Category: Ad Surf Daily

  • BULLETIN: USDA Following Specific Leads In MPB Today Matter; Agency’s Food And Nutrition Arm Will ‘Take Appropriate Action As Needed’

    BULLETIN: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said this afternoon that the agency’s Food and Nutrition Service is following specific leads in the MPB Today matter and will “take appropriate action as needed.”

    For the first time, the agency used the word “investigate” in its remarks about MPB Today, an MLM tied to a purported “grocery” business known as Southeastern Delivery of Pensacola, Fla. USDA previously referred to the MPB Today matter as a “review.” The agency did not explain why the Food and Nutrition Service had entered the probe.

    The Food and Nutrition Service, known as FNS, says its “mission is to provide children and needy families better access to food and a more healthful diet through its food assistance programs and comprehensive nutrition education efforts.”

    The announcement followed on the heels of claims by MPB Today affiliates that there are liars and thieves within the organization, that the government and Walmart endorsed the MPB Today program and that the USDA’s Food Stamp program was “affiliated” with MPB Today.

    On Tuesday, the PP Blog reported that a purported “news release” promoting MPB Today suggested that Food Stamp recipients should sell $200 of their allotment to raise money to join the MLM program.

    Yesterday the Blog reported that at least two MPB Today members claimed there are liars and thieves inside the organization, using the claims to suggest prospects should join the program only under specific downlines. The Blog also reported that MPB Today affiliates may have ties to the judicially declared CEP Ponzi scheme, the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and other Ponzi schemes promoted on forums such as ASAMonitor, TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

    All three forums were referenced in a criminal case filed in May by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service against the alleged Pathway To Prosperity Ponzi scheme.

    In July, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued a warning about HYIP scams that use forums and social-media sites such as YouTube and Facebook to spread virally on the Internet.

    MPB Today’s website says it ships “ONLY” dry goods to customers, who can expect to pay a shipping charge of up to 50 percent of an order. MPB Today affiliates have used the high shipping charges as a reason for Food Stamp recipients and other customers to join to the MLM program, saying a one-time purchase of $200 in groceries could result in free groceries for life.

    Affiliates have claimed MPB Today issues grocery “vouchers” that can be converted to Walmart gift cards and cash to purchase gasoline, electronics and other nonfood products.

    Among other things, the purported “news release” claimed that the idea about selling Food Stamps for cash to join MPB Today occurred “[on] a beautiful Sunday afternoon” during a drive home from “Church.”

    One promo for MPB Today showed a 46-inch Samsung television and other electronics that purportedly had been acquired by an MPB Today member through the program. Other promos have show prepaid Visa cards that spend like cash.

    MPB Today operates a 2×2 matrix cycler — a business model that has come under fire by the U.S. Secret Service in a Ponzi scheme probe in the Seattle area. The Seattle program was known as Regenesis2x2, and was promoted on some of the same forums MPB Today is being promoted.

  • A CEP PONZI SCHEME TIE? MPB Today Member Says ‘Trevor Reed’ In His Organization; No Immediate Comment From USDA

    This promo lists the names of 20 purported MPB Today affiliates, including the name of "Trevor Reed." It is unclear if the "Trevor Reed" included on the list is the same Trevor Reed who operated the judicially declared CEP Ponzi scheme.

    UPDATED 1:03 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Two days ago the PP Blog reported that a Sept. 20 “news release” for MPB Today’s purported “grocery” program solicited financially strapped Americans to sell $200 worth of Food Stamps to raise cash to join the Florida-based MLM.

    The Blog further reported that a name referenced in the news release (as the author) appears on page 21 of a distribution plan by the court-appointed receiver in the judicially declared CEP Ponzi scheme. The person referenced in the document is scheduled to receive a distribution of $125, which is expected to be issued Sept. 30.

    Today the PP Blog is reporting that a separate MPB Today affiliate who referenced the federal Food Stamp program in a July sales pitch also informed prospects that a person by the name of “Trevor Reed” is in his MPB Today organization.

    It was not immediately clear if the “Trevor Reed” referenced in the MPB Today promo is the same Trevor Reed charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission in a complaint filed July 9, 2007. The complaint alleged that Reed was committing fraud and selling unregistered securities through a company known as CEP.

    A judge later declared CEP a Ponzi scheme. A judgment of more than $1.5 million was placed against Reed and others on Nov. 18, 2008, according to court records. The order was signed by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge James E. Massey.

    On Oct. 27, 2007, Trevor Reed invoked his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination in the CEP case. In September 2008 — less than a year after Reed invoked the 5th Amendment — Andy Bowdoin, the alleged operator of the AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme, also took the 5th.

    Records show that ASD advertised that it accepted payments from a payment processor known as CEP Trust, which was linked to the CEP Ponzi scheme. ASD members are being targeted in sales promos for MPB Today.

    On Nov. 19, 2008, U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled that ASD had not demonstrated it was a lawful business and not a Ponzi scheme, a ruling that dealt a crushing blow to ASD. Just one day earlier — on Nov. 18, 2008 — Massey entered the financial judgment against Reed and others in the CEP Ponzi case.

    Massey ruled CEP a Ponzi on May 22, 2008 — less than three months prior to the federal seizure of tens of millions of dollars in the ASD case. Court records show that CEP had invested money in at least 26 online opportunities, primarily autosurfs.

    “The [CEP] Websites were investment programs that promised cash returns exceeding the amounts paid into the programs,” Massey ruled. “Debtors did not, however, operate or own any underlying business or assets whose profits could fund the promised returns. Although Debtors did place a relatively small amount of money in similar ventures operated by others, the evidence shows they made no profit from those investments. Most importantly, Debtors paid investors with cash received from new investors.”

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which is conducting a “review” about claims made in the MPB Today program, had no immediate comment on potential links to the CEP Ponzi scheme.

    “Take a look at my stats just a few days in!” the MPB Today affiliate urged members in a July forum post. The post included names of 20 downline members, including the name “Trevor Reed.”

    “Trevor Reed’s” MPB Today ID was listed as 150532. It was unclear if “Trevor Reed” is actively promoting the MPB Today program.

    What is clear is that the affiliate pitch in which the name “Trevor Reed” was referenced as an MPB Today downline member also referenced the Food Stamp program.

    “Great opp,” the pitch reads in part. “Just opened affiliated with WAL MART and EBT FOOD STAMPS (GOVT. ACKNOWLEDGED!) TAKE THE TIME TO READ THIS EMAIL IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE!”

    Walmart has not responded to a request from comment about the MPB Today program.

  • MPB TODAY SPONSOR ATTACKS FELLOW MEMBERS: Join My Group Because Other Uplines ‘Lying’ To Prospects; ‘People Are Gonna Try To BS You To Try To Get You To Join’

    At the 2:54 mark in this video that includes a guitar as a backdrop, an MPB Today sponsor informs prospects that the company includes uplines that lie to recruits to get them to join.

    An MPB Today sponsor is asserting in a YouTube video that his upline is honest — but that other uplines in the company consist of liars who are “gonna tell you whatever they think you’re gonna want to hear” in a bid to get you to join the Pensacola-based multilevel-marketing (MLM) program that purports to sell groceries.

    How any MPB Today payments to members could be considered untainted if the company collected money based on lies and misrepresentations by sponsors was not explained in the 4:26 video.

    “And you’re going to see so many videos here, telling you, ‘Join us, we have a large upline, large [upline],’” the video’s narrator intoned.

    “They’re lying to you,” he continued. “I know that ours is the second-largest upline in the company. Don’t be . . . People are gonna try to BS you to try to get you to join. They’re gonna tell you whatever they think you’re gonna want to hear.”

    MPB Today is being promoted on YouTube and other social-networking sites. It also is being promoted on known Ponzi scheme forums such as ASAMonitor, TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

    It is believed that some of the promoters have ties to the judicially declared CEP Ponzi scheme, the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, the alleged Pathway To Prosperity Ponzi scheme, the alleged Regenesis2x2 Ponzi scheme and other Ponzi and pyramid schemes.

    Ponzi ties are potentially catastrophic to MPB Today because promoters could be using criminal proceeds from other schemes to join the company. A public claim by a promoter that the company has upline sponsors who lie to members also is potentially catastrophic because it could be construed as an acknowledgment that the company is coming into possession of money based on falsehoods told by its own members.

    Meanwhile, some MPB Today members have posted purported “proof” videos that the company is legitimate. Some of the videos show images of checks drawn on a Florida bank that is operating under an FDIC consent agreement.

    At least one video shows an MPB Today member cashing a check from the MLM at an FDIC-insured bank while audiotaping the bank teller’s voice. Research suggests the affiliate’s account is at a bank in Utah.

    Federal officials have said that Utah is plagued by Ponzi schemes, including schemes targeted at people of faith.

    If MPB Today has come into possession of money from Ponzi schemes and is gathering money based on the lies of its members — and if affiliates are cashing or depositing MPB Today checks at banks across the United States — it means that banks external to MPB Today’s bank may be in possession of tainted money.

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture is conducting a “review” of claims about the MPB Today program. In July 2009, the U.S. Secret Service, which opened a probe into ASD’s business practices a year earlier, said it also was investigating a 2×2 cycler program known as Regenesis2x2.

    MPB Today also operates a 2×2 cycler. It is known that at least one MPBToday affiliate also promoted Regenesis2x2.

  • FBI Says It Has Opened 291 New HYIP Cases And Has 780 Pending Cases Of High-Yield Fraud; Many Have ‘International Nexus,’ Agency Notes

    FILE: Kevin Perkins appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2009. He appeared again today.

    How confident are you that the HYIP you’re flogging on the Ponzi boards isn’t already under investigation by any of a number of state or federal agencies?

    Court records show that the alleged Legisi HYIP Ponzi scheme (about $70 million) was under investigation by state and federal law-enforcement agencies even as promoters were pitching it. The same is true of the alleged AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme (about $100 million).

    In Congressional testimony today, Kevin L. Perkins, assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, said the agency has opened 291 “new” HYIP case this fiscal year and has 780 pending cases of high-yield fraud.

    “Many of the Ponzi scheme investigations have an international nexus and have affected thousands of victims,” Perkins told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

    In February 2009, members of the alleged ASD scheme bizarrely asked the very same committee to investigate the prosecutors investigating the scheme — not ASD President Andy Bowdoin, the alleged schemer.

    By September 2009, Bowdoin was telling members the $65.8 million the government seized from his 10 personal bank accounts belonged to them — a position that contradicted his own court filings.

    Bowdoin told U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer the money belonged to him. The judge later ordered the money forfeited to the government, which is establishing a restitution fund. Bowdoin appealed.

  • Pensacola Fraudsters Sentenced To Federal Prison; Pinnacle Quest International Vendors Sold ‘Tax And Credit Card Debt Elimination Scams,’ Federal Prosecutors, IRS Say

    “They helped form a series of sham business entities and then promoted fraudulent debt elimination tactics intended for the sole purpose of concealing income from the IRS.” — Victor S. O. Song, chief, IRS Criminal Investigation

    As the U.S. Department of Agriculture was conducting a “review” of claims made by affiliates of a purported “grocery” business in Pensacola, Fla., that dispenses “gift cards” to winners in a 2×2 matrix cycler, a federal judge in Pensacola was handing out prison sentences to defendants convicted in a tax-fraud and debt-elimination scheme.

    All in all, nine promoters were implicated in the Pinnacle Quest International (PQI) case. Four were sentenced to prison in July. Two others will be sentenced in October, and three were sentenced yesterday for their roles in an elaborate fraud in which PQI served as an “umbrella organization for numerous vendors of tax and credit card debt elimination scams,” federal prosecutors said.

    Eugene Casternovia received 7 years in prison. Arthur Merino, meanwhile, was sentenced to 40 months. Mark Lyon, the third defendant sentenced yesterday, cooperated with prosecutors and received a sentence of 18 months.

    Among the PQI vendors was the Southern Oregon Resource Center for Education (SORCE), which “sold bogus theories and strategies for tax evasion,” prosecutors said.

    “For fees starting at $10,000, SORCE assisted its customers in the creation of a series of sham business entities in the United States and Panama,” prosecutors said. “Other tax-related PQI vendors denied the legitimacy of the income tax system on various theories and provided customers with a ‘reliance defense’ that consisted of a paper trail of frivolous correspondence which a client could allegedly use as evidence of good faith if the client were prosecuted.”

    Financial Solutions, another PQI vendor, sold “fraudulent schemes for eliminating credit card debt,” prosecutors said.

    “Financial Solutions charged its customers thousands of dollars for a series of letters to send to credit card companies disputing the lawfulness of the underlying debt,” prosecutors said. “The product was wholly ineffective, and customers typically were sued by their creditors and often forced into bankruptcy.”

    At the same time, yet-another PQI vendor known as MYICIS “operated as a sophisticated, computerized ‘warehouse bank,’” prosecutors said.

    “MYICIS was a single bank account in which customers pooled their money,” prosecutors said. “MYICIS was promoted to PQI’s clients as a method to hide their assets from the IRS as a result of the pooled nature of the account. MYICIS had 3,000 clients and approximately $100 million in deposits over a three year period.”

    A veteran IRS agent declared the business entities tied to the PQI case a “sham.”

    “These defendants are now being held accountable for their criminal behavior,” said Victor S. O. Song, chief, IRS Criminal Investigation. “They helped form a series of sham business entities and then promoted fraudulent debt elimination tactics intended for the sole purpose of concealing income from the IRS. Their tactics were fraudulent. There is no secret formula that can eliminate an individual’s tax obligation.”

    In July, Arnold Ray Manansala was sentenced to 12 years in prison; Dover Eugene Perry, meanwhile, was sentenced to 10 years. Michael Guy Leonard was sentenced to nine years and one month, and Mark Daniel Leitner was sentenced to five years.

    The trial in Pensacola took up a full month. Wayne Hicks, the operator of My Icis Inc., already was serving a five-year prison sentence.

    FBI Director Robert Mueller has warned Congress at least twice this year about a “shadow” banking system that is a threat to U.S. national security.

    In November, President Obama formed the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to attack the problem with white-collar and other forms of fraud. It is billed the “broadest coalition of law enforcement, investigatory and regulatory agencies ever assembled to combat fraud.”

    MYICIS was a topic of discussion on known Ponzi scheme and fraud forums such as TalkGold. In May, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service referenced the forums in filings in a criminal case against an alleged Ponzi scheme known as Pathway To Prosperity.

    In recent months, a Pensacola business known as MPB Today (My Premier Business Today) has been operating an MLM program that purports to sell “groceries.” The program has been advertised on TalkGold, and other known Ponzi forums.

    One MPB Today affiliate attempted to sell the program by creating a video animation and depicting President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as Nazis. Clinton was called “Hitlary” in the promo.

    Others have attempted to sell the MPB Today business “opportunity” by linking it to the federal Food Stamp program administered by the Department of Agriculture. The USDA announced earlier this month that it was conducting a “review” of affiliate claims.

    This video promo for Pensacola-based MPB Today is targeted at Food Stamp recipients.

    Still other MPB Today affiliates have focused on recruiting prospects by telling them they’d receive “gift cards” from Walmart. At least one promo on YouTube shows an envelope inside an envelope that had been mailed through the U.S. Postal Service.

    Such an approach is consistent with the practices of “cash-gifters” — people who use the mails to promote chain-letter pyramid and tax schemes. The inside envelope in the YouTube video showed that at least one MPB Today affiliate had been paid with a prepaid Visa card purchased at Walmart. The envelope also contained a Walmart gift card.

    In the YouTube video, the MPB Today affiliate appeared to be surprised about what he’d just received in the mail.

    One promo after another for MPB Today has emphasized the gift cards. Still other affiliates have produced videos that show checks drawn on an FDIC-insured bank in Pensacola that has been operating since January under a consent agreement with the FDIC.

    Florida has been plagued by mortgage foreclosures. MPB Today is targeting foreclosure subjects in a video pitch, as are many affiliates. Affiliates also have targeted the unemployed, senior citizens, people of faith and members of the alleged AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme.

    ASD also was based in Florida. The company is known to have attracted affiliates who participated in tax, debt-elimination and cash-gifting schemes. At least one ASD affiliate has been linked to a group that sought to imprison federal judges and litigation opponents in debt cases. Another affiliate filed papers in federal court that purported to show that a bank could be defeated in a foreclosure case by filing a bond consisting of $21 in “silver coinage.”

    At least one MPB Today promoter positioned the grocery company as an opportunity for religious members of ASD to make up losses in the failed autosurf. The U.S. Secret Service has seized tens of millions of dollars from bank accounts linked to ASD.

    Florida records show that MPB and its associated grocery company — Southeastern Delivery — have operated by at least five names since 2006. MPB Today operator Gary Calhoun was ordered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to stop violating federal law in promotions for a product marketed as a treatment for Lou Gehrig’s disease, among others.

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin also operated numerous companies in Florida. according to records.

  • Golden Panda Forum DOA — Again; WebsiteTester.biz Continues To Baffle And May Have MPBToday Link

    The testimonial signed "Mike DeBias" on a website pitching MPB Today purports that "Mike DeBias" sought "Divine Guidance" when using Google to find a sponsor for the purported grocery program, which operates as an MLM. Nevada records lists "Michael A. DeBias" as the operator of Alpha Market Research, the purported parent company of Websitetester.biz, which purports to have gathered 400,000 names and email addresses online in recent months. Websitetester purports to offer "jobs" and an opportunity to become a website "tester." What, precisely, WebsiteTester does is far from clear.

    The Golden Panda Ad Zone forum, also known as the Online Success Zone (OSZ), appears to have died — again. Visitors are greeted with a note that says the forum is “currently unavailable.”

    Like ASAMonitor, MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold, OSZ was a site that pitched Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, cash-gifting programs and other highly questionable business “opportunities” such as a “program” known as WebsiteTester.biz.

    OSZ first died quietly in the spring. It resurrected itself during the summer, and a poster sang the praises of WebsiteTester, a mysterious company that claims to have gathered 400,000 names and email addresses in recent months for a purported “jobs” and website “testing” opportunity.

    WebsiteTester’s business model is far from clear. Although affiliates have said there is no downside for registering because the opportunity is “free,” the company says its legitimacy can be established by watching a video that shows no faces and reading a news release published by an anonymous author.

    The purported opportunity has encountered a failed launch, a failed relaunch, server problems, substantial downtime and other problems — and yet somehow has amassed more than 19,600 Twitter followers, even though registrants don’t know exactly what they’re registering for.

    Records in Nevada show that Michael A. DeBias is the president of Alpha Market Research, WebsiteTester’s purported parent company. A series of websites linked to the firm, however, are registered behind a proxy.

    Separately, a person purported to be “Mike DeBias” of “Las Vegas” is listed as a provider of a testimonial on a website that hawks the purported MPBToday “grocery” program. The testimonial implies that “Mike BeBias” sought guidance from God when searching Google for an appropriate MPB Today sponsor.

    “. . . I thought I would google-search for a sponsor that was more to my liking . . . I asked for Divine Guidance and the Force led me to you,” the testimonial reads in part. “Thank God, and Thank you.” It was signed, “Mike DeBias – Las Vegas, Nevada.”

    It was not immediately clear if the “Mike DeBias” of “Las Vegas” referenced in the testimonial was the same “Michael A. DeBias” listed at the operator of Alpha Market Research, which purports to be based in Las Vagas.

    What is clear is that WebsiteTester — like MPB Today — is being promoted on forums infamous for pitching Ponzi schemes. Promos for MPB Today have been targeted at Food Stamp recipients, senior citizens, the unemployed, people of faith, churches and victims of the alleged AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme.

    The OSZ forum got its start in the aftermath of the August 2008 federal seizure of tens of millions of dollars from bank accounts linked to ASD and Golden Panda Ad Builder, ASD’s purported “Chinese” autosurf. Promos for other surfs — and “opportunities” such as cash-gifting schemes — were launched from the forum, even after one surf after another crashed and burned and ASD president Andy Bowdoin was sued for racketeering.

    Clarence Busby, the alleged operator of Golden Panda, was implicated in three prime-bank schemes by the SEC in the 1990s. ASD’s Bowdoin was arrested in the 1990s for bilking investors in a securities swindle in Alabama, according to court records.

    The ASD scheme has been linked to tax-deniers, “patriots,” people who engage in the credit-repair business, and at least one person who sought to imprison federal judges by having a bogus “Indian” tribe issue bogus arrest warrants. At least one ASD member declared himself “sovereign” in a bizarre court case, suggesting he enjoyed diplomatic immunity and answered only to Jesus Christ.

    Another person linked to ASD filed court papers in Missouri that claimed a mortgage-foreclosure case could be halted in its tracks by posting a bond of $21 in “silver coinage.”

    Appeals to religion frequently were displayed on the now-defunct “Surf’s Up” forum — a forum that had ASD’s official endorsement — and one HYIP program pitched from the forum used an image of Jesus Christ in a sales pitch. The HYIP later collapsed, after collecting an untold sum of money.

    Court records suggest that a person believed to have been involved in ASD and other HYIPs also was engaged in cell-phone trafficking.

    Prior to its series of deaths, the OSZ forum also promoted “programs” such as Narc That Car and Data Network Affiliates, both of which purported to be able to help law enforcement and the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children. No evidence has surfaced that either Narc that Car or DNA has any capacity to help in the rescue of children. During the spring, DNA also purported to be in the cell-phone business.

    Narc That Car since has changed its name to Crowd Sourcing International (CSI). Like DNA, CSI has an “F” rating from the Better Business Bureau.

    Meanwhile, a separate website that is promoting MPB Today also is promoting DNA and at least 100 “surfing” programs. The programs are promoted MLM-style.

  • INTERPOL Chief Says His Identity Was Stolen In Fraud Bid On Facebook; Meanwhile, MPB Today Members Post Check-Waving Videos On Social-Media Sites And WebsiteTester.biz Gathers 400,000 Names And Email Addresses

    Earlier this week the PP Blog reported that members of MPB Today were using YouTube and other sites to post images of checks drawn on a distressed Florida bank. The checks, which were supplied as purported “proof” of MPB Today’s legitimacy, may expose both the posters and the bank to security breaches and identity theft.

    The bank, Gulf Coast Community Bank of Pensacola, has been operating under an FDIC consent agreement since January. It did not respond to a request for comment from the PP Blog. It is possible that the bank was unaware that its name was being used as a form of purported “proof” that one of its customers — MPB Today, which operates an MLM advertised on Ponzi forums such as ASA Monitor — was above-board.

    Like MPB Today, the alleged Legisi Ponzi scheme was pushed on Ponzi forums such as MoneyMakerGroup. This bizarre section of the Legisi Terms of Service purports that members must avow they are not an "informant, nor associated with any informant" of the IRS, FBI, CIA and the SEC, among others. The others included "Her Majesty's Police," the Intelligence Services of Great Britain, the Serious Fraud Office and Interpol.

    In the alleged AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme in 2008, members cited ASD’s relationship with Bank of America as purported “proof” of legitimacy. Federal agents later seized more than $65.8 million from 10 bank accounts controlled by ASD President Andy Bowdoin amid allegations of wire fraud and money-laundering.

    ASD also was promoted on the Ponzi boards. Robert Hodgins, who operated a company ASD members said supplied debit cards to the firm, now is wanted by INTERPOL in a case that alleges he assisted in the laundering of money for Colombian narcotics traffickers. The money was accessed with debit cards through ATMs in Medellin, according to court records.

    A mysterious business opportunity known as WebsiteTester.biz also is being hawked at ASAMonitor and other Ponzi boards. WebsiteTester claims it has collected the names and email addresses more than 400,000 prospects across the world. WebsiteTester claims its legitimacy can be established by watching a YouTube video that shows no faces and by reading a news release published by an anonymous author.

    In July, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued an alert about fraud schemes that use forums and social-media sites such as YouTube and Facebook to spread virally.

    Among the other “programs” pushed on the Ponzi boards was Legisi, an alleged Ponzi scheme that gathered more than $70 million. Legisi members were specifically prompted to “avow” they were not “an informant” for law enforcement, including INTERPOL, the FBI and the SEC, among other agencies.

    Despite repeated public warnings by authorities to exercise caution on the Internet, fraud schemes continue to proliferate globally. INTERPOL now says one of its own was targeted in an identity-theft bid on Facebook — and it was the boss himself.

    “Just recently INTERPOL’s Information Security Incident Response Team discovered two Facebook profiles attempting to assume my identity,” said Ronald K. Noble, INTERPOL’s Secretary General.

    “One of the impersonators was using this profile to obtain information on fugitives targeted
    during our recent Operation Infra Red,” Noble said. “This Operation was bringing investigators from 29 member countries at the INTERPOL General Secretariat to exchange information on international fugitives and lead to more than 130 arrests in 32 countries.”

  • Are MPB Today Members Posing Security Risk To Bank That Is Operating Under FDIC Consent Order? 2×2 Matrix Cycler Fans Publish Check-Waving Videos On Websites, YouTube

    As giddy members of Florida-based MPB Today flock to YouTube to post check-waving videos as “proof” of the MLM’s legitimacy, the bank used by the purported grocery company is operating under an FDIC consent order issued in January, records show.

    The FDIC had no immediate comment when asked this morning by the PP Blog about the videos, which clearly show the names of MPB Today and its purported grocery arm, Southeastern Delivery of Pensacola, along with the name of Gulf Coast Community Bank of Pensacola.

    A call to Gulf Coast for comment was not immediately returned. The Blog left a detailed voicemail message with a bank official, and also left a message with an employee who answered the phone.

    MPB Today appears to have paid members by issuing checks drawn on both its name and the name of Southeastern Delivery. The checks are drawn on Gulf Coast accounts, according to the videos on YouTube and other sites. Affiliates say the business opportunity has attracted more than 16,000 members since April.

    Affiliates reportedly receive checks for $300 drawn on Gulf Coast when they “cycle” by recruiting new affiliates and causing $1,200 of business within an MPB Today downline group. Affiliates also receive $200 Walmart gift cards or “In Store Credit” cards.

    The Walmart cards also are prominently featured in the videos that display Gulf Coast’s name.

    Gulf Coast is rated “zero”stars by Bauer Financial, the tracking firm’s lowest rating on a scale of zero to five stars. The Blog confirmed the rating with Bauer this morning.

    Gulf Coast is listed on the FDIC website as a party to a January consent order that raised the issue of unsound banking practices. The bank was given time to comply with the order and implement new business procedures to address the FDIC’s concerns.

    Some Florida banks are being battered by the recession and a surge in nonperforming loans and mortgage foreclosures. It was not immediately clear if Gulf Coast now is operating to the satisfaction of the FDIC.

    Also unclear is whether the bank knows that its name is being used on YouTube in promotions for MPB Today, and under whose authority MPB Today affiliates are acting when displaying the checks drawn on Gulf Coast.  At the same time, the volume of the business MPB Today and Southeastern conduct with the bank is unclear.

    MPB Today uses a 2×2 cycler matrix, a business model the U.S. Secret Service referenced in court filings in a Ponzi scheme probe last year in Seattle that involved a company known as Regenesis2x2.

    Regenesis2X2 was promoted on known Ponzi forums such as ASAMonitor, TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. MPB Today’s 2×2 matrix is being promoted on the same forums. At least one of the promoters of the alleged Regenesis2x2 Ponzi scheme also is promoting MPB Today, and some of the MLM’s affiliates are targeting churches in sales pitches. Others are targeting Food Stamp recipients, foreclosure subjects and victims of the alleged AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme.

    In August 2008, the Secret Service alleged that ASD, which also operated in Florida, was conducting a Ponzi scheme that gathered nearly $100 million from investors. The agency seized Bank of America deposits totaling at least $79 million in the ASD case.

    Meanwhile, the ASAMonitor, TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup forums are specifically referenced in a criminal case filed by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in May. The case, which was filed in the Southern District of Illinois, alleges that a firm known as Pathway To Prosperity was operating an international Ponzi scheme that attracted more than 40,000 investors and gathered more than $70 million.

    In July, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued an alert about online fraud schemes that use forums and social-media sites to spread virally.

    MPB Today is a subject of a “review” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) amid affiliate claims the company is an attractive option for Food Stamp recipients and is endorsed by the government. Some affiliates also have claimed that Walmart, the retail giant, endorses the program.

    Walmart has not responded to a request for comment from the PP Blog. MPB Today removed the images of a Walmart store from its website last week. Also removed from the site were images of business titans Donald Trump and Warren Buffet. It is unclear if Walmart, Trump and Buffet forced the removal.

    MPB Today is operated by Gary Calhoun. Calhoun was the subject of a 2006 inquiry by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the marketing of a product that claimed to treat Lou Gehrig’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s, among other serious medical conditions.

    Calhoun was ordered by the FDA to stop violating provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. His company, Trim International, later failed. Southeastern Delivery began to operate in Florida in January 2010, according to state records. The firm previously was known as William Lindsay Properties LLC.

    A number of MPB Today affiliates have posted check-waving videos that clearly show Gulf Coast’s name and other identifying information. The videos potentially expose MPB and the bank, which has a high ratio of troubled assets, to security breaches.  The video posters potentially are exposing themselves to identity theft.

    In January, Gulf Coast agreed to a consent order that required its board of directors to meet at least monthly to review reports of “income and expenses; new, overdue, renewal, insider, charged-off, and recovered loans; investment activity; operating policies; and individual committee actions,” according to the FDIC.

    Florida has one of the highest rates of bank failures in the United States and one of the highest foreclosure rates.

    “Within 90 days from the effective date of this ORDER, the Bank shall have and retain qualified management,” the FDIC ordered on Jan. 28.  “Each member of management shall have qualifications and experience commensurate with his or her duties and responsibilities at the Bank.”

    Gulf Coast consented to the order “without admitting or denying any charges of unsafe or unsound banking practices, or violations of law or regulation relating to weaknesses in asset quality, capital adequacy, earnings, management effectiveness, liquidity, and sensitivity to market risk,” according to a stipulation.

  • UPDATE: Ponzi ‘Shakedown’ Suspects Who Impersonated Federal Agents Get 6 Months’ Home Detention And Are Placed On Probation For 2 Years

    Three people charged with conspiring to impersonate federal agents in a bid to rattle the nerves of a Ponzi scheme suspect and recover money have been sentenced to 180 days of home confinement and placed on federal probation for two years.

    A fourth defendant in the shakedown scheme avoided a sentence of home confinement but was placed on federal probation for two years.

    The bizarre shakedown scheme unfolded in March 2009, when Michael David Sanders, 43, of Fair Oaks, Calif.;  Craig Anderson, 41, of Chicago; Sean Smartt, 42, of Sacramento; and Cassandra Moore, 27, of Beverly Hills, Calif.,  entered a California hedge-fund office suite in a bid to recover investor money “lost in a Ponzi scheme carried out by federal defendant Anthony Vassallo,” the FBI said.

    “The defendants entered dressed to give the impression of authority (bullet proof vests, ear pieces, fake credentials, hand cuffs, and badges),” the FBI said.  “Sanders and Anderson announced they were with the FBI and the United States Security and Exchange Commission.

    “In their guilty pleas the defendants admitted to creating an environment that was intimidating and causing the individuals to believe that they were not free to leave,” the FBI continued. “Anderson told the hedge fund operators that they had until noon on Monday, March 9, 2009, to wire $378,300.16 to a Patelco Credit Union bank account in the name of the ‘Spirit Foundation’ and to send an e-mail confirmation to an e-mail address they provided. No money was ever turned over to the defendants.”

    Moore was the only defendant who avoided home detention.

    The shakedown bid was connected to the the alleged Equity Investment Management and Training Inc. (EIMT) Ponzi scheme that gathered more than $40 million.

    It is illegal to impersonate a federal agent. Had the defendants not accepted a plea deal and not qualified for probation, they could have been sentenced to federal prison. Each pleaded guilty and accepted the deal. The IRS assisted in the probe.

  • EDITORIAL: Animated Attack On Obama Goes Missing From MPB Today Affiliate’s Sales Arsenal; PP Blog Declines Request From Affiliate’s MLM Sponsor To Remove Story That Describes Bizarre Sales Pitch Painting President As Nazi

    Regular readers of the PP Blog know that it supports the efforts of President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to weed out the purveyors of schemes who brought the U.S. and much of the world economy to its knees. Obama is a Democrat.

    What readers may not know is that the Blog is written by a Republican who celebrates America’s entrepreneurial spirit, its market economy, its job-creators, its Great Defenders of Freedom, its Great Guardians of Liberty.

    The PP Blog concerns itself with matters of interest to readers who embrace online commerce and see the Internet as an outlet that is pivotal to future economic expansion. How wonderful would it be, say, if Americans and the other peoples of the world who are living in poverty could harness their entrepreneurial spirits and the power of the Internet to engage in legitimate commerce and elevate the standard of living worldwide?

    And how wonderful would it be if companies and individuals who already are benefiting from financial success could use the Internet to create a legitimate turbine that generates sustainable jobs that pay a pride-producing wage and freelance sales and vendor positions that create bright financial futures?

    Although the PP Blog focuses on business and generally avoids politics, today it makes an exception: When the President of the United States — regardless of party — is attacked to drive business to an online multilevel-marketing (MLM) firm, it must be noted for posterity that the MLM sphere has reached a new and deeply disturbing low.

    To call the anti-Obama, animated screed by an affiliate of MPB Today “tasteless” would be a gross understatement. It harms MPB Today, which is the subject of a “review” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture amid affiliate claims the company has been endorsed by the government. Various government agencies — regardless of what political party controls the White House and the Congress — have warned repeatedly for years that one of the scammer’s most important tools is the shovel that plants the seed that the government endorses a “program” or “business opportunity.”

    MLM “opportunities” are infamous for planting this cancer-spreading seed. Members of AdSurfDaily, for instance, planted the seed that President George W. Bush had given ASD President Andy Bowdoin an award for a lifetime of business achievement. Bowdoin fanned the pollination of the seed by taking his “award” on the road with him and even posing with it.

    The clear aim of the claim was to make prospects believe that ASD could not possibly be a scam because the President of the United States would not give an important business award to a scammer.

    It turned out that the “award” actually was a memento for making campaign donations to the National Republican Congressional Committee. In effect, Bowdoin had made the donations to the NRCC in return for banquet tickets. Records show that Bowdoin made the donations during a period of time in which federal prosectors say he was operating an international Ponzi scheme that perhaps ensnared more than 100,000 people.

    It is a virtual certainty that Bowdoin, who’d been charged with felonies in Alabama in a previous securities swindle and was given a suspended jail sentence, used Ponzi proceeds to make the donations.

    Harm spreads virally when such bogus seeds are planted and take root on the Internet.

    But getting back to the matter of the MPB Today affiliate’s Obama-bashing sales pitch . . .

    Walmart and Walmart’s Sam’s Club name now have been harmed because the MPB Today affiliate used the name of Sam’s Club in the animated attack, which painted Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as Nazis — with Obama as a cowering Nazi and Clinton as a drunken one wearing “puke colored” clothes purchased from Big Lots, a discount retailer.

    This occurred while other MPB Today affiliates were claiming that MPB, which dispenses Walmart gift cards to winners in the MPB 2×2 matrix cycler, was under “contract” with Walmart, that MPB members were “partners” with Walmart, that MPB sells food “vouchers” that can be exchanged for Walmart gift cards and that the MLM program was “Govt. certified with Food Stamps!”

    As incredible as it seems, Michelle Obama — the First Lady of the United States — was depicted in the affiliate’s animation as experiencing an embarrassing gas attack in the Oval Office after sampling “beans” at a Sam’s Club store. A dog depicted in the pitch more or less said that the First Lady was stinking up the joint.

    Good grief!

    The pitch also harms the image of U.S. business in general because it sends the message that “anything goes” in American Capitalism as long as it returns a profit, the precise message U.S. companies now under indictment or investigation were sending when they brought the financial sector to its knees.

    Meanwhile, it specifically harms online business. Much of the world already believes the Internet is one giant cesspit, in no small measure because of the business practices of certain MLM programs and affiliates of MLM programs.

    At the same time, it harms the Republican party, which is trying to make gains in the upcoming midterm elections. It would be easy, for example, for the Democrats to seize on the message that the sales pitch for MPB Today is just another example of wretched GOP excess and hatred embedded in code. The most bizarre thing about the pitch is that it seems to presume that it is a perfectly acceptable business practice to alienate MPB members and prospects who might be Democrats and Obama supporters — as well as Republicans who actually respect and admire the President even if they disagree with his policies and do not share his political philosophy.

    Even though the MPB Today affiliate’s precise party or political affiliation is not known, it seems clear that the affiliate sees nothing wrong with mixing business with inflammatory, divisive politics,  and is not enthusiastic about the current Democratic leadership. In this sense, it also harms the Democratic party. Political pranksters and Obama opponents could paint the MPB pitchman as a Democratic saboteur or a Tea Party activist seeking to create dissension in the ranks, something that could inure to the benefit of Republicans.

    Most of all, though, the pitch hurts America. Much of the world looks to America for both financial and moral leadership. What the world got in the context of the promotion for MPB Today is yet-another impossibly ham-handed attempt to sell an MLM product at any price — even at the price of American prestige.

    Segments of the MLM trade already are infamous for their inability to sell products without lying, for resorting to gutter tactics, for using sales pitches to reimagine products as something they are not and for setting the stage for tens of thousands of people to get fleeced in one spectacular scam after another that goes “viral” on the Internet.

    Today the PP Blog received a request from a person who described herself as the sponsor of the MPB Today affiliate who produced the anti-Obama screed to “delete” the Blog’s stories on the reprehensible sales pitch.

    “The animated short video on MPB with Hilary and Obama was created by a member I sponsored into MPB and the film has since been taken down,” the sponsor noted. “The member agrees it may have been in poor taste and chose to delete it. Please do the same.”

    Welcome to the often-bizarre world of MLM — a world in which the affiliate who authored a political attack on the President of the United States to gain payments from a 2×2 cycler matrix pushed on known Ponzi forums such as ASAMonitor  “agrees” only that the pitch “may have been in poor taste” and the dutiful sponsor seeks to make sure the the record gets deleted.

    Although the PP Blog verified that the sales pitch had been deleted from the animation site, the Blog is declining to delete its coverage of the matter. All people engaged in MLM need to see it. If they are interested in being taken seriously, they need to condemn it.

    MPB Today should issue a statement that condemns it.

    In May 2009 — just days after the Obama administration announced a crackdown on international financial fraud — the PP Blog received a request from KINGZ Capital Management to delete a story about the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf’s claim that it had secured KINGZ as an offshore wire facilitator to make it easier for Americans (and other peoples of the world) to send money to an obvious Ponzi scheme that had risen from the ashes of ASD, yet another Ponzi scheme

    The PP Blog declined the request. KINGZ later was banned by the National Futures Association for turning a blind eye to the actions of Trevor Cook, a now-convicted felon who operated an international Ponzi scheme that caused investor losses of at least $158 million. The scheme traded on religion. A federal judge called it “wretched, tawdry and cheap.”

    History will record that AVG made the claim about  its new relationship with KINGZ on the very same day in May 2009 that Obama himself announced the fraud crackdown. By June 25, 2009, AVG suspended autosurf cashouts, taking an unknown sum of money sent in by members with it. It is known that many AVG members also were members of ASD, the subject of a racketeering lawsuit and two federal complaints that sought the forfeiture of more than $80 million. The government won both forfeiture cases. The decisions by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer now are under appeal by Bowdoin.

    It also is known the ASD victims have been targeted in promotions for MPB Today. If that’s not enough, it also is known that at least one MPB Today affiliate’s pitch page includes links to at least 100 “surfing” programs, as well as a link to Data Network Affiliates (DNA).

    DNA, yet another MLM program, purports to collect license-plate data that can aid law enforcement and the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children. Even as DNA and affiliates are claiming to be interested in helping law enforcement, the company says it is selling a spray product that prevents cameras from snapping photographs of license plates at intersections that use electronic systems to enforce traffic laws.

    As DNA is doing this, it also is telling churches that they have the “MORAL OBLIGATION” to recruit affiliates for a purported mortgage-reduction program targeted at people who are facing foreclosure. Meanwhile, MPB Today also is targeting foreclosure subjects in sales pitches, and some MPB affiliates are using religion in sales pitches to attract MLM members.

    Both MPB Today and DNA are operating in Florida, which has one of the highest concentrations of foreclosures in the United States and is near the top of the list in U.S. bank failures.

    So, no. The PP Blog will not delete its coverage of the MPB Today affiliate’s attack on Obama.

    All of America — all of the world and all of the MLM universe — needs to see that the President of the United States was right in May 2009 when he announced the fraud crackdown and was right in November 2009 when he announced the formation of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.

    The PP Blog has no doubt — none whatsoever — that corrupt elements within the MLM universe are doing everything in their power to use the Internet to bleed wealth from hard-working Americans and other hard-working peoples of the world, and that the corrupt transfer of wealth is leading to losses of billions of dollars globally. Simply put, these reprehensible — if not downright criminal business practices — are a money grab on a colossal scale.

    Proceeds from fraud schemes are difficult to trace. Money moves at the speed of an electronic impulse. Any number of nefarious enterprises, including narcotics traffickers, organized crime and terrorist groups, could be tapping into the fraud stream. There is no doubt that some of the criminal enterprises are dressed up as legitimate MLMs or employ a direct-sales business model that pays commissions to attract new money.

    Stand strong, Mr. President. Your efforts to turn off this criminally gushing Ponzi and fraud spigot not only are commendable, but also are in the interest of U.S. national security, the safeguarding of which is your highest duty to the American people.

    The photos below are for posterity. We are publishing them even as we wonder if nothing is off limits if it helps an MLM offer convert — and even as we wonder why the MLM trade seems so willing to repeatedly attribute its image problem to only a “few bad apples” while simultaneously calling the industry’s critics “haters.”

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  • MPB Today Affiliate Website That References Food Stamp Program Has Links To At Least 100 ‘Surfing’ Programs — Some Of Which Already Have Gone Belly-Up; ‘Ken Russo’ Defends Program On Ponzi Forum

    A promotional website for the MPB Today multilevel-marketing (MLM) program specifically references the U.S. Food Stamp program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and includes links to at least 100 “paid to surf” programs, including programs that use domains registered offshore and programs that appear already to have failed.

    Separately, an MPB Today affiliate is using a YouTube video to inform prospects that they are better off not buying groceries from a Florida-based company linked to the MLM program. Instead, the affiliate suggested, incoming members should follow the herd and not purchase groceries from Southeastern Delivery in a bid to earn a higher payout later from MPB’s 2×2 cycler matrix.

    “When you join MPB Today, you buy or purchase a $200 food voucher — food voucher,” stressed the affiliate in a video pitch. “That puts you into the business.

    “You can purchase food with that voucher,” he continued. “Or you can wait and do the business and exchange that voucher for a Walmart gift card . . . which I did and everybody else is doing.”

    During the portion of the video in which the affiliate was stressing the importance of following the herd — a snippet of about 60 words — the word “voucher” was used four times. The use of the word — coupled with a published statement by MPB Today that it charges up to 50 percent of the cost of the order to ship groceries and ships only “dry-goods” — gives rise to questions about whether MPB Today actually has a product behind the business “opportunity.”

    “We ship ONLY non-perishable dry-goods only,” MPB Today stresses on its website, using the word “only” twice in a seven-word sentence. Because the firm’s purportedly high shipping costs, dry-goods “only” policy and lack of dollar-stretching generic products, questions have been raised about whether the firm and its affiliates are deliberately steering members to the matrix program and seeking to minimize or eliminate grocery orders from outside its base of operations in Pensacola.

    The video first was referenced by “Ken Russo” on the Ponzi-pushing ASAMonitor forum as a “very concise . . . presentation” that outlines the advantages of the MPB Today program.

    “Ken Russo,” who also pushed the Regenesis 2×2 cycler program that became the subject of a U.S. Secret Service probe last year that featured undercover operatives and the surveillance of a Dumpster into which business records were tossed, opined on the ASAMonitor Ponzi forum that he has “concluded that MPBToday is one of the best and most practical programs I have ever seen in the network marketing industry.”

    In April 2009, while pitching Regenesis on ASAMonitor, “Ken Russo” observed that “ReGenesis is an excellent program which lends itself to a team effort approach which will greatly enhance the Automated Recruiting System that they provide to ensure that each and every member is credited with 2 personal referrals.”

    By August 2009, the Secret Service had applied for and executed search warrants in the Seattle area as part of its probe into Regenesis, according to court documents. The agency informed a federal judge that it had kept certain subjects under surveillance for five weeks and that it had linked the scheme to a securities fraudster who had been released from federal prison in January 2009.

    The agency laid out allegations of an elaborate fraud involving multiple individuals, multiple bank accounts, multiple addresses and multiple company names. Agents said they observed complaint letters directed at the firm being discarded into a Dumpster that was kept under constant surveillance.

    Also found in the Dumpster were copies of checks sent in by customers, other documents that included customers’ names and information to identify them personally, complaint faxes sent by customers and a letter from a law firm complaining about false, misleading and deceptive advertising, according to court filings.

    In the promo that specifically referenced the Food Stamp program, meanwhile, the affiliate claimed that MPB Today sells “prepaid” groceries.

    “This grocer is so legitimate that they are legally authorized to accept payment via EBT,” the affiliate claimed. “EBT is an abbreviation for Electronic Benefits Transfer which is the method now used for distributing the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). As of Oct. 1, 2008, SNAP is the new name for the federal Food Stamp Program. One word —> LEGITIMATE !”

    The clear implication of the claim is that, because the government approved Southeastern Delivery to accept Food Stamps, the MLM program also passes muster. The word “voucher” also is used on the Food Stamp pitch page, and the page includes links to multiple autosurfing sites and other highly questionable business opportunities.

    One of the programs pitched on the page is Data Network Affiliates (DNA), which purports to collect license-plate data that can aid law enforcement and the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children. Like MPB Today, some affiliates of DNA used an image of Donald Trump to pitch the purported license-plate data program. Trump’s image appeared for 10 continuous minutes in a pitch for DNA, while a narrator said the company had “incredible” people on speed dial. DNA, which lists an address in Boca Raton, Fla., uses a domain registered behind a proxy in the Cayman Islands and says it can help members avoid traffic tickets by providing them a protective spray that purportedly shields intersection cameras from taking pictures of license plates, has an “F” rating from the Better Business Bureau for not responding to customer complaints.

    DNA once claimed that churches have the “MORAL OBLIGATION” to help it pitch a purported mortgage-reduction program. Florida is plagued by mortgage fraud — and scammers who are targeting foreclosure subjects.

    MPB Today is targeting foreclosure subjects in a video sales pitch. Trump’s image was removed from the MPB Today website Tuesday.

    In a video accessible from the page in which the MPB Today Food Stamp claim is made, another affiliate is shown cashing his check from Southeastern Delivery at an FDIC insured bank. The video captures the voice of the bank teller.

    In this YouTube video, an MPB Today affiliate cashes his check from Southeastern Delivery at an FDIC-insured bank. The page from which the video is accessible shows August prices for Southeastern Delivery, which appears to have no money-stretching generic products. Among the name-brand products listed was Starbucks coffee — $14.28 for 20 ounces of House Blend.

    The affiliate then was videotaped inside a Walmart store making a purchase with a Walmart gift card sent to him by the MLM program. This section of the video captured the face of a Walmart employee.

    Later, the affiliate was taped inside a taco store. In an apparent gag, the affiliate attempted to pay for his purchase with a Walmart gift card. This section of the video showed the faces of at least three taco-store employees. The employees, whose faces now are on YouTube along with the face of the Walmart employee and the voice of the bank employee, appear to be confused about what is happening.

    It is unclear if any of the workers knew they were being videotaped or audiotaped for an affiliate’s commercial for MPB Today.

    MPB removed an image of a Walmart store from its website Tuesday. Walmart has not responded to questions posed by the PP Blog. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is conducting a review of claims made about the MPB Today program.