Surfs Up

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 [...]

Back in 2008 — when the U.S. Secret Service raided Florida-based AdSurfDaily in a Ponzi probe and people who called ASD’s office were told God was on the company’s side — federal prosecutors alleged that ASD President Andy Bowdoin had “followers.” The meaning of “followers” largely was left to the imagination. Much of the mystery [...]

UPDATED 5:42 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Public officials involved in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case were not the only targets of bogus liens filed by Kenneth Wayne Leaming, according to federal prosecutors in Seattle. Leaming, 55, also filed a lien against Mary Peters, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation under President George W. Bush during his second White [...]

BULLETIN: David S. Mandel, the receiver in the alleged Commodities Online LLC Ponzi and fraud scheme, has sued four Florida residents and is demanding more than $9 million. Named defendants in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida are James C. Howard III of Parkland; Louis N. Gallo III of Parkland; Martin Vegas [...]

UPDATED 11:54 A.M. ET (U.S.A.) Curtis Richmond claimed the federal judge overseeing the AdSurfDaily civil-forfeiture case in the District of Columbia was among a group of “Co-Conspirators” that included two federal prosecutors and a court clerk. The judge, Richmond claimed, was violating her oath and conspiring with another judge to deny ASD members justice. Prosecutors, [...]

Last month, it was famed actor Will Smith. This month, it is Mahatma Gandhi, the civil-rights champion and beacon of freedom in India who was assassinated at a prayer meeting in 1948. After placing a “JOIN NOW” button under an image of Smith in its September house organ and later removing both the  image and [...]

“Thousands” of AdSurfDaily Ponzi victims with approved claims will receive remissions payments of “100 percent” in the coming days, a source familiar with the process tells the PP Blog. It is quite rare “to have a remissions program that comes back with 100 percent,” the source said. The claims process was administered by Rust Consulting [...]

A federal judge in Florida has ordered a convicted narcotics and firearms felon who emerged as a central figure in a Ponzi scheme case after his release from prison to disgorge $1.45 million. The order, signed Aug. 23 by U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Seitz, applies to James Clark Howard III and Sutton Capital LLC. [...]

The court-appointed receiver unraveling the affairs of a Florida firm accused by the SEC of operating a $27 million commodities fraud and selling unregistered securities says the company had “insiders and related parties” who took out twice what they put in. Clawback actions are anticipated against unspecified “targets” because the money they received constituted “fraudulent [...]

UPDATED 2:25 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) In a complex case unfolding in Florida, the SEC has filed fraud charges against two companies that allegedly sold unregistered securities and conducted a $27.5 million “investment scheme” involving “purported commodities contracts.” A receiver has been appointed to marshal the assets of the murky businesses, which are known as Commodities [...]

Four egg-themed domain names used to drive business to HYIPs that ended in spectacular flameouts and foreshadowed a warning from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) have gone missing. The domains — including one that redirected to an HYIP site known bizarrely as Cash Tanker, which used an image of Jesus Christ to promote a [...]