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Tag: AdSurfDaily

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Andy Bowdoin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

  • BULLETIN: SEC Says Alleged Life-Settlement Scammer Ran $4.5 Million Fraud And Ponzi Scheme — And Spent $5,000 On ‘Cowboy Boots’ And Another $5,000 For ‘Dating Service’ While Directing $55,000 To A ‘Tribute’ For Deceased Entertainer Michael Jackson; Image Of Former President Bill Clinton Appears On Website

    UPDATED 4:32 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) It’s only getting stranger . . .

    The SEC has gone to federal court in Los Angeles and obtained an emergency asset freeze for what it described as a $4.5 million life-settlement fraud and Ponzi scheme operated by a man who spent more than $5,000 in investor funds on “cowboy boots,” nearly another $5,000 on a “dating service,” $1,300 on designer sunglasses, more than $200,000 on luxury cars — and $55,000 in a tribute to the late pop icon Michael Jackson.

    The alleged scam also directed enormous sums toward other purchases, the SEC charged. A photo on a website linked to the principal defendant in the SEC’s civil case features an image of former President Bill Clinton, with the White House as its backdrop.

    Of the $4.5 million gathered in the fraud, only $90,000 — about 2 percent — was applied to its “avowed” purposes, the SEC charged.

    Even the avowed purposes — purchasing life settlements, developing coal leases in Kentucky purportedly worth $11.8 billion or developing interests in gold reserves in Nevada — were dubious or not carried out, the SEC said.

    Charged in the case were Daniel C.S. Powell, 29, of Los Angeles, and his company Christian Stanley Inc. Two Powell-related entities — Christian Stanley LLC and Daniel Christian Stanley Powell Realty Holdings Inc. — were named relief defendants.

    About 50 investors were fleeced, the SEC said.

    “Powell and Christian Stanley created the façade of an actual business when in reality they have virtually no revenue,” said Rosalind Tyson, director of the SEC’s Los Angeles Office. “Most of the money raised from investors has been used to finance Powell’s extravagant lifestyle and for other purposes that have not been disclosed to investors.”

    “As of August 23, 2011, only $29,396.55 remained in Christian Stanley’s bank accounts,” the SEC charged.

    The “Message From Our Chairman” page of “Christian Stanley’s website features a photo of Powell and former President Bill Clinton with the White House as its backdrop. The photo appears to include a disclaimer of some sort, but the type in the disclaimer is small and washes out, making it difficult or impossible to read.

    A similar photo featuring an image of Powell and Clinton is displayed elsewhere on the site, but appears to be cropped in a different fashion — and also in such a way that any disclaimer language was lost.

    Images of Clinton also were used in promotions for the Mantria “green energy” Ponzi scheme in 2009. It is common for fraud schemes to use images of celebrities to sanitize offers. In 2008, for instance, members of the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme painted word pictures that then-President George W. Bush and the White House had given a special award to ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

    This list is not all-inclusive, but here are some of the alleged purchases and sums consumed in the alleged fraud by Powell and Christian Stanley:

    • $212,000 for cars, including a Porsche, a Ferrari, a BMW and a Dodge Ram.
    • More than $290,000 in debit card transactions, mostly consisting of payments of Powell’s daily living expenses, including gas, groceries, pharmaceuticals, dry cleaning and retail goods.
    • Cash withdrawals and checks payable to Powell or to cash totaling almost $240,000.
    • More than $160,000 toward Powell’s exorbitant lifestyle, including almost $90,000 for hotels, more than $49,000 for nightclubs, more than $17,000 for restaurants and more than $4,800 for limousines.
    • More than $100,000 in rent paid on behalf of a woman who Powell has described as “like a mother” to him and another woman with no apparent connection to the company.
    • Donations totaling $91,000, including $55,000 toward a tribute to Michael Jackson and $35,000 to the rapper Usher’s New Look Foundation.
    • Miscellaneous luxury purchases, including $8,700 for jewelry, almost $5,000 to register for a dating service, more than $5,000 for cowboy boots and more than $1,300 for designer sunglasses.

    Investors believed they’d receive returns of between 5 percent and 15.5 percent per year, the SEC said.

    U.S. District Judge George H. King of the Central District of California has ordered an asset freeze and appointed a temporary receiver, the SEC said.

    “A life settlement is a transaction in which an individual with a life insurance policy sells that policy to another person, who then assumes responsibility for paying the premiums,” the SEC said. “Typically, the seller no longer wants the policy or can no longer afford to pay the premiums. In exchange, the insured party typically receives a lump sum payment that exceeds the policy’s cash surrender value, but is less than the expected payout in the event of death.”

    In its complaint, the SEC charged that Powell and Christian Stanley were selling unregistered securities and that Christian Stanley “has not purchased a single life settlement.”

    The scheme has operated for at least seven years, the SEC said.

    Read the SEC complaint.

  • BULLETIN: Second Notary With Tie To AdSurfDaily Figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming Has License Revoked In Washington State; Woman’s Name Appeared On ASD Court Docket Last Year

    Kenneth Wayne Leaming, aka "Kenneth Wayne" and "Keny."

    BULLETIN: The state of Washington has revoked the notary license of Kathryn E. Aschlea. The precise reason for the revocation was not immediately clear, although the state’s website said Aschlea “failed to comply with [a] fine and education sanction.”

    Aschlea is listed in Washington state records as a business associate of AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming, a purported “sovereign citizen.” 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 revocation of Aschlea’s license occurred about 10 months after the state revoked the notary license of Tina M. Hall, another Leaming business associate who tried to file notary claims in the civil-forfeiture case against the assets of ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

    Collyer blocked Hall from filing claims on Jan. 27, 2010, and Feb. 9, 2010, according to the docket of the case.

    Aschlea is listed in Washington records as vice president of American-International Business Law Inc., Leaming’s Spanaway-based firm.

    In 2010, some ASD members said Leaming was performing legal work for them. There is no record that he is a licensed attorney, despite the fact advertisements describing him as one have appeared online.

    Cornell University Law School, Justia.com and Oyez.org removed Leaming’s online profiles in November 2010. The profiles had featured a photograph of Leaming — and advertised a fee structure of up to $250 an hour.

    In December 2010, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims dismissed a bizarre, ASD-connected, pro se lawsuit brought against the United States by Leaming and ASD figure Christian Oesch. Hall’s also name is referenced in the dismissal.

    Dozens of pro se litigants sought unsuccessfully to intervene in the ASD civil-forfeiture case brought by federal prosecutors and the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Among the bizarre claims in the pleadings was that the government had produced no “EVIDENCE” against ASD — despite the fact that some of the evidence had appeared on the public record of the case a year before the claims that no “EVIDENCE” had been produced were made.

    At least one other notary public in Washington state lost her license as a result of performing work for Leaming, according to records. In 2005, the notary — a woman — told the Washington State Bar Association that Leaming had coerced her into notarizing documents and that he had been “physically and emotionally abusive to her.”

    The woman “voluntarily resigned her notary license as a consequence of the acts” directed at her by Leaming and obtained a protection order against Leaming, according to a letter the Practice of Law Board of the State of Washington sent Leaming in 2005.

    See the PP Blog’s tag cloud archive on stories that reference Leaming, who also in known as “Kenneth Wayne” and “Keny.”

     

     

  • UPDATE: ASD’s Bowdoin Claims Hurricane Irene Knocked His Fundraising Website Offline; Accused Ponzi Schemer Says He’s Confident Jury Will Acquit Him; Messages Follow Earlier Claims From ASD Figures That May Raise Questions About Whether An Effort To Obstruct Justice Was Under Way

    Andy Bowdoin

    In recent emails to members, accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin of Florida-based AdSurfDaily has predicted that a jury in the District of Columbia will acquit him based on the testimony of expert witnesses.

    Bowdoin, 76, has been appealing to members he is accused of defrauding in a $110 million scheme to pony up $500,000 to pay for his criminal defense on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

    Formal fundraising efforts have been under way since July 26 — after weeks of online hoopla that preceded Bowdoin’s  bid raise to money from the people he is accused of scamming. Those efforts have not gone well: Bowdoin said last week that he had raised only $19,300 and was $480,700 short of his goal of raising half a million dollars.

    In an email some members received today, Bowdoin said he encountered more trouble over the weekend.

    “Our Website was down most of the weekend, due to power outages caused by [H]urricane Irene that took our server Offline,” Bowdoin advised members.

    But he assured them that the site now was back online — and that he was confident he would be acquitted.

    “When you watch my Good News Update video and read the 3 Expert Witness testimonies on our Website, you will understand why we are so confident the Jury will come back with a Not Guilty verdict on all counts against me and ASD,” Bowdoin said.

    The email was titled, “More TRUTH – Why We Will Be Found “Not Guilty”! A largely similar email ASD members reported receiving on Aug. 26 was titled, “The TRUTH – Why ASD is Not a Ponzi Scheme!”

    Why Bowdoin asserted ASD had been charged with a crime was unclear. Bowdoin was indicted as an individual in December 2010. The government already has at least three civil judgments against about $80 million seized from ASD-related bank accounts in 2008 — and has implemented a program in which ASD members who filed for remission and provided the required documentation will be compensated through the seized funds described in the civil judgments.

    The indictment against Bowdoin, which has been a public record since he was arrested in December, does not name ASD a criminal defendant. After his arrest, Bowdoin was warned by a judge not to tamper with witnesses or the jury and not to obstruct the investigation.

    Within days of Bowdoin’s arrest, some ASD members received an email that encouraged them to contact the remissions administrator and “write that you knew this was not a investment and you where (sic) purchasing advertising.”

    The email was attributed to Gary Talbert, a former ASD executive, and purported to have been based on an email conversation with Bowdoin after his arrest.

    “Got a email from Andy and he told me to go ahead and send this email out to everyone,” noted the email attributed to Talbert.

    Various email missives have encouraged ASD members either not to file for remissions or to insert addendums on the official remissions form.

    Also see this story from September 2009. Meanwhile, see this story from November 2010 — just days prior to Bowdoin’s arrest.

  • WHEN PONZIS COLLIDE: Receiver’s Probe Into Commodities Online LLC ‘Severely Delayed And Impeded’ By ‘Noncooperation’; Federal Judge Orders James Clark Howard III And Sutton Capital LLC To Disgorge $1.45 Million; Firm That Listed AdSurfDaily Figure (And ‘Surf’s Up’ Mod) As ‘Director’ Sued Howard In 2010

    James Clark Howard III

    A federal judge in Florida has ordered a convicted narcotics and firearms felon who emerged as a central figure in a Ponzi scheme case after his release from prison to disgorge $1.45 million.

    The order, signed Aug. 23 by U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Seitz, applies to James Clark Howard III and Sutton Capital LLC.

    Howard, a co-managing member of Commodities Online LLC, “directed” that $1.3 million in investor funds from Commodities Online be wired to Sutton Capital, “his wholly owned limited liability company,” Seitz found.

    In the 1990s, Howard was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison on cocaine and weapons charges. He also was implicated last year in a separate fraud scheme targeting Haitian Americans.

    The SEC sued Commodities Online in March, alleging that the firm was selling unregistered securities and operating an international commodities fraud from South Florida.

    Seitz found that the $1.3 million transaction was recorded on the books of Commodities Online as a “loan” to Sutton, “even though no evidence has been found establishing a promissory note, interest rate or terms of repayment.”

    The $1.3 million transaction occurred on Feb. 9, 2010, Seitz found.

    On Feb. 18, 2010, Howard directed another $150,000 be transferred from Commodities Online to Sutton, Seitz found. She now has ordered Howard and Sutton to return the entire amount of $1.45 million from both transactions, saying they “remain in possession and control of these investor funds.”

    Separately, David S. Mandel, the court-appointed receiver in the Commodities Online case, said aspects of his investigation have been “severely delayed and impeded by the noncooperation of the majority of the former officers of the Defendants.”

    Although Commodities Online may own iron ore in Mexico, efforts to get at the truth have been hampered  “due to the current nature of business in Mexico, and in particular, the iron ore business, which at times can be unsafe, unreliable and uncertain,” Mandel said.

    In court filings, Mandel said that he has “received information that others have been purporting to act on the Defendants’ behalf in Mexico.” Mandel hired local counsel in Mexico, an attorney who is a citizen of Mexico and an international security firm to peel back layers of the onion and to protect receivership assets.

    A forensic accounting of Commodities Online and thousands of transactions is ongoing, Mandel said.

    One phase of the forensic accounting involved 9,500 transactions and 35 bank accounts “maintained at various financial institutions,” Mandel said.

    An updated analysis of records shows that Commodities Online gathered nearly $12 million from “insiders and related parties” between January 2010 and April 2011, and paid the insiders and related parties more than $20.2 million.

    All in all, the scheme gathered more than $35 million, according to the analysis.

    Howard was arrested by the Boca Raton Police Department in a separate scheme targeting Haitian Americans on March 5, 2010.

    About six months later — in September 2010 — he was sued by a Nevada company that listed former AdSurfDaily member and Surf’s Up moderator Terralynn Hoy as a director.

    The Nevada company — SSH2 Acquisitions Inc. — alleged that Howard was part of a Ponzi scheme that also involved Patricia Saa, Sutton Capital LLC and Rapallo Investment Group LLC.

    Howard and the defendants, according to the lawsuit, told SSH2 it was trading in commodities and “would produce profits of 40% per month or more, while not risking any of the invested funds.”

    In its lawsuit, SSH2 alleged that its dealings with Howard and the others began in “early 2009” and continued through March 2010.

    If SSH2?s assertions against Howard and the others are true, it means the transactions occurred during a period in which Hoy, later to emerge as an SSH2 director, also was moderating cheerleading forums for ASD and the AdViewGlobal autosurf.

    Surf’s Up became infamous for deleting commentary unflattering to ASD President Andy Bowdoin and links members left to outside sources of information. The forum mysteriously vanished in January 2010, after cheerleading for Bowdoin and ASD nonstop for more than a year.

    AdViewGlobal, which collapsed in June 2010, purported to operate from Uruguay and enjoy protection from U.S. regulators because of a purported “private association” structure. ASD was implicated by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008 in an alleged $110 million Ponzi scheme. Bowdoin was arrested on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities in December 2010.

    Former moderators of Surf’s Up, which unabashedly cheered for Bowdoin and received ASD’s official endorsement in November 2008, just days after a key court ruling in a civil-forfeiture case went against Bowdoin and ASD, largely have been silent since the January 2010 disappearance of Surf’s Up.

    It is not known if individual ASD members also invested money with Howard. What is known is that many ASD members did not skip a beat after the Secret Service moved against ASD in August 2008. Within days, some ASD members were promoting other autosurf schemes, HYIP schemes and cash-gifting schemes, positioning them as a way ASD members could make up their ASD losses.

    Hoy has not been accused of wrongdoing. Court filings and other records suggest that Hoy could have been conducting business with firms (ASD, Sutton and Rapallo) and individuals (Bowdoin, Howard and Saa) who were running separate Ponzi schemes involving at least $149 million and perhaps more.

    SSH2, with Hoy as a director, alleged that it was scammed by Howard, Sutton and Saa, and plowed$39 million into their Ponzi. The firm accused the defendants of selling unregistered securities and causing at least $19 million in damages. It specifically accused Howard and the other defendants of not revealing that Howard was a convicted felon.

    As a Surf’s Up moderator, however, Hoy presided over a forum that overlooked or pooh-pooed matters pertaining to the alleged ASD Ponzi, ASD’s alleged sale of unregistered securities to thousands of people internationally and Andy Bowdoin’s previous encounters with law enforcement in fraud cases.

    In October 2008, at the conclusion of an evidentiary hearing, Surf’s Up held an online party for Bowdoin, who’d been charged with felonies in an Alabama securities caper in the 1990s and avoided jail by agreeing to make restitution to investors he defrauded. The party was conducted during an active criminal investigation into Bowdoin’s conduct at ASD.

    A federal prosecutor was derided as “Gomer Pyle” on Surf’s Up. He also was described as a “goon” and a person who should be made to suffer in a medieval torture rack. Critics were described as “rats” and “maggots.”

    The party was conducted despite the fact the Secret Service had alleged that one of Bowdoin’s business partners had been implicated by the SEC in the 1990s in three prime-bank schemes.

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Brett Blackman, President Of Collapsed ‘Noobing’ Autosurf, Subjected To $27 Million Judgment In ‘Grants’ Scheme And Banned From Marketing Money-Making ‘Opportunities,’ FTC Says; Blackman Firm Faces Separate $27.2 Million Judgment

    URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: The price of Brett Blackman’s serial scamming finally has been determined: $54.2 million.

    Blackman, the president of an autosurf known as “Noobing” that targeted people with hearing impairments, has been subjected to a personal judgment of $27 million and banned from marketing money-making “opportunities,” the FTC said.

    Blackman also has been kicked out of the telemarketing business, the agency said.

    Noobing was among a group of companies that operated under the banner of Affiliate Strategies Inc. (ASI), which the FTC and the attorneys general of three states sued in 2009 in an alleged scam that offered “guaranteed” government grants of $25,000.

    ASI has been subjected to a judgment of $27.2 million. It also has been banned from offering money-making “opportunities” and telemarketing, the FTC said.

    Although Noobing was not named in the complaint, the surf collapsed from the strain and got dragged into the ASI mess. Larry Cook, a court-appointed receiver, said in 2009 that Noobing was upside down to the tune of $550,000 when the FTC brought the fraud action against ASI and other defendants.

    Noobing became popular after the seizure of tens of millions of dollars in the AdSurfDaily autosurf case in 2008. ASD members helped popularize the purported “opportunity.” During Cook’s ASI investigation, he determined that U.S.-based Noobing also had an offshore arm on the Caribbean island of Nevis.

    A federal judge ordered all offshore cash repatriated.

    The ASD and ASI cases have strange parallels. Both firms displayed a zeal for religion that incongruously clashed with romantic thoughts about offshore autosurf profits, as though involving people of faith in fraud schemes somehow was consistent with Biblical principles and offshore insolvency somehow was less problematic than insolvency in Florida or Kansas.

    Meanwhile, both firms had acquired jet skis, according to court records. Both firms later lost their water toys through forfeiture or seizure.

    Both Noobing and ASD positioned themselves as victims of an out-of-control government. After shills helped Noobing gain a head of steam on the Ponzi scheme forums — as though the ASD seizure never had occurred — enthusiasts proceeded to engage in spectacular fantasies of building wealth by viewing ads in Noobing’s rotator.

    Those fantasies collapsed when Noobing suddenly slashed payouts, bizarrely citing a purported unclear ruling in the ASD case months after a federal judge said ASD had not demonstrated at an evidentiary hearing that it was not operating as a Ponzi scheme. Noobing’s former wink-nod cheerleaders then advanced a scheme by which they’d file for credit-card chargebacks amid claims Noobing did not perform as advertised.

    Noobing, though, turned the tables by denying refunds and claiming surfing rebates never were guaranteed — a strategy ASD itself allegedly had employed to insulate itself from prosecution for selling unregistered securities. Former Noobing cheerleaders became livid, creating a Ponzi forum PR disaster for the firm.

    Former Noobing cheerleaders wanted their money — and they wanted it right now.

    Noobing’s turning of the tables, however, did not last long. Within months the FTC brought the fraudulent grants case — and what remained of the wreckage of Noobing was consumed in a sea of litigation that had grown to include a fourth state attorney general joining the case against ASI and the other defendants.

    Blackman is unable to pay the $27 million judgment, the FTC said, adding that ASI is unable to pay its $27.2 million judgment.

    In the end, not even Noobing’s offshore plan, Ponzi forum presence and autosurf cash cow were enough to prevent the collapse of the ASI marketing machine because the surf itself was insolvent and the companies were recycling money back and forth.

    “The Receiver’s work over the past three weeks suggests the Defendants’ operations were insolvent on the date [July 24, 2009] the [Temporary Restraining Order] was entered and that for at least all of 2009, Defendants operated only by signing up new victims faster than the old victims could obtain refunds,” Cook said in a devastating preliminary report in August 2009.

     

  • After Weeks Of Prelaunch Hype And A Month Of Formal Fundraising, Andy Bowdoin Says He Is $480,700 Short Of $500,000 Goal; AdSurfDaily Patriarch And Accused Felon Says In Email That He Has Collected Only $19,300 To Pay For Criminal Defense In $110 Million Ponzi Case

    He once had command of legions — and AdSurfDaily members lined by the hundreds and waited in line for hours to pay Andy Bowdoin to give them a chance to “build wealth.” At its peak in the summer of 2008, ASD reportedly was posting tens of millions of dollars a week in revenue.

    But that was then.

    Now, three summers later, Bowdoin says he is having trouble even establishing contact with members listed in a database that contains 77,000 names. Those few members still willing to read his emails have been stingy with their wallets and pocketbooks.

    A month ago — after preliminary fanfare that started weeks prior — Bowdoin formally asked members to pony up $500,000 to pay for his criminal defense on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. Bowdoin’s “positive” appeal to get members to join “Andy’s Fundraising Army,” though, has been a dud.

    The army has managed to cough up only $19,300, leaving Bowdoin $480,700 short of his goal, according to Bowdoin.

    Bowdoin, however, said in an email that he remains positive — and that he’ll launch a Facebook fan site to broaden his appeal.

    Whether his potential Facebook donors will want their names and photographs splashed all over Bowdoin’s fan page — thus exposing themselves to questions about why they are cheerleading for an accused felon implicated in an alleged $110 million Ponzi scheme after earlier having been implicated in a separate securities swindle — remains unclear.

    Some ASD figures have identified themselves as “sovereign citizens.” Others have emerged as multilevel-marketing (MLM) junkies who race from scheme to scheme to scheme. Still others have circulated purported prayers calling for death and destruction to rain down on federal prosecutors and the men and women who guard the President of the United States and the U.S. financial infrastructure.

    Two ASD figures thought it prudent last year to sue the United States for more than $29 TRILLION — more than double the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2009.

    One ASD member claimed that $21 in “silver coinage” taken to a Missouri courthouse could reverse a mortgage foreclosure. Another was sued successfully under the federal racketeering statute in a scheme to have enormous financial judgments placed against public officials. Yet another advanced a belief that the United States passed secret legislation in the 1990s in anticipation of a visit by a race of reptilian aliens.

    During that same decade Bowdoin was arrested in Alabama in a securites caper. And one of his business partners was implicated by the SEC in three prime-bank schemes.

  • UPDATE: CONSOB, Italy’s Securities Regulator, Issues New Order In Probe Related To Club Asteria; Findings And Effect Not Immediately Clear; Google Translation Software Calls CONSOB A ‘Bag’; Yahoo Calls Club A ‘Starfish’; PP Blog Awaits Official Government Translation

    Dear Readers,

    The PP Blog became aware last night that CONSOB, Italy’s equivalent of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), had issued a new order on Monday in its investigation into certain claims made online in Italy about the purported Club Asteria business “opportunity.”

    Club Asteria has been widely promoted online as a “passive” investment program that provides a weekly return that projects to yearly gains in the hundreds of percentage points. The firm, which claims to be a revenue-sharing program, is based in Virginia. Its offer is targeted at the world’s poor.

    The CONSOB order, which addresses concerns first raised by the agency during the spring about how citizens of Italy were approached in online solicitations to join Club Asteria, was signed by CONSOB President Giuseppe Vegas on Aug. 22 and announced yesterday.

    The PP Blog has a copy of the order. What it does not have is a reliable translation from Italian to English.

    Italy first raised issues about Club Asteria in May. It is believed to be the first nation to have done so publicly, and Club Asteria may have sales affiliates in 150 or more countries worldwide. The Italian probe — coupled with claims about Club Asteria in other languages or in butchered or even highly polished, stylized English — led to questions about whether Club Asteria and tens of thousands of affiliates were selling unregistered securities on a global scale — with Club Asteria being the beneficiary of an unlawful offering.

    Because Google’s translation tool leaves a lot to be desired — and because the CONSOB order potentially affects thousands of Club Asteria members and was released in Italian — the PP Blog contacted CONSOB by email at 5:49 a.m. (EDT, U.S.A.) today to see if an official English translation was available and to clarify certain CONSOB findings. The Blog addressed CONSOB in English — and is uncertain if its email was received in Italy and understood.

    It’s easy to imagine an Italian reporter who did not speak English and needed the SEC to provide a document in Italian or an SEC employee to answer questions in Italian encountering the same information hurdles.

    At 1:08 p.m. (EDT, U.S.A.) today — approximately seven hours after asking CONSOB for assistance and lacking confidence that its email to CONSOB in Italy had been received and understood — the PP Blog contacted Italy’s U.S. Embassy in Washington by phone. The Blog asked the Embassy’s assistance in translating the new CONSOB order from Italian to English, and the Embassy provided an email address through which the Blog could submit a request for journalistic assistance through the Embassy. At 1:55 p.m. (EDT, U.S.A.), the Blog emailed the Embassy with the CONSOB order as it exists in Italian, and also supplied a link to the CONSOB webpage at which the agency’s order is published. The Blog is awaiting the Embassy’s response.

    An English translation by Google of the CONSOB order is available, but it is highly confusing, if not tortured. CONSOB, for instance, is described in the translation as “THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR THE SOCIETY AND THE BAG.” A translation available through Yahoo is no better; it refers to Club Asteria as “Club Starfish.”

    Club Asteria, which trades on the name of the World Bank and has blamed members for its PR problems and a freeze of its PayPal account, has not updated its news webpage since July 21. Members across the globe have been left in an information vacuum for weeks, while the firm directs attention to its glossy “e-Magazine” and asks members to “Imagine the Possibilities with Club Asteria.”

    The PP Blog hopes to publish a comprehensive report about CONSOB’s findings after it hears back from the Embassy.

    For now, the Blog is reporting that suspension orders against two websites CONSOB identified in May as Club Asteria troublespots apparently continue to be in effect and that the sites are serving PDFs in Italian of the Italian allegations.

    Posters on Ponzi scheme forums well-known to U.S. law enforcement claim that Club Asteria has more than 300,000 members globally — and Club Asteria sales pitches on the Ponzi forums and websites independent of the forums are almost incomprehensibly reckless.

    Some members have claimed that a monthly payment of $19.95 to Club Asteria produces a “passive” income of $20,800 a year. In other words, more or less pay Club Asteria a yearly total of $240 in 12 easy installments of $20 a month. Do nothing else unless you want to sponsor new members to make even more money. Receive  nearly $21,000 annually — forever.

    The offers are targeted at the world’s poor.

    Whether the impoverished people of the world made any meaningful money after becoming pitchmen for Club Asteria remains far from clear. What is clear — if the “I Got Paid” posts on Ponzi forums are reliable — is that well-known Ponzi pitchmen cleaned up by recruiting members for Club Asteria.

    In July 2010, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued a warning about HYIP schemes popularized in web forums and through social-media outlets. FINRA called the HYIP sphere a “bizarre substratum of the Internet.”

    Just a month before, in June 2010, the United States and six other member-nations of the International Mass Marketing Fraud Working Group (IMMFWG) issued a warning about global marketing fraud.

    It is known that some promoters race from online scheme to online scheme.

    A photograph of Hank Needham, a Club Asteria principal, appears online in a 2008 sales pitch for the alleged $110 million AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme. Like Club Asteria, ASD was based in the United States — and also was promoted on the Ponzi boards.

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin was arrested by the U.S. Secret Service in December 2010 after his indictment on felony charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities online.

  • AlertPay Says It Was Targeted In DDoS Attack Last Week; Unclear Who Launched Assault; Site Processed Payments For Club Asteria And Other Collapsed HYIP And Money-Cycler ‘Programs’ Promoted On Ponzi Boards

    UPDATED 9:45 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) AlertPay, a Canadian payment processor referenced frequently on Ponzi boards such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup, announced on its Blog that it was subjected to a “large” DDoS attack last week that affected customers’ ability to access the site.

    In a Blog post dated Wednesday, the company said the DDoS attack began on Aug. 16.

    “We have measures in place to mitigate such attacks but when the intensity of the attack traffic peaks, said measures can occasionally drop legitimate traffic to the site,” AlertPay said. The firm’s website appears to be loading quickly today.

    No customer information was compromised in the attack, AlertPay said. The firm did not say whether it had identified a suspect in the attack or whether the attackers had provided a reason for targeting the firm.

    “Solving an issue like this unfortunately takes a bit of time to tweak appropriately so please bear with us while we attempt to adjust our filters and improve the situation,” the company said.

    AlertPay processes payments for Club Asteria, according to Club Asteria members who complained when Club Asteria reported earlier this year that it had suspended member cashouts after acknowledging its PayPal account had been frozen. Some Club Asteria members reported on the TalkGold Ponzi board that they continued to be paid through AlertPay after the PayPal freeze and despite the payout suspension Club Asteria had announced.

    Club Asteria traded on the name of the World Bank, targeting a purported Club Asteria “revenue sharing” offer to the world’s poor.

    Promotions for Club Asteria claimed the Virginia-based firm had recruited more than 300,000 members, was gaining thousands of new members each week and was on target to register 1 million members by the end of 2011.  Some Club Asteria members simultaneously were promoting a purported “opportunity” known as Centurion Wealth Circle.

    In short order, Centurion’s website then disappeared amid reports of a Ponzi collapse, but later reappeared. Reports soon surfaced that Centurion intended to implement a feeder cycler known as “The Tornado” to prop up its original, collapsed cycler. Members claimed AlertPay processed payments for both Centurion and “The Tornado.”

    Early reports on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum about the effectiveness of “The Tornado” in reversing the financial course of Centurion are confusing. Accompanying those reports are confusing reports that a second version of “The Tornado” is coming soon and that Centurion will contact “free” members to make sure they have a chance to pay Centurion for a membership “upgrade” that will permit them to get in on the action.

    Prior to its reappearance after an absence of days, Centurion’s DNS information suggested that the firm’s website had been disabled for spamming.

    Centurion, according to the MoneyMakerGroup post, now says its first implementation of “The Tornado” resulted in “13 HUNDRED POSITIONS earning many members good commissions & bonuses all round.”

    The firm, according to the MoneyMakerGroup post, did not say how much money it gathered in the first use of “The Tornado.”

    But a second implementation of “The Tornado” will be tweaked to make it even more “exciting” than the recently completed first, according to the MoneyMakerGroup post, which was dated today.

    “The next Tornado will run for 24 hours only,” Centurion was quoted in the MoneyMakerGroup post as saying. “It will consist of just one phase at 200%. The most exciting part is [. . .] we will run a a (sic) two way cycler that wont (sic) cross over each other. What this means is when the left-to-right cycler meets the right-to-left cycler they will both start again!!

    “This spreads the profits more evenly and ensures more positions profit – especially the later entries!” Centurion was quoted as saying. “All entries in the Tornado are worth 2 Product Tokens and these will be added to members main account! A Brand NEW Wealth Creation System is coming – Premium Members Only!”

    Earlier this year, AlertPay processed payments for Exotic FX, another program widely promoted on the Ponzi boards. Some Club Asteria members also promoted Exotic, which billed itself a “PRIVATE ASSET HAVEN.”

    Exotic appears to have collapsed in the spring, roughly at the same time Club Asteria was collapsing. The dollar value of Exotic member losses is unclear, and the firm’s website no longer loads. There were reports that AlertPay had blocked Exotic’s access to funds prior to the collapse. Exotic’s domain now resolves to a page that beams ads.

    AlertPay also processed payments for Pathway to Prosperity, which the U.S. Postal Inspection Service described last year as a collapsed $70 million Ponzi scheme that had spread to 120 countries over the Internet and created 40,000 victims.

    Separately, AlertPay’s name is referenced in U.S. Secret Service allegations against AdSurfDaily, an autosurf  company accused of propping itself up by creating at least three other feeder Ponzi schemes after its original Ponzi scheme collapsed in 2007. The ASD scheme allegedly gathered at least $110 million though a series of payment processors. The firm also used Bank of America to collect payments, according to filings by federal prosecutors and a private racketeering lawsuit brought against ASD President Andy Bowdoin by three ASD members in January 2009.

    Hank Needham, a Club Asteria principal, also was an ASD pitchman, according to web records. Club Asteria launched in the aftermath of the Secret Service seizure of tens of millions of dollars from Bowdoin in 2008.

    Like Club Asteria, Centurion Wealth Circle, “The Tornado,” Exotic FX and Pathway To Prosperity, ASD also was promoted on the Ponzi boards.

    It is common on the Ponzi boards for members to promote two or more fraud schemes simultaneously. One Club Asteria member who also promoted Centurion has claimed he participates in 35 forums.

  • Andy Bowdoin Claims His ‘Army’ Is ‘Fighting Mad’; Bizarre Fundraising Effort By Accused Ponzi Schemer Whose Firm Has Ties To ‘Sovereign Citizens’ Continues

    Thomas A. “Andy” Bowdoin, the accused Florida Ponzi schemer whose firm has ties to “sovereign citizens,” now says his fundraising “Army” is “Fighting Mad and growing fast!”

    Bowdoin, 76, is accused of presiding over a massive Ponzi scheme involving at least $110 million at Quincy-based AdSurfDaily. He has been using military and Biblical references for weeks in an online campaign to raise $500,000 to pay for his criminal defense on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

    Formal fundraising for Bowdoin began on July 26, the date upon which he released a video that dissed a federal judge, federal prosecutors and his former defense counsel.

    An email some ASD members received yesterday used a subject line of, “Let’s Fight the Gov. Injustice & Get Your Money Back!” Bowdoin did not explain in the email that the government already has civil judgments totaling about $65.8 million against money he claimed in court affidavits belonged to him, not to members.

    Nor did Bowdoin explain that the government has another civil judgment against ASD-related assets totaling more than $14 million. Why Bowdoin is telling members the money belongs to them is unclear. Bowdoin made similar claims in September 2009, causing the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors to allege to U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer that Bowdoin was telling her one story and members another.

    Coinciding with Bowdoin’s email yesterday was an announcement by Rust Consulting Inc., the government-approved claims administrator for ASD victims, that the criminal prosecution against Bowdoin continues.

    Rust, which is managing a restitution pot the government formed from seized assets, pointed ASD members to a website maintained for victims by federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia.

    “The federal criminal prosecution of Andy Bowdoin is ongoing,” Rust said on its website. “The next hearing is scheduled for October 21, 2011. For updates regarding the criminal case, please visit the United States Attorney’s website at http://www.justice.gov/usao/dc/programs/vw/adsurfdaily.html

    Bowdoin claimed an early victory this week, exclaiming in a separate email that “We Are Winning! Over $15,000 Raised So Far!” His purported email “blasts” are going out to the very people he is accused of scamming, and some ASD members have complained that Bowdoin is spamming them.

    The bid by Bowdoin to collect money from ASD members has been marked by delays, including the postponements of two launch dates for the main fundraising website in July and as many as three postponements of the launch of an associated site on Facebook.

    Bowdoin left ASD’s corporate registration lapse in September 2009, even as he was telling members he had exciting plans for the company’s future. ASD members complained prior to the August 2008 seizure that the firm’s website often was inaccessible for days if not offline altogether and that payments to the company were not posted in timely fashion.

    Bowdoin claimed in 2009 that his battle against the government — now entering its fourth year — was inspired by a former Miss America who did not give up despite repeated losing bids to wear the crown.

    Bizarre claims have marked the ASD case, including a claim by two ASD figures that the government owed them $29 TRILLION — more than double the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2009 — for its actions against ASD.

    They’d take the money in “silver,” Kenneth Wayne Leaming and Christian Oesch explained.

    Curtis Richmond, another ASD mainstay, claimed Collyer was operating a “Kangaroo Court” and was guilty of “TREASON.”

    Like Bowdoin himself, Richmond sought unsuccessfully to have Collyer removed from the case.

    Leaming and Oesch filed a lawsuit against the government in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, but a judge dismissed the case last year.

    There have been repeated efforts by some ASD members to dissuade fellow members from filing for restitution through Rust Consulting through a process known as remission. Some of the efforts had a threatening tone.