UPDATE: MPB Today Operator Ordered To Stay Away From MLM As He Awaits Sentencing In Racketeering Case; Separately, MLM ‘Programs’ Get Pounded In The Press
Gary Calhoun, the operator of the MPB Today MLM “program,” has joined AdSurfDaily Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin as a member of a dubious club: A Florida judge has ordered Calhoun not to get arrested on new charges and to stay away from MLM while he awaits sentencing in a racketeering case brought by Florida authorities [...]
WTOL To Air Profitable Sunrise Report Titled ‘Holy Rip Off’
EDITOR’S NOTE: GlimDropper, an administrator at the RealScam.com antiscam forum, gave PP Blog readers a heads-up on the WTOL report yesterday . . . WTOL, the CBS affiliate in Toledo, Ohio, says it will air a report Thursday (April 25) at 11 p.m. EDT titled “Holy Rip Off.” A teaser for the report shows photos [...]
DUBIOUS MILESTONE: ‘Profitable Sunrise’ Website Has Been Offline For 10 Days; ‘All Is Good,’ Pitchman Tells Conference-Call Listeners; Wild, Unverified Claims Made On Facebook And Ponzi Boards That ‘Program’ Will Resurface As 4-Percent-A-Day Scheme
UPDATED 11:33 A.M. EDT (APRIL 1, U.S.A.) On April 1, the PP Blog published a story that informs Profitable Sunrise participants on how to contact state and provincial securities regulators in the United States and Canada. That story is here. April 1 was the date the Profitable Sunrise “Long Haul” plan was supposed to pay [...]
EDITORIAL: What Zeekers (And Other MLMers) Can Learn From The Upcoming Trial Of AdSurfDaily Figure And Purported ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Kenneth Wayne Leaming
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 [...]
Convicted Ponzi Schemer Andy Bowdoin Of AdSurfDaily Now Listed As Inmate In Florida Federal Prison [UPDATED FEB. 8]
EDITOR’S NOTE: This post originally was published Jan. 24 at 7:33 p.m. It was updated Feb. 8 to include this editor’s note reflecting that Andy Bowdoin now is listed as an inmate at the federal prison camp in Pensacola, Fla. (Pensacola FPC.) The original story published Jan. 24 appears below and includes some edits to [...]
‘American Greed’ Producing Episode On Trevor Cook Ponzi Fraud; Seniors, People Of Faith Fleeced By Cook And His Pitchmen
CNBC’s “American Greed” will be in Minneapolis today to begin filming an episode on the massive Trevor Cook Ponzi scheme that was targeted at senior citizens and conservative Christians and rendered some victims penniless, a source told the PP Blog. Cook’s scheme gathered about $194 million. It collapsed in 2009. Money that potentially could go [...]
UPDATE: ASD’s Andy Bowdoin Incarcerated At Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Center
Convicted 1-percent-a-day Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin is listed as an inmate at the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City, a development that likely means the 78-year-old AdSurfDaily patriarch is on his way to a federal prison. Bowdoin, a Floridian, last year requested to be incarcerated in Florida. The PP Blog was unable to determine immediately [...]
Florida Man Who Hosts Zeek Calls Featuring Robert Craddock Was Winner In Botfly LLC Ponzi Scheme
UPDATED 3:57 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Gregory Baker, a Florida man who hosts calls featuring Robert Craddock in the aftermath of the SEC’s Ponzi-scheme case against Zeek Rewards, is listed as a winner in the Botfly LLC Ponzi scheme case, one of the Sunshine State’s ugliest fraud schemes. Prosecutors said that David Lewalski, Botfly’s now-imprisoned operator, [...]
BULLETIN: Zeek Receiver Says ‘Large Sums . . . May Have Been Transferred By Net Winners To Other Entities In Order To Hide Or Shelter Those Assets’
BULLETIN: (UPDATED 2:34 P.M. ET U.S.A.) The court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme case has advised a federal judge that he “has obtained information indicating that large sums of Receivership Assets may have been transferred by net winners to other entities in order to hide or shelter those assets.” The dramatic assertion by [...]
SPECIAL REPORT: AdSurfDaily/Zeek Pitchman Todd Disner Gave Thousands To Gingrich, Romney After Soliciting Money To Sue The United States; Records Show Tax Liens Of More Than $405,000 Dating Back To 1999
EDITOR’S NOTE: ASD was a multilevel-marketing scheme that planted the seed it paid a return of 1 percent a day on top of two-tiered affiliate commissions totaling 15 percent for recruiters. Federal prosecutors described the purported “opportunity” as a Ponzi scheme based in the the small town of Quincy, Fla., and operated by recidivist securities [...]
DEVELOPING STORY: Zeek Winners Begin To Receive Subpoenas
The PP Blog has received a report that some members of Zeek have received subpoenas issued by the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme case. The SEC alleged in August that Zeek was a $600 million Ponzi and pyramid scheme operated by Paul R. Burks and Rex Venture Group LLC. Receiver Kenneth B. [...]