BREAKING NEWS: KINGZ Capital Management Corp. Denies Any Ties To AdViewGlobal Autosurf, Launches Investigation Into AVG Wire Claim; Says Attorneys Are Monitoring Situation
UPDATED 2:59 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Claims by the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf that KINGZ Capital Management Corp. is aiding AVG in offshore wire transfers are false, and KINGZ has launched an investigation, the company’s top executive said in an interview this morning.
“Nothing has ever been accepted from [AVG], nothing has been — and nothing will be,” said Michael P. Krywenky, president and chief executive officer of KINGZ. “We are very shocked, and we’re appalled [by the AVG claims].”
Krywenky said the company was “astounded” when it received a call from Europe about the AVG claims.
“KINGZ Capital Management Corporation nor any of its affiliates have any relationship with AdViewGlobal,” Krywenky said. “Also, I have already confirmed with our bank in Barbados that we are NOT accepting any funds from anyone at, or any clients of, AdViewGlobal.”
Krywenky said KINGZ believed that a scam of some sort was under way. He noted that KINGZ had discussed services with a firm known as Living Legacy One LLC, but said he did not have details about the company at his immediate disposal.
A corporation by that name was registered in Florida April 18, 2008, and filed an annual report on April 29, 2009. Living Legacy One LLC lists Gerald Castor as its managing member.
Gerald Castor has been identified in AVG announcements as an employee of AVG’s “Compliance” department.
No money would make its way to the autosurf firm from KINGZ, Krywenky said.
“It’s extremely bizarre,” he said. “I am absolutely astounded.”
On Monday, AVG announced in a forum set up by Mods and members of the embattled AdSurfDaily (ASD) autosurf that AVG had secured a deal for members to wire money offshore to pay for “advertising.”
KINGZ was mentioned in the AVG announcement as one of the companies that would be involved in the transfers. AVG provided a KINGZ account number in its announcement, along with instructions for members to facilitate wire transfers.
“We’re in discussion with our lawyers,” Krywenky said.
AVG’s announcement came on the same day that the Obama administration announced it was cracking down on offshore tax cheats.
AVG has close ties to ASD. The U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from ASD President Andy Bowdoin in August, amid allegations of wire fraud, money-laundering, engaging in the sale of unregistered securities and operating a Ponzi scheme from Florida.
AVG purports to be headquartered in Uruguay. Gary Talbert, AVG’s chief executive officer and a former ASD executive, resigned suddenly on March 20.
In a March 23 announcement signed by “The AVG Management Team,†AVG said its bank account had been “suspended.” It blamed customers, saying they had sent too many wire transactions in excess of $9,500.
On March 25, an AVG announcement signed by Gerald Castor said AVG’s banking problems were being rectified.
Problems with an Arizona-based, money-service business known as eWalletPlus followed. Servers for eWalletPlus now resolve to Panama. Like AVG, the company claims now to be headquartered in Uruguay.
Promoters made AVG’s purported offshore location a big selling point since its inception a few months after the seizure of ASD’s assets.
AVG, which had been promoting a 200-percent, matching bonus offer — an offer that caused one promoter to exclaim that $5,000 turned into $15,000 “instantly!†— said it was working to rectify its banking problem.
The solution AVG said it had found — wiring money to an offshore bank — was not going to work, said Krywenky of KINGZ.
“I think that we may be victims of a scam here,” he said.
AVG also is known as the AV Global Association.
[…] See this post. […]
It’s interesting that the discussion thread on the AVG forum that announced that they were once again able to purchase “advertising” via ACH and bank wire appears to have been edited. There is no longer any mention of which bank they were doing buisness or any contact information to route the transaction. Instead readers are directed to their AVG “back office” for transaction details.
Yup, the banking information is definitely gone and the question as to what has happened has already been made on the AVGA – but remains unanswered.
It looks as if, unlike the Bank of America, Kingz and Butterfields are both computer literate and know what an autosurf is!
“Wire Transfer Option: The wire transfer option in the member back office has
been disabled. The negotiations were ultimately unsuccessful. We apologize
for any inconvenience this may have caused our members. Please be aware
that we have identified multiple options that will better serve our members
and AVGA. These new options will be less cumbersome as well as more cost
efficient. We expect to announce the additional funding solutions within the
next 2 weeks.
Thanks and have a wonderful weekend.
AVGA Management”
so without the wire transfer how’s the money coming in now to AVGA? I know that the company had a call/webaniner last night, I wonder if this was mention becuase I got an e-mial today from a promoter that was bragging about all the great things happen with this scam.
It’s funny how “the solution” was rolled out before “negotiations were completed”. LOL. Things never change in the HYIP universe.
They might consider hiring an unemployed banker….the must be one competent banker looking for work.
The most telling statement in this article, to me, was this one, and I quote: “Krywenky said the company was “astounded†when it received a call from Europe about the AVG claims.”
It had to be from someone who was in a very high position of authority for them to make mention of this phone call. Which also does not bode well for AVGA if it truly was someone in a very high position of authority. They may have the attention of an agency they don’t want attention from.
And the plot thickens, and the wheels keep turning. Get the idea that no-one is driving the bus at AVGA?
Wrong! AVGA is alive and well!! You don’t have all the facts and again neither does Patrick.For one thing AVGA is not an auto-surf, auto-surfs operate automatically, hence the name. We are an advertising company no different than Google. With Google you just have to post your ad first, then they take your money when someone clicks on it. With AVGA you pay up front for your page impressions, your ad package then your clicks are guaranteed by other members simple as that! This bank must have engaged in some negotiations, no one was there from this news article and therefore you do not know what actually transpired. A bank nowadays can say anything they want because they always tell the truth right? I think this news from Mr. Pretty should be more responsible in printing all the facts not just what he thinks is the facts.
Chris,
Can you adequately defend AVGA against the Black Box analysis? No one else has…….same inherent business model as ASD. No external revenue => AVGA is unsustainable, plus paying old members with new members’ money => AVGA is a Ponzi. You accuse Patrick of not posting the facts. Now it’s your turn……
A bank nowadays can say anything they want because they always tell the truth right? I think this news from Mr. Pretty should be more responsible in printing all the facts not just what he thinks is the facts
Chris,
I was under the impression, when reading this article, that the comments made were by Kingz President and CEO, in an interview with Patrick. If you dont like what he said, then maybe you should be taking it up with him, and not with the reporter!
In addition, manual or auto – AVGA is still a closed click to earn advertising rotator site. I think you will find that “autosurf” is simply a generic term applied to any form of traffic exchange, whether you have to click or not. The US government and many other western governments consider that these sites are not genuine advertising sites, as their principle attraction is the return on the advertising bought and not the new business generated by the adverts themselves. They consider them unregistered securities for this reason.
The fact that AVGA appears to be offering more money “out” with whatever it calls its rebate programme, that it receives, and the fact that there is, as yet no proven outside revenue and money paid out must be coming from new members money makes AVGA a classic ponzi according to the book.
Many banks, and especially those who specialise in offshore accounts and tax planning, are more than aware of the autosurf (and manual surf) world and other internet financial schemes (unlike the Quincy branch of BoA) and wouldnt touch them with a ten foot barge pole.
alasycia,
Thanks for your comments but you don’t know what your talking about. Auto surfs are advertisements that automatically start the minute you open it and continues to run. You could walk away for an hour and it would still be running. Google is not an auto surf you have to click on their ads, same with us. We do have outside revenue and therefore we do not need to use members money to pay for the incentives. Kingz Corp stopped all realtionships with us because they were being threatened with bad publicity if they continued. Now this cannot be proven and I know that is what your going to say, but their are those who do not like our advertising model and they want to see us shut down. The reason they want us shut down is because of greed! They know we are a threat to their income stream and they don’t like it. All your doing is helping their quest and you don’t even know it! The truth is ASD was doing very well before they were shut down and now we are doing well and you can continue to battle us that’s ok, we can take it! We are not going to give up the fight! Google can make millions every day and no one bats an eye lash. Now I am not against Google or capitolism as a whole, I think they had a great idea and they are capitolizing on it, great! But why is it now that we have a great idea and now it’s wrong? Why is it that Andy is not in jail right now? Mr. Maddoff is heading there. Why don’t they arrest Mr Bowdoin if he indeed has done a ponzi and taken peoples money? Why? Please explain that to me? I will tell you why, because they can’t. They can take the money and possessions but not Andy becuase they don’t have evidence of a ponzi scheme plot, people were getting paid, money was being distributed slowly but getting to the people nonetheless. It’s funny how the ASD members that were making money and were happy to be with ASD when that was happening, now are taking issue with ASD because they want their money back after the government took it not ASD. WOW!! That is simply mind boggling to me. You know I will fight for America because I still believe in freedom. My son is a marine and he is risking his life for this idea and cherrished proclaimation. But sometimes I wonder if people really are thankful for what they have. You should be able to take an idea and start a business and make money simple as that. But unfortunately people are greedy and they take freedoms away from the people who are trying to make a better life for themselves. I am saddened by all of this but I will never give up!!
Chris
[…] Read Chris’ full remarks here. […]
Oh Boy,
Chris, your comments are deluded to say the least and show signs of a very selective memory.
ASD was NOT a good advertising company. I was a member for a very long time (and without investing small fortunes in order to make a large one, less than 200bucks and nothing taken out) and the quality of the advertising response was, to put it politely, poor for anything other than a small ad purchase.
Product and service sites did not meet with sales levels of success in general that merited anything more than a small purchase. I believe that online “get rich” schemes did slightly better, but nothing to justify the purchases of advertising in anything more than a few hundred dollars at best. TRAFFIC? Clicks can be had for free on any autosurf or manual surf site for free, but they rarely lead to sales and are no substitute for highly targetted advertising.
ASD “Success” was that it was still paying out large returns on the investments of earlier members, when it was raided (not closed – the advertising could have continued). It had not yet run out of money to pay out, although the accountants amongst us have calculated that by the end of summer 2008 ASD would have (unguaranteed) liabilities of over 300$MILLIOM to be paid out with even newer members money – if they continued to join at the rate that was necessary. I wonder who the ASD cult followers would be screaming at if they had been unable to pay in a couple of months without the Gov intervening?
Chris, you wanted us to address the advertising argument – and this reminds me of a terrific articlt that Patrick wrote last year which addressed the reasons that the conventional advertising industry had NOT turned to Surf rotators with rebates to recuperate their falling sales from print advertising. (If you can locate it PAtrick it would be good to have a link to it here). Advertising which is WITHIN other content – such as TV, print, Facebook and even Google advertising, is used because people go to the sites for their content and not for the ads. Their price varies depending on how attractive the site itself is to visitors. Autosurf AND Manual surf advertising are on rotators on otherwise contentless sites and is pretty ineffective for cash sales.People surf them to get credits to be seen, or in the case of the “autosurfs” to earn money. Most of the Traffic Exchanges just stick to their jobs and dont pay rebates. They are also used mainly for “internet opps” and not for generating sales of products and services. Content driven sites are the places that those sellers use. And on top of which, no serious corporation will advertise on a site that pays returns which are larger than their income, as these sites are not legal and corporations do not like to get involved with that kind of illegality in their advertising.
As I explained before, the banks and financial institutions who operate outside the US “offshore” are “internet literate” and do not need to read “bad publicity” to understand how the autosurf and other dubious internet marketing schemes work, nor do they wish to have them as clients. Offshore tax planning is one issue and becoming involved in operations which are illegal in the US or for US citizens and the citizens of other developed countries is another that they prefer to avoid.
And “illegal” – yes. The ASD case is not closed yet. Andy Bowdoin has admitted his involvement in a scheme that turned out not to be legal and the Criminal prosecutors have no reason to rush into an arrest. They already have his Proffer Letter and will now take their time to follow up all the information in it. Once all the motions by Andy Bowdoin and various Red Indian look alikes are all disposed of and the Judge closes the Civil Proceedings, (although Bowdoin has already acquiesced to the civil charges and removed his opposition) , the Government may begin their job of forensic accounting to establish what there is and who may be entitled so some return. Criminal proceedings will be unaffected by this and may well follow. The Grand Jury Subpoena has not, to anyone’s knowledge, been withdrawn.
[…] May 7 report in which KINGZ Capital Management, a company AVG announced was involved in wire transactions for […]
[…] Within days, however, one of the companies AVG identified as a facilitator of the wire transfers denied it had any business relationship with AVG and said it believed it had been targeted in scam. AVG withdrew the announcement after the […]
[…] for members. Three days later, a company AVG identified as a facilitator of the transfers issued an express, public denial that it had any business relationship with […]
[…] Announced new wire facility as done deal in May 2009. Company it identified as wire facilitator issued public denial, suggesting AVG was trying to funnel money to itself through a shell […]