A man using the anonymous identity of “Mr. Protector,” a hotmail address and an IP in the Netherlands has scolded the PP Blog for a story that described “New Utopia” as a nonexistent nation in the Caribbean.
New Utopia is the fanciful “tax haven” allegedly dreamed up by Lazarus R. Long, an American who declared himself a “prince” and hatched a plan to form a “new country” that would “rise from the Caribbean on giant concrete platforms built on an underwater land mass,” according to the SEC.
Using the phrase “selfappointedidiotyouare” [Self Appointed Idiot You Are] apparently to chide the PP Blog for giving less than favorable coverage to the nonexistent nation, the man sent an email to the Blog this morning that both invited and uninvited the Blog to view New Utopia’s “Palace” on a date uncertain.
“How about we print your words out about New Utopia in size 12 font and then, when New Utopia Construction begins, we can invite you there in front of the Palace and watch you eat the words and the paper they are written on?” the man wrote.
In the very next paragraph, however, he uninvited the Blog.
“[H]ow will we know to not allow you to visit The Principality of New Utopia?” the man inquired. “We will find a way of that be assured.”
Although the context in which the man used the word “Protector” was unclear, it is a word that has been used by members of certain so-called “private associations” that challenge the authority of governments to regulate commerce and the securities industry.
The AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, for example, identified a member as a “Protector.” AVG has been identified in a racketeering lawsuit as an offshoot of the AdSurfDaily (ASD) autosurf. The lawsuit was filed by members of ASD.
ASD was accused separately by the U.S. Secret Service of operating a $110 million Ponzi scheme and of committing wire fraud, securities fraud and engaging in the sale of unregistered securities.
On Feb. 18, the PP Blog reported that federal agents — working with law-enforcement partners worldwide — had broken up a fraud ring operating in part from Florida, Costa Rica and elsewhere.
Among the defendants charged both criminally and civilly was Jonathan R. Curshen. Curshen has been described as the one-time “honorary counsel” of St. Kitts-Nevis to Costa Rica and a purported “consulate” to New Utopia.
New Utopia has its own website from which it sells an “International Drivers license” issued by New Utopia for $140.
According to court records, the nonexistent principality is said to be located undersea “approximately 115 miles west of the Cayman Islands.” It would rise out of the water only after concrete stilts were erected and an above-sea base were anchored to a submerged land base.
New Utopia, indeed, will rise, according to “Mr. Protector,” the author of the email sent to the PP Blog this morning.
“Too many of us have worked too hard for too many years to just abandon this project,” he wrote.
“Your ‘reporting’ does not help,” he complained.
Long, also known as Howard Turney, was accused by the SEC in 1999 of promoting a fraudulent bond offering over the Internet to fund his upstart country. He settled with the agency in 2000 and was assessed a penalty of $24,000, but the penalty was waived.
“Prince” Long has used the New Utopia website to complain bitterly about anonymous critics on the Internet. Whether “Mr. Protector” risked a royal scolding from the “Prince” for using an anonymous identity to contact the PP Blog was not immediately clear.
We highly recommend an even-handed series the Salt Lake Tribune published on the subject of multilevel marketing in Utah. (Link appears at bottom of post.) The series includes comments from MLM enthusiasts, the Direct Selling Association, attorneys for well-known MLM companies, MLM critics and the FTC.
Meanwhile, the series shows that MLM has some political clout, and points out that Utah has more MLM firms per capita than any other place in the United States. It also publishes data supplied by a number of companies.
The series is accessible through a “State of the Debate” Blog entry by George Pyle, a longtime journalist who was a finalist in 1998 for the Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Writing. Don’t miss the cartoon that accompanies Pyle’s presentation of the links to the stories. The cartoon pokes fun at the ready supply of over-the-top MLM sales pitches.
Pyle’s Blog entry does not hold forth on the subject of MLM; it simply introduces the series. Readers can draw their own conclusions after clicking on the links and reading the stories
The series consists of articles by Tribune reporters Steven Oberbeck, Matt Canham, Tom Harvey and Kirsten Stewart.
MLM Fans (Again) Demonstrate Lack Of PR Savvy
As often is the case when media outlets tackle the subject of MLM, the post-publication opinions of the Tribune’s readers were strongly divided. MLM perhaps always will be a “scam” to one side in the long-running debate — and a marvelous thing to the other. One of the best things about the series is the comments submitted by readers. The PP Blog believes the comments submitted by MLM enthusiasts are the most instructive.
Although the PP Blog publishes relatively few stories about MLM, the ones it has published have been met with organized (and bizarre) resistance. After publishing a series of stories on the MPB Today “grocery” MLM last summer and fall, supporters of the firm arrived on the Blog to call MPB Today’s critics “roaches,” “IDIOTS,” “clowns,” “terrible” people, “misleading” people, people who have led a “sheltered life,” people who have been “chained up in a basement,” people who have “chips” on their shoulders, spewers of “hot air,” “naysayers,” “complainers,” “trouble maker[s]” and “crybabies.” (See this editorial.)
They were doing this on behalf of a business that had any number of reps who apparently licensed themselves to film commercials inside Walmart stores and to use Walmart’s intellectual property to drive dollars to MPB Today. At least two reps declared it best to do business with them because other MPB Today affiliates were lying scammers. Meanwhile, another MPB rep sought to drive business to the firm by creating a script that depicted President Obama and Michelle Obama as welfare recipients aspiring to eat dog food. The President and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were cast as Nazis, with Obama subordinate to Clinton, who also was cast as a drunk.
One thing that continues to drive criticism of MLM is the bizarre behavior of some of its supporters. This behavior can be described fairly as cult-like, Stepfordian, incongruous, supremely awkward and monumentally ham-handed. It is utterly predictable, and the lack of PR savvy contributes to the industry’s poor reputation.
In response to Oberbeck’s story, which referenced the disclosure statements of a number of well-known companies and reported that “nearly all” distributors “will fail,” one reader surmised in a Comments thread that the Tribune reporter was “broke” and driven by “negativity.” It was a familiar refrain.
Naturally the comment precluded the possibility that the reporter had any pure motives such as enlightening the Tribune’s readership about some of the realities of MLM. How the industry ever could hope to elevate the debate by attacking the messenger — in this case, Oberbeck — is left to the imagination.
What happened at the Tribune, however, is hardly unique.
After the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi MLM case in 2008, some ASD affiliates advanced theories that the agency’s work was the work of “Satan” and that a Florida television station should be charged with Deceptive Trade Practices for carrying news unflattering to the company. They later complained that reporters seemed disinclined to put much stock in their point of view.
Prosecutors said ASD created as many as 40,000 victims while gathering at least $110 million in a classic Ponzi scheme put together by Andy Bowdoin, a recidivist felon. Rather than distancing themselves from Bowdoin, some ASD members reportedly sent him brownies and delicious baked goods. Others signed a petition calling for the prosecutors to be investigated. Still others advanced a theory that the U.S. Secret Service was guilty of interference with commerce. The key prong of the theory was that all commerce is legal as long as both parties to a contract agree it is legal, a position that would legalize (and legitimize) Ponzi schemes, slavery, human trafficking and narcotics trafficking, among other crimes.
Len Clements Lectures Tribune Reporter
Well-known MLM aficionado Len Clements, who advertises his IQ of 155, apparently believed that Oberbeck’s story in the Tribune deserved a response in the form of a five-page “open Response Letter.”
Clements noted in his “open Response Letter” to Oberbeck that he assumed the reporter had been “duped” by MLM critics Robert FitzPatrick and Jon Taylor — and Tracy Coenen before them.
In his “open Response Letter,” Clements accused Fitzpatrick, Taylor and Coenen, a forensic accountant, of being “anti-MLM antagonists” who were “slathering” the profession with misplaced criticism.
“Slathering” is a good and powerful word. It doesn’t describe the efforts of FitzPatrick, Taylor and Coenen to educate the public about the perils of endless-chain recruiting schemes, but it’s a good word nonetheless. We’re glad that Clements, who advertises his IQ of 155, used it; it gives us a chance to use the word “unctuous.”
Indeed, we view Clements’ “open Response Letter” as “unctuous.” It begins with a doozy of a misplaced modifier, but that’s only worth a brief mention — and only because Clements advertises his IQ of 155. Plenty of people with high IQs don’t have command of grammar, which likely bores them to tears.
The reason we’re using the word “unctuous” to describe Clements’ “open Response Letter” is that it practically drips with stinking, vomitous verbal slime. It’s the sort of passive-aggressive letter in which the insult is deeply embedded in the vomit of the opening lines, with the vomit theoretically neutralized later with softer words that are supposed to demonstrate Clements’ sincere desire to be helpful.
Any “professional journalist” should be interested in “accurately, fairly and responsibly” presenting the topics they write about, Clements unctuously points out at the top of the letter, setting himself up as a journalism cop. After implying that Oberbeck isn’t a pro and hasn’t done his homework, Clements goes on to trash the story and the MLM-unfriendly sources used in the story.
The roadmap to professional reporting about MLM as provided by Clements in his “open Response Letter” includes at least 10 footnotes. It was submitted to the newspaper in the form of a link to a PDF that contains multiple link’s to Clements’ website. The document is unctuously titled “OberbeckResponse” and asserts that Oberbeck’s reporting “seem[s] to betray any objective research and analysis of the subject.”
Clements, who started out by lecturing Oberbeck on what constitutes professional journalism, eventually positions himself as the sincere cure for what purportedly had dragged down the quality of the reporter’s work.
“Should you ever need assistance in researching any topic related to the field of multilevel marketing I sincerely hope you will contact me,” Clements un-vomits to Oberbeck at the conclusion of the “open Response Letter,” after earlier coming out of the gate with embedded slime, a lecture on professionalism and an attack on sources used by the reporter as “remarkably ignorant” people and the purveyors of “flimflam.”
At least Clements didn’t summon his advertised IQ of 155 to call them “roaches” or to declare that Oberbeck was “broke.” He merely relied on his unctuousness. In doing so, he demonstrated once again that MLM often is its own worst enemy.
A five-page, de facto letter to the editor — one filled with slime reimagined as a sincere effort to be helpful and 10 footnotes? This is supposed to beneficial to the trade?
Little wonder that MLM finds itself the topic of constant criticism.
Jonathan R. Curshen, one of six people charged criminally by federal prosecutors and sued civilly by the SEC last week in Southern Florida in an alleged penny-stock, securities fraud, wire-fraud and money-laundering caper, once was a purported “consulate” to the bizarre, nonexistent nation of “New Utopia,” according to web records.
New Utopia was a fanciful “tax haven” allegedly dreamed up by Lazarus R. Long, an American who declared himself a “prince” and hatched a plan to form a “new country” that would “rise from the Caribbean on giant concrete platforms built on an underwater land mass,” according to filings in a 1999 case brought by the SEC.
Long also is known as Howard Turney. He invited investors “to become charter citizens of the new country,” the SEC alleged 12 years ago.
New Utopia continues to have a website — one from which a purported “Prince Lazarus” holds forth. Last month, according to the site, the prince ventured that 2011 would be a big year for the nonexistent state, which oddly claims that it is accepting preorders for a coin “Currently out of production.”
The coin is positioned as a limited “commemorative” worth 250 U.S. dollars. The site also solicits citizens to purchase the purported national flag of New Utopia for $80 and an “International Drivers license” issued by New Utopia for $140.
One of the problems with the flag and New Utopia driver’s license is that the country itself does not exist and holds no dry land even if it did exist. Indeed, according to court records, the nonexistent principality is said to be located undersea “approximately 115 miles west of the Cayman Islands” and would rise out of the water only after concrete stilts were erected and an above-sea base were anchored to a submerged land base.
Despite the bizarre incongruities, including the apparent assertion that New Utopia driver’s licenses are valid in all jurisdictions worldwide, citizens may use PayPal to purchase the items from New Utopia, according to the website. Other New Utopia trinkets, including a purported “ornament” bearing the likeness of Prince Lazarus, also are available from the purported nation’s online store.
“I would like on this most auspicious New Years day to thank our citizens and other well wishers for their support throughout our years of struggle,” Prince Lazarus reportedly noted. “It has been a hard and challenging effort, which will be soon justified. I am not at liberty to disclose details, but this is the year when the building of the infrastructure of our great City/State will begin.”
See earlier story on Curshen. See FBI new release on the charges filed against Curshen, Michael Simon Krome, 49, a securities attorney from Long Island, New York.; Ronald Salazar Morales, aka “Ronny Salazar,” 39, of Costa Rica; Robert Lloyd Weidenbaum, 44, of Miami; and Eric Ariav Weinbaum, 37, and Izhack Zigdon, 47, of Israel.
The TalkGold Ponzi scheme and criminals’ forum has deleted a “sticky” thread reportedly paid for by InstaForex, a dubious company named a defendant in a registration sweep conducted by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission last month.
The PP Blog reported two days ago that InstaForex was using TalkGold to promote a scheme by which participants who sent InstaForex at least 1,000 U.S. dollars could qualify to win a Lotus Elise valued at more than $50,000. Although sweepstakes that require a purchase are illegal in the United States, InstaForex bizarrely instructed investors that they could improve their odds of winning the car by opening up to 100 accounts each.
Some of the InstaForex promoters used photographs of attractive women to promote the scheme. It was unclear whether the photos were actual pictures of the promoters or whether they were stage props designed to lure skeptical investors.
Why any investor from any country would open a single account — let alone 100 accounts — with a firm that advertises on TalkGold was left to the imagination. TalkGold and similar sites such as MoneyMakerGroup are referenced in multiple filings in U.S. federal courts as places from which international Ponzi and fraud schemes are pushed.
A separate ad for which InstaForex apparently paid TalkGold $95 remains operational on the forum. The ad shows an image of a red Lotus and claims the company is “THE BEST BROKER IN ASIA.” Directly below the ad is an ad for a company that claims to provide a return of 525 percent “After 1 Minute” and 9,860 percent “After 6 Hours.”
Just four of the thousands of schemes pushed on TalkGold — Imperia Invest IBC, EMG/Finanzas Forex, Legisi and Pathway to Prosperity — created tens of thousands of victims globally while gathering hundreds of millions of dollars, according to court records.
The precise time at which TalkGold deleted the paid “sticky” thread on InstaForex and the precise reason why the thread of at least 109 pages was deleted were unclear. Records suggest the thread was deleted in the past 24 hours. The once-massive thread now returns a “No Thread specified” error.
Among other things, InstaForex advertised that it accepted payments through Perfect Money, a murky money-services business purportedly operating from Panama. Imperia Invest, which the SEC accused in October of stealing millions of dollars from thousands of participants, also used Perfect Money, according to court filings.
Included among the Imperia Invest victims were thousands of Americans with hearing impairments, according to the SEC.
Meanwhile, the name of Roger Alberto Santamaria del Cid — the purported contact person of Perfect Money — appears in federal court filings in the EMG/Finanzas Forex forfeiture case.
A Florida-based task force that specializes in detecting and uncovering massive fraud schemes brought the EMG/Finanzas Forex case last year. Del Cid, Perfect Money’s purported contact person in Panama, is listed as EMG’s “Secretary” in court filings that allege that tens of millions of dollars seized in the probe were tied to the international narcotics trade.
EMG/Finanzas Forex was so corrupt that some participants were told the only way they could get their money out was to recruit new investors, have the new investors pay them directly — and use the proceeds from the new investors to recover their initial outlays, according to court filings.
The very first EMG post on the now-shuttered ASA Monitor Ponzi and criminals’ forum referenced yet-another widely promoted Ponzi scheme: 12DailyPro. The 12DailyPro case, brought by the SEC in February 2006, also is cited in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi prosecution brought by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008. ASD also was promoted on TalkGold.
Writing on ASA Monitor, an EMG/Finanzas Forex aficionado claimed to have learned the ropes from 12DailyPro.
“I have been in internet business for 3 years now and in autosurf industry from 12dailypro,” the ASA poster began. He (or she) then proceeded to tell readers about how they could earn commissions by recruiting for EMG/Finanzas, which the Feds later described as an international menace with tentacles in Central America, South America and Europe.
Court filings in the EMG/Finanzas case paint a picture of an incredibly elaborate maze of companies and bank accounts set up to confuse both investors and law enforcement. At least 59 bank accounts, 294 bars of gold and nine luxury vehicles were seized.
The EMG allegations were explosive because they showcased the undeniable fact that people who promote programs such as HYIPs and autosurfs because such programs may pay “commissions” to recruit new members may be operating as fronts or conduits for international drug dealers and money-launderers.
UPDATED 12:21 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) In a case that outlines allegations of intimidation reminiscent of efforts undertaken by some members of AdSurfDaily to frighten investors, a Utah federal judge has frozen the assets of a Texas man and entered an order prohibiting the destruction of books and records.
Robert J. Andres and an unincorporated firm known as Winsome Investment Trust of Houston have been accused of conducting a $50.2 million commodity-pool solicitation fraud and Ponzi scheme. CFTC originally filed the case under seal last week, alleging that the scheme affected at least 243 investors.
“Recently, Andres personally contacted participants asking them to verify their investments purportedly as part of the process to return funds to participants,” the CFTC alleged. “In a blatant effort to intimidate, Andres is demanding that in order to obtain repayment, participants must acknowledge that they have not taken or assisted others in taking legal action against Winsome. If any participants indicate they have, the return of their funds would be ‘handled by an Attorney.’”
Some members of AdSurfDaily, a Florida firm accused of operating a Ponzi scheme involving tens of millions of dollars, have sought in recent months to intimidate members who contemplated filing remissions claims with the claims administrator approved by the U.S. Department of Justice.
An email received by some ASD members included a purported “legal opinion” and implied that ASD members who filed for restitution may face legal action from a “group” of ASD members.
In the CFTC case, Andres also is accused of misappropriation and providing false statements to customers to cover up the fraud.
Also accused with misappropriation and proving false statements to customers were Robert L. Holloway of San Diego, and a company known as US Ventures LC (USV) of Salt Lake City.
Senior U.S. District Judge Bruce S. Jenkins has frozen the assets of all of the defendants in the case.
BULLETIN:(UPDATED 3 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) The first experience some people seeking to become U.S. citizens had was to be duped by Americans, the Federal Trade Commission has alleged. After a probe involving multiple government agencies, the FTC has gone to federal court in Nevada to block what it described as an “immigration scam.”
3 P.M. UPDATE: The alleged scheme also resulted in three arrests on criminal charges of Obtaining Money Under False Pretenses in the Course of a Technological Crime, six counts of Conspiracy and two counts of Criminal Racketeering.
Charged criminally by the office of Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto were Charles Doucette, Deborah Stilson and Cybil Duran Berti, authorities said.
The scammers posed as government agencies, used the symbols and language of government, used websites that mimicked government sites, used the American flag, the Statue of Liberty and answered phones by using the acronym of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), a division of the Department of Homeland Security, the FTC alleged.
Charged in the case were companies known as “Immigration Center,” a nonprofit based in Colorado, and “Immigration Forms and Publications” of Missouri.
A federal judge has frozen the assets of the companies and co-defendants, including Charles Doucette; Deborah Stilson, also known as Deborah Malmstrom; Alfred Boyce; Thomas Strawbridge; Robin Meredith; Thomas Laurence; and Elizabeth Meredith.
Domains used by the fraudsters included www.uscis-ins.us and www.usgovernmenthelpline.com, the FTC said. The phrase “uscis-helpline” also was used in a domain name, the agency added.
“The sites directed consumers to call a toll-free number that an automated voice answered, ‘Immigration Center,’” the FTC charged. “Consumers were then transferred to a live person who answered, ‘USCIS’ or ‘U.S. Immigration Center,’ and identified him or herself as an ‘agent,’ ‘immigration officer,’ or ‘caseworker.’”
Consumers were duped into paying fees of up to $2,500, the FTC said, alleging that telemarketers were illegally conducting business by posing as immigration counselors.
“[T]he defendants charged fees for application forms that were the same amount as the government processing fees, leading [customers] to believe the fees covered the cost of USCIS processing,” the FTC said. “Some consumers who applied for the forms were told to send checks by overnight mail to cover the costs. Others paid with checks or money orders on delivery.
“Consumers ended up paying for applications that were never processed by the USCIS for failure to pay the official processing fee, or, in some cases, they were charged twice, once by the defendants and once by the government after the defendant forwarded their bank account information to USCIS,” the FTC said.
Assisting in the case were the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; the U.S. Customs and Immigration Services; Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the Office of the Attorney General of Colorado; the Office of the Attorney General of Missouri; the Office of the Attorney General of Nevada; the Pettis County, Mo., Sheriff’s Office; the Department of Justice and Executive Office for Immigration Review; and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
“These egregious actions by scammers who impersonate Federal employees and prey on innocent people who are trying to work within the system to achieve citizenship is particularly distressing,” said Cortez Masto.
State and federal probes into cash-gifting schemes are under way in Connecticut, the New Haven Register is reporting.
Investigators are concerned about so-called “Women’s Gifting Tables,” and women soon will be called before a federal grand jury, the newspaper reported.
Similar probes are under way in Michigan. Seven women were charged with felonies last month, and the Michigan State Police issued a warning that gifting schemes targeting women were sweeping across the state.
The Connecticut probe began more than a year ago, when then-Attorney General Richard Blumenthal warned that the schemes were illegal and doomed to collapse. Blumenthal is now a member of the U.S. Senate, and the gifting probe now is under the direction of George Jepsen, Connecticut’s new attorney general.
Gifting is the business of parasites, Blumenthal said in November 2009, noting that “The Women’s Gifting Table” had been positioned as a “sisterhood” in which women provide a $5,000 gift to another woman in the network.
Participants were encouraged to take cash advances on their credit cards and even to sell their cars and family heirlooms to grease the “pernicious” pyramid-scheme wheel, Blumenthal said.
“As new women join the group, others move to higher ‘positions’ to eventually receive their own gifts totaling much more than their initial contribution,” Blumental said.
“Gifting clubs take more than they gift — often ending in economic ruin for participants and their families,” Blumenthal said. “A gifting club is merely a fancy name for an old-fashioned pyramid scheme that bleeds newcomers to feed the parasites above them. Even as I investigate, I urge all Connecticut citizens to immediately reject and report such schemes.
“Gifting clubs are the gifts that keep on taking,” he continued. “These fraudulent clubs exploit economic catastrophe — urging newcomers to sell their belongings, jeopardize their credit and assume devastating debt with deceptive and dangerous promises. Citizens facing foreclosure and job loss may risk everything for these ominous opportunities.
“State and federal law prohibit all pyramid schemes because each one is a house of cards doomed to collapse,” Blumenthal said. “Any offer involving upfront money payments with promises of riches, but no product or service, should be considered suspect.”
In August 2008 — in the days immediately following the seizure of tens of millions of dollars in the AdSurfDaily autosurf Ponzi scheme probe — some ASD members raced to forums in bids to recruit members for emerging cash-gifting schemes.
Efforts to recruit members for other autosurf and HYIP schemes also continued after the seizure of assets in the ASD case.
Some gifting schemes are targeted at people of faith and promoted as an opportunity to “pay it forward” to put cash in the hands of participants while positioning yourself also to get a pile of cash. The language of “pay it forward” increasingly has become a marker that a scam is under way.
A New York man sued by the CFTC last month for registration violations has been arrested on criminal charges of threatening to kill 47 current or former market regulators, federal prosecutors said.
Vincent P. McCrudden, 49, who recently had been living in Singapore, was arrested yesterday by the FBI at Newark Liberty International Airport after returning to the United States.
The arrest occurred just five days after a gunman opened fire at an Arizona constituent event hosted by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords was critically wounded in the attack. U.S. District Judge John Roll and five others were shot and killed.
McCrudden was denied bail this afternoon in the alleged threats against regulators, some details of which U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch of the Eastern District of New York released today.
“In this day and age, there is no such thing as an idle threat,” said Lynch. “Those who threaten injury or worse to the lives of others will be promptly investigated and vigorously prosecuted.”
On Sept. 30, prosecutors said, McCrudden sent an email to an employee of the National Futures Association (NFA) that made a death threat.
“[I]t wasn’t ever a question of ‘if’ I was going to kill you, it was just a question of when,” the email read, prosecutors said. “And now, that question has been answered. You are going to die a painful death.”
McCrudden also published an “Execution List” on his website. The list included the names of 47 current and former officials of the SEC, FINRA, NFA, and CFTC. Included on the list were the names of the “the Chairperson of the SEC, the Chairman of the CFTC, a former Acting Chairman and Commissioner of the CFTC, the Chairman and CEO of FINRA, the former chief of Enforcement at FINRA, and other employees of the NFA and CFTC,” prosecutors said.
“[T]hese people have got to go,” McCrudden wrote, prosecutors said. “And I need your help, there are just too many for me alone.”
And McCrudden “posted a $100,000 reward on his website for personal information of several government officials and proof that those officials were punished,” prosecutors charged.
On Dec. 16, according to the complaint, McCrudden sent a CFTC official an email with a subject line of, “You corrupt mother[*!&$$%]!”
The email went on to inform the official that he was “first on my list.”
McCrudden used the website to encourage others to “[g]o buy a gun” and take back the country. On the website, McCrudden wrote that he would lead by example, prosecutors said.
A top FBI official said the threats were “especially troubling.”
“Overt threats of the sort made by this defendant must be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law,” said Janice K. Fedarcyk, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI’s New York field office.
“The threats were direct, extreme, and specific, vowing to kill securities regulators and encouraging others to do the same,” Fedarcyk said. “The allegations, coming as they do during a period of national mourning in the wake of horrific violence done to public officials and others, are especially troubling.”
A company that called itself “Nonprofit Management LLC” and did business as “Tested Green” sold bogus environmental certifications and ramped up the deception by implying it was independently endorsed by the National Green Business Association and the National Association of Government Contractors, the FTC said.
Not only were the environmental certifications bogus, the purported endorsements were deceptive because Jeremy Ryan Claeys, who owned both Nonprofit Management and Tested Green, also owned the purported associations that provided the endorsements, the FTC said.
“It’s really tough for most people to know whether green or environmental claims are credible,” said David Vladeck, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
The purported “green” operation was designed to harvest money, the FTC said.
“Tested Green never tested any of the companies it provided with environmental certifications, and would ‘certify’ anyone willing [to] pay a fee of either $189.95 for a ‘Rapid’ certification or $549.95 for a ‘Pro’ certification,” the FTC said. “After customers paid, Tested Green gave them its logo and the link to a ‘certification verification page’ that could be used to advertise their ‘certified’ status. The agency charged that the respondents violated the FTC Act by providing the means to deceive consumers.”
Although Tested Green billed itself “the nation’s leading certification program for businesses that produce green products or use green processes in the manufacture of goods and services,” the labels it sold were worthless, the FTC said.
Claeys settled the FTC civil case by agreeing to a ban on making deceptive claims.
YouTube and Google apparently are unwilling to do anything about the cyberstalker “unclefesta26,” who appears to be harassing the PP Blog (and others) from an IP in the United Kingdom.
First, though, let me share some of reasons for this post.
The PP Blog is a Google AdSense publisher. On Nov. 17, Google invited me to participate in a beta test of a tool designed to give publishers more control over the AdSense ads that appear on their sites. I eagerly registered for the beta program on the day I received the invitation because I sensed a gathering storm.
Indeed, one of the reasons I quickly registered for the beta program was that “unclefesta26” had used YouTube as a platform from which to poison the Blog’s brand by planting the seed that it cannot be trusted because of some of the AdSense ads that have appeared here. Here is one example. Here is another. I saw the beta program as both a welcome tool and a means of minimizing harassment from “unclefesta26.”
The PP Blog has thousands of readers. I have received only a tiny number of complaints about AdSense ads. By “tiny,” I mean no more than three in the past two and a half years.
If you’ve never had a stalker, these matters perhaps will seem trivial to you. But I necessarily have to spend time and energy monitoring this situation, which is chilling my ability to publish and earn a living in an atmosphere free of extortion — emotional or financial.
It’s important to note that “unclefesta26,” who previously was banned from posting on the PP Blog, also has used the name “Pistol” and “Pistol’s Pal” online. Stalking never should be taken lightly, especially when one has used the name “Pistol.”
A search of YouTube associates “unclefesta26” with approximately 311 videos. Virtually all of them harass his targets in one way or another. YouTube is providing the stage, contrary to its own Community Guidelines.
In any event, the new AdSense tool has been helpful in blocking certain types of ads from appearing on the Blog. The tool, however, is not perfect. Owing to a large number of variables that may trigger ads, I am not certain any tool can do a perfect job. One of the biggest variables of all is taste. What some readers may view as objectionable could be perceived by others as something worthy of embrace. The PP Blog does not establish the rules by which Google accepts advertisers.
What “unclefesta26” is doing is at the edge of irrationality, another thing wholly consistent with stalking. His IP has appeared on the PP Blog hundreds of times in recent weeks, according to our database — this after I had banned an earlier IP.I detected the new IP only days ago. It has become clear that “unclefesta26” is persistently videotaping the Blog, narrating passages from the Blog, scraping content to which he adds provocative sexual innuendo and employing a keyword strategy to poison the brand of the Blog.
How bizarre have things gotten? Well, “unclefesta26” is using the keyword phrase “anal exam” to confuse the YouTube public about the PP Blog. He is taking the PP Blog’s content, changing it to suit his ends — and then publishing commentary attributed to the Blog on YouTube.
I offer no apologies for seeking to make a living in my profession — in an environment that is affecting operations large and small as publishers scramble to remain relevant and even to hang on in the Internet Age. I have used the tool — and a previous tool provided by Google — to try to minimize the publication of ads inconsistent with the aims of the PP Blog. I cannot make it perfect — and now I have to deal with “unclefesta26” poisoning the PP Blog’s brand on YouTube.
In one of his YouTube videos, “unclefesta26” videotaped headlines that scrolled across the top of the PP Blog. He used software to insert a bogus headline, changed the wording on the Blog’s “Breaking News” graphic — and added text that a reader of the Blog conducts “Anal” exams — “That’s Arsehole or Asshole To You And I,” he noted — “On Person Or Persons Unknown.”
Here are some questions YouTube and Google should contemplate: What if “unclefesta26” and others like him go after other AdSense publishers? What if he poisons the brands of other AdSense-participating journalists? Will publishers become reluctant to carry AdSense ads because the price of carrying them is to be pilloried on a stage that Google itself provides? How many small publishers such as the PP Blog will become discouraged when they come to realize that Google apparently is unwilling to act in the interests of its own publishers?
Among the ad categories I have blocked are “Get Rich Quick,” “Drugs & Supplements” and “Weight Loss.” I also have blocked “Brokerages & Day Trading,” “Securities,” “Retirement Investments,” “Spread Betting” and about 18 other categories pertaining to finance, investments and pharmaceuticals/healthcare. I cannot make the system fool proof. I do not believe that Google can, either.
“unclefesta26’s” stock-in-trade is to lie in wait until he sees an ad on the PP Blog that displeases him — and then to produce a video of the story in which the ad appears. His general allegation against the Blog is one of hypocrisy: If I write about a court case in which damages were ordered against a company in a false-advertising case — and if Google places an ad in the story from a company he perceives to be objectionable — “unclefesta26” races to YouTube to skewer the Blog. At the same time, he is using his YouTube site to ridicule actual living, breathing human beings who support the Blog’s editorial mission.
Yes, “unclefesta26” even is using YouTube to harass the Blog’s readers. Looking at it another way, not only is “unclefesta26” attacking an AdSense publisher, he also is attacking the very people the AdSense program is designed to attract: readers interested in buying things and comparing options.
What he is doing is wholly unnatural and disturbing — and I say this as a person who spent seven years in the law-enforcement trenches before embarking on my writing career more than two decades ago. I have seen great harm come to the objects of stalkers — both physical and emotional. Stalking is never to be taken lightly. There is no doubt — absolutely none — that the behavior of “unclefesta26” is consistent with an obsession to inflict distress. It also is consistent with a pattern of refusing to stop no matter what — and that makes it dangerous. It is vulgar, to be sure.
“unclefesta26” was banned from posting on the PP Blog in June 2009 for chronic harassment of the Blog and its readers. The very nature of his cyberstalking site on YouTube demands that YouTube and Google pay attention. If I were David Letterman — and if this harassment were occurring in or near my home — “unclefesta26” already would have a date with a judge. He then could explain to the judge why he believes it legal to lift a person’s image off the Internet and create an animated video that depicts the person as a breast-squeezing pole dancer wearing what appears to be a diaper when he isn’t dancing in the buff.
I contacted Google by phone at its corporate headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Friday at 3:31 p.m. (PT) to file a cyberstalking complaint against “unclefesta26,” who has produced yet-another video designed to harass the Blog. It is possible — though not certain — that the video was made after “unclefesta26” made a fraudulent click on an AdSense ad that appeared on the Blog.
Even if the video “unclefesta26” produced did not use footage he accessed after making a fraudulent click, it still constitutes cyberstalking and harassment. I am not going to take it — especially not after the DDoS attacks by still-unknown parties against the Blog in 2010. They increased the Blog’s monthly costs tenfold.
Here, below, is “unclefesta26’s” most recent effort to harass. (The person depicted in the YouTube video is not “unclefesta26.” Rather, the person appears to be a Google advertiser whose ad appeared on the PP Blog):
Google No Help
You’ll note in the video above that “unclefesta26” took a screen shot of a story that appeared on the PP Blog Jan. 5. The screen shot includes a slice from an AdSense ad that appeared in the post. “unclefesta26” used the following keywords on YouTube to plant the seed that the Blog was engaging in illegal conduct: “patrick pretty hypocrite scammer ponzi scam fraud.”
In the past, “unclefesta26” has used a gmail address to email the Blog to nuisance it and to announce his latest YouTube efforts. Not only is he a cyberstalker, he also is proud of his efforts to use Google-owned properties to annoy and harass his targets. The part of the story that he does not tell is that he has been banned from multiple online sites for behavior consistent with cyberstalking and relentless hectoring.
Rather than hosting his own sites, “unclefesta26” relies on free services provided by Google. In the past, he used a free Ning.com website as a platform of harassment. He has a documented history of ignoring rules of decorum and of creating multiple identities to keep his nuisance campaigns intact. A moderator at one forum told me that “unclefesta26” created more than a dozen user identities in a single day. He created at least two user identities at the PP Blog and also appears to have the ability to use proxies to enter sites from which he has been banned.
My most unsatisfactory call to Google Friday lasted four minutes and 29 seconds. Google refused to transfer me to a person authorized to speak about security- and fraud-related matters and its AdSense program. Incredibly, Google explained there was no way to speak with a person who actually could listen to and field my complaint. In my frustration after hearing canned responses and after having had no luck in the past with getting YouTube to do anything, I voiced my displeasure, testily saying that I insisted on being transferred to someone in authority.
What I got was another canned response. It was like talking to a person who’d been programmed by geeks to say the same thing no matter what. It’s not a stretch to believe that the phone-answerer at Google would have told me to send an email had I called to report I’d just been mugged on the Mountain View campus or had seen a woman thrown forcibly into a car. The company seemed to care less that we had a common business problem.
I am not happy. The PP Blog produces revenue for Google and content that it eagerly indexes. The Blog is being harassed on Google-owned YouTube by a cyberstalker in no small measure because of its participation in Google’s AdSense program — and yet Google cannot or will not put me through to a person in authority.
“unclefesta26” apparently believes that any revenue the Blog receives is too much because Google sometimes delivers ads to the Blog that he deems objectionable — this while he uses phrases such as “blow job” and “flasher” and engages in bizarre sexual innuendo on his YouTube stalking site, which is equally unfriendly to women.
PP Blog Calls Police
At 3:42 p.m., after getting off the phone with Google, I called the Mountain View (Calif.) Police Department and asked to speak with a police officer. I identified myself and the location from which I was calling, providing a brief summary of what I sought to report. The woman who answered the phone did not identify herself as a police officer. Eventually I was placed on hold. The woman then came back on the line and told me the Mountain View department could not take my complaint, that I had to call my local police department.
So, at least for now, “unclefesta26” has demonstrated that people who wish to use YouTube to harass AdSense publishers and others have a safe haven. It will do absolutely no good to call my local police department in the United States. I had hoped that the Mountain View police would take a report and contact Google on my behalf to at least start the ball rolling — and that Google would call me back. It became next to impossible for me Friday night to think of Google as a company that cares.
At least temporarily, the Blog has removed the code that produces the AdSense ads. If Google is unable or unwilling to accept a phone call from an AdSense publisher who is being harassed on a Google-owned site, Google is not looking out for me. The run-around one gets when one seeks to speak with an actual human being in authority about legitimate issues of cyberstalking and fraud is unacceptable. At the same time, YouTube has permitted “unclefesta26” to create a stalking and hectoring site — one that not only is targeting this Blog, but also subjecting people who interact with the Blog to ridicule. One of his targets is a registered 501(c)3 corporation that works proactively with the U.S. Secret Service and other law-enforcement agencies to educate the public about scams.
I have sent three complaints about “unclefesta26” using the YouTube system of screens. The complaint system, which I first used months ago, is worthless in my view. I have never even received a response. The harassment has continued for well more than a year and even has been dialed up.
Given my background, I do not subscribe to the belief that the best thing to do about “unclefesta26” is to ignore him. He has been banned from multiple online forums for harassing behavior, which demonstrates a troubling pattern of persistence. The only other people ever banned from the PP Blog were “joe,” who threatened to start “fires” that Blog could not put out, and ASD mainstay Bob Guenther, who threatened to take measures to defeat the Blog’s security systems.
Given the DDoS attacks that were launched against the PP Blog in October and November — and a subsequent email it received that referenced “Doomsday” — the Blog has legitimate security concerns.
What “unclefesta26” is doing is both revolting and shameful.
And what Google and YouTube have done in response is equally revolting and shameful. They are permitting YouTube to be used as an agent of hurt. Both YouTube and Google have erected barriers that make it difficult for users to communicate with them in a meaningful way.
This, Readers, is what “unclefesta26” is doing to the chairman of a 501(c)3 corporation. The chairman proactively works with the U.S. Secret Service to combat fraud online:
YouTube and Google should be horrified. So should all advocates for safety on the Internet.
“Things like predatory behavior, stalking, threats, harassment, intimidation, invading privacy, revealing other people’s personal information, and inciting others to commit violent acts or to violate the Terms of Use are taken very seriously,” YouTube notes in its Community Guidelines.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Blogger Chuck Miller, who posts on the website of the Albany (N.Y.) Times Union, has a post today on the unique circumstances under which he became a self-described “mark” for an MLM pitch nearly 20 years ago. Seems Miller’s MLM memories linger after nearly two decades. (You’ll learn why by clicking on the link to Miller’s column at the bottom of this post.)
First, though, some introductory remarks are in order . . .
McKelvy is a defendant in the Mantria/Speed of Wealth case, which the SEC filed in November 2009. Just days after the case was filed, McGaw began to receive a steady stream of email from McKelvy, who had a $30 million Ponzi scheme case hanging over his head and still was pitching offers for MLMs.
“How the heck can I help you become financially independent if you do not take the action steps that I recommend to you?” McKelvy memorably nudged the columnist just days after the SEC announced its intent to sue McKelvy back to the Stone Age.
Of course, untold numbers of Stepfordian members of Florida-based AdSurfDaily continued to pump autosurf MLMs — even after ASD President Andy Bowdoin had tens of millions of dollars seized from his personal bank accounts and was accused by some of his own members of racketeering.
A man using the anonymous identity of “Mr. Protector,” a hotmail address and an IP in the Netherlands has scolded the PP Blog for a story that described “New Utopia” as a nonexistent nation in the Caribbean.
