UNCONFIRMED: Harris Family In Uruguay, AVG Staff Fired

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 AVG staff of eight or nine employees July 20.

“A fact: they moved to Uruguay with Judy’s mom (Barbara), brother (Joey) and his wife April,” Luisa said. “Rented house in a private neighborhood, bought cars, hired employees/rented office space, fired employees . . . what is going to be next step?”

The AVG staff is owed money and was told the company was broke and that George and Judy Harris were not the owners — even though employees reported to George, Judy or Judy’s mother Barbara, Luisa said.

“George and Judy claimed to be broke and no longer working for AVGA because of too many wrong doings on them,” Luisa claimed. “They went as far as saying they were not the owners AVGA . . .  As you see too many contradictions . . . ”

No second source has emerged to confirm or deny Luisa’s claims.

Luisa writes in comprehensible, slightly broken English, suggesting English is her second language. She may be in position to have specific knowledge about AVG, although her initial reports have not been verified independently.

The comments come on the heels of an announcement by AVG yesterday that “unethical” members who misused a member-to-member cash button AVG itself provided are responsible for the company’s inability to announce findings of an audit the company is performing on itself.

AVG suspended member cash-outs last month, exercising its version of a “rebates aren’t guaranteed” clause and saying an 80/20 program would become mandatory if and when the surf resumed payouts. Earlier this month AVG’s name was mentioned in a racketeering lawsuit against AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin, although the company has not been named a defendant.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys described AVG as the next iteration of ASD, listing managers and employees the two surfs had in common. George Harris is the stepson of Bowdoin. Property owned by George and Judy Harris — including a home in Tallahassee, Fla. — was sued for forfeiture by federal prosecutors in December.

Prosecutors said the property was the proceeds of illegal conduct by ASD. Neither George nor Judy Harris has filed a claim to the seized property, according to federal court records.

AVG has a history of blaming members for its problems and deflecting accountability from management to the rank-and-file. In the past, it has blamed members for the suspension of a bank account and threatened to sue members who shared information outside association walls — and even to contact their ISPs to suspend service of people who asked pointed questions about the company in forums.

Yesterday’s announcement by AVG also blamed the delay in audit findings on unspecified “complications created by changes in payment processors.”

“[D]on’t expect the ‘audit’ to be finish any time soon,” Luisa said. “[I]f you hear somewhere of a ‘staff’ in Uruguay, well as far as July 22, there is NONE.”

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20 Responses to “UNCONFIRMED: Harris Family In Uruguay, AVG Staff Fired”

  1. hmmmmmm…..

    I wonder if Joey of Surf’s Up fame and joe from this blog and Judy’s brother Joey are the same person? Seems to fit — the irrational ongoing support of AVG in the face of the facts, the claims to inside knowledge, the leaks of what appear to be inside knowledge, etc.

  2. Oh.. THAT Joey Shiver….

  3. Ok so it looks as if Luisa was right about some of the Bowdoin Harris Gang having moved to Montevideo, Uruguay.

  4. Another thing worth noting:

    To the best of my knowledge, no one ever has produced a photograph of the purported AVG headquarters in Uruguay or a staff photograph. A recent AVG promo that advertised a conversion rate of 37 percent if the sales copy did not “totally suck” included what appeared to be stock photographs of Uruguay.

    If an actual photograph of AVG’s Uruguay headquarters exists, I haven’t seen it. Perhaps others have.

    A question worth asking here is, If AVG had a staff in Uruguay, who initially hired the staff and who supervised the staff prior to what Luisa described as the Harris family’s move to Uruguay?

    What did the staff do? How was the staff paid? How were language barriers overcome?

    The “thoughtsfromuruguay” domain linked above resolves to the United States, which does not mean that a person would have to be in the United States to post to it. The domain is in the name of Joey Shiver, listing a Tallahassee address.

    It was registered May 25, around the time AVG was trying to create excitement about the launch of a new AVG website. The initial launch attempt failed. Members complained. Several days later the domain members said was created by Syndicate Digital launched.

    The identity of the company that provided the failed website is unclear.

    This is a confusing situation, which likely comes as no surprise to people who have been following AVG.

    Judy Harris is listed in court documents as Judy Shiver Harris, so the Shiver name is known. Joey Shiver, I believe, is 38 years old.

    A lien filed against Joey Shiver by Leon County in 1994 uses the same address as the documentation for Luten’s Sandwich Shop. The lien was for $500 for the use of a public defender in an unspecified matter.

    Patrick

  5. Now, who exactly is Joey Shiver? I see he’s about 38 years old, from Tallahassee now residing in Uruguay. Was he a former ASD member? Does he have close ties to Andy Bowdoin?
    What title does he hold with AVGA?

    thanks…

  6. Joey Shiver is Judy’s brother. He moved first, then his wife and sons.
    The staff was hired between march and june (aprox), one of the employee was with them since december, their interpreter and right hand.
    They rented office space in Zona America Uruguay as “Karveck International”.
    The employees never knew exactly what were their tasks, it seemed “something was going to happen”, instead they were fired.
    True, English is my second language, I know were the office was, I’ve never seen “the family” but my friend worked for them and now is fired
    These are the facts, count on it.
    My friend is upset and many other people are. One question brings another…like a spiral with too many lives webed in it…I’m sorry.
    Let’s hope for the light at the end of the tunel!

  7. Luisa,
    Was your “friend” paid in Uruaguay dollars, or was it ad impressions?

  8. Vana Blue Inc., the purported owner of Karveck International, is a pinksheet stock that trades under VBLU.

    The vanablue website has at least two pages that resolve to an error message. One page that doesn’t cites a tie to eWalletPlus, the money services business from Phoenix. TMS Association, the purported owners of eWalletPlus, is listed in Arizona corporation records.

    The eWalletPlus domain resolves to Panama and appears to be on the same server as AVG. [Check that: The ewalletplus website now has ads and is listed for sale. It no longer appears to be on the server in Panama.]

    Vana Blue writes press releases to spotlight its penny stock. One of them talks about Karveck International posting $1.8 million in revenue in January. That’s when AVG was in prelaunch.

    http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3048348

    From Yahoo:

    http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=VBLU.PK

    From VanaBlue’s acquisition announcement for TMS:

    “Vana Blue Inc, has aquired TMS Corporation a Turks and Caicos corporation.
    TMS Corporation Inc. has established and created its own products in the Stored Value Industry and its facilitating partners (i.e. processors/banks et al.) for a set of protocols that permit monies to be deposited into TMS Corporation card accounts from retail location Point-of-Sale Terminals as well as on line “Virtual Terminals” and the TMS Corporation “eWallet Plus”. This unique relationship gives TMS Corporation Inc. the opportunity to establish a network of retail outlets that will offer the public the first opportunity to have the convenience of the new TMS Corporation Hybrid Stored Value/Gift Card without the need for a bank account.”

    Links to “Products,” “More Information” and “Contact Us” are throwing error messages on the Vana Blue website. The site also says it is getting into the oil and gas business.

    Patrick

  9. This is from a Feb. 18 news release by Vana Blue:

    “Karveck International, which specializes in internet advertising and promotion in a search engine and ad clicking type environment has produced over $1.8 million dollars in revenue for January 2009. Considering the status of the U.S. and World economies, Karveck has managed to increase its affiliate network and ad revenues. Karveck will be offering increases in affiliate incentives and payouts coming up in March to maintain momentum.”

    AVG’s name is not mentioned in the release; the phrase “ad clicking type environment” is an interesting way to put things.

    This part — “Karveck will be offering increases in affiliate incentives and payouts coming up in March to maintain momentum” — also is interesting.

    AVG announced the bank account suspension in March, and there were troubles with eWalletPlus. At the same time, the 200 percent matching bonuses were on.

    Now, the eWalletPlus site no longer resolves to Panama (as it once did), and the site is listed for sale and seems to redirect to sedo.com.

    Patrick

  10. See this. Someone appears to have promoted AVG on a website set up by Bank of America:

    http://smallbusinessonlinecommunity.bankofamerica.com/thread/15822

    Snippet:

    All of you who were associated with ASD. Do not link this to AVGA!

    We are happy to inform you that TMS Corporation has been dissolved and a new association, TMS Association, has been formed which is a member of AV GLOBAL ASSOCIATION.

    These associations consist of private members versus public clients and/or customers. You, as a member of AV GLOBAL ASSOCIATION, are entitled to the full privileges and benefits of AV GLOBAL ASSOCIATION in accordance with the rights set out by the Constitution and Amendments of the United States Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court decisions explaining those rights.

    Additionally, any information or materials received are for
    only the benefit of its members.

    Within the association, we as members, can freely share advertising and marketing information and receive the many benefits afforded by membership in a private association.

    If any of you are unfamiliar with private membership associations, this is not conducting business under a legal loophole. Having an association consisting of private members allows us and you to operate under a legal exemption decided by the Supreme Law of the Land, i.e., Supreme Court decisions that interpret the U.S. Constitution.

    Just some of the benefits of a private association member are:
    · You may operate an advertising and marketing association without the interference of federal and state government and agencies.
    · You maintain greater privacy of financial and business affairs of your advertising and marketing association activities.
    · You are afforded greater security of being able to continue operation in a world of changing laws and politics.
    · You may increase profits due to unrestricted and beneficial structuring and strategies not available to publicly regulated advertising and marketing organizations.

    NOTE: I have removed a sign up link that appeared below the snippet above. The domain was listed advglobal.com, along with a affiliate ID. The server data now says the domain has been suspended for spam and abuse.

    Patrick

  11. Luisa: Joey Shiver is Judy’s brother.He moved first, then his wife and sons.
    The staff was hired between march and june (aprox), one of the employee was with them since december, their interpreter and right hand.
    They rented office space in Zona America Uruguay as “Karveck International”.
    The employees never knew exactly what were their tasks, it seemed “something was going to happen”, instead they were fired.
    True, English is my second language, I know were the office was, I’ve never seen “the family” but my friend worked for them and now is fired
    These are the facts, count on it.
    My friend is upset and many other people are.One question brings another…like a spiral with too many lives webed in it…I’m sorry.
    Let’s hope for the light at the end of the tunel!

    Hola Luisa,

    Your English is outstanding; not one thing you’ve written has been at all difficult to understand. I love to visit my colleagues at the University of Miami and listen to them switch effortlessly between speaking English and Spanish. They’re very patient with me while I practice my Spanish; I’m really awful but they won’t admit it. In fact it’s worse than not admitting it, they actually encourage me to keep trying. I’ve really come to believe Latin Americans invented courtesy and charm.

    Buenos noches!.

  12. Keep it up, practice is the key !
    Gracias y buenas noches !

  13. Found an old email message received from from one Shad Foss, a serial Ponzi promoter, and re-read it in view of the current situation at AVG. Am submitting it here (with minor edits) for shared amusement and amazement.
    __________________________________

    From: “Shad Foss”
    To: “Patrick Dunn”
    Subject: Triple your Money Patrick
    Time sensitive Information!
    Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009

    Hi Patrick

    Been awhile since I have endorsed or promoted a program. But here is one that i feel good about that will make some people a lot of money..If they act NOW!

    …I’m sending you this brief invitation on a solid program so you can explore it yourself and determine if it’s an organization and activity you’d like to be a part of.

    This company was launched back in Dec of ’08 and from
    everything I’ve seen so far, I’m very positive about how it’s positioning itself for success in 2009.

    I’m kicking myself for not becoming active back when I originally signed up as this company has grown by leaps and bounds and many of my associates are making $500 to $1000+ per day with it.

    Whether you have a business website or not, you can
    participate in the Viewing Incentive Program.

    Each member is paid to view websites. Each member views up to 24 different websites per day for 15 seconds each.

    Takes less than 7 minutes a day.

    This provides a guarantee to the “paying advertisers”
    that they’ll have a committed, diverse audience all over the world of qualified consumers.

    Anyways, this email is to inform you of new time-sensitive incentives that have been rolled out and also about a conference call which will be held tomorrow night at 9PM Eastern Time.

    200% MATCHING BONUS PROMOTION – Ends Friday, April 3rd 9pm EST!

    AVGA is running a special incentive for all new
    advertisers…

    Anyone who purchases from $500 (or more) in advertising will receive a 200% match as will their sponsor.

    That means $500 turns into $1500 instantly!

    $1000 turns into $3,000 instantly!

    $2500 turns into $7,5000 instantly!

    $5000 turns into $15,000 instantly!

    Let me give you a realistic example of what could be your reality almost immediately…

    Let’s assume you purchase $5000 in Ad Impressions and get credit for $15,000 with the 200% match.

    Let’s also assume the average earnings per day on that $15,000 balance is only 2/3 of 1%, or .0075%.

    That’s an instant cash flow of $112 per day…

    That’s over $3,000 per month without having to sponsor a single person!

    If you ever wanted to come out of the gate flying or simply take advantage of a massive opportunity and start sharing in the online internet advertising explosion, here is your chance.

    And here’s more interesting information…

    Ad Impressions last 150 days before they expire.

    So here’s the strategy I’m using.

    For example, you purchase $5,000 and get the 200% match for a total ad account of $15,000.

    The first 45 days, you pull out 100% of all cash earned from viewing 24 sites per day. That’s approximately $5,040.

    In 45 days, you could have all of your original money back in your pocket.

    From this point forward, the program is PAYING YOU 100% PROFIT.

    Now, remember that your ad impressions only have a life span of 150 days. So you’ll need to begin repurchasing new ad impressions to replace those older ones that will be expiring.

    This is where I suggest a 60-40 split and repurchase program.

    From day 46 and thereafter, you repurchase, or roll 60% back into new ad impressions and keep 40% in your cash balance to accumulate. This is smart money management.

    By using a 60-40 rollover, you’ll continue to grow the size of your ad impression balance each month and still pull out a nice monthly income from the 40% left in your growing cash balance. 40% of $3300 is $1,320 income to you per month.

    Nothing will change your life faster than getting started now and telling as many others about this as you can.

    I’m seeing as much as a 57% increase in traffic to my sites.

    I realize lots of people may not have $5,000 lying around in this economy, but based on the realistic example I just gave you above, many people are taking advantage of it.

    The 200% match ends Friday, April 3rd at 9pm EST.

    Right now they accept SolidTrustPay as their primary payment processor.

    You can join at *****

    When you register just make sure that ACCOUNT #**** shows as your sponsor: New Wealth Strategies ( My corporate Name).

    If not, please email me to let me know so I can get it corrected.

    A big part of making money online is timing and a bit of luck.

    The old saying is true that it’s not always ‘what you know’ but ‘who you know’.

    Finding out about promotions and getting the inside scoop can sometimes mean the difference between failure and success.

    I feel the timing is right to get involved with AVGA and receive a nice 200% bonus just for participating.

    But you must act NOW! This special offer ends April 3rd.

    To YOUR Success Patrick,

    Shad Foss
    [email protected]
    New Wealth Strategies LLC
    1-651-455-9757

    PS – OPPORTUNITY MEETING & UPDATE CALL THURSDAY NIGHT!

    March 26, 2009 at 9pm EST

    Thursday, March 26, 2009 ~ 9pm EST
    Participant Dial-In Number(s)
    Toll-Free Dial-in #: (866) 465 – 6392
    Int’l/Local Dial-In #: ( 706 ) 758 – 1119
    Conference ID: 92016124

    Jump on the call if you can and if it appeals to you,
    take advantage of the limited time bonus.

    8161 dawn ave, Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota 55076, USA

  14. Thanks for sharing that, but I’d also suggest that maybe you should share it with the police in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, too. Maybe include some of Shad’s “greatest hits” like the CEP case documents (where Shad benefited to the tune of I think about $45,0000 and settled for $20,000 on a date PRIOR to the e-mail you received) Of course, it’s too bad Mr. Perkins didn’t get a copy of that e-mail, but that’s another story. In light of the losses now apparent losses in Shad’s no brainer new scheme, I think a criminal case could be made against our friend, Shad.

  15. In fact, why don’t you send me a copy of that e-mail with headers etc…. and I’ll drop it to some people in the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office and see if they condone LLCs there being used as fronts for wire and bank fraud.

  16. […] this story, along with the […]

  17. […] From July 24, 2009: (No. 5 in “Most Popular” rankings last week.) UNCONFIRMED: Harris Family In Uruguay, AVG Staff Fired […]