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Tag: Andy Bowdoin

  • Reports: U.S. Regulators Probing Bank In Antigua

    Multiple media outlets — including Bloomberg News, the Associated Press and Business Week — are reporting that the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the Florida Office of Financial Regulation are investigating Stanford Financial Group.

    At issue is the extraordinary rate of return advertised by Stanford International Bank Ltd. (SIB), an Antigua-based arm of Stanford Financial Group. Stanford Financial Group is an investment firm headquartered in Houston. It is run by billionaire R. Allen Stanford, whose fortune was estimated at $2.2 billion by Forbes magazine.

    SIB’s certificates of deposit, for instance, have been advertised to return double or even triple the rates of U.S.-based CDs. The FBI now has joined the probe, the Wall Street Journal reports.

    The question on the lips of reporters is whether Allen Stanford in the next Bernard Madoff. Fueling concern have been the reports of financial analyst Alex Dalmady. Take a minute to read Dalmady’s report if you’ve been following the AdSurfDaily case. Antigua is a Caribbean nation and favored spot for U.S. residents to move money offshore.

    AdSurfDaily Inc., an alleged $100 million Ponzi purveyor, had more than $1 million on deposit in an Antigua bank, according to Aug. 25 court filings.

    “[Andy Bowdoin] told the Secret Service that an Antigua account (in another name), holds over one million ASD dollars,” federal prosecutors said.

    Perhaps ASD members would be wise to ask Bowdoin the name of the Antigua bank in which the funds are deposited.

    But, getting back to SIB . . .

    SIB has a strong presence in Florida. Dalmady, the financial analyst, has been asking some troubling questions and relating some troubling observations. One of the things that bothered him about SIB was the “unsophisticated” appearance of its website

    It’s an observation mindful of reactions to the ASD website.

    Reports now are circulating that SIB reserved the right to refuse early CD redemption requests, which has a whiff of some of the language ASD used to protect what federal prosecutors said was a Ponzi scheme. It’s not quite “rebates aren’t guaranteed,” but why restrict access to customers’ money, especially when you’re operating offshore? It only raises red flags.

    Stanford Financial is blaming the probe on disgruntled employees; ASD blamed bad press it was getting on disgruntled MLMers.

    It’s early. No charges have been filed against Stanford Financial Group.

  • Our Theory Of The AdSurfDaily Case: Steroidal Puppeteers

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

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

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

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

    The Target Audience

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

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

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

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

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

    Checks Led To Checkmate For ASD

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

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

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

    A CEP Tie

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Leahy is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Surf’s Up Asks Members To Contact Leahy

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

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

    Hello ASD Members,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    [Email Address Deleted]

    Thank you!
    Barb

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

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

  • Has The ‘Surf’s Up’ Forum Run Out Of Steam? And What, Exactly, Is ‘A Ceded Liniments Nut?’

    Back in the early days of the AdSurfDaily saga, the ASD Member Advocates Forum — also known as “Surf’s Up, Baby!” — emerged as the preeminent cheerleading site for AdSurfDaily Inc. President Andy Bowdoin.

    Yes, the alleged operator of a $100 million Ponzi scheme that fleeced thousands of people, paid employees to surf for favored members (family/insiders) and has caused family to turn against family and church members to turn against church members, actually has a fan club.

    But Surf’s Up always has been Grand Central for the absurd. Right now, for example, it is leading cheers for Curtis Richmond in his bid to slap around federal judges and federal prosecutors involved in the ASD litigation. A companion site, the AdViewGlobal Members Forum, is doing the same thing.

    Richmond, a member of a sham Utah “Indian” tribe whose certified-mail and “arbitration” practices have led to prison sentences for at least two proponents, is being hailed a hero on both forums. Richmond’s own conviction in California for criminal contempt of court for threatening federal judges is merely an afterthought, if a thought at all.

    Posting numbers at Surf’s Up, however, have been on the decline recently. Has its loud — and in-your-face advocacy for the bizarre — finally caught up with it?

    Hollywood Here We Come!!!!!

    If a movie based on the ASD case gets made, the Surf’s Up forum will be a prominent part of it. It’s where most of the color and flavor of this awkward mix of tragedy and black comedy has played out. Any media campaign surrounding the movie necessarily would include liberal use of exclamation points. The Surf’s Up leadership and some forum members never saw a slammer they didn’t like.

    To the best of our knowledge, no grandiose prediction advanced on the forum ever has come true. Bowdoin, for instance, has not been cleared. God has not intervened on his side. The prosecutors are still gainfully employed and haven’t been relegated to fast-food work, and ASD Members International (ASDMI), which invited forum members to do the good work of suing the government back to the Stone Age, didn’t manage even to sue it back into last week.

    In fact, ASDMI folded — but not until it had collected money from 167 members, only to discover Andy Bowdoin had folded. Bowdoin didn’t tell members that he’d thrown in the towel: They read about it in the newspaper or on Blogs and forums. His lips were sealed.

    Indeed, the Surf’s Up forum is the place where old exclamation points go to die. There must be several thousand of them buried over there.

    Among other things, Surf’s Up members have advocated for:

    • Complaint letters to be sent to the Office of Inspector General to stymie prosecutors before there had been a single finding of fact in the case.
    • A drive to have a Florida TV station charged with “deceptive trade practices” for carrying news unflattering to ASD and Bowdoin.
    • A “Kool-Aid” campaign to Bill O’Reilly of Fox News. (The advocates were being called “Kool-Aid” drinkers on other forums, and adopted this term of derision as a symbol of unity.)
    • A petition drive to politicians, advocating for Ponzi schemes in a down economy — and during an election year with bank failures constantly in the news. (Nine banks already have failed this year, including three on Friday alone. Twenty-five banks failed in 2008.  By comparison, three banks failed in 2007.)
    • A “prayer campaign” for a federal judge to do the “right thing” — followed by assertions she was “brainless” and “on the take” if she didn’t see the genius of the ASD business model.
    • A million-person-strong show of force in Washington — in the form of a protest march on Labor Day weekend, when politicians are all back home in their districts making speeches at holiday picnics. (As a technical matter, the call for a million-person march predated the Surf’s Up forum, but it was the same people. The idea collapsed when it became clear that no one had done any logistics homework at all. If the Pro-ASD forums were taverns, the advocacy would be called “beer talk.”)
    • A plan to get AARP, which advocates for senior citizens, to advocate for Ponzi schemes.

    Accompanying the Surf’s Up forum have been virtually constant claims that special members with “inside information” had kernels of knowledge that would be fatal to the government’s case. None of it came true. A claim that Ponzi allegations against Bowdoin had been dropped in Florida wasn’t true, but Surf’s Up members repeated it as though it were fact. And claims that ASD soon would receive a cash infusion of tens of millions of dollars weren’t true, but were repeated as fact.

    Memorably, the Surf’s Up forum held an online party after the Sept. 30-Oct. 1 evidentiary hearing, complete with fireworks and champagne — and claims that ASD’s “Perry Mason” lawyers had destroyed the incompetent “Gomer Pyle” who showed up to ask questions for the government. Several weeks later the judge issued her ruling, which can be summarized in two words:

    Gomer won.

    It’s not so much that Bowdoin’s lawyers lost; it’s that they had nothing to work with. Their client took the 5th, handed the prosecution ammunition during so-called “conference calls” and basically was just a con man who got caught in lie after lie after lie. The forfeiture element of the case always was virtually unwinnable. Possession is nine-tenths of the law, and the government already was holding the money, along with Bowdoin’s rap sheet for conning investors in a scheme a decade ago. Clarence Busby, a Bowdoin colleague, also was implicated in an investment scheme a decade ago.

    The “conference calls” were myths, too. Bowdoin arranged them so members couldn’t ask questions, and he held forth unchallenged on a number of critical issues, including the key need for members to purchase VOIP services from him. Members were out tens of millions of dollars, the Holidays were fast approaching, and Andy Bowdoin responded by trying to sell them telephone service.

    Not all of the Surf’s Up members are crackpots. But the leadership is. One couldn’t possibly advocate for these things as loudly and persistently as the leadership and not be a crackpot.

    Kudos

    Shifting gears briefly, we’d like to address a short note to “Seminole Girl,” with whom we’ve never corresponded: When the dust settles, find a way to go to law school or journalism school. You have impressed us with your reasoning skills, your writing skills and your lucidity. People always are getting ripped off in Florida. You might not make a lot of money as a consumer advocate or a prosecutor, but you could help protect people from the marsh sharks and land wolves at the door.

    Bravo, Seminole Girl. Bravo.

    A Cryptic Closing

    Now, back to the topic at hand: The Surf’s Up site also is known for paranoia.

    Based on an analysis of public records and other information, we have concluded that it is more likely than not that the ASD case will take a dramatic turn — and it will give the advocates the shock of their lives.

    Here is a clue about a possible — tilting toward probable — ASD development:

    “A Ceded Liniments Nut.”

    Now, don’t you just hate it when somebody does that!!!!!!!!!!

  • When Words Fail: ‘Stunning’ Can’t Describe ASD Disconnect

    The level of disconnect is stunning — and it is accompanied by a level of brazenness that is equally stunning. In fact, stunning understates it; it is more like an unapologetic, myopic commitment to felonious self-indulgence.

    But what would you expect from a group whose motto is “ASD — Keep Fighting The Good Fight!”

    There is nothing good about the fight by the ASD Member Advocates Forum — “Surf’s Up, Baby!” for short or just plain “Surf’s Up!” — to make the world safe for Ponzi profits delivered by ASD President Andy Bowdoin and others.

    Surf's Up and related sites show their affection for Ponzi schemes.
    Surf's Up and related sites show their affection for Ponzi schemes.

    One of the others is AdViewGlobal, which has ASD’s fingerprints all over it (see this, see this, see this) and purports to be operating out of Uruguay. Some of the Surf’s Up Mods have a forum for AdViewGlobal, too. In tune with Valentine’s Day, both forums currently are showcasing their love for Ponzi schemes by using a graphic of a big, beautiful red heart. Like the “Surf’s Up” forum, the AdViewGlobal forum is using the hosting services of ning.com in a bid to portray Ponzi schemes, money-laundering and wire-fraud operations as businesses with intrinsic social value. Never mind that nearly $100 million has been seized in the ASD case, that Bowdoin is a serial scam artist who, quite literally, could name an All-Felony Team from within his own ranks. What’s important, here, according to the serial promoters of ASD and AdViewGlobal, are the fabulous commissions they can earn by fleecing downline members by ignoring facts they deem inconvenient.

    “Happy Days Are Here Again!” assures the AdViewGlobal members’ forum. How the promoters will be able to persuade a judge or jury they were acting in good faith  if the need arises apparently is a worry for another day. The promoters have ignored the August ASD forfeiture complaint, the December forfeiture complaint, a RICO lawsuit (against Bowdoin and co-conspirators), the recent failures of MegaLido, Frogress, DailyProfitPond, Instant2U and others, and all previous autosurf litigation.

    AdViewGlobal sells “ad impressions” as opposed to “ad packs” — window dressing to be sure — but window dressing that shows planning. Another thing that shows planning is the purported Uruguay registration. If the company is named in any future litigation, the words “conspiracy” and “co-conspirator” are apt to be part of the government presentation.

    For its part, Surf’s Up has been deleting members for insisting on discussing the truth and the ramifications of all of this. This is perfectly consistent with the forum’s history. It once published a post from a member who said the prosecutor in the ASD case should be placed in a medieval torture “rack” and that members could draw straws to see who got to tighten the wheel.

    rackstrawIn a play on the middle name — Rakestraw — of federal prosecutor William Cowden, a Surf’s Up member suggests putting him in a torture “rack” and drawing “straws” to see who gets to tighten the wheel.

    If the Feds do move, it will be like shooting fish in a barrel. Regardless, the forum mods in recent days have announced that they’ve “had enough” of people who insist on living in the real world.

    So, no, stunning — normally a strong, descriptive word — doesn’t quite do the job.

  • BOLO Clarence Busby? Reader Puzzled By RICO Defendant’s Absence; Says Busby Out Of Touch For ‘Months’

    Should the government and litigants be on the lookout for Clarence Busby? He hasn’t been charged with a crime and, in September, he surrendered his claims to money seized by the U.S. Secret Service as part of its probe into the alleged criminal business practices of his company, Golden Panda Ad Builder of Acworth, Ga.

    Prosecutors said the money was part of the proceeds of a wire-fraud, money-laundering and $100 million Ponzi scheme in which Busby and Golden Panda participated with AdSurfDaily Inc. of Quincy, Fla.

    Busby identified himself as a minister. But he also is in the real-estate business, and last night a reader contacted us to say he has been unable to reach Busby.

    “We are buying a house from him and can’t seem to get in contact with him,” the reader said. “The last we heard, he was overseas starting up an internet company. We are a little concerned.”

    The reader added that he has been unable to contact Busby “for the past couple of months.”

    Here’s what we know about Busby: He played it cool as a cucumber when federal prosecutors announced the seizure of tens of millions of dollars last summer. Busby announced to Golden Panda members that his faith would get him through the dark hours. He composed a series of cloying Blog posts, assuring everyone that things would be just fine.

    Clarence Busby lays on the syrup, to be sure. In court filings, he explained how he’d gone fishing with ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

    “As a social courtesy to Bowdoin, I asked a pastor friend of mine, Rev. Charles Green, if he might bring his boat and join me in inviting Bowdoin on a relaxing fishing trip,” Busby told U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer. “I imagined that operating ASD involved a lot of stress, and I had heard Bowdoin liked to fish. I also wanted a respite from work. The invitation was extended and Bowdoin agreed to join us.”

    Busby then explained how Golden Panda was born:

    “On April 11, 2008, we fished at a lake in Brunswick, Georgia for a day. On that Day Bowdoin surprised me by recommending that I start a Chinese version of ASD,” Busby said.  “Bowdoin suggested that I organize the business without him. He said, ‘I can’t handle the business I already have,’ stating that I should be the one to create, own, and operate this Chinese version of ASD.

    “I was interested in the idea, but did not have knowledge of computers and the web, so I thought Bowdoin should run it, but Bowdoin did not want to run it,” Busby continued. “I chose the name of Golden Panda Ad Builder Inc. and I had the company incorporated on May 15, 2008. At that time, I still thought that Bowdoin would end up running the business, so I placed his name as President of the company, although Bowdoin never actually took any step to run the company.

    “Two and one half weeks before Golden Panda commenced operations on July 24, 2008, Bowdoin called me and reiterated that he did not have time for Golden Panda, had done nothing to help create it, and therefore thought I should be the one to own, operate, and control the business.

    “I then decided that with the help of my kids that I really could run a web based advertising business on my own. On July 2, 2008, I amended the Golden Panda papers with the state, naming myself as the President and removing Bowdoin’s name.”

    In his court filings, Busby said he didn’t know Bowdoin “had prior run ins with the law” and had been arrested in Alabama for defrauding investors.

    Busby did not say if he told his fishing partner about his own run-ins with the law: The Securities and Exchange Commission said Busby defrauded investors in the 1990s.

    “[T]he Commission alleged that Busby violated the antifraud provisions of the securities laws by offering and selling investment contracts in connection with three different prime bank schemes,” the SEC said.

    “Using misrepresentations and omissions in each of the three schemes, Busby raised money for purported trading programs in ‘prime bank’ notes by fraudulently representing to investors that the investments were risk-free and that the ventures would pay returns ranging from 750% to 10,000%. In total, Busby raised nearly $1 million from more than 70 investors. None of the investors earned the exorbitant returns promised by Busby,” the SEC said.

    Busby settled the case with the SEC in May 1998 by agreeing not to break securities laws. The SEC waived a $15,000 penalty and accrued interest because Busby certified he was broke.

    Almost 10 years to the month later, Busby went fishing with Andy Bowdoin. Both men now have been accused of racketeering in a class-action lawsuit brought by members of AdSurfDaily.

  • Bowdoin/Madoff Comparison: Is It Fair?

    andybowdoinartLast night we received a note from a reader who had a bone to pick: He advised us, seemingly politely, that ASD was not an “autosurf.”  Rather, he said, it was a “manual surf.”

    There was a whiff of passive-aggressiveness in the note: He informed us that he did not desire to “address your blog” with the exception of informing us of the differences between a manual surf and an autosurf.

    Because we received this note shortly after publishing a graphic showing Andy Bowdoin, Bernard Madoff and Arthur Nadel in the same image, we wondered if the reader actually had a bigger bone to pick but didn’t want to acknowledge it. He didn’t want to “address your blog,” after all. (View the graphic.)

    We have received many such notes since August. Lots of them have been passive-aggressive in nature — poison arrows and bitter sarcasm delivered with a smile — and some were just plain aggressive. Virtually all of them tried to change the subject in some way and deflect from the core issues. We’ve been told that our “little blog” was universally reviled, told that we had “no right” to write about ASD because we weren’t members and, in the next breath, told that people who really understand how the world works recognize the ASD case for what it is: an attempt by the government to trample on people’s rights.

    ‘Win-At-All-Costs’ Strategy Backfired: ASD Members Destroyed Firm’s Already-Fleeting Credibility

    If you were the owner of an Internet program in almost unimaginable trouble with the government — so much trouble that prosecutors wanted to seize your property and sell it at auction — would you want members trying to “help” your case by insulting or trying to intimidate prosecutors, federal judges and other people who had the power to make a difference?

    Would you want Kool-Aid campaigns to Bill O’Reilly or petition drives aimed at getting politicians to endorse Ponzi schemes during an election year that coincided with an economic crisis? (Talk about a mixed message.) Would you want members trying to influence public opinion by sending chain letters to reporters? Would you want people repeating claims that a deal with a penny-stock company was going to pump $200 million into ASD? Would you want people filing complaints and trying to have a TV station charged with “deceptive business practices” for broadcasting news unflattering to ASD?

    And how about certified-mail campaigns right out of a sham Utah “Indian” tribe’s playbook — a tribe purportedy founded inside an Arby’s restaurant? Finally, would you want people filing complaints with the Office of Inspector General at the Justice Department before there had been a single finding of fact in the case?

    If you want to be taken seriously, you wouldn’t want any of these things. So why encourage them?

    What’s more, why invite even more scrutiny of ASD? The firm and its own out-of-control members destroyed the only chance ASD had to be viewed as a progressive, professional advertising company with a sharp, well-honed message and a well-oiled PR operation.

    Nothing that ASD or its members did was consistent with professionalism. The messages couldn’t possibly have been more at odds with themselves.

    Here is how a professional communications company would have addressed a monumental crisis:

    We emphatically deny the government’s assertions and look forward to explaining our business model to the Court. We are confident these issues will be resolved to our satisfaction and that we’ll continue to provide an extraordinary value and opportunity to our worldwide customer base.

    Compare that simple message to the ultimate messages.

    Back to last night’s note . . .

    The AdSurfDaily case does not hinge on whether ASD was a manual surf or an autosurf. We acknowledge that ASD participants had to click on an object to see the next ad. We have written about this, pointing out that a young girl videotaped clicking on ASD ads said it was so simple a six-year-old could do it. In the same video, the supervising adult implied that Facebook was a paid ASD advertiser. Lots of ASD members were capable of doing or saying anything to get the sale.

    The term “autosurf” generally has come to mean a surf site that loads ads in a rotator and pays people “rebates” to view them. The term is used in virtually all litigation involving similar businesses, so we’re comfortable with it. Readers seem to know what “autosurf” litigation is about, and ASD would be in the same trouble if it offered “rebates” but operated as what commonly is known as a manual traffic exchange.

    As we noted above, the note was polite. But we can’t help but wonder why the reader had the need to define ASD as a manual surf at this late date. It impressed us as yet another bid to change the subject. Andy Bowdoin already has surrendered claims to the lion’s share of the seized assets, and the court has acknowledged his motion to withdraw the claims.

    For all intents and purposes, the forfeiture element of the case is over, and the government has won.

    The Bowdoin/Madoff/Nadel Graphic

    Let us know if you think it was fair or unfair by leaving a comment.

    We believe it is fair for the following reasons:

    • All three men are implicated in big-dollar Ponzi schemes.
    • All three men have close ties to Florida.
    • All three men are in their 70s.
    • Ponzi schemes are very much in the news.
    • A $100 million Ponzi scheme should not be viewed as a minor event simply because there are larger Ponzi schemes.
    • Incredible sums of wealth were destroyed.
    • Although it is true the government intervened in the Bowdoin case before the Ponzi collapsed, it is equally true that it didn’t intervene in the Madoff/Nadel cases — much to the dismay of investors who lost fortunes.
    • Madoff, despite the fact he is Public Enemy No. 1, is said to be cooperating with investigators. If true, it does not minimize the crime or make it any less repulsive — but it is something Bowdoin didn’t do. To say Bowdoin’s approach was cynical is to understate his method. He encouraged members to send in testimonials while shielding them from important facts. He then relied on members to testify at the evidentiary hearing, while notifying the court that he intended to take the 5th.
    • Prosecuors allege in all three cases that company funds were diverted to fuel personal spending, including luxury spending for things such as automobiles. Prosecutors also allege that company funds were directed to family members and that extravagant purchases were made.

    So, make your case: Fair or unfair? We are always pleased to publish dissenting opinions.

  • Seniors In Gallery Of Ponzi Rogues; Grandpa Breaks Bad

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    We noted Sunday that a startling number of senior citizens have been implicated in Ponzi schemes or accused of monumental financial misdeeds. Featured in this graphic are (left to right): Andy Bowdoin, president of fundamentally defunct AdSurfDaily Inc. of Quincy, Fla.; Bernard Madoff, head man at fundamentally defunct Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities of New York; and Arthur Nadel, principal in several fundamentally defunct hedge funds in Sarasota, Fla.

    Bowdoin is 74. Prosecutors said he fleeced investors in a $100 million Ponzi scheme by selling unregistered securities and calling them “advertisements.”

    Madoff, who might have presided over the biggest Ponzi scheme in world history, is 70. Losses could reach $50 billion.

    Nadel, 76, was arrested yesterday in Tampa, after being on the lam for two weeks. An estimated $300 million is missing from hedge funds he managed in Sarasota.

    Authorities said all three men lived well while investors were being taken to the cleaners. Just prior to a federal seizure of his assets in August, Bowdoin put a gleaming new Lincoln in the driveway — after setting up a sham entity, diverting ASD money to it in a bid to hide assets, and using ASD cash to fuel personal spending in the hundreds of thousands of dollars by family members and preferred investors, prosecutors said.

    Bowdoin has surrendered claims to approximately $100 million in cash and other assets seized by the Feds. In a second forfeiture complaint that is unresolved, prosecutors seek to take control over other assets tied to the firm, including cars, a 20-foot Triton Cabana boat, jet skis and other property purchased with the proceeds of an illegal enterprise.

    Irving Picard, the trustee in the Madoff case, has filed papers to reject expensive automobile leases. While Madoff was engaging in a Ponzi scheme, Picard said, investors were footing the bill for three Mercedes, a Range Rover, a Lexus and a Cadillac.

    madoffleases

    Lease costs for the Mercedes units alone exceeded $4,200 a month, while the lease for the Range Rover cost $1,153 monthly. The Lexus ($888/month) and the Cadillac ($884/month) were relative bargains compared to the other vehicles.

    Prosecutors now say Nadel also took money from company funds and used it for family businesses. The receiver in the Nadel case, Burton Wiand, said in court filings that one of the family business owns as many as five airplanes.

    Other seniors in Ponzi trouble include Richard Picolli, 82, operator of the alleged Gen-See Ponzi in western New York. Prosecutors said he mostly targeted Catholics.

    Meanwhile, Ronald Keith Owens, 73, was just sentenced in Texas to 60 years in prison for running a “prime bank” Ponzi scheme promising huge returns out of the Bahamas and elsewhere.

    Elsewhere, James Blackman Roberts, 71, of Heber Springs, Ark., was just sentenced to 15 years in prison for running a $43.5 million Ponzi scheme.

  • Nadel Diverted Client Funds To Family: Feds

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    Florida hedge-fund manager Arthur Nadel turned himself in yesterday to the FBI in Tampa.

    Nadel had gone missing Jan. 14. He was immediately jailed. A bail hearing is set Friday.

    Previously we’ve written about some of the Nadel parallels to the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme case. Some of the parallels grew even more striking yesterday, with assertions by federal authorities that Nadel had diverted client funds to family businesses and his wife.

    Federal prosecutors filed a second forfeiture complaint last month against assets tied to ASD. The government seized real estate, automobiles, a boat and other water equipment paid for with ASD money diverted to family members of ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

    In a forfeiture complaint filed in August, prosecutors seized tens of millions of dollars Bowdoin had in bank accounts, plus other real estate tied to ASD. The total amount seized in the case is at least $93.5 million.

    Burton W. Wiand, the receiver in the Nadel case, now has gone to court to attach family assets.

    “Based on our investigation, it is likely that a significant sum of the proceeds of Nadel’s scheme made its way into other accounts controlled by Nadel and/or his wife, Marguerite Nadel,” Wiand said.

    Last year, for instance, Nadel signed checks transferring at least “$1,003,500.00” from Scoop Capital to himself and his wife, Wiand said.

    The scheme likely had been under way for years, Wiand said.

    “Further, in 2003 and 2004 I have already seen documentation showing that at least $685,000.00 was transferred to Nadel and his wife (and have reason to believe that significantly more money was transferred to them),” Wiand said. “In short, it is apparent from the documentation that large quantities of money were diverted from the Hedge Funds to Nadel and Mrs. Nadel. Indeed, to date we have not uncovered any source of income for Nadel or his wife that was not in some manner funded with money from the scheme.”

    Nadel made the checks out by hand, making them payable either to himself or his wife and himself. Sometimes he used the couple’s formal names — “Arthur” and “Marguerite”; other times he used the informal “Art” and “Peg.”

    As the hedge fun assets dwindled, Nadel acquired jets, airplanes and real estate for the family businesses, according to court filings.

    Precisely how clients’ money was plundered virtually it its entirety was unclear. What is clear is that the scheme began to unravel when the alleged Bernard Madoff Ponzi was revealed.

    Nadel, prosecutors said, had been under pressure from colleagues to hire an independent accountant to audit the firms’ assets, but always said no. When the Madoff case made headlines, colleagues insisted on an independent audit. Nadel fled on Jan. 14, a date by which it had become clear that the audit would be performed, prosecutors said.

    Peg Nadel has not been charged with any crimes.

  • BREAKING NEWS: Natures Discount Drops RICO Lawsuit Against Bowdoin, Busby, Garner

    Natures Discount, a former AdSurfDaily advertiser, has dropped a racketeering lawsuit it brought in November against ASD President Andy Bowdoin, Golden Panda President Clarence Busby, and Robert Garner, an attorney who appeared in a video touting ASD’s legality.

    Bank of America also was named a defendant in the Natures Discount complaint, though not as a RICO defendant. Natures Discount asserted that the bank didn’t pay close enough attention to Bowdoin and Busby and aided them in their scheme to defraud customers.

    The allegations against BOA also were dismissed.

    “Pursuant to Rule 41(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Plaintiff hereby gives notice of its voluntary dismissal of the above-styled action without prejudice,” Natures Discount said in court filings today. “Each party will bear their own costs.”

    The dismissal follows on the heels of a government notice last week that it intends to litigate two separate forfeiture actions filed against ASD to their conclusion and take possession of all seized money and property tied to the firm.

    Should the government prevail — and ASD already has surrendered claims to assets seized in the initial forfeiture complaint filed in August — it would mean the government would have exclusive control over virtually all of ASD’s money and property.

    Prosecutors last week established a procedure for members to file for ASD refunds, saying it intended to liquidate real estate and other assets seized from ASD. Members seeking refunds will be required to file petitions and certify under oath that they were crime victims.

    In December, a second forfeiture complaint filed against assets tied to ASD alleged that hundreds of thousands of dollars of ASD funds were used to fuel personal spending by Bowdoin family members. Included were automobiles, a boat, jet skis, hauling trailers and a family home in Tallahassee.

    The government has not guaranteed any refund amount, and its probe is ongoing. All of ASD’s assets were forfeitable under U.S. law because they were the proceeds of a criminal enterprise, prosecutors said.

  • Bowdoin, Nadel Cases Have Striking Parallels

    Some of the parallels between the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and the alleged financial misdeeds of Florida hedge-fund manager Arthur Nadel are striking.

    Two obvious parallels are the common Florida venue and the ages of the principals. ASD operated out of Quincy; Nadel out of Sarasota. ASD President Andy Bowdoin is 74; Nadel is 76.

    Beyond the obvious, though, other striking parallels exist.

    Despite checkered pasts, both Bowdoin and Nadel became stars quickly, their ascent fueled by promoting consistent, strong investment returns. Neither man was well-heeled all that long ago, according to court records.

    Bowdoin, prosecutors said, had made no significant money in the past 20 years — despite claims to the contray — and yet suddenly found himself in possession of tens of millions of dollars from his autosurf company. Prosecutors said Bowdoin claimed to sell “advertising,” but actually was selling unregistered securities that advertised a return of 1 percent a day.

    In court filings, Nadel said he was broke in 1995. In the years that followed he claimed to be managing a $300 million portfolio.

    Authorities said Nadel placed $1.25 million into a secret account just prior to his Jan. 14 vanishing act. Prosecutors said Bowdoin told members $1 million had been stolen from ASD by Russian hackers, but Bowdoin never filed a police report.

    A bank closed a Bowdoin account last summer amid Ponzi concerns. Bowdoin told the bank he planned to buy a home in another country, prosecutors said. Members now are wondering if the money actually had been stolen by hackers or if the theft story was just a cover story.

    Neither Bowdoin nor Nadel disclosed information many investors would have found crucial when making decisions to do business with the firms. Bowdoin had a previous run-in with securities regulators more than a decade ago and was charged with felonies.

    Prosecutors said he never disclosed this to prospects, adding that he also didn’t mention he’d pleaded guilty to securities fraud and was sentenced to a year in prison. The sentence was suspended when Bowdoin agreed to make resitution.

    Nadel didn’t disclose that he had been disbarred in New York in 1982, amid assertions he removed $50,000 from an escrow account to pay a client’s debt to a loan shark. One of Nadel’s companies also told investors that its accountant was a CPA. It turns out that the accountant had let his license lapse years before Nadel opened shop and was sanctioned by the state for continuing to claim a CPA credential.

    Both Nadel and Bowdoin also had disputes with ex-wives, according to court documents and newspaper reports.

    In 1995, for instance, Nadel was involved in a divorce dispute with one of four ex-wives and claimed abject poverty, according to the the St. Petersburg Times.

    Less than a decade later, the Times reported, Nadel morphed into the role of philanthropist with hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend to help local charities and civic organizations.

    Bowdoin also had a dispute with an ex-wife in the 1990s, during a period in which he was down and out, the Times reported.

    Bowdoin still owed his ex-wife, JoAnn Kennedy, more than $162,000 in October, even though ASD funds were used for lavish purchases by Bowdoin’s current wife and her son.

    In June, Edna Faye Bowdoin, Bowdoin’s current wife, and her son, George Harris, opened a bank account, funding it with more than $177,000 from an ASD account in a different bank. More than $152,000 of the money was used to retire the mortgage on a Tallahassee home Harris shared with his wife, prosecutors said.

    ASD funds were used on various dates in June to purchase automobiles, a Triton Cabana boat, jet skis and other items. On June 10 and June 11 alone, prosecutors said, almost $240,000 in ASD funds were used to pay for personal items by Bowdoin family members or friends.

    In late July, ASD funds were used to purchase a $50,000 Lincoln. A month later, Bowdoin sent a retitution check in the amount of $100 to victims of the Alabama scam a decade earlier, the Times reported. His ex-wife got nothing.