Although BizAdSplash (BAS) said last week that its new website would be up and running yesterday, the launch did not come off as advertised.
A video featuring BAS “chief consultant” Clarence Busby appeared on the old site today, but Busby did not explain the delay in launching the new site. The video opened with Busby watching what he described as the new site in a computer monitor, as piano music played in the background.
Busby then greeted viewers with a Mister Rogers-like “Hello there,” and proceeded to explain that exciting BAS developments were in the offing.
By the middle of August, he promised, the company would show members how to make “instant money, very, very quickly.”
Busby, who ceded more than $14 million to the U.S. government in a forfeiture case last year involving Golden Panda Ad Builder, his previous company, and AdSurfDaily Inc., implored customers to continue to believe in BAS. Busby did not mention Golden Panda or ASD. Nor did he mention his run-in with securities regulators who accused him in the 1990s of pushing three prime-bank schemes by promising returns of up to 10,000 percent.
“None of the investors earned the exorbitant returns promised by Busby, the SEC said in May 1998, after U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash ordered Busby not to break securities laws.
“I’m not going to let anybody have a loss” in BAS, Busby said in today’s video. He claimed BAS already had paid out “over $2 million,” but did not say how much the surf firm had collected from customers since its launch early this year.
“We need you to believe in us,” Busby said. “You’ll see why we’re excited. You’ll see why it’s important to hang on.”