AdSurfDaily mainstay Bob Guenther backed away overnight from a comment that suggested an Arizona county sheriff known for instituting chain gangs and outfitting prisoners in pink underwear was soft on crime.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County would be Guenther’s jailer if he is convicted and sentenced to prison in the county. Guenther, 61, is accused of two felonies in Maricopa County by the Mesa Police Department, which said he repeatedly violated a court order not to harass a gaming company with which he has a dispute.
Guenther complained early Wednesday that an individual he described as a criminal “is still walking the streets, still taking in millions of investors money, still hiding assets, right there under Sheriff Joe’s nose..â€
Overnight, however, Guenther softened his remarks about Arpaio.
“I made no disparaging comments regarding Sheriff Joe,” Guenther said. “Mesa, AZ is just in his jurisdiction.”
Guenther, who pleaded guilty to felony bank fraud in 1994, did not back away from claims that he would use unspecified “political connections” to embarrass the U.S. Department of Justice, which he suggests has ignored leads he provided and conducted an incompetent investigation in the AdSurfDaily wire-fraud, money-laundering and Ponzi scheme case.
He complained that Senior Trial Attorney William Cowden had not returned more that 50 emails he had sent. Federal prosecutors, however, are under no obligation to return emails, and the ASD case is an investigation in progress.
On Monday, for example, the U.S. Secret Service filed a new document in the case — the transcript of an audio recording ASD President Andy Bowdoin made earlier this month. Bowdoin has suggested in court filings that he was indicted under seal in May. Prosecutors revealed in April that Bowdoin had signed a proffer letter in the case.
Guenther’s most recent email to Cowden had a condescending tone, including a passage that began, “How about this one Bill, just as a freebie.”
The email lectured the prosecutor, an expert in forfeiture law and part of the prosecution team that gained a conviction against the e-Gold payment processor last year for facilitating money-laundering.
ASD once used e-Gold as its payment processor.
“I will not sit on this anymore, you are going in circles . . . ” Guenther said in his email to Cowden. “You have my number and my email..”
In April, on this Blog, Guenther reproduced an email he had received from Cowden in February. In his one-sentence response to Guenther, the prosecutor noted that he earlier had explained that the case was the Justice Department’s to handle and that it would proceed as it saw fit.
“As I have said before, we intend to use forfeited assets (upon liquidation) to compensate Ponzi victims,” Cowden said.
Guenther reproduced the same information on the ASDMBA website, but continues to suggest Cowden has a duty to reply to all of his emails and perhaps even reveal the government’s prosecution strategy.
Guenther is the de facto head of the ASD Members Business Association (ASDMBA), which has come under fire for collecting money from ASD members to establish legal representation but not providing straightforward accounting on how the money was spent.
At the same time, Guenther also has asserted that, through his efforts, money that had been directed at Golden Panda by active-duty police officers and retirees from Texas and California was intercepted and returned to the police groups before it could become part of a victims’ compensation pool prosecutors said they sought to establish.
Cowden referenced the pool in his February response to Guenther’s email.
Meanwhile, Guenther also says that money others directed at Golden Panda — including money from a “high profile Dallas Cowboy executive” — was intercepted and returned to contributors before it could become part of a victims’ pool.
Overnight, Guenther explained that his most recent email to Cowden was sent at the behest of “concerned” crime victims.
“My letter to William Cowden was requested by several concerned groups of victims,” Guenther said. “Over 300 ASD and Panda victims, most of whom have given Andy [Bowdoin]/ASD or [Golden] Panda over $5000. Another particular group of over 400 people, represented by four Atlanta area men gave [Golden Panda Ad Builder President Clarence] Busby over $1.8Million, none of which was earned through ASD, so there is no link between the two.”
Prosecutors, however, filed an “all funds” forfeiture complaint last August that targeted assets of both ASD and Golden Panda in the same proceeding. The government has established ties between the firms, and one of the pro se filers in the case — Joyce Haws — has been identified as a rally coordinator for ASD and a founder of Golden Panda.
Busby identified Haws as one of 34 Golden Panda founders in court filings.
Meanwhile, Guenther implied in his email that ASDMBA soon would become active again, in part because the government was botching the case. He predicted that the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson would become advocates for victims who attended “a very high-profile African-American church in Atlanta.”
“When this comes out, and it will, this very, very high profile church will call on the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to assist in getting their money back,” Guenther said. “They have asked me to help.”
Rather than be passive, ASDMBA would be aggressive, Guenther said.
“So now it is time to round up all the troops again and get ready to try and “GO GET THE MONEYâ€..