During its 11 p.m. newscast yesterday, WTOL (CBS/Toledo) aired a report titled “Holy Rip-Off” about the alleged Profitable Sunrise HYIP scam. The report, which began with images of Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff playing in the background, focused on alleged Profitable Sunrise pitchwoman Nanci Jo Frazer of Bryan, Ohio. Frazer and her NJF Global Group are referenced in Profitable Sunrise-related regulatory actions that brought the alleged scam to a halt, but have not been charged.
It’s easy to imagine that many people in WTOL’s audience will be surprised to learn that groups of individuals were pushing Profitable Sunrise and its absurd purported daily rates of return with a straight face. Among the Profitable Sunrise offerings was the bizarrely named “Long Haul” plan that promised interest of 2.7 percent a day that could be compounded. That Profitable Sunrise also traded on faith may bring a special blend of horror to the station’s Middle America viewers.
Still, it won’t be the maximum horror. Indeed, the SEC has alleged that Profitable Sunrise pitchmen may not even have known the identity of the person or persons running the “program” from a “mail drop” in England.
Indeed, a situation has evolved in which self-identified Christians apparently were targeting other Christians with promises of daily payouts that would make Madoff gag — and from all indications were doing so without even knowing for whom they were working as the offer spread virally over the Internet.
Whether purported Profitable Sunrise operator “Roman Novak” even exists still isn’t known.
Then, of course, there is the question about the final destination of purported tens of millions of dollars directed at the “program,” which was pitched in part from well-known forums referenced in U.S. court filings as places from which massive Ponzi and fraud schemes are promoted.
Within hours of an action brought by North Carolina against Profitable Sunrise weeks ago, a poster on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum said this:
As the story has continued to unfold, an element or elements within NJF Global Group appears to be trying to blame critics for the demise of the “program,” as though the 2.7-percent-a-day “Long Haul” and four other absurd plans were entirely rational and didn’t warrant any scrutiny at all. This is occurring against the backdrop of major actions brought against other HYIP “programs” by the U.S. government in recent years, including Zeek Rewards last year. Zeek allegedly planted the seed it paid an average of 1.5 percent a day, about half of the purported return of the Profitable Sunrise “Long Haul” plan.
One of the issues posed by Profitable Sunrise is the issue of willful blindness among promoters. If Zeek was a scam at 1.5 percent a day, for instance, how could Profitable Sunrise not be one with “plans” that dwarfed the returns of Zeek?
It is known that Profitable Sunrise had promoters in common with Zeek. Some of the promotional ties among various HYIP programs date back at least to the AdSurfDaily 1-percent-a-day scheme in 2008. Like Profitable Sunrise, ASD also traded on religion.
As the screen shot (above) from the WTOL report shows, Profitable Sunrise offered a three-tiered, MLM-style referral “program” on top of the absurd interest rates. ASD President Andy Bowdoin is in federal prison for his 2008 scam, which offered a two-tiered referral program on top of an absurd 1-percent-a-day interest rate.
When the U.S. Secret Service exposed the ASD scam, Bowdoin compared the agency to “Satan” and the raid on ASD’s Florida headquarters to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Earlier — prior to the August 2008 raid — he described himself as a Christian “money magnet” and encouraged prospects to send him tens of thousands of dollars at a time.
Watch WTOL introduce Profitable Sunrise and the early fallout to its audience . . .
UPDATED 1:43 P.M. EDT U.S.A. (APRIL 25) The charges against Paul Kevin Curtis have been dropped and he has been released from custody. See this April 25 story by the AP via Yahoo News. Here, below, our earlier story . . .
The FBI has arrested Paul Kevin Curtis in the ricin letters probe, the agency said tonight.
Curtis, the FBI said, was arrested at his home in Corinth, Miss.
Corinth is a small city in Mississippi’s northeast.
Earlier today, the FBI said a letter sent to President Obama “preliminarily tested positive for ricin.”
Two other letters that preliminarily tested positive for ricin were sent to a U.S. senator and “a Mississippi justice official,” the FBI said.
One of the intended recipients was Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
Sen. Wicker.
“Gayle and I want to thank the men and women of the FBI and U.S. Capitol Police for their professionalism and decisive action in keeping our family and staff safe from harm,” Wicker said tonight in a statement. “My offices in Mississippi and Washington remain open for business to all Mississippians. We particularly want to thank the people of Mississippi for their thoughts and prayers during this time.”
Here is the FBI’s full statement this evening (italics added):
Today at approximately 5:15 p.m. CDT, FBI special agents arrested Paul Kevin Curtis, the individual believed to be responsible for the mailings of the three letters sent through the U.S. Postal Service which contained a granular substance that preliminarily tested positive for ricin. The letters were addressed to a U.S. senator, the White House, and a Mississippi justice official.
The individual was arrested at his residence in Corinth, Mississippi following an investigation conducted by FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces in Memphis, Tennessee and Jackson, Mississippi; the U.S. Capitol Police; the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; and the U.S. Secret Service, aided by the following state and local agencies: the Lee County (Mississippi) Sheriff’s Office; the Prentiss County (Mississippi) Sheriff’s Office; the Corinth (Mississippi) Police Department; the Booneville (Mississippi) Police Department; the Tupelo (Mississippi) Police Department; the Mississippi National Guard 47th Civil Support Team; and the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security.
BULLETIN: (UPDATED 2:06 P.M. EDT) The FBI and the U.S. Secret Service are investigating a letter sent to President Obama that “preliminarily tested positive for ricin,” the FBI says.
Ricin is a deadly poison. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., also reportedly was sent a letter that preliminarily tested positive for ricin.
The President has been briefed on the letters, White House Spokesman Jay Carney said minutes ago. Earlier, the FBI said “[t]here is no indication of a connection to the attack in Boston.”
At least two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday. The bombs killed three people, including an eight-year-old boy, and injured dozens. Some of those injured suffered the loss of limbs.
This is the FBI statement in full (italics added):
A second letter containing a granular substance that preliminarily tested positive for ricin was received at an offsite mail screening facility. The envelope, addressed to the President, was immediately quarantined by U.S. Secret Service personnel, and a coordinated investigation with the FBI was initiated. It is important to note that operations at the White House have not been affected as a result of the investigation.
Additionally, filters at a second government mail screening facility preliminarily tested positive for ricin this morning. Mail from that facility is being tested.
Any time suspicious powder is located in a mail facility, field tests are conducted. The field and other preliminary tests can produce inconsistent results. Any time field tests indicate the possibility of a biological agent, the material is sent to an accredited laboratory for further analysis. Only a full analysis performed at an accredited laboratory can determine the presence of a biological agent such as ricin. Those tests are currently being conducted and generally take 24 to 48 hours.
The investigation into these letters remains ongoing, and more letters may still be received. There is no indication of a connection to the attack in Boston.
The U.S. Capitol Police said that an investigation is under way into the the letter allegedly sent to Wicker, although the agency did not identify the Senator by name. Here is a statement, dated yesterday, by the Capitol Police (italics added):
Washington, D.C. — Earlier today the United States Capitol Police (USCP) was notified by the Senate mail handling facility that it received an envelope containing a white granular substance. The envelope was immediately quarantined by the facility’s personnel and USCP HAZMAT responded to the scene. Preliminary tests indicate the substance found was Ricin.
The material is being forwarded to an accredited laboratory for further analysis.
The USCP is partnering with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate this incident. This is an ongoing investigation.
This is a controlled event at an off-site facility. Operations at the Capitol Complex have not been affected as a result of the preliminary investigation.
We will continue to keep our stakeholders apprised of any new information as it develops.
UPDATE 2:06 P.M. CNN is reporting that the letters read, “To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance.”
And, according to CNN, the letters were signed, “I am KC and I approve this message.”
The alleged signature on the letters are reminiscent of disclaimers on political ads in the United States.
UPDATE 8:07 A.M. EDT (APRIL 4, U.S.A.)The report did not air during the 8 p.m. or 11 p.m. broadcasts, possibly because developments in other stories took precedence. Our April 3 story is below . . .
The Blog of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 is carrying this teaser today: “360 Wednesday[:] One of the biggest financial schemes in U.S. history went down in a small North Carolina town with many losing their life savings. Watch AC360 at 8 and 11 p.m. ET.”
In August 2012, the SEC called Zeek Rewards a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that had defrauded people by the hundreds of thousands. Zeek was operated by Paul R. Burks and Rex Venture Group LLC of Lexington, N.C.
CNN’s apparent airing of a segment on Zeek will occur against the backdrop of mysterious disappearance of the Profitable Sunrise “program,” which purported to pay out more on a daily basis than even Zeek. Zeek planted the seed that it paid out an average of 1.5 percent a day; the bizarrely named Profitable Sunrise “Long Haul” plan claimed it paid out 2.7 percent a day.
Some Zeek promoters also promoted ProfitableSunrise, which traded on Bible verse
Zeek also has promoters’ ties to the $119 million, 1-percent-a-day AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, which operated from the small town of Quincy, Fla., and purported to be a Christian enterprise. ASD collapsed after the U.S. Secret Service filed Ponzi allegations in 2008.
BULLETIN: (UPDATED 4:58 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The state of Utah has proposed that Rayda Roundy of Hurricane be fined $81,250 and ordered to cease and desist from selling securities unlawfully in the state for her alleged role in hawking Safevest LLC.
Roundy later became a figure in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme story. In August 2008, the U.S. Secret Service described ASD as a massive Ponzi scheme operating online. By April 2012, Roundy was tied in court filings in the ASD case to the mysterious “OneX” scheme, which federal prosecutors described as a financial pyramid that was recycling money in ASD-like fashion.
ASD’s Andy Bowdoin started pitching OneX while he was awaiting trial on Ponzi-related charges flowing from the ASD case. Federal prosecutors said ASD had gathered at least $119 million in its scam. Bowdoin was sentenced in August 2012 to 78 months in federal prison.
In September 2008 — just a month after the Secret Service had seized more than $80 million in the ASD Ponzi case — the Utah Division of Securities accused Roundy in a civil filing of hawking Safevest unlawfully. Roundy denied the assertions.
The case dragged on from 2008 into 2013. Roundy missed a hearing scheduled for March 6 after being warned the presiding officer would hold her in default if she did not attend, the state said.
Utah proposed that the fine could be used to provide restitution. Roundy’s alleged Safevest target was described only as “ME.”
In August 2011, the court-appointed receiver in the Safevest case announced that he “does not anticipate any distributions to the investor/victims as no significant funds have been recovered or are anticipated.”
News about the proposed sanctions against Roundy occur against the backdrop of Investor Alerts or cease-and-desist orders being issued in at least 33 states and provinces in the United States and Canada against the Profitable Sunrise “program.”
Profitable Sunrise allegedly was targeted at Christians. Its website has been offline for two weeks.
UPDATED 12:46 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The evidence against AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming was “overwhelming” and led to the purported “sovereign citizen’s” conviction on three counts of retaliating against a federal official by filing false claims, one count of concealing a person from arrest and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, a federal judge wrote in court filings.
While making a veiled reference to the ASD Ponzi case brought by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008 in the District of Columbia, U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton of the Western District of Washington wrote in an order dated March 14 that evidence showed Leaming “admitted to filing liens against a group of federal officials for absurd sums, $225 billion in one case.”
“The only link any of these officials had to each other was their participation in the prosecution of a Ponzi scheme on the east coast,” Leighton wrote. “The evidence demonstrated that Defendant was ‘helping,’ as he put it, certain individuals who were aggrieved by the prosecution of the Ponzi scheme.”
Leighton’s order did not identify the individuals Leaming was said to he helping. The order was issued in response to a bid by Leaming, 57, to be acquitted post-verdict amid assertions the evidence against him was insufficient to sustain the convictions.
But Leaming, according to the order, “admitted on the stand that he knowingly possessed the firearms in question because he wanted to challenge the law at the Supreme Court.”
And, Leighton wrote, the evidence “overwhelmingly supported Defendant’s conviction of concealing a person from arrest. The Government established that Defendant knew certain individuals were sought in relation to a postal-scam, that Defendant allowed them to stay in his home, helped them trade cars, and otherwise supported them.”
Those individuals have been identified in court filings as onetime fugitives Timothy Shawn Donavan and Sharon Jeannette Henningsen of Arkansas. They were found with Leaming in Washington state in November 2011. Donavan and Henningsen later were convicted of mail fraud in a home-business caper that gathered more than $2 million, prosecutors said.
ASD was a $119 million Ponzi scheme opearting from Florida over the Internet. ASD’s business model was similar to the model of the Zeek Rewards “program,” which the SEC described in August 2012 as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme operating from North Carolina.
ASD and Zeek are known to have had members in common. Some ASD members said that Leaming was providing them counsel, despite the fact he is not an attorney.
The PP Blog reported in November 2010 that Cornell University Law School, Justia.com and Oyez.org removed online profiles of Leaming. The sites previously had listed Leaming as an attorney who practiced law and advertised a fee structure of up to $250 an hour from Spanaway, Wash.
Leaming was arrested by an FBI terrorism task force a year later in Spanaway.
Also see Nov. 13, 2010, PP Blog report on a disturbing email some ASD members received that asserted they could be sued for filing a remissions claim in the ASD Ponzi case.
In October 2011, the PP Blog reported than some ASD members had received an email that encouraged them to file documents at the “county” level and “name” federal officials as “thieves.”
Court filings suggest that Leaming already was under investigation by the FBI when some ASD members were trumpeting him as the answer to their problems.
Zeek Rewards likely had a presence in all 50 U.S. states, plus U.S. territories. The High Point Enterprise, a publication in Zeek’s home state of North Carolina, today has a story about a Utah man who joined the “program” just prior to the SEC bringing allegations in August 2012 that Zeek was a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme.
From the Enterprise (italics added):
During recruitment meetings at a house in Richfield, Olsen said he was approached with a soft-sale pitch to become part of Zeek Rewards. Olsen was told that his $10,000 “would build my credit in the business” and allow him to reap greater income. The recruitment of Olsen took place over a period of months, and the approach was to build a relationship of trust rather than “twist my arm,” he said. The Zeek Rewards affiliates that Olsen met emphasized that the money he provided wasn’t an investment. But when the Securities and Exchange Commission shut down Zeek Rewards, the federal agency called it an unregistered securities business.
“They said that they would be in trouble if they called it investing,” Olsen recalls.
Read the full story in the Enterprise, which described Olsen as an individual who’d just lost his job and discussed a plan with his wife by which the couple would sell a family vehicle to join Zeek.
EDITORIAL NOTE: Ponzi schemes cause real pain to real people. Regardless, the Ponzi-board apologists for Zeek continue to demonize the court-appointed receiver, continue to engage in wordplay to sanitize “opportunities” and continue to fuel schemes such as Zeek by parroting disclaimers such as “don’t spend more than you can afford to lose.”
Blaming victims or insisting no victims exist is one of the most odious practices of the serial Ponzi pitchmen.
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: The state of North Carolina — home base to the alleged $600 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme — has ordered a purported offshore “opportunity” known as “Profitable Sunrise” to cease and desist from doing business in the state.
Profitable Sunrise purports to be a hard-money lender and investment opportunity. It appears to have attracted some Zeek members both before and after the August 2012 collapse of Zeek. Zeek was under investigation by North Carolina, the SEC and the U.S. Secret Service at the time of its collapse.
In its cease-and-desist order, North Carolina described Profitable Sunrise as “an immediate and significant danger” that is using multiple investment schemes to attract money, including a purported “Long Haul” plan.
The offer is being targeted at people of faith through web-based promoters, some of whom described themselves as Christians. Offering materials for the “Long Haul” plan have advertised an Easter holiday payout.
The company itself has advertised “risk free” payouts with “no chance of default,” according to the North Carolina order. And Profitable Sunrise also claims “investments are insured by a leading investment bank.”
As the PP Blog reported in December, Profitable Sunrise appeared to qualify investors based on their views on hot-button issues, including abortion.
North Carolina’s order names Roman Novak, Radoslav Novak and Inter Reef LTD (doing business as Profitable Sunrise) as respondents, amid allegations by the Securities Division of the office of North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall that Profitable Sunrise is selling unregistered securities as investment contracts.
Profitable Sunrise lists a business address in the United Kingdom. Regardless, the enterprise is soliciting funds to be sent to Raiffeisenbank AS in the Czech Republic, according to North Carolina investigators. An entity known as Melland Company SRO was listed in Profitable Sunrise wiring instructions as the beneficiary, according to the order.
A credit union used by a North Carolina-based Profitable Sunrise investor blocked at least one transaction directed toward the Czech bank, citing suspicions of fraud, according to the order.
Marshall’s investigators noted that the Profitable Sunrise investor believed that the”Long Haul” plan would pay “interest of 2.7% daily, compounded at 100%, for 240 days.”
Other Profitable Sunrise plans also promised high interest rates in compressed time frames, reaching for sums of between $10 and $2,500 and advertising interest rates of between 1.6 percent and 2 percent a day, according to the order.
Zeek planted the seed that it paid an average of 1.5 percent a day, the SEC said on Aug. 17. On Aug. 4, Zeek claimed on its news site that unspecified “North Carolina credit unions” were creating problems for it.
Patrick Randell McIntosh: Source: Fulton County Sheriff’s Office
BULLETIN: The U.S. Secret Service, the FBI and federal prosecutors in the Northern District of Georgia say a South Carolina man threatened on Facebook to kill the President of the United States.
Patrick Randell McIntosh, 28, of Charleston, was indicted on charges of possessing three firearms and ammunition while under indictment for a felony and for threatening the life of the President.
“Threats against the president of the United States and others we are statutorily authorized to protect are the Secret Service’s number one investigative priority,” said Reginald G. Moore, special agent in charge of the Secret Service Atlanta Field Office. “Every threat, no matter if made by telephone, in person, in writing, or on social media is examined to the fullest extent possible.”
The FBI and the Atlanta Police Department assisted in the probe, prosecutors said.
Today’s announcement of the McIntosh indictment marked the second time this week that an individual who allegedly used Facebook to threaten public officials was charged criminally. Lawrence Mulqueen, 49, was charged in New York with threatening to kill local, state and federal officials, including a threat to kill “every Congressional Black Caucus member there is.”
From a statement in the McIntosh case by the office of U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates (italics added):
According to United States Attorney Yates, the charges, and other information presented in court, McIntosh posted on his Facebook page his intention to shoot patrons at a local Atlanta lounge and to kill the president of the United States. After posting the various threats, the defendant purchased three firearms from individuals who advertised weapons for sale.
McIntosh also threatened a woman in the Atlanta area. The woman reported to Gwinnett County authorities that McIntosh was stalking her. She gave police the location of a hotel where McIntosh was staying. Law enforcement officers subsequently arrested McIntosh at the location and recovered guns and ammunition in his possession.
The threat against the President and the acquisition of the weapons occurred after McIntosh had been indicted in South Carolina for felony stalking, prosecutors said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld the rulings of a federal judge and rejected an appeal by AdSurfDaily figures Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer. The ASD duo had contended the seizure of records from ASD’s database in a Ponzi scheme case brought in 2008 by the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors violated their right to privacy and that Judge Rosemary Collyer was biased.
A three-judge panel rejected both contentions.
“Appellants’ purported evidence of bias amounts to nothing more than their disagreement with the judge’s actions in presiding over a related matter, and ‘judicial rulings . . . virtually never provide a basis for recusal,’” the panel ruled
Moreover, the panel ruled, “The dismissal of appellants’ Fourth Amendment claim is affirmed on the ground that appellants lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy in the records allegedly seized.”
ASD was a $119 million Ponzi scheme operating from Quincy, Fla. Disner and Schweitzer later became pitchmen for Zeek Rewards, which the SEC described in August 2012 as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid fraud operating from Lexington, N.C.
Kenneth Wayne Leaming, aka “Kenneth Wayne,” aka “Keny,” now is calling himself a “live abortion” — apparently in “defense” of home-based businesses.
UPDATED 12:28 P.M. (FEB. 27, U.S.A.) Kenneth Wayne Leaming, a figure in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi-scheme story and a purported “sovereign citizen,” is scheduled to go on trial today in federal court the Western District of Washington with co-defendant David Carroll Stephenson. Leaming is charged with filing false liens against public officials involved in the ASD prosecution. Among his alleged targets were a federal judge, at least two federal prosecutors — and the U.S. Secret Service agent who cracked the ASD Ponzi case in 2008.
Leaming, 57, also is charged with assisting Stephenson in the filing of false liens against two federal-prison officials. Stephenson was in federal prison for a tax scheme at the time the liens allegedly were filed. Records strongly suggest that Stephenson, also 57, would be a free man today were it not for his association with Leaming, given that Stephenson’s prison term in the tax case had been scheduled to end early this year. Instead, he’s facing new charges and potentially more jail time.
But the false-liens charges are just the beginning for Leaming. He also is charged with harboring two federal fugitives wanted in a multimillion-dollar home-business fraud in Arkansas, being a felon in possession of firearms and passing a bogus “Bonded Promissory Note” for $1 million.
If you’re new to the PP Blog and new to the ASD case, a brief review is in order: The Secret Service raided ASD in August 2008, alleging the Florida-based firm operated by Andy Bowdoin was a massive Ponzi scheme operating over the Internet. Bowdoin reacted to the raid and the seizure of tens of millions of dollars by comparing the U.S. government to “Satan” and the Secret Service to the 9/11 terrorists. Now 78 and in federal prison, Bowdoin came out of the gate after the seizure by assuring ASD investors that “God” was on the company’s side.
Some MLMers were quick to accuse the government of targeting a fine Christian man who was helping the United States create jobs with a “program” that purported to pay participants back 100 percent of their investment and a profit of 25 percent in only months. (Ten-thousand dollars in ASD purportedly fetched $12,500 within 90 to 125 days, purportedly more if members “compounded” their “earnings,” kept 80 percent of their money in a continuous state of “roll over” and never fully cashed out.)
Essentially there was only one chance that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme during its approximately 18-month run — and that single chance required nearly a complete suspension of logic to destroy the government’s Ponzi case and get ASD off the hook: Had a crazy billionaire or exceptionally well-heeled financier (who also was crazy) given convicted-felon Bowdoin more money than ASD’s rapidly accruing liabilities — basically an enormous line of credit that didn’t have to be paid back and could be tapped on demand for ASD to pay out $1.25 for every dollar it took in until the line was exhausted — ASD would not have been a Ponzi scheme. Absent a benevolent madman-billionaire and the kind of capital it would take to build a nuclear-power plant and operate it indefinitely with zero concern for profit, however, ASD could be one thing and one thing only: a Ponzi scheme using money from “new” members to fund the redemption requests of “old” members or a Ponzi scheme that sustained itself by simply recycling money among members of a closed group.
No madmen-billionaires sufficiently liquid to bankrupt themselves by funding Bowdoin’s stated plan of creating 100,000 ASD millionaires in three years while at once financing the “profits” of tens of thousands of average people seeking to expand the ranks of ASD millionaires well beyond 100,000 appeared to testify on ASD’s behalf at an evidentiary hearing it requested in the fall of 2008.
Here is just one of the reasons MLM has a miserable reputation: Notwithstanding the fact that Bowdoin already was a convicted felon for an Alabama securities swindle in the 1990s and that one of his business partners was a man implicated by the SEC in the 1990s in three prime-bank swindles, some MLMers decided to improve the already bizarre narrative that the government was picking on a grandfatherly Christian.
Petitions were started to paint prosecutors as the bogeymen. (The shorthand for this in MLM’s HYIP Ponzi land is “evilGUBment.”) ASD critics were derided as “maggots.” A “prayer” went out calling for prosecutors to be struck dead from the heavens. A theory was advanced that a Florida TV station should be charged with Deceptive Trade Practices for carrying news unflattering to ASD. A companion theory held that the Attorney General of Florida should be charged with the same offense and that AARP, which lobbies for senior citizens, should lobby for ASD. Meanwhile, some MLMers tried to enlist the U.S. Senate to turn the focus of the investigation away from ASD and Bowdoin and put it on the prosecutors who brought the Ponzi case. One MLMer called for the government’s lead prosecutor to be placed in a medieval torture rack, with ASD members at large drawing straws to determine who got the honor of making the prosecutor’s time in the rack as painful as possible.
Very few people in MLM had anything to say about the circus surrounding ASD. The few who did — perhaps most notably Rod Cook of MLM Watchdog — were excoriated for dismissing the narrative advanced by Bowdoin and other MLMers. All of this was occurring while ASD was provably insolvent. When Bowdoin failed to take the witness stand at the evidentiary hearing he requested, it was explained that he was “too honest” to testify. Both before and after the hearing, some of his most notable Stepfordian apologists advanced a theory that the government secretly had admitted ASD was not a Ponzi scheme and was clinging to the case in a bid to save face.
One ASD member advanced a narrative that the government had taken about $80 million in seized proceeds and invested it in a secret fund to pay for black-ops. It was from this caldron of conspiracy theories and fantastic idiocy that Kenneth Wayne Leaming emerged.
Like other “sovereigns,” Leaming to date hasn’t focused much of his attention on the actual charges against him, even though his conviction could result in considerable jail time. Rather, Leaming mostly has focused on creating a blitz of paperwork on the apparent theory his best “defense” is to keep the Feds and even local officials scurrying to guard all flanks. Since his November 2011 arrest by an FBI Terrorism Task Force, Leaming has sued the President of the United States, the Attorney General of the United States, various officials (including purported “Does”) and a county sheriff in Arkansas.
Members of Zeek Rewards and other MLM schemes should pay attention to the Leaming trial. There can be no doubt that Leaming-like figures existed within the Zeek enterprise. Like ASD before it, Zeek was a magnet to willfully blind MLM hucksters and actual criminals. Both “businesses” best are viewed as racketeering enterprises that posed an untenable risk to the United States and the rest of the world.
For the remainder of this column, the PP Blog will focus on just one crime alleged against Leaming: the filing of a false lien against the U.S. Secret Service agent — not that the other alleged bogus liens are any more palatable or acceptable. The word “disgraceful” hardly covers Leaming’s alleged actions, and yet some MLMers saw Leaming not only as an inspirational figure, but as the wisest man of all.
The Secret Service guards the lives of the President of the United States and the Vice President of the United States and their families. It also guards the lives of former Presidents and international dignitaries and political figures visiting the United States. As the agency is doing this, it also protects the U.S. financial system.
It is unthinkable — so far beyond the pale that it almost defies description — that Leaming, let alone any other American, ever would target a Secret Service agent in a harassment campaign. The Secret Service is a smallish agency by federal standards, yet it is arguably the most important: Markets become unglued when world figures are assassinated or targeted in assassination attempts. Beyond that, history now has shown that an event such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks actually can close markets and restrict freedom, the very things Leaming purports to be upholding.
People of good will are appalled that Leaming apparently thought it somehow his duty to Democracy and Constitutional government to harass a Secret Service agent. Given the critical duties of the Secret Service and its role in both national security and economic security, no American of good will wants to see an agent’s attention divided by the Kenneth Wayne Leamings of the nation and world.
If Leaming is convicted, he should be sentenced to the longest jail term permissible under the law. Never again should MLM or any MLMer stay silent when an obvious fraud scheme surfaces and is “defended” at the exclusion of all logic.
In both form and substance, Zeek was virtually identical to ASD — and yet ASD members and other MLMers joined Zeek. That’s a problem for MLM. whether it admits it or not.
Those ASD members who joined Zeek? They did so even as Kenneth Wayne Leaming allegedly was targeting public officials, including a U.S. Secret Service agent, in campaigns designed to destroy the thin blue line that protects citizens from anarchy. The most dangerous Zeek members are the ones who hoped he’d succeed.
