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Tag: conference call

  • AdViewGlobal Recording Suggests Member Cashed Out $10,000 Only Days After Formal Launch And That Insiders Were Awarded Bonuses; Less Than Two Weeks Later, Surf Switched To ‘Private Association’ Structure

    breakingnewsUPDATED 7:19 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) A recording posted on a public website of a Feb. 12 conference call by the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf suggests an unnamed male member of the surf qualified for a $10,000 cashout within days of the company’s formal launch.

    The recording leads to questions about how a participant could qualify for a large payout so soon after launch and whether others also could have benefited from early cashouts funded by members in Ponzi scheme fashion. AVG appears to have had virtually no income streams beyond fees paid by members when it launched earlier in the month.

    AVG suspended cashouts in June, threatening media outlets and members who shared the news with lawsuits and blaming its problems on the greed of members. It later said it had been a victim of a $2.7 million theft and filed reports about the theft with law-enforcement agencies.

    The Feb. 12 call featured a giveaway of money-earning AVG page impressions to both members and their sponsors. One of the bonus-winning sponsors was identified as David Meade, whose bonus-winning enrollee came on the line and jokingly asked whether the bonus he received qualified for an additional matching bonus of 50 percent.

    AVG relentlessly pitched bonuses to enrollees and their sponsors before announcing in June that it was suspending cashouts, making an 80/20 program mandatory and exercising its version of a “rebates aren’t guaranteed” clause.

    Another sponsor who qualified for a bonus because he had enrolled a member whose name was called for a bonus was identified as Larry Alford, the husband of Barb Alford, a Moderator at the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum. Yet another member whose name was called for a bonus was Joey Shiver, the brother of Judy Harris, identified during the summer as one of AVG’s owners.

    Meanwhile, the call highlighted AVG’s purported “offshore” location in Uruguay, stressing that the company planned to fly high-quality servers to Uruguay on a date uncertain after the call was held.

    Web records show AVG’s servers resolved to Panama, suggesting the company never completed installation of servers in Uruguay. AVG had been collecting money for weeks at the time of the Feb. 12 call, which leads to questions about whether the company was selling unregistered securities from inside the United States or selling unregistered securities illegally to U.S. residents from offshore servers, all while engaging in wire fraud and acts of money-laundering.

    The conference call, hosted by Terralynn Hoy, a Moderator at both the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum and a ning.com forum set up to promote AVG, did not disclose how the member amassed a large sum in only days and qualified for a cashout. But another participant in the call announced that the man excitedly expected to receive a check for $10,000.

    Neither Hoy nor any other AVG official or representative who participated in the call referenced a racketeering lawsuit that had been filed less than a month earlier against ASD President Andy Bowdoin and ASD attorney Robert Garner. At the same time, no official or representative in the call referenced a second forfeiture complaint that had been filed against ASD-connected assets in December 2008, a month after Surf’s Up received ASD’s official endorsement.

    In August 2008, prosecutors accused both ASD and Golden Panda Ad Builder of not disclosing information members needed to make informed decisions about joining the companies. The allegations were spelled out in a forfeiture complaint formally filed Aug. 5, 2008.

    Among the assertions were that Bowdoin did not disclose his arrest in a felony securities case in the 1990s, and that Golden Panda did not immediately disclose an SEC action against its president, Clarence Busby, in the 1990s. ASD members later said Bowdoin was the silent head of AVG, which began to solicit money in December 2008, a month after a major court ruling went against ASD.

    News about the December forfeiture complaint, which painted a jaw-dropping picture of insider dealings, special favors, a “silent” ASD partner, people getting paid large sums for doing virtually nothing and a claim that Russian hackers stole more than $1 million, broke on Jan. 15.

    The AVG conference call, dubbed the “first” official call, was conducted Feb. 12, about 10 days after AVG’s formal launch and within 30 days of the revelation that the government had filed the December forfeiture complaint and identified members of Bowdoin’s family as beneficiaries of ASD’s illegal conduct.

    Judy Harris was among those the government identified in the filing, as were her husband, George Harris, and his mother, Edna Faye Bowdoin. Edna Faye Bowdoin is Andy Bowdoin’s wife.

    Two weeks after the Feb. 12 conference call, on Feb. 26, AVG announced it was shifting to a “private association” structure. One day prior, on Feb. 25, Bowdoin signed the first of several sworn court documents as a pro se litigant in the ASD case, attempting to set aside the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars and reverse a decision he made in January to surrender his claims to the money, which had been seized by the government in August 2008 from his 10 bank accounts.

    Less than a month after Bowdoin signed the court document, AVG announced the resignation of Chief Executive Officer Gary Talbert, a former ASD executive. On March 23, AVG announced its bank account had been suspended, blaming the suspension on members who wired too many transactions in excess of $9,500.

    Talbert was a participant in the Feb. 12 conference call. He was introduced by Hoy. Talbert, in turn, passed the the call back to Hoy, who then introduced a person identified as marketing consultant Kathy Robertson. Robertson made the claim about the $10,000 check.

    “I just talked to a friend tonight,” Robertson said in the call. “He’s cashing out and he’s gonna get a $10,000 check into his bank account. He’s more excited than he’s ever been.”

    Robertson urged AVG members to take notes of her remarks, according to the recording.

    “Many of you have wondered, ‘Are we a United States’ business or are we another country[‘s] business?’” Robertson said in the recording. “I gotta tell you we’re based in Uruguay. We’re definitely an offshore business, and we’ll be moving very robust servers — we’ll actually be flying them on a plane to land in Uruguay. So, even the servers that host all of the websites are going to be offshore, so go ahead and write that down as a note. We are truly an offshore business.”

    Robertson said AVG members should “feel secure” in the knowledge the company was operating offshore. She did not explain how the purported offshore venue made AVG’s venture, which targeted U.S. residents and former ASD members, legal. Robertson acknowledged in the recording that AVG had gotten off to a rocky start and that some members who could not fund accounts had had a disappointing experience.

    But she urged members to look to the future and see a well-honed enterprise capable of producing a seamless experience for huge numbers of participants.

    Federal prosecutors said ASD was operating a $100 million Ponzi scheme from inside the United States, while engaging in the sale of unregistered securities to U.S. residents and committing acts of wire fraud and money-laundering.

    Later in the call, during the page-impression giveaway, Meade came on the line to accept his bonus for sponsoring a member whose name was called for a bonus.

    “Thanks a million. Appreciate it,” Meade said.

    Less than two weeks after the Feb. 12 conference call, reports circulated among ASD members that the U.S. Secret Service had seized the bank accounts of unidentified ASD members. AVG announced Feb. 26 that it was switching to a “private association” structure after consulting with a company known as Pro Advocate Group.

    Pro Advocate Group is associated with Karl Dahlstrom, a convicted felon who served time in federal prison in a case involving securities fraud.

    Listen to the recording.

  • OBSTRUCTION? ASD Spokeswoman Whose Name Appeared In Secret Service Filing Says She Instructed Members NOT To Fill Out Government Form; Now Appears To Be Advising Members To Clam Up If Contacted By Agents

    Andy Bowdoin’s recent court filings are “delusional,” federal prosecutors said yesterday.

    And now a woman who apparently is AdSurfDaily’s new spokesperson purportedly has sent an email in which she said she advised members after the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from Bowdoin’s bank accounts last year not to fill out the government form for victims.

    Sara Mattoon, whose name is listed in a court document filed by the Secret Service yesterday, also appears to be trying to influence members who filled out the form not to cooperate if contacted by the agency.

    “Soon after the ASD shutdown, the DOJ (Dept of Justice) set up a website for people to file a claim for the money they had in ASD,” Mattoon said in the email. “As soon as I heard about it, I told everyone not to do it because I could see what the Government was trying to do, but some people didn’t realize what it was and afterwards they regretted doing so.”

    Mattoon referenced an email sent out by ASD mainstay Robert Fava over the weekend. The email was distributed after the ASD case took a dramatic turn Friday, with filings by prosecutors that suggested ASD President Andy Bowdoin was trying to lie his way back into the civil forfeiture case with the aid of an attorney who was engaging in “fantasy.”

    Here is content from the email distributed by Fava, who was relating the experience of a fellow ASD member who apparently was contacted by the Secret Service recently.

    “I got this email today (see below) and called the guy,” the email said. “He is special task force with secret service. Calling because I submitted a claim for the funds I had put into ASD — I think it was a lady in Michigan who suggested at one time that I do the claim form. Later I wished I had not submitted it.

    “I asked what type of questions he wanted to ask and if he would email them to me so that I could review them with my attorney before answering them,” the email continued. “I told him the government was the only one who created victims by seizing the money illegally and shutting down ASD.”

    Quoting the agent, the email continued.

    “He said it sounds like I had an adversarial role with the government, and he could not send them. He said they were trying to talk to folks who had lost money in ASD, before arranging a personal visit with them. It sounds like they are wanting testimony to build a case for the government’s side.

    “I do not want to contribute to that effort, so thanked him and we ended the call,” the email concluded.

    In introducing the email, Fava said:

    “I wanted to share the following item which happened today to a gentleman in the ASD group.

    “Are any of you aware of this happening to others yet?

    “I assume the government is now trying to find people to speak out against ASD, especially since Andy’s recorded call.

    “This is the reason why I never encouraged filling out a government form . . . it’s just ammunition for them to use against ASD,” Fava continued.

    “Feel free to share this with your groups and mainly those that you know of that might have submitted a claim form on the government site thinking it was an innocent submission,” Fava’s email concluded.

    Fava was a constant presence on ASD training calls, members said. He once claimed he was making $1,000 a day through ASD.

    Mattoon’s email, combined with Fava’s and the remarks of the other ASD member, may raise serious questions about obstruction of justice.

    In her email, Mattoon did not mention recent filings by the prosecution. Nor did she mention the fact her name was included in a filing by the Secret Service yesterday — the transcript of a Bowdoin recording last week.

    Although Mattoon claimed in the email that “[t]he government does not seem to have the intention of giving the [seized] money back,” the record of the case plainly states otherwise in multiple places.

    Although it is clear that the government believes serious felonies have occurred and that Bowdoin is not entitled to benefit from his participation in crimes, prosecutors have pointed out that the government seeks to establish a restitution program for crime victims. Meanwhile, Judge Rosemary Collyer also has referenced the prosecution’s claims about the establishment of a program.

    Apart from court filings, the government even had advertised the existence of the prospective restitution program and has updated the information as the situation warranted.

    Regardless, Mattoon suggested the government planned to keep all the money, despite court filings and website updates that reinforce its desire to compensate crime victims.

    “[P]erhaps they were just looking for people they could try to identify as being victimized by ASD,” Mattoon said in the email, referencing the email from Fava.

    “If you get contacted, this is how this one ASD member handled it. It may be useful for you,” she said.

  • 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.

  • AdSurfDaily: Could Things Really Be THIS Simple?

    EDITOR’S NOTE: News developed yesterday that ASD President Andy Bowdoin would make some sort of recorded statement to ASD members, with the recording perhaps becoming available on Tuesday. The news was announced in an email from Sara Mattoon. The email impressed us as typically vague and ambiguous — but also as cautious, preemptively suggesting there could be technical problems with the recording or delays that resulted from an “unforeseen circumstance.”

    The email also fretted about deliverability issues, which suggests that Bowdoin wants the maximum audience possible. Will he announce a continuation of his fight for tens of millions of dollars seized from his bank accounts?

    Or will Andy Bowdoin accept responsibility for conduct federal prosecutors said was criminal?

    The post below ponders a single question — “Could things really be this simple? — and outlines an argument that events surrounding ASD/AdViewGlobal perhaps are not as complex as they sound.

    Could Things Really Be This Simple?

    1.) ASD failed in at least one prior iteration.

    2.) Money vanished as a result of theft and a lack of management controls.

    3.) ASD was reborn under the name ASD Cash Generator because ASD/Bowdoin owed money to members, including members who were unfriendly.

    4.) ASD ramped up the criminality and eventually created a cash cow.

    5.) Owing to a lack of controls and seat-of-the-pants management by Bowdoin that created the precise conditions under which thefts could occur/reoccur and even be condoned, money that was destined for ASD was cherry-picked by corrupt members before it got there.

    6.) ASD actually never knew its real bottom line, because of side deals, secret deals and a culture that institutionalized theft.

    7.) The surf became attractive to professional money-launderers.

    8.) The surf became attractive to tax-deniers and people who associate themselves with fringe groups.

    9.) ASD knew the end was near in July 2008, when a bank closed an account, citing Ponzi fears.

    10.) Only then did Bowdoin concern himself in a very real way with the very real issue of securities fraud.

    11.) Attempts to muzzle critics by threatening them with lawsuits failed.

    12.) The U.S. Secret Service, alarmed by what agents saw early and aware of a general culture of corruption involving ASD, other surfs and other entities, seized the assets to prevent the scheme from mushrooming further.

    13.) Bowdoin sold himself on a belief that the enterprise was legal because certain lawyers — not lawyers on his defense team — told him the enterprise was legal.

    14.) Bowdoin and other ASD members rationalized the establishment of AdViewGlobal — even as the ASD case still was being litigated — by wrapping themselves in antigovernment fervor and selling themselves on the belief that, if certain lawyers said ASD was legal, then ASD was legal. If ASD proved not to be legal, they could blame the lawyers, while clinging to the antigovernment fervor.

    15.) As a fail-safe, Bowdoin and others took the new surf “offshore.”

    16.) Bowdoin and others, having demonstrated a remarkable lack of capacity to run a business on domestic soil, did not recognize the supremely difficult challenges of running a business offshore and actually were running much of the business from domestic soil.

    17.) AdViewGlobal became a sort of ASD3, with the very same lack of controls, theft and cherry-picking problems that surfaced in the first two ASD iterations.

    18.) Bowdoin subjected family members, key insiders and others to being charged with serious crimes — for a second time.

    19.) A scheme to obstruct justice was hatched, a key prong of which was to ramp up efforts to paint the government as a monster.

    20.) Bowdoin and co-conspirators put the whole of the enterprise in a box.

  • REALITY CHECK: Is Bowdoin Running Out Of Options?

    UPDATED 8:52 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Is AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin quickly running out of options?

    A small spin campaign appears to be under way, and an email circulating among ASD members suggests the company will hold a conference call Monday. Like everything concerning ASD, the wording of the email is ambiguous. It is possible, however, that the email signals in ASDspeak that the end game is under way.

    There is trouble in all directions for ASD.

    Imagine ASD President Andy Bowdoin standing inside a see-through box facing you, with each wall of the box having a see-through grandstand. Every person in the grandstands poses risk to Bowdoin.

    The government is in the grandstands in the ceiling, which could collapse at any second; RICO attorneys are in the cellar grandstands, which could open up and swallow the floor. ASD’s rank-and-file membership is in the grandstands to Bowdoin’s left, which seat thousands of people who have been fleeced. They’ve been ignored for so long — and are so soured by Bowdoin’s various legal filings — that crashing the gate and bringing down the wall so Bowdoin cannot ignore their questions or mute them in a phone conference is a real possibility.

    Finally, seated in the grandstands on Bowdoin’s right, are potential co-defendants. They’re unhappy, too. Some of them want the legal game to continue because it provides a limited amount of cover for them. Others, however, have come to the realization they’ve been drafted into a conspiracy and hold Bowdoin accountable for making fools and potential co-defendants out of them. Some of them perhaps have received target letters from the prosecution. Others perhaps are unindicted co-conspirators. This wall, too, is in danger of collapse.

    If it all comes tumbling down, ASD’s few remaining janitors will sweep it up. ASD’s janitors always sweep it up. Some of them sing and think happy thoughts while they sweep. After all, there are no prizes for predicting rain, only for building arks.

    The Pickle

    In similar cases, courts have issued orders to repatriate assets, preserve evidence and prevent the destruction of documents. Judges also have jailed Ponzi scheme figures for intransigence or simply because they were arrested in advance of a bail hearing.

    It is possible that certain members of ASD and AdViewGlobal (AVG) have received target letters from the Department of Justice. Bowdoin himself hints of the existence of a sealed indictment handed down in May, the same month closely connected AVG was engaging in all sorts of bizarre behavior that got only more bizarre as spring transitioned into summer.

    Bowdoin’s two recent affidavits,  if anything, show insiders and serial promoters that significant jail time may be in the offing for criminal participants. Woe to them if they try to wipe evidence. They also are in a box: The government has the database and other records, and has interviewed garrulous Bowdoin over a period of at least four days.

    They weren’t discussing the weather or how Florida and Florida State will do this fall on the gridiron.

    Separately, the prosecution can argue, we believe, that Bowdoin and perhaps others are flight risks. The August complaint mentions an assertion by a banker that Bowdoin intended to buy a home in another country. (The snippet below is from paragraph 64 of the August forfeiture complaint.)

    “A [Secret Service/IRS Task Force Member] also learned that earlier in July 2008, a bank other than BOA closed the last account that was controlled by Bowdoin or family members after that bank determined, and explained to them, that an investigation by the bank determined that Bowdoin appeared to be operating a Ponzi scheme. Bowdoin indicated that he purchased, or was seeking to purchase, a home in another country.”

    ‘Offshore’ Shelter Is A Myth

    The very nature of ASD’s — and AVG’s — operations inure to the prosecution’s benefit. Both companies publicly advertised funding through offshore payment processors. Nothing in the public record so far in the forfeiture case against ASD suggests any of the offshore money has been repatriated — either by Bowdoin or alleged co-conspirators.

    So, the prosecution can point to the “home in another country” claim, Bowdoin’s intransigence and the existence of publicly advertised, offshore payment mechanisms in the names of thousands of people to demonstrate high potential for money to be hidden or dissipated, evidence to be destroyed and for people to flee to avoid prosecution. Bowdoin always has been at risk of confronting an order to repatriate the money and/or sit in jail.

    Participants also could find themselves confronting such an order — whether they have been indicted or not. A lack of an order, however, does not provide cover for individuals to destroy evidence. Prosecutors know that evidence exists.  If they go looking for it and discover it’s not there, it won’t be a happy day for co-conspirators who destroyed it. They are up against one of the top law-enforcement agencies in the world.

    Some readers will remember, of course, that the word went out with seven exclamation points on the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum in February to start closing down bank accounts because the Secret Service was coming.

    __________________________________________________________________________

    “If you took any money from ASD and it is in a bank account, get it out!!!!!!!

    Thanks,
    Erma

    __________________________________________________________________________

    Because the government has seized Bowdoin’s real estate, he may have serious trouble making bail if he finds himself sitting in jail. His bond could be set in excess of his paper net worth, owing to the serious nature of the crimes. Money hidden in shell companies  — Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises or any Bowdoin-connected business, for example — will be of no help, because that is the money the government would seek to collect to stop Bowdoin from committing more crimes.

    In the Regenesis 2×2 case, the Secret Service kept certain parties under surveillance for five weeks, prior even to applying for search warrants. Agents even monitored a Dumpster and observed as evidence was discarded. They then gathered the evidence from the Dumpster and brought in experts in computer forensics.

    Given the nature of AVG’s claims — Uruguay and all of that — there is a chance that certain people have been kept under surveillance. It is possible that the Justice Department has moved the State Department to seal the borders with respect to travel by certain individuals.

    It is possible that passports already have been collected. But because money either is missing or unaccounted for and may be stashed anywhere, the risk of flight is high.

    Andy Bowdoin and criminal co-conspirators, we believe, have created the perfect storm for ASD/AVG members. There might have been a concerted, coordinated effort in February to obstruct justice.

    A March 13 letter on Surf’s Up in which Bowdoin announced he had met with a “group” and filed pro se court pleadings, we believe, is extremely damaging.

    __________________________________________________________________________

    About a month ago, several members introduced me to a group that studied what my attorneys did. The group said that my attorneys had taken the wrong approach. The group was very confident that they could help because the government had broken so many laws and had violated our rights as citizens of the United States.

    I have rescinded my decision to release our ownership of all the assets. I filed various motions a few weeks ago, and several more last week, to dismiss our case and to return the assets because of the violations committed by our government.

    We are ready to pursue this all the way to the US Supreme Court.

    A great injustice has been done to 100,000 people, and we need to stand up and fight for our rights. Some agencies of the government have become so powerful that they believe they are above the Constitution. We, as members of ASD, need to help stop this misuse of power. I ask each one of you to write to the Justice Department, to your senators and representatives, to the President, and even to Glenn Beck of Fox News. Tell them all what the Justice Department has done to your business.

    We will be filing papers in the next couple of weeks that should really get their attention. Watch for the filings. I will be speaking out on a conference call as soon as the filings are completed. We will notify you of the call. I look forward to talking to you then.

    I appreciate your support in helping us get back what rightfully belongs to the members of ASD.

    Thanks,
    Andy Bowdoin

    __________________________________________________________________________

    Now, compare that letter to what Bowdoin said about his pro se status in paragraph 23 of his corrected affidavit filed two days ago:

    https://patrickpretty.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/bowdoincorrectedaffidavit.pdf

    In effect, Bowdoin was advising the court that he ultimately concluded that his pro se strategy did not meet his needs — and that he didn’t recognize this until after he had embarked on the campaign. He makes no mention of the fact a federal judge advised him in March that corporate litigants could not proceed pro se.

    “I determined that I could not adequately represent my legal interests pro se, and having lost confidence in my existing legal counsel, I retained separate criminal counsel to pursue reinstatement of my claims . . . ,” Bowdoin said, in paragraph 23 of the affidavit.

    But in March, as the letter above demonstrates, Bowdoin was expressing supreme confidence about the pro se strategy: (Emphasis added.)

    “We are ready to pursue this all the way to the US Supreme Court,” he said. “We will be filing papers in the next couple of weeks that should really get their attention. Watch for the filings. I will be speaking out on a conference call as soon as the filings are completed. We will notify you of the call. I look forward to talking to you then.”

    So, Bowdoin had turned over ASD’s fate to a “group” that had analyzed the approach of Bowdoin’s paid counsel, found it lacking and prevailed upon him to change his mind about submitting to the forfeiture.

    “The group was very confident that they could help because the government had broken so many laws and had violated our rights as citizens of the United States,” Bowdoin said. “I have rescinded my decision to release our ownership of all the assets. I filed various motions a few weeks ago, and several more last week, to dismiss our case and to return the assets because of the violations committed by our government.”

    Key phrases:

    • “The group”
    • “very confident that they could help”
    • “I have rescinded my decision” (after meeting with the group)

    Bowdoin filed drivel with the coaching of the group. He signed the documents. His signature coincided with the “If you took any money from ASD and it is in a bank account, get it out!!!!!!!” report on Surf’s Up.

    And it coincided with AVG’s sudden shift to an “association” structure after members, too, were introduced to a “group” — Pro Advocate Group.

    The previous weeks and the following months were dominated by pro se filings, mostly not from Bowdoin. But Bowdoin now says, “I determined that I could not adequately represent my legal interests pro se.”

    He arrived at this conclusion after he promised a pro se Supreme Court battle and after a federal judge advised him corporate entities could not proceed pro se. Bowdoin’s affidavit, however, suggests he came to his recognition that the pro se strategy didn’t work for him only after taking the time — apparently weeks later — to contemplate the serious legal implications.

    The trouble with that statement is that Bowdoin’s own affidavit shows the pro se strategy began after his four days of meetings with prosecutors and after his potential prison time was spelled out and after he submitted to the forfeiture — and yet Bowdoin would have a judge believe he did not understand the issues.

    If he did not understand the issues, he would have had no reason to consult with the “group” and embark on the pro se strategy to begin with.

    Not only is Bowdoin blaming government lawyers and his own paid lawyers, he also now is blaming the amateur lawyers — and perhaps a cloaked professional attorney whose name has not been introduced in the case but helped Bowdoin in his pro se efforts.

    Bowdoin is taking responsibility for none of it: bad prosecutors, bad lawyers, bad amateurs who happened to arrive on the scene around the same time he submitted to the forfeiture, the Secret Service reportedly was seizing bank accounts and AVG was going underground with the “association” nonsense.

    It looks like a bizarre bid to obstruct justice — and Bowdoin is trapped between people who prevailed upon him to proceed pro se, and the government, which holds Bowdoin’s proffer, his statements (probably recorded and perhaps even on videotape), the database, business records, banking records and evidence gleaned from others.

    The walls could come crashing down soon — unless negotiations Bowdoin entered into with the government weeks ago were productive, and a plan already is in place for Bowdoin to exit the stage after addressing members one last time.