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Tag: Andy Bowdoin

SPECIAL REPORT: Hollow Claim: Caller Brings Up AdSurfDaily Ponzi Prosecution In JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid Conference Call; Frederick Mann Tells Affiliates Operating In United States That ‘We Don’t Have An Office In The U.S.’

“[F]raudulent commercial schemes are not noted for their internal consistency.” — Professor James E. Byrne, consultant to FBI and Scotland Yard (among others) and HYIP expert hired by U.S. government to assess the alleged Pathway To Prosperity scheme in 2010

Frederick Mann

In a bizarre conference call for the JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid “program,” a caller who identified himself as a former AdSurfDaily member raised the issue of the ASD Ponzi scheme case brought by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008, questioning whether JSS/JBP was safe from regulatory scrutiny or “getting too big and drawing certain attention.”

The implication of the remark was that the attention of the U.S. government would be unwanted.

With listeners identifying themselves as U.S.-based members of JSS/JBP on the line, Frederick Mann suggested that his purported program was outside the reach of U.S. law enforcement.

“Just Been Paid is not based in the U.S.,” Mann replied to the caller, after the female host of the call had paraphrased the caller’s query to Mann. The host paraphrased the question because Mann said he didn’t catch it the first time around.

” . . . [H]e was making reference to AdSurfDaily and that they were closed down, and he wants to know what we have in place to protect Just BeenPaid for it not to happen like AdSurfDaily,” the host said to Mann.

“Just Been Paid is not based in the U.S., and our servers are not in the U.S.,” Mann replied. “We don’t have an office in the U.S.”

But Mann’s answer did not speak to costly civil and criminal litigation that could ensue against JSS/JBP’s U.S.-based members, all of whom are using wires that run through the United States to participate in the purported program and some of whom are using U.S. wires to recruit downline members. Nor did the answer speak to actions the United States could take against JSS/JBP itself.

In 2008, marketing materials identified Mann as an ASD promoter. In January 2012, the Italian securities regulator CONSOB announced a JSS/JBP-related probe and issued a 90-day suspension order. JSS/JBP purports to pay out at a daily rate of 2 percent, double that of ASD. On an annualized basis, the payout rate of JSS/JBP corresponds to a return that is between 48 and 73 times the typical rates that put Bernard Madoff in prison for 150 years. ASD President Andy Bowdoin was indicted on Ponzi scheme charges in December 2010.

Bowdoin specifically was accused of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. The U.S. Secret Service seized 10 of his personal bank accounts in August 2008, amid Ponzi allegations. Other court filings that became public in 2010 showed that the Secret Service also had seized bank accounts linked to some individual ASD promoters.

Mann previously has declined to identify JSS/JBP with a nation-state, meaning investors do not know where the “program” is operating from. JSS/JBP has no known securities registrations, and its U.S. affiliates very well could be selling unregistered securities to U.S. citizens via wire while at once implicating themselves and their recruits in a Ponzi scheme that is trying to disguise itself as a legitimate business.

Even if it is presumed to be true that the United States could not act against the company itself — and that’s a big “if” because U.S. law enforcement has a number of options should it choose to exercise them — U.S.-based affiliates of the “program” likely are running afoul of any number of civil and criminal statutes.

Internal Inconsistencies

In 2010, Professor James E. Byrne — who has consulted with the FBI and Scotland Yard and was hired by the United States to offer an expert opinion on the Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) HYIP scheme — observed that “fraudulent commercial schemes are not noted for their internal consistency” and that materials he examined in the P2P case displayed such inconsistencies.

After a probe by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, P2P operator Nicholas Smirnow was charged criminally and accused of running an international financial scam. The purported return rate of JSS/JBP is somewhat on par with the rates of the alleged Smirnow/P2P HYIP scheme.

Internal inconsistencies were on full display during the March 8 JSS/JBP call featuring Mann.

As one example, a caller who identified himself as “John” and appeared to be speaking in U.S. English asked Mann for some specifics about the program, voicing that he was confused.

“All your marketing material — your website and now this conference call — has confused me more than anything I’ve ever heard in my life,” John said.

“You don’t have any answers for the [gentlemen] that have asked questions,” John said.

Mann suggested that John “submit a help request.”

Apparently growing agitated and increasingly confused, John shot back, “I submit that I just would like to have a straight answer.”

Mann again pointed John to the company’s web-based explanations and resources.

“The basic approach” to JSS/JBP, Mann explained, is to “find one thing that you understand and then find another thing that you understand, and that way you keep on finding things that you can understand.”

Unmoved by Mann’s response, John shot back, “I have two master’s degrees and I’m telling you that I do not understand it.”

John was the seventh caller to have asked Mann questions during the March 8 call. An eighth caller then came on the line. He identified himself as “Rick” (or by a name that sounded like Rick), saying he was from “California.” (Note: Garbling during the recorded call sometimes made it difficult to hear a name clearly.)

Rick questioned whether callers such as John should be asking Mann such “basic” questions, asserting that Rick, unlike John, had no master’s degree but nevertheless understood the program.

At that point, Mann observed that online money-making programs may have a “bigger learning curve.”

After Rick exited the line, a caller who identified himself as “Michael” from “San Francisco” stepped up to the plate for Mann and JSS/JBP.

Michael asserted that, like John, he has a “master’s degree,” adding that “I have lots of degrees” but noting that his academic pedigree was “really not applicable to online money-making.”

As guidance, Michael suggested that JSS/JBP promoters sign up for “all” of the payment processors used by the program — but Michael did not tell listeners that all of the processors with which JSS/JBP has associated itself are operating offshore (from a U.S. standpoint), are known to be friendly to fraud schemes and may deny customers U.S. consumer protections.

More Internal Inconsistencies

Other examples of internal inconsistencies presented themselves during the call, a recording of which was about 48 minutes in length.

One caller who identified himself as residing in “Florida” asked Mann about the importance of the “patent” claim on JBP’s website.

Mann initially replied that the “patent” claim is “not important at all.”

The response, however, gives rise to questions about why JSS/JBP even would mention a patent if it was “not important at all,” particularly since the “program” had altered the patent claim over time.

Prior to a website alteration that appears to have occurred last month, JSS/JBP made this specious claim: “JustBeenPaid! (JBP) and its related programs, including JSS-Tripler, are licensed under United States Patent 6,578,010.”

Those words were changed to read, “JustBeenPaid! (JBP) and its related programs operate in accordance with United States Patent 6,578,010 (now public domain).”

After reflecting on the caller’s patent question, Mann said this, “In any case, the patent is public domain. It doesn’t actually protect anything. But what is relevant about it is that a patent that covers some of what we do was issued and was approved by a government agency.”

In the United States, patents are issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a government entity. The office is not the nation’s securities regulator.

It is common for scammers to try to associate a scheme with the government as a means of planting the seed that the government has full knowledge of the “program” and has endorsed it. The ASD scheme, for example, traded on the name of the President of the United States — something that caught the attention of the U.S. Secret Service, which has the twin duties of guarding the President’s life and protecting the U.S. financial system from criminals.

Callers also expressed confusion about “commission” payments from JSS/JBP and raised questions about an emerging JSS/JBP “Platinum” program that would accompany an existing “Premium” program through which some earlier members had paid higher fees believing they would “cycle” faster and make more money.

Based on comments made during the call, it appears as though the “Platinum” program is priced higher than the “Premium” program — and members are concerned that their earlier “Premium” purchases would be for naught if new “Platinum” purchasers effectively could pay more money to cut in line and “cycle” faster than them.

Mar 17, 2012
South Carolina Attorney General Alleges Ponzi Scheme And False Statements By Purveyor; U.S. Secret Service Seen Carting Boxes From Purported ‘Precious Metals’ Business

From WSPA: An agent returns inside to cart out another box at the headquarters of Atlantic Bullion and Coin Inc. in Easley, S.C.

UPDATED 7:31 A.M. ET (U.S.A., MARCH 17) State officials in South Carolina say Ronnie Gene Wilson and Atlantic Bullion and Coin Inc. were running a “precious metals” Ponzi scheme that gathered about $70 million from “numerous” investors in 25 states over the past three years.

After dark Thursday, the U.S. Secret Service was seen carting boxes out of the Easley, S.C., office of Atlantic Bullion. The scene was reminiscent of the earliest hours of the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case, which began as a civil probe by the Secret Service in August 2008 and eventually led to criminal charges against ASD President Andy Bowdoin of Quincy, Fla.

Like Bowdoin — once a councilman in Perry, Fla. — Wilson once was a councilman in Anderson County, S.C. The initial filings in the Wilson case suggest that he’d previously been on the radar of law enforcement for a scheme in the 1990s that led to a cease-and-desist order. Bowdoin also was implicated in a securities scheme in the 1990s, according to records.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has filed a civil complaint in the Richland County Court of Common Pleas against Ronnie Gene Wilson.

Among the allegations is that Ronnie Gene Wilson “made false or misleading statements to investigators from the Securities Division, including statements regarding the quantity of silver that the defendants actually took possession of and held for clients,” authorities said.

“Investors must be wary of those looking to defraud and deceive,” Attorney General Wilson said. “The Securities Division will continue to watch for unscrupulous individuals and businesses looking to take advantage hard working investors.”

See local report at wspa.com.

Mar 16, 2012
UPDATE: Government Has Produced At Least 2,742 Pages Of Discovery In Kenneth Wayne Leaming Case; Trial For AdSurfDaily Figure And Purported ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Scheduled To Begin Sept. 17, One Week Before ASD President Andy Bowdoin Goes On Trial

“The Government has provided over 2742 pages of discovery consisting of: liens, police reports, [Bureau of Prisons] records, pictures, surveillance photos, internet search records, audio subpoenas and over 1000 pages of documents seized.” — From March 5 court order in false-liens case involving accused AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming and former Leaming business associate David Carroll Stephenson

Kenneth Wayne Leaming

If the scheduling holds, accused AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming will go on trial in the Western District of Washington on Sept. 17 with his former business colleague David Carroll Stephenson, one week before ASD President Andy Bowdoin is set to go on trial in the District of Columbia in a Ponzi scheme case involving at least $110 million.

Leaming, 56, of Spanaway, Wash., is accused of filing false liens against at least five public officials involved in the ASD case, including a federal judge, three federal prosecutors and a special agent of the U.S. Secret Service. In addition, he is charged with being a participant with 56-year-old Stephenson, a federal inmate in a fraud case, in a scheme to file false liens against at least two federal prison officials.

At the same time, Leaming is charged with concealing two federal fugitives involved in an Arkansas-based, home-business fraud scheme involving millions of dollars, being a felon in possession of firearms and uttering a false “Bonded Promissory Note” with a purported face value of $1 million.

The docket of U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton of the Western District of Washington now shows a trial date of Sept. 17 for both Leaming and Stephenson.

Leaming, who has a 2005 felony conviction for piloting an aircraft without a valid pilot’s certificate, originally was scheduled to go on trial March 20. That trial date was rescheduled for April 2 after a superseding indictment was returned against Leaming after his initial arrest on a criminal complaint in November 2011 — and now has been moved to September to give Leaming and Stephenson more time to prepare, according to court filings.

Bowdoin, 77, was indicted in 2010 on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. In August 2008, the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from 10 of his personal bank accounts, amid allegations that Bowdoin was presiding over an international Ponzi scheme operating over the Internet.

Both of the Arkansas fugitives allegedly found with Leaming in Washingston state also are purported “sovereign citizens.” They were identified as Timothy Shawn Donavan, 64, and Sharon Jeannette Henningsen, 67. Donavan currently is detained in Oklahoma, and Henningsen is detained in Texas, according to records.

Leaming and Stephenson both are detained near Seattle.

As was the case with the original court filings in the 2008 civil action that led to the criminal prosecution of Bowdoin, investigators have produced surveillance photos pertaining to the Leaming and Stephenson prosecutions.

Records suggest that Leaming came under surveillance in Washington state by an FBI Terrorism Task Force by at least August 2011.

In addition to the surveillance photos, the government also has produced, liens, police records, unspecified “pictures,” prison records, Internet search records, “audio subpoenas” and “over 1000 pages of documents seized,” according to court filings.

All in all, according to the filings, the government has produced at least 2,742 pages of discovery in the Leaming and Stephenson cases.

It is unclear from court filings whether the government seized any evidence of correspondence Leaming may have conducted with ASD members. Some ASD members are known to have have quoted Leaming in individual emails dating back at least to November 2010.

Leaming has asserted he is proceeding to trial under “duress.”

In March 2009 — while the ASD Ponzi case was still a civil matter — Bowdoin claimed a January 2009 decision he made to submit to the forfeiture and stop pressing claims for the money seized from his bank accounts was made under “severe duress.”

He made the claim while acting as his own attorney, and further claimed that his decision to relitigate the case after earlier abandoning his claims was “legally accomplished as a matter of law” simply because he had filed papers saying so.

A month later — in April 2009 — federal prosecutors made a bombshell announcement in court that, prior to submitting to the forfeiture and dropping his claims to the seized cash, Bowdoin had signed a proffer letter and acknowledged the government’s material allegations were all true.

In September 2009, prosecutors said Bowdoin was telling ASD members one story — while telling a federal judge another.

Final orders of forfeiture were entered in the ASD civil case in January 2010. Bowdoin appealed, but lost in March 2011.

In the earliest days and weeks after the August 2008 seizure, some ASD members — ignoring the lessons of history — began to promote other schemes that advertised preposterous payouts, claiming they were safe because they were “offshore.”

One current HYIP scheme is JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, whose advertised daily payout rate is 2 percent — twice that of ASD. Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, identified himself as an ASD pitchman in 2008 web promos three months before the Secret Service raid on ASD headquarters in Quincy, Fla.

In a Feb. 23, 2012, conference call, Mann declined to say precisely where JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid was operating from. On Feb. 27, the PP Blog reported that a site linked to Mann featured videos of Francis Schaeffer Cox, a purported “sovereign citizen” implicated in an alleged murder plot against public officials in Alaska.

On Feb. 29, the PP Blog received threatening communications from an individual describing himself as “MoneyMakingBrain.” Among other things, “MoneyMakingBrain” claimed he’d defend Mann “so help me God.”

On March 12, the PP Blog reported that “MoneyMakingBrain” had asserted the Blog would “go down in flames.”

On Feb. 18 — at RealScam.com, a forum that educates the public about mass-marketing fraud — “MoneyMakingBrain” published a link to the Mann-associated site that beams the Cox videos. It is unclear if “MoneyMakingBrain” understood that Cox was under arrest on serious criminal charges and is identified with the “sovereign citizen movement.”

NOTE: The PP Blog believes it is ill-advised to click on any link left by “MoneyMakingBrain” at RealScam.com.

One of the surveillance photos in the ASD Ponzi case: Source: Court files.

Mar 14, 2012
Rust Consulting, Claims Administrator In AdSurfDaily Ponzi Case, Says ASD Members Dwight Owen Schweitzer And Todd Disner Are ‘Impermissibly’ Seeking To Relitigate D.C. Forfeiture Case Before Florida Federal Judge

UPDATED 2:57 P.M. ET (U.S.A., MARCH 11)

Dwight Owen Schweitzer and Todd Disner — the two AdSurfDaily members from Miami who filed suit against the Justice Department and Rust Consulting Inc. in November 2011 — never filed remissions-claims forms, Rust said in a motion to dismiss the complaint.

And Schweitzer and Disner are “impermissibly” seeking to relitigate the forfeiture action against tens of millions of dollars in the personal bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin before a federal judge in Florida, Rust asserted.

The original civil case was brought by federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia and decided against Bowdoin/ASD by a federal judge in the District of Columbia.

But Disner and Schweitzer now are seeking a Florida venue to “avoid or evade the earlier judgment in the Seizure Action, or to deny its force or effect,” Rust argued in its dismissal motion.

The Florida court “lacks subject matter jurisdiction,” Rust argued. But even if the court concluded that it could preside over the the lawsuit, Schweitzer and Disner have not stated “a claim upon which relief can be granted against RUST, on the grounds that it constitutes an impermissible attack on the orders, rulings, and judgment rendered in the Seizure Action.”

“Plaintiffs are effectively seeking to re-litigate the Seizure Action in this case,” Rust argued. “Their material allegations and demands for relief center on their desire for this Court to determine whether the USA presented sufficient evidence in the Seizure Action to justify the seizure and confiscation of property held by ASD, including and in particular Plaintiff’s alleged property . . . In other words, in this action Plaintiffs seek to challenge the court’s decisions rendered in the Seizure Action. This is impermissible.”

Moreover, Rust argued, “it cannot be ignored that Plaintiffs admit they were afforded means in the Seizure Action to submit claims for their alleged property, but elected not to do so.”

In bringing their case in November, Schweitzer and Disner claimed an affidavit filed in the forfeiture case by the U.S. Secret Service in the District of Columbia was flawed and that the government hired Rust to implement a remissions program “designed to collect evidence and coerced admissions from the plaintiffs to be used by the government” at the criminal trial of ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

Disner and Schweitzer also took issue with government agents joining ASD prior to the August 2008 seizure and allegedly violating the ASD membership agreement, including an undercover agent who placed his undercover “MySpace” page in ASD’s advertising rotator. In 2008, the government alleged that “ASD did not require, or even verify that the agent “had any product or service to sell.”

Had the agents “lived up to the obligations they took on by becoming members of ASD they should have reported their own violations of the ASD terms of service with the result that the sites they foisted upon ASD would have been removed and the benefits to them as advertisers’ would be forfeited as the ASD rules mandated,” Disner and Schweitzer argued.

As of yesterday, the government had not responded to the lawsuit, which was brought by Schweitzer and Disner in the form of a complaint for declaratory relief that alleged Constitutional violations.

Whether Schweitzer and Disner properly served the government in the case is an issue.

U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga has given them an extension of five days — from March 7 to March 12 — to demonstrate the government has been properly served.

If Schweitzer and Disner have properly served the government, it is possible that the Justice Department may move for dismissal on grounds similar to the grounds cited by Rust.

Not only were final orders of forfeiture entered by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer in the District of Columbia, her orders were upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals months before Schweitzer and Disner turned to the Florida federal court.

In September 2011 — weeks before Schweitzer and Disner brought their complaint — the government returned about $55 million to ASD members who demonstrated a loss through the remissions process administered by Rust.

When the government announced the return of the money, the U.S. Secret Service described ASD as a “criminal enterprise.”

In their complaint, however, Schweitzer and Disner argued that ASD was a profitable venture, in stark contrast to assertions by the government that ASD was insolvent because it created a liability of $1.25 for each dollar it took in through the sale of purported “advertising.”

Mar 6, 2012
EDITORIAL: Top Justice Department Official Speaks On Transnational Organized Crime, References Bogus ‘Libel’ Actions Brought Against ‘Individuals Who Expose . . . Criminal Activities’
EDITOR’S NOTE: A top U.S. official — speaking today in Mexico City at the High-Level Hemispheric Meeting Against Transnational Organized Crime hosted by the Mexican government under the framework of the Organization of American States (OAS) — addressed the challenges the world law-enforcement community is confronting in the Internet Age.

In remarks apt to cause unease within the HYIP and organized-crime spheres, Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole noted that the government was wise to efforts by criminals to chill efforts to expose crimes by filing libel lawsuits. (A link to Cole’s full prepared remarks appears at the bottom of this story.)

Some recent Ponzi cases in the United States involving incredible sums of money — and the corresponding behavior of some of the participants — help prove the point . . .

Now-convicted racketeer Scott Rothstein threatened libel lawsuits when his $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme was on the verge of imploding.

AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin, named a defendant in a 2009 civil case that alleged racketeering, issued “slander” lawsuit threats prior to the August 2008 intervention by the U.S. Secret Service in the ASD scheme. The threats were issued not long after Bowdoin had returned from a trip arranged by a lawyer in which the ASD patriarch had ventured to Panama and Costa Rica, according to court filings.

Bowdoin later was indicted, amid allegations he was presiding over an international Ponzi scheme that had gathered at least $110 million. Robert Hodgins, who was referenced in 2007 ads for ASD, is an international fugitive wanted by INTERPOL. The United States accused Hodgins of laundering proceeds for narcotics traffickers in Colombia.

In advance of today’s High-Level Hemispheric Meeting Against Transnational Organized Crime, OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza noted that such crime “is the principal continental source of activities such as drug trafficking, the illicit trafficking of firearms and immigrants, human trafficking, money laundering, corruption, kidnapping, and cybercrimes.”

Befitting its importance, the hemispheric meeting was hosted by Felipe Calderón, the president of Mexico.

Among others things, Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole said this at the meeting:

“The advance of globalization and the internet, while hugely beneficial to people everywhere, has also created unparalleled opportunities for criminals to expand their operations and use the facilities of global communication and commerce to carry out their criminal activities across national borders.”

Although Cole did not use the term “HYIP” in his remarks, it is clear that the U.S. government is well aware of the dangers online fraud schemes pose as they reach across borders to accumulate tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars — sometimes through a single fraud scheme.

As the PP Blog read the text of Cole’s remarks, another thing leaped off the page. Indeed, Cole said this (emphasis added):

“Because of the sophistication of the world economy, organized crime groups have developed an ability to exploit legitimate actors and their skills in order to further the criminal enterprises. For example, transnational organized criminal groups often rely on lawyers to facilitate illicit transactions. These lawyers create shell companies, open offshore bank accounts in the names of those shell companies, and launder criminal proceeds through trust accounts. Other lawyers working for organized crime figures bring frivolous libel cases against individuals who expose their criminal activities.“

Cole, of course, wasn’t talking specifically about the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case and ASD’s preposterous claims that Bowdoin had found a legitimate way to pay interest of 1 percent a day on the tens of millions of dollars sent in by participants and that ASD would create 100,000 millionaires in three years.

Even so, the words Cole uttered in Mexico City today have deep relevance to the HYIP sphere. Indeed, ASD reached across international borders and relied on an international sales force.

Here is how ASD worked: It relied on “legitimate actors” of the sort Cole described — in ASD’s case, a lawyer who allegedly scrubbed the “opportunity” to ensure compliance, and Moms and Pops and entrepreneurs (and people down on their luck) who signed up and became the friendly faces to their prospect bases. The salespeople were paid 10 percent for recruiting a friend with money and 5 percent more if the friend could recruit a friend with money — on top of “surfing” earnings of 1 percent a day and even more through the purported miracle of “compounding.”

The current HYIP scheme of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid has the same type of payout schemes that ASD foisted on the marketplace. One big difference is the JSS/JBP says it can provide twice the daily payout of ASD.

JSS/JBP’s purported operator is Frederick Mann, a former ASD pitchman.

In September 2011, the U.S. Secret Service described ASD as a “criminal enterprise.”

You’ll note above that Cole today used the same phrase to describe one of the inherent threats of transnational organized crime. And, as noted above, he also spoke about bids to chill critics through the filing of libel lawsuits.

Those same types of threats were made in the ASD case, beginning in the summer of 2008. In fact, federal prosecutors even included an evidence exhibit in case filings that alluded to one such alleged threat. Unmentioned in the initial ASD case filings were the bids to chill reporters in at least two states and a newspaper in Georgia.

If you’ve been following the HYIP sphere for any length of time, you know that threats to sue members of the antiscam community are part of the landscape — so much so, that it has become an HYIP cliche. The bids to chill are not limited to threats to sue for libel and “slander,” however.

It also is becoming an HYIP cliche that the operators and apologists for brazen HYIPs threaten to file complaints with the ISPs of members of the antiscam community — i.e., if you report about us we’ll take down your Internet connection and/or sue you for copyright/trademark infringement.

These things are transparent bids to chill speech. They also are designed to have a secondary “benefit”: to make the marks — who may consist in part of people who are otherwise “legitimate actors” — believe that harm will come to them if they ever complain, that there are severe consequences to those who complain.

These nefarious methods have surfaced in scheme after scheme after scheme, as have various assertions about “offshore” venues and the purported “safety” the “offshore” venues provide. Longtime observers know the claims are part and parcel to the HYIP sphere — and that claims that someone is a successful businessman who has presided over multiple companies almost certainly will be incorporated into the sales pitch for an “opportunity.”

The FBI, for just one example, has been warning for years about securities fraud, the “shadow banking system” and the use of shell companies to disguise fraud proceeds. The director has testified repeatedly on Capitol Hill about the subject, while simultaneously warning about debit cards that are being used in nefarious ways and the dangers posed by lone wolves and “home-grown, violent extremists.”

All of these things are or may be in play in the HYIP sphere. Here are some things you should know:
- It is likely that the scheme’s operator is trading on the credibility you have with loved ones and friends within your immediate sphere of influence to drive dollars to the scam. It is equally likely that you are being denied the sort of information that would empower you to make an informed purchasing decision and highly likely you are being asked to participate in a venture that could result in prosecutions under both civil and criminal law, possibly even the RICO statute.
- The rate of return will be preposterous in any real-world context and the math will be fuzzy and confusing, if not downright impossible.
- Your sponsor will lie to you or pass on GIGO that is part of the company line because the company line is more convenient than the uncomfortable truth. It will be garbage coming in, and garbage going out.
- You will be subjected to a direct or indirect threat or a bid to chill, especially if you ask uncomfortable questions or raise any doubts.
- There is a chance you’ll be working for a racketeer or an international criminal, perhaps even a “sovereign citizen” who has hatched a construction by which nothing is a crime, that all conduct is lawful in the name of freedom and free markets. If your sentiment is against the government or “big business” because of your personal financial situation or your political or philosophical views, an extremist may try to exploit your sentiment for personal profit.
Just some things to think about in the age of the HYIP, the age of terrorism and the age of transnational organized crime as practiced on the Internet . . .

Read the full remarks of Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole here.
Mar 1, 2012
‘MoneyMakingBrain,’ Advocate For JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, Emails Threats To PP Blog; ‘That’s Not A Threat, It’s A Promise,’ First Email Claims; Second Suggests He’ll Create Banking Trouble For Blog Poster And Defend JSS Tripler Operator ‘So Help Me God’
“Either we talk about here, or I talk about somewhere else (that’s not a threat, it’s a promise :)” — ‘MoneyMakingBrain (MMB), in email threat to PP Blog, Feb. 29, 2012, 7:52 a.m. ET

UPDATED 4:22 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) It has happened again: The PP Blog has received yet another threat via email for its reporting on the HYIP sphere, which FINRA described in a 2010 Alert as a “bizarre substratum of the Internet.”

Today’s threat came from “MoneyMakingBrain” (MMB) in apparent “defense” of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, an HYIP “program” purportedly operated by self-described former AdSurfDaily and Ad-Ventures4U pitchman Frederick Mann. JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid claims it pays a return of 2 percent per day.

ASD operator Andy Bowdoin, 77, is an accused Ponzi schemer under indictment for wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. The ASD scheme, which was based in Florida, gathered at least $110 million and created thousands of victims, federal prosecutors have said. Bowdoin’s Ponzi trial has been scheduled for September 2012. JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid purports to pay a daily return twice that of ASD.

Among other things, Bowdoin has compared the August 2008 U.S. Secret Service raid on ASD’s headquarters to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and described it as the work of “Satan.”

MMB’s initial email threat was received at 7:52 a.m. ET. It was followed by another email threat at 11:14 a.m. in which MMB suggested he’d seek to cause banking troubles for a specific PP Blog poster and defend Mann “so help me God.”

“You could be the nicest guy in the world, doing a real public service, but on the matter of Frederick Mann, you’ve made a gross error, and you crossed the line, Mr.,” the second threat read in part. “I am not a passive by-stander Patrick, I am one of those who will come and help an old man from being beaten up by a bully, so help me God.”

The second email also claimed that, “If anything, you’ve brought all this upon yourself.”

On Feb. 27, the PP Blog reported that a site registered to Mann in South Africa at the same street address of JustBeenPaid had at least 11 links to videos featuring Francis Schaeffer Cox. Cox, 27, is a purported “sovereign citizen.” He is accused in Alaska of a “militia” murder plot against public officials.

Federal prosecutors known to be investigating the ASD scheme in the District of Columbia declined to comment on the Blog’s story, which was published Monday. Meanwhile, federal prosecutors known to be investigating the “sovereign citizen” movement in the Pacific Northwest did not respond to a request for comment on the report.

Today’s disturbing developments began with the Blog’s receipt of the initial threatening email at 7:52 a.m. The initial threat implied that, if the PP Blog did publish a comment submitted by MMB during the overnight hours and respond to the email, MMB would seek to cause harm to the Blog. The PP Blog did not reply to the initial email. Nor did it reply to the follow-up threat.

MMB’s comment already had been published by the PP Blog by the time the initial email threat was received. The comment was submitted at 1:12 a.m. today and approved by the PP Blog at approximately 7:30 a.m., after being temporarily sequestered in a holding queue because of the menacing nature of previous comments submitted by MMB.

An anonymous proxy in Europe was used to send the comment, and a Gmail address was entered on the PP Blog’s Comments form. For the past two days, MMB has been submitting comments that imply he has the power to harm the Blog if the Blog does not submit to his threats. His comments were sent from IPs in the United States and Europe. Today’s email communications from MMB were the first received from MMB.

Because the Blog believes it is important to publish comments that showcase the bizarre and sometimes menacing nature of the HYIP sphere, it has published several comments from MMB since Monday. But because today’s email threats introduced a new form of electronic menacing and implied a PP Blog reader would be subjected to a hectoring campaign, the Blog no longer will publish any additional comments from MMB.

The PP Blog engages in the marketplace of ideas, not the marketplace of threats.

These are among MMB’s menacing assertions yesterday:
- “I know you’re reading everything I write and you are scared.”
- ” But, continue to annoy the MoneyMakingBrain and deviate him from his monitoring duties, and you’ll be the ones to be in the hot water. “
- “no one is invisible to the MoneyMakingBrain and you need to stop doing what you’re doing against this man immediately. Because if you don’t, I am going to make a formal complain (sic) to the very authorities you purport are coming after scam sites and send all the evidence I’ve gathered so far from posting on your site and the realscam site. I don’t like witch hunts and I am sure Fred Mann can whip your ass in court for your highly suggestive, provocative, highly contentious and flat-out defamatory commentaries against his character on your sites.”
- “You can delete my comments as much as you like, but take what I said to the bank. In the end, you are going to look like a fool.”
- “Maybe it’s a good idea that you stop your charade once and for all and finally cease and desist attacking Mr. Fred Mann, who is innocent until proven guilty. Not going to be repeating myself again.”
- “Needless to say that you’ll be needing to look for another ISP because you won’t have internet access at home or your office, wherever. Needless to say that your server host will also shut down your sites down for violation of terms and conditions.”
MMB also advanced a number of conspiracy theories, including one in which he asserts that two different people who post on RealScam.com and the PP Blog are one and the same. RealScam is a forum that concerns itself with mass-marketing fraud.

In November 2011, RealScam was subjected to a bid to chill from Bogdan Fiedur, the operator of AdLandPro, a website whose members routinely promote HYIP schemes and other highly dubious pursuits. JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid is one of the “programs” promoted on AdLandPro, which also has a presence on Ponzi forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

Conspiracy theories are part and parcel to the HYIP landscape, as are threats — direct and veiled. Today”s second MMB email threat also raised the specter of fear.

” . . . it’s clear that you are too scared of me by now,” the second email read in part.

In November 2011, an FBI Terrorism Task Force arrested ASD figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming on charges he filed false liens against at least five public officials involved in the ASD Ponzi case. Two months later, a superseding indictment was returned against Leaming that accused him of participating in a scheme to file false liens against two U.S. prison officials, uttering a false “Bonded Promissory Note” for $1 million and being a convicted felon in possession of firearms.

So-called “sovereign citizens” have been linked to various forms of securities fraud and tax fraud. Because they believe prosecutors and judges have no authority over them, “sovereigns” have been known to target state, local and national officials in plots to file bogus liens and destroy the credit of members of the law-enforcement community and litigation opponents.

Their harassment methods, which feature the use of both postal mail and email and often include direct or veiled threats, have become known as “paper terrorism.”

When arrested, Leaming, the ASD figure and purported “sovereign,” was found with two federal fugitives from Arkansas who’d been indicted on charges of duping participants in a home-business scheme of more than $2 million. Those fugitives also have been linked to the “sovereign citizen” movement and filed a series of bizarre pleadings in Arkansas after their arrests with Leaming, who is jailed near Seattle. Both fugitives now are detained at federal facilities in Texas, according to prison records.

After MMB sent today’s initial email threat, he sent another comment to the Blog that included a threat:

“Stop abusing your forum as Lynn does, or I am going to conclude that there is a business relationship between the two of you, and that would be bad a thing (I am afraid to say anything else as you may call it another ‘threat’).

“And yes, this is not a threat: you’re better off having me talking here than somewhere else. I know too much already about both you and Lynn, and I still want to believe that the two of you are men of good (although the tactics of one indicate the otherwise).”

“Lynn” is a reference to Lynn Edgington, the chairman of Eagle Research Associates Inc., a 501(c)3 Public Benefit Charitable Corporation based in Mission Viejo, Calif.

The second email implied that MMB would seek to interfere with an Eagle Research banking relationship.

See related story and Comments thread.
Feb 29, 2012
SPECIAL REPORT: Domain Registered To Purported JSS Tripler Operator Features Videos Of ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Accused In Alleged Alaska Murder Plot Against Public Officials; Meanwhile, Americans Listen To ‘Frederick Mann’ Tell Them That Even A ‘1-Year-Old’ Can Have An Account And That Adults Can Open Accounts For Others; Separate Sites Have Links To Antitax Screeds And Debt-Elimination Schemes

From grainy "BigBooster" YouTube video dated June 6, 2007. "Hi, Frederick Mann here," the video begins — with Mann speaking in what may be British or South African English. Mann, who identified himself in 2008 as an AdSurfDaily promoter three months before the U.S. Secret Service conducted a raid on ASD's Florida headquarters, was the featured guest in a conference call last week for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid. He is the purported operator of the "program."

Visitors to BuildFreedom.com are greeted by a drop-down ad for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid that encourages them to register with a free Gmail address from Google for the outlandish “program” and its purported return of 2 percent a day.

At least 11 videos featuring Francis Schaeffer Cox are accessible on the BuildFreedom page, which features remarks attributed to Frederick Mann and others.

Mann is the purported operator of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid. Here is part of what he relates in written form on BuildFreedom in the context of Cox and others:

“To what extent do the people and activities featured so far on this page provide real solutions? How far do they go toward neutralizing the real enemies? What activities need to be added to increase the prospects for freedom?”

The remarks appear to have been written prior to the arrest of Cox and others in an alleged “militia” plot on U.S. soil.

In 2011, Cox, 27, was arrested on charges of plotting the murders of state and federal officials in Alaska. In January 2012, a superseding federal grand-jury indictment was returned against Cox and two alleged accomplices.

Based on its research, the PP Blog is reporting today that BuildFreedom.com is registered to Frederick Mann at an address in South Africa. At least two other sites registered to Mann at the same address — JustBeenPaid.com and BigBooster.com — have been used to drive traffic to the JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid “program.”

The BigBooster website uses the same drop-down ad for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid that appears on the BuildFreedom domain.

As the PP Blog reported in October 2011, the BigBooster domain was used in 2008 to drive traffic to AdSurfDaily, which the U.S. Secret Service described as an online Ponzi scheme involving at least $110 million. In November 2011, ASD figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming of Spanaway, Wash., was arrested by an FBI Terrorism Task Force on charges of filing false liens against at least five public officials involved in the ASD case.

In December 2010, ASD President Andy Bowdoin was charged criminally with wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. Bowdoin’s program advertised a payout rate half of that advertised by JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid.

The Conference Call

Separately, the PP Blog is reporting today that Frederick Mann was the featured guest on a conference call for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid last week. The Feb. 23 call appears to have been hosted by an American — and Americans and persons from at least one other country (Canada) appear to have quizzed Mann on the investment scheme after joining the “program.”

Whether the conference-call participants were aware of the BuildFreedom domain and Mann’s written comments on Cox and “neutralizing the real enemies” is not known.

The American (likely) who served as the call host was a woman who appeared to speak U.S. English. She described Mann as a “mathematical genius,” but did not say whether JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid was authorized to sell securities to U.S. citizens. Nor did she say whether she was a registered broker-dealer or whether others promoting the “program” were required to be registered in the United States and other jurisdictions.

Mann also did not speak to any issues concerning securities, including whether the “program” was properly registered in all jurisdictions in which it conducts business and whether individual promoters needed to be registered.

The first person who asked Mann questions during the call identified himself as “Randy” from “South Dakota.” Another caller who identified himself as “Chester” from “North Carolina” also quizzed Mann, who appears to speak British or South African English — or perhaps English from a different part of the world.

The call was conducted one month to the day after CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, announced that the actions of certain JSS Tripler promoters were under investigation. The CONSOB action was not addressed in the call, which also featured commentary or questions from “Michael” from “San Francisco” and others.

During the call, Mann asserted — among other things — that there was no “age discrimination” in JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid.

“So, theoretically,” he intoned, “even a one-year person” can participate.

And, he noted, adults were permitted to open accounts in the names of other adults and that registrants could send money to JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid via AlertPay, SolidTrustPay, LibertyReserve and Perfect Money.

All four of the processors are referenced in U.S. court filings as processors for alleged or proven fraud schemes.

In response to a question from “Edward” (nationality unclear) about whether JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid had a “contingency plan” in case problems with payment processors developed or if government “harassed” them, Mann suggested that LibertyReserve and PerfectMoney were part of a fail-safe strategy.

“Even if AlertPay and Solid Trust Pay get shut down, that won’t stop” the program, Mann said.

In response to a question from “Potato” from “California,” Mann also suggested it was possible to open accounts without a Social Security number that that members could open accounts for others, including teen-aged grandchildren in another U.S. state — even if a grandparent didn’t know the Social Security numbers of their grandchildren and the grandchildrens’ parents did not give permission to open the accounts.

Who would be responsible for the tax consequences of opening accounts in the names of others was not discussed.

The call appears not to have been limited to participation by Americans. A person who identified himself as “Mark(?)” from “Alberta” also was on the call.

At least one of the persons on the call complained that the “program” was confusing. Even so, he ventured that this is “quite a deal.”

In response to a question about where the “program” was located, Mann claimed JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid was “not located in any specific part of the world. We’re all over the planet.”

“Oh, OK, cool,” the caller who asked the question replied to Mann.

It was unclear from the call whether all participants who listened in or asked questions understood that the governments of various jurisdictions have acted forcefully against similar “programs” over the years, bringing both civil and criminal prosecutions.

Other Domains That Reference Frederick Mann

On a domain styled Mind-Trek.com, Fredrick Mann is quoted as writing, “In order to legally and safely beat the IRS it is necessary for you to adopt a certain frame of mind. You need to have a certain independence of mind. You need to be able to read the U.S. Constitution for yourself. You need to be able to recognize how the Supreme Court ‘judges’ and other politicians routinely violate the Constitution. You need to realize that practically all lawyers and accountants are handmaidens of the ‘terrocrats’ – terrorist bureaucrats or coercive government agents.”

Similar antitax screeds appear elsewhere on the domain. Although the domain data lists a company that uses the word “Freeman” as part of its name and a contact address in Arizona, the address appears to be nonexistent in the state. Based on the registration data, the actual address of the purported owner may be in the area of Fort Smith, Ark.

Arkansas business records show data on similarly named business entities in the state, but it is far from clear whether the “Freeman” entity listed in the domain-registration data was one of those firms.

Based on its research, the PP Blog also is reporting today that a second domain that uses the Arizona address of Mind-Trek.com exists. That domain, which also appears to confuse Arkansas and Arizona in registration data, is styled TerrorCrat.com. “TerrorCrat” is a phrase Mann has used in his writings. The domain currently resolves to a parked page that beams advertisements.

Meanwhile, this Twitter account purportedly for BigBooster suggests that Mann is an “Internet entrepreneur” from Arizona.

The PP Blog initially learned about the BuildFreedom domain through a URL that appears under Mann’s name on the BigBooster site. That URL resolved to the BuildFreedom domain. When accessed, it loads the landing page of the BuildFreedom domain, the drop-down ad for JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid and two videos and 11 links pertaining to Francis Schaeffer Cox, the purported Alaska “sovereign” indicted in the alleged murder plot.

Also during the course of its research, the PP Blog observed writings attributed to Mann on a domain that sought to attract customers for debt-elimination schemes. Such schemes also have been advanced by so-called “sovereign citizens.”

A domain that lists Mann as the author of an introductory piece makes a reference to a purported “Indian” tribe. Although it is possible that the tribe is legitimate, some “sovereign citizens” who have no Indian heritage and no standing either as “Indians” or courtroom litigants have married debt-elimination schemes to purported tribal membership in bizarre bids to hamstring prosecutions and target litigation opponents and public officials with vexatious lawsuits.

Some AdSurfDaily members have been linked to the same kind of vexatious legal filings, which sometimes included threats to arrest judges and attorneys that represent banks in collections-related litigation.

Feb 27, 2012
WILLFUL BLINDNESS: With Legisi Operator Now Convicted Of Wire Fraud, HYIP Colleague And Fellow Ponzi-Forum Darling Nicholas Smirnow Of Pathway To Prosperity Listed As ‘Wanted’ By INTERPOL; Meanwhile, Cheerleading For JSS Tripler Continues

Nicholas A. Smirnow. Source: Interpol "Wanted" notice.

After the news broke yesterday that Gregory N. McKnight, the accused operator of the Legisi HYIP Ponzi scheme, had pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a $72 million caper, things only got worse for the serial Ponzi-forum cheerleaders — not that they’re likely to abandon their practice of willful blindness while reaching across oceans to pick the pockets of any person with cash and a pulse.

Nicholas Smirnow, a convicted robber, burglar and drug dealer before he became an HYIP operator and darling of the TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup and ASAMonitor Ponzi forums, is listed as wanted by INTERPOL.

How long Smirnow has been on INTERPOL’s wanted list and the circumstances under which he was placed on the list were not immediately clear. An email yesterday by the PP Blog seeking comment from federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Illinois on the status of Smirnow and the case against him was not immediately returned.

Smirnow, 54, also is known as Nicolay Smirnow, Alexander Judizcev, Nicholas Kachura and Jeff Prozorowiczm. He was charged in the Southern District of Illinois with fraud and money laundering-related crimes in May 2010 for his alleged operation of the Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) Ponzi scheme.

When the charges against Smirnow were announced approaching two years ago, U.S. federal prosecutors said they intended to ask the government of the Philippines to extradite Smirnow to the United States. Whether Smirnow had been jailed in the Philippines and somehow later was set free after the U.S. arrest warrant was issued could not immediately be determined.

What is clear is that INTERPOL is publishing a “Wanted” listing with the following physical details about Smirnow:

Height: 1.76 meter
Weight: 76 Kg
Colour of hair: Brown
Colour of eyes: Green

The INTERPOL poster for Smirnow was up even as the SEC was announcing the McKnight conviction. (See “Wanted” poster, which is active at the time of this post.)

A U.S. Postal Inspection Service affidavit in the Smirnow case references TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup and ASAMonitor, which is now defunct. The affidavit also references AlertPay and SolidTrustPay, Canada-based processors often used by HYIP hucksters. The Smirnow criminal complaint also references the Canadian processors.

The P2P scheme was almost unimaginably widespread, a postal inspector said in the 2010 affidavit.

“Financial records of payment processors utilized by P-2-P to collect investment funds from investors show that approximately 40,000 investors in 120 countries established accounts with P-2-P,” the postal inspector said. “Despite the fact that the investment was supposedly ‘guaranteed, investors lost approximately $70 million as a result of [Smirnow’s] actions.”

Ponzi-forum cheerleaders yesterday appeared either to be unaware of (or to have to ignored) the news about the guilty plea of Legisi’s McKnight and corresponding civil judgments against him totaling about $6.5 million.

Some of them continued to focus on their efforts to promote JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, a “program” purportedly operated by Frederick Mann that also uses AlertPay and SolidTrustPay.

AlertPay and SolidTrustPay also are referenced in court filings in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case. A 2008 promo for ASD attributed to Mann asserted that Mann was an ASD promoter. ASD operator Andy Bowdoin faces a criminal trial in September 2012 on Ponzi-related charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid asserts it pays a daily return of twice what ASD offered. ASD figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming has been linked to the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement and is jailed near Seattle on federal charges of filing false liens against public officials involved in the ASD case.

McKnight’s base program in Legisi offered a return of .25 percent (one quarter of 1 percent) per day, according to a 2008 SEC filing.

Mann’s purported base program offers eight times that return on a daily basis, according to JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid promos. On an annualized basis, the “program” offers a return that is between 48 and 73 times higher than the returns of imprisoned Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff.

Madoff is serving a U.S. prison term of 150 years. McKnight faces up to 20 years, the SEC said yesterday.

A promo for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid that appeared yesterday on a forum known as CariGold made this claim. (Italics added):

JSS-Tripler now has 213,884 members —
continuing to grow by over 3,000 new
members a day. (If it hadn’t been for
yesterday’s downtime, the number would
have been “over 4,000.”) Thank you to
our many promoters for doing such a
great job!

Purchases of new JSS-Tripler positions
are on track for a new all-time record,
today.

More than a month ago — on Jan. 23 — the Italian securities regulator CONSOB announced that JSS Tripler promoters were under investigation. Ponzi-forum promoters pooh-poohed the news.

Feb 25, 2012
With CONSOB Probe Under Way In Italy And Certain U.S. Affiliate Sites Offline, JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid Members Say AlertPay Is Sending Them Debit Cards: ‘Now I Can Start Using AP In Other Programs,’ MoneyMakerGroup Promoter Announces
“You can only load money from your Alertpay account onto it. So, now I can start using AP in other programs & have an easy way to get my money to spend, by loading funds from my AP account onto the card. Then I can use the card like a regular debit card in stores, online & even withdraw the money off of the card via an ATM machine.” — MoneyMakerGroup post by JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid promoter, Feb. 16, 2012

There’s none so blind as those who will not see.

Only a little more than eight months ago — on June 3, 2011 — the U.S. Secret Service advised a federal judge in Maryland that HYIP schemes spread in part through coordinated posts on “discussion boards.” One of the boards referenced in a Secret Service affidavit aimed at seizing tens of millions of dollars in “criminal proceeds” linked to HYIP hucksters and other scammers was TalkGold.

Yes, that TalkGold, the Ponzi cesspit, the same TalkGold to which promoters of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid race to fire up “I got paid” posts to help sustain a scam that advertises an annualized return of 730 percent on top of two-tier downline commissions totaling 15 percent — more, if members choose to “compound” their “earnings” by leaving them in the system.

JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid promoters are doing this on the Ponzi forums even after CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, announced a JSS Tripler-related action late last month and certain promoters’ websites in the United States suddenly have gone missing this month. Frederick Mann is the purported operator of the scheme.

It was not the first time TalkGold’s name had been referenced as a place from which massive fraud schemes were promoted. The board was referenced in 2010 filings by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in the Pathway to Prosperity (P2) case. So was MoneyMakerGroup, another Ponzi and fraud cesspit. P2P operator Nicholas Smirnow was charged criminally, and investigators described P2P as an HYIP scheme that had spread to at least 120 countries and created as many as 40,000 victims. The alleged P2P haul: about $70 million.

Courtroom references by the Secret Service to TalkGold in the context of fraud schemes date back at least to 2007.

Here is how the Secret Service affidavit from June 2011 described the activities that occur on TalkGold and elsewhere. (Italics added):

“Most of the individual posts to the boards are from those who invest in the pyramid schemes and those who operate and promote the illegal investment scams.”

Based on the Secret Service affidavit and voluminous evidence culled in the aftermath of the 2007 E-Gold investigation that had led to 2008 guilty pleas on charges related to unlicensed money-transmitting and money-laundering, the judge authorized the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from the E-Gold accounts of alleged scammers who’d set up shop through E-Gold to fleece the masses.

On June 20, 2011, U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander ordered the money “arrested.” The forfeiture is pending, and the final sum seized is unclear. But the website of a court-appointed claims administrator includes this notation. (Emphasis added): “Approximately $90 million has been seized and/or restrained from the sale of e-metal held in accounts at E-Gold.”

These things are exceptionally noteworthy in the context of the forfeiture case:
- E-Gold is assisting investigators in ridding itself of corrupt proceeds warehoused as a result of the money-laundering allegations in 2007. It has cooperated with prosecutors in identifying accounts linked to HYIP scammers and other hucksters.
- The Secret Service agent who filed the affidavit is the same agent who led the 2008 AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme investigation, which resulted in the forfeiture of at least $80 million and criminal charges against ASD operator Andy Bowdoin.
- Even though the agent allegedly has been targeted with false liens by so-called “sovereign citizens” for his work in the ASD Ponzi case, he continues to serve in a capacity that is vital to the security of the United States. He has conducted numerous investigations involving money-laundering and other crimes. These cases, according to court filings, have resulted in the seizure of more than $300 million in “criminally derived proceeds.” That is more than a quarter of a billion dollars. The agent and his colleagues have worked with a Task Force whose members reverse-engineer fantastically complex financial crimes.
- The court-appointed administrator handing the claims process is the same company that handled a similar process in the ASD Ponzi case.
E-Gold has done the right thing in cooperating with investigators.

Coming Soon To An ATM Near You

Any person who spends so little as five minutes on the Ponzi boards knows that Canada-based AlertPay is conducting business with serial promoters of outrageous frauds — frauds that have grave consequences to individual pocketbooks and frauds that have grave ramifications to national and international security.

And now, according to posts that originate on forums referenced in multiple U.S. court filings about massive international fraud schemes, AlertPay is sending debit cards to the scammers.

“Thanks Mann & Co.,” the excited poster announcing her coup on MoneyMakerGroup said, adding five smilies to accent her glee after her earlier reference to ATMs and stores that now could be used to offload profits from a scheme that advertises a return of 2 percent a day.

In an earlier post, the MoneyMakerGroup member said she received the AlertPay debit card in her mailbox in North Carolina.

“Now I’m able 2 get my money out FAST!!!!!!!!!!!!” she roared.

Below her post was a link to a “program” known as “Expert Invest Group” that purports to pay “up to 20000% After 30 days.” The company says its accepts AlertPay, Perfect Money and “Liberty Reserver (sic).”

A (Brief) Pictorial Study In Contrasts

1.

MoneyMakerGroup post from Feb. 16 by promoter of JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid. The post highlights the utilty of AlertPay debit cards in joining other "programs" and offloading profits at ATMs and retail outlets.

2.

From Paragraph 55 of a U.S. Secret Service affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland on June 3, 2011.
Feb 17, 2012
BULLETIN: David Carroll Stephenson, Alleged Accomplice Of AdSurfDaily Figure And Purported ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Kenneth Wayne Leaming, Now Jailed Near Seattle; Feds Say False Liens Totaling $30 Million Were Filed Against Prison Officials

Kenneth Wayne Leaming

BULLETIN: David Carroll Stephenson, an alleged business associate of AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming, has been moved from a federal prison in Arizona to the SeaTac federal detention center near Seattle to answer charges that he conspired with Leaming to file false liens against two Federal Bureau of Prisons officials.

Leaming, 56, remains in federal custody at SeaTac. In addition to charges that he worked with Stephenson to file bogus liens totaling $30 million against Harley Lappin and Dennis R. Smith, Leaming is accused of filing false liens against at least five public officials involved in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case. He’s also charged with harboring two federal fugitives from Arkansas at his residence in Spanaway, Wash., being a felon in possession of firearms and uttering a bogus “Bonded Promissory Note” with a purported face value of $1 million.

Lappin is the former director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons; Smith is the warden of the Federal Correctional Institution in Phoenix. Stephenson and Leaming divined a construction by which Lappin owed Stephenson $10 million and Smith owed him $20 million, the FBI said in court documents filed in November 2011.

The scheme involved a Leaming-associated company known as American-International Business Law Inc. The firm, which is listed in Washington state as the registered agent of at least 73 companies, also has been part of the ASD story narrative and was referenced in the Congressional Record last year in the context of a purported “claim against the United States of America.”

Some of the firms with which American-International had a business relationship formed their names with words typically associated with government or banking. One was called “Homeland Security Service,” for instance. Another was called “Presidential Detail.” Yet another was called “Federal Asset Management Service.” Still another was called “Federal Fleet Management,” according to records.

At least two of the entities used forms of the name JP Morgan, according to records. The firm also was listed as the registered agent of two firms allegedly operated by the federal fugitives Leaming allegedly concealed.

Stephenson, 56, was serving a 96-month prison sentence (ending in January 2013) for defrauding the United States in a tax scam during the time in which he plotted with Leaming last year to carry out the fraud against Lappin and Smith, the FBI said.

An FBI affidavit filed in November alleges that Leaming was conducting research on the real estate holdings and personal finances of U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts and his wife and discussed a scheme to serve Stephenson-related documents on Roberts through the school his children attended.

Robert’s is chief judge of the U.S. Supreme Court and America’s highest-ranking judicial officer. He is one of nine members of the Supreme Court.

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

Like Roberts, Ginsburg and Breyer are members of the Supreme Court.

Breyer’s name was in the news yesterday, amid reports that he was robbed while vacationing with his wife and several friends in Nevis last week by a masked intruder wielding a machete. The Supreme Court is on break. There were no reports that anyone was injured in the Nevis incident, but the robber allegedly got away with $1,000.

On Oct. 2, 2011, the PP Blog reported that ASD members were encouraged in an email to identify a federal judge, federal prosecutors and a special agent of the U.S. Secret Service as “DOJ thieves” in “county”-level filings and to send a “certified copy” of their claims to the home address of Chief Justice Roberts.

The email was attributed to “Keny,” a nickname used by Leaming.

Court records suggest Leaming was under FBI surveillance when the email was sent. He was arrested by an FBI terrorism task force about seven weeks later.

In court filings in the original liens case against Leaming in November, the FBI said “one of the specific documents” found in Washington state sought the staggering sum of $225.4 billion and listed “Kenneth Wayne, sovereign man” as “grantee,” and public officials as “grantors.”

Bogus liens against Mary Peters, the former U.S. Secretary of Transportation, and Cutler Dawson, president and CEO of Navy Federal Credit Union, also were discovered, according to court filings.

Leaming was arrested on the liens charges via a criminal complaint filed in November. The firearms, fugitive-harboring and false-utterance charges were added in a superseding grand-jury indictment returned on Jan. 26.

The two fugitives Leaming allegedly harbored were implicated in an Arkansas-based, home-business scam that fetched more than $2 million, according to court records. Meanwhile, the ASD Ponzi scheme fetched at least $110 million, federal prosecutors said.

Timothy Shawn Donavan, 63, and Sharon Jeannette Henningsen, 67 — the fugitives allegedly found with Leaming — both are listed as federal detainees at facilities in Texas. They initially were jailed at SeaTac in Washington state, but made bond after their November arrests and returned to Arkansas, according to federal records.

Bizarre pleadings laced with language associated with “sovereign citizens” soon began to appear in their Arkansas proceedings. Donavan’s bond was revoked after he refused to be sworn as a witness at a pretrial proceeding in Arkansas, according to records. He is jailed at a federal facility in Texas.

Henningsen currently is in federal custody at a Texas facility that provides specialized medical care and mental-health services, according to records.

Andy Bowdoin, the 77-year-old alleged operator of the ASD Ponzi scheme, is awaiting his September 2012 federal criminal trial on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

Feb 14, 2012
DEVELOPING STORY: U.S.-Based Website Listed In JSS Tripler-Related Action In Italy Suddenly Will Not Resolve To Server; Redirect To The Netherlands No Longer Works

Are the Ponzi clouds darkening for JSS Tripler?

On Feb. 4, the PP Blog reported that a JSS Tripler-related website listed in an action by CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, was based in the United States and had been programmed to redirect to the Netherlands several days after CONSOB announced the action.

That domain — JSS-Tripler.com — now is throwing a server error and no longer is redirecting the traffic to Europe. The site generates an “Unable to connect” message in the Firefox browser and an “Unknown error: 1214” message when pinged, meaning the server is in a black hole.

The circumstances under which the server went dark are unclear. It is not known, for instance, if law enforcement, the hosting company or the JSS Tripler affiliate — purportedly a woman — caused the domain to stop working. Its registration is valid until Feb. 24, according to records.

Earlier this week, the site was directing to a JustBeenPaid subdomain styled “marketing.” JustBeenPaid and Frederick Mann are the purported operators of JSS Tripler, which advertises a return of 2 percent a day. The return computes to an annualized return of 730 percent.

Despite the CONSOB action, cheerleading for JustBeenPaid/JSS Tripler continue on the Ponzi cesspits such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

Just BeenPaid/JSS Tripler makes members affirm they are “not an employee or official of any government agency.” In addition, it makes them affirm they are not “acting on behalf of or collecting information for or on behalf of any government agency” and not “an employee, by contract or otherwise, of any media or research company.”

The Terms alone appear to be an invitation to join an international financial conspiracy. Regardless, the Ponzi-forum cheerleading continues.

JustBeenPaid has traded on the names of American icons Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, Benjamin Franklin, Mark Zuckerberg — and even the name of fictional spaceman “Mr. Spock” from the Star Trek series on American television.

Frederick Mann was a cheerleader for the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme in 2008, according to promos. ASD was based in Florida.

In May 2008, Mann asserted that “[p]ast performance indicates a strong probablility (sic) that ASD will continue to perform as advertised,” according to a promo.

Two months later, the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from bank accounts linked to ASD President Andy Bowdoin and others.

Some ASD figures are known to have ties to so-called “sovereign citizens” — and any number of ASD members have invested in crackpot legal theories such as all commerce is lawful as long as parties agree to a contract.

Such bizarre constructions would legalize slavery, securities fraud, tax fraud, Ponzi schemes and narcotics-trafficking, among other pursuits.

And because some “sovereign citizens” believe they can divine a contract out of thin air and demand a litigation result from judges, prosecutors, investigators and creditors, bizarre courtroom clashes have been occurring across the United States.

Feb 10, 2012