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Tag: FBI

EDITORIAL: Think ‘Offshore’ Means ‘Shelter’ From The SEC Or The FBI Or The IRS? Don’t Tell That To John And Marian Morgan — Or Jeffrey Lane Mowen

You’ve seen the ads or heard the pitches trying to persuade you to put money in “offshore” ventures such as the AdViewGlobal, AdGateWorld and MegaLido autosurfs. You’ve been told they were safe. You’ve been told the people who run them are out of the reach of U.S. securities regulators and law-enforcement agencies. And you’ve been…

Dec 18, 2009
Raymond Frank Joseph Convicted On All 36 Counts In Michigan Ponzi Scheme; Federal Judge Revokes Bond

Federal prosecutors have scored another dramatic win in a Ponzi scheme case. Raymond Frank Joseph, 55, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., was convicted of three counts of wire fraud, nine counts of interstate transportation of stolen money or property and 24 counts of conducting monetary transactions in criminally derived property. Judge Gerald E. Rosen immediately revoked…

Dec 17, 2009
BREAKING NEWS: FBI Tells Senate Judiciary Committee It Is Probing 314 HYIP Schemes Only Months After ASD Members Asked Panel To Probe Prosecutors

And to think that only months ago — in February 2009 — various members of AdSurfDaily wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee trying to elicit support for Ponzi schemes. The letter-writing campaign was spearheaded by “Professor” Patrick Moriarty and pushed by the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum. But now the FBI has told the committee, led…

Dec 10, 2009
U.S. Attorney: Rothstein Ponzi Money Went To Politicians, Charities; ‘High-Ranking’ Police Officers Received ‘Gratuities’

In a criminal information and news release dripping with the word “co-conspirators,” federal prosecutors, the FBI and the IRS said Ponzi proceeds were used to grease wheels in law enforcement and pollute the worlds of business and politics in South Florida. Former attorney Scott Rothstein of Fort Lauderdale was arrested for racketeering yesterday. He was…

Dec 2, 2009
Scott Rothstein Arrested; Charged With Racketeering

UPDATED 1:19 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Former Fort Lauderdale attorney Scott Rothstein was arrested by the FBI this morning after being charged with racketeering and other offenses. The arrest occurred only days after Rothstein was disbarred by the Florida Supreme Court. Rothstein pleaded not guilty. He then was jailed without bail. Separately, federal prosecutors moved late…

Dec 1, 2009
Michigan Man Who Claimed Investment Returns Of 131 Percent Guilty In Ponzi Scheme Case; Mark Richard Hamlin’s Day-Trading Scheme Comparable To ASD’s Dangerous ’80/20′ Reinvestment Program

As Ponzi schemes go, it was far from the largest. But the case of Mark Richard Hamlin demonstrated that even smaller operators use Ponzi schemes to fuel personal spending that consumes an extraordinary percentage of investors’ funds. Hamlin’s day-trading scheme in Michigan gathered about $2 million from at least 90 investors between 2005 and 2008,…

Nov 28, 2009
ASD ALL OVER AGAIN? ‘3 Hebrew Boys’ Accuse U.S. Attorney Of ‘Treason’; Claim Draws Another Parallel To AdSurfDaily

Three men found guilty in South Carolina last week of operating an $82 million Ponzi scheme accused a federal prosecutor of treason on the same day the jury returned its verdict, the FBI said. A treason claim also was made in the federal forfeiture proceeding against assets tied to Florida-based AdSurfDaily, an alleged Ponzi scheme…

Nov 23, 2009
‘3 Hebrew Boys’ Guilty In $82 Million Ponzi/Affinity Fraud Scheme; Company Operated In Fashion Similar To AdViewGlobal Autosurf, Imploring Members To Maintain Secrecy

In yet another case that may cause widespread unease in the autosurf world, three men accused of defrauding participants in a bogus debt-relief “ministry” have been found guilty of 174 counts of mail fraud, money-laundering and transporting stolen goods. Parts of the case against “3 Hebrew Boys” were remarkably similar to events engulfing the AdSurfDaily…

Nov 21, 2009
BREAKING NEWS: Louisiana Man Indicted In Alleged $20 Million Ponzi Scheme Targeting Senior Citizens; Prosecutors Allege Witness Tampering, Obstruction

UPDATED 9:44 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) A Louisiana man has been charged in a 64-count indictment with operating a $20 million Ponzi scheme that fleeced retirees, federal prosecutors said today. So many fraud counts were filed against Matthew B. Pizzolato that he faces more than 1,100 years in prison if convicted of all of them. As…

Nov 20, 2009
BREAKING NEWS: Prosecutors Allege Ponzi Murder Plot; Jeffrey Lane Mowen Accused Of Soliciting Prisoner To Kill Witnesses In Multimillion-Dollar Case Against Him

EDITOR’S NOTE: In August, a poster here who defended autosurf Ponzi schemes demanded readers to “show me one time where the [U.S. government] has even started a lawsuit or ‘gone after’ a company off shore.” The post concerned the AdVentures4U (ADV4U) autosurf, which, like a number of autosurfs, claimed legal ties to Panama. Promoters said…

Nov 19, 2009
Alleged Scott Rothstein Ponzi Probe Unfolding Like ASD Case; Forfeiture Proceeding Filed, But No Early Arrest

Federal prosecutors and agents today began the process of seizing assets from Florida attorney Scott Rothstein, amid allegations he had been operating a Ponzi scheme involving hundreds of millions of dollars since 2005. The early probe is shaping up in largely the same way as the early probe into AdSurfDaily, a Florida business accused last…

Nov 10, 2009