PatrickPretty.com

Day: September 26, 2011

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: AdSurfDaily Ponzi Scheme Example Of ‘Insidious’ Financial Crime, Head Of Justice Department’s Criminal Division Says; Top Officials, U.S. Secret Service Issue Statement In Support Of Victims; Obama Task Force Monitoring ASD Case

    Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.

    URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: The AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme is an example of an “insidious” financial crime, the head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division said moments ago in a special statement on how forfeiture laws were used to protect ASD victims.

    Meanwhile, a top official of the U.S. Secret Service described Florida-based ASD as a “criminal enterprise.”

    ASD members who filed approved claims through the government’s remissions program will receive back tens of millions of dollars owing to the quick actions of the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia in 2008, officials in Washington said.

    Victims who filed remissions claims and demonstrated losses will be compensated at 100 percent, a rare total, a source with knowledge of the process told the PP Blog last week.

    “[F]orfeiture is a powerful tool for ensuring that victims of financial fraud are made whole,” Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer said today. “Returning funds to victims is a key goal in our mission to combat financial crimes. We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to bring justice to the citizens defrauded by these insidious schemes.”

    Breuer was backed by U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. in the District of Columbia.

    U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr.

    “We are putting $55 million back into the pockets of innocent victims of this online Ponzi scheme,” said Machen.  “As we did in this case, we will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to recover every penny we can find for victims of financial fraud.”

    A top Secret Service official said today that ASD was a “criminal enterprise” and that the remissions program represented a positive outcome for victims of an elaborate fraud scheme.

    “With all of our efforts to punish and deter this criminal enterprise, the rights of innocent parties are protected and will subsequently be returned,” said Assistant Director A.T. Smith of the Secret Service’s Office of Investigations. “This substantial remittance not only emphasizes the cooperation between the Secret Service, U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the Department of Justice, but promotes positive community impact by returning these funds to innocent victims.”

    The U.S. Secret Service “safeguards the nation’s financial infrastructure and payment systems to preserve the integrity of the economy,” said Smith.

    Today’s statement by the officials confirmed that President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which was created in November 2009 to root out fraud, has been monitoring ASD developments and assisting in the case.

    Information for ASD victims is accessible by dialing this number:

    1-800-644-1535

    Victims who use the mail and have questions should contact:

    Basizette Stribling
    Victim Witness Assistant
    Re: AdSurf Daily
    United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia
    555 Fourth Street NW
    Washington, D.C. 20530

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin was arrested by the Secret Service in December 2010. He was charged with wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. Bowdoin, 76, is free on bail and awaiting trial.

  • UPDATE: About 8,400 AdSurfDaily Members Will Receive Remissions Payments; Number Of Successful Claimants Exceeds Population Of ASD’s Home Base Of Quincy, Fla.; No Comment From Prosecutors On Curious Facebook Post From Apparent ASD Member

    Federal prosecutors had no comment this morning about a Facebook posting from an apparent ASD member who claims to have received victim's compensation but still purportedly backs accused felon Andy Bowdoin. Bowdoin is facing criminal charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

    UPDATE: About 8,400 victims of the AdSurfDaily autosurf are receiving remissions payments of 100 percent of their losses, a source familiar with the process said today.

    The PP Blog first reported Thursday that the remissions payments would be 100 percent across the board to ASD victims who demonstrated a loss. On Friday, the Blog received a stream of confirmations from ASD victims that Rust Consulting Inc., the government-approved claims administrator, had deposited the payments into their bank accounts electronically.

    Based on court filings, the PP Blog is estimating that about 80 percent of ASD members who filed for remissions by the January 2011 deadline had their claims approved. The number represents an “overwhelming majority,” the source said last week.

    The number of successful remissions petitioners significantly exceeds the population of Quincy, Fla., ASD’s headquarters. Quincy’s population is about 7,000.

    The U.S. Secret Service said in August 2008 that ASD President Andy Bowdoin was operating a massive, international Ponzi scheme from Quincy in part by claiming ASD was selling “advertising” that paid “rebates” of 125 percent.

    Bowdoin, 76, has been soliciting contributions for his criminal defense for weeks, asking the people he is accused of defrauding to pony up $500,000 to pay for lawyers.

    Federal prosecutors had no comment this morning on a Friday post on Bowdoin’s Facebook fundraising site from an apparent ASD member who claimed he’d received crime-victim’s compensation but still was backing Bowdoin.

    “I don’t know what happened, but I had posted on here yesterday that the government sent me a letter they would be refunding my ASD money,” the apparent ASD member wrote. “To my surprise and shock, the money IS in my account as of today, all $27,690.00 of it!!!!

    “DO NOT THINK THAT I DON’T BACK ANDY, BECAUSE I STILL DO!!!!” the apparent member exclaimed. “I want ASD BACK, I want Andy and ASD EXONERATED, and I want the government to PAY PAY PAY for what they did and for MISUSE of The Patriate Act (sic), which ironically they used in the most UNPATRIOTIC way seemingly possible!”