PatrickPretty.com

Tag: AdSurfDaily

UPDATE: Firearms Were Found At Arrest Scene Of Kenneth Wayne Leaming Last Week, Prosecutors Say: Will ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Face Additional Charges In Wake Of Accusations He Filed Bogus Liens Against Public Officials Involved In AdSurfDaily Ponzi Case?

Seven firearms were found last week at the scene of the arrest of Kenneth Wayne Leaming in Spanaway, Wash., the office of U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan of the Western District of Washington said last night.

Durkan’s office said it could not discuss whether the government was contemplating taking the firearms matter before a grand jury. Leaming, a purported “sovereign citizen,” was arrested by the FBI last week on charges that he filed bogus liens against five public officials involved in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case.

The FBI filed the false-liens charges via a 17-page criminal complaint. Information about the alleged presence of firearms came out during testimony at a detention hearing for Leaming last week, Durkan’s office said.

Prosecutors argued in court filings last week that Leaming was a “serious” flight risk who posed a risk to public safety, and a judge found after hearing testimony from two government witnesses that Leaming lacked an “appropriate residence.”

U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Richard Creatura ordered Leaming detained, finding that “no condition or combination of conditions which defendant can meet will reasonably assure the appearance of the defendant as required and/or the safety of any other person and the community.”

Creatura specifically found that Leaming’s history included a “failure to comply with Court orders and terms of supervision” that evolved from a previous case and that Leaming lacked an “appropriate residence.”

Leaming, 55, pleaded guilty in March 2005 to a federal felony of piloting an aircraft without a valid airman’s certificate, according to records. He spent 31 days in jail, and was formally sentenced in August 2005 to time served. Leaming also was placed on probation for a year. On at least two occasions after his guilty plea and sentencing, Leaming was brought up on charges of violating the conditions of his probation, according to federal records.

On one of the occasions in which he violated his probation, Leaming claimed he had “diplomatic status or immunity.” On another occasion, he filed a “vexatious lawsuit lien or retaliatory complaint,” according to the FBI

Leaming has been detained at the Sea Tac Federal Detention Center near Seattle since his arrest eight days ago.

Nearly three years after Leaming pleaded guilty to having no pilot’s license while flying a Cessna aircraft repeatedly between 2002 and 2004, he filed a document styled in part as “NOTARY PRESENTMENT OF: BONDED REPORT OF FRAUDULENT SECURITIES” in a bid to overturn his conviction in the aircraft-piloting case, according to court filings.

The document, dated June 3, 2008, and placed in the court record six days later, named the judge who sentenced Leaming in the case a “3rd Party Respondent.” Five other individuals also were named “3rd Party Respondent[s].”

“COMES NOW the man, Kenneth Wayne, of the family LEAMING, to provide the above titled ‘court’ (BANK) and its named officers a BONDED REPORT OF FRAUDULENT SECURITIES, and to provide said officers an opportunity to SUA SPONTE vacate the entire record of ‘prosecution,’ ‘conviction’ and ‘sentence’ upon which the fraudulent securities were issued,” the document began.

It went on to accuse the judge and others of “BARRATRY” and to argue that the court in the Western District of Washington through which his conviction was recorded was “actually a bank” and a “commercial” enterprise.

A plea bargain that had led to Leaming’s guilty plea three years earlier was forced on him under “THREAT OF DEATH,” Leaming argued unsuccessfully.

The June 2008 document was notarized by Tina M. Hall, according to the stamp. In January 2010 and February 2010 — approaching two years after Hall’s name appeared in Leaming’s pleadings in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington — her name appeared on the court docket of U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer in the civil portion of the ASD Ponzi case in the District of Columbia. Those filings, which were rejected, were styled “Claim by Notary Presentment.”

Collyer is presiding over both the criminal and the civil aspects of the ASD Ponzi case. ASD President Andy Bowdoin, 77, was arrested by the U.S. Secret Service in December 2010. Bowdoin is scheduled to go on trial on charges of mail fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities in September 2012.

Leaming now is accused of filing a bogus lien against Collyer in Pierce County, Wash., nearly 3,000 miles from the District of Columbia. The state of Washington revoked Hall’s notary license last year, according to records.

Leaming also is accused of filing bogus liens against the federal prosecutors and the Secret Service agent involved in the ASD case.

Among the allegations against Leaming is that he sent an email in May 2011 to David Carroll Stephenson, a former business partner and a federal prisoner. That email referenced the “kids” of U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts and their “school,” according to the complaint against Leaming.

“In this email,” the FBI agent who sought Leaming’s arrest in the false-liens case wrote, “I believe that LEAMING is offering to file documents on Stephenson’s behalf, including sending them to the Chief Justice, via his minor children.”

Nov 30, 2011
UPDATE: ‘No Comment’ On Kenneth Wayne Leaming Arrest From AdSurfDaily Prosecutors; Name Of Leaming’s Washington State Firm Appears In FBI Affidavit, Congressional Record — And ASD-Related Email

Purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming remains jailed near Seattle a week after his arrest on charges of filing bogus liens against five public officials involved in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case in the District of Columbia, according to prison records.

Leaming, 55, was arrested in Spanaway, Wash., on Nov. 22. He was charged with retaliating against a Federal judge or Federal law enforcement officer by false claim or slander of title, amid allegations he filed false liens against a federal judge, a former U.S. Attorney, a former assistant U.S. Attorney, a current assistant U.S. Attorney and an active-duty special agent of the U.S. Secret Service.

The office of U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. in the District of Columbia — the venue from which the ASD case was brought in August 2008 — declined to comment yesterday on Leaming’s arrest on the other side of the country.

“Because our office is not handling this particular case, we have no comment on this particular matter,” Machen’s office said.

The office of U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan of the Western District of Washington is supervising the Leaming prosecution. An FBI affidavit filed in the case last week references the name of American-International Business Law Inc., a Spanaway company associated with Leaming.

The company’s name also is referenced in the April 8, 2011, Congressional Record as the presenter of a “petition . . . relative to a claim against the United States of America.” (Story here.)

Whether the firm filed a claim against the United States through the U.S. Congress for a dollar sum is not known.

Leaming and ASD member Christian Oesch unsuccessfully sought to sue the United States last year in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, apparently seeking the staggering sum of more than $29 TRILLION — more than twice the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2009.

Meanwhile, American-International’s name appeared in a November 2010 email received by some members of ASD. (Story here.)

Pasted into the November 2010 email was a purported “legal opinion” by a person described as “Keny” of “AMERICAN-International Business Law inc. (sic).”

“Keny” is a Leaming nickname. Advertisements describing Leaming as an attorney appeared online last year, but Leaming appears to have no law degree. Some ASD members, however, appear to have turned to him for legal advice.

When Leaming was arrested last week, he was found in the company of two federal fugitives from Arkansas, Durkan’s office said last week. The fugitives, who were indicted in February 2011 amid allegations they hatched a home-business scheme involving stuffing envelopes, were identified as Timothy Shawn Donavan and Sharon Jeannette Henningsen.

Donavan, 63, and Henningsen, 67, made an appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Richard Creatura in Tacoma yesterday, according to records. They remain in custody at the Sea Tac Federal Detention Center near Seattle, according to records.

Leaming is being held at the same facility.

A grand jury in the Western District of Arkansas returned mail-fraud indictments against Donavan and Henningsen on Feb. 24. The envelope-stuffing scheme, according to the indictment, was “created solely to defraud persons seeking home-based employment” and operated through entities known as Trial Head Options Inc. and Premier Solutions in Van Buren, Ark.

When the U.S. Court of Federal Claims dismissed the lawsuit brought by Leaming and Oesch last year, Judge Christine Odell Cook Miller noted that their “challenge took the form of presenting claims issued by Tina M. Hall, a notary public in the State of Washington . . .”

Hall’s name appears on the court docket in the ASD case on Jan. 27, 2010, and Feb. 12, 2010 — with entries of “Leave to file denied” by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer, whom the FBI now says was one of the targets of Leaming’s bogus liens. Hall’s license later was revoked by the state of Washington.

Read a story on Leaming’s arrest published last night on the website of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Find additional “Recommended Reading” links in this Oct. 25 PP Blog post.

Nov 29, 2011
BULLETIN: In Affidavit, FBI Counterterrorism Agent Cites Passage From Alleged Kenneth Wayne Leaming Email That References ‘Kids’ Of U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts And Their ‘School’

Kenneth Wayne Leaming

EDITOR’S NOTE: A passage from a May 2011 email allegedly written by Kenneth Wayne Leaming appears in the story below. The passage, which appears to contain electronic clutter — specifically the string “#39;” — is reproduced verbatim, meaning the string also appears in the court document from which the passage was taken.

An FBI agent assigned to the Tacoma Resident Agency Joint Terrorism Task Force advised a judge last week that Kenneth Wayne Leaming — now jailed at a federal detention facility near Seattle on charges he filed bogus liens against public officials involved in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case — referenced the young children of U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts and their “school.”

The reference appeared in a email that Leaming allegedly sent to David Carroll Stephenson on May 14, 2011. Stephenson, whom the agent described as Leaming’s former business partner in Washington state, is a convicted felon serving a 96-month sentence in federal prison for tax crimes.

“This week I will ‘flood’ the USSC with the habeas, one to each justice and resend the one to the Chief Justice, and maybe one to his kid#39;s school to be given to the parents,” Leaming allegedly wrote. “One way or another he is going to get it in his hands and I#39;ll start working on off duty locations for the remaining justices as well.”

Roberts and his wife have two preteen children.

The email clearly became a source of concern for the FBI.

“In this email,” the FBI agent who sought Leaming’s arrest wrote, “I believe that LEAMING is offering to file documents on Stephenson’s behalf, including sending them to the Chief Justice, via his minor children.”

But the alleged email to Stephenson was hardly the FBI’s only concern about Leaming, who appears to have no law degree but has been depicted in online ads as a practicing attorney. (The ads were removed last year.)

Investigators discovered a paperwork trail that linked Leaming and Stephenson to a purported $10 million lien against Harley Lappin, the former director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and a purported lien for $20 million against Dennis R. Smith, the warden of the Federal Correctional Institution in Phoenix.

As the probe that led to Leaming’s arrest proceeded, agents found bogus liens filed in Pierce County, Wash., against other public officials, including at least five officials involved in the ASD Ponzi case. Liens against Mary Peters, the former U.S. Secretary of Transportation, and Cutler Dawson, president and CEO of Navy Federal Credit Union, also were discovered.

At least some of the bogus papers linked to Leaming were found in July 2011 — during the execution of a search warrant at the Yelm, Wash., home of purported “sovereign citizen” Raymond Leo Jarlik-Bell, according to the FBI.

Whether Jarlik-Bell was a member of ASD is unclear.

The U.S. Secret Service has described ASD as a “criminal enterprise” led by Andy Bowdoin, a 77-year-old recidivist felon and securities huckster. Bowdoin, who was arrested in the Gulf Coast area of Englewood, Fla., in December 2010, operated ASD from the small town of Quincy in northern Florida, near Tallahassee. He has described himself as a “money magnet” and man of God.

The FBI said “one of the specific documents” recovered in the search of Jarlik-Bell’s home sought the staggering sum of $225.4 billion and listed “Kenneth Wayne, sovereign man” as “grantee,” and the public officials as “grantors.”

“Kenneth Wayne” is a name used by Leaming.

Navy Federal, which serves members of the military, is the largest credit union in the world.

So-called “sovereign citizens” have been known to file vexatious liens against public officials and courtroom opponents, including financial institutions. The practice has been described as “paper terrorism” and “mailbox arbitration.” Among other things, it can cause both the lien targets and the government to expend money and resources to defend against the nuisance claims, which can affect the credit histories of the individual targets and the efficiency of the court system.

Named in the liens in in addition to Peters and Dawson were U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer; former U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor; former assistant U.S. Attorney William Cowden; current assistant U.S. Attorney Vasu B. Muthyala; and Roy Dotson, a special agent of the U.S. Secret Service.

Collyer, Taylor, Cowden, Muthyala and Dotson have had roles in the ASD Ponzi case. Why Peters and Dawson were targeted with liens is unclear.

Jarlik-Bell, who has been linked with Leaming to “sovereign citizen” groups known as the “County Rangers” and the “Assemblies on the County,” was arrested in July on tax charges. He was jailed pending trial, according to the FBI complaint against Leaming.

More Alleged Leaming Correspondence

In June 2011, according to the FBI, Leaming sent an email to Stephenson that referenced a letter that had or would be sent to Roberts, America’s top judicial officer. The letter strangely described the chief justice as “FIDUCIARY.” The email followed on the heels of other Leaming emails that suggested Leaming had spent part of the month of May conducting financial research on Roberts and his wife and trying to find a street address through which he could cause Stephenson-related writs to be delivered to the couple’s home — instead of the Supreme Court.

Other Leaming email correspondence in May suggests he sent a “certified,” Stephenson-related letter to the residence of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and was trying to find a home address for Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer — instead of sending Stephenson-related correspondence to the Supreme Court address.

The letter that had or would be sent to Roberts asserted that Stephenson was being “restrained” and “concealed” in a federal prison under a under a “fictitious name.” It further asserted that the government had assigned Stephenson an “inventory control number,” according to the complaint against Leaming.

As the letter proceeded, it painted a picture that Roberts had been part of a conspiracy with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to “evade the habeas corpus process.”

Because Stephenson was in federal custody, his communications were being monitored, according to the complaint against Leaming. In a phone call between Stephenson and Leaming, Leaming spoke about “$10m” allegedly owed to Stephenson by a public official employed by the Bureau of Prisons and suggested that “$20 million” would be sought from a prison warden.

Leaming told Stephenson that the city of Puyallup, Wash., was in receivership because of Leaming’s paperwork maneuverings, according to the complaint against Leaming. (Records show that Leaming filed liens against affecting at least two communities in Washington state, including Puyallup. Records also show that he filed a lien for more than $9 billion against a Franciscan hospital in Lakewood, Wash., and tried to put the facility in involuntary bankruptcy. At the same time, records show that Leaming also sought to put the Washington State Bar Association in involuntary bankruptcy. See this story. See this story.)

During phone conversations with Stephenson, Leaming talked about escalating his paperwork maneuverings against the courts if “they don’t straighten up soon” and the potential need to “have a little liability correspondence with Eric Holder himself.”

Eric Holder is the Attorney General of the United States.

Leaming also told Stephenson that “someone has suggested we go after body odor in the White House,” an apparent veiled reference to President Obama.

Returning to the subject of the courts, Leaming told Stephenson that he would start “working” on the chief judge of U.S. federal courts in the Western District of Washington, according to the complaint against Leaming.

Leaming, according to the complaint, also ventured that “the Rothschilds” were hiding in a “bunker in India” while controlling the central bank of Iraq, according to the complaint against Leaming.

Banking conditions in Iraq are causing the Rothschilds to lose money, and the “inner circle” is “jumping ship,” Leaming allegedly told Stephenson, “just like body odor’s inner circle in the White House.”

Leaming has been under federal surveillance by both the Tacoma Resident Agency Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Seattle Division’s Mobile Surveillance unit since August 2011, according to the complaint. Agents have observed him driving a blue Ford Crown Victoria and visiting mailing spots in Spanaway, Wash., where he lives in an apartment, according to the complaint.

In October 2011, some ASD members received an email attributed to “Keny” — a Leaming nickname — that suggested they file “county recorder” papers against federal officials involved in the ASD case that would identify the officials as “DOJ thieves.”

The email encouraged the members to send a “notary certified copy” of the filings to the home address of Chief Justice Roberts.

At least two notaries public with ties to Leaming have lost their licenses in Washington state, according to records. One of the notaries — Kathryn E. Aschlea — was associated with an enterprise known as FAN NW LTD INC.

The name of FAN NW LTD INC. appears in the criminal complaint against Leaming, and the FBI says a telephone associated with the firm was used on calls between Leaming and Stephenson.

Federal court records in the ASD case in the District of Columbia reference a “Claim by Notary Presentment/Acceptance by Kathryn E. Aschlea.” Collyer denied Aschlea leave to file on June 11, 2010.

Kathryn Aschlea and “Kenneth Wayne” are listed in Washington state as officers of FAN NW LTD INC.

Nov 27, 2011
UPDATE: Judge Ordered Detention Of Kenneth Wayne Leaming To Continue After Initial Hearing; AdSurfDaily Figure And Purported ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Accused Of Filing Bogus Liens Against Bush Cabinet Secretary, Officials Involved In ASD Ponzi Case

President Bush observes the 2006 swearing-in ceremony of incoming Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. Peters held the cabinet post between October 2006 and January 2009. Source: Wikipedia: White House photo by Paul Morse.

UPDATED 5:42 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Public officials involved in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case were not the only targets of bogus liens filed by Kenneth Wayne Leaming, according to federal prosecutors in Seattle.

Leaming, 55, also filed a lien against Mary Peters, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation under President George W. Bush during his second White House term, prosecutors said.

In addition, prosecutors said Leaming filed liens against U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer; former U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor; former assistant U.S. Attorney William Cowden; current assistant U.S. Attorney Vasu B. Muthyala; and Roy Dotson, a special agent of the U.S. Secret Service.

Collyer is presiding over both the civil and criminal prosecutions connected to the ASD Ponzi case in the District of Columbia. The civil case, which led to the successful forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars in the personal bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin, was brought by Taylor’s office in August 2008.

Cowden and Muthyala assisted in the prosecution against ASD-related assets, including more than $65.8 million in Bowdoin’s 10 bank accounts and more than $14 million in other bank accounts linked to Golden Panda Ad Builder, a companion autosurf.

Dotson was a key investigator in the case, which was brought in part through the efforts of a Florida-based Task Force. Bowdoin was arrested in December 2010. He is free awaiting trial in the District of Columbia.

Taylor was succeeded as U.S. Attorney by Ronald C. Machen Jr. Machen’s office was sued pro se earlier this month by ASD members Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer of Miami. Disner, a cofounder of the Quiznos sandwich franchise, and Schweitzer, a former attorney whose license was suspended in Connecticut, asserted that prosecutors engaged in “character assassination” against Bowdoin and that the forfeiture case consisted of a “tissue of lies.” They also claimed Dotson’s affidavit that led to the seizure of Bowdoin’s assets was flawed and that 4th Amendment violations had occurred.

Disner and Schweitzer also named Rust Consulting Inc., the government-approved claims administrator in the Ponzi case, a pro se lawsuit defendant. In September, Machen joined Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer in announcing that the government had returned $55 million to victims of the ASD Ponzi.

Collyer ordered the forfeiture of Bowdoin’s assets in January 2010. Her rulings were upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals. Bowdoin, 77, is using Facebook and a website known as “Andy’s Fundraising Army” to raise money for his criminal defense on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

Why Peters allegedly was targeted by Leaming was not immediately clear. But court records suggest the FBI is investigating Leaming ties to a Washington state group of “sovereign citizens” known as the “County Rangers.”

Leaming was arrested on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Richard Creatura in Tacoma. Creatura ordered Leaming’s detention to continue. The date of Leaming’s next court appearance was not immediately clear.

Leaming, according to prosecutors, was found Tuesday with two federal fugitives from Arkansas who were indicted in February on federal charges related to an alleged envelope-stuffing scheme. Prosecutors identified the fugitives as Timothy Shawn Donavan and Sharon Jeannette Henningsen.

Donavan and Henningsen have court histories that include declaring themselves “living breathing free” people to whom laws do not apply, according to records. Like Leaming, they are being held at the Sea Tac Federal Detention Center near Seattle.

Leaming has been charged with retaliating against a Federal judge or Federal law enforcement officer by false claim or slander of title, an obstruction of justice statute.

Among the government’s allegations against Bowdoin is that he falsely claimed to have received an important award for business acumen from President Bush in 2008. ASD members used Bush’s name in online promos, according to records.

In July 2008 — as the Secret Service and the Task Force were investigating ASD — Bowdoin threatened to sue critics, according to court filings. After the seizure of his assets, he claimed the government’s action was the work of “Satan” and compared the seizure to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Cowden, whose name was repeatedly misspelled as “Crowden” by pro se litigants in the forfeiture case, was derided as “Gomer Pyle” on the now-defunct, pro-ASD “Surf’s Up” forum. One ASD member opined that Cowden should be placed in a torture rack. Another said a “militia” should storm Washington. Still another issued a “prayer” that called for prosecutors to be struck dead.

ASD critics were derided as “rats,” “maggots” and “cockroaches.”

In December 2010, prosecutors linked ASD to E-Bullion, a defunct California payment processor operated by James Fayed. E-Bullion has been linked to several Ponzi schemes.

Earlier this month, Fayed was formally sentenced to death for arranging the contract slaying of his estranged wife, Pamela Fayed.

Pamela Fayed was slashed 13 times in a Greater Los Angeles parking garage in July 2008 while James Fayed sat on a bench within earshot of Pamela’s screams, according to records.

At least one ASD member used E-Bullion to send money to ASD, according to federal court records. That member — former ASD “trainer” Erma Seabaugh of Missouri — was operating a purported “religious” nonprofit in Oregon and using ASD to promote a pyramid scheme, according to records.

Nov 26, 2011
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: FBI Says Kenneth Wayne Leaming Filed Bogus Liens Against Federal Officials Involved In AdSurfDaily Ponzi Case; Leaming Was Arrested With 2 Fugitives, U.S. Attorney’s Office In Seattle Says

Kenneth Wayne Leaming

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming was arrested Tuesday by the FBI on criminal charges of retaliating against a Federal judge or Federal law enforcement officer by false claim or slander of title, the PP Blog has learned.

Leaming, 55, of Spanaway, Wash., was arrested at his home, the office of U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan said this evening. When arrested, Leaming was found with two federal fugitives from Arkansas. Both were arrested with Leaming and are detained at the Sea Tac Federal Detention Center near Seattle. Leaming is being held at the same facility.

Prosecutors identified the fugitives as Timothy Shawn Donavan and Sharon Jeannette Henningsen. Prison records say Donavan is 63; Henningsen is 67. They were accused of mail fraud in an alleged home-based business scheme involving stuffing envelopes.

Prosecutors in Seattle said Leaming is accused of filing liens against at least five federal employees involved in the ASD case, including a federal judge, a former U.S. attorney, a former assistant U.S. attorney, a current assistant U.S. Attorney and an agent of the U.S. Secret Service.

Bail details for Leaming and the Arkansas fugitives were not immediately clear.

More details as they emerge . . .

See story from earlier today.

Nov 25, 2011
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Kenneth Wayne Leaming, AdSurfDaily Figure And Purported ‘Sovereign Citizen,’ Has Been Arrested In Washington State

Kenneth Wayne Leaming

UPDATED 3:59 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) : Kenneth Wayne Leaming, an AdSurfDaily figure and a purported “sovereign citizen,” has been arrested in Washington state.

Leaming, 55, is listed as a prisoner at the Sea Tac Federal Detention Center near Seattle, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons said this afternoon. The circumstances under which Leaming was arrested and detained were not immediately clear. Also unclear was the date upon which he was arrested.

Federal prosecutors in the office of U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. in the District of Columbia — the venue from which ASD President Andy Bowdoin was charged last year with operating a Ponzi scheme involving at least $110 million — did not immediately return a call seeking comment on Leaming’s arrest and whether it was related to his ASD activities.

The office of U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan in Seattle had no immediate details on Leaming’s arrest and detention.

In 2010, Leaming unsuccessfully sought to sue the United States — apparently for the staggering sum of more than $29 trillion — for its actions in the ASD case.

Meanwhile, in 2009, Leaming sought to place the Washington State Bar Association in involuntary bankruptcy, according to federal records. Records also show that Leaming sought to place a Franciscan hospital in Washington state in bankruptcy.

The Anti-Defamation League lists Leaming as a member of an “active anti-government extremist group that calls itself the ‘Little Shell Pembina Band of North America.’”

Leaming, who uses the names of “Kenneth Wayne” and “Keny,” was blocked in 2010 by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer from filing pro se pleadings in the civil case against ASD’s assets. That case was brought in the District of Columbia by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008.

Records show that, in 2010, ads listing Leaming as an “attorney” appeared online. Leaming, though, appears to have no law degree.

ASD members have claimed Leaming was providing them legal advice.

Leaming’s company — American-International Business Law Inc. of Spanaway, Wash. — is listed as registered agent for at least 73 companies. Some of the companies use the word “federal” in their names. One company conjures the image of a U.S. government agency in its name, calling itself “Homeland Security Service.” Another company calls itself “Presidential Detail.”

Two other companies use forms of the name “JP Morgan.”

Some sovereign citizens — including members of ASD — have clashed with banks in litigation unrelated to ASD.

In October 2011, some ASD members received an email that used the Leaming nickname “Keny” and encouraged them to file paperwork at the “county” level that identified a federal judge, prosecutors and a U.S. Secret Service agent as “DOJ thieves.”

Nov 25, 2011
BULLETIN: OH, FLORIDA! Receiver In Alleged Commodities Online LLC Ponzi Caper Says Scheme Operated Through Multiple Companies; James Clark Howard III, Louis N. Gallo III, George Saliba And Martin Vegas Sued For Combined Millions Of Dollars
James Clark Howard III

BULLETIN: David S. Mandel, the receiver in the alleged Commodities Online LLC Ponzi and fraud scheme, has sued four Florida residents and is demanding more than $9 million.

Named defendants in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida are James C. Howard III of Parkland; Louis N. Gallo III of Parkland; Martin Vegas of North Bay Village; and George Saliba, also known as George Saliva, of Parkland.

“From January 26, 2010 until April 1, 2011, Howard and Gallo operated and controlled a Ponzi Scheme designed to defraud investors that allowed Howard, Gallo and their confederates to steal and misappropriate investor funds,” Mandel alleged in the lawsuit.

“Howard and Gallo, in running the Ponzi Scheme, regularly made transfers of Commodities Online funds from one related entity to another with no business purpose other than to make the Ponzi Scheme more difficult to detect and assist in conveying the appearance of a profitable business to investors,” Mandel alleged.

Howard controlled Florida firms known as Sutton Capital LLC and J&W Trading LLC, Mandel alleged. Meanwhile, Gallo controlled Florida firms known as Minjo Corp. and American Financial Solutions LLC, according to the lawsuit.

Four “related entities involved in the inter-company transfers utilized in the Ponzi scheme” were identified by Mandel as:
- SSH2 Acquisitions Inc, controlled by nondefendant Michael Palermo.
- Rapallo Investment Group LLC, controlled by non-defendant Patricia Saa.
- Minerales Mexiron LLC, a Florida firm controlled by defendant George Saliba.
- Minerales Mexico Iron SACV Inc., another Florida company controlled by Saliba.
Former AdSurfDaily member and Surf’s Up moderator Terralynn Hoy is listed in Nevada records as a “director” of SSH2. She has not been accused of wrongdoing. SSH2 sued Howard and others in 2010, in a case that alleged it was a victim of a Ponzi scheme.

On two dates in February 2010, Mandel alleged, Howard “wrongfully converted” more than $1.74 million my moving it from Commodities Online to Sutton Capital and JW Trading.

In March 2010 and April 2010, according to Mandel, Howard caused Commodities Online to “lend” more than $320,000 to yet another entity: Pisces Trading Inc.

“Howard thereafter directed Pisces Trading, Inc. to repay these loaned Commodities Online funds to his wholly owned and controlled entity, J&W Trading, thereby converting the Commodities Online funds to his own benefit and use,” Mandel alleged.

From March 2010 to March 2011, “Gallo converted $413,143 of Commodities Online funds to his own use and benefit by causing net funds to be transferred to his wholly owned and controlled entity, American Financial,” Mandel alleged.

Between May 2010 and March 2011, according to the lawsuit, “Gallo converted $1,767,870 of Commodities Online funds to his own use and benefit by causing net funds in that amount transferred to his wholly owned and controlled entity, Minjo.

In March 2011, according to the lawsuit, Gallo also “converted $360,000 of Commodities Online funds to his own use and benefit by causing those funds to be wired to Minerales Yacimientos y Reservas in Mexico, which the Receiver is advised is a fictitious company.”

Still moving money in March 2011, Gallo “converted $226,200 of Commodities Online funds to his own use and benefit by causing those funds to be wired to Terracerias y Pavimentos in Mexico” — plus the following sums and destinations:
- $40,044 to Jorge Ortega Balderas in Mexico.
- $700,000 to Diego Diaz Ceballos Torre in Mexico.
- $625,000 to Grupo Minero Leecota in Mexico.
- $150,000 to Franscisco Javier Ortiz Gonzalez in Mexico.
In a separate filing, Mandel said that the process of determining whether Commodities Online had any iron holdings in Mexico had proven difficult, but that investigators now believe that there is “no recoverable iron ore in Mexico.”

What happened to the money in Mexico is unclear. In April 2011, the SEC alleged that about $3.8 million funds linked to Commodities Online flowed to Mexico and the Netherlands as the agency was issuing subpoenas in the emerging fraud case in March 2011.

The transfers were “extremely suspicious,” the agency said in April.

“Howard, Gallo, and Vegas breached their fiduciary duty to Commodities Online and its investors by personally stealing and misappropriating Commodities Online funds, allowing coconspirators to steal and misappropriate those funds, and dissipating almost $3 million through imprudent transfers of Commodities Online funds to Mexico without adequate controls and documentation to insure the company’s assets and funds,” Mandel alleged in the lawsuit.

Money continued to flow to Mexico even after Commodities Online retained attorney James Sallah in March 2011 and Sallah “counseled management of Commodities Online to discontinue all solicitations of new investor money, to freeze all existing company assets and otherwise cooperate with the Securities and Exchange Commission,” according to Mandel’s lawsuit.

“Contrary to Mr. Sallah’s advice, defendants Howard, Gallo and Vegas, in disregard of their fiduciary duties to Commodities Online and its investors, continued to authorize wire transfers of Commodities Online funds to various accounts in Mexico where the funds became untraceable and defendants could re-divert the proceeds of the wire transfers to their personal use and benefit,” according to the lawsuit

Vegas, according to Mandel, “converted $631,264 of Commodities Online funds to his personal use and benefit by causing those net funds to be paid out to him for no consideration.”

Saliba, according to the lawsuit, “controlled” Minerales and Mexiron and “converted $2,089,368 of Commodities Online funds to his own use and benefit” between May 2010 and November 2010.
Nov 22, 2011
UPDATE: David Lewalski, Head Of Botfly LLC Ponzi Caper In Florida, Sentenced To 20 Years; In Rationalizing $30M Fraud Scheme, Lewalski Painted Investigators As Bogeymen, Complaining About ‘Orwellian Totalitarian Tactics’ As He Called Victims’ Advocate A ‘Nazi’ And ‘Bi***’

David R. Lewalski, the Florida man who ran a $30 million commodities Ponzi and fraud scheme known as Botfly LLC and persuaded at least one investor to pony up cash to pay for his defense, has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.

Elements of the Lewalski caper were reminiscent of elements of the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, which also operated from Florida. Vile language was directed at investigators in both cases, and Lewalski urged victims not to cooperate with authorities. One person gave Lewalski $50,000 to pay for a lawyer — after Lewalski jetted to Europe on a private Gulfstream IV a day after Florida investigators implicated him in a Ponzi scheme, according to court filings.

ASD President Andy Bowdoin also is asking his members to pony up for his defense to Ponzi charges. A number of ASD members have urged fellow members not to cooperate with authorities.

After his European junket, Lewalski eventually came back to the United States and ensconced himself in a swanky hotel suite overlooking Central Park in New York while pretending to be elsewhere, according to court filings.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service alleged that Lewalski complained to investors he defrauded about “recent ‘Orwellian’ totalitarian tactics” employed by U.S. investigators in Ponzi scheme cases, instead of accepting accountability for his fraud.

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer joined U.S. Attorney Robert E. O’Neill of the Middle District of Florida in making the announcement about Lewalski’s prison sentence.

In September, Breuer joined with U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. of the District of Columbia in announcing that $55 million had been returned to ASD victims. The U.S. Secret Service seized the money in August 2008.

Bowdoin called investigators “Satan.” Other ASD members called them “Nazis” and “goons.”

In the Botfly case, Lewalski described a victims’ advocate a “c[$%!]” and a “Nazi,” according to court filings. In one rant, Lewalski allegedly said, “So f[$%!] her what a bitch.”

Court documents also allude to a woman who allegedly was called an “FDLE chick” and described by Lewalski as “nuts” and a “bitch.”

FDLE is the acronym of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which assisted in the state and federal probes of Lewalski.

Nov 18, 2011
BULLETIN: E-Bullion Operator And Emerging AdSurfDaily Figure James Fayed Formally Sentenced To Death For Contract Slaying Of Estranged Wife; A ‘Cold, Calculating Human Being’

BULLETIN: The Los Angeles Times is reporting (link below) that James Fayed has been formally sentenced to the death penalty for arranging the brutal slashing death of Pamela Fayed, his estranged wife and a potential witness against him.

James Fayed, 48, is an emerging figure in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case. Federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia said in December 2010 that E-Bullion was used to forward money to ASD, which the U.S. Secret Service described as a massive international Ponzi scheme that used multiple payment venues to amass at least $110 million.

Erma Seabaugh, an ASD member who used E-Bullion, was an ASD trainer, according to the government. Records in Oregon show that Seabaugh, whose assets were seized in the ASD case, was operating a purported “religious” nonprofit firm from Missouri. The purported religious entity was known as Carpe Diem.

Seabaugh’s assets were seized in February 2009, during a period of time in which the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf was launching and ASD President Andy Bowdoin was morphing into a pro-se litigant and trying to undo his January 2009 decision to submit to the forfeiture of $65.8 million seized by the Secret Service from 10 Bowdoin bank accounts in August 2008. AVG had close ASD ties, according to members.

E-Bullion has been linked to multiple Ponzi schemes, including Legisi, Gold Quest International and FEDI. The FEDI scheme has been linked to Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, also known as Michael Mixon. Ali Alishtari pleaded guilty in 2009 to financing terrorism and fleecing investors in the FEDI scheme.

FEDI participants could expect to receive payouts deemed “rebates,” according to documents obtained by the Ontario Securities Commission from a FEDI promoter who simultaneously was promoting a mysterious business known as the “Alpha Project.” ASD also used the word “rebates” to describe its payouts, according to court filings.

Ali Alishtari, like ASD’s Bowdoin, contributed money to Republican causes and heralded a purported GOP award for his business acumen, according to documents.

Seabaugh used ASD’s advertising “rotator” to promote an apparent “pyramid scheme” known as StreamlineGold.net, according to federal court filings. Like ASD, Legisi and GoldQuest International, StreamlineGold.net was promoted on Ponzi boards such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

Pamela Fayed was stabbed 13 times in a Greater Los Angeles parking garage on July 28, 2008. The Times reported today that James Fayed was seated on a nearby park bench “texting” on his cell phone while his alleged accomplices carried out the slaying.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy described James Fayed as “one cold, calculating human being,” according to the Times. Kennedy formally imposed the death sentence yesterday. The jury that convicted James Fayed in May recommended the sentence.

From the Times (italics added):

The only person within earshot who didn’t react was the victim’s estranged husband who was sitting on a nearby bench “texting on his cellphone, like he doesn’t have a care in the world,” Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy said Thursday, moments before sentencing James Fayed to death for the contract killing.

Read the chilling story in the Times.

Nov 18, 2011
UPDATE: More Red Flags At ‘Text Cash Network’; Firm’s ‘Official’ Video Has YouTube Upload Date Of Nov. 15, 2011 — But Same Video With Nearly 3-Year Old Upload Date Also Appears On YouTube For Same ‘Opportunity’

In this Nov. 13 post, the PP Blog published a list of red flags concerning online promos for Text Cash Network (TCN), purportedly an emerging business “opportunity” involving text advertising and cell phones. A promo for TCN appeared — and then vanished — from a website linked to huckster Phil Piccolo, known online as “the one-man Internet crime wave.” Piccolo has been associated with other schemes that involved cell phones, namely Data Network Affiliates (DNA).

This post raises another red flag — and once again, the issue is about Piccolo’s potential TCN involvement or the involvement of Piccolo associates. In the DNA scam, the purported firm used generic YouTube videos to drive traffic to its purported opportunity. In 2010, for example, DNA incongruously posted a YouTube video known as “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” to its website, using the video to promote DNA.

The “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” video — a You Tube smash — had absolutely nothing to to with DNA. The video was designed in part to create awareness about domestic violence and to publicize the Sheila Wellstone Institute.

Sheila Wellstone was a human-rights advocate. She and her husband, Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., were killed in a plane crash in 2002. Their daughter, Marcia, died in the same crash.

After conducting a “prelaunch” event with much fanfare on Nov. 11 — Veterans Day in the United States — TCN now has added a You Tube video to its website. An all-caps line of “OFFICIAL LAUNCH 12/12/2011” appears below the video, which plays in miniature on TCN’s site.

But the video also is playing in full size on YouTube’s site. Text on the YouTube site dubs it “THE OFFICAL TEXT CASH NETWORK (TCN) – RIGHT HERE – RIGHT NOW” site. The upload date of the video is listed as Nov. 15, 2011: yesterday.

The same video, however, appears elsewhere on YouTube — and its upload date is listed as Jan. 26, 2009, nearly three years ago. Despite the upload date, the video also is promoting TCN, whose website appears to have been registered just last month.

Both videos raise questions about whether YouTube is being gamed by TCN and affiliates. Meanwhile, the videos use the same soundtrack by Fat Boy Slim: “Right here, right now.”

Among other things, Piccolo is known to use all-caps presentations and to hype “prelaunches” and “launches” for weeks. He also is known to hype launches by publishing the names of top promoters — something TCN is doing — and to try to stay in the background of “opportunities,” as opposed to becoming the public face of them.

Joe Reid, a known Piccolo associate, has served as a conference-call host for TCN. Reid also hosted conference calls for DNA, which was linked to Piccolo last year and served up Theatre of the Absurd and a sea of incongruities.

DNA, for example, misspelled the name of its own CEO — and didn’t advise members that the CEO had left the company for nearly a week. The former CEO told the PP Blog last year that the firm was engaging in “bizarre” conduct and a campaign of “misinformation and lies.”

After the former CEO agreed to an interview with the PP Blog, a PR handler who described himself as a conflict-management strategist” sought to intervene. As the year proceeded, DNA appeared to have both entered and exited the cell-phone business in a matter of weeks — while planting the seed that it would pay enormous rates of return to customers who provided it money, even as it purportedly entered businesses such as mortgage writedowns and offshore “resorts” after apparently abandoning its purported core business of helping police recover kidnapped children.

At one point, DNA was urging members to record the license-plate numbers of cars in a purported bid to assist the AMBER Alert program — while it was selling a purported “protective spray” that would make it impossible for cameras placed by police at intersections to snap usable photographs of the plates.

In 2009, another purported “advertising” opportunity known as Biz Ad Splash (BAS) used the same Fat Boy Slim soundtrack. Walter Clarence Busby Jr., the purported operator of BAS, is a figure in the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and is the former operator of Golden Panda Ad Builder. Golden Panda surrendered more than $14 million in the ASD Ponzi case, and the SEC said that Busby was involved in three prime-bank schemes in the 1990s.

The SEC has not responded to requests for comment on the emerging TCN “opportunity.”

As of now, it can be said that two “advertising” schemes — BAS and TCN — are using the same music in what appears to be largely generic promos for business “opportunities.”

It also can be said that DNA, one of the “businesses” associated with Piccolo, also used generic videos and caused them to play in miniature on “prelaunch” and “launch” sites for “opportunities.”

It also seems possible — if not likely — that certain MLM promoters have found a way to edit YouTube sites to make the content appear “current” or to store generic videos and use them for multiple “opportunities.”

Questions

Why does one video for TCN show an upload date of January 2009 while the “official” site shows a video upload date of yesterday — when it is the same video and TCN purportedly is a “new” opportunity?

Did TCN exist in an earlier form as far back as 2009? If so, what happened back then — and why is it reemerging now?

Are certain MLMers simply using generic videos they uploaded earlier to YouTube — and then editing the YouTube sites when a new “opportunity” comes along, thus potentially maintaining a search-engine advantage no matter what “opportunity” comes along?

Why would a company that purports to be a market and technology leader use what appears to be a generic video as its “official” video?

Why did a promo for TCN that appeared on the website of OWOW — a site linked to Piccolo — suddenly go missing last week?

Why does TCN appear to be closely following “prelaunch” and “launch” strategies associated with purported Piccolo “opportunities?

Screen Shot 1

This YouTube video for Text Cash Network bears an upload date of Jan. 26, 2009, even though TCN claims it is a new company proceeding from a "prelaunch" in recent days to "launch." The video is a duplicate of a video dated Nov. 15, 2011 that claims to be TCN's "official" video.

Screen Shot 2

This YouTube video for Text Cash Network bears an upload date of Nov. 15, 2011, even though the same video for the purported TCN opportunity appears elsewhere on YouTube and bears an upload date of Jan. 26, 2009, nearly three years ago. TCN claims it is a new company proceeding from "prelaunch" to "launch." TCN claims the Nov. 15, 2011 video is its "official" one. Both video sites feature all-caps when addressing prospects and content that is virtually the same.

Screen Shot 3

This 2009 YouTube video for the purported Biz AdSplash "advertising" program used the music of Fat Boy Slim. An emerging "advertising" opportunity known as Text Cash Network is using the same Fat Boy Slim music: "Right here, right now." While BAS purported to deliver "advertising" to computers, TCN purports to deliver it to cell phones.

Nov 16, 2011
In Rejecting Tortured Legal Constructions, Judges Across America Now Point To Utah Case Involving AdSurfDaily Mainstay Curtis Richmond

UPDATED 11:54 A.M. ET (U.S.A.) Curtis Richmond claimed the federal judge overseeing the AdSurfDaily civil-forfeiture case in the District of Columbia was among a group of “Co-Conspirators” that included two federal prosecutors and a court clerk.

The judge, Richmond claimed, was violating her oath and conspiring with another judge to deny ASD members justice. Prosecutors, meanwhile, were helping the judge interfere with commerce, according to Richmond. The judge rejected Richmond’s arguments — but it didn’t stop other ASD pro se litigants from advancing similar arguments.

For his bid to intervene in the ASD Ponzi case, Richmond was labeled a “hero” on both the pro-AdSurfDaily “Surf’s Up” forum (now defunct) and on a forum that championed the AdViewGlobal autosurf (now defunct). Among Richmond’s boosters was “Professor” Patrick Moriarty, a Missouri man who once started a purported nonprofit in the name of a man accused of murdering a woman in cold blood and shooting a police officer.

Moriarty later was indicted for tax fraud. He pleaded guilty after prosecutors said they had “casino” records and intended to use them in the case against Moriarty, who advertised that he sold fake academic degrees on e-Bay as “gag gifts.”

Prior to Moriarty’s indictment, members of the Surf’s Up forum joined with him in forming a purported Missouri nonprofit known as ASD Members International (ASDMI). ASDMI’s stated mission was to litigate against the government for its role in the ASD Ponzi case.

Utah resident and ASD figure Christian Oesch — later to join with Washington state resident and ASD figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming in a failed 2010 bid to sue the United States for more than twice the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2009 — filed pro se pleadings in the ASD case that championed Richmond’s take on the law.

But Curtis Richmond’s court forays now have been cited by various judges in various jurisdictions as reasons to reject tortured legal constructions. A federal judge in North Dakota, for example, cited this Utah case involving Richmond as a reason to reject tortured arguments advanced by Michael Howard Reed, a so-called “sovereign citizen” now serving two prison sentences for federal crimes.

One of Reed’s crimes was filing false liens and threatening a federal judge; the other was possession of a firearm and ammunition by a fugitive from justice.

Richmond, a Californian who advanced the notion in the 2006 Utah case that he enjoyed diplomatic immunity that extended to him from an “Indian” tribe, became a figure in the ASD case in 2008. The “tribe,” which a federal judge ruled a “sham,” came to be known derisively as the “Arby’s Indians” because it once conducted a meeting at an Arby’s restaurant.

Reed, whose name surfaced in the 2008 SEC Ponzi case against Gold Quest International after he claimed to be the “attorney general” of an unrecognized tribe and asserted a claim against the agency for $1.7 trillion, asserted in a separate case that the government could not prosecute him because he was immune to U.S. law and had trademarked his name.

Here is a verbatim section from one of Reed’s nonsensical pleadings in federal court in North Dakota. (Italics/identation added):

“boa-kaa-konan-na-ishkawaanden=Michael-Howard-Reed=original-creditor-original-beneficiary: for MICHAEL-HOWARD-REED=original-debtor-trustee agent; Under the Penalties of Perjury Affirm that MICHAEL HOWARD REED©TM is a Fictional Entity . . .”

Richmond’s Utah case was cited in the North Dakota case as a reason to reject Reed’s bizarre arguments.

It also was cited in this Colorado case in which a U.S. Magistrate Judge rejected the tortured legal constructions of Christopher Douglas Wise. Among other things, Wise, a prisoner in the Colorado state system, asserted that he was a “secured party creditor” who’d never lived in the “District of Columbia” — and that somehow this alleged fact set destroyed the jurisdiction of the Adams County District Court in which he was convicted of a crime.

In a separate case in Florida, a federal magistrate judge pointed to Richmond’s Utah “Indian” pleadings as a reason to reject arguments advanced by Timothy Black, who was serving two life sentences for sex crimes involving children and tried to overturn his conviction in part by claiming he had copyrighted his name and by arguing he was not subject to Florida law.

“Petitioner was found guilty by a jury and convicted of two counts of sexual battery on a person less than twelve years of age, and one count of lewd or lascivious molestation on a person less than twelve years of age, and sentenced to two terms of life and one term of thirty years, to be served concurrently,” the judge noted.

Here is a verbatim section from Black’s court claims. (Italics added):

“Therefore the Third Party [Intervener] is the party who is injured by the action at large as he is incarcerated as surety for his collateral, Debtor TIMOTHY W BLACK© Ens Legis . . .”

Nov 15, 2011