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Category: Ad Surf Daily

  • Document Suggests AdSurfDaily Member Sought $120 Million From Judge, Prosecutors, Clerk Of Courts Involved In Case

    Did a member of AdSurfDaily Inc. try to force a federal judge, two federal prosecutors and a federal clerk of courts to default on demands totaling $120 million as part of a certified-mail strategy?

    Details are unclear, but a motion by Curtis Richmond in the ASD case suggests at least one ASD member sent a certified demand letter and spelled out a $30 million penalty for each of four “defendants” as the price of not submitting to the demand.

    Richmond filed a motion to set aside the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars seized in the ASD probe. He claimed a multipronged conspiracy involving judges, prosecutors and a court clerk to deny ASD members justice.

    In his motion, Richmond asserts that actions by Judge Rosemary Collyer, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Cowden and Court Clerk Nancy Mayer-Whittington prevented the member from “Collecting on an Entry of Default Affidavit for $30 million for each Defendant.”

    Just above the assertion, on Page 9 of Richmond’s motion, he lists the names of Collyer, Taylor, Cowden and Mayer-Whittington, claiming they “Have Been Guilty of Interference With Commerce.”

    alanaholstedasd

    Under point (a) of his claim, Richmond asserts the interference prevented “Alana Holsted from Collecting on an Entry of Default Affidavit for $30 million for each Defendant.” In November, Collyer denied Richmond leave to file a motion to dismiss the ASD case. Richmond said he submitted 19 affidavits to support his motion, and now claims Collyer is guilty of felonies for not permitting the documents to be filed.

    Similar tactics were used by a sham Utah “Indian tribe” with which Richmond is associated. In the Utah cases, bogus judgments for huge amounts were sought, including a fraudulent judgment for $250 million against JoAnn Stringham, the prosecutor for Uintah County.

    Uintah County countersued, and Richmond and co-defendents were ordered to pay damages and costs in excess of $100,000 for filing the bogus claims. Richmond was assessed an additional penalty of $2,915.

    The practice of sending litigation opponents a list of demands by certified mail — and stating that not acknowleding the demands, which often are deliberately unreasonable, amounts to a default — sometimes is called “Mailbox Arbitration.” The practice also is known as “paper terrorism,” and can land practitioners in a heap of trouble.

    So can making reckless claims against judges and officers of the court — as Richmond found out in California. He was charged with criminal contempt of court, arrested and found guilty. (Click here to see the order for Richmond’s arrest in the case.)

  • Will Richmond Filing Trigger New Federal Probe Or Lead To Interminable Delays In The AdSurfDaily Inc. Forfeiture Case?

    UPDATED 1:29 P.M. EST (U.S.A.) A California man associated with a sham Utah “Indian” tribe purportedly founded inside an Arby’s Restaurant lambasted District of Columbia federal judges, federal prosecutors and a court clerk in legal filings this week, accusing them of crimes and threatening them with litigation and jail time.

    Curtis Richmond said Pacific Ministry of Giving International — an entity of which he is chairman — had $41,000 at stake in AdSurfDaily Inc. and lost access to the money because of a forfeiture action prosecutors filed in August against assets linked to ASD.

    Electronic records at the California Department of State website list Pacific Ministry of Giving’s registration with the state as “forfeited” in 2004. The organization, though, is registered as a corporation sole and “religious organization” in Utah, according to electronic records in Utah.

    Judge Rosemary Collyer, who’d earlier denied Richmond leave to file in the case, permitted Richmond’s latest motion to be docketed. In the motion, Richmond accuses Collyer of dozens of felonies, saying she could spend up to 252 years in federal prison for her actions in the case.

    Richmond’s filing is a bid to set aside the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars seized by the government. In the motion, he threatens additional litigation and criminal prosecution. At the same time, the motion appears to be designed to force Collyer to withdraw from the case.

    “Professor” Patrick Moriarty, a former board member of ASD Members International (ASDMI) and a person who championed Richmond’s legal approach, applauded the filings on his website today. Meanwhile, Steve Watt, another former ASDMI board member, said the filings equated to “credibility” for the ASD cause.

    TheAdViewGlobal Members’ forum, operated by some of the Mods at the Pro-ASD “Surf’s Up!” forum, named Richmond “Hero Of The Day!” For its part, Surf’s Up heralded the action with a three-exclamation-point headline celebrating Richmond’s legal heroics.

    But some members of other forums discussing the ASD case are scratching their heads in disbelief. They’re wondering how the filings by Richmond, who has a felony conviction for contempt of court for threatening federal judges in a separate case and is associated with a bogus Utah “Indian tribe” infamous for trying to extort favorable court results by intimidating judges and prosecutors, adds up to anything credible at all.

    What’s Ahead?

    How Richmond’s filings will affect the case is unclear. One possible outcome is that justice will be delayed — meaning that ASD members who’d hoped to get a refund through the government will have to wait even longer if Richmond and the government square off in protracted litigation.

    “Protracted” is a word that frequently accompanies litigation involving Richmond or filed by him. ASD members expecting a refund may be none too pleased if Richmond’s entry into the ASD fray results in interminable delays.

    Another possible outcome is that the litigation will trigger probes by the U.S. Marshal’s Service, which is in charge of securing federal courtrooms and federal judges, and the FBI. The FBI and the U.S. Marshals entered a probe of Richmond in California for threatening or trying to intimidate federal judges through vexatious court filings — under circumstances that are very similar to what is happening now in the ASD case.

    Richmond was convicted of criminal contempt of court in 2007, and was sentenced to six months’ home confinement with electronic monitoring, a fine of $1,000 and five years’ supervised probation. He also was ordered not to file vexatious legal pleadings in California. Richmond appealed the sentence.

    “Our office is committed to protecting the safety, security and integrity of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California,” said U.S. Attorney Carol C. Lam, upon Richmond’s February 2007 conviction. “While every citizen has the right of free speech and the right to address grievances in our courts, no one has the right to intimidate and harass judges and court staff.”

    Federal prosecutors in California said U.S. District Judges “had previously rejected arguments advanced by Richmond in civil litigation, and Richmond had responded by accusing those judges of treason, threatening to bring multi-million dollar lawsuits against them, and attempting to have the U.S. Marshal’s Service execute fraudulent arrest warrants against those judges.”

    Richmond had been “advised on several occasions that such conduct was viewed as threatening, and explicitly warned that if he continued to file pleadings accusing judges of criminal conduct he would be subject to prosecution for criminal contempt,” prosecutors said.

    In May 2006, prosecutors said, Richmond filed a pleading that accused a federal judge of engaging in fraud and criminal conspiracy and “willfully violated” an injunction banning him from filing vexatious legal papers.

    In his ASD filings, Richmond accused Collyer of conspiring with prosecutors to deny ASD members justice.

    Prosecutors and Collyer had “No Authority or Jurisdiction To Steal Most of the $93 million” seized in the case, Richmond said. He claimed prosecutors, Collyer and the court clerk were “guility” of interference with commerce, and he threatened to prosecute them for crimes, sue them under racketeering statutes and hold them “personally liable” for damages.

    In his motion, Richmond claimed Collyer and a court clerk are guilty of at least 60 felonies for not permitting 21 documents he submitted in November to be filed. These actions could lead to to prison sentences of up to 12 years for each of the documents that weren’t filed, he said.

    “Judge Collyer had the Clerk of the Court Return All Of The Motion To Dismiss Affidavits[,] including the 19 Demand For legal Evidence Notarized Affidavits In Support to Curtis Richmond,” he said.

    “This is like having 21 Witnesses to a Murder,” Richmond said. “Judge Collyer is Guilty As Charged . . .”

    Meanwhile, Richmond accused Collyer and Chief U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth of presiding over a “Kangaroo Court” and conspiring to thwart justice.

    Utah ‘Indian’ Cases

    Richmond claims to be an adopted member of Wampanoag Nation, Tribe of Grayhead, Wolf Band, a purported “Indian” tribe a federal judge ruled a sham last year. The judge had to be brought in from an outside district because the sham tribe brought or threatened legal action against the available judges in the jurisdiction.

    Some of the legal filings read like impossible fiction, but they resulted in monumental inconvenience for judges, prosecutors, opposition attorneys, investigators, police officers and others involved in tribal litigation.

    The tribe, for instance, established its own sham “Supreme Court” and issued arrest warrants for judges and litigation opponents.

    Despite the fact he is not an attorney, Richmond has been banned from practicing law in Colorado.

  • EDITORIAL: Welcome To The Age Of The Portable Ponzi

    UPDATED 3:09 P.M. EST (U.S.A.) Talk about a message at odds with itself.

    Yesterday AdViewGlobal, which does not identify its owners and claims it has no affiliation with AdSurfDaily Inc., revealed its chief executive officer also is or was an executive at ASD (emphasis added):

    “Since Mr. [Gary] Talbert was and is the C.E.O. for both companies and had worked with the same web room company while at ASD, it would be very natural for him to choose and use many of the same venders (sic) that he had used before. So, the fact that ASD and AdView Global are using the same web room hosting company is no accident, in fact it is an operational coincidence,” AdViewGlobal said.

    So, operational coincidence goes down in history as AdViewGlobal’s first contribution to the Alice-In-Wonderland world of autosurf PR. And, yes, the company actually announced that Talbert was chief executive officer of an alleged $100 million Ponzi scheme (ASD) and now has a role as chief executive officer of an offshore company that almost certainly is engaged in the sale of unregistered securities to U.S. residents and is a Ponzi scheme itself.

    Normally companies don’t crow about this type of thing. What’s even stranger is that Juan Fernandez, not Talbert, is listed in court documents as chief executive officer of ASD. In a sworn court declaration recorded Aug. 18, Talbert identified himself as ASD’s “Human Resource Manager, Assistant CFO and Website Editor.”

    talbertaffidavit

    Perhaps ASD decided not to share the news of Talbert’s promotion to chief executive officer. Or perhaps the AdViewGlobal PR apparatus doesn’t have Clue One about what it is doing, guessed at or fabricated the title Talbert held at ASD and doesn’t read court documents that refute its own claim.

    Even if Talbert no longer is an ASD executive and is singularly employed by AdViewGlobal as chief executive officer, it doesn’t undo the ASD stain no matter what title he held at the firm. AdViewGlobal’s purported offshore registration and refusal to identify its owners make it look even worse. There is no way to sanitize this business, which stinks to the high heavens.

    Piling On The Absurdities

    AdViewGlobal’s announcement painted the autosurf business as a wholesome enterprise that attracts highly skilled, highly discriminating companies and highly talented executives.

    “When the management team in Uruguay was organizing AdView Global, they were looking for someone who was familiar with the U.S. market and the processes in which to make a surfing company successful,” AdViewGlobal said. “It was for this reason that AdView Global  hired Mr. Gary Talbert as their C.E.O.”

    One is led to believe AdViewGlobal scored a coup in recruiting Talbert, in the same way Microsoft would score a coup if it lured Steve Jobs from Apple.

    Odder yet is that AdViewGlobal engaged in bizarre speculation to explain acts by Talbert, saying the appearance of AdViewGlobal graphics on an ASD-controlled website “probably meant that he was called away in the middle of making the changes by another pressing matter.”

    Are AdViewGlobal members supposed to believe that a company that guesses about the actions of its own chief executive officer is one to be taken seriously?

    Yesterday’s announcement removed any doubts that ASD and AdViewGlobal have very close ties, despite AdViewGlobal’s preemptive disclaimer on its website. It came specifically in response to reports that its graphics were appearing on an ASD-controlled website.

    Remember, now,  AdViewGlobal claims to have no affiliation with ASD — and yet its graphics appeared on an ASD-controlled website and then suddenly disappeared after they became the subject of videos, forum discussions and Blog posts. One of the graphics listed the street address of ASD’s headquarters in Quincy, Fla., as AdViewGlobal’s street address.

    adviewglobalstreetaddressmagnified

    The Descent Into Infamy

    One of the things that accompanied ASD on its descent into infamy was a series of impossibly butchered PR announcements. The tradition continues at AdViewGlobal, which appears to have the same PR personnel in place as ASD.

    ASD, awaiting a ruling on the Sept. 30-Oct. 1 evidentiary hearing, announced a pending $200 million deal with Praebius Communications, a penny-stock company. The statement on the ASD Breaking News website was the work of an amateur and was removed after members began to question it loudly in forums.

    Praebius, a Pinksheet stock, does not publish financial information. Its executives weren’t quoted in the ASD release, and there was no way to verify the $200 million claim. The financial claim struck members as a number that had been pulled out of thin air to serve a dual purpose: keeping hope alive, and informing a federal judge who was deciding if the ASD business model was legal that the company was about to get a huge cash infusion.

    ASD deleted the Praebius announcement after it became clear that members intended to do their own research, ask tough questions and not accept the company’s word at face value. Nothing in the announcement was consistent with professionalism. It only led to more questions, more criticism.

    Slow on the uptake, ASD then followed up the Praebius announcement with an announcement members could buy VOIP service from a firm with which it had become affiliated. (Why any firm would permit itself to be associated with an alleged $100 million Ponzi scheme is a discussion for another day.)

    Andy Bowdoin told a conference-call audience it could get special pricing, positioning the VOIP service as a gift to the membership. This led to even more bad press for ASD. ASD couldn’t deliver ads, couldn’t address members’ questions during conference calls, couldn’t persuade a federal judge it was not a Ponzi scheme — but still could flog a VOIP service for commissions.

    Not a peep has been heard from Bowdoin since he surrendered claims last month to tens of millions of dollars seized as the proceeds of a criminal enterprise and Ponzi scheme. He could sell VOIP to the members, herald a purported $200 million deal, but when it came time to announce the surrender to forfeiture, members had to read about it in the newspaper or on Blogs and forums.

    Bowdoin also didn’t tell members about a second forfeiture complaint that had been filed in December against assets tied to the firm. Prosecutors said hundreds of thousands of dollars were used to fuel personal spending by Bowdoin family members.

    Flash forward to yesterday. AdViewGlobal appears to be trying to make a fine distinction that it has no corporate legal ties to ASD. But the announcement it made was at odds with itself in so many places that, at best, it’s just another absurdity. In no case can it be taken seriously.

    None of ASD’s actions is compatible with credibility, and yet AdViewGlobal — by some tortured construction — is trying to leech credibility from ASD by telling the world that its chief executive officer was an important officer in ASD.

    It wouldn’t matter if Talbert, the chief executive officer, and Chuck Osmin, an ASD employee who doubles as AdViewGlobal’s PR flak and issued yesterday’s announcement, both no longer were employed by ASD and repudiated their previous employment. The fact remains that ASD was an alleged $100 million Ponzi scheme that surrendered its claims to tens of millions of seized dollars and very well might become the subject of a criminal prosecution.

    Both Talbert and Osmin were involved in the forfeiture litigation (not as defendants, but through Pro-ASD court filings or testimony),  and now both are working for AdViewGlobal. The fact the company won’t reveal the names of its owners and purportedly came to life offshore in the aftermath of the ASD debacle tells you everything you need to know.

    AdViewGlobal is not credible because ASD was not credible. If anything, AdViewGlobal is even less credible than ASD. If it were credible, it would submit its business model to U.S. authorities for testing and pay the costs of compliance. One of the reasons it won’t do that is the ASD litigation. Another reason is that it can’t offer payment processing in the United States and needs to find ways to circumvent U.S. money-laundering, wire-fraud and mail-fraud laws.

    On parts of its website, AdViewGlobal is using U.S.-based gmail addresses to conduct customer service. One is hardpressed to imagine how U.S. customers will fund accounts and engage in correspondence without engaging in wire fraud themselves.

    The Age of the Portable Ponzi has begun. Promoters have ignored the ASD August forfeiture complaint, the December forfeiture complaint, Bowdoin’s surrender of the assets, a RICO lawsuit that asserts Bowdoin was the head of a racketeering enterprise involved in multiple schemes boosted by unnamed co-conspirators, Bowdoin’s previous entanglements with securities regulators that resulted in felony charges, Bowdoin’s history of spinning lies to separate people from their money.

    Incredibly, AdViewGlobal now is employing ASD personnel, sharing a common executive, not disclosing information customers would deem important when making purchasing decisions (such as disclosing all previous  litigation that resulted in the dismantling of autosurfs, the implications of selling or purchasing unregistered securities if you’re a U.S. resident, the implications of wire fraud and money-laundering, and Judge Collyer’s ruling in the ASD case, for starters).

    Welcome to the Age of the Portable Ponzi.

  • AdViewGlobal Claims Web Reporter Got It All Wrong, Denies Link To AdSurfDaily Inc., Chides TheJoyLuckClub For Report

    UPDATED 5:27 PM. EST (U.S.A.) A new autosurf company that refuses to disclose its ownership, claims to be registered in Uruguay, operates servers that resolve to Panama — and has a horde of U.S.-based affiliates who were former members of AdSurfDaily Inc. — has denied any ties to ASD.

    Sort of.

    A link placed this afternoon at TheJoyLuckClub website takes viewers to U.S.-based Google Docs, from which they can download the official explanation of AdViewGlobal. TheJoyLuckClub and other sites reported last week that AdViewGlobal graphics were appearing on a webroom operated by ASD, despite an assertion by AdViewGlobal that it has nothing to do with ASD. The graphics suddenly were removed after word spread around the Web.

    In its explanation, AdViewGlobal chided TheJoyLuckClub for issuing an “unfortunate” report that misled readers.

    Normally associated with the Pro-ASD side of things, the JoyLuckClub increasingly has been challenging ASD for its explanations or lack thereof. Its report and an accompanying video clearly showed an AdViewGlobal banner on the ASD-controlled website, and was accurate by all accounts — except the accounts of AdViewGlobal and a small group of people at the “Surf’s Up” forum who also are promoting AdViewGlobal.

    “When the management team in Uruguay was organizing AdView Global, they were looking for someone who was familiar with the U.S. market and the processes in which to make a surfing company successful,” AdViewGlobal said today in its statement. “It was for this reason that AdView Global  hired Mr. Gary Talbert as their C.E.O.”

    AdViewGlobal did not identify members of the “management team” in Uruguay, but for the first time confirmed that former ASD executive Gary Talbert was chief executive officer of the new company.

    The appearance of its graphics on the ASD-controlled website was an “operational coincidence,” AdViewGlobal explained.

    “Since Mr. Talbert was and is the C.E.O. for both companies and had worked with the same web room company while at ASD, it would be very natural for him to choose and use many of the same venders (sic) that he had used before. So, the fact that ASD and AdView Global are using the same web room hosting company is no accident, in fact it is an operational coincidence,” AdViewGlobal said.

    The issue to some ASD members, however, was not that ASD and AdViewGlobal were using common vendors; the issue was why ADViewGlobal’s graphics were appearing inside and outside the exact same webroom ASD used — at a URL that included ASD’s name.

    One image reproduced on scam.com and at least one other site that covers ASD news shows the address of AdViewGlobal as “13 S. Calhoun Street, Quincy, FL 32351” — the building in which ASD is headquartered.

    Why AdViewGlobal listed Talbert as “C.E.O. for both companies” in today’s statement is unclear. He is listed in sworn court documents as “Human Resource Manager, Assistant CFO and Website Editor” of AdSurfDaily Inc.

    Also unclear is how the company can claim no direct ties to ASD — as it does on its main website in a special disclaimer — when the two companies share a common executive.

    “But in spite of this operational coincidence there is no connection between ASD and AdView Global,” AdViewGlobal insisted.

    It provided an example to illustrate its claim:

    “The idea of two companies using the same web room company to hold training is like buying gasoline for your wife’s car at a gas station and later using the same gas station
    to buy gasoline for your car. This type of shopping is usually done for convenience and familiarity.

    “The fact that Mr. Talbert did not completely finish making all of the design and name changes on the web room probably meant that he was called away in the middle of making the changes by another pressing matter. But for someone to think that ASD and AdView Global are related just because the old proverbial business name was still on this dormant proverbial building front would be a leap of faith and this conclusion is far from the truth.”

    AdViewGlobal did not explain why it used the word “probably” when explaining what occurred. Also unclear is why Talbert wasn’t quoted in the release, so he could explain precisely what happened and take the theoretical totally out of play.

    “Talbert has now completed all his changes and the web room now reflects the current and only user of this web room,” AdViewGlobal explained.

    It then chided TheJoyLuckClub:

    “It is unfortunate that an unconfirmed report such as yours occurred and that so many viewers were misled by your story. Mr. Talbert is extremely sorry for the confusion he created by not completing all the changes to the web room at the same time.”

    AdViewGlobal did not provide the web address of the new webroom from which it was operating. Nor did it explain why — if it was able to determine that Talbert was “sorry for the confusion” — it didn’t explain exactly what happened instead of using a speculative word such as “probably” and suggesting he might have been called away on other “pressing” business.

    “So once again the only link between ASD and AdView Global is the fact that there are a couple of upper managers who have remained behind to help ASD through its litigation process and are now working for AdView Global,” the company concluded. “But be assured that there are no corporate or legal links between the two companies.”

    AdViewGlobal did not explain how a business model that is illegal in the United States, for, among other things, the sale of unregistered securities, is any more legal when it is pitching the same product to U.S. citizens from Uruguay or Panama.

    The release carried the name of Chuck Osmin, identifying him as customer service manager for AdViewGlobal. Osmin testified for ASD at a Sept. 30-Oct. 1 evidentiary hearing.

    In November, Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled that ASD had not demonstrated it was a legal business and not a Ponzi scheme at the evidentiary hearing. Last month, ASD President Andy Bowdoin withdrew his claims to tens of millions of dollars seized by the government in August amid allegations that ASD was a criminal enterprise.

    Two other new surfs — AdGateWorld and BizAdSplash — also have servers that resolve to Panama, along with promoters common to ASD.

  • When Words Fail: ‘Stunning’ Can’t Describe ASD Disconnect

    The level of disconnect is stunning — and it is accompanied by a level of brazenness that is equally stunning. In fact, stunning understates it; it is more like an unapologetic, myopic commitment to felonious self-indulgence.

    But what would you expect from a group whose motto is “ASD — Keep Fighting The Good Fight!”

    There is nothing good about the fight by the ASD Member Advocates Forum — “Surf’s Up, Baby!” for short or just plain “Surf’s Up!” — to make the world safe for Ponzi profits delivered by ASD President Andy Bowdoin and others.

    Surf's Up and related sites show their affection for Ponzi schemes.
    Surf's Up and related sites show their affection for Ponzi schemes.

    One of the others is AdViewGlobal, which has ASD’s fingerprints all over it (see this, see this, see this) and purports to be operating out of Uruguay. Some of the Surf’s Up Mods have a forum for AdViewGlobal, too. In tune with Valentine’s Day, both forums currently are showcasing their love for Ponzi schemes by using a graphic of a big, beautiful red heart. Like the “Surf’s Up” forum, the AdViewGlobal forum is using the hosting services of ning.com in a bid to portray Ponzi schemes, money-laundering and wire-fraud operations as businesses with intrinsic social value. Never mind that nearly $100 million has been seized in the ASD case, that Bowdoin is a serial scam artist who, quite literally, could name an All-Felony Team from within his own ranks. What’s important, here, according to the serial promoters of ASD and AdViewGlobal, are the fabulous commissions they can earn by fleecing downline members by ignoring facts they deem inconvenient.

    “Happy Days Are Here Again!” assures the AdViewGlobal members’ forum. How the promoters will be able to persuade a judge or jury they were acting in good faith  if the need arises apparently is a worry for another day. The promoters have ignored the August ASD forfeiture complaint, the December forfeiture complaint, a RICO lawsuit (against Bowdoin and co-conspirators), the recent failures of MegaLido, Frogress, DailyProfitPond, Instant2U and others, and all previous autosurf litigation.

    AdViewGlobal sells “ad impressions” as opposed to “ad packs” — window dressing to be sure — but window dressing that shows planning. Another thing that shows planning is the purported Uruguay registration. If the company is named in any future litigation, the words “conspiracy” and “co-conspirator” are apt to be part of the government presentation.

    For its part, Surf’s Up has been deleting members for insisting on discussing the truth and the ramifications of all of this. This is perfectly consistent with the forum’s history. It once published a post from a member who said the prosecutor in the ASD case should be placed in a medieval torture “rack” and that members could draw straws to see who got to tighten the wheel.

    rackstrawIn a play on the middle name — Rakestraw — of federal prosecutor William Cowden, a Surf’s Up member suggests putting him in a torture “rack” and drawing “straws” to see who gets to tighten the wheel.

    If the Feds do move, it will be like shooting fish in a barrel. Regardless, the forum mods in recent days have announced that they’ve “had enough” of people who insist on living in the real world.

    So, no, stunning — normally a strong, descriptive word — doesn’t quite do the job.

  • Video Shows AdViewGlobal Graphics Were Removed From AdSurfDaily Webroom

    In this post, we showed you a screen shot of the AdSurfDaily webroom showcasing AdViewGlobal, a new autosurf.

    Scam.com and at least one other website featured graphics on the same topic today.

    We kept our browser window open after we made the screen shot, thinking that word would get around and that the ASD webroom just might remove the AdViewGlobal graphic. Earlier, AdView Global specificially disclaimed any tie to ASD.

    Turns out the word did get around.

    So, we made a video with the original webroom window still open. In the video, we hit the “reload” button. When the page reloaded, it showed the AdViewGlobal graphic had been removed from the ASD webroom.

    We made this video with Maddy The Wonder Puppy scurrying around our feet in the office, so the narration is . . . well, let’s just say it could be better.

    But you’ll get the point.

  • ASD, AdGateWorld, AdViewGlobal — In Pictures

    AdSurfDaily Inc. and other firms and individuals linked to the autosurf trade have been named defendants in a class-action racketeering lawsuit.

    Among the allegations is that ASD was a participant in schemes beyond its own autosurf Ponzi scheme and was engaged with co-conspirators in a pattern of racketeering. Here is part of the ASD story — in pictures. Some of the pictures are being published today for the very first time.

    1.

    adviewglobaldisclaimermagnifiedAdViewGlobal denies affiliation with AdSurfDaily, LaFuenteDinero, Andy Bowdoin Jr., Golden Panda AdBuilder and Clarence Busby.

    2.

    adsurfdailywebroomcom

    The webroom at ASD-controlled adsurfdailywebroom.com showcasing AdViewGlobal. (See No. 4.) UPDATE: The ASD-controlled webroom has removed the AdViewGlobal graphic. See the video highlighting the removal.

    3.

    adsurfdailywebroomcommagnifiedAdSurfDaily webroom URL magnified.

    4.

    adsurfdailybreakingnewswebroomsmall

    Reference to “our” webroom at adsurfdailywebroom.com as it appears on the ASD Breaking News site at adsurfdailybreakingnews.com/weeklyevents.htm.

    5.

    adviewglobalsearchjan31magnifiedGoogle search results showing reference to Juan Fernandez, chief executive officer of ASD, as “national sales manager” for AdViewGlobal. On December 22, Fernandez’ name appeared in a Blog post as “national sales manager” for AdViewGlobal. The name “Gary,” also an associate of ASD, appeared in the same post. Neither name now appears in the post, but the references remain in the search results. The original pitch in the post was that AdViewGlobal was a hedge against the recession.

    6.

    adgatepromoterpost482Oct. 21 pitch for AdGateWorld.

    7.

    schroldarmysmallASD pitch to military families by ASD member and attorney Jack Schrold. Schrold once was disbarred (now conditionally reinstated) in Florida after his conviction for knowledge of the commission of conspiracy and wire fraud, a felony.

    8.

    schroldgreenbackstreetsmall

    Jack Schrold’s site on GreenbackStreet.com, a company associated with ASD.

    9.

    schroldprojectscriptlance1

    Jack Schrold’s order for AdGateWorld graphics on scriptlance.com. The red circles denote use of the word “our” as it pertains to AdGateWorld. Schrold has not been named a defendant in any ASD-related litigation.

    10.

    schroldprojectscriptlancemagnifiedJack Schrold AdGateWorld order magnified.

    11.

    adgatetermssmall

    AdGateWorld Terms of Service showing reference to ASD.

    12.

    schroldmemolargeBlogger passes along AdGateWorld memo from Jack Schrold.

    13.

    schroldmemolargemagnified

    Blogger’s Schrold memo magnified.

    14.

    asdpraebiussmallAnnouncement of prospective $200 million deal with Praebius Communications on ASD’s Breaking News website. The announcement was removed when members questioned it.

    15.

    asdyoutubeinvestment1ASD member promoting ASD “re-invest” strategy despite the fact the firm insists it sells “advertisements,” not investments.

    16.

    asdgoogle

    ASD member encouraging other members to defraud Google, amid claims that ASD had just entered into an “agreement” with Google.

    17.

    asddonations

    Andy Bowdoin’s gifts to the National Republican Congressional Committee for which he received the “Medal of Distinction.” Note that the $250 contributions from 2007 were given in the name of “AdSalesDaily Inc.,” as opposed to “AdSurfDaily Inc.” ASD members claimed the “medal” was a special award from the President of the United States, and Bowdoin didn’t correct the record. In fact, he took the medal, which signified only his ability to write a check to receive banquet tickets, on the road with him.

  • BOLO Clarence Busby? Reader Puzzled By RICO Defendant’s Absence; Says Busby Out Of Touch For ‘Months’

    Should the government and litigants be on the lookout for Clarence Busby? He hasn’t been charged with a crime and, in September, he surrendered his claims to money seized by the U.S. Secret Service as part of its probe into the alleged criminal business practices of his company, Golden Panda Ad Builder of Acworth, Ga.

    Prosecutors said the money was part of the proceeds of a wire-fraud, money-laundering and $100 million Ponzi scheme in which Busby and Golden Panda participated with AdSurfDaily Inc. of Quincy, Fla.

    Busby identified himself as a minister. But he also is in the real-estate business, and last night a reader contacted us to say he has been unable to reach Busby.

    “We are buying a house from him and can’t seem to get in contact with him,” the reader said. “The last we heard, he was overseas starting up an internet company. We are a little concerned.”

    The reader added that he has been unable to contact Busby “for the past couple of months.”

    Here’s what we know about Busby: He played it cool as a cucumber when federal prosecutors announced the seizure of tens of millions of dollars last summer. Busby announced to Golden Panda members that his faith would get him through the dark hours. He composed a series of cloying Blog posts, assuring everyone that things would be just fine.

    Clarence Busby lays on the syrup, to be sure. In court filings, he explained how he’d gone fishing with ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

    “As a social courtesy to Bowdoin, I asked a pastor friend of mine, Rev. Charles Green, if he might bring his boat and join me in inviting Bowdoin on a relaxing fishing trip,” Busby told U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer. “I imagined that operating ASD involved a lot of stress, and I had heard Bowdoin liked to fish. I also wanted a respite from work. The invitation was extended and Bowdoin agreed to join us.”

    Busby then explained how Golden Panda was born:

    “On April 11, 2008, we fished at a lake in Brunswick, Georgia for a day. On that Day Bowdoin surprised me by recommending that I start a Chinese version of ASD,” Busby said.  “Bowdoin suggested that I organize the business without him. He said, ‘I can’t handle the business I already have,’ stating that I should be the one to create, own, and operate this Chinese version of ASD.

    “I was interested in the idea, but did not have knowledge of computers and the web, so I thought Bowdoin should run it, but Bowdoin did not want to run it,” Busby continued. “I chose the name of Golden Panda Ad Builder Inc. and I had the company incorporated on May 15, 2008. At that time, I still thought that Bowdoin would end up running the business, so I placed his name as President of the company, although Bowdoin never actually took any step to run the company.

    “Two and one half weeks before Golden Panda commenced operations on July 24, 2008, Bowdoin called me and reiterated that he did not have time for Golden Panda, had done nothing to help create it, and therefore thought I should be the one to own, operate, and control the business.

    “I then decided that with the help of my kids that I really could run a web based advertising business on my own. On July 2, 2008, I amended the Golden Panda papers with the state, naming myself as the President and removing Bowdoin’s name.”

    In his court filings, Busby said he didn’t know Bowdoin “had prior run ins with the law” and had been arrested in Alabama for defrauding investors.

    Busby did not say if he told his fishing partner about his own run-ins with the law: The Securities and Exchange Commission said Busby defrauded investors in the 1990s.

    “[T]he Commission alleged that Busby violated the antifraud provisions of the securities laws by offering and selling investment contracts in connection with three different prime bank schemes,” the SEC said.

    “Using misrepresentations and omissions in each of the three schemes, Busby raised money for purported trading programs in ‘prime bank’ notes by fraudulently representing to investors that the investments were risk-free and that the ventures would pay returns ranging from 750% to 10,000%. In total, Busby raised nearly $1 million from more than 70 investors. None of the investors earned the exorbitant returns promised by Busby,” the SEC said.

    Busby settled the case with the SEC in May 1998 by agreeing not to break securities laws. The SEC waived a $15,000 penalty and accrued interest because Busby certified he was broke.

    Almost 10 years to the month later, Busby went fishing with Andy Bowdoin. Both men now have been accused of racketeering in a class-action lawsuit brought by members of AdSurfDaily.

  • BREAKING NEWS: Bowdoin, Busby, Garner, BOA Sued Anew

    Attorney Robert Garner
    Attorney Robert Garner

    UPDATED 7:42 P.M. EST (U.S.A.) Individuals associated with AdSurfDaily Inc. have been sued in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The complaint alleges racketeering, and names Bank Of America a defendant for aiding and abetting the scheme.

    BOA was not named a RICO defendant.

    The case was brought by Mike Collins of Savage, Minn.; Frank Greene of Washington, D.C.;  and Natures Discount of Aventura, Fla. It was filed as a class-action and has been assigned to Judge Rosemary Collyer, the same judge hearing the ASD civil-forfeiture case filed by federal prosecutors in August and a second forfeiture case against ASD assets seized in December.

    Natures Discount previously sued the same defendants in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, but withdrew the case.

    “From ASD’s inception in November 2006, Defendant Bank of America played an integral role in ASD’s operations and success,” the plaintiffs charged. “While other financial institutions and payment processors refused to facilitate ASD’s fraud, Bank of America, even in the face of significant banking best practices ‘red flags’ and likely violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and relevant anti-money laundering statutes, not only conducted business with ASD and the RICO Defendants, but it also substantially assisted the expansion of the ASD scheme.”

    Plaintiffs Hint Of Other Bowdoin, Busby, Garner Schemes

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin, Golden Panda President Clarence Busby and ASD attorney Robert Garner were accused in the complaint of conspiring with unnamed parties in organized efforts to defraud.

    The complaint alleged the men were involved in “other” schemes beyond ASD, Golden Panda and LaFuenteDinero, and have “committed or aided and abetted in the commission of countless acts of racketeering activity,” including indictable offenses.

    “The ASD Enterprise provides the RICO Defendants and other unnamed co-conspirators with a system by which to operate fraudulent schemes such as ASD, to hide the fraudulent nature of the schemes, and to profit from such schemes,” the plaintiffs alleged. “Each RICO Defendant agreed to perform services of a kind which facilitated the operation of the ASD Enterprise and facilitated the RICO Defendants and others in the operation of various fraudulent schemes, including ASD.”

    Attorneys for the plaintiffs did not name the other alleged schemes. One of the attorneys, Steven N. Berk, is a former federal prosecutor and a former staff attorney for the Securities and Exchange Commission. Berk served as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and is a partner in Chavez & Gertler in Washington.

    In recent weeks, at least three autosurfs using a model similar to ASD either have launched or are in the process of launching. One of the autosurfs — AdGateWorld — once published a Terms of Service document on its website that included references to “ASD.”

    adgatetermssmall1

    Screenshot from Oct. 25, 2008.

    A second autosurf known as AdViewGlobal has known ties to ASD. Early promotions for the surf listed Juan Fernandez, chief executive officer of ASD, as “national sales manager” for AdViewGlobal.

    Meanwhile, a surf known as Biz Ad Splash is using a model that requires members to become “qualified distributors” after 30 days to take advantage of surfing rebates. ASD briefly tried a similar approach in July, according to a forfeiture complaint filed in December by federal prosecutors against assets linked to ASD.

    “In July 2008, on the first page of its website, ASD informed prospective ad purchasers that “[a]d purchasers will continue to be paid rebates until they receive 100 percent of their ad purchases,” prosecutors said. “To earn an additional 25% rebate on their ad purchase, an ad purchaser must have a minimum group sales volume of $15 per month or their sales volume must average $15 per month while the ad package is still active. This helps us maintain a constant growth so everyone can reap their profits.”

    None of the new surf sites identifies the owners/operators. And they all list offshore registration — BizAdSplash and AdGateWorld in Panama, and AdViewGlobal in Uruguay. The IP addresses for each of the surfs resolve to Panama.

    adgateworld525Early AdGateWorld promoter’s pitch.

    Plaintiffs in the RICO lawsuit outlined an alleged pattern of fraud and deceit on the parts of Bowdoin and Busby, citing their previous encounters with securities regulators — a felony conviction for Bowdoin in Alabama and a deal Busby struck with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle charges he was a principal in three prime bank schemes that defrauded investors. Neither man disclosed their previous involvement in securities schemes to members before launching ASD and Golden Panda Ad Builder, the plaintiffs charged.

    Bowdoin spun an untrue tale of fabulous business success to recruit ASD members, and the company and some of its participants told lie after lie to separate people from their money, the plaintiffs alleged.

    Included among the lies were assertions that ASD was going to “sign up” more than 100 Fortune 500 companies “such as Google, Coke, Pepsi” and others to pay for advertising and generate revenue to pay for rebates. Another lie was that ASD had a contract to place ads for three companies and would collect “at least $13 million a year” as a result of the contract, the plaintiffs alleged.

  • ASD Members International Dissolved

    It came online a few months ago with the strange promise it would litigate against government entities involved in the AdSurfDaily case — even if they were behaving legally. If lawsuits didn’t work, then perhaps it would see about having prosecutors charged with crimes.

    But ASD Members International (ASDMI), a nonprofit registered in Missouri, is no more. The corporation has been formally dissolved. It existed for less than 90 days — Oct. 30, 2008 through Jan. 26, 2009. The process of dissolving the entity actually began on Dec. 10. Formal papers were signed Jan. 21, and the dissolution was recorded Jan. 26.

    ASDMI’s website now redirects to tripod.com.

    “As most of you know by now, Andy Bowdoin has withdrawn as a claimant in the Forfeiture of Assets against ASD,” ASDMI said on the tripod site.  “ASDMI (ASD Members International) had retained an attorney to try and overturn the forfeiture. It was determined that it would be too difficult and costly to work on a contingency basis for a class action suit. ASDMI was attempting to obtain legal standing in case 1:08-cv-01345. We also found that to obtain standing would be extremely difficult if not impossible.

    “Mr. Bowdoin’s recent actions were a surprise to us and our negotiations have ended abruptly,” ASDMI continued. “The moneys we have spent on this negotiation have been wasted to say the least.”

    ASDMI had crowed on its website as late as last week that it had persuaded 167 people to part with their money and join in the important work of jailing prosecutors and suing the government back to the Stone Age, if necessary, to recover money paid to AdSurfDaily.

    Prosecutors seized at least $93.5 million amid allegations that ASD President Andy Bowdoin was running a Ponzi scheme and engaging in wire fraud and money-laundering.

    Image problems for ASDMI began out of the gate. A PR flap ensued when two board members of the group were linked to Curtis Richmond, a man associated with a Utah “Indian” tribe a federal judge ruled a sham. The tribe, purportedly formed in an Arby’s restaurant, is well-known in local, state and federal government circles for employing a strategy called “mailbox arbitration” and threatening prosecutors, judges and police officers.

    ASDMI denied any links to Richmond, who was convicted of felony contempt of court in 2007 for threatening or trying to intimidate federal judges, but the links were obvious. In November, Richmond attempted to file a motion to dismiss the ASD case. Judge Rosemary Collyer denied him leave to file.

    At the same time, at least one ASDMI board member — through a separate website — was organizing a campaign to send certified letters to prosecutors.

    Mailbox arbitration works on the theory you can mail certified demand letters to litigation opponents. If they don’t sign for the letters or choose to ignore the demands, you declare they’ve defaulted on a contract and file a judgment for an enormous amount of money.

    It didn’t help that Dale Stevens, “chief” of the sham tribe — the Wampanoag Nation, Tribe of Grayhead, Wolf Band — was arrested for child pornography and anounced his intention to marry two underage girls.

    One of the girls was 12. Stevens, 69, said he’d hoped to enter into marital bliss with her in exchange for half a cooler of “energy bars.”

    And it didn’t help when Judge Rosemary Collyer issued a ruling in November that ASD had not demonstrated that it was a legal business and not a Ponzi scheme at a Sept. 30-Oct. 1 evidentiary hearing.

    In the end, ASDMI lasted about as long as a typical autosurf Ponzi scheme. Many surf sites begin to fail within two to three months of launch (if not sooner) — sometimes because the operator is impossibly upside down, and sometimes because he or she simply decides to run with the money.

  • Bowdoin/Madoff Comparison: Is It Fair?

    andybowdoinartLast night we received a note from a reader who had a bone to pick: He advised us, seemingly politely, that ASD was not an “autosurf.”  Rather, he said, it was a “manual surf.”

    There was a whiff of passive-aggressiveness in the note: He informed us that he did not desire to “address your blog” with the exception of informing us of the differences between a manual surf and an autosurf.

    Because we received this note shortly after publishing a graphic showing Andy Bowdoin, Bernard Madoff and Arthur Nadel in the same image, we wondered if the reader actually had a bigger bone to pick but didn’t want to acknowledge it. He didn’t want to “address your blog,” after all. (View the graphic.)

    We have received many such notes since August. Lots of them have been passive-aggressive in nature — poison arrows and bitter sarcasm delivered with a smile — and some were just plain aggressive. Virtually all of them tried to change the subject in some way and deflect from the core issues. We’ve been told that our “little blog” was universally reviled, told that we had “no right” to write about ASD because we weren’t members and, in the next breath, told that people who really understand how the world works recognize the ASD case for what it is: an attempt by the government to trample on people’s rights.

    ‘Win-At-All-Costs’ Strategy Backfired: ASD Members Destroyed Firm’s Already-Fleeting Credibility

    If you were the owner of an Internet program in almost unimaginable trouble with the government — so much trouble that prosecutors wanted to seize your property and sell it at auction — would you want members trying to “help” your case by insulting or trying to intimidate prosecutors, federal judges and other people who had the power to make a difference?

    Would you want Kool-Aid campaigns to Bill O’Reilly or petition drives aimed at getting politicians to endorse Ponzi schemes during an election year that coincided with an economic crisis? (Talk about a mixed message.) Would you want members trying to influence public opinion by sending chain letters to reporters? Would you want people repeating claims that a deal with a penny-stock company was going to pump $200 million into ASD? Would you want people filing complaints and trying to have a TV station charged with “deceptive business practices” for broadcasting news unflattering to ASD?

    And how about certified-mail campaigns right out of a sham Utah “Indian” tribe’s playbook — a tribe purportedy founded inside an Arby’s restaurant? Finally, would you want people filing complaints with the Office of Inspector General at the Justice Department before there had been a single finding of fact in the case?

    If you want to be taken seriously, you wouldn’t want any of these things. So why encourage them?

    What’s more, why invite even more scrutiny of ASD? The firm and its own out-of-control members destroyed the only chance ASD had to be viewed as a progressive, professional advertising company with a sharp, well-honed message and a well-oiled PR operation.

    Nothing that ASD or its members did was consistent with professionalism. The messages couldn’t possibly have been more at odds with themselves.

    Here is how a professional communications company would have addressed a monumental crisis:

    We emphatically deny the government’s assertions and look forward to explaining our business model to the Court. We are confident these issues will be resolved to our satisfaction and that we’ll continue to provide an extraordinary value and opportunity to our worldwide customer base.

    Compare that simple message to the ultimate messages.

    Back to last night’s note . . .

    The AdSurfDaily case does not hinge on whether ASD was a manual surf or an autosurf. We acknowledge that ASD participants had to click on an object to see the next ad. We have written about this, pointing out that a young girl videotaped clicking on ASD ads said it was so simple a six-year-old could do it. In the same video, the supervising adult implied that Facebook was a paid ASD advertiser. Lots of ASD members were capable of doing or saying anything to get the sale.

    The term “autosurf” generally has come to mean a surf site that loads ads in a rotator and pays people “rebates” to view them. The term is used in virtually all litigation involving similar businesses, so we’re comfortable with it. Readers seem to know what “autosurf” litigation is about, and ASD would be in the same trouble if it offered “rebates” but operated as what commonly is known as a manual traffic exchange.

    As we noted above, the note was polite. But we can’t help but wonder why the reader had the need to define ASD as a manual surf at this late date. It impressed us as yet another bid to change the subject. Andy Bowdoin already has surrendered claims to the lion’s share of the seized assets, and the court has acknowledged his motion to withdraw the claims.

    For all intents and purposes, the forfeiture element of the case is over, and the government has won.

    The Bowdoin/Madoff/Nadel Graphic

    Let us know if you think it was fair or unfair by leaving a comment.

    We believe it is fair for the following reasons:

    • All three men are implicated in big-dollar Ponzi schemes.
    • All three men have close ties to Florida.
    • All three men are in their 70s.
    • Ponzi schemes are very much in the news.
    • A $100 million Ponzi scheme should not be viewed as a minor event simply because there are larger Ponzi schemes.
    • Incredible sums of wealth were destroyed.
    • Although it is true the government intervened in the Bowdoin case before the Ponzi collapsed, it is equally true that it didn’t intervene in the Madoff/Nadel cases — much to the dismay of investors who lost fortunes.
    • Madoff, despite the fact he is Public Enemy No. 1, is said to be cooperating with investigators. If true, it does not minimize the crime or make it any less repulsive — but it is something Bowdoin didn’t do. To say Bowdoin’s approach was cynical is to understate his method. He encouraged members to send in testimonials while shielding them from important facts. He then relied on members to testify at the evidentiary hearing, while notifying the court that he intended to take the 5th.
    • Prosecuors allege in all three cases that company funds were diverted to fuel personal spending, including luxury spending for things such as automobiles. Prosecutors also allege that company funds were directed to family members and that extravagant purchases were made.

    So, make your case: Fair or unfair? We are always pleased to publish dissenting opinions.