EDITOR’S NOTE:UPDATED 3:12 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Florida-based MPBToday is one of the programs pitched on Ponzi boards such as ASAMonitor, MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold. It also is being pitched via email and on social-media sites such as YouTube. All three of the forums are referenced in court filings — including filings in criminal cases — as places from which Ponzi schemes are promoted. Pathway to Prosperity, just one of the schemes promoted on the forums, was alleged in May to have defrauded more than 40,000 people across the globe while gathering more than $70 million.
MPBToday is a multilevel-marketing company tied to a Pensacola grocery company known as Southeastern Delivery LLC. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Friday that it was conducting a “review” of affiliate claims. Precisely what claims USDA will review is unclear.
Some affiliates are encouraging recipients of Food Stamps to join the program, which claims a $200, one-time expense can led to free groceries for life. Other affiliates have targeted victims of the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme in sales pitches. Still others are using religion to sell the program. The program uses the word “foreclosure” in its sales pitch. Florida has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the United States. More than 9,000 people showed up at the Palm Beach County Convention Center late last month to seek foreclosure relief.
One potential area of inquiry is whether Food Stamp recipients somehow can use their allotment to qualify for MPB Today’s MLM program. Another potential area of inquiry is whether Food Stamp money somehow is being used to pay MLM commissions. Because MPB Today says Southeastern Delivery assesses a shipping charge of up to 50 percent for the home delivery of groceries — and because affiliates purport that food “vouchers” and food “credits” can be acquired, perhaps in the form of a Walmart gift card MPB Today sends in the mail — another potential area of inquiry is whether Food Stamp money somehow can be converted to pay for items such as electronics and prepaid Visa cards. One MPB Today affiliate said the firm’s high shipping costs were a reason for Southeastern Delivery’s Food Stamp customers to join the MLM program.
Claims have been made that the MLM program is “certified” by the government, “acknowledged” by the government and that Walmart is affiliated with MPB Today. Walmart has not responded to a request for comment from the PP Blog.
Here are some photos of promotions for MPB Today from around the web. (Red highlighting added by PP Blog):
In this YouTube video and text pitch, a claim punctuated with exclamation marks is made that the program is "Govt. certified with Food Stamps!" and that there is a "contract with wal mart!" The word "scam" appears multiple times in the pitch — in an apparent bid to drive traffic to the site from prospects seeking to determine if there is any scam-related information on MPB Today. MPB Today positioned on YouTube as a good opportunity for people of faith. The words "Christian" and "scam" are used to drive traffic to the site.In a money-waving Blog post, an MPB Today affiliate with a California address shows a check for $300 and a Walmart card. In this video for MPB Today on DailyMotion, visitors are encouraged to visit a .org affiliate site for the company, even though MPB Today is not a charity. The video claims members can purchase "electronics," even though MPB Today says it is in the grocery business and affiliates are targeting Food Stamp recipients in sales pitches.MPB Today affiliates display check and Walmart card on YouTube after videotaping check-opening ceremony. The program is described as a "NO BRAINER."This document on file in Florida shows that Southeastern Delivery LLC, the grocery arm of the MPB Today MLM program, once was known as William Lindsay Properties LLC. The name change occurred in January 2010. Gary Calhoun, the operator of MPB Today, is associated with both firms, according to records. On Aug. 25, the PP Blog received an unsolicited sales pitch for MPB Today via an email to the Blog's support address. Among the claims in the pitch, which did not include an unsubscribe link, was that "Walmart is thrilled" with the results of MPB Today. The pitch was targeted at members of AdSurfDaily, a company the PP Blog regularly covers because ASD is implicated by the U.S. Secret Service in an alleged Ponzi scheme involving tens of millions of dollars. A similar pitch was sent to another website that covers AdSurfDaily-related news. The names of Walmart and Sam's Club referenced by "Ken Russo" at the ASAMonitor forum, which is notorious for promoting Ponzi schemes. In this video, a check and Walmart card are displayed. Unlike other checks written in Southeastern Delivery's name, this check was written in the name of MPB Today Inc. The video, which captured a check-opening ceremony, shows a Walmart "In Store Credit" cardIn this video, an MPB Today affiliate gives a sales pitch while driving an automobile. A check and Walmart card were presented when the vehicle stopped at a highway intersection.The pitch claims a "ONE-TIME" expenditure of $200 can "TOTALLY ELIMINATE" grocery bills.
A Hawaii man and his company were hit with sanctions totaling $6.2 million in a case that alleged they targeted people with hearing impairments in a Forex Ponzi scheme.
Both the SEC and the CFTC filed actions against Marvin Cooper and his Honolulu-based firm, Billion Coupons Inc. (BCI). The CFTC announced the judgment against Cooper and the company.
Investigators said Cooper and BCI “solicited funds from deaf American and Japanese individuals for the sole purported purpose of trading forex,” luring them with payout promises of up to 25 percent per month.
For his part, Cooper took “more than $1.4 million of customer funds for personal use, including for flying lessons and to purchase a $1 million home,” investigators said.
He was ordered to pay $3.9 million in restitution to customers and more than $2.3 million in penalties. The company is liable for the same amounts.
The “Billion Coupons” case drew comparisons to the now-defunct Noobing autosurf, which also targeted the deaf. Noobing became popular in the aftermath of the August 2008 federal seizure of tens of millions of dollars in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme case.
Despite the federal seizure, some ASD members promoted Noobing. Noobing effectively went bust in July 2009, when the FTC charged its parent company — Affiliate Strategies Inc. — with pushing a scheme that promised “guaranteed” government grants of $25,000 from economic stimulus funds.
Noobing later was named a receivership defendant in the case. Receiver Larry Cook sold the company’s assets lock, stock and barrel — right down to a lavatory wastebasket. Like ASD, Noobing’s parent firm also owned a jet ski. Cook sold that, too.
Despite dramatic asset seizures and the federal actions against ASD and Noobing’s parent — and despite previous actions against autosurfs, including 12DailyPro, PhoenixSurf and CEP — some ASD members have continued to promote autosurfs.
This has occurred against the backdrop of a racketeering lawsuit against ASD President Andy Bowdoin and public filings in which prosecutors claimed Bowdoin had signed a “proffer” letter in the case and met with members of law enforcement over a period of four days in December 2008 and January 2009.
It also is known that Interpol is seeking the arrest of Robert Hodgins, whose Dallas-based debit-card company, Virtual Money Inc., is alleged to have agreed to launder drug money in the Dominican Republic and assist a Colombian drug operation launder money at ATMs in Medellin.
ASD members said Hodgins’ company supplied debit cards to AdSurfDaily, and web records suggest that Hodgins or a Virtual Money designate attended an ASD function in the Orlando area in late 2006.
Even though Bowdoin acknowledged in court filings that he had given information against his interests to the government, some ASD members continue to promote autosurfs and HYIPs. After signing the proffer letter and surrendering his claims to more than $65.8 million seized from his personal bank accounts, Bowdoin later reentered the case as his own attorney.
One of Bowdoin’s 10 personal bank accounts contained more than $31 million, according to court filings. Another contained more than $23 million. Three other bank accounts contained the exact same amount — a little over $1 million.
After submitting to the forfeiture in January 2009, Bowdoin fired his attorneys without notice and attempted to reenter the case weeks later as his own attorney. This set in motion a series of bizarre pleadings from Bowdoin, including one in which he claimed he had not been provided “fair notice” of his illegal conduct by the government. ASD members by the dozens then filed their own bizarre, pro se pleadings. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled against each of the filers, saying they had no standing in the case.
Collyer since has ruled against Bowdoin, awarding title to more than $80 million seized in the case to the government, which said it intends to implement a restitution program. Bowdoin is appealing Collyer’s forfeiture decisions.
Court filings show that Bowdoin told Collyer the seized money belonged to him. In September 2009, the U.S. Secret Service presented Collyer a transcript of a conference-call recording in which Bowdoin told members the money belonged to them. Although Bowdoin insisted he had big plans for ASD, records show that he let the firm’s registration lapse in the state of Florida — even as he was telling members they should be excited about the company’s future.
In the recording, Bowdoin claimed his fight against the government was inspired by the compelling personal story of a former Miss America.
UPDATED 4 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Former members of AdSurfDaily who lost money in an alleged $100 million Ponzi scheme are not the only prospects being targeted by affiliates of MPB Today. Recipients of federal benefits administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) also are being targeted.
If you receive federal assistance for food — and if you’re turned off by the shipping costs charged by an online grocery store that is part of a 2×2 cycler matrix operated by a MPB Today, a Florida-based, multilevel-marketing (MLM) program — you should use the high shipping costs as a reason to join the MLM program, according to an MPB Today affiliate.
And if you are a Food Stamp recipient who needs one more reason to join MPB Today, you should consider that, if you cycle and earn a Walmart gift card from MPB Today, you can use the “gift cards to purchase Walmart Visa Cards, which can be used the same as cash,” according to the affiliate.
Shopping online for groceries once was a “privilege” reserved “for those in higher income brackets, with more money than time,” according to a Blog titled “Helping Dreams Come True For You!”
“Granted, shipping charges are usually around 40% of the total grocery bill, but if that seems like too much to pay, you can utilize the marketing plan of the company,” a Blog post aimed at Food Stamp recipients suggests. “And refer your friends to sign up as well.”
For its part, MPB Today says on its website that shipping costs “can average from 25 – 50%.”
Under the MPB Today affiliate’s plan, a Food Stamp recipient with a $200 order would be spending up to $300 to gain the same purchasing power offered by a local, walk-in grocery retailer — assuming the local retailer’s prices were the same as MPB Today’s.
If the local retailer’s prices were lower, the Food Stamp recipient would lose even more purchasing power.
On average, only about 14 percent of participants “earn” money in 2×2 cycler programs. One such program operating in the Seattle area came under investigation last year by the U.S. Secret Service.
Walmart did not respond immediately to a request for comment from the PP Blog.
The Food Stamp program, known as SNAP, is administered by USDA and managed by the U.S. states and territories.
USDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the PP Blog. It was not immediately clear if the agency knows about the MPB Today program and the manner in which it is being marketed to Food Stamp recipients.
The MPB Today affiliate’s pitch provided no guidance on whether Walmart gift cards could be viewed as reportable income for tax purposes and Food Stamp eligibility purposes. The pitch also did not disclose that the affiliate was in position to earn money if Food Stamp recipients joined MPB Today through the affiliate link on the Blog.
A promo on MPB Today’s website encourages visitors to “Eat Well Today!” The site shows photos of delicious food, while prompting visitors to click on a video. The video is a sales pitch for the MLM program.
When visitors click on the video prompt, a dire drum beat begins. The word “foreclosure” flashes on the screen twice in the first 15 seconds. Florida has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the United States.
Here is how the MPB Today affiliate describes the cycler program’s convenience to Food Stamp recipients:
“Once at the checkout screen, you enter the number on your EBT,SNAP, or food stamp card, and another credit or debit card to pay for the shipping charges. It’s just that easy.”
This YouTube promo for MPB Today claims Walmart is affiliated with the program and that the program is "Govt. acknowledged."
Separately, a MPB Today affiliate is using a video on YouTube to promote the MLM company. The video claims that Walmart is “affiliated” with the firm and that the program is “Govt. acknowledged.”
“This biz will explode,” the video claims. It does not list a source to substantiate the claim that Walmart is “affiliated” with MPB Today and that the government has “acknowledged” the program.
BULLETIN:(UPDATED 11:27 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The Federal Trade Commission has lowered the boom on Clean Credit Report Services Inc. of Florida and three individuals associated with the firm.
In a settlement from a case brought in October 2008, the FTC has obtained a judgment of $14.4 million. The defendants must surrender their assets, including about $165,000 in frozen funds.
The settlement agreement also includes “any proceeds received from selling their six commercial and three residential properties under foreclosure in Florida; commercial property in Bogota, Colombia; a 1992 Mercedes S300; and a 1997 Chevrolet Venture.”
In total, Clean Credit Report Services Inc., Ricardo A. Miranda, Ruthy Villabona and Daniel R. Miranda are giving up “two cars, three houses, and six commercial properties in Broward and Miami-Dade counties in Florida, and in Bogota, Colombia,” the FTC said.
The defendants admitted no wrongdoing.
Clean Credit Report operated from North Miami, according to court filings. The company used a website (now defunct), radio ads and televisions ads to fleece customers, the FTC charged.
Here is how the company pitched its offer on its website, according to the FTC:
“DEROGATORY ACCOUNTS ARE DISPUTED CCRS will help you to legally dispute all your negative remarks directly with the 3 credit reporting agencies.”
***
“Get ready to see DELETED, DELETED, DELETED, DELETED, DELETED, on the responses from the credit reporting agencies.”
The alleged schemers targeted people going through rough financial times and illegally charged them upfront fees, the FTC charged.
They also fraudulently claimed that they could remove accurate and timely information from credit reports, charging $400 to do so and debiting the amount from customers’ bank accounts, the FTC said.
The agency noted in court filings that eight of nine properties the defendants will be giving up already are in foreclosure.
Florida has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the United States. Certain MLM and Internet Marketing companies — in efforts to recruit financially strapped customers — routinely use the word “foreclosure” in sales pitches, positioning the business “opportunity” as the remedy for the foreclosure problem.
Such ads often feature a dire drum beat, as images of people down on their luck flash on the screen. Biz Ad Splash, a failed autosurf, used such an ad. The company disappeared with an unknown amount of money sent in by members earlier this year — and then issued an announcement that it was “sad” about the development.
Biz Ad Splash and it dire drum beat and “foreclosure” message targeted members of Florida-based AdSurfDaily, which was implicated in a Ponzi scheme by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008. More than $80 million was seized in the ASD case.
Some ASD members now are recommending a Florida-based program called MPB Today, which also uses a dire drum beat and the word “foreclosure” in its sales pitch.
It is known that some members of ASD also were in the credit-repair business. One ASD supporter claimed in court filings that he could undermine a bank’s interest in a foreclosure case by filing “twenty-one dollars in silver coinage†at a courthouse in Missouri.
UPDATED 7:11 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) When U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum sentenced Ponzi schemer Trevor Cook to a quarter of a century in federal prison earlier this week, the judge used some powerful words to describe Cook’s colossal fraud.
Rosenbaum described the scheme that bilked investors out of at least $158 million as “wretched, tawdry and cheap.” Some of the victims were rendered destitute.
It’s easy to see why a federal judge would use such words. Not only did Cook steal by the tens of millions of dollars, he stole even after the SEC and the CFTC went to court last November to bring the scheme to a halt. Cook spent money that had been frozen by court order, thus thumbing his nose at both victims and the judicial system. He later failed to disclose the whereabouts of assets — this until he failed a lie-detector test.
All of those acts — and the $190 million scheme itself — easily qualify as “wretched, tawdry and cheap.” One could argue rationally that even stronger adjectives could be applied to Cook’s behavior and still fall within the bounds of decorum.
And this brings us to the subject of AdSurfDaily — specifically, what at least one member appears to be doing to recruit former ASD members and people interested in ASD into yet-another scheme.
That’s been done before, of course. AdViewGlobal, itself a scheme that could be described fairly as “wretched, tawdry and cheap,” rose from ASD’s ashes to bilk anew.
Along those lines, who could forget MegaLido? It was yet another autosurf that became popular in the aftermath of the domestic seizure of tens of millions of dollars in the ASD Ponzi case. One former ASD member described MegaLido as “fool proof.”
It’s “OFFSHORE!!!” he exclaimed.
Some ASD members also saddled up and starting promoting the Noobing autosurf, which targeted people with hearing impairments. There were plenty of HYIPs, too. These included Genius Funds, believed to have gathered up more than $400 million; Gold Nugget Invest, which promoted itself as a betting arbitrage and later implied in was in Forex; and CashTanker, which used an image of Jesus in its sales pitch.
Look here to see a list of some of the “programs” promoted by ASD members. (Most of the programs, by the way, were promoted after the ASD seizure.)
How To Irritate A Sleeping Dog
At 9:05 p.m. yesterday, Maddy the Wonder Puppy — always and forever a wonder puppy in my mind, even though she’s two now — was going through her endearing presleep maneuvers under my desk. This is one of those things that make me feel good about the world.
As Maddy was going through her positioning dance and stretching and yawning routine, an email popped into my box. It proved to be one of those things that make me feel bad about the world.
“input on opportunity” — all lowercase — was the subject line of the email. So, I knew right away that I was about to get a sales pitch — and I suspected before opening it that was going to a disingenuous pitch at that.
“I used to belong to ASD,” the email began. “Need your input on UniqueBuyingClub.”
OK. Here’s what’s important so far: The pitch was completely unsolicited and came through the Blog’s support address; it used ASD’s name (sixth word) to catch my attention; the subject line suggested I was being asked for “input,” as though the sender saw something fishy on the Internet and wanted to get my take on it; and the pitch proved to be for MPB Today, not an entity called “UniqueBuyingClub.”
Let’s proceed. It gets worse.
The first affiliate link appeared 12 words into the pitch, meaning I wasn’t really being solicited for input — unless it was input after the fact — because the sender already had registered for MPB Today. (Note: I checked the email address of the sender against the affiliate email addresses on the MPBToday page. They matched, meaning it is highly likely that the sender was an affiliate who was spamming me.)
There was no way to unsubscribe from the “list” I now found myself on. (BTW, I’m wondering if the sender knows if Warren Buffet and Donald Trump really have endorsed MPB Today, a business that bizarrely mixes the home delivery of groceries with a 2×2 cycler. Their pictures are right at the top of the sales page, which implies an endorsement. Perhaps MPB Today missed the news about the FTC action last week in a case that alleges an Internet Marketing company that hawks Acai berry products tried to make people believe Oprah and Rachel Ray were on board.)
But it got worse from there. Not only was the “UniqueBuyingClub” angle confusing, the link asked me to visit a site called WeCreateRiches. Then, a second link asked me to visit the MPB Today site. We are only 14 words into the pitch at this point.
Let’s take another brief pause. The import of what’s happening here is that a former ASD member who perhaps got bilked in a $100 million MLM and securities scheme that promised riches now is urging me to visit a website called WeCreateRiches to sign up for a company that uses a home-delivered groceries business to promote an MLM scheme that uses a 2×2 matrix cycler. The U.S. Secret Service, which is investigating ASD, also has experience investigating cyclers.
Prior to receiving the email, I knew about MPB Today, which Rod Cook had written about. I just haven’t gotten around to writing about it yet, mostly because there is only so much time in the day. In some ways, I almost hate to write about it because writing about it potentially means that the MLM Stepfords will come of the woodwork to “defend” the company. It also potentially means the Blog will start getting spam from people angry that I dared mention the MPB Today name on a blog about scams. (Spam, in this context, means people who “defend” the company not by leaving a comment that actually defends the company, but by submitting their affiliate link on the theory that they might be able to cherry-pick a new downline member from the Blog’s readership ranks.)
In any event, the email went on to inform me that “Walmart is loving the results!!” generated by MPB Today.
Oh, really? I do hope the sender leaves a comment in this thread to substantiate the Walmart claim. It will spare me some work.
The email also wished me “Blessings and hope through your connections,” while urging me to “Please get back to me and let us help many ASD members who lost money and hope.”
Well, email sender, consider this post “getting back” to you.
It is my view that your email — and I haven’t gotten into the most revolting part yet — is “wretched, tawdry and cheap.” Like Judge Rosenbaum, I feel that way about Trevor Cook’s actions — as I do the actions of ASD’s Andy Bowdoin, who also traded on religion.
Take your “blessings” and “hope” elsewhere. I think the idea of using religion and identifying yourself as an ASD member to pitch other ASD members on MPB Today is “wretched, tawdry and cheap.”
Meanwhile, I think that sending a reporter who covers fraud schemes an email titled “input on opportunity” also is “wretched, tawdry and cheap.”
It makes me believe you’d sell anything for a commission and say anything to gain a commission. My thoughts on this subject were further reinforced this morning when I learned you sent a largely identical email to another forum.
“Blessings,” the email to the other forum concluded.
It made me want to retch. Is this what you believe Internet Marketing to be?
OK. Here’s the part of the pitch that irked me most (emphasis added):
“Just go online and order. BUT if you introduce club to just TWO and help those two introduce to two that completes ONE cycle for you. YOU – plus those six, Only qualification to be part of this is to introduce to TWO , but you may choose to get crazy and promote to many to inc. cycling. When you finish cycle one – go to backoffice and order grocery.goods BUT now company pays all shipping OR replace that voucher for a $200 WalmartGiftCard to go into the store and PLUS company sends you a $300 check to spend whereever. You NEVER add another dime. You may cycle as often as you please. People here in Orlando are cycling two to seven times in a week. There is so much excitment because people are hurting and now they can go get FREE groceries/goods and FREE gas at SamClub.”
Yep. Florida. Again.
Florida was ASD’s home. Florida means retirees — and ASD members again are being targeted in pitches to send money to MPB Today, whose headquarters also happens to be in Florida.
“Blessings,” the emailer wrote — in pitches to both places — while also claiming her “girlfriend did [a] background check” and that “all is good” in the land of 2×2 cyclers targeted at victims of previous fraud schemes and prospects from a state favored by retirees who saved to get there.
Florida has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the United States. Just three seconds — three seconds — into the video pitch for MPB Today, the word “Foreclosure” appears on the screen. It appears again at the 11-second mark.
In MPB Today’s world, the apparent remedy for the foreclosure problem is to get Florida seniors and other struggling residents to join a 2×2 cycler.
BULLETIN: Ponzi schemer Trevor Cook has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for his role in an international Forex Ponzi scheme that gathered more than $190 million and fleeced victims out of more than $158 million.
In ordering the prison term, U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum sided with the prosecution’s recommendation of a quarter of a century. It is believed to be the longest prison term ever imposed in a Minnesota financial-fraud case in which the defendant pleaded guilty.
“Such a sentence fairly, adequately, and justly punishes the defendant for his offense, reflecting the seriousness of the offense, his willingness to plead guilty and provide information to law enforcement, and the need to protect the public,” prosecutors said last week in a sentencing recommendation to Rosenbaum.
“Over the course of a few years, the defendant executed an investment fraud, victimizing approximately 923 victims and defrauding them of over $158 million,” prosecutors said. “As is all too common, the defendant often used victims’ religious beliefs as a means of enticing them to give him their money.”
Cook, 38, is not out of legal harm’s way — even with the sentence of 25 years. Prosecutors disclosed last week that he has signed a waiver that would subject him to further punishment if the ongoing investigation shows he has “somehow secreted undisclosed assets.”
Victims have expressed concerns that Cook could have stashed money from the scheme anywhere on earth. Cook failed a lie-detector last month about the whereabouts of assets.
FBI and IRS agents later found more than $400,000 in undisclosed assets under the control of Graham Cook, Trevor Cook’s brother.
Despite Cook’s lack of disclosure, prosecutors contended that it made no sense to delay Cook’s sentencing any longer as the asset search by the government and R.J. Zayed, the court-appointed receiver in a civil case filed against Cook and former Christian radio host Pat Kiley last year by the SEC and the CFTC, continued.
Cook had been scheduled to be sentenced last month. Kiley, who called his radio listeners “truth seekers,” has not been charged criminally in the case.
“The government has worked closely with the court-appointed receiver to assist its efforts in finding and identifying assets,” prosecutors said of Cook. “The government and the receiver now agree that any additional time prior to sentencing will not result in any additional information or assistance to the receiver’s efforts.”
It is possible that Cook could prove to be a valuable source of information for the government — in the same sense that disbarred attorney, convicted racketeer and Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein has become an information source.
Rothstein, who presided over a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme in Florida, was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison earlier this year. It is known that Rothstein has provided information helpful to the government.
Cook “has been repeatedly debriefed by law enforcement in an effort to identify assets and to provide information regarding other individuals,” prosecutors said. “He has done so. The information has been of assistance to law enforcement in its ongoing investigation.”
Ponzi schemes are toxic — and frequently are incredibly elaborate. Court documents in case after case show that the schemes frequently feature schemes within schemes and elaborate money-laundering networks. Criminals often go to fantastic lengths to disguise the conduits of the schemes, using shell companies and multiple bank accounts to funnel money and make the schemes difficult to reverse-engineer.
FBI Director Robert Mueller has warned Congress at least twice this year about a “shadow” banking system criminals employ and an increasing reliance on “shell corporations†to commit crimes and hide from investigators.
Cook’s scheme featured companies with confusingly similar names.
Records show that Cook had a tie to a company the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf claimed to be its facilitator of offshore wires.
KINGZ Capital Management, AVG’s purported facilitator, denied any affiliation with AVG, which has close ties to the AdSurfDaily autosurf. ASD is implicated in a Ponzi scheme alleged to involve tens of millions of dollars.
AVG collapsed in June 2009, after running a virtually nonstop promotion that advertised matching bonuses of 200 percent for both recruits and their sponsors.
The National Futures Association said last year that Cook was managing money for KINGZ. AVG made the claim KINGZ was its wire facilitator on May 4, 2008 — the same day the Obama administration announced a crackdown on offshore fraud.
DISCLOSURE: I was a volunteer Moderator at the Warrior Forum (WF) between December 2007 and July 2008. I learned what is best — and worst — about Internet Marketing at the WF. Just as my Mod days were coming to an end, the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme case was coming to the fore — and Internet Marketers raced to the forum to “defend” the business.
UPDATED 11:13 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The author of The Salty Droid, a Blog that unapologetically skewers highly questionable Internet Marketing practices and some of the trade’s most visible figures, was made the subject of a death wish Aug. 17 by a poster at the Warrior Forum (WF).
“Hopefully one day he will pick the wrong target and that someone will take a shotgun to him,” wrote Robert Puddy, a well-known marketer. The post was in response to a poster who apparently committed the high crime of making a favorable comment about The Salty Droid.
The PP Blog, which itself has been the subject of threats by Internet Marketers, strongly condemns the event at the WF, the actions of Puddy and attempts to chill by force of threat reporters and Bloggers who write about IM-related issues.
Suggesting a human being should be executed by shotgun for his critical point of view about Internet Marketing is thuggery. That Puddy, who provides Internet Marketing training and is regarded an expert, even could suggest that death was an appropriate penalty for a Blogger who opines that some Internet Marketers engage in anticompetitive and racketeering-like marketing practices is a matter for great introspection.
So much for having a sense of the moment — or any PR savvy at all.
A number of Internet Marketers have been implicated in racketeering schemes or found themselves squaring off against racketeering indictments or lawsuits in recent months. Andy Bowdoin of Florida-based AdSurfDaily, for instance, was sued by his own customers for racketeering. One of Bowdoin’s attorneys also was sued for racketeering in the same case, which was placed on hold until the federal Ponzi case against ASD plays out. At least one ASD member was successfully sued for racketeering in Utah for participating in a scheme to place bogus judgments for astronomical amounts against public officials.
The ASD member — Curtis Richmond — sat as an “arbitrator” on a bogus panel set up by a bogus “Indian” tribe and signed a bogus “award” for more than $300,000 against a Family Services worker. Not to be outdone, Richmond claimed the federal judge hearing the Utah case owed him $30 million.
Richmond later claimed the federal judge overseeing the ASD case was guilty of “TREASON.” Dozens of Internet Marketers attempted to intervene in the case, filing pleadings from a kit. The pleadings, including one that claimed the government was guilty of interference with commerce for seizing the proceeds of an alleged crime, were downright bizarre.
Now, Puddy, an Internet Marketer, opines that death is the answer for what he apparently believes should be the entire industry’s problem with The Salty Droid — as though monolithic thinking is the only option and that any person who believed the author could be right about anything should be shouted down and ridiculed.
Adopting an ad hominem approach, Puddy, the marketing trainer and expert, called The Salty Droid fan an “idiot” — apparently for suggesting the author even could frame a point worth pondering over. He then called the Salty Droid author a “disgusting little worm,” opining that the author uses “innuendo and false info to slag off other people.” He did not provide any example or any support material to back up his claim The Salty Droid dispensed innuendo and false info. Puddy concluded his comment with the shotgun remark, later denying he was angry when posting it.
In a later comment, Puddy claimed he knew of two “people who [received] physical threats of violence [because] of the lies on that blog.
“In one case,” Puddy claimed, “the [person’s] family was also included in the threat.”
The Salty Droid (SD) author, who was made aware of Puddy’s remarks when contacted by the PP Blog for comment, said he was not surprised that violence had become part of the discussion.
“I don’t doubt that the scammers also receive threats from the same type of persons that are threatening me,” SD said. “People can react in scary ways when they find out they’ve been the victim of the long con.”
Puddy’s incendiary comment was posted Aug. 17 and escaped deletion on the WF for days. The comment finally disappeared either late Saturday or early Sunday. How and why it disappeared were not explained. Comments left by the PP Blog and other posters who challenged Puddy also disappeared.
The PP Blog, which retained its Warrior Forum membership after giving up a volunteer moderator’s job in July 2008, challenged Puddy on his shotgun comment Saturday. The Blog was not alone in challenging the inflammatory remarks. Indeed, other WF members — including long-standing members — also challenged Puddy. Three WF members thanked the PP Blog in the forum for challenging Puddy’s assertion that The Salty Droid author should have a date with death by shotgun blast.
At least three WF posters asked Puddy to retract his remarks.
“I stand by my comments,” Puddy said, suggesting that WF members and others who disagreed with him are “brain dead.”
By coincidence, “brain dead” was the exact same phrase members of ASD used to describe the federal judge presiding over the Ponzi litigation brought by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008. The word choice did not go over well in the ASD case, either. Nor did Internet Marketers’ explanation that the case against ASD by the Secret Service and federal prosecutors was the work of “Satan” and the equivalent of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
Saturday, indeed, was another a dark day for Internet Marketing, which already has a miserable reputation for scamming, turning a blind eye to scammers, advocating on behalf of scammers and closing ranks when one of its own is challenged by prosecutors or web critics.
Although some Internet Marketers — including members of the Warrior Forum — speak out routinely against scams and shady or illegal marketing practices, they often are derided as jealous “haters,” whiners, malcontents and people who cannot stand “success.”
SD told the PP Blog that he routinely has been subjected to threats.
“That happens to me all the time,” SD said. “They threaten with me with all sorts of horrible atrocities . . . in public and in private. They also talk amongst themselves about the possibility of my death with fondness . . . and regularly . . . this in rooms that contain crazily loyal sycophants/cult followers.”
That the “conversation” at the WF “so quickly deteriorated to that level says pretty much everything you need to know about this ‘industry,’” the SD said.
Many of our readers know that the PP Blog has been subjected to threats, menacing behavior and cyberstalking. Later tonight, we’ll publish an editorial on a highly disturbing incident that occurred last week at the Warrior Forum (WF).
The Salty Droid, a Blog that unapologetically skewers highly questionable Internet Marketing practices and some of the trade’s most visible figures, was made the subject of a death wish Aug. 17 at the WF. The PP Blog strongly condemns the event at the WF, the actions of the Internet Marketer who made the incendiary comment and attempts to chill by force of threat reporters and Bloggers who cover IM-related issues.
Suggesting a critic should be killed with a shotgun to silence his voice is thuggery — plain and simple. It should not be tolerated. Period.
Our editorial will include comments from The Salty Droid author.
“They threaten with me with all sorts of horrible atrocities,” he said about some Internet marketers, observing that the trade has “crazily loyal sycophants/cult followers.”
Yet another HYIP scheme pushed on the TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup forums has been outlined by federal prosecutors — this time in Florida.
The name of the scheme was Alpha Trade Group (ATG), and web records show that the scheme was pitched on TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup beginning on Oct. 7, 2009. Court records, meanwhile, show that ATG already was under investigation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security when the first posts to promote the scheme appeared on the forums.
Just days earlier, on Sept. 25, 2009, a U.S. bank closed an account prosecutors later linked to the scheme, according to court records. Taken together, the court and web records strongly suggest that the ATG investment “opportunity” first was advertised on MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold when the scheme already was in a state of collapse because one of its key money conduits had been blocked.
This screen shot shows the first post about Alpha Trade Group appeared at the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum on Oct. 7, 2009 — days after a U.S. bank already had closed an account linked to the scheme amid fears it was being used to launder money.This screen shot, taken from Paragraph 23 of a federal affidavit in the ATG Ponzi case, shows that a U.S. bank closed an account later linked to the scheme at least 12 days prior to the ATG promo on the MoneyMakerGroup forum. Court records show the scheme already was under investigation by federal authorities before the sales posts were made on the MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold forums.
It is possible that the scheme was in a state of collapse even earlier than September 2009. Court records show that at least one bank account tied to the business was closed on June 18, 2009 — nearly four months prior to the first posts promoting the scheme on MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold.
One MoneyMakerGroup poster — apparently angry that the program was being advertised in public — scolded the poster who started the thread.
“Please take down your posts,” the scolder wrote. “ATG asked all of the members not to advertise. Otherwise your account with the company will be closed. Go to recent e-mails from the company. This is serious. Please comply.”
The post scolding the advertiser appeared on Oct. 29, more than three weeks after the original sales pitch appeared on the forum and more than a month after federal agents began their probe into ATG.
By Feb. 22, 2010, federal prosecutors and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, were in federal court in Orlando filing a forfeiture complaint.
The Feds sought the seizure of $316,418.50 in a bank account linked to the scheme, according to court records. The forfeiture complaint alleged a Forex Ponzi scheme, and prosecutors linked the fraud to ATG, a Florida company known as Online Market Solutions and at least four individuals: Jose Cecilio Martinez Beltran, Francisco Amaury Suero Matos, Yehodiz Padua Valentin and Welinton Bautista Castillo.
Unnamed “others” also were referenced in the complaint.
“Investment opportunities offered by Alpha Trade Group promised participants unusually high monetary returns on investments and for referring other persons to the programs,” prosecutors said, in a statement to victims. “In reality, the investment opportunity was little more than ‘Ponzi’ or ‘Pyramid’ scheme, in which if participants actually received funds, those funds were generated by investments made by other Alpha Trade Group investors.”
A federal judge ordered the money forfeited on July 26, according to court records.
The case was brought by the office of U.S. Attorney A. Brian Albritton of the Middle District of Florida. Albritton’s office is handing a number of highly complex financial-fraud schemes.
Websites such as TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup, ASAMonitor and MyCashForums have promoted one fraud scheme after another. TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup and ASAMonitor are specifically referenced in court documents filed in the Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) fraud scheme.
P2P’s Nicholas Smirnow was charged in May by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and federal prosecutors in Southern District of Illinois with operating a massive HYIP Ponzi scheme that affected investors across the world.
MoneyMakerGroup also is referenced in court filings by the SEC in the alleged Legisi Ponzi scheme.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that the U.S. Secret Service had helped bring about the arrest in France of an alleged international thief in part by monitoring criminal forums.
Vladislav Anatolievich Horohorin, 27, was arrested by French authorities in Nice. Court filings show that the Secret Service used undercover agents and “undercover communications” to develop the case.
Federal records show that ATG purported to be registered in Panama and was using “various corporations and fictitious names registered in Florida” to pull off the scheme.
Among the names used was “Orsa Investment Group LLC,” according to an affidavit filed in the case. The scheme began in April 2009, according to court filings.
An ICE agent said in an affidavit that the Internet and “business opportunity meetings” in Central Florida were used to promote the scheme.
Read the ATG forfeiture complaint, which paints a picture of a commission-based, multilevel-marketing (MLM)Â scheme within a Forex fraud scheme — and other schemes within schemes.
BULLETIN: A citizen of Jamaica has been charged by U.S. prosecutors in Orlando with operating a Forex Ponzi scheme alleged to have gathered more than $200 million from more than 6,000 investors.
David A. Smith had help from unindicted co-conspirators in Florida, prosecutors charged. The office of U.S. Attorney A. Brian Albritton of the Middle District of Florida is handling the prosecution, which seeks the forfeiture of $128 million, a sum of $40,103.90 from a wire transaction that occurred in 2006, a home in Windermere, Fla., precious gemstones, precious metals and jewelry.
The conspiracy was carried out in Seminole County, Fla., and was designed to channel money from the scheme into U.S. banks, prosecutors said.
Residents of Orange County were affected by the scheme, prosecutors said. They noted that the unindicted co-conspirators were affiliated with a Florida company known as JIJ Investments. Prosecutors did not name the unindicted co-conspirators, describing them as “Directors” of JIJ.
In 2005, Smith formed a Jamaican firm known as Overseas Locket International Corp. (OLINT), prosecutors said. In 2006, he started another firm known as OLINT TCI Corp. Ltd. in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Both firms were described as “private investment clubs,” prosecutors said.
Smith also was the majority owner in a Lake Mary, Fla., firm known as I-Trade FX LLC, prosecutors said.
Although investors were told their money would be used for Forex trading, Smith was accused of “failing to invest their funds in Forex trading as he had promised.” He also caused fraudulent account statements to be sent to investors over the Internet, prosecutors said.
Meanwhile, prosecutors accused Smith, who also is in deep trouble in the Caribbean, of transferring “millions of dollars” from investors to his personal accounts “to finance a lavish and expensive life-style” for himself and others.
Smith, prosecutors said, created a “broad infrastructure” to create the appearance OLINT was engaged in legitimate Forex trading when it was not.
He has been charged with wire fraud, money-laundering and conspiracy, and is not expected to fight extradition to the United States.
TIRN operator David Merrick pleaded guilty in May to money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud in the TIRN Ponzi scheme.
In the Evolution Marketing Group/FinanzasForex case, prosecutors said investigators had tied some of the money collected in the alleged scheme to the international narcotics trade. Court filings in the case paint a picture of an incredibly elaborate maze of companies and bank accounts set up to confuse both investors and law enforcement. At least 59 bank accounts, 294 bars of gold and nine luxury vehicles have been seized in the case. One of the cars was a 2008 Lamborghini Murcielago valued at more than $430,000.
Growing up a child of Andy Bowdoin and advancing through adolescence and adulthood was hard because of Bowdoin’s habitual scheming, according to Scott Bowdoin, Andy Bowdoin’s son.
“He uses religion — always,” Scott Bowdoin, 42, said flatly of his 75-year-old father, noting he had not spoken to Andy Bowdoin in about 15 years because the elder Bowdoin had ripped off his own mother, Scott’s late grandmother, in a credit-card scheme.
The elder Bowdoin left his own mother “with nothing,” Scott Bowdoin asserted. “The electricity was about to get cut off, the water was about to get cut off. He is a man with no conscience.”
Scott Bowdoin made the remarks about his father in an interview with the PP Blog this morning. The younger Bowdoin said his father had disgraced the family name — and that it was high time the public in general and AdSurfDaily members in particular knew that Andy Bowdoin did not enjoy the uniform support of his family as the ASD Ponzi case winds its way through the courts.
There was a long-ago scheme involving telephone calling cards, Scott Bowdoin said.
And there was an “air-conditioning scam” in Florida, he added, saying his father traded on faith.
“He’d go around and evangelize,” Scott Bowdoin said. “That was a scam. He did something with cell-phone towers. That was a scam.”
Andy Bowdoin has been married five times, Scott Bowdoin said, adding that Andy Bowdoin’s financial scheming devastated Scott’s grandmother late in her life.
“He drained my grandmother,” Scott said.
Separately, an Andy Bowdoin family member who spoke to the PP Blog on the condition of anonymity said Bowdoin “has been doing this since the 1960s.
“I always knew he was a con man,” the family member said. “I just didn’t know he could do it at this level.”
The “level,” according to federal prosecutors and the U.S. Secret Service, exceeds $80 million and may approach $100 million when a final accounting is done. Records show that agents seized more than $65.8 million from 10 Andy Bowdoin bank accounts, including one that contained more than $31 million and another that contained more than $23 million.
In total, about $80 million was officially listed as forfeited in the case. Andy Bowdoin has appealed the forfeitures, which were ordered by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer. An attempt last year by Bowdoin to force Collyer to withdraw as the presiding judge failed.
Prosecutors claimed in court filings that ASD was a massive international Ponzi scheme masked as an “advertising” business.
“I was a little surprised because I didn’t know he could pull off a scam that big,” Scott Bowdoin said. “But, by God, he did it.”
After the elder Bowdoin scammed his own mother in the 1990s, Scott Bowdoin said, “I told him you are dead to me.” Andy Bowdoin later was implicated in a securities swindle in Alabama. Records show he was making restitution to the Alabama victims even as he was operating ASD in 2008.
“I pity you when you have to face the Lord when you die,” Scott Bowdoin said he told his father after he had fleeced Scott’s grandmother.
In July 2008, years after the Alabama swindle and while ASD was gathering tens of millions of dollars per month, ASD money was used to purchase a Lincoln automobile for nearly $50,000, according to court records. At the time, Bowdoin still owed the Alabama victims about $45,000.
Even more ASD money — more than $1 million — went to acquire real estate, a Honda automobile, an Acura automobile, jet skis, a Cabana boat, marine equipment and haul trailers, according to records. A shell company linked to Andy Bowdoin’s company began to make the purchases in June 2008, less than two weeks after an ASD “rally” in Las Vegas.
While in Las Vegas, Andy Bowdoin urged members to imagine themselves getting large checks from ASD and thanked God for making him a “money magnet,” according to records.
Scott Bowdoin described his father as a “classic con artist.”
“He is a very, very, very smart man,” Scott Bowdoin said. “He knows exactly what he is doing. He uses religion — always.”
And Scott Bowdoin lamented his father’s appeals in the forfeiture case against his assets.
“I don’t understand why this man is not sitting in prison,” Scott Bowdoin said. “He pulled off the ultimate [con] this time.”
Scott said his father left when he was 14 and that father and son had been estranged for years.
Asked what he would do if his father suddenly materialized in the same room with him, Scott said that Andy Bowdoin “won’t come around me.
“I’d probably punch him in the face,” Scott said.
Asked if he had any advice for ASD members, Scott said, “Don’t believe a word he says. He’s a great actor. He is a good bullshitter. He could sell a screen door to a submarine captain.”
Calling his dad a “charmer,” Scott said he was aware that some ASD members continued to cling to hope that his father came as the “Christian” depicted in sales pitches and motivational talks. After the company was raided in August 2008, Bowdoin asked his followers to trust in God, saying the government action against his autosurfing company was the work of “Satan.”
“These people who feel sorry for him thinking he is a good Christian — they have blinders on,” Scott Bowdoin said. “He has hurt more people than just [members of] AdSurfDaily. I can guarantee it.”
Andy Bowdoin wasted his talents chasing schemes, Scott Bowdoin maintained.
“If he had gone the right way, he could have been a Donald Trump,” Scott contended. “[But] he wanted to start at the top, not at the bottom.”
Meanwhile, the other Bowdoin family member interviewed by the PP Blog said that he believed Andy was “a sociopath.”
“I know that whatever he puts his efforts in to is [designed to] con people out of as much money as he can,” the other family member said. “Andy is a sociopath. There aren’t many sociopaths, but he is one.”
Both family members said they were not participants in ASD and learned about the alleged scheme on the Internet.
The family member who spoke on the condition of anonymity explained he had done so in an effort to maintain as much privacy as he could as a sea of allegations swirled around Andy Bowdoin.
“The man is a genius,” he said of Andy Bowdoin, “but he has a criminal mind. Anyone involved with his companies — they’d be sucked into a Ponzi. To me, he is a sociopath; he will drag other people down. People need to be [careful]. A good con has a little bit of truth to it.”
Andy Bowdoin, said the family member, has lived a “sad” life.
“It’s sad because he could have used his talent for good,” the family member said. “I don’t hate the man, but I pity him.”
When he thinks about Andy Bowdoin, the family member said, he thinks about Bowdoin’s father.
“Andy Bowdoin’s father was a good man,” the family member said.
