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Tag: AdViewGlobal

UPDATE: MPB Today Operator Ordered To Stay Away From MLM As He Awaits Sentencing In Racketeering Case; Separately, MLM ‘Programs’ Get Pounded In The Press

Gary Calhoun

Gary Calhoun, the operator of the MPB Today MLM “program,” has joined AdSurfDaily Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin as a member of a dubious club: A Florida judge has ordered Calhoun not to get arrested on new charges and to stay away from MLM while he awaits sentencing in a racketeering case brought by Florida authorities last year.

Here is a note on the docket of Circuit Judge Jan Shackelford reflecting the ban: “DEFENDANT TO HAVE NO CONTACT OR RECEIVE ANY INCOME FROM ANY MLM.” Calhoun, according to the docket, will be permitted to pursue any “legal means” to support his family.

Bowdoin was banned from MLM last year while he awaited sentencing in the $119 million ASD Ponzi scheme broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008. Prosecutors said Bowdoin pushed a scam known as AdViewGlobal (AVG) even after the government seized more than $80 million in ASD-related bank accounts. After the collapse of AVG in 2009, Bowdoin, 78, pushed a pyramid scheme known as OneX, according to court filings. He later was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison.

Calhoun, 56, will be sentenced July 30, according to the case docket, which notes a plea agreement. He was arrested on the racketeering charge in December 2012 and has been free on bond since then. In July 2012, federal prosecutors in the Northern District of Florida filed a forfeiture complaint for MPB Today’s headquarters building in Pensacola. The affidavit in the forfeiture case was filed under seal. But the forfeiture case, according to prosecution filings, was brought to enforce 18 USC § 1028 and 18 USC § 1029, statutes dealing with access-device fraud and fraud in connection with identification documents.

MPB Today operated an MLM married to a grocery-delivery business known as Southeastern Delivery. Among the claims was that a one-time purchase of $200 in groceries could lead to free groceries and gasoline for life. Some promoters claimed the U.S. government and Walmart had endorsed MPB Today. Others encouraged prospects to sell $200 worth of Food Stamps to raise the money needed to join the “program.”

Supporters of the “program” defended it on the PP Blog by calling critics “roaches,” “IDIOTS,” “clowns,” “terrible” people, “misleading” people, people who have led a “sheltered life,” people who have been “chained up in a basement,” people who have “chips” on their shoulders, spewers of “hot air,” “naysayers,” “complainers,” “trouble maker[s]” and “crybabies.”

MPB Today later vanished — but not before a promoter described President Obama as a Nazi and and his family as aspiring to eat dog food. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was depicted as a bawling drunk. First Lady Michelle Obama was depicted as having experienced an embarrassing gas attack in the Oval Office after having sampled “beans” at a Sam’s Club Store.

From an ad designed to attract prospects for the MPB Today “program.”

All of it — and more — was designed to attract business to the MLM firm, which apparently has followed ASD into the darkness.

News of Calhoun’s sentencing date was received during a week in which MLM was experiencing one PR disaster after another. WTOL, a TV station in Toledo, Ohio, carried a report on the alleged Profitable Sunrise HYIP scheme. The SEC said earlier this month that the purported “opportunity” may have gathered tens of millions of dollars and that promoters may not have known for whom they were working.

Profitable Sunrise was targeted at Christians, according to regulatory actions. Among its absurd offerings was the purported “Long Haul” plan that promised to pay 2.7 percent a day with the payout due April 1 — April Fool’s Day. Promoters called it the “Easter Gift” because Easter occurred on March 31. The payouts, however, never materialized.

Separately, WFMY of Greensboro, N.C., said it had uncovered evidence that members of the Zeek Rewards “program” were being targeted in a reload scam. In August 2012, the SEC described Zeek as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme.

Meanwhile, the politics and satire site Wonkette ran a piece yesterday titled, “The End Is Near: Time Running Out To Join Amazing Jesus Pyramid Scheme.”

The story details spam received by Wonkette, apparently from a promoter of a scheme known as “Rocket Ca$h Cycler.”

The subject line of the pitch, according to Wonkette, was this: “The Wealth Transfer is here!! Florida Pastor & Church break through financially!”

When MPB Today was operational, it ran a matrix cycler. One particularly bizzare pitch for the “program” in 2010 claimed this: If you “hate Walmart and have written a 603 page manifesto on how Walmart is trying to take over the world and steal your soul,” you should “stop making that pipe bomb and read how you can avoid Walmart and still make bank.”

Read review of the Rocket Cash Cycler “program” at BehindMLM.

Apr 27, 2013
WTOL To Air Profitable Sunrise Report Titled ‘Holy Rip Off’

From The WTOL teaser.

EDITOR’S NOTE: GlimDropper, an administrator at the RealScam.com antiscam forum, gave PP Blog readers a heads-up on the WTOL report yesterday . . .

WTOL, the CBS affiliate in Toledo, Ohio, says it will air a report Thursday (April 25) at 11 p.m. EDT titled “Holy Rip Off.”

A teaser for the report shows photos of Profitable Sunrise pitchwoman Nanci Jo Frazer. Frazer’s NJF Global Group is referenced in a New Zealand fraud warning on the Profitable Sunrise “program” and also within the body of a March 14 notice issued by the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Securities. Frazer and NJF Global Group also are referenced in the body of a March 14 cease-and-desist order issued by the Minnesota Department of Commerce.

Numerous securities regulators have described Profitable Sunrise as a form of affinity fraud targeted at people of faith. At least 35 agencies in the United States and Canada have issued cease-and-desist orders or Investor Alerts against the HYIP “program,” which had a presence on infamous Ponzi forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

The website of Profitable Sunrise has been missing since at least March 14. On April 1 — the day after Easter Sunday and April Fools Day — the “program” failed to make good on promised payouts from the bizarrely named “Long Haul” plan. The “Long Haul” was purported to pay interest of 2.7 percent a day. Its claims were similar to other collapsed schemes promoted on the Ponzi boards.

On Dec. 30, the PP Blog reported that Profitable Sunrise appeared to be relying on appeals to faith in a bid to attract investors in the wake of the August 2012 collapse of the Zeek Rewards “program.” Zeek, which allegedly planted the seed it paid interest of 1.5 percent a day, also had a presence on the Ponzi boards. In August, the SEC described Zeek as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid fraud.

Earlier this month, the SEC described Profitable Sunrise as a pyramid scheme that had collected an unspecified sum believed to be in the tens of millions of dollars.

RealScam.com, an antifraud forum recently targeted in a DDoS attack, has been publishing information on Profitable Sunrise since at least Dec. 1.

The PP Blog learned last month that at least one apologist for the NJF Global Group has relied on purported “research” by a notorious cyberstalker known as “MoneyMakingBrain” in an apparent bid to discredit critics of the “program.”

MoneyMakingBrain emerged in 2012 as an apologist for the JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid “program” purportedly operated by Frederick Mann. JSS/JBP purported to pay 2 percent a day. MoneyMakingBrain claimed he’d defend Mann “so help me God.”

JSS/JBP, which appears to have morphed into secondary and tertiary scams (ProfitClicking and ClickPaid) after the August collapse of Zeek, may have ties to the “sovereign citizens” movement. Mann has compared the U.S. government to the Mafia, claiming that government employees were part of “a criminal gang of robbers, thieves, murderers, liars, imposters.”

Profitable Sunrise also may have ties to the “sovereign citizens” movement.

Some “sovereign citizens” have an irrational belief that laws do not apply to them. It is known that the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme in 2008 also had ties to “sovereign citizens,” including Kenneth Wayne Leaming. Leaming, a resident of Washington state, was convicted earlier this year of filing false liens for billions of dollars against public officials who had a role in the prosecution of the ASD Ponzi scheme.

ASD operated from Florida, planting the seed it paid a return of 1 percent a day. ASD President Andy Bowdoin — now serving a 78-month prison term — also was associated with a 1-percent-a-day scam known as AdViewGlobal. AVG bizarrely claimed in 2009 that it enjoyed the protections of the U.S. and Florida constitutions while purportedly operating from Uruguay. The scam collapsed during the summer of 2009 — but not before issuing threats to members and critics.

In May 2009, AVG bizarrely announced it had secured the services of an offshore facilitator. The announcement was made on the same day President Obama announced a crackdown on offshore scams.

Obama later was pilloried in an ad for a “program” known as MPB Today. MPB’s operator later was charged in Florida with racketeering.

“Sovereigns” are infamous for drafting others into scams, including people who do not recognize they are being drafted into illegal pursuits.

The teaser for the WTOL report is below . . .

Apr 24, 2013
Some ‘ProfitClicking’ Members Who Scheduled Sea Cruise May Have Gotten Lucky Break — Sort Of

ProfitClicking has had trouble since it evolved from the carcass of JSSTripler/JustBeeenPaid last year.

Back in June 2012 — when the “program” later to become “ProfitClicking” still was known as JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid — a member told JSS/JBP operator Frederick Mann that she was arranging a sea cruise on Carnival Cruise Lines “out of Galveston, Texas” during the last week of January and the first week of February of this year.

It would not have been the first time members of a Ponzi scheme got together on a ship at sea to talk up a “program.” Members of the AdViewGlobal autosurf, which federal prosecutors later linked to the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, reportedly advanced the AVG scam on the high seas in 2009.

Whether the JSS/JBP sea cruise ever came off is unknown. What is known is that the Carnival Triumph, whose home port is Galveston, has caused an epic PR disaster for the famous cruise line. The ship experienced an engine-room fire on Sunday, after departing Galveston Feb. 7, the company said.

A passenger on a recent cruise aboard the Triumph told CBS News that the ship had trouble on Jan. 28 as it was preparing to leave Galveston.

If JSS/JBP-related trip announced last year went ahead as planned, some JSS/JBP (now ProfitClicking) members could have been on the ship during the trip immediately prior to the disastrous cruise. Or if the trip was delayed by a week, they could have been aboard when the engine room caught fire.

Just how disastrous was the trip?

Well, no one was killed. Even so, passengers described the excursion as a venture into hell on the high seas. The fire crippled the ship at sea. A CBS reporter described the vessel as “the makings of a floating biohazard” because the Triumph’s toilets and waste systems were not working.

Fox News, meanwhile, cited reports of “vile conditions onboard” and used the phrase “shanty town.” Passengers were forced to live on the deck because of filthy conditions inside the ship.

With the aid of tug boats, the crippled Triumph arrived in Mobile, Ala., late last night.

The U.S. Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board have launched probes.

Even if JSS/JBP/ProfitClicking members weren’t on board, there are reports of ongoing, major problems with their “opportunity,” which purported to pay 2 percent a day.

If they were on board, they got the double-whammy.

Feb 15, 2013
4 Charged Amid Allegations ‘Industrial Bleach’ Was Sold On Internet As ‘Miracle Cure’ For Flu, Arthritis And Cancer; Web Chatter References Pro Advocate Group, Same Enterprise Linked To Bizarre Claims In AdSurfDaily Saga

A YouTube video apparently in support of “Project GreenLife” superimposes an image of FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg against the backdrop of a height chart — an apparent bid to suggest that Hamburg should be booked at a police station.

The PP Blog first told you about “Miracle Mineral Supplement,” also known as “Miracle Mineral Solution” or MMS, in August 2010. The FDA warned that serious harm could come to human beings who consumed it, saying MMS produced industrial bleach when used as directed.

“Multiple independent distributors” sold the product online, the FDA said.

Now, the U.S. Department of Justice has announced that four people — two from Oregon and two from Washington state — have been charged criminally.

Named defendants were Louis Daniel Smith, 42, and Karis Delong, 38, both of Ashland, Ore. Also charged were Chris Olson, 49, and Tammy Olson, 50, of Nine Mile Falls, Wash.

“Our most vulnerable citizens need real medicine — not dangerous chemicals peddled by modern-day snake oil salesmen,” said Stuart F. Delery, principal deputy assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division.

Smith and Delong operated a business known as “Project GreenLife” or PGL, the Justice Department said.

A dissolved Nevada corporation known as PGL International LLC lists “Daniel Smith” as its managing member. A website styled ProjectGreenLife.com now appears to be parked at GoDaddy. Meanwhile, there are references online to ProjectGreenLife purportedly having been a “1st and 14th Amendment Private Membership Association.”

At least one website that makes the claim makes a companion claim that Daniel Smith used “the help and counsel of the ProAdvocate Group” when contacting the FDA about MMS-related matters. “Daniel based his inquiry on a good-faith understanding of U.S. Supreme Court case law as it pertained to the activities of a private association,” the site claims. “Daniel told the FDA unless they objected within ten days he would assume they had no objection.”

Pro Advocate Group reportedly was the Texas-based entity that assisted the AdViewGlobal HYIP scam form a “private association” in 2009 in which AVG appears to have tried to insulate itself from examination by the U.S. government by purporting to operate from Uruguay. In April 2012, federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia linked AVG to the $119 million Ponzi scheme operated by Andy Bowdoin of AdSurfDaily.

Along with hawking purported private associations, Pro Advocate Group claims on its website that it offers “Pro Se Litigation with Super Appeal” and other services.

A Justice Department news release yesterday on the charges flowing from Project GreenLife and the sale of MMS did not reference Pro Advocate Group.

Smith, Delong and Tammy Olson were charged with one count of conspiracy, four counts of interstate sales of misbranded drugs and one count of smuggling. Chris Olson was charged with one count of conspiracy, one count of the interstate sale of a misbranded drug and one count of smuggling.

The Justice Department said that “PGL provided consumers directions to combine MMS with citric acid to create Chlorine Dioxide, and the instructions told consumers to drink this mixture to cure numerous illnesses. Chlorine Dioxide is a potent agent used to bleach textiles, among other industrial applications. In humans, Chlorine Dioxide is a severe respiratory and eye irritant that can cause nausea, diarrhea and dehydration.”

Research by the PP Blog shows that Daniel Smith apparently has supporters who’ve issued an appeal to “Please take a stand to help save MMS and Daniel Smith from the FDA.” A headline for video on the site describes the FDA as a “Cult of Tryanny.” A narrator describes the FDA as a “rogue agency” and superimposes the images of FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg and others against the backdrop of a height chart. It appears to be a ham-handed way to suggest that Hamburg and the other purported “rogues” should be booked at a police station.

From the Justice Department statement (italics added):

As part of the scheme to manufacture MMS, the indictment alleges that Smith, Delong, and others smuggled sodium chlorite into the United States from Canada using fraudulent invoices to hide the true end use of the product. In these invoices, according to the indictment, they falsely claimed that the ingredients they were purchasing for MMS were to be used in wastewater treatment facilities.

According to the charging documents, Smith and Delong were the managing members of PGL Smith co-founded the company, and Delong frequently handled financial transactions for the company and recruited friends and family to participate in the business. The indictment alleges that Smith and Delong paid Tammy Olson to handle all customer inquiries regarding the product. It is alleged that Tammy Olson continued selling MMS on her own website after federal agents shut down the Project GreenLife website and production facilities.

The indictment also alleges that Smith and Delong paid Chris Olson to clandestinely manufacture MMS in a building on his property after regulators from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspected PGL’s original manufacture and shipping locations.

Feb 7, 2013
‘American Greed’ Producing Episode On Trevor Cook Ponzi Fraud; Seniors, People Of Faith Fleeced By Cook And His Pitchmen

Trevor Cook

CNBC’s “American Greed” will be in Minneapolis today to begin filming an episode on the massive Trevor Cook Ponzi scheme that was targeted at senior citizens and conservative Christians and rendered some victims penniless, a source told the PP Blog.

Cook’s scheme gathered about $194 million. It collapsed in 2009. Money that potentially could go to victims is still missing. The scheme was reminiscent of the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case in that it took various bizarre and disturbing turns.

Earlier this month, Cook pitchman Jason Bo-Alan Beckman was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. Gerald Durand received 20 years. Christopher Pettengill, who cooperated with prosecutors, received a 90-month sentence. Sentencing for Pat Kiley, a conspiracy theorist and former radio host in his seventies, was put on hold, pending the results of medical and psychological exams.

Cook, the ringleader, received a 25-year sentence in 2010.

For what the Cook fraud lacked in dollar volume — indeed, it was significantly smaller than Tom Petters’ epic Ponzi fraud in Minnesota — it more than made up for in pure brazenness. Beckman essentially was accused of taunting victims in his court filings after stealing millions from a senior-citizen couple in their late eighties. Durand told a tale about a submersible submarine Cook allegedly bought on eBay for the waters of Canada before moving it to Panama, where Cook purportedly found the conditions to be more sub-friendly.

Kiley once tried to have a CFTC lawyer fined $1,000 for filing court papers Kiley deemed “offensive.”

The Cook scheme also had something in common with AdViewGlobal, the collapsed 1-percent-a-day autosurf linked to the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme: a tie to offshore facilitator KINGZ Capital Management Corp.

AdViewGlobal announced its purported tie to KINGZ on May 4, 2009, the same day the Obama administration announced a crackdown on offshore fraud. KINGZ denied any tie to AVG. But the National Futures Association (NFA) established a tie between KINGZ and Cook.

AdViewGlobal collapsed during the summer of 2009, amid reports that millions of dollars had been stolen. The purported “opportunity” bizarrely declared itself a “private association” operating in Uruguay, apparently in a bid to evade U.S. regulatory scrutiny even though it was conducting business in the United States. Federal prosecutors tied ASD President Andy Bowdoin to AdViewGlobal in 2012. Bowdoin, now serving a 78-month prison sentence, once claimed that prosecutors were “Satan” and compared the U.S. Secret Service to the 9/11 terrorists. His scheme gathered at least $119 million.

Prosecutors have evidence that suggests at least some of the AdViewGlobal money was deposited in Switzerland. The Cook Ponzi also did business in Switzerland.

There also is a tie between Trevor Cook and Peregrine Financial Group Inc., the collapsed fraud scheme of Russell R. Wasendorf Sr., now facing up to 50 years in federal prison. Wasendorf once was a member of NFA’s Futures Commission Merchant Advisory Committee

Peregrine consumed at least $215 million and conducted a scam for two decades, prosecutors said. “[I]n order for the fraud to be effective and sustainable for years, defendant routinely created and used false certifications and forged documents to deceive his customers, his accounting department, his fellow corporate officers, an outside auditor, and multiple regulatory agencies whose core function was to detect and prevent exactly the type of criminal activity defendant perpetrated,” prosecutors said of Wasendorf.

Jan 28, 2013
UPDATE: ASD’s Andy Bowdoin Incarcerated At Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Center

Thomas Anderson “Andy” Bowdoin

Convicted 1-percent-a-day Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin is listed as an inmate at the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City, a development that likely means the 78-year-old AdSurfDaily patriarch is on his way to a federal prison. Bowdoin, a Floridian, last year requested to be incarcerated in Florida. The PP Blog was unable to determine immediately if that request was granted.

Bowdoin pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the ASD Ponzi case in May 2012. He admitted ASD was a Ponzi scheme that had gathered about $119 million and had never operated lawfully from its inception in 2006 through its collapse in 2008. Bowdoin initially was imprisoned in June 2012, after federal prosecutors proffered evidence that he continued to promote scams even after the seizure of more than $80 million in the ASD Ponzi case and even after he was charged criminally in December 2010.

In August, Bowdoin was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for his role in the ASD Ponzi.

Federal prosecutors identified AdViewGlobal and “OneX” as two other scams in which Bowdoin participated after the collapse of ASD amid Ponzi allegations by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008. Like ASD, AdViewGlobal was a purported “program” that planted the seed its paid a daily return of 1 percent. OneX was a “program” Bowdoin said could fetch participants a quick return of $99,000, apparently after an initial outlay of $5.

Bowdoin targeted former ASD members and “college students” in his OneX promos.

In August, the SEC accused Zeek Rewards of operating a massive online Ponzi scheme that had gathered about $600 million. Similar to ASD, Zeek Rewards was a “program” that planted the seed it paid a return of 1.5 percent a day.

The SEC has described its Zeek probe as ongoing. The Secret Service said in August that it also was investigating Zeek.

Despite the fact Bowdoin was sued civilly, accused of racketeering and charged criminally with wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities for the ASD scam, any number of ASD members turned to promoting Zeek, which planted the seed it paid out even more than ASD.

In August, the SEC accused Zeek of selling unregistered securities. Zeek operator Paul R. Burks, who is in his mid-60s, consented to a judgment in the civil case without admitting or denying the SEC allegations. Two prospective class-action lawsuits also were filed against Burks.

Despite the legal entanglements of both Burks and Bowdoin and Bowdoin’s prison sentence, some MLMers immediately began promoting similar “programs.”

Jan 15, 2013
CURIOUS: 3 Of 5 ‘Most Popular’ Stories On PP Blog Last Week Were ‘Old’ Articles On The AdSurfDaily And AdView Global Scams

UPDATED 8:55 A.M. ET (U.S.A., DEC. 11) Are Zeekers doing research in advance of clawback actions in the Ponzi scheme case or otherwise trying to get a sense of history? Are they (or other readers) trying to gain a better understanding of ties that may exist among Zeek, AdSurfDaily and AdViewGlobal?

Three of the PP Blog’s five “Most Popular” stories last week were “old” articles about ASD and AVG, according to a tracking service used by the Blog. AVG had not dominated reader interest on the PP Blog for nearly three years.

Here are links to (and briefs about) those stories:

From July 16, 2009: (No. 2 in ‘Most Popular’ rankings last week.) BREAKING NEWS: Federal Judge Says Curtis Richmond, Six Other Parties Who Used Pro Se Litigation Blueprint, Cannot Intervene In AdSurfDaily Forfeiture Case

The July 16, 2009, story reported that seven would-be, pro se intervenors in the ASD Ponzi case were denied standing by a federal judge. In her ruling, the judge pointed out that the first filing occurred in February 2009. It is “representative and seems to be a ‘form’ complaint inasmuch as the others are duplicates,” the judge said.

A key part of the ruling (italics added): “Fraud victims who voluntarily transfer their property to their wrongdoers do not retain a legal interest in their property; instead, such victims acquire a debt against their wrongdoers.”

Waves of other pro se filiers later were denied standing in the case. (On at least two occasions, the judge denied the would-be intervenors en masse.)

It perhaps is worth pointing out that standing also could become an issue in the Zeek case. Given ASD’s history, it also seems possible that “defenders” of the Zeek scheme will ponder the use of shared litigation templates. (The ASD templates, which advanced conspiracy theories and accused public officials of crimes, didn’t “work.” To date, one Zeeker has accused the court-appointed Zeek receiver of a crime.)

From Dec. 7, 2009: (No. 4 in “Most Popular” rankings last week.) AdViewGlobal Recording Suggests Member Cashed Out $10,000 Only Days After Formal Launch And That Insiders Were Awarded Bonuses; Less Than Two Weeks Later, Surf Switched To ‘Private Association’ Structure

The Dec. 7, 2009, story reported that AVG, a purported offshore entity, had conducted conference calls earlier in the year and lured prospects with “bonuses.” It also reported that some AdSurfDaily figures were among the first to receive the “bonuses.”

It perhaps is worth pointing out that an effort by some Zeek insiders now appears to be under way to lure their downlines into nascent “programs,” at least one of which is being positioned as a way to maintain a Zeek downline in a new “program” and receive a bonus. The name of the new “program” that purportedly will provide bonuses to Zeek members and its base of operations are unclear.

Zeek and ASD figure Todd Disner, however, recently was reported to be in Hong Kong with a “lost” passport.

“Todd Disner,” said Zeek figure Robert Craddock on a call last week. “Bless his heart. I don’t know if he’s found his passport yet, but he’s . . . in Hong Kong right now assisting us with this new program. And he’s lost his passport. So, I don’t know if he’s made it back to the states yet or not. And, so, we’re all working very, very hard to pull this together for you.”

Some Zeekers have ported themselves to schemes such as “BannersBroker” and “GoFunPlaces.” It is possible that any number of Zeek members took soiled proceeds from previous scams to their new “opportunities.” What’s not known at this time is what will happen if Zeek “winners” who are the prospective targets of clawback litigation will do if they moved illicit Zeek proceeds into another scheme or dissipated the money in other ways.

From the Dec. 7, 2009, story (italics added):

The conference call, hosted by Terralynn Hoy, a Moderator at both the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum and a ning.com forum set up to promote AVG, did not disclose how the member amassed a large sum in only days and qualified for a cashout. But another participant in the call announced that the man excitedly expected to receive a check for $10,000.

Terralynn Hoy, a figure in both the ASD and AVG stories, hosted at least one call for Zeek in 2011. ASD was a $119 million Ponzi scheme that collapsed in August 2008. AVG collapsed in a sea of mystery in June 2009. Before it collapsed, it sought to make an 80/20 “program” mandatory and exercised its version of a “rebates aren’t guaranteed” clause.

Lots of Zeek members tried to encourage fellow members and prospects to keep 80 percent in the “program” and remove only 20 percent. Like ASD and AVG, Zeek also had a version of a “rebates aren’t guaranteed” clause. Some Zeek “defenders” now claim that Zeek should be left alone because it never promised anybody anything. ASD and AVG members said the same thing about those “programs.”

From July 24, 2009: (No. 5 in “Most Popular” rankings last week.) UNCONFIRMED: Harris Family In Uruguay, AVG Staff Fired

This story reported that certain members of the Bowdoin-Harris family involved in both ASD and AdViewGlobal purportedly had moved to Uruguay. News about the purported move broke after AVG was mentioned in a racketeering lawsuit against ASD in June 2009.

From the July 24, 2009, story (italics added):

AVG has a history of blaming members for its problems and deflecting accountability from management to the rank-and-file. In the past, it has blamed members for the suspension of a bank account and threatened to sue members who shared information outside association walls — and even to contact their ISPs to suspend service of people who asked pointed questions about the company in forums.

Yesterday’s announcement by AVG also blamed the delay in audit findings on unspecified “complications created by changes in payment processors.”

Prior to its August 2012 collapse, Zeek appears to have experienced problems with banks and payment processors. Some Zeek promoters cautioned fellow members not to talk too much about Zeek in public. On Aug. 4, Zeek complained on its Blog about unspecified “North Carolina Credit Unions” saying unfair or untrue things about Zeek.

Zeek members were warned there would be consequences to members who did not toe the company line.

Just 13 days later, on Aug. 17, the SEC filed an emergency action in federal court that alleged Zeek was a $600 million Ponzi and pyramid scheme

Dec 10, 2012
UPDATE: ASD’s Andy Bowdoin Asks Judge For Mercy; Requests Sentence Of ‘Time Served’ And ‘Home Incarceration’ In Ponzi Scheme That Gathered At Least $119 Million And Caused Millions Of Dollars In Losses

Thomas A. "Andy" Bowdoin

UPDATED 2:32 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Confessed Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin of AdSurfDaily has asked U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer for mercy and for a sentence of “time served” and “home incarceration.”

Federal prosecutors have asked Collyer to sentence Bowdoin to 78 months, the maximum sentence under a plea agreement Bowdoin signed in May.

Bowdoin, 77, is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 29 in an online Ponzi caper federal prosecutors now say gathered at least $119 million and created at least 9,000 victims. The ASD patriarch has been jailed since June. Collyer ordered him jailed after prosecutors produced evidence that Bowdoin continued to promote scams — including another 1-percent-a-day scam — after the U.S. Secret Service raided ASD in August 2008 and arrested Bowdoin on Ponzi-related charges in December 2010.

The other 1-percent-a-day scam was AdViewGlobal, which collapsed in 2009. Bowdoin also promoted “OneX,” which prosecutors described as an ASD-like pyramid scheme.

Bowdoin’s sentencing is expected to be closely watched by members of Zeek Rewards, which the SEC described Aug. 17 as a $600 million online Ponzi and pyramid scheme that potentially could affect more than 1 million participants. Zeek’s business model of suggesting a return of more than 1 percent a day was possible strongly resembled the ASD business model.

“As an initial matter, Mr. Bowdoin pleaded guilty to the instant offense [wire fraud] [and] stands before this Court accepting of its punishment,” Bowdoin’s attorneys wrote in a memo to Collyer. “The Defendant does not accept punishment bitterly, but understands that he has committed a crime and that he must be punished.”

Bowdoin, according to his lawyers, disputes a government analysis that pegs total ASD losses by investors at $75 million. The actual loss, the lawyers argued, was $19 million.

“Mr. Bowdoin does not make this objection to minimize his activities,” the lawyers argued. “He only wishes to put the extent of the harm caused by his activities in the appropriate context.”

But Bowdoin’s advancing age and declining health are factors the judge should consider when sentencing Bowdoin, whose wife also is sick, the attorneys argued.

Bowdoin is remorseful for his illegal conduct and has accepted responsibility for his crime, his attorneys argued to the judge.

Unlike many Ponzi scheme cases, the government was able to seize tens of millions of dollars of assets in the ASD case before they could be dissipated, according to court filings. In August 2008, the U.S. Secret Service seized about $80 million from 15 ASD-related bank accounts.

Other seizures occurred in December 2008 and December 2010, for much smaller amounts, according to court filings. Some of the later seizures involved the bank accounts of individual ASD members.

Aug 26, 2012
DEVELOPING STORY: JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid HYIP Ponzi Scheme Appears To Be Morphing Into Autosurf Ponzi Scheme; Cheerleaders Try To Tame The Troops On Ponzi Boards Amid Reports That Frederick Mann Has ‘Retired’
"ProfitClicking" claims it has acquired JSS/JBP and that Frederick Mann has retired.

Just days ago Frederick Mann — the purported operator of the JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid “program” — was hinting that his fraud scheme that advertised a return of 60 percent a month needed a new name because critics were being entirely too negative. Like the now defunct Zeek Rewards “program,” which last week was described by the SEC as a $600 million Ponzi and pyramid scheme that was selling unregistered securities as investment contracts, JSS/JBP had served up one public-relations disaster after another.

There was the little matter of an ad for JSS/JBP that appeared on a website known as Vatican Assassins, for instance. And there was “Ping,” a woman who’d claimed she had heart problems, was managing multiple JSS/JBP accounts, that her sister’s home was in trouble — and that JSS/JBP ignored her support tickets for weeks.

Mann speculated that the company could come under attack by American cruise missiles.

JSS/JBP found itself wrestling another PR flap in the past 24 hours, amid Ponzi-forum reports that Mann suddenly had “retired” and that the JSS/JBP “program” had been acquired and wrapped into an upstart autosurf known as ProfitClicking.

A quick analysis of the shell of the ProfitClicking website suggests that the emerging “opportunity” plans to be every bit as disingenuous as the five-alarm fraud scheme it apparently has swallowed. Ponzi-forum pretentiousness on places such as MoneyMakerGroup can be paraphrased as such:
- I didn’t sign up for no stinkin’ autosurf. Where the hell is the money I gave the JSS/JBP scammers to see if I could profit from the scam?
- Give these honest scammers a chance to see if they can pull off their new scam.
- Be patient with the new scammers and don’t make too much noise. Remember, we have to pretend they’re not scammers and we’re not scammers to maximize the effectiveness of the scam.
Perhaps to make its “sovereign citizen” clientele feel at home, ProfitClicking has adopted all or part of the former JSS/JBP terms, which makes members affirm they are not with the “government.”

Like the collapsed AdViewGlobal autosurf Ponzi scheme that now has been linked to the collapsed AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, ProfitClicking is calling itself a “private association.”

Similar to the collapsed Zeek scheme, ProfitClicking says it has a “Legal Compliance Department.”

Like many online fraud schemes these days, ProfitClicking appears to have a plan to scam the public through social-networking sites such as Google +, Twitter and Facebook. And Profit Clicking says it is using at least two of the same offshore payment processors Zeek chose: Payza and SolidTrustPay.

Mann was a former pitchman for the ASD Ponzi scheme. Zeek and JSS/JBP are known to have members in common.

One graphic on the current landing page for ProfitClicking features a cartoon image of a bird. The bizarre headline is “Polly Wants A Profit.”

Naturally, there’s also a picture of a waterfront mansion.
Aug 22, 2012
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Prosecutors Ask Judge To Sentence AdSurfDaily’s Andy Bowdoin To Maximum Prison Term

“Fortunately for the investing public, ASD’s popularity in the spring and summer of 2008 also drew the attention of the United States Secret Service, which investigated Bowdoin and ASD and discovered the true nature of the business model.” — Federal prosecutors, in Aug. 13 sentencing memo that asked a federal judge to impose the maximum prison sentence on 1-percent-a-day Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin.

Thomas A. "Andy" Bowdoin

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia have asked U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer to sentence acknowledged Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin of AdSurfDaily to the maximum term outlined in Bowdoin’s May 2012 plea agreement: 78 months.

News of the sentencing memo and detailed new allegations against Bowdoin, 77, broke one day after some ASD members were circulating an email that asked their fellow members to “flood” a federal judge with letters of support for the recidivist con man.

In a sentencing memo and accompanying exhibits, prosecutors advised Collyer that they had linked Bowdoin to AdViewGlobal (AVG), a collapsed 1-percent-a-day Ponzi scheme “that was simply a repackaged version of ASD.”

The criminal preparations to launch AVG began in October 2008, just two months after the seizure of tens of millions of dollars in ASD-related bank accounts by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008, according to an evidence exhibit filed by prosecutors.

Bowdoin was a two-thirds owner of AVG, which did some of its banking in Switzerland, according to an exhibit.

And prosecutors linked Bowdoin to OneX, another alleged fraud scheme.

In what is believed to be the first public filing that includes specific details about OneX, prosecutors produced an exhibit that identified one of the principals of OneX as James C. Hill, who allegedly also is known by the initials J.C.

The introduction of the document ends one of the long-standing OneX mysteries: the identity of “J.C.,” who once assured conference-call listeners that “God” was aboard the OneX train.

When confronted about OneX, prosecutors said, Bowdoin claimed he’d done nothing wrong and was acting on “advice of counsel.”

” . . . it became clear that Bowdoin did not speak to a lawyer about OneX, but merely relied on another OneX promoter who had supposedly spoken to a lawyer,” prosecutors said.

But the most explosive revelations by the government concerned AVG. The exhibits show that investigators obtained emails going back and forth among AVG participants described as Bowdoin “co-conspirators.”

In one document obtained by investigators, Bowdoin describes two separate alleged thefts from AVG totaling $2.65 million, according to an evidence exhibit.

Bowdoin’s partner in AVG was former ASD executive Gary Talbert, according to an evidence exhibit. Bowdoin blamed the alleged theft on Arizona business associates of Talbert.

The Bowdoin story is one “that reads like a handbook on fraud and deception,” prosecutors said.

ASD’s patriarch and the co-profiteer of AVG cheated investors out of tens of millions of dollars, prosecutors argued, saying that Bowdoin’s career as a crook dated back “several decades” and caused victims to turn over more than $120 million to the huckster.

“He had no concerns for the lives he affected or destroyed, and he boldly continued or expanded his criminal conduct even while under the supervision of this Court,” prosecutors argued.

Aug 15, 2012
BULLETIN: AdSurfDaily Apologists Circulate Plan To ‘Flood’ Judge With Letters Of Support For Jailed Ponzi Schemer Andy Bowdoin; Forwarded Email Includes 2 Ads For Zeek Rewards’ ‘Program’ And Claims ASD Patriarch Was ‘Railroaded’

“Well we have been dealt a setback today…the judge here agreed with the government to transfer us to the District Court in Washington DC… The same judge who railroaded Andy. I will make a motion for her to recuse herself and if she will not (and she will not) I will take an appeal.” — Remark attributed to Dwight Owen Schweitzer that is contained within email by former AdSurfDaily spokeswoman Sara Mattoon that discusses plan to “flood” a federal judge with letters of support for jailed ASD Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin, Aug. 13, 2012

Thomas A. "Andy" Bowdoin

Former AdSurfDaily member Dwight Owen Schweitzer — later to join former ASD colleague Todd Disner as a pitchman for the Zeek Rewards 1-percent-a-day-plus MLM scheme — is quoted in an email circulating among ASD members that ASD President Andy Bowdoin was “railroaded” by a federal judge.

The quotation attributed to Schweitzer was contained within an Aug. 13 email forwarded by Disner after being assembled by former ASD spokeswoman Sara Mattoon. Mattoon has a history of packaging communications friendly to ASD, adding her purported insights to the communications and emailing them to members. The Aug. 13 email calls for ASD members to “flood” a federal judge with letters of support for Bowdoin. The ASD patriarch and veteran securities swindler is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 29 in the District of Columbia by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer.

Previous Mattoon emails have quoted Kenneth Wayne Leaming, a purported “sovereign citizen” now jailed near Seattle after a 2011 investigation by an FBI Terrorism Task Force. Leaming was accused of filing false liens against at least five public officials involved in the ASD Ponzi case, harboring two fugitives wanted in a separate home-business scheme, being a felon in possession of firearms and uttering a bogus “Bonded Promissory Note” for $1 million.

Leaming, who is not an attorney, was said to be performing legal work on behalf of some ASD members.

In May 2012, Bowdoin pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the ASD Ponzi case and acknowledged that ASD was a Ponzi scheme and that his company never operated lawfully from the inception of its 1-percent-a-day (or more) “program” in 2006. Bowdoin, 77, originally remained free on bond after his guilty plea, pending formal sentencing.

But Bowdoin was jailed in June 2012, after prosecutors presented evidence that Bowdoin continued to promote scams after the U.S. Secret Service seized more than $80 million in ASD-related proceeds in 2008 and after Bowdoin was arrested on ASD-related Ponzi charges in 2010. Prosecutors identified those scams as “OneX,” and AdViewGlobal (AVG).

Like ASD, AVG was a 1-percent-a-day “program.” AVG, which launched in February 2009 after the seizure of ASD-related bank accounts in 2008, vanished mysteriously in the summer of 2009 after issuing threats to members and journalists. AVG was referenced in a lawsuit filed by ASD members who accused Bowdoin of racketeering.

Contained within the forwarded email dated Aug. 13 are at least two ads for the Zeek Rewards’ MLM which, like ASD, plants the seed that a return that corresponds to an annualized return in the hundreds of percent is possible. Precisely why the Zeek ads appeared in the email is unclear. They are attributed to a Zeek affiliate known as “Compassion Ministries” and display Zeek videos produced by USHBB Inc., a company that once produced ads for the Narc That Car pyramid scheme that collapsed in 2010 after the Better Business Bureau raised concerns about Narc and investigative reporters began to write about Narc and produce television reports about the “program.”

Even as the Mattoon email solicited support for Bowdoin as his Aug. 29 sentencing date approaches, it cautions ASD members to “be careful” if they write to Bowdoin in jail because “they read his mail.”

Disner and Schweitzer sued the U.S. government in November 2011, claiming the seizure of ASD’s database was unconstitutional. The lawsuit originally was filed in the Southern District of Florida, but a judge there granted a request by the government to transfer the case to the District of Columbia. The case now appears on the docket in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and has been assigned to Collyer.

The Aug. 13 email from Mattoon quotes Schweitzer as saying, “Well we have been dealt a setback today…the judge here agreed with the government to transfer us to the District Court in Washington DC… The same judge who railroaded Andy. I will make a motion for her to recuse herself and if she will not (and she will not) I will take an appeal.”

When suing the United States in November 2011, Disner and Schweitzer relied in part on a purported expert opinion from Keith Laggos that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme. Like Disner and Schweitzer, Laggos also has been linked to the Zeek Rewards’ scheme.

Laggos reportedly was fired as a Zeek “consultant” last month. Details surrounding the reported firing remain unclear.

Zeek is now the subject of an “examination” by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper.

Zeek’s news Blog published this baffling message yesterday (italics added):

Hello Fine People:

The team wanted to let you know there won’t be any training, recruitment or leadership calls for the next few days while planning is going on. Standby for some important announcements. Thank you for your patience!

Aug 14, 2012