Two weeks after a purported “sovereign citizen” allegedly opened fire with an AK-47 on a Pensacola seafood store because it was out of crawfish, Floridians may be confronting yet-another bizarre and disturbing drama.
Indeed, members of Quincy-based AdSurfDaily appear to be circulating an email call to raise defense funds for ASD President Andy Bowdoin, accused criminally in December 2010 by federal prosecutors and the U.S. Secret Service of operating an international Ponzi scheme involving at least $110 million.
After earlier evoking the image of the President of the United States to sanitize the ASD scheme, Bowdoin’s apologists now are evoking the image of famed golfer Arnold Palmer and his famed “Arnie’s Army.”
“So now we have a strong chance to build ‘Andy’s Army’ made up of many tens of thousands of caring ASD members and other Freedom Fighters across America who are all joining together in this extremely important fight for Truth and Justice,” the email read in part.
It went on to describe the U.S. government as a “giant common enemy that destroyed Andy’s life and reputation.” The email further accused the Secret Service of seizing “all the ASD member’s advertising money from their accounts” and keeping it.
Curiously, though, the email did not explain that Bowdoin — in 2008 — agreed with the government that money seized by the Secret Service belonged to him, not individual ASD members. Nor did the email explain how the government, which has described Bowdoin as a recidivist felon involved in at least five bids over the years to fleece investors, had “destroyed” Bowdoin’s life and reputation.
After not explaining those two things, the email went on not to explain that the government announced more than two years ago that it was establishing a restitution program through a remissions administrator appointed by the Justice Department and the Secret Service — and that scammed ASD investors would be compensated from cash seized from Bowdoin’s bank accounts.
Three of Bowdoin’s bids to scam investors over the years occurred while he was operating ASD between 2006 and 2008, renaming the company to launch a new Ponzi scheme under a new brand — and coming up with two other autosurfs to scam investors, according to the government. Two previous Bowdoin efforts to defraud investors occurred more than a decade ago, according to court filings.
Instead of telling investors about his true history, he falsely led them to believe he was a highly successful businessman who’d earned a nod for business achievement from the President of the United States. Donations Bowdoin provided the National Republican Congressional Committee were funded with Ponzi proceeds, according to the government.
In September 2009, federal prosecutors described Bowdoin, now 76, as “delusional.” The assertion was made just days after Bowdoin — in a conference call with members — claimed his fight against the government was inspired by a former Miss America.
Crucially, prosecutors alleged nearly two years ago, Bowdoin had told members the seized money belonged to them. But he had told a federal judge that the money belonged to him.
“[T]his con man cannot manage to keep his stories straight,” prosecutors said.
But what the government described as an autosurf Ponzi scheme with at least two other autosurf Ponzi schemes feeding it now is being described by Bowdoin’s apologists as a “wonderful” opportunity.
And the U.S. government, which stopped an alleged Ponzi scheme in its tracks before it could further mushroom, is being described as the “enemy.”
“This same enemy destroyed and stopped the wonderful ASD business that Andy and his staff had continually created for 2 years that was making ASD member’s dreams of Financial Freedom come true,” the email continued.
Although ASD has not been associated with acts of violence, the company is known to have within its membership ranks people who define themselves as “sovereign” beings. In 2008, after the Secret Service seized 10 of Bowdoin’s personal bank accounts amid allegations he disguised a securities business as an “advertising” business and was falsely trading on the name of President George W. Bush to sanitize his scheme, Bowdoin claimed the seizures were the work of “Satan.” For good measure, he said the government’s acts against his company were comparable to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people. When reporters called ASD’s office, they were greeted by Bowdoin’s voice on an answering machine.
Bowdoin assured callers that God was on the company’s side.
Now, nearly three years later — with Bowdoin facing serious felony charges and having lost two federal appeals for more than $65.8 million seized through civil forfeiture while confronting at least one more civil-forfeiture case and a racketeering lawsuit filed by three of his members — Bowdoin says he is out of money, according to ASD members.
The remedy for Bowdoin’s purported lack of funds, according to his apologists, is for ASD members to provide cash $20 and $50 at a time. The money will go into a legal war chest from which Bowdoin, positioned as “David,” can draw funds to stone his enemy in court, with the government positioned as “Goliath.”
We presume the David-and-Goliath reference in the email is figurative, but the language employed by the apologists is disturbing even if no actual rocks will be thrown at the people who prosecute criminal cases and protect the life of the President of the United States while guarding the U.S. financial infrastructure.
“In the Biblical Story of David & Goliath, little David, all alone, threw only one rock with a strong force and deadly aim and killed Goliath with a sharp powerful blow to the forehead,” the email read. “And now each member of Andy’s Army can throw one rock (one contribution of up to $50), and when combined all together will become tens of thousands of these financial ‘rocks’ that are each propelled by the powerful force of Truth, and these ‘rocks’ will strike the common enemy by giving Andy’s Legal Defense Team the massive funds they need to fight and win this giant case for Andy, for ASD and for each of you. Together the combined financial force of Andy’s Army can destroy this giant nightmare and make that wonderful dream described above come true for everyone.”
The new bid to raise funds for Bowdoin follows on the heels of a bid by some Florida members of ASD to raise funds for themselves — reportedly $10,000 to sue the United States in Florida’s federal courts. Dozens of ASD members previously had failed in their pro se bids to derail the forfeiture cases against Bowdoin’s money in federal court in the District of Columbia.
Prior to the failed bids in the District of Columbia, a federal judge was described as “brain dead” if she ruled against ASD. One ASD member called for other members to form a “militia” and storm Washington with guns. Another opined that a federal prosecutor should be placed in a torture rack — with ASD members drawing straws to see who got the honor of turning the wheel.
ASD critics were described as “rats,” “maggots” and “cockroaches” — and these things happened after Bowdoin advised the troops that “Satan” was on the prowl and that God was on ASD’s side.
This madness is hardly limited to Florida.
About the only things for certain is that Andy Bowdoin is no Arnold Palmer, and ASD was no “wonderful” company.
What is was was a criminal mirage that triggered a mass delusion.
UPDATED 1:46 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) AdSurfDaily “paid out millions of dollars to operators and insiders,” according to a U.S. Secret Service affidavit originally filed under seal in February 2009.
But ASD President Andy Bowdoin changed the subject when people told him that what Florida-based ASD was doing not only was illegal, but also was “not mathematically possible,” according to the affidavit.
What he was trying to do, according to court filings, was establish at least three autosurfs that would generate Ponzi-extending cash while Bowdoin positioned them as legitimate “advertising” businesses.
And Bowdoin also wanted to persuade members that he had discovered a formula that purportedly made it possible for ASD to set aside 50 percent of its daily revenue and pay participants 125 percent of what they paid in — all while planting the seed that members could expect a return of 8 percent a day on some days.
Investigators saw things a different way, saying ASD was creating a minimum liability of $1.25 for every dollar it took in.
“Try it — it works,” Bowdoin simply told the doubters, changing the subject instead of addressing the mathematical realities, according to the Secret Service.
There was too little profit in operating legitimately, Bowdoin told a consultant, according to the Secret Service.
As ASD was facing a Ponzi abyss, a consultant told Bowdoin there was a way for ASD to clean up its act, according to the Secret Service.
“Bowdoin, however, was dissatisfied with the consultant’s revenue sharing proposal and with the limited revenue a legitimate business would produce,” the Secret Service alleged in the February 2009 affidavit. “Bowdoin rejected the consultant’s plan and terminated his relationship with the consultant.”
Bowdoin had arrived at his 50-in/125-out formula after an earlier formula in which ASD purportedly had set aside 60 percent of its revenue to pay participants 150 percent of what they paid in had brought on a Ponzi collapse that caused the company to cease operations and leave investors in limbo for weeks in 2007, according to the Secret Service.
ASD’s original formula was concocted by Bowdoin and his “silent partner,” a man who recruited Bowdoin into the 12DailyPro autosurf Ponzi scheme, according to the Secret Service.
Both of ASD’s formulas were just a means of hiding ASD’s true nature as a financial beast with a fatal disease, according to court filings.
Despite the spectacular collapse of 12DailyPro amid Ponzi allegations filed by the SEC in early 2006, Bowdoin and his silent partner ruminated that 12DailyPro simply had promised to pay out too much money on a daily basis, according to the Secret Service.
Upstart ASD, Bowdoin and his silent partner speculated, could take regulators out of play and avoid the Ponzi fate of 12DailyPro by telling investors that the firm would pay out less money and by introducing verbal sleight-of-hand to disguise the true nature of the business, according to the Secret Service.
ASD also speculated that it could circumvent the Ponzi problem and law-enforcement scrutiny by suggesting that ASD’s payouts, which the firm called “rebates,” were not “guaranteed,” according to the Secret Service.
Despite telling members to “Try it — it works,” Bowdoin had no confidence in his business model and knew it was still a Ponzi despite the post-12DailyPro tweaking. In the end, according to court documents and other records, ASD still was telling investors they’d get back more than they paid in and, on a yearly basis, would receive a return of 365 percent at a “rebate” rate of 1 percent a day.
Even as ASD was playing in the post-12DailyPro fields and grew eventually to suck in tens of millions of dollars a week, less than 2 percent of its revenue came from external sources. More than 98 percent came from members and was simply being recycled to other members to keep the Ponzi afloat, according federal prosecutors.
At a certain point in time, Bowdoin did away with unlimited purchases and limited the amount investors could pay ASD to $12,000 “because he did not want members to lo[]se too much money should ASD collapse,” according to the February 2009 Secret Service affidavit.
The import of the claim is that prosecutors can argue to a jury that Bowdoin himself was worried about the imminent demise of ASD — a demise Bowdoin brought on through the use of various mathematical concoctions, linguistic fantasies and fabrications designed to separate people from their money to keep the Ponzi afloat.
Meanwhile, the claim sets the stage for prosecutors to tell a jury that Bowdoin anticipated a catastrophe and sought to insulate himself from prosecution by suggesting that ASD did not guarantee rebates and that customers were purchasing “advertising,” as opposed to entering into an investment contract with ASD.
“[T]o ensure that no individual investor monopolized the rebate pool, and to reduce the
likelihood that any individual investor would suffer a catastrophic loss, Bowdoin placed a limit on the amount of ‘advertising’ members could purchase,” the Secret Service said. “Of course, it would have made no sense to impose such limitations if ASD was actually selling, and members actually were purchasing, Internet advertising.”
Bowdoin’s various stories were at odds with themselves, the Secret service alleged. Even as Bowdoin was telling members ASD was not in the investment business and instead was a provider of advertising “rebates,” ASD’s computer systems described member payouts as “ROI” — for Return on Investment.
And even as he positioned himself as a Christian “money magnet” and merchant who’d been recognized by the President of the United States — and even as he purportedly was enforcing a $12,000 purchase ceiling to minimize the chance an individual investor would become engulfed in a calamity — Bowdoin told attendees of company “rallies” in U.S. cities that ASD would match the money they plowed into the firm 50 cents on the dollar.
“At the rallies, to raise more money, Bowdoin concocted the idea of running ‘rally-only promotions,’” the Secret Service alleged. “New members were told they would receive a 50% bonus for joining at the rally. For example, if a new member purchased $500 in ‘ad packages’ as a bonus she would be credited $750 to her account. Representatives of ASD stated this was a ‘World Wide Wealth’ program that was available to anyone with Internet access.”
In early 2008, Bowdoin became a participant in a scheme with a “North Carolina” attorney to assure prospects that ASD had been vetted and was operating lawfully. ASD’s 26-minute legality video and the rallies caused tens of millions of dollars suddenly to flow into the firm, according to the Secret Service.
Just a year earlier, the company suspended operations because it was starved for cash flow and faced a collapsed Ponzi, according to the Secret Service. ASD’s response to the collapse was to launch a new autosurf Ponzi under a new name — and to port the accounts of its original set of victims into the new scheme, where the payouts early loyalists had expected would be funded by incoming participants who did not know their money was being distributed to Bowdoin’s orginal victims.
Later in 2008, as spring and summer warmth returned to northern climes, ASD found people throwing money at it. Some of the people who threw money at ASD did so at rallies in Iowa, according to the Secret Service.
Affidavit For Seizure Targeted At At Least 7 Iowa Bank Accounts
The PP Blog reported in December 2010 that funds traced to Bowdoin and two other ASD members had been targeted in yet-another forfeiture action in the District of Columbia. The action was filed less than three weeks after Bowdoin’s Dec. 1 arrest by federal agents in Florida on Ponzi-related charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.
Prosecutors’ December civil-forfeiture action was at least the third targeted at assets owned by Bowdoin. Assets of two other ASD members — Erma “Web Room Lady” Seabaugh and Robyn Lynn Stevenson (also: Robyn Lynn) of Florida — also were targeted.
The civil case against Bowdoin’s assets is on hold because of the criminal allegations against him. But the cases against the assets of Seabaugh and Lynn remain active. Neither Seabaugh nor Lynn had filed a claim for the money as of Friday.
In the case against Seabaugh’s assets, the government was authorized to seize $213,693 from a bank account, but found only $153,097 in the account. The Secret Service seized $96,525 from two bank accounts linked to Lynn.
Some of the money Seabaugh plowed into ASD originated at E-Bullion, a shuttered California money-services business operated by convicted murderer James Fayed, who ordered the execution of his estranged wife in 2008.
Pamela Fayed, a potential witness against her husband on matters pertaining to E-Bullion and an associated business known as Goldfinger Coin & Bullion, was slashed to death in a Los Angeles-area parking garage on July 28, 2008.
On Aug. 1, 2008, the Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from Bowdoin’s bank accounts. The December 2010 claim by federal prosecutors that Seabaugh had used E-Bullion to fund one of her ASD accounts was the first public tie between ASD and E-Bullion, which has been linked to multiple Ponzi schemes.
Seabaugh had multiple ASD accounts with multiple email addresses — and appeared to be “selling her own investment ‘ad packs’ to clients and representing herself as ASD,” the Secret Service alleged.
The PP Blog learned on June 10 that the Secret Service, in February 2009, also targeted proceeds in seven bank accounts belonging to ASD members in Iowa for forfeiture. In an affidavit, the agency said the accounts contained at least $413,018.
How the cases are evolving was not immediately clear. The Secret Service, according to the affidavit, identified the assets as proceeds of an ASD-related wire-fraud scheme.
Acting as pro se pleaders and using a litigation template associated with ASD participant Curtis Richmond, one of the so-called Arby’s Indians, two of the individuals associated with the Iowa accounts cited by the Secret Service in the February 2009 affidavit later attempted unsuccessfully to intervene in the main civil-forfeiture case against Bowdoin’s assets.
The February 2009 Secret Service affidavit identifies the individuals as Joyce and Michael Haws.
“Joyce Haws was an active participant in and large promoter of the ASD wire fraud
scheme,” the Secret Service alleged in the affidavit. “Ms. Haws was one of several people who requested and facilitated one of the first rallies within ASD, in Ankeny, Iowa, on about March 15th, 2008.”
Haws recruited her mother and others into the scheme, according to the affidavit.
Walter Clarence Busby Jr., a Georgia minister and Bowdoin’s alleged business partner in Golden Panda Ad Builder, identified Joyce Haws and her “spouse” in 2008 as “founders” of Golden Panda.
In the same Busby affidavit, filed on Aug. 29, 2008, Busby identified Robyn Lynn as the person who introduced him to ASD.
Curtis Richmond was an early mainstay in the ASD story. He has a contempt-of-court conviction for threatening federal judges, has been banned from the practice of law in Colorado even though he is not an attorney and has been sued successfully under the federal racketeering statute for harassing public officials and participating in schemes to place bogus financial judgments against them.
Richmond, who proclaimed himself a sovereign being answerable only to God, was a member of a Utah “Indian” tribe a federal judge ruled a “sham.” The “tribe” got its derisive name — the Arby’s Indians — because it once held a meeting in an Arby’s restaurant.
The “tribe” also used the address of a Utah doughnut shop as the address of its “Supreme Court,” while threatening public officials with arrest and detention for carrying out their official duties.
EDITOR’S NOTE:First of two parts. Part Two will be published later tonight or tomorrow.
Even as AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin was venturing to Washington in June 2008 to receive what his members and prospects were told was the “Medal of Distinction” from the President of the United States, he was harboring terrible secrets and knew full well his autosurf business was a Ponzi scheme that could collapse at any second and lay waste to thousands of investors, according to court records and an affidavit originally filed under seal by the U.S. Secret Service.
Much of the information from the affidavit, which was filed in February 2009, is being published today for the first time. Companion court documents in ASD-related litigation show that part of a third civil-forfeiture case brought in December 2010 against assets alleged to be owned by ASD and Bowdoin has been put on hold while Bowdoin is battling criminal allegations — and that some individual ASD members whose assets were targeted for forfeiture in the same case have not filed claims for money seized from their bank accounts. Although the forfeiture action against Bowdoin has been suspended, the cases against the assets of the individual ASD members remain active.
Just two months prior to his June 2008 Washington jaunt — in April 2008 — Bowdoin had flown at the prompting of a “North Carolina lawyer” to Panama and Costa Rica with his wife and the lawyer. The purpose of the trip, according to the affidavit, was to incorporate ASD Cash Generator and an entity known known as La Sorta Trading outside of U.S. jurisdiction to create wiggle room if U.S. regulators came knocking.
ASD Cash Generator was the replacement name for the original ASD autosurf business, which was known simply as AdSurfDaily. The first scheme collapsed in 2007, leaving Bowdoin’s first set of investors holding the bag, according to the affidavit. Bowdoin’s later investors were not told about the firm’s dubious history.
La Sorta Trading, whose purpose was not immediately clear, never before has been referenced in the ASD case. La Sorta is the name of a city in Honduras, another country in Central America. It is not known if the firm was named after the city.
Bowdoin also was exploring the possibility that he and his wife would move from the small town of Quincy, Fla., to Costa Rica, the Secret Service advised U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer.
“Bowdoin’s wife did not like Costa Rica, however, and his plans to move ASD’s operations off shore were shelved,” according to the affidavit.
The February 2009 affidavit paints Bowdoin, now 76, as a man experiencing pressure from multiple points of contact — and as a man who made one disastrous decision after another. One of the things allegedly pressuring Bowdoin was fear that the Ponzi could come tumbling down before enough new members were recruited to keep cash churning and the facade of a successful and lawful business in place. Yet-another was fear that insiders, ordinary members and even employees could turn on him. Still-another was fear that a government intervention could occur at any time, according to the affidavit.
Of the millions of dollars that had flowed into ASD, “less tha[n] $25,000 was derived from independent revenue,” according to the affidavit. The rest had come from members and was being recycled in classic Ponzi scheme fashion, with Bowdoin initially empowering himself and a “silent partner” to rake 10 percent of ASD’s “gross sales” and split it evenly: 5 percent each.
But even as he was in Washington in June 2008 to receive an award he positioned as a Presidential acknowledgment of his business acumen, Bowdoin knew that his silent partner posed a risk to him, according to the affidavit.
That silent partner, according to the affidavit, was Bowdoin’s “sponsor” in 12DailyPro, an autosurf the SEC accused of running a massive Ponzi scheme more than two years earlier.
Through his sponsor, Bowdoin had invested $100 in 12DailyPro. The money was lost quickly because the SEC shut down 12DailyPro soon after Bowdoin joined. But Neither Bowdoin nor his silent partner took the clue from the SEC’s action, according to the affidavit. Instead, they worked on ways to channel 12DailyPro-like revenue to themselves and disguise what they were doing.
“Based on his experience with 12daily Pro, and his review of the SEC’s filings against it, Bowdoin knew that a paid auto-surf program that promised returns of that magnitude and recycled member funds was a business model that was both unsustainable and illegal. He also knew that selling an unregistered investment opportunity to thousands of investors was illegal. Nevertheless, after the collapse of 12daily Pro, Bowdoin agreed with his 12daily Pro sponsor to start a similar autosurf program. Both individuals were aware that, before its collapse, 12daily Pro had taken in millions of dollars from its members.”
Under Bowdoin’s agreement with his silent partner, Bowdoin was responsible for managing ASD’s operations. The partner, meanwhile, was responsible for marketing ASD.
In December 2006, about a year and a half prior to Bowdoin’s June 2008 trip to Washington amid claims he was receiving a Presidential award for business smarts, Bowdoin arbitrarily slashed the silent partner’s cut of the upstart ASD business from 5 percent of the gross to 1 percent, according to the affidavit.
Despite the fact Bowdoin had been a 12DailyPro member recruited into that SEC-smashed Ponzi scheme by the same person who’d later emerge as his silent partner in ASD, Bowdoin explained to the silent partner that he — meaning Bowdoin — “was performing most of the work, and bearing most of the risk in operating ASD,” according to the affidavit.
With those words, Bowdoin imposed a pay cut on the silent partner, who later asserted Bowdoin had ripped him off, according to the affidavit.
In August 2008, during a search of Bowdoin’s home in Quincy less than two months after the Washington jaunt and the Presidential claims, the Secret Service found Bowdoin’s handwritten notes from December 2006 that “show his and his silent partner’s awareness of the risks of the auto-surf program they were conducting,” the Secret Service said in the affidavit.
“Bowdoin’s notes indicate that he told his silent partner that the partner should have made him better aware of those risks ‘knowing regulators were on the prowl for surfing sites,’” the Secret Service alleged.
It is known from other documents that the Secret Service opened the ASD probe after becoming aware of the company on July 3, 2008, about 17 days after Bowdoin had ventured to Washington amid claims he’d be be receiving a Presidential award and dining with President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
One of the documents is a 57-page evidence exhibit that includes surveillance photos taken in Quincy prior to the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from Bowdoin’s 10 personal bank accounts, one of which allegedly contained more than $31.6 million. The Secret Service was alarmed as it began the process of peeling back layers of the onion, according to court records
Before July had come to a close, the agency — confronted with a murky fact set and trying to figure out how a man who claimed to have had a remarkable business career that had captured the attention of the President of the United States — had assigned multiple undercover agents to the ASD case.
One of the earliest puzzles to solve, according to court documents, was that Bowdoin had left behind a string of dissolved companies in Florida and professed to be wealthy — but had “earned no significant income from legal employment in the twenty years prior to his commencement of ASD’s operation.”
As the investigation progressed, according to court documents and the February 2009 affidavit, agents discovered that ASD had “special” members who provided Bowdoin start-up capital to varying degrees. These “special” members were grouped as members of ASD’s “President’s Circle,” “President’s Advisory Board” and “President’s Advisory Counsel,” and also knew about the 12Daily Pro Ponzi.
At least “some” of them, according to the affidavit, counseled Bowdoin not to use the name he initially contemplated in 2006 for the upstart enterprise: DailyProSurf.
Some of the special members, who were entitled to higher compensation than ordinary members, “complained” that DailyProSurf sounded too much like 12DailyPro. In response to the concerns, the enterprise abandoned the DailyProSurf name and used the name AdSurfDaily as a means of avoiding “law enforcement scrutiny,” according to the February 2009 affidavit.
The document did not name the “special” members. It was filed under seal on Feb. 26, 2009, during a period in which an autosurf known as AdViewGlobal (AVG) was launching. AVG may represent the fourth iteration of ASD, one launched months after the seizure of Bowdoin’s bank accounts by the Secret Service in August 2008.
AVG’s name is not referenced in the February 2009 affidavit. In June 2009, however, AVG’s name surfaced in a racketeering lawsuit brought against Bowdoin and North Carolina attorney Robert Garner. In September 2009, the government made a veiled reference to AVG in court filings.
Lawyers Referenced In Secret Service Affidavit As Bowdoin’s Partners In LaFuenteDinero, The ‘Spanish’ ASD
NOTE: The PP Blog became aware in 2010 that the government had subpoenaed at least three North Carolina attorneys, including Robert Garner, in the ASD case. The other two attorneys were husband and wife. The husband, who was sentenced to a year in federal prison in 2006 for lying to the FBI in a real-estate case, was disbarred in 2009. Bowdoin challenged the subpoenas, arguing that his communications with the lawyers were privileged. A federal judge ruled that the attorneys had to testify.
The Blog, which previously has published stories that reference Garner, is doing so again today. Garner is listed in Nevada records as a “director” of AdSurfDaily Inc., with Bowdoin as the president, secretary and treasurer. However, the Blog is choosing today not to publish the names of the husband-and-wife attorneys, but reserves its right to do so in the future.
Moving on . . .
One of the most stunning allegations in the February 2009 Secret Service affidavit, which became a public record when the seal was lifted in May 2009 and which the PP Blog is reporting on for the first time today, was that two of the North Carolina lawyers were proposed as Bowdoin’s business partners in LaFuenteDinero (LFD). LFD was ASD’s so-called Spanish autosurf. The proposal was made by one of the lawyers, who described the other lawyer as his “law partner.”
The section below is verbatim from the February 2009 Secret Service affidavit:
“In approximately September or October 2007, ASD’s North Carolina lawyer suggested to Bowdoin that they should start a new site that was in Spanish. In addition, the North Carolina lawyer suggested that the company associated with this site should be set up off shore because when these type of companies raise too much money the government comes in and shuts them down. The North Carolina lawyer recommended that he, his ‘law partner’ and Bowdoin would each share ownership of the Spanish site (as 1/3 share partners). In return for the others’ ownership interests, the North Carolina lawyer and his associate would handle the incorporation work and all of the work needed to move operations offshore.”
By early 2008, with nearly a year and a half of troubled operation under its belt and a Ponzi collapse that had caused ASD to cease operations for weeks in 2007 as it tooled up for a second try under the ASD Cash Generator brand, Bowdoin was growing “suspicious” of at least one of the North Carolina lawyers, according to the affidavit.
“In February 2008, Bowdoin, the North Carolina lawyer and an ‘Internet marketer’ discussed expanding ASD by beginning a new site in Chinese, which would be called Golden Panda Ad Builder,” according to the affidavit. “The North Carolina lawyer suggested a person that would be well suited to run the site offshore, but Bowdoin was beginning to get suspicious of the lawyer. Bowdoin decided, instead, to split the Chinese site with the Georgia minister. Bowdoin told the Georgia minister that ASD had no outside income sources and that ASD’s survival was depend[e]nt on an ever growing base of new contributors. The Georgia minister began working on developing the Chinese auto-surf site.”
‘Georgia Minister’ Allegedly Caught Stealing By ASD Employees; Bowdoin Allegedly Stays Silent About Theft
Bowdoin, according to the affidavit, confronted trouble from any number of fronts. One of his colleagues — the “silent partner” who had been Bowdoin’s 12DailyPro sponsor whose rake Bowdoin allegedly had slashed after they started ASD — told Bowdoin he believed he was owed $20,000 and threatened to expose ASD’s new operation.
“Bowdoin agreed to compensate the sponsor” after initially balking, according to the affidavit.
And Bowdoin also was under pressure from the “North Carolina lawyer” to move the ASD operation offshore — counsel Bowdoin earlier had resisted but agreed to explore in April 2008, despite his suspicions about the lawyer, according to the affidavit.
During the first half of 2008, with Golden Panda still not off the ground during a period in which the “Georgia minister” had access to ASD’s computer system, ASD employees began to complain that the minister was “padding” his ASD account by “secretly using his access to the computer system to increase his/relatives’ number of ad packages,” according to the affidavit.
Bowdoin personally investigated the complaints, comparing the “Georgia minister’s” account with banking records.
Bowdoin “confirmed for himself that the Georgia minister was in fact stealing money from ASD by creating free ad packages,” according to the affidavit. “When confronted, the Georgia minister denied the allegations and asserted that he had proof that the ad packages he created flowed from legitimate deposits of funds into ASD’s bank accounts. The Georgia minister never showed Bowdoin this proof, however, and each time Bowdoin or someone else inquired about the evidence of deposits, the Georgia minister created an excuse to explain why he did not then have it.”
Instead of firing the Georgia minister and ending the relationship, “Bowdoin did not pursue the matter,” according to the affidavit.
Things took a dramatic turn “in about June 2008,” when ASD employees discovered that “the Georgia minister had been permanently enjoined by a court from committing violations of the federal securities laws.
“When ASD employees disclosed this information to Bowdoin, they told him that ASD needed to distance itself from the minister,” according to the affidavit. “Bowdoin agreed to severe his ties to the Golden Panda operation after several ASD employees indicated that they were unwilling to work with the Georgia minister.”
Walter Clarence Busby Jr. of Acworth, Georgia, has been identified by the government in other court filings as Bowdoin’s Golden Panda partner. Separate court documents describe Busby as a minister and real-estate professional, and the SEC described Busby in 1997 as a prime-bank swindler.
In court filings in the ASD case, Busby advised Collyer that he had prevailed upon another minister to assist him in arranging a relaxing day of fishing with Bowdoin in April 2008. During that same month, according to the February 2009 Secret Service affidavit, Bowdoin ventured to Central America with his wife and a “North Carolina lawyer.”
The fishing excursion took place in Brunswick, Georgia, on April 11, 2008, according to court filings by Busby. Five days later, according to the February 2009 Secret Service affidavit, Bowdoin was in Panama and Costa Rica, discussing ASD business and the formation of the La Sorta Trading firm.
Coming later: Government moves against money in ASD-related bank accounts in Iowa and other states.
NOTE TO READERS: Some of the evidence federal prosecutors have in the Ponzi scheme case against AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin is coming into clearer focus. The PP Blog expects to publish a report within the next couple of hours.
Our report is based on an affidavit originally filed under seal by the U.S. Secret Service in February 2009, during a time in which some ASD members were promoting a purported “offshore” autosurf known as AdViewGlobal — even after the August 2008 seizure of tens of millions of dollars from Bowdoin’s bank accounts amid wire-fraud and securities allegations.
The affidavit builds on earlier affidavits and paints a picture of a worried Bowdoin at the helm of ASD — and of astonishing corruption and deceit within ASD leading up to the summertime seizure nearly three years ago.
Instead of pulling the plug on his crime before investors were ruined, Bowdoin ramped up the criminality and sought to sanitize it, going so far as to trade falsely on the name of the President of the United States and permit others to do so, according to the Secret Service affidavit.
Much of the information in the affidavit never before has been published, although it was previously known that Bowdoin allegedly tried to tie ASD to the White House to disarm skeptical investors and keep the firm’s money wheel greased.
Here is a verbatim snippet from the affidavit:
“Hand-written notes that Bowdoin prepared in about December 2006 (which were recovered in August 2008, during a search warrant at Bowdoin’s home) show his and his silent partner’s awareness of the risks of the auto-surf program they were conducting. Bowdoin’s notes indicate that he told his silent partner that the partner should have made him better aware of those risks ‘knowing regulators were on the prowl for surfing sites.’”
Translation: Bowdoin knew at least 18 months prior to his June 2008 trip to Washington to receive the “Medal of Distinction” that ASD was playing with fire.
The “medal” was not a presidential acknowledgment of Bowdoin’s business acumen. Rather, it was a “marketing” memento from the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to the affidavit.
And the affidavit also spells out other things Bowdoin allegedly knew while he was touting Presidential recognition of his business career. (We’ll write about those things in the upcoming story.)
The February 2009 affidavit was prepared in part to seize more than $413,000 held in the bank accounts of certain ASD members from Iowa — and also to seize more than $310,000 in the bank accounts of two other ASD members: one from Florida, the other from Missouri.
At least $10,510 of the amount the government moved to seize was traceable to E-Bullion, according to the affidavit.
E-Bullion is a shuttered California money-services business whose operator, James Fayed, was convicted last month of ordering the murder of his estranged wife, Pamela Fayed, a potential witness against him.
Fayed faces the prospect of execution for the murder. The jury recommended the death penalty earlier this month. Formal sentencing is scheduled for September.
Get ready for some prosecutorial bombshells in the ASD case . . .
BULLETIN: In 2009, federal prosecutors warned that pro se pleadings by members of Florida-based AdSurfDaily had the potential to slow efforts to provide restitution for victims of the ASD Ponzi scheme.
Pro se filings by ASD President Andy Bowdoin and dozens of ASD members crowded the court docket for months and delayed the implementation of a remissions program for victims by at least a year, according to records.
All of the pro se pleadings misrepresented the history of the ASD case and the applicable law — and included claims that only can be described as bizarre. Although a federal judge issued rulings that denied standing to the filers, new pleadings from new nonparties making the same arguments streamed into the courthouse, forcing the judge to address them and issue more orders denying standing to the filers.
After months of such back-and-forth, each of the filers ultimately was ruled to have no standing, including Bowdoin, who at once was representing himself pro se and impermissibly representing his own corporation pro se.
Now, R.J. Zayed, the court-appointed receiver in civil litigation related to the Trevor Cook Ponzi scheme in Minnesota, says pro se pleadings by accused scammer Jason Bo-Alan Beckman are slowing the receiver’s recovery efforts and wasting resources set aside for victims.
In March, the SEC charged Beckman with fraud, identifying him as a “leading” figure in a scheme pulled off by Cook and others. Beckman was accused of raising about $47.3 million of the $194 million gathered in the overall fraud — roughly 25 percent of the overall total.
Beckman has no standing to challenge the receiver’s authority to act in the interests of victims, Zayed argued. And, the receiver alleged, Beckman has filed pro se documents to delay the sale of properties he owns in Texas, actions that have forced Zayed to respond at the expense of victims of the scheme.
“The law does not permit individuals in Beckman’s position to challenge the Receiver’s actions precisely to prevent this type of costly motion practice,” Zayed argued, citing a provision of the receivership order that required Beckman to “cooperate with and assist the Receiver.”
Beckman was ordered that he “shall take no action . . . to hinder, obstruct, or otherwise interfere with the Receiver,” Zayed said.
“The funds available to the investors decrease every time the Receiver responds to an opposition raised by an entity that lacks standing,” Zayed argued. “Thus, the Receiver suggests that the Court consider prohibiting Mr. Beckman from filing additional documents challenging the Receivership’s disposition of assets.”
Zayed also claimed Beckman was making untrue and “bizarre” claims at odds with his own actions.
In February, prior to the formation of the receivership and the filing of a complaint against Beckman by the SEC, Zayed said, Beckman put one of the Texas properties on the market.
Although Beckman himself tried to sell the property only a few months ago, he is now asserting — despite having no standing to make the claim and the fact Zayed wants to sell the property before it becomes a cash-sucking white elephant on the receivership’s assets — that Zayed should not liquidate the property “during a recession or other time of economic difficulty,” Zayed said.
Beckman, Zayed said, researched the local market before listing the property in February. After his appointment as receiver in March, Zayed went to Texas to research the market himself.
“Tellingly, evidence that the Receiver recovered shows that Mr. Beckman sought to place the Paseo del Lago house on the market just weeks before the Court put the Receivership in place,” Zayed argued. “It is bizarre at best for Mr. Beckman to attack the Receiver for doing something he himself had sought to do several months earlier.”
Moreover, Zayed argued, holding onto the property adds costs.
“These costs — almost $10,000 in the first three months of operation, even excluding local counsel bills — are substantial, ongoing, and clearly outweigh any argument to wait years or even decades for the real estate market to recover,” Zayed said.
“It would significantly deplete the limited restitution funds if legal fees and other
expenses continue to accrue if the Receiver must continue to maintain and manage these properties,” Zayed said. “The Receivership is envisioned as a short-term entity, one that seeks to return value to the investors in the near future. As such, the Receivership does not have the luxury to play the market as Mr. Beckman suggests, even if the monthly maintenance expenses somehow disappeared.”
Matthew J. Gagnon, an alleged web-based pitchman of Ponzi schemes and Forex frauds, has been hit with judgments totaling more than $2.5 million by the receiver in the Legisi Ponzi and fraud case. Gagnon also was charged separately by the SEC.
A web-based pitchman for the alleged Legisi Ponzi scheme has been hit with separate court judgments of $1.69 million and $810,000. Meanwhile, the court-appointed receiver in the Legisi case has hired local counsel in Oregon to pursue the judgments against Matthew J. Gagnon and Mazu Publishing Inc.
Legisi was alleged by the SEC in 2008 to have operated an international Ponzi and fraud scheme that gathered about $72 million from more than 3,000 investors. The scam was promoted on TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup and other websites, including Gagnon’s Mazu.com.
MoneyMakerGroup’s name is referenced in federal court filings in the Legisi case — and records show that shills on TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup sought to sanitize the scheme even as the U.S. Secret Service and the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation were using undercover agents to gather evidence about the fraud.
The judgments against Gagnon and Mazu illustrate the legal and financial nightmares to which forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup contribute. Meanwhile, the fact that Legisi was promoted at the forums even as it was under investigation exposes a myth advanced on such forums that investors would know in advance that a government probe of an “opportunity” was under way.
In this evidence exhibit given to a federal judge prior to the Legisi asset freeze, a Legisi prospect writes the name "Money Maker Group.com" in longhand. The prospect also wrote the name "Matt Gagnon" in longhand and a telephone number for Gagnon.
At the same time, the judgments against Gagnon destroy the myths that online promoters of securities schemes have no legal exposure and that offers positioned as “private” insulate promoters from prosecution.
Indeed, the judgments against Gagnon resulted from litigation brought by Robert D. Gordon, the court-appointed receiver in the Legisi case, in October 2009. The SEC sued Gagnon in May 2010, seven months after Gordon brought his actions.
Among the SEC’s allegations against Gagnon was that he continued to promote fraud schemes online — even after the Legisi scheme was exposed.
“Gagnon has been unrelenting in his efforts to raise money from the public through fraudulent, unregistered offerings,” the SEC said in May 2010. “He remains a danger to the investing public.”
Despite his sales pitches, “Gagnon has never been associated with a registered broker-dealer and has never been registered with the Commission as a broker or dealer or in any other capacity,” the SEC said.
After the Legisi HYIP fraud, Gagnon transitioned to pushing Forex frauds, the SEC said.
Gagnon was hit with an asset freeze after the SEC brought its action.
Records show that Legisi was among a number of “opportunities” that used E-Bullion, which was operated by James Fayed.
A jury in Los Angeles last week recommended the death penalty for Fayed for arranging the slaying of his estranged wife, Pamela Fayed.
Federal prosecutors said in December that AdSurfDaily, yet another alleged Ponzi scheme, had an E-Bullion tie. Records show that Gold Quest International, still another Ponzi scheme, also used E-Bullion.
Harvey Douglas Goff. SOURCE: Weber County (Utah) Sheriff's Office.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Longtime readers will recall that some members of Florida-based AdSurfDaily engaged in a hectoring campaign against public officials after the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars in the ASD Ponzi case in August 2008. Such actions can lead to serious criminal consequences, as the story below illustrates.
It has happened again — this time in Utah, this time involving claims for the spectacular sum of more than $53 TRILLION.
Harvey Douglas Goff, 53, of Ogden, was indicted last month on charges he placed fraudulent liens against Utah public officials after asserting “diplomatic immunity” during a traffic stop last year.
Goff filed bogus liens against 77 parcels in Weber County “[i]n an apparent effort to create an appearance of indebtedness” to him on the part of officials representing the state of Utah, Weber County, Ogden City and the Ogden Police Department, federal prosecutors said.
He has been charged in a 14-count indictment with obstruction of justice, impeding internal revenue laws, filing fictitious obligations, attempted mail fraud and using the mail in furtherance of a scheme and artifice to defraud.
In November 2010, prosecutors said, Goff “mailed” documents styled “Notice of International Commercial Claim Within the Admiralty ab initio Administrative Remedy of Harvey Douglas Goff, Jr., Creditor Secured Party,” prosecutors said. “The documents claimed the agencies contracted to pay more than $53 trillion in damages to Goff. The documents purported to be part of a ‘self-help administrative process’ and asserted that the recipients had 10 days to respond before a ‘default’ resulted.”
The case in part traces its roots to encounters Goff had with law enforcement during traffic stops, including one in which he asserted “diplomatic immunity,” prosecutors said, charging that Goff also impeded tax laws and filed “false and frivolous documents” involving a judge in an IRS case.
Goff challenged the jurisdiction of a state-court judge in pro se pleadings, but the court denied his arguments. When Goff failed to appear for a pretrial conference in December 2010, a bench warrant was issued, prosecutors said.
After Goff was arrested on May 12, he refused to stand before U.S. Magistrate Judge Judge Samuel Alba, which led to an “intervention” by the U.S. Marshals Service, prosecutors said.
Among other things, Goff refused the appointment of counsel, would not state his name or acknowledge his identity and “claimed he had been kidnapped from his home even though the Court made findings in his presence that federal agents had served a duly authorized search warrant,” prosecutors said.
Goff was ordered to undergo a mental-health examination, prosecutors said. He potentially faces decades in prison if convicted on all counts.
The two “fictitious obligation” counts alone carry penalties of up to 25 years in prison, prosecutors said.
An investigation by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and the IRS continues, prosecutors said.
This post begins with background because the autosurf world, which is dominated by serial scammers, financial fraudsters and shadowy criminals, is about as murky as it gets.
On Aug. 1, 2008, tens of millions of dollars in the bank accounts of AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin were seized. Federal prosecutors went on to say that Bowdoin, a recidivist swindler in his seventies, was conducting an international Ponzi scheme involving at least $110 million from the small town of Quincy, Fla.
ASD allegedly had more than 100,000 members.
Bowdoin was running the massive scheme through his 10 personal bank accounts and trading on the name of the President of the United States to sanitize the fraud, prosecutors said in a forfeiture complaint.
A federal magistrate judge in the District of Columbia, the nation’s capital and center of power, ordered the money seized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after reviewing a 37-page affidavit by the U.S. Secret Service and a 57-page evidence exhibit. Incredibly, though, some ASD members didn’t take the strong clues that the U.S. government had come to view ASD and others like it as a threat to to the nation.
The government made sure that the allegations and certain information about Bowdoin, including the fact that ASD was not his first brush with securities felonies and that he was partnered with a man implicated by the SEC in the 1990s in three prime-bank schemes, were available for wide distribution. The forfeiture complaint was published on the Internet in multiple places and was made available at no charge by the government.
Bowdoin reacted to the seizure by describing it as an act of “Satan” and comparing it to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A message from Bowdoin on ASD’s answering machine claimed God was on the company’s side. Within days of the breathtaking seizure and a follow-up raid of company headquarters caught on camera by a local TV station, ASD members started pitching other fraud schemes, positioning them as ways to make up for ASD losses. The disconnect of ASD members was stunning.
They hawked cash-gifting schemes, HYIP schemes, cycler matrices and other autosurf schemes — often using an appeal to religion in their pitches and claiming the “programs,” unlike ASD, operated outside U.S. jurisdiction and thus insulated the players from prosecution. They made the claims despite the fact the “programs” were targeted at U.S. citizens and players were paid in U.S. dollars after using U.S. dollars to join the “programs.”
On Nov. 19, 2008, ASD lost a key court battle. A federal judge ruled that ASD, which had requested an evidentiary hearing, had not demonstrated it was a lawful business and not a Ponzi scheme. Instead of exiting the autosurf Ponzi “industy,” some ASD members next turned their attentions to an upstart “offshore” surf known as AdViewGlobal.
Which brings us to the reason for this post . . .
A woman who said she believed she was an AdSurfDaily investor entitled to restitution through the government remissions program administered by Rust Consulting Inc. told the PP Blog yesterday that she gave $5,000 to her sponsor, who converted the sum to cashiers’ checks made payable to a murky enterprise known as TMS Association.
The PP Blog referred the woman to the office of U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. in the District of Columbia.
But her transaction, according to the woman, occurred in April 2009 — eight months after the August 2008 seizure of tens of millions of dollars by the Secret Service in the ASD Ponzi case. ASD ceased operations after the seizure.
Although the woman apparently believed she was investing in ASD, her story strongly suggests that she actually was investing in AdViewGlobal (AVG), one of the so-called ASD “clones” that launched in the aftermath of the ASD seizure. TMS Association was a murky Arizona business linked to eWalletPlus, which reportedly was the in-house payment processor for AVG.
The woman, saying she believed she was an ASD victim, also said she believed she was entitled to restitution through the remissions program set up for ASD victims through Rust. Her remissions claim, however, appears to have been rejected because the program is for victims of ASD, LaFuenteDinero and Golden Panda Ad Builder, not victims of AVG.
“I am having troubles with the Ad Surf Daily Remission Administrator on getting the information that my checks I sent in that were endorsed to TMS Association were ‘linked’ to the Ad Surf fraud suit that is going on,” the woman asserted.
Facts surrounding TMS, eWallet Plus and AVG are exceptionally murky, and there is no remissions program for victims. It is believed that the U.S. government has opened a probe into the companies, and AVG was referenced as an extension of ASD in a 2009 racketeering lawsuit filed against Bowdoin by a group of ASD members seeking class-action certification.
At least three companies, including a penny-stock firm known as Vana Blue, have claimed to own eWallet Plus, which AVG also claimed to own. Also adding confusion are the presence of company names such as TMS Corp. USA LLC, TMS Corp., Karveck International and Karveck Corp. — all of which haven been referenced in the context of AVG.
The woman said she contacted the PP Blog because of its reporting on TMS Association.
AVG, which had close ASD ties, announced it was suspending cashouts two years ago this month. The surf was positioned as a remedy for ASD losses, amid claims it operated in Uruguay outside of U.S. jurisdiction. Its servers resolved to Panama, as did the servers for eWallet Plus.
One promo for AVG claimed that $5,000 turned into $15,000 “instantly.” Some ASD members have claimed Bowdoin was a silent partner in AVG and fronted the money to purchase eWallet Plus.
Although AVG purported to have no ties to ASD, it listed George and Judy Harris as its owners. George Harris is Bowdoin’s stepson. The AVG incongruities did not end there. Indeed, AVG’s graphics once appeared on an ASD-controlled website, an event that was bizarrely explained away as an “operational coincidence.”
Even as AVG was disclaiming ASD ties in early 2009, the person disclaiming the ties was a former ASD employee, Chuck Osmin, who testified on ASD’s behalf at an evidentiary hearing in 2008. Despite the claims, AVG listed its first chief executive officer as Gary Talbert, a former ASD executive who filed a sworn court affidavit on ASD’s behalf in 2008.
The woman’s claims, however, lead to questions about whether some AVG members are trying to use the ASD remissions program to cover losses in AVG, perhaps with encouragement of their upline sponsors
Among other questions raised by the woman’s claims is whether ASD sponsors who promoted for AVG despite the ASD seizure told the truth about ASD to their recruits or shielded them from the news, thus denying recruits information they needed to make an informed decision about joining AVG.
At the same time, the woman’s story leads to questions about whether AVG recruits denied the facts by their sponsors about the ASD prosecution tried to pressure their AVG sponsors for refunds when the truth became known — and whether the AVG sponsors are trying to cover their tracks by pointing their recruits to the ASD remissions program without disclosing that it is reserved for ASD, LaFuenteDinero and GoldenPandaAdBuilder victims only.
It is likely that any bids to mask AVG losses as ASD losses will fail because the government requires ASD members to certify themselves as crime victims and provide paperwork as proof of investment.
Based on the woman’s claims, it also seems possible that some AVG members may have been serving as unlicensed brokers and investment advisers by collecting cash or negotiable instruments from recruits, converting the money to cashiers’ checks and then sending the money to AVG.
If transactions such as that occurred, it leads to questions about whether AVG investors ever could prove they’d actually joined the program. If the accounts were not opened in their names and instead were opened in the names of sponsors who collected their money, there may be no proof at all that the recruit was the source of the funding.
Even if the AVG accounts were opened in the names of the recruits, it may be hard for a recruit to prove they provided the funds if the money was converted to cashiers’ checks and submitted to AVG by the sponsors
The extent to which AVG sponsors may be trying to game the remissions system is unclear. What is clear is that the woman’s story is yet another reminder that the universe in which ASD and other autosurfs operated was dark and dangerous to the purse strings.
BULLETIN: The jury that returned the guilty verdict against James Fayed for the murder of his estranged wife in July 2008 has recommended the death penalty.
James Fayed, 48, was found guilty May 19 in the murder-for-hire slaying of Pamela Fayed. On May 20, the penalty phase of the case began — and the jury returned the death recommendation today.
Pamela Fayed, 44, was slashed to death in a California parking garage on July 28, 2008.
James Fayed, the operator of E-Bullion and an emerging figure in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case, paid $25,000 to have his wife killed and then plotted to kill the hit men, prosecutors said.
Pamela Fayed was a potential witness against her husband over financial matters. Court records show that E-Bullion had been linked to multiple Ponzi schemes.
Sentencing for James Fayed is scheduled for Sept. 22.
Three other men have been charged with Pamela Fayed’s killing.
Steven Vicente Simmons, 22, stabbed her, prosecutors said.
Jose Luis Moya, 50, a Fayed employee, was paid $25,000 to arrange the murder, and Gabriel Jay Marquez, 46, acted as lookout, prosecutors said.
E-Bullion is referenced in court or regulatory documents in the ASD Ponzi case, the Legisi Ponzi case, the Gold Quest International Ponzi case and the FEDI fraud scheme. A mysterious enterprise known as the “Alpha Project”also is referenced along with FEDI in filings in Canada.
This chilling document from the Ontario Securities Commission references both FEDI and the Alpha Project — and appears to make a veiled reference to Pamela Fayed.
From a 2003 filing by the Ontario Securities Commission. Click on link above to read entire document.
Just prior to Christmas last year, seven Michigan women were charged with felonies in an alleged cash-gifting pyramid scheme that targeted women.
Now, just prior to Memorial Day, eight more women have been charged, bringing the total number of women charged to date to 15. The Michigan State Police said last year that gifting schemes were sweeping across the state.
The Muskegon Chronicle was among the first newspapers to report on the new defendants.
Separately, the BBB has added a video on cash-gifting scams and added to its previous warning about “thousands” of such schemes using YouTube and the Internet to proliferate.
In August 2008, after the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars in the AdSurfDaily autosurf probe, some ASD members immediately turned to cash-gifting, positioning it as a way for ASD members to make up their losses. Gifting scams typically pluck heartstrings, targeting people of faith, people down on their luck and people who can ill afford to lose a single dollar, let alone hundreds or thousands at a time.
“Cash gifting is a pyramid scheme — pure and simple,” the BBB says. “There are thousands of YouTube videos and websites out there touting cash gifting as an empowerment program or a way to make easy money from the security of your home.”
We’ve previously noted that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has described the HYIP sphere as a “bizarre substratum of the Internet.”
That substratum now is getting crazier yet.
Three weeks ago, Club Asteria was a great darling of the Ponzi boards. But weekly payout rates that purportedly have been slashed — coupled with a purported freeze of Club Asteria’s PayPal account — appear to have put the “program” in a death spiral.
Club Asteria stopped short of announcing it had placed a call to the coroner, but did announce a “downward spiral,” according to a post on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi scheme and criminals’ forum.
Not to worry, though: Some Club Asteria promoters on the Ponzi forums have turned their attentions to JSS Tripler, whose site appears to be accessible through multiple domains, including a site known as JustBeenPaid (JBP).
JBP appears to be tied to something called Synergy Surf, which appears to be another darling of the Ponzi boards.
“I buyed (sic) new 8 positions for that,” a MoneyMakerGroup poster announced.
JPB encouraged enrollees to “[s]et up your AlertPay account and fund it, or link your credit card to it,” according to web records.
These instructions also were provided.
Upgrade in JBP by making your $10 or $20 payments.
Enter your AlertPay email address in the JBP Member Area.
Buy and/or sponsor downline members.
Study and apply ‘Upgrade Your Brain’ and the ‘Big Success Breakthrough’ — see ‘Access Our Products’ in your JBP member area.
Make JBP’s Synergy Surf (JSS) your primary moneymaker.
In the spring of 2009 — as the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf was in its death throes before a fatal gurgle — the AVG braintrust pointed the finger of blame at the membership.
Other surfs that launched in the aftermath of the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from Florida-based AdSurfDaily did the same thing. These included AdGateWorld, which once referenced ASD in what appeared to be a copy-and-paste lift from ASD’s Terms of Service, and BizAdSplash, whose purported “chief consultant” was ASD/Golden Panda Ad Builder figure Clarence Busby.
Fast forward two years, and Club Asteria, which lists Andrea Lucas as managing director, appears to be doing the same thing — along with serving up some Busby-like syrup for the soul:
“Greed is a very powerful motivation, but the kindness, generosity and goodness in all of us all are even more powerful,” Club Asteria is reported on MoneyMakerGroup to have intoned.
“The challenges that we are facing recently have been caused by a small percentage of our members misusing their membership privileges,” Club Asteria is reported to have told members. “As any good company would have done to protect their members and future members, we had to reinforce our Code of Ethics and Conduct, to ensure that our message of a better life for all of us is presented honestly and accurately.
“We are working very hard to make sure that any benefit from Club Asteria and all of our products and services are accurately represented. Any company, no matter how good their products and services are, can be destroyed with misleading information, bad publicity, false rumors and inactivity of their members/customers.”
Two years ago, AVG’s death spiral began as the ASD grand jury was meeting in the District of Columbia. The surf first slashed payouts — something Club Asteria reportedly is doing right now — and then eliminated them altogether, while at once announcing an 80/20 program would become mandatory after AVG completed an audit of itself.
One of the issues complicating matters for AVG was the purported misuse of a member-to-member cash button. Club Asteria members also purportedly misused a money-transfer facility.
“Bizarre substratum of the Internet” just about covers it — except for the heartache and myriad nightmares created by the various HYIP darlings, of course.
Thinking Outside The Box
Our friends at RealScam.com report another nightmare in the making. It’s bizarrely called Insectrio — and it bizarrely has an “Egg” plan purported to pay 103 percent after one day, a “Larva” plan purported to pay 120 percent after five days and other plans advertised to pay even more.
The sales pitch for Insectrio, apparently an emerging HYIP, touts MoneyMakerGroup, TalkGold and DreamTeamMoney.
Given JBP’s prompt for enrollees to “upgrade” their brains — which we view as a prompt to think outside the box — the PP Blog concludes this post by providing readers an outside-the-box way to look at the Insectrio offer:
InSECtrio.
Indeed, the three letters centering the HYIP’s name are real attention-getters.
