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Tag: SEC

  • SEC: Broker Ripped Off Elderly Nuns In New York; Paul George Chironis Targeted Sisters Of Charity In Churning Scam, Agency Says

    A Long Island, N.Y.-based broker ripped off  “a congregation of mostly elderly nuns in the Bronx” in a churning scheme in which he repeatedly executed trades that eroded the value of two accounts held by the Sisters of Charity to line his own pockets, the SEC said.

    Paul George Chironis, 58, of Melville, N.Y.,  has settled the SEC’s administrative action by agreeing to pay the Sisters of Charity $350,000. He further was barred from associating with with any broker, dealer, investment adviser, municipal securities dealer, transfer agent, municipal adviser or nationally recognized statistical ratings organization.

    “Chironis took advantage of the trust placed in him by the Sisters of Charity and convinced the nuns to engage in a high turnover trading strategy unfit for their investment needs,” said George S. Canellos, director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office. “Chironis’s irresponsible actions virtually guaranteed the convent’s accounts would lose money due to the undisclosed and excessive costs being incurred while Chironis focused on generating substantial commissions for himself.”

    Meanwhile, Chironis was barred from serving or acting as an employee, officer, director, member of an advisory board, investment adviser or depositor of, or principal underwriter for, a registered investment company or affiliated person of such investment adviser, depositor, or principal underwriter.

    The Sisters of Charity used the investment accounts to pay “for the care of members of the Congregation living in assisted living facilities” and to support the Congregation’s charitable endeavors, the SEC said.

    Chironis, who neither admitted nor denied the allegations as part of a settlement agreement, had a history of churning, the SEC said.

    “Chironis has worked in the securities industry since 1981 and maintained Series 7 and 63 licenses since 1983,” the SEC said in administrative filings. “Prior to his association with Capital Growth [Financial Inc.,] Chironis received seven customer complaints filed with the NASD/FINRA, including complaints for churning and unsuitability.

    “As a result of customer complaints, in January 2006, the Michigan Securities Division required that Chironis be placed on heightened supervision, and in March 2006 the Vermont Securities Division prohibited Chironis from soliciting investors in Vermont. Chironis was associated with Capital Growth from November 2005 until February 2008, when Capital Growth ceased business operations. Since March 2009, Chironis has been associated with another registered broker-dealer located in New York, New York.”

    Capital Growth, which had offices in New York and Boca Raton, Fla., now is defunct, the SEC said.

    Chironis’ scheme targeting the nuns occurred between Jan. 1, 2007, and Jan. 31, 2008, the SEC said.

    Here is one example of how Chironis ripped off the nuns, according to the SEC administrative filing (emphasis added):

    “Chironis frequently replaced one bond with a bond or bonds of similar duration and yield. For example, on July 24, 2007, Chironis sold a Ginnie Mae bond with a 6% coupon rate, a maturity date of 2033 and a principal amount of $258,504.43. The very next day, Chironis purchased a Ginnie Mae bond with the same 6% coupon rate, the same 2033 maturity date and a principal amount of $201,636.05, along with a second Ginnie Mae bond with a 6% coupon rate, a 2032 maturity date and principal amount of $199,956.51. Capital Growth, through Chironis, charged the Accounts approximately $18,352 in transaction fees – in the form of markups and markdowns – on these three transactions. On September 26, 2007, Chironis sold one of the two bonds he purchased two months earlier, and on October 24, 2007, he sold the second.”

    During a 13-month period, the SEC said, the Sisters of Charity paid nearly 11 percent of the value of the nuns’ accounts to Chironis in the form of transaction fees.

  • RECOMMENDED READING: Blogger Recalls His Real-Life Encounter With An MLM Stepfordian And Wonders Whether The Cadillac Ever Will Arrive At His House

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Blogger Chuck Miller, who posts on the website of the Albany (N.Y.) Times Union, has a post today on the unique circumstances under which he became a self-described “mark” for an MLM pitch nearly 20 years ago. Seems Miller’s MLM memories linger after nearly two decades. (You’ll learn why by clicking on the link to Miller’s column at the bottom of this post.)

    First, though, some introductory remarks are in order . . .

    Although Miller’s column is not on point with this August 2010 PP Blog column on the unique circumstances under which it was invited to check out the purported MPB Today “grocery” MLM, it reminded me that some MLM purveyors simply live for the pitch: Any person — at any time and in any context — is viewed as the warm market by the Stepfordians of the trade.

    Miller’s column also reminded me of a December 2009 column by Renee McGaw of the Denver Business Journal. McGaw got pitched to join the Trump Network after she sent an email to Wayde McKelvy, a figure in the alleged Mantria/Speed of Wealth Ponzi scheme.

    McKelvy is a defendant in the Mantria/Speed of Wealth case, which the SEC filed in November 2009. Just days after the case was filed, McGaw began to receive a steady stream of email from McKelvy, who had a $30 million Ponzi scheme case hanging over his head and still was pitching offers for MLMs.

    “How the heck can I help you become financially independent if you do not take the action steps that I recommend to you?” McKelvy memorably nudged the columnist just days after the SEC announced its intent to sue McKelvy back to the Stone Age.

    Of course, untold numbers of Stepfordian members of Florida-based AdSurfDaily continued to pump autosurf MLMs — even after ASD President Andy Bowdoin had tens of millions of dollars seized from his personal bank accounts and was accused by some of his own members of racketeering.

    Read Chuck Miller’s post about the circumstances under which he was cornered by a Stepfordian MLMer.

  • BULLETIN: Salt Lake City Man Arraigned In Atlanta On Charges Of Running Ponzi And Fraud Scheme In Which Tens Of Millions Of Dollars Mysteriously Vanished Offshore; Canadian Also Charged In Alleged Caper

    BULLETIN: Two men — one from Salt Lake City, the other from Belleville, Ontario — have been charged by federal prosecutors in Atlanta with operating a Ponzi and fraud scheme in which tens of millions of dollars mysteriously disappeared overseas.

    Thomas Repke, 57, was arraigned today in Atlanta. Prosecutors said he worked with the Canadian man, James Jeffery, 58, to fleece more than $30 million from investors.

    “This indictment alleges a major international investment fraud scheme that defrauded over 100 victims around the country out of tens of millions of dollars, most of which has been transferred to overseas accounts,” said U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates.

    The scheme began in 2006 and centered around a company known as Coadum Capital in which investors were told that they were purchasing shares in hedge funds and that their investment capital was kept in “escrow” accounts and thus not at risk. Participants expected to earn up to 5 percent a month.

    “[A]lthough investors were instructed to and did transmit much of their funds to one or more supposed ‘escrow’ accounts, including one in Atlanta, the money did not stay in any such account,” prosecutors said. “Rather, unbeknownst to investors, Repke and Jeffery transferred over $20 million overseas to accounts in Switzerland and the Mediterranean island of Malta.

    “This money was supposedly invested in a series of hedge funds or other investments operated by a supposed Malta-based trader,” prosecutors said.

    But the investments “produced no earnings at all,” prosecutors said. “[B]y the end of 2007 only a fraction of the transferred funds remained deposited in these European accounts.”

    Regardless, Repke and Jeffery “continued to send account statements every month to investors continuing to represent that their funds remained intact, preserved in escrow accounts, and that monthly earnings of 3-5% continued to accrue,” prosecutors said.

    Both Repke and Jeffery had “no control” over the overseas accounts — accounts “about which they received little or no information,” prosecutors said.

    Investigators obtained correspondence that showed Repke and Jeffery both “were frustrated in their repeated requests to obtain information about where the funds were being held, how they were being used by the trader, and whether and to what extent earnings were being generated,” prosecutors said.

    The SEC referred the case for criminal investigation after bringing an administrative action and lawsuit against Repke and Jeffery in 2008, according to records.

    “Those who prey on the investing public in this way will continue to find themselves facing federal felony charges,” Yates said.

    The investigation was coordinated by the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. prosecutors said Jeffery had not yet made his initial court appearance in the case.

    Repke potentially faces decades in prison, if convicted. He was charged with multiple counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy.

    (NOTE: The SEC complaint references a Malta company known as “Exodus Equities Inc,”  which apparently was tied to an entity known as “Exodus Platinum Genesis Fund Ltd.” Also of note for additional case information/filings is the website of Pat Huddleston, the court-appointed receiver in the SEC case.)

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

    Andy Bowdoin

    UPDATED 2:25 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Still pushing autosurf and HYIP frauds?

    Last week, the PP Blog reported that the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors had established a link between California-based E-Bullion and Florida-based AdSurfDaily. E-Bullion is a shuttered payment processor whose owner, James Fayed, is awaiting trial on charges of murdering his wife, Pamela Fayed, whom prosecutors said wished to cooperate in the E-Bullion probe.

    It was the first public assertion by the government that ASD had a tie to E-Bullion.

    The Blog further reported that E-Bullion had been linked to at least three alleged Ponzi or fraud schemes: ASD, Gold Quest International (GQI) and Flat Electronic Data Interchange (FEDI), whose convicted operator, Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, was associated with convicted Ponzi schemer Brian David Anderson.

    Alishtari, also known as Michael Mixon, was convicted in 2009 of financing terrorism. Anderson, a FEDI pitchman, was sentenced to federal prison for his role in yet-another Ponzi scheme known as Frontier Assets. He also has been linked to a mysterious scheme known as the “Alpha Project.”

    Like ASD’s Andy Bowdoin, Alishtari donated money to the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to the Federal Election Commission database. Documents reviewed by the PP Blog show that payments from the FEDI scheme were referred to as “rebates.” ASD also called its payments to participants “rebates.”

    Today the PP Blog is reporting that federal investigators also have established a link between E-Bullion and Legisi, a company whose operator, Gregory N. McKnight, was accused by the SEC in May 2008 of operating a massive Ponzi and fraud scheme based in Michigan. During the same month, the SEC also accused GQI of operating a massive Ponzi and fraud scheme from Las Vegas. Investigators likewise established a GQI link to E-Bullion.

    Documents reviewed by the PP Blog show that records maintained by E-Bullion were the subject of a subpoena issued on Aug. 6, 2008 — five days after tens of millions of dollars were seized by the U.S. Secret Service from bank accounts controlled by ASD’s  Bowdoin. The subpoena was issued in the Legisi case.

    As the PP Blog previously reported, the Secret Service, which used undercover operatives in the ASD case, also used an undercover operative in the Legisi case. In fact, the Blog reported, the Secret Service undercover operative and an undercover operative from the state of Michigan, had a face-to-face meeting with Legisi’s McKnight in his office.

    Legisi later began to act in a fashion that only can be described as bizarre, allegedly morphing into a sort of super-secret enterprise that was exhibiting clear signs of paranoia. Investors, for example, were asked to submit to a loyalty oath and pledge that they weren’t government investigators or informants.

    The AdViewGlobal autosurf, which has close ties to ASD, later began to operate in a similar fashion, morphing into a so-called “private association,” scolding members for asking questions in public and exhibiting paranoia.

    “This Association of members hereby declares that our main objective is to protect our rights to freedom of choice regarding our advertising and marketing information and conduct, through maintaining our Constitutional rights,” AVG announced on its website in February 2009.

    Court records show that the Secret Service also employed undercover operatives in the investigation of the INetGlobal autosurf. An affidavit in the case notes that at least two operatives were present at an INetGlobal function in New York earlier this year and that one undercover agent had been introduced to INetGlobal by an ASD member.

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin was indicted earlier this month on federal charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. Prosecutors alleged he was operating a Ponzi scheme that had gathered at least $110 million. The indictment accused Bowdoin of making campaign donations to the National Republican Congressional Committee with proceeds from the ASD Ponzi scheme.

    Six days ago, prosecutors alleged in a forfeiture complaint that ASD member Erma Seabaugh used E-Bullion in November 2007 to transfer $10,510 to ASD. The alleged transfer occurred about six months before E-Bullion’s name surfaced in the GQI and Legisi cases brought by the SEC.

    When investigators later searched the home of James Fayed in the murder investigation, they found “approximately $60,000 in cash wrapped in plastic material; approximately $3,000,000 in gold; and approximately 31 firearms, including one with a long-range night vision scope, along with thousands of rounds of matching ammunition,” prosecutors alleged.

    Pamela Fayed was stabbed to death in a California parking garage on July 28, 2008. The Secret Service, which had begun its investigation of Bowdoin less than a month earlier, seized his assets three days later, on Aug. 1, 2008.

    The agents said Bowdoin was moving large sums of money outside the United States and had talked about buying a home in another country. In September 2008, the month after ASD’s assets were seized, an indictment was unsealed in Connecticut that accused Robert Hodgins of Virtual Money Inc. of helping a Colombia narcotics operation launder money at ATMs in Medellin.

    Virtual Money Inc. once provided debit cards to ASD, according to an ASD downline group.

    CLOSING NOTE: Read this chilling document from the case against Fayed in California.  Also see this 2007 report from CBS News. CBS reported FEDI operator Alishtari claimed to be “[National Republican Congressional Committee] New York State Businessman of the Year. ASD members later would make similar claims about Bowdoin.)

  • PROSECUTION: ASD Member Funded Account With Transfer From E-Bullion And Used Ad Rotator To Pitch ‘StreamlineGold,’ Apparent Pyramid Scheme; Records Show E-Bullion Founder Charged In Wife’s Murder In California

    An AdSurfDaily promoter whose cash was seized in February 2009 and now has been targeted for forfeiture funded one of her three ASD accounts in part with a transfer from E-Bullion, a shuttered payment processor whose founder was charged in 2008 with operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business and hiring a hit man to kill his estranged wife, according to records.

    The E-Bullion allegation raises troubling new questions about the sinister worlds of autosurfs and HYIPs, how ASD and its members were exchanging money and whether ASD and top promoters were employing secret conduits. In 2008, prosecutors asserted ASD had a relationship with E-Gold, a payment processor accused in 2007 of money-laundering. Yesterday’s assertion that ASD also had a relationship with E-Bullion marked the first time that prosecutors have raised E-Bullion’s name in the ASD case.

    Erma Seabaugh, known among ASD members as the “Web Room Lady,” used E-Bullion in November 2007 to transfer $10,510 to ASD, according to a forfeiture complaint filed yesterday.

    SCREEN SHOT: Federal prosecutors asserted yesterday that ASD member Erma Seabaugh funded one of her ASD accounts by transferring $10,510 from E-Bullion.

    E-Bullion founder James Fayed was jailed in California in August 2008, the same month as the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from ASD and nine months after the firm was used to transfer money to ASD, according to records. He initially was charged in an indictment unsealed in August 2008 by federal prosecutors with operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business that had processed more than $20 million in Ponzi scheme payments. The scope of E-Bullion’s alleged Ponzi business is unclear, but the company now has been linked to at least three alleged Ponzi schemes.

    In September 2008, Fayed was charged by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office with the July 2008 murder of his wife, Pamela Fayed.

    In June 2008, a month before she was killed in a California parking garage by a man who allegedly had accepted $25,000 from James Fayed to carry out the plot, Pamela Fayed had informed federal prosecutors in California that she wished to cooperate in the investigation of E-Bullion, according to records. E-Bullion is referenced in court files as a payment processor used by Gold Quest International (GQI), an alleged Ponzi scheme operating in Las Vegas that was charged by the SEC in May 2008 and also was charged by Canadian regulators.

    A total of four people, including James Fayed, now have been charged in the murder plot. As with many things in the miserable worlds of HYIPs and autosurfs, the prosecution of GQI by the SEC turned into Theatre of the Absurd.

    GQI, accused in May 2008 by the SEC in a $29 million Ponzi case, sought to derail the case by filing a lawsuit for $1.7 trillion against the agency. Company officials absurdly asserted that GQI was immune to U.S. law because its Las Vegas operations enjoyed purported sovereignty that was portable from an “Indian” tribe in North Dakota and that GQI also was off-limits to prosecution in the United States because it was registered in Panama.

    Chillingly, E-Bullion also is referenced in documents filed by the Ontario Securities Commission in a case against Ponzi swindler Brian David Anderson, a former Christian clergyman from Vancouver, British Columbia. Anderson was sentenced to prison in the United States earlier this year for his role in a Ponzi scheme known as Frontier Assets.

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

    In addition to the ASD account funded by the E-Bullion transfer, Seabaugh had at least two other ASD accounts, prosecutors charged in the forfeiture complaint. She used one of her accounts to advertise a mysterious business known as StreamlineGold, which was described by investigators as a probable “pyramid scheme dealing with the sale of memberships that are sold to customers.”

    The account through which Seabaugh promoted StreamlineGold was funded by a transfer from La Fuente Dinero, yet-another Ponzi scheme associated with ASD, prosecutors said.

    StreamlineGold’s website now throws an error message, but web records show it was promoted on the MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold forums, two websites that are associated with Ponzi schemes and referenced in federal court records as a place from which the alleged Pathway To Prosperity Ponzi scheme was promoted.

    “StreamLine Gold is literally what it says,” a poster crowed on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi site in November 2007, the same month Seabaugh allegedly was promoting the same scheme through ASD. “[I]t can provide you with an unlimited income through the combination of Precious Metals and Cash with a business model whose time has come PLUS the most advanced and lucrative pay plan ever devised.”

    Records suggest StreamlineGold had failed in an earlier iteration — and then failed again after rebirthing itself.

  • BULLETIN: Attorney Jonathan Star Bristol Now Under Arrest In New York; Lawyer Sued By SEC Earlier Today For Helping Kenneth Ira Starr Steal From Celebrity Clients

    BULLETIN: Attorney Jonathan Star Bristol has been arrested by federal agents and is scheduled to make an appearance in Manhattan federal court this afternoon to face criminal charges of money-laundering amid allegations he helped convicted fraudster Kenneth Ira Starr siphon money from clients though an escrow fund.

    “Today’s indictment should serve as a reminder to attorneys and others that you should always know the source, nature, and ownership of funds transferred through our financial systems,” said Charles R. Pine, IRS special agent in charge. “IRS Criminal Investigation is at the forefront of this type of investigation and will continue to hold professionals accountable in any field where they are entrusted with other people’s money and engage in money laundering transactions.”

    Bristol was sued only hours ago by the SEC. Now comes word that there also was a sealed criminal indictment in the case.

    “Jonathan Bristol, a lawyer and an officer of the court, allegedly helped his client Kenneth Starr hide the proceeds of his massive Ponzi scheme,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. “Along with our law enforcement partners, we will continue to pursue corrupt professionals in both the public and private sectors who betray their duties of trust.”

    Pine said attorneys who turn a blind eye to sources of funds risk prosecution.

    “A professional, such as an attorney, cannot knowingly use an escrow account funded with illegally obtained monies, or look the other way without questioning where the monies came from,” Pine said.

    Among the specific criminal allegations against Bristol was that his former law firm was concerned that Starr had not paid $750,000 in legal fees he had racked up.

    “In March 2010, Bristol reported to senior management that STARR would be paying $100,000 of the at least$750,000 that Starr owed,” prosecutors said. “Bristol’s law firm did receive a $100,000 payment that month, but it did not come from Starr — it came from Starr’s clients, laundered by Bristol through Bristol’s escrow accounts.”

    Bristol also was accused of using the escrow accounts to help Starr steal $7 million to acquire a luxury New York condo with five bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms, prosecutors said.

    He also was accused of hoodwinking Starrs’ clients about how their money was being used.

    “In 2009 and 2010, Bristol  regularly used his escrow accounts to receive funds belonging to Starr clients and then transferred the monies directly to Starr & Co. to pay the company’s operating expenses,” prosecutors charged.

  • INCREDIBLE: Now, A ‘Nuclear Power’ Fraud Scheme; SEC Suspends Trading Of Alternate Energy Holdings Inc. (AEHI) Stock And Seeks Emergency Asset Freeze

    The SEC has suspended trading of Alternate Energy Holdings Inc. (AEHI) stock and gone to federal court in Idaho to seek an emergency asset freeze, the agency said.

    AEHI was manipulating its stock price with a blitz of press releases while CEO Donald L. Gillispie and Senior Vice President Jennifer Ransom were reaping secret profits, the SEC charged.

    The agency said the firm was a “self-described Idaho nuclear power company” that “has essentially no revenue and minimal operations.”

    Despite this, the agency said, Gillispie, 67, channeled money from secret stock sales to fund “lavish personal expenses such as his Maserati sports car.”

    Among the bogus claims to suck in millions of dollars from investors in the United States and Asia was a claim that no company officer had sold any stock.

    In reality, the SEC charged, Ransom, 36, had “sold at least one million shares. She hid her stock sales from AEHI investors and the public, failing to file forms notifying the Commission of her sales. In addition, Gillispie himself directed sales of more than one million shares of AEHI stock through nominees, thereby hiding from the public his conduct.”

    Some of the money funded the Maserati purchase, the SEC charged.

    “In light of AEHI’s ongoing efforts to raise funding while promoting itself through a daily deluge of press releases, we needed to take immediate action to get to the bottom of the company’s misleading statements,” said Marc Fagel, director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office. “Documents we have obtained to date indicate a scheme to personally enrich the CEO at the expense of investors.”

    Court documents allege that AEHI positioned itself as an upstart in 2006 that sought to raise $10 billion for the construction of a nuclear-power plant in Payette County, Idaho.  The company also pitched ventures that included the purported harvesting of lightning from thunder storms, the development of fuel additives and the use of “nuclear-powered desalination reactors to provide the third world with clean water,” the SEC charged.

    Efforts to pump the stock began four years ago, but the firm “has no realistic possibility of building a multi-billion dollar nuclear reactor,” the SEC charged. “AEHI has never had any revenue or product.”

    Read the SEC complaint.

  • BULLETIN: SEC Says Attorney Jonathan Star Bristol Helped Convicted Ponzi Swindler Kenneth Ira Starr Steal Millions Of Dollars From Celebrity Clients

    BULLETIN: The SEC has charged attorney Jonathan Star Bristol with aiding and abetting the Ponzi and fraud scheme of convicted swindler Kenneth Ira Starr, the so-called “financial adviser to the stars.”

    Starr pleaded guilty to securities fraud, wire fraud and money-laundering in September. Among his former clients were former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, actress Uma Thurman, actor/producer Ron Howard, singer/songwriter Carly Simon and celebrity outfitter Jacob Arabo, known as “Jacob The Jewler.”

    Bristol, according to the SEC, permitted Starr to use “attorney trust accounts” hidden from the management of a law firm for which Bristol worked “as conduits when Starr stole money from advisory clients.”

    “Bristol had a legal and professional responsibility not to assist Ken Starr in conduct that he knew was unlawful,” said George S. Canellos, director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office. “Bristol crossed the line from lawyer to conspirator when he failed to safeguard funds entrusted to him, helped Starr steal client money, and lied to the victims to perpetuate the scheme.”

    When one of Starr’s victims “confronted” Bristol about an unauthorized transfer of $1 million,  “Bristol lied to the victim that the funds were being bundled with other clients’ funds for an investment with UBS Financial Services,” the SEC said. “In fact, Bristol had already used the misappropriated funds to pay a multi-million dollar legal settlement with one of Starr’s former clients.”

    Taking the deception one step farther, the SEC said, “Bristol subsequently sought to represent that same victim after the victim was contacted by SEC staff in its investigation. In addition to the fact that such representations violated the ethical obligations of lawyers, Bristol’s clear intent was to obstruct and undermine the SEC’s investigation in order to conceal the wrongdoing.”

    Read the SEC complaint.

    Kenneth Ira Starr also is known as Kenneth Starr, but he is not the same Kenneth Starr whose famous “Starr Report” led to impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton in 1998 and 1989 in the aftermath of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

    That Kenneth Starr was Kenneth Winston Starr.

  • BULLETIN: Company That Did Business With Steve Renner’s Cash Cards International Charged In Massive Forex Swindle; Case Against MXBK Group S.A. De CV Grew Out Of Cooperative Probe Among SEC, CFTC, FBI And IRS; SEC Charges Pitchmen With Blindly Promoting Scam, Even After Collapse

    BULLETIN: UPDATED 9:18 A.M. ET (U.S.A., DEC. 8.)

    A Mexican company listed as a customer of Steve Renner’s Cash Cards International (CCI) in a 2005 scam known as MegaFund now has been charged by the CFTC with running a massive Forex fraud scheme that gathered at least $28 million from more than 800 U.S. customers.

    Named defendants by the CFTC were MXBK Group S.A. de CV, a private Mexican financial services holding company, and its Forex trading division, MBFX S.A. Court records show that MXBK Group S.A. de CV formerly was known as MexBank Group SA de CV or MexBank.

    Separately, the SEC has charged three men with fraud for blindly pitching the MexGroup program and raising “tens of millions” of dollars in the process. Charged in Utah federal court were Clifton K. Oram, Don C. Winkler and William R. Michael.

    “Beyond the fact that none of the defendants understood how the Forex market or Forex trading functioned, neither Oram, Winker or Michael took any significant steps to investigate MexGroup, its principals, or the viability of the investment,” the SEC charged. “Instead, they blindly accepted MexGroup’s representations about its background, veracity, and track record.

    “Further, Michael and his company used MexGroup’s purported performance numbers on his company’s website and made misleading representations and omissions regarding their own Forex trading experience,” the SEC continued. “Even more egregious, Winkler and Oram continued to offer and sell the MBFX offering even after the November 2008 collapse.”

    Renner, the operator of both CCI and the INetGlobal autosurf, currently is serving an 18-month prison sentence for tax evasion. In February 2010, the U.S. Secret Service alleged that Renner was operating a Ponzi scheme through INetGlobal.

    Renner has denied the Ponzi allegations.

    The CFTC case against the Mexican companies and the SEC case against the promoters were brought as a result of a joint cooperative investigation among the regulators, the FBI and the IRS, officials said.

    Read the CFTC complaint, which alleges the MXBK Group Forex scam began in 2005.

    Here is a snippet:

    “U.S. customers sign up to participate in the Defendants’ forex trading enterprise by completing forms electronically on the Defendants’ internet website. However, when completing their customer applications, U.S. customers are required to designate certain U.S. individuals or entities, sometimes called ‘resellers’ or ‘introducers,’ who in turn act as liaisons for U.S. customers with Defendants’ operations in Mexico. The resellers or introducers receive rebates described as ‘PIPs,’ which are purportedly based upon the volume of trading.”

    (NOTE: The full complaint is highly recommended reading if you follow HYIP and Forex fraud schemes.)

  • BULLETIN: National Investment-Fraud Sweep Dubbed ‘Operation Broken Trust’ Nets 532 Defendants; AG Holder Says Capers Caused More Than $10 Billion In Losses; ‘Undercover Operations’ Part of Task Force Arsenal

    U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and members of President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force said this morning that a nationwide sweep known as “Operation Broken Trust” has netted 343 criminal defendants and 189 civil defendants.

    Among the targets of the sweep were purveyors of Ponzi schemes, affinity fraud, prime bank/high-yield investment scams, foreign exchange (FOREX) frauds, business-opportunity fraud and other similar schemes, investigators said.

    Some of the defendants “filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to avoid claims by victim-investors,” investigators said.

    The combined losses in the schemes, which affected 120,000 investors, were estimated at $10.4 billion, Holder said. He was joined in the announcement by FBI Executive Assistant Director Shawn Henry; U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Director of Enforcement Robert Khuzami; U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Chief Postal Inspector Guy Cottrell;  Deputy Chief Rick Raven of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI); Acting Director of Enforcement Vince McGonagle of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC); and other members of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.

    “With this operation, the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force is sending a strong message,” said Holder.  “To the public: be alert for these frauds, take appropriate measures to protect yourself, and report such schemes to proper authorities when they occur. And to anyone operating or attempting to operate an investment scam: cheating investors out of their earnings and savings is no longer a safe business plan — we will use every tool at our disposal to find you, to stop you, and to bring you to justice.”

    The calling card of the schemes was greed, Henry said, adding that undercover probes are part of the Task Force’s arsenal.

    “This operation highlights the scope of this problem, and its impact on individuals from all walks of life,” said Henry.  “This one sweep alone involves fraud schemes that harmed more than 120,000 victims. The schemes may change, but the underlying greed does not. Working with our partners, we in the FBI will use all the investigative techniques in our arsenal, including undercover operations, to bring those responsible to justice.”

    Khuzami, meanwhile, said the law-enforcement community was pursuing multiple forms of fraud.

    “Fraud by well-known companies or high-profile executives gets the biggest headlines, but other scams are equally devastating to hard working families and retirees,” said Khuzami. “Victims want justice and don’t much care who the fraudster is or how unique the fraud. Today’s actions underscore that law enforcement agrees and will pursue fraud in whatever form.”

    Read Holder’s announcement, made this morning in Washington.

    President Obama authorized the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force in November 2009. In January 2010, Holder ventured to Florida to speak about the aims of the Task Force and to warn scammers that the government was serious about putting them in jail.

  • THE DAY ‘WINK-NOD’ DIED: Use Of ‘Money Magnet’ Line, ‘Rallies,’ ‘Ad Packages’ And ‘Rebates’ Backfires On Bowdoin; Grand Jury Uses Terms Repeatedly In Indictment; Prosecution Has Damning ASD Correspondence

    Thomas A. "Andy" Bowdoin

    History was made yesterday. “Wink-nod” marketing deceptions  — the use of disingenuous language supplemented by willful blindness in the cancerous autosurf and HYIP trades to create plausible deniability — were pronounced dead by a grand jury sitting in the District of Columbia.

    Members of the insidious trade can thank ASD President Andy Bowdoin for the much-anticipated pronouncement.

    The grand jury, which began meeting in May 2009 and returned an indictment against Bowdoin that was unsealed yesterday, repeatedly referred to Bowdoin’s alleged wink-nod wordplay and incongruous claims to hide his massive international Ponzi scheme.

    Want to position yourself as a man of God from a stage in Las Vegas (or in any city or home office) and tell your audience that you are a “money magnet” — and then plant the seed that audience members can become “money magnets” just like you if they turn over their cash to you?

    It’s time for autosurf purveyors to anticipate that a grand jury just might have something to say about it on a time and date uncertain. Bowdoin’s grand jury handed him back his “money-magnet” line repeatedly. Federal agents arrested Bowdoin yesterday in Florida. His booking and bail status still are unclear hours after his arrest. The government previously argued that Bowdoin was a flight risk who had moved money offshore and now says he faces up to 125 years in federal prison.

    And what if you’re an autosurf aficionado and want to use wordplay to tell the troops that they’re not purchasing an investment in the form of an unregistered security — but instead are purchasing “advertising” in the form of “ad packages” (or a similar phrase) you’ve concocted to mask the nature of your “program?”

    Well, the grand jury had an answer for that one, too: Charge the fraudster with felonies.

    Want to tell the troops that your “program” has passed muster with the SEC and does not need to concern itself with registering when the claims are untrue? The grand jury had an answer for that one, too: Charge the fraudster with felonies.

    Among the grand jury’s conclusions was that Bowdoin, who’d previously been charged twice with securities offenses and modeled ASD after the 12DailyPro securities, fraud and Ponzi scheme, was blowing smoke to tens of thousands of people at a time.

    KABOOM! “Wink-nod” was blown to bits yesterday.

    Want to create an incongruous condition in which people are standing in line for hours at “rallies” to purchase “ad packages” that pay “rebates” of up to 150 percent and an “instant bonus” on top of the “rebates” just for signing up?

    The grand jury had an answer for that one, too: Charge the fraudster with felonies.

    Want to counsel members on how they should refer to the “program” and what words to avoid when presenting the “program” to others? Want to be like Bowdoin and send an email that says, “[L]et’s don’t (sic) use the words investment and returns. Instead, lets (sic) use ad sales and surfing commissions. The Attorney Generals in the U.S. don’t like for us to use these words in our program?”

    The grand jury had an answer for that one, too: Charge the fraudster with felonies.

    KABOOM! “Wink-nod” was blown to bits yesterday.

    Will autosurf forum life ever be the same? Not a chance, except among a core group of serial criminals. The grand jury signed off on a document that neatly exposes “wink-nod.” The next time a forum “expert” cautions posters not to call a surf program an investment, autosurf critics can point out that Bowdoin said the same thing — and that his words got him indicted.

    At the very same Saturday “rally” in Las Vegas at which Bowdoin called himself a “money magnet” and encouraged others to become “money magnets” by giving him their cash, Bowdoin implored members not to miss a fabulous opportunity to hand him a virtually unlimited sum in the final hours before the company would enforce a $50,000 “cap” beginning on Monday, according to the grand jury.

    Handing him any more than $50,000 beyond Monday might bring out the regulators, Bowdoin ventured, pointing out that “there are so many people that want to come in now and want to purchase two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand, half a million and a million dollars . . .”

    The grand jury pointed out that Bowdoin, incongruously, was selling advertising to people who did not even own businesses to advertise in the ASD “rotator.”

    After observing any number of incongruities associated with ASD and its use of wordplay to skirt securities laws, the grand jury had a message for the whole of the autosurf and HYIP worlds: Charge the fraudsters will felonies.

    It was the beginning of the end for wink-nod promoters — and it occurred in no small measure due to the efforts of the U.S. Secret Service, an agency Bowdoin and his apologists compared to “Nazis” and “Satan” after telling a Las Vegas crowd to plunk down unlimited sums on Saturday because he was lowering the limit to $50,000 on Monday.

    Bowdoin’s theory behind enforcing a cap was that $50,000 might be a low enough sum to keep ASD under the radar, according to the grand jury.

    Only in the incongruous world of the autosurf could someone sell himself on the notion that limiting purchases to $50,000 on Monday somehow created a safety buffer for others who plunked down higher sums two days earlier. Only in the incongruous world of the autosurf could someone instruct members to “act fast” and plunk down more than $50,000 on Saturday because the safety buffer would be enforced two days later.

    And wink-nod also began its race to the Internet graveyard in no small measure due to the efforts of William Cowden, now in private practice — but once a federal prosecutor and the chief of the Asset Forfeiture Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia.

    Cowden was the man some ASD members loved to hate. They called him “Gomer Pyle” on the pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum. They called him a “goon.” They called him “Crowden.” They called him “Cow-dung.” They called for a “militia” to storm Washington. They said Cowden should be placed in a torture rack. They “prayed” for God to strike Cowden and other federal prosecutors dead.

    And then they called themselves Christians.

    In the months that followed, the Secret Service, Cowden and others at the Justice Department set the stage for the complicated nature of autosurfs and HYIPs to be both understood and rejected by a grand jury that assessed ASD’s wordplay and the sea of incongruities and decided that felonious self-indulgence needed to be dealt with by returning felony indictments and destroying wink-nod.

    Indeed, history was made yesterday. It was the day “wink-nod” died, the day the music died for  “money magnets” and autosurf scammers on stage and in home offices and online forums everywhere.