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Tag: sovereign citizens

  • 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.

  • Accused Ponzi Scheme Felon Andy Bowdoin Launches Facebook Page, Asks Members To ‘Like’ Him And ‘Share’ Link To Defense Fundraising Site ‘Right Away’

    After weeks of delays, a Facebook “Fan” page for accused Ponzi schemer Thomas Anderson “Andy” Bowdoin finally has launched. The site includes a link to “Andy’s Fundraising Army,” the web venue at which Bowdoin’s bid to raise $500,000 to pay for criminal lawyers has fallen 95 percent short of its goal.

    Bowdoin, 76, was arrested in Florida in December 2010 and freed on bail. Federal prosecutors described him as a recidivist securities huckster who’d presided over Quincy-based AdSurfDaily.

    ASD was an “autosurf” Ponzi scheme disguised as an “advertising company,” and Bowdoin used some of the money sent in by members to make campaign donations to the National Republican Congressional Committee, prosecutors said.

    An early version of Bowdoin’s alleged $110 million Ponzi scheme collapsed in 2007, leaving members holding the bag, according to records. After weeks in limbo, ASD switched the URL from which the purported “program” operated and relaunched under the new name of ASD Cash Generator, sucking in a new crop of victims, prosecutors said.

    The accounts and unpaid redemptions of participants active at the time of the 2007 collapse were rolled into the new scheme, and incoming members were not told about the original Ponzi failure and that members were getting paid with recycled cash, prosecutors said.

    ASD eventually gained momentum by creating a video lie about the program’s purported legality and by arranging “rallies” in U.S. cities. In late 2007, Bowdoin added a second autosurf Ponzi known as LaFuenteDinero — Spanish for “the fountain of money” — to his criminal tool kit, and compounded his deception, prosecutors said.

    In 2008, Bowdoin and Clarence Busby Jr. of Acworth, Ga., struck up a partnership that resulted in the creation of an autosurf known as Golden Panda Ad Builder, describing it as ASD’s “Chinese” option, according to records.

    The SEC has described Busby as a prime-bank swindler implicated in three securities schemes in the 1990s. Busby has described himself as a minister and real-estate professional. Records suggest he has lost property in Georgia to foreclosure, was the operator of yet-another surf scheme known as BizAdSplash (BAS) and was on the receiving end of an IRS tax lien.

    BAS went missing in early 2010, after positioning itself as a purported offshore business. Its web servers resolved to Panama.

    Like Busby, Bowdoin also was implicated in securities schemes in the 1990s, according to records. He narrowly avoided prison time in Alabama by agreeing to make restitution to defrauded investors.

    Bowdoin has asked Facebook members to “like” his site. The Facebook site does not mention that three ASD members filed a prospective-class action lawsuit against Bowdoin in 2009, accusing him of racketeering and disguising the nature of ASD’s business.

    Nor does the Facebook site reveal that ASD and related businesses have been on the receiving end of at least three civil-forfeiture judgments totaling about $80 million. In August 2008, the U.S. Secret Service seized about $65.8 million from 10 personal bank accounts of Bowdoin through which he was operating the ASD business, according to records.

    The seizure occurred after ASD members falsely claimed that Bowdoin had received an award for business acumen from then-President George W. Bush, prosecutors said. Bowdoin filed two appeals when forfeiture orders were entered against his assets, but lost both. His new appeals for cash are targeted at the people Bowdoin is accused of defrauding: the ASD membership base.

    In the aftermath of the 2008 seizures, Bowdoin described federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia — the venue in which the forfeiture actions were filed — as “Satan.” Bowdoin’s use of the word “Satan” occurred just weeks after he described himself at a company “rally” in Las Vegas as a Christian “money magnet.”

    Bowdoin also compared the seizures to the 9/11 attacks, saying the actions against ASD by the Secret Service were “30 times worse” in some ways than the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington.

    One of the Washington victims of the 9/11 attacks was Barbara Olson, an author, television commentator and former assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) in the District of Columbia office. Olson was the wife of former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson.

    In commemoration of the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, prosecutors in the District of Columbia dedicated a national-security conference room in Barbara Olson’s memory last week.

    “As an AUSA in [the District of Columbia] office, and throughout her career, Barbara proved that her convictions ran deep, and that her fidelity — to the values she held dear, the principles she fought to defend, and the countless people whose lives she touched — was unshakeable,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said last week.

    ASD is known to have so-called “sovereign citizens” in its ranks. Two ASD figures — Kenneth Wayne Leaming and Christian Oesch — sought unsuccessfully to sue the government for its actions in the ASD case, apparently seeking the staggering sum of more than $29 trillion, more than twice the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2009.

    Leaming was accused in Washington state in 2005 of practicing law without a license. Records show he also was involved in a lawsuit that sought more than $9 billion against a local hospital in Washington state. Filings in the case show that Leaming sought liens against the hospital and even sought to attach it water and mineral rights. At least two notaries public in Washington state with ties to Leaming have had their licenses revoked. The names of both notaries appear on the docket of U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer in the District of Columbia.

    Collyer is presiding over the ASD-related forfeiture actions and the criminal case against Bowdoin. Bowdoin twice has tried to have Collyer removed from the case. Both efforts failed, and the U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld the forfeiture orders she issued in the case.

    Sixty-two people (as of the time of this post) have “liked” Bowdoin’s Facebook fan page. It is unclear if Bowdoin’s fans have followed the ASD case closely.

  • After Weeks Of Prelaunch Hype And A Month Of Formal Fundraising, Andy Bowdoin Says He Is $480,700 Short Of $500,000 Goal; AdSurfDaily Patriarch And Accused Felon Says In Email That He Has Collected Only $19,300 To Pay For Criminal Defense In $110 Million Ponzi Case

    He once had command of legions — and AdSurfDaily members lined by the hundreds and waited in line for hours to pay Andy Bowdoin to give them a chance to “build wealth.” At its peak in the summer of 2008, ASD reportedly was posting tens of millions of dollars a week in revenue.

    But that was then.

    Now, three summers later, Bowdoin says he is having trouble even establishing contact with members listed in a database that contains 77,000 names. Those few members still willing to read his emails have been stingy with their wallets and pocketbooks.

    A month ago — after preliminary fanfare that started weeks prior — Bowdoin formally asked members to pony up $500,000 to pay for his criminal defense on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities. Bowdoin’s “positive” appeal to get members to join “Andy’s Fundraising Army,” though, has been a dud.

    The army has managed to cough up only $19,300, leaving Bowdoin $480,700 short of his goal, according to Bowdoin.

    Bowdoin, however, said in an email that he remains positive — and that he’ll launch a Facebook fan site to broaden his appeal.

    Whether his potential Facebook donors will want their names and photographs splashed all over Bowdoin’s fan page — thus exposing themselves to questions about why they are cheerleading for an accused felon implicated in an alleged $110 million Ponzi scheme after earlier having been implicated in a separate securities swindle — remains unclear.

    Some ASD figures have identified themselves as “sovereign citizens.” Others have emerged as multilevel-marketing (MLM) junkies who race from scheme to scheme to scheme. Still others have circulated purported prayers calling for death and destruction to rain down on federal prosecutors and the men and women who guard the President of the United States and the U.S. financial infrastructure.

    Two ASD figures thought it prudent last year to sue the United States for more than $29 TRILLION — more than double the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2009.

    One ASD member claimed that $21 in “silver coinage” taken to a Missouri courthouse could reverse a mortgage foreclosure. Another was sued successfully under the federal racketeering statute in a scheme to have enormous financial judgments placed against public officials. Yet another advanced a belief that the United States passed secret legislation in the 1990s in anticipation of a visit by a race of reptilian aliens.

    During that same decade Bowdoin was arrested in Alabama in a securites caper. And one of his business partners was implicated by the SEC in three prime-bank schemes.