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Tag: IRS

  • BULLETIN: Already Sentenced To 30 Years In California Ponzi Caper, Purported ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Thanh-Viet ‘Jeremy’ Cao Gets More Time In Nevada False-Liens Case

    BULLETIN: Thanh-Viet “Jeremy” Cao, the California Ponzi schemer and purported “sovereign citizen” who was sentenced in May to 30 years in federal prison for the Ponzi caper, now has been sentenced to an additional 41 months for a Nevada crime in which he filed false liens for hundreds of millions of dollars against government officials.

    Under investigation by the U.S. Secret Service, the Justice Department, the SEC and the IRS, Cao reacted by filing 22 false liens against against “SEC attorneys, U.S. District Court Judges, U.S. District Court Magistrate Judges, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California, Assistant U.S. Attorneys, USSS special agents and special agents of the IRS,” the Justice Department said.

    Cao pleaded guilty to six counts of filing false liens in which he listed the federal officials as “debtors,” prosecutors said.

    It was not immediately clear if Cao’s sentence in the liens case will run concurrently or consecutively to the 30-year sentence in the Ponzi case. In May, U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy of the Southern District of California described Cao as a “financial predator.”

    The Ponzi scheme sentence was among the longest in the history of Southern California, and investigators said Cao kept his victims in a state of terror by telling them he knew people who previously had “chopped up” a baby in front of the baby’s parents, and then killed the baby’s mother,” prosecutors said.

    As part of his liens fraud, Cao developed a “hit list” in which he promised to obtain certain personal information of government offcials “so he could ruin them financially,” prosecutors said.

  • UPDATE: Neither Asteria Philanthropic Foundation Nor Asteria Foundation Listed As Charities In Virginia Database, State Says

    UPDATED 3:35 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) There are no listings in a state database for either the Asteria Philanthropic Foundation or the Asteria Foundation, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said this morning.

    The agency, which did not respond immediately to a request for additional comment on Club Asteria-related matters, oversees charitable entities in the state.

    An undated “press release” on the Asteria Foundation .org site uses a dateline of Reston, Va. An FAQ’s page on the site claims the foundation “is a charitable, tax-exempt 501©(3) organization. Contributions are tax deductible in accordance with IRS rules and regulations.”

    Why the copyright symbol — as opposed to the lowercase letter “c” — is used in the IRS claim on the site is unclear. Like the state of Virginia, the IRS database of charitable entities appears to have no listing for either the Asteria Philanthropic Foundation or the Asteria Foundation.

    Separately, a state database in Maryland that tracks charities had no listing today either for the Asteria Philanthropic Foundation or the Asteria Foundation. Web-domain registration data for the .org site list an address in Maryland.

    The foundation is an offshoot of Club Asteria, according to the .org site. Claims about Club Asteria came under fire in May by CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator. Separately, the American Red Cross said last week that it was opening a probe into claims Club Asteria had a tie-in with the Red Cross.

    The Red Cross logo and name have been used in repeated promos for Club Asteria and the purported foundation. The foundation’s .org site lists a street address in Hong Kong and a fax number in Virginia.

    Last week, the Virginia State Corporation Commission, which oversees the Virginia Division of Securities & Retail Franchising, declined to say whether a probe into the business activities of Club Asteria was under way.

    However, the state did say that neither Club Asteria nor Asteria Corp. — Club Asteria’s apparent parent company — were registered in Virginia state to sell securities.

    Club Asteria was popularized in part by promos on well-known Ponzi scheme forums. Members claimed the firm paid out up to 10 percent weekly. Club Asteria first slashed payouts, and then eliminated them. Those acts followed on the heels of the CONSOB probe and the suspension of Club Asteria’s PayPal account.

    Multiple Club Asteria promoters were promoting multiple “programs” on the Ponzi boards, leading to questions about whether the firm had come into possession of fraud proceeds.

  • UPDATE ON DECEMBER 2009 SPECIAL REPORT: 3 Figures In Philip R. Lochmiller Sr. Ponzi Case Will Go To Federal Prison; ‘Elderly Victims Were Financially Devastated,’ FBI Agent Says; Case Involving Recidivist Fraudster Drew Comparison To AdSurfDaily

    In a case that drew comparisons to AdSurfDaily because of recidivism, undisclosed bankruptcies and ties to Utah, the three principal figures of the Philip R. Lochmiller Sr. real-estate Ponzi scheme in Colorado will be going to federal prison.

    Lochmiller Sr., 63, was found guilty in July after a 10-day trial in which the jurors returned the verdicts in three hours. He will be sentenced after a final computation of losses is completed. The case involved a company known as Valley Mortgage Inc. The case involved about $30 million.

    Lochmiller Sr. was found guilty of conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering and mail fraud.

    His stepson, Philip R. Lochmiller Jr., 38 when charged, has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit securities and mail fraud and money laundering. Business associate Shawnee N. Carver, 33 when charged, has been sentenced to two years for conspiracy to commit securities and mail fraud.

    Prosecutors announced the sentences imposed on Lochmiller Jr. and Carver yesterday.

    “Philip Lochmiller Jr. helped orchestrate an investment scheme which defrauded over 400 victims out of more than $30 million,” said James Yacone, special agent in charge of the Denver FBI office. “Several elderly victims were financially devastated.  [The] sentencing sent a strong message that white collar criminals will not be tolerated.  The FBI will continue to aggressively investigate and seek prosecution against the groups and individuals who defraud unwitting victims out of their earnings.”

    Lochmiller Sr. was sentenced to three years in a California state prison in the 1980s after he was charged with 60 counts of securities fraud and pleaded guilty to about half of them. Investors in his new scheme at Valley Mortgage were not told of his history as a securities swindler, federal prosecutors in Colorado said.

    Federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia said the same thing about ASD President Andy Bowdoin, who was charged with felonies in Alabama in a securities scheme in the 1990s.

    Meanwhile, Lochmiller Sr.’s investors also were not told that both Lochmiller Sr. and Jr. had bankruptcies on their records. Federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia alleged in August 2008 that ASD members and members of a companion autosurf known as Golden Panda Ad Builder were not told about the bankruptcy of Golden Panda President Clarence Busby.

    Nor were they immediately told that Busby had a run-in with the SEC in the 1990s and was accused of purveying three prime-bank swindles, according to records.

    The Lochmiller case also has a tie to Vernal, Utah, a community to which ASD also has a tie. The Lochmiller case was in part about real estate in Vernal. Vernal is the community in which the so-called “Arby’s Indians” got their start.

    ASD mainstay Curtis Richmond was a member of the bogus “tribe” based in Vernal. The tribe, which used the address of a Vernal doughnut shop as the address of its purported “Supreme Court” and was ruled a “complete sham” by a federal judge, got its derisive name because it once held a meeting at an Arby’s restaurant in Provo.

    Richmond went on to become a pro se litigant in the ASD Ponzi case, accusing the judge overseeing the case in the District of Columbia of “TREASON” and operating a kangaroo court. Richmond claimed the judge overseeing an unrelated case in Utah owed him $30 million. Other ASD figures later claimed government officials owed them sums ranging from the millions of dollars to the trillions.

    Another parallel between the ASD case and the Lochmiller case is the presence of the IRS. ASD’s early deceptions were uncovered by a U.S. Secret Service/IRS Task Force operating in Florida, according to court filings.

    “Investment fraud is like a ‘house of cards’; the underlying structure can fall apart at any time leaving many investors in financial ruin,” said Sean Sowards, a top IRS agent working the Lochmiller case.

    Sowards is the special agent in charge of the IRS-Criminal Investigation unit in Denver.

    “These sentences should remind us that defrauding investors is a serious offense and those who do will be held accountable,” Sowards said.

    Both Lochmiller Jr. and Carver testified at the Lochmiller Sr. trial, prosecutors said.

     

     

  • Jon Jason Greco Pleads Guilty To Making False Statement In Trevor Cook Ponzi Case

    Jon Jason Greco, 40, of Minneapolis, has pleaded guilty to making a false and material statement in the Trevor Cook Ponzi scheme. He faces up to five years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not been scheduled.

    Greco came into possession of loot from the scheme after its 2009 collapse, stashing it in a locker at the Mall of America. When questioned, he lied to investigators, telling them that the property found at the mall belonged to him and was given to him by his uncle, prosecutors said.

    Investors were wiped out in Cook’s $194 million scheme. He is serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison.

    “Because of Greco’s false statements, the U.S. failed to recover approximately $6,000 of
    the assets,” prosecutors said.

    Investigators recovered foreign currency and coins at the mall.

    The case against Greco was bolstered when an exotic dancer told an IRS criminal investigator who was following leads that Greco, believed to have been unemployed for months, suddenly began to spend generously at a Minneapolis strip club and to plow $100 bills into slot machines at a gambling emporium.

  • BULLETIN: Mark D. Leitner Faces Up To 13 More Years In Federal Prison After Pleading Guilty To Filing False Liens For Tens Of Billions Of Dollars Against Public Officials

    Already a federal prisoner in a tax case, Mark D. Leitner has pleaded guilty in federal court in Florida to charges he filed bogus “maritime” liens for tens of billions of dollars against a former U.S. Attorney, “numerous” Assistant U.S. Attorneys, a former court clerk and a criminal investigator for the IRS.

    Leitner sought $48.489 billion from each of the officials and exposed private information about five of them, federal prosecutors said.

    In addition to the guilty plea on the false-liens charges, he pleaded guilty to impeding the IRS, prosecutors said.

    Prosecutors said Leitner also “filed and mailed numerous harassing and frivolous documents to the courts and personnel involved in this case.”

    Leitner was sentenced to a five-year term last year in a tax case. He retaliated against officials both during and after the trial by filing bogus liens, prosecutors said.

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: KABOOM! Feds, SEC, CFTC Move Against Alleged U.S. Huckster Who Ran Forex Ponzi Scheme From Panama And Fled To Peru; Self-Styled ‘Christian’ Jeffery A. Lowrance Registered Business In New Zealand And Routed Ponzi Payments To And From The Netherlands, Officials Say

    URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: A U.S. citizen who told investors he was a “Christian” who shared their political philosophy of “limited government” ripped off hundreds of people in a $21 million Forex Ponzi scheme involving “fictitious trading,” used some of the cash to start an alternative newspaper, preyed on followers of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul and fled to Peru when his Panama-based scheme collapsed, U.S. officials said today.

    Jeffery A. Lowrance, 50, was arrested in Lima earlier this year. He was extradited to the United States yesterday and arraigned today on criminal charges filed in the Northern District of Illinois, federal prosecutors said. Separately, the SEC charged Lowrance with fraud in a civil complaint, as did the CFTC.

    The office of U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald of the Northern District of Illinois said this afternoon that Lowrance operated his Forex swindle from Panama, involving as many as 400 investors and causing losses of at least $5 million.

    Fitzgerald is perhaps the most famous prosecutor in the United States, and has served during both Republican and Democratic administrations in Washington. Lowrance was jailed in the United States today after his arraignment in Chicago on charges of wire fraud and money laundering.

    In bringing the case, government officials described Lowrance’s alleged crimes as a form of affinity fraud targeted at Christian voters with a keen interest in politics. Investigators have fretted that certain types of schemes have been designed deliberately to trade on sentiment against big government and that scammers have lined up to take advantage of the sentiment while leaving investors holding the bag.

    Investors in 26 states, including California, Oregon, Illinois and Utah, were targeted in the scam, the SEC said.

    Paul, R.-Texas, is an advocate for limited government and is a candidate in a crowded GOP field for next year’s Presidential nomination.

    During the 2008 U.S. election cycle, Lowrance showed up at a Paul political rally in Minnesota, placing a copy of a newspaper Lowrance produced with investor funds he had “secretly” diverted “on every seat at the rally,” the SEC charged.

    Even as he was touting his newspaper and his investment program at the Paul rally, the Ponzi scheme already was in a state of collapse, the SEC charged.

    And, the SEC added, Lowrance’s purported investment firm — First Capital Savings & Loan Ltd. — actually was registered in New Zealand. Investors were instructed to send money to a “money converter” in Maryland, where it was whisked overseas to the Netherlands.

    Ponzi payments were made from the Netherlands, the SEC alleged.

    A Lowrance predecessor entity known as Mentor Investing Group had been ordered by the state of California in 2006 to “cease and refrain” from selling commodities and Forex contracts, according to records.

    “[Lowrance]  used a significant portion of the money he raised from investors to fund the creation of his alternative newspaper, USA Tomorrow, which claimed to promote ‘truth in journalism’ and contained articles and advertisements advocating a limited government ideology,” the SEC charged. “He then included in at least one edition of USA Tomorrow a flyer advertising the First Capital investment opportunity which he distributed at the September 2008 Ron Paul Rally for the Republic in Minneapolis, Minnesota. USA Tomorrow was placed on every seat at the rally,” the SEC charged.

    Lowrance specifically targeted Christians and inexperienced investors in his sales pitches, the SEC charged.

    Along the way to ruin, “Lowrance and First Capital knowingly and/or recklessly made the materially false claim that First Capital used investor money to trade foreign currency and in return, pay them a high,  fixed, monthly rate of return,” the SEC charged.

    “Before February 2008, First Capital offered monthly rates of return ranging from 4% to 7.15% (resulting in annual rates of return up to 85.8%),” the SEC charged. “It also offered to pay referral fees for new investors ranging from 5% to 6% of the amount invested. As of July 2010, First Capital’s website offered monthly rates of return ranging from 1.104% to 1.558% (resulting in annual rates of up to 18.7%) and referral fees ranging from 1 % to 2%.”

    Like other investment scams, the Lowrance Forex Ponzi used “a chart and spreadsheet purporting to show its multi-year history of profitable trades,” the SEC alleged.

    But “First Capital never entered into the trades detailed on First Capital’s website,” the SEC charged. “Moreover, First Capital never was profitable.”

    Even after the scheme collapsed, Lowrance continued to solicit funds, telling some investors in early 2009 that “the millions lost [did] not shake [him],” the SEC charged.

    He urged investors that he had just acknowledged swindling to continue to have faith in him and said that he would trade foreign currency “to pay them back,” the SEC charged.

    When some of his investors told others that Lowrance had swindled them, Lowrance sent “purported updates to other investors disparaging the character of those persons who circulated his earlier admissions and disparaging the character of anyone who questioned L[o]wrance’s integrity,” the SEC charged.

    What he did not do was stop soliciting prospects for money and take his website offline. The site remained active until “at least” July 2010, despite the scheme’s 2008 collapse, the SEC charged.

    On March 5, 2009, a month after Lowrance acknowledged that investors had lost their money, the Netherlands bank account contained $121, the SEC charged.

    “In addition to failing to disclose First Capital’s true financial condition and operations to investors solicited between June 2008 and February 2009, Lowrance did not use any new investor money to trade foreign currency,” the SEC charged. “Rather, he used new investor money to pay himself, pay some 6 investors’ returns, and to pay for expenses associated with his start-up newspaper.”

    Also involved in the probe are the FBI and the IRS. Elements of the investigation were assembled by member agencies of the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force created by President Obama in 2009.

  • Tax Lien Was Filed Against Golden Panda’s Clarence Busby Prior To Lawsuit Autosurf Operator Filed Against Bank; Separately, Georgia Has Dissolved 2 Busby Firms And Says Biz Ad Splash ‘Surf Company In State Of Noncompliance

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Clarence Busby Jr., a figure associated with at least four autosurfs — AdSurfDaily, Golden Panda Ad Builder, LaFuenteDinero and BizAdSplash — has encountered a recent string of troubles, including a mortgage foreclosure and tax liens. Owing to his association with ASD President Andy Bowdoin, who operated ASD and LaFuenteDinero and once had a partnership with Busby in Golden Panda, Busby also was forced to spend an unknown sum on legal fees after the seizure of ASD- and Golden Panda-connected assets in 2008.

    Bowdoin said in September 2009 that he’d spent more than $1 million on legal fees in the first 13 months of ASD-related litigation. He was arrested on federal charges on Dec. 1, 2010, and had to arrange a bond of $350,000.  Sixteen days later — on December 17, 2010 — federal prosecutors filed yet another (the third) civil-forfeiture complaint against Bowdoin-connected assets. Bowdoin filed appeals in the first two forfeiture cases, losing both and driving up his legal costs.

    Despite the costly troubles encountered by both Bowdoin and Busby — and the remarkable staying power of those troubles, which next month will enter their fourth year — promoters on TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup and other Ponzi forums still are pushing autosurfs and HYIPs.

    They’re pushing them even though Bowdoin and others potentially face long prison sentences and have lost significant dollar sums and property as a result of their infatuation with what prosecutors have described as serial lawlessness.

    On July 6, a federal judge ordered Gregory N. McKnight, the operator of the Legisi HYIP Ponzi scheme, to pay more than $6.81 million in disgorgement and penalties. Like ASD and countless schemes, Legisi was promoted on TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup — and court filings in the Legisi case specifically reference MoneyMakerGroup.

    Still pushing ‘surfs and HYIPs?

    Apparently using a fill-in-the-blank litigation template, Clarence Busby Jr. sought foreclosure relief on a central Cobb County property in Marietta, Ga. Busby's filing also placed the property in Gwinnett County, which does not border Cobb County. (Graphic from Wikipedia.)

    When former autosurf operator Clarence Busby Jr. filed a lawsuit last year last seeking relief from from a bank and other parties involved in a mortgage foreclosure against him, he’d already been put on notice by the Internal Revenue Service that the agency intended to collect thousands of dollars in back taxes from him, according to records in Cobb County, Ga.

    The taxes were from 2009, according to records. During the same year, Busby launched an autosurf known as Biz Ad Splash — but the tax bill was for a different Busby entity.

    On Aug. 11, 2010, the IRS prepared a federal tax lien against Busby and a company known as Freedom Achievement LLC for $15,481. The lien was formally recorded on Aug. 26, 2010. A note on the lien described Busby as “SOLE MBR” of Freedom Achievement, whose business purpose was not immediately clear.

    About four months later — in December 2010 — Busby filed a pro se lawsuit demanding relief from Quicken Loans, OneWest Bank, MERSCorp and 1,000 “Doe” defendants in Cobb County Superior Court.

    OneWest and MERS responded in January 2011 by moving to have Busby’s case transferred to federal court in the Northern District of Georgia because the lawsuit named defendants in multiple states and involved a controversy that exceeded the sum of $75,000.

    Busby’s case was assigned to Senior U.S. District Judge Robert L. Vining Jr., who dismissed it for failure to state a claim. Beyond dismissing the lawsuit for failure to state a claim, Vining agreed with the defendants that Busby’s arguments had no legal merit. Busby’s pro se pleadings appeared to have come from a fill-in-the-blank legal kit.

    These words appeared on the first page of Busby’s complaint: “COMES NOW, name here, as plaintiff” — and Busby did not insert his name in the “name here” space.

    By contrast, some filings in the ASD/Golden Panda forfeiture case begin with these words, “COMES NOW, plaintiff United States of America, by and through its attorney.”

    The Busby complaint also claims the Busby property in dispute is located in “Gwinnett County.” The document claimed elsewhere that the property was located in the city of Marietta in “Cobb County,” the venue in which Busby sued.

    Marietta is situated in central Cobb County. Cobb County and Gwinnett County do not border one another. and the property is listed in Cobb County courthouse records, meaning it is possible that Busby used an existing legal template and never swapped out an existing reference to Gwinnett County — in the same manner in which he did not insert his name in the “name here” space.

    Whether Busby’s apparent fill-in-the-blank oversights added to the defendants’ costs in successfully defending against the lawsuit is unclear. What is clear is that Busby came out on the losing end and that the defendants referenced the IRS tax lien against Busby in Cobb County in their response to his complaint.

    Separately, the state of Georgia dissolved a Busby company known as Homeshare Investment Club Corp. The dissolution occurred on Sept. 13, 2010, less than a month after the IRS tax lien was filed against Freedom Achievement LLC, according to records.

    Records pertaining to Homeshare Investment Club show that it used the same address used by Busby in the formation of Biz Ad Splash NA LLC.

    BizAdSplash, or BAS, was an autosurf that ceased operating in January 2010. BAS launched in the aftermath of the ASD- and Golden Panda-related asset seizures. A separate address associated with the BAS filing in Georgia is the address of a maildrop in Kennesaw.

    BAS purported to operate offshore. Its apparent U.S. domestic brand is listed in noncompliance by the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brian P. Kemp.

    Members of BAS have complained to the PP Blog about not getting refunds from the autosurf. How much money the surf collected is unclear.

    At the same time the state of Georgia was dissolving Homeshare Investment Club, it also was dissolving another Busby enterprise: Ocean View Enterprises Inc.  Meanwhile, yet another Busby firm — Legacy Premier Properties Inc. — is listed in a state of noncompliance.

  • BULLETIN: ASDCashGenerator Website Is Active Again; Is A New ‘Program’ In The Offing? Page Is Accessible Through Old ASD Ad That Features Image Of Purported Club Asteria Owner; No Comment From Investigators

    This old ad for AdSurfDaily features an image of Hank Needham, the purported owner of Club Asteria. An ASD affiliate link in the ad summons ASD’s old ASDCashGenerator.com URL, which went dormant after the federal raid on ASD’s Florida headquarters in August 2008. In recent hours, however, the old ASDCashGenerator URL began to resolve to an apparent new business opportunity known as Ad Sales Daily International. Needham’s one-time tie to ASD leads to questions about whether Virginia-based Club Asteria, through Needham or ASD downline members, could have benefited from ASD cash prior to the federal seizure of tens of millions of dollars from the personal bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin nearly three years ago. The Club-Asteria domain name was registered in June 2009, the same month an autosurf with ASD connections known as AdViewGlobal collapsed. Club Asteria’s domain now is registered behind a proxy, but once was registered to Needham, according to web records.

    BULLETIN: (UPDATED 9:36 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A website identified in a 2008 forfeiture complaint as the site of a major financial crime allegedly engineered by AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin and unidentified co-conspirators is active again and appears to be redirecting traffic to an entity named “Ad Sales Daily International” (ASDI) and a second entity known as ASD2Day.

    “Make $10 per direct referral & $5 for every 2nd level indirect!” the site exclaims. “Recieve (sic) $2000 Account Initiation Credits! Hurry, while we are in pre-launch.”

    A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. in the District of Columbia declined to comment on the development, saying that ASD is part of an active investigation.

    The ASDI site is accessible through an affiliate link to Bowdoin’s old ASDCashGenerator.com site, which appears to have been re-registered in the name of Barbara Cruz, whose name previously has appeared in the context of ASD. The PP Blog accessed the ASDI site by clicking on an old ASDCashGenerator affiliate link . The link was within an ASD ad from 2008 that featured an image of Club Asteria’s purported owner Hank Needham.

    The ASD ad with Needham’s image positioned ASD as a “Perfectly Credible Business” and included a contact email address that used the characters “ptigold.” The ASD ad, however, does not load Needham’s name as an ASDI affiliate when the link is clicked. Instead, it loads the name of another individual. The reason was not immediately clear.

    This page for ASDI, an apparent upstart, is accessible when a link is clicked in an old ad for Andy Bowdoin's ASD Cash Generator program. The old ASD ad features a photo of Hank Needham, the purported owner of Club Asteria, but the ad does not load Needham's name as an ASDI affiliate when the link is clicked. Instead, the ad loads the name of another person. The reason was not immediately clear. Bowdoin is under federal indictment for wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. Questions have been raised about whether Club Asteria also was selling unregistered securities as part of a purported "passive" investment program.

    A separate link within the ad with Needham’s image forwards to a page that displays pornography ads.

    All or part of the old ASDCashGenerator site appears to be redirecting to the domain name of ASD2Day.com. In 2009, the ASD2Day site was registered with Cruz listed as the contact person at an address in Florida that state investigators had tied to a major insurance scam. Although Cruz now is listed as the registrant of the ASDCashGenerator site, the ASD2Day site is registered in the name of another individual.

    In October 2009, the PP Blog published a story about the ASD2Day site, which was making odd claims about the state of the ASD litigation a year after the federal seizure of Bowdoin’s assets and assets linked to Golden Panda Ad Builder, an autosurf implicated by the U.S. Secret Service in the ASD probe.

    ASD2Day.com claimed, among other things, that ASD could not be a Ponzi scheme because the script employed by the autosurfing firm could not be programmed to permit a Ponzi scheme to occur. It also made a puzzling claim that U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer was on an Aug. 28, 2009, deadline “to determine if the US Attorney General’s case against ASD should move forward.” (Also see this story and comments thread.)

    Collyer was on no such deadline. In January 2010, Collyer issued a forfeiture order that awarded $65.8 million seized from Bowdoin’s bank accounts to the U.S. government, which is using the seized money to compensate victims of ASD. In July 2009, Collyer issued a forfeiture order for more than $14 million linked to Golden Panda, ASD’s one-time purported “Chinese” option.

    The ASD ad that featured Needham’s image also made a veiled reference to Golden Panda.

    A section of the ad read, “OPENING IN CHINA[:] July 2008.”

    Undercover agents from a Secret Service/IRS task force began to investigate ASD and Golden Panda on July 3, 2008, according to court filings. The court process of seizing cash linked to both entities began on Aug. 1, 2008, with the issuance of seizure warrants.

    It appears to be the case that all old ASD Cash Generator affiliate links, including the links in the ad that featured Needham’s photograph, now load the new ASDI webpage at the old ASD Cash Generator URL.

    Claims made about Club Asteria are under investigation by Italian authorities. Club Asteria first slashed payouts to members then reportedly suspended them for 60 days. The firm also reportedly has had its PayPal account frozen.

    Like ASD, Club Asteria was promoted on Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

    In a video dated July 8, a Club Asteria executive claimed the firm had “a philanthropic foundation both domestically and internationally where we help causes all over the world.”

    Among the claims in the video, which appeared online after Club Asteria reportedly suspended payouts, was this one:

    “We donate cows and pigs and water buffaloes and camels to help families all over the world.”

    Virginia-based Club Asteria trades on the name of the World Bank. Members said payments came from an entity known as Asteria Holdings Limited (Hong Kong) — before the payments stopped.

    One of Club Asteria’s principal concerns, according to a new video, is children.

    Investigators long have fretted that some promoters of online business “opportunities” simply race from fraud scheme to fraud scheme, collecting commissions for introducing others to “programs” that prove to be scams.

    Like the now-collapsed AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, Club Asteria has blamed its reported problems on members. AVG had promoters and members in common with Bowdoin’s ASD, which the Secret Service described as a massive international Ponzi scheme.

    Among other things, AVG plucked the heartstrings of members by telling them that the company was interested in saving the rain forest.

  • TV, Web Pitchman Donald Lapre Arraigned In ‘Medical Facility’ After Arrest By Federal Agents; Accused Huckster Recovering From ‘Self-Inflicted’ Wounds To Legs After Missing Court Date

    Donald Lapre. From vitamin promo.

    He called it “The Greatest Vitamin in the World.” Federal prosecutors in Arizona, however, called it conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, promotional money-laundering and transactional money-laundering, accusing Donald Lapre of selling “essentially worthless” Internet businesses to more than 226,000 victims.

    And now Lapre, 47, is under arrest. Prosecutors said he skipped a June 22 court date, a decision that caused an arrest warrant to be issued, a “Wanted” poster to be created and a brief manhunt to ensue.

    Lapre was arrested on June 23. Prosecutors, who earlier advised the public that Lapre may be suicidal, said he was found with “self-inflicted” wounds to his legs and taken to a hospital. He was arraigned inside a “medical facility” by a federal magistrate judge yesterday.

    Tens and tens of thousands of Lapre’s customers were defrauded out of nearly $52 million after responding to his TV and web pitches, prosecutors said.

    Customers lured by the prospect of receiving “$1,000 checks” were dubbed “independent advertisers,” but Lapre provided them “false vitamin sales records” and sold them “bulk,” untargeted web traffic while claiming the traffic was targeted, prosecutors said.

    “The ‘business’ primarily consisted of selling the Greatest Vitamin in the World . . . over the Internet and the opportunity to sell the opportunity to do the same thing to others,” prosecutors said.

    Sales reps “regularly” signed up “independent advertisers” even if they did not own a computer, prosecutors said.

    “Mr. Lapre used incessant nationally televised infomercials to hawk his vitamins and worthless websites as a way to get rich quick without working hard,” said U.S. Attorney Dennis K. Burke of the District of Arizona. “His scams swindled a sea of victims, but thanks to the efforts of the [U.S.] Postal Inspection Service and the IRS, he will face justice.”

    Lapre was charged in a 41-count indictment issued by a federal grand jury earlier this month. He potentially faces decades in prison, if convicted on all counts.

    Fox 10 News in Phoenix reported that Lapre hid from authorities in a 24-hour gym.

    Read a 2005 enforcement letter from the FDA to Lapre.

    Marshals: Wanted Man Camped Out Inside Gym: MyFoxPHOENIX.com

  • BULLETIN: Nevin Shapiro, Operator Of $930 Million ‘Grocery’ Ponzi Scheme, Sentenced To 20 Years In Federal Prison; Fraudster ‘Used Other People’s Money To Live A Fantasy Life,’ U.S. Attorney Says

    BULLETIN: Nevin Shapiro, the Florida-based operator of a bizarre “grocery” Ponzi scheme that gathered nearly $1 billion and caused losses approaching $100 million, has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.

    Shapiro, 42, was charged by federal prosecutors in New Jersey last year after investigations by the FBI and the IRS. He pleaded guilty in September to one count of securities fraud and one count of money-laundering. All in all, the scheme brought in $930 million, prosecutors said.

    The SEC also sued Shapiro.

    “Nevin Shapiro used other people’s money to live a fantasy life built on false promises to unsuspecting victims,” said U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.

    Elements of the case were brought by the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force established by President Obama in November 2009.

    Shapiro operated a company known as Capitol Investments USA Inc., which purported to be in the wholesale grocery business.

    In reality, prosecutors said, Capitol “had virtually no income-generating business” between January 2005 and November 2009 — and Shapiro was running a colossal Ponzi scheme to fund his extravagant personal spending and penchant for gambling.

    At least $5 million evaporated when Shapiro stole from investors to pay illegal sports bets. He stole $26,000 a month to pay the mortgage on his Miami Beach home, which has been appraised at $5 million. Meanwhile, he stole $400,000 to pay for floor seats to watch the Miami Heat play basketball, while stealing $7,250 a month to make payments on his yacht and $4,700 a month to make payments on a leased Mercedes.

    Shapiro also lavished celebrities and sports figures, including college athletes, with gifts, prosecutors said.

    By the time the scheme collapsed and investor losses were totaled, Shapiro had stolen more than $82 million. He was ordered by U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton to make restitution in the amount of $82.6 million.

    Prior to his arrest, he told investors one of the reasons they weren’t getting their payments was that his accountant was “on vacation,” prosecutors said.

  • BULLETIN: Thanh Viet Jeremy Cao Pleads Guilty In False Liens Case; Ponzi Schemer Admits He Filed 22 Bogus Claims For Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars Against Public Officials

    BULLETIN: Thanh Viet Jeremy Cao, the California Ponzi schemer sentenced last month to 30 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $12.4 million in restitution, has pleaded guilty in a separate fraud case.

    Federal prosecutors in Nevada alleged last year that Cao filed nearly two dozen bogus liens against SEC attorneys, federal judges, federal magistrate judges, a U.S. Attorney, assistant U.S. Attorneys, U.S. Secret Service special agents and special agents of the IRS.

    In an agreement with prosecutors, Cao pleaded guilty today to six counts of filing false liens against public officials. He admitted he filed 22 false liens in all, the Justice Department, the IRS and the Office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said.

    The bizarre Cao saga began in 2007, when the SEC named him a defendant in a fraud lawsuit. At the time, Cao also was under criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California and the Secret Service for the same fraud scheme — and by the IRS for a tax scheme.

    Cao went on a lien-filing spree in retaliation for the various investigations, claiming in Nevada that various public officials were “debtors” who owed him sums ranging from $25 million to $300 million, according to records.

    Sentencing in the false-liens case is scheduled for Sept. 21 in Las Vegas.

    Cao’s 30-year prison sentence in the Ponzi case was one of the longest sentences in the history of federal white-collar prosecutions in Southern California.

    To keep victims in a state of terror, Cao said he knew people who previously had “chopped up” a baby in front of the baby’s parents, and then killed the baby’s mother, prosecutors said.

    Those threats led to an extortion and firearms case brought by the state of California.

    And Cao dialed up the terror by referencing an “assassination” and “fatal car accident.” When he was arrested, “he possessed a loaded firearm, and body armor and other firearms were found at his residence,” prosecutors said.