URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: The AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme is an example of an “insidious” financial crime, the head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division said moments ago in a special statement on how forfeiture laws were used to protect ASD victims.
Meanwhile, a top official of the U.S. Secret Service described Florida-based ASD as a “criminal enterprise.”
ASD members who filed approved claims through the government’s remissions program will receive back tens of millions of dollars owing to the quick actions of the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia in 2008, officials in Washington said.
Victims who filed remissions claims and demonstrated losses will be compensated at 100 percent, a rare total, a source with knowledge of the process told the PP Blog last week.
“[F]orfeiture is a powerful tool for ensuring that victims of financial fraud are made whole,” Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer said today. “Returning funds to victims is a key goal in our mission to combat financial crimes. We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to bring justice to the citizens defrauded by these insidious schemes.”
Breuer was backed by U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. in the District of Columbia.
“We are putting $55 million back into the pockets of innocent victims of this online Ponzi scheme,” said Machen. “As we did in this case, we will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to recover every penny we can find for victims of financial fraud.”
A top Secret Service official said today that ASD was a “criminal enterprise” and that the remissions program represented a positive outcome for victims of an elaborate fraud scheme.
“With all of our efforts to punish and deter this criminal enterprise, the rights of innocent parties are protected and will subsequently be returned,” said Assistant Director A.T. Smith of the Secret Service’s Office of Investigations. “This substantial remittance not only emphasizes the cooperation between the Secret Service, U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the Department of Justice, but promotes positive community impact by returning these funds to innocent victims.”
The U.S. Secret Service “safeguards the nation’s financial infrastructure and payment systems to preserve the integrity of the economy,” said Smith.
Today’s statement by the officials confirmed that President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which was created in November 2009 to root out fraud, has been monitoring ASD developments and assisting in the case.
Information for ASD victims is accessible by dialing this number:
1-800-644-1535
Victims who use the mail and have questions should contact:
Basizette Stribling
Victim Witness Assistant
Re: AdSurf Daily
United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia
555 Fourth Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20530
ASD President Andy Bowdoin was arrested by the Secret Service in December 2010. He was charged with wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. Bowdoin, 76, is free on bail and awaiting trial.