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  • EDITORIAL: Bowdoin, Family Suffered Second Legal Blow Yesterday; August AND December Cases Will Proceed To An Outcome Apt To Send A Chill Across ‘Surfing’ Universe

    adviewglobalstreetaddressmagnifiedYesterday’s ruling by a federal judge that AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin would not be permitted to change his mind about submitting to the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars in a case brought in August 2008 dealt the embattled surf firm a crippling blow.

    But a virtually unnoticed ruling yesterday by Judge Rosemary Collyer in a second forfeiture case brought in December 2008 against other ASD-connected assets was equally devastating — at least from the point of view of Bowdoin’s champions on the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum and unnamed members of a mysterious “group” of surf participants who had advised him earlier this year to embark on a scorched-earth campaign against the government.

    Yesterday’s ruling by Collyer in the December case did not generate headlines, in part because Bowdoin had managed to rivet the attention of ASD members on the August case and the enormous sum of money involved. The ruling in the December case, though, was the second clear win for prosecutors yesterday because it maximized the leverage they can apply to destroy the alleged ASD Ponzi scheme operation.

    In the December case, Collyer used exactly 13 words to discharge an order that had required prosecutors to defend against dismissal for failure to prosecute the action, which involves assets held by Bowdoin family members.

    Collyer issued the order Oct. 5. Prosecutors responded to it Friday, saying Bowdoin and unnamed others were served “direct notice” in January 2009 of the complaint but did not file claims to property the government intends to seize as proceeds of a crime.

    In short, Bowdoin was defending a case (August) and making personal claims to tens of millions of dollars with great fanfare — but was not defending the second case, which involved family members and far less money, at all.

    Here is a question all ASD members should ask themselves: Why didn’t Bowdoin fight for the money and property seized in December?

    If circumstances warrant, prosecutors now can argue that the reason neither Bowdoin nor family members defended against the second case was because they did not need the money and a plan was in place to generate even more cash — perhaps to replace all the property seized in the December case.

    Prosecutors have suggested in court filings — through a veiled reference to the AdViewGlobal autosurf — that Bowdoin indeed had a plan to replace the lost money and property by operating an autosurf offshore. They could argue, for example, that while Bowdoin was negotiating to settle the August case, he was not negotiating in good faith because of a secret plan to launch a second surf to cover losses sustained by ASD.

    And they could argue that, while Bowdoin was telling members in a conference call that the tens of millions of dollars seized in August belonged to them, he was so unconcerned about the December money and property that he didn’t bother even to stake a claim to it.

    Along those lines, prosecutors could argue that, if the August money belonged to members as Bowdoin claimed, so, too, did the December money.

    Why didn’t he file a claim to it if it belonged to members?

    Prosecutors, in effect, could argue that the December money was chump change to Bowdoin because there already was a plan to replace it.

    The ruling in the December case paves the way for the government to seek a default judgment to more than $1 million in personal property prosecutors said was acquired with illegal proceeds from ASD. Owners of the personal property include George and Judy Harris.

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

    Even Edna Faye Bowdoin had been a potential claimant in the December case. Prosecutors said she and George Harris opened a bank account in June 2008, funding it with an opening deposit of more than $177,000.

    George Harris later called the bank on the telephone and caused more than $157,000 of the opening deposit to be transferred by wire to a third bank to pay off the mortgage on the Harris home in Tallahassee, prosecutors said.

    In the December complaint, prosecutors described the transaction as money that had been obtained illegally by ASD and deposited in Bank of America in a wire-fraud and money-laundering scheme — and money that ultimately left Bank of America through the actions of Bowdoin, his wife and George Harris to be used in a second wire-fraud and money-laundering scheme involving two other banks.

    There’s your answer to the question about why Bowdoin didn’t fight for the money in the December case. Fighting for it would have forced ASD’s rank-and-file to focus on the inconvenient  facts of the twin cases, not the convenient story Bowdoin and his shills were putting out about the August case.

    The December allegation, which laid out a case for wire fraud and conspiracy, put George Harris, Judy Harris and Edna Faye Bowdoin in jeopardy of losing their freedom. Andy Bowdoin had to know that — and yet he focused the attention of members on the August case, even saying he was inspired to keep fighting for them by a former Miss America who had to learn to walk again after being seriously injured in an automobile accident.

    By not explaining to members the gravity of the December complaint — indeed, by virtually ignoring it in communications with members and relying on shills to deflect attention away from the more sinister elements of the case — Andy Bowdoin demonstrated that the rank-and-file was just a tool he used to serve his own ends.

    Some of his most prominent shills even tried to keep members from filling out the government victims’ form. They were not serving the members at large; they were serving only themselves. They didn’t want to give up the money any more than Bowdoin — and they certainly didn’t want to join Bowdoin as a defendant in a criminal prosecution.

    So, they painted the government as evil. And they chose to cloud the issues and not share information that members could use to make informed choices. People who insisted on discussing the actual facts were dismissed as “Rats, Bed Bugs, Maggots, Cockroaches And Everything Else.”

    You can look it up.

    “In keeping with the likely outcome of this notification [of the December complaint], plaintiff also is preparing a motion for default judgment and a final order of forfeiture,” prosecutors said last week. “As things now stand, plaintiff expects that the Court will be in a position to grant such a motion, which should result in the dismissal of this case, by approximately January 15, 2010, that is, in 70 days.”

    No one from ASD filed a claim to an $800,000 building in Quincy, Fla., prosecutors said.

    The building had been paid for in cash and had been described as the new headquarters for ASD and its dozens of employees. Regardless, the building ultimately proved expendable. That’s noteworthy, considering the fact that Bowdoin argued in the August case that the government was responsible for the job losses. He blamed the government — and then didn’t fight for the building he told employees would be their new home.

    Also noteworthy is that neither George Harris nor Judy Harris filed a claim to their own home. At the same time, neither George nor Judy Harris filed a claim for a 2008 Honda automobile with a value of nearly $30,000. Prosecutors said the car also had been acquired with criminal proceeds.

    Claims also were not filed for two other cars — a 2009 Acura and a 2009 luxury Lincoln sedan with a combined value of more than $80,000, prosecutors said. Marine equipment valued at more than more than $44,000 also was not claimed.

    Fighting for members and employees? Hardly. Andy Bowdoin and his crew were lying to them — both overtly and through lies of omission.

    The December case provided plenty of leverage to the prosecutors, and Collyer’s ruling yesterday means the case will proceed to an outcome, rather than dying on the vine.

    Indeed, the “Rats, Bed Bugs, Maggots, Cockroaches And Everything Else” have been exposed.

  • BREAKING NEWS: Prosecution Says It Will Seek Default Judgment Against ASD Assets Named In December 2008 Complaint; Asserts Bowdoin, Others Were Served ‘Direct Notice’ In January 2009, But Did Not File Claims To More Than $1 Million In Property Paid For By Members

    UPDATED 8:09 A.M. ET (NOV. 7 U.S.A.) Easy come, easy go?

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin and unnamed others were served “direct notice” in January 2009 of a forfeiture complaint filed in December 2008 but did not file claims to property the government intends to seize as proceeds of a crime, federal prosecutors said this morning.

    Bowdoin’s failure to file claims to less-valuable items seized in the December complaint are in stark contrast to his aggressive bids to reassert claims to tens of millions of dollars seized from bank accounts in Bowdoin’s name in an August 2008 forfeiture complaint.

    The notice of the December complaint was given “very promptly to known potential claimants in January 2009,” and yet none of them acted to assert an ownership interest over cars, marine equipment, computer equipment and real estate name defendants in the December complaint, prosecutors said.

    The total value of property to which neither Bowdoin nor family members asserted claims exceeded $1 million, according to court filings. Prosecutors said all of the property was paid for by members who participated in Bowdoin’s autosurf Ponzi scheme.

    One of the seized items was a building ASD had paid $800,000 in cash to acquire, prosecutors said. ASD said it planned to move its operations — and its dozens of employees to the building — but never filed a claim for the building, according to records in the December 2008 case.

    How Bowdoin intends to explain to employees and members that an $800,000 building paid for by participants was not worth fighting for is unclear. In a September conference call transcribed by the U.S. Secret Service, Bowdoin said ASD wanted to reopen — and yet never filed a claim to the building, prosecutors said.

    Bowdoin had described the marine equipment — including two jet skis, a Cabana boat and other property — as recreational items for members who came to visit him in Quincy, Fla. — members said.

    Regardless, neither he nor any other ASD insider staked a claim to the items, prosecutors said.

    “In keeping with the likely outcome of this notification [of the December complaint], plaintiff also is preparing a motion for default judgment and a final order of forfeiture,” prosecutors said. “As things now stand, plaintiff expects that the Court will be in a position to grant such a motion, which should result in the dismissal of this case, by approximately January 15, 2010, that is, in 70 days.”

    Today’s filing by prosecutors Barry Wiegand and Deborah Connor may prompt ASD members to question why Bowdoin, who has positioned himself as a champion to participants, is fighting hard for cash seized in August 2008 — but not at all for less-valuable property named in the December 2008 complaint.

    It also raises questions about why Bowdoin’s wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin, and her son, George Harris, are not fighting for property seized in the December 2008 complaint. At the same time, it raises questions about why Judy Harris, the wife of George Harris, also is not fighting for the property.

    Prosecutors said Edna Faye Bowdoin and George Harris opened a bank account in June 2008, less than two weeks after a May 31, 2008, ASD rally in Las Vegas had concluded.

    The account was funded with an opening deposit of more than $177,000 from illegal proceeds from ASD, prosecutors said.

    The Tallahassee home of George and Judy Harris was seized in the December 2008 complaint, which followed on the heels of an August 2008 complaint against other ASD-connected assets, collectively including huge sums of money in 10 Bank of America accounts in Andy Bowdoin’s name. Prosecutors said the Harris mortgage of more than $157,000 was paid off with criminal proceeds from ASD, from the account opened by Edna Faye Bowdoin and George Harris in June 2008.

    Also seized in the December 2008 complaint was a 2008 Honda automobile registered to George and Judy Harris. Prosecutors said the car also was acquired with criminal proceeds from ASD.

    George and Judy Harris later emerged as the purported owners of the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, which formally launched in February 2009 — after two forfeiture complaints had been filed against ASD and after Andy Bowdoin had been named a defendant in a separate racketeering lawsuit.

    Bowdoin never responded to the racketeering complaint, which also names ASD attorney Robert Garner a defendant.

    Although Andy Bowdoin eventually submitted (in January 2009) to the forfeiture of the money seized in August 2008, he changed his mind in February and began to file as a pro se litigant to reassert his claims.

    Some members of the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum championed Bowdoin’s reemergence as a pro se litigant in the August 2008 case, offering prayers and well-wishes but never asking why Bowdoin and family members appeared to be ignoring the December 2008 forfeiture case and why Bowdoin was ignoring the January 2009 racketeering case.

    Bowdoin chose not to assert an ownership interest in the less valuable marine equipment, computers and other assets seized in the December 2008 complaint, prosecutors said this morning.

    In recent weeks, however, he has aggressively reasserted claims to the tens of millions of dollars seized in August 2008 case, according to court records in the August case.

    But Bowdoin and family members did nothing at all to secure the return of the water equipment, the $800,000 building, the Harris automobile, a model-year 2009, $50,000 Lincoln luxury sedan for presumptive use by Bowdoin and his wife, and a 2009 Acura automobile acquired in the name of a former ASD employee, according to court records in the December case.

    The automobiles had a combined value of more than $110,000, according to court filings. The combined value of the water equipment totaled nearly $44,000. Based on the value of the cars, the water equipment, the building — and the Harris home — neither Bowdoin nor family members filed claims to more than $1 million in property.

    Prosecutors said all of the property was acquired from money directed at ASD by members.

    Prosecutors said they had expected a “global resolution” of both forfeiture cases in 2009, based on assertions by Bowdoin. Early in the year, Bowdoin met in person with prosecutors and admitted ASD had been operating illegally, according to court filings.

    In August 2009, Bowdoin announced in court filings that he was reentering negotiations with prosecutors. Bowdoin asked for at least two extensions to continue negotiations, according to records. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer granted extensions from Aug. 7 to Sept. 14.

    On Sept. 14, Bowdoin filed motions that reasserted his claims to the seized millions, triggering blistering motions by the prosecution that Bowdoin was trying to lie his way back into the case, while also lying to members.

    In September — for the first time — prosecutors made a veiled reference to the AVG autosurf, saying, “Maybe Bowdoin thought that before the government brought its charges he (like some of his family members) could move to another country and profit from a knock-off autosurf program that Bowdoin funded and helped to start.”

    Prosecutors suggested today that, when negotiations broke down, they sought seizure warrants to take possession of the assets named in the December complaint.

    “Promptly when it appeared that a global resolution of all related litigation had become much less likely, the government applied to this court in late October for seizure warrants for several of the defendant properties.” prosecutors said. “Within days of the Court issuing the warrants, federal law enforcement agents had swiftly executed them, and all defendant items of personal property are in the custody of an agency of the U.S. government.”

    All of the property seized in the December complaint now is advertised for forfeiture on the government’s official forfeiture website: forfeiture.gov. Along with the building, boats, cars and other real estate, the government also advertised formal notice of forfeiture of “[a]pproximately Six Hundred Thirty Four Thousand, Two Hundred Sixty Six Dollars and Thirteen Cents ($634,266.13), in U.S. funds previously deposited at the Bartow County Bank, Account #xxx-602, in the name of Golden Panda Ad Builder.”

    Read today’s filing by the prosecution in the December 2008 forfeiture case.

  • UPDATE: Another Parallel To ASD/Golden Panda/AVG Emerges In Canadian Probe Of Manna Trading Corp. Ltd.

    Yesterday we reported that the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) ordered penalties and disgorgement totaling $42 million in the case against Legacy Capital Inc., Legacy Trust Inc., Manna Trading Corp Ltd. and Manna Humanitarian Foundation.

    We reported several parallels to the ongoing investigation in the United States into the business practices of AdSurfDaily/Golden Panda Ad Builder and the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf.

    Another parallel has emerged, and it is a significant one: Two of the principals in the Canadian scheme previously had been disciplined for banking or securities violations.

    Hal (Mick) Allan McLeod was disciplined by the British Columbia Superintendent of Financial Institutions in 2003 for violations of the Financial Institutions Act and ordered to “cease carrying on a trust or deposit business,” BCSC said.

    Citing the superintendent’s order, BCSC said two companies with which McLeod had served as a director — First Capital Trading & Financing Corp. and First Capital Credit Corp. — “took and kept funds from the public, and engaged in conduct that was deceptive and misleading.”

    David John Vaughan, meanwhile, “was disciplined by this Commission [in 1999] for engaging in an illegal distribution that had many features in common with the Manna scheme,” BCSC said. “Orders against him from that misconduct remain in force today.”

    In the 1990s, both ASD President Andy Bowdoin and Golden Panda Ad Builder President Clarence Busby had run-ins with securities regulators.

    Bowdoin pleaded guilty to felonies in Alabama and was sentenced to a year in prison. The sentence was suspended when he agreed to pay restitution. In August 2008, he sent his victims a restitution check for $100. One month earlier, in July 2008, nearly $50,000 in ASD funds were used to purchase a luxury Lincoln sedan registered in the name of Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises, prosecutors said.

    Florida now has revoked ASD’s corporate registration and dissolved the registration of Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises. Although both companies are involved in serious litigation that potentially affects thousands of people, neither company submitted required annual reports to maintain their corporate standing. Florida provided the companies a five-month buffer to file the required paperwork. Neither firm complied.

    In May 1998, a federal judge permanently enjoined Clarence Busby from violations of the Securities Act of 1993 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Busby was ordered to pay $15,000 in disgorgement for ill-gotten gains he had received “from sales of interests in three prime bank schemes,” the SEC said.

    The SEC waived the penalty because Busby certified he was unable to pay, the SEC said.

    Busby and Bowdoin went on a decade later to form Golden Panda Ad Builder after discussing the surf on a Georgia fishing lake in April 2008. In July 2008 — just prior to the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from the bank accounts of ASD and Golden Panda — Bowdoin distanced himself from Busby after Busby’s run-in with the SEC became known publicly.

    The “cause and effect” of Bowdoin’s actions with Golden Panda never has been clear. For example, was Bowdoin really too busy to run Golden Panda with Busby — as Bowdoin suggested — or did Bowdoin distance himself from Golden Panda because he learned about Busby’s alleged SEC violations and feared the allegations could lead to a probe of ASD?

    Golden Panda surrendered its claim to more than $14 million in the U.S. Secret Service probe. Busby now is listed as the “chief consultant” to BizAdSplash (BAS), another surf — one that purports to be operating offshore.

    BAS suspended payouts earlier this year, and then announced a relaunch. The firm, according to its website, now is selling tiered “charter memberships” for as much as $10,000.

    A “Presidential” charter membership is priced at $10,000; an “Executive” charter membership is priced at $5,000. Two other tiered charter memberships — “Visionary” and “Pioneer” — are sold at $2,500 and $1,000, respectively.

    BAS has not updated the news on its website since Oct. 7, nearly three weeks.

    Canadian officials say the whereabouts of three of the respondents in the Manna probe who were ordered to pay huge financial penalties is unknown. McLeod, Vaughan and Kenneth Robert McMordie (also known as Byrun Fox) “have fled the jurisdiction,” BCSC told The Globe and Mail, in a story published this morning.

    The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have opened a criminal investigation, BCSC said.

    Like ASD/Golden Panda, AVG and BizAdSplash, the Canadian Ponzi schemers pushed debit cards to offload profits, BCSC said.

    “Manna fraudulently used the investments of later investors to fund the promised returns to earlier investors, to pay commissions to the affiliates and consultants, to invest in an online gaming business, and to buy real estate in Costa Rica,” BCSC said.

    Other traits the Canadian scheme and the alleged U.S. scheme involving Bowdoin, Busby and offshoot companies had in common include:

    • Secrecy. AVG, for instance, did not identify its executives, morphed into a “private association” and advised members not to share information outside association walls.
    • False information. Some ASD members repeatedly have asserted that the U.S. government has admitted ASD was not a Ponzi scheme. Other members have sent emails that suggest participants should not cooperate with the U.S. Secret Service.
    • Offshore venues. Both AVG and BAS, for example, claim connections to South America and Central America, leading to fears that money could be hidden.
    • Use of ‘common law’ in various writings. Some ASD pro se litigants have cited common law in court filings in defense of the surf. One apparent argument of the litigants is that all commerce is legal as long as there is is contract between two parties. In the Canadian case, some purveyors of the scheme pushed what authorities described as a “private common law spiritual trust.”
    • Efforts that can be viewed as intimidation tactics. AVG, for example, threatened to sue members who shared information and to file abuse complaints with the Internet Service Providers of participants who complained on online forums.
    • Purported ties to charitable entities. AVG, for instance, advertised that it supported the World Rain Forest Movement. In Canada, Manna advertised the Manna Humanitarian Foundation.
    • An MLM-style sales structure. All of the Canadian and U.S. entities sold the programs as multilevel marketing opportunities.
    • Earnings “compounding.” Both the Canadian schemes and the alleged American schemes encouraged members to keep money in the systems and employ compounding strategies to maximize earnings.

  • HYIP/AUTOSURF SHOCKWAVES: Regulators Order Canadian Ponzi Schemers To Pay Penalties Totaling $26 Million And To Disgorge Illegal Profits Of $16 Million; Case Has Parallels To AdSurfDaily And AdViewGlobal

    The British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) has ordered four respondents in a civil action to pay penalties of $26 million for operating a Ponzi scheme and to surrender $16 million in illegal profits.

    In forceful findings that may echo throughout the HYIP and autosurfing universe, BCSC said the schemers tried to skirt securities laws by selling a fraudulent HYIP currency-trading program in Canada through an MLM-syle operation while hiding behind “non-disclosure” agreements and operating in an environment of secrecy.

    AdViewGlobal (AVG), an autosurf firm with close ties to the alleged AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme in the United States, created a similar structure in which participants were advised to keep news within “association” walls and not to disclose information to outsiders.

    BCSC also found that the companies named in the Canadian complaint disseminated false information and used intimidation tactics in a bid to prevent participants from cooperating with authorities.

    “Because of those [non-disclosure] agreements, and because of false but intimidating statements made to them by the respondents, many investors refused or were reluctant to cooperate with the Commission’s investigation,” BCSC said.

    In recent weeks, some ASD members have circulated emails that suggested participants should not cooperate with the U.S. Secret Service in the ASD probe. During the summer, AVG, which had suspended member cashouts, threatened to sue members for sharing information with outsiders and also threatened to contact the Internet Service Providers of participants who complained on a company forum.

    In yet another similarity to the ASD case, some of the purveyors of the Canadian scheme also pushed what Canadian authorities described as a “private common law spiritual trust.”

    Some of ASD’s and AVG’s most ardent supporters have used similar phrasing and referenced common law in defending the surfs.

    BCSC minced no words as it laid out the penalties against Hal (Mick) Allan McLeod, David John Vaughan, Kenneth Robert McMordie (also known as Byrun Fox) and Dianne Sharon Rosiek.

    BCSC pegged losses at $13 million, saying the respondents “fraudulently distributed securities and made misrepresentations” through Legacy Capital Inc., Legacy Trust Inc. and Manna Trading Corp Ltd.

    The Canadian respondents also cited a tie to an entity known as the Manna Humanitarian Foundation.

    AVG, in promotional material, cited a tie to the World Rain Forest Movement in what some observers saw as a bid to sanitize the AVG business by linking it to a worthwhile cause.

    “At AVGlobal Association we believe we should go beyond the basics of ethical business practices and embrace our responsibility to people and to the planet,” AVG said on its website. “We believe this brings sustained, collective value to our members, our employees, our customers and society.”

    AVG announced a suspension of payouts June 25. It is unclear if any worthwhile cause ever received money from the company.

    A BCSC panel fined McLeod $8 million. Vaughan, Rosiek and McMordie were dispensed penalties of $6 million each. The panel also ordered each respondent, including the companies, to disgorge the $16 million the scheme obtained from investors.

    The suggested payout percentages of the Canadian entities actually were significantly lower than the suggested payout percentages of both ASD and AVG.

    “Manna promised investors 7 [percent]  monthly returns (later reduced to 5 [percent]), sometimes compounded,” BCSC said.

    ASD and AVG both promoted compounding. Some ASD members promoted returns of 365 percent a year, claiming $100,000 in ASD returned $1,000 a day.

    Similar to ASD and AVG, investors who became “affiliates” or “consultants” of the Canadian companies could bring in new investors.

    “When they did so, they earned a commission on the amount invested and a continuing share of the return on the new investment,” BCSC said.

    The private, common-law spiritual trust “was a mechanism Fox concocted ostensibly to avoid the application of tax and securities laws to investments in the Manna scheme,” BCSC said.

    BCSC pegged losses in the Canadian scheme at $13 million, saying as many as 800 people lost money.

    “They created a multi-level marketing structure to maximize distribution of the Manna securities,” BCSC said.

    “The respondents knew exactly what they were doing when it came to dealing with securities laws,” a BCSC panel said. “They were well aware of the requirements of the Act, and of the role of the Commission in enforcing the Act. They took numerous actions calculated to escape detection. They attempted, unsuccessfully, to construct the Manna scheme in a form that would fit within a specific exemption in the Act.”

    Authorities said the scheme was inexcusable.

    “Nothing strikes more viciously at the integrity of our capital markets than fraud, and this case represents a particularly aggressive and flagrant assault on the public’s confidence in our markets,” BCSC said.

    BCSC’s announcement followed on the heels of announcements Oct. 15 by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission that they were targeting a Florida company that allegedly tried to hide behind a corporate registration in Panama.

    The actions by the SEC and CFTC expose the vulnerability of autosurfs that register as corporations offshore and arrange web-hosting overseas, but do not comply with securities laws of the United States and foreign countries in which they have a paper footprint or are not regulated in the foreign countries.

    The moves also demonstrate that U.S. securities regulators — no matter where a company arranges webhosting — intend to treat American owners who flout laws as issuers of unregistered securities, unregistered investment advisers and operators of unregistered foreign investment companies from inside the United States

    Named defendants in emergency actions filed Oct. 15 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida were David F. Merrick, Traders International Return Network (TIRN), MS Inc., GTT Services Inc., MDD Consulting Inc. and Go ! Tourism Inc.

  • UPDATE: No Vana Blue Shares Have Traded Hands Since Oct. 8; No Praebius Communications Trades Since Oct. 9

    UPDATED 4:30 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) No shares of Vana Blue were reported traded today. No trades have occurred since Oct. 8, a period encompassing seven full trading days. Some shares of Praebius did trade today, so its string of no trading since Oct. 9 ended.

    Here, below, our earlier post . . .

    Two Pinksheet penny stocks whose names became associated with the so-called autosurf “industry” have not recorded any trading of shares for days.

    No shares of Vana Blue have traded hands since Oct. 8, a period that includes six full trading days and part of a seventh. No Praebius Communications shares have traded hands since Oct. 9.

    In news releases, Vana Blue identified itself as the owner of eWalletPlus, a payment processor later linked to the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf.

    Vana Blue, which used mailing services in Phoenix and Las Vegas as its address, is a registered corporation in Nevada. Its website now resolves to a server that beams ads.

    The company has claimed to own a company that variously has been described as TMS Corp. and TMS Association, which purportedly developed eWalletPlus. In January, Vana Blue also claimed to own a company that variously has been described as Karveck Corp. or Karveck International, a purported advertising and media company.

    In February, Vana Blue reported that Karveck had posted $1.8 million in revenue in January — the month AVG was in prelaunch.

    In an August news release, Vana Blue said it “has canceled all agreements with Karveck Int’l and has no affiliation with [the] company or its affiliates.”

    The company claimed to own Karveck International in February 2009, declaring it a “newly acquired asset” that had produced $1.8 million in revenue in January. Karveck was described as a company that “specializes in internet advertising and promotion in a search engine and ad clicking type environment.”

    Vana Blue’s August news release, however, said the deal once described as completed never was finalized and that the cancellation came as a result of “further due diligence.”

    AVG, an autosurfing company with close ties to AdSurfDaily Inc., suspended member cashouts in June. The U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from ASD President Andy Bowdoin in August 2008, amid allegations of wire fraud, money-laundering and operating an international Ponzi scheme.

    On Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 of last year, an evidentiary hearing in the ASD forfeiture case was held in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The hearing centered on the Ponzi allegations, ASD’s “rebate” program and issues of income streams and solvency.

    In August, prosecutors said ASD was insolvent.

    “According to its own records, ASD sold ad packages worth approximately $39 million during the Miami rally, worth over $29 million from the Tampa convention, and worth over $27 million from the Chicago rally,” prosecutors said. “Even without including ad ‘sales’ that occurred over the Internet and the bonuses offered to rally participants, ASD would need assets of more than $118 million to pay these individuals their 125% return,” prosecutors said.

    At the evidentiary hearing, ASD introduced an unaudited balance sheet that showed it had posted approximately $100.88 million in revenue in the first seven months of 2008. Prosecutors countered by saying ASD had promised to pay out more money than it had taken in, producing evidence showing ASD “will” pay rebates until members received 125 percent of what they had paid for “advertising.”

    U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer did not make a ruling from the bench at the conclusion of the hearing, instructing attorneys from both sides to prepare additional briefs and noting she would take the testimony and evidence introduced by both sides at the hearing under advisement.

    During the period in which Collyer was deliberating the Ponzi and solvency issues, ASD announced on its Breaking News website that it expected a $200 million capital infusion from Praebius. Some ASD members raced to forums and websites covering the ASD case to share the news about the purported Praebius venture.

    Some ASD members, however, questioned the news. ASD then removed its announcement about Praebius from the Breaking News website.

    Shares of Vana Blue traded hands during 11 straight trading days between Sept. 10 and Sept. 24. After Sept. 24, shares traded hands in six of the 10 trading days through Oct. 8. No trades have posted since Oct. 8.

  • TEA LEAVES: AdSurfDaily Case About To Come To A Head?

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Reading the tea leaves in court cases often is an iffy proposition, and there often is no way to know what will happen when. Readers are advised to keep those thoughts in mind when considering the information in this story.

    UPDATED 7:03 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Recent court filings suggest — although it is far from clear — that dramatic events could occur soon on at least three fronts in the AdSurfDaily case.

    Consider:

    • The government today added two prosecutors to its roster in the main civil-forfeiture case against tens of millions of dollars and real estate seized in August 2008 from ASD President Andy Bowdoin. Both new members of the team are experienced in criminal prosecutions, including appeals. One of the prosecutors has served in complex cases involving international banking and money-laundering, as well as cases involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
    • A federal judge, noting that no claimants have stepped forward in a second forfeiture case filed in December 2008 and targeted at assets tied to ASD, now has ordered prosecutors to state their intentions by Nov. 6 on how they intend to proceed in the December case. Potential claimants included Bowdoin and his wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin, and her son, George Harris. Judy Harris, the wife of George Harris, also was a potential claimant, as was Hays Amos, a former ASD employee.

    The Harris home in Tallahassee was seized in the December complaint, as was a car registered to George and Judy Harris. Prosecutors said a mortgage of more than $157,000 on the Harris home was retired with illegal proceeds from ASD, adding that Edna Faye Bowdoin and George Harris worked together to establish a bank account into which ASD funds were deposited and quickly wired to a third bank to pay off the mortgage.

    Prosecutors said the account was opened June 10, 2008, at Capital City Bank, less than two weeks after ASD concluded a rally in Las Vegas at which Andy Bowdoin exhorted the crowd to internalize the thought of acquiring large sums of money.

    The account was opened in the name of Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises Inc. and was funded with an opening deposit of $177,900.12 from two ASD accounts at Bank of America.

    Less than two weeks later, the lion’s share of the money was used to retire the mortgage on the Harris home — a home for which the couple has not filed a claim.

    (Emphasis added in the paragraph below.)

    “On or about June 23, 2008, George Harris requested via a telephone call that an electronic wire for $157,216.79 be sent from his Capital City Bank account to Citi Mortgage Inc.,” prosecutors said. “The reference that Mr. Harris provided was ‘REF: PAYOFF JUDY HARRIS #XXXXXX2292.’”

    The clear implication from the language of the complaint was that money from ASD — money prosecutors said Andy Bowdoin had acquired through a wire-fraud and money-laundering scheme — had been used a second time to commit wire fraud, this time by George Harris with help from his mother, Bowdoin’s wife.

    Four members of the Bowdoin/Harris family were involved in one way or another in the transaction, with George Harris becoming a supplemental beneficiary and Judy Harris becoming the final beneficiary. The mortgage on the property was recorded in Leon County, Fla, as paid on July 11, 2008, with the filing of a “satisfaction of mortgage.”

    Another way to look at the transaction is that it put each of the principal members of the Bowdoin/Harris family at great risk of getting arrested and, upon conviction, going to prison.

    George and Judy Harris later emerged as “Trustees”  — and then the purported owners of the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf. Bowdoin was the silent head of AVG, members said.

    AVG purported to he headquartered in Uruguay. It launched in the wake of the filing of both forfeiture complaints, and also the filing of a racketeering lawsuit against Bowdoin and ASD by individual members. The racketeering lawsuit first was filed in November 2008 in Florida — in the immediate aftermath of a major court ruling against ASD in which a federal judge said ASD had not demonstrated it was a legal business and not a Ponzi scheme at an evidentiary hearing last fall.

    Attorneys for the plaintiffs dismissed the case in Florida, and refiled it in the District of Columbia in January 2009. AVG formally launched in February 2009, despite all the litigation that had piled up around Bowdoin and the Bowdoin/Harris family.

    On Sept. 25, prosecutors made a veiled reference to AVG in a court filing in which they accused Bowdoin of trying to lie his way back into the August 2008 civil-forfeiture case after he had already submitted to the forfeiture in January 2009.

    Here, in its entirety, is the Sept 25 reference: (Italics added.)

    “Maybe Bowdoin mistakenly thought that he could con the government into believing that he was just a harmless, foolish old man. Ironically, after telling thousands of investors that he intended to build the world’s preeminent advertising company for them, in order to make them 100,000 millionaires, Bowdoin tries to con this Court, telling it that because he’s 74 and has a heart condition, any incarceration amounts to a death sentence. See Document #132 ¶8. Was he lying then, or now?

    “Or, it may be the case that Bowdoin never intended to plead guilty when he agreed to debrief, and was just buying time while searching for a different exit strategy that failed to materialize. Maybe Bowdoin thought that before the government brought its charges he (like some of his family members) could move to another country and profit from a knock-off autosurf program that Bowdoin funded and helped to start.

    “Or, maybe other attorneys Bowdoin employed, or ASD’s other promoters convinced Bowdoin that if he paid some of the fraud proceeds the government had missed to them (the money laundering as Mr. Murray reports), they could help to circle the wagons or otherwise do a better job than Akerman Senterfitt did when it tried to prove that free advertising was a true profitable sale and not a poorly disguised, and unsustainable, investment opportunity.

    “But what is clear from Bowdoin, himself, is that neither the government, nor Bowdoin’s experienced criminal defense counsel, ever told Bowdoin that it was reasonable for a defendant convicted of operating a $100 million wire fraud scheme to expect probation.”

    Three days later, on Sept. 28, prosecutors returned to court, filing a supplemental brief and a U.S. Secret Service transcript of an audio recording Bowdoin or a person who aided him posted online.

    (Italics added.)

    “Remarkably, Bowdoin even suggests to those members participating in the conference call that the money taken from his bank accounts and, supposedly, never constituting an investment, belongs, not to Bowdoin, but to the membership. It is clear that this con man cannot manage to keep his stories straight,” prosecutors said.

    Bowdoin’s claim in the transcript of the audio recording is at odds with his own court filings — filings in which he claims to be the owner of the seized funds. It is clear from the language prosecutors used in their supplemental filing that they now have the option of arguing that Bowdoin’s statement to the membership was tantamount to a confession that he was selling unregistered securities as investment contracts, not advertisements as he had claimed.

    In the hours that followed, some ASD members appeared to suggest in various emails that ASD members should not cooperate if contacted by the Secret Service.

    Given the nature and the content of recent filings from parties on both sides of the case, the ASD prosecution could be building to a crescendo. Prosecutors have many options, and appear to be preparing to use them — up to and including acting on the December forfeiture complaint at the moment that best suits their strategy.

    There could be dramatic developments — and surprises — ahead.

  • U.S. Employment Numbers Worst Since 1983; Social Security Takes A Hit From Discouraged Early Retirees; FDIC Seeks To Recapitalize In Wake Of Nearly 100 Bank Failures In 2009

    When the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf — now failed — was in prelaunch phase in December 2008, it positioned itself as an offshore cure for what ails the U.S. and world economies.

    Less than two years earlier, promoters of the AdSurfDaily autosurf — which has close ties to AVG — implied that the individual surf accounts of ASD members were insured by the FDIC and that ASD provided “shelter” from the FTC and the SEC.

    ASD’s assets were seized by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008, amid allegations of wire-fraud, money-laundering and selling unregistered securities via a Ponzi scheme. Only months later AVG began its ignoble task of encouraging members to move cash offshore and permit it to be managed by unknowns, thus separating participants from even more wealth.

    The result was a colossal failure AVG announced in June, before it disabled its forum to prevent members from asking uncomfortable questions. AVG even threatened members who shared the news with copyright-infringement lawsuits. Indeed, AVG went from a much ballyhooed cure to a thuggish disease that attacked its own participants in only weeks.

    Neither ASD nor AVG created any new wealth or cured anything. About the only thing the surfs managed to do was siphon wealth from one group and transfer it to another, all during a time a global recession was rearing its ugly head and putting jobs and lifetimes of hard work in harm’s way.

    The U.S. economy shed 263,000 jobs in September, and the unemployment rate edged up to 9.8 percent, the Labor Department said yesterday.

    Unemployment virtually has doubled since December 2007. The number of persons looking for work now totals 15.1 million, and the unemployment rate is the highest since June 1983.

    When discouraged workers and workers who’ve accepted part-time jobs in the absence of full-time employment are factored into the numbers, the so-called “real” unemployment rate is 17 percent. The number could be distorted — meaning the true employment numbers could be masked to a degree — because older workers separated from their jobs have been applying for Social Security, rather than continuing their struggle to find work when the odds are against them.

    The Social Security Administration told Bloomberg News that it had expected an increase of 315,000 applications for the one-year period ending Sept 30, but instead received 465,000, an increase of 150,000 applications.

    Meanwhile, regulators seized three more U.S. banks yesterday, bringing the year-to-date total to 98. Because the FDIC  is close to operating in the red, the agency is in the process of recapitalizing and has proposed a plan that would force banks to pay insurance premiums early to protect customer deposits, rather than pass along the cost of the recapitalization to taxpayers.

    “First and foremost, bank customers should know that their insured deposits have and always will be 100 percent safe, no matter what,” said FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair. “This commitment to depositors is absolute. The decision today (Sept. 29) is really about how and when the industry fulfills its obligation to the insurance fund. It’s clear that the American people would prefer to see an end to policies that look to the federal balance sheet as a remedy for every problem. In choosing this path, it should be clear to the public that the industry will not simply tap the shoulder of the increasingly weary taxpayer.”

    At risk, however, are banking profits when the industry already is struggling, but the FDIC insists that “banks overall have enough liquid assets to make the proposed prepayment.”

    U.S. regulators have not confronted a challenge of this magnitude since the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the savings and loan industry recorded 745 failures, in no small part due to fraud, mismanagement and regulatory laxity.

    Here is the bank-failure list so far in 2009:

  • Did AdViewGlobal Insiders Know About Purported Bowdoin Indictment In May And Engage In Bizarre Summertime Cover-Up Bid?

    UPDATED 3:53 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The adviewglobal.com domain appears to be back online, with a renewed registration for one year. The domain name had expired Sept. 22, throwing the site offline and triggering questions and confusion from members.

    Here, below, our earlier story . . .

    AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin now suggests he was indicted under seal in May. If true, does the Bowdoin indictment help explain the strange events at AdViewGlobal in May, June, July and August — events that culminated in September with AVG going offline?

    If you’re new to the PatrickPretty.com Blog, perhaps our archives can be of assistance in helping you understand more of the context of the ASD/AVG story.

    Here is a story from April that focuses on the prosecution’s bombshell announcement that Bowdoin had signed a proffer letter in the case.

    Prosecutors had responded to three of the four pro se pleadings by Bowdoin without divulging the existence of the letter. Only in their fourth and final response to the pleadings did they disclose that Bowdoin perhaps was assisting the government in unwinding the ASD mess, before Bowdoin suddenly changed his mind and morphed into a pro se litigant seeking to recast the civil-forfeiture case as a criminal matter and to undo his decision to cede tens of millions of dollars to the government.

    For additional background, see this story from March about apparent cash-flow problems that had developed at AVG, only weeks after its formal launch in February.

    Moving forward, perhaps this May story about AVG’s announcement it had secured a new wire facility to replace one that apparently had been suspended in March will add to your knowledge base.

    AVG made the announcement May 4, only hours after the President of the United States and the U.S. Treasury Department had announced a crackdown on international fraud.

    Three days later, a company AVG identified as a facilitator of the international wire transfers denied it had any business relationship with AVG. The firm suggested it had been targeted in a scam by which AVG would route money to itself by using a shell company.

    AVG ignored the denial, instead saying negotiations it already had announced as completed — up to and including precise wiring instructions for members to purchase “advertising” — had failed.

    An attempt by AVG to launch a new website about two weeks later failed. The website, which featured a Yellow Pages logo and suggested AVG perhaps was entering into even more businesses the government monitors closely, was withdrawn. AVG had announced an “unprecedented” 250 percent match to promote the website, a possible marker of severe cash-flow problems.

    Perhaps to send a signal all was well, the surf paid out higher-than-normal paper profits just prior to the introduction of the 250 percent bonus. An AVG forum run by some of the Mods and members of the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum went on a delete-fest when members began to ask uncomfortable questions.

    By June 1, AVG announced a new suite of products and services, apparently redefining itself only days after the purported indictment against Bowdoin.

    An email AVG sent to announce its new offerings hotlinked to the servers of three publishing companies, including Forbes. This led to questions about whether AVG was trying to create the appearance of legitimacy by piggybacking off the brands of legitimate companies — a practice associated with ASD.

    On June 3, a furious reaction ensued after we published a story on an AVG member’s plan to help prospects with “big bucks” qualify for matching bonuses before the June 5 deadline. The story questioned whether members who took the approach were committing wire fraud.

    Could AVG have been reacting to stress caused by the purported indictment against Bowdoin?

    One of our readers/posters, Entertained, the author of a “Black Box” mathematical method to prove/disprove Ponzi schemes, later composed some questions for AVG. (See story/comments thread.)

    AVG recast the questions. (See story/comments thread.)

    AVG suspended cashouts June 25. It explained that members had cheated the system by taking advantage of a cash button the surf itself had offered. AVG later changed its story, saying $2.7 million had been stolen from the firm.

    It has been very difficult to identify the actual owners of the eWalletPlus payment processor AVG said it owned. No fewer than three companies have claimed to own the payment processor, which now is offline.

    Now AVG itself is offline.

    UPDATE 3:53 P.M. Site appears to be back online, with the domain name renewed.

  • WHO’S IN CHARGE? AdViewGlobal Surf Domain Now Resolves To GoDaddy; Registration Appears To Have Expired

    UPDATED 6:45 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Has the autosurf world seen the last of AdViewGlobal? The surf’s main website at adviewglobal.com now resolves to a GoDaddy.com page filled with ads, and the domain registration appears to have expired Sept. 22.

    It was not immediately clear how the development would affect AVG members. The company suspended cashouts in June, and reported in August that it had filed reports with law-enforcement agencies about a purported theft of $2.7 million.

    AVG made the announcement about the purported theft one day after AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin revealed in court filings that he was negotiating with federal prosecutors. ASD and AVG have close family, membership and promoter ties.

    AVG identified two suspects in its announcement about the purported theft. The PatrickPretty.com Blog is declining to publish the names because the information is sketchy and because AVG earlier had told a different story.

    Bowdoin, however, was not identified by the firm as a theft suspect. Members said he was a silent partner in AVG.

    An affidavit Bowdoin filed last week suggested a sealed grand-jury indictment had been returned against him in May, the same month AVG announced it had secured a new offshore wire facility customers could use to pay for “advertising” services.

    In an accompanying filing, Bowdoin’s attorney, Charles A. Murray, said prosecutors wanted his client to “travel to Washington, D.C. and enter a criminal plea.”

    Bowdoin chose not to go to Washington, Murray said.

    The nature of the charges in any sealed indictment against Bowdoin are unclear.

    AVG made the announcement about the wire facility on May 4, the same day President Obama announced a crackdown on offshore tax schemes. Three days later, a company that AVG had identified as a facilitator of the transfers denied it had any business relationship with AVG, suggesting AVG and a third company had engaged in a scam.

    On June 1, AVG issued a baffling news release that seemed to suggest that the company had become a full-service advertising firm that also offered products and services beyond advertising, which led to question about what AVG was before it issued the release.

  • Judge Denies Dismissal Motions By Bank, ASD Attorney Robert Garner, In Case That Alleged ‘Indictable’ Racketeering Offenses Had Occurred In Autosurfing Enterprise

    A federal judge has denied motions by Bank of America and AdSurfDaily attorney Robert Garner to dismiss a lawsuit in which ASD members alleged Garner and ASD President Andy Bowdoin had engaged in racketeering.

    Bank of America was not named a RICO defendant. Rather, the bank was accused of aiding and abetting ASD in a fraudulent scheme in which racketeers and unnamed co-conspirators committed indictable offenses and fleeced thousands of people out of tens of millions of dollars.

    Bank of America has denied wrongdoing. Garner has argued that U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer has no jurisdiction to hear the case. Bowdoin has not responded to the complaint, which was filed in January and amended in April.

    The RICO case was put on indefinite hold in July, because of ongoing litigation involving Bowdoin and the government. The motions to dismiss were filed prior to Collyer’s July 24 granting of a stay requested by Bank of America. Collyer denied the dismissal motions Sept. 18, although they could be refiled and argued later when the stay is lifted.

    RICO attorneys representing three ASD members in a prospective class-action lawsuit said ASD was a racketeering enterprise engaged in wire fraud and money-laundering. In June, the plaintiffs referenced AdViewGlobal (AVG) in court filings as an extension of ASD, although AVG has not been named a defendant.

    In other news, no recorded statement from Bowdoin was released to ASD members yesterday. Emails in recent days have suggested Bowdoin planned to address the membership. The first claim said Bowdoin would speak during a conference call.

    It later was said that Bowdoin had chosen instead to issue a recorded statement, rather than to address members in a conference call. Members expected to be directed to the recording yesterday, but no links were distributed.

  • Surf’s Up Mods Have High Positions In AdViewGlobal

    Four moderators at the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum hold high positions in the AdViewGlobal autosurf or have a spouse who does, according to AVG’s website.

    AVG launched in the aftermath of the seizure of tens of millions of dollars last year from ASD, a Florida company federal prosecutors said was engaged in wire fraud, money-laundering and the sale of unregistered securities while operating a Ponzi scheme.

    Larry Alford, the husband of Surf’s Up Mod Barb Alford, holds position 11; Mod Terralynn Hoy holds position 12; Mod Laura Pont holds position 14; and Mod Kathryn Milner holds position 15.

    Whether the Mods are still associated with AVG is unclear. Also unclear is whether Alford, Hoy and Pont continue to play an active role at Surf’s Up.

    Other members with high positions include David Meade (9); Mindy Bales (19); and Nate Boyd (20). Bales helped organize rallies for ASD in Iowa, and Boyd is a former ASD compliance officer, members said.

    The No. 5 position in AVG is held by unnamed “AVG Executives.” Gerald Castor, an AVG compliance officer who was sued twice last year for violations of federal labor law, is AVG member No. 59, according to the website.

    ASD gave Surf’s Up its official endorsement Nov. 27, 2008, eight days after a federal judge ruled that ASD had not demonstrated at an evidentiary hearing that it was a legal business and not a Ponzi scheme.

    AVG insisted for weeks prior to its February launch that it had no affiliation with ASD or ASD President Andy Bowdoin, whom members now say was the silent head of AVG. On Jan. 31, AVG’s graphics appeared in an ASD-controlled webroom, but AVG said the development was an “operational coincidence.”

    Former ASD executive Gary Talbert holds the No. 1 position in AVG, which purports to be headquartered in Uruguay but also filed papers in Florida.

    In March, AVG advised members its bank account had been suspended. The surf blamed members in its announcement. Regardless, AVG embarked on a 200-percent, matching-bonus program for both members and their sponsors. One email promotion after the announcement of the account suspension claimed $5,000 spent with AVG turned into $15,000 “instantly!”

    The March email bore the name of Shad Foss, a promoter associated with the CEP Ponzi scheme. ASD once advertised that it accepted CEP Trust, the failed payment processor associated with CEP, which was dismantled in 2007 by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    By June 25, AVG announced it was suspending member cashouts and conducting an audit of itself.

    In April, federal prosecutors announced in court filings that ASD President Andy Bowdoin had signed a proffer letter in the ASD forfeiture case and acknowledged the company was operating illegally. The date Bowdoin signed the proffer letter is not publicly known. It is possible Bowdoin signed the letter weeks before the launch of AVG.

    What is known is that Bowdoin signed the letter before Jan. 13, 2009. AVG was in prelaunch at the time and launched fully in early February.

    It is not publicly known if others have signed proffer letters. Federal prosecutors say ASD is a criminal enterprise, and private attorneys have accused ASD and Bowdoin of racketeering.

    During the spring and summer, AVG authored a series of bizarre announcements to explain developments, blaming members for a decision to disable a forum and threatening them with copyright-infringement lawsuits for sharing news. The surf also threatened to contact the ISPs of members who asked questions.

    Another AVG forum run by some of the Surf’s Up Mods and members also closed in the aftermath of the surf’s decision to suspend cashouts. Surf’s Up itself deleted some AVG-related content.

    Both Surf’s Up and the AVG forum operated by some of its Mods declared Curtis Richmond a “hero” earlier this year, after Richmond accused a federal judge and the ASD prosecutors of crimes in a pro se court filing.

    Richmond is associated with a Utah “Indian” tribe a federal judge ruled a complete “sham” in a racketeering case in which it was alleged that the tribe had harassed public officials by placing enormous financial judgments against them, including one for $250 million against a county prosecutor and one for $300,000 against a family-services worker.

    Richmond signed the fraudulent award against the family-services worker, and also sought to have judges and litigation opponents jailed, according to court filings. In one case, the tribe contrived its own “Supreme Court,” using the address of a Utah doughnut shop, and issued bogus arrest warrants. The U.S. Marshals Service refused to serve the warrants, which called for the arrests of judges, bankers and attorneys representing bankers.

    An unofficial total of 57 pro se pleadings by Richmond and other ASD members followed after Richmond’s initial filing in February, including a recent spate of 41. A federal judge has rejected all of the claims. The most recent claims accused the government of “reckless action and reckless disregard of the law.”

    Pro se claims by Andy Bowdoin have not been fully addressed by the judge because Bowdoin did not follow up on his initial claims. Bowdoin’s attorney announced last month that he is negotiating with federal prosecutors. Bowdoin has been ordered by the court to show cause by Monday why his pro se motion to undo the decision he made to submit to the forfeiture in January should not be denied.

    Bowdoin submitted to the forfeiture while employing paid counsel Jan. 13. The first of his pro se pleadings to reverse his forfeiture decision was dated Feb. 25. On the previous day, Feb. 24, reports circulated that the U.S. Secret Service had seized the individual bank accounts of some ASD members, including at least one account owned by an AVG member.

    On Feb. 26, AVG announced it was switching to an “association” structure after consulting with Pro Advocate Group, a firm associated with Karl Dahlstrom, a felon convicted of securities fraud in the 1990s and sentenced to 78 months in federal prison.

    Surf’s Up also endorsed a letter-writing campaign by “Professor” Patrick Moriarty, now under indictment for federal tax fraud. In 2006, Moriarty started a nonprofit corporation for a man accused of murdering a Missouri woman in cold blood, shooting a police officer four times — and another man eight times.