Screen shot from the Congessional Record of April 8, 2011. (Also see image and link to full-scale PDF below.)
UPDATED 6:55 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A garden-variety, lawful protest commonly received in mailrooms within the halls of power? A self-serving, reality-inverting tale of the civil-forfeiture case against the proceeds of an alleged $110 million autosurf Ponzi scheme? A backdoor bid to end-run rulings made by the U.S. Judiciary and hand an invoice to the U.S. Congress for purported damages and financial penalties against public officials sprouting from the government’s alleged mishandling of the ASD case?
The staff of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, did not immediately respond to a PP Blog request for comment this afternoon on a document apparently tabled by the panel after it was received in April after having been submitted by American-International Business Law Inc.
AdSurfDaily figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming, a purported “sovereign citizen,” is listed in Washington state records (as “Kenneth Wayne”) as the chairman and president of American-International Business Law Inc. The firm’s name appears in the Congressional Record of April 8 as the presenter of a “petition . . . relative to a claim against the United States of America.”
Among other things, Leaming, who once was convicted of piloting an airplane without a license, also was accused of practicing law without a license. He has purported to be a specialist in admiralty law — and has advertised the availability of a lower rate for “prepaid” clients.
Details about the April document were not provided in the Congressional Record entry, and Leahy’s committee staff was unable to provide details immediately. The Blog asked the staff staff to provide a copy of the claim and, if possible, forward it to the Blog. Whether the staff will be able to accommodate the request was not immediately clear.
Leaming and ASD member Christian Oesch unsuccessfully sought to sue the United States last year in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, apparently seeking the staggering sum of more than $29 TRILLION — more than twice the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2009.
Their lawsuit targeted federal employees who had a role in the civil-forfeiture case filed against tens of millions of dollars alleged to be the proceeds of a massive Ponzi scheme conducted by Florida-based ASD. About $65.8 million was seized by the U.S. Secret Service from the personal bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin, and federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia scored a clean sweep in forfeiture-related litigation. The government now holds title to about $80 million seized from ASD-related bank accounts.
The lawsuit came in the form of purported “Certificates of Default” issued against public officials on Feb. 16, 2010, by Tina M. Hall, a notary public with ties to Leaming.
Hall’s notary license was revoked by the state of Washington in October 2010, about three months after Leaming and Oesch filed their lawsuit. The PP Blog reported yesterday that the license of Kathryn E. Aschlea, a second notary with a tie to Leaming and American-International Business Law Inc., also had her license revoked by the state of Washington.
When Judge Christine Odell Cook Miller dismissed the Leaming/Oesch lawsuit in December 2010, she noted that the complaint included a claim by Hall that the officials had failed to respond to “claims in admiralty.”
“At this point the complaint deteriorates into rambling,” the judge wrote in her dismissal order.
Whether the Judiciary Committee received a similar rambling narrative from Leaming and Oesch and one or more notaries public is unclear.
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.
A year ago, members of AdViewGlobal and AdSurfDaily asked Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairmain of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to endorse Ponzi schemes and investigate the prosecutors in the ASD case. This year, members of the failed Gold Nugget Invest (GNI) HYIP are doing most of the early season cheerleading for reprehensible "programs," while sabotaging debate in the ranks and continuing to argue there is something noble about fraud schemes. Fifteen U.S. banks failed while GNI members were singing the praises of the HYIP in the opening days of 2010. GNI tanked earlier this month. Thirteen U.S. banks failed while AVG/ASD members were conducting a letter-writing campaign to Leahy in the opening days of 2009.
The new year is starting out like the year that just passed. Banks are failing, unemployment is high, money is not trickling down to small businesses that need capital to expand and create new jobs — and the Ponzi pimps are still putting lipstick on pigs, pushing autosurfs and HYIPs and cheerleading for them even when they fail.
Gold Nugget Invest (GNI) quickly has become this year’s equivalent of last year’s early season favorite, AdSurfDaily (ASD), among the apologists. As was the case a year ago with ASD, the GNI faithful and delusional members of the failed HYIP have emerged to lead the cheers, make the excuses, confuse the issues, sabotage legitimate discussions and set the stage for even more people to lose tremendous sums of money to practiced online schemers.
Web records suggest that at least 57 percent of funds directed at GNI originated in the United States, and there are claims that GNI had 11,000 members. GNI tanked earlier this month, directly on the heels of an HYIP known as “Cash Tanker,” which used images of Jesus Christ in its marketing materials.
Yes, even an HYIP that called itself Cash Tanker and used a revered figure as though he were just another hamburger salesman on TV was able to collect untold sums from investors by relying on HYIP cheerleaders to spread the gospel of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
First, a brief look at the banking environment.
Five U.S. banks failed Friday, bringing the year-to-date total to 15. That’s ahead of last year’s pace. Through Feb. 14, 2009, 13 U.S. banks had failed. Twenty-five failed in all of 2008, and only three failed in 2007.
By the time the banking bloodletting had ended in 2009, a total of 140 banks had failed. With 15 failures already this year, the United States is on pace to record 180 in 2010. The FDIC insurance fund fell into the red last year under the weight of the failures, and the agency is replenishing the fund by requiring banks to prepay fees for insurance.
A Year Ago
Most notable among the Ponzi pimps a year ago at this time were the promoters of ASD and its offshoot, the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf. They hailed AVG as a cure for what ailed the U.S. economy, even though ASD had been implicated in a wire-fraud, money-laundering, securities fraud and Ponzi scheme that resulted in the federal seizure of tens of millions of dollars.
AdViewGlobal, which tanked in June 2009, formally launched a year ago this week. It was pushed by ASD members who positioned AVG as an “offshore” alternative.
Almost a year ago, the Pro-ASD Surf’s Up forum led a campaign to Sen. Patrick Leahy that sought the Senate’s endorsement of Ponzi schemes — it seems incredible, but it’s true — and also sought to have the Senate investigate the prosecutors and agents who were investigating the alleged ASD Ponzi scheme.
Incredibly, last year’s Surf’s Up campaign, which piggybacked off a campaign by ASD mainstay “Professor” Patrick Moriarty, came to the fore during a time in which 13 U.S. banks were failing in the opening days of the year; the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme ($65 billion) was still a fresh news item; the Tom Petters’ Ponzi scheme ($3.65 billion) was in the news; the alleged Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme ($8 billion) was in the news; the alleged Arthur Nadel Ponzi scheme ($350 million/$400 million) was in the news; the alleged Paul Greenwood/Stephen Walsh financial scheme ($553 million) was in the news; and the alleged Nicholas Cosmo Ponzi scheme ($370 million) was in the news. There were others, of course.
At the same time the events cited in the paragraph above were making fresh news, autosurfs and HYIPs also were falling like dominos and taking investors’ money with them. Notable among them were MegaLido, Noobing, Frogress, Daily Profit Pond, Premium Ads Club and Aggero Investment. All of them were pushed by promoters who also were pushing AVG (and had pushed ASD).
Some of the promoters simultaneously tried to sanitize the “industry” through the letter-writing campaign to Leahy, asserting, for example, that the schemes actually were legitimate opportunities and that the government did not understand the technology or the math behind the schemes.
Despite the headlines of spectacular Ponzi fraud in the mainstream press, despite the fact that it was impossible to miss news about Ponzi schemes unless you lived a life of blissful ignorance or had chosen to be willfully blind, despite the fact that sites such as Scam.com and WorldLawDirect and the PP Blog had published tons of information on autosurf and HYIP Ponzi schemes, despite the fact that the U.S. and other governments had published warnings about the frauds and had filed both civil and criminal cases against the fraudsters, despite the fact that no autosurf or HYIP ever has stood the test of time and survived, the schemers closed ranks and continued to shill and shill and shill and shill.
They’re still shilling a year later.
GNI Becomes The New ASD In Opening Days Of 2010
This year’s early season ASD is GNI. Instead of writing letters to Leahy, though, some of the apologists are saying that the HYIP critics and doubters in the GNI ranks should quit complaining and starting donating money to Haiti earthquake relief. As was the case with ASD, all of the cheerleading is occurring blindly. Not a shred of evidence has emerged that anything about GNI was real.
And instead of Madoff, Nadel, Cosmo, Stanford and the other Ponzi notables cited above being the preeminent contextual backdrop a year after the Surf’s Up campaign, figures such these have replaced them: alleged Ponzi schemers Trevor Cook and Christian radio host Pat Kiley ($190 million); proven Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein ($1.2 billion); proven Ponzi schemer Milton Retana ($62 million/$3.2 million in cash found in back of religious bookstore); proven Ponzi schemer Gold Quest International (about $29 million; ruled a Ponzi and a pyramid scheme by Canadian authorities); proven Ponzi schemer and former Christian clergyman Brian David Anderson ($4 million, link to Flat Electronic Data Interchange (FEDI), whose operator, Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, also known as “Michael Mixon,†was convicted in September 2009 of financing terror and fleecing investors in the FEDI scheme); alleged Ponzi schemer Arthur Leroy Heffelfinger ($2.02 million, including alleged theft from woman in 90s with dementia): alleged Ponzi schemer Mariana Montes (at least $682,000 in combo Ponzi and fraud case, including alleged theft from 90-year-old widow); proven schemer John Anthony Miller ($15 million, tried to flee United States by using identity of deceased Catholic school classmate); proven schemer Bradley L. Ruderman ($25 million, mostly from family and friends); alleged schemer Edmundo Rubi (operated $24 million “Knights Express†Ponzi scheme earlier in decade, sentenced to prison, emerged from jail with new scheme targeting original customers); proven Ponzi schemer Marcia Sladich ($15 million, scheme targeted churchgoers); alleged Ponzi schemer Steve Salutric (at least $1.8 million, including more than $400,000 from 96-year-old widow with dementia).
There are others, of course, and the names constantly change. What hasn’t changed is that the autosurf and HYIP shills continue to shill and shill and shill, even as one bank after another is failing and one Ponzi schemer after another is making one headline after another.
We can’t think of anything that matches the level of disconnect or demonstrates the same level of greed and wanton criminality — not even Rothstein’s Bugatti and collection of other fine automobiles purchased with Ponzi proceeds.
Kevin L. Perkins of the FBI tells the Senate Judiciary Committee that the agency is investigating 1,500 cases of securities fraud and that 314 of them involve HYIP fraud in various forms.
And to think that only months ago — in February 2009 — various members of AdSurfDaily wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee trying to elicit support for Ponzi schemes. The letter-writing campaign was spearheaded by “Professor” Patrick Moriarty and pushed by the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum.
But now the FBI has told the committee, led by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D.-Vermont, that it has registered a 105 percent increase in HYIP fraud and opened 314 investigations in 2009, up from 154 in 2008.
“[M]any [had] losses exceeding $100 million,” said Kevin L. Perkins, assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigations Division.
Perkins said the probes cover the gamut — from the massive Ponzi scheme fraud of Bernard Madoff to smaller variations of the Ponzi scheme.
“These schemes use money collected from new victims, rather than profits from an underlying business venture, to pay the high rates of return promised to earlier investors,” Perkins told the Committee. “This arrangement gives investors the impression there is a legitimate, money-making enterprise behind the fraudster’s story; but in reality, unwitting investors are the only source of funding.”
During his testimony, Perkins also referenced “prime-bank schemes” in which victims are told that “certain financial instruments such as notes, letters of credit, debentures, or guarantees have been issued by well-known institutions such as the World Bank, and offer a risk-free opportunity with high rates of return.”
In August 2008, in a forfeiture complaint against the assets of AdSurfDaily and Golden Panda Ad Builder, federal prosecutors revealed that Golden Panda President Clarence Busby had been sued civilly by the SEC in the 1990s after he was implicated in three prime-bank schemes. At the same time, prosecutors revealed ASD President Andy Bowdoin had been arrested for felony securities fraud in Alabama during the same decade.
Despite the Ponzi allegations against ASD and the histories of Bowdoin and Busby, Surf’s Up urged the Judiciary Committee to investigate the prosecutors who brought the forfeiture cases against ASD and Golden Panda in August 2008.
“We each need to explain [to Leahy] how thousands of innocent Americans have suffered and continue to suffer because of these incredible and despicable acts” by prosecutors, Surf’s Up urged members.
Law enforcement is investigating a stunning number of securities-fraud cases, the FBI revealed.
“The FBI continues to aggressively investigate this criminal threat, and currently has more than 1,500 related securities fraud investigations,” Perkins said.
The Obama administration said today that it will crack down on international tax cheats and people using tax havens to evade U.S. regulators.
In testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Obama will propose new rules to curtail international scheming.
“The budget also seeks to close the ‘tax gap’ by tackling tax shelters and other efforts to abuse our tax laws, including international tax-evasion efforts,” Geithner said. “The budget addresses the use of offshore structures and accounts by U.S. corporations and individuals to avoid and evade U.S. taxes. Over the next several months, the President will propose a series of legislative and enforcement measures to reduce such U.S. tax evasion and avoidance.”
Geithner’s remarks couldn’t have come at a worse time for some AdSurfDaily members. Some members Surf’s Up, a Pro-ASD forum, are engaging in a letter-writing campaign to have the government investigate the prosecutors and federal judge involved in the case.
Members have sent letters to Obama, Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and other politicians.
In August, prosecutors alleged that ASD was a wire-fraud and money-laundering operation whose central component was an international, $100 million Ponzi scheme. ASD had more than $1 million on deposit in Antigua, which later became ground zero in the alleged multibillion-dollar Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme.
Robert Garner, an ASD attorney who advertised his international financial services in a magazine in 2003, was named a defendant in a RICO lawsuit in January. His co-defendants include ASD President Andy Bowdoin and Golden Panda Ad Builder President Clarence Busby. Assets tied to Golden Panda were seized in the ASD case.
Promoter say Busby now is involved with another surf — BizAdSplash — which promotes itself as an offshore business.
Bowdoin’s stepson, George Harris, and two former ASD employees, Gary Talbert and Chuck Osmin, are associated with yet another offshore surf — AdViewGlobal.
Three autosurfs with ties to ASD sprouted up in the aftermath of the government’s seizure of ASD funds, all touting the benefits of their “offshore” locations in countries such as Panama and Uruguay. One of the surfs, BizAdSplash, is having trouble with a bank in Panama and a payment processor in Panama. The surf announced the trouble after the SEC charged Stanford with fraud.
Meanwhile, AdGateWorld positioned itself as an attractive option after what happened to ASD. Promoters said AdGateWorld provided protection from the SEC, the IRS and state attorneys general.
For its part, AdViewGlobal now says it is forming a private association.
Four more U.S. banks failed yesterday. Three failed on the previous Friday. Thirteen have failed year-to-date. To say this is unsettling is to grossly understate the severity of the banking problem and the drag on the U.S. and world economies.
Stories about Ponzi schemes and mortgage fraud are in the news daily. The obvious fear among regulators is that more Bernard Madoffs and Arthur Nadels will emerge. The situation is ripe for Ponzi schemes to be exposed because people need cash and actually fear Ponzi fraud now, meaning they’re predisposed to request redemptions just in case. Ponzi operators won’t be able to fund the redemptions, and the fraud will be exposed at the revulsion of the world.
And yet some members of the Surf’s Up forum, which is associated with the AdSurfDaily Ponzi operation, are writing incredibly brazen letters to Sen. Patrick Leahy. These letters are a bid to get the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate the prosecutors who prevented the ASD Ponzi from mushrooming. Sen. Leahy is committee chairman.
Make no mistake about it, Sen. Leahy: ASD is a $100 million Ponzi scheme and every bit as dangerous as the Madoff and Nadel schemes. ASD thrived for months and collected tens of millions of dollars — now subject to forfeiture because of quick action by the U.S. Secret Service, the IRS and the Justice Department — and tried to cover its tracks by drafting investors into a contract that provided no consumer protections at all. The contract was nothing more than an inartful, cynical bid to legalize Ponzi schemes and skirt securities laws by calling an investment program an “advertising” program.
Members of the Judiciary Committee should pay close attention to the ASD contract, which appears starting on P. 68 of this document, an Aug. 5 forfeiture complaint against assets tied to ASD. The Justice Department filed a second forfeiture complaint on Dec. 19, outlining even more ASD abuses and highlighted by a claim that “Russian” hackers stole $1 million from ASD.
ASD President Andy Bowdoin did not even file a police report, which raises even more questions — questions such as “Why not?” and “Did a theft actually even occur?”
Members of the Judiciary Committee also should know that Bowdoin already has surrendered claims to money and property seized in the August forfeiture complaint.
The Surf’s Up members’ bid to misinform the Judiciary Committee and sanitize Ponzi schemes is reprehensible, an insult to hard-working and underfunded law-enforcement agencies, the highly capable men and women who staff the agencies, and dedicated prosecutors at all levels of government.
And it is a slap in the face to hard-working Americans who are living through lean times, struggling to make ends meet and are stunned beyond words at the devastation wrought by the Ponzi economy.
We call on Sen. Leahy, a former prosecutor, and the Judiciary Committee to fully investigate so-called “autosurf” Ponzi fraud and propose legislation that will help federal and state prosecutors combat it. A law that specifically codifies the crime and spells out penalties would be a good first step.
We suggest that Sen. Leahy and members of the Judiciary Committee work closely with Attorney General Holder and SEC Chairman Schapiro in crafting legislation that specifically addresses autosurf and HYIP Ponzi fraud.
This insidious business is sucking wealth out of the economy and creating an environment in which criminals and even terrorists can thrive. Mini-Madoffs exist far and wide across the autosurf landscape. They are engaging in the sale of unregistered securities, wire fraud, money-laundering, mail fraud and racketeering, and they are being aided by people who are doing everything in their power to change the subject and sanitize what amounts to organized theft on a global scale.
UPDATED 12:21 P.M. EST (U.S.A.) Banks are failing. Unemployment is surging. Housing values are plummeting. Credit markets are tight. The economy is shrinking.
And “Professor” Patrick Moriarty wants the Senate to investigate the prosecutors and a Secret Service agent involved in the AdSurfDaily case, an alleged $100 million Ponzi scheme.
ASD President Andy Bowdoin, the operator of the scheme, already has ceded seized funds to the government “with prejudice.”
“With prejudice” means that Bowdoin intends to submit to the forfeiture and never reassert the claims to tens of millions of dollars seized. Meanwhile, the government is establishing a process by which ASD members can apply for refunds.
Despite the fact the money was seized as the proceeds of a criminal wire-fraud, money-laundering and Ponzi-scheme operation, Moriarty says the Senate should set its sights on the people who prevented the scheme from mushrooming globally — not Bowdoin, the person responsible for organizing the scheme.
“Over 50 individual and notarized DEMAND[S] FOR LEGAL EVIDENCE were sent to Jeffrey Taylor, US Attorney; William Cowden, Assistant US Attorney; and Roy Dotson, Special Agent, US Secret Service,” Moriarty said in a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D.-Vermont. “Not once did any of these three Government Servants respond.”
Leahy is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“Innocent Americans have suffered and continue to suffer because of these incredulous and despicable acts” by prosecutors, Moriarty said.
Moriarty was a founder and former board member of ASD Members International (ASDMI), which registered as a Missouri nonprofit in October and threatened to litigate against the government because of its actions in the ASD case. Moriarty resigned from the ASDMI board in December, citing ill health. The entity now has dissolved.
ASDMI recruited members from within the membership ranks of the ASD Member Advocates Forum, a Pro-ASD site also known as “Surf’s Up.” At least three ASDMI board members also were members of “Surf’s Up.”
Last week, Curtis Richmond filed a motion to intervene in the ASD case, accusing U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer and the prosecutors of crimes and threatening prosecution and lawsuits under federal racketeering statutes.
Moriarty, on his website, touted Richmond’s approach to litigation. Richmond is associated with a sham Utah Indian tribe that has attempted unsuccessfully to have prosecutors and federal judges jailed. At least two people who employed the tactics of the tribe have been sent to prison, and Richmond himself was convicted of criminal contempt of court in California in 2007.
In his letter to Leahy, Moriarty discloses none of this. He also did not inform Leahy that a class-action lawsuit alleging racketeering has been filed against Bowdoin and alleged co-conspirators.
Court filings by Richmond last week claim that an ASD member named Alana Holsted was prevented from “Collecting on an Entry of Default Affidavit for $30 million for each Defendant.”
The Utah tribe routinely placed huge, fraudulent judgments against officers of the court or litigation opponents in what victims described as extortion bids. Victims sued under racketeering and mail-fraud statutes. U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Friot ruled the tribe a “complete sham” and ordered members to pay damages and costs of more than $108,000.
Records show that Richmond tried to force Friot to recuse himself from the “Indian” case by claiming the judge owed him $30 million. Friot refused to step down.
“I hope your office can review this situation and lend their support,” Moriarty told Leahy.
Surf’s Up Asks Members To Contact Leahy
Here is an email Surf’s Up members received today, alerting them of Moriarty’s letter-writing campaign to Leahy. The email was signed by Barb McIntire, a Mod at the Surf’s Up forum, and a former ASDMI board member. The email accuses the prosecutors of committing a “legal travesty” and of “incredible and despicable acts.” (Emphasis added):
A message to all members of ASD Member Advocates – Surf’s up Baby!
Hello ASD Members,
If timing is everything, then maybe our time for some type of justice has arrived. On February 8, Senator Patrick Leahy proposed a “Truth Commission” for the Department of Justice.
Mr. Leahy heads the Senate Judiciary Committee. According to the Washington Wire, he has proposed an independent commission to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by the DOJ during the Bush administration. As ASD members know, the warrantless wiretapping, the politically motivated firing of some US attorneys, and the highly controversial memos on treatment of detainees are not the only things the new administration must examine to find out what went wrong with the DOJ.
Please take the time and make the effort to write Senator Leahy about the “legal” travesty that was committed against the 100,000-plus members of ASD by US attorneys Jeffrey Taylor and William Cowden. Explain how they used the DOJ to seize $93-million under forfeiture procedures reserved for drug- trafficking crimes. Explain in your own words how our Constitutional rights were trampled on so the DOJ could control the millions in bank accounts, deposits, and property. We each need to explain how thousands of innocent Americans have suffered and continue to suffer because of these incredible and despicable acts.
If you can, send your letter via USPS certified mail and request a return receipt. It will be the best $5 you’ve spent. Please don’t wait. The timing is right. Just do it!
Emails and phone calls to the Senator’s office are fine, but only after you send that first letter.
If we don’t do this now, we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.
Please email me back and let me know you will do this. I’m counting on you for this support.
