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Tag: Golden Panda Ad Builder

  • AdSurfDaily Promo Cited Ties To Google, Kodak, Pepsi, NBC, USA Today, Starbucks And Other Prominent Advertisers

    Promotional material for AdSurfDaily featured a photograph of Andy Bowdoin and claimed the company had advertising relationships with some of the top brands in the world.

    Meanwhile, the document introduced readers to Golden Panda Ad Builder, referencing it as ASD’s “Chinese Site” and asking readers to specify if they’d like to advertise on the site.

    The document was created on July 6, 2008, in Adobe Illustrator, and was converted to PDF format, according to its “Properties” function.  It is possible that an earlier version of the document was in use before the July 6 version.

    Among the major advertisers referenced were Google, Kodak, Starbucks, Quiznos Sub, Callaway Golf, Macy’s, Toshiba, NBC, Farmers Insurance, USA Today, Priceline.com and more. Individual logos of the companies were pictured.

    A Secret Service Task Force quietly opened a probe into ASD on July 3, 2008. On July 7, just a day after the July 6 promo for ASD was created, an IRS/Secret Service Task member opened a free ASD account. On July 14, an IRS/Secret Service Task force member opened a paid account. A separate Task Force member funded the account by delivering a check to a Bank of America branch office in Orlando, Fla.

    Despite claims ASD was home to famous, paid advertisers, ASD has not provided any documentation in court filings to substantiate the claims.

    Promo for ASD references prominent brands in ASD customer base.
    Promo for ASD references prominent brands in ASD customer base.

    “This new approach to Internet advertising has businesses of all sizes, from small home
    based businesses to large corporations such as Google, Starbucks, Kodak, etc., joining ASD,” the promotion said.

    “Not only are there over 75,000 small businesses advertising with ASD, but now major corporations are as well. Remember, a part of the daily rebate comes from the revenue corporations pay to advertise with ASD. The following are just a few of these companies,” the promotion said, introducing 24 corporate logos from prominent companies.

    The individual logos appeared on Page 10 of the document. Page 11 featured a photo of Andy Bowdoin and what purported to be his business biography, including references to Dale Carnegie and “the notorious Napoleon Hill.”

    A White House tie also was claimed.

    “In fact, AdSurfDaily President and CEO, Andy Bowdoin, was invited to Washington, D.C., in June, 2008, by United States President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to receive the Medal of Distinction, at the White House. This is a very special honor for his service and leadership contributions in business,” the document crowed.

    Prosecutors said claims about Bowdoin’s White House ties were false. The Medal of Distinction is offered by the National Republican Congressional Committee for campaign donations to keep Republican members in Congress. The “medal” signifies a person’s ability to write a check for what amounts to banquet tickets.

    At the same time, the July 6 document references a so-called “Chinese site,” instructing readers to specify if they’d like to advertise on it.

    Members were told to provide a “[s]hort description of where you would like the funds to be placed (English site, Spanish Site, Chinese Site),” and to specify  “which promotion is running.”

    Within days, however, Bowdoin distanced himself from Golden Panda Ad Builder, the so-called Chinese site. During the same time period, it was revealed that Golden Panda Ad Builder president Clarence Busby had been accused of investment fraud in the 1990s by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    Read the July 6 promo for ASD. To see the “Properties” showing the date in Adobe Reader, click on “File” and select “Properties.”

  • Garner Advertised In ‘Escape Artist’ Publication

    Attorney Robert Garner
    Attorney Robert Garner

    An attorney accused of racketeering in a lawsuit by members of AdSurfDaily and accused by prosecutors of shilling for ASD President Andy Bowdoin once advertised his services in “Escape From America Magazine.”

    The magazine is part of a website known as EscapeArtist.com.

    Robert F. Garner identified himself a “[f]ormer General Counsel for  major Miami-based securities firm with Latin and South American  focus,” according to his ad. He listed the URL for his law office in Greensboro, North Carolina, saying he also specialized in “[r]ecoveries from scam.”

    Garner is licensed to practice law in North Carolina. But web records show he has not informed the North Carolina bar this year whether he is in private practice or carries malpractice insurance — two things he is required to do.

    “Each active member of the North Carolina State Bar is required to advise the State Bar annually whether he or she is engaged in private practice and whether he or she is covered by legal malpractice insurance,” the bar says on its website. Garner’s entries for 2009 are listed “no response.”

    Garner’s magazine ad ran in Vol. 5, Issue 11, of Escape From America. It was published in November 2003, alongside ads for tax havens, financial, telephone and real estate services for expatriates, and pitches for people to move to Belize and elsewhere.

    “YOUR OWN OFFSHORE BANK ACCOUNT IS WAITING FOR YOU,” promised one of the ads in the publication.

    In December, federal prosecutors filed a second forfeiture complaint against assets tied to ASD, including a home and personal property acquired by Bowdoin family members.

    Bowdoin’s wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin, and her son, George Harris, used ASD money to open an account in a separate bank. Harris used $157,216 of the opening deposit to pay off the mortgage on the Tallahassee home he shared with his wife, prosecutors said.

    Garner shilled for Andy Bowdoin in an ASD video, prosecutors said.

    “ASD actually [employed] Garner to participate in a marketing video that ASD crafted to reassure hesitant prospects of ASD’s lawfulness, not for his expertise in ensuring ASD’s compliance with applicable laws,” prosecutors said.

    “Messrs. Bowdoin and Garner said that ASD’s operations had been reviewed carefully by a team of legal experts to ensure compliance with all applicable laws,” prosecutors said.

    “Messrs. Bowdoin and Garner knew the representations made in the video were material to prospective participants, made-up, and false,” prosecutors said. “The misrepresentations led to a significant expansion of investment in ASD and related auto-surf investment programs.”

    In fact, prosecutors said, ASD didn’t hire compliance attorneys during the first 20 months of its existence, waiting until after it started to collect enormous sums at rallies last year to address compliance with federal securities laws and other laws.

    A RICO complaint brought against Bowdoin, Garner and Golden Panda Ad Builder President Clarence Busby in January accuses the men of organized efforts to defraud. The lawsuit was filed by Mike Collins of Savage, Minn.; Frank Greene of Washington, D.C.; and Natures Discount of Aventura, Fla.

    The complaint alleged the men were involved in “other” schemes beyond ASD, Golden Panda and LaFuenteDinero, and have “committed or aided and abetted in the commission of countless acts of racketeering activity,” including indictable offenses.

    “The ASD Enterprise provides the RICO Defendants and other unnamed co-conspirators with a system by which to operate fraudulent schemes such as ASD, to hide the fraudulent nature of the schemes, and to profit from such schemes,” the plaintiffs alleged. “Each RICO Defendant agreed to perform services of a kind which facilitated the operation of the ASD Enterprise and facilitated the RICO Defendants and others in the operation of various fraudulent schemes, including ASD.”

    One entity associated with ASD — a surf known as AdViewGlobal — lists former ASD executive Gary Talbert as its chief executive officer. Chuck Osmin, a former ASD customer-service representative who said he expected to earn $2,000 a day from ASD, also now works for AVG.

    Meanwhile, AVG lists George Harris as a trustee. AVG has turned to a firm known as Pro Advocate Group for advice on becoming a private members’ association. Pro Advocate Group is associated with Karl Dahlstom. In 1997, Dahlstrom was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for his participation in a securities scheme.

    An attorney named Robert F. Garner — with ties to Florida and North Carolina –  is referenced in documents published by the U.S. Senate pertaining to a 2001 investigation into international money-laundering.

  • BOLO Clarence Busby? Reader Puzzled By RICO Defendant’s Absence; Says Busby Out Of Touch For ‘Months’

    Should the government and litigants be on the lookout for Clarence Busby? He hasn’t been charged with a crime and, in September, he surrendered his claims to money seized by the U.S. Secret Service as part of its probe into the alleged criminal business practices of his company, Golden Panda Ad Builder of Acworth, Ga.

    Prosecutors said the money was part of the proceeds of a wire-fraud, money-laundering and $100 million Ponzi scheme in which Busby and Golden Panda participated with AdSurfDaily Inc. of Quincy, Fla.

    Busby identified himself as a minister. But he also is in the real-estate business, and last night a reader contacted us to say he has been unable to reach Busby.

    “We are buying a house from him and can’t seem to get in contact with him,” the reader said. “The last we heard, he was overseas starting up an internet company. We are a little concerned.”

    The reader added that he has been unable to contact Busby “for the past couple of months.”

    Here’s what we know about Busby: He played it cool as a cucumber when federal prosecutors announced the seizure of tens of millions of dollars last summer. Busby announced to Golden Panda members that his faith would get him through the dark hours. He composed a series of cloying Blog posts, assuring everyone that things would be just fine.

    Clarence Busby lays on the syrup, to be sure. In court filings, he explained how he’d gone fishing with ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

    “As a social courtesy to Bowdoin, I asked a pastor friend of mine, Rev. Charles Green, if he might bring his boat and join me in inviting Bowdoin on a relaxing fishing trip,” Busby told U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer. “I imagined that operating ASD involved a lot of stress, and I had heard Bowdoin liked to fish. I also wanted a respite from work. The invitation was extended and Bowdoin agreed to join us.”

    Busby then explained how Golden Panda was born:

    “On April 11, 2008, we fished at a lake in Brunswick, Georgia for a day. On that Day Bowdoin surprised me by recommending that I start a Chinese version of ASD,” Busby said.  “Bowdoin suggested that I organize the business without him. He said, ‘I can’t handle the business I already have,’ stating that I should be the one to create, own, and operate this Chinese version of ASD.

    “I was interested in the idea, but did not have knowledge of computers and the web, so I thought Bowdoin should run it, but Bowdoin did not want to run it,” Busby continued. “I chose the name of Golden Panda Ad Builder Inc. and I had the company incorporated on May 15, 2008. At that time, I still thought that Bowdoin would end up running the business, so I placed his name as President of the company, although Bowdoin never actually took any step to run the company.

    “Two and one half weeks before Golden Panda commenced operations on July 24, 2008, Bowdoin called me and reiterated that he did not have time for Golden Panda, had done nothing to help create it, and therefore thought I should be the one to own, operate, and control the business.

    “I then decided that with the help of my kids that I really could run a web based advertising business on my own. On July 2, 2008, I amended the Golden Panda papers with the state, naming myself as the President and removing Bowdoin’s name.”

    In his court filings, Busby said he didn’t know Bowdoin “had prior run ins with the law” and had been arrested in Alabama for defrauding investors.

    Busby did not say if he told his fishing partner about his own run-ins with the law: The Securities and Exchange Commission said Busby defrauded investors in the 1990s.

    “[T]he Commission alleged that Busby violated the antifraud provisions of the securities laws by offering and selling investment contracts in connection with three different prime bank schemes,” the SEC said.

    “Using misrepresentations and omissions in each of the three schemes, Busby raised money for purported trading programs in ‘prime bank’ notes by fraudulently representing to investors that the investments were risk-free and that the ventures would pay returns ranging from 750% to 10,000%. In total, Busby raised nearly $1 million from more than 70 investors. None of the investors earned the exorbitant returns promised by Busby,” the SEC said.

    Busby settled the case with the SEC in May 1998 by agreeing not to break securities laws. The SEC waived a $15,000 penalty and accrued interest because Busby certified he was broke.

    Almost 10 years to the month later, Busby went fishing with Andy Bowdoin. Both men now have been accused of racketeering in a class-action lawsuit brought by members of AdSurfDaily.

  • MegaLido: Is There An ‘Instant2U.com’ Tie?

    egoldenpandasmallIn the weeks following the seizure of cash and property linked to AdSurfDaily Inc., some former members of ASD turned their attention to promoting MegaLido.

    MegaLido was pushed as a safe, offshore alternative to ASD and Golden Panda, and a way to make up ASD/Golden Panda losses that stemmed from the government seizure of cash and other assets linked to the firms.

    “MegaLido Rocks!” one promoter blared, noting excitedly that it paid 12 percent a day and “It’s Offshore!”

    MegaLido ultimately tanked, leaving members holding the bag.

    Now it appears as though MegaLido had at least an indirect tie to an autosurf known as instant2u.com, the domain for which was registered July 27, only a few days before the government seized ASD assets.

    instant2u promoted 14 percent a day.

    instant2u.com also failed. Based on forum reports, the surf began to fail sometime in November — just as MegaLido was coming to prominence in the surf world. Soon thereafter, though, MegaLido also failed.

    If you type instant2u.com into the location bar of your browser, you’ll see that the domain tries to redirect to MegaLido, which is throwing a “Failed To Connect” error.

    It is not known if the domains had common ownership or were working together in indirect fashion to harvest money from customers. What is known is that autosurfs often join forces to create churn. CEP, yet another autosurf Ponzi scheme, had money in 26 separate autosurfs or HYIPs, prosecutors said.

    The instant2u redirect to MegaLido might not be evident in all browsers, but we tested it in Firefox and it tried to redirect to MegaLido. People are complaining about it on a MegaLido forum. They know they’ve been “had” whether the two surfs had common ownership or not.

    These developments demonstrate, once again, that there is nothing noble about the autosurf business. instant2u became the subject of Web discussions as early as July 31, just one day before ASD’s assets were seized.

    ASD effectively went out of business Aug. 1, followed within weeks by both instant2u and MegaLido. Some of the people who promoted all three surfs are still promoting surf sites, demonstrating that they’re willing to relieve people of their money no matter what.

  • Breaking News: More ASD-Connected Assets Seized; Bowdoin Blamed Company Troubles On Russian Hackers

    Federal prosecutors quietly went to court last month, filing a second forfeiture complaint against assets tied to AdSurfDaily Inc. The complaint paints 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 broke into ASD’s servers and stole more than $1 million.

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin never reported the theft to police or other authorities. He also told different people different stories about the cash struggles ASD was having before the autosurf changed its name to ASD Cash Generator, prosecutors said.

    “Mr.  Bowdoin told some individuals that he had to stop operating the program over the Internet as AdSurfDaily after one or more Russians hacked into his program and caused the ASD operation to issue approximately $1 million to one or more Russians,” prosecutors said.

    Bowdoin explained the money was taken “before [he] discovered that the Russians had not paid any money to ASD to secure for themselves a portion of its revenue stream (as so-called ‘rebates’),” prosecutors said.

    The new forfeiture complaint, which is filed in the District of Columbia but has been assigned a different case number than the still-active August forfeiture complaint, names currency, real estate, luxury vehicles, a 20-foot Triton Cabana boat, jet skis, trailers and computer equipment as the property the government seeks to seize as additional proceeds of an illegal Ponzi scheme.

    Prosecutors seek $634,266 previously deposited in Bartow County Bank in the name of Golden Panda Ad Builder. The money previously was ceded to the government by ASD President Clarence Busby and his daughter, Dawn Stowers.

    In addition, they seek a 2009 Lincoln MKS in the name of Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises; a 2009 Acura registered to Hays McDougal Amos; a 2008 Honda CRV registered to Judy Shriver Harris and George Franklin Harris; a 20-foot Triton Cabana boat, Mercury outboard motor and trailer; two 2007 Bombardier jet skis and a 2008 Confab trailer.

    At the same time, they seek the old Masonic Hall building Bowdoin purchased for $800,000 cash in Quincy, and a home in Tallahassee that was purchased with ASD funds that Bowdoin’s wife diverted to her son, George Harris, with the assistance of Harris.

    On June 10 and June 11 alone, Bowdoin’s family members and employees used $239,957 derived from ASD funds to make personal purchases, prosecutors said.

    Bowdoin’s wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin, worked with her son on June 10, 2008, to create an account at Capital City Bank, into which more than $177,000 in ASD funds were transferred from Bank of America, prosecutors said.

    On June 23, 2008, Harris used $157,216 of the money to pay off the mortgage on the Tallahassee home he occupied with his wife, Judy Harris, prosecutors said.

    “In short, Edna Faye Bowdoin and her son, George Harris, created an entity that funneled ASD proceeds into a bank account from which funds were provided to George Harris, and his wife, to pay off their home mortgage,” prosecutors said.

    Andy Bowdoin and Edna Faye Bowdoin created Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises to help “conceal from the government their expenditures and assets they purchased,” prosecutors said.

    Insider Dealings

    It is clear from the new forfeiture complaint that investigators have interviewed many people, including Bowdoin relatives, and spent considerable time chasing paper. The brackets in the quoted passages below are emphasis we added.

    “Mr. Bowdoin and associates [note the use of the plural] issued ad packages to friends and family (who  paid nothing for the ad packages) as free investment, and compensation programs,” prosecutors said.

    “Mr. Bowdoin, and others [note the plural] working with or associated with ASD, also gave ad packages to employees/workers as compensation for services performed for ASD,” prosecutors said.

    “These individuals also were able to pull out considerable funds from the so-called rebate program even though in many [note the use of the word “many”] cases they put little, if any, of their own money into the scheme,” prosecutors said.

    “For example, a former employee took over $30,000 out of ASD after putting in nothing. Another former employee pulled out over $300,000 after putting in about $10,000,” prosecutors said. “One ASD promoter pulled out almost $100,000 after putting in less than $1,000.”

    Family Spending Spree

    Here is a list of major family transactions last summer that used ASD funds, according to prosecutors.

    • June 10, 2008: Edna Faye Bowdoin and her son, George Harris, opened at account at Capital City Bank, funding it with $177,900 transferred from ASD’s Bank of America accounts. Harris later used $157,216 of the deposit to pay off the Tallahassee home he shared with his wife, Judy Harris.
    • June 11, 2008: Judy Harris and George Harris used $28,607 to purchase a 2008 Honda CRV. The vehicle was paid for with ASD company check No. 1337. On Aug. 8 — about a week after ASD’s assets were seized in the initial complaint — a lien was placed on the vehicle to secure a $5,000 loan Judy Harris took out with a family member.
    • June 11, 2008: ASD Chief Executive Officer Juan Fernandez issued an ASD check for $33,450 that was used to pay for a 2009 Acura registered to Hays McDougal Amos.
    • June 28, 2008: ASD Check No. 2708, for $20,506, was used to purchase the jet skis and a trailer. The bill of sale was made out to ASD, and Edna Faye Bowdoin signed for the goods.
    • July 1, 2008: A check from Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises for $23,445 was used to purchase the Triton boat and other equipment. The funds Bowdoin/Harris used originated in ASD’s Bank of America accounts.
    • July 28, 2008: A cashier’s check from Bowdoin/Harris for $48,244 was used to pay for the Lincoln. The funds originated in ASD’s accounts.