PatrickPretty.com

Category: Writing And Branding

  • FTC: Spammer/Scammer Who Sent ‘Mind-Boggling’ Number Of Text Messages And Traded On Name Of Government Hit With Judgment, Ban

    Phillip A. Flora of Huntington Beach, Calif., caused cell-phone bills to rise when he sent millions of unsolicited text messages. Flora sent at least 5 million such messages, a number the FTC described as mind-boggling when it sued him in February for violating the CAN-SPAM Act and the FTC Act.

    But spam was only part of the problem, the FTC said. Flora also was hawking purported mortgage-relief and debt-reduction “programs” — and trading on the name of the government and using the symbols of government to do so.

    Spam recipients were instructed to visit a website known as loanmod-gov.net. The site “claimed to provide ‘Official Home Loan Modification and Audit Assistance Information,’ and displayed a photo of an American flag,” the FTC said.

    To dial up the fraud, Flora also sold “leads” generated by his spamming to third parties.

    The FTC and Flora have settled the case. Flora was hit with a judgment of $58,946 and enjoined from breaking the law. The judgment will be satisfied when Flora pays $32,000. The balance will be suspended because of Flora’s inability to pay, but will be reimposed if he lied about his financial affairs, the FTC said.

    Flora agreed to a permanent injunction and the judgment without acknowledging he broke the law, according to the settlement agreement.

  • NEW ADSURFDAILY DISASTER? Andy Bowdoin Says Prosecutors Returned ‘Advertising Expenses’ To Members, Not Proceeds Of A Ponzi Scheme; ‘Government Forced Members To Sign . . . Untrue Statement To Get A Refund,’ ASD Patriarch Claims

    Andy Bowdoin: Is ASD's patriarch now accusing the government of subornation of perjury?

    UPDATED 3:44 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Facing felony charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities and the potential of 125 years in prison, accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin has responded by accusing federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia of forcing members to lie to qualify for compensation from a victims’ fund in the AdSurfDaily case, according to an email ASD members have received.

    Last week, the government released $55 million seized in the ASD case and began to distribute it through Rust Consulting Inc., the remissions claims administrator approved by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Secret Service. Members began to receive payments Friday. About 8,400 ASD members filed approved claims, according to the government.

    In an email to ASD members yesterday in which Bowdoin continued his efforts to solicit $500,000 to pay for his criminal defense, the ASD patriarch suggested  prosecutors had set up the remissions program to dupe them into identifying themselves as crime victims. (Emphasis added.)

    “We need the legal defense funds now more than ever to combat this great injustice where the government forced members to sign the untrue statement to get a refund of their monies,” Bowdoin claimed in the email.

    The remissions money was not the proceeds of a Ponzi scheme, Bowdoin claimed. Rather, the money members received constituted a return of their “advertising expenses.”

    Bowdoin did not explain in the email what he intended to do if the government produced evidence that people were advertising nonexistent businesses on ASD’s closed network. Nor did he explain what he would do if the government produced evidence that the sums sent to ASD for individual advertising purchases bore no connection to the real world: a sole proprietor of an MLM sideline business hawking fruit juice who historically posted $5,000 in gross revenue suddenly spending three times that amount to advertise on ASD, for example.

    Bowdoin himself was accused in 2008 of advertising a failed, dissolved business in his own advertising “rotator” to generate purported “rebates.” In making the assertion, the government effectively was claiming that even a nonexistent business — or perhaps even a blank page or a page that promoted a personal Facebook site — could generate a return on investment if inserted in ASD’s rotator.

    “To secure some of ASD’s rebates himself, Bowdoin promoted a bogus website through ASD,” prosecutors claimed on Aug. 25, 2008. “Bowdoin explained to the Secret Service that he used the ‘advertising’ he secured from ASD to promote GPS Tech, an unsuccessful business endeavor that had already been dissolved.”

    In a footnote within the three-year-old filing, prosecutors claimed “Bowdoin also acknowledged that he modeled ASD after12dailypro, that ASD had no significant income (except maybe a couple thousand dollars) other than what its members paid in (and expected back as rebates). Bowdoin said he was not sure how ASD differed from 12dailypro except, he said, ASD did not guarantee a particular percentage, and its payments were only based on its sales. Bowdoin acknowledged that representations that he had met with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington, DC, and representations that a team of SEC attorneys that he hired had approved of his operation were made up, as was ASD’s representation that Bowdoin had been awarded a Medal of Distinction by President Bush for business acumen.”

    12DailyPro was an autosurf successfully sued by the SEC in 2006 amid allegations it was operating a massive online Ponzi scheme. Prosecutors said later that Bowdoin had a “silent partner” in ASD — and that the silent partner had been Bowdoin’s 12DailyPro sponsor. The government has said all along that ASD falsely traded on Bush’s name to sanitize a fraud that gathered tens of millions of dollars.

    The U.S. Secret Service and prosecutors said in August 2008 that Bowdoin had disguised his securities venture as an advertising company that paid “rebates” of 125 percent. They later said that ASD’s internal computer systems described payouts to members as “ROI” — for “return on investment.”

    Bowdoin, though, claimed yesterday that ASD, “by definition,” was not a Ponzi scheme. He did not addresses the government’s contention about the “ROI” reference, instead insisting that ASD offered “no guarantees” that members would receive payouts. In August 2008, the government claimed that ASD’s Terms of Service included these words:

    “Advertisers will be paid rebates until they receive 125% of their ad purchases.”

    An expert witness hired by ASD acknowledged in 2008 under cross-examination that the words had appeared in ASD’s TOS. Despite the fact that the TOS document has been a matter of public record for more than three years, some ASD members claimed that the government has produced no evidence and that ASD members who agreed that they are victims of a massive financial crime will be “torn apart” on the witness stand by ASD’s lawyers.

    The “torn apart” claim was made on Jan. 17, 2011, two days before the deadline for ASD members to file a remissions claim with Rust in the case. The claim followed previous claims that a “group” of ASD members might sue persons who identified themselves as victims.

    Bowdoin, 76, further claimed in yesterday’s email that, at his upcoming trial, the government will use claims forms signed by members to prove “they were ‘investors’ and therefore victims” of a Ponzi scheme.

    On Jan. 23, 2009 — just 10 days after Bowdoin withdrew his claims to the seized money “with prejudice” and just one day after a federal judge memorialized Bowdoin’s withdrawal and consent to forfeit the seized money — federal prosecutors explained the law to ASD victims and said the compensation program would be governed by these federal regulations. (Emphasis added in next paragraph.)

    “Under Section 9.8(a)(1) and (2) of Title 28 of the Code of Federal Regulations, in a petition for remission or mitigation of forfeiture a non-owner victim must demonstrate that it suffered a pecuniary loss of a specific amount directly caused by the criminal offense(s) underlying the forfeiture, or a related offense, and that the loss is the direct result of the criminal acts,” the government said in explaining remissions regulations.

    A month later — in February 2009 — Bowdoin reentered the case as a pro se litigant and sought to rescind his decision to submit to the forfeiture. That effort failed after months of legal wrangling, and U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer issued a final order of forfeiture for the lion’s share of the seized funds in January 2010.

    Bowdoin appealed that order and a separate forfeiture order issued by Collyer, but lost both cases in the U.S. Court of Appeals.

    In April 2009, in response to Bowdoin’s pro se pleadings, prosecutors revealed that Bowdoin had signed a proffer letter in the case and acknowledged that the government’s material allegations were all true. Bowdoin later revealed in his own court filings that he had met with prosecutors over a period of at least for days in late 2008 and early 2009 and had given information against his interests.

    In yesterday’s email, Bowdoin did not address the proffer issue and his own acknowledgment that he’d provided information against his interest in the hopes of receiving a sentencing reduction. Instead, he asserted that he had “very strong feelings about what the govt. is really doing.

    “[B]ut due to my court case and upcoming trial, I can only pass on a statement made by one of the attorneys on my Legal Defense Team, in response to the govt. media press release issued on Monday, Sept. 26th, with the headline – “$55 MILLION BEING RETURNED TO VICTIMS OF INTERNET FRAUD – Victims Receive Forfeited Ponzi Scheme Proceeds,” Bowdoin continued.

    “I am in full agreement with what my attorney had to say about this govt. press release, which is in ‘quotation marks’ as follows:

    ‘The release is a gross distortion of the facts. There are no ‘victims.’ Not a single person lost a dime until the government shut down the business. These customers bought advertising on the net. They were not investors.’”

    Bowdoin did not say whether the email he sent to members yesterday in which he claimed the government “forced” members “to sign the untrue statement” to qualify for remissions was approved by his attorney.

    Bowdoin fired his original attorneys in 2009, after he had submitted to the forfeiture and agreed to cooperate in the investigation. He later hired replacement attorneys.

    Prior to Bowdoin’s email, an ASD members who identified herself as “Sara” claimed in an email that some ASD members had received amounts like “$50,000 and $60,000” back through the remissions program.

    The email attributed to “Sara” painted a picture of a government conspiracy.

    One apparent ASD member posting on Bowdoin’s Facebook fundraising site claimed last week that he received back $27,690 through the remissions program. The person did not say whether the business he had advertised on ASD had posted revenue that would justify such an advertising purchase, and the government had no comment on the Facebook assertion.

  • EDITORIAL: As Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force Website (StopFraud.gov) Spotlights AdSurfDaily Prosecution, Bizarre Email Circulating Among ASD Members Raises New Conspiracy Theories

    UPDATED 10:31 A.M. EDT (U.S.A).

    ASD case subject of discussion in Washington’s highest power corridors: The Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force was formed by President Obama in November 2009. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, a member of the President’s cabinet and the chief law-enforcement officer of the U.S. government, presides over the Task Force.

    Secret Service is charter member of Task Force. The U.S. Secret Service, whose duties include protecting the President of the United States, the integrity of the economy and the financial infrastructure of the nation, is a member of the Task Force.

    Among the allegations in the ASD case is that members were falsely trading on the name of then-President George W. Bush to sanitize a $110 million Ponzi scheme, that ASD President Andy Bowdoin encouraged the false claims and arranged to spend Ponzi proceeds to retire the $157,000 mortgage on a home in Tallahassee occupied by his wife’s son and the son’s wife, purchase a lakefront home in Florida, purchase an $800,000 building (for cash), purchase jet skis, a Cabana boat, haul trailers and marine equipment — all while owing restitution to victims of an Alabama securities caper in the 1990s and “thousands of dollars” to an ex-wife.

    Some of the purchases occurred within days of Bowdoin’s return from a May 2008 ASD “rally” in Las Vegas at which he defined himself as a Christian “money magnet” and encouraged others to follow him in thanking God and becoming like-minded “money magnets.” At the rally, Bowdoin urged members not to miss the opportunity to provide ASD with money by the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time, according to records.

    “Thank you, God, for destining me to great wealth,” he exhorted the Las Vegas crowd to internalize and recite during the day.

    And he exhorted members to picture themselves wealthy.

    “See a big check coming in from AdSurfDaily,” he urged. “I signed a check the other day, about $22,000. See those checks like that coming for you constantly, just flowing to you.”

    One of Bowdoin’s business partners — Walter Clarence Busby Jr., the operator of the Golden Panda autosurf — was implicated by the SEC in three prime-bank schemes in the 1990s, according to records. Golden Panda, according to Busby, was hatched after he went fishing with Bowdoin on a Georgia lake in April 2008. Just days after the fishing expedition, Bowdoin boarded a plane and flew to Costa Rica, according to court filings.

    Weeks after his return from Costa Rica, Bowdoin headed to Washington, D.C., to rub elbows with politicians, according to court filings.

    Read the full news release on the AdSurfDaily case here. It is published on StopFraud.gov, the Task Force website.

    New conspiracy theory emerges after government compensates ASD victims. As often has been the case, some ASD members appear not to have taken the clue that top Justice Department officials and perhaps the White House itself are being briefed on developments in the ASD case. The ASD case became a national-security case when the U.S. Secret Service discovered in 2008 that Andy Bowdoin, a recidivist securities swindler in his seventies who allegedly had “earned no significant income from legal employment in the twenty years prior to his commencement of ASD’s operation,” suddenly was sitting on tens of millions of dollars and had handed out some of it to political rainmakers.

    Some of the handouts, which came in the form of contributions to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), occurred in early 2007, even as the first Ponzi scheme iteration of ASD was collapsing and the firm’s original members were left holding the bag while Bowdoin explained $1 million had been stolen by “Russian” hackers. Bowdoin did not file a police report about the purported theft because he did not want to draw the attention of law enforcement, according to court filings.

    The NRCC handouts continued in 2008, after Bowdoin had changed the name of his collapsed autosurfing venture from AdSurfDaily to ASD Cash Generator, plumbed it with new cash from a new group of suckers, started a second Ponzi venture known as LaFuenteDinero, arranged with Busby to form a third Ponzi-in-waiting  (Golden Panda) and had flown to Costa Rica with a “North Carolina lawyer” (and co-owner) of LaFuenteDinero, according to court filings and Federal Election Commission records.

    In a bizarre email that began to circulate among ASD members yesterday, the seed was planted that that the government was trying to recruit witnesses by luring them with remissions payments — and that prosecutors might claw back the remissions money if  the member “did not cooperate in testifying against ASD.”

    The date upon which the email was written could not immediately be determined, but the email appears to be the second in a two-part series sent after ASD members began to receive remissions payments late last week.

    The content of the email, which was described as “insider information” and attributed in part to an unamed third party who purportedly overheard a conversation involving a federal prosecutor at an unspecified location, was titled, “Important Warning: ASD/Golden Panda.”

    Among the suggestions in the email was that the government planned to “force” ASD members who received remissions distributions to testify against Bowdoin in his upcoming criminal trial on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. The email was signed “Sara.”

    Here is the email verbatim (italics added):

    “Hi Everyone-

    Since I sent the last email update about ASD/Golden Panda monies being received by members, I received some very important insider information you should know. This is an important warning.

    The information (these are not quotes) I am sharing with you was spoken by and was heard directly from an attorney for the government, in relation to the ASD legal case. I must protect the source but I can assure you it is reliable (it is not Andy). I was told that the person heard the government attorney say they had hired the Rust Company to send a remission form by email and US-mail to ASD and Golden Panda members. The form was to be sent under the pretense that the member would get their money back if they filled out the form to request a remission of their ASD/Golden Panda monies seized by the government on 8/1/08. Those members would then receive their remission monies directly into their bank accounts, but the attorney said that their names would go onto a list and they would then be summoned by the court (at the members own expense) to testify against ASD. They would be forced to testify against ASD even if they did not believe that ASD was illegal, because the form they signed was set up in such a way that the member was essentially stating that ASD victimized them in an illegal business. I’m imagining a typical scenario in court would be: The attorney for the government would read statements from the form and the member’s answers and then say something like, “Is this your signature?” to force the member into saying that the statements were theirs.  And, take note, that it was also mentioned by the attorney that the direct deposit into the member’s account could be reversed at any time if ASD should eventually lose the case or if the member did not cooperate in testifying against ASD. If the money isn’t in the account anymore, it would be money owed back to the government, so moving the money would not help. The addendum that I was advised to suggest to you if you were drawn to fill out the form (sent by the Rust Company on behalf of the government) that stated that you did not make an investment in ASD/Golden Panda, but rather bought advertising, would apparently protect you from the government’s tactics, but I honestly do not know that for sure.

    Many of us had major red flags when we read the form as it was obvious what the government was trying to do. That’s why it was advised that members add the addendum to their form, to protect themselves from the government’s deceptive practices. So pray about how you should proceed. Please don’t ask me. I can’t make this decision for you.

    God’s Blessings,

    Sara

    The email appears to have followed the email below, which divines a construction by which  the government seized ASD money illegally and set up the remissions program only because ASD members outraged at the illegal seizure demanded the return of their funds (verbatim/italics added):

    “Dear ASD & Golden Panda Members-

    I have some news! ASD and Golden Panda Members have recently received a “remission” of the money that was in their ASD and/or Golden Panda accounts, deposited directly into their personal bank accounts by the government; amounts like $50,000 and $60,000 and it was apparently 100% of the money that was owed to them!

    Personally, I am stunned. My experience over the last decade or more has been that the government has never fulfilled their obligation to return money they have seized from programs they deemed illegal. My opinion is that they are scrambling to do this in order to diffuse the outrage ASD members have felt toward the government from their (in my opinion, illegal) seizure of members’ account funds, so that members will have less opposition toward the government during the eventual ASD trial.

    But, for whatever reason the government is doing it, it is irrelevant to those relieved members who are finally receiving justice from this (in my opinion, illegal) seizure.

    If you have not received your remission, you can go to this website to fill out the form there: adsurfdailyremission.com. You can also call the following toll free information line for more information and even talk to a customer service agent in person to ask any questions you might have about this process: 888-398-8214. The following email address has also been provided to communicate about this: info@adsurfremission.com You will notice that, in the recorded message, the government does NOT back down in their assertion that Golden Panda and ASD were illegal ponzi schemes, but that is obviously not stopping them from returning members’ funds.

    Some of you will notice that this form is the one that many of you did not feel inspired to fill out when it was first presented to us. It really puts members in an uncomfortable position of stating that they were victims of ASD/Golden Panda when they don’t believe they were and many felt as if they were also being set up to incriminate themselves.

    At the time, I was advised to suggest to you that, if you felt drawn to fill it out, you include an addendum that stated that you understood that you were purchasing advertising, not making an investment. That continues to be the advice. Now that people are actually receiving their money back, perhaps some of you may feel more motivated to risk filling out the form. Just be careful not to incriminate yourselves. Be alert as you do it. Do not leave any question unanswered or it will be rejected. You must also provide documentation so hopefully you kept good records.

    You will notice on that website (upper left corner) that it says that you must fill it out and submit it by a date in January, 2011. The way around this may be to say that you just found out about it (you didn’t get their letter in the mail or an email from them) and therefore you are only responding to it now. You might want to make that clear to the Customer Service agent at the number above BEFORE you take the time to fill it out, to confirm that they are still accepting them. If not, take a stand for your right to your monetary remission and ask for a supervisor. I am hearing that they are swamped trying to keep up with the communications they are receiving from members, so please be patient.

    Blessings,

    Sara

    Read a January 2011 story about ASD-related emails. Read a November 2010 story. Read another November 2010 story. Read a December 2009 story.

  • DONATION-BUTTON POST: A Word Of Thanks And A Word Of Remembrance As The PP Blog And Its Author Continue To Face Challenge Of Keeping Publication Online

    Dear Readers,

    Another new month is approaching. There are bills to pay — and the usual lack of funds to pay them.

    As I noted in July, I am passing the hat reluctantly — but pass it I must.

    These posts always are the hardest to write. Although the Blog is highly relevant in the lives of its readers, it barely made it last month. Day after day, Ponzi scheme victims read the Blog to see if there is anything new about their cases. Media outlets visit the Blog, as do researchers, attorneys, financial institutions and law-enforcement agencies.

    Scammers don’t like the Blog, of course. Neither does a person who calls himself “Mr. Protector.” The Blog has been on the receiving end of hostility, passive-aggressive posturing and, from time to time, delusional rants. I’m not entirely certain if the level of willful blindness and voluntary obtuseness in the world ever has been higher.

    A Remembrance

    A person sent me an email today and asked me to call. I am acquainted with this person, and I returned the call quickly. The news that came out of the other end of the line was a pure joy to hear. It made me emotional instantly for a couple of reasons: First, the person was thrilled that justice was taking shape in a particular Ponzi scheme and that victims had a reason for hope. Second, the person commented that the Blog has been an important part of her life.

    This is what makes the struggles worthwhile.

    Today’s events reminded me of something that happened in May 2001, more than 10 years ago now. Since about the middle of April of that year, I’d been covering a  flood of inexplicable foreclosures for a newspaper. I met with the editors each morning and wrote about two stories a day for the next six weeks, poring through documents and visiting the homes of lots of people in foreclosure.

    I told their stories. And their stories were supplemented by stories about the impossible mathematics of the situation. Not much seemed to be happening on the law-enforcement front.

    But on that day in late May something did happen: The government filed suit in state court. I obtained a copy of the lawsuit and headed for the office of a man who’d been helping me crunch the numbers — much to the dismay of some of his colleagues in the real-estate trade. They apparently believed it was better to say nothing than to have law enforcement looking under rocks to determine why widows were losing their homes.

    By the time I left the man’s office, tears were welling in his eyes. He’d been trying unsuccessfully to get somebody to do something for two years. Somebody finally did do something on that day in late May of 2001.

    As the summer progressed, more people did more things. The Feds got involved. It was the first forfeiture case I ever wrote about: cash and a Rolls-Royce.

    So, I’d like to thank the reader who contacted me today for her readership and warm thoughts. But most of all I’d  like to thank her for making me remember that day from more than a decade ago, the pure joy that surfaced on the faces of the victims. That day represented the beginnings of justice for hundreds of people and will remain with me forever — as will this one.

    Patrick

  • BULLETIN: Club Asteria Reconfigures E-Magazine, Removes All Content Related To Will Smith; Famed Entertainer’s Likeness Appeared Above ‘JOIN NOW’ Button

    Now you see it, now you don't: Club Asteria's September 2011 recruitment magazine has been reconfigured to remove all content related to actor Will Smith.

    BULLETIN: UPDATED 11:04 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Club Asteria’s September 2011 e-magazine has been reconfigured, wiping out an entire page of content on entertainment icon Will Smith that created the appearance that the actor and rapper had endorsed the company and was serving as a spokesman.

    The reason for the removal and the precise time at which the content was deleted were not immediately clear. On Sept. 9, the PP Blog asked Smith’s publicist whether the actor was aware that Club Asteria was using his image and publishing a purported “interview” with Smith.

    In the e-magazine’s original configuration, a Page 7 headline that used Smith’s name (and ended with an exclamation point), an image of the actor and a link to a video package featuring Smith appeared above Club Asteria’s “JOIN NOW!” button. The Smith-related content now has been replaced with what appears to be a generic article titled “Success Means More Than Just Having Money.”

    The Page 7 replacement article does not reference Smith in any context. Previously, the page featured a headline of “Will Smith Inspires the World With Enthusiasm for Life, Work & People!”

    Also gone from the page was a short deck that consisted solely of these words: “An Interview With Will Smith.” Meanwhile, a single paragraph that once existed below the deck and used the phrase “in this interview and discussion Will shares” also was a casualty of the sudden reconfiguration.

    Gone, too, were an image of Smith and a video link in which Club Asteria appeared to have reframed a YouTube video of Smith-related interview footage and caused the video to play inside the e-magazine.

    Club Asteria, which was widely promoted on the Ponzi boards, had its PayPal account frozen and came under fire by the Italian securities regulator CONSOB earlier this year, uses the publication to recruit affiliates.

    See earlier story.

     

  • Texas Fraudster, 77, Sentenced To Prison For Scamming Seniors In Securities Swindle; John Langford’s Agency Claimed, ‘We Don’t Promise To Make You Rich, But We Guarantee Not To Make You Poor’

    “Irony, thy name is John F. Langford.” — Texas State Securities Board, July 28, 2011

    An Amarillo man whose firm fleeced senior citizens by telling them it couldn’t promise to make them rich — but guaranteed it wouldn’t make them poor — has received what might amount to a life sentence behind bars for bringing destruction to their doors.

    John F. Langford, 77, pleaded guilty in July to securities fraud, selling unregistered securities and dealing in securities without proper registration with the state. The case was prosecuted by the office of Potter County District Attorney Randall Sims, and Langford effectively was sentenced yesterday to remain behind bars until he turns 92 — and then some.

    At least one of his victims was  “incapacitated,” according to the 15-count indictment handed up against Langford in 2009.

    Yesterday Langford received seven concurrent sentences of 15 years for fraud, four concurrent sentences of 10 years for selling unregistered securities and four more concurrent sentences of 10 years for not being a registered securities dealer.

    It was a promissory notes and annuities caper in which seniors and others did not get their money, according to the state.

    “Irony, thy name is John F. Langford,” the Texas State Securities Board said in July, after Langford’s guilty plea. “In radio advertising spots a few years ago, Langford’s insurance agency in Amarillo said, ‘At Langford & Associates, we don’t promise to make you rich, but we guarantee not to make you poor.’”

    The board said the fraud cost investors more than $5 million. Separately, the Amarillo Globe-News (Amarillo.com) reported that courtroom spectators jeered Langford yesterday by saying “Shame on you” and “I hope you rot in hell.”

    Langford turned 77 last month.

  • Image Of Famed Actor And Grammy-Winner Will Smith Appears In Club Asteria House Organ Just Above ‘JOIN NOW’ Button; No Immediate Comment From His Publicist

    "ABOUT US" and "JOIN NOW" buttons — each punctuated with exclamation points — appear below this image of actor Will Smith in Club Asteria's September 2011 house organ. The PP Blog has cropped this screen shot not to show Smith's face, but his face appears in the Club Asteria promo.

    UPDATED 1:47 P.M. EDT (U.S.A. OCT. 29, 2011.)  An image of famed actor and rapper Will Smith appears in Club Asteria’s September house organ, an online glossy used by the firm to recruit affiliates across the world. It was unclear if Smith had knowledge of the promo or had authorized Club Asteria to use his likeness.

    A link to the publication featuring the image of Smith appeared on the TalkGold Ponzi forum yesterday. TalkGold is referenced in federal court filings as a place from which international fraud schemes are promoted.

    Smith’s publicists at the 42West agency in Los Angeles had no immediate comment on the promo when contacted today by the PP Blog, which provided a link to the Club Asteria publication. The entertainer’s image appears on Page 7 of the September gusher.

    Buttons using the words “LEARN MORE!”  “ABOUT US! and “JOIN NOW!” appear a short distance below the image of Smith. But readers who press the buttons do not receive information about Smith. Rather, the buttons forward to Club Asteria’s website. The “JOIN NOW” button, for instance, takes readers to Club Asteria’s registration page.

    The presence of the image of Smith, the wording and design of the page and the positioning of the buttons lead to questions about whether the “Independence Day” and “Men in Black” star had endorsed the purported Club Asteria opportunity or whether Club Asteria was trying to create the impression among readers that he was a spokesman for the company.

    In May, Club Asteria promotions were banned in Italy by the Italian securities regulator CONSOB. The agency has published its orders and findings on Club Asteria affiliate websites in Italy.

    It is common for shady promoters of multilevel-marketing (MLM) “opportunities” to plant the seed in promos that a particular product or service is endorsed by a celebrity when no actual endorsement exists.

    A headline of “Will Smith Inspires the World With Enthusiasm for Life, Work & People!” appears above the image of Smith in the Club Asteria promo.

    A deck below the headline uses these words, “An Interview With Will Smith,” suggesting that Club Asteria itself had a direct connection to him. In a short blurb below the deck, readers are told that the “interview” and “discussion” with Smith will inform them about the wisdom he gained “throughout his journey to success” and that Smith will explain “the importance of extraordinary dreams.”

    A button to a video —  apparently one that appeared on YouTube and is being reframed inside the house organ — appears below the image of Smith. When clicked, the video loads footage of an interview with Smith conducted by 60 Minutes reporter Steve Kroft (NOTE: This paragraph was edited on Oct. 29, 2011, to reflect that Kroft, not Scott Pelley, conducted the 60 Minutes’ interview.) As the video proceeds, it loads footage of Smith being interviewed by broadcaster Charlie Rose. It then works in footage of a Smith interview on NBC’s Today show and a Smith interview on the “Ellen” show. Footage from other shows also are spliced into the video.

    Club Asteria reportedly recruited more than 300,000 members in a worldwide promotional blitz that traded on the name of the World Bank. Hundreds — if not thousands — of promos for the firm claimed Club Asteria was a program that provided a weekly return on investment of between 3 percent and 10 percent. The offers were targeted at the world’s poor, with Club Asteria positioned as a company that could lift them out of poverty.

    Club Asteria was widely promoted on forums associated with Ponzi schemes and the sale of unregistered securities. Members said Club Asteria first slashed weekly payouts to members in the spring and then eliminated them. Club Asteria announced in May that its PayPal account had been frozen, a development it blamed on members.

    In various promos prior to the PayPal freeze, Club Asteria affiliates preemptively denied Club Asteria was operating a Ponzi scheme. Club Asteria managing member Andrea Lucas, whom the World Bank said in March once held a staff position at the bank, last worked for the bank in 1986 — 25 years ago.

    Lucas was described in promos for Club Asteria as a former “Director,” chairman and vice president of the World Bank. Images of Hank Needham, another Club Asteria principal, appeared in 2008 promos for AdSurfDaily.

    In August of that year, the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from the personal bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin, alleging that he was presiding over an international Ponzi scheme.

    Bowdoin was arrested on criminal charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities in December 2010. His trial is pending. Like Club Asteria, ASD also was promoted on Ponzi boards such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup, which is listed in federal court filings as a place from which the alleged Pathway To Prosperity and Legisi Ponzi schemes were promoted.

    ASD, Pathway To Prosperity and Legisi created tens of thousands of victims globally and fraudulently obtained a combined total of about $250 million, according to court filings.

  • PONZI >> FORUM >> CESSPIT >> ALERT >> MOVING: SEC Charges Texas-Based Imperia Invest Promoter With Securities Fraud, Other Offenses; Agency Says Jody Dunn Targeted Deaf Investors, Lied To Them — And Cherry-Picked Their Funds To Pay For His House And Car

    An Imperia Invest IBC promoter continued to make excuses and cloud the issues even after the SEC released printed warnings and warnings in American Sign Language that the purported opportunity was an international scam that stole millions of dollars from deaf investors and others, the agency said today. (See link to videocast below.)

    ALERT >> MOVING: A deaf promoter of an online program that stole millions of dollars from deaf investors knew the purported Imperia Invest IBC opportunity did not come as advertised but nevertheless continued to promote it, siphoning money from fellow deaf investors and using it to make his mortgage, car, insurance and other payments, the SEC said.

    Even after Imperia Invest was exposed as an obvious fraud that advertised a preposterous daily return that projected to an annual rate in the hundreds of percent, promoter Jody Myung Dunn insisted he was owed $163 million from his personal investment of $1,100, the SEC charged.

    Dunn, 43, of Corinth, Texas, has no broker/dealer or securities credentials, and currently is unemployed and drawing  disability benefits, the SEC said. He has been charged with securities fraud, selling unregistered securities and acting unlawfully as a broker or dealer amid charges that he blindly promoted an international scam that consumed more than $7 million and made at least $3.45 million belonging to his personal customers vanish.

    In stunning allegations outlined today, the agency accused Dunn of acting as an Imperia rainmaker who recruited deaf investors into a quagmire. The purported opportunity was widely promoted on the Ponzi boards, including TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

    The SEC sued Imperia in October 2010, saying it was running a Traded Endowment Policies (TEP) scam. Dunn continued to make excuses for the scam even after the SEC released a printed Investor Alert and a videocast warning in American Sign Language, the SEC charged.

    “Dunn was aware that Imperia lost investor money and was not accurately crediting investor accounts, yet he continued to send investor money to Imperia without disclosing to investors what was happening,” said Kenneth D. Israel, director of the SEC’s Salt Lake Regional Office. “To further take advantage of others in the deaf community, Dunn was siphoning off about 10 percent of the money he collected from investors to pay his own bills before sending the rest of money into the Imperia quagmire.”

    Dunn, the SEC charged, formed a Nevada corporation known as Global Wealth Lifepath in May 2009 and established a bank account into which investors’ Imperia funds were deposited and then wired to Imperia. Meanwhile, Dunn started a second company — possibly outside the United States — and named it Dunn World Investments (DWI). A bank account established for DWI also was used as part of the Imperia fraud, the agency charged.

    Despite red flags aplenty such as a purported guaranteed return of 1.2 percent a day, Dunn “blindly” promoted the Imperia scheme — even wiring money to bank accounts in Cyprus and New Zealand that had “no apparent or obvious link to Imperia,” the SEC charged.

    About 7,133 deaf investors entrusted about $3.45 million to Dunn, who accepted their funds directly and scraped about $350,000 off the top, claiming to have sent the balance to Imperia’s offshore bank accounts, the SEC charged.

    Although Dunn claimed “he had met and knew the individuals behind Imperia,” it was a lie, the SEC charged.

    And in an allegation that may cause great discomfort to Ponzi board promoters, Dunn was accused of not conducting “even a minimum amount of due diligence” about Imperia, not confirming that the firm actually traded in TEPs and not confirming whether any required licensing or registration  documentation existed, the SEC charged.

    “Dunn testified that his only due diligence consisted of reading the Imperia website, attempting to verify Imperia’s URL address, and reviewing the information Imperia posted on its own website regarding its website host,” the SEC charged.

    In his testimony, Dunn described Imperia as a “secretive company” that owed him $163 million in back commissions and interest on his investment of $1,100, the SEC charged.

    Despite Imperia’s clandestine nature and Dunn’s inability even to find a verifiable street address for the company, Dunn still decided to plow headlong into the scheme and draft others into doing the same.

    Imperia made off with at least $7 million, the SEC said last year.

    Read the SEC complaint against Dunn.

    View the Investor Alert in American Sign Language.

  • Inc? MPB Today Back In The News, But Is Press Release Dated Yesterday Accurate? MLM ‘Opportunity’ Was Subject Of Bizarre Promos Last Year, Including 1 In Which Obama Was Painted As Nazi And Hillary Clinton Was Cast As Bawling Drunk

     

    Screen shot of a section of a news release for the MPB Today MLM "opportunity" that appeared yesterday on the website of the San Francisco Chronicle. It also appeared on Yahoo News and other sites. The release claims MPB Today is a corporation, but that does not appear to be the case, according to records in Florida.

    A Florida grocery company with an MLM arm is back in the news — but a press release that describes MPB Today as a corporation may not be accurate.

    The press release dated yesterday is titled “MPBtoday Inc. Announces New Openings in Pensacola, Florida.” The release does not describe the purported “new openings,” and records in the state of Florida suggest that MPB Today is not a registered corporation entitled to use the “Inc.” designation.

    Rather, MPB Today — without the “Inc.” designation — appears to be operating as a fictitious arm of a vitamin and supplements company known as Le330 Inc., according to Florida records. Although MPB Today appears at one time to have used the “Inc.” designation, records suggest it did so inappropriately.

    MPB Today is tied to a Pensacola-based grocery company known as Southeastern Delivery. In 2010, check-waving videos and websites for MPB Today appeared in scores of places. Some of the promos showed checks with the MPB Today “Inc.” designation. Others showed the name “Mpb Today” with no “Inc.” designation. Still others showed the name of Southeastern Delivery LLC.

    The press release issued yesterday appears to be an affiliate promo that has been carried by multiple news and information outlets. In addition to using the “Inc.” designation in a bold headline, the release uses this information deck:

    “Brand new company has opened in Pensacola, Florida, offering affiliates and consumers the opportunity to earn unlimited income and eliminate your grocery and gas bill.”

    Here is the opening paragraph of the news release:

    “MPBtoday Inc., a new company out of Florida that has several grocery warehouses in Florida, is now spreading into Alabama and soon nationwide and up into Canada.”

    The release also uses the names of Walmart and Sam’s Club:

    “MPBtoday offers affiliates a chance to earn a very good income,” according to the release. “Plus, every time people sign up, affiliates get paid, and every time six people sign up through their organization, they will receive a $200 gift card where affiliates go to Wal-mart & SamsClub to get groceries & gas.”

    On Sept. 24, 2010 — nearly a year ago — Le330 Inc. canceled the fictitious name of MPB Today Inc., according to Florida records.

    Why is is being used in press releases a year later was not immediately clear.

    Among other places, the press release appeared on SFGate, the home of the San Francisco Chronicle. It also appeared on Yahoo News.

    In 2010, bizarre promotions for MPB Today appeared online, including one in which President Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton were depicted as Nazis. Clinton was further depicted as a bawling drunk who knocked out First Lady Michelle Obama in the Oval Office.

    Michelle Obama was depicted as experiencing an embarrassing gas attack in the Oval Office after having sampled beans at a Sam’s Club Store. Some MPB affiliates claimed the company was affiliated with Walmart and had been endorsed by the U.S. government.

    Some promoters tried to drive business to their downlines by claiming MPB Today had liars in its midst and that it was important to sign up under a nonlying member. The purported opportunity also was promoted on the Ponzi boards and targeted at Food Stamp recipients, Ponzi scheme victims, foreclosure subjects, senior citizens and college students.

    Impoverished MPB Today prospects should sell $200 worth of Food Stamps to a “friend, family member or whoever” to raise cash to join MPB Today, according to an affiliate’s news release last year.

  • UPDATE: Club Asteria Pitchman And TalkGold Promoter ’10BucksUp’ Declares That Filing An AlertPay Dispute To Recover Money From Yet-Another Tanking HYIP Scheme ‘Drastic’ Measure That Will Cause ‘All’ Members To ‘Suffer’

    You can’t make this stuff up . . .

    A Club Asteria pitchman flogging multiple HYIP schemes on the TalkGold Ponzi forum says that late-entry members of a teetering “program” known as “JustBeenPaid” are engaging in hurtful and “drastic measures” if they file disputes with AlertPay.

    Filing a dispute means that “all members will suffer,” according to serial HYIP pitchman “10BucksUp.”

    “10BucksUp” rose to Ponzi-board prominence earlier this year in his shilling for ClubAsteria, a U.S.-based company that traded on the name of the World Bank, had its PayPal account frozen, became a subject of an investigation by Italian regulators and suspended member cashouts.

    Screen shot: From a government evidence exhibit in the Legisi case. Legisi, an HYIP Ponzi scheme promoted on TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup,made members certify they were not government spies. JustBeenPaid, a hybrid HYIP scheme now in an apparent state of collapse, sought to do the same thing, according to its member agreement.

    Undaunted, “10BucksUp” — like other Club Asteria pitchmen — turned his promotional attentions to JustBeenPaid, which appears to feed itself through something known as “JSSTripler.”

    JustBeenPaid claimed it was a “private association.” The “program’s” member agreement called for participants to “affirm that I am not an employee or official of any government agency.”

    Participants also had to certify that they were not “acting on behalf of or collecting information for or on behalf of any government agency.” Meanwhile, they had to certify that “I am not an employee, by contract or otherwise, of any media or research company, and I am not reading any of the JBP pages in order to collect information for someone else.”

    A Ponzi forum uproar began when JustBeenPaid’s website recently began to malfunction. A person who identified himself as a recent registrant threatened on TalkGold today file a dispute with AlertPay.

    “10BucksUp” counseled the JustBeenPaid member to “[p]lease just calm down.”

    “I am pretty sure they are doing their best to make the new system work,” 10BucksUp continued, without describing how he’d arrived at his notion of being “pretty sure” and whether being “pretty sure” constituted legitimate due diligence and proper consumer advice.

    “I just think that the priorities are screwed as the logging in right now even without the member id thing should work within this week,” 10BucksUp opined. “New members like you are becoming restless I know, but try to understand if you do such drastic measures then all members will suffer.”

    Whether the late-entrant enrollee, who also is pitching multiple schemes on Talk Gold, will file a dispute is unclear. What is clear is that AlertPay enabled both Club Asteria and JustBeenPaid and that both “programs” are in a state of decay.

    Among other things, JustBeenPaid announced last month that it was “moving to new offshore servers” and that the transition could take weeks.

    “10BucksUp” did not explain why a dispute to a payment processor by a late entrant in JustBeenPaid who is apt to have joined a global Ponzi scheme constituted a “drastic measure.” Nor did he explain his apparent belief that late-entry registrants had a duty to suffer their Ponzi losses gladly so the early entrants had a chance to continue getting paid.

    In 2010, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority called the HYIP sphere a “bizarre substratum of the Internet.”

    Club Asteria was widely promoted on the Ponzi boards, which led to questions about whether the Virginia-based firm with a purported Hong Kong subsidiary was selling unregistered securities on a global scale and collecting tainted proceeds from other HYIP schemes. The firm’s offer was targeted at the world’s poor.

    A collapsed HYIP Ponzi scheme known as Legisi also was promoted on the Ponzi boards. Like JustBeenPaid, it sought to have registrants certify they were not government spies.

  • SPECIAL REPORT: PROSECUTION: More Than 11,000 Remissions Claims And 150,000 Pages Of Documentation Received In AdSurfDaily Case; Number Of Claims Greatly Exceeds Population Of ASD’s Home Base Of Quincy, Fla.

    Andy Bowdoin

    UPDATED 12:09 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Federal prosecutors effectively advised U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer last month that enough people to fill a small city had filed remissions claims in the AdSurfDaily autosurf Ponzi case.

    Although prosecutors did not reveal a precise number, they said in court filings that more than 11,000 people had filed claims and provided more than 150,000 pages of documentation. ASD was based in Quincy, Fla.

    Remissions is a form of restitution. Prosecutors have said for more than two years that the government intends to compensate ASD victims from funds seized by the U.S. Secret Service in civil-forfeiture actions against ASD-related assets in 2008. Collyer issued civil judgments in the government’s favor totaling about $80 million in 2009 and 2010. Bowdoin was charged criminally with wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities in December 2010.

    ASD created Ponzi victims all over the world, prosecutors have said. The claims number alone greatly exceeds the Gadsden County community of Quincy’s population of roughly 7,000. It also greatly exceeds the population of Perry, the 7,000-inhabitant Florida town in Taylor County Bowdoin once represented as a council member and mayor.

    The claims number would consume nearly 80 percent of combined populations of Perry and Quincy. Looking at the number a different way, had ASD’s membership consisted only of residents of those two communities in separate counties, only one in five inhabitants — 20 percent — would be left untouched by the scheme.  Had the 80 percent of residents who filed claims lost significant sums in ASD, the economies of both cities could have been brought to their knees.

    Among the core dangers of autosurf schemes is that criminals — domestic and international — establish means by which they can tap into bank accounts, payment processing accounts and credit accounts at the local level. When a scheme collapses, it may affect commerce far and wide while also putting banks in multiple communities in possession of tainted cash. By some accounts, large numbers of members of individual churches became ASD members.

    A collapsed autosurf scheme not only may affect individual churches, it may affect the finances of the church itself and the commerce stream in reach of the church and its members. One 2008 promo for ASD and a purported “millionaire” advertising co-op viewed by the PP Blog as part of its reporting encouraged members (verbatim, text coloring added by PP Blog) to:

    Go to your nearest ATM machine
    Use your Debit card to withdraw the necessary cash for your payment OR
    Use your Credit card to make a “cash advance” of the necessary funds for your payment. Note: there is usually a much higher Annual Percentage Rate for a credit card cash advance. Take the cash to your nearest branch of Bank of America and deposit the cash amount in the AdSurfDaily, Inc. account, using the following information:

    The promo appeared on a website linked to Tari Steward, whom Bowdoin has identified as a potential defense witness and the Internet Marketer behind an effort by Bowdoin to raise funds to pay for his criminal defense.

    Screen shot: From a 2008 promo for an ASD millionaire co-op.

    The U.S. government warned in December 2010 that securities schemes such as AdSurfDaily and Imperia Invest IBC that spread virally on the Internet were creating tens of thousands of victims at a time. Imperia, which was smashed by the SEC in October 2010, was targeted at people with hearing impairments and gathered millions of dollars.

    Noobing, an autosurf that became popular after the ASD-related bank-account seizures in 2008 and collapsed in 2009 after the FTC took action against its parent company, also was targeted at the deaf community. Internet-based crimes and scams are creating victims in numbers America’s largest sports stadiums cannot accommodate, according to records.

    ASD gathered at least $110 million in its scheme and may have created 40,000 or more victims, prosecutors have said, asserting in January 2011 that “as far as the Government is aware, there is no available accurate compilation” of all individuals or entities that lost money in the scheme.

    “It appears from the investigation that there may be members who provided funds to ASD but whose information ASD did not enter into its database,” prosecutors said in January.

    Bowdoin, with Steward’s reported assistance, has busied himself since June to raise funds online for his criminal defense from the members he is accused of defrauding. A web entity known as “Andy’s Fundraising Army” has been sending “blast” emails for weeks to a list of ASD members that purportedly contains 77,000 names.

    Bowdoin also announced plans to complement his “Andy’s Army” fundraising efforts with a Facebook site, but no such site appears to have launched on the popular social network. At least three advertised launch dates for the Facebook site were missed.

    Meanwhile, the  “Andy’s Army” bid appears to have fallen flat, with Bowdoin stuck more than 95 percent short of his $500,000 goal after five continuous weeks of formal fundraising. Some ASD members have said they had received multiple fundraising appeals from Bowdoin in a single week.

    Screen shot: From the 2008 "millionaire" co-op promo.