This police car was hit by a hail of gunfire outside of Dallas Police Headquarters this morning. Source: Dallas Police Department, via Twitter.
DEVELOPING STORY: (2nd Update 1:22 p.m. EDT U.S.A.) An attack on Dallas police involving gunfire and bombs occurred early today at about 12:27 a.m. local time. The attack occurred outside Jack Evans Police Headquarters. The occupied building, which was hit by gunfire, is named after a former Dallas mayor and businessman.
A police car outside was shot at and rammed by the suspect vehicle, which appears to be a blue van that may have the protections of armor and bullet-proof glass. One or more pipe bombs in a “bag” were found outside headquarters and exploded when picked up by a robot, police said.
It initially was believed from witness statements that multiple suspects were involved in the attack, but developing information suggests it was a lone gunman/bomber. No police officer has been injured so far, authorities said.
After being shot at, Dallas police shot back, and a chase ensued. The chase, police said, led “south of Dallas to the parking lot of a Jack in the Box at 121 South Interstate 45 Service Road in Hutchins.” Another gun battle occurred there, police said.
At approximately 4:35 a.m., police fired a .50 caliber weapon into the vehicle to disable it, the department said. It is possible the suspect is dead, police said moments ago on Twitter.
There has been no contact with the suspect in over 4 hours – believe it likely that he is deceased #DallasPDShooting
“It is with deep sadness that I learned that Constable Daniel Woodall had been fatally shot in the line of duty, protecting the people of Edmonton. On behalf of all Canadians, Laureen and I offer our deepest condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. We also pray for the full and speedy recovery of Sergeant Jason Harley who was shot in the same incident. It is a very difficult reminder that police officers across our country put their lives on the line every day to serve and protect our communities and keep us safe. Constable Woodall’s service to Edmonton and to Canada will be remembered and honoured. We grieve his loss today with Alberta and the rest of the country.” — Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, June 9, 2015
Constable Daniel Woodall. Source: Edmonton Police Service.
On Monday, 35-year-old Constable Daniel Woodall of the Edmonton Police Service went to the home of Norman Walter Raddatz at 7:50 p.m. to serve a bylaw warrant and new charges of criminal harassment against Raddatz. He was accompanied by other officers, including Southwest Division Patrol Sgt. Jason Harley, 38.
Woodall, a husband and father of two, was a member of the EPS Hate Crimes Unit.
From the National Post in a story dated June 11 (italics added):
Edmonton Police Service spokesman Scott Pattison said Wednesday the criminal harassment file being investigated by Woodall and the hate crimes unit involved anti-Semitic harassment over more than a year.
Grim Coincidences
Woodall has things in common with Officer Wenjian Liu of the New York Police Department. Both men, for example, wanted to protect and to serve through a career in law enforcement. Liu came to the United States from China. Woodall came to Canada from England.
Both men died violently and senselessly: Liu from gunshot wounds that also killed his NYPD partner Officer Rafael Ramos as they sat in their police vehicle in Brooklyn on an otherwise normal Saturday afternoon. Their ambusher/murderer was Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley, who later killed himself.
Woodall died on an otherwise normal Monday night in a hail of gunfire, apparently from a high-powered rifle fired by Raddatz, whose behavior was consistent with some so-called “sovereign citizens.”
The investigation isn’t complete, but some purported “sovereigns” have been alleged to have booby-trapped their homes — perhaps by rigging them with explosive devices as was an alleged case in Ohio last year.
After 53 bullets allegedly were fired in the direction of Woodall, Harley and the other officers, the Raddatz home went up in flames. Woodall suffered a catastrophic gunshot wound, his death ruled a homicide. Harley was struck in the back and wounded. He survived.
If the incident proves to be a murder-suicide, it will be something else Woodall and Liu had in common: two officers killed by men who killed themselves.
Norman Walter Raddatz, the 42-year-old unemployed mechanic who fatally shot a Canadian hate crimes investigator this week, was not only an antigovernment “sovereign citizen,” but also a regular poster of anti-Semitic messages on the Internet.
For the past 18 months, the cop killer was involved in a “lengthy campaign of anti-Semitic hatred and violence” against a Jewish family in Edmonton, Alberta, bombarding them with escalating threats of violence, various media outlets reported today.
Raddatz also was homophobic, using Facebook accounts to call gay people “sodomites” alongside crude jokes about the film “Brokeback Mountain.”
“This is a tragic night for the Edmonton Police Service and our city,” EPS Chief Rod Knecht said in a statement late Monday. “I am extremely saddened to have to announce the death of one of our officers and the serious injury to another officer this evening.”
In Canada, “sovereign citizens” sometimes are known as “freemen on the land.” There have been various strange occurrences in Alberta. (Read about one here. Read about another here.)
In the video below, Chief Knecht says 53 bullet holes were found in the house and garage across the street from the Raddatz residence. They were from the fusillade fired at the officers.
A “Certificate of Completion” for a compliance course Zeek receiver Kenneth D. Bell alleged to be bogus. Source: Federal court filing in 2012.
UPDATED 10:44 A.M. EDT U.S.A. In an amended complaint filed in August 2014, Zeek Rewards’ receiver Kenneth D. Bell sued MLM attorney Kevin Grimes, the Grimes & Reese law firm and a Grimes-related entity known as MLM Compliance VT LLC.
Among other things, Bell alleged that Grimes and MLM Compliance received $843,000 from the Zeek pyramid- and Ponzi scheme through the sale of a “bogus compliance course.”
Bell further alleged that “[t]he final payment from [Zeek operator Rex Venture Group] to Grimes and MLM Compliance was, upon information and belief, a check rushed to and [e]ndorsed by Kevin D. Grimes for $342,510, which posted on August 13, 2012, less than a week prior to ZeekRewards’ shutdown.”
By April 2015, Bell and the defendants had entered settlement talks through mediation, according to court filings. In late May, there was news of a definitive settlement agreement. The sum was not immediately known.
On June 2, the sum became known: $1.175 million. How the figure was arrived at was not immediately clear. The number, however, appears to absorb the entire $843,000 Grimes and MLM Compliance allegedly received through sales of the compliance course alleged to be bogus. It also appears to erase virtually all of the $342,510 Grimes and MLM Compliance allegedly received via a “rushed” check in Zeek’s closing days and hours.
As part of the settlement agreement docketed June 3, Grimes and the other defendants “do not admit to any wrongdoing or liability to the Receiver and the Receiver does not admit that the Defendants should be exonerated from liability for the wrongdoing alleged by the Receiver in the Grimes lawsuit.”
Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen of the Western District of North Carolina has approved the settlement.
The parties specified in the settlement that they wished to enter the agreement “for the purposes of resolving these disputed matters and to avoid the cost and expense of litigation.” All parties will bear their own attorneys’ fees and costs.
Mullen ruled that the settlement was “in the best interest of the Zeek victims.”
Those 80 victims lost a total of $131,063.95, Bell alleged, citing calculations by FTI Consulting Inc., a forensic and litigation firm assisting the receivership.
It is unclear from filings whether MacGregor Fraser also created a small subset of winners among his alleged 96 recruits and whether those people are being sued for the return of Zeek hauls. Bell has sued thousands of alleged winners with U.S. addresses and dozens of individuals with overseas addresses.
In court filings last month, MacGregor Fraser said he joined Zeek in “November 2011″ while he was a “resident of Malaysia” and maintaining “a Post Office Box in New Zealand.”
Eleven of the alleged 80 MacGregor Fraser victims have filed claims and received a distribution from the receivership estate, Bell asserted. He further alleged that MacGregor Fraser hauled $89,722 out of Zeek, but “invested only $828.00 USD.”
Although MacGregor Fraser argued last month that he had “no specific knowledge that ZeekRewards was initiated from the United States” and that he was was “unaware that ZeekRewards originated in North Carolina,” Bell disputed those contentions in court filings yesterday.
From the receiver’s argument that Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen of the Western District of North Carolina should reject MacGregor Fraser’s jurisdiction claims and motion to dismiss (italics added/light editing performed/formatting not precise):
[Zeek operator Rex Venture Group] made known to anyone interested in the ZeekRewards program that the company was based in North Carolina, in the United States of America. At the top of the ZeekRewards homepage, where Defendant Fraser logged in every day, there was a conspicuous “About Us” link. . . . A single click on the “About Us” link disclosed the following:
Zeekler and ZeekRewards are owned by Rex Venture Group LLC, a subsidiary of Lighthouse America, US (NV) company. The company was established on June 24, 1997 and adopted the d/b/a Lighthouse America later that year.
Our headquarters is located in the beautiful town of Lexington, NC, USA on the I- 85 corridor connection [sic] Charlotte and Raleigh . . . .
. . . The “About Us” page further stated:
Office Hours & Location
Home office is located at 803 West Center St., Lexington, NC 27292
Zeekler & ZeekRewards primarily operates online with skype and email support.
Office hours are 9:30AM to 5:00PM EST Monday – Friday . . .
. . . And, there was no question that the company not only was headquartered in but also operated in the USA. The ZeekRewards homepage stated:
Here’s How It Works:
Each night after the close of the business day (east coast USA time) the company tallies its sales and shares up to 50% of its net profits with its qualified affiliates . . .
Moreover, on the “How It Works” section of the ZeekRewards website, there is an image of United States currency at the top of the page . . .
“From the day he signed up with ZeekRewards, Fraser actively directed efforts and attention to ZeekRewards, in North Carolina, every day until the scheme’s collapse in August 2012,” Bell argued. “Starting on November 4, 2011 and continuing through August 16, 2012, when ZeekRewards was shut down, Fraser logged into his ‘back office’ page to report his having met the so-called daily ‘advertising’ requirement. . . . . In addition, on a frequent, often weekly basis, Defendant Fraser logged in to the ZeekRewards site to request a cash-out payment from them scheme. These payments came from ZeekRewards’ account at a bank in North Carolina and all the money Defendant Fraser requested and received from ZeekRewards was stated in US dollars . . .
“. . . Moreover, Defendant Fraser also directed his actions to North Carolina through the ZeekRewards site by frequently changing the allocation of his daily ‘Retail Profit Pool’ (‘RPP’) payouts between the repurchase of VIP bids and ‘available cash.’ . . .
Exhibits submitted by Bell include several screen shots. That MacGregor Fraser used a computer overseas should not be a barrier to holding him accountable to return his winnings, Bell contended.
“Fraser knew or should have known that if he purposefully availed himself of an opportunity to make money in North Carolina (whether or not he cared to find out the location of the scheme) that any claims related to his participation might be brought in a court in North Carolina,” Bell argued. “To hold otherwise would be to allow individuals outside the state to intentionally come to North Carolina electronically and engage in conduct that subjects them to claims but effectively avoid liability because of the distance and cost of pursuing them outside of North Carolina.
“Fraser even falsely claims that there was supposedly no ‘injury’ from his actions – the 80 victims he recruited to the scheme would undoubtedly disagree. Accordingly, it is both fair and just for this Court to exercise jurisdiction over Defendant Fraser based on his intentional, repeated and extensive participation in the ZeekRewards scheme in North Carolina.”
WCM777 claims will be accepted in the not-too-distant future, under a proposal by Krista L. Freitag, the court-appointed receiver in the SEC’s pyramid- and Ponzi-scheme case.
The proposal, which includes time guidelines but no specific date upon which claims will be accepted, was submitted to U.S. District Judge John F. Walter of the Central District of California on June 3. Walter must approve the plan. The dates will become clear once the plan, which is subject to objections and amendments, is approved.
EDITORIAL NOTE: IMPORTANT:There is no way to file claims right now, but it perhaps is best to assemble your documentation now — before the filing date and deadlines are announced. As is typical in HYIP scams, WCM777’s books and records allegedly were a mess. In formulating the plan, Freitag says she also has taken the cross-border nature of the scheme into account, but budgeting also is a concern.
Says the receiver, “The notice, the physical claim form, the claim form website and call center will be presented in six languages – English, Spanish, Mandarin, Portuguese, Taiwanese and Japanese. While this does not cover all languages for known investors (because the cost of translation is significant), these six languages account for nearly 90% of investors who received and opened my October 2014 e-blast notification.”
Up to 96,000 claimants could come forward, according to an estimate by Freitag. She has nominated Epiq Systems — Class Action & Mass Tort Solutions. Inc., to be the claims administrator.
Snippet From The Proposal
We highly recommend you read the receiver’s plan to gain an understanding of the specifics before the claims process begins. The information below is from the plan and speaks to the difficulties scams such as WCM777 present (italics/bolding added):
3. In formulating procedures for the administration of claims, my goal is to find an efficient and cost effective means to verify and validate investor and creditor claims. In a best case scenario, a receiver transmits the receivership entity’s estimated claim amounts to claimants as part of the proof of claim form and simply seeks confirmation of the claim information. In other cases, a receiver requests claim information and matches the information received from claimants with information found in the records of the receivership entities or backup information provided by investors. Here, these approaches are simply not feasible because there are not reliable, detailed records reflecting who invested and how much was invested.
4. Three additional factors impact the claims review process in this case. First, a significant number of investors did not invest directly with the Receivership Entities, but rather invested through other individuals and entities. That is, many investors gave their money to another individual who pooled the money from multiple investors for a lump sum deposit with the Receivership Entities. This makes the process of matching claims to deposits far more complicated as the Receivership Entities’ records do not accurately reflect each individual investor’s payment.
5. Second, there are many thousands of investors from many countries around the world and the records indicate that the majority of these investors speak at a minimum six different languages. This makes the cost of all phases of the claims process, including manually reviewing claims, extremely expensive.
6. Third, there is the issue of “points.” As the Court will recall from the Commission’s filings, WCM, the third parties involved in pooling, and some insiders issued or sold points to investors. These points were not formally ascribed any particular value. However, the records show that an extensive marketplace for points developed that was independent of the WCM enterprise. While there was no value ascribed to such points by the Receivership Entities, investors and others purchased, sold, traded and valued the points as if they could be exchanged for cash or goods. As such, the expectation is that many investors will provide claim information based on misconceptions related to the value of their points as well as their cash investment in the Receivership Entities. This issue may also dramatically impact the estimated number of ‘known’ investors as those who traded or otherwise sold points may nothave ‘registered’ themselves in the company databases.
The SEC has gone to federal court in the Southern District of New York, alleging that a Bulgarian is responsible for the manipulation of Avon’s stock price last month though a false filing in the agency’s EDGAR database.
Avon, an American network-marketing company famous for cosmetics, was only one of the companies targeted, the SEC said.
Bulgaria is a former Soviet bloc country in Southeast Europe. Its capital is Sofia. The incident effectively turned the SEC’s website into a crime scene and led to questions about whether fraudsters were reaching across continents and oceans to carry out their criminal whims in the U.S. marketplace.
Named defendants in the SEC’s action are Nedko Nedev, who allegedly used an address in Sofia; Strategic Capital Partners Muster Ltd.; Strategic Wealth Investments Inc.; PTG Capital Partners LTD; and PST Capital Group LTD.
Each of the companies is described in the SEC complaint as highly dubious, with purported bases of operation in places such as London, the British Virgin Islands and Henderson, Nev.
PST “allegedly made a false EDGAR filing in a 2012 scheme involving the stock of Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory,” the SEC said. “The defendants also are charged with a similar scheme in 2014 involving Tower Group International Ltd., which involved a false press release instead of an EDGAR filing.
“The schemes followed similar patterns where the accounts had substantial holdings in a company that had been losing value and the companies’ stock values substantially increased after a false filing or press release originating from Bulgaria,” the agency said.
From the SEC’s complaint against Nedev and several purported companies.
A federal judge has approved an asset freeze that will protect about $2 million in brokerage accounts, at least one of which has been linked to Nedev, the agency said.
“We used parallel trading analysis to connect the dots and track down these defendants,” said Daniel M. Hawke, chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Market Abuse Unit. “Even when traders attempt to hide behind proxy servers, false filings, and phony foreign entities, we are able to quickly identify patterns and relationships to focus our investigation and identify who is behind the manipulative trading.”
UPDATED 12:32 P.M. EDT U.S.A. A component of the U.S. Department of Justice has informed U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Melvin S. Hoffman that it will object to fee applications filed by two firms assisting Stephen B. Darr, the court-appointed trustee in the TelexFree bankruptcy case in Massachusetts.
In court filings yesterday, the office of U.S. Trustee William K. Harrington did not say precisely why it intended to challenge the billings. The two firms assisting Darr are Mesirow Financial Consulting LLC and Murphy & King, Professional Corporation, a law firm.
Harrington’s office said it will file a formal objection tomorrow with the assent of both Mesirow and M&K. Hoffman approved the request of Harrington’s office to file on June 5, instead of the original deadline of June 3. A hearing is scheduled June 10 to consider the applications and objections to them.
Mesirow is seeking $1,629,430, plus $20,942.56 in expenses incurred from June 5, 2014 through Feb. 28, 2015. M&K is seeking $1,307,858.50, plus $36,116.25 in expenses from June 6, 2014 through March 31, 2015. Both firms have said in court filings that they have assisted Darr in the recovery of more than $17 million so far.
One of the knives: Source: Boston Police Department.
At 5 a.m. yesterday — two hours before he died in the Boston neighborhood of Roslindale — Usaamah Abdullah Rahim called David Wright of the Boston-area community of Everett, according to an FBI affidavit from a member of Boston’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Wright, 25, also is known as Dawud Sharif Wright and Dawud Sharif Abdul Khaliq, the office of U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz of the District of Massachusetts said.
During the 5 a.m. call, according to the FBI affidavit, 26-year-old Rahim told Wright he was going to “go after” the “boys in blue” and that he “planned to randomly kill police officers in Massachusetts either yesterday (June 2) or today (June 3).”
A little more than a year ago, while feting the Boston Red Sox at the White House for winning the 2013 World Series, Obama reminded the audience once again of the valor on display by police during the Marathon bombing. He noted that Officer Richard Donahue of the MBTA Transit Police was shot and nearly killed in a battle with the terrorists and was fighting back from his injuries.
Despite the Marathon attacks against innocent human beings — and despite the fact the police are the thin blue line that protects society — Rahim apparently wanted to kill Boston-area cops. And Wright, according to the FBI affidavit, apparently had so little regard for the lives of police officers that he instructed Rahim to wipe his smartphone and computer to make sure the plan was not detected.
Wright now has been charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice. A day earlier, in Roslindale at 7 a.m. outside a CVS pharmacy, Rahim allegedly approached cops and the FBI “while brandishing his weapon, and he was shot by law enforcement.”
There are reports that Rahim worked at the store as a security guard.
As alleged in the complaint affidavit, Rahim, a 26-year-old private security officer, was planning to engage in a violent attack in the United States, and had purchased three military-style fighting knives and a sharpener in furtherance of this plan. In intercepted calls between Wright and Rahim, the men discussed a knife attack on an individual not named in the complaint, and suggested that the target was to be beheaded and have his/her head placed on his/her chest. According to the complaint, such beheadings are a tactic of some foreign terrorist organizations which use such killings in propaganda videos.
The implication, of course, is that Rahim had been inspired by ISIS and/or the beheadings carried out by the terrorist group. America and other nations have been on guard for such gruesome aggression — and police are the first line of defense.
Before shifting focus to police, Rahim had talked about “beheading” a person in another state.
CNN is reporting tonight that the planned victim was conservative Blogger Pamela Geller.
As CNN reported: “Geller drew national attention last month after an off-duty police officer working security thwarted an attack at her organization’s contest for Prophet Mohammed drawings in Garland, Texas. She’s president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which includes subsidiary programs Stop Islamization of America and Stop Islamization of Nations.”
The probe also extends into Rhode Island, according to the FBI affidavit. That’s allegedly because Rahim met with Wright and an unidentified third person on a beach during “inclement weather.” The date of the meeting was May 31, just days after Rahim had acquired three knives on Amazon.com and a device to sharpen them.
Here’s how the affidavit describes the knives:
An Ontario Spec Plus Marine Raider Bowie fighting knife. “The Marine fighting knife Rahim purchased is 15 inches long when opened, contains a 9.75” blade, and weighs 22.4 ounces.”
A second Marine fighting knife.
An Ontario Knife SP6 Spec Plus Fighting Knife 8325. “The SP6 Spec Plus Fighting Knife Rahim purchased is 13 inches long and has an eight inch blade.”
Shortly after the 7 a.m. 5 a.m. (June 6 edit) conversation yesterday with Wright, according to the affidavit, “Rahim was on a public street in the Boston area, when he was approached by Boston Police Officers and FBI special agents. [Rahim] took out one of the knives he had purchased from Amazon.com when he saw the officers and agents. One of the officers told [Rahim] to drop his weapon and [Rahim] responded, ‘you drop yours.’
“[Rahim] then moved towards the officers while brandishing his weapon, and he was shot by law enforcement.”
Rahim also called Wright on May 26. This from the affidavit (italics added):
Later in the conversation, Wright told Rahim something was “like thinking with your head on your chest.” Both men then burst out laughing. Based upon my training, experience, and involvement in this investigation, I believe this is a reference to the practice of some foreign terrorist organizations to be head targets and place their heads on their chests in propaganda videos.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a fantasy post. The story below is not real. See additional Note at the bottom.
Latest drama in MLM: MLMHelpDesk Blogger Troy Dooly accused of living a quadruple life.
MIRAMAR BEACH, FLA. (PP BLOG, JUNE 1) — A lawyer has made spectacular claims that dental records and eyewitness testimony will prove famed MLMHelpDesk Blogger Troy Dooly is leading “at least” a quadruple life that he has not disclosed to his millions of readers and viewers.
Not only is Troy Dooly Troy Dooly, the lawyer says, he’s also Curt Gowdy, “The Unknown Comic” and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
And there is growing concern, the lawyer says, that Dooly “simply isn’t a gaggle of ‘nice guys.’ Our crack investigative team led by Anthony Pellicano is developing information that he’s also Don Rickles and D.L. Hughley.”
The lawyer, Ginger Mary Ann of Gilligan Grumby Howell Lovey & Hinkley PLLC of Hollywood, told the PP Blog that famed Boston attorney Denny Crane will testify that Dooly is Gowdy, the former voice of the Boston Red Sox and the host of “The American Sportsman.”
Reached for comment by the PP Blog, Crane said, “Denny Crane saw it with Denny Crane’s own two eyes. Denny Crane was watching the radio booth at Fenway Park with binoculars in the fourth inning of the first game of a doubleheader against the Kansas City A’s on July 27, 1965. It was then Denny Crane saw Gowdy morphing from Gowdy into Dooly, and back into Gowdy. Even delightfully drunk on single-malt Scotch whisky as Denny Crane was at the time, Denny Crane would not forget something like that. And fabrication is simply out of the question for Denny Crane.”
Meanwhile, Mary Ann said Chuck Barris, the former host of “The Gong Show,” a former CIA operative and Crane’s onetime client, would testify that Barris, in 1977, playfully lifted up the paper bag that kept the identity of “The Unknown Comic” secret.
Barris, privy to the identity of “The Unknown Comic” and expecting to see TV funnyman Murray Langston, instead was horrified to see Dooly, Mary Ann said.
“Troy Dooly of MLMHelpDesk not only is ‘The Unknown Comic,’ he also is Murray Langston!” Barris told the PP Blog.
Mary Ann insisted the story was true. Crane declined to comment on Barris’s purportedly shocking encounter with Dooly.
“Denny Crane has nothing to say right now about that,” he said. “Do you feel better now that you’ve talked to Denny Crane? I’m thinking that Denny Crane just made your career.”
Although Mary Ann declined to identify the source who would out Dooly as Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA great and Time magazine columnist, the PP Blog has learned it is Col. Nathan Jessup, accused of perjury in a 1992 case that involved the hazing a fellow U.S. Marine.
Jessup, a Jack Nicholson lookalike, now stands accused in Los Angeles County of breaking into Nicholson’s home last year, stealing the Ocsar-winning actor’s courtside tickets to Lakers’ games and scalping them on eBay.
“The cops told me that Jessup told the FBI that Kareem was going up for a sky hook in 1986 and briefly morphed into this fellow Dooly,” Nicholson told the PP Blog. “I’ve seen Kareem take thousands of shots. He never morphed into anybody. Ask anybody in Hollywood: They’ll tell you Nathan Jessup is a kook who’s made a career out of skimming my identity. He used to do supermarket openings as me, for [heaven’s] sake. My agent found out, and kicked his [freaking] [butt] the whole way back to San Quentin.”
Dooly’s Response
Dooly told the PP Blog he was “too busy to talk at the moment,” and referred questions to Kevin Thompson, his attorney.
“No disrespect, Patrick. I’m up here in Washington, interviewing job candidates outside the revolving floor,” Dooly said, accidentally saying “floor” when he meant “door.”
“Most of us have noticed the revolving floor seems to be working for Herbalife during the FTC probe,” he observed, repeating the same mistake. “I mean, they have a heap of former politicians, aides and agency officials on the payroll now. More and more of us are doing the same thing. We’re calling it, ‘Getting Herbalife Strong.’”
Thompson, of Thompson Burton PLLC of Nashville, said the claims against his client are “bizarre and absurd.”
For starters, Thompson said, “Mr. Gowdy, a great American broadcaster and sportsman, unfortunately died in 2006. Wouldn’t this mean that Troy would have to be dead? And how could Troy be Curt Gowdy, who was born in 1919? Mr Gowdy was 86 when he passed away nine years ago. Troy is more than three decades younger.”
As for the claim Dooly is “The Unknown Comic,” Thompson said that wasn’t true, either.
“Anybody who knows Troy knows that he’s only unintentionally funny,” Thompson said. “Don’t get me wrong: Troy is funny as all get out, but it’s always unintentional. Malapropisms and such. Murray Langston, the real ‘Unknown Comic,’ had to be intentionally funny. Troy can’t be funny on cue. Plus, there’s the age thing again, like with Mr. Gowdy. Mr. Langston is much older than my client.”
No matter the source, the claim that Dooly is Abdul-Jabbar is “clearly a mushroom-induced hallucination,” Thompson said.
“Let me mention the age thing again,” Thompson weighed in. “Mr. Abdul-Jabbar is 68. Troy won’t be that for nearly another two decades.
“But there’s something even more obvious,” Thompson continued. “Mr. Abdul-Jabbar is 7 feet 2 inches tall; Troy is maybe 5-feet something. If Troy ever dunked, it was with a Nerf ball on a Nerf backboard with a low rim in the backyard or at the beach. And let me assure you Troy can’t go to his right on any basketball court, regulation or Nerf. A sky hook is simply out of the question for Troy.”
The claim that Dooly might be Don Rickles and D.L. Hughley was “exceptionally irritating” to his client, Thompson said.
“Troy Dooly, a former Marine, is all about the First Amendment,” Thompson said. “Troy is well aware that ‘insult comics’ draw a crowd by saying things that make the audience feel ill-at-ease. In fact, my client was at a convention in Las Vegas and went to see Rickles perform. Rickles picked Troy out of the crowd and told the crowd it was nice to see “Governor Cueball” in the room.
“Can I get you some wax to put a shine on that thing?” Rickles asked Troy.
Dooly, his lawyer said, suspects that any “dental records” that surface and purport to show that Dooly, Gowdy, “The Unknown Comic” and Abdul-Jabbar are one and the same will be the “result of a series of burglaries, with the ‘evidence’ further doctored by Photoshop.”
Thompson confessed some frustration with the state of MLM and the Internet.
“You can bet that some MLMers will ignore all of the irrefutable evidence in favor of Troy and cling to some bizarre conspiracy theory,” Thompson ventured. “My guess is that they’ll say that Troy never has been seen standing side by side in the same room with any of the other three men. And they’ll deduce from that Troy necessarily must be the three other men in addition to himself and therefore is living a quadruple life.
“Doesn’t anybody read Wikipedia any more?” he asked. “Does anybody do any cursory fact-checking before they start spreading around this garbage?”
NOTE: This post originally was published on May 11 at 7:51 p.m. It was moved back into this slot on May 22, May 23, May 26 and May 30.
Dear Readers,
Our editorial well now stands at 2,667 posts since December 2008. Today alone, readers from more than 35 countries have visited the PP Blog.
There are four “penny-a-post” subscription options in the pull-down menu below. We’re asking readers who believe in what this Blog is doing to take out a one-year subscription for either $25, $50, $75 or $100.
The $25 fee constitutes a penny a post for our current editorial well of 2,500+ articles. The pull-down menu is in case you decide you’d like personally to value the editorial well at 2 cents a post ($50), 3 cents a post ($75) or 4 cents a post ($100).
It is my hope that newer readers who can afford to subscribe will do so at either the $25 or $50 levels. The higher options may be best suited for readers and researchers who’ve been with us a long time and perhaps have read hundreds or even thousands of stories.
Because the Blog’s well is so deep, we’re able to provide readers additional context. You’ll often find this reflected in “quick notes” in the Comments threads below stories. The notes point readers to stories on the same topic or to stories that have a similar theme.
The Blog, of course, also points readers to other sources of information.
There is no paywall at the PP Blog. By purchasing a subscription that automatically renews in one year, you’ll be helping me personally. And, as I’ve previously, you’ll be helping a Blog that publishes hundreds of stories a year and keeps matters important to readers a bookmark away remain free for other readers.
This “penny-a-post” idea has helped me scotch the very real concern about affecting readership by offering subscriptions. The readers who subscribe will be helping keep the Blog free for those who cannot afford to subscribe and for those who simply choose not to.
Our readers of goodwill recognize the PP Blog as a persistent effort to contain harm and to educate the public about matters that destroy pocketbooks and families and, in some cases, affect national security.
My sincere thank you for your continued interest in the PP Blog.
UPDATED 10:25 P.M. EDT U.S.A. The trial for accused Ponzi schemer Paul R. Burks of Zeek Rewards now has been set for May 2016.
Burks, 67 at the time of his indictment in October 2014 on charges of wire and mail fraud, wire- and mail-fraud conspiracy and tax-fraud conspiracy, argued successfully that he needed more time to prepare.
Prosecutors in the Western District of North Carolina hoped for a November 2015 trial date. Burks asked the court to delay trial until September 2016.
U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. somewhat split the difference. In an order dated yesterday, Cogburn set the trial for the May 2016 calendar term, advising attorneys for both sides to be prepared to pick a jury.
“The parties are advised that absent some unforeseen contingency, this action will be the first matter on for trial during the May 2016 term and will be tried to completion during that term, which may be extended,” Cogburn wrote. “The parties should be prepared to pick a jury on the second day of that term.”
Cogburn noted that Burks has waived his right to a speedy trial and that discovery in the case is voluminous.
In the earliest days after the SEC’s civil action against Burks and Zeek in August 2012, some Zeekers planted the bizarre story that Burks had hired country-bumpkin lawyers who railroaded him.
In the order yesterday, Cogburn said Burks’ counsel has been “excellent.”
“In addition to the reasons given for continuance under the Speedy Trial Act, the court has conducted a separate inquiry with defendant concerning his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial, informing him that the extension he seeks exceeds a year and that, if he so requested, the court would be able to try this case sooner,” Cogburn wrote.
“After such inquiry, the court is satisfied that the defendant understands his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial and has knowing sought an extension exceeding a year so that he can better prepare for trial or another resolution of this matter,” the judge continued. “Further, the court determines that such request: (1) is informed as he has been advised by excellent counsel; and (2) is a reasoned decision based on the volume of discovery, the seriousness of the charges, and the time needed to digest such material and consider legal options.”
