Government Caught Allowing Federal Informants to Continue Crime Spree

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Wednesday July 23, 2014

Written by: 4symm3tr1c

In 2005, the government began an investigation into a fraudulent leasing scheme that led to the late 2007 indictments of Brickbanc executives Kirk McMahan and Adam Stuart Zuckerman, both of whom plead guilty by early 2008. But while both became federal informants, neither was willing to give up the easy money of fraud, and by 2009 the government was actively trying to protect their star witnesses by covering up their ongoing crimes.

Because of their immediate guilty plea in what the FBI had dubbed “Operation Lease Fleece,” and their willingness to provide substantial information to help convict their codefendants, both McMahan and Zuckerman were able to avoid prison until the last of the ongoing cases were accounted for. This put them on the street, under probation, and supposedly under the watch of US Deputy Attorney General Jennifer L. Waier and the Santa Ana FBI. Of the 23 indictments handed out, less than half had been resolved by 2011, four years after the fact, and six years after the investigation had been opened. While those cases were awaiting resolution, Waier refused to bring any additional charges against her witnesses, and as a result, they didn’t hesitate to break whatever laws they felt were inconvenient, or would prevent them from profiting at others’ expense.

Shortly after he was indicted, but before pleading guilty, Zuckerman began calling himself by his first and middle name (Adam Stuart) and Kirk McMahan simply changed the final “a” in his name to an “o” (Kirk McMahon). This allowed them to operate in the financial world without anyone knowing that they were felons, with convictions for defrauding financial institutions for personal gain.

A month prior to the official indictment, Zuckerman registered a corporation by the name of Amidah LLC, in Wyoming. Because of their laws governing corporate disclosure, Wyoming corporations do not need to make public their owner. Also registered in Wyoming, on the same day, was Page 10 Ventures (to his business associate Ryan Page), Shared Success, LLC, The X Banker, and later that year, Venture Pharma, LLC. Again, these moves allowed Zuckerman and McMahan to reenter the financial world without drawing attention to themselves, or alerting anyone to their criminal past.

The X Banker quickly entered the market Brickbanc had once occupied, claiming to secure loans for small businesses. But this time, instead of defrauding the lenders, the small business’ themselves were the target. Seeking loans and credit, and promised a money back guarantee, nothing was delivered except bills and excuses. None of the businesses received a refund, nor did they receive the funding they were assured X Banker could negotiate. On August 11th of 2009, Thomas Mrozek of the Department of Justice received an email containing information that Zuckerman had changed his name and was once again, committing fraud.

Also in 2009, McMahan and Zuckerman promised to raise several million dollars in funding for a protein powder company marketed towards the Crossfit market, called Progenex. As with all of the other businesses they promised to obtain funding for, they never came close to holding up their end of the deal. But this time, they had a contract that gave them equity, which provided them a steady revenue stream, instead of the constant turnover of dissatisfied clients.

The founder of the company walked, leaving it in the hands of the Lease Fleece felons, plus their new accomplices, Aaron Thomas and Ryan Page – wisely chosen to be the public faces of the company, due to their clean criminal records (a fact that is likely to change). Almost simultaneously, the Internet seemed to be exploding with revelations about who was running Amidah, Mercury Ventures, X Banker, and Progenex. Online, they were being exposed badly…which led them to their next criminal venture: the purchase of an illegal SQL Injection code, which would allow them to remove entries from sites like RipoffReport.com. At this point, they entered the reputation management business through the purchase of the code and the attempted purchase of a company called Rexxfield. To insure the success of their venture, they also entered the defamation business, using a variety of fake accounts to post poor reviews and attacks on various businesses, then contacting them afterwards, to offer their reputation fixing services.

On August 24, 2010, FBI Special Agent (retired) Richard Kincaid met with FBI Special Agent Paul Bonin, where he disclosed evidence of an ongoing criminal enterprise that he had gathered against Zuckerman and McMahan. On September 3rd, ,Kincaid turned over the physical evidence that substantiated his claims. Shortly thereafter, on September 22nd, journalist Glenn Puit sent a letter to USDA Waier. Deputy Attorney General Waier and the FBI still needed their cooperating informants, and despite overwhelming and incontrovertible evidence that they were violating their parole and running an ongoing criminal enterprise, the government took no action to revoke either of the defendants bonds or to bring further charges to the conditions of their release. Most of the original defendants still had ongoing cases, and it would destroy the credibility of the government’s witnesses to throw them in jail for crimes committed after the original indictment. Zuckerman and McMahan carried on with their various enterprises, secure in the knowledge that the government would do literally nothing to stop them, regardless of how overt their crimes.

In August of 2011, during McMahan’s initial sentencing hearing, a group of victims to his post-Lease Fleece crimes attempted to speak to the court. At that point, US Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Waier addressed the court, saying that the current victims had no standing to be heard. and asked that the judge ignore them, adding that their claims were unsubstantiated. This was over two years since she first became aware of McMahan and Zuckerman’s ongoing crimes. Because the judge wanted hear the new victims, sentencing was postponed, and Waier was put in charge of calling the witnesses at the postponement date. Instead, she successfully filed opposing motions to prevent them from being heard. She followed this up with a sealed motion that remains sealed to this day.

Numerous small businesses were illegally defrauded; they lost substantial sums of money, never received the financial outcome they were promised, and were denied the refund they had been guaranteed. The prosecuting attorney in the case, the Department of Justice, and federal law enforcement allowed it to happen. At their sentencing hearings, Ms. Waier talked about what “changed men” Zuckerman and McMahan were…conveniently leaving out all of the crimes they’d committed under her watch. Both ultimately served very little time.

They’d gotten away with everything, and it had been covered up successfully.

Until a couple of weeks ago, when Ben Smith, the District Attorney for SAC County Iowa, filed an application for a search warrant on a seemingly unrelated case. Although it is not the focus of the application, per se, and while addressing the case it directly relates to (a murder and witness intimidation), the scope of the warrant necessarily reveals the Zuckerman/McMahan crimes that had been ignored for years by law enforcement employees and agencies in California.

Those familiar with the case expect criminal charges to be leveled at most of the people named in the warrant application, as well as their unnamed (but known) accomplices. The only remaining question is whether the cover-up will be brought to light, and if so, will those who assisted in the commission of the various crimes at hand, by refusing to prosecute them, find themselves facing similar charges?

 

Links:

http://www.justice.gov/usao/cac/Pressroom/pr2007/141.html

http://www.leasingnews.org/PDF/KirkAMcMahan.pdf
http://leasingnews.org/PDF/McMahan_exhibitsA.pdf
http://leasingnews.org/PDF/McMahan_ExhibitsB.pdf

http://www.scribd.com/doc/233387848/Application-for-Search-Warrant

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20 COMMENTS

  1. Nothing new there… Can you say Whitey Bulger? The FBI are a bunch of nitwits. They couldn’t find a Chinaman on Mott street.

  2. Does this have to do with the Facebook lottery , I’ve approached the Facebook office here in Sydney, then the u.s. consulate, then the federal police then state police , the state took a statement in his little black book and left it at that but I’m still being hassled by these scammers as they had found one of my friends profile and copied it

    • Using automated technology to generate a whole new strain of WMDs weapons of mass defamation. Think about it: Cyber Bullying Suicides increased largely in 2006, when Rexxfield began utilizing an SQL injection code titled the ‘Cool Technique’. When we’re talking about the potential ruin of your career, your marriage, or your child’s future, money is no object and these predators know it. When the time is right, you’ll get an email and it’ll be Rexxfield to the rescue antidote in one hand, anthrax in the other.

      Which brings us back to the question, how do I know all of this? It’s simple: I was the journalist who broke the story.

      Look, I know I can’t expect you to take my word for all this, partly because the Rexxfield gang have already made good on their plans to destroy my reputation, but read one of the planning sessions of Rexxfield geared to making kids commit suicide.

      http://www.ripoffreport.com/lhc/common/files/Meeting_Transcript_2011_01_28.pdf

    • Darren Mitchll Meade, a CEO in 2010, identified the Online Reputation Management sector as an area of growth. Meade’s efforts to reveal the dangers of ORM were featured on Fox News in 2012.

      http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/20/google-cide-online-reputation-managers-can-wipe-from-web/

      Meade was granted the opportunity to speak directly to the United States District Court Central District of California and address Honorable Cormac J Carney for No. SACR 07-00249-CJC at the sentencing hearing for Rexxfield partners Zuckerman and McMahan which begins on page 25

      http://www.slideshare.net/darrenmeade1/mcmahan-aug-29-2011

      Meade provided details of the organizational structure of the ORM entities and a two-step process of coupling the creation and posting of online defamatory materials in a fee-for-service of removing of the content from online consumer advocacy websites. Meade’s testimony provoked an order from the court for an evidentiary hearing to discover further details on Meade’s information. However, the Court subsequently withdrew the order following the receipt of sealed information from the US Attorney’s Office.

      According to Meade he resigned in February 2010, after a company for which he was the CEO, shared a building with Rexxfield who was selling an SQL injection hacking code which had been sold to the largest players in ORM since 2007.

      Meade provided explicit details of this enterprise (including contracts, emails, and consensually recorded audio recordings of planning meetings) to the FBI and US Attorney.

      “My testimony to the Court has now proven true; the code has been used to silence victims, and legitimate consumer complaints about fraudulent business practices, doctors practicing without proper training. Plans were made to launch an automated cyber bullying campaign and then extort parents of fearful parent. It can be used to make content disappear on search engines and private web servers.”

      Meade said once he discovered the technology was hacking and what its implications were, he made it his mission to warn the public about the dangers this technology poses to free speech. He also understood the institutionalized repertoire of serial defamation, vexatious litigation, and death threats have all be leveled against him in a futile attempt to force him to retreat from his stated goal.

      http://www.slideshare.net/darrenmeade1/mcmahan-aug-29-2011

  5. I offered to provide evidence about the Rexxfield hijacking and contacted AUSA Jennifer Waier in an attempt to schedule a meeting with the FBI to present my evidence to the FBI.

    After blowing me off I contacted the FBI in Las Vegas.

    She finally replied with this email:

    On February 1, 2013 at 11:10 AM, “Jennifer Waier (USACAC)” wrote:

    Special Agent Rudy Mendoza will meet with you. Please call him to set up a meeting. 949-xxx-4032.

    Thanks,

    Jennifer Waier

    I found out from the FBI in Vegas that Mendoza is an IRS agent! She was trying to send me to someone to shine me!

  7. This email string was included as an exhibit in the Victims petition. It shows that the US Attorney knew about the McMahan and Zuckerman breach of their supervised release agreements in early August 2009.

    From: Concerned Citizen
    Date: Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 7:02 PM
    To: [email protected]

    Hello Thom,

    We spoke today about Operation Lease Fleece and Adam Zuckerman, thank you for taking the call. We met Adam (he goes by Adam Stuart) about six moths ago as he was trying to work a deal to purchase a supplement manufacturer in NY that my associate and I were working with. This NY company was in a Chapter 11 turnaround situation, and so we spoke to him. He did not succeed with a purchase with the owner of that company, but tried to get us to come work for him as his “integration team” while he raised money to buy other nutraceutical companies. He also said his company Mercury Ventures controlled a $500mm fund and that would be used in part to buyout or consolidate companies in the nutrition space.

    We were about to sign a deal to work with him, and then, by accident, my associate found out his last name was actually Zuckerman. We quickly googled his real name with “fraud” and we hit pay-dirt. We then said we wanted no part of him, through a letter from our attorney. Adam countered by stating he was a victim of circumstance and proceeded to “come clean” on the Leasing deal. We never went to work for Adam, but he said he was still going to raise money for nutraceutical companies, and if something looked good, would we still consider working with him. We said, yes, as if to say, we won’t completely blackball you, if in fact your criminal past was one where you may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time…

    But more things just aren’t adding up, like his so-called fund, his lack of any history in developing or funding good businesses, and the fact that he is now promoting a new deal with a colleague of ours, and making really outlandish claims about what the deal is or can be, in our opinion.

    So with that as a backdrop, what I/we would like to know is:

    Has Adam’s sentencing hearing took place? If so, when will he go to prison, or did he get parole etc.?
    Does Adam have any stipulations in his plea that state he cannot take part in any money raising or proffering of investments?
    Is it okay if Adam uses another last name to hide his past from his new business associates?
    As I stated, he uses the name Adam Stuart, and it seems he is involved in numerous telemarketing operations based in Cost Mesa Ca.
    These telemarketing deals all wreak of “scheme” and range from “rebuild your credit”, to getting people re-financed on their mortgages if they are faced with a bad loan or loss of income.
    Adam also says his sentencing hearing is in a year or so, is this true?

    In closing, Adam is now promoting a large investment with a colleague of ours. However, many critical aspects of this deal are considered by Adam to be insignificant, but leave my associate and I thinking this is a scam. Since my associate and I are close with our colleague, and worked with him previously we’ve been asked to be part of the new management if the company gets funded, which we will decline.

    We don’t need to know if Adam is a true con-man, we believe this is the case already. We do wonder how we can tell our colleague about this without Adam doing something stupid because he lost his next “mark”?

    We do not want anyone to get hurt by working with Adam, and don’t know how to proceed…

    Any advice in this matter is greatly appreciated.

    ———-
    From: Concerned Citizen
    Date: Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 9:21 AM
    To: [email protected]

    Mr. Mrozek,

    I know you are busy, but did you get my last email regarding Adam Zuckerman?

    ———-
    From: Mrozek, Thom (USACAC)
    Date: Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 9:21 AM
    To: [email protected]

    Yes.

    ———-
    From: Concerned Citizen
    Date: Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 9:39 AM
    To: “Mrozek, Thom (USACAC)”

    Thank you.

    • Apparently Mr. Meade YOU were not only willing to “pay a lot” up front for access to the illegal SQL browser but were also willing to provide Mr. Cooke with a “monthly stipend” with which he could constantly update the criminal technology.

      The following email from you to Mr. Cooke is published online here:

      http://www.rexxfield.com/cases/darren-meade/Darren-Meade-Attempts-to-Purchase-Alledged-Hacking-Technique.html
      —————————- EMAIL #3 —————————-

      Dear Mr. Cooke:

      Please take notice that I am party to a Unilateral
      Non-Circumvention Agreement between myself Adam Zuckerman aka Alexander
      Borjia, Ryan Page and SHARED SUCCESS. SHARED SUCCESS an LLC held by Adam
      Zuckerman and Ryan Page. Pursuant to the agreement SHARED SUCCESS ”
      shall not, for any reason whatsoever, either directly or indirectly:

      (a) solicit or take away the business opportunity of or
      attempt to solicit or take away the business of MEADE, related to
      MICHAEL ROBERTS and/or REXXFIELD, including but not limited to any of
      its customers, clients, vendors, lessors or affiliates or any business
      arrangements of MEADE, related to MICHAEL ROBERTS and/or REXXFIELD,
      where MEADE shall reserve the right to source the opportunity elsewhere
      should the terms and conditions of MEADE’s involvement be determined
      unsatisfactory in his sole and absolute discretion.

      SHARED SUCCESS, Adam Zuckerman aka Alexander Borjia, were notified
      in February, that terms and conditions were unsatisfactory and per the
      Unilateral Non-Circumvention Agreement, I was sourcing the deal
      personally.

      The negotiations you have entered into with Adam Zuckerman,
      allegedly on behalf of Rexxfield, is a fraudulent attempt to acquire the
      Exclusive Technology and Special Technique by Mr. Zuckerman. It has
      caused and will cause irreparable harm to Darren Meade.

      SHARED SUCCESS, Adam Zuckerman and Ryan Page have violated the
      Unilateral Non-Circumvention Agreement. Therefore, any negotiations for
      the “Exclusive Technology and Special Techniques Transfer Agreement”
      pertaining to Rexxfield, should be limited and directed to myself.

      In view of the foregoing, I request that you immediately cease and
      desist your unauthorized transfer of any items pertaining to the
      Unilateral Non-Circumvention Agreement, or, business communication
      with Alexander Borija aka Adam Zuckerman, Ryan Page pertaining to the IP
      of Rexxfield or the “Exclusive Technology and Special Transfer
      Agreement.”

      The $16,000.00 (USD) is ready for transmittal, or cashiers check. I
      want to make certain that your business partner has an adequate ability
      to continue to earn a living, I’d like to discuss this with you.
      Additionally, I wanted to discuss providing you a monthly stipend to
      reserve hours each month for you to continue to innovate.

      My personal cell phone is (949) 295-0502

      Regards,

      Darren M. Meade
      Managing Director
      Kairos-Meade
      14 Monarch Bay Plaza # 101
      Monarch Beach, CA 92629

      Direct: (949) 499-1785
      Fax: (949) 608-3405

      A review of the public documents related to your upcoming criminal trial would seem to suggest you won’t be funding anything for quite some time.

  9. Michael Roberts and his entity Sons Limited owns: Rexxfield; AuthorizedStatement; BadforPeople; Pageme.1; Rioffreportvictims, 911Defamation

    Here, is the certified court transcript of my testimony against Rexxfield partners in 2011 – http://www.slideshare.net/darrenmeade1/mcmahan-aug-29-2011

    Despite the spin by Rexxfield operatives within this respected forum is legendary. I, identified the Online Reputation Management sector as an area of growth. My efforts to reveal the dangers of ORM were featured on Fox News 2012.

    http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/20/google-cide-online-reputation-managers-can-wipe-from-web/

    Meade was granted the opportunity to speak directly to the United States District Court Central District of California and address Honorable Cormac J Carney for No. SACR 07-00249-CJC at the sentencing hearing for Rexxfield partners. Meade provided details of the organizational structure of the ORM entities and a two-step process of coupling the creation and posting of online defamatory materials in a fee-for-service of removing of the content from online consumer advocacy websites. Meade’s testimony provoked an order from the court for an evidentiary hearing to discover further details on Meade’s information. However, the Court subsequently withdrew the order following the receipt of sealed information from the US Attorney’s Office.

    According to Meade he resigned in February 2010, after a company for which he was the CEO, shared a building with Rexxfield who was selling an SQL injection hacking code which had been sold to the largest players in ORM since 2007.

    Meade provided explicit details of this enterprise (including contracts, emails, and consensually recorded audio recordings of planning meetings) to the FBI and US Attorney.

    “My testimony to the Court has now proven true; the code has been used to silence victims, and legitimate consumer complaints about fraudulent business practices, doctors practicing without proper training. Plans were made to launch an automated cyber bullying campaign and then extort parents of fearful parent. It can be used to make content disappear on search engines and private web servers.”

    Meade said once he discovered the technology was hacking and what its implications were, he made it his mission to warn the public about the dangers this technology poses to free speech. He also understood the institutionalized repertoire of serial defamation, vexatious litigation, and death threats have all be leveled against him in a futile attempt to force him to retreat from his stated goal.

    Here is the certified transcript of my testimony against Rexxfield partners in 2011 – http://www.slideshare.net/darrenmeade1/mcmahan-aug-29-2011
    http://www.slideshare.net/darrenmeade1/mcmahan-aug-29-2011

  10. As reported earlier, Darren Mitchell Meade, Investigative Journalist, Orange County, California, vindicated by vindictive prosecution to chill his reporting. All the charges in the 1,200 page indictment, including witnesses tampering and extortion committed were dismissed with prejudice and the dismissal was not conditional.

    The State of Iowa, acknowledged that such a dismissal would bar future prosecution of all charges set forth in the trial information and that Darren Mitchell Meade had no criminal intent in reporting about his belief that prosecutor Ben Smith, flawed criminal prosecution of Tracey Richter, resulted in the incarceration of an innocent woman.

    http://www.slideshare.net/darrenmeade1/order-of-dismissal-with-prejudice

    Today, Darren Meade released the sworn testimony of prosecutor Ben Smith, admitting that he wrote search warrants and legal motions with the help of Michael Roberts, Rexxfield to smear the reporter Darren Mitchell Meade.

    The transcript has become a cause célèbre for its twisted plot carried out on Dateline NBC, 60 Minutes Australia and multiple shows on Discovery ID network.

    http://www.slideshare.net/darrenmeade1/ben-smith-sworn-testimony-5-115-48729234

    One of Richter’s ex-husbands is Michael Roberts, a suspect in the murder of Dustin Wehde.

    As explained in the prior report:

    Criminal charges are never appropriate if used to silence critical speech. I was punished and targeted for engaging in my constitutional right to criticize public officials and report on controversies and the people involved in those controversies.

    I reported about my belief that a flawed criminal prosecution resulted in the incarceration of an innocent woman ( Tracey Richter ).

    Journalism is not a crime and it’s not harassment. Prosecutor Ben Smith, was the prosecutor whom wrongfully convicted Tracey Richter.

    The prosecution chilled my rights to report on matters of public concern.

  11. Over the years Sac County Attorney Ben Smith had tried to remove from the internet news reporting that questioned his professional tactics; ethics and decisions or that accused Smith of corruption. Smith also threatened a Pulitzer Prize editorialist from “The Des Moines Register,” Andie Dominick, and also threatened the Fox News Channel editor-at-large, Peter J. Boyer, and others. This was Smith’s modus operandi. Given this, it is clear to me that Smith’s motivation in authoring a 119-page search warrant affidavit were to identify my sources, punish and silence effective critics of his and conceal exculpatory evidence revealed in reporting critical of Smith, and how he utilized his subpoena power for the personal enrichment of his team of private citizens.

    The Sac County Attorney made a stunning admission in his legal filing on October 1, 2014:

    “The specific allegations Darren Meade made against Michael Roberts in his communications to SCA Smith … would undermine the/a jury’s decision to convict Tracey Richter for murder.”

    Just 30 days earlier, on September 2, the Sac County Attorney had filed his now-discredited criminal charges to justify securing subpoenas and warrants to obtain personal banking and telephone records of attorneys; private citizens for personal gain in civil litigation etc.

    SCA Smith further stated that reporting, which was critical of Smith and which raised questions about whether Smith was involved in framing an innocent woman and ignoring evidence that made his buddy Michael Roberts (Tracey Richter’s ex-husband and former suspect) look bad, had been viewed, “1 billion times on the internet.” The Sac County Attorney Ben Smith directed his agent Michael Roberts to provide Smith with a synopsis of a documentary, Smith’s agent wrote:

    “Darren Meade has produced, edited and published numerous videos, which are presented as documentary style exposes on the murder of Dustin Wehde, but presented in such a way as to unambiguously assert that TRACEY RICHTER is innocent of the crime for which she was found guilty by jury, and that State’s witness Michael Roberts is in fact a murderer, or a conspirator for the murder. DARREN MEADE also implicates SCA Smith by alleging that he and Michael Roberts have been good friends since SCA Smith was in university, and that SCA Smith & Michael Roberts has shared millions of dollars in spoil as a consequence of the wrongful conviction of TRACEY RICHTER. These videos have been uploaded to many different video sharing platforms including Youtube, Vimeo as well as many other video websites around the globe.
    …He uploaded so many copies, how does he have that time? It will take me days to write all these websites.”

    The above is significant because it shows that Smith was concerned about criticism of himself and that he was well aware that a primary focus of reporting was criticized Smith’s decisions and his unethical collusion with former suspect Michael Roberts, whom he apparently granted special access to confidential information and whose work he apparently relied on (even going as far as copying and pasting Roberts’ work, which Smith admitted May 1, 2015 during his preliminary injunction hearing) as if Roberts were a county employee. As I describe elsewhere, Smith seems to be going out of his way in the Statement of Material Facts to characterize my articles as mere “comments” posted on Ripoff Report, and he seems to want to avoid acknowledging that I posted on numerous platforms, including video hosting services. SCA Smith was aware documentaries implicating him were published on, “YouTube, Vimeo as well as many other video websites around the globe.”

    This is recent history revisionism, and Smith must not get away with this dishonesty; luckily, his own words on record damn him. How Smith previously characterized my work when communicating with his agent Michael Roberts, Scott Connelly, Tina Church and Paul Portelli.

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