UPDATED 2:13 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A temporary restraining order against Florida resident Jack Arons by Dallas attorney Larry Friedman has been dropped.
Arons and Friedman are in mediation to try to settle a dispute that resulted in Friedman accusing Arons of slander and libel March 5. The mediation is occurring via telephone and will resume next week.
The lawsuit stemmed from the affairs of the ASD Members Business Association (ASDMBA) Trust.
Bob Guenther is the de facto head of the Trust. ASDMBA members said Guenther has not provided transparent accounting for the Trust and engaged in threatening behavior when his management was questioned.
Guenther is facing two felony charges of aggravated harassment in Arizona. A court date is set next month. Police alleged that he repeatedly violated a court order prohibiting him from threatening an Arizona company.
Friedman is an attorney for the Trust. ASDMBA members funded the Trust with contributions, expecting that their legal interests would be covered in the AdSurfDaily case. Some members said they filed complaints with the Texas Bar and the office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.
Guenther said the Trust had an insurance policy and, if members had valid complaints, they should contact him to make a claim against the policy.
“If anyone has any VALID complaint about the administration of the ASDMBA, the disbursement or use of the funds, or any other questions not answered, then they should get a lawyer, file suit, and Ill turn it over to our insurance company,” Guenther said on March 26, in a Comment to this Blog.
Guenther did not say what process was in place to determine if a complaint was valid. He added that the Trust had a second trustee, Kenneth Devolpi.
“Hopefully Mr Friedman will continue to represent the ASDMBA, without compensation, as he has done for the last 90 days or so, and the other Trustee, Kenneth deVolpi, will not resign,” Guenther said in a Comment.
Devolpi lists members of Guenther’s family, including Guenther’s wife, as Facebook friends. Guenther’s daughter lists Devolpi as a friend, as does Guenther himself.
ASDMBA members have raised concerns in recent days that Guenther now seems to be backing away from claims that ASDMBA is a Trust.
“This association was not formed as a formal Texas ‘TRUST,’ Guenther said in a Comment to this Blog. “No representation to that effect have ever been made. It is a simple association, formed with a set of self imposed administration guidelines.”
The organization, however, was referred to as a Trust in recorded conference calls and online chat forums. The dispute now seems to center on the meaning of the word “Trust.”
Guenther also said in a Comment that about $1.5 million was returned to members of Golden Panda Ad Builder, acknowledging that the money did not become part of a federal pool to compensate victims of what prosecutors described as a $100 million Ponzi scheme involving ASD and Golden Panda.
This may lead to questions about whether some victims received preferential treatment and whether federal prosecutors will seek to have the money returned to the pool.
Money was returned to police retirees and active-duty officers in Texas and California, and to a “high profile Dallas Cowboy” executive, Guenther said. He acknowledged that he had a hand in the return of the money.
A five-figure sum was returned to Joe Shoop, an ASD promoter, Guenther said.
Guenther did not say under whose authority the money was returned. He ventured, however, that “The Feds who raided the ASD headquarters,upon finding over $35 Million in uncashed cashiers check, should have ordered the return of the uncashed checks to the rightful owners.”
The money returned to Golden Panda members was not seized in a raid by the U.S. Secret Service of ASD’s headquarters in Quincy, Fla., last year. The returned money, rather, had been sent to Golden Panda in Georgia.