Dear Readers,
It is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. We extend to you our warm wishes. Many of you are smarting or downright hurting because of the Ponzi scheme in your life — or, in some cases, schemes. Perhaps this is especially true of our readers who belonged to AdSurfDaily and its so-called clones.
It is possible that the litigation surrounding the August 2008 seizure of tens of millions of dollars from ASD President Andy Bowdoin’s bank accounts could begin to wind down soon and that a forfeiture order could be granted before Christmas. If that is the case, the ASD affair will become largely ministerial. Rather than having to respond to motions designed to slow down or derail the government’s case, prosecutors will be able to concentrate on getting money back into the hands of victims.
Many of you have been badly misled by ASD’s cheerleaders and apologists. Andy Bowdoin said he has spent more than $1 million defending your interests in the case and to keep himself out of prison. It very likely is true that the “your” to which he refers includes a small number of people in a universe of 100,000.
The apologists were able to use 100,000 — and, often, a number that even was higher — as part of a spin campaign. Perhaps you’ve read appeals such as this: “100,000 people can’t be wrong!”
Or even “120,000 people can’t be wrong!!!!!!!!!!”
Such words — and their corresponding number of exclamation points — were designed to misinform the public. The figure of 100,000, of course, presumed that Bowdoin had virtually unanimous support among the rank-and-file and that the people who did not support Bowdoin were few in number.
Dissenters were portrayed as few in number, often as “trolls.” The figure also was designed to set up the government as the bogeyman. ASD wanted you to believe the U.S. Secret Service was in the business of dispossessing widows, instead of chasing down the bad guys who stole their money.
And this brings us back to our headline: “Thanksgiving Thanks For The Word ‘Punters’ . . .”
We’ve noticed our readers from the U.K. use “punters” or “punter” as slang to describe the people targeted in Ponzi schemes. Sometimes “punters” or “punter” are used to describe people who choose to become crime victims or people who know they’re part of an illicit scheme and later try to assume the role of victims.
“Punters” and “punter” are excellent words in multiple contexts of the ASD case. Previously we’ve thanked our U.K. readers for the words “gobsmack” and “gobsmacked” to express utter astonishment.
Today we thank them for “punters” and “punter.” We were utterly gobsmacked by how well punters and punter described the ASD scheme, reducing a critical element of the case to its essence through the use of a single word.
While we’re thanking the British on this Thanksgiving Day, we’d also like to thank an American for his use of the word “dreck.” Dreck, too, is a fine word that conveys something that approaches perfect economy in certain contexts. It means “rubbish” or “trash,” and also reminds us of the word “drivel,” which often can be used in the same context as dreck.
We have used “drivel” to describe various pro se pleadings in the ASD case. We we utterly gobsmacked by the drivel put on full display by some of ASD’s punters. All of it was dreck.
So much of the ASD scheme came down to the disingenuous use of words — “rebates aren’t guaranteed” and “The U.S. Government has failed to produce any EVIDENCE of alleged wrongdoing,” for instance.
It turned out that Andy Bowdoin told two different stories about the money. He told a federal judge that it belonged to him. He told members in a Sept. 21, 2009, conference call that it belonged to them. But the money could not possibly have belonged to members if rebates weren’t guaranteed.
“Rebates aren’t guaranteed” means that only the display of advertising was guaranteed and that Bowdoin’s only duty to members was to display ads in the ASD rotator. It is the core deception of the wink-nod universe of autosurf Ponzi schemes, a deception that creates a license to steal. Strategic punters wanted ASD’s rank-and-file members to believe they were acting in the interests of the members as a whole.
They weren’t. They were acting in their own interests. The nonpunters posed a risk to them. It’s one of the reasons the government’s case was brought as a conspiracy.
In the end, Bowdoin didn’t even display the ads. That’s important. Prosecutors now can argue that he wanted to keep the money and not show the ads. In Bowdoin’s world, not only did the money not belong to members, neither did the value of the ads. Showing the ads would have exposed the con.
Prosecutors have made a veiled reference to the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf. RICO plaintiffs suing Bowdoin for racketeering have made a direct reference to AVG. Both the government and the RICO plaintiffs now have the option of arguing that the real reason ASD decided not to display the ads was that Bowdoin and his in-house punters intended to port them to AVG — just as Bowdoin had done when ASD morphed into ASD Cash Generator.
It also turned out that the Secret Service filed a 37-page affidavit under seal Aug. 1, 2008, and secured a warrant from a federal magistrate judge to seize the money. The agency said it believed Bowdoin planned to skip the country. Now, put that in the context of AVG and its purported base of operations in Uruguay and ASD’s decison not to show the ads.. It’s hard to imagine a situation more damning to ASD.
We noted above the screaming pro se claim that “”The U.S. Government has failed to produce any EVIDENCE of alleged wrongdoing.”
It also turned out that the Secret Service filed 57 pages of evidence on Aug. 1, 2008. The evidence, coupled with the affidavit, was enough to move a federal judge to order Bank of America to freeze the accounts and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to seize the money as the proceeds of an international crime.
The no-EVIDENCE-was-produced claim, however, always was disingenuous. Evidence was discussed in open court. Witnesses were cross-examined on the evidence. A judge reviewed the evidence and referred to it in public rulings.
Some funny things happened after all the public viewing and discussion about evidence: AVG launched (purportedly from an offshore venue); ASD still wasn’t showing ads; Bowdoin tried to reassert claims to money he had surrendered; and dozens of ASD members began to make clumsy, disingenuous and, in some cases, incendiary, attempts to intervene in the case by asserting the government was to blame for trying to preserve assets before they could be plundered.
Victims waiting for restitution had to wait. Some of the punters then began to tell their downlines that the government was responsible for the delays. A fantastically untrue tale was told that Bowdoin’s efforts were paying off and that the prosecution was on the verge of losing the case. Judicial orders directed at Bowdoin that instructed him to follow up on earlier pleadings were spun by strategic or ignorant punters as orders directing the prosecution to prove ASD was a Ponzi scheme or dismiss the case.
The punters were Bowdoin’s best friends — not in the sense they regularly broke bread with him or even knew him. The punters were useful to Bowdoin. Widows waiting for their money always could wait.
So, as Americans break bread today with loved ones, the PatrickPretty.com Blog extends greetings to its readers all over the world — and special greetings to our U.K. readers.
Indeed, punters is a word that will help victims of autosurf Ponzi schemes see though all the dreck and drivel and emerge gobsmacked by their newfound knowledge base. May they use it to keep themselves out of harm’s way — and, as another year ticks off the calendar, may they have many things to be thankful for in the days and years ahead.
Thank you, Readers.
Patrick
