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Tag: AdSurfDaily

  • Two More Attorneys Added In RICO Lawsuit Against Andy Bowdoin; Move Comes On Heels Of AdViewGlobal Mention

    Plaintiffs suing AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin for racketeering added two more attorneys to their roster this morning and have added a total of four since June 24. The plaintiffs now have attorneys in Washington, D.C., Phoenix, San Francisco and Mill Valley, Calif., on their side, perhaps with more formal notices of appearance to follow.

    Today’s move followed on the heels of a filing last week that cited the name of the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, describing it as the next iteration of AdSurfDaily and naming executives and employees the two surfs have in common.

    AVG has not been named a RICO defendant. It is unclear if the plaintiffs plan to add the surf’s name, but they have used AVG to illustrate an alleged pattern of racketeering. The plaintiffs seek class-action certification and treble damages in the ASD complaint.

    AVG has identified George and Judy Harris as its owners. George Harris is the stepson of ASD President Andy Bowdoin and the son of Bowdoin’s wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin. Judy Harris is the wife of George Harris.

    ASD attorney Robert Garner also is named a RICO defendant in the lawsuit. Bank of America is alleged to have aided and abetted a fraudulent scheme, but is not a RICO defendant.

    In recent days, AVG has closed its forum — a move made after the company said members were confusing other members. An AVG forum established by some Mods and members of the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum also has been closed, and Surf’s Up recently has deleted posts and content concerning AVG.

    As many as 30 ASD members are believed to be founders of AVG, which says it is a “private association” based in Uruguay.

    AVG recently has threatened to sue its members for sharing information outside the confines of the AVG “private association,” and also has threatened to sue media outlets that publish information its members share.

    Yesterday AVG implied in an announcement that it also might sue a subcontractor for not carrying out its contractual duties. Donna Rougeau, the subcontractor with Syndicate Digital of Canada, advised AVG members last week that she was leaving the firm.

  • AdViewGlobal Withdraws Announcement Of New Payment Plan; Initial Announcement Baffled Members

    UPDATED 9:47 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) AdViewGlobal has disabled its forum. The move followed on the heels of complaints from members that the surf company was confusing them when trying to explain its new pay-out program. The payout program was introduced with great fanfare today, and included a prediction that AVG would become a Fortune 500 company.

    The surf blamed the decision to disable the forum on members, saying confused members were posting information that confused other members. AVG has a history of blaming problems on members, saying in March that its bank account had been suspended because too many members wired transactions in excess of $9,500.

    The forum suspension announcement was signed “George and Judi Harris,” and identified them as the “Owners.” A separate AVG forum operated by Mods and members of the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum went dark a few days ago. AVG said it would inform members through “breaking news,” apparently in their back offices.

    Here, our earlier post . . .

    AdViewGlobal (AVG), which purports to be a professional advertising and communications company based in Uruguay, has withdrawn an announcement of its new pay-out plan, members said.

    AVG members reported confusion over the initial plan, which suggested members could earn back their entire advertising spend and a profit of 25 percent during an unspecified time period.

    Some members questioned whether they would have to view advertisements for eternity to record a profit. Others said they expected profitability to return quickly after AVG emerged from a dark period in which it announced the suspensions of cash-outs for at least 30 days and the implementation of a mandatory 80/20 program.

    Many members joined AVG expecting to earn back their initial spend, plus full profit, in 150 days. AVG later moved the redemption date to 180 days, and then 210 days, according to its website.  The date for full redemptions now appears to be up in the air, members said.

    Some members raised concerns that they would not receive credit for matching bonuses AVG advertised.

    For weeks, AVG advertised bonuses of 200 percent, for both prospects and sponsors. To celebrate the launch of a new website last month, AVG advertised a 250 percent match for prospects.

    The initial payment plan AVG announced appeared to reflect only cash purchases and did not seem to address matching bonuses, members said. In March, one AVG promoter told prospects that $5,000 turned into $15,000 “instantly.”

    Some AVG members complained about smug responses from AVG after they made simple inquiries about the payment plan and matching bonuses.

    Members said AVG appeared to have an unfathomable number of page impressions on its books, owing to the 200-percent promotions and the presence of a member-to-member cash button than enabled participants to “stack” earnings within individual downline groups.

    Some AVG members held more than 1 million page impressions, members said.

    In other news, AVG members said the company announced that its program was “100% Legal.” The announcement came on the heels of a court filing yesterday in a RICO case that mentioned AVG’s name as a new iteration of AdSurfDaily and other autosurf programs.

    ASD and AVG have close ties. Tens of millions of dollars were seized from ASD last year as part of a wire-fraud, money-laundering, securities and Ponzi scheme investigation.

  • Questions AdViewGlobal Members Might Want To Ask The ‘Management Team’ As Surf Sinks Into Cash-Out Abyss

    AdViewGlobal (AVG) has announced the suspension of cash-outs and a decision to make an 80/20 program mandatory. AVG members should ask the “management team” if there is any possibility that any of the following three things happened.

    1.) Money paid to AdSurfDaily members by ASD ended up in the AVG system. (For example, a member got paid by ASD, and then later moved the money to AVG. Or, alternatively, an ASD member sold ad-packs directly to ASD downline members, deposited the money in his personal bank account, and later moved the money to AVG.)
    2.) “Founders” and insiders of AVG used fictitious paper profits that once existed in ASD as their capital contribution to AVG.
    3.) Founders/insiders of AVG took a disproportionate share of AVG’s early revenue and cashed out their fictitious ASD profits — in whole or in part — through AVG .

    Here is why these questions are important:

    1.) ASD’s visible cash and other assets were frozen by the U.S. government in a wire-fraud and money-laundering investigation, but other cash that once resided in ASD’s bank accounts had made its way into the bank accounts of ASD members. It also is known that some ASD members collected money directly from customers for the purchase of ad-packs, and then deposited the money in their personal bank accounts and used ASD’s internal system to move the ad-packs to the purchasers. Money from No. 1 (above) is money laundered twice, which means it is doubly dirty. If it was unclean when it resided in ASD, it is doubly unclean inside AVG.

    2.) Money from No. 2 above doesn’t really exist, which means AVG created value where none existed and had non-founders/non-insiders fund the value — as ASD allegedly did with its ASD Cash Generator iteration.

    Looking at it another way, AVG could have used the theoretical value of money now held by the government in the ASD case — and also the fictitious paper profits — to fund the launch of the company, passing the real cost off to non-insiders/non-founders.

    3.) Money from No. 3 above would mean founders/insiders paid themselves disproportionate shares before anyone else got paid, thus plundering the company.

    The autosurf landscape is littered with stories about plundering. To explain suspended cash-outs, ASD President Andy Bowdoin once claimed script problems were to blame. Meanwhile, Bowdoin claimed Russian “hackers” had stolen more than $1 million from the company.

    Bowdoin never filed a police report — not even to report a purported theft in excess of $1 million, prosecutors said.

    The reason one has to consider each of the possibilities above is that AVG suspended cash-outs after collecting money for 5+ months, then made 80/20 mandatory, while also changing the maturity dates for “page impressions” from 150 to 180 to 210 days.

    As one of our readers pointed out, the situation AVG currently confronts is like the situation a bank would confront if it advertised CDs and couldn’t fund redemptions on their maturity dates.

    Customers would buy the CDs, expecting a return in 150 days. On cash-out day, the bank would tell customers that it couldn’t fund the redemptions, hoped to be able to fund them by adding two months to the maturity date in anticipation of new revenue — but, in any case, when customers went to cash-out two months later, they could take only 20 percent of the money they were owed and were told they must keep 80 percent of their money in the system.

    Financier Allen Stanford faced a similar problem with CDs earlier this year on the Caribbean island nation of Antigua, and has been indicted on Ponzi and fraud charges. Prosecutors said he created the mirage of value by employing a series of accounting tricks.

    There is a fourth possibility to consider with AVG: Not all founders/insiders were created equally and that the people closest to the money cherry-picked some of it for themselves, and then told the other founders/insiders that AVG simply wasn’t generating enough revenue or that “bad members” had siphoned off cash.

    Putting it in the context of the ASD case, did Russian “hackers” really steal more than $1 million — or was it simply more convenient to blame them to cover up theft and insider dealings?

    Here is another possibility: No one at AVG stole anything, no one paid themselves early, the founders/insiders kept all their money in the company — and AVG simply flopped because it couldn’t generate enough cash.

    A few things could be in play in this scenario. AVG, for example, could have relatively few customers willing to pay for its “advertising” services — and that the existing base of AVG’s “advertisers” willing to spend money is too small to support the weight of the liabilities or even a break-even line.

    It also is possible that the banking system “caught” AVG early and choked off its access to wires and the money supply, thus starving the company.

  • Has AdViewGlobal Maneuvered Itself Into A Box?

    Some members of the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf say they received no paper profits for surfing yesterday. For weeks, members have complained about “low” payouts, not “no” payouts.

    Concern now is spreading about the complete absence of payouts yesterday. Some members, however, are saying that complainers have to understand that payouts never were “guaranteed.”

    AVG is awash in a sea of incongruities. On one hand, the surf has released a forward-looking promotion that suggests members can earn back the money they spend on “advertising” — plus a profit of 10 percent — in the first six months of membership.

    On the other hand, however, current members are grumbling about minuscule payouts — and, now, no payouts at all.

    The no-payout development came on the heels of a PowerPoint presentation AVG released that advertised a conversion rate “in the neighbourhood of 37 percent,” a claim that implied the rate could be achieved across-the-board, regardless of the nature of the product, the quality of the audience, the state of the economy, pricing and other variables.

    Under the conversion claim, an “advertiser” who pitched free doughnuts could expect 192 conversions out of each 519 AVG visitors. An “advertiser” who sold doughnuts for $10,000 each also could expect 192 conversions out of each 519 visitors.

    “Advertisers” could expect to “garner” the rate as long as their sales copy didn’t “suck,” AVG said in the presentation.

    The presentation included a “case study” that incorporated events that had not happened and concluded with an AVG surfer “on the beach” two years from now enjoying his success.

    One AVG promoter complained that this Blog’s reporting on the PowerPoint presentation was unfair, saying the promotion was “not complete and is still being polished.” The member explained that the presentation was released because promoters were eager to have a new sales tool, but did not explain why AVG ever would release a tool prematurely, especially when the tool paints a rosy picture despite the fact current members are complaining about major problems within AVG.

    AVG provided no context and no proof of its 37 percent conversion claim — a claim that was at odds with a separate claim of a “10%” conversion rate elsewhere in the presentation. The 10 percent claim was punctuated with an exclamation point, even though it was 27 points lower than the incredible, 37 percent claim.

    Any person who achieved the lower conversion rate reasonably could ask why he hadn’t achieved the higher one — and why the 10 percent rate was something to celebrate with an exclamation point when the advertiser’s ad had underperformed the standard claim by a misery factor of nearly four to one.

    Conversion rates vary wildly, as does the definition of a successful conversion rate. Depending on the nature of the product, pricing, market conditions and other variables, some advertisers would celebrate a conversion rate of 1 percent or even lower. A 37 percent conversion rate — especially if the implication is that it can be achieved across-the-board — is absurd on its face.

    AVG Members Want Thieves Identified

    Meanwhile, amid reports that some members had stolen from the company by abusing a member-to-member button AVG had provided, some members have called for AVG management to identify the thieves.

    Earlier this month, an AVG promoter described a strategy by which prospects could pay upline sponsors directly for the purchase of ad-packs, which AVG calls “page impressions” or “viewer impressions.”

    Under the strategy, the prospect would pay the sponsor directly, instead of paying AVG. The sponsor, in turn, would deposit the money into his private bank account. In the next step, the sponsor would send a check by overnight mail to payment processors either in Canada or Panama.

    Alternatively, the sponsor could use his bank’s wire facility to route his prospect’s money to the offshore processors.

    Once the processors received the money, the sponsor would instruct them to wire it to AVG. Once the money reached AVG, the sponsor would use it to fund his own account, and then use AVG’s internal system to distribute it back to the prospect.

    The approach raised serious questions about mail fraud, wire fraud, tax evasion, money-laundering, selling unregistered securites and acting as a securities broker-dealer without a license.

    AVG now has removed the member-to-member button.

    At the same time, members have complained that promoters were misusing the button to siphon windfall profits through a process known as “stacking” — thus the call for AVG to identify the cheaters.

    There were calls yesterday for AVG to reclaim the money promoters who cheated were paid. How the surf intends to proceed is unclear.

    Some members pointed out that AVG itself provided the member-to-member button, saying that members who used it to their advantage had done nothing wrong and simply were taking advantage of a tool the surf had provided.

    AdSurfDaily, a Florida company with close ties to AVG, which purports to be based in Uruguay, had problems with massive internal theft, federal prosecutors said in December.

    In one case outlined by prosecutors, more than $1 million purportedly was stolen from ASD by Russian “hackers.”

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin never filed a police report, despite the huge theft, prosecutors said. In fact, they added, Bowdoin ignored other thefts, too, because he knew that calling the police could expose ASD to the scrutiny of law enforcement.

    Prosecutors said Bowdoin had set up ASD so family members and insiders actually could benefit from theft. In one instance, prosecutors said, ASD paid an employee to surf for Bowdoin’s son, who received rebates for having performed no work.

    Bowdoin and family members later set up a separate company, using ASD proceeds to do so, prosecutors said. The separate company was used to retire the $157,000 mortgage on the home of Bowdoin’s stepson, who is a trustee for AVG.

    Whether AVG will call the police to report the purported thefts by insiders is unclear.

    And the company may face another problem: If AVG tries to reclaim money from promoters who took advantage of a member-to-member button the company itself provided, it is possible that the promoters themselves would consider the action a matter for law enforcement to investigate.

    Jurisdiction also is fuzzy. AVG purports to be based in Uruguay, but recently issued a news release with a dateline of Tallahassee, Fla.

  • AdViewGlobal Members Continue To Question Surf’s Practices; PowerPoint Pitch Claims 37 Percent Conversion Rate If Sales Copy Doesn’t ‘Suck’

    UPDATED 10:23 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf members again are complaining about “low” payout rates, confusion about debit cards and how best to fund accounts. They also are grousing about an absence of comprehensible guidance from the top.

    Meanwhile, some members are grumbling about a culture of super-secrecy, a preoccupation by some leading advocates with spies and “plants” and passive-aggressive lectures from insiders who blame the company’s problems on members.

    Some members have been clamoring for more “tools” to sell AVG’s surf and the “VIP” payout “opportunity,” viewing the “advertising” rotator as the Main Event and saying nonsurf products and services AVG recently introduced have little appeal to the surf crowd, despite claims AVG has “fortune 500” (sic) clients.

    Other AVG members continue to complain about vague messages from the company.

    A PowerPoint presentation produced by the company claims that 519 page views “should garner you in the neighbourhood of 37% conversion if not higher,” adding a strange disclaimer: “Given your sales copy doesn’t totally suck.”

    The presentation includes charts and graphs, including one that speciously boasts of a “400% increase in Traffic!”

    AVG “advertisers” pay to have their sites shown in what the company now describes as a “testing platform.” Because “advertisers” are paid incentives to view the ads of fellow “advertisers,” the quality of the traffic is dubious. The claim of a 37 percent conversion rate — and a claim elsewhere in the presentation of a 10 percent conversion rate — strains credulity.

    The conversion rate claim of 37 percent implies it can be achieved across-the-board, regardless of the nature of the product, the quality of the traffic, the state of the economy, the demand for the product or the pricing of the offer. As the PowerPoint presentation stands, a doughnut priced free or a doughnut priced at $10,000 both could expect to enjoy a conversion rate of 37 percent, something absurd on its face.

    Surf And Sun

    AVG, which has been operating for about six months, also includes what it calls a two-year “Case Study of a BIG thinker.” Why a company that formally launched in February 2009 would choose to call events that have not happened a “case study” is left to the imagination. The “study” includes vague, speculative updates in six-month intervals, concluding with the subject of the two-year study “on the beach” and enjoying his autosurfing success.

    As the “case study” subject is enjoying life at the shore and still doing his AVG surfing, the company challenges viewers to “do the math now” without providing any solid numbers that actually would permit members to do the math. The “case study,” for example, does not say how much the subject spent, describing his first purchase vaguely as an “initial quota of Advertising.”

    Within six months, the subject — who appears not to do any recruiting — recovers “all of his costs + around 10 percent.”

    Although AVG has released the PowerPoint presentation with the speculative, two-year “case study,” current members are grumbling that significant sums of money they sent the company for “advertising” are generating minuscule returns — chump change as opposed to beach money — and that downline members (and family members recruited into the program) are losing faith and having to square off against embarrassment for having joined.

    Other Complaints

    At the same time, members are complaining about the sudden removal of a member-to-member button that enabled them to move cash or cash-equivalents to other members. They also are complaining about a promotional video with a low-quality voiceover that smacks of amateurism and the company’s inability to solve problems that have dogged it for weeks.

    Meanwhile, some AVG members have called for the company to make participation in a so-called 80/20 program mandatory, suggesting that trapping people’s money is the tonic AVG needs to succeed. If implemented, however, such a mandatory program could heighten concerns that AVG was trying to cover up a Ponzi scheme, selling unregistered securities and acting as a bank or financial-services company without a license.

    Indeed, the mere existence of a nonmandatory 80/20 program is one of the hallmarks of an autosurf Ponzi scheme that is thumbing its nose at securities, wire-fraud and money-laundering laws. Such programs are designed to stem the outflow of cash — and outflow should not be an issue when a company claims it does not rely on funds from new members to pay older members.

    The Accountability Equation

    Perhaps the greatest AVG mystery of all is how the company, which purports to be a professional advertising and communications firm based in Uruguay, can send so many confusing messages.

    Some of the incongruities border on the comic. Although the company purports to be operating from Uruguay, insiders routinely describe “international” members as those who live outside the United States. If AVG truly was operating from Uruguay, all members from any country other than Uruguay would be “international” members, including members who lived in the United States.

    Stop Being So Stupid!

    AVG promoters also have a curious habit of scolding fellow members. This habit is accompanied by awkward appeals for loyalty and aggressive, even paranoid appeals that stymie members who ask too many questions.

    In March, AVG announced its bank account had been suspended. Incredibly, it blamed members in the very first sentence of its announcement for causing the problem.

    “Due to people bank wiring too many transactions over $9500.00 each, the bank we were using for Bank Wires and ACHs suspended our account,” AVG said at the time.

    Although AVG announced in May it had struck a deal that enabled members once again to wire money to the surf, one of the companies it identified as a facilitator of the wire transfers issued a public denial it had any business relationship with AVG.

    AVG is engaged in a highly questionable “industry.” The U.S. government has destroyed several autosurf firms. Several government agencies have issued warnings about the autosurf trade in general, and the U.S. Secret Service issued a news release last year, noting that it had seized more than $93.5 million from Florida-based AdSurfDaily Inc.

    AVG, which launched after the government seized ASD’s assets, has close ties to ASD. Unlike ASD promoters, however, AVG promoters used the surf’s purported offshore location to drive business to the company.

  • BizAdSplash Surf Site Offline

    UPDATED 6:41 A.M. EDT (June 12, U.S.A.) BAS appears to have come back online overnight. The site now is resolving to a server. It returned briefly at 9 p.m. yesterday. At 9:05 p.m., the site went down again. Total downtime yesterday was at least 6 hours , perhaps as many as 14, based on reports elsewhere.

    The BizAdSplash (BAS) autosurf website has been offline for hours. The site will not resolve to a server.

    What is causing the problem is unclear.

    Clarence Busby, a central figure in the AdSurfDaily/Golden Panda Ad Builder case, is listed as “Chief Consultant” for BAS.

    Federal prosecutors have sought a final order to give the U.S. government control of more than $14 million seized from bank accounts Busby controlled for Golden Panda.

    UPDATE 4:38 P.M. The  BAS site continues to be offline. A mirrored copy of the BAS News Release page is accessible, although it does not explain the server issue or the downtime and appears not to have been updated for hours.

    It does, however, explain that the surf experienced a problem and that “transactions” are “missing” from accounts. The date and time of the posting are unclear:

    Notice:  We are aware of the account issues and will have them resolved shortly!!

    As some of you may have noticed already this morning, there are transactions missing from your accounts. This includes any rrsp, commission or ad package purchases made since the 15th of May. This is a known issue created while performing a data transfer last evening and will have them corrected shortly.

    UPDATE 6:41 A.M. June 12. The BAS site now is resolving to a server and appears to be back online.

  • Judge Gives Plaintiffs More Time To Respond To Robert Garner In AdSurfDaily RICO Case, But Says They Missed Filing Date For Response To Golden Panda’s Clarence Busby

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This story about filings in a racketeering lawsuit against AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin, ASD attorney Robert Garner and Golden Panda Ad Builder President Clarence Busby also includes an update on a lawsuit filed last year against ASD by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum. The information is under a subhead below.

    Although U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer yesterday granted a motion plaintiffs filed for more time to respond to Robert Garner’s motion to be dismissed as a defendant in a racketeering lawsuit, she advised the plaintiffs that they had missed a May 26 filing deadline to respond to Clarence Busby’s motions to be dismissed as a defendant.

    Collyer ordered the plaintiffs to show cause why Busby’s motion should not be granted, giving them until June 19 to do so.

    Busby was the president of Golden Panda Ad Builder. Garner was an attorney for AdSurfDaily.

    The judge had denied a motion by the plaintiffs earlier this week for more time to respond to Garner’s dismissal motion for “failure to cite good cause.” The plaintiffs filed an amended motion, which Collyer granted yesterday.

    A response to Garner’s dismissal motion now is due July 9. Attorney’s for the plaintiffs said they agreed to examine “whether or not to voluntarily dismiss [Garner] from the proceeding” prior to the new filing deadline.

    Earlier in the week Collyer denied motions by the plaintiffs to formally add two attorneys to the case, for “failure to confer with all opposing counsel.”

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin also is a RICO defendant. He has not responded to the lawsuit.

    In a separate case filed by the government last year against assets tied to ASD and Golden Panda amid allegations of wire fraud, money-laundering, selling unregistered securities and operating a Ponzi scheme, prosecutors seized more than $65 million from Bowdoin-controlled bank accounts  and more than $14 million from Busby-controlled accounts.

    Busby, a minister who also is in the real-estate business and was implicated by the SEC in a prime-bank scheme in the 1990s, submitted to the forfeiture in September.

    Bowdoin submitted to the forfeiture in January, but now says he changed his mind after meeting with a “group” and wants to re-contest it. Golden Panda amassed the $14 million sum in only days, and ASD amassed the $65 million sum in only weeks.

    Busby’s attorney — Jonathan W. Emord of Clifton, Va. — said in court filings that claims against “Rev. Busby are precluded by the United States’ civil forfeiture action under the doctrine of res judicata.

    “Plaintiffs are barred from relitigating issues resolved against Busby on behalf of the United States and all residents, citizens, and taxpayers concerning matters adjudicated which are of public interest,” Emord argued.

    In essence, the argument holds that, since Busby already has submitted to the forfeiture of funds and the government is establishing a mechanism for refunds, the RICO litigants already have a remedy.

    Garner, meanwhile, argued that the court lacks jurisdiction over him in the case. He is representing himself in the RICO action, although court filings suggest he also has paid professional counsel working behind the scenes.

    Florida Case Against Bowdoin At Standstill

    Why Bowdoin hasn’t responded to the RICO lawsuit is unclear. Also unclear is why there has been no public action since Jan. 6 in a lawsuit filed against Bowdoin and his wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin, by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum.

    Federal prosecutors said in April that Bowdoin had signed a proffer letter in the federal case and acknowledged that ASD was operating illegally. Proffer letters sometimes mean that the one who proffers has agreed to provide the government information that is helpful in the prosecution of others.

    After signing the proffer letter, Bowdoin submitted to the forfeiture in January. Several weeks later, in late February, Bowdoin consulted with what he described as a “group” and began to file pro se court pleadings in the federal case.

    One day after Bowdoin signed his first pro-se pleading on Feb. 25, the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf introduced members to Pro Advocate Group, which says it can help people practice law without a license and help companies form “private membership associations.”

    AVG now is operating as such an association.

    Pro Advocate Group, which also pushes a “legal defense” for taxpayers and “private medical associations,” is associated with Karl Dahlstrom. Dahlstrom was convicted of securities fraud and sentenced to 78 months in federal prison in the 1990s.

    Prosecutors said he bought automobiles with investors’ funds — something Bowdoin is accused of doing.

    AVG has close family, management and promotional ties to ASD. Two of Bowdoin’s family members –  George Harris and his wife, Judy Harris — are trustees of the AVG private “association.”

    George Harris is the son of Bowdoin’s wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin.

    AVG, which earlier had disclaimed any ties to ASD, now describes itself as a full-fledged advertising and communications company with a host of services.

    But the company has not explained how having ties to Bowdoin family members, friends and promoters is helpful for business, given twin forfeiture cases by the government against assets tied to ASD, the RICO case filed by ASD members and McCollum’s Florida case.

    In December — in an action separate from an August forfeiture filing by the federal government and McCollum’s August lawsuit — federal prosecutors filed a second forfeiture complaint against assets tied to ASD.

    Among other things, the December complaint alleged that Edna Faye Bowdoin and George Harris opened a checking account with nearly $180,000 in illegal proceeds from ASD. George Harris used more than $157,000 of the deposit to pay off the mortgage on the Tallahassee home he shared with his wife, prosecutors said.

    George and Judy Harris also acquired an automobile with illegal proceeds from ASD, prosecutors said.

    Last year, Bowdoin announced to ASD members that “Ponzi” allegations in the Florida case had been dropped. The announcement caused ASD members to race to online forums to share the good news, but proved to be false.

    McCollum’s office issued a statement denying Bowdoin’s assertions, saying Ponzi allegations hadn’t even been brought against ASD in Florida.

    Rather, McCollum’s office said, the state had accused ASD of operating a Pyramid scheme.

  • FOLLOW-UP: The Headline Flap Over Our AVG Story

    EDITOR’S NOTE: We published a story Wednesday that some members of AdViewGlobal (AVG) assert is unfair. At issue — particularly from a poster who uses the handle “CORRECTION!” — is the headline that accompanied the story.

    Another poster, “Pistol,” isn’t sympathic to the autosurf business and says he doesn’t suffer fools gladly on either side of the issue, but also raised a concern about the fairness of the headline. Meanwhile, other posters say the headline is fair. One of the issues is whether an AVG prospect can bypass AVG and purchase ad-packs directly from sponsors.

    Here is some background, and our response to the concerns. We’ll start by republishing a comment Pistol made. Pistol’s reference to the “200% thingy” below is a reference to an AVG matching-bonus program.

    The 200 percent program was advertised to have a June 29 expiration date, but AVG suddenly changed the expiration date to June 5. AVG members and prospects said they were concerned about not being able to get money to the company in time to qualify for the bonus, and an AVG promoter outlined a strategy by which members and prospects with “big bucks” could get the bonus by paying sponsors directly.

    Pistol: It doesn’t seem to me that the sponsor in question is suggesting that sponsors should give/sell members adpacks/page impressions from them (the sponsors) but rather a quick and easy way that they can help new members get funds available so that they can buy adpacks directly from AVGA thereby qualifying for the 200% thingy.

    OUR TAKE: During the first FOUR steps of what is described as the sponsor’s bid to provide a “quick and easy way” for prospects to buy ad-packs “directly” from AVG, the sponsor:

    1.) Gathers money from the prospect and makes a private agreement with the prospect that the final recipient of the funds will be AVG and that the funds will be used to purchase ad-packs.
    2.) Deposits the funds in the sponsor’s local bank.
    3.) Causes a wire to be sent to an offshore payment processor or sends a check via overnight mail to the offshore payment processor.
    4.) Waits for the payment processor to receive the funds and credit the sponsor’s account.

    That’s FOUR steps — or FIVE, if you count the private agreement as a separate step — so an argument that positions this as a purchase made “directly” from AVG isn’t a very compelling one.

    This deal cannot happen as the promoter describes, absent a private agreement between the sponsor and the prospect and subterfuge aimed at the local bank. Moreover, it can’t happen without use of the bank’s wire facility or use of a banking instrument, and it necessarily must involve the offshore processors because the prospect can’t wire funds to AVG directly.

    There’s that word again — “directly.”  With the exception of the prospect’s direct payment to the sponsor, there is virtually nothing direct about this transaction.

    At this point, the prospect’s bank thinks he is doing business with the sponsor, the sponsor’s bank thinks he is doing business with the prospect, and the payment processor thinks it is doing business with the sponsor.

    ONLY the prospect and the sponsor know that AVG is the intended final recipient — and they haven’t told anybody, FOUR or FIVE steps into the process.

    Additional Steps

    In the next step, the sponsor tells the offshore payment processor that AVG is the intended recipient, but the payment processor doesn’t know the prospect is hidden in the deal or is choosing not to know. The prospect’s role is to give money to the sponsor, so he can use the sponsor’s bank to get the money to the offshore processor in an environment that is conducive for AVG and most advantageous for the prospect.

    The payment processor obliges the sponsor and wires the money to AVG, but the transaction still is at least TWO steps away from completion, because the money or the value thereof somehow has to get back in the hands of the real customer, the prospect.

    So, the sponsor funds his AVG account, so he can use AVG’s internal system to get the money or the value thereof to the real customer, the prospect, for the purchase of ad-packs.

    A sale made “directly” through AVG? Hardly. This process is at least SEVEN steps removed from a direct transaction with AVG and perhaps as many as EIGHT. This sale cannot occur — and the prospect cannot get the 200 percent bonus — unless the prospect pays the sponsor directly. The sponsor is getting paid directly for the purchase of ad packs.

    Here, a person might want to ask why the prospect in search of a matching bonus before a deadline passes just can’t send the money to AVG directly and have it credited immediately. That’s the question some AVG members are asking right now. In fact, they asked it as soon as the sponsor laid out the strategy, and some AVG members are complaining out loud about money procedures that appear to be convoluted and complex.

    A person also might want to ask why AVG isn’t using PayPal, and instead is using the offshore surfing favorites: SolidTrustPay and StrictPay. PayPal does not touch this kind of business because it is fraught with secret agendas.

    Worth Noting

    It’s worth pointing out that some of the government personnel involved in the AdSurfDaily (ASD) case also were involved in the successful prosecution of e-Gold, which basically was accused of looking the other way while it processed payments for people who were laundering money.

    ASD, a Florida company federal prosecutors say once used e-Gold and engaged in wire fraud,  money-laundering and the sale of unregistered securities, has close ties to AVG.

    AVG, for example, lists ASD President Andy Bowdoin’s stepson — George Harris — as a “Trustee” of the AVG “private association.” Judy Harris, the wife of George Harris, also is listed as an AVG “Trustee.”

    A home and a car prosecutors say George and Judy Harris acquired with money from ASD was seized as the proceeds of a criminal enterprise in a December forfeiture complaint filed by the Feds.

    One of the issues in the e-Gold case was secret money transactions, and look what’s happening in the strategy outlined by the AVG promoter: The banks don’t know that the prospect and the sponsor just worked together to get funds to a final beneficiary unknown to the bank — AVG — and the processor doesn’t know the prospect is hidden in the deal or may be choosing not to know.

    Incongruous Messages

    AVG purports to be headquartered in Uruguay, has servers that resolve to Panama, receives money from offshore processors in Canada and Panama, but issued a news release this week with a dateline of Tallahassee.

    Many of our readers probably noticed that AVG didn’t use the words “Uruguay” or “Panama” or  “offshore” in its news release, but then immediately sent members an email purported to have originated in Uruguay — to celebrate a news release with a Tallahassee dateline.

    It’s a message hopelessly at odds with itself. It is particularly incongruous because AVG also now claims it provides professional PR services — but just look at what is happening:

    AVG can’t reconcile its own message. It is creating the appearance that it is in Tallahassee when it wants to look clean and proper — indeed, some people now say it is selling legitimate services priced from $30,000 to $200,000 — but it’s in Uruguay when it wants “advertising” rotator cash from folks who need to believe the Securities and Exchange Commission can’t touch them offshore.

    How do those competing notions come into balance? And why would a company that says it can command legitimate fees of up to $200,000 from clients not be running like a man on fire to exit the autosurf business? Incredibly, one promoter said today that AVG’s plan is to remain in the surf business and use the fees it collects for legitimate services to fund the surf.

    In the strategy outlined by the promoter, where is the money that started out at a local bank now? Uruguay? Panama? Florida? Elsewhere? And what routes will it take in the form of payouts to get back to members so it becomes spendable in their hometowns?

    The Headline Flap

    As many of our readers know, “CORRECTION!” is none too happy about this headline, which appears on this Blog.

    AdViewGlobal Promoter Says Prospects Can Bypass Company And Purchase Ad-Packs Directly From Sponsors To Ensure They Get Credited With 200 Percent Match Before Deadline

    CORRECTION repeatedly has demanded a retraction, although he has not identified himself as an AVG spokesperson or person in position of authority at AVG to bring a concern to our attention and ask for a clarification or a retraction. At the same time, CORRECTION will not answer basic questions about AVG’s business practices or provide evidence of verifiable income streams to refute concerns AVG is selling unregistered securities and operating as a Ponzi scheme.

    Let’s take the headline sections one at a time:

    /AdViewGlobal Promoter Says/

    Yes, it was an AVG promoter who shared the strategy of prospects paying sponsors directly and engaging in a process that involves at least SEVEN steps and ultimately results in the purchase of ad-packs. (AVG calls ad-packs “page impressions” or “viewer impressions.”)

    /Prospects Can Bypass Company/

    Yes, the prospect bypasses the company and pays money directly to the sponsor, under the strategy outlined by the promoter. The only thing AVG does in this transaction is make sure the electrons settle in the proper places when told to do so.

    /And Purchase Ad-Packs Directly From Sponsors/

    Yes, the sponsor is selling ad-packs directly because he directly collects the money for the ad-packs, routes the money offshore, causes it to be delivered to AVG, funds his own AVG account with his prospects’ money, and then causes AVG to redistribute the funds or the value thereof to complete the sale. In this case, the sponsor is more directly involved in the sale of ad-packs than AVG itself.

    /To Ensure They Get Credited With 200 Percent Match Before Deadline/

    Yes, this whole strategy was published because someone wanted to know the quickest way a person with $10,000 could get the money to AVG before the deadline to qualify for the 200 percent match.

    The promoter said it was a way to take care of the folks with “big bucks.”

  • BREAKING NEWS: Judge Denies Plaintiffs’ Motion In AdSurfDaily RICO Case For More Time To Respond To Garner Dismissal Motion; Bowdoin Still A No-Show

    A federal judge has denied a motion by the plaintiffs in a racketeering lawsuit against AdSurfDaily attorney Robert Garner for more time to respond to Garner’s motion to be dismissed as a defendant.

    Judge Rosemary Collyer said the plaintiffs had failed to cite “a good cause” to grant the delay.

    Meanwhile, Collyer also denied motions by the plaintiffs to let two additional attorneys enter the case, saying the plaintiffs’ attorneys failed “to confer with all opposing counsel” as required by a Local Rule.

    How things will proceed is unclear. The plaintiffs’ answer to Garner’s dismissal motion is due tomorrow. They had sought a delay until July 6.

    Garner’s RICO co-defendants include ASD President Andy Bowdoin and Golden Panda Ad Builder President Clarence Busby.

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

  • AdViewGlobal Promoter Says Prospects Can Bypass Company And Purchase Ad-Packs Directly From Sponsors To Ensure They Get Credited With 200 Percent Match Before Deadline

    An AdViewGlobal (AVG) promoter has shared a strategy that potentially could cause a legal calamity for individual AVG promoters and members. The member posted his strategy on an AdViewGlobal forum set up by some Mods and members of the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum.

    AVG, which purports to be headquartered in Uruguay and also is known as AVGA, launched a new website Monday, redefining itself as a full-fledged advertising company with a host of services. Within hours, the surf firm announced that a 200 percent, matching-bonus program would end June 5, not June 29 as originally advertised.

    AVG prospects and existing members expressed concern that they would not be able to get their accounts credited with purchases or the bonus before the June 5 deadline. The new deadline shaved 24 days off the original deadline.

    One AVG promoter, however, said there was a workaround by which established program sponsors could serve as a conduit for AVG.

    Under the workaround, established sponsors could gather money from individual prospects, deposit it in the sponsors’ local banks and then send a check by overnight mail to international payment processors in Canada and Panama.

    Alternatively, the sponsors could use their local bank’s wire facility to wire money to the processors, the promoter explained.

    Once the offshore payment processors credited the sponsors’ accounts, the sponsors could transfer the money to AVG and use AVG’s internal system to transfer ad packs to the prospects’ accounts in the amounts they desired to purchase, ensuring that the matching bonuses also would be credited by the June 5 deadline.

    “Many new members may or may not be able to become verified AND have their account funded in time to qualify for the match,” the promoter said. “So as a sponsor what you can do is bank wire or overnight your payment processor ([SolidTrustPay] or [StrictPay]).

    “You are guarantee[d] to have it into your account by Friday. Once it hit[s] your account, log into backoffice and ‘Fund your AVGA account’. This will bring the money into your cash balance. Once it’s in your cash balance, then you can INSTANTLY transfer it to your members. Once money hits their account, they can make a purchase and “BAM” get[] the 200% match.

    “You can have your members wire you their funds or whatever the 2 of you decide upon,” the promoter continued.

    “Unless [there] is a direct wire to AVGA for funding, this is probably the best way that I can see that you can help all your present AND new members get the 200% match,” the promoter said.

    Such an approach potentially brings many issues into play at the individual level, including mail fraud, wire fraud, money-laundering, tax evasion, selling unregistered securities and acting as a securities broker-dealer without a license.

    Some members of AdSurfDaily, a Florida company accused of wire fraud, selling unregistered securities and operating a Ponzi scheme, also gathered money directly from prospects and used ASD’s internal system to transfer credits.

    ASD’s internal laxity and inability to post purchases in timely fashion led to assertions that individual promoters could use the company to make tax-free side deals with prospects. If a promoter already was in “profit” and had a stockpile of ad-packs on the books, he or she could sell the ad-packs at a discount to prospects, transfer the ad-packs to prospects using ASD’s internal system and pocket the cash.

    The prospects would “earn” at ASD’s advertised rate, even though they paid less than others for ad-packs by purchasing through sponsors and bypassing the company. Other ASD members who had paid full price through ASD would inherit the burden of paying for the discounted ad-packs and their full “earning” potential.

    Collecting money from prospects and transferring ad-packs using AVG’s internal system may be problematic even if the ad-packs aren’t offered at a discount. The government views the autosurf business model as foundationally corrupt, and makes no secret that participants are subject to prosecution under securities, wire-fraud, mail-fraud, money-laundering and racketeering statutes.

  • BREAKING NEWS: Prosecutors Seek Final GP Forfeiture Order

    Federal prosecutors have asked U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer for an order that would finalize the forfeiture of more than $14 million seized from Golden Panda Ad Builder last year as part of the AdSurfDaily case.

    Golden Panda, whose president was Clarence Busby, amassed the amount in only days. The final sum, taking credits and offsets into account, was $14,048,598.07.  The government seized five Golden Panda accounts in all, including one that contained precisely $6 million.

    If Collyer signs the order, it would mean that the government gets final possession of the money. It also would mean that the government would be one step closer to implementing a refund procedure for for members who certified they were crime victims.

    A timeline for the full implementation of a refund program is far from clear because ASD President Andy Bowdoin and various pro se litigants are still fighting the forfeiture.

    More than $65.8 million was seized from Bowdoin accounts, including three accounts that contained the exact same amount: $1,000,338.91.

    Bowdoin’s largest account contained more than $31.6 million. Another Bowdoin account contained more than $23.7 million. A third Bowdoin account contained more than $4.99 million. (An additional $107 would have made it an even $5 million.)

    Ten Bowdoin accounts were seized in all.