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Tag: Carpe Diem

  • BULLETIN: SEC Backs Legisi Receiver’s Bid To Pursue E-Bullion Cash

    breakingnews72BULLETIN: The SEC has asked a federal judge to permit the receiver in the Legisi HYIP Ponzi-scheme case  to pursue funds tied up after the arrest of James Fayed, the operator of the e-Bullion payment processor. Fayed was convicted in 2011 of ordering the murder of his wife, a potential witness against him. Pamela Fayed was slashed to death in a Greater Los Angeles parking garage in July 2008. The SEC brought the Legisi fraud prosecution in May 2008, just two months before Pamela was killed.

    E-bullion has been linked to several Ponzi schemes. In court filings on June 6, receiver Robert D. Gordon said more than 85 percent of the $72.6 million directed at Legisi had flowed through the defunct processor. Gordon asked Judge George Caram Steeh of the Eastern District of Michigan for an order “to receive and collect any remission or restoration of funds recoverable or payable to Legisi investors pursuant to forfeiture actions brought by the United States” in federal court in Los Angeles.

    The SEC now says Steeh should issue the order because Gordon’s efforts could “lead to the recovery of millions of dollars for the Receivership Estate, funds which ultimately could be distributed to victims pursuant to a Court-approved formula.”

    Under Gordon’s plan, the SEC said, Legisi’s “winning investors” would be provided a process to dispute claims for the e-Bullion money.

    “As a result,” the SEC said, “any investors who assert that they are entitled to money claimed by the Receiver would have an opportunity to have their arguments heard and decided by the Court. No moneys would be disbursed until after the Court hears and decides such disputed claims.”

    The agency also said that Gordon earlier had successfully claimed $1.7 million from e-Gold, an e-Bullion rival charged in a 2007 money-laundering case. In May 2013, federal prosecutors in New York charged Liberty Reserve — yet another payment processor linked to online fraud schemes and other crime — in an alleged $6 billion money-laundering conspiracy.

    With a take of $72 million, Legisi was a “program” pitched on Ponzi-scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup — forums from which “programs” such as AdSurfDaily ($119 million), Zeek Rewards ($600 million), Pathway To Prosperity ($70 million) and Profitable Sunrise also were pitched. The combined scams gathered at least $861 million, according to federal court records. The number could be significantly higher because the final take of Profitable Sunrise — estimated in the tens of millions of dollars — is unknown. If Profitable Sunrise gathered $140 million, it would mean that the take of the five scams combined exceeded $1 billion.

    Similar scams continue to be promoted on the Ponzi boards by commission-based hucksters. The condition is comparable to “whack-a-mole” in the sense that one scam rises to replace another. The “offers” frequently are targeted at victims of previous schemes and positioned as a means investors can “earn” back funds lost in the earlier scams.

    Federal court records show that prosecutors asserted an AdSurfDaily pitchwoman funded her ASD account through e-Bullion, which also has been tied to mysterious scams such as Gold Quest International, the “Alpha Project” and Flat Electronic Data Interchange, known as FEDI. FEDI’s operator, Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, also known as “Michael Mixon,” was convicted in September 2009 of financing terror and fleecing investors in the FEDI scheme.

    Cash associated with the ASD Ponzi scheme was seized on Aug. 1, 2008, about four days after Pamela Fayed was murdered in Los Angeles. Erma Seabaugh, the ASD promoter who funded her account with e-Bullion, also pitched a scam known as StreamlineGold, according to federal records.

    In November 2007, a MoneyMakerGroup poster claimed this about StreamLineGold (italics added):

    StreamLine Gold is literally what it says. [I]t can provide you with an unlimited income through the combination of Precious Metals and Cash with a business model whose time has come PLUS the most advanced and lucrative pay plan ever devised.

    Seabaugh, according to records, was promoting ASD through an entity known as Carpe Diem, a purported “religious” nonprofit firm in Oregon.

    Separately, the receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi case has said that he has “obtained information indicating that large sums of Receivership Assets may have been transferred by net winners to other entities in order to hide or shelter those assets.”

    An evidence exhibit in the Legisi case shows that investors had to affirm they were not an “informant” for government agencies such as the CIA, FBI, SEC, “Her Majesty’s Police,” the Intelligence Services of Great Britain and the Serious Fraud Office, among others.

     

  • UPDATE: Year Ago This Week, Prosecutors Filed Third AdSurfDaily Forfeiture Complaint — But 2 ASD Members Whose Bank Accounts Were Seized In Case Have Not Filed Claims

    Andy Bowdoin

    UPDATE: On Dec. 1, 2010, AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin was arrested on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. Sixteen days later — on Dec. 17, 2010 — federal prosecutors filed a forfeiture complaint against certain ASD-related bank accounts, including an account in Bowdoin’s name and accounts allegedly controlled by ASD members Erma Seabaugh of Missouri and Robyn Lynne Stevenson of Florida.

    In the December 2010 forfeiture case, Bowdoin filed a claim for nearly $500,000 in assets he allegedly controlled. But Seabaugh and Stevenson did not, and federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia filed motions for default judgments in August 2011, according to court records.

    The motions for default against more than $153,000 allegedly controlled by Seabaugh and more than $96,000 allegedly controlled by Stevenson are pending.

    Seabaugh, Florida-based ASD’s purported “Web Room Lady,” is listed in Oregon records as the operator of a purported Missouri-based “religious” nonprofit firm known as Carpe Diem.

    Stevenson operated a company known as Robyn Lynn LLC, according to court filings.

    Bowdoin, 77, is free on bail. His criminal trial is scheduled for September 2012.

    Separately, ASD figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming remains jailed near Seattle. The FBI accused him last month of filing false liens against five public officials involved in the ASD case, including U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer.

    Collyer is presiding over the forfeiture case against money in the bank accounts allegedly controlled by Seabaugh and Stevenson. Collyer also is presiding over Bowdoin’s criminal trial and two related forfeiture cases involving ASD assets. Those cases were filed in August 2008 and December 2008.

    The portion of the December 2010 forfeiture case involving assets allegedly controlled by Bowdoin has been placed on hold because of the criminal trial, but the cases against the assets allegedly controlled by Seabaugh and Stevenson are active.

    Prosecutors have scored a clean sweep in ASD forfeiture-related litigation, with Bowdoin losing appeals to funds seized in the August 2008 and December 2008 cases. The U.S. Secret Service brought all of the ASD-related forfeiture cases.

    The December 2010 case involving Bowdoin, Seabaugh and Stevenson traces its roots to February 2009, when Bowdoin — who’d initially submitted to the August 2008 forfeiture a month earlier — sought to undo his forfeiture decision and reenter the case as a pro se litigant. The AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, which came to life after the August 2008 and December 2009 forfeiture cases were filed and after Bowdoin was sued by members amid allegations he had engaged in racketeering, was morphing into a so-called “private association” as Bowdoin was morphing into a pro se litigant, according to records.

    AVG, which members said had close ASD ties, purportedly operated from Uruguay. Members positioned it as an offshore, safe alternative to the post-seizure ASD, but AVG appears to have gone belly-up in June 2009, less than a year after the first sound of seizures began in the ASD case.

    See related two-part series from June 2011.

     

  • BULLETIN: E-Bullion Operator And Emerging AdSurfDaily Figure James Fayed Formally Sentenced To Death For Contract Slaying Of Estranged Wife; A ‘Cold, Calculating Human Being’

    BULLETIN: The Los Angeles Times is reporting (link below) that James Fayed has been formally sentenced to the death penalty for arranging the brutal slashing death of Pamela Fayed, his estranged wife and a potential witness against him.

    James Fayed, 48, is an emerging figure in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case. Federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia said in December 2010 that E-Bullion was used to forward money to ASD, which the U.S. Secret Service described as a massive international Ponzi scheme that used multiple payment venues to amass at least $110 million.

    Erma Seabaugh, an ASD member who used E-Bullion, was an ASD trainer, according to the government. Records in Oregon show that Seabaugh, whose assets were seized in the ASD case, was operating a purported “religious” nonprofit firm from Missouri. The purported religious entity was known as Carpe Diem.

    Seabaugh’s assets were seized in February 2009, during a period of time in which the AdViewGlobal (AVG)  autosurf was launching and ASD President Andy Bowdoin was morphing into a pro-se litigant and trying to undo his January 2009 decision to submit to the forfeiture of $65.8 million seized by the Secret Service from 10 Bowdoin bank accounts in August 2008. AVG had close ASD ties, according to members.

    E-Bullion has been linked to multiple Ponzi schemes, including Legisi, Gold Quest International and FEDI. The FEDI scheme has been linked to Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, also known as Michael Mixon. Ali Alishtari pleaded guilty in 2009 to financing terrorism and fleecing investors in the FEDI scheme.

    FEDI participants could expect to receive payouts deemed “rebates,” according to documents obtained by the Ontario Securities Commission from a FEDI promoter who simultaneously was promoting a mysterious business known as the “Alpha Project.” ASD also used the word “rebates” to describe its payouts, according to court filings.

    Ali Alishtari, like ASD’s Bowdoin, contributed money to Republican causes and heralded a purported GOP award for his business acumen, according to documents.

    Seabaugh used ASD’s advertising “rotator” to promote an apparent “pyramid scheme” known as StreamlineGold.net, according to federal court filings. Like ASD, Legisi and GoldQuest International, StreamlineGold.net was promoted on Ponzi boards such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

    Pamela Fayed was stabbed 13 times in a Greater Los Angeles parking garage on July 28, 2008. The Times reported today that James Fayed was seated on a nearby park bench “texting” on his cell phone while his alleged accomplices carried out the slaying.

    Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy described James Fayed as “one cold, calculating human being,” according to the Times. Kennedy formally imposed the death sentence yesterday. The jury that convicted James Fayed in May recommended the sentence.

    From the Times (italics added):

    The only person within earshot who didn’t react was the victim’s estranged husband who was sitting on a nearby bench “texting on his cellphone, like he doesn’t have a care in the world,” Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy said Thursday, moments before sentencing James Fayed to death for the contract killing.

    Read the chilling story in the Times.

  • Missouri-Based ‘Trainer’ For Florida-Based AdSurfDaily Was Head Of Purported ‘Religious’ Nonprofit Firm In Oregon; State Dissolved Firm Over Which Erma ‘Web-Room Lady’ Seabaugh Presided; Address For ‘Carpe Diem’ Was A Mail Drop

    Missouri-based Erma Seabaugh, known among members of Florida-based AdSurfDaily as a company trainer and the "Web Room Lady," was the president of Carpe Diem, a purported "religious" entity in Oregon.

    On Jan. 16, 2008, the state of Oregon recorded the business registration of an entity known as “Carpe Diem,” a purported “religious” nonprofit firm. AdSurfDaily figure Erma Seabaugh of Cape Girardeau, Mo., was listed as Carpe Diem’s president and secretary. ASD members described Seabaugh as a “trainer” for the Florida-based autosurf firm whose operator, Thomas A. “Andy” Bowdoin, 76, is under federal indictment for wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

    The Oregon registration of Carpe Diem coincides with a period in which ASD allegedly was ratcheting up the criminality to drive more business to its $110 million Ponzi scheme — first by introducing a companion “Spanish” autosurf known as LaFuenteDinero and later by launching a “Chinese” surf known as Golden Panda Ad Builder and producing a video in which an attorney who appeared with Bowdoin preemptively denied ASD was operating a Ponzi scheme, according to federal court filings.

    As an ASD trainer and a person with “privileges within the ASD computer database system to post and remove ‘ad packages’ from individuals’ accounts,” Seabaugh was positioned to benefit from ASD’s crimes and engage in crimes of her own, according to federal court filings.

    The filings raise the possibility that Seabaugh was seeking to disguise personal income as the proceeds of a purported religious entity and use ASD itself to launder money or hide income.

    Prosecutors said in December that it appeared as though Seabaugh “was selling her own investment ‘ad packs’ to clients and representing herself as ASD.” The Cape Girardeau, Mo., address for Carpe Diem in Oregon records is associated with a firm that provides mailbox and parcel services.

    Oregon dissolved Carpe Diem’s registration in March 2010, about 26 months after the entity was registered in the state.

    Just weeks prior to the January 2008 creation of Carpe Diem — on Nov. 11, 2007, Dec. 9, 2007 and Dec. 19, 2007 — Seabaugh opened three separate ASD accounts. Each of the accounts used a variation of the Carpe Diem name: Carpe Diem, Carpe Diem2 and Carpe Diem3, according to federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia.

    The presence of a form of the Carpe Diem name in three ASD accounts leads to a question about whether Seabaugh or others were seeking to structure transactions to avoid tax-reporting requirements or to minimize the risk that a bank might begin to ask uncomfortable questions.

    Seabaugh used the Carpe Diem account to sponsor “48 additional investors into the ASD investment scheme,” federal prosecutors said in a forfeiture complaint filed on Dec. 17, 2010, about 16 days after Bowdoin was arrested in Florida.

    Known as ASD’s “Web Room Lady,” Seabaugh withdrew $107,997 from the Carpe Diem account “through checks that issued from ASD,” according to the complaint. The account was funded with “ad packs” that “originated” at LaFuenteDinero, the “Spanish” version of ASD.

    It also was funded with $10,510 that originated at e-Bullion, which prosecutors described as an online digital currency.

    Two of Seabaugh’s Carpe Diem accounts — Carpe Diem2 and Carpe Diem3 — were used to promote an apparent “pyramid scheme” known as StreamlineGold.net, according to the forfeiture complaint. Although Seabaugh appears not to have made a withdrawal from the Carpe Diem3 account, she withdrew $83,994 from the Carpe Diem2 account, which also had been opened with a transfer of “ad packs” from LaFuenteDinero, according to the forfeiture complaint.

    LaFuenteDinero means the “fountain of money.” Different email addresses were used to open each of the Carpe Diem accounts, according to the forfeiture complaint.

    In addition, Seabaugh used an address with the letters “ASD” and the word “admin” included among the characters comprising a free gmail address, according to the forfeiture complaint.

    E-bullion operator James Fayed was convicted in May of arranging the contract murder of his estranged wife, Pamela Fayed, a potential witness against him on matters pertaining to fraud. James Fayed faces the death penalty for the slaying.

    Investigators have linked e-Bullion to multiple Ponzi schemes.

    At least $10,510 flowed from E-Bullion to ASD through Seabaugh’s Carpe Diem account prior to the gruesome slashing murder of Pamela Fayed in a California parking garage on July 28, 2008.

    About four days later — on Aug. 1, 2008 — the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars in the personal bank accounts of ASD’s Bowdoin. Seabaugh has not been charged with a crime, but agents seized at least $153,087 from bank accounts linked to Carpe Diem and Seabaugh, according to court filings.