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Court to scammer: Give up your house or go to jail

“Asset protection services” scammer in contempt

By Layer 8 on Tue, 09/22/09 - 12:16pm.

Too many online scammers get away with what amounts to a wrist slap but a case if Las Vegas this week seems to be heading the right direction at least.   

According to the Federal Trade Commission, a business opportunity scammer has been held in contempt for the second time by a federal court and ordered to turn over the title of his home in Las Vegas or face jail time. 

The court found that the operator of the scam, Richard Neiswonger, failed to deliver marketable title to his home, in violation of a previous court order entering a $3.2 million judgment against him, the FTC stated. The FTC charged that the defendant deceived consumers with false promises that they could make a six-figure income by selling his "asset protection services" to those seeking to hide their assets from potential lawsuits or creditors. 

The current contempt order, filed in US district court last week, requires Neiswonger to take specific steps to transfer of his home to a court-appointed person by today, September 22, 2009, or face imprisonment. 

In April 2007, the FTC said the same court held Neiswonger, his business partner William  Reed, and their firm, Asset Protection Group, in civil contempt for violating the terms of a 1997 court order prohibiting them from deceptively promoting any "program" and from failing to disclose material facts to consumers. The court's 2007 order banned Neiswonger from telemarketing and from selling any business opportunity program to consumers. 

The court subsequently entered $3.2 million judgment against Neiswonger - the amount of his ill-gotten gains - and required him to transfer the title of his Las Vegas home to a court-appointed receiver within 20 days if he failed to pay the judgment in full, the FTC said. 

Despite Neiswonger's arguments that he had done everything he could to transfer the title, the court disagreed, leading to the contempt order announced today, the FTC stated.  If Neiswonger fails to comply with the current contempt order, he could be imprisoned until he complies fully. 

Layer 8 in a box

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Fry this guy!

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eom

incorrect link in article

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In the third paragraph starting with "In the court..." the word "court" is hyperlinked to the URL http://files.findlaw.com/rsrc/public/images/favicon.png which is probably not the correct link. No email address for Michael Cooney to be found, ergo the comment here.

NUKE THIS PRCK

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now

NUKE THE FTC

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And the rest of DC is my first thought, the second being why should I believe this guy is guilty? I guess "online scammer" is the Magic Word(s) for us nerds?

Second Thoughts about this one

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I think this press release really has diplomatic consequence. In regard to "no income" I believe it would be a matter of secrecy in banking or privacy in asset protection, whereby this is an equivalent of a credit rating granting as a matter of redemption that the service is too effective. Alas, who would not want to be trained in the use of a state secretarial adjunct. Finally, is it not a disturbance of the peace to say uh - secret? Doesn't this has to be reported to state.gov, in that it is the equivalent of a nuclear bomb?

Some national and sense

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You'd think the outlet of the national stock markets, is that of denomination in "national security" in that regard, ie a system of exchange billing, or coinage.

Now Ensign this

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You'd think if this were after bill collectors, and so much international outsourcing occurred, as a matter of sense and sens-ability and the five sense of trade invisible, and the peace nature of say a peace silver dollar, you must have to think that with all of the compound national security "currency" there is a definate strugle for mankind even to sense a service provider (law of judges wisdom), and their reference to "invisible" trade, you'd think with all those stars spinning around your head with a knock out dollar, you be hearing say audible trade calling you like a journey into heaven, completely bio uncoordinated. THey do say if you look into the dark, you can see phosgenes, and all work is done by his basic builind blocks, genes, and finally most loonies say bill collecters voices keep them up at night (what UL underwriting mental health grade electrical engineering of hot media??? association of crows material (AOC) or not?) What a backfire of our nations infrastructure (banking and brokeridge included ie all NASD quals.)

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About Layer 8
Layer 8 is written by Michael Cooney, an online news editor with Network World