PatrickPretty.com

Category: The Economy

  • BREAKING NEWS: Court Rejects Richmond Appeal Bid In Criminal Contempt Of Court Case For Threatening Judges

    UPDATED 10:34 A.M. EST (U.S.A.) The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit (Pasadena) has denied Curtis Richmond’s bid  to have criminal contempt of court charges for threatening federal judges dismissed.

    Richmond argued that he was denied his right to a speedy trial.

    The appeals court rejected his argument, but the effect of the ruling was not immediately clear.

    In 2007, Richmond was convicted of criminal contempt of court for threatening federal judges. He was sentenced to six months’ home confinement with electronic monitoring, a $1,000 fine and five years’ probation.

    He is now a central figure in the AdSurfDaily case and has threatened to bring charges against U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Cowden and others.

    Richmond argued in court briefs that he’d already served the home-confinement portion of his sentence even though he hadn’t been formally detained at home and was out on bail, pending trial.

    His argument appears to suggest that he satisfied the requirement of six months’ home confinement before the trial on the charge even was held.

    He told the court that the fact he was not permitted to leave San Diego County under the terms of his bail meant that he was in custody and had satisfied his six-month sentence at home.

    “The Petitioner recently learned in talking to the Tribal Atty. General that he had already served his 6 months of Custody and where he needed to go to get the Legal Evidence,” Richmond said in November 2007 court filings.

    Richmond is a member of a sham Utah Indian tribe tied to bizarre litigation and threats to imprison federal judges.

    “The Petitioner was Arrested on May 17, 2006, Jailed, and was brought for arraignment on May 18, 2006 when he was allowed to be out On Bail but Could Not Leave the County Without the Court’s Permission and was Under The Control of the Probation Department” Richmond said.

    “Any Restraint of one’s Liberty of Movement Is Considered Custody[,] which means the Petitioner’s 6 Months Arrest & Sentence Expired Nov. 17, 2006,” he argued.

    But the actual trial on the contempt charges wasn’t held until February 2007, two years ago this month.

    Owing to the nature of Richmond’s appeal filings, a federal judge ordered that a public defender be appointed to represent him. An attorney was appointed in December 2007. About 6 months later, the attorney petitioned the court to withdraw as Richmond’s counsel, but the court refused to let him withdraw.

    The denial by the 9th Circuit was Richmond’s second loss in the U.S. Court of Appeals in the past month. His appeal in the 10th Circuit (Denver) was rejected because he failed to follow procedures. The case in the 10th Circuit dealt with a finding by a federal judge that Richmond and co-defendants from the sham Utah tribe had engaged in rackeetering by pestering public servants and filing vexatious litigation.

  • Our Theory Of The AdSurfDaily Case: Steroidal Puppeteers

    UPDATED 4:30 PM EST (U.S.A.) We believe the AdSurfDaily case never has been as complex as it sounds. The root of it is Andy Bowdoin’s greed and instinct to scam. He has no more control over it than he does the color of his own eyes.

    Andy Bowdoin is not a brilliant or gifted man. Like many con men, he excels at the niceties and can spout phrases by rote that serve as a substitute for wisdom he doesn’t possess. People easily can invest in false wisdom, words that sound prophetic or inspirational. An example of such a phrase can be found at the Surf’s Up site:

    “No more prizes for predicting rain. Prizes only for building arks.”

    Such phrases are key tools of people inclined to separate other people from their money by using linguistic sleight-of-hand. The phrases sound nice, but their purpose is to minimize dissension and discourage questioning.

    The Target Audience

    Andy Bowdoin’s target audience is people less intelligent than he or of equal intelligence; he can reel in “average people” — fundamentally honest average people — by the thousands. But the problem is that his net is so wide that it also reels in people who are much more intelligent than Bowdoin and are his equals or superiors in terms of dishonesty.

    Like Bowdoin, some of them have criminal intelligence, only theirs is on steroids. They can see how to make even more money by adding additional layers of deception, and they take their ideas to Bowdoin.

    The folks who possess steroidal criminal intelligence are smart enough to make Bowdoin do their bidding. They behave like spouses who know how to get what they want by planting an idea and letting their spouses take credit for it. Credit for the idea is what fuels Bowdoin and gives him oxygen for the stage. The steroidal criminals understood this right away. Bowdoin was the face of the organization, the stage presence, the charming spokesman. They were the puppeteers.

    This is another thing they knew right away: Bowdoin was stupid enough to attach his own name to the autosurf business, which prosecutors abhor. Bowdoin’s public presence insulated the master puppeteers from detection while setting the stage for the organization to become a cash cow by ramping up the criminality.

    The master puppeteers, however, made a serious miscalculation: ASD pulled in so much money that it had no real place to put it without drawing unwanted attention. Bowdoin wasn’t smart enough to manage a criminal operation at this level. ASD died the very day a banker closed an ASD-connected account, citing Ponzi fears.

    Checks Led To Checkmate For ASD

    Checks backed up in ASD’s office not because they couldn’t be recorded promptly; they backed up because Bowdoin knew that depositing them made them subject to seizure. It was the classic dilemma money-launderers encounter, and the precise situation that money-laundering, wire-fraud and mail-fraud laws contemplate.

    In some ways, the checks are the best evidence of criminality. No legitimate company sits on tens of millions of dollars of undeposited checks.

    ASD died the very day last summer a banker said “Ponzi scheme.” It is likely that Bowdoin compounded the problem by continuing to collect money — even as he knew there was no place to put it.

    A CEP Tie

    Based on our research, we believe Andy Bowdoin was a member of the CEP Ponzi scheme and borrowed heavily from the model. He was smart enough to see what a cash cow the business could become, and began to contemplate owning his own autosurf. He likely was a low-level player in CEP and other surfs, saw the criminal beauty of the model, and didn’t take the clue when the Feds began to shut down surfs while using phrases such as “Ponzi scheme” and “unregistered security.”

    CEP had its own payment processor, something Bowdoin imagined himself having. And there were claims online that CEP was investing in real estate.

    Bowdoin registered a corporation called “World Payment Systems Inc.” in December 2006, about two months after founding ASD. Before the lights went out at ASD, the company started buying real estate and talking about its vision of owning an interest in a bank, but the purchases themselves only weighted the Ponzi more heavily against rank-and-file ASD members.

    Insiders, including members with steroidal criminal intelligence and Bowdoin family members, were extracting disproportionate shares of proceeds at virtually the instant big money began to roll into ASD. Only the true insiders knew the real truth. Bowdoin sustained the deception after the August seizure because he still needed something from the members he’d just fleeced: testimonials to submit to the court.

    The testimonials did not persuade either the prosecutor or the judge of ASD’s legitimacy, but Bowdoin still had to demonstrate he was “fighting” for the members.

    We believe that, as part of this “demonstration,” Bowdoin or others closely connected with ASD and with knowledge of other autosurfs to come, offered an incentive for certain suporters to stay loyal. These people were co-opted by greed into becoming racketeers because they had visions of prospering in AdViewGlobal or other autosurfs.

    They now find themselves in the impossible position of defending Bowdoin despite everything that has happened — and some of them are doing it for “consideration.” The consideration could be anything from free “ad packs” to a guaranteed return on ASD funds seized by the government.

    The true ASD braintrust is busy trying to port the model to Central America and South America. All three of the new surfs were registered after the ASD seizure:

    Aug. 18, 2008: Domain name for AdGateWorld registered.
    Sept. 22, 2008: Domain name for AdViewGlobal registered.
    Nov. 7, 2008: Domain name for BizAdSplash registered.

    All three surfs have members and promoters in common; ASD and AdViewGlobal have management in common. During a conference call, Bowdoin made the claim that something had happened to the ASD database, that perhaps the government had erased it. We think it likely that the ASD database was stolen or provided to insiders, and that Bowdoin was trying to cover his tracks by suggesting that government tricksters somehow had a role in the disappearance of the database.

    For good measure, he added that ASD had a back-up in a secret location.

    There is no way these things amount to a coincidence. And it’s also no coincidence that ASD gave its official endorsement to the “Surf’s Up” forum on Nov. 27, just prior to the launch dates of the new surfs.

    Want to ask the AdViewGlobal members of Surf’s Up a question? Ask them to disclose if they received a “consideration” of any type. If they deflect, ask them why. If they deny, ask them why they’re pushing a model that is targeting U.S. customers and plainly is selling unregistered securities to U.S. customers — the same thing ASD is accused of doing.

    And then ask them why there are no more prizes for predicting rain — and only prizes for building arks.

    These are the people of equal or lesser intelligence than Andy Bowdoin and the same criminal leanings. The honest people are long gone. The people with steroidal criminal gifts are nowhere to be found, but they’re still pulling the puppet strings.

  • BREAKING NEWS: Following Richmond’s Lead, Second Motion To Intervene Filed In AdSurfDaily Forfeiture Case

    UPDATED 11:23 P.M. EST (U.S.A.) Using a blueprint by Curtis Richmond, an Iowa resident has filed a motion to intervene in the AdSurfDaily case.

    As was the case with Richmond’s motion last week, U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer added a hand-written note to the cover page of the motion.

    “Let this be filed,” Collyer wrote.

    The motion was filed by Aaron Wilkey, president of Tingley Chiropractic Center and M.H.M. Inc. of Tingley, Iowa. “M.H.M.” stands for “Midwest Healing Ministries.”

    Richmond’s motion last week was filed on behalf of Pacific Ministry of Giving International Inc.

    M.H.M. purchased $73,000 in ASD “ad packs” between May 13 and June 15, 2008 to advertise Vemma, according to documents filed along with the motion. Tingley Chiropractic, which also advertised Vemma, purchased $5,000 in ASD “ad packs” on June 15.

    Vemma calls itself “quite possibly the most powerful liquid antioxidant program in the world!” Vemma is sold MLM-style.

    Wilkey did not explain how the two entities that spent a combined $78,000 to advertise Vemma expected to recapture the expense. But at ASD’s advertised rate of return of 1 percent per day, the firms would have shown a paper return of $780 a day, whether or not they sold a single product as a Vemma affiliate.

    M.H.M. Also Contributed To ASDMBA

    Although Wilkey used the shell of Richmond’s motion to file his motion, he appears also to have had a Plan B.

    M.H.M.’s name is listed as a $100 contributor (Aug. 21, 2008) to the ASD Members Business Association (ASDMBA) Trust-Legal Fund. Aaron Wilkey also is listed in ASDMBA documents as an individual contributor to the Trust in the amount of $100 (Aug. 14, 2008). The names and amounts appear on Page 9 of an ASDMBA list of contributors. The ASDMBA contributor’s list is dated Dec. 22, 2008.

    ASDMBA was one of at least three entities that collected money from ASD members and announced intentions to enter the litigation. Some ASDMBA members have challenged Bob Guenther, who helped organize ASDMBA, to explain in precise detail how ASDMBA spent the money it collected from ASD members and to explain precisely how the organization intends to proceed. No ASDMBA litigation has been filed, but ASDMBA representatives did meet with federal prosecutors in Washington.

    Wilkey’s Claims

    As was the case with Richmond’s filing, Wilkey’s filing accuses Collyer, Clerk of the Court Nancy Mayer-Whittington, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor and Assistant U.S. Attorney William Cowden of conspiring to deny ASD members justice.

    It also accuses Collyer and the prosecutors of stealing “Most of the $93 million of ASD Member Ownership Interest.” It further accuses the judge and prosecutors of interfering with commerce, and specifically accuses the judge of dozens of felonies.

    The document — as did Richmond’s — also accuses Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of entering into a conspiracy against ASD members. Both Lamberth and Collyer were accused of running a “Kangaroo Court.”

    Actions by Collyer, Whittington and the prosecutors prevented an ASD member named Alana Holsted from collecting $30 million from “defendants,” the motion claimed. Richmond made the same claim in his motion.

    Richmond is associated with a sham Utah Indian tribe that, in the past, has tried to have federal judges imprisoned. The tribe filed huge judgments against prosecutors and litigation opponents in Utah.

    In his motion, Wilkey threatens to charge the judge and prosecutors under federal racketeering statutes if Collyer does not set aside the ASD forfeiture within 30 days.

    Screen shot of excerpt from Wilkey motion.
    Screen shot of excerpt from Wilkey motion.

    “Justice is going to be Served either quickly and painlessly or the Hard and Expensive Way if the Co-Conspirators believe they are Above the Law,” Wilkey threatened.

    Today, members of the Surf’s Up Pro-ASD forum asked members to get involved in a campaign to petition Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to investigate the ASD prosecutors.

    “Professor” Patrick Moriarty, who has spoken warmly of Richmond’s litigation methods, wrote a letter to Leahy yesterday. Today Surf’s Up sent out an email asking members to follow Moriarty’s lead in asking Leahy to get involved.

    Late tonight, reports were circulating that a link on Moriarty’s website leads to the website of a man who claims to own an asteroid. A link on the website of the man who claims to own Eros, the asteroid, carries a story of how he sent NASA a bill for “parking/storage” of a probe on Eros.

    http://www.erosproject.com/010216.html?source=ErosProject

  • More Than 50 ‘Demand’ Letters Sent To Prosecutors, Secret Service, In AdSurfDaily Case, Moriarty Tells Senator

    UPDATED 12:21 P.M. EST (U.S.A.) Banks are failing. Unemployment is surging. Housing values are plummeting. Credit markets are tight. The economy is shrinking.

    And “Professor” Patrick Moriarty wants the Senate to investigate the prosecutors and a Secret Service agent involved in the AdSurfDaily case, an alleged $100 million Ponzi scheme.

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin, the operator of the scheme, already has ceded seized funds to the government “with prejudice.”

    “With prejudice” means that Bowdoin intends to submit to the forfeiture and never reassert the claims to tens of millions of dollars seized. Meanwhile, the government is establishing a process by which ASD members can apply for refunds.

    Despite the fact the money was seized as the proceeds of a criminal wire-fraud, money-laundering and Ponzi-scheme operation, Moriarty says the Senate should set its sights on the people who prevented the scheme from mushrooming globally — not Bowdoin, the person responsible for organizing the scheme.

    “Over 50 individual and notarized DEMAND[S] FOR LEGAL EVIDENCE were sent to Jeffrey Taylor, US Attorney; William Cowden, Assistant US Attorney; and Roy Dotson, Special Agent, US Secret Service,” Moriarty said in a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D.-Vermont. “Not once did any of these three Government Servants respond.”

    Leahy is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

    “Innocent Americans have suffered and continue to suffer because of these incredulous and despicable acts” by prosecutors, Moriarty said.

    Moriarty was a founder and former board member of ASD Members International (ASDMI), which registered as a Missouri nonprofit in October and threatened to litigate against the government because of its actions in the ASD case. Moriarty resigned from the ASDMI board in December, citing ill health. The entity now has dissolved.

    ASDMI recruited members from within the membership ranks of the ASD Member Advocates Forum, a Pro-ASD site also known as “Surf’s Up.” At least three ASDMI board members also were members of “Surf’s Up.”

    Last week, Curtis Richmond filed a motion to intervene in the ASD case, accusing U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer and the prosecutors of crimes and threatening prosecution and lawsuits under federal racketeering statutes.

    Moriarty, on his website, touted Richmond’s approach to litigation. Richmond is associated with a sham Utah Indian tribe that has attempted unsuccessfully to have prosecutors and federal judges jailed. At least two people who employed the tactics of the tribe have been sent to prison, and Richmond himself was convicted of criminal contempt of court in California in 2007.

    In his letter to Leahy, Moriarty discloses none of this. He also did not inform Leahy that a class-action lawsuit alleging racketeering has been filed against Bowdoin and alleged co-conspirators.

    Court filings by Richmond last week claim that an ASD member named Alana Holsted was prevented from “Collecting on an Entry of Default Affidavit for $30 million for each Defendant.”

    The Utah tribe routinely placed huge, fraudulent judgments against officers of the court or litigation opponents in what victims described as extortion bids. Victims sued under racketeering and mail-fraud statutes. U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Friot ruled the tribe a “complete sham” and ordered members to pay damages and costs of more than $108,000.

    Records show that Richmond tried to force Friot to recuse himself from the “Indian” case by claiming the judge owed him $30 million. Friot refused to step down.

    “I hope your office can review this situation and lend their support,” Moriarty told Leahy.

    Surf’s Up Asks Members To Contact Leahy

    Here is an email Surf’s Up members received today, alerting them of Moriarty’s letter-writing campaign to Leahy. The email was signed by Barb McIntire, a Mod at the Surf’s Up forum, and a former ASDMI board member. The email accuses the prosecutors of committing a “legal travesty” and of “incredible and despicable acts.”  (Emphasis added):

    A message to all members of ASD Member Advocates – Surf’s up Baby!

    Hello ASD Members,

    If timing is everything, then maybe our time for some type of justice has arrived. On February 8,  Senator Patrick Leahy proposed a “Truth Commission” for the Department of Justice.

    Mr. Leahy heads the Senate Judiciary Committee. According to the Washington Wire, he has proposed an independent commission to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by the DOJ during the Bush administration. As ASD members know, the warrantless wiretapping, the politically motivated firing of some US attorneys, and the highly controversial memos on treatment of detainees are not the only things the new administration must examine to find out what went wrong with the DOJ.

    Please take the time and make the effort to write Senator Leahy about the “legal” travesty that was committed against the 100,000-plus members of ASD by US attorneys Jeffrey Taylor and William Cowden. Explain how they used the DOJ to seize $93-million under forfeiture procedures reserved for drug- trafficking crimes. Explain in your own words how our Constitutional rights were trampled on so the DOJ could control the millions in bank accounts, deposits, and property. We each need to explain how thousands of innocent Americans have suffered and continue to suffer because of these incredible and despicable acts.

    Senator Leahy’s contact information is here: http://leahy.senate.gov/contact.cfm
    You can find supporting documentation on Steve Watt’s site:
    http://www.thejoyluckclub.com/ASD_Latest_News.htm

    If you can, send your letter via USPS certified mail and request a return receipt. It will be the best $5 you’ve spent. Please don’t wait. The timing is right. Just do it!

    Emails and phone calls to the Senator’s office are fine, but only after you send that first letter.
    If we don’t do this now, we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.

    Please email me back and let me know you will do this. I’m counting on you for this support.

    [Email Address Deleted]

    Thank you!
    Barb

    Visit ASD Member Advocates – Surf’s up Baby! at: http://asdmembers.ning.com

    To control which emails you receive on ASD Member Advocates – Surf’s up Baby!, go to:
    http://asdmembers.ning.com/profiles/profile/emailSettings

  • Yet Another Senior Citizen Charged In Ponzi Scheme

    ponzinewsIs it mere coincidence? Or is “Ponzi scheme operator” so lucrative that people made it a secret career choice years ago and are being outed because of the shrinking economy?

    Another senior citizen has been charged in a Ponzi scheme, and this time it’s a woman. Judith Zabalaoui, 71, is accused of an elaborate scheme in which she set up fraudulent investment companies, used UPS stores to trick customers into thinking they were brick-and-mortar firms, created “fictitious employees” and spun a web of deception for years, prosecutors said.

    The UPS stores were in Colorado and Delaware, but Zabalaoui ran the scheme out of Alabama and Louisiana, prosecutors said. To pull off the deception, she called UPS mailboxes “suites,” and promised investors “guaranteed” returns of up to 26 percent.

    Zabalaoui took in at least $3 million in the scheme. (Read details at Ponzi News.)

    Here are the names of several other seniors implicated in recent Ponzi schemes:

    • Bernard Madoff, 70.
    • Arthur Nadel, 76.
    • Richard S. Piccoli, 82.
    • Ronald Keith Owens, 73.
    • James Blackman Roberts, 71.
    • Andy Bowdoin, 74.

    Another Ponzi News story you might want to check out involves Robert Miracle. Prosecutors said he dummied up his business résumé, wooing fraud victims by claiming he’d once been employed at NASA and Disney.

    Call him a space mouse — one who took in $65 million, prosecutors said.

  • Picture Story: Hailed A ‘Hero’ By ‘Surf’s Up’ Advocates’ Site And AdViewGlobal Forum, Will Curtis Richmond Save The Day For Beleaguered AdSurfDaily Inc. And Andy Bowdoin Faithful?

    UPDATE AND EDITOR’S NOTE 8:07 P.M. EST (U.S.A.) The screen shots below are of actual court documents in litigation involving Curtis Richmond and the sham Utah “Indian” tribe.

    If you’d like to view the full PDF of the court filings from which the screen shots were made, please click here. It’s a long but interesting read.

    At the bottom of this post, we’ve included a News Release from federal prosecutors about a Hawaii man who was indicted on income-tax charges and convicted. He employed a sham “arbitration” panel linked to the sham Utah “tribe.” The “arbitration” panel was known as the Western Arbitration Council.

    In addition to the News Release, you also might wish to view this document. It is the unsuccessful appeal of a Kansas man who also used the certified-mail tactics of the sham “Indian” tribe and its sham “arbitration” panel and was convicted of  mail fraud and bankruptcy fraud. The man tried to get a judgment of $500,000 against the bankruptcy trustee, escalating it to a claim of $1.5 million through the “arbitration” panel. When the trustee “defaulted,” the man filed a UCC lien against the Trustee in Kansas and sought to collect by making a claim for more than $500,000 through the trustee’s surety bond. This led to a second charge of mail fraud.

    Here, now, screen shots pertaining to Curtis Richmond’s tribal litigation . . .

    1.

    indianarrestwarrantSome members of AdSurfDaily are heralding the entry of Curtis Richmond into the ASD fray. In this screen shot of a document from federal court files, a “Supreme Court” set up by sham Utah “Indian” tribe  issues an “Arrest Warrant” for two legitimate federal judges and two litigation opponents of Richmond. The “tribe” held a meeting inside an Arby’s restaurant in Provo, Utah, in 2003, which is why members sometimes are referred to as the “Arby’s Indians.” Meanwhile,  the “tribe” listed the address of The Open Hearth Doughnut Shop conference room in Vernal, Utah, as the address of its “Supreme Court.” When issuing documents that purportedy carried the force of law, the “clerk of the court” didn’t bother with the formality of listing a last name or even a formal first name. Documents were signed “Charle” — apparently short for “Charlene.”

    2.

    spiritwalkercourt“Spirit Walker,” sham “chief” of tribal law enforcement, identifies the “defendants,” determines they’re not present in “court,” notes that they “have violated a Court Order,” and begins the process of ordering legitimate federal marshals and legitimate police officers to arrest the legitimate federal judges and Richmond’s litigation opponents.

    3.

    indiansanctionsSham “Supreme Court” sanctions legitimate federal judges for “belligerent violations” with fines of $1,000 a day, and tacks on an “additional” 90 days in jail.

    News Release From U.S. Attorney For Hawaii Outlining Prison Sentence For Man Who Used Sham Utah ‘Indian’ Arbitration Panel To Harass IRS

    December 9, 2008

    KIHEI, MAUI REAL ESTATE AGENT/BROKER SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR TAX OFFENSES

    HONOLULU, HAWAII – BRUCE ROBERT TRAVIS, age 60, was sentenced yesterday by Chief District Judge Helen Gillmor to 24 months in prison for obstructing and impeding the lawful administration of the tax laws by the Internal Revenue Service and filing a false amended federal individual income tax return for the calendar year 2000. TRAVIS, a Kihei, Maui resident, was also ordered to pay restitution to the Internal Revenue Service in the amount of $14.958.29, as well as costs of prosecution in the amount of $17,828.95, and a fine of $5,000.

    Ed Kubo, the United States Attorney for the District of Hawaii, said according to the July 2007 Indictment, TRAVIS, who worked as a real estate agent and broker, conducted his real estate business on Maui through Americorp International Limited, incorporated in the State of Hawaii, for which TRAVIS was the owner, president, treasurer and director before its dissolution around 2004. Also around 2004, TRAVIS became president, partner and manager of Americorp International LLC, through which he continued to conduct his real estate business.

    According to the indictment, TRAVIS signed and filed Form 1040 tax returns for 2003 and 2004 wherein he falsely claimed charitable deductions for payments he made to two entities belonging to or operated by Royal Lamarr Hardy, who was convicted of tax crimes in 2005 in Honolulu.

    According to the plea agreement, TRAVIS, while an IRS audit of him was ongoing, also signed and filed false amended individual income tax returns wherein he improperly claimed itemized deductions equal to the adjusted gross income he previously reported on his original Form 1040 tax returns. As a result, TRAVIS falsely claimed that he owed no income taxes for each of the years under audit; that is, 1996 through 2000.

    According to the plea agreement, beginning around March 2004, TRAVIS sought and obtained a fraudulent arbitration award from the Western Arbitration Council in the amount of $300,000 against both the IRS and the IRS employee who conducted the aforementioned audit. TRAVIS obtained the fraudulent arbitration award in an attempt to hinder IRS collection efforts.

    TRAVIS’ sentence was based on information produced for the court that the tax loss to the United States for the years 1996 through 2004, without any interest or penalties, totaled over $400,000.

    The case resulted from an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, and the prosecution was handled by Assistant United States Attorney Clare E. Connors and Department of Justice Tax Division Trial Attorney Michael C. Vasiliadis.

  • Genesis Of The Utah ‘Indian’ Cases And Why They Could Spell Bad News For ASD Members Who Are Seeking Refunds

    Meet Curtis Richmond and the so-called “Arby’s Indians.”

    This stupefying drama actually started almost a decade before the fabled meeting inside an Arby’s restaurant in Provo, Utah, on April 18, 2003. The birth of Wampanoag Nation, Tribe of Grayhead, Wolf Band — a sham Utah “Indian” tribe not to be confused with a legitimate Massachusetts tribe with a similar name — dates back to the “Sovereign Citizen Movement” and “Patriot” eras of the 1990s in which Timothy McVeigh was making headlines for blowing up the federal building in Oklahoma City and killing 168 people.

    “Mr. [Dale] Stevens . . . had actually started the organization . . . some nine years before that meeting in Provo,” said U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot, in findings of fact and conclusions of law. “Curtis Richmond was admitted to the tribe, because, in the words of Mr. Stevens, he is a believer in fighting for liberty, not because of any heritage as a member of the Wampanoag Nation.”

    Friot ruled the tribe a “complete sham.” Richmond now is a central figure in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi litigation.

    The Arby’s meeting in April 2003 was important, though, because it established a date from which a bizarre conspiracy evolved that rattled nerves, subjected public officials, attorneys, investigators and bankers to monumental inconvenience and, ultimately, created the stage from which Curtis Richmond introduced himself  to a wider audience than just the folks back home in California. He has been a thorn in the side of the judiciary there, too, and was convicted in 2007 of criminal contempt of court for threatening federal judges.

    Richmond invokes authority of sham tribal "Supreme Court."
    Richmond invokes authority of sham tribal "Supreme Court."

    Richmond has never been linked to violence. But he has a deep and storied history of threatening federal judges in court filings. And he has drawn the attention — and ire — of banks in courts from coast to coast. Richmond, who is not an attorney and yet holds the unique distinction of having been banned from the practice of law in Colorado, became a player in a scheme in which he advised people who were being sued by banks for defaulting on credit-card debt to “assign” the debts to him.

    This was done by fiat, without the banks’ approval, and was designed to cripple their ability to collect on legitimate debts.  Richmond became embroiled in litigation, and turned to a sham arbitration panel and sham “Supreme Court”  set up by the sham “Indian” tribe to gum up the mix.

    Because the “tribe” itself also was embroiled in litigation — mostly against public servants in Utah — the state became the staging ground for litigation that only can be described as bizarre.

    In one case, for example, the “tribe” divined itself the authority to issue license plates. When a member was stopped by a deputy sheriff for having an illegal tag, litigation ensued that ultimately threatened the sanctity of the state and federal court systems and the government’s ability to prosecute criminals and provide public services.

    Not even the Utah Division of Child and Family Services was immune from tribal interference and harassment. Indeed, the tribe even divined itself the authority to intervene in family matters.

    “A good example of this pattern of racketeering activity would be Wampanoager [Name Deleted To Protect Privacy Of Children,]” victims in the case said. “[Name Deleted] applied for membership in the Wampanoag Nation on October 20, 2002.  His ‘application’ was received into evidence at trial as Exhibit 29. It reflects that Dale Stevens is the Tribal Chief, Thomas Smith is the Chief of Ministry of Justice and Terry Campbell is the Chief Minister of Law Enforcement.

    “[Name Deleted] later became embroiled in litigation with the Utah Division of Child and Family Services regarding his minor children. [Name Deleted] served Mr. Michael Atkin, a  representative of the Utah Division of Child and Family Services, by certified mail, with a demand for payment of $300,000.00, allegedly for breach of contract. This demand, termed a ‘Statement of Account[,]’ advises Atkin that he will be subject to binding arbitration to collect that debt.”

    Curtis Richmond, who is being called a “hero” on the Pro-ASD “Surf’s Up” forum, served as the “arbitrator” and approved the fraudulent $300,000 award.

    Curtis Richmond's signature as "arbitrator" for $300,000 award in family matter involving minor children.
    Curtis Richmond's signature as "arbitrator" for $300,000 award in family matter involving minor children.

    Justice Perverted

    “Insisting that their status as tribal members exempts them from state and local laws, Stevens and the other Wampanoagers engaged in a pattern of racketeering activities involving sham arbitrations before an entity known as the Western Arbitration Council,” said victims of the scheme, in court filings.

    “The Western Arbitration Council is a dba for a Utah corporation called the Order of White Light,” the victims continued. “The Order of White Light, in turn, claims to be a private ‘ecclesiastical corporation sole’ of which Thomas Smith is the ‘presiding patriarch.’

    “Stevens and the Wampanoagers obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent arbitration awards against local governmental officials, judges and prosecutors and then

    Richmond uses sham 'Indian Supreme Court' to overturn legitimate court rulings and threaten federal judges.
    Richmond uses sham 'Indian Supreme Court' to overturn legitimate court rulings and threaten federal judges.

    recorded those ‘awards’ as liens against the officials’ property, including the property of Uintah County, Utah, Uintah County Attorney Joan Stringham, former Uintah County Sheriff Hawkins and Uintah County Deputy Sheriff Laursen. The Wampanoagers did this in order to frustrate, harass, interfere with and obstruct local law enforcement so as to continue their respective commercial activities free of governmental regulation,” the victims said.

    All of this potentially spells bad news for ASD members.

    For scale, consider that the first filing in one of the Utah cases involving Richmond was entered on Aug. 11, 2004 — four and a half years ago. The most recent filing is dated Jan. 14, 2009, and the case file includes 321 separate entries, not taking entries that don’t qualify as formal filings into account.

    By comparision, the ASD case has 42 entries since it was opened in August 2008 — and was nearly litigated to conclusion before Richmond entered the fray. If the case drags on interminably — and if people expecting to petition the government for a refund from seized funds have to wait even longer — they can blame it on Curtis Richmond, “Professor” Patrick Moriarty and some of the members of the “Surf’s Up” forum who advocated a scorched-earth campaign against the government.

    A linchpin of the stragegy is to send demand letters to litigation opponents, judges and officers of the court by certified mail. The letters demand a specific course of conduct and include a compressed time frame in which the demand must be met. If the demand is not met or if the recipient ignores the letters, the practitioners claim a contract violation has occurred and seek astronomical judgments against the targets of the letters.

    If any of this sounds unreasonable and dangerous to you, consider you’re not alone in your concern. In one of the Utah cases, the recipients sued under federal racketeering and mail-fraud statutes — and won. On the eve of an “Indian” trial in Utah, Richmond tried to force Friot to recuse himself from the case, claiming that Friot couldn’t be fair because he “owes Curtis Richmond $30 million in Damages for Violating Curtis Richmond’s Sovereign & Constitutional Rights.”

    And Richmond piled on threats: “The Judge Disqualifies Himself Or He Will Face Criminal Charges,” he demanded.

    Friot refused to step down. He found that the “tribe” had engaged in racketeering and mail fraud, ordering more than $108,000 in damages to the victims.

  • No Claims Filed In Second AdSurfDaily-Connected Seizure

    andybowdoinbw.gifUPDATED 1:31 P.M. EST (U.S.A.) Nearly two months have passed since federal prosecutors went to court and filed a second forfeiture complaint against assets tied to AdSurfDaily Inc., an alleged $100 million Ponzi scheme.

    The document was filed Dec. 19, about a week before Christmas. As of the morning of Feb. 6, 2009, no party had filed a claim to the seized assets. No attorney for any of the potential claimants has filed a notice of appearance with U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

    Among the people who could file claims are Edna Faye Bowdoin, wife of ASD President Andy Bowdoin; George Harris, son of Edna Faye Bowdoin; Judy Harris, wife of George Harris; Hays McDougal Amos, whose precise link to ASD is unknown; Juan Fernandez, chief executive officer of ASD; and Andy Bowdoin himself.

    No one had come forward as of this morning.

    Prosecutors said money in ASD accounts was used to fuel lavish personal spending by Bowdoin family members. They asserted, for example, that $157,000 was used to retire the mortgage on the Tallahassee home of George and Judy Harris and that ASD check No. 1337 (for $28,607.67) was used to purchase a 2008 Honda CRV for George and Judy Harris.

    Both George and Judy Harris signed paperwork at the dealership to complete the transaction, prosecutors said. Based on the forfeiture complaint, George and Judy Harris — at a minimum — could assert a claim for $185,607. Their home is included in the forfeiture complaint, meaning they stand to lose it, along with its equity and property improvements.

    Meanwhile, an ASD check for $33,450.30 — drawn on an ASD account in Andy Bowdoin’s name and signed by Juan Fernandez — was used to purchase an Acura TXS registered in the name of Hays Amos.

    Also subject to forfeiture are a building for which ASD paid $800,000 cash in Quincy, Fla.; two jet skis and a hauling trailer that were purchased with $20,506 of ASD money; a Triton Cabana boat, Mercury motor and trailer purchased with $23,445 of ASD funds; and a Lincoln MKS that was acquired with $48,244 of ASD funds.

    ASD’s computers and equipment, which the prosecutors earlier had returned so the company once again could begin to display advertising, also are subject to forfeiture now.

    Is this a case of “easy come, easy go?” Perhaps.

    Bowdoin, whom prosecutors said advertised a failed, dissolved business in his own rotator to qualify for “rebates,” also gave free ad credits to other family members, so they could earn money off the backs of rank-and-file ASD members without paying a penny.

    “Mr. Bowdoin also gave free ad packages to his son and to a former-daughter-in-law, by which they pulled funds out of ASD without paying any money to ASD,” prosecutors said. “In his son’s case, he arranged for another employee to ‘surf’ the program in order to qualify for a share of the daily rebates. Purchasing advertising was irrelevant to these ‘investors.’”

    Within three days of the Dec. 19 filing of the second forfeiture complaint, a new autosurf — AdViewGlobal — started to generate buzz on the Internet. Its chief executive officer, Gary Talbert, is a former ASD executive.

    Another common tie is Chuck Osmin, an ASD employee who now doubles as a spokesman for AdViewGlobal. In sworn testimony in the ASD case, Osmin said he had expected to receive about $2,000 a day from ASD before it ceased operations.

    On Nov. 27, a few weeks prior to the very public birth of AdViewGlobal, ASD announced on its website that it “supports” the ASD Member Advocates Forum, also known as “Surf’s Up!” Some of the Surf’s Up Mods now have created a forum for AdViewGlobal members.

    “All ASD Members are encouraged to join the ASD Members Advocate forum,” ASD said. “The ASD Members Advocate forum should be your source for up-to-the-minute opinions and commentaries about ASD.  We encourage you to join and get involved.  Log on to [ . . .]

    “Surf’s Up, Baby!”

    The surf may indeed be up, but it doesn’t appear to be pushing people toward the courthouse to file claims for more than $1 million in money and property seized in the December forfeiture complaint.

    That should come as no surprise, however. Andy Bowdoin claimed $1 million was stolen from ASD by Russian hackers, and he didn’t even file a police report.

    Claims for ASD assets seized in the August forfeiture complaint were filed within days, and Bowdoin now has withdrawn those claims.

  • 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.