The de facto head of the ASD Members Business Association (ASDMBA) Trust was charged by federal prosecutors with 11 counts of bank fraud in July 1994, according to records.
Bob Guenther pleaded guilty to a single count in December 1994. In a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped 10 counts.
ASDMBA members said Guenther has refused to provide details on how the association had spent money it began collecting last summer to ensure contributors’ legal interests were covered in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme case.
After a year-long series of delays in the 1994 Texas bank-fraud case, Guenther was sentenced to three years’ probation, in December 1995. He was ordered to pay $76,134 in restitution, which U.S. District Judge Paul Brown labeled “due immediately.”
In July 1998, his probation was modified, enabling Guenther to pay restitution in installments of $3,000 monthly. Why restitution remained unpaid more than two years after sentencing is unclear. Brown extended Guenther’s probation by one year to ensure payment.
Guenther made good on the restitution and was discharged from probation in April 1999.
Guenther was charged in Maricopa County, Arizona, with two felony counts of aggravated harrassment March 13. Police alleged he violated a court order that prohibited him from making harassing contact with Cheyenne Mountain and Affiliates, an Arizona company.
ASDMBA members said Guenther routinely used threats and menacing talk when the subject of his management of the association’s business affairs was brought up.
One of Guenther’s lawyers in the bank-fraud case was Michael McColloch. McColloch’s name was referenced in an an Oct. 27, 2008, document prepared by Dallas attorney Larry Friedman.
The document advised Guenther on how to behave when he interacted with a federal prosecutor in the ASD case, and warned him to quit threatening ASDMBA members.
A web page in Google cache from March 12, 2009, that shows information about a new surf program known as Paperless Access is identical in places to a June 16, 2007, archived page for ASD Cash Generator.
ASD President Andy Bowdoin introduced members to Paperless Access in a video two days ago, saying the company could help ASD members recover money seized by the government in August 2008. Bowdoin said he is not involved in Paperless Access, and was vague in his description of the company program.
Paperless Access appears to be in prelaunch phase. Google cache from March 12 reveals that a template used by the company or a promoter was similar to the template ASD used in its formative stages.
The word “Generator” was used by both companies: Paperless Access saying it was an “Income Generator” and ASD calling itself a “Cash Generator.” Meanwhile, the FAQs for both companies were largely identical in certain places and precisely identical in others.
Below are two screen shots of the first 20 FAQs for both companies.What ASD called “rebates,” Paperless access appears to be calling “viewing earnings.”
Paperless Access FAQs
Screen shot taken today from March 12, 2009, Google cache page for Paperless Access. This screen shot is of a section of FAQ's on the page and has been magnified. Compare to the ASD Cash Generator FAQs, as reproduced in a screen shot below.
ASD Cash Generator FAQs
Screen shot taken today of section of ASD Cash Generator FAQs, as it existed on June 16, 2007.
Here is the Google Cache URL from March 12, 2009, for Paperless Access. There are references on the page to PaperlessAccess.com and PaperlessAccess.org.
UPDATED 12:15 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) AdSurfDaily Inc. President Andy Bowdoin once had members eating out of his hand, but his faithful flock now appears to be splintering.
Helping drive Bowdoin’s fall from grace is a video in which he positions “Paperless Access,” a company that appears to use a surf model, as a way ASD members can recover money seized by the government in August by participating in the new venture.
AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin, whose video for ASD is a major part of a federal fraud investigation, is now a video pitchman for 'Paperless Access.'
The video first appeared online two days ago. Bowdoin did not identify the owners of Paperless Access, describing them only as a small group of people. Nor did Bowdoin mention that the government is establishing an ASD refund program.
One of the reasons it hasn’t been able to implement the program is because of Bowdoin’s self-filed legal maneuverings.
Except for a letter Bowdoin released through Surf’s Up several days ago, he had been silent for months. Bowdoin, for example, did not tell members about a second forfeiture complaint filed in December against assets linked to ASD. Nor did Bowdoin tell members about his January decision to submit to the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars seized in August.
Before Bowdoin went silent late in the fall, he tried to sell members VOIP telephone service, positioning the $20-a-month offer as a gift.
Bowdoin, now acting as his own attorney, has changed his mind about submitting to the forfeiture, an act that will delay any government refund program because prosecutors can’t liquidate seized assets to create a victims’ pool until the case is fully litigated.
At the same time, other ASD members also are filing pro se pleadings in the forfeiture case — something the government says also affects its ability to implement a refund program.
Why Paperless Access would choose Bowdoin for a commercial spokesman at the risk of being dragged into a major federal fraud investigation is unclear, especially when one of the issues in the federal case is Bowdoin’s appearance in a video to promote ASD.
Prosecutors said Bowdoin was the head of a criminal enterprise. Private litigants have accused him of racketeering, and Bowdoin was accused of 89 separate counts of fraud in four Alabama counties in the 1990s, pleading guilty to felonies.
Database Decision Ruffles Feathers
Some ASD members were angry that Bowdoin had turned over the ASD database to Paperless Access, saying the move invaded their privacy and exposed them to identity theft.
“They have been given access to the database for the purpose of determining losses and the structure of the network,” Bowdoin said.
In short, Bowdoin appears to have turned over the database to a company whose owners he appears unwilling to identify. If ASD member “losses” are recorded in the database as Bowdoin says, the new owners might gain insider’s knowledge about possible targets in a federal criminal probe into ASD’s business practices. At the same time, the database would provide Paperless Access with the names of thousands of potential witnesses against ASD and the spending habits of ASD members at large.
Bowdoin does not identify himself in the Paperless Access video. Nor does he refer to ASD by name a single time. At the same time, Bowdoin’s claims about Paperless Access are filled with vagaries and confusing information.
Paperless Access has a “variety of outside revenue-generating sources,” Bowdoin said, without revealing the sources.
Bowdoin said the company’s business plan was based “solely on outside revenue.” Vague claims of outside revenue was one of the things that got ASD in trouble.
Meanwhile, Bowdoin makes the odd claim that the goal of Paperless Access is to “return the members’ legally purchased funds.” ASD members used funds to make their purchases, but they did not purchase funds.
