EDITOR’S NOTE: Content from an email referenced in the story below has not been edited by the PP Blog for spelling, punctuation, grammar or clarity.
Some AdSurfDaily members have received a disturbing email that accuses them of selling their souls and destroying lives by participating in the government-approved remissions program designed to mitigate their losses, the PP Blog has learned.
The author of the email is unclear.
It is possible, however, that the email rant originated with a member of the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, which had members and promoters in common with ASD and crashed and burned in June 2009. An email address under which the rant against ASD members appeared included the apparent abbreviations “fms” and “avg” as part of the address in this format: fms.avg@
Even so, it was unclear if the person who used the address was the author of the rant, which was unsigned and appears to have been forwarded to multiple ASD members. The rant makes the claim that ASD never sold an “investment” product and that the company was an “online advertising system.”
ASD President Andy Bowdoin was indicted earlier this month. Federal prosecutors described ASD as a wink-nod investment business through which Bowdoin sold unregistered securities as investment contracts by calling member payouts “rebates” to avoid regulatory scrutiny.
AVG, which launched in the aftermath of the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from Bowdoin in 2008, advertised 200 percent “bonuses” for months. The surf announced it was suspending payouts in June 2009. Just days later, AVG’s name was cited in a racketeering lawsuit filed against Bowdoin by ASD members.
The rant surfaced yesterday, in advance of a purported phone conference to be held by Sheldon Drobny of AnShell Financial Services at 9 p.m. (ET) today. Drobny, whose company is not the official ASD claims administrator, says he can assist in helping ASD members file claims forms with Rust Consulting Inc., the official administrator, and help them recover money.
Apparently unhappy that ASD members even would think about filing claims, the author of the email rant wrote that participants who filed a claim would be signing their “morals and soul away” and supporting “innocent peoples lives being destroyed.”
The email claimed that a “back lash” would occur against any ASD member who participated in the claims program. The author did not say who would carry out the purported backlash and what it would entail.
“Again, if you continue to pass on and support meaningless calls like this and help people build their belief the actions done to ASD were right and the claim form is asking you the appropriate questions and truly believe it was an invstment you made and your friends and family referred you to a securities investment then by all means fill out the scandalist claim form,” the author wrote. “Just be prepared for the back lash and consequences to come.”
Persons who agreed with the government’s contention that ASD scammed investors “should hide under a rock and stay their,” according to the rant.
Some ASD victims are believed to have lost tens of thousands of dollars in the alleged, $110 million Ponzi scheme. Regardless, the rant implied that there are no victims and that ASD members who filed claims did so at the cost of the “sacrafice of other decent human beings such as your family and friends.”
