Document Suggests AdSurfDaily Member Sought $120 Million From Judge, Prosecutors, Clerk Of Courts Involved In Case
Did a member of AdSurfDaily Inc. try to force a federal judge, two federal prosecutors and a federal clerk of courts to default on demands totaling $120 million as part of a certified-mail strategy?
Details are unclear, but a motion by Curtis Richmond in the ASD case suggests at least one ASD member sent a certified demand letter and spelled out a $30 million penalty for each of four “defendants” as the price of not submitting to the demand.
Richmond filed a motion to set aside the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars seized in the ASD probe. He claimed a multipronged conspiracy involving judges, prosecutors and a court clerk to deny ASD members justice.
In his motion, Richmond asserts that actions by Judge Rosemary Collyer, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Cowden and Court Clerk Nancy Mayer-Whittington prevented the member from “Collecting on an Entry of Default Affidavit for $30 million for each Defendant.”
Just above the assertion, on Page 9 of Richmond’s motion, he lists the names of Collyer, Taylor, Cowden and Mayer-Whittington, claiming they “Have Been Guilty of Interference With Commerce.”
Under point (a) of his claim, Richmond asserts the interference prevented “Alana Holsted from Collecting on an Entry of Default Affidavit for $30 million for each Defendant.” In November, Collyer denied Richmond leave to file a motion to dismiss the ASD case. Richmond said he submitted 19 affidavits to support his motion, and now claims Collyer is guilty of felonies for not permitting the documents to be filed.
Similar tactics were used by a sham Utah “Indian tribe” with which Richmond is associated. In the Utah cases, bogus judgments for huge amounts were sought, including a fraudulent judgment for $250 million against JoAnn Stringham, the prosecutor for Uintah County.
Uintah County countersued, and Richmond and co-defendents were ordered to pay damages and costs in excess of $100,000 for filing the bogus claims. Richmond was assessed an additional penalty of $2,915.
The practice of sending litigation opponents a list of demands by certified mail — and stating that not acknowleding the demands, which often are deliberately unreasonable, amounts to a default — sometimes is called “Mailbox Arbitration.” The practice also is known as “paper terrorism,” and can land practitioners in a heap of trouble.
So can making reckless claims against judges and officers of the court — as Richmond found out in California. He was charged with criminal contempt of court, arrested and found guilty. (Click here to see the order for Richmond’s arrest in the case.)
Patrick,
Once again, direct and to the point. And the Advocates call you “biased”. They will never take off their “blinders”.
Hi Don,
One day, when we posted a story suggesting Busby was going to fold, they went crazy.
And when we wrote that Bowdoin might take the 5th, they went crazy. They said no one should believe a word that appears on this Blog.
Later we said Bowdoin had good reasons to fold — namely the involvement of family in the scheme. They went crazy.
Busby folded. Bowdoin took the 5th. Bowdoin then folded.
None of these things required intense analysis. An 8th-grade civics student with a “C” average and an interest in “Law and Order” re-runs on cable could read these tea leaves.
Some of these folks now are advancing the theory that ASD can escape this mess because the prosecutors screwed up in calling it an autosurf, not a “manual” surf.
Now, trapping public servants by default by using certified mail is the game plan. These people are at risk of being named defendants in a RICO action. If they carry things too far and start filing UCC judgments against officers of the court and others, they risk arrest and being hauled before a judge.
It could go down just like the sham “Indian” cases went down — and because disclosure about the risks associated with this approach wasn’t made by some of the people pushing it (for a fee) — it could turn into dog-eat-dog.
Somewhere in America right now there likely exists a person who bought into this nonsense, relied on the limited information provided by the advocates, didn’t do any homework, and injected themselves into an ORGANIZED nuisance campaign against federal prosecutors and judges.
This person now is living in sheer terror that he or she could get arrested at any moment.
And the pushers are calling it a win.
Patrick
[…] November 2008, California resident Curtis Richmond attempted to intervene in the AdSurfDaily case, but his initial efforts to have court submissions […]
[…] entered the ASD fray in November. By early February, he was filing pro se motions suggesting ASD members intended to pursue claims of $120 million […]