UPDATED 3:53 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The adviewglobal.com domain appears to be back online, with a renewed registration for one year. The domain name had expired Sept. 22, throwing the site offline and triggering questions and confusion from members.
Here, below, our earlier story . . .
AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin now suggests he was indicted under seal in May. If true, does the Bowdoin indictment help explain the strange events at AdViewGlobal in May, June, July and August — events that culminated in September with AVG going offline?
If you’re new to the PatrickPretty.com Blog, perhaps our archives can be of assistance in helping you understand more of the context of the ASD/AVG story.
Here is a story from April that focuses on the prosecution’s bombshell announcement that Bowdoin had signed a proffer letter in the case.
Prosecutors had responded to three of the four pro se pleadings by Bowdoin without divulging the existence of the letter. Only in their fourth and final response to the pleadings did they disclose that Bowdoin perhaps was assisting the government in unwinding the ASD mess, before Bowdoin suddenly changed his mind and morphed into a pro se litigant seeking to recast the civil-forfeiture case as a criminal matter and to undo his decision to cede tens of millions of dollars to the government.
For additional background, see this story from March about apparent cash-flow problems that had developed at AVG, only weeks after its formal launch in February.
Moving forward, perhaps this May story about AVG’s announcement it had secured a new wire facility to replace one that apparently had been suspended in March will add to your knowledge base.
AVG made the announcement May 4, only hours after the President of the United States and the U.S. Treasury Department had announced a crackdown on international fraud.
Three days later, a company AVG identified as a facilitator of the international wire transfers denied it had any business relationship with AVG. The firm suggested it had been targeted in a scam by which AVG would route money to itself by using a shell company.
AVG ignored the denial, instead saying negotiations it already had announced as completed — up to and including precise wiring instructions for members to purchase “advertising” — had failed.
An attempt by AVG to launch a new website about two weeks later failed. The website, which featured a Yellow Pages logo and suggested AVG perhaps was entering into even more businesses the government monitors closely, was withdrawn. AVG had announced an “unprecedented” 250 percent match to promote the website, a possible marker of severe cash-flow problems.
Perhaps to send a signal all was well, the surf paid out higher-than-normal paper profits just prior to the introduction of the 250 percent bonus. An AVG forum run by some of the Mods and members of the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum went on a delete-fest when members began to ask uncomfortable questions.
By June 1, AVG announced a new suite of products and services, apparently redefining itself only days after the purported indictment against Bowdoin.
An email AVG sent to announce its new offerings hotlinked to the servers of three publishing companies, including Forbes. This led to questions about whether AVG was trying to create the appearance of legitimacy by piggybacking off the brands of legitimate companies — a practice associated with ASD.
On June 3, a furious reaction ensued after we published a story on an AVG member’s plan to help prospects with “big bucks” qualify for matching bonuses before the June 5 deadline. The story questioned whether members who took the approach were committing wire fraud.
Could AVG have been reacting to stress caused by the purported indictment against Bowdoin?
One of our readers/posters, Entertained, the author of a “Black Box” mathematical method to prove/disprove Ponzi schemes, later composed some questions for AVG. (See story/comments thread.)
AVG recast the questions. (See story/comments thread.)
AVG suspended cashouts June 25. It explained that members had cheated the system by taking advantage of a cash button the surf itself had offered. AVG later changed its story, saying $2.7 million had been stolen from the firm.
It has been very difficult to identify the actual owners of the eWalletPlus payment processor AVG said it owned. No fewer than three companies have claimed to own the payment processor, which now is offline.
Now AVG itself is offline.
UPDATE 3:53 P.M. Site appears to be back online, with the domain name renewed.