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Tag: ASD

  • ZEEK SLAYER? Now, A Penny-Auction Site Married To MLM-Like Scheme Purportedly Tied To Effort To Save Children From Hunger Or Becoming ‘Sex Slave[s]’; Build Up To ‘Founding Member’ Sales Pitch Drops Names Of White House, Chelsea Clinton, Historian And Presidential Adviser Doug Wead, Unidentified Presidential Candidate And NBC News Anchor Lester Holt

    From YouTube sales pitch for BidsThatGive by Randy Jeffers. (Children's faces masked by PP Blog.)

    EDITOR’S NOTE: It is true that far too many of the world’s children live in poverty. It also is true that children may become the objects of criminals who engage in human trafficking and that children are exploited in the sex trades. It is equally true that legitimate charities exist to combat these horrific situations and that one MLM “program” after another has tried in recent times to tug at the human heart and “marry” their “programs” to a purported cause. If you desire to improve the human condition for the masses of children, it likely is best to donate directly to a legitimate charitable organization, rather than joining a get-rich-quick scheme that says it is doing good work behind the scenes.

    ** __________________________________________ **

    UPDATED 6:57 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) WARNING: The following development in MLM La-La Land may be harmful to your gag reflex.

    Zeek Rewards, the U.S.-based MLM “program” that wraps itself in the American flag, collects sums of up to $10,000 from participants, plants the seed affiliates can earn a return of between 1 percent and 2 percent a day while insisting it is offering neither securities nor an investment program, has a payout scheme similar to the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and securities swindle, is married to a penny-auction site known as Zeekler that has told successful bidders for sums of U.S. cash that they can receive their money via offshore payment processors and preemptively denies it is a pyramid scheme, has some emerging, U.S.-based competition.

    The name of the “program” is “BidsThatGive” — and it unabashedly tugs at heartstrings while at once asking prospects to imagine themselves behind the wheel of a grand automobile and feeling good because they also could become a “Contributor” for $10 a month, a “Guardian” for $50 a month, a “Benefactor” for $100 a month” or a Global Ambassador” for $250 a month and pile up mountains of cash while they’re displaying a social conscience.

    Two of the core aims of the “program,” according to a nine-minute video promo running on YouTube, are to help impoverished children and children who’d been exploited and became “sex slave[s].” The prelaunch of BidsThatGive appears to have been timed to coincide with the Independence Day holiday period in the United States.

    One of the assertions in a the YouTube video is that the “rewards” the company provides include “an orphanage and a school, church or hospital built in your name.” All of this apparently is possible because BidsThatGive has a “global business model” and employes a “concept” known as “PPSC,” which stands for Private Profit Sharing Company.

    But before we get to the uber bizarre, let’s address the run-of-the-mill bizarre in this latest entry in MLM La-La Land.

    BidsThatGive is a little bit Andy Bowdoin. Indeed, the emerging penny-auction company with an MLM-style compensation plan, claims it’s not an MLM program and tells prospects they’re “probably not going to sleep at night” once they understand the profit potential. Bowdoin, the infamous AdSurfDaily Ponzi schemer, told prospects that ASD was not a “network marketing company” and used largely the same line about all the sleepless nights excited prospects would experience.

    Meanwhile, BidsThatGive is a little bit like AdViewGlobal (AVG), a collapsed 1-percent-a-day Ponzi autosurf federal prosecutors said in April 2012 had ASD ties. AVG once claimed that one of its desires was to save the rainforest through charitable contributions. BidsThatGive also resembles ClubAsteria, which offered outsize weekly returns ranging from 3 percent to 8 percent and told prospects that its charitable arm would provide relief to victims of the devastating earthquake in Japan last year. ClubAsteria also purported to provide aid to children and claimed its mission was to elevate the word’s poor out of poverty.

    Last year, the American Red Cross sent Club Asteria a letter demanding it stop using the Red Cross name in promos.

    And BidsThatGive also resembles DataNetworkAffiliates (DNA), which tied itself to the U.S. AMBER Alert system for rescuing abducted children and said its “token system” could help prevent child poverty.

    “Help DNA Feed A Million. OVER 1000 AN HOUR DIE. The DNA Token System Can Prevent This!” the company exclaimed.

    Among other things, DNA used a YouTube video to trade on the name of Adam Walsh, the 6-year-old who was abducted and murdered in Florida in 1981. Adam’s father, John Walsh, became a prolific advocate for children and later became the host of the “America’s Most Wanted” television series.

    DNA, which was associated with longtime MLM huckster Phil Piccolo, appears not to have helped a single abducted child or a single child living in poverty. Affiliates, though, tried to plant the seed that the DNA “program” was backed by Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump. When DNA’s CEO resigned suddenly in 2010, the company waited nearly a week to announce the departure — and then misspelled the former CEO’s name.

    BidsThatGive Operator

    Randy Jeffers, an MLM aficionado, is the purported operator of BidsThatGive, according to promo videos on YouTube. Jeffers also presides over a nonprofit entity known as “Liberty Kidz,” which says its “[v]ision is to empower a child to be all that he or she is created to be, by providing homes, help and hope for discouraged, displaced and distressed children of the world.”

    A similarly named Jeffers’ entity known as Liberty International LLC filed for bankruptcy in August 2010, listing about $1.94 million in debt and $641 in assets, according to federal records. The assets consisted of the balance of a business checking account.

    What follows are comments from Jeffers in the nine-minute sales pitch for BidsThatGive on YouTube (italics added):

    You know, there are so many terrible things that happen to children all over the world. Right now a little boy is dying of hunger, a little girl just got sold by her mother and is being forced into life as a sex slave.

    Right now, children are being physically abused, and then there’s so many children that are just left by themselves and there’s no one there to love or care for them. I don’t know why bad things happen to innocent little children, but they do. But here’s what I do know: All of us can do something about it.

    You see, that’s our No. 1 purpose. This company was founded to be a true partnership between those children, the children’s charities that it supports and its affiliates who make it all happen.

    A ‘Founding Member’

    One of the founding members of BidsThatGive is Glen Woodfin, according to 6:56 promo video dated July 2 and running on YouTube.

    Woodfin describes himself in the video as an American who once moved to Brazil to be with his “multimillionaire” fiance who had 90 employees. Enjoying the “good life” on the beach while sitting around drinking “coconut milk” was fun for a while, but ultimately led to a desire to become more productive and to develop an online skill set. Woodfin ultimately discovered he had a talent for search engine optimization and that clients were interested in those services.

    Glen Woodfin, who says he's done SEO for a Presidential candidate, does a little dance in his Bids That Give sales pitch on YouTube.

    His SEO skills ultimately became so good that “I was hired by somebody running for President . . .,” according to Woodfin, who narrates the video. He did not identify the candidate.

    Woodfin, however, goes to to explain that he was fortunate to know author and White House adviser Doug Wead, who wrote “All The President’s Children,” a New York Times Bestseller. (Wead’s Wikipedia entry says he advised GOP Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.)

    Apparently in the market for SEO advice, Wead turned to Woodfin, according to the video.

    “He said, ‘Glen, we’ve got one of the Presidential children about to get married in three weeks, and we don’t have a website up. Can we get in there and get to the top of the search engines with it?’” Woodfin recalled.

    That Presidential child, according to Woodfin, was Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President Bill Clinton and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

    Over the weekend Chelsea Clinton got married, Woodfin said, his SEO techniques on Wead’s behalf put a site known as ChelseaClintonWeddingWatch.com at the top of the rankings. (Chelsea Clinton was married on July 31, 2010.)

    When NBC News anchor Lester Holt was interviewing Wead, Woodfin said, Holt mentioned the website Woodfin had put at the top of the rankings, apparently attributing the feat to Wead.

    Neither BidsThatGive nor Jeffers is mentioned in the first three minutes of the Woodfin video. But at roughly the 3:03 mark, Woodfin announces, “I’m going in business with a gentleman named Randy Jeffers. Randy Jeffers started the No. 1, fastest-growing MLM of all time, called Destiny. They put in 1 million distributors in 18 months.”

    Woodfin goes on to say that Jeffers recently called him and offered him a “founder’s membership” in BidsThatGive.

    “While he’s talking, the hair start[s] standing up on my arm, and I got thrilled,”  Woodfin recalled. “As a matter of fact, every time I get off the phone with him now, I’m just, ‘Thank you for putting this together.’ It’s based on penny auctions . . .”

    It’s not known whether Woodfin contacted the White House, Wead, Clinton and Holt as a courtesy to let them know he’d be using their names in a YouTube pitch for Jeffers’ BidsThatGive. What is known is that namedropping is common in the MLM sphere — often without the knowledge of those whose names are dropped.

    Although the Woodfin pitch did not imply that any of the celebrities or institutions mentioned in the pitch endorsed BidsThatGive, the implication was clear that BidsThatGive prospects who joined under Woodfin would gain access to an SEO expert who’d worked for a Presidential candidate and knew a Presidential adviser.

    Neither the Jeffers’ video nor the Woodfin video referenced the Liberty International LLC 23-month-old bankruptcy filing. Nor did either video address any of the potential problems BidsThatGive could encounter from regulators.

    Like the Zeek Rewards’ business model, the BidsThatGive model resembles that of ASD. In 2008, the U.S. Secret Service seized more than $80 million from ASD-related bank accounts, including $65.8 million in the personal accounts of Andy Bowdoin.

    Court records showed that ASD was trading on the name of then-President George W. Bush. Analysts saw it as a transparent bid to sanitize the “opportunity” by trying to link it to the White House.

    Major politicians from both sides of the aisle have seen their names used in promos for “opportunities” that proved to be Ponzi schemes.

    Former President Clinton’s name and image were used by the Mantria Corp. Ponzi scheme. Clinton is a Democrat.

     

  • RECOMMENDED READING: The Age Of Evolving MLM Radicalism: BehindMLM Reports On Lawsuit Threats And Security Taunts Directed At Blogger Who Took Issue With How American MLM Brand ‘Xocai’ Chocolate Was Being Marketed In Norway

    U.S.-based Xocai features attractive products in attractive packaging. The behavior of some of its supporters is decidedly less than attractive, something that is generating negative headlines in Europe and the United States.

    From the Stepfordian cheerleading for the Zeek Rewards MLM “program” (and its purported nonguaranteed, nonreturn return of between 1 percent and 2 percent a day) to the mind-bending and long-running circus surrounding AdSurfDaily (1 percent a day with an operator who was a recidivist securities huckster and now has pleaded guilty in the ASD MLM Ponzi case) and JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid (2 percent a day while fretting about “cruise missile” attacks on its server by purported criminal governments bent on destroying free enterprise), a certain sphere of the MLM universe has been serving up a symphony of the bizarre.

    But what reportedly occurred in Norway recently in the MLM sphere not only is bizarre, but also makes some MLMers look like a gang of out-of-control, conspiring thugs and extortionists.

    BehindMLM.com is reporting today on lawsuit threats and other hair-raising taunts directed at a Norwegian critic who raised questions about how the Xocai MLM “opportunity” was being presented in Norway.

    Xocai is a brand of chocolate marketed by Nevada-based MXI Corp. MXI stands for Marketing Xocolate International Corp., according to the company.

    No legitimate MLM company or MLM affiliate should tolerate or model this fantastically ill-advised behavior, which can have severe repercussions and is creating negative headlines for both Xocai and MLM.

    It is the worst possible sort of “public relations” in “defense” of a company. Not only does it smack of a bid to force mob rule in the Internet Age and speak to issues of extortion, emotional blackmail and the disingenuous whitewashing of ill intent, it raises very real concerns about how a mob can undermine free speech and jeopardize the security of individual MLM critics and their family members, friends and associates.

    It is worth noting that supporters of AdSurfDaily also threatened to sue critics. At the same time, it’s worth noting that a threat to sue an ASD critic for $40 million in July 2008 became part of a government series of exhibits in the ASD Ponzi case.

    But the story about the negative PR Xocai suddenly is experiencing goes far beyond simple lawsuit threat reportedly made in its name. Indeed, the story of the lawsuit threat is gathering attention because of companion threats, even as company says it is trying to build a powerful brand.

    Xocai says it recently obtained a trademark on the phrase “Healthy Chocolate” and seeks to become a business icon. These things are commendable, and the company has made its accomplishments and goals part of its PR stable.

    “Approval of the ‘Healthy Chocolate’ trademark represents a significant milestone for MXI,” said Andrew Brooks, founder and chief operating officer of MXI Corp., in a May 21 news release on the company’s website.

    “We’ve increasingly become known as the ‘Healthy Chocolate’ company, utilizing proprietary formulations of premium ingredients, along with cold-processing techniques, to retain the nutritional potency of cacao and açai berries,” said Brooks. “With this milestone, we now have another important tool to establish ourselves as the icon for Healthy Chocolate, both inside and outside our industry.”

    We’re wondering today whether the company, which plainly states it seeks to become a business icon and clearly values its brand and its new trademark, finds the BehindMLM story disturbing enough to repudiate the behavior that is the subject of the story.

    The PP Blog will provide space to Xocai should it choose to speak to the events in Norway. It could score a lot of PR points by denouncing those events and putting it on the record that it will not tolerate MLM thuggery in its name.

    Every word of the BehindMLM story is worth reading. (Link below.)

    The upshot is this: An apparent Xocai “defender” unhappy about a series of Blog reports planted the seed that the company would be filing a “a seven digit lawsuit” against the Blogger. The lawsuit, according to the “defender,” was backed by the majority of a trade association consisting of 9,000 Norwegian Xocai members.

    But the menacing reportedly didn’t stop there.

    In fact, according to the BehindMLM story, it devolved into a situation in which the “defender” planted the seed that other Xocai “defenders” would make trouble for the Blogger with his private employer. To maximize the chill, the “defender” made sure the critic knew that an intelligence-gathering operation was occurring behind the scenes and that Xocai supporters might just appear at his gate and at the gates of his loved ones.

    Of course, the Xocai “defender,” a purported “association,” washed its hands of any suggestion its intent was anything less than noble. The seeds planted that the life of the Blogger, his personal security and the security of his loved ones could be ruined in an instant if he didn’t behave in a certain way — well, those things apparently were not to be viewed as threatening. It was just business, or so the disingenuous, vomitous talking points of the “defender” go.

    Our view is that is just the latest example of something we’re inclined to describe as an  evolving MLM radicalism. It is particularly dangerous because certain parts of the MLM universe are known to reflexively model anything that “works” with complete disregard for the consequences.

    It reminded us of what happened to this police chief in Georgia earlier this year. The chief allegedly was targeted in an intimidation campaign by a “sovereign citizen.”

    The bid to “defend” Xocai by trying to make a Blogger believe everything he valued in life could be gone in an instant is deplorable. It is ugly past comparison. Unfortunately it is hardly unique in the recent annals of MLM’s Thug Wing.

    Read the story on BehindMLM.com.

     

  • BULLETIN: Purported JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid Operator Frederick Mann Confirms For SECOND Time That ‘Program’ Pays Members With Funds From New Members; He Adds That ALL Payments Come From Members In Closed System

    Frederick Mann

    BULLETIN: Frederick Mann, the purported operator of the JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid HYIP “program,” has acknowledged once again — this time by implication — that JSS/JBP pays members from funds received from new members. And Mann, who said the “program” had about a million members and acknowledged that nonmembers could not make purchases, has gone a step farther, saying that all payouts to members came from the funds of other members.

    Mann initially acknowledged in a March 15 conference call that JSS/JBP members were getting paid with money from “new members.” The recording of the call later was removed from the JSS/JBP website.

    During the June 28 JSS/JBP call, however, Mann again returned to the claim that members were getting paid by other members.

    “I was just curious about . . . those million members,” a caller on the June 28 JSS/JBP conference call asked Mann. “So, those payments coming in from the million members right now are just being redistributed to . . . the group of the million members. None of the money is coming into the program from other nonmembers and none of the money is going out of the program to other companies? It’s just circulating in the program. Is that right?”

    Mann replied, “That’s essentially right, yes.”

    Paying “old” members with funds from “new” members is the central element of a Ponzi scheme.

    But Ponzi schemes often also exist within systems in which a “program” effectively pools the funds of all members and then makes disbursements from the common pool to members who qualify for disbursements. Prosecutors and regulators may describe such an “opportunity” as a money-cycling scheme. Such schemes typically feature either the “classic” Ponzi stucture (money flow from “new” to “old” members) or a structure that is less-than-classic but still is a Ponzi (money from “all” to “all” members) — with the money coming from common contributors of an enterprise that has no meaningful income streams (or, indeed, no income streams at all) beyond what members contribute.

    AdSurfDaily, which became engulfed in Ponzi litigation in 2008 that led to a plea of guilty to wire fraud in May 2012 by ASD President Andy Bowdoin, had elements of both “new to old” and “all to all.” ASD had income streams external to the Ponzi, but they were insignificant. Court records show that ASD had no underlying, profitable business to sustain its advertised payout rate of 1 percent a day. Like JSS/JBP, ASD operated a closed system — and JSS/JBP purports to pay a daily return double that of ASD’s while also advertising an ASD-like commission structure.

    JSS/JBP announced on its website last week that it had hired a law firm in Utah.

    That announcement followed on the heels of a statement by Mann last month that JSS/JBP members perhaps should avoid words such as “compound” when presenting the “program.” Despite Mann’s suggestion, JSS/JBP features a video on its website that — within the first 11 seconds — advertises, “Daily Compounding to give yourself an Automatic Pay Raise!”

    Internal inconsistencies are one of the hallmarks of HYIP fraud schemes.

     

     

  • BULLETIN: Federal Judge Denies Motion By ASD Figures Dwight Owen Schweitzer And Todd Disner For Government To Produce Names Of Potentially Thousands Of ASD Members Who Filed For Remissions

    BULLETIN: (UPDATED 8:06 P.M. EDT U.S.A.) A federal judge in Florida has denied a motion by AdSurfDaily figures Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer that, if granted, could have made the duo privy to information on the identities of any ASD participant who filed a claim for remissions in the ASD Ponzi case, their financial stake in ASD and how much money was returned to them by the government through the remissions claims process.

    U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga said no today, ruling that Schweitzer and Disner had not shown why they were entitled to the information and that the government was not compelled to produce it.

    The flap started when Disner and Schweitzer asserted earlier this month that a certificate of interested parties filed by the government in the Disner/Schweitzer lawsuit was “inadequate as a matter of law” because it didn’t include the information on individuals who filed remissions claims. Court records show that about 11,000 ASD members filed claims in the case.

    The government countered by arguing that Disner and Schweitzer were confusing the ASD forfeiture case filed in the District of Columbia with their own lawsuit filed in Florida.

    Altonaga sided with the government today, ruling that the government certificate as it stands “is not necessarily incomplete for failing to list those who have a financial interest in other forfeiture proceedings.”

    “Plaintiffs fail to explain in their Motion why unnamed parties who may have a financial interest in other forfeiture proceedings also have an interest in Plaintiffs’ declaratory judgment action,” Altonaga ruled.

    And the judge further pointed out that Disner and Schweitzer had not complied with her order to file their own certificates in the case. She now has given them until July 6 to do so, warning that “[f]ailure to comply will result in the entry of an order of dismissal without prejudice without further notice.”

  • UPDATE: AdSurfDaily-Like Weirdness Increasingly Creeps Into Lawsuit Against United States By ASD Pitchmen Dwight Owen Schweitzer And Todd Disner, Who Now Are Promoting Zeek Rewards

    Federal prosecutors went to court in the Southern District of Florida today, saying AdSurfDaily figures Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer were confusing their November 2011 lawsuit against the government with two forfeiture actions filed in the District of Columbia by federal prosecutors and the U.S. Secret Service in the ASD Ponzi case.

    An assistant U.S. Attorney serving under U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer of the Southern District of Florida is serving as the attorney for the United States in the case because Disner and Schweitzer sued the government. Although the ASD Ponzi case was brought in the District of Columbia, Disner and Schweitzer sued the government in Florida. They later claimed that prosecutors had gone forum shopping in Washington to bring the Ponzi forfeiture case.

    Among other things, Disner and Schweitzer claim that undercover agents who joined ASD had a duty to identify themselves to ASD management and that the ASD Ponzi case is a “house of cards” despite ASD President Andy Bowdoin’s guilty plea and public acknowledgment he presided over a Ponzi scheme.

    In a puzzling motion stamped June 20 and entered on the docket of U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga on June 21, Schweitzer and Disner claimed they had personally determined that a certificate of interested parties filed by the government in response to an order was “inadequate as a matter of law.”

    Disner and Schweitzer, according to Disner and Schweitzer, had a right to know the identities of any ASD participant who filed a claim for remissions in the ASD Ponzi case, how much money they put into ASD and how much was returned to them by the government through the remission claims process.

    Nonsense, the government said today.

    “The plaintiffs misapprehend the purpose and spirit of the court’s order requiring a certificate of interested parties,” the government said in its response to the Disner/Schweitzer motion. “The instant case is not a forfeiture case as the two forfeiture cases involving AdSurfDaily have already been resolved in the District of Columbia.

    “The certificate of interested parties is not some kind of alternative discovery vehicle collateral to the discovery provisions in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure,” the government continued. “Rather, the certificate of interested parties in both the federal district and appellate courts is designed ‘to assist judges in making a determination of whether they have any interests in any of a party’s related corporate entities that would disqualify the judges from hearing the [appeal].’”

    Moreover, the government argued, Disner and Schweitzer “did not confer with the defense” as required by the local rules in the Southern District of Florida prior to filing the motion.

    As many as 11,000 parties filed remissions claims in the ASD case, according to federal court records.

    Disner and Schweitzer apparently want to know who all of them are and to ascertain “the financial interest of each[,] including those individuals, separately identified, who applied for remission and, as to each, stating whether the request was approved, approved in part, or denied.”

    The government, however, advised Altonaga that neither Disner nor Schweitzer have filed their own certificates of interested parties in the case.

    Separately, Altonaga today granted the government’s June 4 motion by default to stay discovery in the case, explaining that Disner and Schweitzer have “not filed an opposing memorandum of law to the Motion, nor have they sought an extension of time to do so.”

    Disner is a co-founder of the Quiznos sandwich franchise. Schweitzer is a former attorney now living in Miami whose license was suspended in Connecticut.

    Both men later became pitchmen for Zeek Rewards, an MLM firm whose business model closely resembles the ASD business model that ASD’s Bowdoin admitted was a Ponzi scheme. Bowdoin is jailed in the District of Columbia. A federal judge revoked his bond June 12 after prosecutors proffered evidence that he continued to promote fraud schemes after the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars in the ASD Ponzi case and after Bowdoin was arrested on Ponzi-scheme charges in December 2010.

    Bowdoin pleaded guilty in May to wire fraud in the ASD Ponzi case. His formal sentencing is set for August. He has been banned from multilevel marketing, Internet programs and mass marketing.

    Other ASD-Related News From The OneX Fraud Wing

    In other ASD-related news, a conference call cheerleading session for the purported “OneX” program was canceled tonight after a rah-rah session that had been scheduled for last Thursday also was canceled.

    Tonight’s cheerleading session was to be sponsored by a downline with ASD ties and was contemplated to be one that would build on the purportedly exciting announcement OneX said would be made last week to identify its new payment processor, a source told the PP Blog.

    But OneX apparently canceled the Thursday conference call and never identified a new payment processor, so there was nothing for the OneX downline with ASD ties to cheer about tonight.

    “It is not possible to move forward without the processor being in place,” the ASD downline group said, according to the source.

    But the group held out hope that OneX would announce its new payment processor tomorrow, according to the source.

    In April, federal prosecutors said OneX was a “fraudulent scheme” and “pyramid” that was operating in ASD-like fashion.

  • BULLETIN: JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid Announces New Scam; Meanwhile, New Guidance From Frederick Mann Suggests Members Should Avoid The Word ‘Compound’

    “‘Compound’ . . . is really a word which [members] probably shouldn’t use.” — Frederick Mann, purported operator of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, from conference call-recording dated June 14, 2012

    “‘Repurchase’ is a great one.” — “Dale,” JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid conference-call host, in response to Frederick Mann comment noted above, June 14, 2012

    Frederick Mann

    BULLETIN: (UPDATED 8:44 P.M. EDT U.S.A.) The JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid HYIP Ponzi scheme that advertises a return of 60 percent a month and is soliciting $20,000 “purchases” announced during its June 14 conference call that it was adding an autosurf to its stable. The precise date upon which the autosurf would be introduced was not announced.

    The announcement about JSS/JBP’s autosurf was made only two days after AdSurfDaily autosurf operator Andy Bowdoin was jailed in the District of Columbia. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer revoked Bowdoin’s bail after federal prosecutors proffered evidence that Bowdoin had been involved in AdViewGlobal, an autosurf that launched after the seizure of more than $80 million in the ASD Ponzi case by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008.

    Meanwhile, purported JSS/JBP operator Frederick Mann appears to have backed away from his March 15 guidance to members that it was OK to use the language of investments when pitching the “program” to others.

    Like Zeek Rewards, an MLM “program” that plants the seed it provides a return of between 1 percent and 2 percent a day without being an investment program, guides members not to use certain words and brags about its purported “compliance” arm, Mann now is suggesting JSS/JBP members should avoid the term “compound” when describing the JSS/JBP program.

    Mann, according to 2008 promos, was a pitchman for ASD, the same autosurf that led to Ponzi charges against the now-jailed Bowdoin. In court filings, the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors described ASD as an enterprise that engaged in linguistic sleight-of-hand in an ill-fated bid to skirt securities regulations.

    ASD had links to the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement. JSS/JBP also may have such links.

    Prior to the 2008 Secret Service seizure of tens of millions of dollars in the ASD Ponzi case, ASD advised members not to use the language of investments. AdViewGlobal launched after the Secret Service seizure and, like ASD, advised members not to use the language of investments.

    AdViewGlobal disappeared mysteriously in the summer of 2009. During the spring of 2009, the ‘surf announced it was having banking troubles.

    Zeek announced on Memorial Day that it, too, was having banking troubles.

    ASD, AdViewGlobal, JSS/JBP and Zeek all use offshore payment processors. All four enterprises have (or had) promoters in common, and all four enterprises are (or were) being promoted on notorious Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

    On May 4, 2009 — the same date the President of the United States announced a crackdown on offshore scams — AdViewGlobal announced it had secured a new deal with an offshore wire facilitator. The ‘surf appears to have collapsed less than two months later.

     

  • UPDATE: In Bizarre Conference Call, ‘J.C.’ Of OneX Denies He Is Owner, Says SolidTrustPay Is Out — And Claims ‘Program’ Soon Will Be Using Payment Processor That Works ‘With Bank Of America’

    Federal prosecutors sent this letter to an attorney for accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin of AdSurfDaily on April 17, 2012. It was entered in the public record on April 24. The letter describes the "OneX" program pushed by Bowdoin as a "fraudulent scheme." Bowdoin pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the ASD Ponzi case less than a month later. He is currently jailed in the District of Columbia awaiting formal sentencing Aug. 29. (Red highlight by PP Blog.)

    “Like [AdSurfDaily], OneX does not generate income by selling a product to consumers outside the system. Instead, it simply re-distributes funds among participants. Thus, a participant will not earn money unless he or she recruits new members. When the addition of new members stops, the program ceases to exist.” — From court filing by Office of U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. in Ponzi scheme case against AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin, April 24, 2012

    OneX, which went missing weeks ago, now is back — sort of.

    The “program” held a bizarre conference call last night, claiming it was trying to resurrect itself after server problems that lasted weeks even as it suggested it was trying to come up with a word combination that would put questions about the program to rest.

    “We just have to call certain things that we were doing a different name,” asserted lead huckster “J.C.” during the call.

    Precisely what J.C. meant by his “different name” comment was unclear. Much is murky about the purported “program,” which ASD’s Bowdoin claimed last year was great for college students and could result in riches for former ASD members.

    During the call,  OneX created a potential PR disaster for Bank of America, which once was the banker for the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and was sued by ASD members who claimed the bank aided ASD President Andy Bowdoin in foisting a massive fraud scheme on the public.

    Bank of America has denied the claims against it. Those claims were part of a 2009 racketeering lawsuit filed against Bowdoin and Robert Garner, a onetime attorney for ASD.

    Among other highlights from yesterday’s OneX call:

    “J.C.” — whom at least some members believed was the owner of OneX — denied he was the owner. Rather, J.C. described himself as a “consultant.”

    Regardless, J.C. claimed he’d written a letter to SolidTrustPay to “reverse” deposits made into the OneX account and to return the money to the senders. OneX had received the money from about 22 OneX members as a result of a programming error, J.C. explained. He did not explain how a consultant — as opposed to an owner — had any authority to ask SolidTrustPay to do anything.

    In any event, OneX no longer is doing business with Canada-based SolidTrustPay, according to J.C.

    J.C. said the “program” has another payment-processing solution waiting in the wings and may make an announcement Thursday. He did not identify the processor, claimed OneX again would open itself to member withdrawals — but further claimed the new processor “is wanting us to stagger” payouts and to begin with “a small amount.”

    “We don’t know the numbers yet. Next Thursday we can talk about it,” J.C. said.

    Later in the call, with the name of the payment processor still not disclosed, J.C. said this:

    “And I will tell you also that it’s not one that is outside the United States. They work with Bank of America.”

     

  • KABOOM! Alleged International Scammer Targeted In Secret Service Undercover Probe Extradited To United States; ‘Prosecution Demonstrates That Those Who Try To Rip Off Americans From Behind A Computer Screen Across An Ocean Will Not Escape American Justice,’ Top Federal Prosecutor Says

    EDITOR’S NOTE: The PP Blog first reported on the arrest in France of alleged international fraudster Vladislav Anatolievich Horohorin on Aug. 11, 2010. The arrest came as the result of an undercover operation the U.S. Secret Service conducted on online forums.

    As the Blog reported at the time, “The arrest of Vladislav Horohorin is notable on a number of levels. First, the arrest in Europe was a result of an online fraud scheme that allegedly crossed international borders and made its way to the United States, where criminal charges were filed. At the same time, the crime allegedly involved the transfer of money though international payment processors. Perhaps more than anything, however, the case against Horohorin demonstrates that the U.S. Secret Service is “plugged into” forums that promote international lawlessness. His arrest is very bad news for credit-card crooks and HYIP and autosurf Ponzi schemers — and their corrupt colleagues.”

    Today the PP Blog is reporting that the United States successfully arranged the extradition of Horohorin. His first court appearance was made in the District of Columbia, the venue from which the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case brought by the Secret Service is playing out. The office of U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr., which was instrumental in guiding the ASD case, is in charge of certain elements of the Horohorin case.

    The office of U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates of the Northern District of Georgia also is handing elements of the Horohorin prosecution.

    The allegations in the case are alarming: “According to the indictment filed in the Northern District of Georgia, Horohorin was one of the lead cashers in an elaborate scheme in which 44 counterfeit payroll debit cards were used to withdraw more than $9 million from over 2,100 ATMs in at least 280 cities worldwide in a span of less than 12 hours,” the Justice Department said in a statement.  “Computer hackers broke into a credit card processor located in the Atlanta area, stole debit card account numbers, and raised the balances and withdrawal limits on those accounts while distributing the account numbers and PIN codes to lead cashers, like Hororhorin, around the world.”

    ** ______________________________________ **

    UPDATE: Alleged international credit-card fraudster Vladislav Anatolievich Horohorin, also known as “BadB,” is in an American jail after an undercover probe on online forums by the U.S. Secret Service and a parallel investigation by the FBI.

    Ronald C. Machen Jr., U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia

    “We are pleased that he has been extradited to the United States to face these criminal charges in a District of Columbia courtroom,” said U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. of the District of Columbia.  “This prosecution demonstrates that those who try to rip off Americans from behind a computer screen across an ocean will not escape American justice.”

    Horohorin, whose age was listed as 27 after his August 2010 arrest in France on U.S. charges, also will be prosecuted in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

    “International cyber criminals who target American citizens and businesses often believe they are untouchable because they are overseas,” said U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates of the Northern District of Georgia.  “But as this case demonstrates, we will work relentlessly with our law enforcement partners around the world to charge, find and bring those criminals to justice.”

    News of Horohorin’s extradition by France to U.S. soil occurred against the backdrop of claims by an HYIP “program” known as JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid that members must affirm they are not with the “government” and that the “program” is not located in any “unfriendly political jurisdictions.”

    A JSS/JBP “defender” known as “MoneyMakingBrain” asserted in March that “law enforcement agencies don’t pay attention to what’s being said on forums and blogs.” The claim was at odds with various public records that show U.S. law enforcement pays close attention to forums and Blogs and even conducts undercover operations by infiltrating forums.

    Among other things, “MoneyMakingBrain” asserted he’d defend JSS/JBP’s purported operator Frederick Mann “so help me God.” The PP Blog became the subject of threats from “MoneyMakingBrain.” JSS/JBP, which uses offshore payment processors, purports to provide a return of 60 percent a month, has no known securities registrations and may have ties to the “sovereign citizens” movement.

    Underscoring the importance of the Horohorin arrest and extradition, Machen and Yates were joined in the announcement by the head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and top officials from both the U.S. Secret Service and the FBI.

    Horohorin, said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, was “one of the most notorious credit card traffickers in the world.”

    “Due to our strong relationships with our international law enforcement partners, we secured his extradition to the United States, where he now faces multiple criminal counts in two separate indictments,” Breuer said.  “We will continue to do everything we can to bring cybercriminals to justice, including those who operate beyond our borders.”

    A top U.S. Secret Service official, meanwhile, said the agency viewed the alleged Horohorin caper as an “attack” on America’s financial system.

    “The Secret Service is committed to identifying and apprehending those individuals that continue to attack American financial institutions and we will continue to work through our international and domestic law enforcement partners in order to accomplish this,” said David J. O’Connor, assistant director of investigations.

    In addition to providing security for the President of the United States, the Secret Service is in charge of protecting America’s financial infrastructure. The agency has described AdSurfDaily as a “criminal enterprise,” with the Justice Department asserting that ASD was an example of an “insidious” business that permitted fraud to spread globally.

    Just two days after Horohorin’s first appearance in a U.S. courtroom in the District of Columbia, AdSurfDaily members Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer claimed that the federal prosecutors who brought the ASD Ponzi case in August 2008 had gone shopping for a “frendly [sic] forum” in which the government could enlist “some of their Washington D.C. operatives to become members of ASD, thereby making them potential witnesses.”

    Disner and Schweitzer sued the United States in November 2011 for alleged misdeeds in the ASD case. Among other things, Disner and Schweitzer asserted that undercover agents who joined ASD had a duty to inform ASD management.  The Secret Service described ASD as a massive online Ponzi scheme involving at least $110 million. ASD President Andy Bowdoin pleaded guilty to wire fraud last month, admitting ASD was a Ponzi scheme and that the company never operated legally from its inception in 2006.

    Disner and Schweitzer now are affiliates for Zeek Rewards, a “program” that plants the seed it can provide an ASD-like return of 1 percent or more per day without being a pyramid scheme and without constituting an investment opportunity. The payout Zeek plants the seed it can provide is on par with the returns advertised by JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, which does not disclose its base of operations.

    A top FBI official said the arrest of Horohorin showed that international agencies are working together to divorce criminals from their abilities to use computers to reach across borders to pull off egregious crimes.

    “Horohorin’s extradition to the United States demonstrates the FBI’s expertise in conducting long-term investigations into complex criminal computer intrusions, resulting in bringing the most egregious cyber criminals to justice, even from foreign shores,” said Brian D. Lamkin , special agent in charge of the Atlanta division. “The combined efforts of law enforcement agencies to include our international partners around the world will ensure this trend continues.”

    Court and other records show that Horohorin, like ASD, had a presence in both the District of Columbia and the Northern District of Georgia.

  • Site That Sells Zeek Rewards ‘Customers’ Uses PayPal, Serves Confusing Pop-Up Screens, References AdSurfDaily Figure Todd Disner — And Sends Traffic To JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid Site That May Have ‘Sovereign Citizens’ Link

    Depending on how they navigate the site, PennyAuctionCustomers.com visitors may encounter a confusing series of screens and ultimately may be shown an ad for JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, which may have ties to the "sovereign citizens" movement. The PennyAuctionCustomers site purports to sell customers for the ZeekRewards MLM "program" that plants the seed it provides a daily return of between 1 percent and 2 percent while not being a "pyramid scheme" and while not constituting an investment program.

    PennyAuctionCustomers.com advertises that it sells “customers” to members of the Zeek Rewards MLM, collects money through PayPal, serves confusing pop-up messages, uses the name of AdSurfDaily figure Todd Disner in its meta data — and sends traffic to the preposterous JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid “program” that advertises a return of 60 percent a month.

    Whether the site has any affiliation with Disner is unclear. What is clear is that Disner is a Zeek Rewards member who sued the U.S. government last year for alleged misdeeds in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case, including a claim that federal prosecutors and the U.S. Secret Service had relied on a “tissue of lies” in bringing the ASD case.

    This Zeek ad attributed to former AdSurfDaily member Dwight Owen Schweitzer paints Zeek as an investment program through which participants can "earn 1%+ a day compounded."

    Disner’s co-plaintiff in the case was fellow ASD (and Zeek) member Dwight Owen Schweitzer, a former attorney whose license was suspended in Connecticut. The government asked a federal judge last month to dismiss the Disner/Schweitzer complaint, pointing out that ASD President Andy Bowdoin had pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the ASD case.

    Bowdoin, 77, is now detained in Washington, D.C., awaiting formal sentencing by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer in August. Court papers show that Bowdoin admitted ASD was a Ponzi scheme and that he had presided over an illegal money-making business since the inception of ASD in 2006.

    Zeek’s business model closely resembles that of ASD. Like ASD, Zeek plants the seed that it provides a daily return that corresponds to an annual return in excess of 300 percent. Zeek participants must place an ad online daily to earn the purported daily payout. ASD members were required to view ads.

    The U.S. Secret Service seized more than $80 million in the ASD Ponzi case, including more than $65.8 million from Bowdoin’s bank accounts in August 2008.

    When the PP Blog visited PennyAuctionCustomers.com, accessed the “FAQ” page and sought to leave the page, the Blog’s browser encountered multiple pop-up screens that displayed confusing messages. Eventually the Blog was shown a page on the site with banner ads for the JSS/JBP “program” and a “program” known as Banners Broker.

    The banner ad near the bottom of this page on the PennyAuctionCustomers.com website points visitors to the JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid "program" after soliciting visitors to purchase "customers" for the Zeek Rewards MLM "program." A JSS/JBP site loads when the "Triple Your Money" banner is clicked.

    “DO YOU LIKE ZEEK REWARDS?” the PennyAuctionCustomers site inquires.

    “WELL YOU WILL LOVE THIS,” it asserts. “Two Other Highly Lucrative Programs That Do Not Require Any Sponsoring of Other Affiliates That You May Wish To Join If You Are Looking To Boost Your Income!”

    It then points visitors toward JSS/JBP and Banners Broker.

    Like Zeek (and ASD before it), the JSS/JBP and Banners Broker “programs” are being advertised on well-known Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup. The various promotions lead to questions about whether fraudulent schemes are simply recycling money from scam to scam to scam, polluting the money stream at multiple points nationally and internationally.

    These phrases are among the meta data on the PennyAuctionCustomers site:

    • zeekrewards 90 day strategy
    • zeekrewards calculator
    • is zeekrewards legit
    • is zeekrewards legal
    • todd disner zeek rewards

    An Oregon entity known as Media Clinch LLC appears to be conducting the Zeek “customer” sales through PayPal while at once pointing traffic toward Banners Broker and JSS/JBP, which purportedly is operated by Frederick Mann. Mann and JSS/JBP may have ties to the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement in which adherents display an irrational belief that laws do not apply to them and courts have no jurisdiction over them.

    Although JSS/JBP appears to rely on “offshore” payment processors linked to fraud scheme after fraud scheme, the PennyAuctionCustomers Zeek promos through the Media Clinch LLC PayPal account introduces the prospect that soiled proceeds from multiple fraud schemes also could be flowing into PayPal.

    Media Clinch LLC, according to Oregon records, is managed by Sean Walters. Zeek has an affiliate by the same name.

     

  • BULLETIN: 2 Fugitives Found With AdSurfDaily Figure And Purported ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Kenneth Wayne Leaming Convicted Of Mail Fraud In Multimillion-Dollar Arkansas Caper

    Kenneth Wayne Leaming

    BULLETIN: Timothy Shawn Donavan and Sharon Jeannette Henningsen — the two fugitives arrested in November in Washington state with AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming — have been found guilty of mail fraud and conspiracy in Arkansas in a multimillion-dollar home business caper involving envelope-stuffing.

    Donavan, 63, and Henningsen, 67, potentially face decades in prison after a jury returned guilty verdicts on 18 counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy. KATV.com is reporting there were more than 21,000 victims in the case.

    On May 31, the PP Blog learned that Leaming had been subpoenaed as a witness in the case and was transported from a federal detention facility near Seattle. Leaming, 56, is believed to be on his way back to Washington state. His trial is set for September on charges of filing false liens against at least five public officials involved in the ASD Ponzi case. He also is accused of harboring fugitives, being in possession of firearms as a convicted felon and uttering a bogus promissory note.

    Court records in Arkansas show that Donavan and Henningsen sought to represent themselves pro se but ignored orders by a federal judge to stop filing extraneous and off-topic pleadings. The judge ultimately ordered counsel to take over for the former fugitives because Donavan and Henningsen’s “persistence in refusing to obey Court directions and in injecting extraneous and irrelevant material into the record.”

  • Did Zeek Give Puff Piece To Rep Who Signed Petition For U.S. Senate To Investigate AdSurfDaily Prosecutors And U.S. Secret Service Agent?

    NOTE: 10:46 A.M. EDT: Certain references to “Aaron” (below) in the context of “Aaron and Shara” have been deleted, pending the resolution to a report we received that disputed certain information.

    Question: Did the Zeek Rewards MLM “program” that plants the seed it provides a return of between 1 percent and 2 percent a day without constituting an investment opportunity give a puff piece to an affiliate who signed a petition in 2008 that called for the U.S. Senate to investigate the federal prosecutors and the U.S. Secret Service agent who brought the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case?

    Answer: It certainly appears so.

    Zeek ran this puff piece on “Charter Diamond” affiliate Jerry Napier of “Michigan” on July 25, 2011.

    Separately, this classified ad for Zeek from “Jerry Napier” of Owosso, Mich., ran on Nov. 17, 2011.

    On Dec. 30, 2008, “Jerry Napier” of Owosso, Mich., signed a petition that called for the U.S. Senate to investigate (see No. 1897 on the petition) then-U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey; then U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor of the District of Columbia; then-lead ASD prosecutor William Cowden; and Roy Dotson, a special agent of the U.S. Secret Service, according to ipetitions.com.

    Screen shot and highlight by PP Blog.

    “Whereas, we as Americans have a right to advertise with any company without interferences [sic] by [sic] Attorney General and /or any of its agents,” the petition began. “Whereas, Ad Surf Daily [sic] hereafter (ASD) [sic] an advertising company on the internet were [sic]  members received re-bates [sic] for advertising and looking at other advertising sites, thus purchase [sic] products and services.”

    In August 2008, the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors brought the first of at least three civil-forfeiture actions in the ASD Ponzi case. Those actions were parallel to a criminal investigation that ultimately led to the arrest of ASD President Andy Bowdoin in December 2010 and his guilty plea to wire fraud last month.

    ASD, like Zeek, planted the seed that it paid a daily return on the order of 1 percent.

    Meanwhile, “Jerry Napier” is listed as a top Zeek earner on Ted Nuyten’s “Business For Home” Blog in a post dated March 18, 2012.

    Among the other top Zeek earners listed in the post are “Aaron and Shara” and Trudy Gilmond. “Aaron and Shara” is a veteran HYIP team.

    Gilmond, whom Zeek identifies as a Zeek “employee” on its website, once was a promoter of a scheme known as Regenesis 2X2, which became the subject of a U.S. Secret Service probe in 2009.

    The 2008 petition calling for the Senate to investigate the ASD prosecutorial team also includes “Catherine Parker” as a signatory (on Page 33, Nos. 1604 and 1605). “Catherine Parker” was quoted in emails that became part of the ASD story. (See such an attribution on AdLandPro, a site from which ASD was promoted.)

    Zeek lists a “Catherine Parker” as an “employee.”