Archive for July 2009

It was before Bernard Madoff and before Sir Allen Stanford. President Obama was candidate Obama. Sarah Palin, the little-known governor of Alaska, would not become part of the public consciousness for nearly another month. Few people had heard of the so-called “Arby’s Indians.” Fewer yet could instantly place Uruguay or Panama on a map or [...]

A firm Vana Blue Inc. said is owned by its treasurer was sanctioned by the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation for practicing public accounting without a license. Michael Reis and M.R. Reis & Co. of Naperville were ordered by the state to “cease and desist the unlicensed practice of public accounting” in 2000, according to [...]

UPDATED 10:50 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A company that says it owns Karveck International, a firm with purported ties to the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf and eWalletPlus, used an address in Las Vegas that resolves to a mailing service. The address is 5348 Vegas Dr., Las Vegas, NV 89102. Vana Blue said in a document that purported [...]

UPDATED 9:17 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The website for Vana Blue Inc., the purported parent company of Karveck International, has gone offline and now is resolving to a parked GoDaddy.com page that beams advertisements. Vana Blue is a penny stock that trades under the symbol VBLU. No shares have traded hands since July 23, according to [...]

UPDATED 1:43 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Friday was a day unlike any previous day in the so-called autosurf “industry.” A federal judge issued orders on two fronts: a forfeiture case brought by the U.S. government against AdSurfDaily Inc. and a racketeering lawsuit brought by ASD members against ASD President Andy Bowdoin and others. Capsule Review For [...]

UPDATED 10:40 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Clarence Busby has announced in a video that Business Ad Splash (BAS) is in a “crisis situation” and has suspended cashouts until at least Sept. 1. Busby blamed the crisis on overpayments to members, referring to the overpayments as the “60 percent gift I am giving.” Things just weren’t going [...]

A federal judge has granted a motion by Bank of America to stay a case in which it was alleged to have aided and abetted racketeers operating a Ponzi scheme from a former flower shop in Quincy, Fla. The bank was not named a RICO defendant in the lawsuit, which was filed by members of [...]

UPDATED 3:23 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A federal judge has issued an order that formalizes the forfeiture of more than $14 million from Golden Panda Ad Builder to the U.S. government. The ruling means that $14,048,598.07 seized from five Golden Panda bank accounts in the names of Clarence Busby or Dawn Stowers now belongs to the [...]

A federal judge has ordered Andy Bowdoin, AdSurfDaily Inc. and Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises Inc. to show cause by Aug. 7 why a series of motions filed by Bowdoin as a pro se litigant should not be denied. Judge Rosemary Collyer noted in the order that Charles A. Murray, a paid attorney Bowdoin had hired after Bowdoin [...]

Comments on this Blog from a poster who uses the username Luisa are working their way around the web, but we have not been able to confirm the claims. Among other things, Luisa said George and Judy Harris, whom AdViewGlobal (AVG) identified as its owners, are or were living in Uruguay and fired the Uruguay-based [...]

UPDATED 1:57 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Members who abused a member-to-member cash button AdViewGlobal (AVG) itself provided are guilty of “unethical” conduct that has delayed an audit the surf firm is performing on itself, AVG announced today. AVG suspended member payouts June 25, implemented a mandatory 80/20 program upon the resumption of payouts on a date [...]

UPDATED 10:21 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A pro se litigant whose filing was docketed yesterday in the AdSurfDaily case used a phone number associated with a defunct credit-repair website that once advertised “Mortgage Elimination,” “Debt Elimination,” “Credit Restoration,” “Asset Restructuring,” “Off Shore Investments” and “Deciphering of Taxes.” The name of the filer also is associated in [...]

UPDATED 1:59 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Curtis Richmond filed a motion to disqualify U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer from the AdSurfDaily forfeiture case before the judge had issued any rulings on a series of pro se pleadings by Richmond and others. The motion was included today in a blizzard of motions made public in the AdSurfDaily [...]

UPDATED 6:04 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Could BizAdSplash (BAS), a surf site associated with Golden Panda Ad Builder President Clarence Busby, be following Golden Panda, AdSurfDaily and AdViewGlobal (AVG) into the great autosurf graveyard? Busby recently ceded $14 million to the U.S. government as part of the ASD investigation. There are reports today that BAS is [...]

UPDATED 10:23 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A federal judge should grant Bank of America’s motion to stay a case in which the bank is alleged to have aided and abetted a racketeering scheme because the plaintiffs already have a remedy and their argument is fatally deficient, the bank argued yesterday. Moreover, the bank argued, the government [...]

I was four years old and wide-eyed, perhaps especially if snow was falling. Almost nothing was better than snow in my early years, and I whined until I was permitted to go outside and roll in it. I made no calculation about whether it was deep enough to roll in without getting muddy. Besides, what [...]

UPDATED 12:47 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) His promoters said he was a hugely successful businessman, a visionary who entered technology markets and made money before others even had recognized the opportunities. Andy Bowdoin, they said, had cleaned up in the communications business and, for good measure, old-fashioned markets such as dry cleaning. He’d trained thousands of [...]

UPDATED 8:37 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A federal judge has denied motions by seven pro se litigants to intervene in the AdSurfDaily forfeiture case. Federal prosecutors seized tens of millions of dollars from ASD President Andy Bowdoin last year, saying his Florida company was running a Ponzi scheme and engaging in wire-fraud and money-laundering. Judge Rosemary [...]

It sounds impossible, but could the buyer of a flagship business publication with a circulation of more than 900,000 pay only $1? Business Week magazine could net McGraw-Hill only eight bits, according to The Financial Times. Business publishing is in steep decline, and print publishing in general is suffering. Prominent titles are paring back or [...]