More pro se motions to intervene in the AdSurfDaily civil forfeiture case have streamed into U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Some of today’s docketed motions were mailed in September — after Judge Rosemary Collyer’s Aug. 31 denial of motions filed by the first 10 pro se litigants.
Today’s docketed filers include Julie Anne Larson of Sarasota, Fla. Larson says the government owes her “approximately $250,000 in [ASD] Ad Packages.” Her petition was dated Sept. 1, one day after Collyer ruled against the initial 10 filers, saying they had no standing in the case.
No signature appears on the the perjury-verification line in the document. Larson’s purported signature appears on the Certificate of Service and is dated Sept. 1.
It is believed Larson is the first pro se litigant to file specifically for ASD ad packages and not an actual sum of money.
Since Aug. 24, pro se litigants have filed an unofficial total of 31 motions to “Intervene and Petition[s] To Return Wrongfully Confiscated Funds.” The motions have used a litigation blueprint circulated by at least one ASD downline.
All of the motions were filed after prosecutors had announced that ASD President Andy Bowdoin had acknowledged ASD was operating illegally at the time of the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from his bank accounts last year.
Bowdoin also signed a proffer letter in the case, prosecutors said in April.
Bowdoin’s attorney, Charles A. Murray, announced in court filings Aug. 4 that Bowdoin was negotiating with federal prosecutors.
By Aug. 24, pro se pleadings from ASD members began to pile up at the courthouse. The filings accuse the government of “reckless action” and “reckless disregard of the law by my Government to ‘protect’ its citizens.”
Other docketed filers today include Stephen O’Brien, Christine Keyworth, Joseph L. Dunn Jr., Caesar Nunez and Laurie Ann Solliday.
On Friday, in response to the spate of pro se filings, prosecutors filed a supplemental brief in the case that said ASD members “must establish an interest in a property that existed before the crime occurred.â€
The government filings might have been a bid to put would-be intervenors on notice that prosecutors have evidence of crimes that occurred within ASD long ago, perhaps before some or all of the pro se litigants even joined the purported “advertisingâ€
business.
Later Friday, links were established between some members of ASD and the AdVentures4U autosurf, which announced a suspension of payouts Aug. 28. ASD members also promoted Noobing, an autosurf currently offline.
Noobing’s parent company was ordered by a federal judge last week to repatriate money to the United States as a fraud investigation by the Federal Trade Commission proceeds.
Today, the domains for AdViewGlobal, another autosurf promoted by ASD members, would not resolve to their servers in Panama.
Read Larson’s motion.