ASD

EDITOR’S NOTE: One way to read a report filed yesterday by the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi-scheme case is as a warning manual that brings to life the kind of vexing problems HYIP schemes create for operators, vendors and participants — including “insiders.” Kenneth D. Bell’s report to Senior U.S. District Judge Graham […]

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

During its 11 p.m. newscast yesterday, WTOL (CBS/Toledo) aired a report titled “Holy Rip-Off” about the alleged Profitable Sunrise HYIP scam. The report, which began with images of Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff playing in the background, focused on alleged Profitable Sunrise pitchwoman Nanci Jo Frazer of Bryan, Ohio. Frazer and her NJF Global Group are […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: GlimDropper, an administrator at the RealScam.com antiscam forum, gave PP Blog readers a heads-up on the WTOL report yesterday . . . WTOL, the CBS affiliate in Toledo, Ohio, says it will air a report Thursday (April 25) at 11 p.m. EDT titled “Holy Rip Off.” A teaser for the report shows photos […]

ANNOUNCEMENT: The PP Blog has banned a specific IP that appears to originate in the area of Fort Wayne, Ind. Between 1:33 p.m. and 1:36 p.m. today, the IP sought to pull six separate PP Blog stories with the aim of planting spam links. The first story was this one, dated Dec. 17, 2010: URGENT […]

UPDATE 8:07 A.M. EDT (APRIL 4, U.S.A.) The report did not air during the 8 p.m. or 11 p.m. broadcasts, possibly because developments in other stories took precedence. Our April 3 story is below . . . The Blog of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 is carrying this teaser today: “360 Wednesday[:] One of the biggest […]

The Associated Press is reporting that Zeek Rewards operator Paul R. Burks claims that he is not at fault and that Zeek participants are to blame if they lost money. From the AP (via Yahoo News/italics added): “I never told anyone to invest more money than they could afford,” Burks snapped. “I didn’t tell them […]

BULLETIN: (UPDATED 4:58 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The state of Utah has proposed that Rayda Roundy of Hurricane be fined $81,250 and ordered to cease and desist from selling securities unlawfully in the state for her alleged role in hawking Safevest LLC. In May 2008, the SEC described Safevest as a fraud- and Ponzi-like scheme that […]

UPDATED 11:33 A.M. EDT (APRIL 1, U.S.A.) On April 1, the PP Blog published a story that informs Profitable Sunrise participants on how to contact state and provincial securities regulators in the United States and Canada. That story is here. April 1 was the date the Profitable Sunrise “Long Haul” plan was supposed to pay […]

UPDATED 12:46 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The evidence against AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming was “overwhelming” and led to the purported “sovereign citizen’s” conviction on three counts of retaliating against a federal official by filing false claims, one count of concealing a person from arrest and one count of being a felon in possession of a […]

UPDATED AT 10:40 A.M. ET (U.S.A.) A member of the “Banners Broker” program tells The Bristol Post that he used a prepaid Banners Broker MasterCard at a NatWest ATM to withdraw £600 and that a counterfeit £20 note was in the stack of cash dispensed by the machine. The plan, Paul Scoplin reportedly told the […]