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Tag: Robert Fava

  • DISTURBING: Out On Bail After Ponzi Arrest, Is Andy Bowdoin Giving Marching Orders? Email Attributed To Former ASD Executive Gary Talbert Advises Members To Tell Claims Processor They Were Purchasing ‘Advertising’

    Andy Bowdoin

    UPDATED 9:28 A.M. ET (U.S.A.) On Dec. 1, a federal magistrate judge set bail of $350,000 for AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin and ordered him not to commit a federal, state or local crime after his arrest by the U.S. Secret Service on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

    Bowdoin, 76, was specifically warned that he could be held in contempt of court for violating conditions of his bail. The conditions included an order not to obstruct the investigation or tamper with witnesses.

    Now an email attributed to former ASD and AdViewGlobal executive Gary Talbert has surfaced that is raising questions about whether Bowdoin is trying to suppress the victims’ count and manipulate ASD members who seek to file restitution claims with Rust Consulting Inc., the official claims administrator in the $110 million Ponzi case.

    The email specifically references Bowdoin’s arrest, but makes no reference to the bail conditions set by U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas G. Wilson in advance of a scheduled appearance by Bowdoin in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Dec. 17.

    Bowdoin made his initial court appearance before Wilson in Florida.

    “Got a email from Andy and he told me to go ahead and send this email out to everyone,” noted the email attributed to Talbert, who filed a sworn affidavit on ASD’s behalf in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2008. “He does have a hearing on Dec. 17th in Washington D.C. He and his lawyers are still positive on the out come.”

    “Here is just a idea and I think this will work for everyone,” the email continued. “This should keep everyone legal. Because I think everyone understood it was not a investment. I believe it is time to fill out the info. from Rust inc. with the following addendum.

    “Where it asks for your signature write in there ‘See addendum’.

    “Now put this in your own words on the addendum. Here is a out line.

    “On the addendum write that you knew this was not a investment and you where purchasing advertising. Now since the gov. stopped my advertising company and I did not get my advertising I would like to get my advertising money back from whom ever is holding it now. Sign it and send it in with the forms from Rust.”

    News about the email attributed to Talbert was spreading among ASD members last night. Separately, ASD figures Kenneth Wayne Leaming and Christian Oesch have filed an ASD-related lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims that apparently seeks the spectacular sum of $29 TRILLION from a federal judge, three federal prosecutors and a Secret Service agent involved in the ASD Ponzi case.

    On June 30, 2009, AdViewGlobal was cited as an extension of ASD in a racketeering lawsuit filed against Bowdoin by ASD members. The reference was dated June 29, 2009, the same day Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in federal prison for his Ponzi scheme.

    Federal prosecutors now say Bowdoin faces up to 120 years in prison if convicted of all counts against him.

    “AVG is the next iteration of the Ponzi scheme auto-surf programs, which [are] staffed with former ASD executives and Bowdoin disciples, including George Harris, the stepson of Bowdoin, who is listed as an AVG trustee, Gary Talbert, former ASD executive served as CEO of AVG and now serves as an accountant, Nate Boyd, a former compliance officer at ASD, serves as ‘Protector’ of the AVG association, and Chuck Osmin, a former ASD employee who testified on ASD’s behalf at the evidentiary hearing before this Court last fall is a customer service representative of AVG,” the RICO plaintiffs claimed.

    The grand jury that indicted Bowdoin began to meet in May 2009. During that same month, AVG was scurrying to reconfigure itself after gathering money from members and offering 200 percent “bonuses” for months. AVG launched in the aftermath of the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from Bowdoin in August 2008, the filing by the government of a second forfeiture complaint against ASD-connected assets in December 2008 and the filing of the racketeering lawsuit against Bowdoin.

    The December 2008 forfeiture complaint specifically named Bowdoin family members Edna Faye Bowdoin, George Harris and Judy Harris as beneficiaries of crimes committed by ASD. Edna Faye Bowdoin is Andy Bowdoin’s wife; George Harris is Bowdoin’s stepson; Judy Harris is the wife of George Harris.

    In January 2009, just days prior to its official launch in early February, AVG bizarrely both confirmed and denied it had ties to ASD.

    The appearance of AVG graphics in an ASD-controlled webroom after the federal seizure was an “operational coincidence,” AVG memorably explained. The announcement was attributed to Chuck Osmin, himself a former ASD employee.

    Even though AVG previously had denied ASD ties, the upstart surf then announced that Talbert was its CEO.

    “Since Mr. Talbert was and is the C.E.O. for both companies and had worked with the same web room company while at ASD, it would be very natural for him to choose and use many of the same venders (sic) that he had used before. So, the fact that ASD and AdView Global are using the same web room hosting company is no accident, in fact it is an operational coincidence,” AdViewGlobal said.

    Why the surf identified Talbert as ASD’s CEO was unclear. He was listed in his own sworn court documents in the ASD case as ASD’s “Human Resource Manager, Assistant CFO and Website Editor.”

    By March 2009, AVG announced that Talbert had resigned as AVG’s chief. It also announced that its bank account had been suspended, blaming the development on members.

    In May 2009, AVG announced that it had secured a new, offshore wire facilitator to help it gather money from members. The announcement was made on the same day the Obama administration announced a crackdown on offshore financial fraud. (See this story and included links for updates on AVG’s purported facilitator, KINGZ Capital Management. There is a tie between KINGZ and Minnesota Ponzi schemer Trevor Cook.)

    By June 25, 2009, AVG announced it was suspending cashouts, again blaming the development on members while threatening members and journalists with copyright-infringement lawsuits for reporting the news.

    Just four days later, on June 29, 2009, the RICO plaintiffs in the ASD lawsuit referenced AVG in a court filing docketed the following day, June 30. By September 2009, federal prosecutors made a veiled reference to AVG in filings in the ASD case.

    By Sept. 29, 2009, an email attributed to ASD spokeswoman Sara Mattoon was circulating among ASD members. The email specifically instructed members not to fill out a government form that would be used as part of the restitution process.

    “Soon after the ASD shutdown, the DOJ (Dept of Justice) set up a website for people to file a claim for the money they had in ASD,” Mattoon was quoted as saying in the email. “As soon as I heard about it, I told everyone not to do it because I could see what the Government was trying to do, but some people didn’t realize what it was and afterwards they regretted doing so.”

    The Matton email referenced an earlier email attributed to ASD member and purported trainer Robert Fava. Like the Mattoon email, the Fava email discouraged members from filling out the government form, describing it as “ammunition” that could be used against ASD.

  • Leaming Claimed Small Town Targeted Him For ‘DEATH’; Second Woman Blocked By Federal Judge From Filing ‘Notary’ Claim In AdSurfDaily Case Has Leaming Tie; Leaming And ASD Figure Christian Oesch Try To Sue United States

    Kenneth Wayne Leaming, also known as "Kenneth Wayne" and "Keny."

    UPDATED 5:52 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) A Washington state man emerging as a figure in the AdSurfDaily forfeiture case claimed a small town targeted him for “DEATH” and threatened to kill him by “HUNTING” him down “in screaming packs and mobs” and using “several armed street gangs” that served as police, according to records.

    Kenneth Wayne Leaming of Spanaway filed a lien for $10 million in 2009 against the city of Puyallup, Wash., in the case. Among the claims were that Puyallup engaged in terrorism by controlling “multiple electronic broadcast media” and employing police who used “chemical and biological weapons,” “machine guns” and “explosives.”

    The lien was notarized by Tina M. Hall, a Leaming business associate and another emerging figure in the ASD case. Hall’s notary license was revoked last month. Leaming has been linked by the Anti-Defamation League to an “extremist group” known as “Little Shell Pembina Band of North America.”

    Puyallup is a city of about 33,000 in Pierce County.

    Pattern Of Filing Astronomical Liens

    In a separate case in which Leaming’s name is referenced as a co-defendant with Janice Kay Bryson, a lien for more than $19 billion was placed against several individuals and the city of Fife, Wash., another small town in Pierce County. Records show that Leaming has been assessed sanctions of at least $15,000 in Washington state for filing false liens.

    Fife has a population of about 4,800. Puyallup, named in the $10 million lien, somehow also became a party along with Fife in the $19 billion lien.

    Lien For Billions Filed Against Hospital With Historic Roots To St. Francis Of Assisi And The Order Of Poor Ladies Founded By St. Clare

    Leaming also filed a bogus lien for $9.2 billion against St. Clare Hospital, a faith-based facility in Washington state that admitted 6,995 patients, handled 48,363 patient visits to its Emergency Department and received 26,114 outpatient visits during the 2008 fiscal year.

    Hall also affixed her notary seal to the lien against St. Clare, which is operated by Franciscan Heath Systems and traces its faith-based healthcare mission in Washington state to 1891.

    The Franciscan Order is named after St. Francis, known the world over as St. Francis of Assisi, who died 784 years ago, in 1226, after rejecting earthly wealth and living in poverty as a street preacher. He is one the most revered figures in the annals of Christianity.

    One of the first followers of the man who became known as St. Francis of Assisi was Chiara Offreduccio. She became known as Clare of Assisi and, after being elevated to sainthood, St. Clare. Clare of Assisi was the founder of the Order of Poor Ladies which, like the Franciscan Order, rejected earthly wealth. The Order of Poor Ladies went on to become known as the Order of St. Clare, known the world over as the “Poor Clares.”

    Leaming sought to attach “all tangible and intangible property” of the St. Clare Franciscan facility, including its money, furnishings and fixtures, according to records. St. Clare was Leaming’s community hospital in Spanaway. Ironically, AdSurfDaily members had positioned ASD in promotional materials as the invention of a Christian “genius” and an attractive way for people of faith to make enormous sums of money by clicking on advertisements for less than 20 minutes a day.

    Members who recruited other members were paid commissions of 10 percent. Commissions for second-level recruits in the MLM scheme were set at 5 percent. ASD member and purported company “trainer” Robert Fava claimed in a testimonial that he made $1,000 a day from ASD.

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin, speaking at an event in Las Vegas in May 2008, exhorted attendees to “to have an attitude of gratitude with God” and imagine themselves in possession of “a big check coming in from AdSurfDaily.” Bowdoin thanked God from the stage for developing him into a “money magnet.”

    Video from the Las Vegas event shows members standing in line to turn money over to ASD — and employees placing paperwork into plastic baskets. By Aug. 1, 2008, about two months after the Las Vegas gathering, the U.S. Secret Service seized tens of millions of dollars from 10 personal bank accounts held by Bowdoin, amid allegations of money-laundering, wire fraud and operating a Ponzi scheme. Court filings placed the amount seized from Bowdoin at $65.8 million.

    One of his personal accounts contained more than $31.6 million; another contained more than $23.7 million. Prosecutors said ASD was not Bowdoin’s first brush with the law. In the 1990s, he pleaded guilty to felonies that flowed from an Alabama securites caper, avoiding prison by agreeing to make restitution to victims.

    About $14 million more under the control of Clarence Busby and an ASD-related  company known as Golden Panda Ad Builder also was seized by the Secret Service. The abbreviation “Rev.” was attached to Busby’s name 120 times in an ASD-related court filing that accused the company and unnamed co-conspirators of racketeering.

    Busby was accused by the SEC in the 1990s of participating in three prime bank schemes in which investors were promised enormous returns that did not materialize.

    Why Leaming, who acknowledges an “Almighty Creator” only known as “I am” in documents that identify Leaming as “Postmaster,” would seek to vex and bankrupt a faith-based hospital and two small towns in Washington state is unclear.

    Also unclear is why any ASD member would put faith in the purported legal skills of Leaming, who was accused of the unauthorized practice of law in the state five years ago and was the subject of a protection-from-abuse order filed by a notary public who claimed he coerced her into notarizing documents.

    At least two notaries public have lost their licenses in Washington state after performing work for Leaming, according to records.

    At Least 3 ASD Filers Have Leaming Ties

    Excluding himself, Leaming now has been linked to at least three people who either filed or attempted to file documents in the ASD case: Hall, Christian Oesch and Kathryn E. Aschlea.

    On June 11, 2010, Aschlea was blocked by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer from filing a document styled “Claim by Notary Presentment/Acceptance” in the ASD forfeiture case in the District of Columbia.

    The nature of the blocked filing is not publicly known.

    Records in Washington state identify a woman by the same name as a notary public. Meanwhile, Kathryn Aschlea is listed as a business partner of Kenneth Wayne Leaming in a venture known as FAN NW LTD INC. Aschlea is listed as a “governing person” and vice president of the firm, with Leaming — shortening his name to “Kenneth Wayne” by dropping the surname “Leaming” in the registration — listed as president and a “governing person.”

    The unsuccessful bid to file in the ASD case occurred more than five months after Collyer issued a final order of forfeiture that granted the government title to the money seized by the U.S. Secret Service from Andy Bowdoin. Collyer signed an order in July 2009 that awarded the money seized from Busby’s Golden Panda to the government.

    Federal prosecutors announced more than two years ago that money declared forfeited would be used to compensate victims.

    Prosecutors brought the forfeiture case to enforce wire-fraud and money-laundering laws, according to court records. A racketeering statute also is referenced in the forfeiture complaint.

    Collyer has consistently ruled that nonparty claimants have no standing in the ASD case.

    On July 2, 2010 — nearly six months after Collyer issued the final forfeiture order and four months after Bowdoin appealed it — Collyer blocked Leaming and Christian Oesch from filing a document styled “Notice of Final Determination and Judgment by Christian Oesch and Kenneth Wayne.”

    Like Aschlea and Hall,  Oesch has a business tie to Leaming. A Leaming company known as AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS LAW INC. is listed as the registered agent for an Oesch-controlled company in Washington state known as HUMAN ECONOMIC RESOURCE SOLUTIONS LTD.

    Records list Hall as vice president of AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL, with Leaming as its president.

    Records suggest that within days of the July 2 docket entry in which Collyer blocked “Kenneth Wayne” and Oesch from filing the document styled “Notice of Final Determination and Judgment,” Leaming set the stage for ads positioning him as an “attorney” or “lawyer” to appear online. Those ads were removed by Justia.com, Oyez.org and Cornell University Law school earlier this month, after questions were raised about whether Leaming was a licensed attorney.

    Records show there have been multiple complaints about Leaming engaging in the unauthorized practice of law in Washington state. At least one of the complaints came from a woman who lost her notary’s license in 2005 as a result of notarizing documents on Leaming’s behalf, according to records.

    The woman also filed for a protection-from-abuse order against Leaming, according to records maintained by the Washington State Bar Association, which redacted the woman’s name in a 2005 letter to Leaming that accused him of the unauthorized practice of law.

    Records at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims show that “Kenneth Wayne” and Christian Oesch filed a complaint against the United States on July 23, 2010, about three weeks after Collyer rejected their bids to file a document on the ASD docket in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

    A public link to the complaint is not available. The docket, however, shows that the U.S. Department of Justice has filed a motion to dismiss the complaint. Whether Leaming and Oesch even can establish that the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (COFC), which typically hears contract disputes in a limited number cases in which the government waives sovereign immunity, has jurisdiction to hear an ASD-related dispute is far from clear.

    Leaming is listed as an “agent” for “MYHUB GROUP LLC” on the COFC docket. A company by that name is listed in Nevada records as in “default,” with Christian Oesch as its manager.

    Earlier this month, some ASD members received an email that referenced “MYHUB.” The email appeared to be a compendium assembled by ASD member Sara Mattoon. The same email referenced a purported “legal opinion” by “Keny.”

    “Keny” is a nickname used by Leaming.

    The email asserted that ASD members who filed a restitution claim through Rust Consulting, the government-approved claims administrator, might face a lawsuit from a group of ASD members.

    “Again, we are asking that our Claimants do not engage in the DOJ’s Remission Process, as long you want to maintain being part of our Group Claims whatsoever,” the portion of the email attributed to MYHUB read in part. “If you are indeed wanting to eat on the other side of the fence, you must let us know before you submit anything to the DOJ, without causing us potential harm and further damages. In case you were to fail to notify us, we would have a possible claim against you, and that’s not what you want us to do in the first place.”