URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: ASD Victim Says His Remissions Distribution Has Been Deposited — And That It Was 100 Percent
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: The PP Blog has received the first report from an AdSurfDaily Ponzi victim that Rust Consulting Inc. has deposited his remissions distribution into his bank account and that the sum was 100 percent of his ASD loss.
The money appeared in the member’s bank account this morning. Rust is the Minnesota-based claims administrator in the ASD case.
Developing . . .
Thank You !!!!! WooHoo!!!!! just checked my bank account and 100%% of our $$$$$ are there.. OMG!!! Never ever thought we would see any of it let alone all of it..
Good for you, Brenda!
Patrick
Several people I know have also gotten their refunds.
Just received another deposit/100 percent confirmation a few minutes ago.
“Yay!” the reader said.
Patrick
Can’t help wondering how things would have worked out if either Robert Guenther and his attorney buddy or “Professor” Patrick Moriarty had somehow succeeded in their efforts in connection with this case…
-PWD
Meanwhile, it would seem the scammer bob geunther owes some people a refund.
Whip, don’t forget Larry Friedman…..
The reports are indeed accurate. So far 57 of the Members of The ASDMBA häve confirmed receipt of funds. One member who we assisted in filing their claim received $40,000.. 100% of his investment.
Bob-
Gee, that must have taken you all of 90 seconds to do…
Bob,
You previously were banned from this site for threatening behavior and for seeking to circumvent our security software. I have now reduced that ban to a soft block at your current IP. All of your comments will go into a moderation queue and will be have to be approved manually.
Do NOT threaten anyone. Do NOT try to circumvent the Blog’s software. Do NOT try to test the system by experimenting with other usernames, email addresses and IPs.
If you do ANY of these things, you will be banned again.
I’m already concerned about your first post because you seem to be suggesting that one ASDMBA member got back 100 percent because of something you or ASDMBA did.
This Blog reported yesterday that ALL ASD victims with approved claims will get back 100 percent.
You are on a very short leash here, Bob.
Patrick
EDIT:
https://patrickpretty.com/2011/09/22/major-development-adsurfdaily-remissions-payments-will-be-100-cents-on-the-dollar-thousands-of-payments-to-go-out-overwhelming-majority-of-claims-approved-members-react-with-joy/
Blowhard Bobby does this really neat thing every morning where he runs around his house naked, while singing “Olly, Olly, Oxenfree” in a falsetto voice and commanding the sun to rise in the east.
Apparently he thinks he’s responsible for THAT happening as well.
Funny how he’s no where to be found and now trying to claim he actually had something to so with the government doing what it, itself had said it would do all along. Typical scumbag. How did I know THAT would happen? So predictable.
Oh, and you still owe the people you ripped off guenther. You did NOTHING for them except make their bank accounts lighter.
I would like to know if Bob Guenther is going to give back the money he collected for his sham trust claiming they would get standing in the ASD case; which was nothing more than a means for him to get enough money to make everyone he got into ASD whole? We know Bob and his group filed a claim, so since everyone is getting 100% back, isn’t it time for Guenther to pay back everyone he took money from in his sham trust? Wanna bet he won’t? He is no different than Andy Bowdoin.
Bob had nothing to do with anyone getting their money back. They did it on their own, without the need of Mr. Blowhard filling their sails. Maybe Bob, or Maria or one of his other multiple personalities. Do I need to use the code word “volleyball”?
The ASDMBA served to fill Bob and Larry’s pockets; that’s all it ever did, plus giving Bobby Blowhard a place to spout his lunacy. He and Andy have one thing in common, I think they call it Wire Fraud.
I did get all of my money back $52,000,plus my wife got her $5000 yesterday the 23,we can now get most of our bills paid and go out for a change.I want to thank Mr Patrick Pretty for keeping every one informed.not sure but heard that about 40,000 people put in remission forms in but most could not prove that that put money in.talked to all lot of up line and most of them were talked out of filling out the forms threw rust,were told from their up line not to.
thank you again Patrick Pretty ,with out you I would have never knew how to get our money back and telling every one about other bad people out there.I did get into full tilt poker few years ago but only lost $ 200 in cash.
Judy and Greg Young ,in long beach ca.
If I remember right I do believe that Bobby told everyone not to fill out the forms and now he is saying the opposite. Whoa is me!
Patrick:
Not everyone who filled out the forms and who paid cash directly to Andy have been approved. Two people who did pay cash to Andy were approved to receive their money back and another who drove from Tallahassee to Quincy and gave over 23000.00 directly to Andy will not be getting their money back.
Jack
Greg,
Congratulations on getting your full amount refunded. I have to admit that I was very, very surprised that many people are getting 100% restitution. As you note, Patrick’s column has been a very good source of information regarding the ASD case. Perhaps some of the people who were victims of Andy and are now getting restitution will consider joining the fight that this blog represents, against the scammers. The blog is in danger of going under……
Amen, Entertained!
For reasons only he knows, Patrick is reluctant to make known publicly the costs he incurs in connection with this incredibly valuable blog. However, among the other expenses, I know it’s also under continuous electronic DDoS attacks by the “bad guys” – attacks that are expensive to defend against.
If 30 or 40 people would commit to donating just $10 per month using the “Donate” button on this site, that would provide a floor of support for Patrick’s efforts.
I’m willing to do so. Anyone care to join me in this voluntary pledge?
-PWD
First, my thanks to you and Entertained for your posts.
The reason I will not reveal the precise costs incurred by the Blog is that such information could be used by people who don’t take kindly to the Blog to make certain assumptions about its security profile.
Something occurred here on April 6 that has shaped my thinking on security matters. (Not that earlier events did not also shape my thinking.) I reported the April 6 incident to a federal law-enforcement agency. There may be a time when I write about what happened — but that time cannot be now.
Even taking security issues off the table, the Blog generates meager revenue. If, as you suggest, I could find 30 or 40 people to donate $10 a month, it would go a long way toward taking some nightmares off the table.
Publishing simply is not healthy these days, and living at the edge while I practice my craft is something that wears on me. Hope that didn’t sound too plaintive. My work provides joy. For a while, though, it has not provided sustenance.
Patrick
I will. I have been giving every month.
Back on topic, does anyone know if Rust intends to publish a list of people who received refunds? I would just love to find out how many of the people who urged the downlines to not file claims, filed claims, and how much they recovered. I’m also curious to know how many transferred ad packs from their account for cash, then later claimed and/or were paid refunds for those ad packs (at the expense of those they sold them to).
It would totally ruin my day to find that people did that and got away with it.
Gregg,
I seriously doubt that Rust will publish any list for either those who were approved and those who were not. There is an Federal Order Of Protection in place, which binds Rust Consulting. The documents relative to this are on my ASD Updates Files website.
My guess is some of this information will come out in Andy’s criminal trial, but I could be wrong.
Note: I don;t have the actual Protective Order, it’s not on PACER.
[…] payments would be 100 percent across the board to ASD victims who demonstrated a loss. On Friday, the Blog received a stream of confirmations from ASD victims that Rust Consulting Inc., the […]
“The Justice Department claimed Bowdoin used more than $31 million to make payments to early members, more than $8 million to operate the company and promote it to subsequent members and more than $1 million for his own personal benefit or the benefit of his family. Of the $31 million he paid to early investors, 98% of it came from other investors’ funds, the indictment claimed.”
Source: Wall Street Journal at http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110926-710453.html
$31m+8M+1M=$40 million known to have been expended, yet the people who submitted claims AND who qualified for distributions are getting back 100% of their investment from the $55 million pool of forfeited funds. Amazing!
The people who didn’t file claims – or who didn’t qualify for distributions – have paid a very large price in order for the math to have worked out as it has.
-PWD
It would be very interesting to know how all the dollars came and went in this deal, including the money paid in commissions to promoters and the side deals where perps sold “adpacks” for cash.
Does anyone know if Andy Bowdoin and/or ASD have a tax liability for the gross income involved with ASD, less the cost of doing business – and if so, whether he gets a tax deduction for the amounts distributed to the “members” in this action by the Feds?
Saw an article today that says a TV mini-series about prohibition is about to air on PBS. That made me reflect upon the fact that Al Capone’s conviction(s) were reportedly related to his income tax evasion, not the murders or other crimes he committed.
-PWD
This is far from over. They still have all the property, cars and water toys to sell which will bring money in to be paid back to the victims. I think these monies will be to the rest they need to verify they were indeed victims. What is going to be really interesting to me is to see how much of the $31 Million paid out the authorities will pursue in clawbacks.
The only reason why this percentage is this high was because not all victims viled claims, some could not prove how much they sent ASD, and ASD was shut down before Andy could run with the money by getting it all offshore and hidden. All the victims of ASD owe Jack Arons a huge debt of gratitude, because if it had not been for him sounding the alarm, the authorities would not have started their investigation and shut it down with so much money still left in the bank accounts.
A few things to think about:
1.) The government long ago raised the issue of ASD employees getting paid in “ad packs.” The ASD apologists said no big deal. It may be a big deal to any ASD employee who could not qualify for remissions because “compensation” they saw in their ASD accounts was nothing more than numbers on a screen. I do not know how many ASD employees — if any — were denied remissions because they could not prove a loss. I hope that very few employees were seeking to parlay their “wages.” If they were, they might have been working for free.
2.) I continue to believe that making ASD members certify they were crime victims was a smart move that takes a weapon away from serial autosurf promoters. They cannot at once be victims and purveyors.
3.) There were any number of email missives by ASD members that clearly were designed to deflate the victims’ count. I think these efforts actually trace their roots back to the now-defunct Surf’s Up forum — as early as the late summer and fall of 2008.
4.) On any number of occasions, Surf’s Up posters/ASD members fractured the facts of the case as noted on judicial docket entries and court filings. The typical form of this was through assertions that prosecutors were on the verge of losing the civil case. None of it was true. If the civil case were viewed as a football game in which the maximum number of points scored was limited to 100 and the first team to score 51 was the winner, ASD lost 51-0. And the loss was sustained nearly two months before Bowdoin threw in the civil towel in January 2009. Bowdoin, of course, later effectively asked for a do-over. The do-over bid was rejected, but not before dozens of ASD members sought to intervene in the case by using templated, fill-in-the-blank filings.
Former AUSA William Cowden’s name was misspelled as “Crowden” on virtually all of these filings. The government also was depicted as the bad guy in the pleadings. There appears to have been little effort on the part of the filers even to understand the core facts of the case. All of the pro se filings in the August through October period of 2009 came AFTER the government revealed in court filings that Bowdoin had signed a proffer letter in the case and acknowledged ASD was operating unlawfully.
5.) There are still open allegations that Bowdoin family members and other ASD insiders benefited from the fraud. I believe those allegations are dictating Bowdoin’s behavior and the behavior of various insiders. To what extent is unclear.
6.) After all of this time, I have not seen any suggestion that LaFuenteDinero had bank accounts of its own. I find that intriguing.
Patrick
I wonder where Juan Fernandez might be??
Patrick,
IMHO the tax questions are interesting, but will not play a role in the coming prosecution, at least of Andy. In principle, EVERYONE who received any funds whatsoever from ASD has a tax liability. Note that you do not have to be a net winner, just someone who received anything from ASD. All proceeds to an individual must be reported on Line 21 (Other Income) of your 1040. The bad news for the winners, and even for the “break evens”, is that they are NOT allowed to deduct payments into ASD except . Thus, if a person
put $10000 into ASD and received only $5000 back, here’s what happens tax-wise. They claim $5000 as income on line 21 (illegally obtained income is included as ordinary other income). They file for restitution for $5000, their actual loss, and presumably receive it. The end result is they pay taxes on the $5000 received from ASD.
The situation is somewhat worse for the break-even people. Again, say they put in $10,000 and receive $10,000. They claim $10,000 in income on line 21, but have no net loss to deduct.
Some of the Surfs Up cheerleaders (Pont, McIntyre, et al) figured the $10,000 put into ASD could be deducted as a business expense. Clearly wrong. ASD was not a business, it was a criminal enterprise. A heroin dealer cannot deduct the cost of the heroin that he sells as a business expense, for tax purposes. Similarly, Ponzi funding is not a business expense.
It is possible that many of the winners will be pursued by the IRS, ut not likely.
Thanks, Entertained, for the enlightenment re the tax treatment of ASD “members”.
As it relates to Andy Bowdoin, your statement quoted above seems to say that Andy and/or ASD (the corporation)have tax liability for tens of millions of dollars, with no offsetting deductions for the payments made to “members” because it was a criminal enterprise.
Presumably that same principle applies to the forfeited funds, e.g., no tax deduction for those funds as a business expense to offset the income and the resulting income tax liability.
If my understanding of the above is correct, it seems that unless Andy included the gross income on his tax returns and paid estimated taxes along the way, a separate trial for income tax evasion – apart from the current criminal indictment(s)- could also be coming down the road.
-PWD