BREAKING NEWS: Bowdoin Files Motion To Dismiss In Which He Acknowledges AdSurfDaily Was Illegal
UPDATED 10:06 A.M. EDT (March 12, U.S.A.) Did Andy Bowdoin just sink AdSurfDaily’s ship — and also the ship of AdViewGlobal?
In a court filing today, Bowdoin, the president of ASD, made a stunning acknowledgment that the company was operating illegally.
Bowdoin’s acknowledgment came in the purported form of a motion to dismiss the forfeiture complaint against proceeds tied to the firm, which prosecutors said engaged in wire fraud, money-laundering, selling unregistered securities and operating a $100 million Ponzi scheme.
“The defendant did not know or realize that his conduct was illegal until this instant case was filed against him,” Bowdoin said, referring to himself as “defendant.”
Bowdoin contends in the pleading that the case is “quasi-criminal” and that he was denied due process and fair notice that his conduct was illegal.
Bowdoin, however, is not a defendant in the forfeiture case. His self-filed pleading references the forfeiture case on its title page, but appears to be a response to a case that never was brought.
For days, the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum has been applauding legal filings Bowdoin made last week and encouraging others to do the same.
But today’s filing could cause Bowdoin’s remaining support to evaporate because of his concession that ASD was operating illegally. Bowdoin had spent months insisting ASD was legal and collected tens of millions of dollars from members last year, all the while advertising ASD as completely legal and above-board.
Bowdoin now is acting as his own attorney. AdViewGlobal (AVG), an autosurf with close ties to ASD, recently formed a private association and turned to a firm known as Pro Advocate Group for advice.
Karl Dahlstrom is associated with Pro Advocate Group. In 1997, Dahlstrom was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for his role in a securities scheme.
Today’s filing by Bowdoin is potentially devastating both for ASD and AVG because of the concession that ASD was operating illegally. Prosecutors could claim the document has the effect of a signed confession.
Bowdoin’s stepson is an AVG trustee. So is Gary Talbert, AVG’s chief executive officer and a former ASD executive. Chuck Osmin, a former ASD employee who testified for the firm at a hearing last year, also works for AVG. Nate Boyd, whom ASD members said once was a compliance officer for ASD, is listed as the “Protector” for the AVG association. Some of the Mods and members of Surf’s Up started a forum for AVG.
Bowdoin’s pleadings today appear to attempt to manufacture a criminal defense out of whole cloth, by rewriting the history of the forfeiture case — a civil proceeding — and turning the case into something it never was: a criminal prosecution against Andy Bowdoin. The only defendants in the case to date are money and property prosecutors claim are the proceeds of a criminal enterprise.
At the same time, today’s pleadings may be designed so potential ASD co-defendants in any criminal case that evolves will have a legal template for a self-filed defense. There have been reports that bank accounts owned by ASD members beyond Bowdoin have been seized in the past two weeks.
Meanwhile, the cheerleading for Bowdoin at the Surf’s Up forum appears to be particularly unseemly now because today’s pleadings had everything to do with Andy Bowdoin, and nothing to do with the rank-and-file members who’d been asked to support him. The document does not cite the membership in a single place.
Patrick,
This was definitely my humor for the day……
Andy Bowdoin, the man who according to the Surf’s Up site is a genius businessman and genius business model creator, filed this hilarious new motion to have the case(s) against him dropped as you mention. In this motion, Bowdoin is asking for dismissal on the grounds that he is not smart enough to understand the charges against him nor to be smart enough to understand how his activities are illegal. He is saying that the activities were illegal, but how could he be expected to be smart enough to KNOW that the actions were illegal……..
I’m afraid it gets worse (or better). And I am not joking.
Someone has greeted the news on the Surfs Up forum with the video of the song “Do you Believe in Magic” and someone else comments “Andy must be getting some kind of legal advice in order to be able to document these other cases”
alasycia,
I read that as well. 10:1 that no one there actually read the document. If anyone reads it, they come away stunned. There is just no way for the ASD supporters to coexist in the same universe where the Bowdoin filing makes sense. It obliterates all of their pro-ASD arguments:
— Bowdoin admits ASD is a Ponzi
— Bowdoin admits he is not intelligent enough to know he was running a Ponzi
and yet, they hail the ASD model as a legal work of a genius, the same Bowdoin. My brain hurts contemplating both positions simultaneously, and still they cheer!
Bowdoin’s logic extends to anyone who is stupid enough to not know they are committing a crime is automatically innocent of committing that crime.
There are still nuts hanging on to the branches and the squirrels have circled the tree. Those that have fallen to the ground have been retrieved and stored away for next winter. Just a few more nuts and the tree will be barren and then as a new life begins with the growth of spring leaves the squirrels will rejoice for unlike me they know that come fall there will be more nuts that will fall from the tree and life goes on.
Andy is now saying i didn’t know I was illegal!!! Patrick I remember you writing a blog that said Andy knew he was illegal, and he knew it for a long time. Any thoughts?
Hi Mark,
As you were writing your comment, I was writing the post in the link below.
Those are my initial thoughts, but there are plenty of things to digest right now.
https://patrickpretty.com/2009/03/11/ramping-up-the-adsurfdaily-insanity/
Take care,
Patrick
Hi Entertained,
You have very neatly encapsulated the import and the quandary of Bowdoin’s filings yesterday.
One might be inclined to call it an “unresolvable conundrum,” mightn’t one?
Patrick
….indeed one might ;-)
Patrick said:
“Bowdoin’s stepson is an AVG trustee. So is Gary Talbert, AVG’s chief executive officer and a former ASD executive. Chuck Osmin, a former ASD employee who testified for the firm at a hearng last year, also works for AVG. Some of the Mods and members of Surf’s Up started a forum for AVG.
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Always conspicuous in his absence from your list of ex-ASD people now with AVG is Nat Boyd, ex-ASD compliance officer and now the AVG Association “Protector”. Any particular reason, Patrick?
Hi Pistol,
No, there’s no particular reason. Nate Boyd is the “Protector” and will be replaced by George Harris “in the event of death of Nate Boyd,” according to the AVG association.
Others now have said that Boyd at one time was ASD’s compliance officer, so it’s yet another ASD/AVG tie. I’ve updated the post.
Patrick
A senior citizen named Andy
Thought owning a Ponzi was dandy.
But taking folks money ain’t right
And the gub’ment got uptight
And used the laws that were handy.
Said Andy, “Who knew it was wrong
Til the gub’ment came along?
I move to dismiss,
And continue in bliss
Cuz jail will keep me too long.â€
Ay, Pat, a poet in the house . . .
Patrick