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Tag: racketeering

UNCONFIRMED: Club Asteria Suspends Member Cashouts; If Ponzi Forum Reports On Payout Halt Are True, Then Decision Was Made Virtually 2 Years To The Day After AdViewGlobal Autosurf Collapsed

A Virginia-based company that trades on the name of the World Bank and claims to help lift some of the poorest people on earth out of poverty by involving them in an income and MLM-like recruitment scheme has suspended member cashouts, according to posts on Ponzi scheme and criminals’ forums. If the news about Club…

Jun 24, 2011
SPECIAL REPORT: SEC Sues Commodities Online LLC, Alleging Massive Fraud; Firm That Listed Surf’s Up Mod Terralynn Hoy As ‘Director’ Says It Plowed $39 Million Into Alleged Ponzi Scheme Operated By James Clark Howard III And Others

UPDATED 2:25 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) In a complex case unfolding in Florida, the SEC has filed fraud charges against two companies that allegedly sold unregistered securities and conducted a $27.5 million “investment scheme” involving “purported commodities contracts.” A receiver has been appointed to marshal the assets of the murky businesses, which are known as Commodities…

Apr 23, 2011
A ‘MONEY MAGNET’ AT WORK: Andy Bowdoin Wows Crowd With Photo Of Building Later Seized; Indicted Autosurf Operator Gives Gordon Gekko-Like Speech In Which Greed Is Recast As A ‘Positive’

EDITOR’S NOTE: Two videos of sales pitches by AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin are linked below. Both are available at publicly accessible websites. The first video shows Bowdoin, in the summer of 2008, wowing a crowd by showing ASD rally attendees a photo of ASD’s new headquarters building in Quincy, Fla. The building later was seized…

Dec 25, 2010
DISTURBING: Out On Bail After Ponzi Arrest, Is Andy Bowdoin Giving Marching Orders? Email Attributed To Former ASD Executive Gary Talbert Advises Members To Tell Claims Processor They Were Purchasing ‘Advertising’

UPDATED 9:28 A.M. ET (U.S.A.) On Dec. 1, a federal magistrate judge set bail of $350,000 for AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin and ordered him not to commit a federal, state or local crime after his arrest by the U.S. Secret Service on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. Bowdoin, 76, was…

Dec 13, 2010
Fugitives Charged In Michigan Ponzi Scheme Captured By U.S. Marshals, Police In Tennessee; Rita Gosselin And Husband Had Been On The Lam Since April

In December 2009, Rita Gosselin was indicted for racketeering in Michigan. Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said she was at the helm of a real-estate Ponzi scheme involving promissory notes. In April 2010, Gosselin, 58, was alleged to have cut a monitoring device and fled the the state with her husband, Richard Gosselin, 62. The…

Oct 30, 2010
BULLETIN: Florida — Again: SEC Sues Atlantis Technology Group In Alleged Online Television Pump-And-Dump Scheme; CEO Christopher M. Dubeau Threatened ‘Bashers’ For Making ‘Slanderous’ Postings, March News Release Says

BULLETIN: UPDATED 10:51 A.M. EDT (U.S.A., Oct. 1.) About six months after the chief executive officer of Atlantis Technology Group (Atlantis) was quoted in a Marketwire news release that threatened online commentators for “making slanderous postings” about the company, the SEC has gone to federal court in Florida to accuse Atlantis CEO Christopher Dubeau and…

Sep 30, 2010
Forex Ponzi Schemers Who Targeted Deaf Investors Hit With $6.2 Million In Sanctions; ‘Billion Coupons’ Case Drew Comparisons To Defunct Noobing Autosurf

A Hawaii man and his company were hit with sanctions totaling $6.2 million in a case that alleged they targeted people with hearing impairments in a Forex Ponzi scheme. Both the SEC and the CFTC filed actions against Marvin Cooper and his Honolulu-based firm, Billion Coupons Inc. (BCI). The CFTC announced the judgment against Cooper…

Sep 3, 2010
DELAWARE: Woman Bilked In Investment Scam Later Bilked In ‘Investment Recovery Scam,’ AG Biden Says; Patrick A. Wiley Indicted On Racketeering, Securities-Fraud Charges

EDITOR’S NOTE: The indictment in Delaware against Patrick A. Wiley of Detroit illustrates the dangers of entrusting money to a person who claims he can help you recover money lost in a securities swindle. It also illustrates that a person who claims he can help you recover money lost to a securities swindle — and…

Aug 18, 2010
UPDATE: Delaware AG Beau Biden Says Credit USA Pyramid Scheme Cost Two State Residents More Than $100,000; Victims Asked To Contact Prosecutors

The alleged Credit USA Inc. multilevel-marketing (MLM) pyramid scheme cost two Delaware residents more than $100,000, Attorney General Beau Biden said. Biden has asked other potential victims to contact his Investor Protection Unit at 302-577-8424. A state indictment announced two days ago charged Terrel Alexander, 41, Nicole Alexander, 41, and William Love III, 39, with…

Jul 8, 2010
Frank Constantino Convicted Of Racketeering-Related Charges In Georgia Securities Fraud Case With Ties To Belize; Victim In $2.7 Million Scheme Was 83-Year-Old Woman

A Georgia man potentially faces decades in prison after being convicted yesterday of racketeering-related charges. Frank Constantino, 65, of Marietta, was a recidivist securities offender previously disciplined in Missouri for a Bahamas-based scheme and also linked to a scheme in Belize, officials said. He now faces up to 95 years in prison after his conviction…

Feb 4, 2010
California Man Who Tried To Flee Country While His Ponzi Was Disintegrating Sentenced To Prison; John Anthony Miller Was Targeted In FBI/State Department Sting

A California man who tried to adopt the identity of a deceased classmate from his school days to flee the United States while his Ponzi scheme was unraveling has been sentenced to 159 months in federal prison. The FBI and the State Department already were aware that John Anthony Miller’s scheme was falling apart when…

Jan 13, 2010