UPDATED 2:25 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Still pushing autosurf and HYIP frauds?
Last week, the PP Blog reported that the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors had established a link between California-based E-Bullion and Florida-based AdSurfDaily. E-Bullion is a shuttered payment processor whose owner, James Fayed, is awaiting trial on charges of murdering his wife, Pamela Fayed, whom prosecutors said wished to cooperate in the E-Bullion probe.
It was the first public assertion by the government that ASD had a tie to E-Bullion.
The Blog further reported that E-Bullion had been linked to at least three alleged Ponzi or fraud schemes: ASD, Gold Quest International (GQI) and Flat Electronic Data Interchange (FEDI), whose convicted operator, Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, was associated with convicted Ponzi schemer Brian David Anderson.
Alishtari, also known as Michael Mixon, was convicted in 2009 of financing terrorism. Anderson, a FEDI pitchman, was sentenced to federal prison for his role in yet-another Ponzi scheme known as Frontier Assets. He also has been linked to a mysterious scheme known as the “Alpha Project.”
Like ASD’s Andy Bowdoin, Alishtari donated money to the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to the Federal Election Commission database. Documents reviewed by the PP Blog show that payments from the FEDI scheme were referred to as “rebates.” ASD also called its payments to participants “rebates.”
Today the PP Blog is reporting that federal investigators also have established a link between E-Bullion and Legisi, a company whose operator, Gregory N. McKnight, was accused by the SEC in May 2008 of operating a massive Ponzi and fraud scheme based in Michigan. During the same month, the SEC also accused GQI of operating a massive Ponzi and fraud scheme from Las Vegas. Investigators likewise established a GQI link to E-Bullion.
Documents reviewed by the PP Blog show that records maintained by E-Bullion were the subject of a subpoena issued on Aug. 6, 2008 — five days after tens of millions of dollars were seized by the U.S. Secret Service from bank accounts controlled by ASD’s Bowdoin. The subpoena was issued in the Legisi case.
As the PP Blog previously reported, the Secret Service, which used undercover operatives in the ASD case, also used an undercover operative in the Legisi case. In fact, the Blog reported, the Secret Service undercover operative and an undercover operative from the state of Michigan, had a face-to-face meeting with Legisi’s McKnight in his office.
Legisi later began to act in a fashion that only can be described as bizarre, allegedly morphing into a sort of super-secret enterprise that was exhibiting clear signs of paranoia. Investors, for example, were asked to submit to a loyalty oath and pledge that they weren’t government investigators or informants.
The AdViewGlobal autosurf, which has close ties to ASD, later began to operate in a similar fashion, morphing into a so-called “private association,” scolding members for asking questions in public and exhibiting paranoia.
“This Association of members hereby declares that our main objective is to protect our rights to freedom of choice regarding our advertising and marketing information and conduct, through maintaining our Constitutional rights,” AVG announced on its website in February 2009.
Court records show that the Secret Service also employed undercover operatives in the investigation of the INetGlobal autosurf. An affidavit in the case notes that at least two operatives were present at an INetGlobal function in New York earlier this year and that one undercover agent had been introduced to INetGlobal by an ASD member.
ASD President Andy Bowdoin was indicted earlier this month on federal charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. Prosecutors alleged he was operating a Ponzi scheme that had gathered at least $110 million. The indictment accused Bowdoin of making campaign donations to the National Republican Congressional Committee with proceeds from the ASD Ponzi scheme.
Six days ago, prosecutors alleged in a forfeiture complaint that ASD member Erma Seabaugh used E-Bullion in November 2007 to transfer $10,510 to ASD. The alleged transfer occurred about six months before E-Bullion’s name surfaced in the GQI and Legisi cases brought by the SEC.
When investigators later searched the home of James Fayed in the murder investigation, they found “approximately $60,000 in cash wrapped in plastic material; approximately $3,000,000 in gold; and approximately 31 firearms, including one with a long-range night vision scope, along with thousands of rounds of matching ammunition,” prosecutors alleged.
Pamela Fayed was stabbed to death in a California parking garage on July 28, 2008. The Secret Service, which had begun its investigation of Bowdoin less than a month earlier, seized his assets three days later, on Aug. 1, 2008.
The agents said Bowdoin was moving large sums of money outside the United States and had talked about buying a home in another country. In September 2008, the month after ASD’s assets were seized, an indictment was unsealed in Connecticut that accused Robert Hodgins of Virtual Money Inc. of helping a Colombia narcotics operation launder money at ATMs in Medellin.
Virtual Money Inc. once provided debit cards to ASD, according to an ASD downline group.
CLOSING NOTE: Read this chilling document from the case against Fayed in California. Also see this 2007 report from CBS News. CBS reported FEDI operator Alishtari claimed to be “[National Republican Congressional Committee] New York State Businessman of the Year. ASD members later would make similar claims about Bowdoin.)
