UPDATED 3:16 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin has filed a corrected affidavit in the civil-forfeiture case, apparently after visiting a notary public earlier today.
An affidavit Bowdoin filed yesterday appeared to have lines and an entire paragraph missing. Today’s filing has 23 paragraphs, as opposed to yesterday’s 22. Yesterday’s filing jumped from paragraph 3 to 5, skipping paragraph 4. Meanwhile, yesterday’s document had two paragraph 16s, one apparently complete and one apparently incomplete.
In a separate brief filed yesterday by Charles A. Murray, Bowdoin’s attorney, there was a reference to Bowdoin having found the fees accepted by defense counsel Steven Dodson “astonishing.” The reference cited was paragraph 17 from Bowdoin’s affidavit, but the word “astonishing” did not appear in paragraph 17 — or elsewhere in the document.
Today’s corrected affidavit by Bowdoin also does not include the word “astonishing” — in paragraph 17 or elsewhere.
Bowdoin’s filing today appears to be numbered correctly, paragraph 1 through paragraph 23, but still appears to be at odds with Murray’s filing yesterday. The reason for the disagreement among documents was not immediately clear.
UPDATED 6:34 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin has informed a federal judge that he intends to continue to fight the civil forfeiture case.
Bowdoin has filed a five-page affidavit in which he claims his defense counsel lied to him and manipulated him, prosecutors asked him “to provide statements which I did not believe to be true” and that he revealed “significant information against my interest.”
Bowdoin said a grand jury convened in May 2009. Part of Bowdoin’s affidavit appears either to be missing or to have been reproduced out of order, but the document suggests either that a sealed indictment was returned or that an indictment was forthcoming.
Defense attorney Steven Dobson of Dobson and Smith led Bowdoin to believe he possibly would receive no jail time if he cooperated, Bowdoin said. Two meetings were held with federal prosecutors in December and January, with Bowdoin in attendance, according to Bowdoin.
“During our meeting in Tallahassee, Florida, [prosecutor William] Cowden requested that I dismiss my claims” in the civil forfeiture case, Bowdoin said.
“Dobson provided Cowden with my signed agreement,” Bowdoin continued. “I was led to believe that a grand jury indictment was forthcoming. My attorney represented to me that Cowden had spoken to a judge, persuaded the judge that I was a flight risk, and that I would be held without bail following a prompt indictment.
“Dobson led me to believe that I would be promptly arrested if I failed to cooperate with Government counsel,” Bowdoin said.
He advised the judge in his affidavit that he had a heart condition and believed “any measure of prison time would constitute a life sentence.”
Bowdoin, 74, did not say in the document whether he had any involvement in the AdViewGlobal (AVG)Â autosurf, which launched in February in the aftermath of the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from Bowdoin, the filing of two forfeiture complaints against ASD’s assets and the filing of a lawsuit by private litigants who accused him of racketeering.
Some AdSurfDaily members now say Bowdoin was the silent head of AVG.
Another Bowdoin attorney, Charles A. Murray, filed a separate motion on Bowdoin’s behalf today in which he argued Bowdoin had been snookered.
Bowdoin’s motion to release claims “was based on his belief that relinquishing his civil claims could possibly prevent imprisonment in a forthcoming criminal matter,” Murray said. “Bowdoin believed he had an agreement with the government that required the release of claims in the [forfeiture case.]
“Mr. Bowdoin reasonably relied on information received from his counsel in forming the belief that release in the civil suit could possibly avoid imprisonment,” Murray continued.
“In fact, no agreement existed and Mr. Bowdoin now faces a significant period of
incarceration. Given the lack of an agreement, Mr. Bowdoin’s release in the [forfeiture case] is illogical. He received nothing of value for the release.
“Bowdoin has consistently demonstrated an intent to aggressively defend ownership of his property in the civil in rem forfeiture proceeding,” Murray continued. “This Court
should rescind its January 22, 2009 Order [granting Bowdoin’s forfeiture motion] because Mr. Bowdoin lacked knowledge of the consequences for his actions and was induced into filing the release on false pretenses.”
EDITOR’S NOTE:On Feb. 11, we published our theory of “Steroidal Puppeteers” in the ASD case. One of the prongs of the the theory holds that people with criminal intelligence superior to ASD President Andy Bowdoin were smart enough to let him do their bidding or recognized him as the perfect stooge while they remained out of sight to accomplish their illicit goals. In some cases, the goals were not reached before the government ended the criminal feast. This is an update to the theory. Part of this column exists as a review. Under the “Case Within The Case” subhead, you’ll find some information from a government document filed in December that may demonstrate the U.S. Secret Service was aware that some autosurf purveyors perhaps were inclined to cherrypick expert testimony from the ASD evidentiary hearing last fall to rationalize the birth of a new autosurf or autosurfs.
It’s looking more and more as though the U.S. Secret Service recognized right away in July 2008 that AdSurfDaily was no ordinary autosurf, that there was a story within the story, a case within a case. Let’s walk back the surface story, and then consider the case within the case.
Surface Story
Andy Bowdoin
UPDATED 1:15 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The surface story included assertions that ASD President Andy Bowdoin had received a “Medal of Distinction” for business achievement from the President of the United States. Those assertions were easy to refute and, in fact, had been refuted by hobbyist investigators on Internet message boards prior even to the entry of the Secret Service in the case.
Regardless, Bowdoin posed with the medal, even taking it on the road with him, while suggesting ASD had amassed a giant pot from which it would hire lawyers to make its critics pay for their lies. ASD members cheered Bowdoin’s giant pot and informed critics on message boards that they would be sued, that ASD “legal” was aware of the smear campaign against the company, a smear campaign blamed on jealous MLMers.
And the advocates also traded on the medal. At the same time they were doing this, an Ohio drug addict also was trading on the same medal, which has no importance at all, does not signify business achievement and can be obtained by writing what amounts to a check for banquet tickets.
In the August forfeiture complaint, the Secret Service noted that ASD members were trumpeting the medal, using it as proof the ASD autosurf was unlike all the other surfs that had operated as Ponzi schemes. At the same time, members trumpeted Bowdoin’s remarkable record of business success. These things clearly were GIGO; garbage came in, and garbage went out. Compellingly, the IRS entered the case right away. The entry by the IRS, alongside the Secret Service, now looks like the first signal of the case within the case.
ASD members’ GIGO that followed later — through the fall and winter, and into the spring — is more explainable now, with the passage of time and the emergence of more facts. At first, however, it looked like unrestrained madness, a sort of viral delusion. Some of the early efforts of ASD supporters were just plain irrational:
The early spin efforts positioned the Aug. 1 seizure of ASD’s money as a net plus, something that would give the surf the opportunity to demonstrate to a government that was merely confused by technology and the new way of advertising online that it had misread the ASD business model. Bowdoin was like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and Henry Ford, people who had changed the world. ASD would be back up and running quickly. Members would profit from Bowdoin’s genius for years to come.
When the Secret Service arrived with search warrants a few days later and effectively announced that it was not confused at all, that Bowdoin had been convicted in a previous securities scheme and that Golden Panda President Clarence Busby had been implicated in a previous securities scheme, ASD’s supporters became much more shrill. Bowdoin went on to compare the government’s acts to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The government, which had been cast in the earliest hours as merely confused, then was cast as evil. The Secret Service and prosecutors were cast as a gang of Nazis, and the ASD case became Theatre of the Absurd.
Theatre of the Absurd also now looks like a signal of the case within the case. Explanations became so tortured that they took on an almost comical quality. It was argued — and is still being argued, for example — that Big Box retailers and car manufacturers provide rebates, therefore ASD’s rebates were legal. (Rebates generally are not illegal; selling unregistered securities is. So is wire fraud. So is money-laundering. So is racketeering. So is mail fraud. So is operating a Ponzi scheme to fund the rebates. ASD supporters’ arguments rarely addressed any of these things, deflecting to the general legality of rebates, which was never in question. What was in question was ASD’s form of rebates and how they were funded.)
Some of the earliest efforts by ASD supporters to win the PR war were so bizarre they resulted in a PR backlash that kept ASD constantly in the news. There was an effort, for example, to discredit Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and suggestions he should be charged with Deceptive Trade Practices for daring to inform the public about a scam. Rarely does one see such a bizarre approach to influencing public opinion, especially from a company that purports to be a professional communications firm.
Some ASD advocates called for AARP, which advocates for senior citizens, to advocate on behalf of ASD, which was accused of fleecing senior citizens in a Pyramid and Ponzi scheme. (AARP later joined with McCollum in an effort to tighten Florida securities laws.)
The Surf’s Up forum held a party online at the conclusion of the Sept. 30-Oct. 1 evidentiary hearing, complete with images of fireworks and champagne. Members were fed one-sided reports and persuaded that ASD had cleaned the government’s clock at the hearing. The prosecutors were heckled, ridiculed and made the butt of jokes. Observers who place a high importance on objectivity were stunned. Objective observers knew that ASD’s effort in the courtroom was a Hail Mary pass early in the legal game, not as time was expiring, not with the government’s case on the line. Andy Bowdoin, the purported Presidential medal-winner, took the 5th on the advice of counsel. He’d already put himself in a box by requesting emergency release of funds by claiming ASD could not pay its bills, apparently forgetting to tell his lawyers that he’d already told prosecutors that ASD had $1 million offshore in Antigua in an account under a different name.
ASD said it would submit to court monitoring, which sounded good, but could not take prior crimes off the table. Bowdoin would become a sort of sacrificial lamb, taking himself out of the day-to-day operations of the company to appease the government, but there was no real way to divorce Bowdoin from what essentially was a wink-nod business to begin with.
There was no real way to tell immediately if ASD or individual members had hidden money to prevent its seizure. Some individual ASD members, for example, sold ad packs to downline members, deposited the money in their own bank accounts and shifted the value of the ad packs to the purchasers by using ASD’s internal system. This easily can be construed as a form of tax avoidance, wire fraud and money-laundering. So, from the government’s point of view, ASD was committing crimes on a grand scale, even as individual ASD members perhaps were committing crimes on a lesser scale and using their local banks to stockpile illegal gains.
The mere fact ASD provided this utility to sponsors destroyed any possibility that ASD’s records were reliable. Members clearly were using ASD as a business within a business for illicit purposes. It was particularly odious because a Ponzi always is burdensome. ASD was a Ponzi that was not even collecting all of its own revenue, and individual members effectively were guaranteeing their own income by siphoning it off before it even reached ASD, thus placing an even greater strain on the Ponzi.
Case Within The Case
The reason we’re updating the theory of Steroidal Puppeteers is that it was written before we had knowledge of the proffer letter Bowdoin had signed in the case and before he had embarked on his pro se litigation campaign.
Bowdoin’s behavior has been mind-boggling, so much so that he appears to have placed members of his family and close business associates in grave legal danger — perhaps with their complicity. Some qualifiers — the word perhaps, for example — are necessary because it is not known publicly if other proffer letters exist in the case and the extent to which ASD insiders were cooperating with the government prior to the launch of the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, which has close ties to ASD.
It is possible that Bowdoin wrongly assumed he had the unquestioned loyalty of certain people in the organization, while failing to make the calculation that the government had tremendous leverage over certain individuals. It is equally possible that Bowdoin’s behavior had become so extreme that he created “enemies” in his own camp because his seat-of-the pants management style and unpredictable behavior could implicate them.
At the same time, it is possible that certain loyalists peeled off to save themselves and joined the government camp, recognizing that the ASD enterprise was in an impossible box.
Along those lines, it also is possible that certain ASD members prevailed upon Bowdoin to ramp up the criminality. Some people within the enterprise have criminal records. Others have filed bankruptcies ranging from spectacular to garden-variety, including people Bowdoin knows well. Some people have been sued because of their business dealings. Like Bowdoin, some members have been associated with multiple businesses in multiple locations and organized company after company, a possible marker of money-laundering and racketeering.
What’s not known is the degree to which Bowdoin recruited them or the degree to which they saw Bowdoin as a means to accomplish their own illicit agendas — or the degree to which they worked with Bowdoin in concert. Some people could view Bowdoin as a monumental fool who cost them lots of money.
It also is known that tax-deniers, tax-schemers, stock manipulators and people who associate themselves with sovereignty movements — however loosely connected — exist within the ASD organization. Underground credit-repair organizations, including individuals who take extreme approaches, also are a part of the enterprise.
Federal Reserve conspiracy theorists exist within the enterprise. Multiple individuals who have engaged banks in bizarre litigation have been identified, including individuals who purport to believe that banks do not lend “real” money and therefore should have no expectation that debts can be collected if a borrower defaults.
Moreover, at least one person with a tie to ASD has been implicated in a money-laundering case involving an international drug operation whose home base is Medellin, Colombia.
Others with ties to ASD have been implicated in other Ponzi schemes — including judicially declared or successfully prosecuted Ponzi schemes — recycler matrices, and scores of failed autosurfs, including an autosurf that had invested in at least 26 other autosurfs or HYIPs before the enterprise was smashed by the SEC.
The precise reason Bowdoin morphed into a pro se litigant after releasing his claims to tens of millions of dollars seized by the Secret Service — and, as a pro se litigant, tried to undo his decision to submit to the forfeiture — is not publicly known. The agenda, however, may not be uniquely Bowdoin’s.
Perhaps the greatest mystery of all is why Bowdoin would acknowledge ASD was operating illegally and sign a proffer letter, which signals a willingness to cooperate in untangling the mess, perhaps for some consideration — and then reverse course. The proffer letter could have been signed on any date between Aug. 1, 2008, and Jan. 13, 2009.
If Bowdoin signed the proffer letter knowing full well that AdViewGlobal was on the drawing board, it could be viewed as a five-alarm deception. If he signed the proffer letter after the ruling on the evidentiary hearing went against him in November, he may be an unrepentant criminal. If he signed it prior to the ruling, he may be an unrepentant liar and largely responsible for yet another grand fraud.
Prosecutors perhaps filed the December forfeiture complaint — the second against assets tied to ASD — for an underlying reason not addressed in the August complaint . The reason may be that they already knew a background plot was under way, but did not know the precise details. Subsequent actions by AVG participants perhaps interfered with a government investigation in progress.
If Bowdoin or AVG participants use the opinion of ASD expert witness Gerald Nehra that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme as a presumptive ace-in-the-hole to justify the launch of AVG and claim ASD hadn’t technically been ruled a Ponzi by a court, then Bowdoin and participants have demonstrated they have no respect for the judicial system.
Here is what federal prosecutors said in the December forfeiture complaint, which targeted other ASD assets, including the assets of AVG figures George and Judy Harris: (Emphasis added.)
“Mr. Nehra did not tell ASD that ASD was legal before ASD commenced, or ceased, its operation,” prosecutors said.
“At no time during ASD’s operations did Mr. Schwartz, or any attorney from [the Akerman Senterfitt law firm], tell ASD that it’s operation was legal.”
Bowdoin’s various pro se motions, all of which read like political statements and not cogent legal arguments, are still pending because Bowdoin didn’t follow up with them until ordered by a federal judge to state his intentions. The deadline for Bowdoin to state his intentions is today. The judge granted Bowdoin two delays totaling about five weeks, because Bowdoin’s attorney announced that Bowdoin was negotiating with federal prosecutors.
The mystery of Bowdoin’s earlier pro se strategy — before he was ordered to hire a new paid attorney, with his pro se motions still dangling — perhaps can be found in the “political” tone of the filings.
In a March 13 letter published on the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum, Bowdoin said he was influenced by a “group” of members to proceed pro se and to reopen his claims to the money.
Some members of this group could be among a group of people associated with tax-denial/avoidance schemes and found themselves in the awkward position of losing money they had squirreled away in ASD because of Bowdoin’s decision to submit to the forfeiture.
It might not be all members of the group — at least not all members of Bowdoin’s blind constituency — because the truly blind lack even a basic understanding of the issues or recite falsities by rote.
But there is nothing subtle about Bowdoin’s pro se filings. The filings themselves rewrite the nature of the civil case against money and property and try to turn it into a criminal prosecution of Bowdoin, painting the government as purveyors of fraud, trickery and deceit.
Bowdoin, though, signed the documents. His signature coincided with other developments, including reports that the Secret Service had seized individual bank accounts of some ASD members and a decision by AVG autosurf to morph into a “private association.”
The situation is remarkable, bringing out a special brand of insanity. We doubt, however, that it is criminal insanity. Rather, it is the insanity of choosing to be blind when one has the clear option of choosing to see.
Four moderators at the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum hold high positions in the AdViewGlobal autosurf or have a spouse who does, according to AVG’s website.
AVG launched in the aftermath of the seizure of tens of millions of dollars last year from ASD, a Florida company federal prosecutors said was engaged in wire fraud, money-laundering and the sale of unregistered securities while operating a Ponzi scheme.
Larry Alford, the husband of Surf’s Up Mod Barb Alford, holds position 11; Mod Terralynn Hoy holds position 12; Mod Laura Pont holds position 14; and Mod Kathryn Milner holds position 15.
Whether the Mods are still associated with AVG is unclear. Also unclear is whether Alford, Hoy and Pont continue to play an active role at Surf’s Up.
Other members with high positions include David Meade (9); Mindy Bales (19); and Nate Boyd (20). Bales helped organize rallies for ASD in Iowa, and Boyd is a former ASD compliance officer, members said.
The No. 5 position in AVG is held by unnamed “AVG Executives.” Gerald Castor, an AVG compliance officer who was sued twice last year for violations of federal labor law, is AVG member No. 59, according to the website.
ASD gave Surf’s Up its official endorsement Nov. 27, 2008, eight days after a federal judge ruled that ASD had not demonstrated at an evidentiary hearing that it was a legal business and not a Ponzi scheme.
AVG insisted for weeks prior to its February launch that it had no affiliation with ASD or ASD President Andy Bowdoin, whom members now say was the silent head of AVG. On Jan. 31, AVG’s graphics appeared in an ASD-controlled webroom, but AVG said the development was an “operational coincidence.”
Former ASD executive Gary Talbert holds the No. 1 position in AVG, which purports to be headquartered in Uruguay but also filed papers in Florida.
In March, AVG advised members its bank account had been suspended. The surf blamed members in its announcement. Regardless, AVG embarked on a 200-percent, matching-bonus program for both members and their sponsors. One email promotion after the announcement of the account suspension claimed $5,000 spent with AVG turned into $15,000 “instantly!”
The March email bore the name of Shad Foss, a promoter associated with the CEP Ponzi scheme. ASD once advertised that it accepted CEP Trust, the failed payment processor associated with CEP, which was dismantled in 2007 by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
By June 25, AVG announced it was suspending member cashouts and conducting an audit of itself.
In April, federal prosecutors announced in court filings that ASD President Andy Bowdoin had signed a proffer letter in the ASD forfeiture case and acknowledged the company was operating illegally. The date Bowdoin signed the proffer letter is not publicly known. It is possible Bowdoin signed the letter weeks before the launch of AVG.
What is known is that Bowdoin signed the letter before Jan. 13, 2009. AVG was in prelaunch at the time and launched fully in early February.
It is not publicly known if others have signed proffer letters. Federal prosecutors say ASD is a criminal enterprise, and private attorneys have accused ASD and Bowdoin of racketeering.
During the spring and summer, AVG authored a series of bizarre announcements to explain developments, blaming members for a decision to disable a forum and threatening them with copyright-infringement lawsuits for sharing news. The surf also threatened to contact the ISPs of members who asked questions.
Another AVG forum run by some of the Surf’s Up Mods and members also closed in the aftermath of the surf’s decision to suspend cashouts. Surf’s Up itself deleted some AVG-related content.
Both Surf’s Up and the AVG forum operated by some of its Mods declared Curtis Richmond a “hero” earlier this year, after Richmond accused a federal judge and the ASD prosecutors of crimes in a pro se court filing.
Richmond is associated with a Utah “Indian” tribe a federal judge ruled a complete “sham” in a racketeering case in which it was alleged that the tribe had harassed public officials by placing enormous financial judgments against them, including one for $250 million against a county prosecutor and one for $300,000 against a family-services worker.
Richmond signed the fraudulent award against the family-services worker, and also sought to have judges and litigation opponents jailed, according to court filings. In one case, the tribe contrived its own “Supreme Court,” using the address of a Utah doughnut shop, and issued bogus arrest warrants. The U.S. Marshals Service refused to serve the warrants, which called for the arrests of judges, bankers and attorneys representing bankers.
An unofficial total of 57 pro se pleadings by Richmond and other ASD members followed after Richmond’s initial filing in February, including a recent spate of 41. A federal judge has rejected all of the claims. The most recent claims accused the government of “reckless action and reckless disregard of the law.”
Pro se claims by Andy Bowdoin have not been fully addressed by the judge because Bowdoin did not follow up on his initial claims. Bowdoin’s attorney announced last month that he is negotiating with federal prosecutors. Bowdoin has been ordered by the court to show cause by Monday why his pro se motion to undo the decision he made to submit to the forfeiture in January should not be denied.
Bowdoin submitted to the forfeiture while employing paid counsel Jan. 13. The first of his pro se pleadings to reverse his forfeiture decision was dated Feb. 25. On the previous day, Feb. 24, reports circulated that the U.S. Secret Service had seized the individual bank accounts of some ASD members, including at least one account owned by an AVG member.
On Feb. 26, AVG announced it was switching to an “association” structure after consulting with Pro Advocate Group, a firm associated with Karl Dahlstrom, a felon convicted of securities fraud in the 1990s and sentenced to 78 months in federal prison.
Surf’s Up also endorsed a letter-writing campaign by “Professor” Patrick Moriarty, now under indictment for federal tax fraud. In 2006, Moriarty started a nonprofit corporation for a man accused of murdering a Missouri woman in cold blood, shooting a police officer four times — and another man eight times.
AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin is entitled to his dignity. He is not, however, entitled to sustain the lies that sustained ASD during its miserable run or kept false hope alive for thousands of members after the U.S. Secret Service seized his money.
When the ASD case ends, it should end without ambiguity.
The prosecution of ASD’s assets in the form of money and real estate never was about an “evil government” — not even for one minute. All fair-minded people know that. If you bought into that story, you bought into a lie. If you wrote disingenuous letters to the government at Bowdoin’s urging — or if you wrote them on your own initiative, without doing appropriate research — you contributed to what amounts to an unconscionable spin campaign to sanitize a wretched enterprise that was polluting the U.S. money supply.
And you did it at a time in which U.S. banks were failing at a pace not seen since the Great Depression and more and more people were consumed by worry and sliding into poverty.
This is a case about domestic and international wire fraud and money-laundering. It featured an attack on the U.S. banking system and an attack on the U.S. Treasury itself. These things should make you feel utter revulsion. If they don’t, you are endorsing crime on a global scale.
Why would you do that?
If your answer is that surfs are fundamentally harmless, you are engaging in self-delusion of the highest order. Their danger is inarguable in any rational context. You cannot sanitize this filthy business via disclaimer or by saying things such as, “Only spend what you can afford to lose.”
You should have to force yourself not to hurl every time you read those words or get an email from an “industry expert” who counsels you to be careful while playing these terrible games — all while providing an affiliate link so he or she can pocket a commission before the enterprise collapses or is destroyed by the government, thus potentially implicating you in a crime.
If he or she sloughs it off with something along the lines of, “People should be free to make their own choices,” ask him or her if that theory applies to bank robbery or theft on a grand scale hidden behind a disclaimer that says “rebates aren’t guaranteed.”
It’s not just another form of “gambling,” either. Gambling is highly regulated. So is the Ponzi scheme business, even if you want to delude yourself into thinking it’s not. In fact, the Ponzi scheme business is so tightly regulated and so universally reviled that the Congress saw fit to make it illegal under a host of laws. Taking it “offshore” is nothing but a confession to the crime.
The Constitutional power to legislate is vested in the U.S. Congress. No private attorney is empowered to divine private legislation that makes exceptions for thieves and criminals — to say, in effect, “We get to keep the money, and there’s not a damned thing you can do about it.” No pro se litigant can turn it into a case of judicial “TREASON” when he or she is properly excluded from the legal proceedings.
Imagine a world in which the Legislature or a judge permitted Ponzi schemes. Bernard Madoff, who devastated legions of individuals, charities and endowments, would be a free man. Compellingly, though, not even Madoff, a man of relentless cunning and unparalleled criminal hubris, had the gall to ask his investors and the public to understand his plight or to blame it on evil prosecutors.
No autosurf has ever succeeded — unless you define the organized theft business as genuine enterprise or a genuine form of empowerment. The autosurf lane is lined with stinking carcasses and broken dreams. It is paved with shards of glass and cannot be navigated without harm to innocents. The “free market” defense to which autosurf players default by rote is the same one that served up human bondage for profit.
The “rebates aren’t guaranteed” disclaimer is an abomination manufactured to provide cover for promoters, so they’ll have an excuse should the government move in. It is nothing more than a license for the operators and promoters to steal — from the unknowing, from religious groups, from widows, from people from all walks of life. “Insidious” does not even begin to describe it.
These surfs pose a clear and present danger to the security of the United States and other countries. People are using them to scrub enormous sums of money. Criminal enterprises are involved. People who seek to cause widespread harm could be involved. You could be helping a terrorist organization buy bombs or missile launchers or weapons of mass destruction. You could be helping drug dealers hide profits.
Spin Alert: Bowdoin As Victim
Yesterday a poster here reposted an email purportedly from a person who had communicated with ASD President Andy Bowdoin recently. Apparently the spin game already is starting, with Bowdoin being positioned by shills as a victim, as he negotiates with prosecutors.
“The government is really playing hardball and the negotiations are very intense,” the email claims. “A handful of people have sent messages that they don’t understand why Andy hasn’t communicated to everyone and, to them, that means Andy is a crook.
“Those people don’t realize that, when a person is involved in a legal issue, their attorneys counsel them not to discuss anything with anyone,” the email continued. “Why? Because those who want to win the case against that person will look for anything the person says, take it out of context, and use it against the person. It’s very commonly done and done effectively. Many innocent people are in jail because of that very mistake. Andy couldn’t take the chance. Please know that this has been very hard on him, not being able to talk to you directly.”
Horse-hockey.
Andy Bowdoin has blamed every lawyer involved in the case for ASD’s troubles, including his own. He fired his paid counsel without informing them, morphed into a pro se litigant after consulting with amateurs and filed one fantasy brief after another. For good measure, he chided the prosecutors by saying his drivel “should really get their attention.”
“Watch for the filings,†Bowdoin instructed, in a letter published March 13 on the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum. “I will be speaking out on a conference call as soon as the filings are completed. We will notify you of the call. I look forward to talking to you then.â€
No conference call occurred after Bowdoin’s filings were completed. Bowdoin’s amateur advisers didn’t anticipate a ruling from the judge that corporate litigants could not proceed pro se, which forced Bowdoin to hire new paid counsel. His previous paid counsel effectively resigned from the case after being ordered by the judge to state their intentions.
Representing intransigent Bowdoin, it seems, had become a royal chore.
In asking for leave to withdraw, the attorneys said their representation of Bowdoin had become “unreasonably difficult.â€
“After this Court denied Claimant’s Emergency Motion for Return of Seized Funds [on Nov. 19, 2008], the client-lawyer relationship between the Firm and all three Claimants substantially deteriorated and has not improved thus rendering the representation unreasonably difficult,†the lawyers said.
‘Strong Up The Middle’
Assuming that the email cited above relates an actual conversation and includes a kernel of truth, it’s good to know the government is “really playing hardball.” The government should play hardball; a metaphorical Sandy Koufax should be on the mound, Johnny Bench should be behind the plate, Ozzie Smith should be at shortstop, Joe Morgan should be at second and Willie Mays should be in center field.
It’s important to be strong up the middle on defense.
When it’s time for the government to bat, it should alternate between Ty Cobb and Rickey Henderson at lead-off, with Roberto Clemente in the two-hole. Ted Williams and Lou Gehrig should alternate at the third position, and Babe Ruth should bat cleanup. Hank Aaron and Willie Stargell and Willie McCovey should be ready at a moment’s notice in case the Bambino was just getting home at gametime, and Willie Mays and Kirby Puckett could alternate in the five-hole.
The government team definitely needs an All-Star and Hall of Fame representative from the Minnesota franchise, which is why Puckett is a good selection.
Mike Schmidt and Eddie Matthews should alternate in the sixth position, and Joe Morgan should bat seventh. Ozzie should bat eighth, with Sandy in the ninth spot. If Sandy tires — or if his elbow becomes inflamed — the call should go to Cy Young. He should be backed by Tom Seaver, Steve Carlton and the entire Hall of Fame pitching staff, including relievers.
Lawyerly Tony LaRussa (for academics) should manage; Billy Martin (for spirit) should coach first, and Walter Alston (for the love of the game) should coach third. The All Star lineup should be so strong that LaRussa doesn’t have to worry about players playing out of position or worry about letting all members of his “strong up the middle” defensive team bat.
If an umpire rules all defensive players have to bat and that the government can’t let people play out of position, LaRussa should field what he believes to be the best team on any given day, which means even immortals will have to ride the bench.
For flexibility, Ozzie and Johnny could alternate with Cal Ripken Jr. and Carlton Fisk, just like Willie Mays and Kirby. In a team consisting of all Hall of Famers, Clemente could sit if his back began to ache, and Bill Mazeroski could spell Joe Morgan at second, perhaps especially late in games. Maz can pick it — and he hit perhaps the most famous 9th inning homerun in the history of the game.
Metaphorical LaRussa must be free to bring metaphorical Bob Gibson into the game on a moment’s notice to throw strategic brushback pitches, if needed, before getting the strikeout.
Andy Bowdoin should be defended by Johnnie Cochran, Gloria Allred, Clarence Darrow, Gerry Spence and Abraham Lincoln — five great legal minds.
And when Bowdoin loses and the spin begins, you should feel revulsion that he is blaming his lawyers, including Abraham Lincoln — while championing the government for playing hardball in this case and sending even the reverential Mr. Lincoln back to the bench, his strikeout by Sandy Koufax duly recorded for posterity.
UPDATED 4:50 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A federal judge has issued an order denying 31 pro se filers standing in the ASD case.
Judge Rosemary Collyer denied the filings in a four-page order. Three pages of the document included the names of the individual filers, and a specific order to each one denying their motions to “Intervene and Petition[s] to Return Wrongfully Confiscated Funds.”
Denied were:
Stan Ketchum
Lucia M. Ruggeroni
Barbara J. Bowles
Robert Bowles
Dawn Starling
Eva Cater
Sara Lehman
Christopher Blake Scott
Harold L. Shaffer
Daniel N. Reams
James Richards
John Deminico
Thomas M. Shearer, Jr.
Earl R. Dehart, Jr.
Peter McFray
Stephen O’Brien
Julie Ann Larson
Christine Keyworth
Joseph L. Dunn
Caesar Nunez
Laurie Ann Solliday
Tucker Norton
Tobias Norton
Steven F. Norton
Sandra Norton
Richard H. Frary
Linda Frary
Judith Arnold
Richard Moll
James Wessels
Maureen Wessels
Larson filed a claim for $250,000 in ASD ad-packs, as opposed to a sum of money. The judge denied the claim without comment.
Collyer now has denied all 41 pro se claims that began to appear at the courthouse Aug. 24. She denied the first batch of 10 Aug. 31.
Read the judge’s mass denial of pro se pleadings today.
EDITOR’S NOTE:Many observers hold the view that ASD broke the law the first time it paid an “old” member with funds from a “new” member in the classic Ponzi setup. It’s hard to argue with that point of view, given the failure of hundreds and hundreds of autosurfs, all of which used a Ponzi model and were pushed by serial Ponzi promoters.
Regardless, the Ponzi discussion is only one element of the ASD case, which was brought as a wire-fraud and money-laundering prosecution amid assertions that ASD was selling unregistered securities and operating a Ponzi scheme.
This column seeks to promote discussion about whether ASD ever operated legally.
As pro se motions from individual members criticizing the government’s actions in the AdSurfDaily forfeiture case continued to pile up last week, prosecutors filed a brief that says filers “must establish an interest in a property that existed before the crime occurred.â€
Can the pro se filers do it? Can they demonstrate that their investment in ASD — what they claim was a purchase of “ad packages” to be displayed in ASD’s rotator — occurred before the company morphed into what the government calls a criminal enterprise?
We think not.
We’d like to applaud the filers’ participation in the judicial process, but we cannot. The filings are disingenuous. They were made from a template circulated among at least one ASD downline group. And they make claims contrary to the public record of the case — a record that has been published in multiple places.
Among other things, the filings claim:
The U.S. Government has failed to produce any EVIDENCE of alleged wrongdoing.
The U.S. Government has failed to produce any WITNESSES of alleged wrongdoing.
The U.S. Government has failed to produce any VICTIMS of alleged wrongdoing.
All of these claims are disingenuous to the extreme and can be defeated by one simple fact: A trial date has not even been set in the case. Regardless, the pro se filers are telling a federal judge that the prosecution “has failed” to do all of these things, as though the judge does not have a clue about a case over which she is presiding and scheduling in consultation with the parties.
These filings are an insult to the judge. Moreover, they are an insult to the rank-and-file members of ASD. The members have been subjected to months and months of tall tales told by members of the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum. Now they’re being subjected to a litany of disingenuous filings by individual ASD promoters.
ASD had asked last year for an opportunity to present its witnesses at an evidentiary hearing to argue against the Ponzi allegations. The prosecution did not object to the hearing, and the judge granted ASD’s request. She later ruled that ASD had not demonstrated it was a legal business and not a Ponzi scheme at the hearing, explaining that ASD’s testimony was at odds with itself and contradicted by ASD’s “come on” statements on its own website. (Emphasis added below.)
“The lay testimony of [ASD Member] Mr. Grayson belies the expert testimony of [ASD Expert Witness] Mr. Nehra,” the judge said. “Mr. Nehra repeatedly asserted that ASD does not ‘guarantee’ rebates under the Terms of Service, see Terms of Service at 2 (Ad Packages and Credits) (“ASD does not guarantee any earnings and/or rebatesâ€), but his testimony cannot be relied upon because (1) it is contradicted by come-on statements on the ASD website and Mr. Grayson’s testimony and (2) it relied solely on the written words contained in the Terms of Service without independent investigation or review of ASD’s business records to ascertain how ASD operates in fact before opining.”
But let’s return to the issue as to whether filers can demonstrate that they ever were members of a legal enterprise.
There is evidence that an ad for ASD in February 2007 — only a few months after ASD’s launch — promised “shelter” from the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Every dollar that flowed into ASD from that ad was polluted by fantastic lies. The people who sponsored the ad were representatives of the ASD organization.
“Shelter” from the FTC and SEC? And “shelter” provided by an “advertising” company no less? Go to your local newspaper, radio, television or billboard provider. Ask if they ever provided “shelter” from the FTC or SEC to any of their advertising clients.
Moreover, there is evidence that members were advised their ASD deposits were insured by the FDIC. The suggestion was that one could not lose with ASD because members’ individual ASD accounts — ad-pack numbers on a screen — were insured against loss by the FDIC.
Meanwhile, there is evidence that debit cards used by ASD were the same debit cards used by what the Drug Enforcement Administration described as a major drug operation in Medellin, Colombia. Yes, that Medellin.
Records suggest that the man who provided the debit cards to the Medellin operation is the same man who provided the debit cards to ASD and that the man or his intermediary participated in an ASD function in November 2006, just days after ASD began to build its web operation.
Meanwhile, there is evidence that ASD members were not getting paid shortly after the company’s launch, that at least $1 million came up missing from the enterprise at the purported hands of “Russian” hackers and that resources were depleted by scripting errors.
At the same time, the record suggests that ASD President Andy Bowdoin was involved in a failed surf known as DailyProSurf prior to the October 2006 launch of ASD. This leads to the intriguing possibility that ASD was in the hole before it even started and that the initial ASD iteration was used to pay back DailyProSurf members for losses they sustained.
Even if that was not the case, there is evidence that ASD morphed into ASD Cash Generator and did not tell new members that their money was being used to pay members of ASD’s first or previous iterations.
Some of this evidence dates back to January 2006 and, in August 2006, two months before the launch of ASD, Bowdoin registered the name DailyProSurf in Florida. It is a matter of public record.
Bowdoin also donated money to the National Republican Congressional Committee in early 2007, even as ASD members were not being paid and the patriarch was consulting with “leaders” in Atlanta to come up with a turnaround plan. It is a virtual certainty that Bowdoin’s campaign donations came from Ponzi proceeds.
Also, public filings in Florida show that the building ASD was using — the former flower shop owned by his wife in Quincy — used the address of 11 S. Calhoun in the 1990s and 13 S. Calhoun during this decade.
Good luck trying to prove you ever were a member of a legal enterprise. It is possible that ASD never operated legally — not even before it made what prosecutors described as Ponzi payouts.
Two domains for the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf will not resolve to a server.
The domains are:
adviewglobal.com
startavga.com
Why the domains will not resolve is unclear. The domains normally resolve to a server in Panama.
As reported previously, a third domain associated with AVG — advglobal.com — also won’t resolve. This domain appears to have resolved to the United States at one time and appears to have been suspended for spam and abuse.
AVG suspended cashouts June 25. In August, it said it had reported a theft of $2.7 million to state and federal authorities. AVG’s announcement about the purported theft occurred one day after AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin announced in court filings that he was negotiating with federal prosecutors.
AVG and ASD have close family, promoter and membership ties.
UPDATE 11:55 A.M. The AVG domains still are offline. Their IP cluster in Panama is in the same range as the server that powers BizAdSplash (BAS), yet another controversial surf firm. The BAS domains are resolving.
UPDATE 8:09 P.M. The adviewglobal.com domain and the startavga.com domain now are resolving to a server, although the members’ login page and the “Join” page are throwing a database error.
The advglobal.com domain is not resolving to a server.
EDITOR’S NOTE:This is an update to supplement a story about bizarre securities litigation that has occurred recently. (Updated 9:10 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.)
Think the $250 million judgment sought against a public servant by a sham “sovereign” Utah “Indian” tribe to which AdSurfDaily mainstay Curtis Richmond belonged was bizarre and extreme?
It turns out to have been a drop in the bucket compared to the $1.7 trillion sought by the bogus “attorney general” of an unrecognized North Dakota tribe. Michael Howard Reed, who is not an attorney but purported to hold the title of “attorney general,” sought the award after the Securities and Exchange Commission sued purported tribal members for running a $29 million Ponzi scheme from Nevada.
The sought-after amount of $1.7 trillion would have exceeded the total of federal income tax paid by individual U.S. filers last year by about $575 billion.
A federal judge was not pleased by the gamesmanship in the securities-fraud case against Gold Quest International, which purported to be registered in Panama but was operating the alleged Ponzi scheme from Las Vegas while claiming immunity from U.S. law.
Meanwhile, Dawson jailed John Jenkins, one of the defendants implicated in the Ponzi scheme, for contempt.
Dawson also dispatched the U.S. Marshals Service to arrest David Greene, also known as “Lord David Greene,” in part for violating orders to repatriate money offshore to the United States.
All of this took place only weeks before the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from Florida-based ASD, itself accused of operating a Ponzi scheme and selling unregistered securities.
Wikipedia says Reed was jailed in Nevada on charges of attempted murder, although no details were provided in the entry. (UPDATE Jan. 21, 2010: This Wikipedia entry appears to have been disputed, with the reference to Reed and the purported attempted-murder charge removed.)
Richmond entered the ASD fray in November. By early February, he was filing pro se motions suggesting ASD members intended to pursue claims of $120 million against the prosecutors, a judge and a court clerk.
By late February, ASD President Andy Bowdoin himself was filing pro se motions, acknowledging ASD had been operating illegally but claiming he’d been denied “fair notice” his conduct was illegal.
Bowdoin’s actions coincided with an announcement by the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf that it was shifting to an “association” structure.” Such structures sometimes are associated with tax schemes.
AVG introduced members to Pro Advocate Group, which is associated with Karl Dahlstrom. Dahlstrom was convicted in a securities scheme in the 1990s and sentenced to 78 months in federal prison.
The Utah “Indian” tribe to which Richmond belonged was ruled a “complete sham” by a federal judge last year. Meantime, the North Dakota tribe to which the GQI defendants purportedly belonged is not recognized by the federal government. There is substantial securities litigation against GQI in Canada, as well.
Perhaps you’ve read that the AdVentures4U (ADV4U) autosurf suspended payouts on or about Aug. 28. The surf, which purports to be a professional communications firm, butchered its announcement message to such a degree that professional Ponzi promoters began to email their lists to explain what they thought ADV4U was saying.
Perhaps the only thing not ambiguous was a plea to members not to contact the offshore payment processors. The processors had the ability to trap the money and cripple operations, meaning ADV4U would not be able to dictate the haircut members were about to receive and that all financial decisions would be placed in the hands of the processors.
Trapping the money also meant that ADV4U also would not be able to get its hands on its own cash. Money needed to pay the bills could be trapped. So could money needed to carry out the master plan, irrespective of the fact members cannot say for certain what the master plan is. They can repeat GIGO only. Garbage comes in, and garbage goes out. Somehow it takes on a veneer of high truth.
Third-party accounts from “insiders” or people who know other people “in the loop” are never high truth. All you need to do to test this theory is read the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum.
Surf’s Up told you an insider with impeccable credentials knew for a fact that the government admitted behind closed doors that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme. The government then went out and mowed down ASD at an evidentiary hearing in which the prosecution did not call a single witness.
So much for “insider” news.
Not to be outdone, though, posters at Surf’s Up then wove the untrue tale that ASD was denied due process, that the government’s failure to call a witness at a hearing ASD specifically requested to present its evidence meant that it had no evidence. Over the months the untrue tale snowballed. It finally grew into a fantastically untrue tale in which the preposterous claim was made that the only reason Andy Bowdoin was not in jail and that Bernard Madoff was in jail is that the government had no evidence against Bowdoin. Zero. None.
This claim was made despite the fact that Andy Bowdoin had acknowledged in his own court filings that ASD was operating illegally, had given statements acknowledging the government’s material allegations all were true and even had signed a proffer letter in the case.
A few of Bowdoin’s most committed apologists then began to spin the fantastic tale that the rebirth of ASD might be only days away, that prosecutors had screwed up so royally that a federal judge issued an order commanding them to put up or shut up by Aug. 28.
This claim was made despite the fact Bowdoin’s own attorney announced publicly that Bowdoin was negotiating with prosecutors. The prosecution hadn’t been ordered to do anything. In fact, Andy Bowdoin had been on the receiving end of an order to instruct the court in no uncertain terms how he intended to proceed.
Still not to be undone, some ASD members spun the fantastic tale that:
The U.S. Government has failed to produce any EVIDENCE of alleged wrongdoing.
The U.S. Government has failed to produce any WITNESSES of alleged wrongdoing.
The U.S. Government has failed to produce any VICTIMS of alleged wrongdoing.
The action was based solely on the OPINIONS of the U. S. Government agents.
Interesting choice of words — “has failed.” What’s most interesting of all is that a trial date has not even been set in the case. Why not? Because Andy Bowdoin submitted to the forfeiture in January, more than two weeks prior to the scheduling conference in the case. The scheduling conference was canceled because Bowdoin submitted to the forfeiture, meaning the case nearly was litigated to conclusion because Bowdoin had given up his claims to tens of millions of dollars seized in a wire-fraud, money-laundering and Ponzi scheme case in which it was alleged that ASD was selling unregistered securities.
And he submitted to the forfeiture after signing a proffer letter and after telling the government that its material allegations were all true.
It therefore follows that ASD members also were selling unregistered securities and, perhaps, becoming unwitting participants in a criminal enterprise. The case was brought as a conspiracy. About the only unknown right now is the true depths of criminality within the organization.
The government plainly has acknowledged that there are thousands of victims. It announced a program to provide some degree of restitution after it had gathered all of the assets of the ASD enterprise, which very likely was hiding money in the individual accounts of co-conspirators as a hedge against the possibility that ASD was going to get caught.
Ever see these words?
“Don’t call it an investment. We can get in trouble for that.”
Those are the words that demonstrate the conspiracy. They show consciousness of guilt, especially when uttered by veteran players. The newbies don’t understand it’s a wink-nod conspiracy. If they discover later that they’ve been drafted into a conspiracy of silence and accept wink-nod as their duty to the enterprise, then they, too, are co-conspirators.
Various rebukes by the co-conspirators to the unknowing that they purchased “advertising” and that “rebates aren’t guaranteed” also are evidence of the conspiracy. What it really means is, “Don’t tell. All of us, including YOU, could get in trouble.”
Which brings us back to ADV4U.
It announced yesterday that payouts due yesterday to plenty of members would not arrive because somebody had blabbed to one of the offshore processors and the account was restricted.
There were stinging rebukes posted in various online venues by various ADV4U members to the blabbers.
Meanwhile, members said the compensation they had received from ADV4U via other offshore processors had amounted to only about 20 percent of their exposure to loss. They had been assured that they would be made whole and placed in profit — sort of. No one really knows what ADV4U is saying because the message is so mangled and because the purported owner’s words did not comport with what members were being told by customer service.
Which brings us back to ASD.
One of ASD’s purported customer-service reps also purportedly works for ADV4U. That, in itself, makes ADV4U downright dangerous.
Meanwhile, the name of one of the 25 recent pro se filers in the ASD case who claimed “The U.S. Government has failed to produce any EVIDENCE of alleged wrongdoing” popped up in a Skype chat last night about the ADV4U debacle. If it was, in fact, the ASD filer, it means she also has money in ADV4U and did not want to see it go missing.
If one looks at the transcript of the Skype chat, there is virtually no discussion about how disappointed members are about the prospect of losing their “advertising” outlet. Most of the discussion was about money and retrenchment plans of the same sort both ASD and AdViewGlobal had announced.
Some members were angry that other members had the unmitigated gall actually to contact AlertPay and subject the entirety of the ADV4U membership group to a haircut. Only a handful of people know what is real and what is fiction in this incredibly toxic, incredibly tangled web.
Meanwhile, Andy Bowdoin was negotiating with federal prosecutors.
UPDATED 8:44 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The attack described below abated for a short time, and then started anew, with “joe” back posting from his usual IP. He has posted from two IP’s today, using the identities “Mr. Wonderful”; “Quicjk”; and “Almighty Joseph (the risen),” along with multiple email addresses, including one that uses the word “boo.”
This behavior, which we believe is designed to intimidate and to extract a result through harassment, is extreme. The behavior has not ceased — not even after the “fair warning” described in the post below.
“joe” says he will continue his course of conduct until we permit him to post on his terms. His most recent nonpublic posts include another vulgarity directed at a reader and more vulgarity directed this Blog. “joe” insists it’s OK to do what he’s doing.
“I feel some satisfaction that you seem to be intimidated by me,” joe says. “You can deny all you want but it’s true even though [sexual reference/poster’s name deleted] is right, I’m harmless. Now if you’re a good boy and post this unedited we can consider this my final retirement. I don’t really want to keep coming on here but I just wasn’t going to be unceremoniously tossed like a bad penny and you know what they say about bad pennies.”
What follows below is our earlier post, bringing this matter to the attention of readers.
Dear Readers,
The PatrickPretty.com Blog is under attack.
We find it necessary to make a record and to inform you about what is taking place behind the scenes. In the past, we have made similar posts to inform you about matters that we cannot dismiss as garden-variety harassment directed at this Blog and perceive as threats to our ability to publish.
As many of you know, a poster who advocates for Ponzi schemes and calls himself “joe” was blocked from posting here Sept. 1. We made this decision based on “joe’s” inability to exercise even minimal restraint when posting.
“joe” had previously announced two separate “retirements” from posting here, dismissing this Blog’s coverage of autosurfs and Ponzi schemes as meaningless. “joe” subsequently came out of retirement twice and began to post anew, and then went into what he described as semiretirement, saying he’d post anew as the situation warranted.
While “joe” was in his semiretirement phase, he continued to post abusively before his access to public posting was blocked. “joe” did not react favorably to our decision to block him from posting here. In fact, “joe,” who says he was a POW in Vietnam, began to direct anger and hostility to this Blog outside the view of readers, and directed short, vulgarity-laced rants at specific readers who post here.
In one of his blocked posts, he explained that he had directed the vulgarities only to test the system. So, in plain fact, what we were left with was a person who licenses himself to rant against this Blog and its readers, claiming his most recent submissions were tests, not communications to be taken seriously.
“Testing 1-2-3” would have worked, if any testing was necessary at all. It was not, of course. This Blog has a right to conduct operations free from harassment by “joe” after he has been asked to leave.
“joe” ramped it up yesterday, suggesting he would get the result he seeks — reinstatement of his posting privileges — or else.
“joe leaves when joe wants to leave,” he said.”You’ll be scrambling to put out fires. I suggest you let ME retire . . .”
He also noted that, “It’s amazing how many people in a short distance from my house haven’t got security on their computers. I drove around with my laptop and was able to get online in a few places. There are also a few internet cafes around me. What I’m saying is get ready for the return of joe and then you can block all of these people from your site.”
The “fires” joe referenced now have started. He is attacking from a separate location, calling himself “Almighty Joseph (the risen).”
“joe” is attempting to post a link for TradingGold4Cash, the purported program associated with the AdVentures4U autosurf, and has attempted nine additional posts in rapid succession, creating new identities for some of the posts.
We will take appropriate action to prevent “joe” from interfering with the operation of this Blog.
