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Category: Ad Surf Daily

In Rejecting Tortured Legal Constructions, Judges Across America Now Point To Utah Case Involving AdSurfDaily Mainstay Curtis Richmond

UPDATED 11:54 A.M. ET (U.S.A.) Curtis Richmond claimed the federal judge overseeing the AdSurfDaily civil-forfeiture case in the District of Columbia was among a group of “Co-Conspirators” that included two federal prosecutors and a court clerk.

The judge, Richmond claimed, was violating her oath and conspiring with another judge to deny ASD members justice. Prosecutors, meanwhile, were helping the judge interfere with commerce, according to Richmond. The judge rejected Richmond’s arguments — but it didn’t stop other ASD pro se litigants from advancing similar arguments.

For his bid to intervene in the ASD Ponzi case, Richmond was labeled a “hero” on both the pro-AdSurfDaily “Surf’s Up” forum (now defunct) and on a forum that championed the AdViewGlobal autosurf (now defunct). Among Richmond’s boosters was “Professor” Patrick Moriarty, a Missouri man who once started a purported nonprofit in the name of a man accused of murdering a woman in cold blood and shooting a police officer.

Moriarty later was indicted for tax fraud. He pleaded guilty after prosecutors said they had “casino” records and intended to use them in the case against Moriarty, who advertised that he sold fake academic degrees on e-Bay as “gag gifts.”

Prior to Moriarty’s indictment, members of the Surf’s Up forum joined with him in forming a purported Missouri nonprofit known as ASD Members International (ASDMI). ASDMI’s stated mission was to litigate against the government for its role in the ASD Ponzi case.

Utah resident and ASD figure Christian Oesch — later to join with Washington state resident and ASD figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming in a failed 2010 bid to sue the United States for more than twice the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2009 — filed pro se pleadings in the ASD case that championed Richmond’s take on the law.

But Curtis Richmond’s court forays now have been cited by various judges in various jurisdictions as reasons to reject tortured legal constructions. A federal judge in North Dakota, for example, cited this Utah case involving Richmond as a reason to reject tortured arguments advanced by Michael Howard Reed, a so-called “sovereign citizen” now serving two prison sentences for federal crimes.

One of Reed’s crimes was filing false liens and threatening a federal judge; the other was possession of a firearm and ammunition by a fugitive from justice.

Richmond, a Californian who advanced the notion in the 2006 Utah case that he enjoyed diplomatic immunity that extended to him from an “Indian” tribe, became a figure in the ASD case in 2008. The “tribe,” which a federal judge ruled a “sham,” came to be known derisively as the “Arby’s Indians” because it once conducted a meeting at an Arby’s restaurant.

Reed, whose name surfaced in the 2008 SEC Ponzi case against Gold Quest International after he claimed to be the “attorney general” of an unrecognized tribe and asserted a claim against the agency for $1.7 trillion, asserted in a separate case that the government could not prosecute him because he was immune to U.S. law and had trademarked his name.

Here is a verbatim section from one of Reed’s nonsensical pleadings in federal court in North Dakota. (Italics/identation added):

“boa-kaa-konan-na-ishkawaanden=Michael-Howard-Reed=original-creditor-original-beneficiary: for MICHAEL-HOWARD-REED=original-debtor-trustee agent; Under the Penalties of Perjury Affirm that MICHAEL HOWARD REED©TM is a Fictional Entity . . .”

Richmond’s Utah case was cited in the North Dakota case as a reason to reject Reed’s bizarre arguments.

It also was cited in this Colorado case in which a U.S. Magistrate Judge rejected the tortured legal constructions of Christopher Douglas Wise. Among other things, Wise, a prisoner in the Colorado state system, asserted that he was a “secured party creditor” who’d never lived in the “District of Columbia” — and that somehow this alleged fact set destroyed the jurisdiction of the Adams County District Court in which he was convicted of a crime.

In a separate case in Florida, a federal magistrate judge pointed to Richmond’s Utah “Indian” pleadings as a reason to reject arguments advanced by Timothy Black, who was serving two life sentences for sex crimes involving children and tried to overturn his conviction in part by claiming he had copyrighted his name and by arguing he was not subject to Florida law.

“Petitioner was found guilty by a jury and convicted of two counts of sexual battery on a person less than twelve years of age, and one count of lewd or lascivious molestation on a person less than twelve years of age, and sentenced to two terms of life and one term of thirty years, to be served concurrently,” the judge noted.

Here is a verbatim section from Black’s court claims. (Italics added):

“Therefore the Third Party [Intervener] is the party who is injured by the action at large as he is incarcerated as surety for his collateral, Debtor TIMOTHY W BLACK© Ens Legis . . .”

Nov 15, 2011
HAVE THE ‘GAMES’ BEGUN? AdSurfDaily Members Todd Disner, Dwight Owen Schweitzer File Lawsuit Against Government That Claims Undercover Agents Violated Firm’s Terms Of Service; Federal Prosecutors Say Money Was Seized Properly With Valid Warrants

UPDATED 11:27 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) In May, an email attributed to AdSurfDaily member Todd Disner declared, “Let the games begin!” The remark was in the context of a lawsuit Disner and fellow ASD member Dwight Owen Schweitzer intended to file against the United States once ASD members chipped in enough money to fund the complaint.

Those games apparently have begun with the filing today of a pro se “complaint for declaratory relief” by Disner and Schweitzer in the Southern District of Florida against the United States and Rust Consulting Inc., the government-approved claims administrator in the civil-forfeiture portion of the ASD Ponzi case.

The lawsuit asks a federal judge in Florida to find that the seizure of assets and business records belonging to Disner and Schweitzer was “illegal and void” and demands their return. It also asks the judge to order Rust to “disclose all information in its possession or available to it pertaining to” Disner and Schweitzer.

Among the claims in the lawsuit are that undercover agents from a U.S. Secret Service/IRS Task Force who joined ASD prior to the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from the bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin violated ASD’s Terms of Service and had a duty to report their alleged TOS violations, including the insertion of an agent’s undercover “MySpace” page in ASD’s advertising rotator, to the company.

Rust is headquartered in Minnesota. Although the complaint named the United States a defendant alongside Rust, the address listed for the United States by Disner and Schweitzer was the address of the office of U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. in the District of Columbia.

Disner, an unsuccessful pro se litigant in the ASD civil case brought by the government, is a co-founder of the Quiznos sandwich franchise. He lives in Miami. Schweitzer, a former attorney, also lives in Miami. The government’s case against ASD-related assets was filed in the District of Columbia in August 2008. Disner was denied standing in the District of Columbia on Aug. 31, 2009, more than two years ago.

Among other things, Disner and Schweitzer claim their private records as contained in ASD’s database were confiscated illegally by the government. They also claimed an affidavit filed in the forfeiture case by the U.S. Secret Service was flawed and that the government hired Rust to implement a remissions program “designed to collect evidence and coerced admissions from the plaintiffs to be used by the government” at the criminal trial of ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

Federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia — the venue in which both the criminal and the civil cases against Bowdoin and ASD-connected assets were filed — had a different take.

“The funds in this case were seized under properly issued judicial warrants,” Machen’s office said today. “Beyond that, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has no comment on the matter at this time. ”

Puzzlingly, the complaint filed by Disner and Schweitzer and recorded on the docket of U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga today makes the assertion that “To date the plaintiffs are unaware of any remission payments having been made and specifically the plaintiffs were unable to get the information required for their submissions, all of which are still in the possession of the government.”

On Sept. 22 — more than six weeks ago — the PP Blog reported that thousands of ASD members who filed approved remissions claims would receive back 100 cents on the dollar. Members reported that the money was deposited electronically into their bank accounts beginning on Sept. 23. On Sept. 26, the government announced that $55 million was being returned, with the Secret Service describing ASD as a “criminal enterprise” and the Department of Justice describing the ASD scheme as “insidious.”

In a Sept. 28 email, even Bowdoin acknowledged that he was aware the government had returned money to members through the remissions process. Among other things, the ASD patriarch claimed the government had forced members to lie to receive compensation.

Disner and Schweitzer not only claim in their complaint that they are “unaware” of any money being returned, they also claim the remissions program was designed to “prevent, hamper and forestall the return” of funds.

Meanwhile, Disner and Schweitzer claim that ASD was a profitable venture, in stark contrast to assertions by the government that ASD was insolvent because it created a liability of $1.25 for each dollar it took in through the sale of purported “advertising.”

Disner and Schweitzer also took issue with government agents joining ASD and allegedly violating the ASD membership agreement, including an undercover agent who placed his undercover “MySpace” page in ASD’s advertising rotator. In August 2008, the government alleged that “ASD did not require, or even verify that the agent “had any product or service to sell.”

Had the agents “lived up to the obligations they took on by becoming members of ASD they should have reported their own violations of the ASD terms of service with the result that the sites they foisted upon ASD would have been removed and the benefits to them as advertisers’ would be forfeited as the ASD rules mandated,” Disner and Schweitzer argued.

Nov 7, 2011
UPDATE: Accused Thief, Bail-Jumper, Passport Fraudster And Ponzi Fugitive Brian Kim Arrested In Hong Kong And Returned To The United States

Captured In Hong Kong: Former TV analyst and accused Ponzi schemer Brian Kim.

UPDATE: On the lam for 10 months, accused Ponzi-scheme fugitive Brian Kim was arrested last month and returned to the United States from Kong Kong, authorities said yesterday.

Kim, 36, is a former analyst who appeared as a CNBC commentator on issues such as the Dubai debt crisis and so-called “dark pools.” Investigators said he was involved in at least two fraud schemes while holding forth on TV. Kim high-tailed it out of the United States before he could be tried in early January on state charges of stealing $430,000 from Christadora House, the New York condominium complex at which he resided, authorities said.

Even as the theft matter was being investigated and prosecuted, Kim was at the helm of a separate, $6 million Ponzi scheme, said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. The CFTC also charged Kim in the alleged Ponzi caper, which operated through a firm known as Liquid Capital Management LLC.

Vance next brought a state grand-jury indictment against Kim for bail-jumping, and federal prosecutors charged him with passport fraud.

Authorities did not say when Kim was caught in Hong Kong. Vance said the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong and Chinese officials cooperated in bringing Kim back to the United States to face justice.

In April, a federal judge ordered Kim to pay restitution and civil penalties of more than $12.5 million in the case brought by the CFTC.

Like accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin of AdSurfDaily, Kim will face a civil judgment while battling criminal Ponzi charges.

Nov 5, 2011
A BRIEF STUDY IN CASH-GIFTING CONTRASTS: The Attorney General, The BBB — And Hank Needham (Before The Club Asteria Brainstorm And CONSOB Probe)

In this June 2008 video, Hank Needham — later to emerge as a Club Asteria principal — counts out a stack of £20 British notes delivered in a cash-gifting scheme. Using the pronoun "we" without defining who "we" was, Needham told viewers that "we" intended to open a cash-gifting "school." About three years later, Club Asteria positioned itself as an online "education" leader. In a March 2008 cash-gifting video, Needham was featured counting out a small stack of U.S. $100 bills. What was needed, Needham coached, was "training" on how to post cash-gifting videos on the Internet. Prosecutors say cash-gifting is illegal. The BBB calls it a pyramid scheme. In May 2011, CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, blocked promos for Club Asteria in Italy. Needham has called himself a Club Asteria owner, and Club Asteria had described him as the director of sales and marketing “responsible for establishing Country, Regional and Network Team Leaders."

In this post, we included a March 2008 Dailymotion video of Hank Needham — later to emerge as one of Club Asteria’s purported owners — hawking a cash gifting scheme in which five $100 bills (U.S.) spilled out of an envelope tucked inside an envelope delivered by overnight courier DHL. (Please note that March 2008 video also appears on a separate site. The date notation on that site is May 2008.)

Another cash-gifting video from Needham — this one dated June 2008 — has surfaced. In the June 2008 video, Needham is holding an envelope from FedEx, another overnight courier. “Now, we have another [envelope] — I won’t really go through the courier — I don’t think we’re supposed to use this courier anymore,” Needham tells viewers, after making sure they notice what he describes as a “little pile of cash that’s accumulating” to his left.

As the June 2008 video proceeds, Needham removes cash that has been packed snugly in the FedEx envelope. It’s British pounds as opposed to U.S. currency this time — and this time the money has come from “Robin” (or Robyn?) in the “British Isles.” Unlike the March (and May) 2008 video in which “George,” presumably an American, is reported by Needham to have sent five large U.S. bills, “Robin,” presumably a Brit, has chosen to send 25 twenty-pound notes. Needham counts out all 25 bills, creating five rows with five bills in each row. Why Needham was reluctant the mention the name of FedEx was not made clear in the video. What was clear was the Needham wanted viewers to know that “we’re opening up a website called CashGiftingSchool.com.”

He did not define “we.” The “school” website, which appears to have been registered in April 2008 while Needham was pushing the AdSurfDaily scheme in addition to cash-gifting, now resolves to a page that beams ads. (It’s worth noting that Needham, in 2008, was wearing casual attire while hawking the cash-gifting “school,” apparently from his home. Flash forward three years to 2011: Club Asteria is positioning itself as an “education” leader and featuring Needham on video. He is wearing a crisp, black suit in the 2011 video — and the backdrop is a board room. A button promoting the 2011 Club Asteria video in which Needham is showcased in the black suit is labeled “ABOUT COURAGE.” The button appears in Club Asteria’s October 2011 recruitment house organ.)

Various Club Asteria-related entities have been trading on the names of various charities, including the American Red Cross. The Red Cross sent the purported Asteria Philanthropic Foundation a cease-and-desist letter 11 days ago, and the relief agency said yesterday that the foundation agreed to stop using the Red Cross logo and other materials. How long it will take the Asteria-themed enterprises to comply is unclear.

Needham’s image also appeared in 2008 promos for AdSurfDaily, an autosurf the U.S. Secret Service called an international Ponzi scheme.

The Attorney General

Before you take a look at the June 2008 Needham video — which appears to have been placed on Dailymotion just two months before the spectacular seizure by the U.S. Secret Service of tens of millions of dollars in the ASD Ponzi case — we’d like you to take a look at what the attorney general of Michigan says about cash gifting. Bill Schuette notes that purveyors can be charged with felonies. Mike Cox, Schuette’s predecessor as attorney general, said the same thing.

Needham does not mention the law in either of his videos; he’s too busy counting bills. He appears to be less than pleased that “Robin,” unlike “George” in the other video, packed the bills tightly. It is unclear in either video whether DHL or FedEx left the envelopes in a secure place before Needham retrieved them. In other words, had the envelopes been left on Needham’s doorstep, they could have been stolen, an outcome sure to have created an unpleasant situation for both the senders and Needham.

The BBB

Now — to accent this brief study in contrast before you view Needham’s June 2008 cash-gifting video — take a look at this brief video on cash-gifting fraud by the Better Business Bureau:

Hank Needham

The CASH PROOF by hankneedham

Nov 5, 2011
EDITORIAL: Another Dark Day For ‘Asteria Foundation’ And Related Entities As American Red Cross Issues Statement Suggesting It Was Duped: ‘We Have No Record Of Receiving A Donation From This Organization And Have Not Partnered With Them’ On Japan Earthquake Relief ‘Or Any Other Projects’

UPDATED 9:36 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The American Red Cross is a national treasure whose powerful and noble name never should be diluted or trifled with. But it is now apparent that various Club Asteria-related entities have done exactly that by not revealing certain critical information to the Red Cross while at once shamelessly seeking to build the Asteria brand across multiple platforms by tying it to the Red Cross — beginning in the spring during a period in which the agency was responding to a crisis in Japan.

To describe what the Asteria entities have done as spectacularly parasitic with equally disgusting measures of greed and ham-handedness thrown in would be a gross understatement. In any event, the Asteria entities have created a deplorable situation that sparked the Red Cross to issue a statement today. (You’ll see the full statement beginning four paragraphs below.) The statement was issued this afternoon from Washington, D.C., and emailed by the Red Cross to the PP Blog. The statement concerns the purported Asteria Philanthropic Foundation, which is linked to the purported Club Asteria business “opportunity” and other Asteria-themed enterprises. The Asteria enterprises are using the Red Cross name and logo in promos across multiple websites — while calling the Red Cross a partner. No partnership exists, the Red Cross made clear today.

Members of Club Asteria — participants in any of the Asteria-themed enterprises — need to know that at least one of Club Asteria’s purported owners, Hank Needham, has been linked to promotions for online Ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes. (You’ll see a cash-gifting video starring Needham below.) The stench lives on three years after the taping, and it cannot be dissipated by leeching off the name of the Red Cross.

This is a story that only is getting uglier. Ten days ago — after becoming concerned that its name and logo were being misused — the Red Cross sent the purported Asteria Foundation a cease-and-desist letter. It later developed that Needham had appeared in a May 2008 video that advertised a cash-gifting scheme. Needham, whose face also appeared in a 2008 promo for the alleged $110 million AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, is seen in the video opening an envelope from a courier service. A smaller envelope was packaged in the courier envelope — and five $100 bills spilled out of the smaller envelope. Needham fanned them for the camera. Cash-gifting schemes are prosecutable under pyramid-scheme statutes, despite what prospects are led to believe. U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., called cash-gifters “parasites” when he was attorney general of Connecticut.

The PP Blog has added the italics to today’s statement by the Red Cross:

The Asteria Foundation contacted the American Red Cross in April and said it wanted to make a donation to aid relief efforts in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami. At the time, the organization requested information on how the donation might be put to use and we directed their representative to published information on Red Cross recovery efforts. The organization also requested the ability to mention its donation to us in its own press materials, which we felt was appropriate.

However, we have no record of receiving a donation from this organization and have not partnered with them on that or any other projects. We have requested that the organization remove our logo and other materials from its web site, and they have agreed to do so.

In September, Club Asteria removed an image and purported “interview” with famed actor Will Smith from its recruitment emagazine amid questions about whether the purported “opportunity” was trying to plant the seed that Smith had endorsed the company.

Scores of promos for Club Asteria, which trades on the name of the World Bank, have appeared online this year. The promos described Club Asteria as a “passive” investment opportunity that generated a weekly return of up to 10 percent. Club Asteria suspended member cashouts in June, after acknowledging its PayPal account had been suspended — and after claims about Club Asteria came under investigation in Italy.

Club Asteria was widely promoted on Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. Members said payouts were routed through a Hong Kong entity known as Asteria Holdings Limited. When things turned sour at Club Asteria, the Ponzi-forum promoters turned their attentions to other HYIP “programs” that offered absurd returns that translated into purported yearly gains in the hundreds of percent.

The Asteria Foundation also has used a Hong Kong address — tying it to a fax number in Virginia. Asteria Corp., Club Asteria’s apparent parent company and also the apparent driving force behind the purported Asteria Foundation, is based in Virginia.

State authorities said last month that neither Club Asteria nor Asteria Corp. was registered to sell securities. Club Asteria has blamed its members for promotional blunders and for PayPal’s decision to suspend its account. That explanation, however, strains credulity — given Needham’s history of pushing multiple fraud schemes. It is inconceivable that Club Asteria did not know that its growth was being fueled by serial hucksters on Ponzi forums and by thousands of promos on the independent websites of Club Asteria affiliates, many of whom preemptively denied Club Asteria was conducting a Ponzi scheme. They could not possibly know whether Club Asteria was on the up-and-up without seeing the books and records from banks and as many as four separate payment processors.

How much money Club Asteria gained as a result of promos that positioned the company as a cash cow is unclear. Scores of members claimed that paying Club Asteria $19.95 a month would produce a yearly income of more than $20,000. Club Asteria is believed to have gained considerable traction in the Third World. Club Asteria pitchman “Ken Russo,” who also is known as “DRdave” and is believed to operate from the United States, claimed on Ponzi boards to have received thousands of dollars in recruitment commissions via wire from Hong Kong.

Club Asteria, which has described itself as a revenue-sharing program, does not publish verifiable financial information. The firm now appears to be branching out into social networking, positioning itself as an education leader and “cause” marketing company.

Ponzi forum promoters, whom some critics describe derisively as “pimps” and “referral whores,” shilled for Club Asteria for months before the company suspended cashouts.

2008 Hank Needham Video On Cash-Gifting

Please note that the URL advertised in the Dailymotion video below — ptigift.com — no longer resolves to a server.

What is all the fuss about Cash Gifting? by hankneedham

Nov 4, 2011
EDITORIAL: Bogdan Fiedur Of AdLandPro’s Deplorable Bid To Chill RealScam.com In The Age Of International Mass-Marketing Fraud

A few weeks prior to the Aug. 1, 2008, seizure of tens of millions of dollars in the personal bank accounts of AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin, Bowdoin apparently believed it prudent to plant the seed that the ASD autosurf had amassed a giant pot of cash and would use it to “hammer” critics. His willfully blind followers helped spread the word on forums that ASD detractors soon would feel the sting of being sued back to the Stone Age.

Here, according to federal court filings, is what Bowdoin told ASD members at a company rally in Miami on July 12, 2008:

“These people that are making these slanderous remarks, they are going to continue these slanderous remarks in a court of law defending about a 30 to 40 million dollar slander lawsuit. Now, we’re ready to do battle with anybody. We have a legal fund set up. Right now we have about $750,000 in that legal fund. So we’re ready to get everything started and get the ball rolling.” (Emphasis added.)

Bowdoin thuggishly suggested that ASD had hired a law firm and that the firm was experienced at “bringing the hammer down on people that need it.” It is worth noting that federal prosecutors included the remarks attributed to Bowdoin in a document labeled “Government Exhibit 5.”

Meanwhile, it’s also worth noting that “Government Exhibit 1” consisted of the 2006 SEC complaint against 12DailyPro that accused the firm of operating an autosurf Ponzi scheme. It was the government’s way of showing that autosurfs such as ASD rely on willfully blind promoters to proliferate. “Government Exhibit 2,” meanwhile, was the SEC’s 2007 complaint against the PhoenixSurf autosurf. The inclusion of this exhibit was another way to show willful blindness.

One of the interesting things about the PhoenixSurf complaint was that it referenced Virtual Money Inc., which federal prosecutors in Connecticut later linked to alleged money-laundering by a narcotics cartel in Medellin, Colombia.

Robert Hodgins, the operator of Virtual Money, is an international fugitive wanted by INTERPOL. ASD also used Virtual Money, according to promos for the firm. In December 2010, federal prosecutors said ASD also had a tie to E-Bullion, a shuttered California payment processor whose operator was accused (and convicted) of arranging the brutal slashing murder of his wife in a Greater Los Angeles parking garage. ASD also had a link to E-Gold, a processor convicted in a money-laundering conspiracy case. So did PhoenixSurf.

“Government Exhibit 4” in the August 2008 ASD Ponzi case consists of surveillance photos taken in ASD’s hometown of Quincy, Fla. The date upon which the photos were taken is unclear, but it is known that the U.S. Secret Service began to investigate ASD on July 3, 2008, a little more than a week before the Miami rally.

The entry of the Secret Service in the ASD case fundamentally sent two signals: The U.S. government believed its financial infrastructure might be under attack by an organization — ASD — that was trading on the name of the President of the United States. The SEC has said nothing about the ASD case — at least not in public. Bowdoin was indicted on criminal charges in December 2010. If he is convicted on all counts, the man who once claimed to have a giant pot from which he could draw to “hammer” critics could face up to 125 years in federal prison, fines in the millions of dollars and forfeiture orders totaling at last $110 million.

In the earliest days of the ASD probe, at least three media outlets — including a local newspaper, a Blog and a regional publication — were threatened with lawsuits. Bowdoin ended up suing no one. In fact, within months he was consumed by litigation directed at him from virtually all fronts. Multiple civil-forfeiture complaints were filed, as was a racketeering lawsuit. These things occurred as a criminal investigation was unfolding slowly.

For all these reasons and more, Bogdan Fiedur — and members of the AdLandPro online “community” — should perform a sober assessment of Fiedur’s recent threat to sue RealScam.com, an antifraud forum.

Threats to sue journalists, media outlets, forums, Blogs and other websites that publish information about online schemes are bids to chill speech. These bids are occurring as an epidemic of white-collar crime and securities fraud is sweeping the globe during a period in which government budgets are strained and literally thousands of fraud investigations are under way that reach into all corners of the world.

It is clear that online fraud is responsible for billions of dollars in global losses. These worlds are exceptionally murky. No one knows for certain where the money goes when fraud schemes disappear — as they so often do. It is equally clear that criminal puppeteers behind the schemes are taunting investigative agencies. From the standpoint of the U.S. government, the government and financial institutions are facing attacks of thousands of tiny cuts.

Lanny Breuer, the head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, testified on Capitol Hill yesterday that the “convergence of threats” posed by transnational organized crime is “significant and growing. ”

“Transnational organized crime is increasing its subversion of legitimate financial and commercial markets, threatening U.S. economic interests and raising the risk of significant damage to the world financial system,” Breuer told the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism.

Despite worldwide headlines of one massive fraud scheme after another — and despite the fact that the financial lives of real human beings in all corners of the world are being reduced to rubble by serial Ponzi schemers and scammers — Bogdan Fiedur is threatening to sue RealScam.com.

At a minimum, it is a PR blunder of the highest magnitude. Bowdoin made the same mistake. So did Data Network Affiliates (DNA), a purported business “opportunity” associated with serial huckster Phil Piccolo, who once planted the seed that, if lawsuits didn’t work, he knew the type of people willing to break legs to silence critics. One apologist for Piccolo and DNA planted the seed that a former federal prosecutor, federal judge and director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was a suspect in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

It doesn’t get much more bizarre than that — unless one is willing to consider that Bowdoin now is trying to raise funds for his criminal defense on Facebook and claiming that God established a program known as OneX to help him do just that.

OneX is among the “programs” promoted by members of the AdLandPro “community” — as were ASD and Finanzas Forex (and many others) before it.

And yet Fiedur apparently believes he can chill RealScam.com into stop doing what it does by registering a domain titled “RealScamClassActionSuit.com.”

Inverting reality, the purported class-action site ventures that “RealScam encourages cyber-bullying and cyber-stalking by allowing the creation of anonymous accounts and by allowing the users to present of (sic) unproven accusations towards individuals of their targeted organization. The RealScam.com turns out to be just a harassment and bashing site with no verification of facts and indiscriminate attacks at anyone who looks like an easy target.”

It’s easy to imagine Andy Bowdoin or Phil Piccolo saying the same thing — while doling out accolades to the AdLandPro “community” for its excellent judgment about the types of “programs” the world’s masses should be joining.

“The wealth generated by today’s drug cartels and other international criminal networks enables some of the worst criminal elements to operate with impunity while wreaking havoc on individuals and institutions around the world,” Breuer of the Justice Department observed yesterday. “Generating proceeds often is only the first step — criminals then launder their proceeds, often using our financial system to move or hide their assets and often with the help of third parties located in the United States. Indeed, international criminal organizations increasingly rely on these third parties and on the use of domestic shell corporations to mask crimes and launder proceeds under the guise of a seemingly legitimate corporate structure.”

And then Breuer asked the Senate panel to enact legislation that would strengthen money-laundering and asset-forfeiture laws and broaden the federal RICO statute.

Whether the Senate — and the Congress as a whole — will listen is unclear. What is clear is that, at least in the context of online fraud schemes, victims are piling up in numbers that America’s largest sports stadiums cannot accommodate. Losses are in the billions. Vast sums of wealth have been taken from rightful owners and placed in the hands of criminals.

It is simply beyond the pale that Fiedur asserts that RealScam.com is a menace, when it is one of the few sites in the world that tasks itself with exposing the menace of international mass-marketing fraud that occurs over the Internet.

One final thing worth mentioning: A few weeks before Breuer ventured to Capitol Hill to testify before the Senate panel, he carried out another important public duty.

On Sept. 26, Lanny Breuer joined U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. in announcing that ASD victims who filed successful remissions claims in the civil Ponzi case were getting $55 million back.

“We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to bring justice to the citizens defrauded by these insidious schemes,” Breuer said.

Get a clue, Mr. Fiedur.

Visit RealScam.com.

Nov 2, 2011
Arrest Warrant Issued For Jacob Franz Dyck; Purported Florida ‘Sovereign Citizen,’ 72, Wanted For ‘Committing Criminal Acts Through Simulated Use Of The Legal Process,’ Polk County Sheriff’s Office Says

Jacob Franz Dyck: Source: Polk County Sheriff's Office

Jacob Franz Dyck, a purported Florida “sovereign citizen,” is wanted on a felony arrest warrant for “Criminal Act Under Color Of Law Or Committing Criminal Acts Through Simulated Use Of The Legal Process,” the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said.

Dyck, 72, has been the subject of considerable reporting by the St. Petersburg Times. See story about Dyck’s alleged filing of “wild deeds” to cloud property titles here. See story here about a missing pickup truck that led to the issuance of the arrest warrant.

Three of Dyck’s associates, including a notary public, have landed in jail, the Times reports.

See August 2011 PP Blog story on an FBI report that asserts there is a “continued effort by Sovereign Citizen domestic extremists throughout the United States to perpetrate and train others in the use of debt elimination schemes.”

See July 2011 PP Blog report on a 25-year prison sentence handed down to Jeff McGrue, a Washington state man who targeted people “at the end of their rope” in a foreclosure-rescue scam.

See August 2011 PP Blog report about disciplinary actions against notaries public associated with AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming.

Leaming is a purported sovereign citizen whom records show once filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against the Washington State Bar Association and a community hospital in Washington state.

Nov 1, 2011
UPDATE: No Updates On Club Asteria Blog Since Oct. 15, No ‘News’ Site Updates Since Sept. 12; Firm Continues To Publish Red Cross Logo In House Organ And On Purported ‘Philanthropic’ Site Despite Cease-And-Desist Letter; 2008 Cash-Gifting Video With Hank Needham Emerges

In this frame from a cash-gifting video dated May 3, 2008, then-AdSurfDaily pitchman Hank Needham opens an envelope from a cash-gifing scheme — and five $100 bills purportedly from "George" spill out. The date on the video coincides with a period of time in which Needham's image appeared in an ad for ASD. Needham later would emerge as a Club Asteria principal and purported owner of the "program," which suspended cashouts earlier this year and caught the attention of regulators in Italy.

Is anybody at home at Club Asteria and the purported Asteria Philanthropic Foundation? And where, precisely, is home?

The Club Asteria Blog on a .US domain has not been updated since Oct. 15. In the recent past, the Blog had been updated approximately every three (or so) days, according to the date notations on the site. Updates were posted on Oct. 15, Oct. 12, Oct. 9, Oct. 6, Oct. 3, Sept. 30, Sept. 27, Sept. 24, Sept. 21, Sept. 16.

Fifteen full days have passed since the most recent update.

Separately, the Club Asteria “News” page on its .com domain has not been updated since Sept. 12, a period that encompasses more than a month and a half.

Although the American Red Cross sent the Asteria Philanthropic Foundation a cease-and-desist letter six days ago amid concerns of brand leeching, Club Asteria continues to publish the Red Cross logo and name in its October house organ. The firm uses the publication, an emagazine, for recruiting.

It is common for fraud schemes to plant the seed they are affiliated with a legitimate entity.

Meanwhile, the Asteria Philanthropic Foundation, which also is known as the Asteria Foundation and uses street addresses in the United States and Hong Kong, also continues to publish the Red Cross name and logo on the foundation’s .org site.

Before suspending member cashouts earlier this year, Club Asteria issued payments via wire from a purported Hong Kong entity known as Asteria Holdings Limited, according to “I Got Paid” posts on infamous Ponzi scheme forums.

Last month, Club Asteria removed from its house organ an image and purported “interview” with actor Will Smith. A “JOIN NOW” button had been placed near the Smith-related content. In this month’s house organ, a “JOIN OUR MISSION” button was placed inside a quotation from Mahatma Gandhi, the slain Indian champion of freedom. Gandhi’s name was misspelled in the promo.

Virginia authorities said on Oct. 20 that Club Asteria was not registered as an issuer of securities in the state. They declined to say whether a Club Asteria probe was under way.

In May, CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, banned promos for the firm in Italy.

In a video dated May 3, 2008 — prior to the apparent formation of Club Asteria and the Asteria Foundation but during a period of time in which Club Asteria principal Hank Needham’s image appeared in a promo for AdSurfDaily — Needham appeared in a video for cash gifting, the PP Blog has learned.

Needham is seen in the cash-gifting video opening an envelope from a courier service that contained a smaller envelope. The package purportedly was sent by “George.”

When Needham opened the smaller envelope, five $100 bills spilled out.

“Thank you, George, ” Needham said.

Needham then fanned the bills in front of the camera.

In August 2008, the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars in the ASD case, amid Ponzi allegations. It is known that some ASD members also were cash-gifting enthusiasts. After the ASD-related seizures, some ASD members sought to recruit others for cash-gifting, autosurf and HYIP schemes, claiming the schemes were excellent ways to make up for ASD losses while highlighting the purported “offshore” locations of some of the “programs.”

Oct 31, 2011
DEVELOPING STORY: Message Board For Members Of ‘OneX’ Scheme Pushed By Accused Ponzi Schemer Andy Bowdoin Claims ‘Transfer Funds’ Option Disabled Because Members Are Using ‘Stolen Credit Cards,’ Source Says

Andy Bowdoin

A bulletin board accessible only through the back offices of members of the purported “OneX” program includes a message that the program has disabled a “Transfer Funds” option because a “recent investigation” has determined that members “have been depositing funds from stolen credit cards and transferring this tainted money to hundreds of other members of the organization,” a source tells the PP Blog.

The bulletin-board announcement was dated yesterday and attributed to “the administration.” No OneX owner or operator was identified in the announcement, but members of OneX were told there was no choice left “but to disable the ‘Transfer Funds’ option indefinitely,” according to information provided by the source.

AdSurfDaily President and accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin emerged Monday as a OneX pitchman.

There was no corresponding announcement on the site that OneX or its staff had alerted authorities that members were joining with stolen credit cards, the source said.

Who conducted the “investigation” — the company or some other entity — was not made clear in the announcement.

“The Company must take a hard stance against this type of financial fraud in the interest of those hardworking, honest members who are legitimately building their businesses and depend on the survival of this Company for all the great financial opportunities that it represents,” the post on the bulletin board claimed, according to the source.

OneX is a purported 4×4 matrix linked to a purported 3×9 matrix known as QLxchange that purportedly operates from Panama through a server purportedly located on Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.

In a webinar Monday, Bowdoin told ASD members that they could earn $99,000 “very quickly” through OneX, a program he intended to use to pay for his criminal defense.

Bowdoin, who has participated in at least three webinars this week in which he sang the praises of the purported opportunity, was charged with wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities last year.

In 2009, an autosurf known as AdViewGlobal (AVG) reportedly disabled a button that permitted members to transfer money to other members. AVG, which had close ASD ties, purportedly was based in Uruguay.

OneX purportedly has 750,000 members.

On Monday, Bowdoin claimed God had led him to his strategy of using OneX to raise defense funds for his Ponzi battle against the government.

“I believe that God has brought us OneX to provide the necessary funds to win this case,” Bowdoin said.

A PP Blog reader (“Tony”) reported at 6:45 p.m. EDT today that a OneX/QLxchange-related “press release” dated Oct. 11 had appeared on PRLog, a news-release distribution site. The release, which also referenced cash-gifting and a “pay it forward” strategy, was attributed Bryce Jackson, a purported “Business Mentor” and “Success Coach.”

“God truly wants you to be a blessing to other people during these bad economic times,” the release read in part.

Links in the press release lead to sites where people who register reportedly are given information about OneX/XLxchange. One of the sites is called “godsmoneyfeeder”; another is called “whatablessing.”

Bowdoin also is promoting a “pay it forward” theme for OneX, according to his webinar remarks.

In essence, “pay it forward” — also known as PIF or “benefactoring” — is a practice by which money theoretically stays in constant motion and flows to schemes because sponsors pay fees for recruits and encourage recruits to to the same for their recruits.

Oct 28, 2011
UPDATE: AdSurfDaily’s Andy Bowdoin Has Participated In At Least 3 Webinars For ‘OneX’ This Week; Calls Murky Business A ‘Financial Bailout Program For The Average Person’; Accused Ponzi Schemer Implies ASD Was ‘Tremendous’ Success And That People Who Listen To Him Are In ‘Top 10 Percent’

Andy Bowdoin

UPDATE: Awaiting his Ponzi scheme trial on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities, AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin has participated this week in at least three webinars for a mysterious program known as “OneX.”

OneX is a program pushed on Ponzi boards such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. It appears to be an MLM-style 4×4 matrix feeder program for a purported Panamanian entity known as QLxchange, which may be operating a gold- and silver-themed investment program and 3×9 matrix from Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.

“Tonight we’ll be talking about a financial bailout program for the average person,” Bowdoin said last night, in preliminary remarks about OneX.

In presentations that appear to have been heavily scripted, the accused Ponzi schemer sang the praises of OneX in at least two webinars Monday, touting it as a way for ASD members to make $99,000 “very quickly” by joining what effectively would be an ASD downline group in OneX through which incoming recruits could benefit through leverage delivered by Bowdoin and former members of the defunct autosurf.

Bowdoin or his handlers, however, appear to have altered the script after a listener raised a concern in Monday’s first webinar that purported “leads” for incoming OneX recruits would come from ASD’s database and be awarded to new enrollees in violation of members’ ASD agreements.

On Monday, Bowdoin said he intended to use proceeds that flowed from OneX to pay for his criminal defense. Last week, U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer set the ASD patriarch’s trial date for Sept. 24, 2012.

In yesterday’s webinar, Bowdoin told listeners who perhaps were members of OneX prior to the creation of an ASD downline group that they could create a second OneX account that would be placed in the ASD group. The accused Ponzi schemer suggested that it was possible to create even more OneX accounts.

“You can create a new [OneX] account in your spouse’s name, family-member name or friends,” Bowdoin coached, noting that the accounts would require the use of different email addresses and usernames.

“You can work both at the same time,” Bowdoin said.

Earlier in the Thursday pitch, he offered his congratulations to webinar attendees who’d purportedly exercised the prudence to listen to him and become “more successful in life.”

“This puts you in the top 10 percent, because most people never look outside the box to improve their financial situation,” he assured listeners.

Bowdoin faces up to 125 years in federal prison if convicted of the Ponzi charges announced by federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia in December 2010. Bowdoin previously was implicated in an Alabama securities swindle, according to court records. One of his business partners was implicated in three prime-bank swindles.

Despite the serious criminal charges against him and civil judgments totaling tens of millions of dollars against ASD-related assets, Bowdoin suggested yesterday that he and ASD had a “tremendous” success record for marketing on the Internet.

In yesterday’s webinar, Bowdoin introduced Rayda Roundy, whom he identified Monday as a former ASD trainer.

Roundy thanked Bowdoin for the introduction.

“I appreciate being here with you,” Roundy said of Bowdoin.

Whether OneX is thrilled to have Bowdoin, an accused Ponzi schemer who has been formally indicted for wire fraud and securities-related crimes, driving traffic to its scheme is unclear.

See earlier story.

Oct 28, 2011
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: American Red Cross Sends ‘Cease-And-Desist’ Letter To Asteria Foundation

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: The American Red Cross, which opened a probe last week into the potential misuse of its name and logo by the Asteria Philanthropic Foundation, has sent the foundation a letter to cease and desist.

Anne Marie Borrego, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross in Washington, D.C., said this morning that the letter went out yesterday. The Asteria Philanthropic Foundation, also known as the Asteria Foundation, uses a Hong Kong street address and has issued at least one undated “press release” that uses a dateline of Reston, Va.

The foundation is linked to Club Asteria, a purported earnings “program” that traded on the name of the World Bank and became a darling of the Ponzi boards earlier this year before suspending cashouts.

The Red Cross logo and name appeared in Club Asteria’s October 2011 house organ, which the firm uses for recruiting. The Red Cross name and logo also appears on the Asteria foundation’s .org domain.

Claims about Club Asteria caught the attention of CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, in May. Officials in Virginia last week said that neither Club Asteria nor Asteria Corp. was registered to sell securities in the state. Asteria Corp. is Club Asteria’s apparent parent company.

Virginia officials declined to say whether a state-level probe into the activities of Club Asteria was under way.

A 2008 promo for AdSurfDaily features an image of Hank Needham, a purported Club Asteria principal. ASD later was implicated by the U.S. Secret Service in an alleged Ponzi scheme involving at least $110 million.

Club Asteria was widely promoted on Ponzi boards such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. Promoters later turned their attention to “programs” such as Centurion Wealth Circle and JustBeenPaid, which is trading on the names and images of Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, Benjamin Franklin and “Mr. Spock” of the Star Trek movie and televison series.

Last month, Club Asteria removed an image of actor Will Smith from its house organ. This month, the company is trading on a quote from Mahatma Gandhi, the slain champion of freedom in India. A “JOIN OUR MISSION” button was placed inside a quote from Gandhi, whose name was misspelled in the publication.

See earlier story.

Oct 26, 2011