PatrickPretty.com

Tag: Florida

  • Astonishing Case Of Bank Fraud Alleged In New York; Charles J. Antonucci Sr. Charged With Bilking Pastors, TARP Program — And The Bank He Led

    Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s New York Office George Venizelos announces the arrest.

    EDITOR’S NOTE: At the moment, I don’t have the time to do this story justice. The allegations, however, are astonishing. And law-enforcement officials at both the state and federal level  are calling it another case that has been solved by the Interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.

    A New York man has been arrested on charges he tried to prop up a failing bank while fleecing two Florida church pastors and attempting to defraud the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) operated by the government — all while stealing from the bank itself.

    The charges against Charles J. Antonucci Sr. read like a work of fiction, painting him as a man who engaged in one deception after another, received first-class transportation on a private plane by approving millions of dollars in overdrafts by a co-conspirator, pocketed money that did not belong to him  and hatched a complex scheme to fleece taxpayers.

    Investigators said all of these things occurred:

    • The Park Avenue Bank in New York was failing.
    • It was seized by the FDIC and New York banking regulators Friday.
    • Prior to the seizure, Antonucci, who served as the bank’s president and chief executive officer from June 2004 to October 2009 and also was a member of the board of directors, engaged in “self-dealing, bank bribery and embezzlement.”
    • Antonucci and a co-conspirator participated in an investment scheme that fleeced the pastors of  Calvary Springs Chapel in Coral Springs, Fla. out of $103,940 by making them believe they could earn back the principal and a profit of about $500,000 in weeks by investing in a bond. The pastors, who were investing the funds to build a new church, deposited the money into an account in the name of “Park Avenue Insurance.” The account proved to be owned by Antonucci, who split the proceeds with his co-conspirator and did not pay the interest promised the church.
    • Antonucci was at the center of a fraud in which he caused the bank to lend a company he owned $400,000 by installing a puppet president to hide his ownership of the firm, which was called “Easy Wealth Group Ltd.” The puppet president applied to the bank for a $300,000 line of credit, and Antonucci personally approved it, later increasing it to $400,000. The puppet president drew down the entire line, causing the bank a loss of the entire sum.
    • Antonucci approved overdrafts totaling more than $8 million tied to an entity of a co-conspirator. (The FBI cryptically referred to this co-conspirator as “CC-1,” an associate of Antonucci’s and part of the “Oxygen-related entities.”) In 2008 and 2009, Antonucci flew on the co-conspirator’s private plane more than 10 times, including trips to Florida, Panama, Arizona (to attend the Super Bowl), and Augusta, Ga. (to attend the Masters golf tournament). When a check from one of the “Oxygen” entities bounced in 2009 — apparently because Antonucci did not intervene — Antonucci was told he no longer could fly on the private plane.
    • Antonucci caused Park Avenue Bank to lease and pay expenses and upkeep on three properties he personally owned. Each of the properties was in Fishkill, N.Y. The bank had no legitimate need for two of the properties.
    • Antonucci tried to calm depositors’ concerns about the bank by saying he personally had pumped in $6.5 million. The money he invested, however, came from a series of loans the bank had made to businesses that had relationships with Antonucci. Those businesses then routed the money to Antonucci, who re-deposited the money back into the bank.
    • Antonucci lied to the FDIC about the source of the $6.5 million.
    • Antonucci tried to get $11 million in TARP funds, based on his purported, personal capital infusion of $6.5 million. He issued a false press release about the purported infusion, saying the bank was “well-positioned.”
    • The FDIC declined the bank’s TARP application. Antonucci then lied, saying he had withdrawn the application because of “issues” with TARP and because he did not want to create the “market impression” the bank was weak because it had accepted TARP funds.
    • To conceal the $6.5 million fraud, Antonucci created a bogus certificate of deposit in the amount of $2.3 million and engaged in an elaborate deception involving at least two companies to conceal the fraud.

    Read the FBI news release.

  • BULLETIN: CFTC Busts 2 Alleged Ponzi Schemes; Patrick H. Rakotonanahary Arrested By FBI In Florida After Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force Probe

    A Florida man has been arrested by the FBI on 21 counts of wire fraud amid allegations he operated a forex Ponzi scheme, collecting more than $10.2 million and pocketing $1 million for himself.

    The announcement of the arrest of Patrick H. Rakotonanahary, 34, of  Punta Gorda, Fla., was made in Hawaii after a joint probe by the FBI, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the State of Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA).

    His arrest was credited to a joint investigation by the agencies, which operated under the umbrella of the Interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, the FBI said.

    President Obama formed the task force in November.

    “[I]nstead of using investor money to engage in Forex trading, Rakotonanahary primarily paid investment returns to earlier investors with investment funds from later investors as part of a ‘Ponzi scheme,’ using only about $1,864,000 for Forex trading, which generated losses of $814,806,” the FBI said. “Rakotonanahary used approximately $8,375,703 to pay investment returns and another $1 million personally.”

    Most of Rakotonanahary’s 100 investors hailed from Hawaii, the FBI said.

    Separately, CFTC announced yet another Ponzi case — this one in North Carolina.

    The agency charged Dennis Todd Hagemann and Yellowstone Partners Inc., both of Raleigh, with operating a forex Ponzi scheme involving the fraudulent solicitation of at least $700,000 from at least nine individuals.

    Hagemann was arrested and jailed by North Carolina state authorities.

    In yet another bizarre Ponzi twist, CFTC said Hagemann purported to have a tie to former Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin.

    Hagemann failed to inform a potential investor “that Mr. Yeltsin is deceased, and was deceased at the time he made the representation,” CFTC said.

  • FEDS: Florida Man Operated Telephone ‘Cramming’ Scheme From Prison; Willoughby Farr Indicted; Already Faces $34.5 Million Civil Judgment

    Willoughby Farr: Source: Florida Department of Corrections

    An inmate operated a collect-call “cramming” scheme from a Florida state prison by hiding his ownership of three firms, federal prosecutors said.

    Willoughby Farr, 46, of West Palm Beach, has been indicted on six counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud. He faces a maximum prison sentence of 160 years, if convicted on all counts.

    Farr already faces a $34.5 million judgment in a civil case filed by the FTC. Customers were billed for calls they never placed, and many callers paid the charges because information about the calls was buried on the last page of their telephone bills.

    “This type of scheme steals from hundreds of thousands of

    Assistant Attorney General Tony West

    consumers who inadvertently pay toll charges that appear on their phone bills without authorization,” said Assistant Attorney General Tony West. “We will not hesitate to prosecute financial crimes of this nature, but this case stresses the need for consumers to carefully review their telephone bills to make sure fraudulent charges are not included.”

    It has been a busy day for West. Earlier today, he participated in an FTC news conference announcing a crackdown on employment and work-at-home fraud.

    The indictment in the cramming case against Farr was unsealed today.

    Prosecutors said he used three West Palm Beach firms — Nationwide Connections Inc., Access One Communications Inc. and Connect One Communications — to fleece customers.

    In the 2006 FTC case, investigators said Farr billed for calls that never occurred, including “phony collect calls” and calls to telephone lines dedicated to modems and fax machines, and to homes and businesses where no one was present.”

    The calls typically cost unknowing customers “between five and eight dollars each,” the FTC said.

  • Split In Bowdoin/Harris Family? Members Described As ‘Very Much’ Divided; At Least One Family Member Said To Have Contacted Federal Prosecutors

    Andy Bowdoin

    UPDATED 12:01 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Has the pressure of being challenged on multiple legal fronts led to a split in the extended family of AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin?

    The depths of any split are unclear, and it is believed that Bowdoin has the continued support of some members of the Bowdoin/Harris family.

    But interviews conducted by the PP Blog and information obtained through sources suggest Bowdoin is unable to travel internationally, no longer is living in Quincy, Fla., does not enjoy the uniform support of the extended Bowdoin/Harris family and has been blamed by some for engulfing them in the flames of a legal nightmare.

    At least one family member has contacted federal prosecutors, according to a source. How prosecutors responded to the overture, which was said to have been made in the summer of 2009, is unclear.

    On Saturday, numerous vehicles were parked at a Florida property associated with Bowdoin’s wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin, according to a source. Edna Faye Bowdoin is the mother of George Harris, the reputed co-owner of Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises and the AdViewGlobal autosurf, as well as the head of ASD’s purported “real-estate” division.

    Several women were present, but Bowdoin was not seen, the source said.

    A second source knowledgeable about the Bowdoin/Harris family described the family as a “family divided.” The PP Blog interviewed the second source in August 2009, and has not published comments from the interview until today.

    The source spoke with the PP Blog on the condition of anonymity, and demonstrated knowledge of the family by voluntarily answering questions posed by the Blog prior to the interview and during the interview. The Blog was satisfied that the source could offer insight into the thinking of certain family members.

    “There is already an unbelievable amount of friction in the family right now because of everything that Andy has done,” the source said. “This is very much a family divided.”

    Less than a month after the Blog conducted the interview, the state of Florida revoked the corporate registrations of ASD and Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises Inc. because neither company filed annual reports despite the continuing presence of active litigation involving both firms and despite being given a five-month window to file required documents.

    Neither Bowdoin nor family members explained why the corporate registrations were permitted to lapse. Only four days prior to the revocation, which could have been prevented by the simple filing of papers, Bowdoin told ASD members in a conference call that he had big plans for ASD.

    On the same date Florida revoked the corporate registrations — Sept. 25, 2009 — federal prosecutors turned up the heat on Bowdoin by accusing him in court filings of trying to lie his way back into the federal forfeiture case against ASD’s assets.

    Prosecutors made a veiled reference to AdViewGlobal in their filings, saying Bowdoin perhaps “was just buying time while searching for a different exit strategy that failed to materialize. Maybe Bowdoin thought that before the government brought its charges he (like some of his family members) could move to another country and profit from a knock-off autosurf program that Bowdoin funded and helped to start.”

    Three days later, on Sept. 28, prosecutors turned up the heat again, filing a Secret Service transcript of an ASD conference call and advising a federal judge that Bowdoin was telling her one story and members another.

    In the weeks that followed, U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled that Bowdoin no longer had standing in the case. Bowdoin then attempted unsuccessfully to have Collyer removed as the judge.

    Collyer has granted the government’s forfeiture petition in a case filed in August 2008 involving tens of millions of dollars. Bowdoin now is seeking a reversal of that order, claiming it came as a result of judicial error. Prosecutors, however, said the judge did not err and that Bowdoin’s arguments are “impenetrably illogical.”

    Purportedly headquartered in Uruguay, AdViewGlobal, which crashed and burned in June 2009, had close family, membership and promotional ties to ASD.

    In the August 2009 interview, the source described George Harris and his wife, Judy Harris, as “very worried.”

    “Judy heard that the Secret Service was staring to investigate [AdViewGlobal,]” the source said.

    Certain family relationships are fractured beyond repair, the source said.

    “These relationships are done,” the source said. The source said that paranoia was gripping certain family members and that there were efforts to compartmentalize knowledge and limit use of the telephone.

    “They became very shady,” the source said.

    Andy Bowdoin led family members and members of ASD and AdViewGlobal down the primrose path, the source said.

    AdViewGlobal was described by Bowdoin as a “wonderful idea,” the source said, noting that Bowdoin described the successor autosurf as ASD with tweaks.

    AdViewGlobal launched after ASD’s assets were seized amid Ponzi, wire-fraud, securities fraud and money-laundering allegations.

    Andy Bowdoin wanted to proceed with AVG, according to the source, “because, with a few little tweaks, this company can make it.”

    In June 2009, less than a year after ASD’s assets were seized, AdViewGlobal announced a suspension of cashouts, exercising its version of a “rebates aren’t guaranteed” clause.

    How much money the surf collected and how much it paid out are unclear.

  • FBI: Investigators ‘Wrapping Up’ Decade-Long Probe Into ‘Pump And Dump’ Penny-Stock Schemes That Caused ‘Hundreds Of Millions’ In Losses

    Source: FBI

    UPDATED 2:46 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) And to think a cheerleader for AdSurfDaily once boasted online that Megalido was “offshore” and therefore safe from government meddling, after earlier suggesting that ASD members who did not support the company after Ponzi allegations surfaced perhaps would get dragged off in handcuffs while supporters remained free.

    To further chill ASD defectors, the cheerleader even shared his version of lyrics from the television program “COPS.”

    “Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do?” he chanted on the now-defunct AdSurfZone forum, a predecessor site to the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum. “Whatcha Gonna Do>WHEN<THEY COME FOR YOU ?!!!”

    Could an adult be so out of touch he actually believed law enforcement did not have a clue about how fraudsters operate and had no experience at all investigating intricate and elaborate crimes that touched all 50 U.S. states, Canada, the Caribbean and other parts of the world?

    The plain answer is yes.

    Even as the apologist chanted, however, the FBI was in the seventh year of one of the most intricate and exhaustive probes in its history, a history that dates back to 1908.

    Now the FBI, which has 456 satellite offices in the United States and 60 offices overseas, says it is “wrapping up” a penny-stock investigation “that was so massive it took the better part of a decade to unravel.”

    Operation “Shore Shells” included probes into 40 separate schemes and, to date, has resulted in 40 convictions, the agency said. The FBI and partner agencies chose the “Shore Shells” name because the probe originated on New Jersey’s Atlantic coast and involved “fake” companies or “shell” firms.

    Targeted in the probe were CEOs, stock brokers, CPAs, financial advisers and attorneys who conspired to pump up the price of penny stocks with bogus news releases, false postings on Internet forums and fraudulent information delivered in newsletters, the FBI said.

    Perhaps the most notable conviction to date was that of Robert P. Gordon, 57, of
    St. Petersburg, Fla. Gordon was sentenced in New Jersey to 20 years in prison, after a jury found him guilty of conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money-laundering.

    Investors lost $15 million in the pump-and-dump scheme, which included company names such as TeleServices Internet Group Inc. (TSIG) and Phoenix Information Systems Inc.

    “Gordon and several of his co-conspirators executed fraudulent agreements between TSIG and offshore entities, which they secretly controlled,” prosecutors said. “Typically, the offshore entities were located in the Cayman Islands.”

    The elaborate scheme involved fraudulent consulting agreements with other entities, and co-conspirators “caused millions of shares of the TSIG stock to be issued in the name of the entities,” prosecutors said. The conspirators attempted to skirt securities laws, and
    fraudulently received shares that were laundered in Canada and the United States.

    “Afterward, the ill-gotten proceeds were often laundered by wire transferring those funds from the brokerage accounts to an attorney trust account located in Denver and then dispersed to the co-conspirators,” prosecutors said.

    Investors dump their life savings into pump-and-dump schemes, which deliberately are designed to be elaborate to line the pockets of insiders.

    Now the FBI has disclosed some details about the victims — the people the AdSurfZone poster would have ASD members believe were the “Bad Boys” for not cheerleading for the international scammers.

    Here, according to the FBI, are some victims’ stories in brief:

    • A man suffering from multiple sclerosis. His stockbroker liquidated the man’s pension and IRA, “and left him nearly penniless.”
    • A woman who invested her savings and pension. She also took out a second mortgage to bolster her stake, and “lost everything.”
    • A husband and wife who both developed dementia during the probe. FBI agents spent hours with the victims and their family members at a nursing home, while also meeting with the victims’ accountants to reverse-engineer their losses.
    • A physician from a “prestigious hospital.” The doctor “began suffering from severe depression after learning of the scam and became unable to work.”

    As operation “Shore Shells” expanded, it grew to include more than 100 seizure and forfeitures actions totaling more than “$70 million in cash, artwork, jewelry, homes, cars, and other valuables.”

    The real “Bad Boys” have been ordered to pay more than $130 million in restitution.

    “We expect millions more to be forfeited and repaid to the victims,” the FBI said. “We spent years interviewing more than 600 mainly elderly victims, painstakingly documenting their sometimes heartbreaking losses.”

    Others convicted in operation “Shore Shells” include Gary Brown, 61, of Sarasota, Fla.; Joseph Morgan, of St. Pete Beach, Fla.; and Gary Brown, also of Florida, for their roles in a scheme involving a company known as Skylynx Communications.

    Brown pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. His sentencing is set for for May 7.

    “At his plea hearing, Brown admitted that beginning in May 2002 and continuing through October 2005, he operated a sophisticated scheme, involving more than five co-conspirators, which used deceptive and manipulative practices in connection with the fraudulent issuance, purchase, and re-sale of shares of stock of Skylynx Communications,” prosecutors said.

    More than 50 Skylynx investors were defrauded. Brown admitted that he conspired with Morgan, who already has been sentenced to two years in prison, and McPhee, whose sentencing is pending, prosecutors said.

    Brown agreed to forfeit about $650,000, as part of his plea.

    Read more about operation “Shore Shells” and pump-and-dump schemes.

  • FREE: PDF Handout On Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force; Document Compiles President’s Executive Order And Attorney General’s Speech In Florida

    Dear Readers,

    UPDATED 11:50 A.M. ET (U.S.A.) There were reports yesterday that things have become so strange at Florida-based AdSurfDaily that a convicted sex offender has emerged as a sort of PR voice for the company. ASD is implicated by the Department of Justice in a $100 million Ponzi scheme, amid allegations of wire fraud, money-laundering and the sale of unregistered securities. Two forfeiture complaints filed against the firm in 2008 also cite a racketeering statute.

    After 17 months, more than 165 court filings — some of which can only be described as bizarre — and more than $1 million spent on legal fees by ASD President Andy Bowdoin, the company lost one of the forfeiture cases this week. It was filed by federal prosecutors and the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008, and is the “bigger” of the two cases.

    “Bigger,” of course, is a relative term. For the purposes of this post, “bigger” is defined only as involving more money. A second forfeiture case filed by federal prosecutors and the Secret Service in December 2008 involves less money — but is equally grave. In some ways, the second case, which had not been adjudicated to conclusion but may be soon, is even graver than the August 2008 case. The December case defines Bowdoin family members and unnamed others as the beneficiaries of ASD’s fraud. The December case puts the alleged beneficiaries of the fraud squarely in the sights of a potential criminal prosecution for felonies that could lead to prison time.

    We believe Bowdoin is more worried about the December case than he is the August case — even though no claims ever were filed in the December case. The names of his wife, his stepson and his stepson’s wife are mentioned repeatedly and prominently in the December case. Prosecutors also have hinted that they are very well aware of the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, which has Bowdoin family and promotional ties and rose to early prominence after ASD’s assets were seized, a racketeering lawsuit was filed against Bowdoin, a key court ruling went against ASD — and after Bowdoin had chosen to surrender his claims to the money seized in the August 2008 complaint.

    Bowdoin then changed his mind, attempting to reassert his claims to the money seized in the August complaint by re-entering the case as a pro-se litigant.  Bowdoin’s former paid counsel — a prominent law firm — informed the court that Bowdoin did not consult with it before filing the series of pro se motions.

    None of Bowdoin’s pro se motions made an ounce of sense. They were so unclear, in fact, that the judge had to construe a meaning, which is to say what Bowdoin was attempting to do was not clear on the face of the motions. At one point, he appears to have attempted to reverse a decision he never made — namely, to submit to the forfeiture outlined in the December 2008 case. Bowdoin did not file a single document to gain standing in the December case or to make a claim — in fact, no potential claimant did.

    And yet Bowdoin seems initially to have tried to overturn a forfeiture to which he never had submitted. Only later did Bowdoin file a specific pro se motion to overturn the August forfeiture. ASD members were so fixated on the August complaint — the “bigger” one in money terms — that they missed the nuclear danger of the December complaint. Lots of potential jail time is described in the December complaint.

    Here is Bowdoin’s initial pro se filing to rescind the forfeiture, which was entered into the record Feb. 27, 2009.  This motion addresses only property seized in the December 2008 complaint. Bowdoin never even established standing in the December case.  Neither he nor attorneys employed by him or family members filed a single document in the case. So, as noted above, Bowdoin initially tried to overturn a forfeiture in a case in which he had no standing and perhaps would have trouble even gaining standing.

    His pro se motions were a trainwreck and created even more problems for ASD. The judge ordered Bowdoin’s soon-to-be-former counsel to state their intentions and to instruct Bowdoin on important matters of law before asking for formal permission to withdraw from the case. One of the important matters was that corporate litigants cannot proceed pro se. Corporate litigants must use professional counsel. It is clear from the filings that Bowdoin’s pro se helpers overlooked this obvious flaw in the initial filings. Bowdoin later hired two new paid lawyers to help him navigate the choppy waters and to attempt to undo some of the damage caused by the pro se pleadings.

    Now, it’s important to point out here that the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum — now suddenly defunct — championed Bowdoin’s pro se pleadings and was positively giddy for days after he attempted to re-enter the case. Bowdoin was heaped with praise. Prayers went out. People cheered him on as though his pro se advisers had scored some sort of dramatic win. As always was the case on Surf’s Up, the prosecution was condemned. Bowdoin urged ASD members to write to President Obama to gain his support in Bowdoin’s fight against the Secret Service.

    The disconnect was both startling and troubling.

    At some point during the late summer or early fall of 2009, someone apparently sympathetic to Bowdoin’s cause started this site at IContact; it’s called “Official ASD Update” and, from what we can tell, has all of one post. One of the names referenced on the site is “Edna Bowdoin” — the name of Bowdoin’s wife — but it is not clear that Ms. Bowdoin ever was at the site. Even so, her name appears in this Dec. 28, 2009, reference.

    On some days, it is hard to quantify all the sadness associated with the ASD case.

    One thing that is not hard to quantify is the madness. That madness finally eroded the lion’s share of Bowdoin’s support base. Prosecutors deserve a lot of credit for neatly undermining the wink-nod nature of autosurfs in a series of court filings. These filings showed the autosurf “industry” for what is: a cesspool that relies on the repetition of lies to suck new money into the schemes.

    The IContact site, which perhaps was conceived as a new channel through which Bowdoin would communicate with members to keep them on his side as his court challenge continued, never emerged as a “voice” for Bowdoin. The madness had driven away the vast, vast majority of the ASD constituency. He even had lost much of the Surf’s Up crowd — something he must have realized. Why even start a second site if you’re confident in the existing communications network?

    These days Bowdoin appears to be relying on a small network of insiders to stay in communication with the troops. Surf’s Up is gone. The second forum never gained a following.

    Now, according to members, a person with a conviction for sex crimes involving children, is doing PR work for ASD. Whether it’s “official” or not is beside the point. The mere fact it is being done puts the madness associated with ASD on full display for any person on the email list of the promoter to see.

    Yesterday (and previously) we wrote about the Interagency Financial Fraud Task Force established by President Obama in November 2009. We also wrote about a speech yesterday by Attorney General Eric Holder outlining responsibilities of the Task Force. Holder gave the speech in Florida, which was no accident. Florida is Ground-Zero for mortgage fraud, Ponzi schemes and various forms of securities and financial fraud — not that other states also do not have the same problems.

    We compiled the President’s Executive Order establishing the Task Force and Holder’s speech into a PDF. The document includes the entire Executive Order and the entire speech.

    We’ve titled the document, “So, You Want To Join A Ponzi Scheme? Two Good Reasons To Say ‘No’ When A Friendly Upline Sponsor Approaches You In Person Or Via Email And Asks You To Join A Paid-To-Click ‘Advertising’ Program Online Or A ‘High-Yield Income Program’ (HYIP).”

    Many, many people have turned their backs on the so-called autosurf “industry” because of their experiences with Andy Bowdoin and ASD. That’s a good thing, of course: Ponzi = Pain. We write about the pain caused by Ponzi schemes every day on this Blog.

    Despite the daily news on Ponzi schemes and financial fraud, however, many, many people continue to participate in the schemes. They do so at their own peril, as Holder said yesterday. The White House and the Justice Department clearly have thrown down the gauntlet on mortgage fraud, securities fraud, Ponzi schemes and other types of financial fraud that can undermine local, regional and national economies — and the economy in the homes of families across the world.

    Here is a free copy of our distillation of Obama’s Executive Order and Holder’s speech in Florida. It perhaps will make a handy desktop reference for you and members of your family. The document is based on public information released by the U.S. government.

    What the government is doing is dreadful news to the Ponzi pushers — but it is good news for the global economy and to families across the world. We provide the document in the spirit of education, and sincerely hope that it can make at least a small difference in the lives of people who continue to believe there is something noble about collecting commissions for selling people into misery.

    Thank you, Readers, for your daily visits.

    Patrick

    P.S. In case you missed the link above to the PDF, here it is again. Forum owners are invited to make a copy of this document and post the document in their respective forums.

  • Jacks Arons Purportedly Sued By Larry Friedman

    UPDATED 12:40 P.M. EST (U.S.A.) A person posting as “Bob Guenther” at the ASD-Biz forum reports Jack Arons, a mainstay in the AdSurfDaily case and a driving force behind an effort to get the ASD Members Business Association (ASDMBA) to provide a verifiable accounting of association spending, has been sued by Larry Friedman for slander and libel.

    Arons also was accused of defamation, business disparagement and tortious interference. Arons said he had not yet been served. The case was filed in Texas, Friedman’s home. Arons lives in Florida.

    The claim was made under a headline titled “Jack Arons Sued, Served and Shut Up, Finally . . .” The purported author was Bob Guenther, known for a lack of decorum.

    Some ASDMBA members have been encouraging others to file complaints against Friedman with the Texas Bar for his handling of ASDMBA’s affairs. Others have suggested that complaints should be filed with the office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.

    Friedman is an attorney for ASDMBA, which is not associated with AdSurfDaily Inc. ASDMBA was formed in August in the aftermath of the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from ASD amid allegations of wire fraud, money-laundering, selling unregistered securities and running a $100 million Ponzi scheme.

    Some ASDMBA members have demanded Bob Guenther provide a straightforward accounting of how the association spends its money. Members said they believed Friedman would file a lawsuit to protect their interests, but no lawsuit has been filed to date.

    Guenther has served as a spokesman for ASDMBA, sometimes catching the ire of ASDMBA members for what they describe as his use of menacing or threatening language and refusal to provide a detailed accounting of how ASDMBA spends its money.

    “Anyone involved with his illegal activities or false accusations may suffer the same consequences,” the poster claiming to be Guenther said. Arons was referred to as “Rookie” in a separate post.

    The lawsuit described Arons as a felon and a vigilante and a menace who has damaged Friedman’s reputation.

    Why ASDMBA has not produced the type of accounting that would ease members’ concerns is unclear. Also unclear is why litigation ASDMBA members said they were expecting hasn’t been filed. The dispute has been raging for weeks.

    ASDMBA has been collecting money for months. At least one member who contributed funds went on to file his own motion in the ASD case — a motion not related to ASDMBA, but one that used the Curtis Richmond litigation blueprint. Richmond is associated with a sham Utah “Indian” tribe known for filing vexatious litigation.

    Months after ASDMBA began collecting money — and while it still was collecting money — a prominent Washington, D.C., law firm brought a class-action lawsuit against AdSurfDaily, accusing it of racketeering. Three ASD members were named the original plaintiffs.

    ASDMBA members who’d been wondering since August when the association litigation would be filed once again complained about being left on the sidelines. They cite confusion over how ASDMBA money is being spent and the association’s litigation plan.

    In what some ASDMBA members described as a bid to chill speech and undermine their efforts to have authorities investigate Friedman and ASDMBA, the lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order. Among other things, the complaint seeks to restrain parties from “filing false complaints with state agencies against F&F [Friedman & Feiger] and encouraging or duping ASDMBA investors to file false complaints to state agencies or other entities.”

    A judge purportedly has granted the restraining order.

    It is illegal to file false complaints, and people can be charged criminally and sued civilly for doing so. It’s hard to imagine any jurisdiction that discourages or bans the filing of truthful complaints.