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Tag: U.S. District Judge Roger L. Hunt

  • Receiver In Jeremy Johnson/IWorks Fraud Case Issues Devastating Report; Incredible Number Of Firms Referenced In 79-Page Court Update; ‘Dozens Of Companies Used As Conduits To Re-Route Revenue And To Commingle And Hide Funds,’ Document Claims

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Jeremy Johnson and associated companies were accused civilly by the FTC in December 2010 of orchestrating a massive fraud scheme involving hundreds of millions of dollars. At the moment, Johnson, 35, faces a single criminal charge of mail fraud. He denies wrongdoing on both the criminal and civil fronts and has painted himself a victim of an evil government and a court-appointed receiver run amok.

    About three weeks prior to the release of the court-appointed receiver’s report that is the subject of the story below, the government signaled that new criminal charges will be forthcoming and that those charges will apply to Johnson and unnamed “others” within his business web.

    “The United States’ criminal investigation is expected to continue for some months,” prosecutors said in a Jan. 12 court filing.

    A devastating 79-page report filed Friday by the court-appointed receiver in the Jeremy Johnson/IWorks case paints a picture of an incredibly elaborate domestic and international fraud scheme — one that only grew as the government moved in.

    The issuance of the report by receiver Robb Evans occurred against the backdrop of an ongoing advertising campaign — apparently conducted by a person or persons within Johnson’s camp — that plants the seed that Evans is presiding over a fraudulent company. The ad campaign, which is taking place on Google’s network, initially started on a web domain whose root was formed in part with the receiver’s first and last names, followed by the word “fraud.” (See Dec. 22 editorial.)

    That campaign appears to have been moved to a different domain that does not use Evans’ name to form its root, but instead marries the words “receiver” and “fraud” and asks, “Are you a victim of Robb Evans?”

    “We want to hear from you!” the ad exclaims.

    Evans is one of the financial analysts who helped unravel the infamous BCCI banking scandal in the 1990s. His bona fides are firmly established in the courts, and he has been a receiver or fiduciary in numerous cases.

    Receiver’s Feb. 3 Update To The Court

    Scores of business entities effectively were used as chess pieces to stymie investigators, keep the money wheels of key Johnson associates greased and disguise and conceal the ownership of assets, according to the report.

    At least six people with business and/or personal ties to Johnson either have invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination or informed the receiver that they would if asked questions about certain transactions, according to the report.

    Included among this group were Johnson’s parents, a CPA, a notary public, a former banker and a man who’d served jail time for a previous felony conviction, according to the report.

    Among the former convict’s duties was to open domestic bank or trading accounts at the prompting of other Johnson business associates, according to the report.

    Through the efforts of yet another Johnson business associate, millions of dollars ended up in places such as Cyprus and Andorra, a small principality in southwest Europe bordered by France and Spain. The associate claimed to have conducted a “world tour” to open bank accounts, according to the report.

    Here is how Evans, referring to both an earlier report to U.S. District Judge Roger L. Hunt  and the new report issued last week, described his actions to date in reverse-engineering the alleged fraud. (Italics/emphasis added):

    “This process thus far has included an analysis and review of more than 265 bank accounts and other records from 35 financial institutions and 25 other businesses. In addition to 115 affiliated entities and shell companies of the Receivership Defendants as reported in the Receiver’s first report, the Receiver also discovered at least another 65 entities that were involved in moving funds and concealing the assets of Receivership Defendants.”

    And here is one of the receiver’s conclusions:

    “There can be no commercially reasonable explanation for the number of entities and individuals through which funds were routed and re-routed. The only plausible explanation is that these funds are assets of Jeremy Johnson and some of the individuals were paid to shield those assets.”

    There can be no doubt that the report will raise alarm bells in the U.S. Congress and official Washington because of the security implications of an alleged fraud scheme in which proceeds also made their way into a troubled Utah bank already reeling from the recession and stress on real-estate prices. The bank later failed, but not until Johnson allegedly had acquired a 19 percent stake in part through alleged nominee purchases of stock by relatives and “structured” transactions designed to ward off the FDIC.

    Among other things, the report by Evans ties both Johnson and SunFirst Bank of St. George to the poker scandal playing out in New York amid Ponzi allegations. Johnson allegedly paid a bribe to John Campos, a former SunFirst banker indicted in the poker case, according to the report.

    What allegedly happened at Sun First Bank, however, was only one of the events addressed in the report.

    Read the receiver’s Feb. 3, 2012, report.

    Prosecutors Say New Criminal Charges Coming

    In a separate court filing in Nevada last month, federal prosecutors advised Hunt that the government is “conducting an extensive criminal investigation for the purpose of superseding the original indictment with a more comprehensive indictment charging Johnson, iWorks, Inc., and others with a widespread pattern of federal criminal violations.”

    The others were not named in the prosecution filing.

    Johnson currently is facing a single count of mail fraud, in addition to the FTC’s civil charges.

    Separately, the FTC said in court filings last month that Johnson had engaged in an improper subpoena blitz in the civil case while discovery was stayed by the Nevada federal court.

    Johnson, according to the FTC, sent a subpoena to the private, D.C. metro-area residence of FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. The subpoena, which was quashed, demanded that Leibowitz appear in St. George at 9 a.m. on Jan. 27 to be deposed.

    Johnson also improperly sought to subpoena FTC commissioner Julie Brill, demanding that she appear in St. George  to attend a deposition a few days after Leibowitz, according to the FTC’s filing. That subpoena also was quashed.

    Like all FTC commissioners, Leibowitz and Brill are Presidential appointees. Neither is required to jump on cue from Johnson. Discovery will continue when the stay is lifted on a schedule the court — rather than Johnson — sets.

    See earlier editorial that lists some of the domain names that use the names of the FTC or FTC officials in forming all or parts of their roots. The domains allegedly were acquired by Johnson or persons in his camp. At least one domain that used the name of the FDIC was formed, according to court filings: EvilFDIC.

    Among the many domains that use the FTC’s name is CorruptFTC, along with at least three domains formed with the proper names of FTC staff attorneys.

    Each of the domains allegedly was acquired before the receiver filed his Feb. 3 report.

     

  • BULLETIN: Federal Judge Orders Jeremy Johnson And Others Acting On His Behalf To Disable Website That Used Court-Appointed Receiver’s Name And Described Firm As Workplace Of ‘Thieves’ And ‘Crooks’

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This story originally was published Jan. 9, 2012, 3:01 p.m. It was updated at 5:01 p.m. on the same date. The PP Blog temporarily “unpublished” the story on March 23, 2012. Explanation of why it was taken offline temporarily is here. On March 23, 2012, the PP Blog’s security software recorded a “mass injection attack” as the Blog visited a domain styled CollotGuerard.com while researching matters pertaining to Jeremy Johnson. Collot Guerard is an attorney for the FTC and an alleged subject of harassment by Johnson or people close to Johnson because of the FTC actions against Johnson. The PPBlog is not revisiting the CollotGuerard.com domain and believes it is imprudent for readers to visit the domain.

    Our Jan. 9, 2012, story was republished below on Jan. 15, 2013 . . .

     

    A federal judge in Nevada has ordered Jeremy Johnson and others acting on his behalf to disable a website that used the name of a court-appointed receiver in its domain root and painted the receiver and his firm as “Thieves,” “Lairs” (sic) and “Crooks.”

    An attorney for Robb Evans, the receiver in the Johnson/IWorks fraud case brought by the FTC in 2010 and the namesake of California-based Robb Evans & Associates, petitioned Chief Judge Roger L. Hunt in a Dec. 14 emergency motion to order the site taken offline. Hunt issued the order to disable the site on Friday, according to the docket of the case. The domain was styled “RobbEvansFraud.com.”

    The order also applies to sites that use “any variation of the receiver’s name,” according to the docket. Through his attorney, Evans claimed that Johnson and others were violating a court order, confusing the public and undermining the receivership estate by registering a domain name in the receiver’s name.

    Evans and his firm are fiduciaries in numerous cases and have well-established bona fides. Evans himself rose to national prominence as one of the liquidators in the infamous Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) case in the 1990s, earning plaudits from U.S. District Judge Joyce Hens Green for his efforts to recover funds for victims of BCCI’s massive international fraud.

    Hunt also ordered Johnson to “cease and desist”  from using email addresses that used the name of the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC claimed last month that Johnson, accused alongside IWorks Inc. and scores of defendants in December 2010 in an alleged fraud scheme involving hundreds of millions of dollars, had registered numerous domain names that used the FTC’s name.

    The domain names allegedly were purchased in the fall of 2011, approaching a year after the FTC brought the Johnson/IWorks case.

    Johnson and others also registered domain names in the names of individual FTC attorneys involved in the Johnson/IWorks case, according to the FTC. Although Hunt did not ban such domain registrations that used the name of the FTC or its attorneys, he warned both Johnson and the FTC that contempt was a remedy if there was no “good faith” effort to resolve the domain-name issue, according to the court docket.

    The FTC last week declined to comment on the domain-name dispute. In court filings, it has argued that the domain registrations and email addresses could confuse the public and cause harm.

    In court filings, the FTC claimed that at least one of the domains was used to harass Collot Guerard, a longtime FTC attorney and member of the District of Columbia Bar since 1973. A site that used her name now appears to have been taken offline. Although the domain continues to resolve to a server, content the FTC deemed harassing in nature appears to have vanished.

    Guerard and Evans also were derided in ads someone placed on Google, according to last month’s emergency motions. Those ads appear to have been removed. The identity of the person or company that placed them is unclear.

    Recent developments in the FTC’s action against Johnson and other IWorks defendants have led to questions about where free speech ends and harassment begins. The developments also have led to questions about whether government employees at any level could become the subjects of attacks and harassment campaigns through instances in which defendants “fight back” by buying up domain names in the names of their accusers and placing ads that describe their accusers as criminals.

    Other than self-restraint, there appear to be few obstacles to prevent a defendant from registering a domain name in the name of his or her prosecutor or accuser and perhaps even driving traffic to the sites by purchasing ads that use highly suggestive language or make an outright claim that the public employee is a crook.

    An ad that appeared on Google described Guerard as “corrupt.” A separate ad described Evans, the receiver, as a fraudster. Both Guerard and Evans have had roles in the Johnson/IWorks case.

    Johnson has denied wrongdoing.

     

  • EDITORIAL: The Creeping Creepiness Of Jeremy Johnson — And The Use Of Google Ads As A Weapon Of Abuse Against Public Officials And Court-Appointed Receivers In Performance Of Their Duties

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This story originally was published Jan. 4, 2012, 3:32 p.m. It was updated at 9:59 p.m. on the same date. The PP Blog temporarily “unpublished” the story on March 23, 2012. Explanation of why it was taken offline temporarily is here. On March 23, 2012, the PP Blog’s security software recorded a “mass injection attack” as the Blog visited a domain styled CollotGuerard.com while researching matters pertaining to Jeremy Johnson. Collot Guerard is an attorney for the FTC and an alleged subject of harassment by Johnson or people close to Johnson because of the FTC actions against Johnson. The PPBlog is not revisiting the CollotGuerard.com domain and believes it is imprudent for readers to visit the domain.

    Our Jan. 4, 2012, story, with the original introductory editor’s note, is republished below. The republication date is Jan. 15, 2013 . . .

    EDITOR’S NOTE: In this January 2011 column on the concept of “fraud creep,” the PP Blog explained that law enforcement is counting victims of web-based scams by the tens of thousands.  The numbers are truly alarming, and the investigative and logistical challenges of unraveling a fraud scheme that may fuel itself by tapping into thousands of bank or payment accounts are unprecedented. In some individual cases, victims’ losses have been counted in the tens of millions — if not the hundreds of millions — of dollars. The Blog suggested a principal definition for the ever-expanding phenomenon of “fraud creep” and four associated definitions, including this one:

    “A form of deceit (fraud-creep plan) employed by hucksters, particularly on the Internet, characterized by efforts to popularize an illicit pursuit by withholding critical information and demonizing market regulators. Profits are reaped by tapping into disillusionment and despair and creating a bogeyman or figure of blame to rationalize participation in a dubious or illegal enterprise. The bogeyman or figure of blame often may be the government, a branch of government, a law-enforcement or regulatory agency or government employee.”

    In the editorial below, the PP Blog reports that public servants have good reason to worry that their good names and the good work they do in pursuit of justice for victims are endangered as “fraud creep” continues to evolve. Indeed,  the creepiest part of the Internet is further winnowing the already-thin blue line of defense against scams and scammers.

    “[A] party’s bad faith use of an Internet domain incorporating, without permission, the name of another party is not only misleading, but may bring extremely harmful consequences for the abused party . . . There is simply no legitimate reason for Johnson to use domains and e-mails carrying the names of FTC attorneys. Johnson is not seeking legitimate outlets for his views, but merely continues his pattern of deceit and harassment and is attempting to interfere with legitimate government business via illegitimate means.” — Federal Trade Commission, in emergency filing in the Jeremy Johnson/IWorks case, Dec. 15, 2011

    UPDATED 9:59 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Jeremy Johnson, IWorks Inc. and dozens of shell companies were implicated by the FTC in an alleged fraud scheme involving hundreds of millions of dollars. Johnson, 35, of St. George, Utah, denies wrongdoing. The case was filed in U.S. District Court in Nevada in December 2010. Elements of the case have devolved into what Johnson is disingenuously positioning as a battle to maintain his right to free speech.

    Collot Guerard, a Washington-based FTC attorney, career public servant and member of the District of Columbia Bar since 1973, is among a number of law-enforcement officials involved in the case. What she was subjected to is nothing short of chilling and disgraceful — and, as you’ll see below, Google and other companies had a chance to profit from the creepy attack on Guerard.

    Screen shot: Until this morning, Google was publishing this ad, which planted the seed that longtime FTC staff attorney Collot Guerard is “corrupt.” Precisely who placed the ad and how it was paid for are unclear. Another ad on Google’s network planted the seed that Robb Evans, the court-appointed receiver in the Jeremy Johnson/IWorks case, is a fraudster. The ad that used the receiver’s name also has gone missing.

    As a preliminary matter, the Blog is reporting today that ads displayed on Google that attacked Guerard and Robb Evans, the court-appointed receiver in the Johnson/IWorks case, appear to have gone missing this morning after having been published around the clock for days. For now, at least, the damage appears to have been contained — but the mere fact it presented itself in the first place is a matter for great introspection. No public official can feel secure in this environment. If attacks against them are condoned, then no member of the public can have confidence in his or her own safety.

    As another preliminary matter, the Blog is reporting that certain domains allegedly used to attack Guerard and Evans appear to have been disabled this afternoon. The how and why are not immediately clear. (UPDATE 9:59 P.M.: The domains appear to have been reenabled.)

    FTC Files Emergency Motion

    In little-noticed emergency court filings in federal court in Nevada last month, the FTC advised Chief U.S. District Judge Roger L. Hunt that it issued a subpoena to Web.com Group Inc., a Florida-based domain-name registrar. Through the subpoena, the agency learned that Utah-based Johnson “purchased and gained control over” CollotGuerard.com, according to the FTC’s emergency filing.

    Johnson’s aim was to use the domain to harass Guerard, according to the FTC filing. The agency also said “Johnson and others working with him purchased and/or gained control over the Internet domains and websites” titled RonnieBrooke.com and JaniceKopec.com. In supplemental filings yesterday, the agency alleged that Kevin Pilon, a Johnson/IWorks co-defendant, purchased the Brooke and Kopec domains.

    Brooke and Kopec also are FTC attorneys involved in  the Johnson/IWorks case.

    If the FTC’s allegations are true, the events involving Johnson and Pilon are almost indescribably creepy. Indeed, taxpayers and fraud victims may have good reason to be totally creeped out, given that Johnson and Pilon allegedly registered at least three domains in the names of public officials and have (or may have) a corresponding ability to create email addresses in their names.

    Johnson, according to the FTC, also spent $525.60 at BlueHost to purchase 24 domains in a single order on Dec. 3. Many of the domains use the FTC’s name. Here is a sampling:

    • FTCExtortion.com
    • FTCCorruption.com
    • FTCHatesBusiness.com
    • FTCgov.net
    • FTCScam.com

    There are at least 19 more, according to the FTC, noting that it issued a subpoena to FastDomains.com Inc., a BlueHost sister company, to glean the information. The agency also said Andy Johnson, who is Jeremy Johnson’s brother and another co-defendant in the Johnson/IWorks case, registered domains that used the FTC’s name and the name of Evans, the court-appointed receiver.

    Screen shot: Part of Jeremy Johnson’s domain-name lineup, as taken from an FTC filing yesterday.

    In its filings, the FTC is stressing that it is not attempting to to stifle any defendant’s right to free speech. Instead, the FTC is asking Hunt to enjoin “Jeremy Johnson . . . and those working in concert with him from deceptively using domain names, websites, and Facebook and Twitter pages that either expressly or impliedly claim to be associated with the FTC or FTC attorneys.”

    An attorney for Evans has filed a similar motion. Hunt is scheduled to hear arguments tomorrow.

    The slippery slope in all of this is that the adjudication of fraud cases nationwide and restitution to victims could be delayed as agencies and judges are forced to address Internet side shows orchestrated by defendants. Such side shows inevitably will affect judicial economy and increase costs to taxpayers, while potentially creating a condition in which individual public servants will have to hire private counsel, file harassment reports with local police, ask police in their local jurisdictions to provide extra patrols of their homes and neighborhoods and change their phone numbers.

    Another potential outcome is that victims of fraud schemes will lose hope as they witness agencies and employees that are supposed to protect them becoming bogged down by an ever-expanding series of harassment campaigns on the web. If Jeremy Johnson’s alleged misdeeds aimed at Guerard and potentially infecting others proves anything, it’s that the thin blue line guarding society can be made thinner . . . and thinner . . . and thinner on the Internet.

    Make no mistake: This is a horror show in slow motion that is hiding behind the 1st Amendment.

    Public servants at all levels have valid reasons if they’re suddenly feeling demoralized and totally creeped out. If the alleged Johnson practice of harassing public servants online and declaring it a 1st Amendment right is permitted to stand, any employee from any conceivable branch of government is at risk of having his or name appropriated as part of a strategic harassment campaign. As things stand, if a defendant in any conceivable dispute can gain access to a registrar and provide a way to pay for a domain name, he or she apparently will have little trouble starting a harassment campaign.

    And if a defendant has access to a Google AdWords account, he or she can use the account to place an ad that plants the seed that the public employee and object of their loathing is a fraud.

    No, creepy does not even begin to describe the harassment campaign to which Guerard and Evans have been subjected.  Johnson and his alleged helpers should be ashamed. Judge Hunt should order domains used as harassment tools taken offline.

    Creeps Are Limited Only By Their Imaginations

    Unhappy about that speeding ticket and given to behaving like a creep? As things stand today, it appears you’ll have little trouble acquiring a domain in the name of state trooper and waging an electronic war against her. Perturbed because you got caught parking in front of a fire hydrant? If you’re given to being a creep or can’t make the calculation that there are differences between free speech and cyberstalking, apparently there are very few obstacles between you and sliming the cop through a domain that uses his name.

    Behind on your child support and so blinded by contempt for your ex that you cannot recognize or cannot contain your own creepiness? Little is stopping you from sliming the domestic-relations officer. Found guilty by a judge at any court level? As a creep-in-waiting, all that stands between you and your revenge campaign are an easy-to-obtain domain registration and your ability to showcase your advancing madness by publishing slime.

    Seeing red because Juror No. 6, a grandmother living on Social Security, sided with 11 other jurors and found you guilty of breaking into your neighbor’s home last Christmas, stealing his 40-inch LCD television and selling it for crack money? If the alleged Johnson model is permitted to stand, you can taunt Grandma and her fellow jurors by registering domains in their names — and then you can use your creepy intelligence to smear them.

    If you’re inclined to be a creep, that is.

    If readers are not already sufficiently creeped out, they should consider this:

    One FTC official who has interacted with Johnson in the case and knows about the domains bearing the names of his agency colleagues appears to have preemptively registered a domain in his own name, possibly to prevent Johnson and/or his sympathizers from doing the same thing.

    If that’s what happened, it is a perfectly rational response — but one that demonstrates just how vulnerable public servants are to attack. Any creep can start one at any time.

    Johnson himself, according to the FTC, advised the FTC employee in an email that other government employees might be wise to buy their own dot.coms.

    “I noticed that you purchased [DotanWeinman.com] yesterday [Dec. 12] and you certainly could have purchased the other domains earlier if you did not wish for them to be used by others,” Johnson allegedly wrote to FTC staff attorney Dotan Weinman.

    Johnson did not say in the email how he happened to notice Weinman had purchased DotanWeinman.com, which leads to questions about whether Johnson himself had been thinking about adding a Weinman domain to his harassment stable.

    That’s creepy, to be sure.

     

  • EDITORIAL: The Deeply Disturbing Attack On The Federal Trade Commission, A Public Official And The Court-Appointed Receiver In The Jeremy Johnson/IWorks Fraud Case

    Screen shot from Dec. 14 evidence exhibit filed as part of an emergency motion in the Jeremy Johnson/IWorks fraud cause brought by the FTC. The site shown in the exhibit and described in the emergency motion by an attorney for the court-appointed receiver in the case is not the actual site of the receiver. Rather, it is an imposter site that uses the receiver’s name and is designed to intercept traffic and undermine the receivership estate, according to the emergency motion. The bogus site later was altered further and the words “Thieves,” “Lairs” (sic) and “Crooks” were placed near the top of the page, according to a separate evidence exhibit.

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This story originally was published Dec. 22, 2011, 10:41 a.m. It was updated at 8:11 a.m. on Dec. 23, 2011. The PP Blog temporarily “unpublished” the story on March 23, 2012. Explanation of why it was taken offline temporarily is here. On March 23, 2012, the PP Blog’s security software recorded a “mass injection attack” as the Blog visited a domain styled CollotGuerard.com while researching matters pertaining to Jeremy Johnson. Collot Guerard is an attorney for the FTC and an alleged subject of harassment by Johnson or people close to Johnson because of the FTC actions against Johnson. The PPBlog is not revisiting the CollotGuerard.com domain and believes it is imprudent for readers to visit the domain.

    Our Dec, 22, 2011, story is republished below. The republication date is Jan. 15, 2013 . . .

    UPDATED 8:11 A.M. ET (DEC. 23, U.S.A.) Robb Evans, the court-appointed receiver in the Jeremy Johnson/IWorks Internet Marketing fraud case filed by the FTC a year ago, first came to national prominence as a liquidator in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International case in the 1990s. If the bank’s name alone doesn’t spark your memory, think of the acronym by which it was known: BCCI.

    If you’re, say, over 40, images of BCCI and the spectacle it created perhaps are seared in your memory. The bank’s criminality and 1991 collapse created a scandal royale on both sides of the Atlantic and all over the world, including the Middle East. BCCI, the Wall Street Journal (Europe) wrote on Aug. 3, 2001 — a little more than a month before the 9/11 terrorist attacks — was a “renegade bank” that had relied on secrecy and had been designed to be “offshore everywhere” to evade regulatory scrutiny. The stunning collapse amid allegations of international money-laundering and a disguised takeover of U.S. banks initially put customers on the hook for $9 billion in losses.

    BCCI, which allegedly conducted business with the terrorist Abu Nidal (died 2002) and the now-dead or imprisoned dictators of Iraq and Panama (Saddam Hussein [died 2006] and Manuel Noriega) — and also could not say no to the Medellin Cartel and Colombian narcotics traffickers — went on to become perhaps the most infamous acronym in the history of banking. Evans has testified before Congress on the subject of offshore banking, corruption and the war on terrorism. His bona fides and expertise in unraveling the affairs of companies implicated in complex fraud schemes are firmly established in the courts.

    U.S. District Judge Joyce Hens Green of the District of Columbia once described Evans’ efforts as “remarkable.” In 1998, noting that she had presided over elements of the multibillion-dollar BCCI case for eight years and calling it the “longest-running forfeiture proceeding in the history of federal racketeering law,” the judge thanked Evans and others publicly for helping preserve $1.2 billion in U.S. assets for distribution to defrauded BCCI customers.

    Evans is the namesake of Robb Evans & Associates LLC. What does the company do?

    “What we do in my organization is we trace money, and we try and recover it for the victims of fraud, and we do it mostly on behalf of the United States Government,” Evans told the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations in 2006.

    Despite his bona fides — despite his record as a court-appointed receiver in numerous cases and his testimony before the U.S. Congress on critical matters of U.S. and international financial security — someone with a Google AdWords account and perhaps some knowledge about SEO planted the seed earlier this month that Evans was presiding over a fraudulent company, according to new federal court filings in the Johnson/IWorks case.

    For a yet-to-be-determined period of time, the names of Evans and his company were pushed down in Google search results and replaced at the top of the rankings by a domain styled RobbEvansFraud.com — with a paid AdWords ad to the right of the No. 1 search result driving traffic to the faux Evans site, according to an evidence exhibit filed in federal court on Dec. 14.

    The faux site planted the seed that Robb Evans & Associates consisted of “Thieves,” “Lairs” (sic) and “Crooks,” according to to an emergency motion filed by an attorney for Evans.

    “Warning,” the first sentence on the faux site blared, “this website is dedicated to collecting information from victims of Robb Evans and Associates.”

    In June, Johnson, 35, was arrested at the Phoenix airport at which federal agents allegedly found him in possession of $26,400 in cash and a one-way ticket to Costa Rica. He asserts his innocence to both the criminal and civil charges brought in the case. Johnson now is free on bond.

    Stop The Madness

    The FTC moved against Johnson, IWorks and other companies in December 2010, alleging an Internet-fueled fraud involving hundreds of millions of dollars. Evans was appointed receiver by a federal judge in Nevada, the venue from which the action was brought. The agency alleged that at least 51 shell companies were set up to dupe banks and to carry out the fraud, which resulted in “hundreds of thousands” of chargebacks and threats to consumers who filed chargebacks.

    FBI Director Robert Mueller III warned Congress in March 2010 and again a month later about the dangers of shadowy banking practices, noting that that shell companies often play a role in disguising fraudulent proceeds.

    “Money laundering allows criminals to infuse illegal money into the stream of commerce, thus manipulating financial institutions to facilitate the concealing of criminal proceeds; this provides the criminals with unwarranted economic power,” Mueller said.

    IWorks operated out of an office at 249 E. Tabernacle St. in St. George, Utah. The street intersects with nearby South Main, home of the historic St. George Tabernacle. The Tabernacle opened in 1876.  The city of St. George is famous for its geology, its climate and for its historic ties to Brigham Young and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

    The city, unfortunately, also is becoming increasingly known as the town from which Johnson allegedly carried out a fraud involving hundreds of millions of dollars, in part by manipulating the banking system through dozens of shell companies in Nevada and other states.

    In the emergency motion, an attorney for Evans now says that Johnson and perhaps others are seeking to interfere with the courts and the receivership estate by using the Internet to slime Evans, the FTC and Collot Guerard, an attorney for the FTC. The FTC has filed its own emergency motion.

    On Feb. 10, 2011, Chief U.S. District Judge Roger L. Hunt of the District of Nevada expressly ordered Johnson and other defendants not to interfere with the receivership, according to a preliminary injunction issued on that date.

    Despite Hunt’s order, Johnson sued Evans in Utah state court. On Dec. 7, Hunt ordered the Utah state action brought by Johnson dismissed.

    Johnson also asked Hunt to order the FTC to pay the legal fees of corporate defendants. The judge refused.

    Of all the troubling developments, perhaps the most troubling is the allegation that Johnson and perhaps others have weaponized the Internet to interfere with the administration of justice. The site that attacks Guerard — a career civil servant — clams she has been “accused of fraud and corruption.” The site was created on Oct. 7, 2011, months after Hunt issued the preliminary injunction and order not to interfere. The site appears to operate from servers in Utah, with the registration hidden behind a proxy.

    “[W]e are collecting information related to any wrongdoing on her part,” the site informs visitors.

    The attack on Guerard is just the latest in a string of attacks or veiled threats against law enforcement. AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming, for example, is jailed near Seattle on federal charges he filed bogus liens against public officials in the ASD Ponzi case, including a federal judge, three federal prosecutors and a special agent of the U.S. Secret Service.

    Vincent McCrudden, meanwhile, was arrested and jailed in January 2011 amid allegations he threatened to kill 47 regulators and government officials while using a website and emails to terrorize public servants. Just last week, federal prosecutors in Virginia said that Roger Charles Day Jr., who endangered the U.S. military and others in an offshore scam and was sentenced to 105 years in federal prison, had “filed hundreds of billions of dollars of fraudulent default judgments against more than 100 people who Day claimed had prosecuted him unfairly.”

    The Day procurement scheme involved at least 18 companies, prosecutors said. When the scheme was exposed, Day simply “directed his conspirators to discontinue bidding through those companies and instead form and use new companies,” the Justice Department said.

    In the new filings by the attorney for Evans in the FTC’s case against Johnson and IWorks, is is alleged that Johnson had a role in the posting of “false and scurrilous” material on the Internet in a bid to hamstring the administration of the receivership estate.

    Among other things, one of the websites tied to Johnson “makes false allegations concerning ‘mass fraud and corruption by Robb Evans and Associates,’” according to the attorney’s  emergency motion to disable the site.

    Gmail addresses using the names of Evans and Guerard were created and were designed to “impersonate and/or interfere” with the receiver and others associated with the case, according to the emergency motion.

    Johnson and others created other websites — including EvilFTC, FTCTactics and a site in Guerard’s name — to further undermine the legal process, according to the receiver’s emergency filing. Two other sites in the names of other FTC attorneys also were created, according to the receiver’s emergency motion.

    Those sites, according to records, both were created on Dec. 1. Like the site in Guerard’s name, the servers appear to be based in Utah.

    When the receiver’s attorney contacted Johnson to demand the site targeted at Evans be taken offline, Johnson claimed he did not own, host or control the site while insisting that “the domain has not been used for anything deceptive.”

    “It is a constitutional right to be able to speak freely even if your client does not like it,” Johnson informed the receiver’s attorney in an email, according to an exhibit attached to the receiver’s emergency motion.

  • Federal Judge Orders Sale Of Helicopters, Houseboats, Vintage Cars And Real Estate Linked To Alleged $275 Million Online Scam Operated By Jailed Utah Internet Marketer Jeremy Johnson

    A federal judge has ordered the sale of helicopters, airplanes, houseboats, vintage cars and real estate allegedly linked to a massive fraud scheme engineered on the Internet by Utah resident Jeremy Johnson and dozens of corporations, including at least 51 shell companies.

    Johnson, 35, has been jailed in the United States since his June arrest at a Phoenix airport at which federal agents allegedly found him in possession of $26,400 in cash and a one-way ticket to Costa Rica.

    The FTC charged Johnson and the companies in December 2010, alleging they hatched a government-grants and continuity-billing scheme that defrauded consumers of $275 million. A federal judge ordered an asset freeze and appointed a receiver, and the receiver’s request to start selling off assets linked to the scheme has been granted.

    These are among the assets ordered sold by U.S. District Judge Roger L. Hunt of the District of Nevada at the request of receiver Robb Evans. (This list is not all-inclusive):

    • 1978 Cessna P210N.
    • 2008 Robinson R44 Raven II helicopter.
    • 1968 Piper Navajo.
    • 2005 Robinson R44 Raven II helicopter.
    • 2009 Piper Malibu Mirage.
    • 1978 Beech C24R.
    • 1957 Chevrolet Belair Convertible.
    • 1972 Chevrolet Nova SS Clone.
    • 1952 Ford O Matic.
      1968 Oldsmobile.
    • 1972 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454.
    • Honda Pilot Dune Buggy.
    • Custom made snow plane. (Not airworthy. Used for travel over snowy terrain.)
    • Two Skipperliner houseboats, one a 75-foot craft, the other 74 feet in length.

    Office furnishings, fixtures and equipment also were ordered sold:

    • 82 West 700 South, St. George, Utah.
    • 575 East 30 North, Ephraim, Utah.
    • 11 West 700 South, Ephraim, Utah.
    • 302 West Hilton Drive, St. George, Utah.
    • 147 North 100 West, Mendon, Utah.
    • 392 West 400 South, Manti, Utah.
    • 575 S. Main, Richfield, Utah.
    • 127 Hollister Avenue, Santa Monica, Calif.
    • No. 91 North Front Street, Belize City, Belize.
    • Five parcels of adjacent and/or related parcels of raw land identified as Parcel #4200-B-HV, St. George, Utah, Parcel #4201-A-HV & Parcel #4201-B-HV, St. George, Utah and Parcel #4203-HV & Parcel #4150-B-HV, St. George, Utah.
    • 750 South Main, Highway 89, Ephraim, Utah.

    Chad Elie, a Johnson business associate implicated in a probe into illegal gambling, told a magistrate judge in July that Johnson had stockpiled caches of gold and cash and hid it in Utah, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.