Maddy, A Car Ride, Blankets, A Coin Laundry — And ASD
Maddy: Stressed earlier, now OK.
Today mostly was a day for thinking, not writing. Maddy the Wonder Puppy accompanied me this morning on a drive to my sister’s house.
Maddy, at 11 months, hasn’t gotten any better in automobiles. She started whining the moment I backed out of the garage. Not even her favorite blankets — a blue one and a tan one — provided her any comfort. Maddy is like Linus when it comes to her tan blanket, which is to say it’s virtually her constant companion.
As it turned out, the journey proved equally unkind to the blankets; I’ll spare you the details, except to say the blankets are clean again.
My sister, brother-in-law and niece fussed over Maddy, and she soon returned to fine form. Then we took care of family errands, including an unplanned errand. By earlier arrangement, dinner was set for 5 p.m., and I had some time to work when we finished our running around. My niece let me use her computer, and I was able to keep track of ASD and other scam developments.
Work normally is a joy, but it just wasn’t to be today. It was hard to concentrate at a foreign computer, especially when I knew Maddy was showing off upstairs. The girl loves spectators, especially when they’re doling out the treats.
But the unplanned side trip to the BIG DRYER at the coin-operated laundry did pay a dividend.
Outside the laundry it struck me that the recent reports of follow-up seizures in the ASD case very well could be true. Such seizures would follow the general outline of the e-Gold prosecution, a money-laundering case, like ASD. Basically the prosecutors are calling home dirty money from autosurfs and HYIPs that used e-Gold. Autosurfs and HYIPs are criminal enterprises, and the prosecutors alleged in the ASD case that ASD President Andy Bowdoin was the head of a criminal enterprise.
As is the case with e-Gold, prosecutors might be calling back dirty ASD money. I haven’t found any paperwork on it yet, but that doesn’t mean paperwork doesn’t exist. It could be slow to enter the system.
It’s funny what occurs to you when you’re standing on a sidewalk outside a coin-operated laundry waiting for a BIG DRYER to refluff a blue blanket and a tan blanket.
One of the things that occurred to me was that some ASD members were actively discouraging other members from filling out the government form. The problem with that, of course, was that it looked like an attempt to obstruct justice. It also occurred to me that some people decided on their own that the government form wasn’t good enough and created their own form, telling people not to use the government form because it was a trick.
And it also occurred to me that some ASD employees and volunteers were getting paid in “ad packs” as opposed to wages, which means the rank-and-file members were shouldering the burden for the compounding and additional deficits Bowdoin created — and further means that money-laundering likely was taking place at multiple points in the banking system.
Meanwhile, it occurred to me that some ASD members were selling “ad packs” for cash and then transferring the value of the “ad packs” by using ASD’s internal system, which means they had the ability to use ASD itself to launder money.
But what occured to me most was that prosecutorial clawbacks COULD BE A SIGN THAT THERE ARE SEALED CRIMINAL INDICTMENTS IN THE ASD CASE.
I’ve wondered if Andy’s payments in “ad packs” rather than salary was a way to avoid paying out cash he desperately needed to keep the scam going. He could have sold employees on the idea that for every dollar they would earn in cash, if they accepted ad packs they’d actually be getting $l.25.
If ASD paid salary that was subject to federal withholding income and social security taxes in ad packs they wouldn’t have withheld income tax or paid the employers share of FICA setting both ASD and the employee up for some hefty back taxes, penalties, and interest. What you wrote about Quincy was very true, and were likely to believe that Andy was doing them a favor by not withholding taxes.
Maddy does look a bit tense in the photo; I’m glad she is doing much better. She still might outgrown some of the automobile issues — and here’s hoping that she does. Post more pictures, please.
Patrick:
You get a bone, for Maddy of course. LOL! Nice deduction.
The curtain has gone up on ACT III, and it will be as I predicted the best is yet to come. I think I hear the sound of combat boots being hoisted being prepared to drop. Wouldn’t you like to be working in one of the banks a major promoter of ASD banks with, and asking why they want to close their account?
Hi Marci,
My guess on this is no. Andy had the “rebates aren’t guaranteed” disclaimer, which permitted him to consider only the revenue side of the ledger.
He could wipe away the debit side by fiat at any time, making liabilities vanish into thin air. I think it much more likely that he was simply showing off by putting employees and volunteers to work for “ad packs” — just as he was showing off by giving away $100,000 “ad packs” to a charity.
He did it because he could do it. It saved cash up front, to be sure — but why even worry about that if you can play the “rebates aren’t guaranteed” card at the moment of your choosing? Using “ad packs” made him “Generous Andy” and “Benevolent Andy.”
But, as you point out, it also created extra liability for the members and brought significant tax and legality issues into play.
Here’s the thing about a salary: It’s a fixed cost that doesn’t get compounded. That’s not the case with “ad packs” as compensation. The “ad packs” costs theoretically can’t be retired.
Take the “gift” of 100,000 “ad packs” to the charity, for example. Millions of dollars of downstream costs could attach because of that single “gift.”
An employee paid in “ad packs” theoretically could parlay them forever, resulting in mushrooming liabilities to infinity.
As a practical matter, though, the cost of paying the employees — regardless of the form of compensation — would have destroyed ASD.
Not a single ASD employee had any job security at all. The jobs could have ended at any time — through government action, through a Ponzi collapse, through a decision to pull the plug on rebates.
He lied to his employees. Employees who were insiders are a different class altogether, which is why I pretty much heave when I hear people say ASD was OK because it was a “manual surf.” It is a lie, just like Bowdoin’s award from the President was a lie.
Patrick
There is an amorality about this whole ASD affair that is chilling.
Had the original ASD not been based on a lie, there was a chance that it could have acquired outside legitimate revenues, as its needs were small and fewer people would have been hurt. But it looks as if steps were knowingly taken along the road, on a continuous basis that increased the potential for hurt to those who didnt deserve it in direct proportion to the increased gain for a few.
The coldbloodedness of the players in this scenario and their ruthless pursuit of gain is to be marvelled at
The devastation it must be causing in Quincy is difficult to begin to imagine. How many of the youngsters and not so youngsters on the switchboard had any idea that their “payments” were not even legal? And to add to the is their unemployment and humiliation at having been taken for a ride by their “benefactors”
Right now we are seeing the highly visible taking a hit. But in order for this prosecution to have served a truly useful purposed it is to be hoped and prayed for that the unobtrusive masterminds (Patricks steroidal puppeteers)will be tracked down and stopped once and for all.
I think the payments to employees in ad-packs was for either of two reasons. Paying the employees in cash would mean moving money between bank accounts. Bowdoin was having problems keeping his own accounts operational, let alone transferring money to other accounts. That would have raised even more “red flags” for the banks involved.
Another reason could be just more smoke & mirrors. It gives credence to the scam if the employees (who may have inside info) are willing not to receive cash, but trust the “system” so much they accept ad-packs.
Hi Tony,
I’d add to your thought-provoking post that paying employees the regular way also adds accounting and reporting requirements. He likely was blurring the lines between “employee” and “contractor” with at least some employees.
Regardless, smoke and mirrors was what kept ASD afloat — just as AVG, at this very moment, is using smoke and mirrors at a bizarre new level to keep itself afloat.
Patrick
Hi alasycia,
There certainly is. I vividly remember watching a video from the Vegas rally in which Bowdoin invoked God time after time. The audience applauded. At times, members of the audience caught up in the fervor couldn’t restrain their impulse to gleefully shout out their support.
He basically told members that God wanted them to be rich, and then announced that sales of more than 50,000 “ad packs” at a time would close Monday: Buy before Monday to make the big money God wants you to have.
As you’ll recall, Judge Collyer specifically and thoughtfully mentioned the people of Quincy in her ruling on the evidentiary hearing.
ASD always had to choice to be a traffic exchange, but it made the choice to dangle the rebates. It sold unregistered securities from day one. ASD’s odds of building a massive external source of revenue were virtually zero.
When cash wasn’t flowing in in large sums effortlessly, Bowdoin and his crew ramped up the criminality. The added criminality “worked,” as it were.
ASD started rewarding criminals within the organization. The word went out, and even more criminals became part of it. Bowdoin stole money from his own members, and then went on a public buying binge.
Two things happened last summer, prior to the seizure, that let Bowdoin know his rockstar days were over: A bank other than BOA closed an account, and he found out that Clarence Busby had previous troubles with the SEC.
He removed money in advance of the seizure to pay for a defense, but it was all a show he orchestrated. His shills gave him (and associates) time to roll out Part II of the deception. People, in their zeal to be associated with Bowdoin and to become known as people who had his ear, couldn’t stop themselves from announcing the criminality of AVG prior to its launch.
Now AVG desperately is trying to move underground, done in by the very shills Bowdoin created.
Ever notice posts that said something along these lines? “Andy can’t be a part of this.”
Bowdoin’s name and use of the word “can’t” is a confession.
Patrick
when I joined ASD in late nov of 07 the customer serivce was 3 people. When I stop by Quincy in june of 08 after the Tampa convention, the little office was a zoo I would say 60 people were working that day. these new people were gald to be working I heard that the starting pay was $12.00 an hour, and that the average worker in that town was getting $7.50 an hour. (if you wanted to see a poor southern town that time has passed it was Quincy!!) These worker had as much infomation as we did. Who needs to wait 90 days for an IRA to start when you could get some of your pay in AD packs!! better need I say investment!!! We the customers, were happy that the workers were getting ad packs,Ad packs were going to make the world a better place to be!!!!!!!! I know it sounds stupid now but at the time Andy was on stage telling people he was going to make 100,000 millionare by 2011!!!!!!!! Andy was a hero!!! He had Robert from the web room head down to the big chamber of commerce meeting to explain the business model!!!! listen to Rayda at night “we are an adversting company, we will be here forever”!!!!!!let’s give 100,000 ad pacs to the christen one man vollyball player!!!!! Man that kool-aid tasted good LOL !! ad pacs were like water plenty for everyone!!!
That why I so pissed at all the people joining this AVG,and I want them stopped NOW!! O.K. I was stupid once I got taken by a con man, like 100,000 others but to know what I know today, I just don’t know how people can live with themselfs. I will not defend anything about ASD I know it’s an illegal company, but because I lived in the midwest and travel to the Rallies in Iowa, Minn,and the convention in Tampa I saw alot of things first hand.Again I will not defend what or how it happen, but I will try to explain history as best as I can, and tell you what the rank and file knew and when they knew it.
I have confirmed that some bank accounts have been frozen and that the Government has again done an Andy.
What is an Andy?
An Andy is where the government gives you the opportunity to do something and for all purposes you have chosen not to do it.(Just like when they returned the computers to Andy so he could again run the company and prove that it was legit and he chose not too.)
In this case the Government gave everyone that put money into ASD to come forward and fill out the paper work. Some did and some did not and even those that did not told their down lines not to. Remember the Government has the database and knows those that made the money and those that lost. It was in every ones best interest including those that made money to fill out the form. Now they are being given a wake up call.
You can run but you can not hide!
As to the paperwork or rather the authorization that everyone is looking for in how the SS is able to Freeze accounts will be available for the General Public once they become unsealed. No paperwork or rather court orders for the seizing of funds are available at this time for public viewing.