PatrickPretty.com

Category: Uncategorized

  • BULLETIN: Judge Orders Golden Panda Forfeiture

    UPDATED 3:23 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A federal judge has issued an order that formalizes the forfeiture of more than $14 million from Golden Panda Ad Builder to the U.S. government.

    The ruling means that $14,048,598.07 seized from five Golden Panda bank accounts in the names of Clarence Busby or Dawn Stowers now belongs to the United States.  The money was seized as part of the probe into the affairs of AdSurfDaily Inc., a Florida company prosecutors said was engaging in wire fraud, money-laundering and the sale of unregistered securities — all while operating a Ponzi scheme.

    One of the Golden Panda accounts contained precisely $6 million.

    See our June 2 story about prosecutors’ request for a formal forfeiture order.

    Read the judge’s forfeiture order.

  • BREAKING NEWS: Judge Orders Bowdoin To Show Cause Or Face Consent To Forfeiture Of Tens Of Millions Of Dollars

    A federal judge has ordered Andy Bowdoin, AdSurfDaily Inc. and Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises Inc. to show cause by Aug. 7 why a series of motions filed by Bowdoin as a pro se litigant should not be denied.

    Judge Rosemary Collyer noted in the order that Charles A. Murray, a paid attorney Bowdoin had hired after Bowdoin was advised months ago that a corporation could not proceed pro se, has not followed up on initial pleadings.

    “Eventually, [Murray] entered an appearance for all three claimants (Dkt. ## 59 & 60), and then filed a First Motion to Withdraw Notice (Other) For Leave to Withdraw Notice of Rescission (Dkt. # 66). In this First Motion, counsel explained that he ‘require[d] time to evaluate the facts and circumstances of the matter but that all claimants, through counsel, ‘intend to resubmit this Motion to Rescind on or before May 15, 2009.’”

    Using stark language, Collyer said she has heard nothing from Bowdoin or his lawyer since May.

    “It is now July 24, 2009, and nothing further has been heard from counsel, Mr. Bowdoin, ASD, or Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises, Inc.,” Collyer said.

    “THEREFORE, Mr. Bowdoin, ASD, and Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises, Inc. are ORDERED TO SHOW CAUSE no later than August 7, 2009, why the Court should not DENY all pending motions and ORDER this civil forfeiture matter to proceed based on their release of claims and consent to forfeiture,” Collyer concluded.

    Federal prosecutors say more than $65 million was seized from ASD last year.

    Read the judge’s order.

  • UNCONFIRMED: Harris Family In Uruguay, AVG Staff Fired

    Comments on this Blog from a poster who uses the username Luisa are working their way around the web, but we have not been able to confirm the claims.

    Among other things, Luisa said George and Judy Harris, whom AdViewGlobal (AVG) identified as its owners, are or were living in Uruguay and fired the Uruguay-based AVG staff of eight or nine employees July 20.

    “A fact: they moved to Uruguay with Judy’s mom (Barbara), brother (Joey) and his wife April,” Luisa said. “Rented house in a private neighborhood, bought cars, hired employees/rented office space, fired employees . . . what is going to be next step?”

    The AVG staff is owed money and was told the company was broke and that George and Judy Harris were not the owners — even though employees reported to George, Judy or Judy’s mother Barbara, Luisa said.

    “George and Judy claimed to be broke and no longer working for AVGA because of too many wrong doings on them,” Luisa claimed. “They went as far as saying they were not the owners AVGA . . .  As you see too many contradictions . . . ”

    No second source has emerged to confirm or deny Luisa’s claims.

    Luisa writes in comprehensible, slightly broken English, suggesting English is her second language. She may be in position to have specific knowledge about AVG, although her initial reports have not been verified independently.

    The comments come on the heels of an announcement by AVG yesterday that “unethical” members who misused a member-to-member cash button AVG itself provided are responsible for the company’s inability to announce findings of an audit the company is performing on itself.

    AVG suspended member cash-outs last month, exercising its version of a “rebates aren’t guaranteed” clause and saying an 80/20 program would become mandatory if and when the surf resumed payouts. Earlier this month AVG’s name was mentioned in a racketeering lawsuit against AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin, although the company has not been named a defendant.

    Plaintiffs’ attorneys described AVG as the next iteration of ASD, listing managers and employees the two surfs had in common. George Harris is the stepson of Bowdoin. Property owned by George and Judy Harris — including a home in Tallahassee, Fla. — was sued for forfeiture by federal prosecutors in December.

    Prosecutors said the property was the proceeds of illegal conduct by ASD. Neither George nor Judy Harris has filed a claim to the seized property, according to federal court records.

    AVG has a history of blaming members for its problems and deflecting accountability from management to the rank-and-file. In the past, it has blamed members for the suspension of a bank account and threatened to sue members who shared information outside association walls — and even to contact their ISPs to suspend service of people who asked pointed questions about the company in forums.

    Yesterday’s announcement by AVG also blamed the delay in audit findings on unspecified “complications created by changes in payment processors.”

    “[D]on’t expect the ‘audit’ to be finish any time soon,” Luisa said. “[I]f you hear somewhere of a ‘staff’ in Uruguay, well as far as July 22, there is NONE.”

  • AdViewGlobal Says Members Guilty Of ‘Unethical’ Conduct

    UPDATED 1:57 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Members who abused a member-to-member cash button AdViewGlobal (AVG) itself provided are guilty of “unethical” conduct that has delayed an audit the surf firm is performing on itself, AVG announced today.

    AVG suspended member payouts June 25, implemented a mandatory 80/20 program upon the resumption of payouts on a date uncertain and exercised its version of a “rebates aren’t guaranteed” clause, thus exercising total control over members’ money. The surf said last month that it needed at least 30 days to complete the audit.

    The surf firm, which purports to be headquartered in Uruguay and has servers that resolve to Panama, recently identified George and Judy Harris as its owners. George Harris is the stepson of AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin, whom federal prosecutors said operated a massive Ponzi scheme from a former floral shop in Quincy, Fla.

    ASD and AVG have common management, members and promoters. In March, AVG announced that Gary Talbert, a former ASD executive who provided a sworn statement on ASD’s behalf in a federal forfeiture case against ASD, had resigned as AVG’s chief executive officer.

    AVG initially denied it had any affiliation with ASD or ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

    On March 23, AVG announced that its bank account had been suspended because too many customers had wired transactions in excess of $9,500. The communication was signed “The AVG Management Team.”

    In May — on the same day the Obama administration announced a crackdown on offshore fraud schemes — the surf announced it had secured a new offshore wire facility and provided detailed usage instructions to members.

    Within three days, the surf withdrew the announcement of the wire facility, saying negotiations had failed. The withdrawal announcement came on the heels of a denial by a firm AVG said was facilitating the transfers that it had any business relationship with AVG.

    AVG never addressed the separate firm’s denial. The implication was that AVG had attempted to route wire transactions to itself by using an account not in its name.

    In the following weeks, when members complained about vague announcements and unclear directions from the firm, AVG threatened members with copyright-infringement lawsuits for sharing association news and to contact members’ ISPs to report abuse.

    Some members said they wanted AVG to identify members the company claimed were abusing the system. AVG has not done so, instead saying it is conducting an audit of itself.

    “Because of the unethical use of member transfers by some association members to artificially inflate their accounts, as well as complications created by changes in payment processors, the abrupt withdrawal of Syndicate Digital, and our own rapid growth, the audit has proven to be more difficult than we anticipated,” AVG said today.

    Syndicate Digital, a Canada-based firm that described itself as an AVG subcontractor, said earlier this month that it no longer was working for AVG.

    The surf did not announce a date by which its self-audit would be complete and member cash-outs would resume.

  • Pro Se Filer In ASD Case Used Phone Number Associated With Debt-Elimination Firm; Name Linked To Group Prosecutors Called ‘Notorious’ For Defying Tax Laws

    UPDATED 10:21 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A pro se litigant whose filing was docketed yesterday in the AdSurfDaily case used a phone number associated with a defunct credit-repair website that once advertised “Mortgage Elimination,” “Debt Elimination,” “Credit Restoration,” “Asset Restructuring,” “Off Shore Investments” and “Deciphering of Taxes.”

    The name of the filer also is associated in web records with the Utah branch of the We The People Congress, an arm of the We The People Foundation, a controversial nonprofit organization founded by tax protester Robert Schulz.

    Schulz, an engineer from Queensbury, N.Y., is known for pro se pleadings and clashing with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service. The Justice Department has described Schulz as a “notorious tax defier” who was found in contempt of court for not complying with an order handed down by a federal judge.

    Among other things, the We The People Foundation was accused by the Justice Department in 2007 of marketing “a nationwide tax-fraud scheme designed to help customers evade their federal tax liabilities and to interfere with the administration of the internal revenue laws.”

    Schulz and We The People started offering a “Tax Termination Package” and organized a project known as “Operation Stop Withholding” in 2003, according to prosecutors. The government described the effort as a “campaign to help customers illegally stop withholding, filing and paying federal taxes.”

    In August 2007, a federal judge ordered Schulz and We The People to stop marketing the tax scheme. Judge Thomas McAvoy said the organization was exposing customers to criminal liability, ordering We The People to provide customers a copy of the order and to turn over information about customers who had used a We The People tax kit.

    Schulz initially did not comply with the order. In April 2008, he was found to be in contempt of court, and prosecutors said he faced possible jail time and fines of $2,000 per day until he complied. Schulz complied after the contempt finding.

    Christian Oesch, the pro se filer in the ASD case, used a phone number once associated with GlobalDebtSolution.com. The site now is a parked page, but once offered a host of debt-elimination services, according to web archives. The phone number recorded in the archives is the same phone number listed on Oesch’s pro se pleading in the ASD case.

    The name Christian Oesch appears in web records as the Utah state coordinator for the We The People Congress, and an email address associated with the name pointed to the GlobalDebtSolution domain.

    “Learn about what the IRS, the Bankers, your CPA, Tax Attorney or Politicians do not want you to know . . .” the site said in 2003.

    An audio file captured in the archives is titled “Banking Fraud.” A narrator who identified himself as Tom Shaw explained that bankers “control all major media” and that the U.S. Revolutionary War was fought over banking issues.

    “Now, we need to get this information out to as many people as [we] can about what they’ve done to us with the banking system,” the narrator said.

    Oesch filed the ASD motion as president of a Washington company known as Human Economic Resource Solutions LTD.

    It has been known for months that some people within the ASD organization were in the credit-repair business and also were associated with a group or groups who viewed banking in general and the Federal Reserve in particular as a conspiracy.

    Beginning in February 2009, individuals associated with a culture of pro se pleadings and rants against the government began to inject themselves into the legal battle ASD is confronting. At the same time, AdViewGlobal (AVG), a surf firm with close management, membership and promoters’ ties to ASD, switched to a “private association” structure.

    AVG says it is based in Uruguay, but its Articles of Association say its authority is derived from the U.S. Constitution.

  • BREAKING NEWS: Curtis Richmond Filed Motion To Disqualify Judge; Other Pro Se Litigants Filed ‘Innocent Owner’ Motions To Intervene In AdSurfDaily Forfeiture Case

    UPDATED 1:59 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Curtis Richmond filed a motion to disqualify U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer from the AdSurfDaily forfeiture case before the judge had issued any rulings on a series of pro se pleadings by Richmond and others.

    The motion was included today in a blizzard of motions made public in the AdSurfDaily forfeiture  case. Some of them date back to February.

    At least three other pro se litigants filed separate motions to intervene in the case, and Richmond himself filed a separate motion for miscellaneous relief.

    The docketing of the filings came on the heels of a ruling Collyer made last week that denied individual pro se litigants standing in the ASD case.

    Motions to intervene that asserted an “innocent owner” claim were filed by:

    • Christian Oesch, Human Economic Resource Solutions, Midvale, Utah
    • Jeffrey Robinson, Ft. Myers, Fla.
    • Joan Hughes, Ottawa, Ontario

    Hughes’ filing appears to have been the first prospective intervention filed from Canada. A stamp on the paperwork indicated the document was submitted March 3.

    All three motions to intervene appear to use the Curtis Richmond litigation blueprint.

    In his motion apparently designed to force Collyer to step down, Richmond cites this reason: “For Cause Of Extreme Bias Per U.S. Supreme Court Cases & Other Legal Citations.”

    The motion to force Collyer to disqualify herself appears initially to have been submitted to the court in May.

    In a separate motion, apparently received in March and made public today, Richmond demanded a ruling of some sort. The document appears to have been filed in response to a motion Richmond filed in February that demanded Collyer issue a ruling in the ASD case within 30 days or face sanctions.

    “This Court and Judge Rosemary Collyer both have an Absolute Duty and Obligation Under Article VI Supremacy Clause and the Judge’s Oath of Office To Support and Defend the U.S. Constitution to Obey 18 U.S.C. Sec. 983 and the Civil Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000,” Richmond said.

    “If a Judge Willfully violates these Federal Staututes and the Claimant’s Constitutional Right of Due Process & Civil Rights, She Is At War Against The U.S. Constitution And When She Is Acting Without Jurisdiction and according to the U.S. Supreme Court is Guilty of TREASON.”

    Read Richmond’s motion to disqualify Judge Collyer.

  • Reports: BizAdSplash Slow On Payouts To Surf Members

    UPDATED 6:04 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Could BizAdSplash (BAS), a surf site associated with Golden Panda Ad Builder President Clarence Busby, be following Golden Panda, AdSurfDaily and AdViewGlobal (AVG) into the great autosurf graveyard?

    Busby recently ceded $14 million to the U.S. government as part of the ASD investigation.

    There are reports today that BAS is behind on payments to members. In the recent past, the BAS surf site has been offline for an extended period of time. The surf also urged members not to contact vendors associated with its use of MasterCard with any questions about the BAS program.

    On May 13,  BAS, which purports to be registered in Panama, registered Articles of Organization as a Limited Liability Company (LLC) in Georgia. The surf used an address at UPS Store No. 2644 in Kennesaw, Ga., as its mailing address.

    Why the company purports to be headquartered in both Panama and Georgia is unclear. Some BAS promoters advised customers to send checks and money orders to the Georgia address and to note their BAS usernames and member names on the checks and money orders.

    Joyce Haws, listed in court documents as one of the founding members of Golden Panda Ad Builder, recently was involved in pro se litigation in the ASD/Golden Panda forfeiture case.

    A federal judge ruled last week that the pro se litigants who tried to intervene in the forfeiture case had no standing.

    Although BAS said it recently did away with bank wires, it says it accepts personal checks, business checks and money orders, along with  accepting money from offshore processors AlertPay, StrictPay and SolidTrustPay.

    On its website, BAS does not identify its management team. But its Georgia filings identify Clarence Busby as registered agent.

    Visitors to the BAS website read that it is “an international corporation which functions by utilizing a team of business professionals who are using their expertise and experience to build a successful company. Many of our professionals have additional involvements so to avoid conflicts of interest we do have some non disclosures in place to protect their privacy.”

    In the recent past, the surf has used matching bonus programs to entice new business.

    AVG, which debuted online after the BAS launch, recently announced the suspension of member cashouts and mandatory participation in an 80/20 program should cashouts resume. Like BAS, AVG also used matching-bonus programs. AVG said it lost at least one wire account because members had wired too many transactions in excess of $9,500.

  • Bank Says RICO Plaintiffs’ Claims Have ‘Fatal Deficiencies’; Argues That Prosecutors Have Records On ASD Winners

    UPDATED 10:23 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A federal judge should grant Bank of America’s motion to stay a case in which the bank is alleged to have aided and abetted a racketeering scheme because the plaintiffs already have a remedy and their argument is fatally deficient, the bank argued yesterday.

    Moreover, the bank argued, the government is in possession of certain information about AdSurfDaily Inc. — information outside the scope of the bank’s relationship with ASD — and that a stay is appropriate because prosecutors in a forfeiture case separate from the RICO lawsuit are compiling information.

    “[I]n addition to seizing all of ASD’s assets, the Government seized evidence as well, and thus a brief stay is necessary until resolution of the Forfeiture Proceeding to avoid compromising the proceedings here,” the bank said.

    “[T]he DOJ is currently in the process of determining who among the former ASD members have losses,” the bank said.

    And, Bank of America suggested, there may be reason to believe that a restitution pool envisioned by the government could increase as its probe into ASD continues.

    Federal prosecutors have seized about $80 million to date, according to records.

    “It is also entirely plausible that some former ASD members made money from the alleged scheme and the DOJ’s individualized claims process under the civil forfeiture laws is the best venue to investigate and address such issues,” the bank argued, using bold type to highlight the words “made money.”

    “Accordingly, a brief stay is necessary to permit the process to run its course,” the bank argued.

    The bank said the government already has announced a process by which it intends to provide restitution to alleged victims of ASD.

    “Plaintiffs do not (and cannot) dispute that the DOJ’s asset distribution process in connection with the Forfeiture Proceeding aims to accomplish the same result as the purported claims in this litigation — i.e., to reimburse Mike Collins, Frank Greene, Natures Discount, Inc. and others for money allegedly lost as a result of their involvement with ASD,” the bank said.

    “If the named Plaintiffs in this case have no damages, then they cannot pursue their claims here, let alone act as lead plaintiffs for a class of other similarly situated plaintiffs,” the bank said.

    Bank of America was not named a RICO defendant in the case. Rather, the plaintiffs alleged the bank aided and abetted ASD President Andy Bowdoin, ASD attorney Robert Garner and others in a fraudulent scheme.

    Bowdoin has not responded to the RICO complaint, which was filed in January and amended in April.

    Both the RICO case, which was brought by private litigants, and the forfeiture case, which was brought by the government, are being argued in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

    Judge Rosemary Collyer is presiding over both cases.

    Read the bank’s answer to the RICO plaintiffs.

  • On November Flurries, The President, And The Moon

    Walter Cronkite
    Walter Cronkite

    I was four years old and wide-eyed, perhaps especially if snow was falling. Almost nothing was better than snow in my early years, and I whined until I was permitted to go outside and roll in it. I made no calculation about whether it was deep enough to roll in without getting muddy. Besides, what difference did a little mud make? Even a small accumulation of snow was a powerful, powerful magnet.

    The magnet and all that whining finally drew me outside. I was doing what I did when my mother appeared on the front porch to call me back inside. She was crying. Even at four I knew something was wrong. Moms don’t cry unless there is a good reason.

    The date was Nov. 22, 1963. It was the day I came to know that Walter Cronkite was a very important man and that there were other important men on two other channels.

    President Kennedy had just been assassinated in Dallas, which I assumed was a faraway place. It was the first time I’d ever heard the word assassinated. At four, I knew that Kennedy was the president; I didn’t know what it meant for certain, but I knew that he was sort of like the maximum boss and always was to be treated with the utmost respect. My Grandma was there. She was crying, too.

    We watched TV pretty much for a week straight. I remember John-John, a boy even younger than I. And I remember the horses at the funeral. I was scared they might take off and ruin things. Horses do that sometimes, but they did not on this occasion.

    Walter Cronkite later took me to the moon; the 40th anniversary of man as an extraterrestrial is Monday. Walter couldn’t believe it in 1969. Neither could I. I’m 50 now, and I’m still blown away by it. I never look at the moon without thinking people actually have been up there. Those same people are part of a species that ferried itself on foot, boat or horseback only decades earlier and made it possible for me to publish a Blog accessible virtually worldwide only decades later.

    Cronkite and President Kennedy. Cronkite and the moon.

    Next came Cronkite and Watergate — at least in terms of what is seared in my mind. Truth is, though, Walter is tied to history in so many ways that a person of a certain age group can pick and choose from many, many moments. Walter and Martin Luther King, for example. Walter and Vietnam. Walter and World War II. Walter and the Russians.

    Walter and Ted Baxter.

    Walter, associated with serious events, had a sense of humor.

    The President of the United States dropped everything he was doing last night and issued a special statement on the life and the passing of Walter Cronkite.

    An American treasure: Walter Cronkite. Nov. 4, 1916-July 17, 2009.

  • Bowdoin Had Tax, Vendor Troubles In Previous Firm Dissolved By State Of Florida; Lien Stayed On Books For 12 Years As 6 Other Bowdoin-Connected Businesses Failed

    UPDATED 12:47 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) His promoters said he was a hugely successful businessman, a visionary who entered technology markets and made money before others even had recognized the opportunities. Andy Bowdoin, they said, had cleaned up in the communications business and, for good measure, old-fashioned markets such as dry cleaning. He’d trained thousands of successful salespeople over the years, they said, and now was setting his sights on the online advertising business.

    Google, they said, had entered into an agreement with his company, AdSurfDaily, and even the President of the United States had singled out Bowdoin as a man of genuine distinction.

    Federal prosecutors and a task force consisting of agents from the U.S. Secret Service and the Internal Revenue Service, however, said in court filings that the adjectives associated with Andy Bowdoin in promotional materials for ASD often contradicted the nouns.

    Bowdoin, they said, had left behind a string of failed businesses. And despite reports about his remarkable record of commercial achievement, Bowdoin was a felon who’d fleeced people in a previous securities scheme — and hadn’t told his members about it. And Bowdoin had not reported any significant income for two decades.

    “Bowdoin earned no significant income from legal employment in the twenty years prior to his commencement of ASD’s operation,” prosecutors said. “But, no information about Bowdoin’s record of business failures and fraud accusations is contained on ASD’s website.

    “Nor was Bowdoin’s true past mentioned to prospective members during the ASD rally at which he spoke  . . .  or during the conference calls that he, or others promoting ASD on his behalf, participated in during ASD’s operations,” prosecutors said.

    Bowdoin In The 1980s

    It is possible that investigators knew a lot about Andy Bowdoin before they began early last July to subject ASD to scrutiny.

    Andy Bowdoin had a lien placed against him in Perry, Fla., in 1982, for failure to pay $2,559.65 in taxes due the IRS, records show. The lien reflected a time period in which Bowdoin was associated with a failed energy-saving business.

    In 1984, a local credit union sued Bowdoin for $2,759.78 — an amount about $200 above the amount owed on Bowdoin’s unpaid tax bill from 1982 — although it is not clear if Bowdoin borrowed from the credit union to pay his taxes.

    What is clear is that the tax lien was not removed until 1994, 12 years after it was filed. In the intervening years, six other Bowdoin ventures were dissolved, including five involuntary dissolutions by the state of Florida because Bowdoin had not filed required paperwork.

    In the 1980s, Bowdoin was sued by a Florida television station for an unpaid bill of $3,494.66. He also was sued by a local building-supply company for an unpaid bill of $510.05, and the Florida Department of State involuntarily dissolved Bowdoin’s energy-saving business. (The August forfeiture complaint listed 12 failed Bowdoin business ventures, including six between 1983 and 1987, but not the energy-saving business.)

    The name of the corporation not listed in the federal complaint was Energy Saving International Inc. (ESI), which was dissolved immediately prior to Bowdoin’s launch of six other businesses between 1983 and 1987, including the five that Florida dissolved involuntarily for Bowdoin’s administrative oversights.

    ESI began operating in Florida in 1978; the involuntarily dissolution occurred in 1981, after about four years of operation. Bowdoin filed annual reports in 1978, 1979 and 1980, but did not file one in 1981, the year before the IRS filed the tax lien.

    Bowdoin’s tax trouble dated back to 1978, when he failed to pay $2,349.48 due the IRS. In 1981, he failed to pay $210.77, and in 1982 the IRS placed the lien, records show. The records are public documents and are on file in Taylor County, Fla.

    The records also show a mortgage foreclosure, which appears to have been connected to a Trust set up to manage the affairs of Bowdoin’s mother, who was nearing the end of her life. It appears as though the home was spared in the end.

    Although he was hailed a visionary by his supporters, Andy Bowdoin seems to have forgotten that he’d told investigators one story and a federal judge another. ASD asked the judge last year for emergency release of funds seized by the government because the firm could not pay its rent or hosting bills.

    Bowdoin, however, appears to have asked for the relief while not initially disclosing that ASD had more than $1 million sitting in a bank in Antigua.

    “Bowdoin tells this Court that ASD is out of money,” prosecutors said last year. “But he told the Secret Service that an Antigua account (in another name), holds over one million ASD dollars.”

    Yes, prosecutors said, the account was “in another name.”

    What name could it be, when records show that Bowdoin used at least 15 corporate names between 1978 and 2006? It’s one of the enduring mysteries of the ASD case.

  • BREAKING NEWS: Federal Judge Says Curtis Richmond, Six Other Parties Who Used Pro Se Litigation Blueprint, Cannot Intervene In AdSurfDaily Forfeiture Case

    UPDATED 8:37 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A federal judge has denied motions by seven pro se litigants to intervene in the AdSurfDaily forfeiture case.

    Federal prosecutors seized tens of millions of dollars from ASD President Andy Bowdoin last year, saying his Florida company was running a Ponzi scheme and engaging in wire-fraud and money-laundering.

    Judge Rosemary Collyer issued the ruling late this afternoon, denying Curtis Richmond and six other individuals or companies standing in the ASD case. The ruling is a stunning blow to some ASD members, who had accused the government of a money grab and trumpeted the pro se pleadings, deeming Richmond a “hero.”

    In her ruling, Collyer said the pro se briefs were less than clear.

    “These individuals appear to allege either that they were victims of one or both of the auto-surf frauds or victims of the Government’s interference with their investment program,” she said.

    Filers denied standing include:

    • Pacific Ministry of Giving Intl. (Associated with Richmond)
    • Midwest Healing Ministries
    • Ronald Breckenfelder
    • John R. Moore
    • Michael Haws
    • Curtis Richmond (As an individual)
    • Chad Svendsen

    Collyer said in the ruling that the arguments by the would-be intervenors appeared to use the same blueprint.

    “The first of these, filed on February 3, 2009, is representative and seems to be a ‘form’ complaint inasmuch as the others are duplicates,” Collyer said. “It asserts (emphasis added):

    “The Claimant . . . comes to this Court to present [itself]. An Innocent Owner Qualified Under 18 U.S.C. 983(e) For A Motion To Set Aside Forfeiture & Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 As Facts & Law Will Prove. This Court has a Duty & Obligation To Obey These 2 Federal Statutes that fall under Article VI Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution and where Any Violation Will Be A Civil Rights Violation among other Federal Statute Violations.

    . . .

    [FOR THE RECORD, UPON THE OATH OF OFFICE AND BOND OF THE COURT (CLERK, JUDGES, AND ALL OTHER OFFICERS OF THE COURT] I STANDING IN GOD’s kingdom, accept for value and honor the Judges and Officers of the Court, particularly Judge Rosemary Collyer, U.S. Attorneys William Crowden and Jeffrey Taylor, their Oaths of Office without the UNITED STATES and each of you and I now have a Binding Private Contract ‘so help me God’, that each of you will Protect and Defend ALL my God given and Constitutionally Declared Rights. Any violation of a Binding Contract Is Subject To Legal Damages.”

    In issuing the denial, Collyer said the would-be intervenors failed to demonstrate “that they have a cognizable interest in the monies to be forfeited.

    “Fraud victims who voluntarily transfer their property to their wrongdoers do not retain a legal interest in their property; instead, such victims acquire a debt against their wrongdoers,” Collyer said.

    She added that the would-be intervenors lacked Constitutional standing in the case, but noted they might have a remedy other than the pro se approach they employed.

    “[I]t should be noted that to the extent movants were the victims of fraud, they are not without remedy,” Collyer said. “Under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (“CAFRA”), 18 U.S.C. 981 et seq., the Government may use the forfeiture laws to recover property for the benefit of crime victims.”

    Without taking the government’s side, Collyer pointed out that the government is pursuing a prosecution of the forfeiture complaint on behalf of people it believes are victims of fraud.

    “[T]he Attorney General has the authority under 18 U.S.C. § 981(e)(6) to restore forfeited property ‘to any victim of the offense giving rise to the forfeiture,’” she said.  “As the Government notes in its brief (emphasis added):

    ‘If persons with civil causes of action against wrongdoers had the right to litigate their claims in forfeiture proceedings, forfeiture cases would become forums for general civil litigation of all manner of claims involving wrongdoers. Forfeiture would cease to be an effective tool of federal law enforcement; federal prosecutors would, in every case, have to weigh the benefits of pursuing assets and seeking their forfeiture against the prospect of being dragged into potentially unlimited civil litigation over torts, contracts, and other theories of liability beyond the ken of federal law enforcement.’”

    Collyer’s ruling did not pertain to pro se pleadings by ASD President Andy Bowdoin. But she cited Bowdoin’s pro se pleadings today, recounting some of the history of the case, including a decision Bowdoin had made in January to submit to the forfeiture while he was receiving advice from paid counsel.

    Collyer explained that the “Court mentions these other activities only because they bear on the Government’s ability to ‘compensate the frauds’ victims’ as it intends.”

    The judge suggested that pro se pleadings sometime make leaps of logic and that the mere filing of a document does not mean the filer has made a compelling argument for the relief he seeks — in Bowdoin’s case, reversing his earlier decision to submit to the forfeiture.

    Bowdoin, proceeding pro se, Collyer said, filed a “Notice of Rescission and Withdrawal of Release of Claims to Seized Property and Consent to Forfeiture.”

    The judge noted that the filing listed “a series of alleged examples of ‘fraud, trickery and deceit’” on the government’s part, and that the document concluded that “this rescission is now legally accomplished as a matter of law.”

    “Of course, it is not that simple to overcome a Court Order, but that issue is for another day,” Collyer said.

    Read the judge’s ruling.

    Read the judge’s order.

    See this for some history of Curtis Richmond litigation. Richmond is associated with a Utah Indian tribe a federal judge ruled a “complete sham” last year. The tribe sometimes is called the “Arby’s Indians” because it once held a meeting in an Arby’s restaurant in Provo.