UPDATED 8:13 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) An inquiry about AdViewGlobal (AVG) at the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum has not been answered for hours by the moderator to which it was directed or any Mod.
The Mods appear either to have been away from the forum for virtually the entire U.S. East Coast business day or simply made the choice not to moderate.
At the time of this update, more than eight hours have passed since the AVG inquiry was made. Update 6:45 P.M: After nine hours, the post referencing AVG at the Surf’s Up forum was deleted.Here is a screen shot taken prior to the deletion. The shot was reduced in size to fit into this space:
Meanwhile, a post highly critical of ASD President Andy Bowdoin has been permitted to stand. Update: 6:45 P.M: The critical post from “adam” has been deleted, along with a second critical post by another Surf’s Up member. Here is a screen shot of “adam’s” post prior to deletion. It has been reduced in size to fit into this space:
Update 7:14 P.M:. As noted above, the post from “adam” critical of Andy Bowdoin has been deleted. Left standing was a post critical of “adam” for being critical of Andy Bowdoin. Here is a screen shot:
At the same time, members’ inquiries on a forum some of the Surf’s Up Mods and members set up for AVG are not being answered. Update 8:13 P.M: It appears as though a Mod is answering inquiries now at the AVG forum.
AVG recently announced a 200 percent, matching-bonus offer. The site has transitioned to what it calls a “private association” that involves figures associated with ASD, including George Harris, Bowdoin’s stepson.
Why the Mods appear to have been away so long is unclear.
Promotional material for AdSurfDaily featured a photograph of Andy Bowdoin and claimed the company had advertising relationships with some of the top brands in the world.
Meanwhile, the document introduced readers to Golden Panda Ad Builder, referencing it as ASD’s “Chinese Site” and asking readers to specify if they’d like to advertise on the site.
The document was created on July 6, 2008, in Adobe Illustrator, and was converted to PDF format, according to its “Properties” function. It is possible that an earlier version of the document was in use before the July 6 version.
Among the major advertisers referenced were Google, Kodak, Starbucks, Quiznos Sub, Callaway Golf, Macy’s, Toshiba, NBC, Farmers Insurance, USA Today, Priceline.com and more. Individual logos of the companies were pictured.
A Secret Service Task Force quietly opened a probe into ASD on July 3, 2008. On July 7, just a day after the July 6 promo for ASD was created, an IRS/Secret Service Task member opened a free ASD account. On July 14, an IRS/Secret Service Task force member opened a paid account. A separate Task Force member funded the account by delivering a check to a Bank of America branch office in Orlando, Fla.
Despite claims ASD was home to famous, paid advertisers, ASD has not provided any documentation in court filings to substantiate the claims.
Promo for ASD references prominent brands in ASD customer base.
“This new approach to Internet advertising has businesses of all sizes, from small home
based businesses to large corporations such as Google, Starbucks, Kodak, etc., joining ASD,” the promotion said.
“Not only are there over 75,000 small businesses advertising with ASD, but now major corporations are as well. Remember, a part of the daily rebate comes from the revenue corporations pay to advertise with ASD. The following are just a few of these companies,” the promotion said, introducing 24 corporate logos from prominent companies.
The individual logos appeared on Page 10 of the document. Page 11 featured a photo of Andy Bowdoin and what purported to be his business biography, including references to Dale Carnegie and “the notorious Napoleon Hill.”
A White House tie also was claimed.
“In fact, AdSurfDaily President and CEO, Andy Bowdoin, was invited to Washington, D.C., in June, 2008, by United States President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to receive the Medal of Distinction, at the White House. This is a very special honor for his service and leadership contributions in business,” the document crowed.
Prosecutors said claims about Bowdoin’s White House ties were false. The Medal of Distinction is offered by the National Republican Congressional Committee for campaign donations to keep Republican members in Congress. The “medal” signifies a person’s ability to write a check for what amounts to banquet tickets.
At the same time, the July 6 document references a so-called “Chinese site,” instructing readers to specify if they’d like to advertise on it.
Members were told to provide a “[s]hort description of where you would like the funds to be placed (English site, Spanish Site, Chinese Site),” and to specify “which promotion is running.”
Within days, however, Bowdoin distanced himself from Golden Panda Ad Builder, the so-called Chinese site. During the same time period, it was revealed that Golden Panda Ad Builder president Clarence Busby had been accused of investment fraud in the 1990s by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Read the July 6 promo for ASD. To see the “Properties” showing the date in Adobe Reader, click on “File” and select “Properties.”
First, members of the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum tried to whip up support for ASD President Andy Bowdoin by sending Kool Aid packets to Bill O’Reilly of Fox News. Now Bowdoin himself, through a Surf’s Up Mod, is urging members to write letters to Glenn Beck, another Fox personality.
And, taking a page from his own playbook, Bowdoin also has asked members to write to President Obama, the Justice Department and elected officials “to stop this misuse of power.”
The move comes on the heels of a stunning court motion Bowdoin filed March 11 in which he acknowledged ASD was operating illegally when the government seized tens of millions of dollars from Bowdoin last summer. Bowdoin claimed in the filing that he did not know ASD was operating illegally at the time of the seizure and that the government denied him fair notice and due process.
In the filing, Bowdoin claims to be a “defendant” in a “quasi-criminal” prosecution. But Bowdoin hasn’t been named a defendant by the government, which sued the money and property for forfeiture, saying it was the proceeds of a criminal enterprise.
Prosecutors said ASD was engaging in wire fraud, money-laundering and the sale of unregistered securities — all while operating a $100 million Ponzi scheme.
Bowdoin had not communicated with the membership at large in months. He did not tell members about a second forfeiture complaint that had been filed in December against assets tied to the firm. Nor did Bowdoin tell members that, in January, he had submitted to the forfeiture of the money and property seized last summer.
In court filings, Bowdoin now says he has changed his mind about submitting to the forfeiture, even though he acknowledged that ASD was operating illegally — exactly what the government contended.
In his letter to the members, however, Bowdoin did not mention the motion in which he acknowledged ASD was operating illegally.
His last formal contact with the members was in late fall, a few months after the initial seizure, when Bowdoin tried to sell them VOIP phone service, positioning the $19.95-a-month plan as a gift to the membership. Days before, he told members that Ponzi allegations had been dropped against ASD in Florida, even though Ponzi allegations hadn’t been brought in Florida.
During the same time period in the fall, ASD’s Breaking News site announced a deal with Praebius Communications, saying ASD expected to pump $200 million into its coffers as a result of the deal. Praebius is a penny-stock company that does not publish financials.
In early December, an autosurf known as AdViewGlobal (AVG) began to position itself for launch. AVG has close ties to ASD, including George Harris, Bowdoin’s stepson and an AVG trustee; Gary Talbert, a former ASD executive now an executive and trustee for AVG; Chuck Osmin, a former ASD employee now working for AVG; and Nate Boyd, a former ASD compliance officer now listed as the “Protector” of AVG.
By December 19, federal prosecutors filed a second forfeiture complaint, saying Bowdoin’s wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin and her son, George Harris, had used proceeds from ASD to retire the $157,216 mortgage on the home Harris shared with his wife, Judy Harris.
Bowdoin now says that he recently was introduced to a “group” that is giving him legal advice. Bowdoin started filing his own court pleadings in late February, at the same time AVG was introducing members to Pro Advocate Group, which says it can help people practice medicine and law without a license.
Pro Advocate Group is associated with Karl Dahlstrom. In 1997, Dahlstrom was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for orchestrating a securities scheme.
In his letter to ASD members, Bowdoin did not disclose the name of the “group” from which he was receiving advice. Nor did Bowdoin reference or confirm reports that bank accounts belonging to ASD and AVG members recently had been seized.
He did say he fired his paid attorneys.
Here is Bowdoin’s letter. We added the italics.
Hi Folks,
It’s good to be talking to you once again. My attorneys kept me quiet for months, but after $800,000.00 and no results I fired them all.
About a month ago, several members introduced me to a group that studied what my attorneys did. The group said that my attorneys had taken the wrong approach.
The group was very confident that they could help because the government had broken so many laws and had violated our rights as citizens of the United States.
I have rescinded my decision to release our ownership of all the assets. I filed various motions a few weeks ago, and several more last week, to dismiss our case and to return the assets because of the violations committed by our government.
We are ready to pursue this all the way to the US Supreme Court.
A great injustice has been done to 100,000 people, and we need to stand up and fight for our rights. Some agencies of the government have become so powerful that they believe they are above the Constitution. We, as members of ASD, need to help stop this misuse of power. I ask each one of you to write to the Justice Department, to your senators and representatives, to the President, and even to Glen Beck of Fox News. Tell them all what the Justice Department has done to your business.
We will be filing papers in the next couple of weeks that should really get their attention. Watch for the filings. I will be speaking out on a conference call as soon as the filings are completed. We will notify you of the call. I look forward to talking to you then.
I appreciate your support in helping us get back what rightfully belongs to the members of ASD.
UPDATED 10:06 A.M. EDT (March 12, U.S.A.) Did Andy Bowdoin just sink AdSurfDaily’s ship — and also the ship of AdViewGlobal?
In a court filing today, Bowdoin, the president of ASD, made a stunning acknowledgment that the company was operating illegally.
Bowdoin’s acknowledgment came in the purported form of a motion to dismiss the forfeiture complaint against proceeds tied to the firm, which prosecutors said engaged in wire fraud, money-laundering, selling unregistered securities and operating a $100 million Ponzi scheme.
“The defendant did not know or realize that his conduct was illegal until this instant case was filed against him,” Bowdoin said, referring to himself as “defendant.”
Bowdoin contends in the pleading that the case is “quasi-criminal” and that he was denied due process and fair notice that his conduct was illegal.
Bowdoin, however, is not a defendant in the forfeiture case. His self-filed pleading references the forfeiture case on its title page, but appears to be a response to a case that never was brought.
For days, the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum has been applauding legal filings Bowdoin made last week and encouraging others to do the same.
But today’s filing could cause Bowdoin’s remaining support to evaporate because of his concession that ASD was operating illegally. Bowdoin had spent months insisting ASD was legal and collected tens of millions of dollars from members last year, all the while advertising ASD as completely legal and above-board.
Bowdoin now is acting as his own attorney. AdViewGlobal (AVG), an autosurf with close ties to ASD, recently formed a private association and turned to a firm known as Pro Advocate Group for advice.
Karl Dahlstrom is associated with Pro Advocate Group. In 1997, Dahlstrom was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for his role in a securities scheme.
Today’s filing by Bowdoin is potentially devastating both for ASD and AVG because of the concession that ASD was operating illegally. Prosecutors could claim the document has the effect of a signed confession.
Bowdoin’s stepson is an AVG trustee. So is Gary Talbert, AVG’s chief executive officer and a former ASD executive. Chuck Osmin, a former ASD employee who testified for the firm at a hearing last year, also works for AVG. Nate Boyd, whom ASD members said once was a compliance officer for ASD, is listed as the “Protector” for the AVG association. Some of the Mods and members of Surf’s Up started a forum for AVG.
Bowdoin’s pleadings today appear to attempt to manufacture a criminal defense out of whole cloth, by rewriting the history of the forfeiture case — a civil proceeding — and turning the case into something it never was: a criminal prosecution against Andy Bowdoin. The only defendants in the case to date are money and property prosecutors claim are the proceeds of a criminal enterprise.
At the same time, today’s pleadings may be designed so potential ASD co-defendants in any criminal case that evolves will have a legal template for a self-filed defense. There have been reports that bank accounts owned by ASD members beyond Bowdoin have been seized in the past two weeks.
Meanwhile, the cheerleading for Bowdoin at the Surf’s Up forum appears to be particularly unseemly now because today’s pleadings had everything to do with Andy Bowdoin, and nothing to do with the rank-and-file members who’d been asked to support him. The document does not cite the membership in a single place.
UPDATE 8:14 P.M. EST (U.S.A.) With each passing day the AdSurfDaily case reveals new and strange details about a subculture that appears to have firm roots in the organization. It is a subculture of rants against the government for perceived injustices, underground business “associations” that purport to permit nonlawyers and nondoctors to practice law and medicine, and legal filings that seek to undermine banks’ abilities to collect on debts.
Today a post appeared on the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum purporting to take viewers to a page from which they could download a Microsoft Word template of a letter to send the government to protest its actions in the ASD case. The author of the letter was identified as ASD promoter Joe Shoop, and the website — credittechs.net — was registered to Ricky Jackson.
In 2004, Ricky Jackson and Regina Jackson sued Chase Manhattan Mortgage Corp. in federal court for the Eastern District of Missouri to overturn a mortgage foreclosure. The documents in the case purported to show that Ricky Jackson had posted a bond consisting of “twenty-one dollars in silver coinage†in a bizarre bid to undermine the bank’s interest in the property.
The Jacksons, according to filings, ordered the bank to respond to the document within three days or lose all of its rights in the case, which appears to have started in Missouri state court and morphed into multiple federal cases.
U.S. District Judge Catherine D. Perry ultimately dismissed the Jackson complaint against the bank with prejudice, saying the pleadings were nonsense.
“This document is even more incomprehensible than the initial complaint, ” Perry said of the 21 Silver Coins filing.
For days now, the Surf’s Up forum has been suggesting the ASD case soon will take a legal turn for the better — from ASD’s point of view. One Surf’s Up Mod pleaded with a member to “just hold on — a little bit longer now baby.”
But pleadings filed in the case recently by ASD members have used the template of Curtis Richmond, a California man associated with a Utah “Indian” tribe a judge ruled a sham.
Four motions to intervene have been filed in recent weeks in the ASD case. All four used the Richmond template. They accused Judge Rosemary Collyer, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor and Assistant U.S. Attorney William Cowden of crimes.
Richmond, a nonlawyer, has been a thorn in the side of banks from coast to coast. His name appears in lawsuits in which borrowers claimed not to owe lenders money because they had “assigned” their debts to him. Meanwhile, Richmond has tried to have litigation opponents in debt cases arrested.
On Feb. 26, an autosurf known as AdViewGlobal, which has close ties to ASD, announced it was forming a “private association.” The company to which it turned for advice is Pro Advocate Group, which says it can set up individuals to practice law without a license.
Karl Dahlstrom, who is associated with Pro Advocate Group, was sentenced in 1997 to 78 months in federal prison for his role in a securities scheme.
The credittechs.net website registered to Jackson features a media player with the ASD logo, and also appears to host a credit-repair organization set up as a private association.
“At Credit Techs we are not credit counseling or credit negotiators, we are credit debt ELIMINATORS,” the site says. “We can help stop the credit companies from stealing your hard earned money. Our specialty is credit cards and unsecured debt. We are an organization of members who help one another out with such financial matters.”
Credit Techs also says this:
“Members of groups who are competent nonlawyers can assist other members of the group achieve the goals of the group in court without being charged with ‘unauthorized practice of law,’” the site says.
The Obama administration said today that it will crack down on international tax cheats and people using tax havens to evade U.S. regulators.
In testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Obama will propose new rules to curtail international scheming.
“The budget also seeks to close the ‘tax gap’ by tackling tax shelters and other efforts to abuse our tax laws, including international tax-evasion efforts,” Geithner said. “The budget addresses the use of offshore structures and accounts by U.S. corporations and individuals to avoid and evade U.S. taxes. Over the next several months, the President will propose a series of legislative and enforcement measures to reduce such U.S. tax evasion and avoidance.”
Geithner’s remarks couldn’t have come at a worse time for some AdSurfDaily members. Some members Surf’s Up, a Pro-ASD forum, are engaging in a letter-writing campaign to have the government investigate the prosecutors and federal judge involved in the case.
Members have sent letters to Obama, Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and other politicians.
In August, prosecutors alleged that ASD was a wire-fraud and money-laundering operation whose central component was an international, $100 million Ponzi scheme. ASD had more than $1 million on deposit in Antigua, which later became ground zero in the alleged multibillion-dollar Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme.
Robert Garner, an ASD attorney who advertised his international financial services in a magazine in 2003, was named a defendant in a RICO lawsuit in January. His co-defendants include ASD President Andy Bowdoin and Golden Panda Ad Builder President Clarence Busby. Assets tied to Golden Panda were seized in the ASD case.
Promoter say Busby now is involved with another surf — BizAdSplash — which promotes itself as an offshore business.
Bowdoin’s stepson, George Harris, and two former ASD employees, Gary Talbert and Chuck Osmin, are associated with yet another offshore surf — AdViewGlobal.
Three autosurfs with ties to ASD sprouted up in the aftermath of the government’s seizure of ASD funds, all touting the benefits of their “offshore” locations in countries such as Panama and Uruguay. One of the surfs, BizAdSplash, is having trouble with a bank in Panama and a payment processor in Panama. The surf announced the trouble after the SEC charged Stanford with fraud.
Meanwhile, AdGateWorld positioned itself as an attractive option after what happened to ASD. Promoters said AdGateWorld provided protection from the SEC, the IRS and state attorneys general.
For its part, AdViewGlobal now says it is forming a private association.
An attorney accused of racketeering in a lawsuit by members of AdSurfDaily and accused by prosecutors of shilling for ASD President Andy Bowdoin once advertised his services in “Escape From America Magazine.”
The magazine is part of a website known as EscapeArtist.com.
Robert F. Garner identified himself a “[f]ormer General Counsel for major Miami-based securities firm with Latin and South American focus,” according to his ad. He listed the URL for his law office in Greensboro, North Carolina, saying he also specialized in “[r]ecoveries from scam.”
Garner is licensed to practice law in North Carolina. But web records show he has not informed the North Carolina bar this year whether he is in private practice or carries malpractice insurance — two things he is required to do.
“Each active member of the North Carolina State Bar is required to advise the State Bar annually whether he or she is engaged in private practice and whether he or she is covered by legal malpractice insurance,” the bar says on its website. Garner’s entries for 2009 are listed “no response.”
Garner’s magazine ad ran in Vol. 5, Issue 11, of Escape From America. It was published in November 2003, alongside ads for tax havens, financial, telephone and real estate services for expatriates, and pitches for people to move to Belize and elsewhere.
“YOUR OWN OFFSHORE BANK ACCOUNT IS WAITING FOR YOU,” promised one of the ads in the publication.
In December, federal prosecutors filed a second forfeiture complaint against assets tied to ASD, including a home and personal property acquired by Bowdoin family members.
Bowdoin’s wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin, and her son, George Harris, used ASD money to open an account in a separate bank. Harris used $157,216 of the opening deposit to pay off the mortgage on the Tallahassee home he shared with his wife, prosecutors said.
Garner shilled for Andy Bowdoin in an ASD video, prosecutors said.
“ASD actually [employed] Garner to participate in a marketing video that ASD crafted to reassure hesitant prospects of ASD’s lawfulness, not for his expertise in ensuring ASD’s compliance with applicable laws,†prosecutors said.
“Messrs. Bowdoin and Garner said that ASD’s operations had been reviewed carefully by a team of legal experts to ensure compliance with all applicable laws,†prosecutors said.
“Messrs. Bowdoin and Garner knew the representations made in the video were material to prospective participants, made-up, and false,†prosecutors said. “The misrepresentations led to a significant expansion of investment in ASD and related auto-surf investment programs.â€
In fact, prosecutors said, ASD didn’t hire compliance attorneys during the first 20 months of its existence, waiting until after it started to collect enormous sums at rallies last year to address compliance with federal securities laws and other laws.
A RICO complaint brought against Bowdoin, Garner and Golden Panda Ad Builder President Clarence Busby in January accuses the men of organized efforts to defraud. The lawsuit was filed by Mike Collins of Savage, Minn.; Frank Greene of Washington, D.C.; and Natures Discount of Aventura, Fla.
The complaint alleged the men were involved in “other†schemes beyond ASD, Golden Panda and LaFuenteDinero, and have “committed or aided and abetted in the commission of countless acts of racketeering activity,†including indictable offenses.
“The ASD Enterprise provides the RICO Defendants and other unnamed co-conspirators with a system by which to operate fraudulent schemes such as ASD, to hide the fraudulent nature of the schemes, and to profit from such schemes,†the plaintiffs alleged. “Each RICO Defendant agreed to perform services of a kind which facilitated the operation of the ASD Enterprise and facilitated the RICO Defendants and others in the operation of various fraudulent schemes, including ASD.â€
One entity associated with ASD — a surf known as AdViewGlobal — lists former ASD executive Gary Talbert as its chief executive officer. Chuck Osmin, a former ASD customer-service representative who said he expected to earn $2,000 a day from ASD, also now works for AVG.
Meanwhile, AVG lists George Harris as a trustee. AVG has turned to a firm known as Pro Advocate Group for advice on becoming a private members’ association. Pro Advocate Group is associated with Karl Dahlstom. In 1997, Dahlstrom was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for his participation in a securities scheme.
An attorney named Robert F. Garner — with ties to Florida and North Carolina –Â is referenced in documents published by the U.S. Senate pertaining to a 2001 investigation into international money-laundering.
UPDATEÂ 9:16 P.M. EST (U.S.A.) The indictment against Karl Dahlstrom is available in PDF format at the bottom of this post.
Here, below, our earlier post . . .
In a desperate bid to hide itself underground after its management structure was exposed, the controversial autosurf AdViewGlobal has formed a private association and is taking advice from an entity known as “Pro Advocate Group.”
Pro Advocate Group is associated with Karl Dahlstrom. In 1997, Dahlstrom was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for his participation in a securities scheme.
Dahlstrom and others “were indicted for their involvement in a nationwide solicitation campaign for the purpose of selling unregistered shares” of Inferno Snuffers Inc. (ISI), and Inferno Engineering and Consulting Inc. (IEC), the SEC said.
AdSurfDaily, under fire for selling unregistered securities amid allegations of wire fraud, money-laundering and running a $100 million Ponzi scheme, is led by Andy Bowdoin, himself a convicted felon from a 1990s securities scheme. Prosecutors seized part of ASD’s assets in an August forfeiture complaint.
George Harris, Bowdoin’s stepson, is listed as a trustee for AVG. In December, about a week after AVG started being talked about in online forums, federal prosecutors seized additional assets linked to ASD, filing a second forfeiture complaint. Among the assets seized was a Tallahassee home owned by George Harris and his wife, Judy Harris.
Under Dahlstrom’s direction, the SEC said, ISI and IEC “were marketing ‘Uni-Snuff,’ a product claimed to be useful in extinguishing and suppressing fires, and the ‘Snuffer System,’ a method of dispensing Uni-Snuff.”
The website for Pro Advocate Group lists “Clara Dahlstrom” as the administrator. Clara Dahlstrom is Karl Dahlstrom’s wife. In court documents in a tax case, Karl Dahlstrom is described as having “been in the abusive trust business for many years.”
AVG announced its association with Pro Advocate Group in a members’ conference call earlier this week. A Mod at the Pro-AdSurfDaily “Surf’s Up” forum introduced listeners to Gary Talbert, a former ASD executive now listed as the chief executive officer of AVG.
Talbert, in turn, introduced listeners to Pro Advocate Group and a man identified as “Carl,” who delivered remarks.
“He discussed why AVG decided to establish a 1st and 14th Amendment Private Membership Association,†a source said.
Like ASD, Pro Advocates Group uses religion in its sales pitch.
“We are proud of our Christian moral values and feel that we stand alone in a sea full of Master Deceivers in the world of Asset Protection,” the group says on its website. “Let us help you find the proper legal solution for your problem and peace of mind. We are founded upon legal principles that are backed by book, chapter and verse of legal rulings, regulations and Supreme Court interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. We teach and support the inherent rights of DUE PROCESS and EQUAL PROTECTION under the law.”
Read the indictment against Karl Dahlstrom, Karla Dahlstrom (his daughter), Hubert Leopard and Richard Lopez. Some of the allegations read like the allegations against ASD.
Karl Dahlstrom was accused of using investors' funds to purchase new vehicles and pitching the opportunity to church groups.
Earlier this week we reported on the failure of Premium Ads Club (PAC). Now a surf with close ties to PAC is in its death spiral. Aggero Investment says tomorrow will be its last day, absent a miracle that will prevent a run on the bank as investors race to collect returns advertised at 60 percent a month, on top of bonus returns.
Like PAC, Aggero Investment collected money right up to the bitter end, assuring investors that things were just fine and that external investments paying astronomical returns made Aggero Investment’s merely collossal returns possible.
Aggero Investment relied on some of the same promoters as AdSurfDaily (ASD), the Quincy, Fla,-based autosurf that had nearly $100 million in assets seized by the U.S. Secret Service in August amid allegations of money-laundering, wire fraud and running a Ponzi scheme.
ASD had more than $250 million in unfunded liabilities at the time of seizure, prosecutors said. ASD, however, tried to tell a federal judge that it had no liabilities because rebates weren’t guaranteed.
The judge didn’t buy it.
The usual script is in play on the Ponzi boards in the wake of the Aggero Investment collapse. Some posters are angry and bitter. Others are urging calm, advising participants not to file claims through SolidTrustPay, a Canadian payment processor fond of surf fees, because claims could make it harder on everybody. Still others are hoping Aggero Investment will slash payouts to something more “reasonable,” suggesting that 30 percent — what ASD paid monthly — might be the ticket.
Yet others are referring to the electronic Ponzi-scheme business as an “industry,” positioning themselves as experts and the voices of reason. Serial promoters in the “industry” all have exposure — both to civil and criminal litigation — and routinely spin surf failures as nothing to get all worked up about.
It has been a bad week for surfs. AdViewGlobal (AVG), which has management in common with ASD, desperately is trying to get undergound. Its new gambit is to form a private asssociation and dispatch shills to rail against the government in a bid to make its exposure go away and deflect from the central issues of the autosurf prosecutions: the sale of unregistered securities by wire in a Ponzi environment.
The Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum, which also is shilling for AVG, can’t delete posts that shed light on this soulless business fast enough these days. Some Surf’s Up members were electrified this week when ASD members used a litigation template by Curtis Richmond to file motions to intervene in the ASD case.
Richmond and his co-litigants are accusing the judge and prosecutors in the ASD case of crimes, and its music to the ears of the Surf’s Up crackpots. Never mind that Richmond is associated with a sham Utah Indian tribe that was sued successfully under federal racketeering statutes for nuisancing federal judges with vexatious litigation.
And never mind that Richmond has a conviction for criminal contempt of court for threatening federal judges, has been banned from the practice of law in Colorado despite the fact he’s not an attorney, and describes himself in court documents as a “Sovereign” who answers only to Jesus Christ and enjoys diplomatic immunity from prosecution.
His theory of diplomatic immunity didn’t play well with a federal judge who ordered Richmond and other members of the sham tribe to pay nearly $110,000 in damages and costs to victims of their litigation schemes. And it didn’t play well with another federal judge who found Richmond gulity of criminal contempt of court and sentenced him to six months of home confinement with electronic monitoring and five years’ probation.
This week has featured the collapse of Aggero Investment and Premium Ads Club, and a renewed commitment by AVG and Surf’s Up to take the absurdity to new levels — on the heels of a bonus program to get new money into the AVG system, of course.
UPDATED 12:56 A.M. EST (Feb. 28, U.S.A.) Documents filed by federal prosecutors in the AdSurfDaily case pointedly refer to Andy Bowdoin’s wife as “Edna Faye Bowdoin.”
But other documents on file with the Florida Department of State refer to her as “Faye S. Bowdoin.” Other documents in the Florida Department of State and elsewhere in Florida refer to her as “Faye S. Harris.”
“Harris” is the last name of a man to whom she once was married and also the name of her son, George Harris III.
Adding to the mystery is the building in Quincy, Fla., that once was home to “Faye’s Florist” and later became home to AdSurfDaily. Documents from 1996 list the shop’s address address as 11 S. Calhoun Street, Quincy, Fla. 32351.
AdSurfDaily, however, listed its address as 13 S. Calhoun Street, even though it was in the same building once occupied by Faye’s Florist. Adding yet another layer of mystery is that Faye S. Bowdoin is listed in state records as the sole board member of Bowdoin Harris/Enterprises Inc., which became a corporation in Florida in June 2008, about two months before the seizure of ASD’s assets.
Like ASD, Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises used the 13. S. Calhoun address — but 12 years earlier, Faye S. Harris listed the corporate address for “Faye’s Florist” as 11 S. Calhoun Street.
Federal prosecutors said the 13 S. Calhoun Street address listed for ASD was bogus. In December, prosecutors filed a second forfeiture complaint against assets linked to ASD, including property purchased by Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises using ASD money.
Adding yet another layer of mystery is a name that appears on documents Faye’s Florist filed with the state in 1996. The name “Thomas, Andrew” of 7. West Washington St., Suite 4, Quincy, Fla. 32351, appears as the name of the registered agent for Faye’s Florist.
Andy Bowdoin’s given name is Thomas Anderson Bowdoin Jr. ASD members knew him as “Andy.” The appearance of the name “Thomas, Andrew” — with the last name first, meaning the actual name is “Andrew Thomas” — on the 1996 documents from Faye’s Florist suggests that Andy Bowdoin could be “Andrew Thomas.”
That is not for certain, of course. What is for certain, however, is that law enforcement would find such a name on a document entirely too coincidental not to investigate thoroughly.
There has to be a reason why both ASD and Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises used a nonexistent address — 13 S. Calhoun St. — in public records. And unless Edna Faye Bowdoin and Faye S. Bowdoin are two separate people, there has to be a reason why Mrs. Bowdoin is using two separate names and two addresses for the same building.
Prosecutors said that Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises was a bid by Andy Bowdoin and Edna Faye Bowdoin to hide assets. What’s unclear, however, was what motivated the need to hide assets.
If “Andy Bowdoin” is the “Andrew Thomas” listed in the 1996 documents for Faye’s Florist, however, it suggests an elaborate attempt to hide assets dating back at least 12 years. The document just as easily could have carried the name “Thomas Anderson Bowdoin” Jr. if Andy Bowdoin and Andrew Thomas are one in the same.
The question is why did it not if they are one in the same.
Andy Bowdoin was charged with defrauding customers in an Alabama securities scheme in the 1990s, and was still making incremental payments to victims even as ASD was generating tens of millions of dollars last year.
At the time of the August seizure, he still owed the victims about $45,000. Just a few days prior to the seizure Bowdoin paid nearly $50,000 for a new Lincoln. A month later he sent his Alabama victims a check for $100.
Edna Faye Bowdoin’s son, George Harris, is listed as the registered agent for Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises. Prosecutors said he and his mother used nearly $180,000 in ASD funds from Bank of America to open an account at Capital City Bank on June 10, 2008, just days after Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises was formed.
On June 23, 2008, George Harris used $157,216 of the money in the new account to pay off the mortgage on the Tallahasse home he shared with his wife, Judy Harris, prosecutors said.
Here, below, some screen shots of documents:
1.
Corporate filing from 1996 showing address of Faye's Florist as 11 S. Calhoun Street.
2.
Signature of Faye S. Harris in 1996 filing for Faye's Florist.
3.
Document signed Faye S. Bowdoin in 2008 corporate filing for Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises that shows the address as 13 S. Calhoun Street. When Faye's Florist was open, it used 11 S. Calhoun Street as its address.
4.
Document from June 2008 showing George Harris as registered agent for Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises.
5.
Andy Bowdoin lists 13 S. Calhoun as ASD's address in 2008 filing with Florida Department of State.
We feel for the residents of North Salem, N.Y., and the residents of Quincy, Fla. Fate has put them in the media glare. Talk at Westchester County lunch counters is not about how the Mets or Yankees or Red Sox will do this year. It’s about how Paul Greenwood, the town supervisor of North Salem, got arrested for fleecing universities and public-employee pension funds out of perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars.
Meanwhile, in Gadsden County, the talk in Quincy is less about how Florida State will perform on the football field this fall in nearby Tallahassee and more about how Andy Bowdoin was accused of running a $100 million Ponzi scheme.
Dozens of people in Quincy are out of work because of Bowdoin. Some of them weren’t even earning wages. They were being paid with what Bowdoin called “ad packs.” Prosecutors called them unregistered securities.
Greenwood and Bowdoin have embarrassed their communities, putting on a show before their fraud was exposed. Greenwood declined to take a salary for overseeing the town. Bowdoin, for his part, let the local Chamber of Commerce do his bidding — never telling local executives about a previous felony conviction for securities fraud.
Paul Greenwood.
Local merchants were stunned when prosecutors announced Bowdoin was the head of an international wire-fraud and money-laundering operation disguised as an advertising service. He’d secreted away money on the Caribbean island nation of Antigua — now in the news because of Allen Stanford — while at the same time paying $800,000 cash for the old Masonic Hall in town, prosecutors said.
Quincy viewed him as a savior; North Salem viewed Greenwood as a leader. Prosecutors now say he spent up to $80,000 on individual Steiff Teddy bears. Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, the Iowa Public Employees Retirement System and pension funds in Sacramento and North Dakota now might have to insist that stuffed animals be sold to be made whole.
If “whole” is possible, that is.
Imagine what it’s like to have to rely on the sale of Teddy bears at auction to offset pension-fund losses. Such are the ugly incongruities of the times.
