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Tag: Clarence Busby Jr.

  • UPDATE: More Red Flags At ‘Text Cash Network’; Firm’s ‘Official’ Video Has YouTube Upload Date Of Nov. 15, 2011 — But Same Video With Nearly 3-Year Old Upload Date Also Appears On YouTube For Same ‘Opportunity’

    In this Nov. 13 post, the PP Blog published a list of red flags concerning online promos for Text Cash Network (TCN), purportedly an emerging business “opportunity” involving text advertising and cell phones. A promo for TCN appeared — and then vanished — from a website linked to huckster Phil Piccolo, known online as “the one-man Internet crime wave.” Piccolo has been associated with other schemes that involved cell phones, namely Data Network Affiliates (DNA).

    This post raises another red flag — and once again, the issue is about Piccolo’s potential TCN involvement or the involvement of Piccolo associates. In the DNA scam, the purported firm used generic YouTube videos to drive traffic to its purported opportunity. In 2010, for example, DNA incongruously posted a YouTube video known as “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” to its website, using the video to promote DNA.

    The “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” video — a You Tube smash — had absolutely nothing to to with DNA. The video was designed in part to create awareness about domestic violence and to publicize the Sheila Wellstone Institute.

    Sheila Wellstone was a human-rights advocate. She and her husband, Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., were killed in a plane crash in 2002. Their daughter, Marcia, died in the same crash.

    After conducting a “prelaunch” event with much fanfare on Nov. 11 — Veterans Day in the United States — TCN now has added a You Tube video to its website. An all-caps line of “OFFICIAL LAUNCH 12/12/2011” appears below the video, which plays in miniature on TCN’s site.

    But the video also is playing in full size on YouTube’s site. Text on the YouTube site dubs it “THE OFFICAL TEXT CASH NETWORK (TCN) – RIGHT HERE – RIGHT NOW” site. The upload date of the video is listed as Nov. 15, 2011: yesterday.

    The same video, however,  appears elsewhere on YouTube — and its upload date is listed as Jan. 26, 2009, nearly three years ago. Despite the upload date, the video also is promoting TCN, whose website appears to have been registered just last month.

    Both videos raise questions about whether YouTube is being gamed by TCN and affiliates. Meanwhile, the videos use the same soundtrack by Fat Boy Slim: “Right here, right now.”

    Among other things, Piccolo is known to use all-caps presentations and to hype “prelaunches” and “launches” for weeks. He also is known to hype launches by publishing the names of top promoters — something TCN is doing — and to try to stay in the background of “opportunities,” as opposed to becoming the public face of them.

    Joe Reid, a known Piccolo associate, has served as a conference-call host for TCN. Reid also hosted conference calls for DNA, which was linked to Piccolo last year and served up Theatre of the Absurd and a sea of incongruities.

    DNA, for example, misspelled the name of its own CEO — and didn’t advise members that the CEO had left the company for nearly a week. The former CEO told the PP Blog last year that the firm was engaging in “bizarre” conduct and a campaign of “misinformation and lies.”

    After the former CEO agreed to an interview with the PP Blog, a PR handler who described himself as a conflict-management strategist” sought to intervene. As the year proceeded, DNA appeared to have both entered and exited the cell-phone business in a matter of weeks — while planting the seed that it would pay enormous rates of return to customers who provided it money, even as it purportedly entered businesses such as mortgage writedowns and offshore “resorts” after apparently abandoning its purported core business of helping police recover kidnapped children.

    At one point, DNA was urging members to record the license-plate numbers of cars in a purported bid to assist the AMBER Alert program — while it was selling a purported “protective spray” that would make it impossible for cameras placed by police at intersections to snap usable photographs of the plates.

    In 2009, another purported “advertising” opportunity known as Biz Ad Splash (BAS) used the same Fat Boy Slim soundtrack. Walter Clarence Busby Jr., the purported operator of BAS, is a figure in the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and is the former operator of Golden Panda Ad Builder. Golden Panda surrendered more than $14 million in the ASD Ponzi case, and the SEC said that Busby was involved in three prime-bank schemes in the 1990s.

    The SEC has not responded to requests for comment on the emerging TCN “opportunity.”

    As of now, it can be said that two “advertising” schemes — BAS and TCN — are using the same music in what appears to be largely generic promos for business “opportunities.”

    It also can be said that DNA, one of the “businesses” associated with Piccolo, also used generic videos and caused them to play in miniature on “prelaunch” and “launch” sites for “opportunities.”

    It also seems possible — if not likely — that certain MLM promoters have found a way to edit YouTube sites to make the content appear “current” or to store generic videos and use them for multiple “opportunities.”

    Questions

    Why does one video for TCN show an upload date of January 2009 while the “official” site shows a video upload date of yesterday — when it is the same video and TCN purportedly is a “new” opportunity?

    Did TCN exist in an earlier form as far back as 2009? If so, what happened back then — and why is it reemerging now?

    Are certain MLMers simply using generic videos they uploaded earlier to YouTube — and then editing the YouTube sites when a new “opportunity” comes along, thus potentially maintaining a search-engine advantage no matter what “opportunity” comes along?

    Why would a company that purports to be a market and technology leader use what appears to be a generic video as its “official” video?

    Why did a promo for TCN that appeared on the website of OWOW — a site linked to Piccolo — suddenly go missing last week?

    Why does TCN appear to be closely following “prelaunch” and “launch” strategies associated with purported Piccolo “opportunities?

    Screen Shot 1

    This YouTube video for Text Cash Network bears an upload date of Jan. 26, 2009, even though TCN claims it is a new company proceeding from a "prelaunch" in recent days to "launch." The video is a duplicate of a video dated Nov. 15, 2011 that claims to be TCN's "official" video.

    Screen Shot 2

    This YouTube video for Text Cash Network bears an upload date of Nov. 15, 2011, even though the same video for the purported TCN opportunity appears elsewhere on YouTube and bears an upload date of Jan. 26, 2009, nearly three years ago. TCN claims it is a new company proceeding from "prelaunch" to "launch." TCN claims the Nov. 15, 2011 video is its "official" one. Both video sites feature all-caps when addressing prospects and content that is virtually the same.

    Screen Shot 3

    This 2009 YouTube video for the purported Biz AdSplash "advertising" program used the music of Fat Boy Slim. An emerging "advertising" opportunity known as Text Cash Network is using the same Fat Boy Slim music: "Right here, right now." While BAS purported to deliver "advertising" to computers, TCN purports to deliver it to cell phones.

  • UPDATE ON DECEMBER 2009 SPECIAL REPORT: 3 Figures In Philip R. Lochmiller Sr. Ponzi Case Will Go To Federal Prison; ‘Elderly Victims Were Financially Devastated,’ FBI Agent Says; Case Involving Recidivist Fraudster Drew Comparison To AdSurfDaily

    In a case that drew comparisons to AdSurfDaily because of recidivism, undisclosed bankruptcies and ties to Utah, the three principal figures of the Philip R. Lochmiller Sr. real-estate Ponzi scheme in Colorado will be going to federal prison.

    Lochmiller Sr., 63, was found guilty in July after a 10-day trial in which the jurors returned the verdicts in three hours. He will be sentenced after a final computation of losses is completed. The case involved a company known as Valley Mortgage Inc. The case involved about $30 million.

    Lochmiller Sr. was found guilty of conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering and mail fraud.

    His stepson, Philip R. Lochmiller Jr., 38 when charged, has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit securities and mail fraud and money laundering. Business associate Shawnee N. Carver, 33 when charged, has been sentenced to two years for conspiracy to commit securities and mail fraud.

    Prosecutors announced the sentences imposed on Lochmiller Jr. and Carver yesterday.

    “Philip Lochmiller Jr. helped orchestrate an investment scheme which defrauded over 400 victims out of more than $30 million,” said James Yacone, special agent in charge of the Denver FBI office. “Several elderly victims were financially devastated.  [The] sentencing sent a strong message that white collar criminals will not be tolerated.  The FBI will continue to aggressively investigate and seek prosecution against the groups and individuals who defraud unwitting victims out of their earnings.”

    Lochmiller Sr. was sentenced to three years in a California state prison in the 1980s after he was charged with 60 counts of securities fraud and pleaded guilty to about half of them. Investors in his new scheme at Valley Mortgage were not told of his history as a securities swindler, federal prosecutors in Colorado said.

    Federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia said the same thing about ASD President Andy Bowdoin, who was charged with felonies in Alabama in a securities scheme in the 1990s.

    Meanwhile, Lochmiller Sr.’s investors also were not told that both Lochmiller Sr. and Jr. had bankruptcies on their records. Federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia alleged in August 2008 that ASD members and members of a companion autosurf known as Golden Panda Ad Builder were not told about the bankruptcy of Golden Panda President Clarence Busby.

    Nor were they immediately told that Busby had a run-in with the SEC in the 1990s and was accused of purveying three prime-bank swindles, according to records.

    The Lochmiller case also has a tie to Vernal, Utah, a community to which ASD also has a tie. The Lochmiller case was in part about real estate in Vernal. Vernal is the community in which the so-called “Arby’s Indians” got their start.

    ASD mainstay Curtis Richmond was a member of the bogus “tribe” based in Vernal. The tribe, which used the address of a Vernal doughnut shop as the address of its purported “Supreme Court” and was ruled a “complete sham” by a federal judge, got its derisive name because it once held a meeting at an Arby’s restaurant in Provo.

    Richmond went on to become a pro se litigant in the ASD Ponzi case, accusing the judge overseeing the case in the District of Columbia of “TREASON” and operating a kangaroo court. Richmond claimed the judge overseeing an unrelated case in Utah owed him $30 million. Other ASD figures later claimed government officials owed them sums ranging from the millions of dollars to the trillions.

    Another parallel between the ASD case and the Lochmiller case is the presence of the IRS. ASD’s early deceptions were uncovered by a U.S. Secret Service/IRS Task Force operating in Florida, according to court filings.

    “Investment fraud is like a ‘house of cards’; the underlying structure can fall apart at any time leaving many investors in financial ruin,” said Sean Sowards, a top IRS agent working the Lochmiller case.

    Sowards is the special agent in charge of the IRS-Criminal Investigation unit in Denver.

    “These sentences should remind us that defrauding investors is a serious offense and those who do will be held accountable,” Sowards said.

    Both Lochmiller Jr. and Carver testified at the Lochmiller Sr. trial, prosecutors said.

     

     

  • EDITORIAL: As Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force Website (StopFraud.gov) Spotlights AdSurfDaily Prosecution, Bizarre Email Circulating Among ASD Members Raises New Conspiracy Theories

    UPDATED 10:31 A.M. EDT (U.S.A).

    ASD case subject of discussion in Washington’s highest power corridors: The Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force was formed by President Obama in November 2009. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, a member of the President’s cabinet and the chief law-enforcement officer of the U.S. government, presides over the Task Force.

    Secret Service is charter member of Task Force. The U.S. Secret Service, whose duties include protecting the President of the United States, the integrity of the economy and the financial infrastructure of the nation, is a member of the Task Force.

    Among the allegations in the ASD case is that members were falsely trading on the name of then-President George W. Bush to sanitize a $110 million Ponzi scheme, that ASD President Andy Bowdoin encouraged the false claims and arranged to spend Ponzi proceeds to retire the $157,000 mortgage on a home in Tallahassee occupied by his wife’s son and the son’s wife, purchase a lakefront home in Florida, purchase an $800,000 building (for cash), purchase jet skis, a Cabana boat, haul trailers and marine equipment — all while owing restitution to victims of an Alabama securities caper in the 1990s and “thousands of dollars” to an ex-wife.

    Some of the purchases occurred within days of Bowdoin’s return from a May 2008 ASD “rally” in Las Vegas at which he defined himself as a Christian “money magnet” and encouraged others to follow him in thanking God and becoming like-minded “money magnets.” At the rally, Bowdoin urged members not to miss the opportunity to provide ASD with money by the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time, according to records.

    “Thank you, God, for destining me to great wealth,” he exhorted the Las Vegas crowd to internalize and recite during the day.

    And he exhorted members to picture themselves wealthy.

    “See a big check coming in from AdSurfDaily,” he urged. “I signed a check the other day, about $22,000. See those checks like that coming for you constantly, just flowing to you.”

    One of Bowdoin’s business partners — Walter Clarence Busby Jr., the operator of the Golden Panda autosurf — was implicated by the SEC in three prime-bank schemes in the 1990s, according to records. Golden Panda, according to Busby, was hatched after he went fishing with Bowdoin on a Georgia lake in April 2008. Just days after the fishing expedition, Bowdoin boarded a plane and flew to Costa Rica, according to court filings.

    Weeks after his return from Costa Rica, Bowdoin headed to Washington, D.C., to rub elbows with politicians, according to court filings.

    Read the full news release on the AdSurfDaily case here. It is published on StopFraud.gov, the Task Force website.

    New conspiracy theory emerges after government compensates ASD victims. As often has been the case, some ASD members appear not to have taken the clue that top Justice Department officials and perhaps the White House itself are being briefed on developments in the ASD case. The ASD case became a national-security case when the U.S. Secret Service discovered in 2008 that Andy Bowdoin, a recidivist securities swindler in his seventies who allegedly had “earned no significant income from legal employment in the twenty years prior to his commencement of ASD’s operation,” suddenly was sitting on tens of millions of dollars and had handed out some of it to political rainmakers.

    Some of the handouts, which came in the form of contributions to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), occurred in early 2007, even as the first Ponzi scheme iteration of ASD was collapsing and the firm’s original members were left holding the bag while Bowdoin explained $1 million had been stolen by “Russian” hackers. Bowdoin did not file a police report about the purported theft because he did not want to draw the attention of law enforcement, according to court filings.

    The NRCC handouts continued in 2008, after Bowdoin had changed the name of his collapsed autosurfing venture from AdSurfDaily to ASD Cash Generator, plumbed it with new cash from a new group of suckers, started a second Ponzi venture known as LaFuenteDinero, arranged with Busby to form a third Ponzi-in-waiting  (Golden Panda) and had flown to Costa Rica with a “North Carolina lawyer” (and co-owner) of LaFuenteDinero, according to court filings and Federal Election Commission records.

    In a bizarre email that began to circulate among ASD members yesterday, the seed was planted that that the government was trying to recruit witnesses by luring them with remissions payments — and that prosecutors might claw back the remissions money if  the member “did not cooperate in testifying against ASD.”

    The date upon which the email was written could not immediately be determined, but the email appears to be the second in a two-part series sent after ASD members began to receive remissions payments late last week.

    The content of the email, which was described as “insider information” and attributed in part to an unamed third party who purportedly overheard a conversation involving a federal prosecutor at an unspecified location, was titled, “Important Warning: ASD/Golden Panda.”

    Among the suggestions in the email was that the government planned to “force” ASD members who received remissions distributions to testify against Bowdoin in his upcoming criminal trial on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. The email was signed “Sara.”

    Here is the email verbatim (italics added):

    “Hi Everyone-

    Since I sent the last email update about ASD/Golden Panda monies being received by members, I received some very important insider information you should know. This is an important warning.

    The information (these are not quotes) I am sharing with you was spoken by and was heard directly from an attorney for the government, in relation to the ASD legal case. I must protect the source but I can assure you it is reliable (it is not Andy). I was told that the person heard the government attorney say they had hired the Rust Company to send a remission form by email and US-mail to ASD and Golden Panda members. The form was to be sent under the pretense that the member would get their money back if they filled out the form to request a remission of their ASD/Golden Panda monies seized by the government on 8/1/08. Those members would then receive their remission monies directly into their bank accounts, but the attorney said that their names would go onto a list and they would then be summoned by the court (at the members own expense) to testify against ASD. They would be forced to testify against ASD even if they did not believe that ASD was illegal, because the form they signed was set up in such a way that the member was essentially stating that ASD victimized them in an illegal business. I’m imagining a typical scenario in court would be: The attorney for the government would read statements from the form and the member’s answers and then say something like, “Is this your signature?” to force the member into saying that the statements were theirs.  And, take note, that it was also mentioned by the attorney that the direct deposit into the member’s account could be reversed at any time if ASD should eventually lose the case or if the member did not cooperate in testifying against ASD. If the money isn’t in the account anymore, it would be money owed back to the government, so moving the money would not help. The addendum that I was advised to suggest to you if you were drawn to fill out the form (sent by the Rust Company on behalf of the government) that stated that you did not make an investment in ASD/Golden Panda, but rather bought advertising, would apparently protect you from the government’s tactics, but I honestly do not know that for sure.

    Many of us had major red flags when we read the form as it was obvious what the government was trying to do. That’s why it was advised that members add the addendum to their form, to protect themselves from the government’s deceptive practices. So pray about how you should proceed. Please don’t ask me. I can’t make this decision for you.

    God’s Blessings,

    Sara

    The email appears to have followed the email below, which divines a construction by which  the government seized ASD money illegally and set up the remissions program only because ASD members outraged at the illegal seizure demanded the return of their funds (verbatim/italics added):

    “Dear ASD & Golden Panda Members-

    I have some news! ASD and Golden Panda Members have recently received a “remission” of the money that was in their ASD and/or Golden Panda accounts, deposited directly into their personal bank accounts by the government; amounts like $50,000 and $60,000 and it was apparently 100% of the money that was owed to them!

    Personally, I am stunned. My experience over the last decade or more has been that the government has never fulfilled their obligation to return money they have seized from programs they deemed illegal. My opinion is that they are scrambling to do this in order to diffuse the outrage ASD members have felt toward the government from their (in my opinion, illegal) seizure of members’ account funds, so that members will have less opposition toward the government during the eventual ASD trial.

    But, for whatever reason the government is doing it, it is irrelevant to those relieved members who are finally receiving justice from this (in my opinion, illegal) seizure.

    If you have not received your remission, you can go to this website to fill out the form there: adsurfdailyremission.com. You can also call the following toll free information line for more information and even talk to a customer service agent in person to ask any questions you might have about this process: 888-398-8214. The following email address has also been provided to communicate about this: info@adsurfremission.com You will notice that, in the recorded message, the government does NOT back down in their assertion that Golden Panda and ASD were illegal ponzi schemes, but that is obviously not stopping them from returning members’ funds.

    Some of you will notice that this form is the one that many of you did not feel inspired to fill out when it was first presented to us. It really puts members in an uncomfortable position of stating that they were victims of ASD/Golden Panda when they don’t believe they were and many felt as if they were also being set up to incriminate themselves.

    At the time, I was advised to suggest to you that, if you felt drawn to fill it out, you include an addendum that stated that you understood that you were purchasing advertising, not making an investment. That continues to be the advice. Now that people are actually receiving their money back, perhaps some of you may feel more motivated to risk filling out the form. Just be careful not to incriminate yourselves. Be alert as you do it. Do not leave any question unanswered or it will be rejected. You must also provide documentation so hopefully you kept good records.

    You will notice on that website (upper left corner) that it says that you must fill it out and submit it by a date in January, 2011. The way around this may be to say that you just found out about it (you didn’t get their letter in the mail or an email from them) and therefore you are only responding to it now. You might want to make that clear to the Customer Service agent at the number above BEFORE you take the time to fill it out, to confirm that they are still accepting them. If not, take a stand for your right to your monetary remission and ask for a supervisor. I am hearing that they are swamped trying to keep up with the communications they are receiving from members, so please be patient.

    Blessings,

    Sara

    Read a January 2011 story about ASD-related emails. Read a November 2010 story. Read another November 2010 story. Read a December 2009 story.

  • Accused Ponzi Scheme Felon Andy Bowdoin Launches Facebook Page, Asks Members To ‘Like’ Him And ‘Share’ Link To Defense Fundraising Site ‘Right Away’

    After weeks of delays, a Facebook “Fan” page for accused Ponzi schemer Thomas Anderson “Andy” Bowdoin finally has launched. The site includes a link to “Andy’s Fundraising Army,” the web venue at which Bowdoin’s bid to raise $500,000 to pay for criminal lawyers has fallen 95 percent short of its goal.

    Bowdoin, 76, was arrested in Florida in December 2010 and freed on bail. Federal prosecutors described him as a recidivist securities huckster who’d presided over Quincy-based AdSurfDaily.

    ASD was an “autosurf” Ponzi scheme disguised as an “advertising company,” and Bowdoin used some of the money sent in by members to make campaign donations to the National Republican Congressional Committee, prosecutors said.

    An early version of Bowdoin’s alleged $110 million Ponzi scheme collapsed in 2007, leaving members holding the bag, according to records. After weeks in limbo, ASD switched the URL from which the purported “program” operated and relaunched under the new name of ASD Cash Generator, sucking in a new crop of victims, prosecutors said.

    The accounts and unpaid redemptions of participants active at the time of the 2007 collapse were rolled into the new scheme, and incoming members were not told about the original Ponzi failure and that members were getting paid with recycled cash, prosecutors said.

    ASD eventually gained momentum by creating a video lie about the program’s purported legality and by arranging “rallies” in U.S. cities. In late 2007, Bowdoin added a second autosurf Ponzi known as LaFuenteDinero — Spanish for “the fountain of money” — to his criminal tool kit, and compounded his deception, prosecutors said.

    In 2008, Bowdoin and Clarence Busby Jr. of Acworth, Ga., struck up a partnership that resulted in the creation of an autosurf known as Golden Panda Ad Builder, describing it as ASD’s “Chinese” option, according to records.

    The SEC has described Busby as a prime-bank swindler implicated in three securities schemes in the 1990s. Busby has described himself as a minister and real-estate professional. Records suggest he has lost property in Georgia to foreclosure, was the operator of yet-another surf scheme known as BizAdSplash (BAS) and was on the receiving end of an IRS tax lien.

    BAS went missing in early 2010, after positioning itself as a purported offshore business. Its web servers resolved to Panama.

    Like Busby, Bowdoin also was implicated in securities schemes in the 1990s, according to records. He narrowly avoided prison time in Alabama by agreeing to make restitution to defrauded investors.

    Bowdoin has asked Facebook members to “like” his site. The Facebook site does not mention that three ASD members filed a prospective-class action lawsuit against Bowdoin in 2009, accusing him of racketeering and disguising the nature of ASD’s business.

    Nor does the Facebook site reveal that ASD and related businesses have been on the receiving end of at least three civil-forfeiture judgments totaling about $80 million. In August 2008, the U.S. Secret Service seized about $65.8 million from 10 personal bank accounts of Bowdoin through which he was operating the ASD business, according to records.

    The seizure occurred after ASD members falsely claimed that Bowdoin had received an award for business acumen from then-President George W. Bush, prosecutors said. Bowdoin filed two appeals when forfeiture orders were entered against his assets, but lost both. His new appeals for cash are targeted at the people Bowdoin is accused of defrauding: the ASD membership base.

    In the aftermath of the 2008 seizures, Bowdoin described federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia — the venue in which the forfeiture actions were filed — as “Satan.” Bowdoin’s use of the word “Satan” occurred just weeks after he described himself at a company “rally” in Las Vegas as a Christian “money magnet.”

    Bowdoin also compared the seizures to the 9/11 attacks, saying the actions against ASD by the Secret Service were “30 times worse” in some ways than the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington.

    One of the Washington victims of the 9/11 attacks was Barbara Olson, an author, television commentator and former assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) in the District of Columbia office. Olson was the wife of former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson.

    In commemoration of the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, prosecutors in the District of Columbia dedicated a national-security conference room in Barbara Olson’s memory last week.

    “As an AUSA in [the District of Columbia] office, and throughout her career, Barbara proved that her convictions ran deep, and that her fidelity — to the values she held dear, the principles she fought to defend, and the countless people whose lives she touched — was unshakeable,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said last week.

    ASD is known to have so-called “sovereign citizens” in its ranks. Two ASD figures — Kenneth Wayne Leaming and Christian Oesch — sought unsuccessfully to sue the government for its actions in the ASD case, apparently seeking the staggering sum of more than $29 trillion, more than twice the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2009.

    Leaming was accused in Washington state in 2005 of practicing law without a license. Records show he also was involved in a lawsuit that sought more than $9 billion against a local hospital in Washington state. Filings in the case show that Leaming sought liens against the hospital and even sought to attach it water and mineral rights. At least two notaries public in Washington state with ties to Leaming have had their licenses revoked. The names of both notaries appear on the docket of U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer in the District of Columbia.

    Collyer is presiding over the ASD-related forfeiture actions and the criminal case against Bowdoin. Bowdoin twice has tried to have Collyer removed from the case. Both efforts failed, and the U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld the forfeiture orders she issued in the case.

    Sixty-two people (as of the time of this post) have “liked” Bowdoin’s Facebook fan page. It is unclear if Bowdoin’s fans have followed the ASD case closely.

  • BULLETIN: Commodities Online LLC Fraud Case Takes Unexpected Turn; Federal Judge Says Defense Attorney Accused Her Of ‘Trampling’ On Client’s Constitutional Rights In Issuing Order To Turn Over $1.45 Million To Court-Appointed Receiver

    James Clark Howard III

    BULLETIN: A federal judge in Florida who says she was accused of “abusing” her discretion and “trampling” the Constitutional rights of a man implicated in an alleged multimillion-dollar commodities fraud by the SEC has ordered the defense attorney who made the assertions to explain himself and substantiate claims that his client had been denied due process.

    U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Seitz ordered attorney Horecia I. Walker to respond in writing no later than Sept. 9 and explain what kind of investigation he conducted prior to asserting that James Clark Howard III and his counsel present at an Aug. 23 evidentiary hearing did not have adequate time to prepare for the hearing.

    Howard, who appeared at the hearing, was represented at the hearing by attorney Mark C. Perry, according to records. Both Howard and Perry had 11 days to prepare for the hearing, Seitz wrote.

    In an order issued on the same day as the hearing, Seitz directed Howard and Sutton Capital LLC to turn over $1.45 million to attorney David S. Mandel, the court-appointed receiver in the Commodites Online LLC fraud case filed in April by the SEC.

    Seitz gave Howard and Sutton, another firm associated with Howard, until yesterday to turn over the money. It was not immediately clear if either party complied with the order.

    What is clear is that Seitz was not amused by an emergency motion filed by Walker on behalf of Howard and Sutton to stay the Aug. 23 order to turn over the money pending an appeal of the order.

    “Walker has accused this Court of trampling Howard’s constitutional rights and abusing its discretion in entering the turnover Order,” Seitz wrote. “The factual underpinnings for these accusations are that Howard and Perry had insufficient time to prepare for the August 23, 2011, hearing. To avoid running afoul of Rule 11, Walker should have investigated these factual circumstances before relying on them to accuse the Court of a constitutional affront.”

    The judge added that “it appears to the Court that no such investigation occurred.”

    Seitz took issue with Walker’s characterization of the Aug. 23 hearing as an “apparent ‘evidentiary hearing,’” according to an order she issued yesterday denying the stay.

    “Walker posits that the hearing ‘was not an evidentiary hearing at all’ and the Court’s Order requiring disgorgement amounts to an abuse of discretion,” Seitz wrote. “Lost in all of his hyperbole is the simple fact that Howard and Perry received notice of the hearing eleven days before the hearing commenced.”

    Neither Howard nor Perry asked for a continuance, Seitz wrote.

    The Commodities Online case has a link to the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme case brought by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008.

    SSH2 Acquistions, a Nevada company that listed former ASD member and pro-ASD Surf’s Up moderator Terralynn Hoy as a director, sued Howard and others in September 2010 amid allegations he was part of a massive Ponzi scheme into which SSH2 had plowed $39 million. The lawsuit was filed about six months after the Boca Raton Police Department filed felony charges against Howard in an alleged financial scam that targeted Haitian Americans.

    Surf’s Up was a cheerleading site for ASD, and Hoy later became a moderator of a cheerleading forum for the collapsed AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf.

    While SSH2 claims to be a Ponzi victim of Howard, the Surf’s Up and AdViewGlobal forums both claimed that ASD and AVG were conducting legitimate commerce. With Hoy as a moderator of Surf’s Up, the forum conducted an October 2008 online party complete with images of champagne and fireworks for ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

    The U.S. Secret Service described Bowdoin as an international Ponzi schemer and recidivist felon who’d gathered tens of millions of dollars in the ASD caper — most of it in ASD’s final weeks of life in the late spring and summer of 2008. At least $65.8 million was seized from Bowdoin’s 10 personal bank accounts, according to court records. One account alone contained more than $31.6 million. Three accounts contained the exact same amount: $1,000,338.91.

    It is unclear if ASD members beyond Hoy had any business ties to Howard and invested any money with the accused schemer. Hoy has not been accused of wrongdoing.

    SSH2 said in court filings that it plowed $39 million into the alleged Howard scheme, and received back about $19 million in “fake and fraudulent ‘profits.’” Sutton, Rapallo Investment Group LLC and Patricia Saa also were named defendants in SSH2’s lawsuit.

    Howard was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison in the 1990s on narcotics and weapons charges, according to records. ASD’s Bowdoin, meanwhile, narrowly avoided jail time during the same decade when he was implicated in Alabama in a securities swindle, according to records.

    Clarence Busby Jr., one of Bowdoin’s alleged business partners, was implicated by the SEC during the 1990s in three prime-bank schemes, according to records.

    Some ASD members have been identified as members of the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement. Cheerleading for Bowdoin and ASD continued on the Surf’s Up forum even after it was revealed that Curtis Richmond, one of the purported “sovereign” beings associated with ASD, had a contempt-of-court conviction for threatening federal judges in California and once claimed a federal judge from Oklahoma sitting by special designation in Utah owed him $30 million.

    Richmond was a member of the so-called “Arby’s Indians,” an “Indian” tribe that targeted public officials with vexatious litigation. U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot ruled the “tribe” a complete sham.

    U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer of the District of Columbia is presiding over the ASD Ponzi case. Both Richmond and Bowdoin tried unsuccessfully to have her removed from the case. Richmond accused Collyer of “TREASON” and claimed she may be guilty of 60 or more felonies.

  • Tax Lien Was Filed Against Golden Panda’s Clarence Busby Prior To Lawsuit Autosurf Operator Filed Against Bank; Separately, Georgia Has Dissolved 2 Busby Firms And Says Biz Ad Splash ‘Surf Company In State Of Noncompliance

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Clarence Busby Jr., a figure associated with at least four autosurfs — AdSurfDaily, Golden Panda Ad Builder, LaFuenteDinero and BizAdSplash — has encountered a recent string of troubles, including a mortgage foreclosure and tax liens. Owing to his association with ASD President Andy Bowdoin, who operated ASD and LaFuenteDinero and once had a partnership with Busby in Golden Panda, Busby also was forced to spend an unknown sum on legal fees after the seizure of ASD- and Golden Panda-connected assets in 2008.

    Bowdoin said in September 2009 that he’d spent more than $1 million on legal fees in the first 13 months of ASD-related litigation. He was arrested on federal charges on Dec. 1, 2010, and had to arrange a bond of $350,000.  Sixteen days later — on December 17, 2010 — federal prosecutors filed yet another (the third) civil-forfeiture complaint against Bowdoin-connected assets. Bowdoin filed appeals in the first two forfeiture cases, losing both and driving up his legal costs.

    Despite the costly troubles encountered by both Bowdoin and Busby — and the remarkable staying power of those troubles, which next month will enter their fourth year — promoters on TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup and other Ponzi forums still are pushing autosurfs and HYIPs.

    They’re pushing them even though Bowdoin and others potentially face long prison sentences and have lost significant dollar sums and property as a result of their infatuation with what prosecutors have described as serial lawlessness.

    On July 6, a federal judge ordered Gregory N. McKnight, the operator of the Legisi HYIP Ponzi scheme, to pay more than $6.81 million in disgorgement and penalties. Like ASD and countless schemes, Legisi was promoted on TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup — and court filings in the Legisi case specifically reference MoneyMakerGroup.

    Still pushing ‘surfs and HYIPs?

    Apparently using a fill-in-the-blank litigation template, Clarence Busby Jr. sought foreclosure relief on a central Cobb County property in Marietta, Ga. Busby's filing also placed the property in Gwinnett County, which does not border Cobb County. (Graphic from Wikipedia.)

    When former autosurf operator Clarence Busby Jr. filed a lawsuit last year last seeking relief from from a bank and other parties involved in a mortgage foreclosure against him, he’d already been put on notice by the Internal Revenue Service that the agency intended to collect thousands of dollars in back taxes from him, according to records in Cobb County, Ga.

    The taxes were from 2009, according to records. During the same year, Busby launched an autosurf known as Biz Ad Splash — but the tax bill was for a different Busby entity.

    On Aug. 11, 2010, the IRS prepared a federal tax lien against Busby and a company known as Freedom Achievement LLC for $15,481. The lien was formally recorded on Aug. 26, 2010. A note on the lien described Busby as “SOLE MBR” of Freedom Achievement, whose business purpose was not immediately clear.

    About four months later — in December 2010 — Busby filed a pro se lawsuit demanding relief from Quicken Loans, OneWest Bank, MERSCorp and 1,000 “Doe” defendants in Cobb County Superior Court.

    OneWest and MERS responded in January 2011 by moving to have Busby’s case transferred to federal court in the Northern District of Georgia because the lawsuit named defendants in multiple states and involved a controversy that exceeded the sum of $75,000.

    Busby’s case was assigned to Senior U.S. District Judge Robert L. Vining Jr., who dismissed it for failure to state a claim. Beyond dismissing the lawsuit for failure to state a claim, Vining agreed with the defendants that Busby’s arguments had no legal merit. Busby’s pro se pleadings appeared to have come from a fill-in-the-blank legal kit.

    These words appeared on the first page of Busby’s complaint: “COMES NOW, name here, as plaintiff” — and Busby did not insert his name in the “name here” space.

    By contrast, some filings in the ASD/Golden Panda forfeiture case begin with these words, “COMES NOW, plaintiff United States of America, by and through its attorney.”

    The Busby complaint also claims the Busby property in dispute is located in “Gwinnett County.” The document claimed elsewhere that the property was located in the city of Marietta in “Cobb County,” the venue in which Busby sued.

    Marietta is situated in central Cobb County. Cobb County and Gwinnett County do not border one another. and the property is listed in Cobb County courthouse records, meaning it is possible that Busby used an existing legal template and never swapped out an existing reference to Gwinnett County — in the same manner in which he did not insert his name in the “name here” space.

    Whether Busby’s apparent fill-in-the-blank oversights added to the defendants’ costs in successfully defending against the lawsuit is unclear. What is clear is that Busby came out on the losing end and that the defendants referenced the IRS tax lien against Busby in Cobb County in their response to his complaint.

    Separately, the state of Georgia dissolved a Busby company known as Homeshare Investment Club Corp. The dissolution occurred on Sept. 13, 2010, less than a month after the IRS tax lien was filed against Freedom Achievement LLC, according to records.

    Records pertaining to Homeshare Investment Club show that it used the same address used by Busby in the formation of Biz Ad Splash NA LLC.

    BizAdSplash, or BAS, was an autosurf that ceased operating in January 2010. BAS launched in the aftermath of the ASD- and Golden Panda-related asset seizures. A separate address associated with the BAS filing in Georgia is the address of a maildrop in Kennesaw.

    BAS purported to operate offshore. Its apparent U.S. domestic brand is listed in noncompliance by the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brian P. Kemp.

    Members of BAS have complained to the PP Blog about not getting refunds from the autosurf. How much money the surf collected is unclear.

    At the same time the state of Georgia was dissolving Homeshare Investment Club, it also was dissolving another Busby enterprise: Ocean View Enterprises Inc.  Meanwhile, yet another Busby firm — Legacy Premier Properties Inc. — is listed in a state of noncompliance.

  • AdSurfDaily/Golden Panda Figure Clarence Busby Jr. Filed Pro Se Lawsuit Against Bank, 1,000 ‘Does’; ‘Plaintiff Has No Knowledge Of The True Names And Identities Of Any Or All Of The Real Lenders’

    Even as bank failures and  foreclosures were piling up in Georgia last year, a man associated with at least four failed autosurf companies was filing lawsuits against mortgage companies and 1,000 “Doe” defendants amid claims he did not know the “true names” of the “real lenders.”

    Clarence Busby Jr. of Acworth, Ga., advised a Cobb County judge that it was “long standing black letter Mortgage law” from the 19th century that he should receive foreclosure relief from Quicken Loans, OneWest Bank, a service company and the “Does.”

    In January 2011, the defendants moved to have the cases removed to federal court in Northern Georgia and filed for dismissal. The dismissal was granted in March.

    A street address for Busby that appeared in both the county and federal filings corresponds with an address used by Biz Ad Splash NA LLC (BAS) in Georgia corporate filings dated May 13, 2009. BAS was an autosurf associated with Busby that went missing last year. Busby also was the president of Golden Panda Ad Builder, yet another autosurf, and a onetime business partner of Thomas A. “Andy” Bowdoin, the operator of the Florida-based AdSurfDaily autosurf.

    The address BAS used in the Georgia filings was a mail drop, according to records.

    Bowdoin was arrested in December 2010. The U.S. Secret Service said he had presided over an international Ponzi scheme that had gathered at least $110 million. Assets tied to both Bowdoin and Busby were seized as part of the ASD/Golden Panda probe, which also involved an autosurf known as LaFuenteDinero.

    Busby was implicated in three prime-bank schemes by the SEC in the 1990s and was enjoined from violating securities laws by a federal judge. An FDIC-insured bank that once held Golden Panda funds failed in April 2011.

    Georgia leads the United States in bank failures, with Florida nipping on its heels. Both states also are high on the list of mortgage foreclosures. Foreclosures tend to lower the value of surrounding properties.

    Busby has described himself in court filings as a minister and real-estate professional. The actions in Cobb County that were removed to federal court were filed pro se, meaning Busby acted as his own attorney.

    The defendants in the cases claimed Busby was seeking to “invalidate and/or void” in its “entirety” a $120,000 security instrument held on a property in Marietta, Ga.

    Records suggest the property has been bought and sold twice in recent months for wildly different prices.

    Among Busby’s claims in the Cobb County lawsuit was that the “true names and identities of any or all” of the “real” lenders, investors and others involved in his mortgage “were hidden from the plaintiff.”

    BAS, which purported to be headquartered offshore, entered the autosurf world in January 2009 — after the ASD, Golden Panda and LaFuenteDinero-related asset seizures.

    The entry of BAS began with the stern bang of a drum and a dire message in a promotional video: “The World Is In Crisis,” the video warned. “Turn On The News, And You’ll See. The Stock Market Is At A Record Low. Foreclosures Are At An All-Time High. Thousand’s (sic) Are Losing Their Jobs. Banks Are Closing. There Has To Be A Solution!”

    The dire bang of the drum faded, replaced by a riff from an organ. The riff grew frantic, building toward a crescendo. The video never said the tones were from a 1999 work by Fatboy Slim: “Right Here, Right Now.”

    Messages flashed in front of viewers’ eyes for more than a minute before the video announced the company’s name — BizAdSplash — and positioned the surf as the cure for all the economic misery in the world.

    “Biz Ad Splash Has The Answer,” it said. “The Plan Is Simple. Advertise Your Business, A Product Or Service, Introduce Others To The Value Of Advertising. View A Few Ads For A Few Minutes A Day. Earn Profits. It’s That Simple!”