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Tag: GQI

  • BIRTH OF A ‘SOVEREIGN’ VERB: Appeals Court Upholds Convictions In ‘False-Liens’ Case In Which Defendant Called Law ‘A[**] Wipe’ And Declared He’d ‘Lien . . . Down’ Even On Court-Appointed Defense Counsel; Co-Defendant Was Figure In SEC’s Gold Quest International Ponzi Case And Sought To File Bizarre Lawsuit Against Agency

    “I don’t want to see a lawyer. If you do, I’m going to lien him down fast.” — Gregory Allen Davis addressing U.S. Magistrate Judge Alice R. Senechal of North Dakota in a false-liens case that evolved from events in 2010 and earlier

    UPDATED 5:14 P.M. ET (U.S.A.)

    The word “lien” is a noun. But it seems quickly to have become a verb in the mind of Gregory Allen Davis, a reputed “sovereign citizen” accused in 2010 of filing false liens against U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland of North Dakota and Lynn Jordheim, a federal prosecutor who once served as the acting U.S. Attorney for the state.

    Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Alice R. Senechal to be arraigned on charges of filing false liens in the form of UCC Financing Statements against Hovland and Jordheim, Davis informed Senechal that he’d reject the appointment of defense counsel by the court, according to transcripts cited by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. (PP Blog emphasis):

    “I don’t want to see a lawyer,” Davis barked to the judge. “If you do, I’m going to lien him down fast.”

    A Tortured History

    With the belligerent morphing of “lien” from noun to verb even as Davis claimed the judge had no jurisdiction over him and demanded she present her “oath of office,” thus began a new chapter in the already-bizarre sagas of Davis and fellow purported “sovereign citizen” Michael Howard Reed.

    Reed emerged as a figure in the May 2008 SEC Ponzi-scheme case against Gold-Quest International (GQI) after asserting he was the “attorney general” for an “Indian” tribe in North Dakota and trying to sue the agency for the staggering sum of $1.7 trillion.

    GQI operated from Las Vegas and touted a footprint in Panama. Reed’s apparent theory was that the enterprise, which was accused of hatching a Ponzi that had gathered nearly $30 million, was untouchable under U.S. law and that it enjoyed sovereignty that somehow was portable across multiple state lines in the United States. A federal judge in Nevada quickly put an end to that nonsensical argument — even as regulators in Canada also were preparing or pressing claims against GQI, which purportedly was operated by a “Lord.”

    Reed’s unsuccessful bid to intervene in the GQI case was hardly his only encounter with the federal judiciary and law-enforcement agencies.

    In rejecting various claims by Davis and Reed in the false-liens case and upholding the rulings of U.S. District Judge Charles B. Kornmann of South Dakota — who was sitting in special designation because the North Dakota federal judiciary had recused itself — the Eighth Circuit appeals panel started out by reciting some of the tortured litigation history surrounding the false-liens case. (Italics added):

    “Gregory Allen Davis and Michael Howard Reed irrationally believe that their membership in the Little Shell Nation, an unrecognized Indian tribe, means they are not United States citizens subject to the jurisdiction of the federal courts. This belief led them into serious trouble. First, Reed threatened North Dakota District Judge Ralph Erickson because he refused to dismiss federal drug charges against two other Little Shell members. Months later, when District Judge Daniel Hovland denied a motion to dismiss a firearm charge pending against Reed, Davis filed a Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) financing statement listing Judge Hovland and acting United States Attorney Lynn Jordheim as $3.4 million debtors and Davis as the secured party. After a three-day trial, a jury convicted Davis and Reed of conspiring to file and filing false liens against Judge Hovland and Jordheim in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1521. The jury also convicted Reed of corruptly obstructing justice in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1503(a), based on his earlier threats. On appeal, Davis argues that the evidence was insufficient to prove a violation of § 1521. Both Davis and Reed argue, for somewhat different reasons, that the district court violated their constitutional rights by allowing them to represent themselves at trial. We affirm.”

    Notwithstanding the fact Davis initially had claimed he’d “lien . . . down” even appointed defense counsel and personally defend the charge that he’d filed false liens against public officials, Davis subsequently permitted a lawyer appointed by the court as “standby counsel” to carry out duties such as arguing evidentiary issues, according to court records. Both Davis and Reed reserved their rights to argue the case-in-chief.

    “[T]hey provided opening statements, cross-examined the government’s witnesses, testified in their own defense, and offered a mountain of irrelevant documents relating to their claims of personal sovereignty,” according to Eighth Circuit.

    But after both men were convicted of filing false liens and conspiring to file them, they then claimed they should not have been permitted to act as their own counsel, a claim in stark contrast to the earlier insistence by Davis that he be permitted to exercise his Constitutional right to represent himself and that he’d file a lien against a defense attorney if one were appointed for him.

    Among other things, the Eighth Circuit upheld Kornmann’s conclusion that Davis “knowingly and voluntarily waived his right to counsel.” It made the same determination in rejecting Reed’s argument that the judge should not have permitted him to argue his own case.

    Reed claimed, among other things, that “he should not have been allowed to defend himself foolishly,” according to the Eighth Circuit.

    The Story Within The Story

    Also of note is that the federal law under which Davis and Reed were charged and convicted in North Dakota is the same law under which AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming was charged in November 2011 by an FBI terrorism task force in Washington state: Retaliating against a Federal judge or Federal law enforcement officer by false claim or slander of title.

    Leaming, 56, also has a “Little Shell” link, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

    In court filings, the FBI said Leaming filed bogus liens against a federal judge, three federal prosecutors and a special agent of the U.S. Secret Service — among other officials. In addition, he is charged with being a felon in possession of firearms, harboring two fugitives and uttering a bogus “Bonded Promissory Note” for $1 million. He is jailed near Seattle.

    But to Davis, the law against filing false liens against public officials is “ass wipe,” according to a citation in the Eighth Circuit decision upholding his conviction.

    “At trial, an FBI agent testified that, during a January 20 interview, Davis admitted to filing this lien, threatened to file more liens, and referred to the statute prohibiting false liens as “ass wipe,” the appeals panel recounted.

    Leaming, according to court filings in the false-liens cases against him, filed the liens in Washington state.

    Davis, though, chose to file liens in the District of Columbia — and he did so electronically, according to the Eighth Circuit.

    “Reed and Davis conducted a recorded telephone conversation on January 5, 2010, the day Judge Hovland issued an order denying Reed’s motion to dismiss the pending firearms charge,” the appeals panel recounted. “The two discussed placing UCC liens for $2.4 million in cash and $1 million in silver against federal entities. The next day, Davis electronically filed a Form UCC-1 financing statement with the Recorder of Deeds in Washington, D.C., listing as debtors, ‘1. U.S. District Court of North Dakota/Daniel Hovland,’ and ‘2. Acting United States Attorney, Lynn C. Jordheim.”

    The histories of both the Davis/Reed case and the emerging Leaming case lead to troubling questions about whether the Internet and the current state of U.S. and state procedures with respect to how liens are accepted and recorded in the public record have opened the doors for “sovereign citizens” to wage far-reaching revenge campaigns against public officials.

    This comes at potential expense to both taxpayers and the targeted public officials who at least briefly have to take time away from their public duties and put on the hat of a witness/crime victim.

    The Eighth Circuit ruling, for instance, points out that lien targets and federal officials “Hovland and Jordheim testified that they are not indebted to Davis” despite his assertion they owed him millions of dollars.

    “Davis chose a filing office whose public records would likely be searched by a party looking for adverse claims against the properties of Judge Hovland and Jordheim, such as prospective lenders, credit card issuers, and credit rating agencies,” the appeals panel found. “He also filed the facially suspect statement electronically and it became a public record without review.”

    And, as the appeals panel highlighted in a potentially ominous footnote, different results are possible in different jurisdictions. (PP Blog emphasis added):

    “Some States have amended UCC Article 9 to give filing officers discretion to refuse apparently fraudulent or unauthorized filings and to streamline procedures for the removal of fraudulent filings. See White & Summers, Uniform Commercial Code § 31-16 (6th ed. 2010). Absent such an amendment, the UCC grants little authority to refuse to accept fraudulent filings. See § 9-520(a) & cmt. 2.”

    See “The Lawless Ones” report by the Anti-Defamation League.

    Read the Feb. 9, 2012, ruling against Davis and Reed by a three-judge panel in the Eighth Circuit.

  • In Rejecting Tortured Legal Constructions, Judges Across America Now Point To Utah Case Involving AdSurfDaily Mainstay Curtis Richmond

    UPDATED 11:54 A.M. ET (U.S.A.) Curtis Richmond claimed the federal judge overseeing the AdSurfDaily civil-forfeiture case in the District of Columbia was among a group of “Co-Conspirators” that included two federal prosecutors and a court clerk.

    The judge, Richmond claimed, was violating her oath and conspiring with another judge to deny ASD members justice. Prosecutors, meanwhile, were helping the judge interfere with commerce, according to Richmond. The judge rejected Richmond’s arguments — but it didn’t stop other ASD pro se litigants from advancing similar arguments.

    For his bid to intervene in the ASD Ponzi case, Richmond was labeled a “hero” on both the pro-AdSurfDaily “Surf’s Up” forum (now defunct) and on a forum that championed the AdViewGlobal autosurf (now defunct). Among Richmond’s boosters was “Professor” Patrick Moriarty, a Missouri man who once started a purported nonprofit in the name of a man accused of murdering a woman in cold blood and shooting a police officer.

    Moriarty later was indicted for tax fraud. He pleaded guilty after prosecutors said they had “casino” records and intended to use them in the case against Moriarty, who advertised that he sold fake academic degrees on e-Bay as “gag gifts.”

    Prior to Moriarty’s indictment, members of the Surf’s Up forum joined with him in forming a purported Missouri nonprofit known as ASD Members International (ASDMI). ASDMI’s stated mission was to litigate against the government for its role in the ASD Ponzi case.

    Utah resident and ASD figure Christian Oesch — later to join with Washington state resident and ASD figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming in a failed 2010 bid to sue the United States for more than twice the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2009 — filed pro se pleadings in the ASD case that championed Richmond’s take on the law.

    But Curtis Richmond’s court forays now have been cited by various judges in various jurisdictions as reasons to reject tortured legal constructions. A federal judge in North Dakota, for example, cited this Utah case involving Richmond as a reason to reject tortured arguments advanced by Michael Howard Reed, a so-called “sovereign citizen” now serving two prison sentences for federal crimes.

    One of Reed’s crimes was filing false liens and threatening a federal judge; the other was possession of a firearm and ammunition by a fugitive from justice.

    Richmond, a Californian who advanced the notion in the 2006 Utah case that he enjoyed diplomatic immunity that extended to him from an “Indian” tribe, became a figure in the ASD case in 2008. The “tribe,” which a federal judge ruled a “sham,” came to be known derisively as the “Arby’s Indians” because it once conducted a meeting at an Arby’s restaurant.

    Reed, whose name surfaced in the 2008 SEC Ponzi case against Gold Quest International after he claimed to be the “attorney general” of an unrecognized tribe and asserted a claim against the agency for $1.7 trillion, asserted in a separate case that the government could not prosecute him because he was immune to U.S. law and had trademarked his name.

    Here is a verbatim section from one of Reed’s nonsensical pleadings in federal court in North Dakota. (Italics/identation added):

    “boa-kaa-konan-na-ishkawaanden=Michael-Howard-Reed=original-creditor-original-beneficiary: for MICHAEL-HOWARD-REED=original-debtor-trustee agent; Under the Penalties of Perjury Affirm that MICHAEL HOWARD REED©TM is a Fictional Entity . . .”

    Richmond’s Utah case was cited in the North Dakota case as a reason to reject Reed’s bizarre arguments.

    It also was cited in this Colorado case in which a U.S. Magistrate Judge rejected the tortured legal constructions of Christopher Douglas Wise. Among other things, Wise, a prisoner in the Colorado state system,  asserted that he was a “secured party creditor” who’d never lived in the “District of Columbia” — and that somehow this alleged fact set destroyed the jurisdiction of the Adams County District Court in which he was convicted of a crime.

    In a separate case in Florida, a federal magistrate judge pointed to Richmond’s Utah “Indian” pleadings as a reason to reject arguments advanced by Timothy Black, who was serving two life sentences for sex crimes involving children and tried to overturn his conviction in part by claiming he had copyrighted his name and by arguing he was not subject to Florida law.

    “Petitioner was found guilty by a jury and convicted of two counts of sexual battery on a person less than twelve years of age, and one count of lewd or lascivious molestation on a person less than twelve years of age,  and sentenced to two terms of life and one term of thirty years, to be served concurrently,” the judge noted.

    Here is a verbatim section from Black’s court claims. (Italics added):

    “Therefore the Third Party [Intervener] is the party who is injured by the action at large as he is incarcerated as surety for his collateral, Debtor TIMOTHY W BLACK© Ens Legis . . .”

     

  • DURANGO HERALD: Attorney Says His Client Was Ponzi Player Who Tried To ‘Scam The Scammers’; E-Bullion’s Name Surfaces In Illustrative Case Of Frederick H.K. Baker, Who Is Sentenced To Federal Prison

    In July 2010, FINRA memorably described the HYIP sphere as a “bizarre substratum of the Internet.” The regulator warned about “online payment systems” that are used for criminal activity, noting that some fraud purveyors discuss subjects such as how to “build a winning HYIP portfolio” and how “to ‘ride the Ponzi’ and get in and out before a scheme collapses.”

    A case brought by federal prosecutors in Colorado against a Utah man could be an eye-opener for fraudsters and their apologists and shills who engage in bizarre and reckless behavior such as that outlined by FINRA and help fraud schemes proliferate to consume millions of dollars.

    Indeed, the Durango (Colorado) Herald is reporting that Frederick H.K. Baker will be going to federal prison for 41 months (see link at bottom of post). Although FINRA’s 2010 Public Awareness Campaign is not referenced in the story, Baker’s case speaks to a number of the issues FINRA raised more than a year ago.

    Compellingly, even Baker’s attorney conceded that his client thought he could “scam the scammers” by knowingly becoming a Ponzi player and adopting a strategy by which he’d get in early, collect his profits — and then get out, according to the Herald.

    “Baker thought he could make money if he got in early,” the Herald reported. “In effect, he was running a Ponzi scheme to invest in other Ponzi schemes . . .”

    The Herald’s story quotes a federal prosecutor who told a federal judge that Baker’s scheme destroyed families and caused financial and emotional heartache for the victims.

    And it also notes that E-Bullion, the shuttered California payment processor whose operator, James Fayed, was convicted in May of arranging the July 2008 gruesome murder of his wife, was used in the Baker scheme.

    E-Bullion also has been referenced in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case, the Legisi Ponzi case, the Gold Quest International Ponzi case, the FEDI case and other cases. The most recent reference to E-Bullion in the Legisi case, according to research by the PP Blog, occurred on Sept. 22, 2011 — less than three weeks ago.

    An attorney for two individuals claimed in court filings that his clients had used E-Bullion when investing with Legisi and were out $92,094.11. The attorney noted that their claims to a share of proceeds from the receivership estate have been rejected. Other filings list the reason for the rejection as inadequate documentation of the investment. The operators of fraud schemes such as Legisi are infamous for keeping poor records and not entering information in books, a sad reality that can lead to a result of victims of fraud schemes not receiving compensation from restitution pools.

    Read the Baker story in the Durango Herald. The story is compelling because it points out that Ponzi players have more to lose than just money. Baker, according to the story, is now facing some harsh realities and coming to grips with what his descent into the Ponzi darkness truly has cost him and his family.

     

  • SPECIAL REPORT: U.S. Counter-Terrorism Unit Intercepted Communication From Person With AdSurfDaily Ties In 2009; Intended Recipient Was Imprisoned Felon Associated With Scheme In Which Prospects Were Told They Could Rip Off Government’s Medicaid Program

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Lower in this story, the names of AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin and other individuals appear. They are NOT the individuals referenced in the government communiqué described below.

    UPDATED 12:50 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) The name of a person known to have used at least two names and to have AdSurfDaily ties appears in a law-enforcement communiqué issued in 2009 by the counter-terrorism arm of a U.S. government agency that employs a method of monitoring both domestic extremists and individuals with known links to international terror groups, the PP Blog has learned.

    At least one communication from the person was intercepted by the government and used as part of a raw intelligence report that includes summaries on the actions of dozens of individuals with alleged ties to al-Qaida, Hezbollah or homegrown extremist groups in the United States. The communication does not reference ASD, but includes a reference to a second person known to have an ASD tie.

    The sender of the communication was described as a provider of fraudulent documents typically associated with tax schemes operated by antigovernment extremists. Meanwhile, the intended recipient was an individual known to have promoted various forms of financial fraud, including a scheme in which prospects were told they could qualify for Medicaid by hiding assets and making themselves artificially poor.

    Medicaid is a federal health-services program for low-income Americans. It is administered by the states.

    The PP Blog established the identities of both individuals with ASD ties by examining a variety of public records and other documents.

    ASD's Andy Bowdoin

    Neither person is in state or federal custody, but it is clear that both the federal and state governments are aware of their activities and have worked to disrupt them. The intended recipient of the communication is in federal custody for a crime unrelated to ASD.

    Both individuals with ASD ties have a tie to a third person with ASD links, according to the Blog’s analysis of records.

    Owing to the sensitive nature of the communiqué, the Blog is declining to identify the individuals with ASD links and the agency. It also is declining to publish specific details such as quoted material, dates, times, telephone numbers and addresses. The communiqué demonstrates that the United States has identified particular areas in which it believes terrorism could fester and is monitoring oral, electronic and printed communications in a specific context.

    The communiqué devotes more than a full page to the topic of the communication intercepted from the individual with ASD ties.

    Based on its research, the Blog is reporting today that the person with ASD ties whose communication was intercepted is an American believed to have ties to a network of domestic extremists immersed in a sea of organized corruption. The person has an arrest record for a nonviolent crime, but also has been associated with bids to intimidate people and cause them financial harm. Records show that the person has used at least two names.

    News of the disturbing developments comes even as some ASD members are blindly asserting that ASD was a wholesome enterprise and making broad claims that any ties to terrorism have been ruled out. ASD has been implicated in an alleged international Ponzi scheme that gathered at least $110 million.

    Despite an alleged concession by ASD President Andy Bowdoin that the company was operating illegally and a new assertion by the government that Bowdoin and unnamed “others” ventured to Costa Rica in the spring to 2008 to get the lay of the land for an upstart “autosurf” enterprise, some members are soliciting funds to challenge a U.S. Secret Service affidavit that led to the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from Bowdoin’s personal bank accounts in August 2008.

    Bowdoin’s own bid to challenge the affidavit failed in November 2008, more than two years ago.

    In December 2010, federal prosecutors asserted that ASD had the ability to accept money from e-Bullion, a shuttered California payment processor whose operator — James Fayed — has been charged with arranging the contract murder of his wife.

    Pamela Fayed, who was stabbed to death in a parking garage, was a potential witness against her husband. James Fayed is believed to have used e-Bullion to facilitate multiple Ponzi schemes, including a scheme hatched by a New York man — Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari — who later pleaded guilty to financing terrorism.

    Like ASD’s Bowdoin, Ali Alishtari claimed to have received an important award for his business acumen. And Ali Alishtari’s scheme, known as FEDI, was pushed by an individual convicted in a separate Ponzi scheme and sentenced to federal prison. Payments from the scheme were called “rebates,” the same terminology adopted by ASD to describe payments to members.

    “In enriching himself, Alishtari displayed a deliberate disregard for the financial and personal security of others,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York said in September 2009.

    e-Bullion’s name also is referenced in court filings in the Gold Quest International (GQI) Ponzi scheme, which gathered up to $29 million, according to U.S. and Canadian regulators. GQI, which operated from Las Vegas, falsely claimed to be immune to U.S. law and to enjoy purported “sovereignty” extended by a North Dakota  “Indian” tribe.

    One of the unusual elements of the GQI case was a claim that the purported sovereignty was portable, shielding the purveyors from prosecution anywhere.

    A New Plan To Do Battle With The Government

    ASD member Todd Disner, one of dozens of unsuccessful pro se litigants in the civil portion of the ASD case in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, now wants ASD members to come up with money to fund a lawsuit in Florida that would challenge the U.S. Secret Service affidavit in the District of Columbia that led to the seizure of $80 million in the ASD case, according to a recording of a Feb. 22 conference call.

    “We were dragged down the river by our government agents, and the rest is history,” Disner told listeners.

    “There might be an opportunity for us to throw a few punches of our own,” Disner said. “We’ve been on the ropes for three years now, and we’d like to start swinging back if we could.”

    The opportunity to battle back after a fatiguing and demoralizing three years on the ropes would cost ASD members a combined total of about $10,000, according to people who listened to the call.

    After the call, some ASD members received an email that purported that an ASD “terrorism connection has been ruled out.” The email, sent by an ASD member who did not use a full name, did not describe who within the government had ruled out a terrorism link.

    Disner, who claimed he was “excited” about the prospect of suing the government to overturn the ASD forfeiture, also claimed he’d been advised on the complex legal issues by Dwight Schwetizer, whom he described as a fellow ASD member, friend and “very accomplished attorney” who is “not practicing law now.”

    “They’re just going to try and try to keep that money,” Disner asserted. “They seized the money improperly, and if they release it then everybody’s included.”

    The government, however, already has put in place a restitution program that would compensate crime victims from seized funds. An apparent linchpin of the new strategy outlined by Disner is a theory that the government restitution program somehow opens the door for ASD members not only to reverse the judicially declared forfeiture, but also to receive damages for an unwarranted government intrusion. Schweitzer also provided commentary on the call.

    For its part, the government says ASD was engaging in felonious wire fraud and securities fraud by disguising itself as an “advertising” business while operating a $110 million Ponzi scheme from Florida that had affected tens of thousands of people globally. Just last week prosecutors advised a federal judge that Bowdoin, who was arrested in December, had ventured to Costa Rica in the spring of 2008 to look for a way to start an offshore Ponzi scheme.

    Disner’s conference call was held just a few days after the latest damaging claims against ASD became public. The government filed the new claims against ASD on Feb. 18, the same day it announced a major prosecution against an alleged Costa Rican money-laundering operation that was accused of engaging in international securities fraud and siphoning millions of dollars in penny-stock schemes.

    The U.S. government, using its individual agencies and the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force created by President Obama in 2009, has been targeting various forms of fraud, including HYIPs, penny-stock capers, Forex schemes, tax schemes and domestic and offshore crime targeted at U.S. citizens.

    In some cases, victims have been counted by the tens of thousands — enough to fill the nation’s largest sports stadiums. ASD was purported to have 120,000 members.

    Some ASD members have called for a “militia” to storm Washington, D.C. Others have called for a federal prosecutor to be placed in a medieval torture rack. Still others have called for prosecutors and investigators to be charged criminally and sued civilly for their efforts to disrupt what the government has described as a classic Ponzi scheme operated by Bowdoin, a recidivist felon.

  • BULLETIN: Gold Quest International (GQI) UPLINE/DOWNLINE Groups Will Be Subject Of Hearing By Ontario Securities Commission; Case Alleges Respondents Were Both Investors And Promoters Who Pushed Unregistered Securities Of Bizarre Firm

    EDITOR’S NOTE: If you’re pushing Ponzi schemes on MoneyMakerGroup, TalkGold and other criminal forums, allegations brought by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) against geographically localized promoters of Gold Quest International (GQI) may interrupt your delusions of invincibility over the next several weeks.

    Upline and downline networks within Gold Quest International (GQI), a bizarre company taken down by the SEC just three months before the U.S. Secret Service raid on AdSurfDaily in 2008, are in the news in the Canadian province of Ontario.

    The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) will conduct a hearing March 24 to consider taking provincial action against local promoters of GQI, which already has been ruled a Ponzi scheme, pyramid scheme and “sham” investment by the Alberta Securities Commission.

    OSC pointed out that GQI “has never been registered in any capacity with the Commission” and alleged that its promoters within the province also were not registered.

    The case is important because it signals that Ontario regulators have backtracked millions of dollars of GQI transactions that originated in the province, segregated the source of the money to specific groups of promoters within the province and now intend to hold them accountable for spreading financial misery to their fellow citizens.

    The odds of the respondents avoiding sanctions after the hearing may be low. One Ontario man implicated in the GQI scheme already has filed bankruptcy and has been ordered to pay $652,000 in disgorgement and penalties for his role in GQI.  The man, Donald Iain Buchanan, allegedly was introduced to GQI by some of the promoters who are the subject of the hearing next month.

    And the odds may be weighted even more heavily against the promoters prevailing at the hearing because of the bizarre claims of GQI itself, which purported to have a “Lord” among its key managers and said it was immune to regulatory oversight because it was an extension of a North Dakota sovereign “Indian” tribe and was permitted to operate untouched from Las Vegas.

    GQI, which gathered about $29 million in a long-running scheme by promising returns of 87.5 percent a year and huge commissions, sought unsuccessfully to sue the SEC for the astronomical sum of $1.7 trillion. A U.S. federal judge dispatched U.S. marshals to haul key players into court for ignoring court orders, and vast sums of money appear to have gone missing down ratholes in Europe and New Zealand.

    Some of the money also is tied up as a result of criminal allegations — including murder — against James Fayed, the operator of the now-shuttered E-bullion payment processor.

    In its statement of allegations, OSC accused Simply Wealth Financial Group Inc., Naida Allarde, Bernardo Giangrosso, K&S Global Wealth Creative Strategies Inc., Kevin Persaud, Maxine Lobban and Wayne Lobban of promoting unregistered securities. All of the accused companies and individuals have Ontario addresses, according to OSC.

    “During the Material Time, Simply Wealth, Allarde, Giangrosso, K&S, Persaud, Maxine Lobban and Wayne Lobban . . . promoted securities in Gold-Quest to Ontario residents,” OSC charged.

    About 94 Ontario residents plowed $1.6 million into GQI “as a result of promotional activities conducted by Allarde, Giangrosso and Simply Wealth,” OSC charged. “These activities included recommending investment in Gold-Quest, providing information regarding the nature of the investment in Gold-Quest, facilitating the process of investing in Gold-Quest, and, in certain cases, facilitating the transfer of funds to Gold-Quest on behalf of investors.”

    K&S and Persaud, meanwhile, caused about nine Ontario investors to plow about $69,000 into the GQI scheme. Among their alleged customers was Buchanan, who also became a promoter and caused his customers to bring $1.8 million more into the scheme, according to OSC.

    Maxine Lobban and Wayne Lobban also became promoters and caused investors to bring “at least $675,000” into the GQI scheme, the OSC alleged.

    The math of the scheme was doomed to fail, but purveyors were lured by titles and promised both spectacular investment earnings and commissions. Promoters were categorized in upline/downline tiers, the OSC alleged.

    “Individuals who introduced an investor to Gold-Quest would receive the title ‘Administrative Manager’ for the new investor,” OSC alleged. “Administrative Managers would receive an up-front commission of ten percent of that investor’s original investment and then a further four percent per month for a year (for a total commission of 58 percent of the principal invested).

    “The individual who had introduced the Administrative Manager to Gold-Quest would receive the title ‘Managing Director’ for the new investor and would receive a commission of 1.5 percent per month for a year (for a total of 18 percent of the principal invested),” the OSC continued.

    “Lastly, the individual who introduced the Managing Director to Gold-Quest would receive the title ‘Supervisory Managing Director’ for the new investor and would receive a commission of one percent per month for a year (for a total of 12 percent of the principal invested).

    “In sum, when a new investor sent funds to Gold-Quest, 88 percent of the investor’s funds were earmarked for commissions to be paid to the investor’s Administrative Manager, Managing Director and Supervisory Managing Director over the course of a year,” OSC alleged.

    In November 2010, OSC ordered penalties and disgorgement of $652,000 against Buchanan for his role in the GQI scheme.

    “Buchanan’s conduct warrants a substantial administrative penalty,” OSC said. “He was involved in two investment schemes in which Ontario investors invested approximately US $4.3 million.”

    Although commission staff had recommended an administrative penalty of $150,000 against Buchanan, who is bankrupt, OSC doubled the amount to $300,000, saying Buchanan had shown no remorse and that the smaller penalty would not serve as a deterrent.

  • UPDATE: E-Bullion, Firm Alleged To Have Provided Payment Services To ASD, Linked To Alleged Legisi Ponzi Scheme; Like ASD, FEDI Fraud Scheme Called Payments ‘Rebates’

    Andy Bowdoin

    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.)

  • RECOMMENDED READING: Anti-Defamation League Outlines Activities Of ‘Sovereign Citizen Groups’; Report Notes Instances Of ‘Bogus Liens’ Filed Against Public Officials, Including Former President Bill Clinton

    EDITOR’S NOTE: If you’ve been following the odd developments and conspiracy theories associated with the AdSurfDaily and Gold Quest International cases, we recommend you read this August 2010 report (see link below) by the Anti-Defamation League. The report notes various threats made against law enforcement, along with frauds and scams linked to the so called “Sovereign Citizen Movement.”

    Both ASD and GQI are known to have so-called “sovereigns” among their membership ranks. Bizarre court pleadings have surfaced in both cases.

    The ADL report specifically references Michael Howard Reed, shown in records to have been a harassing presence in the GQI Ponzi case brought by the SEC in May 2008. On Friday, federal prosecutors filed a forfeiture complaint that alleged ASD had a tie to E-Bullion, a shuttered digital-currency business. Other records show E-Bullion also had a tie to GQI.

    Friday’s filing marked the first time that E-Bullion’s name had surfaced in the ASD case. The reference is important because E-Bullion now has been linked to multiple alleged fraud schemes. E-Bullion founder James Fayed was charged in California in 2008 with operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business. He also was charged with murdering his estranged wife, who sought to cooperate with prosecutors in the E-Bullion investigation.

    Among the calling cards of the sovereign movement are bizarre court pleadings and vexatious litigation described as “paper terrorism.” The so-called sovereigns have sought to derail investigations and hamstring investigators and public officials by making them parties to lawsuits or subjecting them to threats of litigation or the filing of bogus liens against personal property, ADL reports.

    Bogus liens filed against public servants in the performance of their duties is a “major problem,” ADL says.

    One such lien even was filed against former President Bill Clinton, ADL reports.

    “Many sovereign citizens have engaged in a variety of scams and frauds, some of them raking in millions of dollars, while countless more sovereign citizens have engaged in acts of harassment, retaliation, and intimidation against public officials, law enforcement officers, and private citizens,” ADL says.

    “As it evolved, the sovereign citizen movement developed an ideology centered on a massive conspiracy theory,” ADL says. “Though different sovereign theorists all have their own varying versions of this conspiracy, including exactly when it started and how it manifested itself, the theories all share the belief that many years ago an insidious conspiracy infiltrated the U.S. government and subverted it, slowly replacing parts of the original, legitimate government (often referred to by sovereigns as the ‘de jure’ government) with an illegitimate, tyrannical government (the ‘de facto’ government).

    “As a result, sovereign citizens believe that today there are really two governments: the ‘illegitimate’ government that everyone else thinks is genuine and the original government that existed before the conspiracy allegedly infiltrated it.”

    Read the ADL report.

  • BULLETIN: Alberta Securities Commission Orders $2 Million Penalty Against ‘Lord’ David Greene And John Jenkins In Gold Quest International Ponzi Case

    After determining in January that Gold Quest International (GQI) was a “sham” operating as both a Ponzi and a pyramid scheme, the Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) now has doled out the penalties.

    David Michael Greene, also known as “Lord” David Greene, and John Jenkins were ordered to pay an “administrative penalty” of $2 million, ASC said today. Greene and Jenkins were GQI’s operators, according to the agency.

    Michael McGee, described by ASC as having played “a lesser but still considerable role” in the scheme, was ordered to pay an administrative penalty of $100,000. ASC further determined that McGee claimed that a case against him filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had been “dismissed” when it had not.

    In fact, ASC said, the SEC case had resulted in a judgment of more than $8.5 million against McGee, but that the judgment is not being enforced because of McGee’s professed inability to pay.

    If the case involving GQI was not one of the strangest in Canadian history, it almost certainly is one of the strangest in U.S. history.

    Part of the money in the case is tied up in a California homicide investigation in which the operator of the E-Bullion payment processor was charged with murdering his wife.

    During the SEC litigation, the purported “attorney general” of a purported “sovereign” Indian tribe tried unsuccessfully to sue the SEC for the spectacular sum $1.7 trillion, claiming GQI was immune from U.S. securities laws.

    Read this story for more background on GQI.

    Penalties doled out by ASC were less severe on GQI President Delroy Atwood. He was not assessed a financial penalty other than a share of litigation costs of $49,700, but was “prohibited from acting as a director or officer of any issuer for five years,” ASC said.

    Greene and Jenkins were banned from the Alberta capital markets for life.  McGee was banned for 10 years.

    “In the Merits Decision, we found that Greene created Gold-Quest and the Gold-Quest Offering,” ASC said. “Greene and Jenkins ran Gold-Quest’s operations, with some assistance from McGee.

    “Gold-Quest and Greene lured investors by touting investments in the Gold-Quest Offering as safe and secure or guaranteed and by promising 87.5% annual returns,” ASC continued. “These statements about the investments were misrepresentations. The Gold-Quest Offering, purportedly involving investment in foreign currency trading, was in fact a sham.

    “On the evidence, we were satisfied that, during the relevant period, Gold-Quest itself did not open any foreign currency trading account, receive income from any currency trading, have an active currency trading program or any actual currency traders in its employ, or place investors’ money with external foreign currency traders,” ASC said.  “Rather, the evidence was that any foreign currency trading had been done through foreign currency trading accounts opened in the names of Greene and Jenkins, had been minimal and had resulted in heavy losses.”

    The scheme gathered $29 million, ASC said.

  • GNI Members: Failed Program Was ‘Honest’ And ‘Real’; Critics Should Shut Up And Focus On Haiti Earthquake

    Critics of Gold Nugget Invest (GNI), the collapsed Internet HYIP, do not understand that the program that advertised a return of 7.5 percent a week was “real,” according to a member writing on an online Ponzi board.

    Bickering about GNI only will lead to additional problems for the company, which is faithfully trying to reorganize, and the critics should send money to Haiti instead of infecting the membership with negative thinking, according to the member.

    “[W]hy not use your idle time for [the Haitian people?]” the GNI apologist asked on the ASA Monitor Ponzi board. “l doubt if you can do that ‘cos that is your true nature.”

    Haiti suffered a devastating earthquake Jan. 12. As many as 200,000 people are believed to have perished.

    In earlier posts, the apologist suggested that GNI critics were suffering from “mental illness” and observed that, “I will be very grateful if GNI runs for 20 years as a pronzi (sic) !!!!”

    The poster did not explain how a program purported to be a “real” business could create legitimate profits by operating as a Ponzi scheme.

    GNI, which positioned itself as a betting “arbitrage,” tanked last week. It is among a number of recent investment programs using the name of a precious metal or a precious mineral that have encountered difficulty either from members or law enforcement. GNI did not publish verifiable financial information. There is no way to verify GNI’s claims, including an apparent claim that certain resources are tied up in a purported banking investigation in Europe that has nothing to do with the company.

    GNI now says its program will pay “up to” 20 percent monthly through a “No Risk Wager.” The company did not explain how it had categorically eliminated risk during a period in which it apparently did not have access to the capital it needed to operate and had suddenly changed the rules, leaving existing members holding the bag while apparently still advertising for new members to entrust their funds to the firm.

    Some members, though, insisted they were standing by GNI because it always had “paid” and just hit a bump in the road.

    Canadian regulators last week declared a collapsed program known as Gold Quest International (GQI) a “sham” and both a Ponzi and a pyramid scheme. Investors dumped at least $27 million into the program, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

    GQI, which claimed Panamanian registration while operating from Las Vegas and saying it was immune to U.S. and Canadian law because it was affiliated with a “sovereign” Indian tribe, scammed thousands of investors, according to the SEC and the Alberta Securities Commission.

    At least $3.15 million linked to GQI ended up in New Zealand, in one or more bank accounts tied to a company known as Topaz Group Ltd., according to court filings by Larry Cook, the court-appointed receiver in the SEC case. The majority of that money then was “immediately transferred from the Topaz Group business account to the account of Wendy Smurthwaite Davies, the wife of John Davies,” according to court filings.

    John Davies was identified as the owner of Topaz Group.

    Other GQI money made its way into E-Bullion accounts in California, according to court filings. The E-Bullion money is tied up in a fraud and murder investigation of E-Bullion owner James Fayed, accused of having his wife killed in a Greater Los Angeles parking garage.

    Another “gold-themed” tie involves Brian David Anderson, a former Christian clergyman from Vancouver, British Columbia. Anderson recently was sentenced to 90 months in federal prison in the United States for operating a $4 million Ponzi scheme known as Frontier Assets.

    Anderson also was linked to a mysterious scheme known as the “Alpha Project.”

    U.S. and Canadian investigators identified Anderson as a pitchman for an international HYIP known as Flat Electronic Data Interchange (FEDI). FEDI’s operator, Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, also known as “Michael Mixon,” was convicted in September 2009 of financing terror and fleecing investors in the FEDI scheme.

    Records in the Anderson case include references to E-Bullion.

  • BULLETIN: Alberta Securities Commission Rules Gold Quest International A Ponzi Scheme AND A Pyramid Scheme; Panel Concludes GQI Was A ‘Sham’

    UPDATED 7:03 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) The Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) has ruled Gold Quest International (GQI) a Ponzi and a Pyramid scheme.

    An ASC panel determined that GQI met the conditions for a Ponzi scheme because it had no viable product and paid earlier investors with money from new investors. It also was a pyramid scheme, ASC ruled, because of a commission structure that rewarded earlier entrants and left later entrants holding the bag.

    “The Gold-Quest Offering was a sham investment,” ASC ruled. “On the evidence before us, we are satisfied that, during the relevant period, Gold-Quest itself did not receive income from any currency trading, have an active currency trading program or indeed any actual currency traders in its employ, or place investors’ money with external foreign currency traders.

    “Rather,” ASC continued, “Gold-Quest depended on the influx of new investors’ money to make its payments to existing investors.”

    In its ruling, ASC cited the SEC’s probe into GQI, and also referenced GQI’s claim that, although it was registered in Panama and operated from Las Vegas, it was immune from U.S. and Canadian law because of supposed ties to a “sovereign” Indian tribe in North Dakota.

    “[W]hen securities regulatory authorities had begun investigating Gold-Quest, Gold-Quest claimed that it was subject only to the jurisdiction of the sovereign Little Shell Nation of the Anishinabe Culture . . . purportedly headquartered in North Dakota, and that it was not subject to the jurisdiction of Canada or the United States,” ASC said.

    “In a 16 March 2008 e-mail to ‘Gold-Quest Members,’ the ‘Board of Directors’ of Gold-Quest asserted (emphasis added):

    Note that while we have or have had offices in Panama and Costa Rica we operate under the legal Authority, venue, and Jurisdiction, of The Little Shell Nation.

    But GQI had no authority to operate outside of either U.S. or Canadian law, investigators said. For its part, the SEC said the tribe had no federal recognition.

    After regulators in Canada and the United States began to probe GQI, the firm blamed its predicament on the governments of both countries, according to ASC’s findings.

    In late 2008, according to ASC’s findings, GQI told members it was under “attack.” (Emphasis added):

    The recent attack on Little Shell Gold-Quest International and its members by the Securities Commissions of Canada and the United States has caused a severe breakdown of trust in these governments [sic] promise to protect the rights of private men and women to conduct business without governmental interference.

    At the same time, GQI told investors they could get their money back if they paid $40 for a debit card, ASC said. (Emphasis added):

    The use of this debit card Pay card through USA Global Trust is the safest way we can devise to return your investments. Let us pray our governments do not interfere any more.

    GQI, which claimed it would pay back members for the debit card and also pay them 10 percent on their existing investment after they purchased the debit card,  also instructed investors through its website FAQ that they could retrieve their lost profits from the SEC, according to ASC’s findings. (Emphasis added):

    Q: What about the 87½% profit I was supposed to make?
    A: All profits up to the May 6th 2008 seizure of Little [sic] Gold-Quest International by the receiver for the SEC will be paid in full. All other profits after that date were assumed by the receiver for the SEC. We will endeavor to work on your behalf concerning that matter in the near future.

    “Investor witness GD said that he applied for such a debit card but did not pay the administrative sign-up fee and received no response to his application,” ASC said.

    Another witness — “SB” — believed that  “none of the investors she brought into the Gold-Quest Offering received a refund of, or a return on, their investments,” ASC said.

    GQI, which promised an 87.5 percent annual return, misled investors, ASC ruled.

    “The statements that investors would receive an 87.5% annual return were misleading and untrue,” ASC ruled. “The evidence does not disclose that Gold-Quest had produced any trading profits which could generate the promised return. Specifically, on the evidence, we are satisfied that, during the relevant period, Gold-Quest itself did not open any foreign currency trading account, receive income from any currency trading, have an active currency trading program or any actual currency traders in its employ, or place investors’ money with external foreign currency traders.

    “Further,” ASC continued, “the evidence is that any foreign currency trading had been done through foreign currency trading accounts opened in the names of [David] Greene and [John] Jenkins, had been minimal and had resulted in heavy losses. The evidence does not disclose that this foreign currency trading was done for the benefit of Gold-Quest or its investors. Thus, there was simply no possibility that Gold-Quest could pay the promised return to its investors.”

    Both Jenkins and Green — also known as “Lord David Green” — were named in complaints in the United States and Canada. Other named GQI figures included Michael McGee and Delroy Atwood.

    “The evidence shows that millions of dollars of Gold-Quest investors’ money, in total, were transferred to Greene’s, Jenkins’ and McGee’s personal and trading accounts,” ASC ruled. “This money was apparently used to pay for their personal expenses, including purchases at stores, hotels, restaurants, golf clubs and an automobile dealership.

    “It seems that a few investors — those who invested in the early days of the Gold-Quest Offering — received all the payments they expected, but that beginning in February 2008 Gold-Quest began to experience difficulties in making payments to its investors,” ASC ruled.

    “Some investors received their monthly commissions for a time until these payments ceased in early 2008,” ASC said. “Many, if not most, investors received nothing back in principal or interest. In sum, Gold-Quest failed to make the payments promised to its investors, other than from other investors’ money.”

    GQI was doubly bogus, meeting the conditions of both a Ponzi scheme and a pyramid scheme. ASC ruled.

    “The Gold-Quest Offering, which extracted more than US$2 million from approximately 412 Alberta investors (approximately US$29 million from approximately 2940 investors in total), was a sham investment scheme,” ASC ruled. “The Gold-Quest Offering was both a classic Ponzi scheme and a classic pyramid scheme which denied Gold-Quest investors the very protections mandated by the fundamental registration and prospectus requirements of the Act.”

    See related story.

  • CHILLING: Terrorism Link, A Ponzi, An HYIP, Gold, Mysterious ‘Offshore’ Businesses, ‘Rebates’ — And A Brutal Murder In California

    EDITOR’S NOTE: HYIP or autosurf promoter? Can’t say no to the commissions from recruiting people into scheme after scheme? Position yourself as an “expert” on Internet forums — even though you don’t have a clue about the motivations of the program owners and may not even know their names? Find yourself promoting programs that reference “gold” and “funds” and relying on marketing assertions that cannot be verified? Tell your recruits that the programs are money “games” or nontraditional investments? Been involved in one program after another that has failed in this seedy and dangerous world? Think that you’ll have a lifetime of plausible deniability and that professional investigators will believe you when you explain you didn’t really know what was going on — despite the fact you’ve been involved in one failed “program” after another, perhaps for months and even years?

    Here’s a story about what can happen in the sea of HYIP, “Gold,” Ponzi and autosurf corruption . . .

    UPDATED 12:42 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Yesterday a reader provided us a document that can only be described as chilling. The document, from the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), includes exhibits from a 2003 Canadian civil-securities case against convicted Ponzi swindler Brian David Anderson, a former Christian clergyman from Vancouver, British Columbia.

    Last week, Anderson was sentenced to 90 months in federal prison in the United States for operating a $4 million Ponzi scheme known as Frontier Assets. Anderson also was linked to a mysterious scheme known as the “Alpha Project.”

    U.S. and Canadian investigators, meanwhile, also identified Anderson as a pitchman for an international HYIP known as Flat Electronic Data Interchange (FEDI). FEDI’s operator, Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, also known as “Michael Mixon,” was convicted in September 2009 of financing terror and fleecing investors in the FEDI scheme.

    Why is the document chilling? For starters, its references a bank account held by Goldfinger Coin & Bullion Inc. in Camarillo, Calif. If that name does not ring a bell, think “E-bullion,” the now-shuttered money-exchange business purportedly backed by gold.

    James Fayed, the operator of Goldfinger and E-Bullion, was charged in 2008 with operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Investigators said E-Bullion had been used to transact at least $20 million in Ponzi scheme payments.

    During the same general time period in 2008, the SEC was conducting a Ponzi scheme investigation into a separate company known as Gold Quest International (GQI), which used E-Bullion and claimed to be registered in Panama.

    GQI operated from Las Vegas. It initially tried to claim that it was immune to U.S. law because of links to a “sovereign” Indian tribe. GQI was charged in May 2008 by the SEC with operating a Ponzi scheme. The purported “attorney general” of the purported “sovereign” tribe reacted by trying to file a lawsuit against the SEC for the preposterous sum of $1.7 trillion. A federal judge was not amused, and struck the bizarre filings.

    Woman Stabbed To Death

    On July 28, 2008, Pamela Fayed — James Fayed’s estranged wife — was brutally murdered in a parking garage in California. She was stabbed in the chest, neck and face — and left to die, according to court filings. Prosecutors said there was no evidence of robbery or carjacking. The murder, according to court filings, occurred just minutes after a meeting Pamela attended with her criminal attorney and her husband’s criminal attorney.

    James Fayed was present at the meeting, according to court filings. A meeting with separate attorneys — this one involving a divorce hearing — had been scheduled for the next day, July 29, 2008. Prosecutors said that James Fayed was at risk of being ordered to turn over nearly $1 million to Pamela at the divorce proceeding.

    Pamela had advised the government in June 2008 that she wished to cooperate in its criminal investigation of E-Bullion, according to prosecutors.

    “Pamela’s murderer left the crime scene in a red SUV that was captured on surveillance video, along with its license,” prosecutors said. “The license was traced to Avis car rentals in Camarillo, not far from [the] defendant’s business. The vehicle had been rented from Avis on July 3, 2008 using an American Express card issued to defendant and GCB.

    “An American Express credit card with the same account number was found in defendant’s wallet during a search of his residence in the days following Pamela’s murder. During the search of defendant’s residence, officers also 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.

    Prosecutors also alleged James Fayed arranged for the July 28 meeting to create an alibi.

    Read a court filing in the federal case against James Fayed in which prosecutors alleged he operated an unlicensed money-transmitting business. The filing references the alleged murder plot.

    Murder Charges Filed

    James Fayed and an employee — Jose Luis Moya — were charged by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office with murder and a conspiracy plot in September 2008. Fayed paid Moya “approximately $25,000 to arrange the murder of Pamela Fayed,” investigators said.

    On July 3, 2008, investigators said, “Fayed and his company — Goldfinger, Inc. — rented a Suzuki sport utility vehicle that was used by the killers at the Watt Tower parking garage where Pamela Fayed was killed.

    “The Suzuki SUV was driven to Fayed’s Ventura County ranch on Happy Camp Road after the killing,” according to investigators. Moya returned the vehicle to Avis the next day.

    OSC Document Outlined Purported Anderson/E-Bullion Meeting In 2003

    The OSC document filed in Canada is important — and we suggest you read every word of it from the link below — because exhibits in the document show the murkiness and just plain creepiness of the HYIP and Ponzi worlds. One exhibit suggests Anderson planned to meet with Fayed and his wife in 2003 to discuss business.

    The document also references Alishtari and FEDI, claiming an investment program was backed by $125 billion in gold. Among other things, the document lists the name of Goldfinger Coin & Bullion and an account number, along with directions on how to open an E-Bullion account.

    Screen shot: From exhibit in 2003 OSC filing.

    Also included in the document is a purported joint-venture agreement marked “STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL” that purportedly was used by Anderson to recruit investors into an international fraud scheme.

    Parallels To AdSurfDaily Case

    Parts of the document include claims very similar to claims made by promoters of the alleged AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme in the United States. Anderson, for example, was positioned as a “very successful business executive” who attended a function to observe Alishtari receive an award “for Republican Business Man of the Year for the State of New York.” Similar claims were made about ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

    Investor payouts, according to an exhibit in the OSC document, were called “rebates.” ASD, whose assets were seized by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008 amid Ponzi allegations, also called its payouts “rebates.” Exhibits in the OSC document were thick with references to God and family — another similarity to the ASD case.  Anderson’s efforts to promote the program were deemed “heroic,” and business was conducted in part from Boca Raton, Fla. ASD was thick with Florida members.

    In a purported email from Anderson dated April 17, 2003, according to an exhibit within the OSC document, Anderson laid out the case for the new venture.

    “Dear Family,” the email began. Chillingly, the email appears to reference Pamela Fayed, allegedly murdered by her husband and conspirators five years later. The email suggests there once were happy days between the Fayeds.

    “I am very pleased that my recommendations and leg work have paid off and the Alpha Project will be merging its gold value/currency transfer through E-Bullion,” the email purportedly sent by Anderson claimed.

    “E-Bullion is owned by a wonderful couple who have their roots in Egypt and, therefore, are Arab in descent. I will be spending personal time with them on Monday in California.”

    Screen shot: Exhibit of purported Anderson email in 2003 OSC filing.

    The email, which discusses a trip to Panama, promised investors an “offshore” company and outlined a plan to sell “debit cards” through vending machines that would be positioned in posts offices, hotels and college buildings.

    Put “$20 into a vending machine and the machine spits out a loaded Debit card for you,” the email said. “Now you can begin to see why the Alpha Project in will in time be another Microsoft in size.”

    Claims in HYIP and Ponzi schemes that a company is destined to become the “next” Microsoft or Google are common. Beyond that, the use of debit cards in the murky HYIP and autosurf words is becoming increasingly popular — as are appeals for investors to entrust funds to “offshore” businesses, amid claims that such businesses are outside the reach of U.S. law enforcement.

    Read the OSC document from 2003.