From the NYTimes, the saga of a good-hearted all-American businessman who just wanted to help people, no matter how many picayune little laws he had to break in order to fund his helpfulness:
… “When I think of Jeremy Johnson, I think of the most generous person I ever met,” said Mr. Gardner, an assistant loan officer in Provo, Utah. “Whatever he had, he would give and give and give.”
But what Mr. Johnson had to give — and it was quite a bit — may have come from consumers who got taken. The Federal Trade Commission says Mr. Johnson was “the mastermind” behind one of the largest and most intricate online marketing frauds ever perpetrated in the United States.
Mr. Johnson founded and ran a company called I Works, which, the agency says, marketed programs to help people get government grants for personal needs and earn easy money. According to a civil complaint filed by the F.T.C., the company lured consumers with online pitches for free or “risk-free” CD-ROMs that required only a nominal shipping fee and then charged their credit cards for recurring online memberships they were unaware of and had not consented to.
Over five years, Mr. Johnson, along with I Works, company executives and related corporations, supposedly swindled “unwitting consumers” out of more than $275 million, the complaint said. The company also discouraged dissatisfied customers from seeking refunds from their credit card companies, the complaint said, by threatening to report those customers to a company-operated consumer blacklist called BadCustomer.com.
All the while, proceeds from the enterprise were used to finance Mr. Johnson’s “lavish lifestyles” of helicopters and houseboats, classic cars and poker at a Las Vegas casino, according to a receiver’s report to the court on Mr. Johnson’s assets. Some details in the case file read as if they came from an Old West novel: according to testimony from a witness, Mr. Johnson supposedly amassed bundles of cash and buried caches of gold.
“This is the anatomy of a really interesting fraud done by a clever guy at the expense of the most vulnerable people,” asserted David C. Vladeck, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center who worked on the case in his previous job as director of the F.T.C.’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
In addition to the F.T.C.’s civil case, taking place in the United States District Court of Nevada, he is now facing 86 related criminal charges — including conspiracy, money laundering and bank fraud — brought by the United States attorney in Utah. Mr. Johnson has denied those charges, too…
Apart from helping oneself to “help” the less fortunate, what’s on the agenda for the end of the weekend?
Chris
Cramming for Persian exam in the morning… or procrastinating on doing that, as the case may be.
Also, in honor of the inevitable Netflix thread: Continuum seems like a pretty good show. (Just discovered it over the weekend).
Baud
Eternal salvation can be YOURS for only $9.95/month plus shipping and handling…
Mustang Bobby
I am, from a distance, celebrating my parents’ 65th wedding anniversary. They are in good health, good spirits (including a bottle of bubbly), and an inspiration to me and my siblings.
jeffreyw
Learning how to operate the Dish Hopper DVR and the “Joey” client devices.
Yatsuno
@Mustang Bobby: I’m at my cousin’s graduation party but I’m not staying long. I’ve had a long weekend and crashing hard when I get home is sounding better and better.
mai naem
Chris Wallace had asshole Dick Cheney on today. Asshole said that the Bush admin never got caught unprepared. Really? I have nothing else to add.
Mr Stagger Lee
Who was the guy, who wore those weird suits and kookie glasses talking how you can get free money from the government, commercials we used to see?
rikyrah
the All-American thief
Alexandra
The Guardian now publishing details of British Intelligence and NSA activities in regards to spying on other countries’ representatives at various international gatherings.
Not sure what this is meant to ultimately achieve, to be honest.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mr Stagger Lee:
Do you mean Matthew Lesko? I was also remembering banknotes all over his clothes but maybe he just thrust handfuls of money at the camera. Hard to remember over all that shouting.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
Sounds like my ex-boss. When he was caught embezzling from a homeless shelter (yes, really!) where he was the director, he had the nerve to claim the money “went to help homeless people, not for personal gain.”
He was the first true sociopath I ever met.
aimai
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker: Wow.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
@mai naem:
Maybe he has a unique definition of “caught”?
trollhattan
Just another chapter in the complicated, challenging life of a Freedom Merchant.
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2021199077_wadesleadxml.html
They should switch to mercury ammo.
RepubAnon
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker: More likely, Mr. Cheney was already prepared to invade Iraq – so, yes, they were prepared for 9/11.
As for Jeremy Johnson, perhaps he just took the phrase “God helps those who help themselves” and the phrase “money is the root of all evil”, combined them, and concluded that God rewards people who help themselves to other people’s money.
;)
Tokyokie
So did Jeremy Johnson bother to tithe 10% of the money he stole?
lol chikinburd
@Baud: no, it’s a flat $35, or triple your money back.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
@aimai:
Yeah, my ex-boss was a piece of work. He was an incredibly emotionally abusive bully as well, and if you told him he was wrong about something – especially if you proved your point – his standard response was that you were “manipulating the conversation.” He loved to talk about how many homeless shelters he’d single-handedly founded, but the number changed every time he told the story.
He bilked the shelter for thousands, and to this day I don’t think he believes he did a thing wrong.
Mr Stagger Lee
@SiubhanDuinne: Yeah that’s him. Thanks!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Sad thing is, I can’t think of a Sunday show host who would have meaningfully challenged that.
in other news from consequence-free political-media world, Jonathan Karl, last seen (by me) knowingly lying about Benghazi! hosted This Week today.
lamh36
@Alexandra: in time for G8 summit. That way all countries involved can be at each other throats trying to see which is the worse?
Bump on a Log
@Mustang Bobby: If mine make it to the 8th of July, that’ll be their 65th. Many happy returns to yours, and a happy Father’s Day to your dad.
Chris
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker:
I never believe these fuckers.
JWL
If you haven’t already, google Hulu.com and watch a few episodes of American Greed. Scam artists like Johnson are nearly always considered pillars of the community until they’re exposed.
Amir Khalid
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker:
Since your Arschloch ex-boss got caught, is he now defending his actions from behind bars?
lamh36
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: no such thing as journalistic integrity any more when its all about page views and even good people are willing to ignore cases of less than journalistic practices as long as it advances their own biases.
Out right crappers like Karl just get to keep on keeping on
Mnemosyne
Just got back from lovely and exotic Anaheim, CA. We saw the They Might Be Giants show at the House of Blues last night and stayed overnight rather than drive home afterwards because we are Olds and 11 pm is too late for us to be on the road.
Today is a bit of a downer because it’s my first Father’s Day (or any holiday, really) without my dad. I was born on Father’s Day, so it was always special for us, which makes it suck just that little bit more.
Robert Sneddon
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker: I worked for a company that sold ticketing machines. Occasionally a machine would come back into the office as part of a fraud investigation to be forensically analysed after the owners suspected one of their operators was skimming. The machines had permanent journalling data storage that the operators and even the owners didn’t have access too so wiping it to hide the evidence was not an option for them.
The best case I heard of was the titled lady who volunteered at a National Trust property at the weekends and used one of our machines to sell entrance tickets. The records showed she was skimming at least a hundred quid a week and had been doing so for at least a year before anyone noticed. Her family owned (as in ground rents, farm tenancies) half a county. Apparently she thought it was just her due for her hard work “volunteering”.
balconesfault
Next we’ll hear that Johnson at some point gave money to some Republicans, and therefore this is all a staged political attack by the Chicago Thugs in the White House.
mai naem
Here’s my question: People like Dennis Kucinich, Jimmy Carter and Alan Grayson are always treated like they’re nutjobs even though their views have pretty much proved out to be right. Dick Cheney on the other is treated with respect and as a “serious” person even though he’s been wrong about everything going back to apartheid and beyond. Why? And furthermore WTF? Is there anything else in American life where we treat people like this. The Sony Walkman inventor vs. the Ipod creator? The people who tell Pakistani women not to give their kids the polio vaccine vs. Jonas Salk? Gawd, this pisses me off.
quannlace
Having a glass of Portuguese vinho verde. Just got introduced to this variety. So light with lots of floral notes. A really good summer wine. Now if only we’d get a couple of straight days of summer weather here in NJ. Expecting more rain, wheeeeeee!
And lamenting the fact of no Game Of Thrones tonight
jeffreyw
Roll your own.
Suffern ACE
So do they know where all the gold is buried? Does he have maps with big thick “X”s on them? Anyone interested in forming a treasure hunt party?
? Martin
Mormon, right?
Yeah, this is part of what kept Romney out there in uncanny valley. The entirety of US history is within the Mormon religious history, so it’s made a virtue out of the notion of corporations and free market and all that shit, while at the same time laying a strong foundation for tithing and charity.
So, the church has really institutionalized the notion of free market economics as a means to support the Mormon community through charity. We’re not talking bake sales here, but owning shopping malls and running venture capital funds. It’s not dissimilar to the machinery the Catholic church set up through hospitals and schools, but at least those are widely seen as enterprises that bring certain benefits back to the community. The Mormon church is much more diverse in how they do their fundraising. Pretty much everything is fair game.
brendancalling
I invite all Austin Texas balloon-juicers to come down to the Eastside showroom to here some fun country swing ragtime music with woody pines. I’ll be on the upright bass. Show starts around 10 p.m.
grandpa john
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Which sounds like a very good reason not to watch the assholes,
Linda
@mai naem: The difference is, I think, that in the political world, people are used to no no accountability. When the Iraq war went to hell so fast, the political class were really caught flat footed–I think they depended on decades of he said/he said wrangling with no clear winner or loser. Also, many of our ruling class are cowards, and equate meaness with strength.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@grandpa john:
I stopped watching them years ago. The hosts’ habit of tongue bathing Republicans and eye rolling the Democrats became unbearable.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
@Amir Khalid:
No. My ex-boss made some kind of deal for restitution and community service, I assume there was probation as well. (Yes, community service, try not to OD on irony there).
All this was more than 20 years ago. Was recently reminded of him again (probably reading too much Dilbert), so I googled him. He’s now a minister, and the church’s website talks about his wonderful work with the homeless. It mentions a shelter he “founded ” (now conveniently defunct), but leaves out any mention of the one where I worked.
I am not at all cynical about religion as some of the folks around here are, but I REALLY despise the people who give believers a bad name. There were many good people working at that place, and he’s the one everybody will remember.
John Weiss
@brendancalling: Hey! I wish I could be there; however it’s quite a drive from SW Oregon.
Best to ya,
JW (former Austinite)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@grandpa john: Oh hell, I don’t. But I think they have outsize influence in their own world, most perniciously among elected Democrats. At one point during Benghazi! Fever, Tweety said the talking points matter because SUNDAY SHOWS are our political church. He’s often, maybe more often than not, a buffoon, but that’s also often when he speaks for the VIllage.
A basso profundo voice and an air of confidence and competence. I wish I were kidding, but I think that’s a big part of it. If you were the proverbial Martian or Rip Van Winkle and, knowing little or nothing of the events of the last decade-plus, and you suddenly saw Dick, Rummy or Condi on a TeeVee, would you think they were three of the most celebrated incompetents ever to foul up our Republic? Blend in the desperate terror of appearing to have a liberal bias, the romanticization of war (“Support the troops!”), and a whole bunch of smaller but related factors. For instance, I’m no foreign policy expert, but it seems to me one of the reasons Iran can fuck around in Syria is because they have a much friendlier (less hostile? neutral?) government in Bagdad. ETA: A factor which I have never heard mentioned in a discussion of Syria, and I admit i may be wrong about it, but no one mentions it because Iraq is over, and it was really all too bad, even most unpleasant, but there’s no point in bringing it up.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
@Robert Sneddon:
A hundred quid a week? Now, if it had been a hundred thousand a week, she’d have been “too big to jail.”
Todd
Fucking candy ass.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/42143_Glenn_Greenwald-_America_Is_The_Most_Brutal_Sprawling_Prison_State_on_Earth/comments/#ctop
This is a guy who has needed to be crammed into a locker, insulted, mocked and otherwise bullied each and every day of his histrionic life.
Discuss.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
@mai naem:
Because everyone’s terrified that he’ll shoot them in the face if they don’t.
Chris
@Linda:
As the memory of Iraq fades, expect a Vietnam-like revisionist narrative to set in, to; Iraq was a hard war, but we were winning, and everything would be peachy, but then Obama cut and run and everything went to hell (and in Afghanistan, too).
It’s already incredible how much the narrative of “THE SURGE!” has set in and been used as a credit to the vision of President Bush. Never mind that even if you take that narrative for granted, all you’re admitting is that it took him three years to finally agree with what Shinseki, Zinni and others had been saying from the outset – “you’re gonna need a bigger army!” – only to be shut down as unpatriotic, defeatist, turncoats and all that.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: How very nice and Happy Birthday and condolences.
@mai naem: I got no clue. I don’t get it either.
I would hope Jebus would steal from the rich and give to the unworthy poors. I am baking and cooking because 8am I have a big interview tomorrow. But half the pics are printed for my show. Of course, now I’m reconsidering the media because-fickle. I did find a butt load of lovely washi & hoshi papers for 60% off. A whole show for $40. Not bad, if I do say so myself and I probably do.
Chris
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think it also has to do with solidarity among the political class. It doesn’t matter that you were wrong if you were wrong in a way that pleased enough important people; on the contrary, it proves how loyal and what a team player you are, so the Royal Court of Washington will look after you. On the other hand, there’s no benefit in being dead right if it pisses off all the powers that be.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Chris: In the opening scenes of that HBO Sarah palin movie, Woody the Bartender tells Ed Harris that he must remain in the race because he was the only candidate who supported THE SURGE! I laughed out loud, and I was a little stunned that it was being played straight, but it announced the tone and perspective of the movie (Steve Schmidt’s). Then came the Hagel hearings, and McCain’s clownish and would-be eloquent grandstanding (“history has made its judgment, Sir…” I’m only surprised he didn’t say “her”), I still can’t quite believe he did it, and nobody laughed at him.
Linda
Also, at bottom, he is a scumbag. As a librarian I deal every day with people who think the feds hand out free money. Many believe this because they are in desperate straights. Some have lost a lot of money to bozos like him, and they are the poorest and most hard-up people. There’s no hell hot enough for this guy to burn in.
lamh36
WTF is this craziness about some team owner claiming putin stole his super bowl ring?? Dude first said ring was a gift, then said Putin stole it and the owner saying Obama admin told em to keep it hush hush so that’s why they went along with gift story at first???
Damn they will lirerally blame this President for anything.
Chris
@lamh36:
Wait, what the hell? They’re blaming Obama? Didn’t the whole “theft” happen back in 2005, long before he was anywhere near the White House?
Higgs Boson's Mate
@lamh36:
You have it part right. Kraft’s ring passed into Putin’s hands in 2005. Kraft’s late wife come forward in 2007 with the story that Putin had stolen the ring. Kraft stated early on in this round that the Bush admin had told him to drop the matter lest he harm US – Russian relations.
Here’s a linky with the latest twist to the story.
PurpleGirl
@Baud: Can I get a second dose of salvation for free by just paying a separate shipping and handling charge?
lamh35
@Chris: @Higgs Boson’s Mate: ah, thanks. It was Bush admin, still, I can’t believe I’m gonna defend the Bush White House, but why the heck would Putin steal a SuperBowl ring? Is American football a big deal in Russia???? I know the ring is expensive, but last time I looked, Putin ain’t some poor schleb is he?
Even if the wife says it was stolen now, why go along with her stupidity in 2013!!!!
PurpleGirl
@Mnemosyne: First, How was Monster University? That combined with the concert sounded like a good celebration.
It does suck to have a negative happen around your birthday, or other major holiday. I know from experience — my brother had a cerebral aneurysm burst on my birthday. For years afterward my mother wouldn’t say ‘happy birthday’ first to me but ‘it’s X years since your brother got sick’ when she called me supposedly to wish me a happy birthday.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@lamh35:
Here’s a link to the full story. I don’t know why Kraft is bringing this up now, but bring it up he did.
Agoraphobic Kleptomaniac
You can’t mention Jeremy Johnson in Utah without mentioning the Attorney General:
http://www.kutv.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_5203.shtml (warning: autoplay video)
Utah’s current (soon to be former) attorney general John Swallow worked with this guy to get him business dealings with Cash 4 Gold and Check City (Utah’s own usury exploiters) to work out business dealings and move them along. Johnson is also accused of trying to bribe Harry Reid to get his charges dismissed, of course, set up through our Current attorney general (he was Lt. Attorney general at the time). There’s a forty minute audio recording between Swallow and Johnson discussing many business deals, and asking about favors and benefits provided to the lt. attorney general and if they were traceable.
The New York Times story really is missing half of the interesting stuff about Jeremy Johnson and Utah’s Attorney General.
Mnemosyne
@PurpleGirl:
I was skeptical about the movie because I’m worried that Pixar is catching sequelitis and isn’t spending enough time on original stories, but MU turned out to be really fun. It’s a fairly standard “how two guys who don’t like each other become best friends” story, but it’s well-told and has some interesting twists. Plus it has a great voice cast, with people like Helen Mirren and Nathan Fillion.
Regarding my dad, I think it’s more that this is the first holiday without him, really, since he died right after New Year’s and we weren’t very religious, so it’s not like we missed him at our Easter celebration or something. G’s dad passed last year (on July 4th, speaking of holidays) so he’s already had to get through the big winter holidays without his dad.
But, as we keep saying, the one “good” thing about our dads going within 6 months of each other is that I know exactly how he feels and he knows exactly how I feel when reminders come up of either one of them.
ETA: The concert was also very fun. Even if you only know the hits by TMBG, they put on a great show. I was less fond of the opening band, Moon Hooch, but G liked them. I knew I wouldn’t when they were described as “organic house music” (basically, house music style but played on saxophones and other brass rather than synthesizers). Normal people find the repetition to be hypnotic, but my ADHD brain just gets bored with it. :-)
Soonergrunt
@mai naem: the only place the Sick Cheney can go and be taken seriously is Fox News. That’s not the same thing I don’t think.
JWL
@lamh35: Why did he steal the ring?
Because Putin is an asshole, and he always has been.
That’s what GW understood when he looked into his soul.
Birds of a feather…
Nutella
My favorite part of the NYT article is Johnson’s brother’s stories about what a lovely person he is, illustrated by that time when they were kids and pushed the babysitter down the stairs. Heartwarming, that.
Narcissus
So is this guy scheduled to be the headline speaker at the next CPAC yet?
grandpa john
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well since I put Tweety in the same class as I do the Sunday AM pundits, I call bullshit on his statement.As he is lacking of awareness on so many things that also applies to his belief that these shows play any significant part in the publics attention span.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@JWL:
Putin is an asshole’s asshole all right. Now, as has happened so many times recently, the story is changing. Putin is denying that he stole the ring. The story is now morphing into Kraft wants the ring back and Putin won’t hand it over.
Nutella
Hmm, interesting link to the Johnson story. Apparently the business and legal establishment in Utah is falling apart into warring factions, all accusing the others of fraud, bribery, and anything else they can think of. This guy (famous in IT for trying to extort license fees for software his company didn’t own) has the Utah on AG on tape suggesting that bribery is standard practice in his office.
ETA: By ‘link’ I mean Utah corruption and fraud in general. No direct link AFAIK.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Nutella:
Darl McBride. Slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch…
gelfling545
@lamh36: The article I read (TPM maybe?) said Bush.
Mike G
Utah is the financial fraud capital of the US. Perhaps to do with the authoritarianism and business-worshipping of Mormon culture, which seems to have a large component of hucksterism and sharp dealing. Look at Rmoney for pete’s sake, a shark and a phony’s phony.
Personally I’ve been ripped off by a car rental place at SLC airport. A pack of thieves with zero ethics.
nemesis
I briefly worked for a company-Berkely Nutraceuticals-that acted in the same manner. Think its called slamming where you lure a new customer with the promise of a “free sample”. A small shipping and handling cost is not part of the free sample. Get a credit card number-never a check-and sign up the customer (unwittingly) for an on-going 90 day supply of product.
Sure many call back all pissed off, but many dont even know they are paying for the product. Bad accounting I guess.
And yes, the US gummit stepped in and levied large fines against the company.
Remember the ED med called Enzyte? That was us. I worked there one week and quit. Employees would wear pajamas to work. I was bizarre.