BULLETIN: Timothy Shawn Donavan and Sharon Jeannette Henningsen — the two fugitives arrested in November in Washington state with AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming — have been found guilty of mail fraud and conspiracy in Arkansas in a multimillion-dollar home business caper involving envelope-stuffing.
Donavan, 63, and Henningsen, 67, potentially face decades in prison after a jury returned guilty verdicts on 18 counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy. KATV.com is reporting there were more than 21,000 victims in the case.
On May 31, the PP Blog learned that Leaming had been subpoenaed as a witness in the case and was transported from a federal detention facility near Seattle. Leaming, 56, is believed to be on his way back to Washington state. His trial is set for September on charges of filing false liens against at least five public officials involved in the ASD Ponzi case. He also is accused of harboring fugitives, being in possession of firearms as a convicted felon and uttering a bogus promissory note.
Court records in Arkansas show that Donavan and Henningsen sought to represent themselves pro se but ignored orders by a federal judge to stop filing extraneous and off-topic pleadings. The judge ultimately ordered counsel to take over for the former fugitives because Donavan and Henningsen’s “persistence in refusing to obey Court directions and in injecting extraneous and irrelevant material into the record.”
President Bush observes the 2006 swearing-in ceremony of incoming Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. Peters held the cabinet post between October 2006 and January 2009. Source: Wikipedia: White House photo by Paul Morse.
UPDATED 5:42 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Public officials involved in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case were not the only targets of bogus liens filed by Kenneth Wayne Leaming, according to federal prosecutors in Seattle.
Leaming, 55, also filed a lien against Mary Peters, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation under President George W. Bush during his second White House term, prosecutors said.
In addition, prosecutors said Leaming filed liens against U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer; former U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor; former assistant U.S. Attorney William Cowden; current assistant U.S. Attorney Vasu B. Muthyala; and Roy Dotson, a special agent of the U.S. Secret Service.
Collyer is presiding over both the civil and criminal prosecutions connected to the ASD Ponzi case in the District of Columbia. The civil case, which led to the successful forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars in the personal bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin, was brought by Taylor’s office in August 2008.
Cowden and Muthyala assisted in the prosecution against ASD-related assets, including more than $65.8 million in Bowdoin’s 10 bank accounts and more than $14 million in other bank accounts linked to Golden Panda Ad Builder, a companion autosurf.
Dotson was a key investigator in the case, which was brought in part through the efforts of a Florida-based Task Force. Bowdoin was arrested in December 2010. He is free awaiting trial in the District of Columbia.
Taylor was succeeded as U.S. Attorney by Ronald C. Machen Jr. Machen’s office was sued pro se earlier this month by ASD members Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer of Miami. Disner, a cofounder of the Quiznos sandwich franchise, and Schweitzer, a former attorney whose license was suspended in Connecticut, asserted that prosecutors engaged in “character assassination” against Bowdoin and that the forfeiture case consisted of a “tissue of lies.” They also claimed Dotson’s affidavit that led to the seizure of Bowdoin’s assets was flawed and that 4th Amendment violations had occurred.
Disner and Schweitzer also named Rust Consulting Inc., the government-approved claims administrator in the Ponzi case, a pro se lawsuit defendant. In September, Machen joined Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer in announcing that the government had returned $55 million to victims of the ASD Ponzi.
Collyer ordered the forfeiture of Bowdoin’s assets in January 2010. Her rulings were upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals. Bowdoin, 77, is using Facebook and a website known as “Andy’s Fundraising Army” to raise money for his criminal defense on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.
Why Peters allegedly was targeted by Leaming was not immediately clear. But court records suggest the FBI is investigating Leaming ties to a Washington state group of “sovereign citizens” known as the “County Rangers.”
Leaming was arrested on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Richard Creatura in Tacoma. Creatura ordered Leaming’s detention to continue. The date of Leaming’s next court appearance was not immediately clear.
Leaming, according to prosecutors, was found Tuesday with two federal fugitives from Arkansas who were indicted in February on federal charges related to an alleged envelope-stuffing scheme. Prosecutors identified the fugitives as Timothy Shawn Donavan and Sharon Jeannette Henningsen.
Donavan and Henningsen have court histories that include declaring themselves “living breathing free” people to whom laws do not apply, according to records. Like Leaming, they are being held at the Sea Tac Federal Detention Center near Seattle.
Leaming has been charged with retaliating against a Federal judge or Federal law enforcement officer by false claim or slander of title, an obstruction of justice statute.
Among the government’s allegations against Bowdoin is that he falsely claimed to have received an important award for business acumen from President Bush in 2008. ASD members used Bush’s name in online promos, according to records.
In July 2008 — as the Secret Service and the Task Force were investigating ASD — Bowdoin threatened to sue critics, according to court filings. After the seizure of his assets, he claimed the government’s action was the work of “Satan” and compared the seizure to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
Cowden, whose name was repeatedly misspelled as “Crowden” by pro se litigants in the forfeiture case, was derided as “Gomer Pyle” on the now-defunct, pro-ASD “Surf’s Up” forum. One ASD member opined that Cowden should be placed in a torture rack. Another said a “militia” should storm Washington. Still another issued a “prayer” that called for prosecutors to be struck dead.
ASD critics were derided as “rats,” “maggots” and “cockroaches.”
In December 2010, prosecutors linked ASD to E-Bullion, a defunct California payment processor operated by James Fayed. E-Bullion has been linked to several Ponzi schemes.
Earlier this month, Fayed was formally sentenced to death for arranging the contract slaying of his estranged wife, Pamela Fayed.
Pamela Fayed was slashed 13 times in a Greater Los Angeles parking garage in July 2008 while James Fayed sat on a bench within earshot of Pamela’s screams, according to records.
At least one ASD member used E-Bullion to send money to ASD, according to federal court records. That member — former ASD “trainer” Erma Seabaugh of Missouri — was operating a purported “religious” nonprofit in Oregon and using ASD to promote a pyramid scheme, according to records.
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming was arrested Tuesday by the FBI on criminal charges of retaliating against a Federal judge or Federal law enforcement officer by false claim or slander of title, the PP Blog has learned.
Leaming, 55, of Spanaway, Wash., was arrested at his home, the office of U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan said this evening. When arrested, Leaming was found with two federal fugitives from Arkansas. Both were arrested with Leaming and are detained at the Sea Tac Federal Detention Center near Seattle. Leaming is being held at the same facility.
Prosecutors identified the fugitives as Timothy Shawn Donavan and Sharon Jeannette Henningsen. Prison records say Donavan is 63; Henningsen is 67. They were accused of mail fraud in an alleged home-based business scheme involving stuffing envelopes.
Prosecutors in Seattle said Leaming is accused of filing liens against at least five federal employees involved in the ASD case, including a federal judge, a former U.S. attorney, a former assistant U.S. attorney, a current assistant U.S. Attorney and an agent of the U.S. Secret Service.
Bail details for Leaming and the Arkansas fugitives were not immediately clear.
A man has been jailed for ignoring a court order in a civil case and continuing to operate an envelope-stuffing scheme from the area of Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, the Federal Trade Commission announced Dec. 23.
Zoilo Cruz, also known as Zoilo Cruz Carrion, conducts business as International Marketing and Universal Wealth. The case was brought in San Juan by the FTC in U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico in August 2008.
Because the scheme involved both the Spanish and English languages, a professional translation firm assisted in the probe. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service also assisted because the scheme involved mail.
Among the allegations were that Cruz told prospects that they could make substantial sums of money by stuffing envelopes at home and that his company would provide stamped, addressed envelopes for them to stuff.
Cruz charged a fee of $37 for customers to enter the program, according to court filings.
Customers were deceived into paying the $37 by ads that suggested they could make between $690 and $2,760 a week, according to court filings.
After customers paid the fee, International Marketing sent them a sales pamphlet, titled ‘Incredible Home Mailing Program (IHMP),’” the FTC said. The program was advertised in Spanish, but the pamphlet received by customers was in English-only.
But language was not the only barrier customers encountered, the FTC said.
Only after receiving the pamphlet were customers told that, “instead of receiving
envelopes and payment from International Marketing for stuffing envelopes, consumers must engage in one of two marketing schemes, both of which involve publishing advertisements to sell the IHMP itself,” the FTC said. “In other words, each scheme aims to have consumers publish advertisements to sell the same pamphlet [Cruz] sent them (i.e., the IHMP) to other consumers.”
Investigators said Cruz “kept up the scam despite a December 2008 court order that barred him from deceiving consumers and required him to close the post office boxes he used for taking orders.”
In December 2008, U.S. Senior District Judge Jaime Pieras Jr. enjoined Cruz from breaking the law, finding that he had engaged in false and misleading business practices.
“The pamphlet instructs consumers to advertise a work-at-home opportunity and provides consumers with sample advertisements that contain false and misleading earnings claims,” Pieras ruled.
“[It] also instructs consumers to place a toll-free telephone number in the advertisement to receive inquiries,” Pieras continued. “The pamphlet provides consumers a script to use in recording a voicemail message. The script falsely states that one can earn money for stuffing envelopes and that the consumer leaving the message has been successful in earning money before he or she has earned any money at all.”
As the investigation proceeded, the FTC determined that Cruz had made at least $64,496.51 from the scheme and used an account at Eurobank to deposit the proceeds.
In June 2009, Pieras issued a judgment in the FTC’s favor for that amount, further ordering the restitution “immediately due and payable” from Cruz.
“A federal court has jailed [Cruz],” the FTC said Wednesday.
Here is an ad for the scheme that appeared in a Spanish-language newspaper:
TRABAJE EN CASA – Le dedico mas
tiempo a mis hijos todo los dias!
Gane Dinero extra $500-$1,500.
PO Box 43001 Dept. 486 Rio
Grande PR 00745-6600 o a
internationalmarketing123.com
And here is the English-language translation:
WORK AT HOME – I devote more
time to my children every day!
Earn Extra Money. $500 – $1,500.
PO Box 43001 Dept. 486 Rio
Grande PR 00745-6600 or at
internationalmarketing123.com
The translation service also translated the Spanish-language website to English, according to court filings.
