PatrickPretty.com

Category: Alleged Ponzi Schemes

BULLETIN: National Investment-Fraud Sweep Dubbed ‘Operation Broken Trust’ Nets 532 Defendants; AG Holder Says Capers Caused More Than $10 Billion In Losses; ‘Undercover Operations’ Part of Task Force Arsenal

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and members of President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force said this morning that a nationwide sweep known as “Operation Broken Trust” has netted 343 criminal defendants and 189 civil defendants. Among the targets of the sweep were purveyors of Ponzi schemes, affinity fraud, prime bank/high-yield investment scams, foreign exchange…

Dec 6, 2010
AdPayDaily, Surf With ASD Ties, May Be Disintegrating; Member Says Firm Still Encouraging Participants To Send In Money As Surf Urges Troops To Keep The Faith

A surf firm with membership and promoters’ ties to AdSurfDaily may be disintegrating — but is still encouraging participants to send in money, a member said. “[T]he earnings/payouts nearly [stopped] but of course we were ‘encouraged’ to continue making purchases so that our earnings/payouts could continue as before,” the member said of the surf, which…

Dec 6, 2010
Judge At Bail Hearing Orders Bowdoin To Surrender Passport And Not To Intimidate Witnesses, Court Officials; Order Issued Against Backdrop Of Payment Demand By 2 ASD Figures For $29 TRILLION From Federal Judge, Prosecutors, Secret Service Agent

As AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin was explaining to a federal magistrate judge in Florida Wednesday that he’d honestly come by $110 million the government intends to make subject to criminal forfeiture, two other ASD figures were awaiting a ruling by a judge in another venue on whether they could proceed with their bizarre, ASD-connected lawsuit…

Dec 3, 2010
Andy Bowdoin Makes $350,000 Bail After Relative Posts Surety Bond; No Date Set For Formal Arraignment On Fraud Charges In District Of Columbia

AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin appeared before a federal magistrate judge in Florida after his arrest yesterday on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities, the PP Blog has learned. Bail for Bowdoin was set at $350,000. The bail was secured by two properties and a surety bond from a relative. Bowdoin was…

Dec 2, 2010
THE DAY ‘WINK-NOD’ DIED: Use Of ‘Money Magnet’ Line, ‘Rallies,’ ‘Ad Packages’ And ‘Rebates’ Backfires On Bowdoin; Grand Jury Uses Terms Repeatedly In Indictment; Prosecution Has Damning ASD Correspondence

History was made yesterday. “Wink-nod” marketing deceptions — the use of disingenuous language supplemented by willful blindness in the cancerous autosurf and HYIP trades to create plausible deniability — were pronounced dead by a grand jury sitting in the District of Columbia. Members of the insidious trade can thank ASD President Andy Bowdoin for the…

Dec 2, 2010
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: ANDY BOWDOIN INDICTED: AdSurfDaily President Arrested In Florida

BULLETIN: UPDATED 4:40 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin has been arrested by federal agents in Florida after an indictment was unsealed earlier today that charged him with five counts of wire fraud, one count of securities fraud and one count of unlawful sale of unregistered securities. Bowdoin, 76, was arrested in Englewood, Fla.…

Dec 1, 2010
PROMISSORY NOTES SCAM: Feds Bust Another Alleged ‘Wholesale’ Business; Jenifer Devine Faces Wire Fraud Charge In Ponzi Case Brought By Obama Task Force; ‘Wholesale Business Was Wholesale Fraud,’ U.S. Attorney Says

The FBI has arrested Jenifer Devine, saying the Fair Lawn, N.J., woman was operating a promissory notes Ponzi scheme through a purported wholesale business that claimed to sell clothing and electronics. Similar charges were brought earlier this year in New Jersey against Nevin Shapiro. Prosecutors said Shapiro, who has pleaded guilty, was running an $880…

Nov 30, 2010
BULLETIN: Federal Judge Signs Order That Bars Convicted Attorney Gregory Bartko From Representing Defendants In ‘Billionaire Boys Club’ Ponzi Case In Michigan

BULLETIN: John Bravata, the subject of the “Billionaire Boys Club” Ponzi scheme case in Michigan brought by the SEC, will have to go shopping for a new attorney. U.S. District Judge David M. Lawson of the Eastern District of Michigan has barred Atlanta-based attorney Gregory Bartko from representing Bravata, citing Bartko’s conviction earlier this month…

Nov 30, 2010
Leaming Claimed Small Town Targeted Him For ‘DEATH’; Second Woman Blocked By Federal Judge From Filing ‘Notary’ Claim In AdSurfDaily Case Has Leaming Tie; Leaming And ASD Figure Christian Oesch Try To Sue United States

UPDATED 5:52 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) A Washington state man emerging as a figure in the AdSurfDaily forfeiture case claimed a small town targeted him for “DEATH” and threatened to kill him by “HUNTING” him down “in screaming packs and mobs” and using “several armed street gangs” that served as police, according to records. Kenneth Wayne…

Nov 26, 2010
BULLETIN: Appeals Court Upholds Conviction Of James Bunchan, Pyramid Schemer Who Scammed Investors, Plotted Murder Of 12 Witnesses And Identified Federal Prosecutor As Possible Homicide Target

BULLETIN: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has upheld the conviction of James Bunchan in a murder-for-hire plot that grew from a pyramid scheme that gathered $20 million and mostly targeted people of Cambodian descent. Federal prosecutors described the pyramid scheme as “devastating,” saying it relied on smoke and mirrors to fleece…

Nov 25, 2010
BULLETIN: Pyramid Scheme Figure Tied To International Narcotics Traffickers Pleads Guilty In Money-Laundering Conspiracy; David Murcia And Co-Conspirators Set Up ‘Hundreds Of Companies’ To Clean Up Dirty Cash

“The so-called ‘Bernie Madoff of Colombia’ now stands convicted of money-laundering . . .” — U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara BULLETIN: The Colombian mastermind of the D.M.G. Group (DMG) pyramid scheme has pleaded guilty in New York to conspiring to launder drug money in the United States. David Eduardo Helmut Murcia Guzman (David Murcia) was extradited…

Nov 24, 2010