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Tag: racketeering

  • DEVELOPING STORY: Family Of Alleged Ponzi Schemer In Canada Targeted With Death Threats; Bullets Fired At Home

    Just how far will people go to avoid getting caught or convicted of operating a Ponzi scheme or to reclaim funds lost in a Ponzi scheme — or to send a message that designed to rattle nerves?

    There have been several recent Ponzi or financial-fraud cases with more than just a hint of violent intent.

    Implicated in a massive Ponzi scheme, disbarred Florida attorney surrounded himself with body guards prior to getting charged with racketeering, authorities said. Guns were pulled on multiple occasions, according to media accounts.

    Accused Ponzi schemer Jeffrey Lane Mowen is jailed in Utah amid allegations he sought to hire a fellow inmate to kill four witnesses in the case against him. Meanwhile, the FBI said last year that four individuals staged what effectively was the business equivalent of a coup d’état in California, wielding firearms and posing as federal agents to retrieve money purportedly lost in the alleged Kenneth Kenitzer/Anthony Vassallo Ponzi scheme at Equity Investment Management and Trading Inc.

    Last month, fleeced Texas investor Christine Cayton was arrested in Texas on charges that she brought a gun to the headquarters of Triton Financial LLC — implicated in an investment-fraud scheme by the SEC — and demanded a refund from Triton principal Kurt B. Barton

    Now comes word that bullets were fired in Canada at the home of family members of Tzvi Erez, accused of operating a “printing” Ponzi scheme that gathered $27 million. A school that youngsters in the Erez family attend added security after it received a threatening letter.

    Read the Erez story in the National Post.

  • 3 Michigan Men Charged With Racketeering For Their Local Roles In Alleged $350 Million National Ponzi Scheme

    Three Michigan men were arrested for racketeering today for their local roles in an alleged national Ponzi scheme that targeted senior citizens.

    Robert Valeri Sr., 59, of South Lyon, Robert Antonio Valeri Jr., 32, of Canton, and Jeffrey Ron Mitchell, 39, of Walled Lake, were accused of cheating 125 Michigan seniors out of their life savings in a time-share Ponzi scheme.

    “[They] allegedly participated with Indiana resident and scam mastermind Michael Kelly in a massive Ponzi scheme, selling time shares in the form of an unregistered security called a ‘Universal Lease’ through a company called Resort Holdings International,” prosecutors said.

    The case was brought by Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, whose office recently has brought racketeering charges in two other fraud or Ponzi scheme cases.

    “Our parents and grandparents spent their lives working hard to provide for their families and to build the Michigan we enjoy today,” said Cox. “They deserve to know that their investments are being made safely and that those who would steal from them are being held accountable.”

    From left: Robert Valeri Sr., Robert Antonio Valeri, Jr., Jeffrey Ron Mitchell
    From left: Robert Valeri Sr., Robert Antonio Valeri, Jr., Jeffrey Ron Mitchell

    Investigators said the alleged Resort Holdings International scheme “took in an estimated $350 million nationwide and as much as $9 million in Michigan. It imploded due to deliberate overselling of shares in the Universal Lease program, leaving investors with empty pockets and broken promises.”

    Valeri Sr., Valeri Jr. and Mitchell were charged with Conducting Criminal Enterprise (Racketeering), a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $100,000. In addition, they were charged with Conspiracy to Sell an Unregistered Security, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.

    Mitchell and Valeri Sr. also were charged with Selling an Unregistered Security and Omitting to Disclose Material Information during the Sale of a Security, both felonies punishable by up to 10 years in prison and/or a $25,000 fine.

    The trio was arraigned in 19th District Court before Judge Richard Wygonik. Bond was set at $25,000. A court date is set for March 19.

    Investigators said the men targeted “senior citizens and retirees with marketing efforts that illegally promoted the lease as a safe investment opportunity with the promise of large monetary returns.

    “While seniors purchasing the lease were allegedly given the option to use the vacation property during specified times over a 25-year term, they were also given the option of having a purported third-party management company arrange for the rental of the unit during the same time period for a guaranteed 9 percent return — whether the unit was rented or not.

    “They were encouraged to elect the latter option and everyone who purchased the lease did,” prosecutors said. “In reality, Kelly also controlled the third-party management company.”

    Kelly, 60, a citizen of the United States, Mexico and Belize, was charged criminally three years ago today for his role in the alleged scheme. Additional criminal charges were filed against him in 2008, and he also has been charged civilly by the SEC. He is jailed, awaiting trial.

    Michigan residents who believe they or a family member may have given funds to Mitchell, Valeri, Sr., Valeri Jr. or Kelly are asked to contact Cox’s office at 313-456-0180.

    Federal prosecutors have seized an estimated $160 million to $175 million in property in the Kelly case, Cox’s office said.

    On Dec. 3, in a separate Ponzi case, Rita Gosselin of Grosse Ile, Mich., was arrested by investigators from the Southgate Police Department and Cox’s office. Gosselin was charged with racketeering in an alleged real-estate Ponzi scheme.

    In an alleged fraud scheme that targeted churches, Cox’s office brought racketeering charges against Michael J. Morris and William T. Perkins on Oct. 5.

  • THE PONZI CHILL: In Weeks Prior To Exposure Of $1.2 Billion Scheme, Scott Rothstein Threatened Journalist With Lawsuit, Newspaper Says

    In what is becoming a familiar refrain in the Ponzi universe, former Fort Lauderdale attorney Scott Rothstein threatened a Florida newspaper and one of its reporters in the weeks prior to the exposure of his $1.2 billion fraud, the Sun Sentinel reported.

    The Sun Sentinel identified the reporter as Brittany Wallman.

    “Am I not making myself clear?” Rothstein railed in a June 29 email to the newspaper’s attorney. “I just arrived home only to receive another message from another business associate advising that a representative of your client is asking questions about me and my business in a manner clearly intended to cast me and my business interests in a negative light . . . Your client’s representative is a renegade that stands for everything that your client should never tolerate, and guaranteed to result in your client being sued if their reporter continues on her current path.”

    Rothstein, now charged with racketeering and other offenses, also tried to muzzle the newspaper in an earlier email that threatened legal action, according to the Sun Sentinel. On June 26, Rothstein railed against Wallman for asking questions that led to a July 11 story in which the Sun Sentinel reported Rothstein was paying Fort Lauderdale city police $1,080 a day to guard his home 24 hours a day — a cost of nearly $400,000 per year.

    Another email threat — this one smarmy and passive-aggressive — was sent Aug. 4.

    “Hey David . . . hope all is well. We are getting ready to file and serve our action against Brittany and the paper and wanted to give you a heads up. Do you want to accept service or should we just serve Brittany directly and the paper through its registered agent. Let me know… Be well, Scott.”

    No lawsuit ever was served, the Sun Sentinel reported. By late October, Rothstein was fleeing to Morocco, his alleged giant Ponzi scheme involving fraudulent legal settlements about to be exposed.

    In 2008, the Moultrie Observer, a Georgia newspaper, posted a note on its website that it planned to publish an editorial warning against Ponzi and pyramid schemes. The simple act of posting the note sparked a series of emailed threats against the newspaper.

    The threats coincided with the exposure of the alleged AdSurfDaily and Golden Panda Ad Builder Ponzi scheme in Florida and Georgia.

    “Curiously, the e-mails appeared to be a form letter with different names attached. And ironically, the only people who named any companies were those making the lawsuit threats,” the newspaper reported.

    Throughout July 2008, various members of ASD used online forums to threaten the company’s critics with lawsuits. The threats continued even after the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from the bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

    Earlier this year, supporters of AdViewGlobal, an autosurf firm with close ties to ASD, took a page from the ASD playbook and threatened to sue critics. The threats were made despite the fact Bowdoin had been named a defendant in a federal lawsuit filed under RICO statutes.

  • Scott Rothstein Arrested; Charged With Racketeering

    breakingnewsUPDATED 1:19 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Former Fort Lauderdale attorney Scott Rothstein was arrested by the FBI this morning after being charged with racketeering and other offenses.

    The arrest occurred only days after Rothstein was disbarred by the Florida Supreme Court. Rothstein pleaded not guilty. He then was jailed without bail.

    Separately, federal prosecutors moved late last week to seize even more assets tied to Rothstein, including a luxury apartment in New York in the same building convicted Ponzi schemer Marc Drier had an apartment.

    Like Rothstein, Drier was an attorney. He is serving 20 years for defrauding investment and law clients. Drier’s apartment in the building was 34C; Rothstein’s was 42D.

    A prosecution under RICO statutes suggests investigators believe that Rothstein was part of a broader criminal enterprise that included others. The charges, which also included mail fraud and wire fraud, were part of a “criminal information,” as opposed to an indictment.

    Rothstein’s 70-attorney law firm — Rothstein Rosenfeldt and Adler (RRA) — was described  in today’s criminal information as an “Enterprise” as defined under federal racketeering statutes. Prosecutors charged that Rothstein had conspirators “known and unknown” who engaged in “a pattern of racketering activity.”

    No alleged co-conspirators were named.

    “The principal purpose of the racketeering conspiracy was to generate money for [Rothstein] and his co-conspirators through the operation of the Enterprise and through various criminal activities, including mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering,” prosecutors charged.

    They asserted that the RRA law firm was the the “base of operations” for a Ponzi and fraud scheme.

    “RRA was utilized by the defendant and his co-conspirators to unlawfully obtain approximately $1.2 billion from investors,” prosecutors charged.

    See Nov. 22 story. See Nov. 23 story on allegations RRA attorneys and employees were being paid with Ponzi proceeds.

    Read a story at SunSentinel.com. (Look to the left on the Sun Sentinel page to see a link to a video, with remarks from Rothstein’s attorney, who notably did not protest Rothstein’s innocence.)

  • Important Filing Deadline In ASD Prosecution Nears

    Andy Bowdoin
    Andy Bowdoin

    Tomorrow is the deadline for prosecutors to advise U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer how they plan to proceed with the December 2008 forfeiture complaint filed against assets of AdSurfDaily Inc.

    A month ago Judge Rosemary Collyer pointed out that no person or entity had filed claims to property seized in the complaint, the second tied to ASD-connected assets. The first complaint was filed in August 2008 and was nearly litigated to conclusion in January 2009, with ASD President Andy Bowdoin’s submission to the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars “with prejudice.”

    Bowdoin, 74, changed his mind about giving up the money in February, and reentered the August case as a pro se litigant after meeting with a mysterious “group” of ASD members.

    Prosecutors now say Bowdoin is a “delusional” con man who “cannot manage to keep his stories straight,” arguing that he is telling Collyer one thing and members another. On Sept. 28, the U.S. Secret Service filed a transcript of a conference call Bowdoin held with members Sept. 21.

    In the transcript, Bowdoin repeatedly told members the government had seized money from them. He specifically used the phrase “your money” four times in the short recording.

    Prosecutors said Bowdoin’s words to members were at odds with his own court filings in which he claimed ownership of the seized assets — and also at odds with the filings of Charles A. Murray, one of Bowdoin’s attorneys.

    Prosecutors quoted from a September filing by Murray, who has been arguing that Collyer should permit Bowdoin to change his mind after advising the court in January that he was giving up the money and did not intend to reassert his claims in the future.

    “Mr. Bowdoin’s release in the above-captioned case is illogical,” prosecutors quoted Murray as saying. “He received nothing of value for the release. Bowdoin has consistently demonstrated an intent to aggressively defend ownership of his property in the civil in rem forfeiture proceeding.”

    Prosecutors were quoting from Page 2 of this Sept. 14 filing on Bowdoin’s behalf by Murray.

    One week later — on Sept. 21 — Bowdoin held the conference call, using the phrase “your money” four times to describe to members the assets he had told Collyer belonged to him,  prosecutors said.

    Bowdoin’s official court claims to the property date back to Aug. 15, 2008, less than two weeks after the seizure. No claims to any of the assets seized in the December forfeiture complaint that followed appear in the record of the case.

    Potential December claimants included Bowdoin, his wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin, George Harris, Judy Harris and Hays Amos. Judy Harris is married to George Harris, the son of Edna Faye Bowdoin and Bowdoin’s stepson. Hays Amos is a former employee of ASD.

    ASD money was used to buy a car registered to Amos, and also a car registered to George and Judy Harris, prosecutors said. It also was used to buy a car for Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises Inc., which prosecutors said was set up by George Harris and Edna Faye Bowdoin to help Andy Bowdoin and Edna Faye Bowdoin hide assets.

    At the same time, prosecutors said, more than $157,000 in ASD money was used to retire the mortgage on the home Judy and George Harris shared in Tallahassee, and to purchase a Cabana boat, jet-skis, haul trailers and other marine equipment. Bowdoin also spent $800,000 cash to purchase a building in Quincy — initially to the delight of the Gadsden County Chamber of Commerce, but later to its embarrassment.

    The Gadsden Chamber went on to contact the FBI about ASD, questioning whether the company was legitimate, prosecutors said.

    George and Judy Harris emerged later as the purported owners of the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, which launched in the aftermath of two forfeiture complaints filed against ASD’s assets and a separate racketeering lawsuit filed against Bowdoin and ASD attorney Robert Garner.

    Florida now has dissolved both ASD and Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises for failure to file required annual reports. The state gave the firms nearly a five-month window to file, but neither firm — both of which purport to be legitimate — followed through.

    Within hours of the breaking news about Florida’s actions against the firms, a poster on the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum described it as a conspiracy between the federal government and state authorities in Florida.

  • Government Makes Veiled Reference To AdViewGlobal In Court Filing, Potentially Signaling Deeper Trouble For Bowdoin — And New Trouble For Promoters, Shills, Unnamed Attorneys And Advisers

    UPDATED 2:25 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) In June, private attorneys representing three AdSurfDaily members who accused Andy Bowdoin of racketeering became the authors of the first public court filing that referenced the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf.

    Some defenders of the surf dismissed the reference as meaningless.

    Today, however, federal prosecutors made a veiled reference to AVG in dramatic court filings in a civil-forfeiture case against Bowdoin. The import of the reference cannot be denied; it clearly was aimed at AVG promoters and people who have been providing cover for Bowdoin, including promoters, shills and attorneys whose names have not surfaced in the case.

    Here, in its entirety, is the reference: (Italics added.)

    “Maybe Bowdoin mistakenly thought that he could con the government into believing that he was just a harmless, foolish old man. Ironically, after telling thousands of investors that he intended to build the world’s preeminent advertising company for them, in order to make them 100,000 millionaires, Bowdoin tries to con this Court, telling it that because he’s 74 and has a heart condition, any incarceration amounts to a death sentence. See Document #132 ¶8. Was he lying then, or now?

    “Or, it may be the case that Bowdoin never intended to plead guilty when he agreed to debrief, and was just buying time while searching for a different exit strategy that failed to materialize. Maybe Bowdoin thought that before the government brought its charges he (like some of his family members) could move to another country and profit from a knock-off autosurf program that Bowdoin funded and helped to start.

    “Or, maybe other attorneys Bowdoin employed, or ASD’s other promoters convinced Bowdoin that if he paid some of the fraud proceeds the government had missed to them (the money laundering as Mr. Murray reports), they could help to circle the wagons or otherwise do a better job than Akerman Senterfitt did when it tried to prove that free advertising was a true profitable sale and not a poorly disguised, and unsustainable, investment opportunity.

    “But what is clear from Bowdoin, himself, is that neither the government, nor Bowdoin’s experienced criminal defense counsel, ever told Bowdoin that it was reasonable for a defendant convicted of operating a $100 million wire fraud scheme to expect probation.”

    See related story from today.

    See June 30 story and comments about the RICO attorneys’ reference to AdViewGlobal.

  • Judge Gives Plaintiffs More Time To Respond To Robert Garner In AdSurfDaily RICO Case, But Says They Missed Filing Date For Response To Golden Panda’s Clarence Busby

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This story about filings in a racketeering lawsuit against AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin, ASD attorney Robert Garner and Golden Panda Ad Builder President Clarence Busby also includes an update on a lawsuit filed last year against ASD by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum. The information is under a subhead below.

    Although U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer yesterday granted a motion plaintiffs filed for more time to respond to Robert Garner’s motion to be dismissed as a defendant in a racketeering lawsuit, she advised the plaintiffs that they had missed a May 26 filing deadline to respond to Clarence Busby’s motions to be dismissed as a defendant.

    Collyer ordered the plaintiffs to show cause why Busby’s motion should not be granted, giving them until June 19 to do so.

    Busby was the president of Golden Panda Ad Builder. Garner was an attorney for AdSurfDaily.

    The judge had denied a motion by the plaintiffs earlier this week for more time to respond to Garner’s dismissal motion for “failure to cite good cause.” The plaintiffs filed an amended motion, which Collyer granted yesterday.

    A response to Garner’s dismissal motion now is due July 9. Attorney’s for the plaintiffs said they agreed to examine “whether or not to voluntarily dismiss [Garner] from the proceeding” prior to the new filing deadline.

    Earlier in the week Collyer denied motions by the plaintiffs to formally add two attorneys to the case, for “failure to confer with all opposing counsel.”

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin also is a RICO defendant. He has not responded to the lawsuit.

    In a separate case filed by the government last year against assets tied to ASD and Golden Panda amid allegations of wire fraud, money-laundering, selling unregistered securities and operating a Ponzi scheme, prosecutors seized more than $65 million from Bowdoin-controlled bank accounts  and more than $14 million from Busby-controlled accounts.

    Busby, a minister who also is in the real-estate business and was implicated by the SEC in a prime-bank scheme in the 1990s, submitted to the forfeiture in September.

    Bowdoin submitted to the forfeiture in January, but now says he changed his mind after meeting with a “group” and wants to re-contest it. Golden Panda amassed the $14 million sum in only days, and ASD amassed the $65 million sum in only weeks.

    Busby’s attorney — Jonathan W. Emord of Clifton, Va. — said in court filings that claims against “Rev. Busby are precluded by the United States’ civil forfeiture action under the doctrine of res judicata.

    “Plaintiffs are barred from relitigating issues resolved against Busby on behalf of the United States and all residents, citizens, and taxpayers concerning matters adjudicated which are of public interest,” Emord argued.

    In essence, the argument holds that, since Busby already has submitted to the forfeiture of funds and the government is establishing a mechanism for refunds, the RICO litigants already have a remedy.

    Garner, meanwhile, argued that the court lacks jurisdiction over him in the case. He is representing himself in the RICO action, although court filings suggest he also has paid professional counsel working behind the scenes.

    Florida Case Against Bowdoin At Standstill

    Why Bowdoin hasn’t responded to the RICO lawsuit is unclear. Also unclear is why there has been no public action since Jan. 6 in a lawsuit filed against Bowdoin and his wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin, by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum.

    Federal prosecutors said in April that Bowdoin had signed a proffer letter in the federal case and acknowledged that ASD was operating illegally. Proffer letters sometimes mean that the one who proffers has agreed to provide the government information that is helpful in the prosecution of others.

    After signing the proffer letter, Bowdoin submitted to the forfeiture in January. Several weeks later, in late February, Bowdoin consulted with what he described as a “group” and began to file pro se court pleadings in the federal case.

    One day after Bowdoin signed his first pro-se pleading on Feb. 25, the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf introduced members to Pro Advocate Group, which says it can help people practice law without a license and help companies form “private membership associations.”

    AVG now is operating as such an association.

    Pro Advocate Group, which also pushes a “legal defense” for taxpayers and “private medical associations,” is associated with Karl Dahlstrom. Dahlstrom was convicted of securities fraud and sentenced to 78 months in federal prison in the 1990s.

    Prosecutors said he bought automobiles with investors’ funds — something Bowdoin is accused of doing.

    AVG has close family, management and promotional ties to ASD. Two of Bowdoin’s family members –  George Harris and his wife, Judy Harris — are trustees of the AVG private “association.”

    George Harris is the son of Bowdoin’s wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin.

    AVG, which earlier had disclaimed any ties to ASD, now describes itself as a full-fledged advertising and communications company with a host of services.

    But the company has not explained how having ties to Bowdoin family members, friends and promoters is helpful for business, given twin forfeiture cases by the government against assets tied to ASD, the RICO case filed by ASD members and McCollum’s Florida case.

    In December — in an action separate from an August forfeiture filing by the federal government and McCollum’s August lawsuit — federal prosecutors filed a second forfeiture complaint against assets tied to ASD.

    Among other things, the December complaint alleged that Edna Faye Bowdoin and George Harris opened a checking account with nearly $180,000 in illegal proceeds from ASD. George Harris used more than $157,000 of the deposit to pay off the mortgage on the Tallahassee home he shared with his wife, prosecutors said.

    George and Judy Harris also acquired an automobile with illegal proceeds from ASD, prosecutors said.

    Last year, Bowdoin announced to ASD members that “Ponzi” allegations in the Florida case had been dropped. The announcement caused ASD members to race to online forums to share the good news, but proved to be false.

    McCollum’s office issued a statement denying Bowdoin’s assertions, saying Ponzi allegations hadn’t even been brought against ASD in Florida.

    Rather, McCollum’s office said, the state had accused ASD of operating a Pyramid scheme.

  • RICO Lawsuit Against Bowdoin, Busby, Garner Makes Veiled Reference To ’80-20′ Rule; Signals That ‘Surf’ Promoters Run Risk Of Being Named Defendants In Racketeering Actions

    A racketeering lawsuit against ASD President Andy Bowdoin, ASD attorney Robert Garner and Golden Panda Ad Builder President Clarence Busby makes a veiled reference to what autosurf participants refer to as the “80-20” rule.

    The reference signals that both private litigants and the government are wise to methods autosurf promoters use to stem the outflow of cash and maintain the deception to encourage new money to flow into the system. Under the so-called 80-20 plans, participants remove 20 percent in cash and let 80 percent ride in the surf.

    Another unstated advantage the “80-20” plans bring autosurfs is to keep cash-out amounts below daily electronic-transfer limitations imposed by banks and payment processors. By discouraging cash-outs, the surf firms can hide the limitations from participants, meaning their inability to honor all cash-out requests also is hidden.

    Members of AdViewGlobal, a surf firm with close ties to ASD, have formed an “80-20 Club.” But the veiled reference in the RICO lawsuit, which was brought by ASD members, signals that such promotions ultimately may drag autosurf promoters in general into future racketeering litigation, with downline members hiring attorneys to file class-action lawsuits against both the surfs and upline sponsors under RICO statutes.

    “The RICO Defendants induce members to leave earned rebates in ASD as a cash balance by claiming that by doing so, members will significantly increase earnings,” the plaintiffs in the ASD RICO case said.

    “In this way, the RICO Defendants encourage members to continue to contribute to ASD’s scheme,” the plaintiffs said. “Furthermore, members do not learn that ASD cannot live up to its promises until members attempt to cash out. Members may watch their ASD accounts grow by delaying cash out, but the only real growth is of ASD’s pyramid.”

    ASD employed another deception — calling the amount in a member’s account a “cash balance” — to keep money in the system, the plaintiffs said.

    By referring to the amount as a “cash balance,” ASD “falsely represents that the account balance has the liquidity of cash.”

  • ‘Paperless Access’ Video May Seal Bowdoin’s Slide Into Infamy

    Andy Bowdoin
    Andy Bowdoin

    UPDATED 10:45 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) History may record that ASD President Andy Bowdoin’s final slide into infamy began last week with the release of a video for Paperless Access, a new surf company.

    Some ASD members, including members of the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum, reacted with anger and horror. Surf’s Up predictably went into damage-control mode by ending debate on the subject, but it was too late. This genie refused to go back in the bottle.

    Incredibly, Bowdoin positioned PaperlessAccess as a way members could recapture funds federal agents seized in August as part of the ASD Ponzi scheme investigation. Although insisting he was not involved with the Paperless Access business, Bowdoin did not name the company owners in his video pitch. Nor did he say where the company was located.

    Nor did Bowdoin describe how the company was legal, choosing instead to make the vague claim that Paperless Access employed a business model “based solely on outside revenue.” Bowdoin didn’t mention his own name in the video. Nor did he mention the name of ASD.

    No, with nothing that resembled clarity, Andy Bowdoin told members to sign up for Paperless Access — and this only a few days after he acknowledged in court filings that ASD was operating illegally when agents seized tens of millions of dollars last summer.

    One of the ways the video can be construed is as a fail-safe for Bowdoin: He is a defendant in a private racketeering lawsuit brought by ASD members. One question, of course, is whether he is trying to minimize the number of plaintiffs against him by telling people they can get back their money by joining Paperless Access.

    Another question the video raises is whether Bowdoin is trying to limit the number of complaints ASD members file with the government, which intends to implement a refund program.

    Within hours of the release of the Paperless Access video, web records surfaced that showed Paperless Access was using virtually the same template ASD used in June 2007 — right down to the FAQs. The company called itself an “Income Generator”; ASD had been a “Cash Generator,” and Paperless Access used “viewing earnings” to describe what ASD called “rebates.”

    Surf’s Up, doing what it does, deleted complaints about Bowdoin’s decision to turn over the ASD database to Paperless Access. Members’ private information now is in the hands of people Bowdoin wouldn’t identify.

    Think about what just happened: Bowdoin, who said he spent $800,000 to try to get back money the government seized from him, submitted to the forfeiture in January. He didn’t tell members. They found out about it in the newspaper and by reading Blogs. Nor did Bowdoin tell members about a second forfeiture complaint that had been filed against assets tied to ASD in December.

    The December forfeiture complaint described how Bowdoin’s family members used company money to buy cars, water equipment and haul trailers — and then used company funds to pay off the mortgage on the home of Bowdoin’s stepson, George Harris.

    Harris is a trustee in AdViewGlobal (AVG), yet another autosurf with ASD ties.

    Members again learned about unsettling events from the newspaper and Blogs. Bowdoin didn’t tell them; he simply vanished from the stage. While he was off-stage, some of the Surf’s Up Mods created a promotional site for AVG — after receiving ASD’s official endorsement in November.

    In late February, Bowdoin resurfaced. He blamed his defeat on his paid attorneys. He changed his mind about submitting to the forfeiture and started acting as his own attorney — all while AVG announced it was receiving advice from Pro Advocate Group.

    A man named Karl Dahlstrom is associated with Pro Advocate Group, which says it can help people practice law without a license. Dahlstrom was sentenced to 78 months in prison in the 1990s for securities fraud.

    Securities fraud is one of the elements in the ASD case. It could be one of the elements in any future case that might evolve against AVG or Paperless Access.

    All of this was done while Bowdoin was choosing not to respond to the RICO lawsuit filed against him by ASD members. In a prospective class-action, the members accuse Bowdoin of racketeering — and Bowdoin’s response was to ignore the lawsuit and star in a video for Paperless Access.

    The theory behind the RICO lawsuit is that Bowdoin, ASD attorney Robert Garner and Golden Panda Ad Builder President Clarence Busby engaged with unnamed parties in a conspiracy to defraud. The plaintiffs claim  the defendants committed indictable racketeering offenses.

    Now Bowdoin is starring in a video for unnamed parties at Paperless Access, as controversy swirls around every square inch of the ASD and AVG operations.

    For its part, one of the first acts by Paperless Access was to turn over its brand to Andy Bowdoin, a convicted felon and suspected racketeer. The decision boggles the mind.

    Bowdoin, however, has lost what once was a considerable support base, his celebrity days at an end, the vestiges of his reputation propped up by Surf’s Up Mods and a handful of remaining loyalists.

    People want their money back. They’re growing increasingly tired of Bowdoin’s pro se legal pleadings, and the release of the Paperless Access video well may be recorded as the singular event that cemented his place in infamy.