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Tag: Andy Bowdoin

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

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

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

    Aschlea is listed in Washington state records as a business associate of AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming, a purported “sovereign citizen.” On June 11, 2010, Aschlea was blocked by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer from filing a document styled “Claim by Notary Presentment/Acceptance” in the ASD forfeiture case in the District of Columbia.

    The revocation of Aschlea’s license occurred about 10 months after the state revoked the notary license of Tina M. Hall, another Leaming business associate who tried to file notary claims in the civil-forfeiture case against the assets of ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

     

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

    Andy Bowdoin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    James Clark Howard III

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    But that was then.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Dear Readers,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    The offers are targeted at the world’s poor.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • BULLETIN: ASDCashGenerator Website Now Returns A Server Error; PP Blog Observed Error After Clicking On Link In 2008 ASD Promo That Featured Photo Of Current Club Asteria Pitchman Hank Needham

    This 2008 ad for AdSurfDaily features an image of Hank Needham and continues to appear online. Last month, an old ASD Cash Generator affiliate link within the ad began to resolve to a page for an opportunity known as Ad Sales Daily International. Today, however, the link is resolving to a page that returns a server error. The reason why was not immediately clear. In a video released last month, Needham identified himself as a principal of Club Asteria. The video was released after Club Asteria, which trades on the name of the World Bank, acknowledged that its PayPal account had been frozen and claimed that it had suspended payouts to members. Club Asteria blamed the developments on members. But some Club Asteria members, including "Ken Russo," have claimed that they continue to be paid by Club Asteria through AlertPay, a Canadian payment processor. "Ken Russo" posts as "DRdave" on the TalkGold Ponzi forum. Talk Gold, which is known for helping HYIPs and other "programs" that promise or suggest preposterous weekly or even daily payouts to members achieve virality on the Internet, moved ClubAsteria to its scam folder last week. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) said in July 2010 that "HYIPs are old-fashioned Ponzi schemes dressed up for a Web 2.0 world." Some "programs" have tried to distance themselves from the term "HYIP" by declaring themselves "revenue-sharing" programs or using other language tweaks in their offers. Some Club Asteria members have claimed that the firm's program paid out up to 520 percent a year — while preemptively denying Club Asteria was an HYIP or Ponzi scheme and describing it as a revenue-sharing program. Other members described Club Asteria as a "passive" program that provided a weekly return on investment and an income of more than $20,000 a year if members paid only $19.95 a month.

    BULLETIN: (UPDATED 10:16 A.M. EDT (AUG. 22, U.S.A.) As the PP Blog first reported on July 12, the ASDCashGenerator.com domain once controlled by accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin had returned online and was promoting a mysterious opportunity known as “Ad Sales Daily International.”

    But the ASDCashGenerator website now is throwing a server error and returning this message: “The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request. The script had an error or it did not produce any output . . .”

    In July, the PP Blog observed that the ASDCashGenerator domain had become operational again after clicking on a link from a 2008 ASD affiliate promotion that featured a photograph of Hank Needham. After his days in 2008 as an ASD pitchman and lead generator, Needham emerged as a principal in Club Asteria.

    Club Asteria, which trades on the name of the World Bank and targets its offer to the world’s poor, announced weeks ago that its PayPal account had been frozen and that it had suspended payouts to members amid a serious cash crunch. The firm blamed the developments on members.

    Claims about Club Asteria are under investigation by Italian regulators.

    Some Club Asteria promoters claimed Club Asteria was a “passive” investment program that paid a return of up to 10 percent a week. The news section of the firm’s website has not been updated since July 21. The last Club Asteria news update occurred nine days after the PP Blog reported that the old ASD Cash Generator URL associated with Needham was sending visitors to the purported Ad Sales Daily International opportunity, which appears to have been an upstart that did not fully launch.

    Precisely when the old ASD Cash Generator domain became operational again is unclear. The domain, however, appears to have directed all old ASD affiliate links to the purported Ad Sales Daily International opportunity, which had its own logo.

    The PP Blog observed the server error on the ASDCashGenerator site today after it again clicked on the old ASDCashGenerator affiliate link in the 2008 ASD promotion that featured Needham’s photograph. On July 12, the same affiliate link returned a pitch page for the mysterious Ad Sales Daily International program.

    Federal prosecutors declined to comment in July on the curious return of the ASDCashGenerator website and the reactivation of the ASDCashGenerator domain name, which previously had been associated with Bowdoin and the alleged ASD Ponzi scheme.  The site had been reregistered in the name of Barbara Cruz.

    Cruz was associated in 2009 with an ASD cheerleading site known as ASD2Day that made confusing claims about the then-Bowdoin controlled ASDCashGenerator site, including a claim that ASD could not be a Ponzi scheme because the script employed by ASD could not be programmed to permit a Ponzi scheme to occur. The ASD2Day site also asserted that U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer was on an Aug. 28 [2009] deadline “to determine if the US Attorney General’s case against ASD should move forward.”

    Collyer, who presided over the civil-forfeiture cases involving Bowdoin and ASD Cash Generator and now is presiding over the criminal case against Bowdoin after he was arrested for wire fraud and other crimes in December 2010, was under no such deadline. Although a deadline did exist at the time, it was not one that applied to Collyer.

    Rather, it was a deadline imposed by Collyer on Bowdoin to file pleadings in one of the ASD civil-cases or face the forfeiture of more than $65.8 million seized by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008. After not having heard from Bowdoin for more than two months, Collyer issued the order to Bowdoin in July 2009.  Bowdoin then asked for a series of delays to comply with the order, saying he was in negotiations with federal prosecutors.

    Collyer ultimately gave Bowdoin until Sept. 14, 2009, to comply with the order. Bowdoin ultimately complied, apparently after his negotiations with prosecutors had broken down.

    A supporter of the ASD2Day cheerleading site for ASD claimed on the PP Blog on Oct. 23, 2009, that Cruz was his mother and that “we where (sic) one of the biggest [ASD] leaders earning over $8,000 daily.”

    Little is known about the purported Ad Sales Daily International “opportunity” that, at least for weeks, was accessible through Bowdoin’s old ASDCashGenerator website that had been reregistered in the name of Cruz. The ASD2Day website, which also had a Cruz tie and promoted Ad Sales Daily International, now is displaying a page that beams advertisements.

    The domain registration for ASD2Day appears to have expired Aug. 19. AdSalesDailyInternational appears not to have a domain registered in its own name.

    Today’s strange developments follow on the heels of a bizarre bid by Bowdoin to raise $500,000 to pay for his criminal defense through a series of “blast” emails to the very individuals he is accused of defrauding: ASD members.

    Bowdoin disses Collyer in a fundraising video released July 26 — without mentioning Collyer by name.

    ASD is known to have ties to so-called “sovereign citizens.”

     

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • MIRACLE? TalkGold Ponzi Forum Rejects Club Asteria Payment Claim From Serial Scammer ‘Ken Russo’ (AKA ‘DRdave’); CA Thread Moved To ‘Closed Programs And Scam Warnings’ Folder

    Despite efforts by serial cash-gifting, cycler, HYIP and autosurf pitchman “Ken Russo” to prevent the TalkGold Ponzi forum from moving the 16-month-old Club Asteria thread to the scam folder,  TalkGold did exactly that today.

    “Ken Russo,” known as “DRdave” on TalkGold, posted purported proof that he had been paid through Ponzi-friendly AlertPay on Aug. 5 for his Club Asteria efforts. But the “Ken Russo” post — and another TalkGold post from Club Asteria promoter “martyboy” that also claimed an Aug. 5 payout — apparently weren’t enough to persuade even a Ponzi cesspit such as TalkGold that Club Asteria had any cash-sucking and wealth-draining life left in it.

    Club Asteria, which traded on the name of the World Bank and targeted its offer to the world’s poor, announced weeks ago that it had suspended payouts. The announcement of the payout suspension was accompanied by news that claims about Club Asteria were under investigation by Italian authorities and that Club Asteria’s PayPal account had been frozen.

    Like “Ken Russo,” one of Club Asteria’s principals — Hank Needham — promoted AdSurfDaily. ASD was implicated by the U.S. Secret Service in an alleged $110 million international Ponzi scheme in August 2008. ASD President Andy Bowdoin was indicted on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities in December 2010.

    The TalkGold thread on Club Asteria had been active for eight months at the time of the Bowdoin indictment. It survived at TalkGold for another nine months beyond the Bowdoin indictment, but today was moved to the “Closed Programs And Scam Warnings” folder.

    Club Asteria has been said to be scrambling to save itself, perhaps by providing members a chance to sell MLM products. Club Asteria last updated its news page on July 21, nearly a month ago.

    On or about June 28, weeks prior to its most recent news update, Club Asteria announced that it had experienced a dramatic revenue plunge that had been driven by lies told by its members and bad publicity.

    Two days ago, “Ken Russo” announced on TalkGold that he’d received a Club Asteria payment of $256 on Aug. 5.

    “I request a withdrawal once a month and I always receive a payment,” Ken Russo claimed on the forum. “My last withdrawal request was processed in about 48 hours.”

    But in a span of less than a month — between May 30 and June 27 — “Ken Russo” claimed on TalkGold that he had asked for and received three Club Asteria payments, totaling $2,032.

    Even as “Ken Russo” showcased his purported Club Asteria payouts, other members of various Ponzi forums complained about not getting paid.

    Club Asteria asserted it was not an investment program, even though innumerable web promos positioned it as one that paid a “passive” return of up to 10 percent a week.

    Some Club Asteria members have turned their attentions to Centurion Wealth Circle, an AlertPay-enabled cycler that collapsed and is trying to resurrect itself with something called “The Tornado.”

    Club Asteria enthusiast “strosdegoz,” also known as “manolo,” now is pitching Centurion Wealth Circle and “The Tornado” — on the same Ponzi boards in which he pitched Club Asteria.

    TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup are referenced in federal court filings as places from which Ponzi schemes are promoted.

  • BULLETIN: FLORIDA — AGAIN: Man Once Jailed For Trying To Kill Woman He’d Beaten By Stuffing Her In Car Trunk And Drowning Her In Lake Now Accused Of Ponzi Scheme; Michael Scott Segal’s Fraud Caper Allegedly Began 5 Months After Prison Release

    Michael Scott Segal. Source: Florida Department of Corrections.

    A Florida man started a $1.3 million fraud and Ponzi scheme in November 2008, five months after he was released from prison after serving seven years for trying to kill a woman, according to federal prosecutors and state records.

    Michael Scott Segal, 50, of Miami, was charged in 2001 — when he was 40 — with attempted murder, kidnapping and aggravated battery for beating a woman, stuffing her into the trunk of car and trying to launch the car into a lake.

    The woman survived because a police officer was nearby and observed Segal repeatedly trying to drive the car over a raised embankment and into the lake, according to news accounts. Segal ultimately spent seven years behind bars for his crime.

    State records show that Segal was released from prison on June 1, 2008. Federal prosecutors now say he started a domestic and international fraud scheme five months later — not disclosing his felonious past to investors and referring to himself as “Scott Segal” to keep them from discovering his prison record.

    The scheme involved purported inexpensive consumer goods from China, a purported land-development project in China and a purported “Venezuelan security cargo locks deal,” prosecutors said.

    It operated through a Segal-controlled company known as Bright Jewel Holdings Limited Inc., and some investors were issued bad checks, prosecutors said.

    Segal has been charged with 12 counts of mail and wire fraud.

    Some investors appear to have started a Blog to publicize Segal’s alleged fraud before charges were filed. Supporters of Segal appear to have shown up at the Blog to defend him and his purported honesty, according to web records.

    “This blog is not real,” an apparent defender wrote. “[I]f he has wrote (sic) checks for 60k or others believe me he wont (sic) be out from jail for a long time. So stop writing false things about him and get back to real life and be honest. He is a good man and a very kind person.”

    Another apparent defender commented on a Blog that “writing these types of comments is counterproductive.”

    Andy Bowdoin, another accused Florida Ponzi schemer with a felonious past, initially enjoyed significant support among investors and continues to have some support while awaiting his criminal trial.

    Bowdoin was the head of Quincy-based AdSurfDaily. Federal prosecutors said he ripped off investors in a swindle in Alabama during the 1990s.

    Read April 19, 2001 news account of Segal’s attempted-murder case.

     

  • UPDATE: AdSurfDaily ‘Blast’ Apparently Has Begun; PP Blog Has Received Complaints From Members Who Say They Never Agreed To Receive A Fundraising Email; One Member May Be A Witness For The Government In The ASD Ponzi Case

    Andy Bowdoin

    UPDATE: The PP Blog yesterday began to receive complaints from AdSurfDaily members unhappy that they were being solicited to help ASD President and accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin pay for his criminal defense.

    “Check this out,” one concerned ASD member said. “Andy is asking his victims to pony up in excess of $500K to help [h]is legal defense.”

    Another member said, “How do I put in a complaint? I live in Canada and what works in the USA may not work here. I don’t want any more e-mail’s from these people. I’ve already lost 15,000.00.”

    This morning the Blog received a complaint from a person it believes potentially is a witness against Bowdoin in the government’s Ponzi case.

    “[O]f all the people to send this to he [chose] to send one to me,” the person said. “[H]e needs help!!”

    The fundraising email purports to be “100% compliant with the Can-Spam Act of Nov. 2003” and to have been sent through “NetSuccessInc and/or it’s (sic) subsidary (sic) companies.” It encourages recipients to view Bowdoin’s fundraising message and provides a link to this website:netsuccessinc.com. The email itself is attributed to Bowdoin, and the netsuccessinc website provides a link to yet another Bowdoin fundraising site: AndysFundraisingArmy.com.

    The netsuccessinc.com site is registered in the name of “Millionaire Marketing International.” Tari Steward is listed as the contact person in the domain registration. Millionaire Marketing International is listed in Florida records as a fictitious business registered in 2009. It is owned by Net Success Inc.

    Florida records show that Net Success Inc. was dissolved in September 2010 for not filing an annual report. Steward is listed as an officer of the firm. Records in Florida also show that Steward was an officer of a company known as “Millionaire Marketing Inc.” That firm’s registration appears to have been dissolved in 2009.

    Steward is listed in federal court filings as a potential witness for Bowdoin in the criminal case.

    In a July email attributed to Bowdoin, recipients were advised that Bowdoin had “hired” Steward “and his company Global Online Success Inc.” to create the “Online Fundraising System for my Legal Defense Fund.”

    Bowdoin did not say whether he was paying Steward for his services. Why ASD members now were receiving emails that advised them to visit the netsuccessinc.com. domain, which appears to be owned by a dissolved Steward company (Net Success Inc.) tied to another Steward company (Millionaire Marketing International) that has a familial relationship with another dissolved Steward company (Millioniare Marketing Inc.), was not immediately clear.

    Potentially adding another layer of confusion in Bowdoin’s fundraising bid are these words that appeared in the “blast” email that asked prospects to visit the netsuccessinc.com domain:

    “You can contact us by snail mail at 2533 N. Carson St., Suite 3167, Carson City, NV 89706.”

    Why a company whose Florida registration was dissolved listed a snail-mail address in Nevada was not immediately clear.