A ‘MONEY MAGNET’ AT WORK: Andy Bowdoin Wows Crowd With Photo Of Building Later Seized; Indicted Autosurf Operator Gives Gordon Gekko-Like Speech In Which Greed Is Recast As A ‘Positive’
ASD President Andy Bowdoin wowed a "rally" crowd by showing a photo of this building in Quincy, Fla. The U.S. Secret Service later seized the building, saying it was purchased from the proceeds of a massive Ponzi scheme. Federal prosecutors said the scheme traded on religion and that Bowdoin emerged with "followers."
EDITOR’S NOTE: Two videos of sales pitches by AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin are linked below. Both are available at publicly accessible websites.
The first video shows Bowdoin, in the summer of 2008, wowing a crowd by showing ASD rally attendees a photo of ASD’s new headquarters building in Quincy, Fla. The building later was seized by the U.S. Secret Service as the proceeds of a criminal enterprise. Also of note in the video is a claim by Bowdoin that George Harris is the head of ASD’s purported real-estate division. The video also references Judy Harris.
George Harris is the son of Andy Bowdoin’s wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin. The Harris home in Tallahassee was seized in December 2008. Federal prosecutors said the mortgage on the home was retired with Ponzi proceeds. Neither George nor Judy Harris ever filed a claim to the home.
The AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, which launched after the seizure of Bowdoin’s assets, the Harris home and the filing of a racketeering lawsuit against Bowdoin, later identified George and Judy Harris as its operators. AVG purported to be a “private association” headquartered in Uruguay. The surf made the claim it was a private association in February 2009. The claim coincided with a decision by Bowdoin to reenter the ASD forfeiture case as a pro-se litigant.
Weeks earlier, in January 2009, Bowdoin had submitted to the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars seized from his bank accounts. Despite the fact that Bowdoin had advised a federal judge that he was withdrawing his claims to the seized money “with prejudice” — meaning he intended never again to reinstitute his claims — he nevertheless sought to reenter the case, acting as his own attorney.
By April 2009, federal prosecutors said that, not only had Bowdoin submitted to the forfeiture and formally advised a federal judge of his decision to do so, but that Bowdoin also had signed a proffer letter and acknowledged the government’s material allegations in the case were all true.
Bowdoin met with federal prosecutors in Florida in late 2008 and early 2009 for a period of at least four days, according to court filings.
Of particular note in the second video is the timing: It was shot (presumably by a rally attendee) in Las Vegas on May 31, 2008. Bowdoin is shown in the video defining himself as a “money magnet” and encouraging ASD members to become the same. The federal grand jury that indicted Bowdoin began to meet in May 2009. Its indictment of Bowdoin was unsealed earlier this month and makes repeated references to the “money-magnet” line.
The video shows Bowdoin making references to God in his Las Vegas sales pitch. It begins with a Gordon Gekko-like suggestion by Bowdoin that greed is a net positive. Gekko, of course, is the fictional character played by Michael Douglas in the 1987 movie “Wall Street.” Douglas won an Oscar for the role.
“The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good,” the Gekko character memorably advised the movie audience. “Greed is right, greed works.”
Here is what Bowdoin said from the stage 21 years later in Las Vegas:
“Just like, you know, [the belief that] rich people are greedy. Turn that into a positive: Rich people are generous. All right. And you turn it into a positive like that, you repeat that — at least seven times, every time you think about it: Rich people are generous. Because you’ve got to reprogram that subconscious mind.”
Bowdoin went on to inform Las Vegas rally attendees that he had a plan to create 100,000 millionaires in three years and that it was important for ASD members “to have an attitude of gratitude with God.”
“And I always say, ‘Thank you, God, for developing me into a money magnet.’ And I see myself as a money magnet in attracting money and, I say, attracting large sums of money,” Bowdoin said.
He exhorted ASD members to internalize his message and imagine riches “flowing” in from ASD, the PP Blog reported on May 7, 2009.
About three weeks after the Las Vegas rally — a rally at which Bowdoin encouraged attendees to spend unlimited sums on ASD “ad packs” because a $50,000 ceiling on purchases would be enforced two days later — the $157,000 mortgage was retired on the Harris home.
ASD’s spending binge actually began about 11 days after Bowdoin exited the Las Vegas stage and ultimately consumed more than $1 million, federal prosecutors said. Other post-rally purchases included jet skis, marine equipment, a Cabana boat, haul trailers, real estate and at least three automobiles, including a Lincoln. One of the automobiles was purchased for George and Judy Harris, according to prosecutors.
The retired Harris mortgage and the car — a Honda — cost ASD members nearly $186,000, prosecutors said.
In the second video, “Honest” Andy talks about “re-programming the subconscious mind”. This idea comes from “Neuro-linguistic programming”.
Some people may wonder why “Honest” Andy could rope in so many punters. Perhaps it’s because he is using the same tools used by motivational speakers.
Thats from his dale carnegie days.
Exactly right.
Hopefully, though, people are slowly beginning to realize that the art of professional fraud involves the bringing together and (mis)application of many different legitimate techniques and that the fraudsters’ know that using a “half truth” is often more beneficial and harder to discredit than telling an outright lie.
Wow, 2 videos of a con artist at work!! I bet the Feds will use them in the upcoming trial. Too bad Andy is too old to spend 50 years in prison.
To bad there is no video of this, but at the second rally in Iowa, late Match early April of 08. the stage for the rally had props from a play that must of been preforming. Andy stood up from his chair to walk on to the stage he was in the middle of the hall. He could have gone and walked either to his left or right but instead ran up a stage prop that was a slide. He almost fell backwards he did not (must of been the power of positive thinking) Of course now he is an old man with a bad heart,and bad health.
On the Monday night calls the guy who did the intro for Andy (forgot his name) gave a quick Bio of Andy and mention the Dale Carnegie days. I wonder how much of the dry cleaning, cell phone and other things are true. One thing for sure Clance Busby and Andy goes back a long time.
Did he also indicate whether Bowdoin worked “with” Dale Carnegie or “FOR” the Dale Carnegie ORGANIZATION and/or whether Bowdoin worked “with” as in: next to or “with” as in: within the same organization
Of course, it’s entirely possible Bowdoin WAS employed BY Carnegie himeself.
As a salesman whose duties included selling the course/books/tapes and NOT as a presenter.
If one was dealing with an ethical person such fine distinctions would be unnecessary.
The usage of such deliberately misleading verbiage is par for the course when dealing with professional fraudsters, however.
As many have discovered and are discovering still.
I’m not so sure. NLP is a discredited pseudo-science, and I can’t find a direct link between NLP and Dale Carnegie. There are several people who advocate both e.g “Tony Robbins” (look him up on wikipedia).
NLP is just the sort of nonsense that these ponzi operators would use to rope in the punters. I could be wrong but I’m not sure that Dale Carnegie would stoop to the same methods.
[I’ve had NLP inflicted on me, against my will. It’s not a pretty sight.]
Bowdoin’s ex-wife that he owes money too could sure tell you a lot. I would love it if she did an interview. Didn’t her son do an interview somewhere?
We don’t know if Bowdoin actually worked within the Dale Carnegie organization or simply took a course. As the rest of his past – the successful dry cleaning business, the cell phone business etc – was a complete fabrication, it is as likely that he simply took a course. We have never seen hard information about his relationship with Dale Carnegie. It is all unverified.
What is certain is that he used so called “motivational” and Neuro-Linguistic Programming techniques and tricks when promoting ASD. The problem was the complete lack of ethics behind it.
These techniques are controversial when they are used with the intention to help people, but they are highly dubious and even dangerous when used to promote frauds, or other businesses that cannot get by on their merits as their intention is to to brainwash and distract people from the reality of a fraud or a bad busines model. That was certainly how Bowdoin used them
IM(very)HO, at this stage of the game, whatever Bowdoins’ relationship with Dale Carnegie is relatively unimportant.
What I believe IS important is that readers become aware of exactly how a professional fraudster works and that all is NOT necessarily as it appears.
Couldnt agree more LRM.
There are times when one wonders if some of the ASD members – and the members of other fraud schemes – really realise the extent to which they were manipulated. The guys who found and run these schemes are the experts at manipulation.
Another video worth watching:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1356699/ad_surf_dailys_joyce_the_las_vegas_rally_asd/
The more I watch “the scene” the more I find myself having to admit a begrudging admiration of the level/s of skill and technical expertise exhibited by some of these professional fraudsters, as evil and perverted as they may be.
Their ability to fool so many so completely for so long boggles the rational mind at times.
As hard as it may be to believe, there’s no denying the fact they can, and do, however
NLP was based on very serious scientific principles when psychologists advances the theory and basics.
NLP was developed as a tool to influence people by a professional boxer who claimed that the ABC of the subject was invaluable to actors and others who wished to do a Sherlock Holmes type investigation of another person’s motives.
There is some very serious scientific thinking behind it but I was taught the ABC of the subject which was basic common sense if you are presenting any subject matter to an intelligent audience.
I have been asking one of the “doyens of Adlandpro” who claims to be a NLP practitioner to comment on the matter and let us know if there is a chance that some of the bigger scammers like Dr Mara or Vee could have used “the science” to influence people to do things outside their pre programmed moral code.
I have had no answers as whether this is a pseudo science from this person. Perhaps somebody here can draw the certified practitioner on the subject. http://community.adlandpro.com/members/286465.aspx
Whether or not Bowdoin abused NLP or some other motivational technique seems to be a bit of a side issue. The fact is that he and other fraudulent promoters misused and continue to misuse them in their defrauding exercise.
No it wasn’t.
http://www.skepdic.com/neurolin.html
Vague and ambiguous are no where near scientific.
Which one was the professional boxer, Grinder or Bandler? Grinder was a linguist and Bandler was a mathematician. I suspect it was developed as a tool to create an industry of over paid motivational speakers and to get royalties from books.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming
Yes, from the University of Glamorgan, the Principle Lecturer in Psycology:
http://jarhe.research.glam.ac.uk/media/files/documents/2009-07-17/JARHE_V1.2_Jul09_Web_pp57-63.pdf
Anyone who has NLP inflicted on them should read the above PDF.
That sounds like fun. Let us know what they come up with.
One of the claims I’ve seen for NLP is that it can “cure” drug addicts by “reprogramming” out the addiction (or some such nonsense). It didn’t seem to work for this drug addict who was arrested for First degree murder in 1988:
http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2006/11/nlp-trainings-shameful-fraudulent-cult.html
One of the biggest practitioners of NLP in the UK is ex-radio presenter, ex-stage hypnotist Paul McKenna.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2006/may/20/weekend.jonronson1
I think NLP “works” on some people because they want it to “work”. In the same way that some people want the ponzi to be real, so it becomes “real”.
Neither of those names ring a bell with me, so you are probably correct. It may have been transactional analysis or some other tool developed from one of these “ologies” that the boxer had developed to serve a useful purpose when selecting sales men and women for specific jobs. I did my training for industrial psychometric profiling in the 1980s. Some of these “sciences” were surprisingly good at making an employment agent like me think twice or three times before recommending a candidate and charging an employer a substantial fee for my suggestion.
The issue here is how Andy wowed crowds and took so much of their money with such ease. I was an employment agent and those skills have not completely deserted me. If there is anybody who wishes to speak up for the merits of NLP, here is one
Roger McDavitt says
I use my aquired skills (NLP and Hypnotherapy) to create an affiliate driven communication platform. I consider teams to be the best way to work in developing any business.
http://community.adlandpro.com/members/286465.aspx
My take on the Andy phenomenon is not dissimilar to yours. Autosurfs were a “money game craze” that swept the net in the early part of this centuary. 2003. Andy was a big con artist but there are still fairly harmless individuals around who use “sciences” such as NLP to get a following for themselves or their mentors.