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Tag: AVG

  • PP Blog Operated By ‘Self-Appointed Idiot,’ Fan Of Nonexistent Nation Of ‘New Utopia’ Suggests; Blog Invited, Then Uninvited To Ceremony At ‘Palace’

    A man using the anonymous identity of “Mr. Protector,” a hotmail address and an IP in the Netherlands has scolded the PP Blog for a story that described “New Utopia” as a nonexistent nation in the Caribbean.

    New Utopia is the fanciful “tax haven” allegedly dreamed up by Lazarus R. Long, an American who declared himself a “prince” and hatched a plan to form a “new country” that would “rise from the Caribbean on giant concrete platforms built on an underwater land mass,” according to the SEC.

    Using the phrase “selfappointedidiotyouare” [Self Appointed Idiot You Are] apparently to chide the PP Blog for giving less than favorable coverage to the nonexistent nation, the man sent an email to the Blog this morning that both invited and uninvited the Blog to view New Utopia’s “Palace” on a date uncertain.

    “How about we print your words out about New Utopia in size 12 font and then, when New Utopia Construction begins, we can invite you there in front of the Palace and watch you eat the words and the paper they are written on?” the man wrote.

    In the very next paragraph, however, he uninvited the Blog.

    “[H]ow will we know to not allow you to visit The Principality of New Utopia?” the man inquired. “We will find a way of that be assured.”

    Although the context in which the man used the word “Protector” was unclear, it is a word that has been used by members of certain so-called “private associations” that challenge the authority of governments to regulate commerce and the securities industry.

    The AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, for example, identified a member as a “Protector.” AVG has been identified in a racketeering lawsuit as an offshoot of the AdSurfDaily (ASD) autosurf. The lawsuit was filed by members of ASD.

    ASD was accused separately by the U.S. Secret Service of operating a $110 million Ponzi scheme and of committing wire fraud, securities fraud and engaging in the sale of unregistered securities.

    On Feb. 18, the PP Blog reported that federal agents — working with law-enforcement partners worldwide — had broken up a fraud ring operating in part from Florida, Costa Rica and elsewhere.

    Among the defendants charged both criminally and civilly was Jonathan R. Curshen. Curshen has been described as the one-time “honorary counsel” of St. Kitts-Nevis to Costa Rica and a purported “consulate” to New Utopia.

    New Utopia has its own website from which it sells an “International Drivers license” issued by New Utopia for $140.

    According to court records, the nonexistent principality is said to be located undersea “approximately 115 miles west of the Cayman Islands.” It would rise out of the water only after concrete stilts were erected and an above-sea base were anchored to a submerged land base.

    New Utopia, indeed, will rise, according to “Mr. Protector,” the author of the email sent to the PP Blog this morning.

    “Too many of us have worked too hard for too many years to just abandon this project,” he wrote.

    “Your ‘reporting’ does not help,” he complained.

    Long, also known as Howard Turney, was accused by the SEC in 1999 of promoting a fraudulent bond offering over the Internet to fund his upstart country. He settled with the agency in 2000 and was assessed a penalty of $24,000, but the penalty was waived.

    “Prince” Long has used the New Utopia website to complain bitterly about anonymous critics on the Internet. Whether “Mr. Protector” risked a royal scolding from the “Prince” for using an anonymous identity to contact the PP Blog was not immediately clear.

  • PROSECUTION BOMBSHELL: Accused Ponzi Schemer Andy Bowdoin Traveled To Costa Rica In 2008 To Explore Option For Offshore ‘Autosurf’ Firm; AdSurfDaily’s Internal Software System Identified Member Payouts As ‘ROI,’ Despite ASD Claim It Was Not Offering Investments

    Andy Bowdoin

    BULLETIN: UPDATED 9:29 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Prosecutors have advised a federal judge that AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin and unnamed “others” traveled to Costa Rica in the spring of 2008 to get the lay of the land for an offshore autosurf that would be “another version” of ASD.

    The alleged trip occurred less than two years after the SEC accused 12DailyPro, an autosurf based in North Carolina, of selling unregistered securities in the form of investment contracts, prosecutors said.

    The explosive claim Bowdoin ventured offshore to pursue the creation of an ASD satellite may signal that the government views ASD not only as a Ponzi scheme, but as a business that deliberately sought to dial up its efforts to circumvent U.S. laws and create an even greater Ponzi war chest by establishing a footprint outside the United States.

    Since at least February 2006, the SEC has described the autosurf business model as anathema and a form of obvious securities fraud. Bowdoin was well aware of the SEC lawsuits and scrutiny domestic autosurfs such as 12DailyPro, PhoenixSurf and CEP had sparked in 2006 and 2007, prosecutors said.

    Meanwhile, investigators have evidence that shows ASD’s internal software system described payments to members as “ROI,” an acronym that that means “return on investment,” prosecutors said.

    The assertions by prosecutors — if proven true — may undermine ASD’s defense strategy of arguing it was an “advertising” program, not an “investment” program.

    Prosecutors did not identify by name the surf allegedly contemplated for Costa Rica. In late 2008 and early 2009, a surf with close ASD ties known as AdViewGlobal (AVG) debuted. The launch occurred about four to five months after the U.S. Secret Service seized $65.8 million from the personal bank accounts of Bowdoin in August 2008.

    Bowdoin’s trip to Costa Rica occurred before the ASD seizure, prosecutors said. If true, the claim could be used to prove ASD was seeking an exit plan even before the Secret Service raid. In 2008, prosecutors asserted that Bowdoin had moved millions of dollars offshore and talked about purchasing a home in another country.

    AVG purported to operate from Uruguay, but had servers that resolved to Panama. Some ASD members have said Bowdoin was a silent partner in AVG.

    Prosecutors described the “ROI” development as just another ASD incongruity, advising U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer that Bowdoin was well aware that a serious securities challenge could be made against his firm and chose to ignore the risk and misinform members.

    Beginning as early as January 2007, “[O]thers warned Bowdoin that ASD was nothing more than an investment scheme and that the program needed to be changed if it were to operate legally,” prosecutors argued in a brief to Collyer. “Bowdoin did not heed that advice and continued unabated in offering members higher returns than banks or brokerage firms. Moreover, based on his prior criminal experience, Bowdoin was well aware of the securities regulations and knew he was offering a security.”

    Any argument that ASD was not offering “investment contracts” as defined under the Howey Test should be dismissed, prosecutors said, arguing that ASD meets all three prongs of the Howey Test.

    Bowdoin sought about three weeks ago to have the criminal charges filed against him dismissed, arguing that ASD met none of the three Howey prongs.

    Nonsense, prosecutors said.

    ASD’s advertising was “merely a cover for Bowdoin’s sale of a get rich quick scheme,” prosecutors said.

    And prosecutors also cited other alleged proof that ASD was running an investment program — namely that some employees were being paid in ASD “ad packs.”

    “Bowdoin and the employees of ASD treated the ‘ad packages’ as shares from which they could expect to earn returns,” prosecutors argued.

    Prosecutors also pointed out a section of ASD’s Terms of Service that stated the firm “will” pay members 125 percent of the money they paid in. At the same time, prosecutors quoted video evidence of Bowdoin wooing members by focusing on ASD as a money-making opportunity.

    Bowdoin, prosecutors said, eventually limited the amount of money investors could pay ASD “because he did not want any one member dominating the return pool.”

    The prosecution’s assertions occurred against the backdrop of dozens of competing claims by ASD members who filed pro-se pleadings in the civil portion of the case that asserted the government had no “EVIDENCE.”

    Members made the claim despite the fact that some of the evidence against ASD had been part of the public record for more than a year at the time the claims were made in 2009.

    In a footnote to Collyer, prosecutors said they’d be happy to present the actual video of Bowdoin making various claims instead of simply quoting from a transcript.

    “[T]he government’s review of ASD’s bank records revealed that of the approximately $31 million ASD paid out to early members, more than 98% of that money came from monies paid to ASD by other members,” prosecutors said.

    Although ASD claimed to have funding sources beyond advertising payments made by members  — things such as banner ad sales and ebooks  — those outlets provided only de minimis revenue, prosecutors argued.

    “Each night, there was nothing more than new members funds to divide among existing members,” prosecutors argued. “Moreover, Bowdoin himself admitted, on video, that members funds are pooled and they will share in the profits and losses equally.

    “Specifically, Bowdoin, in the ‘New Member Success Video,’ claimed that “[w]hen sales increase, the rebates increase. When sales decrease the rebates decrease . . .”

    “Clearly Bowdoin, through ASD, was pooling all of the member’s funds which allowed him to make the requisite return payments,” prosecutors said.

    Prosecutors also argued that the ASD case should remain in Collyer’s courtroom in the District of Columbia. Bowdoin argued that the case should be transferred to Florida, in part because he and many witness live there.

    Although prosecutors agreed that many prospective witnesses live in Florida, they argued that witnesses reside in multiple jurisdictions because of the national and international scope of the case.

    In addition to Floridians, witnesses the government may present hail from the District of Columbia, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, Iowa and  elsewhere, prosecutors asserted.

    ASD also had members from at least 18 countries, and conducted “rallies”  in Illinois and Minnesota, among other states, prosecutors said.

    Read Bowdoin’s claims that the charges against him should be dismissed and that ASD did not meet any of the three Howey Test prongs.

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Accused Fraudster Andy Bowdoin Enters Defense That Could Provide Legal Cover For Autosurf Ponzi Schemes If He Wins Case; ASD Operator Claims Business Model Stands Up To ‘Howey Test’ Scrutiny

    Andy Bowdoin

    BULLETIN: In an argument that almost certainly will give comfort to operators of some of the most corrupt and insidious businesses on the Internet, AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin has advised a federal judge that his company and business practices are legitimate because they stand up to scrutiny when the “Howey Test” is applied.

    Bowdoin, 77, made the argument despite the fact the government claims that he signed a proffer letter at least two years ago in which he acknowledged ASD was operating illegally and that the prosecution’s material allegations were all true. In 2009, Bowdoin acknowledged in his own court filings that he had made statements against his interests over a period of at least four days in the hopes of avoiding a prison sentence by cooperating with investigators.

    But Bowdoin now says criminal charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities as investment contracts brought against him last year “must” be dismissed. It is believed that hundreds — if not thousands — of autosurfs are operating over the Internet at any given time.

    Separately, Bowdoin filed a motion to transfer the case to the Northern District of Florida’s Tallahassee Division from the District of Columbia, saying that trying the case in Florida was the fair and most cost-effective thing to do. The government is expected to oppose Bowdoin’s bid to move the case from Washington to Tallahassee.

    U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer, who was assigned the civil forfeiture case against Bowdoin’s assets after the U.S. Secret Service raided ASD in August 2008 and ordered $65.8 million found in Bowdoin’s personal bank accounts ceded to the government after nearly a year and a half of litigation, also was assigned the criminal case. Criminal charges against Bowdoin were announced in December 2010.

    Although Bowdoin previously claimed Collyer was biased against him and sought unsuccessfully to have her removed from the civil case, he has not raised the issue of bias so far in the criminal case. Instead, he petitioned Collyer for an order that would remove the case from her courtroom and put it in the hands of a federal judge in Florida, arguing that most of the witnesses in the case resided in Florida and that hearing the case in Collyer’s court would force unnecessary costs and transportation burdens on both Bowdoin and witnesses.

    An affidavit signed by Bowdoin requesting the transfer was filed yesterday. It appears to have been notarized by Judy Harris of Tallahassee, whom some ASD members said operated the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf with her husband, George Harris. George Harris is the son of Bowdoin’s wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin, and a Tallahassee home owned by the Harrises was seized in an ASD-related forfeiture complaint filed in December 2008.

    Both George and Judy Harris benefited from the ASD Ponzi scheme because a $157,000 mortgage on their house was retired with Ponzi proceeds, prosecutors said in December 2008.

    The Harrises also received a car valued at nearly $30,000 from the scheme, and the car also was paid for with Ponzi proceeds, prosecutors said.

    Florida records show that Judy Harris has been a licensed notary since at least October 2008. Why she would notarize a document for Andy Bowdoin when she, her husband and her mother-in-law were alleged to have been a beneficiaries of the ASD Ponzi scheme was not immediately clear.

    AVG, which purported to be headquartered in Uruguay and launched after the seizure of assets linked to Bowdoin and the Harrises, suspended payouts to members in June 2009. The surf blamed members’ greed for its problems. The name of Judy Harris also appears in a document filed in April 2009 with the Florida Department of State that canceled the fictitious registration of AVG, which also was known as the AV Global Association.

    Andy Bowdoin’s New Argument

    Prosecutors have not responded to Bowdoin’s new assertion filed yesterday that ASD can stand up to Howey Test scrutiny. A blistering response is expected in the days ahead because a ruling in Bowdoin’s favor to dismiss the case or an outright win by Bowdoin at trial could have grave economic and security implications for the United States.

    Autosurfs operate in the darkest corners of the Internet, fueled by corrupt promoters and scammers who position them as legitimate  “advertising” businesses that share revenue with participants. Untold sums of money — believed to be in the billions of dollars — have disappeared in recent years, and prosecutors say the enterprises operate as virtually pure Ponzi schemes.

    Purveyors almost certainly would view any win by Bowdoin as a mandate that legalized Internet-based Ponzi schemes and created a virtual license to collect vast sums of money and simply pocket it by claiming member payouts, which ASD called “rebates,” were not guaranteed.

    “[N]o guarantee or promise of any profits, any specific level of rebate payouts, or return on an alleged ‘investment’ occurred during the AdSurfDaily operation,” Bowdoin claimed. He also asserted that the allegations against him were Constitutionally vague and that none of the four civil cases brought against autosurfs — 12DailyPro, PhoenixSurf, CEP Holdings and the forfeiture case against ASD’s assets filed in 2008 — has clarified the legal issues.

    “As none of these actions has proceeded to final judgment, no judicial opinion has yet clarified whether payment of membership fees by advertisers into auto-surf businesses constitute unregistered sales of ‘securities,’ as alleged by the government,” Bowdoin claimed.

    The criminal charges “must be dismissed because the ad-surf business model employed by AdSurfDaily, Inc. and [Bowdoin’s] related businesses, as alleged in the indictment, cannot constitute an SEC-regulated ‘investment contract’ security as defined under the three-prong test established” by Howey, Bowdoin argued.

    The Howey Test is a threshold securities test and litigation benchmark from the 1946 U.S. Supreme Court decision in S.E.C. v. W.J. Howey Co. The decision spoke to the issue of what constitutes an “investment contract.”

    Bowdoin now claims the entire case against him is fatally flawed because he never sold investment contracts as defined under Howey.

    “[T]he Howey test,” Bowdoin argued, “determines whether a particular instrument or transaction is a prohibited, unregistered ‘investment contract’ by searching for the presence of three factors: ‘(1) the investment of money (2) in a common enterprise (3) with an expectation of profits to be derived solely from the efforts of the promoter or a third party.”

    ASD did not meet any of the three prongs of the Howey Test, Bowdoin argued.

    It was not an investment because ASD was an advertising company, not an investment company through which participants placed money at risk in anticipation of profit, Bowdoin argued. Therefore, he asserted, ASD did not meet the first Howey prong.

    Meanwhile, Bowdoin argued that ASD did not meet the second prong because participants did not place their money in a “common pool” put at risk in expectation of a profit.

    “[T]here was no ‘common enterprise’ at work here,” Bowdoin argued.

    And because ASD members had to click on ads and view them to get paid, they performed “actual efforts,” taking the third prong of the Howey Test out of play, Bowdoin claimed.

    “Here, the payment of both rebates and referral commissions were directly tied to the actual efforts of the advertisers,” Bowdoin argued.

    Prosecutors, though, asserted in the ASD forfeiture case that ASD told investors that rebates “will” be paid until investors received back 100 percent of the money they plowed into the scheme, plus a profit of 25 percent.

    Gerald Nehra, an attorney and expert witness for ASD in the forfeiture case, conceded under cross examination in 2008 that the ASD Terms of Service specified that rebates “will” be paid.

    Bowdoin’s most recent arguments also put him with odds with dozens of ASD members who claimed in court filings that the government had no “evidence” and no “witnesses.”

    In his filings yesterday, Bowdoin said he believed that the “vast majority” of the prosecution’s witnesses resided in Florida. He said he planned to counter them with witnesses of his own — as many as 136 — including George and Judy Harris, Rob Cefail of InTouch Marketing of Clearwater, and Tari Steward, who also provided Clearwater-based marketing services.

    At least 56 of ASD’s witnesses were ASD employees, Bowdoin said. The document was notarized by Judy Harris.

  • A ‘MONEY MAGNET’ AT WORK: Andy Bowdoin Wows Crowd With Photo Of Building Later Seized; Indicted Autosurf Operator Gives Gordon Gekko-Like Speech In Which Greed Is Recast As A ‘Positive’

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin wowed a "rally" crowd by showing a photo of this building in Quincy, Fla. The U.S. Secret Service later seized the building, saying it was purchased from the proceeds of a massive Ponzi scheme. Federal prosecutors said the scheme traded on religion and that Bowdoin emerged with "followers."

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Two videos of sales pitches by AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin are linked below. Both are available at publicly accessible websites.

    The first video shows Bowdoin, in the summer of 2008, wowing a crowd by showing ASD rally attendees a photo of ASD’s new headquarters building in Quincy, Fla. The building later was seized by the U.S. Secret Service as the proceeds of a criminal enterprise. Also of note in the video is a claim by Bowdoin that George Harris is the head of ASD’s purported real-estate division. The video also references Judy Harris.

    George Harris is the son of Andy Bowdoin’s wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin. The Harris home in Tallahassee was seized in December 2008. Federal prosecutors said the mortgage on the home was retired with Ponzi proceeds. Neither George nor Judy Harris ever filed a claim to the home.

    The AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, which launched after the seizure of Bowdoin’s assets, the Harris home and the filing of a racketeering lawsuit against Bowdoin, later identified George and Judy Harris as its operators. AVG purported to be a “private association” headquartered in Uruguay. The surf made the claim it was a private association in February 2009. The claim coincided with a decision by Bowdoin to reenter the ASD forfeiture case as a pro-se litigant.

    Weeks earlier, in January 2009, Bowdoin had submitted to the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars seized from his bank accounts. Despite the fact that Bowdoin had advised a federal judge that he was withdrawing his claims to the seized money “with prejudice” — meaning he intended never again to reinstitute his claims — he nevertheless sought to reenter the case, acting as his own attorney.

    By April 2009, federal prosecutors said that, not only had Bowdoin submitted to the forfeiture and formally advised a federal judge of his decision to do so, but that Bowdoin also had signed a proffer letter and acknowledged the government’s material allegations in the case were all true.

    Bowdoin met with federal prosecutors in Florida in late 2008 and early 2009 for a period of at least four days, according to court filings.

    Of particular note in the second video is the timing: It was shot (presumably by a rally attendee) in Las Vegas on May 31, 2008. Bowdoin is shown in the video defining himself as a “money magnet” and encouraging ASD members to become the same. The federal grand jury that indicted Bowdoin began to meet in May 2009. Its indictment of Bowdoin was unsealed earlier this month and makes repeated references to the “money-magnet” line.

    The video shows Bowdoin making references to God in his Las Vegas sales pitch. It begins with a Gordon Gekko-like suggestion by Bowdoin that greed is a net positive. Gekko, of course, is the fictional character played by Michael Douglas in the 1987 movie “Wall Street.” Douglas won an Oscar for the role.

    “The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good,” the Gekko character memorably advised the movie audience. “Greed is right, greed works.”

    Here is what Bowdoin said from the stage 21 years later in Las Vegas:

    “Just like, you know, [the belief that] rich people are greedy. Turn that into a positive: Rich people are generous. All right. And you turn it into a positive like that, you repeat that — at least seven times, every time you think about it: Rich people are generous. Because you’ve got to reprogram that subconscious mind.”

    Bowdoin went on to inform Las Vegas rally attendees that he had a plan to create 100,000 millionaires in three years and that it was important for ASD members “to have an attitude of gratitude with God.”

    “And I always say, ‘Thank you, God, for developing me into a money magnet.’ And I see myself as a money magnet in attracting money and, I say, attracting large sums of money,” Bowdoin said.

    He exhorted ASD members to internalize his message and imagine riches “flowing” in from ASD, the PP Blog reported on May 7, 2009.

    About three weeks after the Las Vegas rally — a rally at which Bowdoin encouraged attendees to spend unlimited sums on ASD “ad packs” because a $50,000 ceiling on purchases would be enforced two days later — the $157,000 mortgage was retired on the Harris home.

    ASD’s spending binge actually began about 11 days after Bowdoin exited the Las Vegas stage and ultimately consumed more than $1 million, federal prosecutors said. Other post-rally purchases included jet skis, marine equipment, a Cabana boat, haul trailers, real estate and at least three automobiles, including a Lincoln. One of the automobiles was purchased for George and Judy Harris, according to prosecutors.

    The retired Harris mortgage and the car — a Honda — cost ASD members nearly $186,000, prosecutors said.

    Video One

    Video Two

  • UPDATE: E-Bullion, Firm Alleged To Have Provided Payment Services To ASD, Linked To Alleged Legisi Ponzi Scheme; Like ASD, FEDI Fraud Scheme Called Payments ‘Rebates’

    Andy Bowdoin

    UPDATED 2:25 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Still pushing autosurf and HYIP frauds?

    Last week, the PP Blog reported that the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors had established a link between California-based E-Bullion and Florida-based AdSurfDaily. E-Bullion is a shuttered payment processor whose owner, James Fayed, is awaiting trial on charges of murdering his wife, Pamela Fayed, whom prosecutors said wished to cooperate in the E-Bullion probe.

    It was the first public assertion by the government that ASD had a tie to E-Bullion.

    The Blog further reported that E-Bullion had been linked to at least three alleged Ponzi or fraud schemes: ASD, Gold Quest International (GQI) and Flat Electronic Data Interchange (FEDI), whose convicted operator, Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, was associated with convicted Ponzi schemer Brian David Anderson.

    Alishtari, also known as Michael Mixon, was convicted in 2009 of financing terrorism. Anderson, a FEDI pitchman, was sentenced to federal prison for his role in yet-another Ponzi scheme known as Frontier Assets. He also has been linked to a mysterious scheme known as the “Alpha Project.”

    Like ASD’s Andy Bowdoin, Alishtari donated money to the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to the Federal Election Commission database. Documents reviewed by the PP Blog show that payments from the FEDI scheme were referred to as “rebates.” ASD also called its payments to participants “rebates.”

    Today the PP Blog is reporting that federal investigators also have established a link between E-Bullion and Legisi, a company whose operator, Gregory N. McKnight, was accused by the SEC in May 2008 of operating a massive Ponzi and fraud scheme based in Michigan. During the same month, the SEC also accused GQI of operating a massive Ponzi and fraud scheme from Las Vegas. Investigators likewise established a GQI link to E-Bullion.

    Documents reviewed by the PP Blog show that records maintained by E-Bullion were the subject of a subpoena issued on Aug. 6, 2008 — five days after tens of millions of dollars were seized by the U.S. Secret Service from bank accounts controlled by ASD’s  Bowdoin. The subpoena was issued in the Legisi case.

    As the PP Blog previously reported, the Secret Service, which used undercover operatives in the ASD case, also used an undercover operative in the Legisi case. In fact, the Blog reported, the Secret Service undercover operative and an undercover operative from the state of Michigan, had a face-to-face meeting with Legisi’s McKnight in his office.

    Legisi later began to act in a fashion that only can be described as bizarre, allegedly morphing into a sort of super-secret enterprise that was exhibiting clear signs of paranoia. Investors, for example, were asked to submit to a loyalty oath and pledge that they weren’t government investigators or informants.

    The AdViewGlobal autosurf, which has close ties to ASD, later began to operate in a similar fashion, morphing into a so-called “private association,” scolding members for asking questions in public and exhibiting paranoia.

    “This Association of members hereby declares that our main objective is to protect our rights to freedom of choice regarding our advertising and marketing information and conduct, through maintaining our Constitutional rights,” AVG announced on its website in February 2009.

    Court records show that the Secret Service also employed undercover operatives in the investigation of the INetGlobal autosurf. An affidavit in the case notes that at least two operatives were present at an INetGlobal function in New York earlier this year and that one undercover agent had been introduced to INetGlobal by an ASD member.

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin was indicted earlier this month on federal charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. Prosecutors alleged he was operating a Ponzi scheme that had gathered at least $110 million. The indictment accused Bowdoin of making campaign donations to the National Republican Congressional Committee with proceeds from the ASD Ponzi scheme.

    Six days ago, prosecutors alleged in a forfeiture complaint that ASD member Erma Seabaugh used E-Bullion in November 2007 to transfer $10,510 to ASD. The alleged transfer occurred about six months before E-Bullion’s name surfaced in the GQI and Legisi cases brought by the SEC.

    When investigators later searched the home of James Fayed in the murder investigation, they found “approximately $60,000 in cash wrapped in plastic material; approximately $3,000,000 in gold; and approximately 31 firearms, including one with a long-range night vision scope, along with thousands of rounds of matching ammunition,” prosecutors alleged.

    Pamela Fayed was stabbed to death in a California parking garage on July 28, 2008. The Secret Service, which had begun its investigation of Bowdoin less than a month earlier, seized his assets three days later, on Aug. 1, 2008.

    The agents said Bowdoin was moving large sums of money outside the United States and had talked about buying a home in another country. In September 2008, the month after ASD’s assets were seized, an indictment was unsealed in Connecticut that accused Robert Hodgins of Virtual Money Inc. of helping a Colombia narcotics operation launder money at ATMs in Medellin.

    Virtual Money Inc. once provided debit cards to ASD, according to an ASD downline group.

    CLOSING NOTE: Read this chilling document from the case against Fayed in California.  Also see this 2007 report from CBS News. CBS reported FEDI operator Alishtari claimed to be “[National Republican Congressional Committee] New York State Businessman of the Year. ASD members later would make similar claims about Bowdoin.)

  • Is An AdViewGlobal Member Unhappy With AdSurfDaily Members Who Choose To File Remission Forms? Rant Accuses Filers Of Selling Their Souls And Destroying Lives

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Content from an email referenced in the story below has not been edited by the PP Blog for spelling, punctuation, grammar or clarity.

    Some AdSurfDaily members have received a disturbing email that accuses them of selling their souls and destroying lives by participating in the government-approved remissions program designed to mitigate their losses, the PP Blog has learned.

    The author of the email is unclear.

    It is possible, however, that the email rant originated with a member of the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, which had members and promoters in common with ASD and crashed and burned in June 2009. An email address under which the rant against ASD members appeared included the apparent abbreviations “fms” and “avg” as part of the address in this format: fms.avg@

    Even so, it was unclear if the person who used the address was the author of the rant, which was unsigned and appears to have been forwarded to multiple ASD members. The rant makes the claim that ASD never sold an “investment” product and that the company was an “online advertising system.”

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin was indicted earlier this month. Federal prosecutors described ASD as a wink-nod investment business through which Bowdoin sold unregistered securities as investment contracts by calling member payouts “rebates” to avoid regulatory scrutiny.

    AVG, which launched in the aftermath of the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from Bowdoin in 2008, advertised 200 percent “bonuses” for months. The surf announced it was suspending payouts in June 2009. Just days later, AVG’s name was cited in a racketeering lawsuit filed against Bowdoin by ASD members.

    The rant surfaced yesterday, in advance of a purported phone conference to be held by Sheldon Drobny of AnShell Financial Services at 9 p.m. (ET) today. Drobny, whose company is not the official ASD claims administrator, says he can assist in helping ASD members file claims forms with Rust Consulting Inc., the official administrator, and help them recover money.

    Apparently unhappy that ASD members even would think about filing claims, the author of the email rant wrote that participants who filed a claim would be signing their “morals and soul away” and supporting “innocent peoples lives being destroyed.”

    The email claimed that a “back lash” would occur against any ASD member who participated in the claims program. The author did not say who would carry out the purported backlash and what it would entail.

    “Again, if you continue to pass on and support meaningless calls like this and help people build their belief the actions done to ASD were right and the claim form is asking you the appropriate questions and truly believe it was an invstment you made and your friends and family referred you to a securities investment then by all means fill out the scandalist claim form,” the author wrote. “Just be prepared for the back lash and consequences to come.”

    Persons who agreed with the government’s contention that ASD scammed investors “should hide under a rock and stay their,” according to the rant.

    Some ASD victims are believed to have lost tens of thousands of dollars in the alleged, $110 million Ponzi scheme. Regardless, the rant implied that there are no victims and that ASD members who filed claims did so at the cost of the “sacrafice of other decent human beings such as your family and friends.”

  • BULLETIN:’3 Hebrew Boys’ Sentenced To Prison Terms Totaling 84 Years; Case Has Bizarre Elements In Common With AdSurfDaily Litigation

    In a case that features elements remarkably similar to the AdSurfDaily litigation, a federal judge in South Carolina has sentenced three defendants in the “3 Hebrew Boys” fraud case to a combined total of 84 years in prison.

    Joseph Brunson, Tim McQueen and Tony Pough were jailed immediately after their convictions a year ago in an $82 million, foreign-currency fraud and Ponzi scheme case that traded on religion. The men, who called their business a debt-relief ministry, accused former U.S. Attorney Walt Wilkens of “treason” last year and of committing acts of war against them.

    The sentencing occurred today, with U.S. District Judge Margaret Seymour giving Pough 30 years and Brunson and McQueen 27 years each. The office of U.S. Attorney William N. Nettles of the District of South Carolina did not immediately return a call from the PP Blog for comment. The Associated Press first reported on the lengths of the sentences tonight, noting that the terms were “so harsh in part because the judge found they tried to obstruct justice at every turn.”

    Brunson, McQueen and Pough became known as “3 Hebrew Boys” after operating a website with the same name, which is based on a biblical story of believers who escaped a furnace by relying on their faith. The Ponzi scheme operated under the name Capital Consortium Group LLC.

    In 2007, the men filed a court document that described their investment program as an effort to free people from government “bondage” and referred to the investigation as “Satan’s handiwork.”

    A year later, in 2008, AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin described the case against his purported Florida “advertising” firm as the work of “Satan,” comparing it to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

    Bowdoin, 76, was indicted earlier this month on Ponzi scheme charges.

    The 3 Hebrew Boys’ operation sought to chill law enforcement, regulators and members of the media from scrutinizing operations, prosecutors said.

    In an approach similar to one used by the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, members were forced to agree to a confidentially clause that purportedly prohibited them from discussing the company outside the confines of meeting places. Participants were threatened with a $1 million penalty for sharing information.

    A court-appointed receiver published documents that listed an astonishing array of luxury purchases made by the 3 Hebrew Boys schemers with investors’ money. Among the items were a Gulf Stream jet, a Prevost Motorcoach and automobiles with famous names such as Mercedes, Lexus, BMW, Saab, Cadillac and Lincoln.

    In the “3 Hebrew Boys” case, Brunson filed documents that appear to have asserted immunity from prosecution on the grounds of purported sovereignty. The documents appear to have been designed to force Wilkens, then the U.S. Attorney, to default on a contact to which he never had agreed. The approach sometimes is referred to as “paper terrorism” or “mailbox arbitration.”

    A similar approach has been used by litigants in the ASD case.

    Screen shot: Joseph Brunson declared last year that then-U.S. Attorney Walt Wilkens was guilty of treason, insurrection and conspiracy to overthow the U.S. government in his efforts to prosecute Brunson.

    Brunson wrote in a court filing he described as a “Bill of Peace” that Wilkens had a duty to appear before a notary public and acknowledge Brunson’s assertion of sovereignty in “red ink.” The document demanded that Wilkens use his “Christian name” in his response to Brunson.

    A refusal by Wilkens to carry out the demands within three days, Brunson said, would result in a contractual agreement that Wilkens was “an enemy of One and the [U]nited States of America and the people, Constitution, and Government thereof.”

    Read Joseph Brunson’s purported “writ” in the “3 Hebrew Boys” case.

  • DISTURBING: Out On Bail After Ponzi Arrest, Is Andy Bowdoin Giving Marching Orders? Email Attributed To Former ASD Executive Gary Talbert Advises Members To Tell Claims Processor They Were Purchasing ‘Advertising’

    Andy Bowdoin

    UPDATED 9:28 A.M. ET (U.S.A.) On Dec. 1, a federal magistrate judge set bail of $350,000 for AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin and ordered him not to commit a federal, state or local crime after his arrest by the U.S. Secret Service on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

    Bowdoin, 76, was specifically warned that he could be held in contempt of court for violating conditions of his bail. The conditions included an order not to obstruct the investigation or tamper with witnesses.

    Now an email attributed to former ASD and AdViewGlobal executive Gary Talbert has surfaced that is raising questions about whether Bowdoin is trying to suppress the victims’ count and manipulate ASD members who seek to file restitution claims with Rust Consulting Inc., the official claims administrator in the $110 million Ponzi case.

    The email specifically references Bowdoin’s arrest, but makes no reference to the bail conditions set by U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas G. Wilson in advance of a scheduled appearance by Bowdoin in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Dec. 17.

    Bowdoin made his initial court appearance before Wilson in Florida.

    “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, who filed a sworn affidavit on ASD’s behalf in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2008. “He does have a hearing on Dec. 17th in Washington D.C. He and his lawyers are still positive on the out come.”

    “Here is just a idea and I think this will work for everyone,” the email continued. “This should keep everyone legal. Because I think everyone understood it was not a investment. I believe it is time to fill out the info. from Rust inc. with the following addendum.

    “Where it asks for your signature write in there ‘See addendum’.

    “Now put this in your own words on the addendum. Here is a out line.

    “On the addendum write that you knew this was not a investment and you where purchasing advertising. Now since the gov. stopped my advertising company and I did not get my advertising I would like to get my advertising money back from whom ever is holding it now. Sign it and send it in with the forms from Rust.”

    News about the email attributed to Talbert was spreading among ASD members last night. Separately, ASD figures Kenneth Wayne Leaming and Christian Oesch have filed an ASD-related lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims that apparently seeks the spectacular sum of $29 TRILLION from a federal judge, three federal prosecutors and a Secret Service agent involved in the ASD Ponzi case.

    On June 30, 2009, AdViewGlobal was cited as an extension of ASD in a racketeering lawsuit filed against Bowdoin by ASD members. The reference was dated June 29, 2009, the same day Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in federal prison for his Ponzi scheme.

    Federal prosecutors now say Bowdoin faces up to 120 years in prison if convicted of all counts against him.

    “AVG is the next iteration of the Ponzi scheme auto-surf programs, which [are] staffed with former ASD executives and Bowdoin disciples, including George Harris, the stepson of Bowdoin, who is listed as an AVG trustee, Gary Talbert, former ASD executive served as CEO of AVG and now serves as an accountant, Nate Boyd, a former compliance officer at ASD, serves as ‘Protector’ of the AVG association, and Chuck Osmin, a former ASD employee who testified on ASD’s behalf at the evidentiary hearing before this Court last fall is a customer service representative of AVG,” the RICO plaintiffs claimed.

    The grand jury that indicted Bowdoin began to meet in May 2009. During that same month, AVG was scurrying to reconfigure itself after gathering money from members and offering 200 percent “bonuses” for months. AVG launched in the aftermath of the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from Bowdoin in August 2008, the filing by the government of a second forfeiture complaint against ASD-connected assets in December 2008 and the filing of the racketeering lawsuit against Bowdoin.

    The December 2008 forfeiture complaint specifically named Bowdoin family members Edna Faye Bowdoin, George Harris and Judy Harris as beneficiaries of crimes committed by ASD. Edna Faye Bowdoin is Andy Bowdoin’s wife; George Harris is Bowdoin’s stepson; Judy Harris is the wife of George Harris.

    In January 2009, just days prior to its official launch in early February, AVG bizarrely both confirmed and denied it had ties to ASD.

    The appearance of AVG graphics in an ASD-controlled webroom after the federal seizure was an “operational coincidence,” AVG memorably explained. The announcement was attributed to Chuck Osmin, himself a former ASD employee.

    Even though AVG previously had denied ASD ties, the upstart surf then announced that Talbert was its CEO.

    “Since Mr. Talbert was and is the C.E.O. for both companies and had worked with the same web room company while at ASD, it would be very natural for him to choose and use many of the same venders (sic) that he had used before. So, the fact that ASD and AdView Global are using the same web room hosting company is no accident, in fact it is an operational coincidence,” AdViewGlobal said.

    Why the surf identified Talbert as ASD’s CEO was unclear. He was listed in his own sworn court documents in the ASD case as ASD’s “Human Resource Manager, Assistant CFO and Website Editor.”

    By March 2009, AVG announced that Talbert had resigned as AVG’s chief. It also announced that its bank account had been suspended, blaming the development on members.

    In May 2009, AVG announced that it had secured a new, offshore wire facilitator to help it gather money from members. The announcement was made on the same day the Obama administration announced a crackdown on offshore financial fraud. (See this story and included links for updates on AVG’s purported facilitator, KINGZ Capital Management. There is a tie between KINGZ and Minnesota Ponzi schemer Trevor Cook.)

    By June 25, 2009, AVG announced it was suspending cashouts, again blaming the development on members while threatening members and journalists with copyright-infringement lawsuits for reporting the news.

    Just four days later, on June 29, 2009, the RICO plaintiffs in the ASD lawsuit referenced AVG in a court filing docketed the following day, June 30. By September 2009, federal prosecutors made a veiled reference to AVG in filings in the ASD case.

    By Sept. 29, 2009, an email attributed to ASD spokeswoman Sara Mattoon was circulating among ASD members. The email specifically instructed members not to fill out a government form that would be used as part of the restitution process.

    “Soon after the ASD shutdown, the DOJ (Dept of Justice) set up a website for people to file a claim for the money they had in ASD,” Mattoon was quoted as saying in the email. “As soon as I heard about it, I told everyone not to do it because I could see what the Government was trying to do, but some people didn’t realize what it was and afterwards they regretted doing so.”

    The Matton email referenced an earlier email attributed to ASD member and purported trainer Robert Fava. Like the Mattoon email, the Fava email discouraged members from filling out the government form, describing it as “ammunition” that could be used against ASD.

  • AdPayDaily, Surf With ASD Ties, May Be Disintegrating; Member Says Firm Still Encouraging Participants To Send In Money As Surf Urges Troops To Keep The Faith

    A surf firm with membership and promoters’ ties to AdSurfDaily may be disintegrating — but is still encouraging participants to send in money, a member said.

    “[T]he earnings/payouts nearly [stopped] but of course we were ‘encouraged’ to continue making purchases so that our earnings/payouts could continue as before,” the member said of the surf, which is known as AdPayDaily (APD).

    Like AdViewGlobal (AVG), yet-another surf with ASD ties, APD has a history of at once asking for money from members and then scolding them.

    The PP Blog reported in June that members of the pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum were listed as having high positions in APD.

    APD’s website was registered on Nov. 18, 2008. That’s just one day before U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled that ASD had not demonstrated it was a lawful business and not a Ponzi scheme. APD’s domain-registration date also coincides with a string of registration dates by the so-called ASD clones, including AVG, AdGateWorld and BizAdSplash — all of whose domains were registered after the seizure of ASD’s assets in August 2008 and all of which eventually went missing.

    “I feel like we are being strung along to keep on paying in,” an APD member told the PP Blog.

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin was arrested last week on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. Like Bowdoin, APD urged members to keep their faith in the enterprise.

    Also like ASD, APD told members in a recent email that it was experiencing “tech issues.”

    “Just a note to let everyone know that we’re still working on tech issues in with the Administrative section of our website,” APD wrote last month. “If you have continued to surf you know that the daily payouts are minimal at best and that probably won’t change until we secure the necessary funding.

    “In the meantime we’re still working to resolve all issues and we are extremely hopeful that we’ll have everything in order by years end,” the company said.  “We will keep you posted with our progress.”

  • BULLETIN: Florida — Again: SEC Sues Atlantis Technology Group In Alleged Online Television Pump-And-Dump Scheme; CEO Christopher M. Dubeau Threatened ‘Bashers’ For Making ‘Slanderous’ Postings, March News Release Says

    BULLETIN: UPDATED 10:51 A.M. EDT (U.S.A., Oct. 1.) About six months after the chief executive officer of Atlantis Technology Group (Atlantis) was quoted in a Marketwire news release that threatened online commentators for “making slanderous postings” about the company, the SEC has gone to federal court in Florida to accuse Atlantis CEO Christopher Dubeau and the firm of running a penny-stock swindle.

    The SEC’s lawsuit concerns the operations of an Atlantis subsidiary known as Global Online Television (GOTV), which allegedly used a commission-based sales force to promote the purported TV company.

    Dubeau and Atlantis actually were operating a “pump-and dump” stock fraud, the SEC charged in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

    “From at least August 7, 2009 through April 5, 2010 . . . Atlantis and Dubeau issued numerous false and misleading press releases that artificially inflated the trading volume and price of Atlantis’s stock,” the SEC charged. “Dubeau benefited financially from Atlantis’s artificially increased trading volume and stock price. In December 2009, he sold more than 60 million shares of Atlantis stock for proceeds of about $240,000, and in August 2009 he received $77,000 of the proceeds from an associate’s sale of more than 16 million shares.”

    A Marketwire news released dated March 26, 2010, and issued under the names of Atlantis and Dubeau accuses “bashers” of making “slanderous” remarks about the company online.

    “I can assure you I will not play the bashers’ games,” Dubeau was quoted as saying. “Atlantis has Launched an Investigation into these Individuals that are attacking the Company and its Associates. Atlantis has Identified at least 3 of these Participants in what we deem to be manipulation of the Company’s Stock price by making slanderous postings. We will seek every avenue available to bring these persons of interest to the forefront of the Judicial System.”

    Now, six months later, the SEC has accused Dubeau of operating a large-scale fraud by fabricating news about the company’s ability to offer online TV and video-phone services.

    “Atlantis’s press releases were false because Atlantis’s subsidiary has never offered
    Internet protocol television service or video phone services,” the SEC charged. “At the time the company and Dubeau issued these press releases, the subsidiary did not offer (and was not able to offer) either service, and it did not have relationships with television networks to offer content to Atlantis’s subscribers. In fact, until March 1, 2010, neither the subsidiary nor Atlantis had any product or service to offer to consumers.”

    Threats against critics who voice concerns about business opportunities online are common, as is the issuance of news releases to spread false information. In the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, for example, ASD President Andy Bowdoin threatened critics with lawsuits. ASD operated from Florida.

    An operation known as AdViewGlobal (AVG) that has close ASD ties and also operated at least in part from Florida also threatened critics. AVG even threatened its own members with lawsuits.

    Critics of Data Network Affiliates (DNA), a Florida company that purports to offer an MLM program that collects license-plate data to aid law enforcement and the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children, also were threatened.

    DNA figure Phil Piccolo used an online radio program last month to threaten critics.

    Convicted Florida Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein, who ran one of the largest scams in U.S. history, also threatened critics. Rothstein pleaded guility to racketeering.

    Read the SEC complaint against Atlantis and Dubeau of Fort Lauderdale and Weston, Fla.

  • EDITORIAL: Animated Attack On Obama Goes Missing From MPB Today Affiliate’s Sales Arsenal; PP Blog Declines Request From Affiliate’s MLM Sponsor To Remove Story That Describes Bizarre Sales Pitch Painting President As Nazi

    Regular readers of the PP Blog know that it supports the efforts of President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to weed out the purveyors of schemes who brought the U.S. and much of the world economy to its knees. Obama is a Democrat.

    What readers may not know is that the Blog is written by a Republican who celebrates America’s entrepreneurial spirit, its market economy, its job-creators, its Great Defenders of Freedom, its Great Guardians of Liberty.

    The PP Blog concerns itself with matters of interest to readers who embrace online commerce and see the Internet as an outlet that is pivotal to future economic expansion. How wonderful would it be, say, if Americans and the other peoples of the world who are living in poverty could harness their entrepreneurial spirits and the power of the Internet to engage in legitimate commerce and elevate the standard of living worldwide?

    And how wonderful would it be if companies and individuals who already are benefiting from financial success could use the Internet to create a legitimate turbine that generates sustainable jobs that pay a pride-producing wage and freelance sales and vendor positions that create bright financial futures?

    Although the PP Blog focuses on business and generally avoids politics, today it makes an exception: When the President of the United States — regardless of party — is attacked to drive business to an online multilevel-marketing (MLM) firm, it must be noted for posterity that the MLM sphere has reached a new and deeply disturbing low.

    To call the anti-Obama, animated screed by an affiliate of MPB Today “tasteless” would be a gross understatement. It harms MPB Today, which is the subject of a “review” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture amid affiliate claims the company has been endorsed by the government. Various government agencies — regardless of what political party controls the White House and the Congress — have warned repeatedly for years that one of the scammer’s most important tools is the shovel that plants the seed that the government endorses a “program” or “business opportunity.”

    MLM “opportunities” are infamous for planting this cancer-spreading seed. Members of AdSurfDaily, for instance, planted the seed that President George W. Bush had given ASD President Andy Bowdoin an award for a lifetime of business achievement. Bowdoin fanned the pollination of the seed by taking his “award” on the road with him and even posing with it.

    The clear aim of the claim was to make prospects believe that ASD could not possibly be a scam because the President of the United States would not give an important business award to a scammer.

    It turned out that the “award” actually was a memento for making campaign donations to the National Republican Congressional Committee. In effect, Bowdoin had made the donations to the NRCC in return for banquet tickets. Records show that Bowdoin made the donations during a period of time in which federal prosectors say he was operating an international Ponzi scheme that perhaps ensnared more than 100,000 people.

    It is a virtual certainty that Bowdoin, who’d been charged with felonies in Alabama in a previous securities swindle and was given a suspended jail sentence, used Ponzi proceeds to make the donations.

    Harm spreads virally when such bogus seeds are planted and take root on the Internet.

    But getting back to the matter of the MPB Today affiliate’s Obama-bashing sales pitch . . .

    Walmart and Walmart’s Sam’s Club name now have been harmed because the MPB Today affiliate used the name of Sam’s Club in the animated attack, which painted Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as Nazis — with Obama as a cowering Nazi and Clinton as a drunken one wearing “puke colored” clothes purchased from Big Lots, a discount retailer.

    This occurred while other MPB Today affiliates were claiming that MPB, which dispenses Walmart gift cards to winners in the MPB 2×2 matrix cycler, was under “contract” with Walmart, that MPB members were “partners” with Walmart, that MPB sells food “vouchers” that can be exchanged for Walmart gift cards and that the MLM program was “Govt. certified with Food Stamps!”

    As incredible as it seems, Michelle Obama — the First Lady of the United States — was depicted in the affiliate’s animation as experiencing an embarrassing gas attack in the Oval Office after sampling “beans” at a Sam’s Club store. A dog depicted in the pitch more or less said that the First Lady was stinking up the joint.

    Good grief!

    The pitch also harms the image of U.S. business in general because it sends the message that “anything goes” in American Capitalism as long as it returns a profit, the precise message U.S. companies now under indictment or investigation were sending when they brought the financial sector to its knees.

    Meanwhile, it specifically harms online business. Much of the world already believes the Internet is one giant cesspit, in no small measure because of the business practices of certain MLM programs and affiliates of MLM programs.

    At the same time, it harms the Republican party, which is trying to make gains in the upcoming midterm elections. It would be easy, for example, for the Democrats to seize on the message that the sales pitch for MPB Today is just another example of wretched GOP excess and hatred embedded in code. The most bizarre thing about the pitch is that it seems to presume that it is a perfectly acceptable business practice to alienate MPB members and prospects who might be Democrats and Obama supporters — as well as Republicans who actually respect and admire the President even if they disagree with his policies and do not share his political philosophy.

    Even though the MPB Today affiliate’s precise party or political affiliation is not known, it seems clear that the affiliate sees nothing wrong with mixing business with inflammatory, divisive politics,  and is not enthusiastic about the current Democratic leadership. In this sense, it also harms the Democratic party. Political pranksters and Obama opponents could paint the MPB pitchman as a Democratic saboteur or a Tea Party activist seeking to create dissension in the ranks, something that could inure to the benefit of Republicans.

    Most of all, though, the pitch hurts America. Much of the world looks to America for both financial and moral leadership. What the world got in the context of the promotion for MPB Today is yet-another impossibly ham-handed attempt to sell an MLM product at any price — even at the price of American prestige.

    Segments of the MLM trade already are infamous for their inability to sell products without lying, for resorting to gutter tactics, for using sales pitches to reimagine products as something they are not and for setting the stage for tens of thousands of people to get fleeced in one spectacular scam after another that goes “viral” on the Internet.

    Today the PP Blog received a request from a person who described herself as the sponsor of the MPB Today affiliate who produced the anti-Obama screed to “delete” the Blog’s stories on the reprehensible sales pitch.

    “The animated short video on MPB with Hilary and Obama was created by a member I sponsored into MPB and the film has since been taken down,” the sponsor noted. “The member agrees it may have been in poor taste and chose to delete it. Please do the same.”

    Welcome to the often-bizarre world of MLM — a world in which the affiliate who authored a political attack on the President of the United States to gain payments from a 2×2 cycler matrix pushed on known Ponzi forums such as ASAMonitor  “agrees” only that the pitch “may have been in poor taste” and the dutiful sponsor seeks to make sure the the record gets deleted.

    Although the PP Blog verified that the sales pitch had been deleted from the animation site, the Blog is declining to delete its coverage of the matter. All people engaged in MLM need to see it. If they are interested in being taken seriously, they need to condemn it.

    MPB Today should issue a statement that condemns it.

    In May 2009 — just days after the Obama administration announced a crackdown on international financial fraud — the PP Blog received a request from KINGZ Capital Management to delete a story about the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf’s claim that it had secured KINGZ as an offshore wire facilitator to make it easier for Americans (and other peoples of the world) to send money to an obvious Ponzi scheme that had risen from the ashes of ASD, yet another Ponzi scheme

    The PP Blog declined the request. KINGZ later was banned by the National Futures Association for turning a blind eye to the actions of Trevor Cook, a now-convicted felon who operated an international Ponzi scheme that caused investor losses of at least $158 million. The scheme traded on religion. A federal judge called it “wretched, tawdry and cheap.”

    History will record that AVG made the claim about  its new relationship with KINGZ on the very same day in May 2009 that Obama himself announced the fraud crackdown. By June 25, 2009, AVG suspended autosurf cashouts, taking an unknown sum of money sent in by members with it. It is known that many AVG members also were members of ASD, the subject of a racketeering lawsuit and two federal complaints that sought the forfeiture of more than $80 million. The government won both forfeiture cases. The decisions by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer now are under appeal by Bowdoin.

    It also is known the ASD victims have been targeted in promotions for MPB Today. If that’s not enough, it also is known that at least one MPB Today affiliate’s pitch page includes links to at least 100 “surfing” programs, as well as a link to Data Network Affiliates (DNA).

    DNA, yet another MLM program, purports to collect license-plate data that can aid law enforcement and the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children. Even as DNA and affiliates are claiming to be interested in helping law enforcement, the company says it is selling a spray product that prevents cameras from snapping photographs of license plates at intersections that use electronic systems to enforce traffic laws.

    As DNA is doing this, it also is telling churches that they have the “MORAL OBLIGATION” to recruit affiliates for a purported mortgage-reduction program targeted at people who are facing foreclosure. Meanwhile, MPB Today also is targeting foreclosure subjects in sales pitches, and some MPB affiliates are using religion in sales pitches to attract MLM members.

    Both MPB Today and DNA are operating in Florida, which has one of the highest concentrations of foreclosures in the United States and is near the top of the list in U.S. bank failures.

    So, no. The PP Blog will not delete its coverage of the MPB Today affiliate’s attack on Obama.

    All of America — all of the world and all of the MLM universe — needs to see that the President of the United States was right in May 2009 when he announced the fraud crackdown and was right in November 2009 when he announced the formation of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.

    The PP Blog has no doubt — none whatsoever — that corrupt elements within the MLM universe are doing everything in their power to use the Internet to bleed wealth from hard-working Americans and other hard-working peoples of the world, and that the corrupt transfer of wealth is leading to losses of billions of dollars globally. Simply put, these reprehensible — if not downright criminal business practices — are a money grab on a colossal scale.

    Proceeds from fraud schemes are difficult to trace. Money moves at the speed of an electronic impulse. Any number of nefarious enterprises, including narcotics traffickers, organized crime and terrorist groups, could be tapping into the fraud stream. There is no doubt that some of the criminal enterprises are dressed up as legitimate MLMs or employ a direct-sales business model that pays commissions to attract new money.

    Stand strong, Mr. President. Your efforts to turn off this criminally gushing Ponzi and fraud spigot not only are commendable, but also are in the interest of U.S. national security, the safeguarding of which is your highest duty to the American people.

    The photos below are for posterity. We are publishing them even as we wonder if nothing is off limits if it helps an MLM offer convert — and even as we wonder why the MLM trade seems so willing to repeatedly attribute its image problem to only a “few bad apples” while simultaneously calling the industry’s critics “haters.”

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