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Tag: Rust Consulting Inc.

  • AdSurfDaily Member Dwight Owen Schweitzer Ordered Not To Send Email To Federal Judge

    If you’re keeping a list of the strange sidebars associated with the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case, here is another entry for your notebook: U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of the Southern District of Florida has ordered onetime practicing attorney Dwight Schweitzer not to contact her by email.

    The order was issued Monday, more than five months after Altonaga formally laid down the rules of decorum on how a lawsuit filed by Schweitzer and fellow pro se plaintiff Todd Disner in November against the United States and Rust Consulting Inc. would proceed.

    On Nov. 9, 2011, Altonaga specifically advised Schweitzer and Disner that they were required to follow the rules, one of which was that “[n]o letters, pleadings, motions or other documents may be sent directly to the District Judge or Magistrate Judge’s chambers.”

    The judge cautioned that “[e]very pleading, motion, memorandum or other paper required and/or permitted to be filed with the Court must be filed directly with the Clerk of the Court.”

    Regardless, Schweitzer sent an email pertaining to a scheduling matter directly to Altonaga on Monday. The judge responded by reminding Schweitzer of the Nov. 9 order and ordering him not to send her any more emails.

    “[T]he Plaintiff shall file his e-mail and all future filings directly with the Clerk of the Court,” Altonaga told Schweitzer.

    Her order was issued six days after she granted Rust’s motion to be dismissed as a defendant in the case, leaving the government as the sole defendant.

    It was not the first time Schweitzer allegedly had cut corners and sent an inappropriate communication directly to a judge. On April 17, 2009, the Statewide Grievance Committee of the Connecticut Bar found that he had sent an improper, ex parte communication via fax in July 2008 to a state judge in Florida on the same day she made a ruling against Schweitzer in a case in which he was suing a defendant pro se.

    The 2008 fax, according to the committee findings, inappropriately identified Schweitzer as a practicing attorney and was not copied to opposing counsel.

    “On or about July 1, 2008, the Respondent (Schweitzer) sent correspondence via facsimile to the chambers of the Honorable Sarah Zabel of the 11th Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida requesting that the dismissal of his case be reopened sua sponte or a hearing be noticed on a motion to set aside the dismissal,” the committee found.

    “The judge had made a ruling on the case that morning,” the committee continued. “The Respondent did not send, contemporaneously, a copy of the correspondence to opposing counsel. On the correspondence, the Respondent indicated that he was an ‘Attorney and Counselor at Law[,] licensed solely in the state of Connecticut.’ The Respondent was suspended from the practice of law on August 21, 2003, and his license has been inactive since that time. The Respondent did not indicate to the judge that his license in Connecticut has been suspended.”

    In response to the committee’s allegations, Schweitzer wrote, “The purpose of identifying my licensure in correspondence to a judge in a case where I am suing the very same attorney . . .  for malpractice and willful misconduct was to let the court know that I was not the typical pro se litigant and felt it completely appropriate to indicate my being licensed with all that it implies.”

    But the committee begged to differ, finding that Schweitzer had violated the Connecticut Rules of Professional Conduct even as his license to practice law in the state was under suspension. Schweitzer has not filed papers to regain his license, saying he is retired from the practice of law and interested in other pursuits.

    In his April 16 email to Altonaga, Schweitzer did copy opposing counsel, according to the address listed in the “To” line. Whether counsel received the email was unclear.

    What is clear is that Altonaga received it — and ordered Schweitzer not to do it again.

    On April 10, Altonaga dismissed Rust — the government-approved claims administrator in the civil portion of the ASD Ponzi case — as a defendant.

    The claims by Schweitzer and Disner were hypothetical in nature and “far from the ‘definite and concrete’ dispute required for the maintenance of a declaratory judgment action,” Altonaga ruled.

    The government has not responded to the complaint.

    Among other things, Schweitzer and Disner have contended that the government seized their private information illegally in seizing ASD’s database in August 2008 and that undercover agents who had joined ASD had violated the firm’s Terms of Service.

    ASD was running an international Ponzi scheme in which a securities business was disguised as an advertising company, according to the U.S. Secret Service.

  • UPDATE: Judge Tosses Lawsuit Filed By AdSurfDaily Members Dwight Owen Schweitzer And Todd Disner Against Rust Consulting

    U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of the Southern District of Florida has dismissed a lawsuit by AdSurfDaily members Dwight Owen Schweitzer and Todd Disner against Rust Consulting Inc., the government-approved claims administrator in the civil portion of the ASD Ponzi case.

    The claims by Schweitzer and Disner were hypothetical in nature and “far from the ‘definite and concrete’ dispute required for the maintenance of a declaratory judgment action,” Altonaga ruled.

    And Schweitzer and Disner did “not explain how their allegations relate to their declaratory action against Rust,” Altonaga ruled.

    “Indeed,” she continued, “the declaration Plaintiffs seek in this action relates to the government’s verified complaint for forfeiture . . . the Court cannot find — nor do Plaintiffs identify — anything in the Complaint indicating what declaration Plaintiffs seek with regard to Rust.”

    Schweitzer and Disner sued Rust and the United States in November. A response by the U.S. Department of Justice is expected soon.

    Rust moved for dismissal last month, arguing that Schweitzer and Disner were impermissibly seeking to relitigate the forfeiture action against tens of millions of dollars in the personal bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

    Those issues already had been decided in the District of Columbia, where the forfeiture case was filed in August 2008, Rust argued.

    In dismissing the claims by Schweitzer and Disner against Rust, Altonaga ruled that the Schweitzer/Disner complaint had presented a “conjectural, hypothetical, or contingent” controversy as it pertained to Rust.

    Read the dismissal order in Rust’s favor.

  • Rust Consulting, Claims Administrator In AdSurfDaily Ponzi Case, Says ASD Members Dwight Owen Schweitzer And Todd Disner Are ‘Impermissibly’ Seeking To Relitigate D.C. Forfeiture Case Before Florida Federal Judge

    UPDATED 2:57 P.M. ET (U.S.A., MARCH 11)

    Dwight Owen Schweitzer and Todd Disner — the two AdSurfDaily members from Miami who filed suit against the Justice Department and Rust Consulting Inc. in November 2011 — never filed remissions-claims forms, Rust said in a motion to dismiss the complaint.

    And Schweitzer and Disner are “impermissibly” seeking to relitigate the forfeiture action against tens of millions of dollars in the personal bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin before a federal judge in Florida, Rust asserted.

    The original civil case was brought by federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia and decided against Bowdoin/ASD by a federal judge in the District of Columbia.

    But Disner and Schweitzer now are seeking a Florida venue to “avoid or evade the earlier judgment in the Seizure Action, or to deny its force or effect,” Rust argued in its dismissal motion.

    The Florida court “lacks subject matter jurisdiction,” Rust argued. But even if the court concluded that it could preside over the the lawsuit, Schweitzer and Disner have not stated “a claim upon which relief can be granted against RUST, on the grounds that it constitutes an impermissible attack on the orders, rulings, and judgment rendered in the Seizure Action.”

    “Plaintiffs are effectively seeking to re-litigate the Seizure Action in this case,” Rust argued. “Their material allegations and demands for relief center on their desire for this Court to determine whether the USA presented sufficient evidence in the Seizure Action to justify the seizure and confiscation of property held by ASD, including and in particular Plaintiff’s alleged property . . . In other words, in this action Plaintiffs seek to challenge the court’s decisions rendered in the Seizure Action. This is impermissible.”

    Moreover, Rust argued, “it cannot be ignored that Plaintiffs admit they were afforded means in the Seizure Action to submit claims for their alleged property, but elected not to do so.”

    In bringing their case in November, Schweitzer and Disner claimed an affidavit filed in the forfeiture case by the U.S. Secret Service in the District of Columbia was flawed and that the government hired Rust to implement a remissions program “designed to collect evidence and coerced admissions from the plaintiffs to be used by the government” at the criminal trial of ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

    Disner and Schweitzer also took issue with government agents joining ASD prior to the August 2008 seizure and allegedly violating the ASD membership agreement, including an undercover agent who placed his undercover “MySpace” page in ASD’s advertising rotator. In 2008, the government alleged that “ASD did not require, or even verify that the agent “had any product or service to sell.”

    Had the agents “lived up to the obligations they took on by becoming members of ASD they should have reported their own violations of the ASD terms of service with the result that the sites they foisted upon ASD would have been removed and the benefits to them as advertisers’ would be forfeited as the ASD rules mandated,” Disner and Schweitzer argued.

    As of yesterday, the government had not responded to the lawsuit, which was brought by Schweitzer and Disner in the form of a complaint for declaratory relief that alleged Constitutional violations.

    Whether Schweitzer and Disner properly served the government in the case is an issue.

    U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga has given them an extension of five days — from March 7 to March 12 — to demonstrate the government has been properly served.

    If Schweitzer and Disner have properly served the government, it is possible that the Justice Department may move for dismissal on grounds similar to the grounds cited by Rust.

    Not only were final orders of forfeiture entered by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer in the District of Columbia, her orders were upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals months before Schweitzer and Disner turned to the Florida federal court.

    In September 2011 — weeks before Schweitzer and Disner brought their complaint — the government returned about $55 million to ASD members who demonstrated a loss through the remissions process administered by Rust.

    When the government announced the return of the money, the U.S. Secret Service described ASD as a “criminal enterprise.”

    In their complaint, however, Schweitzer and Disner argued that ASD was a profitable venture, in stark contrast to assertions by the government that ASD was insolvent because it created a liability of $1.25 for each dollar it took in through the sale of purported “advertising.”

  • UPDATE: Judge Ordered Detention Of Kenneth Wayne Leaming To Continue After Initial Hearing; AdSurfDaily Figure And Purported ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Accused Of Filing Bogus Liens Against Bush Cabinet Secretary, Officials Involved In ASD Ponzi Case

    President Bush observes the 2006 swearing-in ceremony of incoming Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. Peters held the cabinet post between October 2006 and January 2009. Source: Wikipedia: White House photo by Paul Morse.

    UPDATED 5:42 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Public officials involved in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case were not the only targets of bogus liens filed by Kenneth Wayne Leaming, according to federal prosecutors in Seattle.

    Leaming, 55, also filed a lien against Mary Peters, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation under President George W. Bush during his second White House term, prosecutors said.

    In addition, prosecutors said Leaming filed liens against U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer; former U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor; former assistant U.S. Attorney William Cowden; current assistant U.S. Attorney Vasu B. Muthyala; and Roy Dotson, a special agent of the U.S. Secret Service.

    Collyer is presiding over both the civil and criminal prosecutions connected to the ASD Ponzi case in the District of Columbia. The civil case, which led to the successful forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars in the personal bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin, was brought by Taylor’s office in August 2008.

    Cowden and Muthyala assisted in the prosecution against ASD-related assets, including more than $65.8 million in Bowdoin’s 10 bank accounts and more than $14 million in other bank accounts linked to Golden Panda Ad Builder, a companion autosurf.

    Dotson was a key investigator in the case, which was brought in part through the efforts of a Florida-based Task Force. Bowdoin was arrested in December 2010. He is free awaiting trial in the District of Columbia.

    Taylor was succeeded as U.S. Attorney by Ronald C. Machen Jr. Machen’s office was sued pro se earlier this month by ASD members Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer of Miami. Disner, a cofounder of the Quiznos sandwich franchise,  and Schweitzer, a former attorney whose license was suspended in Connecticut,  asserted that prosecutors engaged in “character assassination” against Bowdoin and that the forfeiture case consisted of a “tissue of lies.” They also claimed Dotson’s affidavit that led to the seizure of Bowdoin’s assets was flawed and that 4th Amendment violations had occurred.

    Disner and Schweitzer also named Rust Consulting Inc., the government-approved claims administrator in the Ponzi case, a pro se lawsuit defendant. In September, Machen joined Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer in announcing that the government had returned $55 million to victims of the ASD Ponzi.

    Collyer ordered the forfeiture of Bowdoin’s assets in January 2010. Her rulings were upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals. Bowdoin, 77, is using Facebook and a website known as “Andy’s Fundraising Army” to raise money for his criminal defense on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

    Why Peters allegedly was targeted by Leaming was not immediately clear. But court records suggest the FBI is investigating Leaming ties to a Washington state group of “sovereign citizens” known as the “County Rangers.”

    Leaming was arrested on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Richard Creatura in Tacoma. Creatura ordered Leaming’s detention to continue. The date of Leaming’s next court appearance was not immediately clear.

    Leaming, according to prosecutors, was found Tuesday with two federal fugitives from Arkansas who were indicted in February on federal charges related to an alleged envelope-stuffing scheme. Prosecutors identified the fugitives as Timothy Shawn Donavan and Sharon Jeannette Henningsen.

    Donavan and Henningsen have court histories that include declaring themselves “living breathing free” people to whom laws do not apply, according to records. Like Leaming, they are being held at the Sea Tac Federal Detention Center near Seattle.

    Leaming has been charged with retaliating against a Federal judge or Federal law enforcement officer by false claim or slander of title, an obstruction of justice statute.

    Among the government’s allegations against Bowdoin is that he falsely claimed to have received an important award for business acumen from President Bush in 2008. ASD members used Bush’s name in online promos, according to records.

    In July 2008 — as the Secret Service and the Task Force were investigating ASD — Bowdoin threatened to sue critics, according to court filings. After the seizure of his assets, he claimed the government’s action was the work of “Satan” and compared the seizure to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

    Cowden, whose name was repeatedly misspelled as “Crowden” by pro se litigants in the forfeiture case, was derided as “Gomer Pyle” on the now-defunct, pro-ASD “Surf’s Up” forum. One ASD member opined that Cowden should be placed in a torture rack. Another said a “militia” should storm Washington. Still another issued a “prayer” that called for prosecutors to be struck dead.

    ASD critics were derided as “rats,” “maggots” and “cockroaches.”

    In December 2010, prosecutors linked ASD to E-Bullion, a defunct California payment processor operated by James Fayed. E-Bullion has been linked to several Ponzi schemes.

    Earlier this month, Fayed was formally sentenced to death for arranging the contract slaying of his estranged wife, Pamela Fayed.

    Pamela Fayed was slashed 13 times in a Greater Los Angeles parking garage in July 2008 while James Fayed sat on a bench within earshot of Pamela’s screams, according to records.

    At least one ASD member used E-Bullion to send money to ASD, according to federal court records. That member — former ASD “trainer” Erma Seabaugh of Missouri — was operating a purported “religious” nonprofit in Oregon and using ASD to promote a pyramid scheme, according to records.

     

  • HAVE THE ‘GAMES’ BEGUN? AdSurfDaily Members Todd Disner, Dwight Owen Schweitzer File Lawsuit Against Government That Claims Undercover Agents Violated Firm’s Terms Of Service; Federal Prosecutors Say Money Was Seized Properly With Valid Warrants

    UPDATED 11:27 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) In May, an email attributed to AdSurfDaily member Todd Disner declared, “Let the games begin!” The remark was in the context of a lawsuit Disner and fellow ASD member Dwight Owen Schweitzer intended to file against the United States once ASD members chipped in enough money to fund the complaint.

    Those games apparently have begun with the filing today of a pro se “complaint for declaratory relief” by Disner and Schweitzer in the Southern District of Florida against the United States and Rust Consulting Inc., the government-approved claims administrator in the civil-forfeiture portion of the ASD Ponzi case.

    The lawsuit asks a federal judge in Florida to find that the seizure of assets and business records belonging to Disner and Schweitzer was “illegal and void” and demands their return. It also asks the judge to order Rust to “disclose all information in its possession or available to it pertaining to” Disner and Schweitzer.

    Among the claims in the lawsuit are that undercover agents from a U.S. Secret Service/IRS Task Force who joined ASD prior to the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from the bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin violated ASD’s Terms of Service and had a duty to report their alleged TOS violations, including the insertion of an agent’s undercover “MySpace” page in ASD’s advertising rotator, to the company.

    Rust is headquartered in Minnesota. Although the complaint named the United States a defendant alongside Rust, the address listed for the United States by Disner and Schweitzer was the address of the office of U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. in the District of Columbia.

    Disner, an unsuccessful pro se litigant in the ASD civil case brought by the government, is a co-founder of the Quiznos sandwich franchise. He lives in Miami. Schweitzer, a former attorney, also lives in Miami. The government’s case against ASD-related assets was filed in the District of Columbia in August 2008. Disner was denied standing in the District of Columbia on Aug. 31, 2009, more than two years ago.

    Among other things, Disner and Schweitzer claim their private records as contained in ASD’s database were confiscated illegally by the government. They also claimed  an affidavit filed in the forfeiture case by the U.S. Secret Service was flawed and that the government hired Rust to implement a remissions program “designed to collect evidence and coerced admissions from the plaintiffs to be used by the government” at the criminal trial of ASD President Andy Bowdoin.

    Federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia — the venue in which both the criminal and the civil cases against Bowdoin and ASD-connected assets were filed — had a different take.

    “The funds in this case were seized under properly issued judicial warrants,” Machen’s office said today. “Beyond that, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has no comment on the matter at this time. ”

    Puzzlingly, the complaint filed by Disner and Schweitzer and recorded on the docket of U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga today makes the assertion that “To date the plaintiffs are unaware of any remission payments having been made and specifically the plaintiffs were unable to get the information required for their submissions, all of which are still in the possession of the government.”

    On Sept. 22 — more than six weeks ago — the PP Blog reported that thousands of ASD members who filed approved remissions claims would receive back 100 cents on the dollar. Members reported that the money was deposited electronically into their bank accounts beginning on Sept. 23. On Sept. 26, the government announced that $55 million was being returned, with the Secret Service describing ASD as a “criminal enterprise” and the Department of Justice describing the ASD scheme as “insidious.”

    In a Sept. 28 email, even Bowdoin acknowledged that he was aware the government had returned money to members through the remissions process. Among other things, the ASD patriarch claimed the government had forced members to lie to receive compensation.

    Disner and Schweitzer not only claim in their complaint that they are “unaware” of any money being returned, they also claim the remissions program was designed to “prevent, hamper and forestall the return” of funds.

    Meanwhile, Disner and Schweitzer claim that ASD was a profitable venture, in stark contrast to assertions by the government that ASD was insolvent because it created a liability of $1.25 for each dollar it took in through the sale of purported “advertising.”

    Disner and Schweitzer also took issue with government agents joining ASD and allegedly violating the ASD membership agreement, including an undercover agent who placed his undercover “MySpace” page in ASD’s advertising rotator. In August 2008, the government alleged that “ASD did not require, or even verify that the agent “had any product or service to sell.”

    Had the agents “lived up to the obligations they took on by becoming members of ASD they should have reported their own violations of the ASD terms of service with the result that the sites they foisted upon ASD would have been removed and the benefits to them as advertisers’ would be forfeited as the ASD rules mandated,” Disner and Schweitzer argued.

  • SPECIAL REPORT: Email Encourages AdSurfDaily Members To Identify Federal Prosecutors, Federal Judge And Secret Service Agent As ‘DOJ Thieves’ In County-Level Filings — And To Send ‘Certified Copy’ Of Claims To Home Address Of Chief Justice Of The United States

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

    EDITOR’S NOTE: A week after the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia put $55 million from civil judgments back in the pockets of AdSurfDaily members as the criminal prosecution of ASD President Andy Bowdoin continues, a new effort by some ASD members to undermine the credibility of public officials by describing them as thieves who are encouraging ASD members to lie appears to be under way. Whether the government is taking extra security precautions in the ASD case is not known. The U.S. Marshals Service and the office of U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. in the District of Columbia did not respond immediately to the PP Blog’s requests for comment on this story. The Blog was unable today to contact the Public Information Office of the Supreme Court for comment.

    UPDATED 8:10 A.M. EDT (OCT. 3, U.S.A.) Is a purported “sovereign citizen” whom records show filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against the Washington State Bar Association in 2009 that claimed he was owed an outstanding debt of more than $32 billion now leading an effort to destroy the reputations of public officials involved in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case?

    On Saturday, two ASD members confirmed to the PP Blog that they had received copies of an email that encouraged them to identify federal prosecutors and a federal judge in the District of Columbia — as well as a U.S. Secret Service agent — as “DOJ thieves.”

    The email accused prosecutors of running a “scam” against Florida-based ASD and encouraged ASD members to file an “affidavit” with their “county recorder” that would name the prosecutors, the judge and the Secret Service agent as criminals. It further encouraged members to send a “notary certified copy” of their claims to the home address of John G. Roberts Jr., the Chief Justice of the United States.

    Why members were encouraged to send documents to Roberts at his home address was unclear. Roberts, 56, is the nation’s highest ranking judicial officer and is chief judge of the U.S. Supreme Court.

    In the email, ASD members were further encouraged to send certified copies of their “DOJ thieves” claims to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the “RUST Group.” Rust Consulting Inc. is the government-approved remissions administrator in the ASD Ponzi case. Federal prosecutors last week released $55 million seized by the Secret Service, and Rust deposited the money into the bank accounts of about 8,400 ASD members who filed approved remissions claims in the case.

    ASD members who participated in the remissions program would be “coerced” into lying by prosecutors to put Bowdoin in prison, according to the email.

    If they did not “TESTILIE” — a new phrase that marries the words “testify” and “lie” and apparently means misrepresent their testimony at prosecutors’ requests — they will “be put into prison for false claims and fraud,” according to the email.

    “MARK MY WORDS,” the email emphasized in all-caps. The word “TESTILIE” also was capitalized in the email, quotes from which were attributed to ASD figure “Keny.”

    “Keny” is the nickname of ASD figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming. Leaming has been identified by the Anti-Defamation League as a so-called “sovereign citizen.”

    Records in Washington state identify Leaming as one of two persons who filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) in 2009 that claimed a debt against the association of “US$32,091,000,000.00.”

    The petition against the bar association was filed on Oct. 12, 2009. WSBA moved within days to have the petition dismissed and for sanctions against Leaming. Leaming moved for a continuance and to have the judge removed, according to records. The judge denied both the continuance bid and a motion styled “Notice of Duty to Recuse,” and the case was dismissed on Oct. 23, 2009. A judgment of $2,750 was entered against Leaming, and he was enjoined “forever from filing a bankruptcy petition or any other pleadings before this court without the advance leave from one of the bankruptcy judges of this court.”

    Also during the month of October 2009 — while the involuntary petition against WSBA was in the courts — Leaming filed a petition to place Franciscan Health Systems, a community hospital in Washington state, in involuntary bankruptcy. That petition also was dismissed.

    Records in Pierce County, Wash., show that Leaming filed a purported lien for $9.24 billion against the hospital, seeking to attach “all tangible and intangible property” of the facility, including its fixtures, furnishings, motor vehicles, bank accounts, passbooks, saving certificates, stock certificates, lines of credit, inventories, promissory notes, office equipment, educational equipment — and even its mineral and water rights.

    Leaming and ASD figure Christian Oesch sought last year to file a lawsuit apparently seeking $29 trillion against the United States for the government’s actions in the ASD case. Leaming’s company — American-International Business Law Inc. — is referenced in the April 8, 2011, Congressional Record as the filer of an unspecified claim against the United States.

    At least two notaries public associated with Leaming have had their licenses revoked, according to records.

    Some ASD members have been associated with a practice that has been called “paper terrorism.” The practice is designed to chill litigation opponents and create inconvenience for public officials such as judges and prosecutors by making them the targets of vexatious litigation pleadings or other documents designed to nuisance them.

    Here are the comments attributed to “Keny” in the email ASD members reported receiving yesterday on the heels of the remissions payouts by the government last week. (Italics added.)

    SCAM by DOJ …. By accepting these funds, they claim to be ASD/Andy’s VICTIMS (NOT DOJ victims) who will be required to testify that they were victims of ASD/Andy if they don’t want to be arrested and prosecuted for perjury /false claims. It will totally bury Andy.

    As a “victim refund” they will now be coerced into testifying that they were a victim of Andy, not the DOJ, and unless they TESTILIE claiming that Andy scammed them, they will be put into prison for false claims and fraud. MARK MY WORDS.

    They MUST (within 72 hrs) acknowledge “receipt of the funds stolen by the DOJ, and specifically (name the ss agent, us attys, and judge as the DOJ thieves), and do so in affidavit form, filing a certified copy into public records (county recorder, etc,) and sending a notary certified copy to Eric Holder, DOJ, and the Chief Justice (Roberts) of the Supreme Court of the United States (at home), and to the RUST Group.

    ALSO, maybe close out with “Claimant hereby conditionally waives any punitive and/or exemplary and consequential damages claims in the event the funds taken are returned to me within 30 days of (NAME OF AGENT/OFFICER) receiving this claim.”

    “Keny”

    Whether the government has taken or will take extra security measures because of the strange nature of the ASD case was not immediately clear. There have been repeated attempts for months by some ASD members to discourage ASD members from filing for remissions from proceeds seized in the Secret Service’s ASD Ponzi probe and to cast prosecutors, investigators and judicial officers as corrupt.

  • NEW ADSURFDAILY DISASTER? Andy Bowdoin Says Prosecutors Returned ‘Advertising Expenses’ To Members, Not Proceeds Of A Ponzi Scheme; ‘Government Forced Members To Sign . . . Untrue Statement To Get A Refund,’ ASD Patriarch Claims

    Andy Bowdoin: Is ASD's patriarch now accusing the government of subornation of perjury?

    UPDATED 3:44 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Facing felony charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities and the potential of 125 years in prison, accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin has responded by accusing federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia of forcing members to lie to qualify for compensation from a victims’ fund in the AdSurfDaily case, according to an email ASD members have received.

    Last week, the government released $55 million seized in the ASD case and began to distribute it through Rust Consulting Inc., the remissions claims administrator approved by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Secret Service. Members began to receive payments Friday. About 8,400 ASD members filed approved claims, according to the government.

    In an email to ASD members yesterday in which Bowdoin continued his efforts to solicit $500,000 to pay for his criminal defense, the ASD patriarch suggested  prosecutors had set up the remissions program to dupe them into identifying themselves as crime victims. (Emphasis added.)

    “We need the legal defense funds now more than ever to combat this great injustice where the government forced members to sign the untrue statement to get a refund of their monies,” Bowdoin claimed in the email.

    The remissions money was not the proceeds of a Ponzi scheme, Bowdoin claimed. Rather, the money members received constituted a return of their “advertising expenses.”

    Bowdoin did not explain in the email what he intended to do if the government produced evidence that people were advertising nonexistent businesses on ASD’s closed network. Nor did he explain what he would do if the government produced evidence that the sums sent to ASD for individual advertising purchases bore no connection to the real world: a sole proprietor of an MLM sideline business hawking fruit juice who historically posted $5,000 in gross revenue suddenly spending three times that amount to advertise on ASD, for example.

    Bowdoin himself was accused in 2008 of advertising a failed, dissolved business in his own advertising “rotator” to generate purported “rebates.” In making the assertion, the government effectively was claiming that even a nonexistent business — or perhaps even a blank page or a page that promoted a personal Facebook site — could generate a return on investment if inserted in ASD’s rotator.

    “To secure some of ASD’s rebates himself, Bowdoin promoted a bogus website through ASD,” prosecutors claimed on Aug. 25, 2008. “Bowdoin explained to the Secret Service that he used the ‘advertising’ he secured from ASD to promote GPS Tech, an unsuccessful business endeavor that had already been dissolved.”

    In a footnote within the three-year-old filing, prosecutors claimed “Bowdoin also acknowledged that he modeled ASD after12dailypro, that ASD had no significant income (except maybe a couple thousand dollars) other than what its members paid in (and expected back as rebates). Bowdoin said he was not sure how ASD differed from 12dailypro except, he said, ASD did not guarantee a particular percentage, and its payments were only based on its sales. Bowdoin acknowledged that representations that he had met with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington, DC, and representations that a team of SEC attorneys that he hired had approved of his operation were made up, as was ASD’s representation that Bowdoin had been awarded a Medal of Distinction by President Bush for business acumen.”

    12DailyPro was an autosurf successfully sued by the SEC in 2006 amid allegations it was operating a massive online Ponzi scheme. Prosecutors said later that Bowdoin had a “silent partner” in ASD — and that the silent partner had been Bowdoin’s 12DailyPro sponsor. The government has said all along that ASD falsely traded on Bush’s name to sanitize a fraud that gathered tens of millions of dollars.

    The U.S. Secret Service and prosecutors said in August 2008 that Bowdoin had disguised his securities venture as an advertising company that paid “rebates” of 125 percent. They later said that ASD’s internal computer systems described payouts to members as “ROI” — for “return on investment.”

    Bowdoin, though, claimed yesterday that ASD, “by definition,” was not a Ponzi scheme. He did not addresses the government’s contention about the “ROI” reference, instead insisting that ASD offered “no guarantees” that members would receive payouts. In August 2008, the government claimed that ASD’s Terms of Service included these words:

    “Advertisers will be paid rebates until they receive 125% of their ad purchases.”

    An expert witness hired by ASD acknowledged in 2008 under cross-examination that the words had appeared in ASD’s TOS. Despite the fact that the TOS document has been a matter of public record for more than three years, some ASD members claimed that the government has produced no evidence and that ASD members who agreed that they are victims of a massive financial crime will be “torn apart” on the witness stand by ASD’s lawyers.

    The “torn apart” claim was made on Jan. 17, 2011, two days before the deadline for ASD members to file a remissions claim with Rust in the case. The claim followed previous claims that a “group” of ASD members might sue persons who identified themselves as victims.

    Bowdoin, 76, further claimed in yesterday’s email that, at his upcoming trial, the government will use claims forms signed by members to prove “they were ‘investors’ and therefore victims” of a Ponzi scheme.

    On Jan. 23, 2009 — just 10 days after Bowdoin withdrew his claims to the seized money “with prejudice” and just one day after a federal judge memorialized Bowdoin’s withdrawal and consent to forfeit the seized money — federal prosecutors explained the law to ASD victims and said the compensation program would be governed by these federal regulations. (Emphasis added in next paragraph.)

    “Under Section 9.8(a)(1) and (2) of Title 28 of the Code of Federal Regulations, in a petition for remission or mitigation of forfeiture a non-owner victim must demonstrate that it suffered a pecuniary loss of a specific amount directly caused by the criminal offense(s) underlying the forfeiture, or a related offense, and that the loss is the direct result of the criminal acts,” the government said in explaining remissions regulations.

    A month later — in February 2009 — Bowdoin reentered the case as a pro se litigant and sought to rescind his decision to submit to the forfeiture. That effort failed after months of legal wrangling, and U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer issued a final order of forfeiture for the lion’s share of the seized funds in January 2010.

    Bowdoin appealed that order and a separate forfeiture order issued by Collyer, but lost both cases in the U.S. Court of Appeals.

    In April 2009, in response to Bowdoin’s pro se pleadings, prosecutors revealed that Bowdoin had signed a proffer letter in the case and acknowledged that the government’s material allegations were all true. Bowdoin later revealed in his own court filings that he had met with prosecutors over a period of at least for days in late 2008 and early 2009 and had given information against his interests.

    In yesterday’s email, Bowdoin did not address the proffer issue and his own acknowledgment that he’d provided information against his interest in the hopes of receiving a sentencing reduction. Instead, he asserted that he had “very strong feelings about what the govt. is really doing.

    “[B]ut due to my court case and upcoming trial, I can only pass on a statement made by one of the attorneys on my Legal Defense Team, in response to the govt. media press release issued on Monday, Sept. 26th, with the headline – “$55 MILLION BEING RETURNED TO VICTIMS OF INTERNET FRAUD – Victims Receive Forfeited Ponzi Scheme Proceeds,” Bowdoin continued.

    “I am in full agreement with what my attorney had to say about this govt. press release, which is in ‘quotation marks’ as follows:

    ‘The release is a gross distortion of the facts. There are no ‘victims.’ Not a single person lost a dime until the government shut down the business. These customers bought advertising on the net. They were not investors.’”

    Bowdoin did not say whether the email he sent to members yesterday in which he claimed the government “forced” members “to sign the untrue statement” to qualify for remissions was approved by his attorney.

    Bowdoin fired his original attorneys in 2009, after he had submitted to the forfeiture and agreed to cooperate in the investigation. He later hired replacement attorneys.

    Prior to Bowdoin’s email, an ASD members who identified herself as “Sara” claimed in an email that some ASD members had received amounts like “$50,000 and $60,000” back through the remissions program.

    The email attributed to “Sara” painted a picture of a government conspiracy.

    One apparent ASD member posting on Bowdoin’s Facebook fundraising site claimed last week that he received back $27,690 through the remissions program. The person did not say whether the business he had advertised on ASD had posted revenue that would justify such an advertising purchase, and the government had no comment on the Facebook assertion.

  • UPDATE: About 8,400 AdSurfDaily Members Will Receive Remissions Payments; Number Of Successful Claimants Exceeds Population Of ASD’s Home Base Of Quincy, Fla.; No Comment From Prosecutors On Curious Facebook Post From Apparent ASD Member

    Federal prosecutors had no comment this morning about a Facebook posting from an apparent ASD member who claims to have received victim's compensation but still purportedly backs accused felon Andy Bowdoin. Bowdoin is facing criminal charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

    UPDATE: About 8,400 victims of the AdSurfDaily autosurf are receiving remissions payments of 100 percent of their losses, a source familiar with the process said today.

    The PP Blog first reported Thursday that the remissions payments would be 100 percent across the board to ASD victims who demonstrated a loss. On Friday, the Blog received a stream of confirmations from ASD victims that Rust Consulting Inc., the government-approved claims administrator, had deposited the payments into their bank accounts electronically.

    Based on court filings, the PP Blog is estimating that about 80 percent of ASD members who filed for remissions by the January 2011 deadline had their claims approved. The number represents an “overwhelming majority,” the source said last week.

    The number of successful remissions petitioners significantly exceeds the population of Quincy, Fla., ASD’s headquarters. Quincy’s population is about 7,000.

    The U.S. Secret Service said in August 2008 that ASD President Andy Bowdoin was operating a massive, international Ponzi scheme from Quincy in part by claiming ASD was selling “advertising” that paid “rebates” of 125 percent.

    Bowdoin, 76, has been soliciting contributions for his criminal defense for weeks, asking the people he is accused of defrauding to pony up $500,000 to pay for lawyers.

    Federal prosecutors had no comment this morning on a Friday post on Bowdoin’s Facebook fundraising site from an apparent ASD member who claimed he’d received crime-victim’s compensation but still was backing Bowdoin.

    “I don’t know what happened, but I had posted on here yesterday that the government sent me a letter they would be refunding my ASD money,” the apparent ASD member wrote. “To my surprise and shock, the money IS in my account as of today, all $27,690.00 of it!!!!

    “DO NOT THINK THAT I DON’T BACK ANDY, BECAUSE I STILL DO!!!!” the apparent member exclaimed. “I want ASD BACK, I want Andy and ASD EXONERATED, and I want the government to PAY PAY PAY for what they did and for MISUSE of The Patriate Act (sic), which ironically they used in the most UNPATRIOTIC way seemingly possible!”

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: ASD Victim Says His Remissions Distribution Has Been Deposited — And That It Was 100 Percent

    URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING:  The PP Blog has received the first report from an AdSurfDaily Ponzi victim that Rust Consulting Inc. has deposited his remissions distribution into his bank account and that the sum was 100 percent of his ASD loss.

    The money appeared in the member’s bank account this morning. Rust is the Minnesota-based claims administrator in the ASD case.

    Developing . . .

  • MAJOR DEVELOPMENT: AdSurfDaily Remissions Payments Will Be 100 Cents On The Dollar; ‘Thousands’ Of Payments To Go Out; ‘Overwhelming Majority’ Of Claims Approved; Members React With Joy

    “Thousands” of AdSurfDaily Ponzi victims with approved claims will receive remissions payments of “100 percent” in the coming days, a source familiar with the process tells the PP Blog.

    It is quite rare “to have a remissions program that comes back with 100 percent,” the source said.

    The claims process was administered by Rust Consulting Inc. of Minnesota. The process was coordinated by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Secret Service and the office of U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. in the District of Columbia.

    After three long years waiting for the process to be finalized after two forfeiture appeals by ASD President Andy Bowdoin and attempted pro se interventions by dozens of members who claimed the government was the bad guy, ASD members who stuck with the process expressed joy.

    “YAYAYAYAY!” exclaimed one. Another characterized the news as “amazing.”

    A small percentage of ASD members who filed claims will not receive compensation because they failed to demonstrate a loss, the source said.

    An “overwhelming majority” of claims were granted, the source said. Court records show that about 11,000 people filed claims.

    Payments are expected to begin within 15 days. The money will be deposited electronically into the accounts of ASD members whose claims were granted.

    In 2008, Bowdoin compared the prosecutors in the case to “Satan.” Other ASD members described the U.S. Secret Service as “Nazis” and “goons.” A poster on the now-defunct Surf’s Up forum said that the lead prosecutor in the case should be placed in a medieval torture rack and that ASD members should draw straws to determine who received the honor of carrying out the torture.

    A federal judge was called “brain dead” if she did not agree with ASD’s side of the case, and a purported “prayer” was circulated among ASD members calling for the prosecutors to be struck dead. One prosecutor was described derisively as “Gomer Pyle,” and rumors were unleashed on the Surf’s Up forum that the government had admitted secretly that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme.

    Some ASD members encouraged others not to file for remissions. Those who ignored the advice and were able to demonstrate a loss now will receive back 100 cents on the dollar.

    Remissions payments will be made from funds seized by the U.S. Secret Service in the earliest days of the ASD probe more than three years ago.

    Bowdoin filed appeals in the forfeiture cases, but lost. He is now soliciting funds to pay for his criminal defense to charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

    Some ASD members ignored the seizure and a parallel criminal investigation. They immediately joined other autosurfs, HYIPs and cash-gifting programs, claiming they were excellent ways to make up their ASD losses.

    In a March 2009 letter to ASD members on the Surf’s Up forum, Bowdoin chided prosecutors and the Secret Service, claiming his pro se filings in the civil portion of the case “should really get their attention.”

    A month later — in April 2009 — prosecutors revealed in a final response to a series of pro se pleadings by Bowdoin that Bowdoin had signed a proffer letter in the case and acknowledged that the government’s material allegations were all true.

    Bowdoin acknowledged in his own court filings that he had given information against his interests and had met with prosecutors over a period of at least four days in late 2008 and early 2009. In January 2009, he abandoned the forfeiture cases, releasing his claims to the seized money “with prejudice.”

    By the end of February 2009, however, Bowdoin reentered the case as a pro se litigant, claiming later that his decision was driven by a “group” of ASD members. He did not identify members of the group.

    ASD is known to have so-called “sovereign citizens” in its ranks.

    Bowdoin has not referenced the proffer letter in his fundraising bid. Nor has he referenced a racketeering lawsuit filed against him in January 2009 by some members.

    It was not immediately clear how many members destroyed their chances to receive remissions after coming under the influence of various crackpot theories spun by certain ASD members. One of the theories held that all commerce is lawful if a contract exists. Another held that members should include notes on the claims forms that explained Bowdoin was conducting business lawfully.

    Another theory held that the government had invested approximately $80 million seized in the case, had earned a return in excess of  $1 billion — and that prosecutors were partying with the money. Still another held that a federal judge was conspiring with another federal judge to deny ASD justice and that at least one of the judges was guilty of 60 felonies.

    Yet another theory held that ASD members should not cooperate with investigators and should not file remissions forms.

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: AdSurfDaily Remissions Distributions Are Beginning

    URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: UPDATED 5:21 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Remissions payments to AdSurfDaily members fleeced in an alleged global Ponzi scheme are beginning, a source tells the PP Blog.

    It was not immediately clear how Minnesota-based Rust Consulting Inc. — the government-approved claims administrator — would roll out the compensation plan and how long it would take for all members with approved claims to be notified that their payment will be on the way.

    But the PP Blog has confirmed that an ASD member in Minnesota has received a formal notification that the member’s claim has been approved and that funds will be electronically deposited within the next 15 days. (See screenshot below.) The payments are being funded from money seized by the U.S. Secret Service in the civil portion of the ASD case.

    Separately, AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin — who faces criminal charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities — continues to flog away on Facebook and a separate fundraising site to raise $500,000 to pay for his criminal defense. After nearly two months of nonstop fundraising, Bowdoin reportedly has fallen 95 percent short of his goal.

    He’ll now be issuing his appeals even as ASD members he is accused of defrauding are receiving remissions payments from the proceeds of his alleged $110 million Ponzi scheme. In sworn court filings, Bowdoin has claimed the money seized in the case belonged to him.

    At least 11,000 people have identified themselves as victims of Bowdoin’s Ponzi scheme, according to court filings.

    Screenshot: Remissions payments to AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme victims are beginning, according to this letter the PP Blog obtained today from a source.