IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: New AVG Ownership Questions
UPDATED 1:43 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Friday was a day unlike any previous day in the so-called autosurf “industry.” A federal judge issued orders on two fronts: a forfeiture case brought by the U.S. government against AdSurfDaily Inc. and a racketeering lawsuit brought by ASD members against ASD President Andy Bowdoin and others.
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For good measure, BizAdSplash (BAS) announced a financial “crisis,” saying it was suspending cashouts until at least Sept. 1 and conducting an audit of itself. BAS says Clarence Busby, the former president of Golden Panda Ad Builder and a central figure in the ASD prosecution, is its “chief consultant.” Incongruously, Busby also claims to run the company — something consultants normally don’t do.
Busby’s video announcement of the BAS crisis appears to have occurred on July 24, the one-year anniversary date of the formal launch of Golden Panda.
Meanwhile, AdGateWorld (AGW), still another surf that began operating at a purported offshore location after the seizure of ASD’s assets, announced it was selling itself to unnamed interests in the Middle East.
All of this came on the heels of announcements that AdViewGlobal (AVG), yet another surf purportedly headquartered offshore, was suspending payouts, conducting an audit of itself and making an 80/20 program mandatory should payouts ever resume.
So, three surfs that launched after the ASD seizure — AVG, BAS and AGW — all announced important developments in the days leading up to the one-year anniversary (Aug. 1) of the date ASD was notified its bank accounts were being seized.
Yes, all of these things happened just shy of the ASD anniversary date.
New Name Surfaces: Who is Karveck International?
Lost in the blizzard of news Friday was a report that AVG had fired its staff in Uruguay, and that owners George and Judy Harris and other Bowdoin/Harris family members are or were in Uruguay and had rented homes and acquired automobiles.
These reports have not been confirmed.
At the same time, a person who uses the handle “Luisa” and may be in position to have some knowledge about AVG, said the company initially registered in Uruguay as Karveck International.
Some things about Karveck International can be confirmed. The company, for instance, is listed as an acquisition of Vanu Blue Inc., which trades as a pinksheet stock (VBLU.PK). Vana Blue issues news releases. One of the news releases referenced the acquisition of TMS Corp., also known as TMS Association, which was the purported owner of eWalletPlus.
This news release, dated Feb. 21, 2008 — a year and a half ago — vaguely announces a name change for Vana Blue (from what to what isn’t clear) and announced the acquisition of TMS Corp.
Meanwhile, this news release, dated Jan. 30. 2009 — just a few days before the formal launch of AVG — announced the acquisition of “Karveck Corporation” had been finalized.
On Feb. 18, 2009 — when AVG had been formally operating in launch phase for just shy of three weeks after operating in January in prelaunch phase — Vana Blue announced that “Karveck International” had posted $1.8 million in revenue in January. How Karveck Corporation apparently became Karveck International wasn’t clear.
“Karveck will be offering increases in affiliate incentives and payouts coming up in March to maintain momentum,” Vana Blue said.
eWalletPlus once worked side by side with AVG. In March, after AVG announced its bank account had been suspended because too many members had wired transactions in excess of $9,500, eWalletPlus quickly faded from the stage.
At the same time in March, an AVG member posted an ad for AVG on a small-business website Bank of America provides as a free service.
“All of you who were associated with ASD. Do not link this to AVGA!” the poster warned March 27, just a few days after AVG announced the suspension of its bank account. The poster also shared news about TMS.
“We are happy to inform you that TMS Corporation has been dissolved and a new association,TMS Association, has been formed which is a member of AV GLOBAL ASSOCIATION,” the poster wrote.
The eWalletPlus website once resided on the same server that powered AVG, according to web records. The eWalletPlus site now appears to have been listed for sale on sedo.com. The site simply beams ads now.
Vana Blue used an address of 4757 E. Greenway Rd Suite 107B-105 in a news release. It is an address that resolves to a PostNet outlet in Phoenix, the home state of TMS Association. PostNet describes itself as a “Mailbox Rental, Fax, Passport Photos, Copies, Notary, UPS, DHL, FedEx, USPS” service.
At a minimum, the information suggests AVG had strong ties in Arizona, particularly in the Phoenix area.
In February, Vana Blue announced that Karveck International posted $1.8 million in revenue in January. That’s when AVG was in prelaunch.
Vana Blue did not use AVG’s name in the news release. Instead, it described Karveck International as a company that “specializes in internet advertising and promotion in a search engine and ad clicking type environment.”
News releases associated with many penny-stock companies tend to be vague. Many such companies speak in broad generalities. News releases sometimes are employed as a means of generating buzz about the companies, and they often leave more questions unanswered than answered.
Vana Blue’s entry into the AVG story is not the first time a pinksheet stock has been associated with an autosurf. ASD, for example, announced last year that it was expecting $200 million in revenue from the penny-stock company Praebius Communications. ASD withdrew the news release from its Breaking News site after members said they intended to call Praebius to confirm or deny the deal.
And, speaking of the ASD Breaking News site: It is no longer there. It has been replaced by a site that beams ads.
See this story, along with the comments.
The real multi-million dollar media moguls are rethinking web advertising. It’s funny, but for some reason, AutoSurf’s didn’t seem to come up in their conversations as a possible tool for advertising. I can’t imagine why…
“Media moguls rethink Web advertising in downturn”
http://ca.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idCATRE56N6GJ20090727?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0
With all these Arizona ties, I just have to wonder if Bob Guenther didn’t approach those behind AVG, AGW and the rest and tell them he could run the show. Bob’s Arizona trial didn’t get dismissed months ago as expected and now nobody’s getting paid. It seems the people behind the programs are twisting in the wind trying to delay payouts any way they can until they find some source of revenue. It’s sheer speculation but with the number of shell companies, Arizona ties and Bob’s (unexpected to him) drawn out legal problem in Arizona….it wouldn’t shock me to find out later that he’s involved at some level. After all, who wouldn’t want the messiah to lead them out of the wilderness?
I agree, there’s alot of program site information pointing to Arizonia. I was even noticing that a few months ago when i was researching various who is searches….
The whois searches lead to Arizona because there’s an anonymous domain registrar who’s located in Arizona. Your registration information will not be made public. As for all the shell companies, that’s another story. The pink sheets are notorious for off the shelf public companies. Just buy one, issue yourself stock, issue press releases touting that your the next big thing and sell on any spike in the stock price. Rinse, repeat….usually after another one of your shell companies “buys” your original shell company. Pump and dump all the way.
Another likely reason that the ASD “family of companies” is having issues is that the Feds and banks are wise to them and cutting off funding when they find the avenues. AVG can’t just send out an email to their supporters and list a payment processor on their website at this point. Too many people are right their to report them….and back their reports with links to ASD who’s founder has legal issues. The Feds never actually shut them down so they could serve up the ads as promised. They have chosen not to.
So, Vana Blue is in the internet payments and advertising business? What does Oil & Gas exploration have to do with that?
http://www.pmjobs.net/Other/newsView.asp?id=3570
What about the verification of social security numbers?
That’s quite a varied company that trades on the Pink Sheets.
I think I read about a pump-&-dump scam a while back. A company was jumping from business to business, sector to sector, “buying” up smaller companies, and releasing many press releases. All this to convince punters, sorry, share holders, that the company was going places and the stock was worth buying up.
I don’t know why Donald Rex Gay would associate himself with a fraudulent operation such as AVG, but knowing the criminal nature of AVG I would not rule anything out.
Also, a Caribbean VOIP company:
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/%22Vana+Blue,+Inc.,%22+through+Its+Subsidiary+Company+%22TMS+Corporation,%22…-a0175897722
Here is a document that lists a Las Vegas address for Vana Blue, along with some info On Donald Rex Gay and others:
https://www.otciq.com/otciq/ajax/showFinancialReportById.pdf?id=21130
Patrick
There’s no whois record on easyvalidate.com and the domain does not resolve. You would think they would at least reserve the domain name. Guess not. At least not yet…
easyvalidate.com is an open domain name. You can purchase it..
U.S.A. makes counterclaim against Donald Rex Gay in civil tax case about allegedly unpaid taxes in the amount of $252,717.12:
https://patrickpretty.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/usacounterclaimdonaldrexgay.pdf
Donald Rex Gay responds pro se to U.S.A.:
https://patrickpretty.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/donaldrexgayanswertousacounterclaim.pdf
Counterclaim by U.S.A. sprouted from this case:
https://patrickpretty.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/schulmanvusa.pdf
Patrick
Anyone who is in any doubt as to the veracity of any of the information being found REALLY needs to read and digest the contents of a letter, copies of which which can be found spread all over the ‘net.
I have no clue as to the truth of the claims made in the letter, and, as many have pointed out previously, it’s probably better to assume NOTHING that comes out of a HYIP ponzi or “autosurf” is anything but fraud.
Given the timing and circumstances which surrounded the original release of the letter, however, I am more inclined to believe it is at least in part true.
I sincerely hope that those for whom this whole saga is their first foray into the murky world of internet “get rich quick” schemes DO take the time to read the letter and act accordingly in any future online “business” they may undertake.
Please DO read the letter in its’ entirety here: http://www.talkgold.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-143765.html
[…] See this story. […]
Remarkable post LRM. Having read it, I am sure that there will still be people saying that is a lie and, anyway, the guys who run their programs aren’t like that!
The reason that triggered me posting the letter, Alasycia, was that it occurred to me while reading about the possible ties (or not) between various entities in this sorry and continuing saga, that many people, as horrified as they are about their involvement STILL don’t quite realize the seriousness of the fraud into which they’ve been inadvertently drawn and the lengths which the fraudsters will go to make sure that situation remains.
In this age of internet based HYIP ponzi “autosurf” fraud, more than ever, people need to realize that long held beliefs of how things “work” are no longer necessarily true.
For example, is anyone really 100% sure that the names to which they’ve become familiar in relation to ASD/AVG/BAS et al are, in fact, REAL people who actually exist “in the flesh” ???
Has anyone actually met, face to face, with them??
Further is anyone really 100% certain that, should these people actually exist, they are located where they claim to be ???
In 10 minutes, I could, for example, log onto this forum with 10 separate and distinct “identities” each from a different country and, what’s more using commonly available online free technology.
With no more than a few weeks preparation, any tech savvy high school teenager could construct virtually untraceable whole new person/s, complete with pictures, personalities and locations.
With a lazy 2 or 300 million bucks at stake, it is not hard to imagine that a great many of the recognizable names involved in this “scene” don’t even exist in the “real world”.
IM(very)HO, it is extremely dangerous to assume that, because Bowdoin and associates turned out to be “real” people with “real” history and “real” locations, then anyone or everyone else involved is similarly situated.
I would hate to estimate how many of the “100,000” members ASD claimed will eventually be revealed to be just names on a screen, INCLUDING some of the “big hitter” personalities members had come to know and love.
It’s quite a chilling thought LRM. It makes you wonder. And it also makes a nonsense about people’s protests about people posting with “handles”. Many of the “names” we know may well be false. It is not difficult to build a false identity on the internet and in a country as vast as the US, it would be very hard to trace a real identity
Unless you’re convicted felon, Bob Guenther, Ace investigator!
[…] See July 23 story. See July 27 story. […]
[…] 2008 for noncompliance with federal law. AVG claimed to own eWalletPlus payment processor. Actual eWalletPlus ownership far from clear. At least two people close to AVG money had spectacular bankruptcy filings. Andy Bowdoin, who […]