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Tag: Rosemary Collyer

  • Florida Drops State-Level Pyramid Case Against AdSurfDaily; Says It Has Supplied Victims’ List To Claims Administrator For Restitution From Assets Seized By Secret Service In Federal Case

    Andy Bowdoin

    UPDATED 7:40 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Certain members of Florida-based AdSurfDaily began crowing last week that the office of Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum had dropped the pyramid-scheme case it had filed against ASD in August 2008.

    “The State of Florida has dropped all charges against Ad Surf Daily, Inc. This is wonderful news!” an email received by some ASD members exclaimed.

    Florida prosecutors, however, tell a different story.

    Although McCollum’s office confirmed today that the pyramid case has been dropped “without prejudice” — meaning it can be refiled — it noted that state investigators have forwarded a list of Florida victims of ASD to a federal claims administrator “for processing and reimbursement purposes.”

    Florida initially had sought restitution for victims, along with the dismantling of ASD. ASD essentially dismantled itself in September 2009 by not filing required forms with the state, which revoked its corporate registration. Less than four months later, in January 2010, the federal government was awarded title to more than $65.8 million seized in the case. The government earlier had been awarded title to more than $14 million. In March 2010, the government was awarded title to more than $600,000 that had been seized in a separate forfeiture action filed against ASD connected assets in December 2008.

    All in all, the federal government was awarded title to more than $80 million seized in the ASD case, gaining a clean sweep in the forfeiture proceedings.

    The U.S. Secret Service raided ASD on Aug. 5, 2008.  Florida followed up with a lawsuit of its own a day later, but federal prosecutors later said they intended to form a restitution pool from seized assets. That process now has begun, although ASD President Andy Bowdoin is appealing the January 2010 forfeiture order entered by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer.

    In its paperwork to dismiss the pyramid case, McCollum’s office pointed to Collyer’s forfeiture order, saying ASD victims from Florida and elsewhere had been provided an opportunity for restitution by the federal government.

    On Sept. 28, 2009 — three days after Florida revoked ASD’s corporate registration and dissolved the registration of a shell company known as Bowdoin/Harris Enterprises — federal prosecutors filed a U.S. Secret Service transcript of a conference call ASD had recorded Sept. 21.

    In the call, Bowdoin told members that the government had seized their money. In his court filings, however, Bowdoin claimed the money was his.

    Federal prosecutors said the recording was evidence that Bowdoin could not keep his stories straight, arguing that he had told members one story and a federal judge another. Collyer issued the forfeiture order for more than $65.8 million less than four months later.

    Although an email some ASD members received in recent days claimed that “It looks like things are moving in the right direction” with the Florida dismissal, the email urged members to “only share this with those whom you trust.

    “Do not post on forums or blogs,” the email urged.

    Federal prosecutors noted last month that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had dismissed one of two appeals Bowdoin had filed in the forfeiture cases, noting his second appeal was pending before the same court.

    The court should reject that appeal as well, prosecutors argued.

    With the federal procedure for restitution established, ASD victims now have a remedy for reimbursement, McCollum’s office advised a state judge.

    In late 2008, Bowdoin told ASD members that Florida had dropped “Ponzi scheme” allegations against the firm. McCollum’s office immediately countered with a statement that it never even had accused ASD of operating a Ponzi scheme, noting that it had alleged a pyramid scheme only.

    When Bowdoin made the 2008 claim, some ASD members raced to forums and websites to spread the news, which turned out not to be true. He later tried to sell members a VOIP telephone service, explaining the price he offered was a gift to his loyal supporters.

    Even as Bowdoin was telling members in September 2009 that he had big plans for ASD, he did not explain why he had permitted its corporate registration to lapse or explain that the state had revoked the registration.

    Instead, Bowdoin told members that the government had seized their money — a claim in opposition to his own court filings that advised a federal judge the seized money belonged to him.

  • Forex Ponzi Schemers Who Targeted Deaf Investors Hit With $6.2 Million In Sanctions; ‘Billion Coupons’ Case Drew Comparisons To Defunct Noobing Autosurf

    A Hawaii man and his company were hit with sanctions totaling $6.2 million in a case that alleged they targeted people with hearing impairments in a Forex Ponzi scheme.

    Both the SEC and the CFTC filed actions against Marvin Cooper and his Honolulu-based firm, Billion Coupons Inc. (BCI). The CFTC announced the judgment against Cooper and the company.

    Investigators said Cooper and BCI “solicited funds from deaf American and Japanese individuals for the sole purported purpose of trading forex,” luring them with payout promises of up to 25 percent per month.

    For his part, Cooper took “more than $1.4 million of customer funds for personal use, including for flying lessons and to purchase a $1 million home,” investigators said.

    He was ordered to pay $3.9 million in restitution to customers and more than $2.3 million in penalties. The company is liable for the same amounts.

    The “Billion Coupons” case drew comparisons to the now-defunct Noobing autosurf, which also targeted the deaf. Noobing became popular in the aftermath of the August 2008 federal seizure of tens of millions of dollars in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme case.

    Despite the federal seizure, some ASD members promoted Noobing. Noobing effectively went bust in July 2009, when the FTC charged its parent company — Affiliate Strategies Inc. — with pushing a scheme that promised “guaranteed” government grants of $25,000 from economic stimulus funds.

    Noobing later was named a receivership defendant in the case. Receiver Larry Cook sold the company’s assets lock, stock and barrel — right down to a lavatory wastebasket. Like ASD, Noobing’s parent firm also owned a jet ski. Cook sold that, too.

    Despite dramatic asset seizures and the federal actions against ASD and Noobing’s parent — and despite previous actions against autosurfs, including 12DailyPro, PhoenixSurf and CEP — some ASD members have continued to promote autosurfs.

    This has occurred against the backdrop of a racketeering lawsuit against ASD President Andy Bowdoin and public filings in which prosecutors claimed Bowdoin had signed a “proffer” letter in the case and met with members of law enforcement over a period of four days in December 2008 and January 2009.

    It also is known that Interpol is seeking the arrest of Robert Hodgins, whose Dallas-based debit-card company, Virtual Money Inc., is alleged to have agreed to launder drug money in the Dominican Republic and assist a Colombian drug operation launder money at ATMs in Medellin.

    ASD members said Hodgins’ company supplied debit cards to AdSurfDaily, and web records suggest that Hodgins or a Virtual Money designate attended an ASD function in the Orlando area in late 2006.

    Even though Bowdoin acknowledged in court filings that he had given information against his interests to the government, some ASD members continue to promote autosurfs and HYIPs. After signing the proffer letter and surrendering his claims to more than $65.8 million seized from his personal bank accounts, Bowdoin later reentered the case as his own attorney.

    One of Bowdoin’s 10 personal bank accounts contained more than $31 million, according to court filings. Another contained more than $23 million. Three other bank accounts contained the exact same amount — a little over $1 million.

    After submitting to the forfeiture in January 2009, Bowdoin fired his attorneys without notice and attempted to reenter the case weeks later as his own attorney. This set in motion a series of bizarre pleadings from Bowdoin, including one in which he claimed he had not been provided “fair notice” of his illegal conduct by the government. ASD members by the dozens then filed their own bizarre, pro se pleadings. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled against each of the filers, saying they had no standing in the case.

    Collyer since has ruled against Bowdoin, awarding title to more than $80 million seized in the case to the government, which said it intends to implement a restitution program. Bowdoin is appealing Collyer’s forfeiture decisions.

    Court filings show that Bowdoin told Collyer the seized money belonged to him. In September 2009, the U.S. Secret Service presented Collyer a transcript of a conference-call recording in which Bowdoin told members the money belonged to them. Although Bowdoin insisted he had big plans for ASD, records show that he let the firm’s registration lapse in the state of Florida — even as he was telling members they should be excited about the company’s future.

    In the recording, Bowdoin claimed his fight against the government was inspired by the compelling personal story of a former Miss America.

  • Son Says AdSurfDaily’s Andy Bowdoin Used Religion To Fleece Masses And Disgraced Family Name; Huckster’s Scheming Dates Back To 1960s, Another Family Member Says; ‘He Has A Criminal Mind’

    Andy Bowdoin

    Growing up a child of Andy Bowdoin and advancing through adolescence and adulthood was hard because of Bowdoin’s habitual scheming, according to Scott Bowdoin, Andy Bowdoin’s son.

    “He uses religion — always,” Scott Bowdoin, 42, said flatly of his 75-year-old father, noting he had not spoken to Andy Bowdoin in about 15 years because the elder Bowdoin had ripped off his own mother, Scott’s late grandmother, in a credit-card scheme.

    The elder Bowdoin left his own mother “with nothing,” Scott Bowdoin asserted. “The electricity was about to get cut off, the water was about to get cut off. He is a man with no conscience.”

    Scott Bowdoin made the remarks about his father in an interview with the PP Blog this morning. The younger Bowdoin said his father had disgraced the family name — and that it was high time the public in general and AdSurfDaily members in particular knew that Andy Bowdoin did not enjoy the uniform support of his family as the ASD Ponzi case winds its way through the courts.

    There was a long-ago scheme involving telephone calling cards, Scott Bowdoin said.

    And there was an “air-conditioning scam” in Florida, he added, saying his father traded on faith.

    “He’d go around and evangelize,” Scott Bowdoin said. “That was a scam. He did something with cell-phone towers. That was a scam.”

    Andy Bowdoin has been married five times, Scott Bowdoin said, adding that Andy Bowdoin’s financial scheming devastated Scott’s grandmother late in her life.

    “He drained my grandmother,” Scott said.

    Separately, an Andy Bowdoin family member who spoke to the PP Blog on the condition of anonymity said Bowdoin “has been doing this since the 1960s.

    “I always knew he was a con man,” the family member said. “I just didn’t know he could do it at this level.”

    The “level,” according to federal prosecutors and the U.S. Secret Service, exceeds $80 million and may approach $100 million when a final accounting is done. Records show that agents seized more than $65.8 million from 10 Andy Bowdoin bank accounts, including one that contained more than $31 million and another that contained more than $23 million.

    In total, about $80 million was officially listed as forfeited in the case. Andy Bowdoin has appealed the forfeitures, which were ordered by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer. An attempt last year by Bowdoin to force Collyer to withdraw as the presiding judge failed.

    Prosecutors claimed in court filings that ASD was a massive international Ponzi scheme masked as an “advertising” business.

    “I was a little surprised because I didn’t know he could pull off a scam that big,” Scott Bowdoin said. “But, by God, he did it.”

    After the elder Bowdoin scammed his own mother in the 1990s, Scott Bowdoin said, “I told him you are dead to me.” Andy Bowdoin later was implicated in a securities swindle in Alabama. Records show he was making restitution to the Alabama victims even as he was operating ASD in 2008.

    “I pity you when you have to face the Lord when you die,” Scott Bowdoin said he told his father after he had fleeced Scott’s grandmother.

    In July 2008, years after the Alabama swindle and while ASD was gathering tens of millions of dollars per month, ASD money was used to purchase a Lincoln automobile for nearly $50,000, according to court records. At the time, Bowdoin still owed the Alabama victims about $45,000.

    Even more ASD money — more than $1 million — went to acquire real estate, a Honda automobile, an Acura automobile, jet skis, a Cabana boat, marine equipment and haul trailers, according to records. A shell company linked to Andy Bowdoin’s company began to make the purchases in June 2008, less than two weeks after an ASD “rally” in Las Vegas.

    While in Las Vegas, Andy Bowdoin urged members to imagine themselves getting large checks from ASD and thanked God for making him a “money magnet,” according to records.

    Scott Bowdoin described his father as a “classic con artist.”

    “He is a very, very, very smart man,” Scott Bowdoin said. “He knows exactly what he is doing. He uses religion — always.”

    And Scott Bowdoin lamented his father’s appeals in the forfeiture case against his assets.

    “I don’t understand why this man is not sitting in prison,” Scott Bowdoin said. “He pulled off the ultimate [con] this time.”

    Scott said his father left when he was 14 and that father and son had been estranged for years.

    Asked what he would do if his father suddenly materialized in the same room with him, Scott said that Andy Bowdoin “won’t come around me.

    “I’d probably punch him in the face,” Scott said.

    Asked if he had any advice for ASD members, Scott said, “Don’t believe a word he says. He’s a great actor. He is a good bullshitter. He could sell a screen door to a submarine captain.”

    Calling his dad a “charmer,” Scott said he was aware that some ASD members continued to cling to hope that his father came as the “Christian” depicted in sales pitches and motivational talks.  After the company was raided in August 2008, Bowdoin asked his followers to trust in God, saying the government action against his autosurfing company was the work of “Satan.”

    “These people who feel sorry for him thinking he is a good Christian — they have blinders on,” Scott Bowdoin said. “He has hurt more people than just [members of] AdSurfDaily. I can guarantee it.”

    Andy Bowdoin wasted his talents chasing schemes, Scott Bowdoin maintained.

    “If he had gone the right way, he could have been a Donald Trump,” Scott contended. “[But] he wanted to start at the top, not at the bottom.”

    Meanwhile, the other Bowdoin family member interviewed by the PP Blog said that he believed Andy was “a sociopath.”

    “I know that whatever he puts his efforts in to is [designed to] con people out of as much money as he can,” the other family member said. “Andy is a sociopath. There aren’t many sociopaths, but he is one.”

    Both family members said they were not participants in ASD and learned about the alleged scheme on the Internet.

    The family member who spoke on the condition of anonymity explained he had done so in an effort to maintain as much privacy as he could as a sea of allegations swirled around Andy Bowdoin.

    “The man is a genius,” he said of Andy Bowdoin, “but he has a criminal mind. Anyone involved with his companies — they’d be sucked into a Ponzi. To me, he is a sociopath; he will drag other people down. People need to be [careful]. A good con has a little bit of truth to it.”

    Andy Bowdoin, said the family member, has lived a “sad” life.

    “It’s sad because he could have used his talent for good,” the family member said. “I don’t hate the man, but I pity him.”

    When he thinks about Andy Bowdoin, the family member said, he thinks about Bowdoin’s father.

    “Andy Bowdoin’s father was a good man,” the family member said.

  • ASD-LIKE LITIGATION PLAYBOOK BACKFIRES: Washington State Man Indicted For Placing Fraudulent Liens Against Prosecutors, IRS Agent; Ronald James Davenport Faces Decades In Prison If Convicted

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a post in which the introduction is longer than the actual story (below). The story demonstrates the dangers of jumping on bandwagons before giving them careful thought.

    Longtime readers of the PP Blog will recall our coverage of Curtis Richmond, “Professor” Patrick Moriarty and ASD Members International (ASDMI). Each was a mainstay in the AdSurfDaily autosurf Ponzi scheme case.

    Richmond, a member of a sham Utah “Indian” tribe, was sued successfully in 2008 under federal racketeering statutes for being part of a group that placed enormous financial judgments against Utah public officials in performance of their duties. The judgments were bogus. Richmond and other members of the sham tribe were ordered to pay damages and penalties totaling more than $108,000.

    Richmond has described himself in court filings as a “sovereign” being answerable only to Jesus Christ.

    Moriarty, now in federal prison in Missouri after pleading guilty in January to filing a false tax return, advocated Richmond’s legal theories in the ASD case. Among other things, Moriarty, who claimed to be skilled in the art of “karma restoration” and once sold fake academic degrees on eBay by explaining they were gag gifts, was part of a group — ASDMI — whose membership roster consisted of members of the now-defunct Surf’s Up forum.

    ASDMI came out of the gate by announcing a scorched-earth legal campaign against the government for its seizure of tens of millions of dollars in the ASD case. At least two federal prosecutors and at least one Secret Service agent became targets of a hectoring campaign that involved the use of certified mail. Surf’s Up championed the campaign, which was designed to demand a litigation result from the government by trapping the recipients of the certified mail into a contract to which they never agreed. The approach, which also was used by the sham Utah tribe in litigation separate from the ASD case, sometimes is known as “paper terrorism” or “mailbox arbitration.”

    Surf’s Up also championed a secondary campaign to write letters to Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Surf’s Up described the ASD case as a legal “travesty that was committed against the 100,000-plus members of ASD by US attorneys Jeffrey Taylor and William Cowden.”

    Richmond, fresh from his RICO rebuke in “Indian”-related litigation in Utah, then became a mainstay in the ASD case. He filed a series of pro-se pleadings accusing U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer and the prosecutors of crimes and threatening prosecution and lawsuits under federal racketeering statutes.

    Some ASD members cheered the filings. Richmond was dubbed a “hero” on Surf’s Up, and also on a forum some of the Surf’s Up Mods established to promote the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, which had close ASD ties. One of Richmond’s motions claimed that actions by Collyer, a court clerk and two prosecutors prevented an ASD member named Alana Holsted from “Collecting on an Entry of Default Affidavit for $30 million for each Defendant.” In the Utah “Indian” case, Richmond tried to force the federal judge presiding over the litigation to step down by claiming the judge owed him $30 million.

    It is believed that bogus payment claims against Collyer, the prosecutors and the court clerk by some pro-se litigants in the ASD case totaled at least $120 million. It is unclear if overt steps were taken to formalize the purported judgments by filing liens against the judge, the clerk and the prosecutors.

    Previously Richmond had been linked to a scheme to imprison federal judges and litigation opponents and had been declared in contempt of court in California for threatening and trying to intimidate judges.

    Although the story about Ronald James Davenport is not related to the ASD case, it demonstrates the risk of some of the approaches advocated by Richmond, Moriarty and ASDMI — and it shows the utter madness of the advocacy of the Surf’s Up forum. It was the type of advocacy that can land followers in prison for decades.

    Here, now, a brief on Ronald James Davenport . . .

    A Washington state man faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted on charges of filing fraudulent liens against a U.S. Attorney and other government officials, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

    Bogus liens filed by Ronald James Davenport of Deer Park sought the spectacular sum of nearly $5.2 billion from each of the officials, including U.S. Attorney James McDevitt of the Eastern District of Washington, an assistant U.S. attorney, a court clerk and an IRS agent, according to court records.

    Prosecutors described Davenport as a “tax defier.” Davenport has described himself in court filings as a “sovereign.”

    In a civil case that preceded the criminal indictment against Davenport, Senior U.S. District Judge Justin L. Quackenbush ruled last month that the liens “were filed to retaliate against the officers for their good-faith efforts to enforce the tax laws against Mr. Davenport.”

    Quackenbush struck the liens, which were filed in the form of UCC Financing Statements with the Washington State Department of Licensing, according to records. The liens not only were fraudulent, but also contained “sensitive personal information” that violated privacy laws, the judge ruled.

    Davenport also filed instruments dubbed “Notice[s] of Claim of Maritime Lien” with the Spokane County Auditor’s Office, according to records. Those, too, were struck.

    The government sued Davenport civilly in 2008 “to collect delinquent income taxes,” prosecutors said.

    Records show that Davenport responded by filing liens against the officials.

    “The indictment alleges that in retaliation for attempting to collect the delinquent taxes, Davenport made a series of fraudulent claims in December 2009,” prosecutors said.

    “Davenport filed liens against the property of these government officials, falsely claiming that each of them owed Davenport $5,184,000,000,” the Justice Department said.

  • Prosecutors Release Update To AdSurfDaily Victims, Say Restitution Program Could Be Delayed ‘A Year Or Longer’ Because Of Bowdoin’s Appeals

    Andy Bowdoin

    Fresh from their third win in the AdSurfDaily civil-forfeiture litigation, federal prosecutors now say a restitution program for victims of the autosurf Ponzi scheme could be delayed “a year or longer” depending on appeals filed by ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

    In an update to ASD members on the government’s website for victims, prosecutors did not address an appeal brief filed Monday by Bowdoin that cites a grand-jury investigation and suggests at least two attorneys involved in the defense of ASD-related property were ordered by a federal judge to testify in a case filed under seal.

    The target or targets of the grand-jury probe were not revealed, and the names of the attorneys who provided counsel and were called to testify were not disclosed in Bowdoin’s filing.

    Through a statement posted on the victims’ website, prosecutors said U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer had issued three orders of forfeiture that stemmed from the filing of two forfeiture complaints against ASD-connected assets.

    In July 2009, prosecutors said, Collyer issued a forfeiture order of more than $14 million against assets tied to Golden Panda Ad Builder. Golden Panda’s assets were targeted in an August 2008 complaint that also targeted the lion’s share of ASD’s assets.

    Collyer issued a second forfeiture order in January 2010. This one covered a lakefront home and more than $65 million seized from Bowdoin’s 10 bank accounts in the August 2008 complaint.

    Last week, Collyer signed the third forfeiture order in the case. Last week’s order covered more than $634,000 surrendered by Golden Panda in a second case brought against ASD-connected assets in December 2008. The order also covered additional ASD-connected real estate (a building purchased with $800,000 cash and a home whose $157,000 mortgage was retired with ASD-connected cash) seized in the same complaint, along with a 2009 Lincoln automobile;  a 2009 Acura automobile; a 2008 Honda automobile; a 2008 cabana boat (20-foot); a 2008 Mercury speed motor; a 2008 boat trailer; two 2007 Bombardier jet skis; and computers and related equipment.

    Some ASD members derided the boat and jet skis as “water toys” after claims were made that the equipment was purchased to enable members who visited Bowdoin at the lakefront home in Quincy, Fla., to enjoy themselves.

    One of the properties Collyer ordered forfeited last week belonged to George and Judy Harris. George Harris is Bowdoin’s stepson. Prosecutors said more than $157,000 in ASD-connected money was used to retire the mortgage on the Harris home.

    The transaction that led to the retirement of the mortgage occurred within 11 days of the conclusion of a May 31, 2008, ASD “rally” in Las Vegas at which Bowdoin invoked God, saying he was pleased that God had made him a “money magnet.”

    The U.S. Secret Service seized the bulk of Bowdoin’s immediately traceable assets two months after the Las Vegas rally concluded. The probe that led to the seizure began in the opening days of July 2008, a period during which Bowdoin was threatening to sue ASD critics while also collecting huge sums of money at “rallies” held in other cities, including Miami.

    ASD members said some attendees showed up at the rallies with piles of cash and cashier’s checks.

    Some ASD members joined Bowdoin in the threats to sue ASD’s detractors. One ASD member later said he imagined that the theme song from the television program “COPS” would be playing to herald Bowdoin’s court wins.

    “WHATCHA GONNA DO WHEN ASD’S ATTORNEYS COME FOR YOU?” the ASD supporter chimed in all-caps on a Pro-ASD forum known as the Ad Surf Zone. “I think we should start collecting ALL the negative types in here so we can FORWARD their posts to the ASD Attorney’s Office after they WIN our case against the U.S. Att Gen!”

    As a show of confidence in the strength of Bowdoin’s case and to rattle forum critics, the 76-word post included 14 exclamation points or question marks — an average of one every 5.4 words.

    Three final orders of forfeiture now have been issued.

    “An appeal from these rulings might affect how fast any of the forfeited funds can be released to fraud victims, which could take a year or longer,” prosecutors said in their update to ASD victims.

  • Government Scores Clean Sweep In ASD Forfeiture Litigation, But That May Not Be The Biggest News: Is A Separate Legal Drama Playing Out In Background?

    Andy Bowdoin

    UPDATED 11:57 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Federal prosecutors have won the second forfeiture case against assets tied to Florida-based AdSurfDaily, meaning the government now holds title to 100 percent of the money and assets seized in the autosurf Ponzi scheme, wire fraud and money-laundering investigation.

    U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer issued a final order of forfeiture March 30 in a case brought in December 2008. On Jan. 4, Collyer issued a final order of forfeiture in a case brought in August 2008. The government now has control over more than $80 million seized in the cases, along with real estate, cars, marine equipment, computers and other property.

    But that may not be the big news.

    Grand Jury Probe

    Indeed, the big news may be that a hidden legal drama is playing out behind the scenes. Appeal documents filed by attorneys for ASD President Andy Bowdoin in the August 2008 case reference two separate matters filed “under seal” and say that attorneys for unnamed “defendants” were called to testify before a grand jury.

    The filings suggest — but do not state plainly — that prosecutors subpoenaed at least two attorneys involved in the defense of ASD-related property to testify and that a federal judge ordered the attorneys to comply.

    Charles A. Murray, an attorney for ASD President Andy Bowdoin, referenced two sealed court cases when informing the appeals court about litigation “related” to ASD.

    “Only one case related to this matter is currently pending before this Court, an interlocutory appeal alleging that the court below erred in ordering the defendant’s attorneys to testify before a grand jury,” Murray wrote.

    Murray identified the case as “Grand Jury Subpoena, Case No. 09-3118 (Under Seal).”

    “This related appeal arose from an ongoing grand jury investigation, In re: Possible Violations of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1341, 1343, and 1349, Misc. No. 09-270 (Under Seal),” Murray wrote.

    The sections of federal law cited in Murray’s appeal brief pertain to mail-fraud, wire-fraud and conspiracy statutes. The attorneys are not named, and the brief does not identify the targets of the grand-jury probe.

    Details Unclear

    Why the attorneys were called to testify is unclear. Also unclear are the identities of the attorneys’ clients, the nature of the information the government sought from the attorneys, whether the attorneys sought to invoke attorney-client privilege and whether they actually testified before the interlocutory appeal filed under seal was brought.

    An interlocutory appeal is an appeal to a higher court of a ruling by a lower court that is made before the trial in the lower court has concluded.

    Such appeals, which higher courts are reluctant to entertain, may be filed when a party believes a lower court’s ruling is severely prejudicial and turns to an appeals court to stop it in its tracks, instead of following the customary procedure of waiting for the case to conclude before filing an appeal.

    Racketeering Case Cited

    Murray also identified as a “related” matter a racketeering lawsuit filed against Bowdoin and ASD attorney Robert Garner by three ASD members in January 2009. The racketeering lawsuit, which alleges ASD was a criminal enterprise as defined under federal statutes, has been placed on hold until issues in the federal case are resolved.

    In June 2009, attorneys for the parties suing Bowdoin and Garner referenced the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, an entity with close ties to ASD. In September 2009, federal prosecutors made a veiled reference to AVG in a filing that suggested that Bowdoin and family members initially planned to “move to another country and profit from a knock-off autosurf program that Bowdoin funded and helped to start.”

    The assets seized in the December 2008 forfeiture case identified Bowdoin family members as beneficiaries of ASD’s illegal conduct. Members of AVG later identified George and Judy Harris as AVG’s owners, with Bowdoin as a silent partner.

    George Harris is the son of Bowdoin’s wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin, who also was named in the December 2008 complaint as a beneficiary of ASD’s illegal conduct.

    AVG crashed and burned in June 2009, taking an unknown sum of money paid by members with it by exercising its version of a “rebates aren’t guaranteed” clause. There were reports that $2.7 million was stolen from AVG, which purportedly operated from Uruguay.

    Among AVG’s most noteworthy promoters were former ASD members, including some of the moderators of the now-defunct Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum. Surf’s Up suddenly went missing in the earliest days of 2010.

    Bowdoin, 75, has been portrayed by prosecutors as “delusional.” He pleaded guilty in Alabama during the 1990s to felony securities charges, according to court records. A decade later, he associated with Clarence Busby, the operator of Golden Panda Ad Builder, the so-called “Chinese” option for ASD members.

    Bowdoin and Busby, according to court filings by Busby, talked about forming Golden Panda in April 2008 while on a “relaxing fishing trip” to a Georgia lake.

    Busby, identified by the title “Rev.” at least 120 times in autosurf-related litigation, was implicated by the SEC in three prime-bank schemes in the 1990s, according to records. Golden Panda has ceded more than $14.6 million to the government in the ASD case, including $646,266.13 formally ordered forfeited by Collyer last week, and more than $14 million Collyer ordered forfeited in July 2009.

    In his court filings, Busby said he didn’t know Bowdoin “had prior run ins with the law” and had been arrested in Alabama for defrauding investors.

    Busby did not say if he told his fishing partner about his own run-ins with the law: The SEC said Busby defrauded investors in the 1990s “by offering and selling investment
    contracts in connection with three different prime bank schemes.”

    “Using misrepresentations and omissions in each of the three schemes, Busby raised money for purported programs in ‘prime bank’ notes by fraudulently representing to investors that the investments were risk-free and that the ventures would pay returns ranging from 750% to 10,000%. In total, Busby raised nearly $1 million from more than 70 investors. None of the investors earned the exorbitant returns promised by Busby,” the SEC said.

    Busby went on to operate an autosurf known as Biz Ad Splash, which also crashed and burned, reportedly taking members’ money with it. All of the notable autosurfs that dominated the stage in the aftermath of the ASD seizure — MegaLido, AdGateWorld, BAS, Ad-Ventures4U, Noobing and others — have now either died or are in a serious state of decay.

    Last month, the U.S. Secret Service, which conducted the probes into ASD, Golden Panda and LaFuenteDinero, asserted that INetGlobal, a company operated by Steve Renner, was operating an autosurf Ponzi scheme and targeting Chinese participants.

    The IRS is involved in both the ASD case and the INetGlobal case, according to court filings.

    Steve Renner was convicted of income-tax evasion in December 2009. Federal prosecutors described the INetGlobal case last week as a “major fraud and money laundering investigation.”

    Renner has denied the government’s allegations.

    Bowdoin now says he is appealing the forfeiture order issued by Collyer last week in the December 2008 case. If Bowdoin does appeal the order, it will be his second appeal. He also is appealing the forfeiture order in the August 2008 case.

  • AdSurfDaily’s Bowdoin Says He’s Appealing Forfeiture Order Issued By Federal Judge; Notice Filed 6 Days After INetGlobal Raid; Riddle Of Bowdoin’s Competing Affidavit Claims Unsolved

    Andy Bowdoin

    The president of a Florida-based autosurf company implicated in a Ponzi scheme by the U.S. Secret Service says he is appealing a forfeiture order that gave the government title to more than $65 million seized from his personal bank accounts in 2008.

    Notice of the appeal by Andy Bowdoin of AdSurfDaily was filed by his attorneys March 1, about six days after federal agents — citing the Jan. 4 forfeiture order by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer of the District of Columbia — raided the Minneapolis offices of INetGlobal.

    In an affidavit for a search warrant last month, the Secret Service said INetGlobal, a company operated by Steve Renner, was operating a similar autosurf Ponzi scheme and also engaging in wire fraud and money laundering.

    The INetGlobal affidavit asserts, among other things, that a member of ASD attempted to recruit an undercover Secret Service agent into INetGlobal despite the member’s own reservations about ASD.

    INetGlobal was described by the ASD member as a wink-nod enterprise, according to the Secret Service affidavit. The company “uses the same terminology and business model as ASD,” the agency said.

    In court filings prior to the INetGlobal raid, Bowdoin’s attorneys laid the groundwork for an appeal of Collyer’s Jan. 4 forfeiture order on the grounds of judicial error, arguing that Bowdoin had not received proper notice about orders Collyer issued last year and did not react to them because of computer glitches at the office of one of his attorneys, Charles A. Murray.

    “I experienced as yet unidentified computer/server issues, wherein multiple email messages apparently never loaded to the firm’s Inbox,” Murray said in court filings on Feb. 17.

    The glitches occurred between Nov. 10 and “early January” of this year, Murray said.

    Paperwork for Bowdoin’s appeal shows a “minute order” issued by Collyer Feb. 21, denying earlier motions by Bowdoin.

    A “minute order” is a document that encapsulates legal issues before a judge. Minute orders sometimes are used when paperwork among the parties in a case is flying and a judge memorializes rulings by addressing them in a short entry, as opposed to issuing lengthy orders for each issue.

    “The Court’s Order of November 10, 2009 . . . was not a final, appealable order,” according to Collyer’s minute order. “Nor has Mr. Bowdoin shown that the Court erred in entering . . . the November 20, 2009, Order to Show Cause. The order granting default judgment and final order of forfeiture . . . is the final order in this case.”

    On Nov. 10, Collyer ruled that Bowdoin no longer had standing in the case after he had battled for 10 months to reenter the case. Bowdoin submitted to the forfeiture in January 2009 — and then changed his mind, first acting as his own attorney and later acting with Murray’s help because Bowdoin had fired his previous paid counsel.

    On Nov. 20, Collyer issued an order that gave potential claimants in the case 30 days to come forward. No claimant emerged. On Dec. 17, however, Bowdoin filed a motion to disqualify Collyer, saying she was biased. Collyer denied the motion Dec. 18. She issued the forfeiture order Jan. 4.

    In February, Bowdoin, 75, flatly claimed in a sworn affidavit that he was told by a former defense attorney that, if he submitted to the forfeiture in January 2009 of tens of millions of dollars, he would face no jail time if criminal charges were filed in the ASD Ponzi scheme case.

    He did not name the attorney in the February filing, referring to him obliquely as “prior counsel.” In an earlier filing, Bowdoin identified his counsel as Stephen Dobson.

    “I was assured by my prior counsel that, if I released my claims in this [civil-forfeiture] action, I would not be facing any incarceration,” Bowdoin claimed last month. “My January 2009 motion to withdraw my claim . . . was solely based upon prior counsel’s unilateral mistaken belief that my release of claims would unequivocally assure that any subsequent criminal sentence entered would not include any prison time.”

    Last month’s filing was witnessed by Florida notary public Joe B. Cox of Lee County.

    But in a sworn affidavit Bowdoin signed Sept. 15 before a different notary public — Patricia C. Sanson of Lee County — Bowdoin repeatedly said Dobson had said only that there was a possibility Bowdoin would not be sentenced to prison if criminal charges emerged.

    In the Sept. 15 affidavit, Bowdoin repeatedly swore that Dobson had not promised him no jail time.

    These are among the phrases Bowdoin swore to in the Sept. 15 affidavit (emphasis added):

    • Dobson represented to me that I could possibly avoid prison or get a reduced sentence if I agreed to disclose details concerning ASD and releasing the assets.
    • I also signed a document stating that I would release my claims in the abovecaptioned civil in rem forfeiture proceeding, again thinking that necessary for a possible avoidance of a prison term.
    • I did all of this on the understanding that by cooperating I could possibly avoid a prison sentence.
    • I agreed not to exercise my rights in the civil forfeiture proceeding, anticipating from representations made by Dobson that this could possibly keep me out of prison.
      Dobson lead [sic] me to believe that if I cooperated there was a possibility that I would not be incarcerated or imprisoned.
    • I believed that my cooperation would still result in a criminal sentence that could possibly not include imprisonment or incarceration.
    • I slowly came to understand what I understood from Dobson not to be the case: that my agreement to cooperate provided me no benefit in the criminal matter except the possibility of a reduced sentence if the judge desired which would still be a life sentence.

    Bowdoin’s filing last month led to questions about whether he deliberately chose to appear before a different notary to swear to the affidavit. At the same time, it led to questions about whether Bowdoin somehow was unaware that Collyer already had cited Bowdoin’s Sept. 15 sworn affidavit in a major ruling that Bowdoin no longer had standing in the case.

    On Nov. 10, Collyer noted Bowdoin’s repeated use of the words “possibly,” “possible” and “possibility” in the Sept. 15 affidavit when referring to the advice Dobson had given him on the matter of jail and finding that Dobson had behaved responsibly while representing Bowdoin.

    “Such an approach from counsel could be seen as the norm when the Government’s evidence is strong,” Collyer said. “What Mr. Bowdoin hoped to gain from his release of claims/early acceptance of responsibility and his debriefing with the Government was a promise of no jail time. When that was not forthcoming from the Assistant United States Attorney, Mr. Bowdoin balked and tried to back up, as if he had not already released his claims and talked to the Government.”

    There may be other news associated with Bowdoin’s appeal: The filings suggest that William Cowden, who spearheaded the forfeiture case for the Department of Justice as an assistant U.S. Attorney and then accepted a job in the private sector, may be returning as a special prosecutor while maintaining his job in the private sector.

    Cowden was derided by Bowdoin supporters as “Gomer Pyle,” but piloted the case through an evidentiary hearing that resulted in a ruling from Collyer in November 2008 that ASD had not demonstrated it was a legal business and not a Ponzi scheme.

    With the Secret Service leading the investigation, Cowden then filed a second forfeiture complaint against assets linked to ASD. The second complaint was filed in December 2008 and named members of Bowdoin’s family as beneficiaries of ASD’s illegal scheme.

  • Bowdoin, Prosecutors Clash Anew In August 2008 Forfeiture Case; Dispute May Explain Government’s Announcement Last Week That Separate Case Could Be Delayed For ‘Several Months’

    UPDATED 2:03 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Two attorneys for AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin are asking a federal judge to vacate orders she issued granting a default judgment to the government and granting a final order of forfeiture to tens of millions of dollars and a home seized in the case.

    Attorneys Charles A. Murray and Michael R.N. McDonnell assert that U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer issued the orders granting the judgment and forfeiture in error — before Bowdoin’s legal remedies were exhausted in the August 2008 civil-forfeiture case against ASD-connected assets.

    Although Bowdoin’s defense counsel asserted the government did not oppose the motions, prosecutors fired back with a motion to clarify their point of view, suggesting they did not want anyone to get the impression that they believed Bowdoin’s new arguments had merit.

    Collyer issued the judgment and forfeiture order Jan. 4, Bowdoin’s counsel argued. The order was entered into the record Jan. 6, 57 days after Collyer issued an order in November that denied Bowdoin’s bid to reassert claims to money he forfeited to the government in January 2009.

    Bowdoin still had three days remaining to challenge Collyer’s November ruling when the final judgment and forfeiture order were entered Jan. 6, Bowdoin’s counsel argued, asserting that Collyer had entered the judgment and forfeiture order “erroneously” and prejudiced their client.

    A decision by Collyer not to vacate the orders would result in a “manifest injustice” to Bowdoin, his attorneys argued.

    Bowdoin may turn to the U.S. Court of Appeals for a remedy, his attorneys said. They argued that “intervening circumstances beyond [Bowdoin’s] control” had affected the outcome of the case, suggesting that a clerical error of some sort had prejudiced their client.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys Deborah L. Connor and Barry Wiegand said Collyer’s issuance of the default and forfeiture orders was legally sound.

    “[T]he United States will contest in every Court at any level any challenge to any of these rulings as error,” Connor and Wiegand said.

    Prosecutors said the government  had spoken with Murray and related to him that it did not oppose providing Bowdoin time to argue his motions. But Connor and Wiegand said the government wanted to make its position “clear” that it did not believe Collyer had erred.

    “The Court’s rulings and issuance of a default judgment and final order or forfeiture were correct in law and fully justified by [the] case’s posture when [Collyer] ruled,” the prosecutors said.

    They added that they intended to file a supplemental brief. How the case would proceed was not immediately clear.

    Prosecutors said last week that there might be a delay of “several months” before final adjudication of a separate forfeiture case brought against ASD-connected assets in December 2008. Bowdoin’s new filings in the August 2008 case suggest both cases could be delayed.

  • Judge Signs Forfeiture Order In AdSurfDaily Case; Gives Government Title To $65.8 Million In Bowdoin Bank Accounts; Case Resolved In ‘Entirety’

    Andy Bowdoin

    After more than 17 months, more than 165 court filings and more than $1 million in legal fees, ASD President Andy Bowdoin has lost the August 2008 civil forfeiture case and the government has been granted title to $65,838,999.70 seized from Bowdoin’s 10 Bank of America accounts.

    U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer, whom Bowdoin attempted to have disqualified from the case last month, has entered a default judgment and final order of forfeiture in the case.

    In a footnote, Collyer said the order decreeing forfeiture “resolves all remaining issues and this forfeiture action in its entirety.”

    As PatrickPretty.com first reported last year, three of Bowdoin’s accounts contained the exact same sum: $1,000,388.91. Why the accounts contained the exact same sum remains a mystery.

    Another mystery is why Bowdoin, 75, initially submitted to the forfeiture on Jan. 13, 2009 — a year ago next week — but then changed his mind more than a month later and attempted to reassert his claims as a pro se litigant. Bowdoin’s former attorneys, Akerman Senterfitt, said in court filings that Bowdoin began to file pro se “without consulting with counsel and without bothering to advise counsel that he would be submitting motions on his own.”

    Akerman Senterfitt filed a motion to withdraw as Bowdoin’s counsel, saying its representation of him had become unreasonably difficult.

    Bowdoin’s pro se re-entry in the case coincided with the shift by the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf to a “private association” structure. This shift was announced to AVG members on Feb. 26, 2009, after AVG said it had consulted with a company known as Pro Advocate Group.

    Bowdoin signed the first of his pro se pleadings just one day before, on Feb. 25, 2009. Pro Advocate Group, which says it can help people practice law and medicine without a license through a private-association structure, is associated with Karl Dahlstrom.

    In 1997, Dahlstrom was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for his participation in a securities scheme. In court documents in a tax case, Karl Dahlstrom is described as having  “been in the abusive trust business for many years.”

    Bowdoin has not publicly revealed the identities of his pro se advisers, describing them as members of a “group.” Nor has Bowdoin revealed how much he paid for the pro se advice.

    Bowdoin, however, told members in a letter published on the now-defunct Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum in March 2009 that he had paid his professional lawyers $800,000 before firing them. In September 2009, Bowdoin said his legal fees had exceeded $1 million.

    “Now I’ve spent over a million dollars in legal fees to get your money back, and to stay out of prison,” Bowdoin said on Sept. 21, according to a transcript by the U.S. Secret Service. Bowdoin made the remark in a conference call with members. The Secret Service transcribed the call, and then filed the document  in court.

    Collyer refused to disqualify herself last month, saying Bowdoin no longer had standing in the case.

    Read the final order of forfeiture in the August 2008 case against assets connected to ASD.

    Collyer earlier ordered the forfeiture of more than $14 million from the bank accounts of Golden Panda Ad Builder, whose assets also were seized in the ASD case.

    Bowdoin did score a win of sorts in the forfeiture litigation. He asked for — and was granted — an evidentiary hearing in 2008 to refute the government’s Ponzi allegations and to ask for the emergency release of $2 million because the company could not pay its rent and hosting bills and needed money to implement a new business plan.

    Prosecutors did not object to the hearing, but pointed out that Bowdoin had $1 million in a bank on the Caribbean island nation of Antigua in an account under a different name.

    Bowdoin asserted his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination, advising the court through counsel that he would not testify at the evidentiary hearing he had requested. Surf’s Up described the performance of ASD’s witnesses at the hearing as uniformly “excellent,” while at once describing the government’s case as “not so much.”

    At the same time, the forum helped spread the rumor that the government had admitted that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme.

    In November 2008, Collyer ruled that ASD had not demonstrated at the hearing that it was a lawful business and not a Ponzi scheme. A month later, prosecutors filed a second forfeiture complaint against ASD-connected assets, restating the Ponzi allegations despite the Surf’s Up claim that prosecutors had admitted ASD was not a Ponzi scheme.

    The AVG autosurf was laying the groundwork for launch within days of Collyer’s November 2008 ruling against ASD. Promoters highlighted its purported location in Uruguay as a reason to join.

    AVG suspended cashouts in June 2009, exercising its version of a “rebates aren’t guaranteed” clause.

    Dozens of pro se litigants attempted to intervene in the ASD case, largely causing the court docket to swell from about 40 entries in January 2009 to its current total of 166.

  • EDITORIAL: God, Las Vegas, Satan, The 9/11 Terrorists, The Shills, Andy Bowdoin, And The U.S. Secret Service

    Andy Bowdoin
    Andy Bowdoin

    A claim was made yesterday in a now-deleted Surf’s Up post that AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin “would not sell us out and he has stood his ground firm since August of 2008.”

    It was a lie by Bowdoin through a shill. The source to prove the lie is Bowdoin himself. Bowdoin has acknowledged in his own court filings that he previously was “cooperating” with prosecutors and investigators so he “could possibly avoid a prison sentence.”

    Bowdoin, in fact, advised a federal judge in his own sworn court filings that one of his meetings with the government “lasted three days.” Another meeting lasted at least one day. Bowdoin advised U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer that he had “revealed significant information against my interest.”

    The meetings were held in December 2008 and January 2009. Bowdoin’s affidavit implies that the December meeting was the one that lasted three days. So, Andy Bowdoin met with the government for a period of at least four days and revealed “significant information” against his interests and presumably the interests of others — and now Bowdoin, through his Surf’s Up shills, is trying to tell the membership that “he has stood his ground firm since August of 2008.”

    It was all there in black and white at Surf’s Up yesterday — until it was deleted, of course.

    There was no mention of the proof to the contrary: Bowdoin’s sworn affidavit.

    Two Whoppers Since September

    This was the second time since late September that Bowdoin has lied to the membership. During a Sept. 21 conference call, Bowdoin told listeners that the tens of millions of dollars seized in the wire-fraud, money-laundering, securities-fraud and Ponzi scheme case belonged to the members. The U.S. Secret Service listened to this call, transcribed it and presented it to the judge.

    The trouble with Bowdoin’s claim that the money belonged to members is that he told Collyer in three sworn documents he signed on Aug. 13, 2008, that the money belonged to him and his companies.

    Bowdoin now is trying to have Collyer disqualified from the case. It is not the first time an effort evolved to force Collyer to step down. Curtis Richmond, an ASD member who has declared himself a “sovereign” being in other cases and has attempted to have judges and litigation opponents jailed, also tried.

    A Devil In The Details

    Here is how Bowdoin, the purported “Christian,” sought to rally members in August 2008:

    “This is an attack of Satan because we were helping tens of thousands of people around the world,” members quoted Bowdoin as saying in describing the forfeiture case. “But we are more than over-comers, and we get our strength from God. And with God all things are possible. And we’re on our way to a miracle folks. I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that we’ll be back in business, stronger than ever. It’ll take all the doubts away from all these people about being a Ponzi, because it’ll be proven that we are NOT a ponzi.”

    Of course, the same Andy Bowdoin solicited testimonials from the membership to assist in his battle to retain his money before all of the facts of the case were in. Thousands of trusting members — many of whom identify themselves as Christians and have described Bowdoin as a grandfatherly Christian — provided testimonials.

    Only later did they find out that Bowdoin was “advertising” a failed, dissolved business in his own rotator to qualify for “rebates” and that Bowdoin had told the Secret Service that ASD had $1 million in a bank on the Caribbean island nation of Antigua in an account under a different name.

    Let’s walk that one back: ASD, a purported “advertising” business, was so effective that even a company that no longer exists could make money. Prosecutors later said that Bowdoin paid an an employee to surf for Bowdoin’s son, so the son could make money.

    Bowdoin apparently forgot to tell his own attorneys about the Antigua money. Prosecutors reminded him of it, though, after Bowdoin filed for emergency release of $2 million in seized funds, saying ASD could not pay its rent or hosting bills.

    On or about June 10, 2008, less than two weeks after a May 31 ASD “rally” concluded in Las Vegas with Bowdoin talking about his relationship with God, Bowdoin’s wife and her son, George Harris, used money from two ASD Bank of America accounts and opened an account at a separate bank.

    More than $157,000 of the opening deposit was used to pay off the mortgage on the Harris home in Tallahassee. In the following days, ASD money was used to buy jet skis, a Cabana boat, marine equipment and two automobiles, according to prosecutors.

    Flash forward two months to August 2008 — and Bowdoin’s remarks that ASD had been on the receiving end of an attack from “Satan.”

    “[O]n Friday August 1st we had a 9/11 but it was about 30 times worse,” ASD members quoted Bowdoin as saying on Aug. 12, 2008.

    On the very next day, Aug. 13, Bowdoin signed the sworn affidavits saying the ASD money belonged to him and his companies.

    Bowdoin did not mention the cars, the jet skis, the boat, the marine equipment and the paid-off Harris mortgage at the time. He did not tell members that he was paying an employee to surf for his son. His core message was to inundate the offices of investigators and lawmakers with letters that told the recipients what a poor job they are doing, how unfair they are being, that people are hurting because of the actions prosecutors had taken the previous week in freezing certain ASD assets.

    Only 15 days prior to Bowdoin’s invocation of “Satan” on Aug. 12, 2008, ASD money was used to purchase a Lincoln luxury sedan for $48,244.03. About 16 days after Bowdoin invoked Satan and compared the Secret Service to the 9/11 terrorists, Bowdoin sent a check for $100 to his victims in an Alabama securities scheme a decade earlier.

    At the time, the victims were owed about $45,000, about $3,244 less than the purchase price of the Lincoln.

    God As A Stage Prop

    Yesterday will go down in history as one of the oddest days in ASD’s odd history. Bowdoin, through a shill, told the troops he was still fighting the good fight. The Surf’s Up missive implored members to “get a little excited folks!”

    “Andy explained a few things to me of which I cannot share them all, but I can say that the government attorney’s ‘have’ finally admitted to some things that are totally in our (ASD) favor,” the email from the shill claimed.

    Bowdoin, according to the email, just knew ASD would be back better than ever. The email did not reference a fresh ruling from Collyer that Bowdoin no longer even had standing in the forfeiture case.

    In fact, the email treated the membership as simpletons. It did not acknowledge the proffer letter Bowdoin had signed in the case, his meetings with prosecutors in which he provided information against his interests, his acknowledgments that ASD was operating illegally, his cooperation with the government, his decision to submit to the forfeiture in January 2009 to maximize his chances of avoiding prison time.

    What the email did was insist that Bowdoin had stood “firm” since August 2008, despite the overwhelming proof to the contrary. Indeed, the same man who invoked “Satan” and the 9/11 terrorists to destroy the reputation of the agency that guards the Treasury and the life of the President of the United States — the same man who tried to destroy the reputation of his defense counsel — is the same man who now is trying to have a federal judge removed from the case.

    Collyer can’t be fair, Bowdoin says — and he apparently says it with a straight face, just as he did when he said this on May 31, 2008, in Las Vegas:

    “We need to have an attitude of gratitude with God.

    “And I always say, ‘Thank you, God, for developing me into a money magnet.’ And I see myself as a money magnet in attracting money and, I say, attracting large sums of money.”

    Only 11 days later, the money was deposited to pay off the Harris mortgage.

    harrismortgage

  • Bowdoin Purportedly Tells ASD Member That Prosecutors ‘Have’ Finally Admitted To Screwing Up; Email Asks Members To Look For ‘Rally’ Videos; New Flap Starts On Surf’s Up

    breakingnewsUPDATED 5:34 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) In a development reminiscent of a claim made more than a year ago on the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum that prosecutors had acknowledged behind closed doors that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme and refused to admit it publicly because of embarrassment, a new email missive surfaced today that suggested Bowdoin was on the verge of winning the forfeiture case.

    The claim was made despite the fact that a federal judge has issued a fresh ruling that Bowdoin no longer even has standing in the case.

    Like previous unsubstantiated claims that the government was losing the case, today’s email was published on the Surf’s Up forum. Threadbare of supporting details, the email cited a third-party conversation with Bowdoin and implored ASD members to “get a little excited folks!”

    “Andy explained a few things to me of which I cannot share them all, but I can say that the government attorney’s ‘have’ finally admitted to some things that are totally in our (ASD) favor,” the email claimed.

    No mention was made as to what the government purportedly admitted that was helpful to ASD’s case. The email was posted a short time after news broke that U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer refused to step down from the ASD forfeiture case.

    Collyer’s refusal came in response to a Dec. 17 motion filed by Bowdoin to disqualify her, but Collyer said Bowdoin no longer had standing in the case to make any additional claims or to reassert old claims.

    Today’s Surf’s Up email did not address the judge’s fresh ruling, which was docketed only hours before the new round of unsubstantiated claims was made in the email published on Surf’s Up.

    “Andy said that in cases such as the ASD one the government usually pushes so hard until they get a plea deal. He said that this happens 98% of the time,” today’s email claimed. “But, Andy would not sell us out and he has stood his ground firm since August of 2008 and because of that things are starting to turn around for ASD. This is something the government did not expect.”

    Prosecutors called Bowdoin “delusional” in September 2009, asserting he was telling members one story and Collyer another. They asserted in earlier filings that he has “followers.”

    Despite repeated claims on Surf’s Up beginning in the fall of 2008 that prosecutors had admitted ASD was not a Ponzi scheme, no such proof ever has surfaced. In fact, in December 2008, prosecutors filed a second forfeiture complaint against assets tied to the firm, again alleging that ASD was a Ponzi scheme.

    Even though Surf’s Up claimed the government had admitted ASD was not a Ponzi scheme, no attorney for ASD ever argued a similar claim in court — in either the December 2008 or August 2008 forfeiture cases against the firm. There is not a single entry in the public record of the case that the government ever acknowledged ASD was not a Ponzi scheme.

    In April 2009, prosecutors said Bowdoin signed a proffer letter in the case and had acknowledged the material allegations against ASD were “all true.” Bowdoin had at least two meetings with prosecutors over a period of at least four days last winter, and admitted ASD was operating illegally, according to court filings.

    In September 2009, Bowdoin said in his own court filings that he had admitted “significant information against my interest.”

    Surf’s Up posters have led various campaigns to discredit the prosecution.

    Today’s email urged ASD members to search for videos that might have been taken at ASD  functions, suggesting the videos could be used to prove the prosecution is lying.

    “The reason Andy was calling was to get some help from the members. So, here it is…

    “Andy wants to know if any of you took Videos and/or Audios of ‘him’ speaking at any of the ASD Rallies,” the email said. “The government is stating that Andy said certain things during the rallies and Andy is confident that he did not, but he does not have the proof without being able to provide the video/audio footage.

    “Please share this message with your entire organization so that we can get it out to the
    masses yet today hopefully to see if someone has the supporting evidence for Andy,” the email urged. “If any of you DO have the video footage (or audio recording) then transfer it to DVD and and contact Catherine Parker at [email address deleted].”

    In August, some of Bowdoin’s supporters claimed that Collyer had ordered the prosecution to prove by Aug. 28 that ASD was a Ponzi scheme or dismiss the charges. A similar claim was made in April.

    Collyer has never issued such an order.

    Today’s email asked ASD members to send warm thoughts to Bowdoin and his wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin. Edna Faye Bowdoin and her son, George Harris, were named beneficiaries of ASD’s illegal conduct in the December 2008 prosecution filing.

    Prosecutors alleged that Edna Faye Bowdoin and Harris used money from two ASD Bank of America accounts in June 2008 to open an account at a third bank into which more than $177,000 in illegal proceeds was deposited. Of that sum, more than $157,000 was transferred by wire to yet another bank and used to pay off the mortgage on the Harris home in Tallahassee.

    Bowdoin described George Harris as head of ASD’s real-estate division, according to court filings. He also talked about establishing a business presence in South America. Only months later, the AdViewGlobal autosurf was born, purportedly operated from Uruguay and owned by George Harris and his wife, Judy Harris.

    ‘I asked Andy how Faye was doing and he was quiet for a moment and then said she is not doing so good,” today’s email said. “She is in a very severe depression and has been for quite some time ever since this whole debacle started.

    “So, I have a personal favor to ask of you all. Can you take a few minutes to send her a card or a nice note at the very least to let her know that the members are still thinking about her and Andy?” the email urged.

    Some ASD members immediately questioned why Bowdoin himself had not sent the email and instead relied on a third-party communication to ask for a favor. At the same time, members questioned what had become of Sara Mattoon, reportedly ASD’s official spokeswoman.

    In September 2009, the U.S. Secret Service filed a transcript of an ASD conference call in which Bowdoin and Mattoon were quoted. The filing led to questions about whether the government was contemplating a prosecution for obstruction of justice.

    Prosecutors also made a veiled reference to the AVG autosurf in a September filing. In June, RICO attorneys suing Bowdoin for racketeering made a direct reference to AVG.

    In the prosecution’s September 2009 filing, the government suggested an AVG prosecution could be in the offing.

    “ . . . 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,” prosecutors said.