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Tag: CNN

  • BULLETIN: FBI Says Letter Addressed To President Obama ‘Preliminarily Tested Positive For Ricin’

    breakingnews72BULLETIN: (UPDATED 2:06 P.M. EDT) The FBI and the U.S. Secret Service are investigating a letter sent to President Obama that “preliminarily tested positive for ricin,” the FBI says.

    Ricin is a deadly poison. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., also reportedly was sent a letter that preliminarily tested positive for ricin.

    The President has been briefed on the letters, White House Spokesman Jay Carney said minutes ago. Earlier, the FBI said “[t]here is no indication of a connection to the attack in Boston.”

    At least two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday. The bombs killed three people, including an eight-year-old boy, and injured dozens. Some of those injured suffered the loss of limbs.

    This is the FBI statement in full (italics added):

    A second letter containing a granular substance that preliminarily tested positive for ricin was received at an offsite mail screening facility. The envelope, addressed to the President, was immediately quarantined by U.S. Secret Service personnel, and a coordinated investigation with the FBI was initiated. It is important to note that operations at the White House have not been affected as a result of the investigation.

    Additionally, filters at a second government mail screening facility preliminarily tested positive for ricin this morning. Mail from that facility is being tested.

    Any time suspicious powder is located in a mail facility, field tests are conducted. The field and other preliminary tests can produce inconsistent results. Any time field tests indicate the possibility of a biological agent, the material is sent to an accredited laboratory for further analysis. Only a full analysis performed at an accredited laboratory can determine the presence of a biological agent such as ricin. Those tests are currently being conducted and generally take 24 to 48 hours.

    The investigation into these letters remains ongoing, and more letters may still be received. There is no indication of a connection to the attack in Boston.

    The U.S. Capitol Police said that an investigation is under way into the the letter allegedly sent to Wicker, although the agency did not identify the Senator by name. Here is a statement, dated yesterday, by the Capitol Police (italics added):

    Washington, D.C. — Earlier today the United States Capitol Police (USCP) was notified by the Senate mail handling facility that it received an envelope containing a white granular substance. The envelope was immediately quarantined by the facility’s personnel and USCP HAZMAT responded to the scene. Preliminary tests indicate the substance found was Ricin.

    The material is being forwarded to an accredited laboratory for further analysis.

    The USCP is partnering with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate this incident. This is an ongoing investigation.

    This is a controlled event at an off-site facility. Operations at the Capitol Complex have not been affected as a result of the preliminary investigation.

    We will continue to keep our stakeholders apprised of any new information as it develops.

    UPDATE 2:06 P.M. CNN is reporting that the letters read, “To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance.”

    And, according to CNN, the letters were signed, “I am KC and I approve this message.”

    The alleged signature on the letters are reminiscent of disclaimers on political ads in the United States.

  • CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 Expected To Air Segment On Zeek Rewards Tonight; [UPDATE: Report Apparently Delayed]

    acteaser040313UPDATE 8:07 A.M. EDT (APRIL 4, U.S.A.) The report did not air during the 8 p.m. or 11 p.m. broadcasts, possibly because developments in other stories took precedence. Our April 3 story is below . . .

    The Blog of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 is carrying this teaser today: “360 Wednesday[:] One of the biggest financial schemes in U.S. history went down in a small North Carolina town with many losing their life savings. Watch AC360 at 8 and 11 p.m. ET.”

    In August 2012, the SEC called Zeek Rewards a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that had defrauded people by the hundreds of thousands. Zeek was operated by Paul R. Burks and Rex Venture Group LLC of Lexington, N.C.

    CNN’s apparent airing of a segment on Zeek will occur against the backdrop of mysterious disappearance of the Profitable Sunrise “program,” which purported to pay out more on a daily basis than even Zeek.  Zeek planted the seed that it paid out an average of 1.5 percent a day; the bizarrely named Profitable Sunrise “Long Haul” plan claimed it paid out 2.7 percent a day.

    Payouts from the Long Haul were dubbed an “Easter Gift” and were due April 1, April Fool’s Day. The Profitable Sunrise website, however, has been offline since at least March 14. At least 34 regulators in the United States and Canada have issued Investor Alerts or cease-and-desist orders against Profitable Sunrise.

    New Zealand and the United Kingdom also have issued warnings.

    CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, yesterday issued a suspension order against an alleged Profitable Sunrise promoter.

    Some Zeek promoters also promoted ProfitableSunrise, which traded on Bible verse

    Zeek also has promoters’ ties to the $119 million, 1-percent-a-day AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, which operated from the small town of Quincy, Fla., and purported to be a Christian enterprise.  ASD collapsed after the U.S. Secret Service filed Ponzi allegations in 2008.

     

  • CNN Covers Trevor Cook Ponzi: Strippers, Hookers, ‘Ladies Of The Evening’ And ‘Booze Runs’; ‘We Never Have Any Risk,’ Acknowledged Schemer Says

    Trevor Cook: From CNNMoney.

    He wore a suit by day, persuading prospects he was buying commodities at a lower price and selling them at a higher price so quickly that there was no exposure to loss.

    Many of Trevor Cook’s investors identify themselves as Christians. His $190 million Ponzi scheme was centered in Minneapolis/St. Paul, a U.S. heartland region known as the Twin Cities area of Minnesota.

    “We never have any exposure — OK? That’s obviously the methodology that I’m kinda driving home here,” Cook told an audience in a pitch captured on video.

    “We are never actually in the market, so we never have any risk,” Cook claimed.

    But Cook’s own recklessness, penchant for gambling and appetite for excess posed a great, unspoken risk to investors, investigators now say. At night, he traded his role as a responsible, respectable trader-in-chief  for a secret role as a free-spending player who preferred the dark alleys of life. There were “ladies of the evening” — and there were “booze runs,” according to a series of videos released by CNNMoney.com.

    CNN aired a live report on Cook during Campbell Brown’s 8 p.m. newscast on Thursday. The report was part of a package by CNNMoney’s Poppy Harlow, who joined Brown in the studio.

    Victims — some of whom have wondered if America is aware of their plight and worried that Breaking News on CNN might preempt Harlow’s report and delay the airing of their story — still are coming to grips with the magnitude of their losses. Emotions continue to run high.

    R.J. Zayed, the court-appointed receiver in the case, said many of the victims had been rendered destitute. He described the scheme as an “incredible tragedy” that has been “nothing short of devastating” to investors.

    CNNMoney now has posted eight videos from Harlow’s report on the scheme. The package is titled, “Breaking Faith: Fraud in the Heartland.”

    The PP Blog highly recommends that readers visit the CNNMoney site and take some time to view the videos. Kudos to CNN for devoting resources and putting Harlow on airplanes to return to her Twin Cities hometown and also Chicago to report on this important, gripping story.

    See videos from the CNNMoney package by Poppy Harlow on the Twin Cities-based Ponzi scheme of Trevor Cook and the alleged role of former Christian radio host Pat Kiley.

  • POLL: Are The Robbers Smarter Than The Cops? (Sidenote: Are You Ready For A Ponzi Prime-Time Drama On Cable?)

    Our new poll asks a simple question: “Is The Average Autosurf/HYIP Promoter Smarter Than The Average FBI Agent, Secret Service Agent, Postal Inspector, IRS Investigator Or SEC/CFTC Investigator?”

    You may vote only once. There is an option of “Other” in this poll if you don’t want to limit yourself to a “Yes” or “No” answer.

    This poll was sparked by comments we’ve read on the Ponzi boards in recent days. It often seems as though the autosurf and HYIP promoters ignore the possibility that they could get dragged into a major investigation quickly, perhaps assuming that the mere fact they do not own or operate the “program” lets them off the hook from civil and/or criminal liability.

    Serial promoters race from program to program in the “industry,” pocketing commissions and other profits despite the fact one program after another crashes and burns, participants get hurt, families get torn apart, friends turn against friends — and the government has a history of destroying the programs and forcing particpants to pay back ill-gotten gains.

    The days of plausible deniability might be coming to an end for promoters of electronic Ponzis. If you’ve paid any attention at all to the AdSurfDaily case, it is obvious that the government has gleaned valuable intelligence. The men and women who guard the President of the United States and the Treasury started the prosecutorial ball rolling in the ASD case.

    In the ASD case, prosecutors have cited previous autosurf prosecutions by the SEC — namely 12DailyPro and PhoenixSurf. With the bad publicity Ponzi schemes are receiving these days — and with Ponzi headlines constantly in the news and the creation of the Interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force — the days of “wink-nod” in the autosurf and HYIP Ponzi universes may be coming to an end.

    Did you know that “Damages,” the popular TV drama starring Emmy-winning actress Glenn Close (as Patty Hewes), is wrapping its third season around a fictional Ponzi scheme? It’s a takeoff on the Madoff scheme, and here, in part, is what the New York Times says:

    The “Madoff scenario is a more plausible and inviting crime than the sinister energy-corporation conspiracy that Patty eventually took down last season,” the Times opines. “That story line presumed that corporate titans were not just greedy and murderous but also brainy, and that’s a bit much to swallow in the current economy.”

    Did the Times just call the fraudsters brainless? You decide.

    Here, now, our poll. It also will be in the sidebar to the right:

    Feel free to argue your points in the Comments section of this post. Meanwhile, go here to read what the Times says about “Damages.”

    Cable viewers are going to get plenty of Ponzi in the weeks ahead — not only on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News — but also on “Damages,” Monday night at 10 ET and PT, 9 CT, on FX.