PatrickPretty.com

Tag: joe

  • Bowdoin ‘Most Interesting’ Figure In ASD Story; Prosecutors’ Court Wins Have Secured Control Over More Than 99 Percent Of Liquid Assets In Forfeiture Cases

    Andy Bowdoin

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is about the “Most Interesting ASD Figure” poll conducted by the PP Blog. It also includes data from court files that suggest federal prosecutors have won court battles that have secured control over more than 99 percent (99.2 percent) of the liquid assets available in the ASD/Golden Panda civil-forfeiture cases — with less than 1 percent (0.8 percent) of the remaining liquid assets still tied up in litigation.

    Here, now, the story . . .

    UPDATED 7:40 A.M. ET (U.S.A.) It is said — perhaps apocryphally — that Groucho Marx once entered a Groucho Marx look-alike contest and finished third.

    A similar fate almost befell AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin, one of seven choices in our poll that asked readers to select the “Most Interesting Figure In The Alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi Scheme Story.”

    But in the final days of the poll, Bowdoin, who had trailed early and was in second place at various times, eked out a win over eventual second-pace finisher Bob Guenther and the five other poll subjects.

    Voting was light with only 53 votes cast, and the sample was not scientifically meaningful. The results, however, at least suggest that readers interested in ASD consider Bowdoin the star of his own story — a story that began in August 2008, when the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from 10 Bowdoin bank accounts.

    ASD was a Florida-based Ponzi scheme that had engaged in wire fraud, money-laundering and the sale of unregistered securities, federal prosecutors said. Just last week prosecutors scored a big win, when a federal judge issued a final order of forfeiture in the August 2008 civil forfeiture case, granting the government title to more than $65.8 million seized from Bowdoin accounts.

    In July, the judge issued an order granting the government title to more than $14 million seized from the bank accounts of Golden Panda Ad Builder, whose assets were seized as part of the ASD civil-forfeiture case. A second civil-forfeiture case — filed in December 2008 against ASD/Golden Panda-connected assets — appears to be nearly resolved. The December case involves only a fraction of the money seized in the overall case.

    To date, prosecutors have scored wins that secured more than $79.88 million — more than 99 percent of the available cash pool (liquid assets) in both cases, with less than 1 percent of the pool still in litigation. The total pool of liquid assets in both cases amounts to about $80.52 million, according to court records. A prosecution win of the fraction of 1 percent remaining to be secured is a virtual certainty. Neither the ASD side nor the Golden Panda side has secured any financial wins. Golden Panda quit trying shortly after the August 2008 case was brought.

    Here is a way to look at the pool from both cases as a fraction. Of the $80.52 million available, prosecutors have control over $79.88 million: 79.88/80.52 — or 99.2 percent. If the prosecutors gain control over more than $600,000 remaining in litigation, they will have gained control over 100 percent of the available pool.

    The current cash pool does not count illiquid assets such as real estate, a Cabana boat, automobiles, jet skis and marine equipment that must be sold before it can be converted to cash and added to the pool.

    A big wild card is whether Bowdoin, who initially submitted to the forfeiture in January 2009 under advice from paid counsel but attempted to reassert his claims in February 2009 as a pro se litigant, will appeal. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled in November 2009 that Bowdoin no longer has standing in the August 2008 case. Bowdoin never established standing in the December 2008 case.

    Poll Results

    Bowdoin, 75, captured 36 percent of the vote in the “Most Interesting” poll; Guenther, 62, a government critic who led the poll at times, finished second, capturing 32 percent of the vote.

    Guenther is the de facto head of the ASD Members Business Association (ASDMBA). He emerged as a harsh critic of the manner in which prosecutors have handled the case, claiming he planned to rely on “political connections” to embarrass the Justice Department.

    “Soon, very soon, I am going to call on some political connections, and I am going to share everything I knew then, know now and everything I tried to provide you with,” Guenther said in an email last year to one of the prosecutors.

    Among Guenther’s assertions were that the government ignored leads he provided and that a prosecutor did not return more than 50 emails he had sent. Guenther pleaded guilty to a count of bank fraud in the 1990s in a case in which 10 other counts were withdrawn in a plea deal. Some ASDMBA members said they would not have contributed to the organization, which gathered money with the aim of protecting members’ interests in the ASD case, had they known Guenther had a felony record.

    Some ASDMBA members have complained that Guenther did not provide transparent accounting of how the organization spent its money. Guenther said ASDMBA’s accounting was transparent, describing his critics as uninformed whiners and liberals.

    Finishing third in the poll were the “Surf’s Up Mods.” Surf’s Up was a Pro-ASD forum that suddenly went missing nine days ago, about two weeks after Bowdoin reportedly made an appeal through a third party for members to search for videos of ASD “rallies.”

    “Andy [Bowdoin] wants to know if any of you took Videos and/or Audios of ‘him’ speaking at any of the ASD Rallies,” according to a Dec. 21 post on Surf’s Up. The post cited a third-party email.

    “The government is stating that Andy said certain things during the rallies and Andy is confident that he did not, but he does not have the proof without being able to provide the video/audio footage.

    “Please share this message with your entire organization so that we can get it out to the masses yet today hopefully to see if someone has the supporting evidence for Andy,” the post urged. “If any of you DO have the video footage (or audio recording) then transfer it to DVD and and contact Catherine Parker at [email address deleted].”

    The post did not specify precisely what video evidence Bowdoin hoped to obtain from members. In the August 2008 forfeiture complaint, prosecutors entered an exhibit that included a members’ transcription of remarks Bowdoin allegedly had made at a July 2008 rally in Miami.

    In the exhibit, Bowdoin identified George and Judy Harris as ASD employees, without telling members Harris was his stepson and that Judy Harris — the wife of George — also was a member of the Bowdoin family. Bowdoin described George Harris as head of ASD’s real-estate division, and Judy Harris as a clerical employee.

    Prosecutors later said that George Harris and his mother — Edna Faye Bowdoin, Andy Bowdoin’s wife — used more than $177,000 in illegal proceeds from two ASD accounts at Bank of America and opened an account at a third bank. The account was opened on June 10, 2008, less than two weeks after an ASD “rally” had concluded in Las Vegas.

    Before June had come to an end, prosecutors said, George Harris used more than $157,000 of the opening deposit to pay off the mortgage on the Tallahassee home he shared with his wife. The transaction was completed via wire transfer, with George Harris making the request over the telephone, prosecutors said.

    George and Judy Harris and Edna Faye Bowdoin were identified in the December 2008 forfeiture complaint as beneficiaries of ASD’s illegal conduct. The AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, which launched after the seizure of ASD’s assets, later identified George and Judy Harris as AVG’s owners. Prosecutors seized the Harris home in the December 2008 forfeiture complaint, and neither George nor Judy Harris filed a claim to the home.

    Some ASD members said Bowdoin was the silent head of AVG. Surf’s Up received ASD’s official endorsement on Nov. 27, 2008, eight days after a key court ruling went against ASD. AVG emerged in the days ahead as an autosurf purportedly headquartered in Uruguay, and some of the Surf’s Up Mods peeled off and started a forum to promote AVG.

    Surf’s Up, whose members reportedly sent brownies and delicious baked goods to Bowdoin after he was implicated in the alleged Ponzi scheme and declared he was “too honest” to testify after Bowdoin had taken the 5th Amendment in the forfeiture case, received 17 percent of the vote in the “Most Interesting Figure” poll.

    Finishing in fourth place, with 8 percent of the vote, were the “Conspiracy Theorists” — those ASD members who speculated that President Kennedy was assassinated because he planned to expose a banking conspiracy and that President George W. Bush planned the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Some of the “Conspiracy Theorists” also claimed that the United States passed secret legislation in the 1990s in anticipation of a visit by reptilian aliens.

    Curtis Richmond, described by Surf’s Up as a “hero,” finished with “Professor” Patrick Moriarty in a tie for fifth in the poll. Each gleaned 4 percent of the vote. Richmond is associated with the so-called “Arby’s Indians,” a tribe ruled a “complete sham” by a federal judge in a case in Utah.

    The “tribe” got its derisive name because it held a meeting in an Arby’s restaurant in 2003. Members also established a sham “Supreme Court” at the address of a doughnut shop in Vernal, Utah, and also established a sham “arbitration” service that it used to pester public officials with spectacular claims that they had defaulted on contracts.

    At least two people who used the services of the tribe’s bogus “arbitration” panel were sentenced for federal prison for tax crimes.

    One of them was Bruce Robert Travis. Among other things, Travis is the self-published author of “My Past Life As Jesus” and “The Messiah For Hire.”

    Travis, associated with tax denier Royal Lamarr Hardy, now reportedly is working on a book in which he’ll describe what it’s like to be Jesus behind bars.

    “Tribe” members, including Richmond, were ordered in 2008 to pay more than $108,000 in damages in a racketeering lawsuit brought by the public officials. Richmond later emerged as a pro-se litigant in the ASD case, cheered on by Surf’s Up. Richmond attempted to have U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer disqualified from the ASD case — something Bowdoin himself later tried to do.

    Moriarty, who was indicted in March 2009 for filing false tax returns, now has entered a guilty plea in the tax case. He was a co-founder of — along with members of Surf’s Up — of ASD Members International (ASDMI).

    ASDMI promised to litigate against the government for its actions in the ASD case, even if the government was behaving legally. Moriarty, cheered on by Surf’s Up, was part of a letter-writing campaign to Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The campaign was aimed at getting the Senate to investigate the ASD prosecutors.

    Finishing last in the poll was “joe,” who received no votes. “joe” purported to be a Vietnam POW and a staunch advocate for autosurf Ponzi schemes.

  • POLL: As 2009 Draws To A Close, Cast Your Vote For The Most Interesting Figure In The AdSurfDaily Story

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Included in this post is a year-end poll to determine “The Most Interesting Figure” in the long-running AdSurfDaily story. Five of the seven choices are individuals who’ve been an intriguing part of the story. The remaining two choices are intriguing entities consisting of individuals.

    The individuals include Andy Bowdoin (the only individual in our ASD poll against whom prosecutors have asserted allegations of wrongdoing — and so far just civil allegations); Curtis Richmond; “Professor” Patrick Moriarty; Bob Guenther; and Poster “joe,” also known as “little joe.” The entities are the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum and a less public group we’ve deemed the “Conspiracy Theorists.”

    Brief memory-refreshers appear below the poll. Some readers perhaps will want to read the memory-refreshers before voting. You may make only one selection.

    Here, now, the story and the poll . . .

    From the date upon which federal prosecutors filed the first of two forfeiture complaints against Florida-based AdSurfDaily in August 2008, the ASD story and accompanying black comedy quickly became less about the Ponzi and more about the intriguing personalities.

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin has had two birthdays since then; he’s now 75 — and one of several U.S. senior citizens implicated in Ponzi schemes of national and international significance. On Aug. 1, 2008, the U.S. Secret Service filed a 37-page affidavit under seal in the case. The affidavit was accompanied by 57 pages of evidence — enough to persuade a federal magistrate judge to order more than a dozen bank accounts to be frozen.

    In its affidavit, the Secret Service said it feared Bowdoin had become aware of scrutiny into his business affairs and planned to flee the country.

    “I have not included every detail of every aspect of the investigation for this affidavit,” the agent who prepared the affidavit said. “Rather, it only includes the information necessary to prove that probable cause exists for a seizure warrant to be issued for property constituting proceeds of a wire fraud scheme.”

    U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Kay agreed the Secret Service had made a compelling argument. Kay issued 13 orders directing the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security “and any Authorized Officer of the United States” to seize 10 Bowdoin bank accounts and three accounts tied to Golden Panda Ad Builder, a closely-connected autosurf purportedly born on a Georgia fishing lake in April 2008 after Bowdoin had spent the day casting lines with Rev. Walter “Clarence” Busby Jr., who would later emerge as GP’s president.

    Aug. 1, 2008, was a Friday. Almost instantly ASD members spun the seizure of the bank accounts as a positive development, claiming the government would see the beauty of ASD’s business model after taking time to listen to the company’s story and that ASD would return quickly to the business of paying “advertisers” profits of 30 percent a month.

    Agents were planning a friendly “visit” in the days ahead, members claimed, again positioning the purported “visit” as a net plus because ASD’s business model was legally sound.

    What the vast, vast majority of the members making the initial claims did not know at the time was that the Secret Service had conducted surveillance in the case in multiple locations and gathered damning evidence from records and interviews with members.

    No criminal charges have been filed to date against Bowdoin or ASD, although the prosecution asserts in civil filings that ASD operated as a criminal enterprise.

    What had been positioned as a friendly “visit” in the earliest hours after the seizure proved to be the execution of search warrants at Bowdoin’s home and at ASD’s headquarters in a former floral shop in Quincy, Fla. The warrants were executed on Aug. 5, a Tuesday, four days after the Secret Service stopped the scheme from mushrooming any further by seizing the bank accounts.

    By Aug. 12, according to members, Bowdoin was comparing the actions of the Secret Service to the actions of the 9/11 terrorists who killed nearly 3,000 people, with Bowdoin saying “Satan” was at work. The allegations contained in the August forfeiture complaint, which was a public filing with several evidence exhibits attached, created a significant PR problem for Bowdoin in addition to the legal problem.

    The vast, vast majority of ASD members learned for the first time in the Aug. 5 civil filing by prosecutors that Bowdoin had been arrested in Alabama in the 1990s in a felony securities-fraud case and had entered guilty pleas. As a result of the filing, many members also learned for the first time that Rev. Busby had been implicated by the SEC in a prime-bank scheme in the 1990s and that Busby had declared bankruptcy.

    This information had been shielded from ASD and Golden Panda members as they were throwing money at the surfs, the Secret Service said. Agents went on to seize two more GP accounts. After reconciliations, the 15 accounts linked to ASD and Golden Panda contained just shy of $80 million, according to records.

    As strange as it sounds, a core group of ASD members pooh-poohed the allegations. Instead of considering that perhaps they had been conned by two individuals who previously had been central figures in serious securities litigation, the core group set out to demonize the government.

    In the months after the federal seizure — and in the months after Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum filed a fraud lawsuit against ASD — federal prosecutors released more information drip-by-drip. The information was part of follow-up filings in the August 2008 case. By December 2008, prosecutors had filed a second forfeiture complaint against ASD-connected assets.

    Several intriguing personalities have emerged since the initial filing in August 2008. Bowdoin, for example, initially contested the forfeiture. In January 2009, however, he submitted to it after meeting with prosecutors over a period of at least four days.

    But before February 2009 had come to a close, Bowdoin reentered the case — this time as a pro se litigant who’d purportedly fired his paid attorneys.

    Curtis Richmond, an ASD member, also emerged as a pro se litigant. He accused the prosecutors of crimes, suggesting a federal judge was operating a “Kangaroo Court” and was guilty of treason. For good measure, he accused a second federal judge of operating a “Kangaroo Court.” Dozens of pro se litigants would follow, some using a Richmond litigation blueprint and others using a blueprint that had been provided by an ASD upline.

    “Professor” Patrick Moriarty, who advanced Richmond’s theories of the case, embarked on a certified-mail campaign to discredit the prosecution. He also wrote a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy, asserting that Leahy, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, should set the committee’s investigative sights on the prosecutors who brought the ASD case, not the alleged wrongdoers who operated ASD.

    Bob Guenther, de facto head of the ASD Members Business Association (ASDMBA), also emerged as an intriguing personality. Guenther led a campaign to raise money so ASD members could hire an attorney to protect their legal interests in the case, and was criticized for not providing transparent accounting of how the money was spent and for bullying members verbally.

    Among other things, Guenther also was criticized for not revealing he had pleaded guility to a felony count of bank fraud in the 1990s and for responding to his critics by asserting they were “wusses” or “liberals.” Some ASDMBA members now say they see the organization as an entity that collected money and dissipated it while taking no effective action.

    Poster “joe,” meanwhile, emerged as an intriguing personality when he rationalized the so-called autosurf “industry” as just another business pursuit akin to gambling. He blasted autosurf opponents, saying he did not care if autosurf Ponzi schemes were illegal as long as they paid.

    “joe,” who described himself as a former Vietnam Prisoner of War, apparently decided eventually that the best way to express his point of view was to become chronically disruptive and abusive. He then morphed from Ponzi promoter to cyberstalker, threatening to set “fires” to disrupt the PP Blog’s operations.

    Since the fall of 2008, Surf’s Up has been a constant presence — and an intriguing personality — in the ASD story. Among the forum’s notable contributions was an assertion that Bowdoin, despite his felonious history, was “too honest” to testify at a hearing ASD asked a federal judge to conduct. The “too honest” explanation came in response to Bowdoin’s decision to take the 5th Amendment at a proceeding his company specifically requested.

    Surf’s Up also has urged members to take part in various letter-writing campaigns in support of Bowdoin, including Moriarty’s campaign. Moriarty was indicted on federal tax charges about a month after his February 2009 campaign to Leahy had begun, although the Moriarty prosecution and the ASD prosecution do not appear to be related.

    Research showed, however, that Moriarty, who started a nonprofit company to advocate for ASD, also had started a nonprofit company in the name of a Missouri man who had been accused of murdering a woman in cold blood and shooting a police officer four times.

    Federal prosecutors alleged that Moriarty, who at one time advertised tax expertise, had under-reported his income by an unspecified amount for the tax year 2002; claimed a false deduction of $30,000 for “legal fees” for the tax year 2003; and claimed a false amount of $23,533 withheld for the tax year 2004 and a false amount of $23,433 withheld for the tax year 2005.

    No poll that did not include the ASD conspiracy theorists as a choice for the most interesting figure would be complete. We’re aware, of course, that there may be some crossover, as some of the other poll choices have shared one conspiracy theory after another and conflated one new reality after another in their zeal to lend support to Bowdoin.

    Readers inclined to select the “Conspiracy Theorists” option, however, should make an effort to divorce the other nominees from the theories. For the purpose of this poll, the “Conspiracy Theorists” are those intriguing ASD members who purport to believe that paper currency is a government plot, that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated because he was about to expose the overall government conspiracy pertaining to money and that U.S. lawmakers passed secret legislation in the 1990s in anticipation of a visit by reptilian aliens.

    The ASD Ponzi story is like none other. Will Bowdoin emerge as the most interesting personality? Will Moriarty, “joe,” Richmond, Surf’s Up or Guenther?

    Or will it be the “Conspiracy Theorists?”

  • Cyberstalker ‘joe’ Sent Repeated Harassing Communications From Network Registered To City Government In California; Threatened To Sue PP Blog

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Is it any wonder so many people believe the Internet is just one giant cesspool? This is the latest news on “joe,” who graduated from Ponzi advocacy to cyberstalking in September.

    stalkingUPDATED 4:28 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Saying he wants to give the PatrickPretty.com Blog something else to “chew on” after it announced Saturday that it would share information about cyberstalkers with law enforcement, cyberstalker “joe” now has threatened to file a lawsuit against the Blog.

    The lawsuit threat followed on the heels of ceaseless nuisance communications from “joe” and a previous threat by “joe” to start “fires” at the Blog by leeching off insecure computer networks to frustrate attempts to track him. On Dec. 7 between 8:24 p.m. and 8:42 p.m. (ET), “joe” sent six harassing communications from a computer network whose IP resolves to a city government in California.

    joecitygovernmentip575

    It is not believed that “joe” is an employee of the city. Rather, it is believed that he used the city’s resources to mask his identity. In September, “joe” claimed he had the ability to access insecure networks near his home and “was able to get online in a few places.” He also claimed there were “a few internet cafes around me” and that the Blog had better “get ready for the return of “joe.”

    PatrickPretty.com announced today that it has shared information on seven IPs used by joe, including the IP of the city government in California. The Blog also shared 14 email addresses used by “joe,” one of which used the word “boo,” another of which used the word “eerie” and yet another of which used the word “greatone.”

    Some of the email addresses included nonsensical words. At the same time, the Blog since Saturday has shared information on six additional user identities employed by “joe.” The Blog previously reported that “joe” repeatedly used sexual references in his communications, referring to himself in some communications as “Joseph the phallicly gifted.” He also has employed the username “Mr. Wonderful” and “joe the magnificent (and good looking”), among others.

    “joe,” an advocate for autosurf Ponzi schemes who says he does not care if they are legal or not as long as they pay, has repeatedly shifted IPs, usernames and email addresses in what the Blog views as a bid to probe it for security vulnerabilities and defeat its ability to prevent his nuisance communications from being published.

    In September, “joe” demanded that the Blog publish his unwelcome communications, defining himself as a “bad penny” who would not go away until the Blog agreed to his terms. He has sent dozens and dozens of harassing communications over the Internet to the Blog since then.

    Despite announcing his intent to harass the Blog and his plan to leech off insecure computer networks, start “fires,” frustrate efforts to track him and create maintenance problems, “joe” now says he intends to sue.

    “You just can’t tell anyone who I am because i would sue you for invasion of Privacy among other things,”  joe said Saturday, after the Blog published its announcement it was sharing cyberstalking information with law enforcement. In a separate harassing communication after the Blog published its announcement, “joe” insisted he had a right to send the Blog “behind the scenes comments” and again suggested he may begin to employ YouTube to nuisance the Blog like the cyberstalker “unclefesta26.”

    It was the second time “joe” raised the suggestion that he would escalate his cyberstalking mission by employing YouTube. Previously he expressed pleasure in harassing the Blog, saying he feels “some satisfaction that you seem to be intimidated by me.”

    Both “joe” and “unclefesta26” have been blocked from the PatrickPretty.com for spamming, derailing conversations and posing chronic maintenance problems. Other websites have banned them as well.

    “joe’s” apparent theory behind the threatened lawsuit is that the use of aliases insulate him from criminal or civil prosecution and give him a lawful platform from which he can send repeated harassing communications.

    Under “joe’s” apparent theory, a person is permitted to stalk and harass individuals and businesses on the Internet  — and create labor-intensive and time-consuming maintenance work — simply by creating aliases. “joe” appears to believe that it is impossible to commit a crime or subject individuals or businesses to harassment if one does not use his actual name.

    At the same time, “joe” seems to believe that those he would nuisance have a duty to permit him to nuisance them because his rights to free speech and privacy trumps the rights of those he would nuisance. Court case after court case demonstrates the fallacy of that thinking.

    In 1998, for instance, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court tackled the Constitutional issues of free speech and privacy in a case in which a man was convicted of 36 counts of harassment by communication or address after sending repeated anonymous, harassing communications via wire — in this case, over telephone lines and a fax machine.

    A lower court had ruled (emphasis added below) “the right to free speech is not absolute and that certain classes of speech, such as obscenity and fighting words, may be restricted.

    “It found that Appellant’s . . .  faxes, which were sent repeatedly and anonymously, had no legitimate purpose. The court concluded that the faxes were intended to harass and were not a form of communication safeguarded by the Constitution.”

    The Supreme Court also rejected the man’s privacy argument, ruling that the mere fact a communication is sent anonymously does not insulate the sender from prosecution under harassment laws.

    In upholding rulings by lower courts and sustaining the conviction of a man who sent repeated anonymous communications by wire, the Supreme Court rejected the man’s argument that “he cannot be punished because his communications were anonymous.”

    “Appellant’s argument, and the cases he cites in support, are misplaced because the statute at issue is directed at the harassing nature of the communications, which the legislature has a legitimate interest in proscribing,” the Supreme Court ruled.

  • INTRIGUE: Is Our ‘joe’ The Surf’s Up ‘joe?’ Egg-Themed HYIP Pitch Leads To Questions As ASD Members Continue To Promote Programs Associated With Ponzi Model

    UPDATED 5:24 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Is the “joe” who posted here before being blocked for showcasing an utter lack of restraint the same “joe” who pitched four HYIPs on the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum two days ago?

    We don’t know.

    We do know, however, that both “joes” have pushed Ponzi programs and displayed an astonishing and unsettling amount of gumption. The Surf’s Up “joe,” for instance, used egg-themed, .info URLs that redirected to HYIPs, despite the fact state or federal prosecutors have brought racketeering charges against three alleged Ponzi schemes this week alone and ASD President Andy Bowdoin and ASD attorney Robert Garner have been sued by members for racketeering.

    Meanwhile, our “joe” — who as recently as three days ago still was pelting us with nuisance communications under multiple identities even after his access to posting here was blocked in September and he was warned publicly to cease — insisted we’d restore his posting privileges or else. He then embarked on a smear campaign against this Blog on Scam.com, using multiple posting identities there, too.

    Scam.com banned our “joe,” who has purported to have been a Prisoner of War in Vietnam, to have served harder time than the late Mafia figure John Gotti — and also to have been a graduate of MIT, whose curriculum is heavy on mathematics.

    Our “joe” hurt himself with the MIT claim. It’s highly unlikely that any MIT graduate could leave the campus without a core understanding of the math of Ponzi schemes. In the unlikely event “joe” did graduate from MIT, he’d be hard-pressed to explain to prosecutors he didn’t understand he was promoting illegal programs such as AdViewGlobal and AdVentures4U.

    He’d be equally hard-pressed to explain to POWs how pushing Ponzi schemes, which nowadays are getting widespread, constant publicity for the massive damage they cause, was a noble pursuit.

    Our “joe’s” most recent effort to stalk this Blog occurred Dec. 2, under yet another user identity. He used the wires to tell us that he’d be paying attention to our reports about the notorious cyberstalker “unclefesta26,” who is pillorying this Blog on YouTube and also stalking people who post here by publishing videos about them on YouTube.

    “By the way I can make excellent videos and have,” our “joe” suggestively told us Wednesday over the Internet. “Ole Festa doesn’t hold a candle to me.” Our “joe” called himself “Jake” in Wednesday’s reminder he was stalking us.

    “joe” has sent us dozens of illegitimate communications designed to harass since September. “joe leaves when joe wants to leave,” he said as the U.S. summer was beginning to transition into fall.

    ”You’ll be scrambling to put out fires,” our “joe” promised.

    “joe” no more has the right to do what he tries to do here than he does, say, to keep messaging his hometown newspaper with harassing communications (or any business) after being warned to cease and desist.

    Another thing we noticed about our “joe” during the summer was that he was sensitive to the word “racketeering” and the acronym RICO. He railed against this Blog in June, after it reported that the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf had been mentioned in a racketeering lawsuit against Andy Bowdoin of AdSurfDaily. Indeed, some ASD members sued Bowdoin for racketeering. (See the comments in the thread for the link above.)

    Federal prosecutors later made a veiled reference to AVG in court filings in the ASD forfeiture case. Both the August 2008 and December 2008 forfeiture filings against ASD cite a racketeering statute in the body of the complaints. Regardless, plenty of ASD members went on to promote AVG, which formally launched in February 2009 — after two racketeering mentions in forfeiture complaints and after Bowdoin was sued by members for racketeering.

    Jaws dropped among people who pay attention to such things. The purveyors of AVG might as well have taken out an ad in the New York Times that read, “Yes, we are racketeers — and here’s how you, too, can harvest hefty profits from our racketeering scheme, especially if you belong to a Christian denomination!!”

    It’s clear that law-enforcement agencies with the power of arrest — the U.S. Secret Service, the FBI and state-level strike forces led by attorneys general and local prosecutors and police officers, for example — have had it up to their ears with Ponzi and affinity-fraud schemes and are treating purveyors like mobsters. They’re using both state and federal racketeering statutes to bring down the schemes.

    It’s also clear that the SEC, which does not have the power of arrest but can sue Ponzi scheme operators back to the Stone Age and works proactively with agencies that do have the power of arrest — also has had its fill of Ponzi and affinity-fraud schemes.

    How could it not? There now are allegations that Trevor Cook, implicated with Christian radio host Pat Kiley in an alleged $190 million Ponzi scheme in Minnesota, bought a private island in Canada with his loot and a submarine to access the island. Cook reportedly told his investors he discovered after purchasing the submersible craft on eBay that the waters surrounding the island were too dark to navigate by submarine, but that he planned to move his two-passenger sub to Panama, a country be believed to have clear waters.

    You can’t make this stuff up. It is an embarrassment to free enterprise, an embarrassment to the United States and the rest of the world. The word “Ponzi” has become positively nuclear as more and more senior citizens in their 80s have been fleeced out of their retirements by schemers and go to bed at night wondering how they’ll ever make ends meet.

    Basically, the U.S. law-enforcement and regulatory communities have been responding to the schemers’ crimes with nukes. Rarely a day passes without a detonation.

    Despite major undertakings by U.S. law-enforcement and regulatory entities such as the SEC, CFTC and state-level attorneys general and securities regulators to destroy Ponzi schemes — and despite racketeering, wire-fraud and money-laundering prosecutions — the “joes” of the Ponzi world apparently continue to believe there is something honorable about banking Ponzi profits earned while banks are failing in the United States, the foreclosure rate is surging in certain areas of the country, people of faith are being fleeced in Ponzi schemes, deaf people are being targeted in Ponzi schemes and 90-year-old men and women are looking for jobs to keep a roof over their heads.

    We don’t know if our “joe” is Surf’s Up’s “joe” — but we do know that “joe” is all about greed and the wanton disregard of the rules of a civilized society.

    Fact is, we did scramble to put out the fires promised by our “joe.” He did affect our ability to publish and asserted a nonexistent right to harass.

    joe“What I’m saying is get ready for the return of joe and then you can block all of these people from your site,” our “joe” said.

    He suggested that, although he is Uncle Festa’s superior in video production, he won’t use YouTube to harass this Blog or its readers.

    It’s our “joe’s” way: He dangles a suggestion, and then wraps it in words designed to create plausible deniability. It escapes him that the words alone constitute a crime because they are designed to chill recipients and put them in the position of scrambling to protect their property.

    That’s exactly what racketeers do. They suggest. They chill. They let you know there are consequences for not playing ball with them.

    “It would be fun [to make videos] but I don’t hate you like [Uncle Festa] does,” our “joe” said three days ago. “[I]n fact i don’t hate you at all. I’ll bet everyone misses me.”

    In a final bit of intrigue, it’s possible that the “joe” on Surf’s Up comes from Erie, Pa. That would be ironic indeed if it proved to be true. Erie is the birthplace of Harry Markopolos, the mathematician and financial analyst who exposed the $65 billion Ponzi scheme of Bernard Madoff.

    Erie has some fine high schools.  Harry Markopolos was a graduate of one of them and went on to become a world-class student of math and authority on Ponzi schemes. The Surf’s Up ” joe,” on the other hand, perhaps left Erie schools and went on to become  a cell-phone trafficker facing a $5 million judgment — and a purveyor of Ponzi schemes who said it was important not to have all of your Ponzi eggs in one Ponzi basket, that you should branch out into other Ponzi schemes.

    “ALL MY EGGS ARE NOT IN ONE BASKET,” the Surf’s Up ‘joe said. “I MAKE $2000.00 A WEEK.”

    And the Surf’s Up “joe” said it after Erie’s Harry Markopolos made the phrase “Ponzi scheme” impossible to ignore and kick-started the nuclear responses of the state and federal governments to those who would sell financial peril so they could own a Rolls-Royce or a submarine — or even make $2,000 a week on the Ponzi misery of others.