U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr.

EDITOR’S NOTE ADDED AT 10:09 A.M. Federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia now have confirmed that an investigation is under way, but declined to provide details. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office is involved in a pending investigation and we are unable to state the subject of the investigation or provide details,” the office of U.S. […]

Garfield M. Taylor, the Maryland man accused civilly by the SEC in November 2011 of duping charitable organizations and people of faith in a Ponzi scheme, now has been indicted on criminal charges, the FBI and federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia said. Taylor, 54, of Rockville, faces counts of wire fraud, securities fraud […]

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (UPDATED 5:20 P.M ON SEPT 4.) AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin has been sentenced to the maximum term in federal prison under his plea agreement: 78 months. The sentence was handed down minutes ago by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer of the District of Columbia. ASD was a $119 million Ponzi […]

“Like [AdSurfDaily], OneX does not generate income by selling a product to consumers outside the system. Instead, it simply re-distributes funds among participants. Thus, a participant will not earn money unless he or she recruits new members. When the addition of new members stops, the program ceases to exist.” — From court filing by Office […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: The PP Blog first reported on the arrest in France of alleged international fraudster Vladislav Anatolievich Horohorin on Aug. 11, 2010. The arrest came as the result of an undercover operation the U.S. Secret Service conducted on online forums. As the Blog reported at the time, “The arrest of Vladislav Horohorin is notable […]

BULLETIN: Federal prosecutors have gone to federal court in the Southern District of Florida, asking a judge to delay discovery in the November 2011 lawsuit filed against the government by AdSurfDaily figures Dwight Owen Schweitzer and Todd Disner. In cases in which plaintiffs sue the government in federal court, assistant U.S. Attorneys who ordinarily may […]

BULLETIN: Stewart David Nozette, the Maryland man with a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a “Top Secret” security clearance, has been sentenced to 13 years in federal prison on charges of tax fraud and attempted espionage. The espionage case was brought by the FBI after Nozette — believing he’d been recruited by […]

BULLETIN: Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, the Idaho man accused in November of shooting at the White House, now has been formally indicted on charges of attempting to assassinate the President of the United States. Ortega-Hernandez, 21, also was accused of assaulting three U.S. officers or employees with a deadly weapon. Whether the officers or employees were […]

UPDATED 6:31 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) A website collecting money through PayPal for the criminal defense of accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin of AdSurfDaily appears to have lost its ability to gather funds designated for an attorney’s “trust account.” This message (next paragraph) appears if would-be Bowdoin sympathizers click on any of a number of payment […]

Purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming remains jailed near Seattle a week after his arrest on charges of filing bogus liens against five public officials involved in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case in the District of Columbia, according to prison records. Leaming, 55, was arrested in Spanaway, Wash., on Nov. 22. He was charged with retaliating […]

UPDATED 3:59 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) : Kenneth Wayne Leaming, an AdSurfDaily figure and a purported “sovereign citizen,” has been arrested in Washington state. Leaming, 55, is listed as a prisoner at the Sea Tac Federal Detention Center near Seattle, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons said this afternoon. The circumstances under which Leaming […]