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  • BREAKING NEWS: BOA Asks Court To Dismiss Claims Against It In RICO Lawsuit Against Bowdoin, Busby, Garner

    Bank of America has filed a motion to dismiss claims against it in a class-action racketeering lawsuit against ASD President Andy Bowdoin, ASD attorney Robert Garner and Golden Panda Ad Builder President Clarence Busby.

    BOA was not named a RICO defendant in the lawsuit. Instead, former ASD members Mike Collins of Savage, Minn.; Frank Greene of Washington, D.C.;  and Natures Discount of Aventura, Fla., accused the bank of aiding and abetting Bowdoin, Busby and Garner in an organized effort to defraud.

    Tens of millions of dollars connected to ASD, Golden Panda and LaFuenteDinero were seized by the U.S. Secret Service in August, amid allegations of wire fraud, money-laundering, selling unregistered securities and operating a Ponzi scheme.

    “Banks are not guarantors of their customers’ conduct,” BOA argued in its motion to dismiss. The bank further argued that the complaint was vague and speculative, lacking in facts to such a degree that U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer of the District of Columbia must dismiss BOA as a defendant.

    The bank filed the motion on its behalf, not on behalf of the RICO defendants. Neither Bowdoin nor Garner nor Busby has responded to the lawsuit, which was filed Jan. 15, more than two months ago. The court reissued the summons last week to the trio of RICO defendants.

    “All told, Plaintiffs’ allegations merely describe Bank of America as having engaged in legitimate banking services without pleading any facts that Bank of America engaged in any wrongdoing whatsoever,” BOA said in its motion.

    The plaintiffs, however, said BOA ignored red flags that should have signaled the bank that surf-operators Bowdoin and Busby were using it to launder money and conduct a criminal enterprise.

    “From ASD’s inception in November 2006, Defendant Bank of America played an integral role in ASD’s operations and success,” the plaintiffs charged. “While other financial institutions and payment processors refused to facilitate ASD’s fraud, Bank of America, even in the face of significant banking best practices ‘red flags’ and likely violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and relevant anti-money laundering statutes, not only conducted business with ASD and the RICO Defendants, but it also substantially assisted the expansion of the ASD scheme.”