Four moderators at the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum hold high positions in the AdViewGlobal autosurf or have a spouse who does, according to AVG’s website.
AVG launched in the aftermath of the seizure of tens of millions of dollars last year from ASD, a Florida company federal prosecutors said was engaged in wire fraud, money-laundering and the sale of unregistered securities while operating a Ponzi scheme.
Larry Alford, the husband of Surf’s Up Mod Barb Alford, holds position 11; Mod Terralynn Hoy holds position 12; Mod Laura Pont holds position 14; and Mod Kathryn Milner holds position 15.
Whether the Mods are still associated with AVG is unclear. Also unclear is whether Alford, Hoy and Pont continue to play an active role at Surf’s Up.
Other members with high positions include David Meade (9); Mindy Bales (19); and Nate Boyd (20). Bales helped organize rallies for ASD in Iowa, and Boyd is a former ASD compliance officer, members said.
The No. 5 position in AVG is held by unnamed “AVG Executives.” Gerald Castor, an AVG compliance officer who was sued twice last year for violations of federal labor law, is AVG member No. 59, according to the website.
ASD gave Surf’s Up its official endorsement Nov. 27, 2008, eight days after a federal judge ruled that ASD had not demonstrated at an evidentiary hearing that it was a legal business and not a Ponzi scheme.
AVG insisted for weeks prior to its February launch that it had no affiliation with ASD or ASD President Andy Bowdoin, whom members now say was the silent head of AVG. On Jan. 31, AVG’s graphics appeared in an ASD-controlled webroom, but AVG said the development was an “operational coincidence.”
Former ASD executive Gary Talbert holds the No. 1 position in AVG, which purports to be headquartered in Uruguay but also filed papers in Florida.
In March, AVG advised members its bank account had been suspended. The surf blamed members in its announcement. Regardless, AVG embarked on a 200-percent, matching-bonus program for both members and their sponsors. One email promotion after the announcement of the account suspension claimed $5,000 spent with AVG turned into $15,000 “instantly!”
The March email bore the name of Shad Foss, a promoter associated with the CEP Ponzi scheme. ASD once advertised that it accepted CEP Trust, the failed payment processor associated with CEP, which was dismantled in 2007 by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
By June 25, AVG announced it was suspending member cashouts and conducting an audit of itself.
In April, federal prosecutors announced in court filings that ASD President Andy Bowdoin had signed a proffer letter in the ASD forfeiture case and acknowledged the company was operating illegally. The date Bowdoin signed the proffer letter is not publicly known. It is possible Bowdoin signed the letter weeks before the launch of AVG.
What is known is that Bowdoin signed the letter before Jan. 13, 2009. AVG was in prelaunch at the time and launched fully in early February.
It is not publicly known if others have signed proffer letters. Federal prosecutors say ASD is a criminal enterprise, and private attorneys have accused ASD and Bowdoin of racketeering.
During the spring and summer, AVG authored a series of bizarre announcements to explain developments, blaming members for a decision to disable a forum and threatening them with copyright-infringement lawsuits for sharing news. The surf also threatened to contact the ISPs of members who asked questions.
Another AVG forum run by some of the Surf’s Up Mods and members also closed in the aftermath of the surf’s decision to suspend cashouts. Surf’s Up itself deleted some AVG-related content.
Both Surf’s Up and the AVG forum operated by some of its Mods declared Curtis Richmond a “hero” earlier this year, after Richmond accused a federal judge and the ASD prosecutors of crimes in a pro se court filing.
Richmond is associated with a Utah “Indian” tribe a federal judge ruled a complete “sham” in a racketeering case in which it was alleged that the tribe had harassed public officials by placing enormous financial judgments against them, including one for $250 million against a county prosecutor and one for $300,000 against a family-services worker.
Richmond signed the fraudulent award against the family-services worker, and also sought to have judges and litigation opponents jailed, according to court filings. In one case, the tribe contrived its own “Supreme Court,” using the address of a Utah doughnut shop, and issued bogus arrest warrants. The U.S. Marshals Service refused to serve the warrants, which called for the arrests of judges, bankers and attorneys representing bankers.
An unofficial total of 57 pro se pleadings by Richmond and other ASD members followed after Richmond’s initial filing in February, including a recent spate of 41. A federal judge has rejected all of the claims. The most recent claims accused the government of “reckless action and reckless disregard of the law.”
Pro se claims by Andy Bowdoin have not been fully addressed by the judge because Bowdoin did not follow up on his initial claims. Bowdoin’s attorney announced last month that he is negotiating with federal prosecutors. Bowdoin has been ordered by the court to show cause by Monday why his pro se motion to undo the decision he made to submit to the forfeiture in January should not be denied.
Bowdoin submitted to the forfeiture while employing paid counsel Jan. 13. The first of his pro se pleadings to reverse his forfeiture decision was dated Feb. 25. On the previous day, Feb. 24, reports circulated that the U.S. Secret Service had seized the individual bank accounts of some ASD members, including at least one account owned by an AVG member.
On Feb. 26, AVG announced it was switching to an “association” structure after consulting with Pro Advocate Group, a firm associated with Karl Dahlstrom, a felon convicted of securities fraud in the 1990s and sentenced to 78 months in federal prison.
Surf’s Up also endorsed a letter-writing campaign by “Professor” Patrick Moriarty, now under indictment for federal tax fraud. In 2006, Moriarty started a nonprofit corporation for a man accused of murdering a Missouri woman in cold blood, shooting a police officer four times — and another man eight times.
