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Tag: AdViewGlobal

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

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

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

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

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

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

    1.

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

    2.

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

    3.

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

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

    December 9, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • No Claims Filed In Second AdSurfDaily-Connected Seizure

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

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

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

    No one had come forward as of this morning.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    “Surf’s Up, Baby!”

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

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

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

  • EDITORIAL: Welcome To The Age Of The Portable Ponzi

    UPDATED 3:09 P.M. EST (U.S.A.) Talk about a message at odds with itself.

    Yesterday AdViewGlobal, which does not identify its owners and claims it has no affiliation with AdSurfDaily Inc., revealed its chief executive officer also is or was an executive at ASD (emphasis added):

    “Since Mr. [Gary] Talbert was and is the C.E.O. for both companies and had worked with the same web room company while at ASD, it would be very natural for him to choose and use many of the same venders (sic) that he had used before. So, the fact that ASD and AdView Global are using the same web room hosting company is no accident, in fact it is an operational coincidence,” AdViewGlobal said.

    So, operational coincidence goes down in history as AdViewGlobal’s first contribution to the Alice-In-Wonderland world of autosurf PR. And, yes, the company actually announced that Talbert was chief executive officer of an alleged $100 million Ponzi scheme (ASD) and now has a role as chief executive officer of an offshore company that almost certainly is engaged in the sale of unregistered securities to U.S. residents and is a Ponzi scheme itself.

    Normally companies don’t crow about this type of thing. What’s even stranger is that Juan Fernandez, not Talbert, is listed in court documents as chief executive officer of ASD. In a sworn court declaration recorded Aug. 18, Talbert identified himself as ASD’s “Human Resource Manager, Assistant CFO and Website Editor.”

    talbertaffidavit

    Perhaps ASD decided not to share the news of Talbert’s promotion to chief executive officer. Or perhaps the AdViewGlobal PR apparatus doesn’t have Clue One about what it is doing, guessed at or fabricated the title Talbert held at ASD and doesn’t read court documents that refute its own claim.

    Even if Talbert no longer is an ASD executive and is singularly employed by AdViewGlobal as chief executive officer, it doesn’t undo the ASD stain no matter what title he held at the firm. AdViewGlobal’s purported offshore registration and refusal to identify its owners make it look even worse. There is no way to sanitize this business, which stinks to the high heavens.

    Piling On The Absurdities

    AdViewGlobal’s announcement painted the autosurf business as a wholesome enterprise that attracts highly skilled, highly discriminating companies and highly talented executives.

    “When the management team in Uruguay was organizing AdView Global, they were looking for someone who was familiar with the U.S. market and the processes in which to make a surfing company successful,” AdViewGlobal said. “It was for this reason that AdView Global  hired Mr. Gary Talbert as their C.E.O.”

    One is led to believe AdViewGlobal scored a coup in recruiting Talbert, in the same way Microsoft would score a coup if it lured Steve Jobs from Apple.

    Odder yet is that AdViewGlobal engaged in bizarre speculation to explain acts by Talbert, saying the appearance of AdViewGlobal graphics on an ASD-controlled website “probably meant that he was called away in the middle of making the changes by another pressing matter.”

    Are AdViewGlobal members supposed to believe that a company that guesses about the actions of its own chief executive officer is one to be taken seriously?

    Yesterday’s announcement removed any doubts that ASD and AdViewGlobal have very close ties, despite AdViewGlobal’s preemptive disclaimer on its website. It came specifically in response to reports that its graphics were appearing on an ASD-controlled website.

    Remember, now,  AdViewGlobal claims to have no affiliation with ASD — and yet its graphics appeared on an ASD-controlled website and then suddenly disappeared after they became the subject of videos, forum discussions and Blog posts. One of the graphics listed the street address of ASD’s headquarters in Quincy, Fla., as AdViewGlobal’s street address.

    adviewglobalstreetaddressmagnified

    The Descent Into Infamy

    One of the things that accompanied ASD on its descent into infamy was a series of impossibly butchered PR announcements. The tradition continues at AdViewGlobal, which appears to have the same PR personnel in place as ASD.

    ASD, awaiting a ruling on the Sept. 30-Oct. 1 evidentiary hearing, announced a pending $200 million deal with Praebius Communications, a penny-stock company. The statement on the ASD Breaking News website was the work of an amateur and was removed after members began to question it loudly in forums.

    Praebius, a Pinksheet stock, does not publish financial information. Its executives weren’t quoted in the ASD release, and there was no way to verify the $200 million claim. The financial claim struck members as a number that had been pulled out of thin air to serve a dual purpose: keeping hope alive, and informing a federal judge who was deciding if the ASD business model was legal that the company was about to get a huge cash infusion.

    ASD deleted the Praebius announcement after it became clear that members intended to do their own research, ask tough questions and not accept the company’s word at face value. Nothing in the announcement was consistent with professionalism. It only led to more questions, more criticism.

    Slow on the uptake, ASD then followed up the Praebius announcement with an announcement members could buy VOIP service from a firm with which it had become affiliated. (Why any firm would permit itself to be associated with an alleged $100 million Ponzi scheme is a discussion for another day.)

    Andy Bowdoin told a conference-call audience it could get special pricing, positioning the VOIP service as a gift to the membership. This led to even more bad press for ASD. ASD couldn’t deliver ads, couldn’t address members’ questions during conference calls, couldn’t persuade a federal judge it was not a Ponzi scheme — but still could flog a VOIP service for commissions.

    Not a peep has been heard from Bowdoin since he surrendered claims last month to tens of millions of dollars seized as the proceeds of a criminal enterprise and Ponzi scheme. He could sell VOIP to the members, herald a purported $200 million deal, but when it came time to announce the surrender to forfeiture, members had to read about it in the newspaper or on Blogs and forums.

    Bowdoin also didn’t tell members about a second forfeiture complaint that had been filed in December against assets tied to the firm. Prosecutors said hundreds of thousands of dollars were used to fuel personal spending by Bowdoin family members.

    Flash forward to yesterday. AdViewGlobal appears to be trying to make a fine distinction that it has no corporate legal ties to ASD. But the announcement it made was at odds with itself in so many places that, at best, it’s just another absurdity. In no case can it be taken seriously.

    None of ASD’s actions is compatible with credibility, and yet AdViewGlobal — by some tortured construction — is trying to leech credibility from ASD by telling the world that its chief executive officer was an important officer in ASD.

    It wouldn’t matter if Talbert, the chief executive officer, and Chuck Osmin, an ASD employee who doubles as AdViewGlobal’s PR flak and issued yesterday’s announcement, both no longer were employed by ASD and repudiated their previous employment. The fact remains that ASD was an alleged $100 million Ponzi scheme that surrendered its claims to tens of millions of seized dollars and very well might become the subject of a criminal prosecution.

    Both Talbert and Osmin were involved in the forfeiture litigation (not as defendants, but through Pro-ASD court filings or testimony),  and now both are working for AdViewGlobal. The fact the company won’t reveal the names of its owners and purportedly came to life offshore in the aftermath of the ASD debacle tells you everything you need to know.

    AdViewGlobal is not credible because ASD was not credible. If anything, AdViewGlobal is even less credible than ASD. If it were credible, it would submit its business model to U.S. authorities for testing and pay the costs of compliance. One of the reasons it won’t do that is the ASD litigation. Another reason is that it can’t offer payment processing in the United States and needs to find ways to circumvent U.S. money-laundering, wire-fraud and mail-fraud laws.

    On parts of its website, AdViewGlobal is using U.S.-based gmail addresses to conduct customer service. One is hardpressed to imagine how U.S. customers will fund accounts and engage in correspondence without engaging in wire fraud themselves.

    The Age of the Portable Ponzi has begun. Promoters have ignored the ASD August forfeiture complaint, the December forfeiture complaint, Bowdoin’s surrender of the assets, a RICO lawsuit that asserts Bowdoin was the head of a racketeering enterprise involved in multiple schemes boosted by unnamed co-conspirators, Bowdoin’s previous entanglements with securities regulators that resulted in felony charges, Bowdoin’s history of spinning lies to separate people from their money.

    Incredibly, AdViewGlobal now is employing ASD personnel, sharing a common executive, not disclosing information customers would deem important when making purchasing decisions (such as disclosing all previous  litigation that resulted in the dismantling of autosurfs, the implications of selling or purchasing unregistered securities if you’re a U.S. resident, the implications of wire fraud and money-laundering, and Judge Collyer’s ruling in the ASD case, for starters).

    Welcome to the Age of the Portable Ponzi.

  • AdViewGlobal Touted As ‘Billion Dollar Company’

    Two days before Christmas a poster at FreeLunchRoom.com declared that AdViewGlobal would be a “1 Billion Dollar Company [before the] end of 2009.”

    In an enthusiastic prelaunch endorsement, the poster exclaimed that AdViewGlobal is “the company we have been waiting for!”

    Could AdViewGlobal really put one-thousand million dollars on the table before the end of the year? The poster, who identified himself as a “helpful and honest Christian,” seemed to think so.

    “Most if not all of your leaders are joining,” he counseled.

    Elsewhere on the web, AdViewGlobal promoters talked about what a splendid opportunity the surf afforded. Some highlighted its purported offshore registration in Uruguay. Others said people “high up” in ASD were the brains behind the program.

    “Gary Talbert will be very visible in Ad View Global,” according to one promoter. “He will be speaking at company rallies and will be in charge of public relations. I do not know his exact title at this time. Gary Talbert is an extremely talented individual. He use to play baseball semi-professionally and even did a little acting at one point. He was also very high up in ASD.”

    Gary Talbert, according to court documents, was “Human Resource Manager, Assistant CFO and Website Editor” of AdSurfDaily Inc. Talbert was present in the office on the date of the Secret Service raid, according to a declaration he filed under oath.

    The promoter mentioned ASD in his pitch a number of times, declaring it had become the first autosurf to create millionaires.

    “This is extremely exciting folks!” the promoter reminded viewers. “If you weren’t involved in ASD, then perhaps you’ve never experienced click-for-money on this scale. I would remind you that ASD was the first company of its kind to create millionaires. I’m not suggesting that you will become a millionaire, but the scale of these MASSIVE Internet Advertising companies is unlike anything you’ve dealt with if you’ve just been messing with autosurfs.”

    He didn’t mention the ASD litigation brought by the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors — or that the U.S. government seized about $100 million in the AdSurfDaily case amid allegations that ASD was a criminal enterprise operating a Ponzi scheme.

    Yet another AdViewGlobal promoter suggested in a widely distributed email that, one day, it was possible that ASD accounts would be ported to AdViewGlobal.

    “So if you did have ad pacs in ASD you you might want to join even if you are unable to fund your Ad View Global account now just in case this actuality happens,” the promoter said.

    AdViewGlobal expressly denies affiliation with AdSurfDaily and Andy Bowdoin. But AdViewGlobal graphics appeared over the weekend on the webroom controlled by AdSurfDaily.

    The graphics have been removed.

  • Follow-Up: No Autosurf Cure For Struggling Newspapers

    Our site has been serving more pages, fueled in large measure by readers’ interest in the AdSurfDaily case and our reports on Ponzi fraud and securities fraud.

    We got a mention in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer last week (and later on Google News, which picked up the P-I column) in response to our column on whether the paper could save itself by employing the autosurf business model.

    Lots of people want folks to believe that autosurfing is a perfect machine that cures all financial ills. We asked why a famous newspaper such as the Post-Intelligencer, at death’s door, wasn’t installing an autosurf script to save itself if this purportedly curative model was all it was cracked up to be.

    After all, the P-I actually is a professional advertising business, one with an actual product — not a company that pretends to be a professional advertising business, as is the practice of virtually all autosurfs. The P-I employs professional sales people, professional accountants, professional designers, professional artists, professional writers — people who know advertising inside and out.

    Why not leverage its marketplace advantages and existing readership base and enter the autosurf business? To hear autosurf operators tell it, thousands of small business owners in Greater Seattle — and the entire audience of the newspaper — could earn handsome sums if the paper installed a script that rotates ads that people click on to earn “rebates.”

    So easy a six-year-old could do it!

    The P-I, according to autosurf operators, could keep 50 percent of the take and use the money to subsidize the print publication, save lots of jobs, save money for a Rainy Day and make Hearst’s balance sheet the envy of Wall Street.

    We speculated that the P-I, even at death’s door, didn’t install a surf script because it had no interest at all in harming people and destroying the credibility it had accumulated through its storied history. People getting harmed is perhaps the most common result of the autosurf trade.

    The notion that the paper even would consider a surf model always was just plain silly. But we raised the question because lots of people would have you believe there is something noble about the model, something magical, something curative.

    If the print edition of the P-I dies, it will die with its nobility, its honor, its rich history of service and value intact.  So will a lot of print publications that also have websites and the same marketplace advantages as the P-I.

    Good people get hurt — good people lose jobs — when one technological age ends and another begins. Some people will recover quickly. Others will recover as the overall economy improves. There are no guarantees that the salary levels they once enjoyed will be reached again.

    People perhaps will have to learn new skills and find new ways to compete. They might have to work twice as hard to earn half as much money. The reality is that legitimate wealth can be created only through legitimate effort. It is possible, of course, to accumulate large sums of money through illegitimate effort, but it’s not legitimate wealth; it is the proceeds of a crime.

    Legitimate Firms Won’t Drink From The Autosurf Well

    The New York Times yesterday carried a story about upheaval at America’s top newspapers. The Times interviewed editors and publishers. Not a single one of them even mentioned the word “autosurf.”

    When the ailing newspaper business isn’t willing to take the autosurf cure to save itself, it gives people contemplating spending money with a surf lots of useful information.

    Elsewhere yesterday, though, plenty of autosurf operators were telling the Web-viewing public that advertising riches were right around the corner if only business owners — advertisers — would plunk down sums ranging from $6 to $9,500.

    Advertisers simply could view other advertisers’ ads for 10 minutes a day, and receive back a daily “rebate” ranging from 1 percent to 12 percent. In short order — at daily interest rates that would cripple banks — the advertisers would receive back 100 percent of their ad spend and profits in excess of the spend.

    Some of the autosurf sites excitedly tell advertisers not to worry, that they don’t have to buy anything from the other advertisers. The only thing they have to do is view ads.

    Yes, “Look at the ads but don’t worry about buying anything” is part of the autosurf sales pitch — a pitch that normally includes tortured construction after tortured construction, messages at odds with themselves. Don’t people already know they don’t have to buy anything if they choose to look at an ad — in an autosurf or elsewhere?

    Viewers of the autosurfs are called “qualified consumers,” members of a highly appealing “captive audience.” A new wrinkle is to give them important-sounding titles such as “Account Executive” and “VIP.”  The surf’s gambit is that you’re dumber than a box of rocks and actually will be overcome with joy to become a qualified consumer and account executive yourself — perhaps even one with VIP status for an additional fee.

    Should you do any of these things, of course, the knowledge that you don’t have to buy anything from anybody is certain only to add to your joy. This means, of course, that nobody has to buy anything from you, either. Everyone just sits around clicking on ads. Fabulous profits stream in so long as you continue to purchase ads while not worrying about buying or selling anything.

    Sometimes the surfs say things such as, “Better than Google!” or “Is this the new Microsoft?” or “Web 3.0 has arrived!” or they’re “Revolutionizing” advertising or they have a “Unique” revenue-sharing model.

    What the autosurf operators don’t tell prospects is that the U.S. government views them as purveyors of unregistered securities that are taking money from incoming investors to pay older investors — the classic Ponzi set-up. And they don’t tell prospects that federal prosecutors never have lost a Ponzi case against an autosurf.

    They also won’t tell prospects that some of their autosurf colleagues set up the business by installing a simple script, throw up some graphics, pay people for a while to keep new money coming in — and then run with large sums of cash, only to set up shop elsewhere and repeat the scam.

    No television station will touch the autosurf model. No radio station will touch the autosurf model. No dying newspaper will touch the autosurf model, not even to save jobs. It is the exclusive province of scam artists and practiced hucksters — as well it should be.

    They Read It In The Newspaper

    The big news in the autosurf world last week was the surrender to forfeiture of Andy Bowdoin and AdSurfDaily, which gave up its claims to tens of millions of dollars seized by the government in August amid wire-fraud, money-laundering and Ponzi allegations.

    Members read about it in the newspaper — and on websites and Blogs. ASD didn’t announce its capitulation on its Breaking News website.

    It also didn’t announce that a second forfeiture complaint had been filed last month to seize other assets tied to the firm. Members again read about it in the newspaper — and on websites and Blogs. The St. Petersburg Times has done some fine reporting on the ASD case.

    Among the property the government seeks in the second forfeiture complaint is a home whose mortgage allegedly was retired with $157,000 in Ponzi proceeds; it’s the home Andy Bowdoin’s stepson shares with his wife. Prosecutors said the couple also obtained a 2008 Honda CRV with Ponzi proceeds.

    On June 10 and June 11 alone, prosecutors said, Bowdoin family members used nearly $240,000 in Ponzi proceeds to make personal purchases. The purchases were made just days after a company rally in Las Vegas had concluded. Millions of dollars were collected at the rally.

    Prosecutors also noted that Andy Bowdoin bought a $50,000 Lincoln shortly after another multimillion-dollar rally in Miami, and that ASD funds were used to purchase a 20-foot Triton Cabana boat, jet skis, trailers — and another car, an Acura.

    The December forfeiture complaint also cites a claim that Russian hackers stole $1 million from the company and that Bowdoin didn’t call the police or other authorites to report the theft. In addition, it paints a picture of ASD insider’s plotting ways to steal even more money.

    Insiders already had removed hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company, thus making ASD even more of a Ponzi, prosecutors said. “Ad packs” were given away like cash, and rank-and-file members — unbeknownst to them — were shouldering the burden to pay for all of the insider manipulations.

    ASD’s experience should have been a huge setback to the autosurf trade — you know, the trade that pitches a miracle cure for small businesses.

    But the surf operators are a resilient bunch who’ve reportedly taken their show on the road, locating surf sites in Panama and Uruguay. The cure is portable it seems, and yet we can’t cite a single example of a prominent company willing to stake it reputation and bet the value of its brand by taking a drink from the well.

  • Roster: Are These Autosurfs In Litigation? Troubled?

    miseryindexBack in August we began to cover AdSurfDaily Inc., a Florida company accused of being an illegal enterprise. Federal prosecutors said ASD, an autosurf, was selling unregistered securities by calling itself an “advertising” company and running a $100 million Ponzi scheme.

    A sister site, LaFuenteDinero, was named in the same federal forfeiture complaint. So was GoldenPandaAdBuilder, a site reportedly conceived on a Georgia fishing lake as a “Chinese” option for ASD members. The site reportedly came to fruition after talks between ASD President Andy Bowdoin and Clarence Busby, who went on to become the operator of Golden Panda.

    Golden Panda has officially dissolved its articles of incorporation and removed its claim to funds seized in the ASD probe. The case still is in litigation.

    Since August, a number of other autosurfs have appeared, some positioning themselves as attractive alternatives to ASD. At least two of them — MegaLido and Frogress — already have failed.

    We decided to keep a running chart of autosurfs. Names will be added over time, as readers contact us or we learn independently of their operations. One of the purposes of this chart is to get a sense about how many autosurfs are involved in litigation, are operating in troubled fashion or are operating freely.

    Autosurf Roster (Updated Jan. 14, 2009)

    NAME LITIGATION (Y/N) NOTES
    AdSurfDaily (Andy Bowdoin) Y Ongoing
    GoldenPandaAdBuilder (Clarence Busby) Y Ongoing
    LaFuenteDinero (Andy Bowdoin) Y Ongoing
    MegaLido (“Michael?”) N DOA
    Frogress (“Jake?”) N DOA
    CEP Y Ongoing/DOA
    PhoenixSurf Y DOA
    12DailyPro Y Ongoing/DOA
    DailyProfitPond N Offline/DOA?
    AdGateWorld (No owner takes credit) N (Debuted Jan. 14) Panama?
    AdViewGlobal (Some former ASD members) N (Prelaunch Buzz) Uruguay?
    Bernard Madoff Y (Nonautosurf Ponzi) $50 B Ponzi
    American Investors Network (AIN) Y (Nonautosurf Ponzi) Bogus Ad. Co.
    Biz Ad Splash (Ownership undeclared) N Panama?
    Increaser.biz (Ownership undeclared) N Netherlands?
    Instant2u (“Billy?”) N DOA. Uzbekistan?
    Noobing (Ownership undeclared) N Kansas?
    Premium Ads Club (135% over 15 days) N DOA 2-23-09
    Aggero Investment (Tied to Premium Ads Club) N Slow-mo DOA 3/1-09
    Name Name Name
    Name Name Name

  • Ad View Global, New ‘Advertising’ Program, Debuts

    This morning we read an early pitch for Ad View Global (AVGlobal), a new “advertising” company that is coming online in the wake of the $100 million government seizure of assets tied to AdSurfDaily Inc.

    AVGlobal, according to the promoter’s ad we read, is positioning itself as a guarantee against the recession and poor economy. You’ll have to plunk down a minimum of $360 to get paid for viewing ads. ASD’s minimum purchase was $10, so AVGlobal wants 36 times more to get you started earning fabulous amounts of money for viewing ads while the economy is in the tank.

    Talk about stoking the furnace.

    AVGlobal, which for shorthand purposes also is called AVG, is headquarted in Uruguay, according to the promoter. You shouldn’t worry about this, he implied, because the company has banking relationships throughout the free world and “many” of its employees are “citizens” of the United States or other affluent countries.

    It’s not clear if the “citizens” employed by AVG will continue to live in the United States while they’re running a business from South America.

    At least two of the employees are identified in the promotion, and at least one is an ASD executive: “Gary,” whose last name wasn’t mentioned, appears to be the head man, and Juan Fernandez, chief executive officer of AdSurfDaily, is listed as “national sales manager.”

    Whether Fernandez’ job is to serve exclusively as “national sales manager” for a single country is unclear. One would think a company headquartered in Uruguay might appoint an “international sales manager,” as opposed to a more localized “national sales manager.”

    “National Sales Manager” is an interesting title, to be sure.

    Fernandez, through counsel, notified the federal judge in the ASD case that he would take the 5th Amendment against self-incrimination if called to testify at the Sept. 30-Oct. 1 evidentiary hearing. The judge ruled last month that ASD had not demonstrated it was operating legally and not a Ponzi scheme at the hearing.

    Just two paragraphs below the place in the pitch where the promoter mentions “Gary” and Fernandez by name, he insists “there is no connection with the company ASD . . .”

    There is no disclosure at any point in the pitch about ASD’s legal troubles and the risk associated with participating in an autosurf. What’s important, according to the promoter, is that you can “Make Your Financial Life Recession Proof” by joining Ad View Global, which permits you to plunk down up to $9,500 a day for ad purchases.

    One of the reasons ASD put itself on federal radar screens is because it permitted purchases of $10,000 or more, something that catches the attention of banks, the U.S. Secret Service and the IRS. Banks and the Secret Service and the IRS can become suspicious even of $9,500 transactions, though. They’re smart enough to understand that, if $10,000 is viewed as the magic cutoff to avoid suspicion, some folks just might dial it down a bit.

    It appears that everyone who joins AVGlobal gets dubbed an “account executive,” but if you want to earn you have to become a “VIP” account executive. VIP stands for “Viewing Incentive Program.”

    The promoter stressed that AVGlobal is selling “page impressions,” not simple advertisements.

    “Imagine if NBC paid you to watch their station during the hours of 4:00pm – 8:00 pm each evening, regardless of time zone?” the promoter droned. “What if they had hundreds of thousands of people worldwide that they could guarantee to be watching NBC during this time period? Just how valuable would this time be worth?”

    Exciting stuff, to be sure.

    Hmmm. Perhaps NBC should start paying people for viewing ads, only after making a minimum $360 purchase, registering as account executive VIPs and running things out of South America, of course. If the venture proved to be a Ponzi scheme, NBC could use its own news division to sanitize its own Bernard Madoff or Andy Bowdoin-like scandal.

    Here’s a headline idea: “Make Your Financial Life Recession Proof.”

    Oops. Already taken by AVGlobal. Regardless, NBC has lots of talented writers. Someone will be able to come up with a good headline if the network enters the paid-to-view-ads fray.

    It’s a plain fact that people are hurting as a result of poor economic times. It’s also a plain fact that many folks are turning to the Web to learn ways to supplement their income. Here’s hoping they decide against viewing “page impressions” for a living.

    The Feds believe that ASD President Andy Bowdoin was running a criminal enterprise that sold unregistered securities, called them “advertisements” and operated as a Ponzi scheme. Bowdoin’s own attorneys say he is the target of a criminal probe, and he has been sued in a separate action under federal racketeering laws.

    As pointed out above, Juan Fernandez, Bowdoin’s own CEO, took the 5th at the ASD evidentiary hearing. So did Bowdoin.

    Bowdoin also has been sued by Bill McCollum, the attorney general of Florida, under pyramid statutes. Not long ago Bowdoin claimed during a conference call that “Ponzi” allegations had been dropped in Florida, but “Ponzi” allegations never even were brought in Florida, McCollum’s office said. The state always used pyramid statutes, unlike the federal government, which brought Ponzi allegations.

    Now AVG has emerged, using a similar business model, changing a few things, running things offshore and asking for at least $360 up front so people can play. Perhaps they’ll even get the chance to meet the “national sales manager.”