BULLETIN:UPDATED 4:40 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin has been arrested by federal agents in Florida after an indictment was unsealed earlier today that charged him with five counts of wire fraud, one count of securities fraud and one count of unlawful sale of unregistered securities.
Bowdoin, 76, was arrested in Englewood, Fla. Details on bail were not immediately available. It is believed the U.S. Secret Service made the arrest. If convicted on all counts, Bowdoin faces a maximum prison sentence of 125 years and a maximum fine of $6.26 million.
ASD was raided by the Secret Service in August 2008. The case began as a civil-forfeiture action with the filing of a forfeiture complaint that month and the filing of a second complaint in December 2008, as the investigation proceeded.
With the unsealing of the indictment that alleges a massive Ponzi scheme, Bowdoin now faces serious criminal charges — and yet-another forfeiture action, this one in criminal court. Today’s forfeiture allegation was included in the indictment and called for a judgment of $110 million to be entered against Bowdoin.
Prosecutors charged today for the first time that Bowdoin actively discouraged ASD members from contacting law enforcement prior to the Secret Service raid in August 2008. Meanwhile, prosecutors revealed for the first time that a financial analyst had been assigned to the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia.
U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. of the District of Columbia praised the Secret Service, which had been derided by Bowdoin as “Satan,” for its work on the case. Machen also praised William Cowden, the former federal prosecutor who brought the forfeiture actions.
Cowden was derided as “Gomer Pyle” by members of the pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum, one of whom opined that he should be placed in a medieval torture rack while ASD members drew straws to determine who got to tighten the wheel.
Bowdoin, according to the 18-page indictment, used ASD members’ money to make a donation to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). The allegation marked the first time the government had charged that Bowdoin used Ponzi proceeds to make the donation. Bowdoin was specifically accused of permitting members to make false claims about a “Medal of Distinction” he received from NRCC.
Members claimed the award was an important award from the President of the United States. In reality, according to the indictment, the award was for campaign donations — and Bowdoin did not correct the record.
Meanwhile, the indictment accused Bowdoin of not correcting the record when a purported ASD “compliance officer” said the Bowdoin’s only run-in with law enforcement had been as the recipient of a speeding ticket.
In truth, prosecutors said, Bowdoin had been charged in two two securities cases in Alabama during the 1990s, pleading guilty in one case and entering a plea of “best interest” in another that required him to pay restitution to victims.
Advertising a Des Moines, Iowa, business address of 123 Internet St. and claiming the “owow 8g zip drive stick is the new face of data network affiliates,” an affiliate of DNA/OWOW is seeking to drive business to the firm.
But the Des Moines Police Department told the PP Blog this morning that no such street address exists in the city, despite multiple online listings encouraging prospects to do business with OWOW at the address.
A separate Des Moines address — 123 Online St. — that advertised something called “Global Gifting Connection” also was bogus, the police department said. It is unclear if the same person placed both ads.
Why bogus addresses were used to advertise OWOW and a cash-gifting program was not immediately clear.
“[I]f you would like use this product or learn how to grow a team to market it,” an ad in Des Moines said about the OWOW stick, “I have help top leaders place over 30,000 people into this company and i will be happy to help you.”
The OWOW ads appear at online venues such as MerchantCircle and HelloDesMoines.com. The business has not been verified, according to the MerchantCircle website. The ad on the HelloDesMoines site carries a photo of the OWOW stick.
The Des Moines development follows on the heels of a prompt by OWOW, which is associated with Internet Marketer Phil Piccolo, to recruit prospects by planting the seed that a product known as OWOW TurboMune cures cancer.
It also follows on the heels of a bizarre bid by an OWOW affiliate to suggest that Michael Chertoff, a Harvard-educated former federal judge and federal prosecutor and the former secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), was a “suspect” in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacks on the United States and that Israel had conducted the attacks.
The bizarre claim was made despite the fact that Chertoff’s nomination to the DHS post was approved by a 98-0 vote in the U.S. Senate more than three years after the attacks occurred.
OWOW is the apparent successor company to DNA, a Nevada-registered company that operates from Florida and claimed it was developing a database to help law enforcement and the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children.
No evidence has emerged that DNA has the capacity to assist either law enforcement or the AMBER Alert program, which the firm chastised earlier this year by suggesting it had a bloated budget and had rescued “ONLY” about 500 children over the years.
A “Non-Affiliated Support” link on the OWOW website includes no contact information for the company and no form through which prospects or members of the media can submit questions.
OWOW also has advertised that it pays an annual interest rate of 24 percent to members who send it money. Questions have been raised about whether the company is selling unregistered securities as investment contracts.
One link in the MerchantCircle ad for OWOW prompts visitors to visit a site that redirects to video promos for an “opportunity” known as Monitium and a cycler program known as 150 Cash.
The FBI has arrested Jenifer Devine, saying the Fair Lawn, N.J., woman was operating a promissory notes Ponzi scheme through a purported wholesale business that claimed to sell clothing and electronics.
Similar charges were brought earlier this year in New Jersey against Nevin Shapiro. Prosecutors said Shapiro, who has pleaded guilty, was running an $880 Ponzi scheme in Florida that purported to sell groceries wholesale.
Like the case against Shapiro, the case against Devine, 39, was brought by President Obama’s interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.
“As alleged in the complaint, Devine’s wholesale business was wholesale fraud,” said U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, whose office also prosecuted Shapiro. “Victims who were promised huge returns paid the tab for [Devine’s] vacation and designer goods. This case reminds investors: always be wary of a sure thing.”
More than 15 investors plowed more than $8 million into Devine’s scheme, operated through a company known as Devine Wholesale of Carlstadt, N.J. Investors were told they were helping Devine finance the business and would receive a speedy return of 25 percent. Some investors were shown bogus lists of inventory Devine said she sold, prosecutors said.
“In reality,” prosecutors said, “Devine Wholesale had no active wholesale clothing or electronics business during the relevant time period, and had virtually no business sales.”
In classic Ponzi fashion, “Devine instead used new investor funds to make principal and interest payments to existing investors, as well as to fund her own lifestyle. Devine stole tens of thousands of dollars to pay for personal expenses, including a Royal Caribbean cruise and purchases at luxury retailers such as Burberry, Gucci and Coach. Devine also transferred over $26,000 to her mother, who had no role with Devine Wholesale,” prosecutors said.
Investors losses were estimated at $2 million, but may be higher, prosecutors said. If convicted, Devine faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $1 million.
“It is a difficult thing to convince people to be prudent and cautious with their financial
investments when people like Ms. Devine make grandiose promises,” said David Velazquez, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s office in Newark.
“Criminals know how easily greed can override good judgment and they use that basic human flaw to victimize other people,” Velazquez said about the promissory-notes scheme that promised 25 percent interest. “We hope this matter will serve the public as an educational tool in preventing investment fraud as the disruption and dismantling of these schemes remains an important part of our work at the FBI and with our partners.”
Separately, Paul J. LoPapa, 64, of Livingston, N.J., pleaded guilty today in federal court in New Jersey to duping investors investors in a scheme involving fictitious overseas investments sold though a company known as Skyline Equities Inc.
LoPapa also pleaded guilty of defrauding the Social Security Administration of $145,000 in disability payments beginning in 2001, claiming he had not worked since 1990.
Skyline Equities’ referred to its investment program as the “Bank Guarantee Program,” which was billed as a “sophisticated international financial instrument facilitated through well-known financial institutions,” prosecutors said.
Investors dumped about $815,000 into the scam, prosecutors said.
The money was used to pay for “five high-end Mercedes-Benz automobiles” and other personal purchases, prosecutors said.
BULLETIN: John Bravata, the subject of the “Billionaire Boys Club” Ponzi scheme case in Michigan brought by the SEC, will have to go shopping for a new attorney.
U.S. District Judge David M. Lawson of the Eastern District of Michigan has barred Atlanta-based attorney Gregory Bartko from representing Bravata, citing Bartko’s conviction earlier this month for conspiracy, mail fraud and selling unregistered securities in a separate case in federal court in North Carolina.
Bartko now has been suspended from the practice of law in the Eastern District of Michigan, which “renders him unqualified” to represent Bartko and two family members, Lawson ruled.
Bravata and his family members have been given 30 days to find a new attorney.
Hours after the PP Blog published a story about the FBI foiling a bid to detonate a bomb targeted at American children and families at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Ore., a poster defending OWOW — the apparent successor company to Data Network Affiliates (DNA) — demanded to know if the Blog was “Israeli,” planted the seed that the Blog was racist and accused it of spreading “Islamophobia.”
“On a sep[a]rate note, [I] was shocked to discover that you are also spreading Islamophobia, so not only are you a two-bit hack, some might say that you are a racist,” a poster identified as “John” wrote in a comments thread below a Nov. 21 story that referenced OWOW. “For your information, most educated people know that the terror scares are FAKE, and that the Sept 11th attacks were carried out by another group, Israel being prime suspects.”
“John” also railed against the SEC, in response to a comment by the Blog that raised the question of whether OWOW, which is associated with Internet Marketer Phil Piccolo, was offering unregistered securities as investment contracts by advertising that it paid 24 percent annual interest to members who sent in money.
Piccolo has gained a reputation online as a “one-man Internet crime wave.” During a radio program in August, Piccolo threatened to sue critics and planted the seed that he could cause them to experience physical pain.
Rather than answering the question, John wrote, “The SEC? In between watching porn all day? The same SEC covering up the biggest financial crime i[n] history, IE the long term manipulation of the Gold and precious metals markets? That SEC?”
Earlier this year, the inspector general for the SEC said he was investigating reports that some SEC officials had used government computers to view pornography. Such an announcement, though embarrassing to the agency, did not legalize securities fraud or create a new defense for securities violations or potential securities violations.
DNA is a Nevada-registered company whose website is registered behind a proxy in the Cayman Islands. The company explained months ago that it registered the domain privately in the Caymans to prevent management from having to “put up with 100 stupid calls a day.”
Despite its Caymans’-registered domain, DNA asserted it was paying members of its multilevel-marketing (MLM) program to write down license-plate numbers at churches, “doctors’ offices” and retail outets such as Walmart. The plate numbers, according to DNA, would be entered into a database that was being developed to help law enforcement and the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children.
The license-plate program raised privacy concerns, and no guidance was given members in the areas of propriety, legality and safety. DNA later morphed into a purported cell-phone company, proclaiming it had destroyed all competition on earth overnight by offering a free cell phone with unlimited talk and text for $10 a month.
Members flooded the Internet with ads. DNA later said that it had been hoodwinked by a vendor that had led it to believe it could deliver the $10 unlimited plan. In a bizarre email, the company acknowledged that it had not studied cell-phone pricing before declaring itself the world’s low-price leader. Just weeks before, the company sent an email to announce its cell-phone venture in which it made the all-caps claim of “GAME OVER — WE WIN.”
By July 4 — and with no new cell-phone plan announced to replace the failed venture — DNA said it was entering the mortgage-reduction and resorts businesses. The purported mortgage-reduction program was positioned as the “MORAL OBLIGATION’ of churches to promote.
Later in July the company announced it was selling a “protective spray” that would help buyers obscure the license-plate numbers of their cars to guard against getting traffic tickets. The spray purportedly would block cameras from snapping usable photos of the plates, and DNA said the spray protected against “wrongful ticketing by city cameras worldwide.”
DNA did not explain the incongruity of saying it supported law enforcement in its efforts to locate abducted children while at once working against law enforcement in its efforts to enforce traffic laws. Nor did DNA say whether it believed criminals who abducted children and sped off in cars would find the “protective spray” useful when making a getaway.
Even as DNA was announcing the availability of its purported “protective spray,” the company announced it soon would adopt a browser-based “DNA World Wide Alert Button” to let members know when a “child is reported missing in your immediate area.”
It is unclear of DNA ever developed such a button.
What is clear is that multiple domain names associated with the company now redirect to a website known as “One World, One Website” or OWOW.
Members have been prompted to send prospects an email that advertises a cure for cancer.
(Italics added):
Invest 90 Seconds to earn $4,600 to $46,000 Monthly
Send A Simple E-mail “The Secret Cure For Cancer”
JUST FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW…
YOUR PERSONAL WEBSITE IS EMBEDDED IN THIS E-MAIL…
Invest 90 Seconds + Send out a Simple Cure for Cancer e-mail… Earn $4,600 to $46,000 a Month within 100 days or less…
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Simple & Short E-mail
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Most likely someone you love will die of Cancer or
some type of Flu type Disease and when it happens
you will say I wish I could have done something…
The SECRET CURE FOR CANCER…
Are you ready for the Simple & Secret CURE…
Here it is “DON’T GET IT”…
THE BOTTOM LINE IS
Take TurboMune & DON’T GET IT & If you GOT IT
Take TurboMune To Help You Get Rid You Of IT…
This product use to sell for $150 a capsule…
It currently sells in ASIA for $300 a bottle…
OWOW sells the product as low as $19.95 a bottle…
++++++++++++++++++
Invest 90 Seconds
The PP Blog first reported the existence of the email Saturday. The Blog also reported that Phil Piccolo had been a member of a company in California that had been expressly warned by the state not to make false and misleading claims in promotional materials and not to advertise that tax “write-offs” were available for joining an MLM company.
DNA advertised that members who recorded license-plate numbers on its behalf could qualify for hefty mileage deductions despite the fact that no evidence has surfaced that the firm’s license-plate program is a legitimate business.
“Did you know about your DNA Tax Benefits . . .” the DNA pitch began. “Imagine driving 10,000 miles for your DNA Business = up to a $5,000 Tax Deduction… “IRS Announces 2010 Standard Mileage Rates” IR-2009-111, Dec. 3, 2009… and this is just one of many…”
Less than enthused about the PP Blog’s reporting, “John” apparently embarked on a strategy of trying to discredit the Blog by advancing a conspiracy theory about the 9/11 attacks, the “the long term manipulation of the Gold and precious metals markets” and tying the Blog to Israel.
“John” even demanded that another poster answer a question about whether the Blog is “AN ISRAELI?” He also observed that “Millions consider the [Food and Drug Administration] to be a filthy cabal of criminals” and suggested there was nothing misleading about Piccolo’s cancer-cure email to OWOW members.
The Blog specifically asked “John” why someone would plant the seed that the OWOW TurboMune product cures cancer.
“THERE YOU GO AGAIN, wrong AGAIN, spreading lies AGAIN,” John claimed. “The email says ‘The Secret Cure For Cancer” IS ‘Dont get it.’”
“John” offered no comment on the part of the email that read, “THE BOTTOM LINE IS
Take TurboMune & DON’T GET IT & If you GOT IT Take TurboMune To Help You Get Rid You Of IT…”
BULLETIN:(UPDATED 6:41 A.M. ET U.S.A. Nov. 28) The FBI and police officers in Oregon have foiled a plot by a naturalized U.S. citizen to kill children and entire families by detonating a car bomb at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland yesterday.
Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, of Corvallis, Ore., was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. He was born in Somalia and faces life in prison if convicted.
Crowd photos taken at the scene just prior to 6 p.m. yesterday, when the tree was scheduled to be lighted, appear to show that people by the hundreds attended the ceremony. The FBI said they were not in danger because the agency had intercepted the plot months ago, had kept Mohamud under surveillance as part of a long-term undercover probe and that the bomb be believed he was detonating was inert.
“This defendant’s chilling determination is a stark reminder that there are people — even here in Oregon — who are determined to kill Americans,” said U.S. Attorney Dwight C. Holton of the District of Oregon.
‘Absolutely Committed To Carrying Out An Attack On A Very Grand Scale’
The day after Thanksgiving in the United States is known in the retail trade as “Black Friday.” Many Americans had a long holiday weekend and, as had become tradition, were crowding into holiday events and retail stores to pluck Black Friday bargains.
“The [Portland] threat was very real,” said said Arthur Balizan, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon. “Our investigation shows that Mohamud was absolutely committed to carrying out an attack on a very grand scale.”
Given the chilling news that an American wanted to kill as many fellow Americans as possible by detonating explosives at a crowded holiday event, Balizan stressed that Portland’s public never was in danger.
“I want to reassure the people of this community that, at every turn, we denied him the ability to actually carry out the attack,” Balizan said.
Mohamud sought to contact a party “overseas” more than a year ago, the FBI said.
“[I]n August 2009, Mohamud was in e-mail contact with an unindicted associate (UA1) overseas who is believed to be involved in terrorist activities,” the FBI said. “In December 2009, while UA1 was located in the northwest frontier province of Pakistan, Mohamud and UA1 discussed the possibility of Mohamud traveling to Pakistan to engage in violent jihad. UAI allegedly referred Mohamud to a second unindicted associate (UA2) overseas and provided Mohamud with a name and email address to facilitate the process.”
“In the months that followed, Mohamud allegedly made several unsuccessful attempts to contact UA2,” the FBI continued. “Ultimately, an FBI undercover operative contacted Mohamud via e-mail in June 2010 under the guise of being an associate of UA1. Mohamud and the FBI undercover operative then agreed to meet in Portland in July 2010. At this meeting, Mohamud allegedly told the FBI undercover operative that he had written articles that were published in Jihad Recollections, an online magazine that advocated violent jihad. Mohamud also indicated that he wanted to become’ operational.’ Asked what he meant by ‘operational,’ Mohamud stated that he wanted to put an ‘explosion’ together, but needed help.”
Mohamud had been contemplating jihad for four years, the FBI said. Eventually he identified Portland’s tree-lighting ceremony as his target.
Mohamud Knew Children, Parents Would Be In In The Crowd; Portland Deliberately Targeted Because Of Location
That children and their parents would be attending the Portland ceremony mattered nothing to Mohamud, who moved forward with the plan, the FBI said. Chillingly, Mohamud speculated that his bid to kill Portland residents would be less apt to be detected.
“. . . it’s in Oregon; and Oregon like you know, nobody ever thinks about it,” the FBI quoted Mohamud as telling an undercover operative.
The steadfast plan was to look for a “huge mass that will . . . be attacked in their own element with their families celebrating the holidays,” the FBI said.
As the attack plan moved forward, the FBI said, Mohamud focused on logistics, deciding on a location for the bomb to be detonated and mailing “bomb components to the undercover FBI operatives, who he believed were assembling the device.”
He also plotted a way to flee the United States after the attack, the FBI said.
Mohamud “mailed” passport photos to undercover operatives “as part of a plan to help him sneak out of the country after the attack,” the FBI said. “In addition, Mohamud provided the undercover FBI operatives with a thumb drive that contained detailed directions to the bomb location and operational instructions for the attack.”
‘Test’ Detonation Conducted In Rural Oregon Prior To Urban Tree-Lighting Event
A test detonation occurred in a remote section of Oregon 22 days before the planned Black Friday attack, the FBI said.
“[O]n November 4, 2010, Mohamud and the undercover FBI operatives traveled to a remote location in Lincoln County, Ore., where they detonated a bomb concealed in a backpack as a trial run for the upcoming attack,” the FBI said. “Afterwards, on the drive back to Corvallis, undercover FBI operatives questioned Mohamud as to whether he was capable of looking at the bodies of those who would be killed in the upcoming attack in Portland. According to the affidavit, Mohamud responded, ‘I want whoever is attending that event to leave, to leave either dead or injured.’”
Upon returning to Corvallis that same day, Mohamud recorded a video of himself with the undercover FBI operatives in which he read a written statement that offered a rationale for his bomb attack, the FBI said.
Kenneth Wayne Leaming, also known as "Kenneth Wayne" and "Keny."
UPDATED 5:52 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) A Washington state man emerging as a figure in the AdSurfDaily forfeiture case claimed a small town targeted him for “DEATH” and threatened to kill him by “HUNTING” him down “in screaming packs and mobs” and using “several armed street gangs” that served as police, according to records.
Kenneth Wayne Leaming of Spanaway filed a lien for $10 million in 2009 against the city of Puyallup, Wash., in the case. Among the claims were that Puyallup engaged in terrorism by controlling “multiple electronic broadcast media” and employing police who used “chemical and biological weapons,” “machine guns” and “explosives.”
The lien was notarized by Tina M. Hall, a Leaming business associate and another emerging figure in the ASD case. Hall’s notary license was revoked last month. Leaming has been linked by the Anti-Defamation League to an “extremist group” known as “Little Shell Pembina Band of North America.”
Puyallup is a city of about 33,000 in Pierce County.
Pattern Of Filing Astronomical Liens
In a separate case in which Leaming’s name is referenced as a co-defendant with Janice Kay Bryson, a lien for more than $19 billion was placed against several individuals and the city of Fife, Wash., another small town in Pierce County. Records show that Leaming has been assessed sanctions of at least $15,000 in Washington state for filing false liens.
Fife has a population of about 4,800. Puyallup, named in the $10 million lien, somehow also became a party along with Fife in the $19 billion lien.
Lien For Billions Filed Against Hospital With Historic Roots To St. Francis Of Assisi And The Order Of Poor Ladies Founded By St. Clare
Leaming also filed a bogus lien for $9.2 billion against St. Clare Hospital, a faith-based facility in Washington state that admitted 6,995 patients, handled 48,363 patient visits to its Emergency Department and received 26,114 outpatient visits during the 2008 fiscal year.
Hall also affixed her notary seal to the lien against St. Clare, which is operated by Franciscan Heath Systems and traces its faith-based healthcare mission in Washington state to 1891.
The Franciscan Order is named after St. Francis, known the world over as St. Francis of Assisi, who died 784 years ago, in 1226, after rejecting earthly wealth and living in poverty as a street preacher. He is one the most revered figures in the annals of Christianity.
One of the first followers of the man who became known as St. Francis of Assisi was Chiara Offreduccio. She became known as Clare of Assisi and, after being elevated to sainthood, St. Clare. Clare of Assisi was the founder of the Order of Poor Ladies which, like the Franciscan Order, rejected earthly wealth. The Order of Poor Ladies went on to become known as the Order of St. Clare, known the world over as the “Poor Clares.”
Leaming sought to attach “all tangible and intangible property” of the St. Clare Franciscan facility, including its money, furnishings and fixtures, according to records. St. Clare was Leaming’s community hospital in Spanaway. Ironically, AdSurfDaily members had positioned ASD in promotional materials as the invention of a Christian “genius” and an attractive way for people of faith to make enormous sums of money by clicking on advertisements for less than 20 minutes a day.
Members who recruited other members were paid commissions of 10 percent. Commissions for second-level recruits in the MLM scheme were set at 5 percent. ASD member and purported company “trainer” Robert Fava claimed in a testimonial that he made $1,000 a day from ASD.
ASD President Andy Bowdoin, speaking at an event in Las Vegas in May 2008, exhorted attendees to “to have an attitude of gratitude with God” and imagine themselves in possession of “a big check coming in from AdSurfDaily.” Bowdoin thanked God from the stage for developing him into a “money magnet.”
Video from the Las Vegas event shows members standing in line to turn money over to ASD — and employees placing paperwork into plastic baskets. By Aug. 1, 2008, about two months after the Las Vegas gathering, the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from 10 personal bank accounts held by Bowdoin, amid allegations of money-laundering, wire fraud and operating a Ponzi scheme. Court filings placed the amount seized from Bowdoin at $65.8 million.
One of his personal accounts contained more than $31.6 million; another contained more than $23.7 million. Prosecutors said ASD was not Bowdoin’s first brush with the law. In the 1990s, he pleaded guilty to felonies that flowed from an Alabama securites caper, avoiding prison by agreeing to make restitution to victims.
About $14 million more under the control of Clarence Busby and an ASD-related company known as Golden Panda Ad Builder also was seized by the Secret Service. The abbreviation “Rev.” was attached to Busby’s name 120 times in an ASD-related court filing that accused the company and unnamed co-conspirators of racketeering.
Busby was accused by the SEC in the 1990s of participating in three prime bank schemes in which investors were promised enormous returns that did not materialize.
Why Leaming, who acknowledges an “Almighty Creator” only known as “I am” in documents that identify Leaming as “Postmaster,” would seek to vex and bankrupt a faith-based hospital and two small towns in Washington state is unclear.
Also unclear is why any ASD member would put faith in the purported legal skills of Leaming, who was accused of the unauthorized practice of law in the state five years ago and was the subject of a protection-from-abuse order filed by a notary public who claimed he coerced her into notarizing documents.
At least two notaries public have lost their licenses in Washington state after performing work for Leaming, according to records.
At Least 3 ASD Filers Have Leaming Ties
Excluding himself, Leaming now has been linked to at least three people who either filed or attempted to file documents in the ASD case: Hall, Christian Oesch and Kathryn E. Aschlea.
On June 11, 2010, Aschlea was blocked by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer from filing a document styled “Claim by Notary Presentment/Acceptance” in the ASD forfeiture case in the District of Columbia.
The nature of the blocked filing is not publicly known.
Records in Washington state identify a woman by the same name as a notary public. Meanwhile, Kathryn Aschlea is listed as a business partner of Kenneth Wayne Leaming in a venture known as FAN NW LTD INC. Aschlea is listed as a “governing person” and vice president of the firm, with Leaming — shortening his name to “Kenneth Wayne” by dropping the surname “Leaming” in the registration — listed as president and a “governing person.”
The unsuccessful bid to file in the ASD case occurred more than five months after Collyer issued a final order of forfeiture that granted the government title to the money seized by the U.S. Secret Service from Andy Bowdoin. Collyer signed an order in July 2009 that awarded the money seized from Busby’s Golden Panda to the government.
Federal prosecutors announced more than two years ago that money declared forfeited would be used to compensate victims.
Prosecutors brought the forfeiture case to enforce wire-fraud and money-laundering laws, according to court records. A racketeering statute also is referenced in the forfeiture complaint.
Collyer has consistently ruled that nonparty claimants have no standing in the ASD case.
On July 2, 2010 — nearly six months after Collyer issued the final forfeiture order and four months after Bowdoin appealed it — Collyer blocked Leaming and Christian Oesch from filing a document styled “Notice of Final Determination and Judgment by Christian Oesch and Kenneth Wayne.”
Like Aschlea and Hall, Oesch has a business tie to Leaming. A Leaming company known as AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS LAW INC. is listed as the registered agent for an Oesch-controlled company in Washington state known as HUMAN ECONOMIC RESOURCE SOLUTIONS LTD.
Records list Hall as vice president of AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL, with Leaming as its president.
Records suggest that within days of the July 2 docket entry in which Collyer blocked “Kenneth Wayne” and Oesch from filing the document styled “Notice of Final Determination and Judgment,” Leaming set the stage for ads positioning him as an “attorney” or “lawyer” to appear online. Those ads were removed by Justia.com, Oyez.org and Cornell University Law school earlier this month, after questions were raised about whether Leaming was a licensed attorney.
Records show there have been multiple complaints about Leaming engaging in the unauthorized practice of law in Washington state. At least one of the complaints came from a woman who lost her notary’s license in 2005 as a result of notarizing documents on Leaming’s behalf, according to records.
The woman also filed for a protection-from-abuse order against Leaming, according to records maintained by the Washington State Bar Association, which redacted the woman’s name in a 2005 letter to Leaming that accused him of the unauthorized practice of law.
Records at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims show that “Kenneth Wayne” and Christian Oesch filed a complaint against the United States on July 23, 2010, about three weeks after Collyer rejected their bids to file a document on the ASD docket in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
A public link to the complaint is not available. The docket, however, shows that the U.S. Department of Justice has filed a motion to dismiss the complaint. Whether Leaming and Oesch even can establish that the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (COFC), which typically hears contract disputes in a limited number cases in which the government waives sovereign immunity, has jurisdiction to hear an ASD-related dispute is far from clear.
Leaming is listed as an “agent” for “MYHUB GROUP LLC” on the COFC docket. A company by that name is listed in Nevada records as in “default,” with Christian Oesch as its manager.
Earlier this month, some ASD members received an email that referenced “MYHUB.” The email appeared to be a compendium assembled by ASD member Sara Mattoon. The same email referenced a purported “legal opinion” by “Keny.”
“Keny” is a nickname used by Leaming.
The email asserted that ASD members who filed a restitution claim through Rust Consulting, the government-approved claims administrator, might face a lawsuit from a group of ASD members.
“Again, we are asking that our Claimants do not engage in the DOJ’s Remission Process, as long you want to maintain being part of our Group Claims whatsoever,” the portion of the email attributed to MYHUB read in part. “If you are indeed wanting to eat on the other side of the fence, you must let us know before you submit anything to the DOJ, without causing us potential harm and further damages. In case you were to fail to notify us, we would have a possible claim against you, and that’s not what you want us to do in the first place.”
BULLETIN: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has upheld the conviction of James Bunchan in a murder-for-hire plot that grew from a pyramid scheme that gathered $20 million and mostly targeted people of Cambodian descent.
Federal prosecutors described the pyramid scheme as “devastating,” saying it relied on smoke and mirrors to fleece more than 500 victims, many of whom lacked command of English and had little formal education.
While awaiting trial in the pyramid case, Bunchan discussed hiring a hitman to kill Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Pirozzolo of the District of Massachusetts. Pirozzolo specializes in prosecuting economic crimes.
Bunchan was the founder and owner of World Marketing Direct Selling (WMDS) and OneUniverseOnline (1UOL), which were positioned as purveyors of cosmetics, health and dietary supplements.
The pyramid scheme collapsed in early 2005. Federal prosecutors said the companies generated money almost exclusively through the recruitment of new investors or “members.”
While jailed in Massachusetts awaiting trial in the pyramid case, Bunchan hatched a murder-for-hire plot that called for 12 people be believed would testify against him to be killed. The FBI became aware of the plot and staged a sting in which Bunchan believed an assassin named “Jamal” would carry out the murders for a fee.
“Jamal” actually was an undercover police officer posing as a hitman.
Bunchan first was convicted on the pyramid charges and sentenced to 35 years in federal prison. After the pyramid trial, he was tried on charges flowing from the murder-for-hire plot. A jury returned guilty verdicts in the murder-for-hire plot, and Bunchan was sentenced to 25 years.
All in all, Bunchan’s pyramid scheme resulted in sentences totaling 60 years. His bids to overturn convictions in both cases now have failed.
Pirozzolo, who joined the Justice Department in 2003 and encountered the Bunchan pyramid case two years later, was promoted to First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts last year.
In 2007, Pirozzolo received the Justice Department’s Director’s Award for his role in the investigation and prosecution of illegal mutual fund market timing conduct occurring at Prudential Securities Inc.
Pirozzolo also received the Chief Postal Inspector Award for his work on the Prudential market timing cases. In 2008, he received a Victim Rights Award for his work on the Bunchan case.
Visit Leagle.com to read the murder-for-hire appeals decision against Bunchan.
“The so-called ‘Bernie Madoff of Colombia’ now stands convicted of money-laundering . . .”— U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara
David Murcia
BULLETIN: The Colombian mastermind of the D.M.G. Group (DMG) pyramid scheme has pleaded guilty in New York to conspiring to launder drug money in the United States.
David Eduardo Helmut Murcia Guzman (David Murcia) was extradited under heavy guard from Colombia to the United States in January. DMG was a “multi-level marketing scheme” that began in 2003, largely targeting the poor. The firm provided prepaid debit cards that permitted participants to purchase electronics through DMG, prosecutors said.
DMG’s membership ranks swelled to more than 400,000, with the scheme capturing hundreds of millions of dollars. The pyramid collapsed in 2008 — but not before Murcia and others had set up an international money-laundering operation that routed narcotics proceeds through Mexico and concealed the criminality in real estate and other holdings in the United States, prosecutors said.
“The so-called ‘Bernie Madoff of Colombia’ now stands convicted of money-laundering in Manhattan federal court,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. “Criminals have an increasingly global reach. As they develop more and more sophisticated methods of concealing their criminal proceeds, we will continue to track them, working with our law enforcement partners to bring them to justice. The United States will never be a haven for illegal funds.”
Hundreds of “subsidiary and affiliated companies” were established in a bid to cleanse dirty money, prosecutors said.
Bharara’s Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit handled the case, which includes multiple defendants and multiple guilty pleas. The DEA, ICE, the New York Police Department and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs played prominent roles in the case.
See Aug. 9 story about the extradition of Murcia’s legal adviser Margarita Leonor Pabon Castro, who now is among six defendants who have pleaded guilty.
Kenneth Wayne Leaming, also known as Kenneth Wayne.
UPDATED 8:03 A.M. ET (U.S.A., Nov. 23) A Washington state notary public stripped of her license last month notarized a purported “admiralty” lien for the colossal sum of $9.24 billion against Franciscan Heath Systems, the faith-based operator of St. Clare Hospital of Lakewood, Wash., according to records.
The Franciscan tradition in Washington state traces its roots to 1891, when the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia founded St. Joseph Hospital in Tacoma. St. Clare is a 106-bed facility that serves Lakewood, Spanaway, Steilacoom, DuPont, University Place and other communities in Pierce County, according to records.
The purported lien, acknowledged with the seal of notary Tina M. Hall, was in favor of her business colleague, Kenneth Wayne Leaming, according to records in Pierce County.
Both Hall and Leaming are listed as officers of American International Business Law Inc., a Spanaway company some members of Florida-based AdSurfDaily say is performing legal work on their behalf.
U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer of the District of Columbia has blocked bids by both Hall and Leaming to file pleadings in the ASD case. Hall lost her notary license last month after notarizing a string of bizarre documents in Washington state. The nature of the documents she sought to file in the ASD case, which is being prosecuted in the District of Columbia, has not been disclosed publicly.
Some ASD members have said they intended to pursue an admiralty claim against the government.
Leaming, using the notary services of Hall, sought in June 2009 to attach “all tangible and intangible property” of the hospital, including its fixtures, furnishings, motor vehicles, bank accounts, passbooks, saving certificates, stock certificates, lines of credit, inventories, promissory notes, office equipment, educational equipment — and even its mineral and water rights, according to records.
Hall’s license was revoked about 14 months later. The precise reason for the revocation — and whether the documents filed against the hospital played any role in the revocation decision — was not immediately clear.
Other records show that Hall has filed similar documents on Leaming’s behalf in other cases. One of them was for $10 million against members of the City Council of Puyallap, Wash.
Hall also notarized documents for other clients, including a filing styled an “Affidavit of Alternative Obligation” for $100 million against a bank dubbed an “agent” for the Internal Revenue Service.
Such scorched-earth filings have been referred to in other cases as “paper terrorism,” a litigation approach that is designed to rattle the nerves of judges, prosecutors, attorneys and courtroom opponents. ASD member Curtis Richmond has been associated with such filings in a separate case in Utah. In the Utah case, Richmond was among a group of litigants sued successfully for racketeering after a purported “Indian” tribe with which they were involved placed a bogus lien against a county prosecutor for $250 million.
Leaming, who was accused in 2005 of the unauthorized practice of law in Washington state, was dubbed “Postmaster” in the bizarre filing against Franciscan Heath Systems, the hospital, Pierce County Court Commissioner Mark Gelman and others.
Members of law enforcement were expressly warned in the notarized document not to attempt to “negate” Leaming’s wishes to attach the property of the hospital and others. Parties who attempted to interfere “shall be deemed outlaws and/or felons and shall be prosecuted,” according to the filing.
If filing liens against a hospital that has the responsibility for tending to the needs of entire communities were not enough, Leaming also filed liens or claims against the Washington State Bar Association, members of the Practice of Law Board and others.
These liens were styled “commercial liens” or “admiralty” claims or “international claims.” On Oct. 16, 2009, a judge ruled them null and void and ordered Leaming to pay the attorneys’ fees and court costs of his targets. The judge also imposed a $10,000 sanction against Leaming to be paid to the Washington State Bar Association’s Lawyer’s Fund for Client Protection.
See earlier story about the revocation of Hall’s notary license for “professional misconduct.”
See earlier story about ads listing Leaming as an attorney being pulled from prominent websites.
See earlier story about threatening email received by some ASD members.
The PP Blog will publish a Special Report on bizarre events associated with figures in the AdSurfDaily case soon. We anticipate that the report will be published within the hour.
BULLETIN: UPDATED 4:40 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin has been arrested by federal agents in Florida after an indictment was unsealed earlier today that charged him with five counts of wire fraud, one count of securities fraud and one count of unlawful sale of unregistered securities.
