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Tag: George Harris

  • FOLLOW-UP: The Headline Flap Over Our AVG Story

    EDITOR’S NOTE: We published a story Wednesday that some members of AdViewGlobal (AVG) assert is unfair. At issue — particularly from a poster who uses the handle “CORRECTION!” — is the headline that accompanied the story.

    Another poster, “Pistol,” isn’t sympathic to the autosurf business and says he doesn’t suffer fools gladly on either side of the issue, but also raised a concern about the fairness of the headline. Meanwhile, other posters say the headline is fair. One of the issues is whether an AVG prospect can bypass AVG and purchase ad-packs directly from sponsors.

    Here is some background, and our response to the concerns. We’ll start by republishing a comment Pistol made. Pistol’s reference to the “200% thingy” below is a reference to an AVG matching-bonus program.

    The 200 percent program was advertised to have a June 29 expiration date, but AVG suddenly changed the expiration date to June 5. AVG members and prospects said they were concerned about not being able to get money to the company in time to qualify for the bonus, and an AVG promoter outlined a strategy by which members and prospects with “big bucks” could get the bonus by paying sponsors directly.

    Pistol: It doesn’t seem to me that the sponsor in question is suggesting that sponsors should give/sell members adpacks/page impressions from them (the sponsors) but rather a quick and easy way that they can help new members get funds available so that they can buy adpacks directly from AVGA thereby qualifying for the 200% thingy.

    OUR TAKE: During the first FOUR steps of what is described as the sponsor’s bid to provide a “quick and easy way” for prospects to buy ad-packs “directly” from AVG, the sponsor:

    1.) Gathers money from the prospect and makes a private agreement with the prospect that the final recipient of the funds will be AVG and that the funds will be used to purchase ad-packs.
    2.) Deposits the funds in the sponsor’s local bank.
    3.) Causes a wire to be sent to an offshore payment processor or sends a check via overnight mail to the offshore payment processor.
    4.) Waits for the payment processor to receive the funds and credit the sponsor’s account.

    That’s FOUR steps — or FIVE, if you count the private agreement as a separate step — so an argument that positions this as a purchase made “directly” from AVG isn’t a very compelling one.

    This deal cannot happen as the promoter describes, absent a private agreement between the sponsor and the prospect and subterfuge aimed at the local bank. Moreover, it can’t happen without use of the bank’s wire facility or use of a banking instrument, and it necessarily must involve the offshore processors because the prospect can’t wire funds to AVG directly.

    There’s that word again — “directly.”  With the exception of the prospect’s direct payment to the sponsor, there is virtually nothing direct about this transaction.

    At this point, the prospect’s bank thinks he is doing business with the sponsor, the sponsor’s bank thinks he is doing business with the prospect, and the payment processor thinks it is doing business with the sponsor.

    ONLY the prospect and the sponsor know that AVG is the intended final recipient — and they haven’t told anybody, FOUR or FIVE steps into the process.

    Additional Steps

    In the next step, the sponsor tells the offshore payment processor that AVG is the intended recipient, but the payment processor doesn’t know the prospect is hidden in the deal or is choosing not to know. The prospect’s role is to give money to the sponsor, so he can use the sponsor’s bank to get the money to the offshore processor in an environment that is conducive for AVG and most advantageous for the prospect.

    The payment processor obliges the sponsor and wires the money to AVG, but the transaction still is at least TWO steps away from completion, because the money or the value thereof somehow has to get back in the hands of the real customer, the prospect.

    So, the sponsor funds his AVG account, so he can use AVG’s internal system to get the money or the value thereof to the real customer, the prospect, for the purchase of ad-packs.

    A sale made “directly” through AVG? Hardly. This process is at least SEVEN steps removed from a direct transaction with AVG and perhaps as many as EIGHT. This sale cannot occur — and the prospect cannot get the 200 percent bonus — unless the prospect pays the sponsor directly. The sponsor is getting paid directly for the purchase of ad packs.

    Here, a person might want to ask why the prospect in search of a matching bonus before a deadline passes just can’t send the money to AVG directly and have it credited immediately. That’s the question some AVG members are asking right now. In fact, they asked it as soon as the sponsor laid out the strategy, and some AVG members are complaining out loud about money procedures that appear to be convoluted and complex.

    A person also might want to ask why AVG isn’t using PayPal, and instead is using the offshore surfing favorites: SolidTrustPay and StrictPay. PayPal does not touch this kind of business because it is fraught with secret agendas.

    Worth Noting

    It’s worth pointing out that some of the government personnel involved in the AdSurfDaily (ASD) case also were involved in the successful prosecution of e-Gold, which basically was accused of looking the other way while it processed payments for people who were laundering money.

    ASD, a Florida company federal prosecutors say once used e-Gold and engaged in wire fraud,  money-laundering and the sale of unregistered securities, has close ties to AVG.

    AVG, for example, lists ASD President Andy Bowdoin’s stepson — George Harris — as a “Trustee” of the AVG “private association.” Judy Harris, the wife of George Harris, also is listed as an AVG “Trustee.”

    A home and a car prosecutors say George and Judy Harris acquired with money from ASD was seized as the proceeds of a criminal enterprise in a December forfeiture complaint filed by the Feds.

    One of the issues in the e-Gold case was secret money transactions, and look what’s happening in the strategy outlined by the AVG promoter: The banks don’t know that the prospect and the sponsor just worked together to get funds to a final beneficiary unknown to the bank — AVG — and the processor doesn’t know the prospect is hidden in the deal or may be choosing not to know.

    Incongruous Messages

    AVG purports to be headquartered in Uruguay, has servers that resolve to Panama, receives money from offshore processors in Canada and Panama, but issued a news release this week with a dateline of Tallahassee.

    Many of our readers probably noticed that AVG didn’t use the words “Uruguay” or “Panama” or  “offshore” in its news release, but then immediately sent members an email purported to have originated in Uruguay — to celebrate a news release with a Tallahassee dateline.

    It’s a message hopelessly at odds with itself. It is particularly incongruous because AVG also now claims it provides professional PR services — but just look at what is happening:

    AVG can’t reconcile its own message. It is creating the appearance that it is in Tallahassee when it wants to look clean and proper — indeed, some people now say it is selling legitimate services priced from $30,000 to $200,000 — but it’s in Uruguay when it wants “advertising” rotator cash from folks who need to believe the Securities and Exchange Commission can’t touch them offshore.

    How do those competing notions come into balance? And why would a company that says it can command legitimate fees of up to $200,000 from clients not be running like a man on fire to exit the autosurf business? Incredibly, one promoter said today that AVG’s plan is to remain in the surf business and use the fees it collects for legitimate services to fund the surf.

    In the strategy outlined by the promoter, where is the money that started out at a local bank now? Uruguay? Panama? Florida? Elsewhere? And what routes will it take in the form of payouts to get back to members so it becomes spendable in their hometowns?

    The Headline Flap

    As many of our readers know, “CORRECTION!” is none too happy about this headline, which appears on this Blog.

    AdViewGlobal Promoter Says Prospects Can Bypass Company And Purchase Ad-Packs Directly From Sponsors To Ensure They Get Credited With 200 Percent Match Before Deadline

    CORRECTION repeatedly has demanded a retraction, although he has not identified himself as an AVG spokesperson or person in position of authority at AVG to bring a concern to our attention and ask for a clarification or a retraction. At the same time, CORRECTION will not answer basic questions about AVG’s business practices or provide evidence of verifiable income streams to refute concerns AVG is selling unregistered securities and operating as a Ponzi scheme.

    Let’s take the headline sections one at a time:

    /AdViewGlobal Promoter Says/

    Yes, it was an AVG promoter who shared the strategy of prospects paying sponsors directly and engaging in a process that involves at least SEVEN steps and ultimately results in the purchase of ad-packs. (AVG calls ad-packs “page impressions” or “viewer impressions.”)

    /Prospects Can Bypass Company/

    Yes, the prospect bypasses the company and pays money directly to the sponsor, under the strategy outlined by the promoter. The only thing AVG does in this transaction is make sure the electrons settle in the proper places when told to do so.

    /And Purchase Ad-Packs Directly From Sponsors/

    Yes, the sponsor is selling ad-packs directly because he directly collects the money for the ad-packs, routes the money offshore, causes it to be delivered to AVG, funds his own AVG account with his prospects’ money, and then causes AVG to redistribute the funds or the value thereof to complete the sale. In this case, the sponsor is more directly involved in the sale of ad-packs than AVG itself.

    /To Ensure They Get Credited With 200 Percent Match Before Deadline/

    Yes, this whole strategy was published because someone wanted to know the quickest way a person with $10,000 could get the money to AVG before the deadline to qualify for the 200 percent match.

    The promoter said it was a way to take care of the folks with “big bucks.”

  • Is It A ‘Ghost?’ Top 5 Reasons To Avoid AdViewGlobal

    EDITOR’S NOTE: There are plenty of reasons to avoid the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, not the least of which is that the government views the autosurf business model as foundationally corrupt. Autosurf operators and promoters are subject to prosecution under federal securities, wire-fraud, mail-fraud, money-laundering and racketeering statutes, and the surfs typically operate as Ponzi schemes. They also are subject to prosecution under state laws.

    Readers should not infer that numbered items in the Top 5 list below are ranked in order of importance. Some of the information below is being published for the first time today.

    1. AVG may be operating as a “ghost” enterprise. Research suggests that AVG, which purports to be headquartered offshore, may be using at least one U.S.-based company to funnel money to itself through complex wire transfers. The owner of the company filed a corporate bankruptcy petition in 2004 for a separate company he owned. In 2005, the owner filed a personal bankruptcy petition, listing nearly $1.4 million in liabilities and only $3,500 in assets.

    The 2005 bankruptcy petition listed the owner’s address as an apartment, specifically using the abbreviation “Apt.” The apartment address, however, appears to have been the address of a UPS Store that once operated as a Mailboxes Etc.

    A former business partner of the owner committed suicide in 2002, after members sued the former partner amid concerns that a large sum of money was missing from a co-op venture. Prior to taking his own life, the man made inquiries about banking in Switzerland and the Caribbean, according to court filings.

    One of the key selling points of AVG is its purported offshore location. The company claims to be headquartered in Uruguay. Its servers resolve to Panama. Regardless, the company has used “gmail” addresses from U.S. based Google to communicate with members and perform certain customer-service functions.

    A company with close ties to AdViewGlobal uses the address of this Florida office building.
    A company with ties to AdViewGlobal uses the address of this U.S. office building.

    Research suggests a company with which AVG has a close association is headquartered in a modern office building in the United States. The building was constructed in 2003. Office functions and conferencing can be rented by the hour. Two large airports are nearby, and a major Interstate highway is situated one mile from the building.

    We are declining to publish the address of the building or identify its specific geographic location. We have confirmed through public records and other sources, however, that the company lists an address at the building, that the business has made inquiries about international wire transfers and that two international financial-services companies have established a tie to AVG and blocked wire transactions because of the AVG tie.

    2. Two forfeiture cases against AdSurfDaily and a RICO case are still active. AVG launched in the wake of two forfeiture actions brought by the government against assets tied to AdSurfDaily and a racketeering lawsuit brought against ASD by individual members. AVG has close family, management and promotional ties to ASD (see No. 3 below), and the multiagency federal probe into ASD’s business practices is ongoing.

    It is known that the U.S. Secret Service, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Justice are involved in the investigation, and it is believed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission have at least peripheral involvement. At the same time, it is known that the office of Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is involved in the probe, and it is believed that other Florida agencies also are involved.

    It also is known that various state attorneys general, state banking regulators and state securities regulators have knowledge about the ASD case.

    Your AVG sponsor or his or her upline sponsor could be a target of the ASD investigation, which means you could be doing business with a person the government views as a participant in a criminal enterprise. Forfeiture complaints were filed against assets tied to ASD in August and December. The government views ASD as a criminal enterprise. All money collected by ASD and all “profits” derived from ASD are viewed as the proceeds of a crime.

    Meanwhile, the RICO complaint brought by ASD members in January alleged that ASD was engaged in racketeering with unnamed co-conspirators. Some of the alleged co-conspirators may have ties to AVG.

    3. AVG’s “association” structure does not insulate it from prosecution. AVG has shifted to an “association” structure, apparently on the theory that the “association” approach can immunize members from prosecution for violations of state and federal law. Such associations may say their power is derived from the U.S. Constitution. They may publish statements that resemble a loyalty oath and frequently are associated with tax schemes. Even by the incongruous standards of the surf world, AVG is setting a new standard for weirdness.

    The AV Global Association (AVGA) is now listing Judy Harris as its “First Trustee.” Harris, the wife of George Harris, replaces Gary Talbert in the role of “First Trustee.” George Harris, the stepson of AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin, is the “Successor Trustee.”

    What this means, literally, is that AVG is linking itself to Bowdoin family members identified by the federal government as the beneficiaries of illegal conduct by ASD, after earlier disclaiming any affiliation with ASD and during an active criminal investigation.  What it means as a practical matter is unclear because the situation is so bizarre it almost defies description.

    Talbert, who is not a Bowdoin family member but is a former ASD executive who filed a sworn affidavit on ASD’s behalf in the August forfeiture case, resigned suddenly March 20 as AVG’s chief executive officer. Three days later, on March 23, AVG announced its bank account had been suspended. AVG has never provided a clear explanation of either event. Talbert’s name now has been removed as an AVG “Trustee.”

    Property owned by George and Judy Harris, including a car and a home in Tallahassee, Fla., was seized in the December forfeiture complaint, which alleged the $157,000 mortgage on the Harris home was retired with illegal proceeds derived from ASD.

    There has been no public action in the December forfeiture case since the filing of the complaint. Neither George nor Judy Harris has filed a claim to their home. Neither George nor Judy Harris has filed a claim to a car prosecutors alleged was purchased with illegal proceeds derived from ASD.

    4. At least one proffer letter exists in the ASD case. In April, in their final response to a series of responses to Andy Bowdoin’s pro se pleadings in the forfeiture case brought in August, prosecutors revealed that Bowdoin had signed a proffer letter. Proffer letters sometimes mean that the one who proffers is willing to provide the government information that is helpful in the prosecution of others.

    Bowdoin never told ASD members about the proffer letter. Nor did he tell them about the December forfeiture complaint, which includes extremely specific allegations. Bowdoin waited until March to tell members he had decided in January to submit to the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars seized in the August complaint.

    Bowdoin’s first public comments on his January decision to submit to the forfeiture came in the form of a Bowdoin letter published in March on the pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum. In the letter,  Bowdoin triumphantly announced he had changed his mind about submitting to the forfeiture — while ignoring the fact that he never told members about the December complaint or his January forfeiture decision. In essence, Bowdoin blamed his former paid counsel for the trouble he was in and said the federal government was prosecuting ASD illegally.

    In his letter, Bowdoin chided federal prosecutors, saying his pro se pleadings “should really get their attention” and urging members to write to President Obama, members of Congress and Fox News personality Glenn Beck.

    At 74 — and a convicted felon from a 1990s securities scheme in which 89 separate instances of fraud were alleged in Alabama — Bowdoin urged his supporters to tell anybody who cared to listen that he was a victim of an out-of-control government. In July 2008, just days before the government seized tens of millions of dollars from ASD, Bowdoin plunked down nearly $50,000 to purchase a new Lincoln, according to the December forfeiture complaint.

    A month later he sent his Alabama victims a check for $100, according to the St. Petersburg Times, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper. The Lincoln alone cost more than the remaining restitution due the Alabama victims.

    Even though Bowdoin told ASD members in March that he would hold a conference call soon to explain what was going on, the conference call never materialized. And Bowdoin still has not told members about the proffer letter he signed.

    5. General confusion about AVG. One AVG member observed that the firm’s explanations about its business practices have been about as clear as “mud.”  Among the current issues are a failed attempt last week by the company to launch a new website, a denial by a company AVG said was facilitating offshore wire transfers that it had any business relationship with AVG, confusion about AVG debit cards and why some AVG members seem predisposed to cheer for the company as though members were taking part in a religious revival.

    Loyalists, meanwhile, continue to maintain that AVG members have a duty not to talk about the company in public, insisting that members adhere to “association” rules.

    Some AVG members say they want to use a spreadsheet to educate prospects about potential earnings, but others say spreadsheets are one of the things that led to trouble for AdSurfDaily. At the same time, members are trying to stop other members from using the word “investment” when discussing AVG, apparently believing that calling AVG an “advertising” company instead of an “investment” company somehow would insulate AVG from the prying eyes of the government.

    Such attempts at forced wordplay not only provide no protection, they also provide evidence of what investigators call “consciousness of guilt.” Indeed, there would be no reason to insist on the forced use of language if promoters didn’t recognize the legal danger they were in — and calling AVG an “advertising” company does nothing to change the simple fact that AVG and surfs that use similar models are vulnerable to charges of selling unregistered securities as investment contracts. The surfs cannot pass a simple test (“The Howey Test”) that became a threshold securities test and litigation benchmark 63 years ago, in 1946, when Harry Truman was President of the United States. The Howey case was on the books 15 years prior to the 1961 birth of Barack Obama, the current President, and 23 years prior to the first moon landing in 1969.

    In recent days, some AVG members have been reluctant even to mention the name “AdSurfDaily,” instead referring to the embattled surf with close AVG ties as the “company.” The paranoia is palpable.

    One problem with paranoia — and it is a problem AVG is experiencing — is that it does not translate well among people who have no reason to be paranoid. Many entry-level surf participants, for example, don’t understand that they’re being recruited into a wink-nod enterprise. They ask reasonable questions, but are met with paranoid responses and prompts to be less open and more secretive, which only accents the paranoia among those who know there actually is something to be paranoid about — chiefly, that virtually all autosurfs operate as Ponzi schemes and that the government could shut them down without warning at any moment.

    One AVG member instructed “international” members of AVG to insert “NA” in a debit-card application when prompted to supply a Social Security number, an instruction that only heightens concerns about money-laundering and wire fraud.

    A triumphant AVG announcement about a new debit card the surf intends to offer was met with a thud when some members found out later that the card came with a $30 fee. Loyalists, however, said members should embrace the fee because it creates a new profit center for the company. Other members are complaining that at least one of AVG’s debit cards seems to limit withdrawals to $100.

    AVG promoters, meanwhile, continue to lean heavily on exclamation points — rather than straightforward speech — to make their case for the company. An announcement about an AVG conference call was accompanied by three exclamation points:

    “Join Us For Exciting Updates!!!”

  • BREAKING NEWS: Feds Post Bowdoin Home, Publish Forfeiture Notice; Pressure Mounts On Alleged Ponzi Operator

    The government has published an official notice that it intends to seek the forfeiture of 8 Gilcrease Lane, Quincy, Fla. — the home AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin last was known to be living in.

    U.S. Secret Service agents completed a “post & walk” of the home last month, and the government now has advertised the pending forfeiture, according to documents.

    Forfeiture.gov, the official government website for forfeitures, listed the property on Wednesday. It is unclear if Bowdoin was living in the home at the time. The Secret Service posting included a “Notice of Complaint” and a copy of the complaint against the property, according to court filings this week. The home was targeted for forfeiture in August. Prosecutors said it was part of the proceeds of a criminal enterprise.

    Mystery Deepens As Pressure Mounts

    Bowdoin has not responded to a racketeering lawsuit filed against him in January by three ASD members who seek class-action certification. The plaintiffs in the RICO case have said in court filings that they have been unable to perfect service of the complaint. Bowdoin’s former paid attorneys said in April court filings that his last known address was 8 Gilcrease Lane.

    Why Bowdoin has not responded to the RICO complaint remains unclear.

    The Gilcrease Lane home is in the name of Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises, which prosecutors said was a entity set up to permit Bowdoin and his wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin, to hide assets.

    Prosecutors said George Harris, Edna Faye Bowdoin’s son and Andy Bowdoin’s stepson, helped his mother set up a bank account in the name of Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises last summer.

    More than $177,000 in funds derived from ASD was deposited in the account on June 10, 2008. On June 23, 2008, Harris used more than $157,000 of the deposit to pay off the Tallahassee home he shared with his wife, Judy Harris, prosecutors said.

    ASD Ties To AdViewGlobal

    Harris is listed as a trustee for AdViewGlobal (AVG), a surf firm with close ties to ASD. The government filed a forfeiture complaint against the Harris home in December. Bowdoin never told members about the December complaint. In January, he submitted to the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars seized in August, but again didn’t tell members.

    In late February — at the same time Bowdoin resurfaced after more than two months of silence and began to file pro se pleadings in the August case without consulting with his paid attorneys — AVG introduced members to Pro Advocate Group, a company that says it can help people practice law without a license.

    Bowdoin said in court filings that he changed his mind about submitting to the forfeiture. In March, he advised members through the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum that he had fired his attorneys and had changed his mind about giving up the money after consulting with a “group” to which he’d been introduced by ASD members.

    Prosecutors countered by saying Bowdoin had signed a proffer letter in the case and had acknowledged to law enforcement that ASD had been operating illegally. The government did not disclose the contents of the letter or the date upon which Bowdoin had signed it.

    Proffer letters sometimes mean the one who proffers seeks to minimize exposure while providing information helpful in the prosecution of others.

    AVG’s prelaunch was under way on Dec. 19, the date prosecutors filed the second forfeiture complaint against assets tied to ASD. The assets included the Harris home, a building in Quincy for which Bowdoin had paid $800,000 cash, three automobiles (including one registered to Harris and his wife), an assortment of marine equipment and personal computers.

    The December forfeiture complaint does not reference AVG, but a large section of the complaint details how Bowdoin allegedly started one autosurf site (ASD) and ported members owed money when the surf failed to a new site (ASD Cash Generator) — without telling new members their money was being used to pay off members of the original site.

    One of the early promoters’ suggestions about AVG was that ASD accounts could be ported to AVG. If this occurred, in whole or in part, it would have reflected the process ASD used when morphing into ASD Cash Generator.

    Although AVG expressly denied any affiliation with Bowdoin and ASD in a disclaimer published on its website, the company later announced in articles of association that Harris was a trustee. A previous announcement identified Gary Talbert as its chief executive officer. Talbert is a former ASD executive. AVG also listed Nate Boyd, whom ASD members described as a former ASD employee, as “protector” of the AVG association, which also is known as AVGA.

    Meanwhile, the company issued a news release identifying Chuck Osmin, a former ASD employee who had testified on behalf of ASD last fall, as an AVG employee. Some Mods and members of Surf’s Up started a forum for AVG.

    On March 20, AVG issued an announcement that Talbert had resigned as chief executive officer. On March 23, AVG announced that its bank account had been suspended. On May 4, AVG announced it had a deal that would enable members to pay for “advertising” via international wire transfer. Three days later, on May 7, one of the companies AVG had cited as being a participant in the transfers denied it had any business relationship with AVG and said it believed it had been targeted in a scam.

  • Bowdoin Still A No-Show In RICO Lawsuit; Attorneys For Both Sides Gear Up For What Could Be An Interminable Slog

    AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin still hasn’t responded to a Jan. 15 racketeering lawsuit filed against him by three ASD members seeking class-action certification.

    Meanwhile, Bank of America, a non-RICO defendant accused in the complaint of aiding Bowdoin and others in a fraudulent scheme, has added two additional attorneys who specialize in complex financial litigation to its legal team.

    At the same time, Steven Berk, an attorney for the plaintiffs, has notified U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that he has left the law firm of Chavez & Gertler and has started his own firm, Berk Law LLC of Washington, D.C.

    Berk filed papers yesterday to ask the court to delay the due date until May 26 for the plaintiffs’ response to a motion to dismiss Golden Panda Ad Builder President Clarence Busby as a defendant in the case. The response had been due May 11, but Busby’s attorneys have agreed to a 15-day delay.

    Like Bowdoin and ASD attorney Robert Garner, Busby was named a RICO defendant, amid allegations he engaged in racketeering with Bowdoin, Garner and unnamed others. Bowdoin is the sole named RICO defendant who hasn’t responded to the complaint.

    Although he is an attorney, Garner filed a pro se pleading asking to have until May 22 to respond to the complaint. It is unclear if he intends to continue to represent himself or if he’ll retain counsel.

    Busby, through his attorneys, said he should be dismissed from the RICO case because he already has settled a separate case filed by the government in August 2008.

    Why Bowdoin hasn’t responded to the RICO complaint, which was filed in January and amended April 27, is unclear. He filed at least four pro se motions in the government forfeiture case in February and March and authored a special statement to ASD members released through the pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum that said other filings he planned “should really get” the attention of prosecutors.

    Prosecutors, however, said Bowdoin had signed a proffer letter in the case and had acknowledged to law enforcement that ASD had been operating illegally. Proffer letters sometimes mean that the one who proffers is trying to minimize exposure while providing information that may help in the prosecution of others.

    Bowdoin’s pro se litany began at the same time the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf introduced members to Pro Advocate Group, a company that says it can help people practice law without a license. Pro Advocate Group is associated with Karl Dahlstrom, who was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison in the 1990s for securities fraud.

    Securities fraud is one of the allegations cited in the government’s August forfeiture complaint against assets tied to ASD and Golden Panda. Both Bowdoin and Busby have had previous run-ins with securities regulators. In separate cases in the 1990s, Bowdoin was almost jailed in Alabama, and Busby was ordered in Georgia not to break securities laws after the SEC alleged he had pushed three fraudulent prime-bank schemes.

    AVG has family and promoters’ ties to ASD. Bowdoin’s stepson, George Harris, is listed as an AVG trustee. The government filed a second forfeiture complaint against assets tied to ASD in December, implicating Harris and his mother — Edna Faye Bowdoin, Andy Bowdoin’s wife — in the ASD scheme.

    Also in March, Andy Bowdoin appeared in a video for an upstart surf firm known as PaperlessAccess, which he positioned as a company that could help ASD members earn back funds seized by the government in August.

    Bowdoin’s PaperlessAccess video went missing after only a few days, and Surf’s Up reported he had been misled by the company. While all this was happening, AVG  announced the sudden resignation of Gary Talbert, its chief executive officer and a former ASD executive.

    Talbert’s March 20 resignation was followed three days later by an AVG announcement that its bank account had been suspended. Earlier this week, AVG announced that it had struck a deal that would enable customers to wire money for advertising purchases to an offshore bank, but a company AVG identified as the beneficiary of the funds — KINGZ Capital Management Corp. — issued a denial that it had any business relationship with AVG.

    Michael P. Krywenky, president and chief executive officer of KINGZ, said the company was “very shocked” and “appalled” by the claims, noting that attorneys for KINGZ were monitoring the situation.

    Krywenky said KINGZ believed a scam of some sort was under way at AVG.

    AVG yesterday ignored Krywenky’s denial, instead issuing a statement that advised members it was looking at other wire “options” and expected to announce “additional funding solutions within the next 2 weeks.”

    Late last month, the plaintiffs in the RICO case alleged that ASD had hired the “majority” of the staff of Bank of America’s branch in Quincy, Fla., as ASD employees, paying the Bank of America employees more than other ASD employees doing the same work.

    One of the plaintiffs’ arguments was that Bank of America knew its employees also were working for ASD and should have detected that the company was up to no good.

    Bowdoin promised ASD members in March that he would have a conference call to update members. The call never occurred, and Bowdoin has not explained why he has not responded to the RICO complaint.

  • PRICELESS: AdViewGlobal Announces Wire Deal With Offshore Bank On Day White House And Treasury Department Announce Plan To Crackdown On Offshore Tax Havens

    obamaUPDATED 12:43 P.M. EDT (May 7, U.S.A.) As often is the case in the tin-eared autosurf world, the timing was impeccable: On the day the Obama administration announced a crackdown on U.S. corporations and citizens who use offshore tax havens to hide income, autosurf company AdViewGlobal (AVG) announced it had a deal with an offshore bank to accept member deposits for the purchase of “advertising.”

    U.S. regulators say autosurf companies sell securities but call themselves “advertising” companies to avoid scrutiny by agencies such as the SEC. In recent months, autosurfs have been highlighting purported “offshore” locations, and some promoters say the surfs can hide members’ income from the IRS and “shelter” them from the SEC, the FTC and state attorneys general.

    “I’m asking Congress to pass some commonsense measures,” Obama said at 11:37 a.m. (EDT) yesterday.  “One of these measures would let the IRS know how much income Americans are generating in overseas accounts by requiring overseas banks to provide 1099s for their American clients, just like Americans have to do for their bank accounts here in this country. If financial institutions won’t cooperate with us, we will assume that they are sheltering money in tax havens, and act accordingly.”

    At 5:54 p.m. yesterday, a member of an AVG forum operated by some of the Mods and members of the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum announced that AVG members now could wire money from the United States to The Bank of N. T. Butterfield and Son Ltd.

    Butterfield has locations in Bermuda, the Bahamas, Barbados and the Cayman Islands, among other places.

    Obama specifically referenced the Cayman Islands in his remarks announcing the crackdown.

    “On the campaign, I used to talk about the outrage of a building in the Cayman Islands that had over 12,000 businesses — businesses claim this building as their headquarters,” Obama said.  “And I’ve said before, either this is the largest building in the world or the largest tax scam in the world.”

    Under a headline titled “BREAKING NEWS Fund your Advertising,” AVG members were told this (italics added):

    “AV GLOBAL ASSOCIATION is pleased to announce

    “Beginning Tuesday May 5, you will be able to purchase more advertising.

    “There will be a form that you can access to arrange for your purchase.

    “Specific information will be required in order to process your payment.

    “You will need to provide your Name; A Number; email address used for your AVGA Account; phone number; and address.

    “Wire transfers: These instruments usually clear within two business days. Although there are fees charged by your bank and our bank also assesses fees (usually our bank will charge $15) your account is credited immediately upon receipt and your advertising program begins immediately. Your purchase will be adjusted by the fees.

    Review:

    All funds must be accompanied by the correct identifying information:

    * Name

    * AVGA id number

    * email address

    *mailing address

    *and phone number

    Without this information your money will be returned to you through the originating bank.

    Remember: The form will appear on the Website by Tuesday before midnight. If there is a change, you will be notified.

    Please print the form and complete it so that your bank [h]as all of the pertinent information.

    Transfer information:

    The Bank of N. T. Butterfield and Son, LTD.

    Via

    J. P. Morgan Chase Bank

    Bldg. F. Floor 8

    4 Chase Metrotech Center

    New York, NY,

    USA, 11245

    Swift # [Deleted by this Blog]

    Account # [Deleted by this Blog]

    Beneficiary: KINGZ Capital Management Corporation

    Account # [Deleted by this Blog]

    Reference: YOUR NAME & YOUR I.D.# & YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

    UPDATE:  KINGZ Capital Management Corp. has issued a strong denial of AVG’s claims. Michael P. Krywenky, president and chief executive officer of KINGZ, said on May 7 that the firm had no business tie to AVG and had launched an investigation into the claims.

    “KINGZ Capital Management Corporation nor any of its affiliates have any relationship with AdViewGlobal,” Krywenky said. “Also, I have already confirmed with our bank in Barbados that we are NOT accepting any funds from anyone at, or any clients of, AdViewGlobal.”

    See this post.

    AVG has close ties to AdSurfDaily (ASD), whose assets were seized in August after a joint investigation by the U.S. Secret Service and the IRS was opened in July. Federal prosecutors said ASD was engaging in wire fraud and  money-laundering while selling unregistered securities and operating a Ponzi scheme from Florida.

    Prosecutors alleged that ASD President Andy Bowdoin, who was arrested on felony securities charges in Alabama in the 1990s and pleaded guilty, claimed falsely that he had received a special award last year for business acumen from President Bush.

    Now AVG appears to be courting trouble from the new occupant of the White House — after the Secret Service specifically refuted Bowdoin’s Bush claims.

    George Harris, an AVG trustee, is the stepson of ASD’s Bowdoin. A Tallahassee home and a car owned by Harris and his wife were seized in December, after prosecutors filed a second forfeiture complaint against assets tied to ASD. The complaint alleged massive internal fraud at ASD, citing a litany of personal purchases made with corporate funds and a claim that $1 million had been stolen from the firm by “Russian” hackers.

    No police report was filed.

    AVG purports to be headquartered in Uruguay. Its servers resolve to Panama. Gary Talbert, AVG’s chief executive officer and a former ASD executive, resigned suddenly on March 20

    On March 23, AVG announced that its bank account had been suspended, blaming the suspension on members who sent too many wire transactions in excess of $9,500. No AVG executive or employee signed the suspension announcement. It was signed “The AVG Management Team.”

    Problems with an Arizona-based, money-service business known as eWalletPlus followed. Servers for eWalletPlus now resolve to Panama, and the company claims now to be headquartered in Uruguay.

    AVG, which had been promoting a 200-percent, matching bonus offer — an offer that caused one promoter to exclaim that $5,000 turned into $15,000 “instantly!” — said it was working to rectify its banking problem.

    Its solution was announced yesterday: Wiring money to an offshore bank.

    Promoters made AVG’s purported offshore location a big selling point since its inception a few months after the seizure of ASD’s assets.

  • AVG Forum Warns Members Not To Call Purchases An ‘Investment’; Posts Citing ‘Return’ Or ‘ROI’ Will Be Deleted

    UPDATED 5:44 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A Mod at an AdViewGlobal forum set up by Mods and members of AdSurfDaily has warned AVG members not to refer to their purchases as “investments.”

    Rather, the Mod said, AVG members purchase “advertising” and are not “investing” or “investors.”

    Posts that used the terminology of investments would be deleted, the Mod warned.

    AVG members currently are stressing a so-called “80-20” strategy as a means of keeping the program viable for the long-term.

    Analysts, however, point out that the “80-20” plans — taking out 20 percent in cash and letting 80 percent ride with the companies — are just another way to keep cash within ready reach of autosurf Ponzi schemes to sustain the deception.

    There is not a single, documented case in the history of autosurf prosecutions in which the use of the word “advertising” to describe what the government views as an “investment” program involving the sale of unregistered securities has succeeded as a means of fending off a prosecution.

    In other words, the government has made it plain that you can’t avoid prosecution by using other terminology to describe an investment program.

    Regardless, many surf companies continue to insist that the use of the word “advertising” as a replacment for “investing” somehow insulates surfs from prosecution.

    Prosecutors cited the wink-nod nature of autosurfs — including bids to avoid the word “investment” — in the August forfeiture complaint against ASD.

    The complaint details an instance in which an ASD member insisted to an undercover agent from an IRS/Secret Service task force that bad things could happen if people joined ASD and started calling it an investment.

    “The [undercover agent] asked her about investing with ASD,” prosecutors said of the ASD member. “She immediately said, ‘Don’t call it investing, you know what I mean, we can get in trouble if we say that, we have to be careful.’”

    Prosecutors also made a veiled reference to “80-20” pitches in the August ASD complaint, again citing an undercover agent’s contact with an ASD member.

    “He said the best way to make money in the system is to keep putting your money back into the system as it accumulates,” prosecutors said of the ASD member’s pitch to the undercover agent.

    Some of the Mods and members of the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum set up the AVG forum after ASD gave the Surf’s Up forum its official endorsement after a federal judge ruled in November that ASD had not demonstrated it was a legal business and not a Ponzi scheme.

    Prelaunch buzz for AVG started shortly thereafter. On December 19, prosecutors filed a second forfeiture complaint against assets tied to ASD. The complaint did not mention AVG by name, but it outlined allegations against George Harris, the stepson of ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

    Harris is a trustee for the AVG association. AVG’s former chief executive officer — Gary Talbert — is a former ASD executive. On March 20, AVG announced Talbert’s resignation in an unsigned note to members. On March 23, AVG announced its bank account had been suspended.

    On April 24, prosecutors announced that Bowdoin — on an unrevealed date — had signed a proffer letter and acknowledged to law enforcement officials that the material allegations against ASD all were true.

    Proffer letters sometimes are used when prosecutors believe the one who proffers can aid law enforcement in an investigation.

  • Why The Government Is ‘Right’ About AdSurfDaily (And Why The December Forfeiture Complaint May Help Fill In The Missing AdViewGlobal Links)

    UPDATED 1:45 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Language federal prosecutors used in a December forfeiture complaint against assets tied to AdSurfDaily might help explain the emergence of AdViewGlobal (AVG), a surf firm with common management and close ties to ASD.

    Meanwhile, court filings by ASD President Andy Bowdoin continue to electrify some ASD members, but Bowdoin’s once-considerable support base is diminishing in size rapidly. Evidence continues to mount that fewer and fewer people are buying what Bowdoin is selling in his various pro se legal pleadings.

    We’ve written about this before. Today we’ll do so again because Bowdoin’s filings never add clarity. They add only clutter. Even so, Bowdoin’s few remaining champions at the Pro-ASD Surf’s up forum always can be relied upon to cloud the issues further.

    But clutter by Bowdoin and other pro se litigants in the ASD civil-forfeiture case is delaying justice for rank-and-file ASD members. The case involving money and property seized by the government in August nearly was litigated to conclusion in January, when Bowdoin formally submitted to the forfeiture. The government was on the cusp of implementing an orderly process through which ASD’s assets would be liquidated to create a restitution pool.

    All of that is on hold now because of Bowdoin’s emergence in February as a pro se litigant.

    Points To Ponder

    A second forfeiture case filed in December against assets tied to ASD is proceeding on a separate track — one that appears to have been designed by prosecutors as leverage to make ASD members as “whole” as possible. Prosecutors asserted that some of Bowdoin’s family members, including his wife and stepson, had used ASD money to fuel extravagant spending, including the wholesale retirement of a $157,216 mortgage on the home of George Harris, Bowdoin’s stepson.

    George Harris is listed as a trustee for AVG. Gary Talbert, a former ASD executive, was chief executive officer of AVG before resigning suddenly last month. The resignation was announced after Bowdoin acknowledged in a pro se pleading that ASD was operating illegally when agents seized tens of millions of dollars in August.

    Nearly $30,000 also was used to buy a car for George Harris and his wife, Judy Harris. About $33,000 was used to buy a car for an ASD employee, and Bowdoin himself parked a Lincoln valued at nearly $50,000 in his driveway, prosecutors said.

    The purchase of the Lincoln was telling. Bowdoin had an appetite for expensive cars when he was charged in Alabama in the 1990s with 89 separate counts of securities fraud, according to his victims.

    Bowdoin never told ASD members about the Alabama fraud charges when he was busy collecting money from them. Nor did he tell his Alabama victims of his newfound ASD wealth. The money used to purchase the Lincoln would have been more than enough for Bowdoin to retire the remaining restitution due Alabama victims from more than a decade ago.

    He chose the Lincoln instead.

    In the end, though, it’s probably a good thing that Bowdoin chose the Lincoln over his Alabama victims. The government views ASD’s assets as the proceeds of an illegal enterprise. In theory, the government could claw back any ASD money sent to the victims, who’d then hold the unenviable distinction of having been ripped off by Bowdoin twice.

    Contemplating that outcome is just plain sad — but there’s more. What’s left could explain the formation of AdViewGlobal and how close Bowdoin associates could be using it to line their pockets while Bowdoin files one pro se pleading after another in the ASD case.

    The ASD/AVG Tie

    Prosecutors say Bowdoin did not file a police report when more than $1 million went missing from ASD at the purported hands of “Russian” hackers. Nor did Bowdoin file a police report when other money went missing from ASD.

    What Bowdoin did, according to prosecutors, was engage attorney Robert Garner to figure new and better ways to steal from ASD members. This led to the production of a video that sanitized the ASD business model. Before long, ASD couldn’t even get all of the cash it was collecting to the bank.

    Those Pesky Details

    Certain details from the December forfeiture complaint haven’t gotten much play on Blogs and forums. They may prove to be critical, however, because they may explain how AdViewGlobal (AVG) came into being.

    Prelaunch promotions for AVG began to appear online during the second week of December. Early promotions suggested ASD members would be able to port their ASD earnings/expenditures to AVG. The government filed the second forfeiture complaint Dec. 19, just as AVG buzz was building.

    Included in the December complaint were assertions that ASD had played the rebuilding card before, telling members that a renamed and reconstituted version of ASD would emerge because cash-flow problems had crippled the original enterprise. The renamed version would be called the ASD “Cash Generator.”

    Screen shot of Page 21 from December forfeiture complaint against assets tied to ASD. Andy Bowdoin, while ASD was in failure mode, explains and process by which ASD accounts would be transferred to ASD "Cash Generator. Early promotions for AdViewGlobal (AVG), a surf with close ASD ties, suggested account balances from ASD Cash Generator might be ported to AVG.
    Screen shot of Page 21 from December forfeiture complaint against assets tied to ASD. Andy Bowdoin, while ASD was in failure mode, explains a process by which ASD accounts would be transferred to ASD "Cash Generator. Early promotions for AdViewGlobal (AVG), a surf with close ASD ties, suggested account balances from ASD Cash Generator might be ported to AVG.

    Prosecutors very well may have a recording and/or a transcript of an ASD Cash Generator pitch given by Bowdoin because some quotations from the December complaint are attributed directly to Bowdoin and notes from a transcriptionist appear to be contained within a document prosecutors are using. The information sounds very much like the early pitches for AVG, with references to transferring account balances from one entity to the other.

    AVG may be nothing more than ASD history repeating itself in a different form, with insiders receiving benefits hidden from rank-and-file members.

    Here is what prosecutors said in the December complaint (italics added to emphasize quotations from Bowdoin and bold added to emphasize what appears to be notes from a transcriptionist):

    “To avoid regulatory scrutiny when ASD’s first iteration collapsed, Mr. Bowdoin explained that account balances of the prior operation would be transferred to the new operation, allowing the old program’s participants to share in the new revenue stream as new funds came into the new operation.

    “In discussing the transferring of such account balances, Mr. Bowdoin explained:

    ‘You have heard us talk about not overwhelming the system by not transferring all of the ad packages from the old site at one time. If we did that it would never get off the ground. To avoid that from happening, we must transfer the balances in increments.

    ‘Here is the plan our Accountant suggested. Based on the sales that we now have, transfer over 150,000 ad packages which will be about 5%. Based on $3,000 per day in sales we can pay 1%. 50% of $3,000 is $1,500 which is 1% of the 150,000.

    ‘We have enough sales now to start at $3,000 per day for the first 5 days and the $1,500 on Sat. And [sic] Sun.

    ‘As our sales increase in increments of $3,000 per day we will transfer another 150,000 ad purchases.

    ‘In other words, when sales reach $6,000 per day we will transfer another 150,00 [sic] ad purchases [strike out “ad purchases”], when they reach $9,000 per day we will transfer over [strike out “over”] another 150,000. Then when they start expiring we will transfer more and we will continue this until we get all of the balances transferred.

    ‘All credits for surfing will be transferred. All pending cash outs will be paid from profits from the new cash generator site and then all cash balances on the old site will also be paid from profits. The time for paying pending cash outs and cash balances will be determined by Sales.’

    “Mr. Bowdoin never told later participants with ASD that the funds they paid to ASD were being used to pay returns to participants with AdSurfDaily who failed to receive promised returns because one or more Russians had defrauded AdSurfDaily,” prosecutors said.

    In essence, prosecutors are saying that ASD emerged as ASD “Cash Generator” because Andy Bowdoin owed participants a pile of money he couldn’t pay. He solved the problem by porting old obligations to the new company, but never told new members they were paying the freight for the original group of insiders and members who were not in the loop.

    Bowdoin avoided getting sued by using this approach. He also avoided trouble from insiders to whom large sums were owed, in effect creating a new generation of victims so his original insiders could get paid.

    Some of those insiders now appear to have become players in AVG — ASD history repeating itself in a different form.

    The government is right about the ASD case. Its duty is to stop the “rebates aren’t guaranteed” madness before huge criminal combines begin to use it as a license to take money and keep it by hiding behind a disclaimer that gives them a license to steal.

    Read the Dec. 19 forfeiture filing.

  • BREAKING NEWS: Bowdoin Files Pro Se Motion To Rescind August Forfeiture; Claims He Was Acting Under Duress

    UPDATED 11:05 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Acting as his own attorney, AdSurfDaily Inc. President Andy Bowdoin has filed a motion to rescind a decision he made in January to submit to the forfeiture of real estate and tens of millions of dollars seized by the government in August.

    As first reported in this Blog last month, an earlier motion Bowdoin filed to rescind his decision to the forfeiture appeared not to apply to the proceeds seized last summer. Rather, Bowdoin’s initial motion to rescind appeared to apply to property seized in a second forfeiture complaint prosecutors filed in December.

    Neither Bowdoin nor any corporate entity associated with the property listed in the December complaint appears to have filed a verified claim to the property or a motion asking to submit to the forfeiture. Among the proceeds listed in the December complaint were a Florida home owned by Bowdoin’s stepson, George Harris, and his wife, Judy Harris. An automobile owned by George and Judy Harris also was seized, along with two other cars prosecutors said were purchased with illegal ASD proceeds. A boat and marine equipment also were seized.

    Bowdoin’s initial motion to rescind appears to be a rescission of a decision he never made — either to claim the property listed in the December complaint or to forfeit it.

    Confused? You’re not alone. Sometimes pro se pleadings are extremely difficult to reconcile because the arguments don’t follow a recognized structure or logical form.

    Judge Rosemary Collyer included a handwritten note on Bowdoin’s most recent motion to rescind.

    “Let this be filed,” she wrote.

    It is unclear if Bowdoin filed the second motion to rescind before or after Collyer’s issuance of an order last week that advised Bowdoin and his paid attorneys that corporations could not proceed as pro se litigants. The document makes two corporate claims to the August proceeds.

    Corporate claimants include AdSurfDaily Inc. and Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises Inc.

    Bowdoin’s paid attorneys yesterday asked the court for permission to withdraw from the case, saying Bowdoin had not consulted them on his pro se filings and that serving as his attorneys had become “unreasonably difficult.”

    “Mr. Bowdoin filed these motions without consulting with counsel and without bothering to advise counsel that he would be submitting motions on his own. Under these circumstances, the Akerman Senterfitt Law Firm cannot render effective assistance of counsel,” attorneys Michael Fayad and Jonathan Goodman said.

    Bowdoin claimed in his motion that his lawyers were “ineffective at best and only looking out for the best interest of the government.” Fayad and Goodman said yesterday that the client-attorney relationship was affected by a ruling that went against ASD in November.

    “After this Court denied Claimant’s Emergency Motion for Return of Seized Funds [on Nov. 19, 2008], the client-lawyer relationship between the Firm and all three Claimants substantially deteriorated and has not improved thus rendering the representation unreasonably difficult,” the lawyers said.

    In Bowdoin’s most recent motion, he said his earlier decision to submit to the forfeiture was a “grave mistake and error” and that he was acting under “severe duress.”

    Bowdoin’s motion, however, also makes the strange claim that “procedures” government agents used to search for and seize proceeds “were non-existent.”

    He also contends what the government did was “improper, illegal and tainted with violations of due process of law.”

    Bowdoin’s now makes the claim that his decision to rescind “is now legally accomplished as a matter of law” — a claim that makes a considerable leap because his earlier decision to submit to the forfeiture was made with “prejudice” — meaning Bowdoin agreed to the forfeiture and would not later contest it — and Collyer signed an order granting Bowdoin’s motion to submit.

    Read Bowdoin’s motion.

  • AVG Members Report Confusion Over Bank ‘Suspension’

    AdViewGlobal (AVG), which purports to be a professional advertising company operating as a private association headquartered offshore, appears to have mangled an announcement that its bank account was “suspended.”

    The suspension announcement was made Monday, March 23. On Friday, March 20, AVG members said Chief Executive Officer Gary Talbert had resigned but would continue with the company as an accountant.

    Ismeal Santiago was identified as AVG’s new chief executive officer and was reported to be moving to Uruguay because “all officers should live offshore.”

    Members have not been told if the banking suspension occurred this week or last week. Nor have they been told if Talbert’s sudden resignation last week had anything to do with AVG’s banking problem.

    Adding to the confusion were the lack of a definition for the word “suspended” and a clear explanation on what would happen to funds AVG members wired into the suspended account.

    AVG did not name the bank in its announcement about the suspension. Nor did it say whether the bank was in the United States or offshore. At the same time, it did not say whether funds remained in the suspended account or if the funds were removed prior to the suspension.

    Nor did AVG identify the person notified about the suspension or the party who told the company about it. Given the lack of clarity over the banking issue, questions are being raised about whether the account was seized as part of a law-enforcement investigation.

    No AVG executive or employee signed the suspension announcement. It was signed “The AVG Management Team.”

    AdSurfDaily Inc., a Florida company with close AVG ties, had its bank accounts seized by the U.S. Secret Service on Friday, Aug. 1, 2008. Federal prosecutors said ASD was engaging in wire fraud and money-laundering, and also running a $100 million Ponzi scheme.

    Gary Talbert was a former ASD executive. George Harris, the stepson of ASD President Andy Bowdoin, was listed as an AVG trustee.

    In its announcement about the suspension, AVG blamed members — in the very first sentence — for the suspension.

    “Due to people bank wiring too many transactions over $9500.00 each, the bank we were using for Bank Wires and ACHs suspended our account,” the company said.

    AVG recently has been promoting a 200-percent, matching-bonus program. Yesterday the promotion was extended through April 3, despite the banking suspension and lack of clarity on the issue.

    Today AVG members were told about a “great” conference call AVG will hold tomorrow. Members were encouraged to invite guests, but also told to explain to guests that they would have to leave the call when requested.

    Members were given a script on how to address prospective call guests (italics added):

    “Important: When inviting guests to Thursday’s call you must use the following wording to keep us in compliance with the rules of our association.

    ‘AVGA is a Private Membership Association. I would like to invite you to a private conference call Thursday Night so you can listen to some of the exciting benefits our members enjoy. You’ll find out how our members are making themselves recession proof with our dynamic money making program.’”

    The script did not identify AVG as an “advertising” service. Rather, it identified the company as a “dynamic money-making program.” Federal prosecutors said ASD also stressed money-making elements over advertising benefits.

    AVG then instructed members that guests would have to exit the line when private association business was being discussed (italics added).

    “When you have a guest on the line and your name is called you & your guest will qualify to win page impressions. In order to win Page Impressions you must have a guest on the call. Be sure to provide your AVGA enrollment link to each of your invited guests.

    “Once the opportunity portion of the call is completed we will have to ask all Guests to exit the call. This is very important and we ask that you inform your Guests that once the Page Impression Give Away is completed that they will be asked to hang up.

    “Let your Guest know that this is standard protocol.”

  • BREAKING NEWS: AVG Loses Banking Privileges

    UPDATED 5:09 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) AdViewGlobal (AVG), a surf site with close ties to AdSurfDaily, reportedly has lost its banking privileges.

    The event occurred as AVG was running a 200-percent, matching-bonus program. The news is not posted on AVG’s main webpage. It is posted on a forum some of the Mods and members of the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum set up to promote AVG.

    AVG’s early explanation was that its bank account had been “suspended.” The development may signal that the bank, whose name was not disclosed, suspects it is being used to launder money or for another criminal purpose.

    It also may signal that AVG, which purported to be operating offshore, actually is operating from inside the United States. Promoters had been flogging the AVG 200 percent bonus program for days when news about the account suspension was announced.

    Matching-bonus programs can result in huge cash infusions for autosurfs — but also create enormous downstream liabilities.

    In a news release on Aug. 18, 2008, the U.S. Secret Service cited bank cooperation with law enforcement as one of the elements that made the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from ASD possible.

    “Cooperation among investigators, including the private sector partners who brought this case to our attention, allows us to combine not only our resources, but also our expertise in order to more effectively address evolving criminal methods, such as these online schemes,” said Michael Merritt, assistant director of investigations.

    Federal prosecutors said the ASD seizure prevented a Ponzi scheme from mushrooming.

    Banks outside of the United States also have ramped up efforts to detect money-laundering in the wake of the Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme in Antigua. The scheme had a ripple effect on banking from Antigua in the Caribbean to Central America and South America.

    Here is the AVG announcement (italics added). Notably, the message was not signed by an individual executive of AVG. Rather, it was signed “The AVG Management Team.”

    Due to people bank wiring too many transactions over $9500.00 each, the bank we were using for Bank Wires and ACHs suspended our account. We will get this resolved as soon as possible but in the meantime we will have to postpone bank wires and ACHs until we secure a bank that will accept them without a problem. Until we find the right bank, sales and cash outs must be done through Strict Pay and Solid Trust Pay. We will soon be able to pay cash outs on our debit card.

    If you have requested a cash out through a bank wire or an ACH, the transaction will be voided and your funds will be returned to eWallet. You can then request your cash out through Solid Trust or Strict Pay.

    Sorry for the inconvenience, but we were eliminating all wire transfers and ACHs with the new site because of the U.S. banking system and their resistance to a lot of large bank wires. We want to abide by all banking laws and keep AVG a safe place for people to advertise.

    The AVG Management Team

    George Harris, the stepson of ASD President Andy Bowdoin, is listed as an AVG trustee. Gary Talbert, a former ASD executive who filed sworn documents in the ASD civil-forfeiture case, at one time served as AVG’s chief executive officer. Only days ago, Talbert relinquished his AVG title and was said to be working as a U.S.-based accountant for the firm, an AVG promoter told downline members last week.

    The precise date AVG lost its banking privileges was not immediately clear. Ismeal Santiago is AVG’s new chief executive officer and will move to Uruguay because “all officers should live offshore,” according to the promoter.

    Nate Boyd, a former compliance officer at ASD, was listed as “Protector” of the AVG association. Chuck Osmin, a former ASD employee who testified on ASD’s behalf at a Sept. 30-Oct. evidentiary hearing, later identified himself as an AVG employee.

    In November, after a federal judge ruled that ASD had not demonstrated at the hearing that it was a legal business and not a Ponzi scheme, ASD gave its official endorsement to the Surf’s Up site. In December, early promotions for AVG began to appear online, and some of the Surf’s Up Mods and members ultimately created a forum to support AVG.

  • Something Going On At Surf’s Up?

    UPDATED 8:13 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) An inquiry about AdViewGlobal (AVG) at the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum has not been answered for hours by the moderator to which it was directed or any Mod.

    The Mods appear either to have been away from the forum for virtually the entire U.S. East Coast business day or simply made the choice not to moderate.

    At the time of this update, more than eight hours have passed since the AVG inquiry was made. Update 6:45 P.M: After nine hours, the post referencing AVG at the Surf’s Up forum was deleted. Here is a screen shot taken prior to the deletion. The shot was reduced in size to fit into this space:

    terralynnavgaccountfundingsmall

    Meanwhile, a post highly critical of ASD President Andy Bowdoin has been permitted to stand. Update: 6:45 P.M: The critical post from “adam” has been deleted, along with a second critical post by another Surf’s Up member. Here is a screen shot of “adam’s” post prior to deletion. It has been reduced in size to fit into this space:

    adam800000small

    Update 7:14 P.M:. As noted above, the post from “adam” critical of Andy Bowdoin has been deleted. Left standing was a post critical of “adam” for being critical of Andy Bowdoin. Here is a screen shot:

    adamidiotclaimsmall

    At the same time, members’ inquiries on a forum some of the Surf’s Up Mods and members set up for AVG are not being answered. Update 8:13 P.M: It appears as though a Mod is answering inquiries now at the AVG forum.

    AVG recently announced a 200 percent, matching-bonus offer. The site has transitioned to what it calls a “private association” that involves figures associated with ASD, including George Harris, Bowdoin’s stepson.

    Why the Mods appear to have been away so long is unclear.