EDITOR’S NOTE: Information in this story was gleaned Tuesday and Wednesday from a source who spoke to the PatrickPretty.com Blog on the condition of anonymity. We interviewed the source Wednesday. The source said a large group of individuals once loyal to Andy Bowdoin no longer could stand in his corner. “We got mixed up in ASD and feel horrible about it,” the source said.
UPDATED 10:22 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Andy Bowdoin was the recognized head of AdViewGlobal among a core group of insiders and dispatched his stepson, George Harris, to Switzerland to establish bank accounts, according to information provided the PatrickPretty.com Blog.
In an email that circulated among ASD members — some of whom were described as sickened by Bowdoin’s gall — Bowdoin denied that Swiss accounts ever were opened. He acknowledged, though, that both George and Judy Harris trekked to Switzerland, accompanied by another individual.
His concession has led to questions about whether Bowdoin was telling the truth that no Swiss accounts were opened. The U.S. government is engaged in an active campaign to pierce Swiss banking secrecy and has scored landmark wins in recent months that have resulted in indictments against Americans who were using the banks to evade income taxes.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Secret Service has seized at least one computer used by an AVG insider and the Phoenix Police Department is investigating a purported theft of $2.7 million from AVG, according to the email.
“There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever” that remarks attributed to Bowdoin in the email were authored by Bowdoin, the source said.
Bowdoin told a person who questioned his business judgment that Harris was unable to open Swiss accounts because “the banks said they did not like accounts with a lot of out going transactions,” according to the email.
A person who participated in AVG took Bowdoin to task for laissez-faire management, a lack of follow-up controls and various business blunders — one of which purportedly was a deal assembled in November 2008 to acquire the Phoenix-based EWalletPlus payment processor for $75,000.
(NOTE: Even after reviewing the email, we could not determine who actually owns eWalletPlus. At least three companies or individuals have claimed to own the web-based payment processor, which is offline. The website now resolves to a parked page and appears to be for sale on sedo.com.)
Bowdoin performed virtually no due diligence before acquiring eWalletPlus, according to the email, but explained “[a] lot of business is conducted without ever meeting the owner because there are so many ways to perform due deligence [sic] in this high tech world.”
The purported deal, according to the email, involved a purchase contract and occurred the same month a federal judge ruled that ASD had not demonstrated it was a legal enterprise and not a Ponzi scheme at a Sept. 30-Oct. 1 evidentiary hearing ASD specifically requested.
Bowdoin’s purported actions lead to questions about whether he was prepared to remain in the illegal autosurf business no matter what a federal judge said. At the same time, the email leads to questions about why a group of AVG insiders ever would follow Bowdoin from ASD to the new company with serious legal business still on the table.
“It doesn’t make sense,” the source said. “These guys got greedy and thought by running things offshore,” they were . . . “[untouchable.]”
Plans to develop AVG were discussed at a private meeting on a cruise ship among 13 people, the source said.
Problems developed when AVG was unable to gain or maintain control over bank accounts — including one at First Caribbean Bank — needed to operate the business. One of the issues was who had signature authority over accounts, according to the email.
AVG blindly paid $20,000 to a formerly trusted person to set up a legal structure and bank account in Costa Rica — and George and Judy Harris “went down” to Costa Rica to get the lay of the legal landscape and review the corporate documentation, according to Bowdoin’s remarks in the email.
While in Costa Rica, George Harris was advised by a local attorney that the fee for setting up a corporation was only $1,200, which led to questions about whether the formerly trusted party had skimmed $18,800 in the purported $20,000 deal.
“[S]omeone made a lot of profit,” Bowdoin said, according to the email.
In any event, the bank account in Costa Rica was needed as a conduit to forward funds to Uruguay, according to Bowdoin, citing a claim made by the formerly trusted party.
No money made its way into the account in Costa Rica, even though the formerly trusted party was supposed to place $2.2 million in the account for later transfer to Uruguay, according to the email.
Bowdoin appointed Judy Harris an AVG trustee in a bid to get control of the money, according to the email.
“Yes, I asked Judy to be trustee to see if we could over come the money that had been stolen,” Bowdoin said, according to the email. “But when people started cashing out excessively it was soon apparant (sic) that it could not be overcome without some changes in page impressions. If the money had not been stolen all of the cash out requests could of been paid and there would of been plenty of operating capital. Hopefully some of the members will be able to come up with a solution.”
Infighting developed over whether AVG would be operated from the United States or Uruguay. Bowdoin groused that labor was less costly in Uruguay, but an AVG insider insisted the company operate from inside the United States, according to the email.
“I never had all of these problems with ASD,” Bowdoin said, according to the email. “It is evident now that I should of been more hands on in management.”
Bowdoin’s behavior cannot be reconciled, said the source, who acknowledged embarrassment for having participated in ASD after his instincts told him something was wrong.
At an ASD rally in Florida last year, the source said, he observed a man holding a briefcase. The man explained that the briefcase was “full of cashiers checks for $50,000 apiece,” the source said.
Later, members of his downline group shared reports that “people with piles and piles of cash” had attended ASD rallies.
“I don’t believe [Andy Bowdoin] for a second,” the source said. “He lost all credibility in our camp after firing his attorneys — and [filing] all those [pro se] motions.”
By the time the government seized Bowdoin’s assets last summer, the source said, a family member had lost tens of thousands of dollars consisting of an initial outlay and unredeemed paper profits that ASD displayed in the family member’s back office.