BULLETIN: ‘Trust Account’ For Accused Ponzi Schemer Andy Bowdoin ‘Currently Unable To Receive Money’; Is Bowdoin Encountering New Troubles In Wake Of ‘OneX’ Promos?
ASD's Thomas A. "Andy" Bowdoin
UPDATED 6:31 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) A website collecting money through PayPal for the criminal defense of accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin of AdSurfDaily appears to have lost its ability to gather funds designated for an attorney’s “trust account.”
This message (next paragraph) appears if would-be Bowdoin sympathizers click on any of a number of payment buttons on the site, which is known as “Andy’s Fundraising Army.”
“This recipient is currently unable to receive money.”
The message originates on PayPal’s server.
Why the trust account lost the ability to collect money via PayPal is unclear. The office of U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. of the District of Columbia said this afternoon that it “typically does not comment on pending cases, and has no comment on this particular matter.”
Machen’s office is leading the Bowdoin prosecution.
Bowdoin, 77, is awaiting a September 2012 trial on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. The U.S. Secret Service said the ASD patriarch was presiding over a Ponzi scheme involving at least $110 million and thousands of victims.
In September 2011, the Secret Service and federal prosecutors returned to members more than $55 million seized in 2008 in the civil portion of the case. The agency described ASD as a “criminal enterprise.”
Bowdoin began to solicit money through the fundraising website last summer, after repeated delays. Information published on the site suggests Bowdoin collected about $26,800, far short of this stated goal of $500,000. The site positioned Bowdoin as “David,” with the government as “Goliath.”
In recent months, Bowdoin has been pushing a mysterious scheme known as OneX, claiming God had delivered OneX to enable him to pay for his criminal defense.
ASD figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming, a purported “sovereign citizen,” was arrested by the FBI in November 2011. He is detained in a federal facility near Seattle on charged he filed fraudulent liens against at least five public officials involved in the ASD Ponzi case.
