Archive for January 2009

In this post, we showed you a screen shot of the AdSurfDaily webroom showcasing AdViewGlobal, a new autosurf. Scam.com and at least one other website featured graphics on the same topic today. We kept our browser window open after we made the screen shot, thinking that word would get around and that the ASD webroom [...]

AdSurfDaily Inc. and other firms and individuals linked to the autosurf trade have been named defendants in a class-action racketeering lawsuit. Among the allegations is that ASD was a participant in schemes beyond its own autosurf Ponzi scheme and was engaged with co-conspirators in a pattern of racketeering. Here is part of the ASD story [...]

Should the government and litigants be on the lookout for Clarence Busby? He hasn’t been charged with a crime and, in September, he surrendered his claims to money seized by the U.S. Secret Service as part of its probe into the alleged criminal business practices of his company, Golden Panda Ad Builder of Acworth, Ga. [...]

UPDATED 7:42 P.M. EST (U.S.A.) Individuals associated with AdSurfDaily Inc. have been sued in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The complaint alleges racketeering, and names Bank Of America a defendant for aiding and abetting the scheme. BOA was not named a RICO defendant. The case was brought by Mike Collins of Savage, Minn.; Frank [...]

It came online a few months ago with the strange promise it would litigate against government entities involved in the AdSurfDaily case — even if they were behaving legally. If lawsuits didn’t work, then perhaps it would see about having prosecutors charged with crimes. But ASD Members International (ASDMI), a nonprofit registered in Missouri, is [...]

Last night we received a note from a reader who had a bone to pick: He advised us, seemingly politely, that ASD was not an “autosurf.”  Rather, he said, it was a “manual surf.” There was a whiff of passive-aggressiveness in the note: He informed us that he did not desire to “address your blog” [...]

Veteran court watchers might have wagered it was only a matter of time before Jonathan Lee Riches filed a motion in the Bernard Madoff bankruptcy case. Had you placed a friendly wager, you’d be a winner. Riches’  brief  was recorded yesterday. He called it an “Amicus Curaie” motion to gain standing with the Court. Riches, [...]

We noted Sunday that a startling number of senior citizens have been implicated in Ponzi schemes or accused of monumental financial misdeeds. Featured in this graphic are (left to right): Andy Bowdoin, president of fundamentally defunct AdSurfDaily Inc. of Quincy, Fla.; Bernard Madoff, head man at fundamentally defunct Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities of New [...]

Florida hedge-fund manager Arthur Nadel turned himself in yesterday to the FBI in Tampa. Nadel had gone missing Jan. 14. He was immediately jailed. A bail hearing is set Friday. Previously we’ve written about some of the Nadel parallels to the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme case. Some of the parallels grew even more striking yesterday, with [...]

We’ve received a number of comments from readers that fall along these lines: Are the people promoting autosurfs despite what has happened to AdSurfDaily, LaFuenteDinero and Golden Panda — and the collapse of MegaLido (and others) — REALLY that stupid? The short answer is maybe. Each and every one of them is risking the same [...]

Natures Discount, a former AdSurfDaily advertiser, has dropped a racketeering lawsuit it brought in November against ASD President Andy Bowdoin, Golden Panda President Clarence Busby, and Robert Garner, an attorney who appeared in a video touting ASD’s legality. Bank of America also was named a defendant in the Natures Discount complaint, though not as a [...]

In the weeks following the seizure of cash and property linked to AdSurfDaily Inc., some former members of ASD turned their attention to promoting MegaLido. MegaLido was pushed as a safe, offshore alternative to ASD and Golden Panda, and a way to make up ASD/Golden Panda losses that stemmed from the government seizure of cash [...]

Some of the parallels between the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and the alleged financial misdeeds of Florida hedge-fund manager Arthur Nadel are striking. Two obvious parallels are the common Florida venue and the ages of the principals. ASD operated out of Quincy; Nadel out of Sarasota. ASD President Andy Bowdoin is 74; Nadel is 76. [...]

BLOG UPDATE 10:02 P.M. EST (U.S.A.): This post has been updated with information on Ronald Keith Owens, 73, who was just sentenced to 60 years in prison for running a “prime bank” Ponzi scheme promising huge returns out of the Bahamas. See update at bottom of post. Here, directly below, our earlier post . . [...]

The government has established a refund procedure for the AdSurfDaily, LaFuenteDinero and GoldenPandaAdBuilder Ponzi case that requires victims to file petitions for remission or mitigation. Petitions must be filed in writing and under oath. The government will provide instructions. Patience is required because the case has not been litigated to conclusion. “Under Section 9.8(a)(1) and [...]

In a complex case apt to remind some members of AdSurfDaily about strange twists and turns the ASD case has taken, an Arizona man has been indicted on charges of running a Ponzi scheme that fleeced Christians. Edward Anthony Purvis was accused of setting up the Ponzi through an organization known as Nakimi Chi Group [...]

Less than two weeks after a May 31 AdSurfDaily rally concluded in Las Vegas, ASD funds were used to retire a $157,000 mortgage. Another $62,000 was used to purchase two cars — a 2008 Honda CRV and a 2009 Acura, federal prosecutors said. The beneficiaries of the mortgage retirement and the Honda were George and [...]

BLOG UPDATE 8:51 P.M. EST (U.S.A.): We’ve updated this post to note that Donald Manning, who pleaded guilty yesterday to running a Ponzi scheme, was captured in February 2008 — in Nicaragua. Cameron Campbell, a Manning Ponzi co-defendant, is a former attorney from La Jolla, Calif. See an FBI news release at the bottom of [...]

In the aftermath of a probe by the Securities & Exchange Commission and the FBI, a former Texas bail-bondsman has been accused of swindling investors — many of them senior citizens — out of millions of dollars. Rod Cameron Stringer was named a defendant in an SEC complaint filed yesterday in Texas. Stringer claimed his [...]