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Tag: JBP

  • RECEIVER: AlertPay And SolidTrustPay May Hold Additional Zeek Assets; Forensic Team Is Working ‘To Investigate And Seize These Funds’

    EDITOR’S NOTE: One way to read a report filed yesterday by the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi-scheme case is as a warning manual that brings to life the kind of vexing problems HYIP schemes create for operators, vendors and participants — including “insiders.” Kenneth D. Bell’s report to Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen of North Carolina strongly hints that the receivership has identified “key insiders.” Their names have not been published in court filings . . .

    recommendedreading1UPDATED 4 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Although early filings last year in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme case suggested that offshore payment processors Alert Pay (Payza) and Solid Trust Pay held more than $40 million connected to Zeek, the court-appointed receiver has advised a federal judge that the two processors may hold even more than originally believed.

    Both AlertPay and SolidTrustPay operate from Canada. Their names appear constantly in Ponzi-board promos for fraud schemes. The companies’ names also have appeared in court filings related to various HYIP schemes, including the alleged $72 million Pathway To Prosperity fraud in 2010 and the $119 million AdSurfDaily fraud in 2008.

    In 2009, while the ASD case was still in the courts, some members of AdSurfDaily received mysterious “final refunds” from SolidTrustPay through an STP-connected email address of oceannamusic@xplornet.com. The purported pro rata refunds led to questions about whether some ASD members were benefiting at the expense of others while the case still was in the U.S. courts and whether ASD actually had money in SolidTrustPay under the name of a different company or a user other than President Andy Bowdoin. (See July 2009 post by PP Blog guest columnist Gregg Evans here.)

    Later, an emerging scam known as JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid purportedly operated by former ASD pitchman Frederick Mann began to use the offshore processors — amid claims from JSS/JPB pitchmen that they not only were recruiting for JSS/JBP, but also managing both the JSS/JBP accounts of their sign-ups and the payment-processor accounts of the sign-ups.

    Because HYIP schemes proliferate in part through the willful blindness of promoters and serial con artists, a situation has evolved over the years in which fraudulent proceeds circulate between and among scams and their individual promoters. “Alan Chapman,” a Zeek pitchman, also was promoting JSS/JPB and a follow-up scam known as “ProfitClicking,” for instance. Serial huckster “Ken Russo” also promoted Zeek and JSS/JBP — and many more schemes, including ASD and Profitable Sunrise, which the SEC described last month as a scam that may have gathered tens of millions of dollars.

    But a new filing by Kenneth D. Bell, the Zeek receiver, suggests that the receivership may seek to foreclose any after-the-fact opportunities for offshore processors to duck their responsibilities to the receivership estate and for holders of the offshore accounts to benefit from Zeek after the SEC brought spectacular allegations of Ponzi- and pyramid fraud against Zeek in August 2012.

    Zeek, the SEC said last year, was a $600 million fraud scheme that used at least 15 foreign and domestic financial institutions.

    A forensic accounting has led Bell to believe that “both Payza and SolidTrustPay may have additional Receivership assets.”

    In a report to Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen, Bell said he is working “to investigate and seize these funds.”

    And, Bell advised Mullen, “[t]o the extent these entities allowed affiliates to withdraw funds after receiving notice of the Receivership, the Receiver may seek reimbursement of indemnification for the funds from the payment service providers.”

    If Bell somehow is able to foreclose chicanery involving serial Ponzi pitchmen and the scamming insiders with offshore accounts, it could go a long way toward minimizing the spread of fraud schemes over the Internet.

    Bell’s April 30 filing also reveals that the receivership has recovered $291,000 from a “merchant services account reserve” that had been held by American Express for Rex Venture Group, Zeek’s parent company. At the same time, it reveals that Bell — to date — has recovered $36,000 from Zeek net winners in prelitigation settlements. That number may grow. The deadline to enter into negotiations for a prelitigation settlement is May 31.

    More than anything, though, Bell’s report to the court showcases the enormous problems created by HYIP schemes. Among the problems outlined in the filing:

    Potentially costly and time-consuming litigation disputes for all parties. Zeek operator Paul Burks is claiming privilege on certain matters. Some Zeek “winners” have filed motions that could slow down the refund process for Zeek victims at large.

    Taxes: Zeek appears to have misclassified certain employees as independent contractors, which has tax ramifications.

    Incomplete records. Because of poor records at Zeek, some members who received 1099 tax forms from the receivership received forms that showed earnings either higher or lower than actual earnings. The receivership has prepared amended 1099s for certain Zeek members.

    Possible disputes with vendors. Bell’s report noted that USHBB Inc. asserted it was owed $878,856 by Zeek. USHBB produced video promos for Zeek. In September 2012, the PP Blog reported that Zeek once listed USHBB executive OH Brown as an employee. Meanwhile, USHBB once produced videos for a collapsed MLM scheme known as Narc That Car.)

    Clawback litigation: In the absence of settlements, the receiver potentially could file actions that involve thousands of Zeek affiliates in possession of ill-gotten gains from the scheme.

    Read the receiver’s April 30 filing. (Our thanks to the ASD Updates Blog for providing the filing.)

    Visit the receivership website.

     

     

     

  • INCREDIBLE: JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid Operator Frederick Mann Now Billed As Pitchman For Upstart Scheme Known As ‘ClickPaid’

    Frederick Mann is back, according to "ClickPaid."
    Frederick Mann is back, according to “ClickPaid.”

    UPDATED 8:51 A.M. ET (FEB. 20, U.S.A.) Frederick Mann, a former pitchman for the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and the operator of the bizarre JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid “program” that advertised a return of 2 percent a day and morphed into a “program” known as “ProfitClicking” in the days after the SEC called rival HYIP Zeek Rewards a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme in August 2012, is back, according to promos for a new “opportunity” known as “ClickPaid.”

    The news comes as ProfitClicking appears to be in a state of collapse. Like ASD, Zeek, JSS/JBP and ProfitClicking before it, ClickPaid has a presence on the MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold Ponzi forums. Mann purportedly “retired” from JSS/JBP last year, but not before claiming that government workers  were part of  “a criminal gang of robbers, thieves, murderers, liars, imposters.”

    Frederick Mann
    Frederick Mann

    He also speculated that the U.S. government could target JSS/JBP’s servers in a “cruise missile” attack.

    Mann is believed to be in his eighties and, at a minimum, to be sympathetic to the “sovereign citizens” movement. At the time of this post, ClickPaid is showcasing a ProfitClicking-like launch-countdown timer on its website. Visitors are invited to listen to a “World Wide Pre Launch Live Broadcast Call with Frederick Mann” tomorrow. A tab/subtab on the website styled “MEDIA/Upcoming Events” claims Mann will “personally” introduce “Click Paidto [sic] the world” tomorrow and will be featured on “the live launch call” Feb. 27.

    The ClickPaid Terms — like the Terms of JSS/JBP and ProfitClicking — makes members affirm they are not with the “government.”

    If the nongovernment affirmation were not enough, Click Paid also says it reserves the right to enroll Click Paid members in other programs. (Verbatim/italics added):

    19. From time to time, the Click Paid managers may import the entire Click Paid membership into another program, maintaining the Click Paid genealogy. This will also be done on the basis that people imported into the other program will have to activate their accounts by a certain deadline in order to become members of the other program. If they don’t activate their accounts by the deadline, they will be dropped from the other program. One benefit of this procedure is that Click Paid members receive their Click Paid downline in the other program (to the extent that accounts are activated). Another benefit is that those who don’t want to be in the new program will be dropped automatically if they do nothing. Prior to such an import,Click Paid managers will inform all Click Paid members via email and in the Member Area of the expected import and the reasons for it. Subsequent to the import, managers of the other program will email those imported from Click Paid to explain the benefits of the other program, and to provide them with the procedure to activate their accounts, should they wish to become members of the other program. More than one email may be sent by the managers of the other program. (Click Paid members who don’t activate their accounts in the other program by the deadline will be dropped from that program.) Click Paid members agree to receive the emails referred to in this rule 19. (Privacy: Any import per this rule 19 will be on the basis that the managers of the other program will not abuse the Click Paid email addresses in any way. Once the deadline has been reached, all unactivated accounts in the other program will be deleted and the email addresses for these deleted accounts will not be retained by managers of the other program.)

  • UPDATE: Launch Of JSS/JBP Follow-Up Scam (ProfitClicking) Under Way — Sort Of

    The launch of “ProfitClicking,” the follow-up scam to the JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid HYIP scheme (2 percent a day) purportedly operated by Frederick Mann, is under way.

    Sort of.

    Carl Pearson in his JSS/JBP days.

    Just who’s running ProfitClicking is unclear, although the site has claimed that cash-gifting enthusiast J.J. Ulrich is the “PC Executive Director” and that Carl Pearson is on the “Management Team.” Pearson purportedly was the one-time COO of JSS/JBP, which experienced a promotional ban in Italy by the securities regulator CONSOB.

    Mann hinted last month that he feared arrest in the United States. He previously speculated that the JSS/JBP site could be taken out by “cruise missiles.” Some JSS/JBP members complained that their support tickets hadn’t been addressed in weeks.

    Rather than hold JSS/JBP responsibile, Mann suggested, it perhaps was best for members to read a self-improvement manual.

    ProfitClicking’s site had featured a countdown clock for days, with the launch set to go live at 6 a.m. (EDT) today. Despite claims by ProfitClicking that new servers and a new engineering approach would make for a seamless experience, the site experienced an immediate meltdown — with the landing page defaulting to a “Block DOS” gateway.

    The site did begin to load slowly within a few minutes, but members immediately complained on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum that they couldn’t log in. Members now are saying that they can log in but that the site is performing worse than dial-up.

    Whether members’ data was transferred properly from the JSS/JBP site to the ProfitClicking site remains an open question. Like JSS/JBP, ProfitClicking makes members affirm they are not with the “government.” The site also seeks to disclaim any responsibility on the part of the “opportunity” or its affiliates for offering the “program.”

    As JSS/JBP’s purported owner, Mann compared government workers to the Mafia. Regardless, he once permitted JSS/JBP’s conference-call host to hang up on a man who claimed to have been recruited by Mann and later to have suffered a stroke. Prior to being unceremoniously disconnected from the call, the man informed Mann that JSS/JBP support had ignored his pleas for help.

    A woman who complained about support after claiming her sister’s home was at risk because of the JSS/JBP “program” was treated rudely during an earlier call — this after she pointed out she had a heart condition.

    Among the apparent early aims of ProfitClicking is to permit members to fund accounts, but not withdraw. Such an approach is consistent with an effort to draft suckers into turning over money that may or may not be used at a later time to make Ponzi payments to people who bought into the JSS/JBP scam. AdSurfDaily, a ProfitClicking-like autosurf, scammed its members in this fashion in 2007, according to U.S. federal court files.

    Mann was a former ASD pitchman, according to a 2008 promo.

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin never told his new members that their money would be used to pay old members on board when the original iteration of ASD collapsed, federal prosecutors said. Bowdoin was sentenced last month to 78 months in federal prison.

    All sorts of vacuous claims are made on the ProfitClicking site, including a claim that the purported opportunity is “Legally Compliant” and has a “Patented system.” Like JSS/JBP, ASD and the recently collapsed Zeek Rewards “program,” ProfitClicking has no known securities registrations and purports to do business with payment processors linked to fraud scheme after fraud scheme.

    Because ProfitClicking has a virtually unquantifiable number of HYIP scammers within its ranks owing to the fact it was formed from the carcass of JSS/JBP and was promoted widely on the Ponzi-forum cesspits, new members may be at grave risk. ProfitClicking’s original group of scammers has a vested interest in continuing the deception because attracting “new money” may be the only means of getting paid in the future.

    For posterity, the screen shots below provide a snapshot of the countdown of a new scam in progress:

    1.

    The ProfitClicking countdown timer at the 1:00 mark today.

    2.

    The ProfitClicking countdown timer at the 0:01 mark today, one second before launch.

    3.

    Time to scam anew!

  • ZEEK: Now, A Problem With ‘Mislabeled’ Purchases, MLM ‘Opportunity’ Married To Penny-Auction Site Says

    After wrapping itself in the American flag on Memorial Day and authoring a vague announcement that it “will be closing our old accounts” at two named U.S. banks and transitioning to an unnamed bank “that can handle our growing needs,” the Zeek Rewards MLM “program” now says it experienced a problem with “mislabeled” credit-card purchases.

    Zeek blamed a vendor for the problem, which resulted in Zeek purchases being mislabeled as purchases from a company named “Zonalibre1,” Zeek said.

    “We have just been informed that our credit card processing mis labeled [sic] zeek purchases with the company name Zonalibre1 for the past 15 hours,” Zeek said on its news Blog last night. “This is currently being corrected on all billing statements. If you have purchased anything from zeek in the past 15 to 20 hours and have a ‘Zonalibre1’ charge for the same dollar amount as your zeek purchase, please do not dispute the charge.”

    “Zona Libre” is a Spanish phrase that means “free zone.” Zeek did not say who informed it about the problem. Nor did it identify the vendor or say whether it was using a U.S. domestic or offshore processor to handle credit card transactions.

    Zeek announced Monday that it was dumping two U.S. banks, adding a layer of mystery by saying it “is currently in the process of moving to a bank” — but not saying whether its new bank was U.S. domestic or offshore.

    A Zeek-related business known as Zeekler is a penny-auction site. Among other things, Zeekler puts up for bid sums of U.S. currency, saying successful bidders can receive their winnings via the payment processors AlertPay (now Payza) and SolidTrustPay. Both firms are offshore from a U.S. perspective and have gained reputations as enablers of fraud schemes.

    Among the many other Ponzi-forum promoted “programs” that use AlertPay and SolidTrustPay is JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, which purportedly is operated by Frederick Mann and may have ties to the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement. JSS/JBP purports to pay 2 percent a day. “Sovereign citizens” have an irrational belief that laws do not apply to them.

    Promos in 2008 identified Mann as a pitchman for AdSurfDaily, which the U.S. Secret Service described as a “criminal enterprise” and Ponzi scheme that had gathered at least $110 million online. ASD is known to have had “sovereign citizens” in its ranks. ASD President Andy Bowdoin pleaded guilty to wire fraud last month, acknowledging that ASD was a Ponzi scheme that had defrauded participants from Day One of its operation, beginning in late 2006.

    Some former ASD affiliates also are known to be promoting Zeek. Included among them are Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer, who sued the United States last year for alleged misdeeds in bringing the ASD Ponzi case. One text ad for Zeek that includes a photo of Schweitzer includes this phrase (italics added):

    “I earn 1%+ a day compounded & you can too!”

    Schweitzer is a former attorney whose license was suspended in Connecticut. Disner is a co-founder of the Quiznos sandwich franchise.

    Both Zeek Rewards and Zeekler say they are part of an entity known as Rex Venture Group. Rex operates in North Carolina, the same state in which the banks it announced it was dumping operate. On Monday, Zeek instructed customers to “Please be sure to deposit or cash any commission checks immediately so they clear before June 1st, 2012 or they will be returned to you with ‘account closed’ and will need to be reissued.”

    Two days later — on Wednesday, during evening hours in the United States — Zeek issued a strange announcement that used the term “claw-back.” “Clawback” is a word often associated with Ponzi schemes. For instance, if investors in Ponzi schemes emerge as winners among a pool of losers, the government or court-appointed receivers may file clawback lawsuits that demand the return of funds from winners as a means of ensuring that all victims of a fraud scheme are treated equally.

    Here, in one instance, is how Zeek used the term (italics added):

    “As you know, we are currently in the process of transferring accounts to our new banks. While we will be able to resume check runs when the transfers are finalized, we do not want to cause any additional delay to our affiliates who are waiting for their May 21st or 28th commission checks. Therefore we are going to be issuing a claw-back of all requested checks into a special Zeek portal where any affiliate who is awaiting a physical check can instead choose their preferred eWallet for their commission payment. All three fully integrated eWallets (below) will be made available for this and future paydays.

    • SolidTrust Pay
    • AlertPay

    Although Zeek initially said on Wednesday it had three eWallet providers, it now appears to be referencing only two — apparently editing its original news-Blog post. (In the original announcement Wednesday, Zeek also listed NXPay.)

    Adding another layer of mystery to Wednesday’s announcement was Zeek’s use of the plural “banks” in the context of its transition to new service-providers. On Monday, Zeek used the singular “bank,” implying that it was selecting a single new bank to handle its needs.

    Zeek affiliates have a presence on well-known Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup, forums whose members promote “programs” that purportedly offer returns that are both unusually consistent and outsize — typically at preposterous ROIs that exceed 1 percent a day.

    Affiliates of Zeek say the Zeek “program” pays out between 1 percent and 2 percent a day, although Zeek claims it is not an investment program and has preemptively denied it is a pyramid scheme.

    Among Zeek’s claimed consultants are the MLM law firm of Gerald Nehra, and purported MLM expert Keith Laggos. Both Nehra and Laggos ventured opinions that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme. Disner and Schweitzer pointed to those opinions when suing the United States in November 2011.

    The government has moved for dismissal of the lawsuit, pointing to Bowdoin’s guilty plea and acknowledgement that ASD was a Ponzi scheme. Among other things, Disner and Schweitzer argued that undercover agents who joined ASD prior to the seizure of $65.8 million in the personal bank accounts of Bowdoin violated ASDs Terms of Service and had a duty to report their alleged violations to ASD.

    Disner and Schweitzer also sued Rust Consulting Inc., the government-approved claims administrator in the ASD case. A federal judge dismissed Rust as a defendant weeks ago.

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: JSS/JBP’s Frederick Mann Admits Program Is Not Registered; Government Workers ‘Part Of A Criminal Gang Of Robbers, Thieves, Murderers, Liars, Imposters,’ Program Patriarch Says

    URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING:

    (UPDATED 10:56 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, acknowledged in a conference call last night that the program that advertises a return of 60 percent a month is not registered with regulators. The acknowledgement, which potentially puts promoters worldwide at risk of being drawn into both civil and criminal prosecutions for selling unregistered securities and participating in a global financial conspiracy, occurred near the tail end of a call that lasted nearly an hour and a half.

    JSS/JBP may have ties to the “sovereign citizen” movement, a loosely knit confederation of individuals who have an irrational belief that laws do not apply to them. The enterprise does not say where it is operating from and is using a number of payment processors that are “offshore” from a U.S. perspective.

    A caller who identified himself as “Brian” from California asked Mann straight out if JSS/JBP was “legally registered.”

    “You may have it backward,” Mann replied. “If you are legally registered, then you’ve signed up to be a slave, part of the slave system, and then they have jurisdiction over you and can shut you down.”

    Earlier in the call — in response to a question from “Ricky” about why the JSS/JBP member agreement makes enlistees affirm they are not employees or officials of the “government” — Mann said this:

    “In general, government people are not welcome in JBP.”

    And then Mann explained why.

    “Well, they’re part of a criminal gang of robbers, thieves, murderers, liars, imposters.”

    Mann also said this: “These people are much worse than the Mafia.”

    He conceded that some government employees might be good people. Mann also implied that, if a government employee signed up for JSS/JBP and later became a witness against the company, JSS/JBP would be able to challenge the credibility of the witness because of the firm’s member agreement.

    In February, Gregory McKnight, the operator of the $72 million Legisi HYIP Ponzi scheme, pleaded guilty to wire fraud. Legisi had member terms similar to JSS/JBP. The terms neither insulated Legisi nor McKnight from prosecution.

    After Mann compared the government to the Mafia,  a caller who identified himself as “Richard” from “Phoenix” described Mann as a “savior for the world.”

    JSS/JBP purports to provide a preposterous daily return of 2 percent — twice that of AdSurfDaily, a $110 million Ponzi scheme that came under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Secret Service in 2008. ASD President Andy Bowdoin pleaded guilty last week to wire fraud.

    Mann, identified in 2008 promos as an ASD pitchman, said last night that ASD “basically operated as a sitting duck.”

    Asked by a caller if JSS/JBP had lawyers to protect itself, Mann said this:

    “Typically, lawyers are part of the slave system.”

    And Mann speculated that the government could fire “cruise missiles” to take out a building in the Netherlands “where our servers are.”

    Mann implied during the call that JSS/JBP had studied the ASD Ponzi case and had taken measures not to get swept into a Ponzi probe.

    ASD was a “very badly managed business,” Mann said, adding that JSS/JBP had “much better security than the typical registered company.”

     

  • WILL JSS/JBP AND ‘ONEX’ MEMBERS PAY ATTENTION? Andy Bowdoin’s Plea Agreement Bans Him From MLM, Internet Programs And Mass Marketing; ‘I Am Pleading Guilty Because I Am In Fact Guilty . . .,’ AdSurfDaily Patriarch Tells Judge

    Under the terms of his plea agreement, AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin effectively has been banned from multilevel marketing, Internet opportunities and businesses that employ mass marketing.

    The agreement contains this provision, and Bowdoin consented to it in writing as a condition of release before he is formally sentenced: “Your client shall not participate in any business venture using the internet, multi-level marketing, or mass marketing.” (Italics added.)

    Language in the agreement suggests the bans could last until Bowdoin is well into his eighties — until Bowdoin, now 77, serves any prison or probationary term imposed. No sentencing date has been scheduled. Bowdoin’s next court date is set for June 12 “to determine if he should be incarcerated pending his sentencing,” federal prosecutors said.

    Bowdoin pleaded guilty yesterday to wire fraud for the web-based ASD scam.  The information in the numbered entries (below) was confirmed by Bowdoin himself in a “Statement of Offense” that bears his signature. It is in stark contrast to earlier online claims by the ASD patriarch that he had been railroaded and that ASD members should send him money to pay for his criminal defense.

    Second Key Win For Government

    Bowdoin’s guilty plea marked the second recent win by the government in a major online HYIP case. Gregory N. McKnight, the operator of the Legisi HYIP and Ponzi scheme, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in February. The Legisi and ASD schemes fetched a combined haul of more than $180 million, according to court filings. Bowdoin’s scheme was a form of HYIP fraud known as “autosurfing” in which participants were promised enormous returns for viewing advertisements. The schemes spread in part through social networking and shilling sites such as the TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup forums.

    The U.S. Secret Service was involved in both the ASD  and Legisi probes.

    ASD Discussed In HYIP’s Conference Call Day Before Bowdoin Guilty Plea

    A current HYIP scheme known as JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid continues to make inroads online. Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSS/JBP, was identified in 2008 promos as an ASD pitchman. Bowdoin’s legal problems were among the subjects of a JSS/JBP conference call Thursday that appeared to be heavily populated by U.S. residents, including some who expressed worry about the “program.” JSS/JBP purports to provide a daily return of 2 percent, twice that of ASD.

    Less than 24 hours after Thurday’s JSS/JBP call ended, Bowdoin pleaded guilty in open court and subjected himself to a possible prison term of 78 months, along with three years’ supervised release. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Bowdoin potentially faces court supervision for the next 9 and a half years.

    During Thursday’s call, Mann — an older man, like Bowdoin  — did not rule out the possibility that his program could encounter an ASD-like intervention by the government.

    “The slavemasters don’t want their slaves to escape,” Mann said, casting the U.S. government as wicked.

    “What you need to realize is that the de facto U.S. Constitution is ‘anything goes’ that we can get away with. So, that’s how Obama operates. That’s how Romney would operate if he were elected President. That’s how George Bush operates.”

    Like ASD, JSS/JBP may have ties or be sympathetic to the so-called “sovereign citizen” movement. “Sovereign citizens” have an irrational belief that laws do not apply to them. JSS/JBP is so secretive that the “opportunity” does not identify where it is operating from and makes members affirm they are not with the “government.”

    After a caller asked Mann Thursday about ASD, Mann said this:

    “If they want to arrest people and take their money, they will find some pretext.”

    HYIPs operate as virtually pure Ponzi schemes. Victims can pile up by the tens of thousands in a single scheme. The schemes redistribute wealth from the masses and put it in the hands of a select few.

    Bowdoin’s Statement

    ASD's Andy Bowdoin

    Before getting into some of the specifics of Bowdoin’s signed statement — a statement also signed by Bowdoin’s attorney Charles A. Murray and a federal prosecutor — it perhaps is worth noting that Bowdoin’s plea agreement contains this provision to which Bowdoin agreed in writing: “Your client represents to the Court that his attorney has rendered effective assistance.” (Italics added.)

    Though boilerplate  language, it is important in the context of Bowdoin’s history. Indeed, he has a history of publicly blaming lawyers for his problems. In 2011, for example, he appeared in a video solicitation in which he asked the people he now admits he defrauded to pay for his criminal defense. Bowdoin blamed his prior counsel, a federal judge, two federal prosecutors and three agents of the U.S. Secret Service for his predicament. The final page of the plea agreement contains this language to which Bowdoin agreed in writing:

    “I have read this Plea Agreement and discussed it with my attorneys, Michael McDonnell, Esq. and Charles Murray, Esq. I fully understand this Plea Agreement and agree to it without reservation. I do this voluntarily and of my own free will, intending to be legally bound. No threats have been made against me nor am I under the influence of anything that could impede my ability to understand this Plea Agreement fully. I am pleading guilty because I am in fact guilty of the offense(s) identified in this Plea Agreement.” (Italics/bolding added)

    Because of the plea agreement and the MLM/Internet/mass-marketing bans, Bowdoin’s role as an an online pitchman for a program known as “OneX” has ended.

    In essence, because of what Bowdoin did in ASD — and allegedly what he continued to do even after being arrested for running a Ponzi scheme — Bowdoin has been banned from MLM, kicked out of the business side of the Web and barred from making mass solicitations in any form.

    Prosecutors said last month that OneX was a “fraudulent scheme” and “pyramid” that was recycling money to members in ASD-like fashion. Bowdoin was arrested on ASD-related charges in December 2010. In October 2011 — 10 months after his arrest — he told OneX prospects that God had provided the OneX program and that he intended to use money from the scheme to pay for his criminal defense.

    On Tuesday — just three days before Bowdoin pleaded guilty to a felony for his operation of ASD — a fellow OneX pitchman described Bowdoin as “our Mentor.”

    Here, now, some highlights from Bowdoin’s signed “Statement of Offense” — along with editorial notes. Bolding added by the PP Blog . . .

    1.) “Bowdoin called ASD’s operation a revenue-sharing advertising program . . .” (NOTE: All kinds of HYIP schemes use the phrase “revenue sharing” as a means of masking the Ponzi elements. The phrase, for example, appears on the website of JSS/JBP. It “works” because it sounds plausible. After all, many businesses share revenue legally. The connection many new HYIP enlistees do not make is that scammers have co-opted the term to sanitize their fraud schemes.)

    2.) “But, contrary to its representations, the advertising packages sold by ASD generated insufficient revenue to fund the returns it promised to the members. Instead, ASD operated as a ‘Ponzi’ scheme.” (NOTE: ASD members Dwight Owen Schweitzer and Todd Disner sued the government last year, alleging that ASD was a legitimate business. Bowdoin now publicly disagrees with them, based on his admission that ASD was a Ponzi scheme.)

    3.) “Throughout ASD’s operation, Bowdoin was aware that ASD was an illegal money making business, and that he was intentionally defrauding ASD members.”

    4.) ASD, according to Bowdoin’s statement, actually gathered more than “$119 million” from members. (NOTE: This figure is about $9 million higher than the rough amount of $110 million cited by the government in previous filings. The PP Blog will check next week to see if it can confirm that the $119 million figure is the final sum identified after investigation. As things stand, both Bowdoin and the government agree on the $119 million figure.)

    5.) ASD made more than $45 million in Ponzi payments and spent more than $10 million on operations. About $1.161 million was directed at Bowdoin or his family.

    6.) During ASD’s initial iteration at AdSurfDaily.com, Bowdoin realized “[a]fter only a few months of operation” that ASD was in over its head “because he was not selling any independent products or services sufficient to generate an income stream needed to support the returns and commissions ASD was paying . . .” (NOTE: The JSS/JBP scheme has a commission-payout scheme (two tiers, one paying 10 percent the other 5 percent) that is virtually identical to ASD. Incredibly, JSS/JBP  says it can pay double ASD’s daily return of 1 percent on top of the two-tiered commissions.)

    7.) “In approximately March 2007, Bowdoin ceased ASD’s operations because it was paying out money to its employees and members faster than it was taking in new money.” (NOTE: Bowdoin’s concession proves the government’s longstanding theory that ASD collapsed in its original iteration because of the Ponzi pressure. At one point, according to court filings, Bowdoin blamed ASD’s inability to pay on script problems and a purported theft of $1 million by “Russian” hackers.)

    8.) Bowdoin — instead of getting out of the Ponzi business — thereafter launched ASD under a new name at a new website: ASDCashGenerator.com. Bowdoin, according to his statement, admits he made some cosmetic tweaks — lowering the return from 150 percent to 125 percent, for example. “By not changing ASD’s business model in any meaningful way, Bowdoin continued to intentionally defraud members.” (NOTE: It is common in the HYIP fraud sphere for “admins” to claim they’ve employed tweaks to take Ponzi issues out of play. An obvious Ponzi scheme known as JSS Tripler 2 appears recently to have employed some Bowdoin-like tweaks, including a name change to T2MoneyKlub — while adding to its claims that the “opportunity” had income streams sufficient to pay an absurd return of 2 percent a day on top of referral commissions.)

    9.) Bowdoin never told his second group of fraud victims that they were paying for the fraud Bowdoin committed against his first group of victims.

    10.) “Bowdoin also intentionally failed to explain to old and new members that, in the 1990s, he was convicted in Alabama of three securities-related crimes, charged in Alabama in at least 13 additional indictments alleging securities fraud, and barred from ever selling securities in Alabama.”

    11.) Bowdoin compounded lies told about his lack of a criminal record by permitting lies to be told about an award for business achievement purportedly given Bowdoin by President George W. Bush. The “award” actually was a memento from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) that was “entirely dependent” on a Bowdoin money contrbution to NRCC of $25,000 “and was not based on Bowdoin’s business acumen or any other evaluation of his prior business practices.”

     

  • BULLETIN: JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid Hit By Hackers, Members Claim In Conference Call; Reports Surface About Unauthorized Purchases — And Companion Site May Be Target Of DDoS Attack

    Frederick Mann

    BULLETIN: There are multiple reports this morning from self-identified residents of the United States and Canada about account hackings and unresponsive support at JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, the  “program” purportedly operated by former AdSurfDaily pitchman Frederick Mann. JSS/JBP purports to pay a monthly return of 60 percent, double that of the now-defunct ASD, an alleged Ponzi scheme.

    Accompanying the hacking reports were comments by Mann that a JSS/JBP-related website known as Tripler.biz was offline, possibly because of a DDoS attack. If the DDoS claim is true, it marks at least the second time a JSS/JBP-related site has been targeted.

    Whether the purported account hackings and server-crippling attacks had been reported to law enforcement by either JSS/JBP or its members was not immediately clear.

    In a conference call last night, a JSS/JBP member who identified himself as “Kaleem” (sp?) said he’d been blocked out of his account since March 29 and that the “opportunity” had not solved the problem.

    “I’ve put my last $2,000 in here,” Kaleem said.

    Meanwhile, a JSS/JBP member who identified himself as “Norm” from “Alberta” said “a couple of people” in his group had their accounts hacked.

    “I’ve had some sleepless nights on that because I’m managing some of these accounts for these members,” Norm said.

    JSS/JBP “support” has dropped the ball, Norm suggested.

    “Right now, we’re not getting these accounts back to the people who rightfully own them,” Norm said.

    Separately, a woman from “California” who suggested she was helping to manage 21 accounts said this during the call:

    “For a few of the accounts, a week after they were opened, they went into Nevis.”

    Nevis is an island in the Caribbean Sea.

    JSS/JBP support has been unhelpful after her submission of “numerous tickets,” the woman said, adding that someone in a JSS/JBP-related chatroom was “immensely rude” to her.

    Although Mann spoke to the purported hackings last night by encouraging members to use the JSS/JBP support function, members appeared to be none too pleased with his guidance.  The hacking issue could prove to be a thorny one because JSS/JBP operates in an environment of secrecy, does not disclose its base of operations and makes members avow they are not with the “government.”  Nor does the purported “opportunity” have any known securities registrations with regulators. At the same time, at least some JSS/JBP members appear to be acting as unregistered broker-dealers and investment advisers who are managing both the JSS/JBP accounts and the payment-processing accounts of their downline recruits.

    “My bills are backed up and I still can’t get in,” Kaleem told Mann and the conference-call audience. “Somebody hacked into your system and was moving money to Michael at BigBooster.”

    The name “michael” and a Mann-related domain known as BigBooster.com form an email address through which JSS/JBP conducts business. Mann has described “Michael” as a business partner.

    Mann pushed AdSurfDaily at the BigBooster domain in 2008, according to records. The U.S. Secret Service later described ASD as an international Ponzi scheme that had gathered $110 million. ASD President Andy Bowdoin was arrested in December 2010 on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. He faces a trial date in September — and prosecutors now say Bowdoin is pushing a fraudulent scheme known as OneX.

    In December 2009, prosecutors said Bowdoin never filed a police report when individuals described as “Russian” hackers purportedly stole $1 million from ASD.

    A woman on last night’s call who described herself as “Jackie” in “Arkansas” said her boss — “Leon” — had provided four employees $100 each to join JSS/JBP.

    “I have signed up four of my 11 grandchildren,” Jackie said.

    But she noted that Leon appeared not to have been given proper credit for at least one person who joined under him, suggesting that an email address had been tampered with.

    Kaleem appeared to become increasingly frustrated during the call, suggesting he has lost both his $2,000 outlay and expected profits of thousands of dollars because of the hacking.

     

  • UPDATE: Call In Which Frederick Mann Told JSS/JBP Members That ‘Opportunity’ Was Paying Them With Funds From ‘New Members’ Goes Missing From Website

    Frederick Mann, onetime ASD pitchman and the purported operator of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid

    UPDATED 7:44 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.). A potentially damning audio recording of a March 15 conference call in which Frederick Mann told JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid members that the “opportunity” was paying them with money from “new members” has gone missing from the JSS/JBP website.

    The precise date on which the recording was removed was not immediately clear. But the removal occurred after JSS/JBP also had removed recordings of conference calls featuring Carl Pearson, a pitchman for the “opportunity” and its purported COO.

    Mann, whose name appeared in 2008 promos as a pitchman for AdSurfDaily, is the purported operator of JSS/JBP. The U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars tied to ASD in 2008, amid allegations it was conducting an international Ponzi scheme over the Internet.

    Andy Bowdoin now has been accused of serial scamming dating back at least two decades. He faces a May 8 bond-review hearing. Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSS/JBP, was identified in 2008 promos as an ASD pitchman.

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin was charged criminally in 2010. He now faces a May 8 bond-review hearing amid allegations that he continued to scam the public even after the August 2008 seizure of $65.8 million from his 10 personal bank accounts and even after his December 2010 arrest in Florida on ASD-related Ponzi charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

    “I (Frederick Mann) have been with ASD since January 07,” remarks attributed to Mann on a site known as BigBooster read on May 14, 2008. “Past performance indicates a strong probablility (sic) that ASD will continue to perform as advertised. (By early May 2008, I had received 14 payments totalling over $6,000!”)

    The U.S. Secret Service conducted a Ponzi raid of ASD less than three months later. Despite the Ponzi allegations against Bowdoin and ASD, Mann purportedly went on to launch JSS/JBP, which purports to pay members a return of 2 percent a day — double the purported return of ASD.

    In January 2012, JSS/JBP-related claims came under the lens of CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator. The agency banned promos for the “opportunity” last month after earlier announcing a 90-day suspension.

    Just days before CONSOB’s April 23 announcement of the ban — on April 17 — U.S. federal prosecutors sent a letter to Bowdoin’s defense attorney in the ASD Ponzi case. The letter informed the attorney — Charles A. Murray — that the government intended to introduce evidence that Bowdoin continued to commit crimes after the August 2008 ASD seizure and after Bowdoin’s subsequent indictment on charges that could put him behind bars for 125 years if he is convicted on all counts.

    Prosecutors said they had tied Bowdoin to AdViewGlobal (AVG), an autosurf that collapsed in 2009. They also said Bowdoin had emerged as a pitchman for a “fraudulent scheme” known as OneX that — in ASD-like fashion — “simply re-distributes funds among participants.”

    Online Ponzi schemes are infamous for morphing into new forms. Serial scammers who populate Ponzi boards such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup drive business to the purported “opportunities,” which often advertise MLM-style, tiered recruitment “commissions” on top of preposterous rates of return.

    ASD, AVG, OneX and JSS/JBP all have (or had) a presence on the Ponzi boards. Serial apologists for JSS/JBP have pooh-poohed the CONSOB developments.

    In the now-missing March 15 recording, a caller purportedly from “San Francisco” asked Mann where “JustBeenPaid get[s] the money to pay that kind of interest.”

    The reference was to the advertised return of 2 percent a day, which corresponds to a precompounding, annualized return of 730 percent — a figure that would make Bernard Madoff blush.

    “Well, first of all, JBP or JSS Tripler is a revenue-sharing program, so that means some of the money comes from new members buying positions,” Mann responded to the caller. “Then, we are in the process of developing additional income streams, so that’s relevant. And eventually the additional income streams may be sufficient to pay the 2 percent — maybe not.”

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: JSS Tripler Promoters Targeted By Italian Regulator CONSOB In Securities Probe

    URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Your time soon may be up if you’re flogging the absurd HYIP known as JSS Tripler.

    CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, has opened a probe into the activities of multiple promoters amid concerns the purported “program” is being offered to Italian citizens unlawfully as a security. JSS Tripler is an arm of “JustBeenPaid,” a Ponzi-forum darling that has been serving up a heavy dose of the bizarre for months.

    The agency has issued a 90-day suspension order.

    Details of the CONSOB probe and the precise number of investigative targets were not immediately clear to the PP Blog, owing to the lack of a quality Italian-to-English translation. But the websites of multiple entities or individuals who appear to be JSS Tripler affiliates are referenced by CONSOB in a 90-day order dated Jan. 20 and made public Jan. 23.

    JSS Tripler’s name also is referenced in the order.

    If a JSS Tripler-related domain cited in the translation is accurate, the domain appears to be hosted in the United States.

    Among the bizarre claims associated with JSS Tripler promoters were that the company was moving to “offshore” servers and performing a restart.

    Affiliates were required to affirm they were not government spies or media lackeys.

    JustBeenPaid is known to have promoters in common with ClubAsteria, a “program” that came under CONSOB’s lens last year. The purported opportunity also is known to have promoters in common with the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme.

    Some JSS Tripler affiliates identify Frederick Mann as the honcho-in-chief. In May 2008, Mann positioned ASD as a “cash cow,” claiming he pocketed $6,000, according to records. Last year, the purported JustBeenPaid “opportunity” was trading on celebrity names such as Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey — and even fictional space man “Mr. Spock.”

    Here is the CONSOB announcement — via an English translation by Google Translate.

    Another “program” apparently named “System Explosion” also is referenced in the CONSOB suspension order. The domain for that program, which appears to be an HYIP or arbitrage program of some sort, also appears to be hosted in the United States.

    Among the payment processors listed on the JSS Tripler-related domain and the System Explosion domain are AlertPay, SolidTrustPay and LibertyReserve.

    An ad for JustBeenPaid appears on the SystemExplosion domain. When clicked, it appears to route to a subdomain of the JustBeenPaid domain, which beams this bizarre and vacuous message:

    “JustBeenPaid! (JBP) and Its (sic) related programs are Licenced (sic) under United States Patent 6,578,010.”

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, however, is not the agency that regulates securities programs and purported business opportunities, even if JustBeenPaid could demonstrate that some sort of patent exists. As a practical matter, it is virtually impossible to conceive that market regulators in any country could be thwarted from opening probes based on claims that a system was patented.

    If anything, such a claim in the context of programs that purport to pay a return may only intensify regulatory scrutiny. CONSOB, for instance, referenced JSS Tripler’s purported returns of 2 percent a day.

    JSS Tripler is not to be confused with JSS Tripler 2 (T2), an equally bizarre “program” that appears to be a knockoff on the name of JustBeenPaid’s JSS Tripler arm. T2 also uses AlertPay.

    Like JSS Tripler, T2 also was promoted on Ponzi forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

  • UPDATE: Club Asteria Pitchman And TalkGold Promoter ’10BucksUp’ Declares That Filing An AlertPay Dispute To Recover Money From Yet-Another Tanking HYIP Scheme ‘Drastic’ Measure That Will Cause ‘All’ Members To ‘Suffer’

    You can’t make this stuff up . . .

    A Club Asteria pitchman flogging multiple HYIP schemes on the TalkGold Ponzi forum says that late-entry members of a teetering “program” known as “JustBeenPaid” are engaging in hurtful and “drastic measures” if they file disputes with AlertPay.

    Filing a dispute means that “all members will suffer,” according to serial HYIP pitchman “10BucksUp.”

    “10BucksUp” rose to Ponzi-board prominence earlier this year in his shilling for ClubAsteria, a U.S.-based company that traded on the name of the World Bank, had its PayPal account frozen, became a subject of an investigation by Italian regulators and suspended member cashouts.

    Screen shot: From a government evidence exhibit in the Legisi case. Legisi, an HYIP Ponzi scheme promoted on TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup,made members certify they were not government spies. JustBeenPaid, a hybrid HYIP scheme now in an apparent state of collapse, sought to do the same thing, according to its member agreement.

    Undaunted, “10BucksUp” — like other Club Asteria pitchmen — turned his promotional attentions to JustBeenPaid, which appears to feed itself through something known as “JSSTripler.”

    JustBeenPaid claimed it was a “private association.” The “program’s” member agreement called for participants to “affirm that I am not an employee or official of any government agency.”

    Participants also had to certify that they were not “acting on behalf of or collecting information for or on behalf of any government agency.” Meanwhile, they had to certify that “I am not an employee, by contract or otherwise, of any media or research company, and I am not reading any of the JBP pages in order to collect information for someone else.”

    A Ponzi forum uproar began when JustBeenPaid’s website recently began to malfunction. A person who identified himself as a recent registrant threatened on TalkGold today file a dispute with AlertPay.

    “10BucksUp” counseled the JustBeenPaid member to “[p]lease just calm down.”

    “I am pretty sure they are doing their best to make the new system work,” 10BucksUp continued, without describing how he’d arrived at his notion of being “pretty sure” and whether being “pretty sure” constituted legitimate due diligence and proper consumer advice.

    “I just think that the priorities are screwed as the logging in right now even without the member id thing should work within this week,” 10BucksUp opined. “New members like you are becoming restless I know, but try to understand if you do such drastic measures then all members will suffer.”

    Whether the late-entrant enrollee, who also is pitching multiple schemes on Talk Gold, will file a dispute is unclear. What is clear is that AlertPay enabled both Club Asteria and JustBeenPaid and that both “programs” are in a state of decay.

    Among other things, JustBeenPaid announced last month that it was “moving to new offshore servers” and that the transition could take weeks.

    “10BucksUp” did not explain why a dispute to a payment processor by a late entrant in JustBeenPaid who is apt to have joined a global Ponzi scheme constituted a “drastic measure.” Nor did he explain his apparent belief that late-entry registrants had a duty to suffer their Ponzi losses gladly so the early entrants had a chance to continue getting paid.

    In 2010, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority called the HYIP sphere a “bizarre substratum of the Internet.”

    Club Asteria was widely promoted on the Ponzi boards, which led to questions about whether the Virginia-based firm with a purported Hong Kong subsidiary was selling unregistered securities on a global scale and collecting tainted proceeds from other HYIP schemes. The firm’s offer was targeted at the world’s poor.

    A collapsed HYIP Ponzi scheme known as Legisi also was promoted on the Ponzi boards. Like JustBeenPaid, it sought to have registrants certify they were not government spies.