U.S. Secret Service

EDITOR’S NOTE: KrebsOnSecurity is written by Brian Krebs, who worked as a reporter for the Washington Post from 1995 to 2009. Our thanks to a PP Blog reader who brought our attention to information highlighted in the story below. Although the PP Blog is focusing on the TalkGold angle, the KrebsOnSecurity report covers much more, […]

UPDATED 8:37 A.M. EDT (OCT. 21, U.S.A.) Former AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin is continuing to serve 78 months in federal prison at the age of 78  — in part because he borrowed liberally from the MLM scammer’s playbook and planted the seed that the President of the United States (then George W. Bush) backed his […]

Will it be the shot heard ’round the HYIP world — or will serial Ponzi-board and social-media fraudsters continue to pretend it is meaningless? Matthew John Gagnon, a 45-year-old pitchmen for the $72 million Legisi HYIP Ponzi scheme and other online fraud schemes, is listed as an inmate at Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Sheridan, […]

“While reviewing the ASD website in the District of Columbia, [an undercover agent] found a posting within ASD’s News section, apparently posted by ASD on July 2, 2008. The title of the posting was, “Alert Pay & Direct Deposit are being phased out July 31, 2008.” According to ASD’s posting, “We have notified BOA not […]

The HYIP world is known for promoters’ bids to change the storyline, but this one may take the cake — or at least be a sweet complement. There are reports in Brazilian media that a promoter of the TelexFree MLM scheme — alleged to be a massive pyramid — has named an ice cream after […]

BULLETIN: Songkram Roy Shachaisere, a sidebar figure in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme story, has been indicted with several others in what federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York are calling “one of the largest international penny stock frauds in history.” The probe “used wiretaps in the United States and undercover agents in foreign […]

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Gregory N. McKnight, the operator of the $72 million Legisi HYIP Ponzi scheme popularized in part on the TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup forums, has been sentenced to 188 months in federal prison for wire fraud and ordered to pay more than $48.9 million in restitution. McKnight also was ordered to serve […]

The court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi-scheme case is reporting “significant progress” in securing assets for return to victims and says the estate has gathered approximately $325.1 million since the receivership began in August 2012. As of 5 p.m. on July 29, Zeek victims had filed claims seeking about $287 million. The claims portal […]

A man having a phone conversation with a jailed Tennessee “sovereign citizen” and frustrated she could not make bond had “a plan,” the U.S. Secret Service said in a July 25 affidavit for an arrest warrant. That plan, according to the affidavit, was to “burn” President Obama, “kill” him and “murk” the President and the […]

“The Court has reviewed Receiver’s brief and proposed settlement and finds that the proposed settlement is fair and equitable and is in the best interests of the Zeek victims.” — Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen, July 26, 2013 UPDATED 9:43 P.M. EDT U.S.A. If you’re from the camp that claims Zeek Rewards victimized […]

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Legisi HYIP Ponzi-scheme pitchman Matthew John Gagnon has been sentenced to 60 months in federal prison, ordered to pay $4.4 million in restitution and further ordered to serve three years’ supervised probation after his prison release, the office of U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade of the Eastern District of Michigan […]