BREAKING NEWS: Judge Suggests ASD Forfeiture Could Occur Before Christmas; Finds Bowdoin ‘Knowingly And Voluntarily’ Released Claims To $65.8 Million
Will the August 2008 forfeiture case against $65.8 million in the personal bank accounts of AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin end before Christmas?
A federal judge suggested today that it might.
Bowdoin, 74, knew what he was doing when he submitted in January 2009 to the forfeiture of the cash and “knowingly and voluntarily” agreed never again to raise the claims, Judge Rosemary Collyer said in an order today.
Collyer added that the time to file claims has expired, thus agreeing
with an argument advanced by federal prosecutors earlier this month. But Collyer today left the door open for 30 more days before ordering the final forfeiture of the money to the government, issuing an order that any “potential claimant(s)” must “show cause in writing” before Dec. 20 why she should not grant the final forfeiture.
Earlier this month Collyer denied a bid by Bowdoin that began in February with his emergence as a pro se litigant to reassert claims to the money. Prosecutors said Bowdoin’s acts — and acts by dozens of other ASD members who had attempted to intervene in the case — were delaying the implementation of a restitution program for victims of the alleged ASD wire-fraud, money-laundering, securities and Ponzi scheme.
Collyer has denied dozens of bids by ASD members to intervene for money in the case, saying they had no standing and no “cognizable interest” because the money had belonged to Bowdoin alone at the time of its seizure.
On Nov. 10 alone, Collyer denied 13 such bids to intervene. All were filed by ASD members who shared a pro se litigation template. The judge repeatedly denied pro se attempts to intervene, denying the bids en masse in July, August, September and November. More than 70 such motions were filed in the case, dating back to February 2009.
Curtis Richmond, a California man, was one of the pro se litigants. Records show Richmond was a member of a Utah “Indian” tribe a federal judge in a separate case last year ruled a “complete sham” that tried to extort money from public officials to gain a favorable litigation result.
Richmond was hailed a “hero” on the pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum, even as thousands of ASD members were waiting to gain a share of a restitution pool the government is setting up for ASD victims.
Read today’s order from Judge Collyer.
Read Judge Collyer’s Nov. 10 mass denial of claims.