is notable for peripheral ties to other HYIP debacles. A Nevada company known as SSH2 Acquisitions sued James Clark Howard in 2010, alleging it had been ripped off in a Ponzi scheme. AdSurfDaily Ponzi figure Terralynn Hoy, later listed as an alleged winner in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme, was listed in Nevada records as a director of SSH2.

Meanwhile, BWFC Processing Center LLC, the registered agent of SSH2, is associated with Joseph Craft, a figure in the alleged TelexFree pyramid- and Ponzi scheme.

ASD was an alleged $119 million Ponzi scheme; Zeek was alleged to be a combined Ponzi- and pyramid swindle that gathered $850 million, and TelexFree has been described by regulators as a combined pyramid- and Ponzi fraud that gathered $1.2 billion.

Hoy was a moderator at the now-defunct “Surfs Up” forum that cheered for ASD Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin. She also moderated a defunct forum that led cheers for AdViewGlobal, an ASD reload scam that collapsed in 2009. Surf’s Up disappeared mysteriously in early 2010. Earlier this year, the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek case identified Hoy as a Zeek winner.

She has not been accused of wrongdoing.

View the FBI’s “Wanted” poster on Casey.