No Claims Filed In Second AdSurfDaily-Connected Seizure
UPDATED 1:31 P.M. EST (U.S.A.) Nearly two months have passed since federal prosecutors went to court and filed a second forfeiture complaint against assets tied to AdSurfDaily Inc., an alleged $100 million Ponzi scheme.
The document was filed Dec. 19, about a week before Christmas. As of the morning of Feb. 6, 2009, no party had filed a claim to the seized assets. No attorney for any of the potential claimants has filed a notice of appearance with U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Among the people who could file claims are Edna Faye Bowdoin, wife of ASD President Andy Bowdoin; George Harris, son of Edna Faye Bowdoin; Judy Harris, wife of George Harris; Hays McDougal Amos, whose precise link to ASD is unknown; Juan Fernandez, chief executive officer of ASD; and Andy Bowdoin himself.
No one had come forward as of this morning.
Prosecutors said money in ASD accounts was used to fuel lavish personal spending by Bowdoin family members. They asserted, for example, that $157,000 was used to retire the mortgage on the Tallahassee home of George and Judy Harris and that ASD check No. 1337 (for $28,607.67) was used to purchase a 2008 Honda CRV for George and Judy Harris.
Both George and Judy Harris signed paperwork at the dealership to complete the transaction, prosecutors said. Based on the forfeiture complaint, George and Judy Harris — at a minimum — could assert a claim for $185,607. Their home is included in the forfeiture complaint, meaning they stand to lose it, along with its equity and property improvements.
Meanwhile, an ASD check for $33,450.30 — drawn on an ASD account in Andy Bowdoin’s name and signed by Juan Fernandez — was used to purchase an Acura TXS registered in the name of Hays Amos.
Also subject to forfeiture are a building for which ASD paid $800,000 cash in Quincy, Fla.; two jet skis and a hauling trailer that were purchased with $20,506 of ASD money; a Triton Cabana boat, Mercury motor and trailer purchased with $23,445 of ASD funds; and a Lincoln MKS that was acquired with $48,244 of ASD funds.
ASD’s computers and equipment, which the prosecutors earlier had returned so the company once again could begin to display advertising, also are subject to forfeiture now.
Is this a case of “easy come, easy go?” Perhaps.
Bowdoin, whom prosecutors said advertised a failed, dissolved business in his own rotator to qualify for “rebates,” also gave free ad credits to other family members, so they could earn money off the backs of rank-and-file ASD members without paying a penny.
“Mr. Bowdoin also gave free ad packages to his son and to a former-daughter-in-law, by which they pulled funds out of ASD without paying any money to ASD,” prosecutors said. “In his son’s case, he arranged for another employee to ‘surf’ the program in order to qualify for a share of the daily rebates. Purchasing advertising was irrelevant to these ‘investors.'”
Within three days of the Dec. 19 filing of the second forfeiture complaint, a new autosurf — AdViewGlobal — started to generate buzz on the Internet. Its chief executive officer, Gary Talbert, is a former ASD executive.
Another common tie is Chuck Osmin, an ASD employee who now doubles as a spokesman for AdViewGlobal. In sworn testimony in the ASD case, Osmin said he had expected to receive about $2,000 a day from ASD before it ceased operations.
On Nov. 27, a few weeks prior to the very public birth of AdViewGlobal, ASD announced on its website that it “supports” the ASD Member Advocates Forum, also known as “Surf’s Up!” Some of the Surf’s Up Mods now have created a forum for AdViewGlobal members.
“All ASD Members are encouraged to join the ASD Members Advocate forum,” ASD said. “The ASD Members Advocate forum should be your source for up-to-the-minute opinions and commentaries about ASD. We encourage you to join and get involved. Log on to [ . . .]
“Surf’s Up, Baby!”
The surf may indeed be up, but it doesn’t appear to be pushing people toward the courthouse to file claims for more than $1 million in money and property seized in the December forfeiture complaint.
That should come as no surprise, however. Andy Bowdoin claimed $1 million was stolen from ASD by Russian hackers, and he didn’t even file a police report.
Claims for ASD assets seized in the August forfeiture complaint were filed within days, and Bowdoin now has withdrawn those claims.
I am not surprised by this, as they know they would lose after what happened on the first forfeiture hearing. Not worth the money to fight it, and as long as the faithful are not paying attention, it is not hurting Andy’s credibility. They are all excited and focused on Curtis Richmond’s filing, but only because he is taking on the evil government; not what he is claiming in his lawsuit has any merit. They think because he mentioned case law, this means he has a case against the government. Never mind the case law may not have anything to do with his filing, but at least he has case law mentioned.
They fail to realize if his filing was so brilliant and he is a genius, this means that Andy’s attorney’s were totally incompetent for not citing the same case law in Andy’s defense. All filed by a non-attorney to boot. Guess you don’t need all those years of law school after all to be a successful litigant like Curtis is held out to be.
If you think this is it, and things can’t get any crazier than they already are, you are in for a rude surprise. This is just Act II. We have Act III coming.
Lynn,
A couple of weeks ago, Patrick made the connection for me that the ASD loyalists who are now involved in AVG must continue their vocal support for the ASD model, including people like Richmond who are also “defenders” of ASD. They’re not crazy or even deluded, they’re just greedy. They want to encourage the ASD “believers” to participate in AVG, planning to take their half (or more) from the early money sent to AVG — then it will be shut down just like all the others. It was more interesting to think the people who still “believe” in ASD are certifiably crazy and wonder why someone hasn’t removed all sharp objects from their reach. But I fear Patrick is correct; they are perfectly sane, and terribly greedy. Looking at their reactions from the POV as explained by Patrick makes a lot of sense. A few people may be crazy, but I think for the most part, they are protecting their “autosurf” turf until they can pull off one more scam. Here’s hoping the US Department of Justice, the Secret Service, and the US banking regulators have their eyes on AVG and it’s “founders” — named and unnamed. (The Government knows who they are, I’m sure.)
I fear you’re entirely right, Marci.
Anyone who has followed this “industry” for more than five minutes can predict with unerring accuracy what will happen next.
I find it an interesting (albeit tragic) exercise to play a little “deja vu” game and try to identify the same “playas” and their new identities.
It’s no surprise when many of the same identities resurface.
Hi Lynn,
Will this be like the old Quinn Martin TV series with Efrem Zimbalist Jr. — the F.B.I.?
It had a number of acts, and then an epilog.
Seriously, this story needed to be chronicled in great detail, which is why I’m still at it after these many months. Everything interesting about humanity is on full display — at least until a forum Mod decides to delete it for the crime of being too rational, which, of course, is interesting in itself.
Patrick
Hi Marci,
Some of them are protecting multiple scams. To me, the most interesting recent developments are the emergence of AdViewGlobal with ASD’s fingerprints all over it, and the inclination for some of the folks to hitch their wagons to Curtis Richmond.
In the early stages, the paperwork he has filed in the ASD case closely resembles the paperwork in the sham “Indian” cases, which, of course, led to a RICO lawsuit.
And never mind he has an actual conviction for criminal contempt of court.
Patrick
LRM,
If you peel back the “free enterprise” argument advanced by many of the ASD supporters, it’s really the argument for slavery. Some people wanted to sell other people on Public Square because not to do so was unspeakable in a “free market.”
It’s the “anything goes” argument, but it fails to take into account that people get hurt in ways large and small in an “anything goes” environment.
When someone points out that people get hurt in an “anything goes” marketplace, the advocates then argue that participants are consenting adults and have the “personal responsibility” to understand the type of business they are entering and the risks associated with it.
“Consenting adults” and “personal responsibility” sound real good and can get an antigovernment mob all fired up, but the argument cannot withstand scrutiny because of the inconvenient fact that Ponzi schemes happen to be illegal for a good reason: They undermine personal wealth and national Treasure, and they create an environment in which criminals and even terrorists can thrive.
No one really knows if their autosurfing neighbor is buying bombs or rocket launchers with his “profits.” They’d like to think he’s not and will persuade themselves it couldn’t possibly happen, but they don’t know. Who knows where the money landed from ANY of the recent surfs that suddenly went missing?
Permitting autosurf Ponzi schemes is simply TOO BIG A RISK TO TAKE in an already-dangerous world — the same world that once advocated the sale of human beings to the highest bidder before it ran out of ways to rationalize what obviously had been reprehensible all along.
Patrick
I am always fascinated by the advocates’ reliance on the Terms of Service as stating pretty much “well, you agreed to the TOS, so it is legal for ASD to do whatever it wants to. If it is a Ponzi, well, you agreed to the terms. No promises, no guarantees, and we can change the TOS without notice, and you are still bound by the terms.” Their argument would then imply that ASD could change the terms without notice to allow an ASD representative to kill the first-born child of every ASD member, and that would be legal, because the member agreed to the TOS. Absurd I know, but the faithful never have an answer for that line of reasoning. Perhaps that’s because being one of the faithful prohibits you from actually having functioning reasoning capability…..
In a way I think the very best outcome for AVG or whatever the new one is called, will be for it to fail and leave more than a few people holding the bag. Unlike most online ponzi schemes, there are a lot of people who know the promoters this time, know where they live and have enough personal details about them to get them in serious legal trouble. Perhaps the coming downfall here will finally dispel the myths associated with the “industry” such as the offshore haven myth, the good business model myth will also fall if the government ignores it until the payments stop. I’m hoping that if it does run until natural failure, that the victims and the authorities get downright draconian on the promoters. Maybe someone will finally put Faith Sloan in prison this time!
Hi Gregg,
A new media campaign is under way at AVG to educate clueless reporters and Bloggers about how badly the government screwed up the ASD case.
It seems prosecutors blew it big time by incorrectly describing ASD as an “autosurf,” not a “manual” surf.
Under this theory, Ponzi schemes, wire-fraud and money-laundering operations are legal — and it’s also legal to sell unregistered securities — so long as the ad viewer takes an overt step (clicks on an object) to load the next ad in the rotator.
If the script automatically loaded the next ad for a viewer, that would be an “autosurf” — and illegal.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Patrick
So far it is following that script to a Capital “T.” I expect it to continue doing the same. The only question that remains is how ugly the Epilog will become.
Wow, my first visit here. So are you saying that the AD VIEW execs are the same as the ASD Execs?
Now I did drink the ASD Kool Aid even though I got stung in surfing before.
Now, from what I read the new one is basically ASD all over again. Their claims of off shore protection is not really protection. P2P is off shore and they are still not paying out.
Amazing reading here. I wondered who Juan was and how he got to be CEO?
Where is Robert and Rhetta?
Adrianna
Hi all,
This is my first time here. I have enjoyed reading this site. I had only read the Joy Luck Club and this info here is much better.
Question, are you saying that the AD View exec’s are the same that was over at ASD?
Also the guy with the criminal background. Is he in AD View as an exec? I hear Ad View bought EWallet. Now what does that mean? More control over the money pouring in?
Thanks, I no longer drink the Kool Aid of auto surfing.
Welcome SIASP,
You’ll find anyone can post here, and it helps a lot if you can back your positions/assertions with data. A nice change!