ben anderson aka auction-mania scammed consumer fraud ripoff con artist fake kalamazoo Michigan

AproposAuctions Fraud Revealed On TV Report

NEW 5.23.08 - Channel 10 in San Diego has launched a detailed investigation of Ben Anderson and Meir Waknine and their phony company: See the video!
http://www.10news.com/video/16363922/index.html

Ben Anderson has had to flee his apartment with almost nothing to escape the eyes of the press. They filmed him for days watching his moves. The company is closed and has been for some time. Ben is still trying to use a laptop to rip people off. Ben continues to be surveilled by television crews and private detectives as well as the Federal government.

The mailbox store owners have confirmed on camera that his boxes are closed. They also fear getting sued for having allowed these criminals to operate this long.

The parents and widows of military families are now finding out about Apropos Auctions, Ben Anderson and Meir Waknine and are going to take severe action. They are getting the word out nationally to sue these people, their supporters and anybody participating in the scam.

This will not end until both Anderson and Waknine sit in prison the rest of their lives and every cent is taken from them.

PLEASE if you have been a victim, contact the US Attorney now. The US Postal Inspector can have the Federal magistrate make sure as a witness you are not approached or harassed by Ben or Meir in any way. They will be brought up on charges of witness intimidation in that case.

This is the beginning of the end for this fake company and its owners.
Contact: Assistant U.S. Attorney ("AUSA") Mitch Dembin at (619) 557-5558
regarding Case No. 08MJ0672 about the Ben Anderson "Apropos Auctions, LLC", etc., activities on Ebay. Do a Google search for AUSA Mitch Dembin and you'll see he's a very experienced computer crimes AUSA. You may also want to call Postal Inspector J. Liam Gimon at (619)
531-8245. Help both of these very accomplished gentlemen do their
jobs.

Updated information, April 8, 2008, relating to the results of the search warrant executed at Benjamin Anderson's residence at 315 Westbourne Street, La Jolla, CA 92037 and of his red Ford Mustang Saleen, CA tag no. 6BUV942. The following two documents are now public and no longer under seal. Since "CEO Ben" and his "executive director" Meir Waknine never seem to answer their "live support" number at (714) 717-0587, maybe other arrangements could be made to communicate with them face-to-face.

Some of the postings apparently made by or on behalf of Anderson, Waknine and "AproposAuctions, LLC" on RipOffReport.com and other consumer protection websites since the execution of the search warrant have stated that much of what has been posted about the search warrant is just "nonsense." Read the two documents and judge for yourself.

See the APPLICATION AND AFFIDAVIT FOR SEARCH WARRANT here:

http://laurenstephens.net/uploads/2491c6bbd2.pdf

See the results of the search warrant here:

http://laurenstephens.net/uploads/db30ca2e5b.pdf

(laurenstephens.net is a free hosting service and the free hosting of these public documents will expire in approximately 60 days. Please feel free to copy these documents and this information at your discretion. I'm sure Bennie wants to help all his '"customers" get their merchandise or refunds as soon as possible!)

If you have some "nonsense" that you think the federal and state authorities may be interested in learning, perhaps you may want to call Assistant U.S. Attorney ("AUSA") Mitch Dembin at (619) 557-5558 regarding Case No. 08MJ0672 about the Ben Anderson "Apropos Auctions, LLC", etc., activities on Ebay. Do a Google search for AUSA Mitch Dembin and you'll see he's a very experienced computer crimes AUSA. You may also want to call Postal Inspector J. Liam Gimon at (619) 531-8245. Help both of these very accomplished gentlemen do their jobs.

And here's some additional info. On pissedconsumer.com, someone identified as "Bob tornil" posted a complaint about this scam. In response to some ridiculous comments made by someone using the subject line of "Obvious lack of complaints", someone posted the following update:

2008-04-10. "Obvious lack of complaints" ignored a few things. (I wonder if he knows Ben? Or IS Ben? Dag gummit, inquiring minds want to know!)

1. A federal magistrate agreed with the postal inspector that enough evidence existed to constitute probable cause of mail fraud and other federal crimes perpetrated for years by Anderson justifying the search of his home and vehicles. But I guess the federal magistrate just made a big, fat ol' mistake.

2. The application and affidavit for the search warrant

( http://laurenstephens.net/uploads/2491c6bbd2.pdf )

confirmed that none of the limited liability companies Anderson advertised as existing actually existed. (Reminder, the links to the pdf files will expire in about 60 days from the free laurenstephens.net pdf hosting site, so please download them if you would like to keep copies.)

Wouldn't you know it, limited liability companies are required by law to be registered in the state within which they operate and required by law to provide a registered agent/officer and registered office address so that consumers may serve process on the company. Okay now, everyone hold their breath: let's wait and see if Anderson posts here the identity of his registered agent in California and his registered office in California and evidence that he registered an office for all his various companies. Or whether he creates a real web site for each of his alleged limited liability companies and directs all of his "customers" to it so his crack administrative staff can refund all the money. (Maybe someone could call him and discuss it with him (maybe Sam Jenkins!) because whenever I and others I know try to call ol' Benny on his "live support" line, everyone manning the phone banks must be helping other customers. And how come Benny was so mean to me and everyone else I know who tried to get a refund, but he's so nice to people like Sam Jenkins!) For crying out loud, anyone can search the databases of the California Secretary of State and the Michigan Depart. Of Labor and Economic Growth to verify that none of the "companies" he hid behind actually existed. For example, no "Apro Auctions LLC" as listed in para. 4 of the application and affidavit exists in CA or MI according to their records. But now that his residence address is public knowledge, maybe those people will just initiate civil actions against him instead, serving process at his residence at 315 Westbourne Street, La Jolla, CA 92037. And, gosh durn it, the San Diego court system has all the info on its web site anyone would need to file a small claims action at:

http://www.sdcourt.ca.gov/portal/page?_pageid=55, 1&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

Looks pretty easy!

3. Anderson's alias personas on Ebay always maintained that "AproposAuctions, LLC", and all of the other fake LLCs, had a registered office at 1025 Kronner Road, Columbus, MI 48063. The reality? It's Mommy's house and it's for sale. She's the listing agent. Just do a Google search "1025 Kronner" in quotes. You can even see on some of the sites listing the property for sale the nice pretty pictures of the house interior. Hmmm, the interior shots of the house don't really look like a business operation. Looks more like a nice little house for sale. What kind of a grown son would drag his mom's name through the mud and associate her home with a mail fraud scheme? She must be very proud.

Here's one of the listings with the pretty pictures:

http://www.trulia.com/property/1050586325-1025-Kronner-Rd-Columbus-MI

Maybe Benny will tell us that the Michigan nerve center of the company is in the basement. And that he hid it from his mom all these years. Maybe Ben was commuting every week from La Jolla to Columbus, MI. But then how could he have made it to the Comedy Store in La Jolla every Wednesday night?

4. Postal Inspector Gimon stated in para. 2 of his Affidavit for Search Warrant, "Since this affidavit is being submitted for the limited purpose of securing a search warrant, I have not included each and every fact known to me concerning this investigation." Everyone and their dog knows, and common sense tells us, that government investigators and prosecutors normally do not volunteer info to people they are investigating.

5. Holy cow, Postal Inspector Gimon was so sure there really wasn't going to be any evidence of any crimes that he only took along with him 5 other postal investigators and had only conducted the surveillance of Anderson and his residence for weeks and for some strange reason decided to make all those 5 other postal inspectors get up real early and arrive at Anderson's apartment door at 7:15 a.m. See page 2 of the search warrant:

http://laurenstephens.net/uploads/db30ca2e5b.pdf

6. Postal Inspector Gimon and the five other investigators were so sure their early-morning search just a great big fat mistake that they really didn't take away from Anderson's residence the following:

Summary of results of search of March 6, 2008 search of Benjamin Joseph Anderson's residence, 315 Westbourne St., La Jolla, CA 92037, cell phone (714) 717-0587.

The following was confiscated from the various locations within the apartment as outlined in the search warrant:

Floor/Room No. A: Various gift cards.

Floor/Room No. A:

Misc. envelopes addressed to Apropos Auctions.
Numerous National Geographic magazines.
Letter from Michigan Attorney General.
Copy of banking info including copy of stop payment checks.

Floor/Room No. A closet: 17 mailers.

Floor/Room No. A Bathroom Closet: Bag of opened mail addressed to Apropros Auction

Floor/Room No. A Bathroom Closet: Bag of mail (opened) addressed to Apropros Auctions

Floor/Room No. A closet/pantry: Various mail

Floor/Room No. Room A Bathroom Closet: Open mail addressed to Apropro Auctions

Floor/Room No. A:

2 National Geographic magazines
1 Newsweek magazine
Various pieces of mail

Floor/Room No. E:

2 smoking pipes
1 jar w/green leafy substance
1 carry case

Floor/Room No. (unspecified) desk:

23 Mastercard gift cards
3 Visa gift cards

Floor/Room No. Vehicle:

3 Motorola cell phones
Various mail

Floor/Room No. A, floor Black Bag:

Bank statements from Comerica for Apropos Auctions LLC
Empty envelopes addressed to Apropos Auction
Various BBB and DOJ inquiries for Apro Auction Letter
1 check for Apropos Auctions
1 folder containing invoices
1 Pakmail card
1 Visa gift card Steve Bozell
9 Visa gift cards no name
1 Visa gift card Joseph Liston
9 Mastercard gift cards no name

Floor/Room No. A:

1 Toshiba laptop
1 IBM Thinkpad
1 Efilm USB Drive
1 IBM Thinkpad
1 USB Thumbdrive
1 IBM Thinkpad
Pile of empty envelopes for Apro Auctions
Misc. paperwork re Apropos Auctions
2 memory chips

I guess the AproposAuctions, LLC headquarters building and merchandise warehouse was so full of staff merchandise that the "CEO" had to keep all his business records and inventory at his residence along with his "green leafy substance" and two smoking pipes.

7. There are postings all over the internet on behalf of "AproposAuctions, LLC" or "Apropos Auctions, LLC" explaining how it was a successful LLC. Let's see if the successful CEO displays copies of his State and Federal tax returns for the last few years showing how much taxes he paid. Maybe he doesn't have any tax returns? Oh, wait, he's lived in CA for years but still has a Michigan driver's license. I wonder how come? Turns out, that's against the law, according to the CA Vehicle Code. (See CA Vehicle Code sections 12500, 12502 and 12505.) But not having a CA driver license helps someone hide their actual residence address. It also helps if you have a friend, like Meir Waknine, open the mailbox store account for you. (See para. 5 of the affidavit; Meir Waknine lives at 12714 Cumpston Street, Valley Village, CA 91607, telephone number 818-220-3733, CA driver's license number D228075.) Wonder why Waknine did that? Could there be some nefarious purpose? What was Anderson's intent? Waknine's? Could they have conspired to shield Anderson's whereabouts from his "customers" and, possibly, the authorities? Hmmm. But now we all know the very helpful Benny lives at 315 Westbourne St., La Jolla, CA 92037. (See para. 17 of the affidavit.) And that he apparently doesn't have a garage space for his shiny Mustang. I wonder what address he lists on his registration and which address appears on his Michigan driver's license? Public records with the Orange County Superior Court confirm he's been fined twice since 2006 for having invalid tags and registration in California. I guess the AproposAuctions, LLC crack administrative staff caused a paperwork snafu for the "CEO's company car" and it was all just a big stinkin' turd of a mistake that wasn't the "CEO's" fault. Maybe he'll blame it all on the "executive director." I wonder if Waknine will be Anderson's fall guy? Or vice versa? Oh, wait, they really didn't do anything wrong! Everything was just a big misunderstanding!

8. Boy, Anderson's alleged companies sure do move around a lot, according to paragraphs 9 and 10 of the affidavit for search warrant. I guess that's all part of the expansion plans for the "business." Maybe he couldn't fit all of his staff in the mailboxes. Maybe the complaints made to Mr. Lee weren't customer complaints but staff complaints!

9. Last fall someone set up a web site named apropasauctions.com and made it available for Anderson's victims to post what happened to them. The owner of that site, for whatever reason (some say Anderson and Waknine made threats against the person and harassed him by phone), apparently signed the domain over to Anderson. But before that happened, a few people posted what happened to them, and you'll see that in addition to the relatively low dollar value magazines that never got delivered, much higher value items also never seemed to make their way to the "customers." Those items included relatively expensive fish finders, fishing reels, pool cue sticks, skin treatments, rifle scopes and baseball gloves. Here's the link:

http://laurenstephens.net/uploads/366de01dbd.pdf

Note that one of the supposed happy customers of Apropos Auctions was "Derrick Bozell" and that one of the 48 Mastercard and VISA gift cards in Anderson's possession was in the name of one "Steve Bozell." I guess he likes the name Bozell.

10. Before the execution of the search warrant, Anderson liked to show off on his MySpace page, www.myspace.com/lajollaben, all his activities including his really, really cool Mustang "muscle car." Vroom, vroom! Meir apparently isn't adept enough to actually create a MySpace page, but someone created one for him, too:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=251971702

And Benny apparently also set up on MySpace a fake page for the fake LLC, at www.myspace.com/aproposauctions.com. [Update: On or about April 14, 2008, MySpace deleted this site after being made aware of the federal investigation into the alleged fraudulent activities of Bennie Anderson and his fake company on Ebay.] But golly gee willy, wouldn't you know it, right after the execution of the search warrant, ol' Benny and Meir seemed to have made these pages go private. Darn. And Benny's ridiculous YouTube video, in which he announced his courageous run for the California legislature, calmly vowing to run as a "law and order" candidate, disappeared from YouTube! The people of California are mourning Benny's exit from the world stage of politics.

11. Stealing is stealing. Intent to defraud is not cured by refunding the money when you get caught. A purse snatcher doesn't go free just because he agrees to give the purse back to the little old lady after he's been caught. Return of stolen merchandise is just restitution. But the theft still happened. And that's criminal.