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Tag: Tari Steward

  • As Zeek-Related Fundraising Efforts Begin, ‘Andy’s Fundraising Army’ Down For The Final Count: AdSurfDaily Patriarch Andy Bowdoin Awaits Sentencing In Pre-Zeek, 1-Percent-A-Day Ponzi Scheme Case

    UPDATED 11:31 P.M. EDT (AUG. 26, U.S.A.) After the collapse of AdSurfDaily in 2008, there were at least four efforts to raise funds to “defend” the Ponzi enterprise and/or its participants. The PP Blog has received reports that at least one such effort is under way in the aftermath of the collapse last week of Zeek Rewards, which the SEC called a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that had affected more than 1 million people. Zeek also is under investigation by the U.S. Secret Service and the office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper.

    Zeek members who cling to a belief that the government somehow got it wrong perhaps can save themselves both money and heartache by looking at the history of the various ASD-related efforts to “defend” the multilevel marketing “program” after the U.S. Secret Service seized 15 bank accounts (and about $80 million) in ASD-related proceeds in August 2008.

    Here are briefs on the various ASD-related “defense” efforts:

    “Andy’s Fundraising Army”: This bizarre effort was the fourth and final of a series of failed ASD-related efforts. Started by accused ASD Ponzi schemer Thomas A. “Andy” Bowdoin himself last summer (with the purported help of ASD cheerleader Tari Steward), the effort immediately devolved into a symphony of the bizarre.

    With Bowdoin effectively having been out of public view for nearly three years, the purported “army” teased potential contributors for days with a photo that showed Bowdoin smiling broadly and looking confident. Among other things, the teaser asserted there was “MORE GOOD NEWS” and plenty of reasons to help Bowdoin raise $500,000 to pay for his criminal defense.

    It went on to assert that “A Recent Survey of ASD Members Proves that the Vast Majority of You Want to Join Andy’s Fundraising Army” and that “[P]er standard and accepted industry guidelines, public opinion surveying of 140 members of a large group of members that all share a common interest or purpose, of any size, even in the millions, will give an excellent cross section of the opinions and viewpoints of the entire group.”

    But the “army” site did not describe the characteristics of the 140 ASD members purportedly sampled. Nor did it define what specific surveying “standard” it applied or define the source of the purported “industry guidelines.”

    And what would a good, MLM-like approach to raise funds for an accused HYIP scammer (1 percent a day) be without a “prelaunch” phase? With the teaser in place, a placeholder website for “Andy’s Fundraising Army” promised a full launch to come, along with the exciting opportunity for ASD members to send funds to the man accused of defrauding them to the tune of $110 million.

    But like a bad HYIP dream, the “army” website naturally missed its first advertised launch date. This was blamed on the need for more “testing,” reinforcing one of the HYIP world’s longstanding clichés. It then missed its second advertised launch date, explaining that “one last important system is being finalized.” With the first two launch dates missed, the site reported that it had set a “Final Revised Launch Date.”

    During the evening of July 26, 2011, the launch finally occurred. Like many things ASD, it provided minute after minute of MLM infamy. Indeed, Bowdoin appeared in a fundraising video with symbols of American patriotism as the backdrop.

    Among other things, Bowdoin — who in 2008 described himself as a Christian “money magnet” and advised ASD members after the Secret Service raid that “God” was on the company’s side and that “Satan” had infiltrated the government — claimed in the video that he’d been “crucified” by U.S. law enforcement.

    He blamed the ASD-related losses in civil court on a federal judge, the prosecutors and his own former defense counsel. Bowdoin asked members to provide $500,000 to help him pay his new defense team.

    It is believed he raised about $26,000 in the following weeks — but things continued to unfold like a bad HYIP dream. There was a report that a hurricane knocked the fundraising site offline, for instance. By January 2012, the site had lost its ability to collect money via PayPal. Federal prosecutors declined to comment on the development, which occurred after Bowdoin had become a pitchman for “OneX.”

    In April 2012, prosecutors described OneX as a fraudulent scheme and pyramid. Bowdoin pleaded guilty to wire fraud the following month, admitting ASD was a Ponzi scheme. His fundraising website, which published purported “expert” opinions from attorney Gerald Nehra and consultant Keith Laggos that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme, remained online for weeks after the guilty plea.

    The “Andy’s Army” site is now offline and is listed as an expired domain. In recent days, Bowdoin — as part of his plea agreement — has dropped his last remaining claim to cash seized in the ASD case. (A third ASD-related forfeiture complaint was filed by the government in December 2010. Bowdoin entered a claim.) He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 29.

    Nehra’s law firm later became counsel for Zeek, according to Zeek. And Laggos became a purported “consultant.”

    Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer: Even as Bowdoin was rolling out his “army” website and repeatedly missing launch dates, ASD figures Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer were advancing a plan to raise money to sue the government. An email attributed to Disner surfaced in July 2011 that introduced a pronoun mystery: “We plan to go after Akerman Senifit (sic) next,” the email read in part.

    Akerman Senterfitt was the name of Bowdoin’s original defense law firm in the civil portion of the ASD case. In the earliest days of the case, ASD cheerleaders on the now-defunct “Surf’s Up” forum positioned the well-known firm as the “Perry Mason” firm; the government, meanwhile, was said to be represented by “Gomer Pyle.” A federal judge was described as “brain dead” if she ruled against ASD, and a federal prosecutor was described as an individual who deserved to be placed in a medieval torture rack.

    Why Disner chose the pronoun “we” was never explained. The July 2011 email followed an April 2011 email attributed to Disner that included this declaration: “Let the games begin!”

    During this period, Disner and Schweitzer were soliciting funds to sue the government. This effort began at an unclear point of time after November 2008, the month a federal judge issued a key court ruling against ASD while saying Nehra’s opinion could not be relied upon in part because it “relied solely on the written words contained in the Terms of Service without independent investigation or review of ASD’s business records to ascertain how ASD operates in fact before opining.” (Bolding added.)

    If the judge’s ruling could be reduced to two words, it might read, “Gomer won.”

    At an unclear point in time, both Disner and Schweitzer became reps for Zeek. They filed their ASD-related lawsuit in November 2011, claiming, among other things, that the government had presented a “tissue of lies” when bringing the August 2008 forfeiture case. As part of their apparent strategy, Disner and Schweitzer pointed to purported expert opinions of Nehra and Laggos. Disner and Schweitzer produced those opinions months after ASD had lost two civil-forfeiture cases in both U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals.

    Months later, Bowdoin himself put both Disner and Schweitzer in a box. In May 2012 — after Nehra and Laggos both had opined ASD was not a Ponzi scheme and after Disner and Schweitzer had sued the government — Bowdoin admitted that ASD was a Ponzi scheme.

    Bob Guenther and ASDMBA: In 2008, ASD member Bob Guenther became the de facto head of an entity known as the ASD Members Business Association. The stated goal of ASDMBA was to raise funds to hire Dallas attorney Larry Friedman to represent ASD members’ interests in the case.

    ASDMBA soon devolved into a circus, with Guenther using its website to promote a company that was developing an online game. Along the way, Friedman sued ASD critic Jack Arons, triggering a side drama that lasted for weeks and burying Arons in an avalanche of paperwork. (As a matter of pure PR, high-powered Friedman came out the loser for bringing out nukes against a web critic armed with a fly-swatter. The avalanche finally ended, with Arons, a Florida retiree who lives in a manufactured home, largely unscathed.) Guenther, meanwhile, refused to provide a reliable accounting of how the tens of thousands of dollars raised by ASDMBA was spent, according to members.

    Guenther bizarrely dismissed his critics as “left wing liberal no balled people,” calling one an “ignorant mouthy broad.” He also claimed ASDMBA was instrumental in returning money to ASD victims, saying the group retrieved funds for retired and active-duty police officers in Texas and California, and for a high profile Dallas Cowboy’s executive.

    Nothing in the public record suggests Guenther had any standing to perform any services on behalf of ASD members. It later emerged that Guenther was a convicted felon. Months after the 2008 formation of ASDMBA, in March 2009, Guenther was charged with two felony counts of aggravated harassment. Mesa, Arizona, police said Guenther repeatedly violated a court injunction for workplace harassment that prohibited him from nuisancing Cheyenne Mountain and Affiliates, the Arizona business that was developing the online game promoted on ASDMBA’s website.

    Guenther later accepted a plea agreement in the harassment case. No jail time was ordered.

    ASD Members International: This one was hatched by members of the pro-ASD “Surf’s Up” forum, which became Bowdoin’s official mouthpiece after the key court ruling went against ASD in November 2008. ASDMI was a purported nonprofit entity formed in Missouri. Its bizarre mission was to raise funds to litigate against the government even if the government was proceeding lawfully. In short, ASDMI planted the seed that prosecutors and investigators would be sued and/or charged with crimes.

    It is believed that at least 168 people contributed money to ASDMI.

    Included in the ASDMI braintrust was former Surf’s Up moderator Barb McIntyre, who enforced a “Poof Penalty” when ASD members left links on Surf’s Up to stories on the PP Blog.

    But if there was an ASDMI “star,” it was “Professor” Patrick Moriarty, one of the most unusual characters in the entire ASD drama. Moriarty was an early advocate for Curtis Richmond, a purported “sovereign” being who advanced a theory that all commerce was lawful as long as the buyer and seller agreed to a contract. Among other things, it was a position that would have legalized slavery and human trafficking. Richmond went on to accuse a federal judge of “TREASON” and to accuse investigators of theft.

    Richmond was hailed a “hero” on Surf’s Up, which never revealed that Richmond had been found in contempt of court for threatening federal judges and was part of a Utah “Indian” tribe a federal judge ruled a “complete sham.” (This is the “tribe” known derisively as the “Arby’s Indians” because it once held a meeting in an Arby’s restaurant in Utah. The purported “tribe” also had a purported “Supreme Court.” The address for the “Supreme Court” was the address of a doughnut shop. Richmond was sued successfully under the federal racketeering statute (RICO) by public officials in Utah targeted in a vexatious legal campaign by Richmond and other “tribe” members.)

    With Surf’s Up fanning the flames that federal prosecutors and a U.S. Secret Service agent needed to be investigated and prosecuted for their roles in the ASD Ponzi case, it emerged that Moriarty — who once sold fake academic degrees on eBay, claiming they were gag gifts — once had started a purported nonprofit in the name of a man accused of killing a woman in cold blood and ambushing two Missouri police officers and another man.

    Moriarty later was indicted on charges of tax evasion. He pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to federal prison.

    NOTE TO ZEEK READERS: This document, which was filed by federal prosecutors in December 2008, is the second of three known forfeiture complaints filed against ASD-related assets. It is highly recommended reading.

    The document was filed about four months after the original — and best-known ASD forfeiture complaint — was filed.

    The ASD case started as a civil case with a parallel criminal investigation. Zeek-related litigation may follow the same track. Ponzi investigations take time. The December 2008 ASD forfeiture complaint shows that investigators continued to “follow the money” and to destroy ASD’s cover story after the original forfeiture complaint was filed.

    It likely is true that the August 2008 complaint has received the most attention — no doubt because it laid out the core elements of the government’s case. But the December 2008 filing was tremendously damaging because it provided the first real inside glimpse into how ASD truly was operating.

     

     

  • UPDATE: ‘OneX’ Site Has Been Down For Days

    Andy Bowdoin: From a 2009 pitch for a mysterious "program" known as "Paperless Access."Retooling as it hatches a plan to launch anew? Huddling with its mysterious lawyer because the U.S. Department of Justice called it a “fraudulent scheme” and “pyramid” pushed by an accused felon awaiting trial in his Ponzi scheme case?

    The website of “OneX” has been displaying an “under maintenance” message for days. The development occurs against the backdrop of former OneX pitchman and AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin’s guilty plea to wire fraud in the ASD Ponzi case May 18. In April, federal prosecutors said ASD stalwarts Rayda Roundy and Tari Steward had helped Bowdoin pitch OneX.

    Those pitches began in October 2011, with Bowdoin saying he’d use his OneX earnings to pay for his criminal defense in the ASD Ponzi case. Steward is listed in court filings as a potential witness for Bowdoin in his trial on Ponzi-related charges.

    Bowdoin, though, pleaded guilty prior to his trial date, which had been set for Sept. 24.

    Just days before his guilty plea, a fellow OneX pitchman known as “Alan” asserted that Bowdoin was “our Mentor,” according to an email some ASD members received.

    In at least one of the OneX pitches, Roundy asserted that OneX had a “top attorney.” She did not identify the attorney.

    Bowdoin claimed “college students” were great prospects for OneX. But the ASD patriarch did not identify the operators or braintrust behind OneX or say where the “program” was operating from. Instead, he told prospects that they could earn $99,000 very quickly through OneX.

    Federal prosecutors now say OneX was recycling money in ASD-like fashion. They also say they’ve linked Bowdoin to AdViewGlobal, an autosurf that launched after the seizure of tens of millions of dollars in the ASD Ponzi case in 2008 and disappeared in the summer of 2009 under mysterious circumstances.

    Like ASD’s website during its Ponzi run, the OneX website has a history of going missing for days. It was offline and reportedly under maintenance during the 2011 Holiday season. Now, it’s under maintenance on the heels of Bowdoin’s guilty plea.

    In 2009 — after the ASD seizure — Bowdoin also pitched a mysterious “program” known as Paperless Access. Much about Paperless Access remains mysterious. Its website also vanished.

    As part of his plea agreement in the ASD case, Bowdoin has been banned from MLM, Internet programs and mass marketing.

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: [UPDATED]: Government Says It Has Tied Andy Bowdoin To Failed AdViewGlobal Autosurf; Prosecutors Also Cite AdSurfDaily Patriarch’s ‘OneX’ Sales Pitch, Calling Program A ‘Fraudulent Scheme’

    Andy Bowdoin

    UPDATED 11:40 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.)  Federal prosecutors say they’ve tied AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin to the failed AdViewGlobal autosurf and intend to introduce evidence of “uncharged misconduct” at Bowdoin’s trial for the alleged ASD Ponzi scheme.

    Meanwhile, prosecutors say “OneX” — a “program” Bowdoin said he was pitching to help pay for his criminal defense in the ASD Ponzi case — is a “fraudulent scheme.”

    The OneX organization and its “matrix,” prosecutors said, are more accurately described as a “pyramid” and the purported opportunity “simply re-distributes funds among participants.”

    “In this latest venture, Bowdoin has again partnered with Tari Steward and Rayda Roundy, both of whom were involved in the operation of ASD,” prosecutors said.

    Prosecutors’ references to AdViewGlobal and OneX are believed to mark the first time the government has acknowledged publicly it was gathering information about the schemes. The government says its probe into Bowdoin continues and that it intends to introduce other evidence of criminal conduct at his September Ponzi trial.

    “The government is aware of additional criminal matters lodged against Bowdoin,” prosecutors said.

    Precisely what those alleged matters entailed was not immediately clear.

    Here (below) are some highlights from an April 17 letter and an April 24 list of exhibits prosecutors filed with the court and sent to Charles A. Murray, Bowdoin’s defense attorney. The letter and exhibits inform Murray about certain matters the government intends to introduce at trial. (Italics and/or bold emphasis added by PP Blog):

    • Bowdoin’s history involves at least four instances in which he was charged with securities-related crimes during the 1990s in Alabama. Three indictments were returned in Montgomery County, and one was returned in Wilcox County. There were multiple victims. Bowdoin accepted plea agreements, agreed to testify for the state against at least five defendants and agreed to make restitution to his fleeced investors. (Note: These assertions by the government may be aimed at short-circuiting any claim by Bowdoin that he was ignorant of securities laws when he started ASD. At the same time, the assertions are potentially useful in making a case that Bowdoin was committed to making a living from securities fraud even after agreeing to testify against alleged securities fraudsters.)
    • Bowdoin allegedly paid some of the Alabama restitution with proceeds from the ASD Ponzi scheme.
    • In one of the Alabama cases, a grand jury accused Bowdoin of not telling investors he was using their money to make “full and/or partial refunds to investors in earlier projects” involving a cell-phone business.
    • Bowdoin solicited $600,000 from an Alabama investor, but allegedly did not disclose that his company had been sued four times under a previous name. (Note: Lack of disclosure and a name change also are alleged parts of the ASD scheme.) Moreover, Bowdoin allegedly sold the $600,000 contract despite the fact that neither cell-phone entity had the required license to operate from the Federal Communications Commission.
    • Bowdoin was “permanently barred” from engaging in the securities industry in Alabama. (This point leads to questions about whether Bowdoin potentially could face state-level charges for selling ASD in Alabama after his ban in the 1990s.)
    • Included in Bowdoin’s history are a bankruptcy filing and string of lawsuits naming him a defendant. (Details of these are unclear, but the government says it expects to produce additional documents in the “near future.”
    • Although Bowdoin claimed to have run successful mobile-phone, GPS-tracking and dry-cleaning businesses, “those businesses were not successful and on several occasions were the subject of civil and criminal proceedings.”
    • “After the United States Secret Service seized ASD’s bank accounts in August 2008, Bowdoin, Gary Talbert . . . and others began operating another version of ASD over the Internet at adviewglobal.com (‘AVG’).” (Talbert was a former ASD executive, according to court filings.)
    • In 2009, AVG  “ceased operation when allegations arose that an individual associated with AVG purportedly stole money from AVG.” (Note: A purported theft of $1 million at the purported hands of “Russian” hackers is an alleged element of the ASD case.)
    • Bowdoin’s claims about OneX are “inherently deceptive.” Like ASD, OneX “does not generate income by selling a product to consumers outside the system. Instead, it simply re-distributes funds among participants.” (Note: The letter strongly suggests that the government is well-versed on the internal operations of OneX.)
    • Bowdoin is targeting former ASD members in his OneX promos and offered “leads” from the ASD database.

    One of the exhibits filed by the government is the AVG Terms of Service.

  • DEVELOPING STORY: Awaiting Trial, Accused AdSurfDaily Schemer Andy Bowdoin Resurfaces As Pitchman For OneX, ‘Opportunity’ Flogged On Ponzi Forums; ‘I Believe That God Has Brought Us OneX To Provide The Necessary Funds To Win This Case,’ Indicted ASD Patriarch Claims; ‘This Program Can Provide You With Earnings Beyond Your Wildest Imagination . . .’

    AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin told members yesterday that they could "earn $99,000 very quickly" in a program known as OneX. The Florida-based ASD patriarch claimed to hope he could fund his defense to U.S. securities-related charges through OneX, which appears to be tied to a Panamanian firm that uses a domain name with a Montenegro extension and may operate from Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.

    EDITOR’S NOTE: The PP Blog may have more on this developing story in the coming days.

    In a bizarre development, accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin of AdSurfDaily told webinar listeners yesterday that he intended to fund his criminal defense to charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities through a purported business opportunity known as OneX, the PP Blog has learned.

    OneX, which uses a domain extension assigned to the European country of Montenegro and a webserver apparently positioned in the Irish Sea nation of Isle of Man, is described in MLM-style web promos as a 4X4 matrix feeder program for a Panamanian investment firm and commodities enterprise known as QLxchange.

    Whether OneX or QLxchange have any securities or commodities registrations in the United States or other countries was not immediately clear.

    Serving as the webinar host, ASD figure Tari Steward, who is helping Bowdoin raise funds for Bowdoin’s criminal defense and is listed in Bowdoin court filings as a potential ASD witness, described OneX as a winner while introducing Bowdoin.

    OneX has “already proven to be hugely successful here in the U.S.A. and all around the world,” Steward said.

    Mixing commentary on his Ponzi case with his OneX sales pitch, Bowdoin, 76, managed to work in a dig against the federal judge presiding over the criminal case against him. Bowdoin also chided federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia.

    Saying he was pleased that his trial date had been set nearly a year from now in September 2012 and describing it as an act of divine providence made possible after prayerful introspection, Bowdoin suggested the judge and prosecutors were disappointed that Collyer’s busy scheduled did not permit an earlier trial date.

    Both “Judge Collyer and the prosecution was wanting the closest time possible because they didn’t want to give us much time to prepare,” Bowdoin claimed, shortly after greeting webinar listeners with a “Hi, Folks.”

    Isle of Man highlighted in red: Source: Wikipedia.

    And Bowdoin, who did not identify the operators of OneX or speak to whether the purported program was required to be registered to market securities and commodities to U.S. inhabitants, sang the praises of the firm.

    “This program can provide you with earnings beyond your wildest imagination . . .” he claimed.

    Bowdoin further ventured that OneX “will produce the legal fees we need and make each one of you a ton of money.”

    “Now, when you finish this webinar,” he continued, “you’ll be so excited that you won’t be able to stop thinking about it.”

    ASD members will “wake up in the morning thinking about [OneX],” Bowdoin claimed. “For the next three days, you’ll be thinking about it constantly.”

    At a May 2008 ASD “rally” in Las Vegas prior to the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from his personal bank accounts, Bowdoin — describing himself as a Christian “money magnet” — urged members to imagine payments from ASD flowing to them “constantly.”

    Federal prosecutions referenced Bowdoin’s Las Vegas remarks in the Ponzi indictment announced against him in December 2010. He has been free awaiting trial since his arrest.

    Bowdoin went on to claim in yesterday’s OneX pitch that “you’ll soon see how you can earn $99,000 very quickly.”

    As part of his OneX pitch, Bowdoin described the firm as “one of the greatest financial vehicles on the Internet today” and asked a series of questions:

    • “Do you want to get out of debt?”
    • Do you need to catch up on some house payments?”
    • “Do you want to pay cash in the next 90 days for a new automobile . . .”

    Bowdoin’s pitch also mixed in quotations from scripture.

    Based on its research, the PP Blog is reporting today that members of the purported Club Asteria business opportunity and the purported JustBeenPaid opportunity also have promoted OneX. An image of Club Asteria principal Hank Needham appeared in an ad for ASD in 2008. Meanwhile, web records show that Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JustBeenPaid, also was an ASD pitchman.

    Among the Club Asteria pitchmen who turned their attentions to OneX are “strosdegoz.” Club Asteria-related claims came under fire from CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, in May.

    Also participating in Bowdoin’s webinar was Rayda Roundy, whom Bowdoin described as a former ASD “trainer.”

    Roundy told listeners that a “pay it forward” strategy with OneX will help participants make money and help Bowdoin raise defense funds.

    OneX participants could create their own “bailout” program, Roundy claimed.

    After Bowdoin took back the webinar helm from Roundy, the ASD patriarch reminded members to send questions about OneX to a Gmail email address.

    And then Bowdoin said this:

    “Now, from time to time, people ask me, ‘Andy, how do you remain so peaceful?’ My answer is God.”

    He went on to claim that God had led him to his strategy of using OneX to raise defense funds.

    “I believe that God has brought us OneX to provide the necessary funds to win this case,” Bowdoin said.

     

  • SPECIAL REPORT: PROSECUTION: More Than 11,000 Remissions Claims And 150,000 Pages Of Documentation Received In AdSurfDaily Case; Number Of Claims Greatly Exceeds Population Of ASD’s Home Base Of Quincy, Fla.

    Andy Bowdoin

    UPDATED 12:09 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Federal prosecutors effectively advised U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer last month that enough people to fill a small city had filed remissions claims in the AdSurfDaily autosurf Ponzi case.

    Although prosecutors did not reveal a precise number, they said in court filings that more than 11,000 people had filed claims and provided more than 150,000 pages of documentation. ASD was based in Quincy, Fla.

    Remissions is a form of restitution. Prosecutors have said for more than two years that the government intends to compensate ASD victims from funds seized by the U.S. Secret Service in civil-forfeiture actions against ASD-related assets in 2008. Collyer issued civil judgments in the government’s favor totaling about $80 million in 2009 and 2010. Bowdoin was charged criminally with wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities in December 2010.

    ASD created Ponzi victims all over the world, prosecutors have said. The claims number alone greatly exceeds the Gadsden County community of Quincy’s population of roughly 7,000. It also greatly exceeds the population of Perry, the 7,000-inhabitant Florida town in Taylor County Bowdoin once represented as a council member and mayor.

    The claims number would consume nearly 80 percent of combined populations of Perry and Quincy. Looking at the number a different way, had ASD’s membership consisted only of residents of those two communities in separate counties, only one in five inhabitants — 20 percent — would be left untouched by the scheme.  Had the 80 percent of residents who filed claims lost significant sums in ASD, the economies of both cities could have been brought to their knees.

    Among the core dangers of autosurf schemes is that criminals — domestic and international — establish means by which they can tap into bank accounts, payment processing accounts and credit accounts at the local level. When a scheme collapses, it may affect commerce far and wide while also putting banks in multiple communities in possession of tainted cash. By some accounts, large numbers of members of individual churches became ASD members.

    A collapsed autosurf scheme not only may affect individual churches, it may affect the finances of the church itself and the commerce stream in reach of the church and its members. One 2008 promo for ASD and a purported “millionaire” advertising co-op viewed by the PP Blog as part of its reporting encouraged members (verbatim, text coloring added by PP Blog) to:

    Go to your nearest ATM machine
    Use your Debit card to withdraw the necessary cash for your payment OR
    Use your Credit card to make a “cash advance” of the necessary funds for your payment. Note: there is usually a much higher Annual Percentage Rate for a credit card cash advance. Take the cash to your nearest branch of Bank of America and deposit the cash amount in the AdSurfDaily, Inc. account, using the following information:

    The promo appeared on a website linked to Tari Steward, whom Bowdoin has identified as a potential defense witness and the Internet Marketer behind an effort by Bowdoin to raise funds to pay for his criminal defense.

    Screen shot: From a 2008 promo for an ASD millionaire co-op.

    The U.S. government warned in December 2010 that securities schemes such as AdSurfDaily and Imperia Invest IBC that spread virally on the Internet were creating tens of thousands of victims at a time. Imperia, which was smashed by the SEC in October 2010, was targeted at people with hearing impairments and gathered millions of dollars.

    Noobing, an autosurf that became popular after the ASD-related bank-account seizures in 2008 and collapsed in 2009 after the FTC took action against its parent company, also was targeted at the deaf community. Internet-based crimes and scams are creating victims in numbers America’s largest sports stadiums cannot accommodate, according to records.

    ASD gathered at least $110 million in its scheme and may have created 40,000 or more victims, prosecutors have said, asserting in January 2011 that “as far as the Government is aware, there is no available accurate compilation” of all individuals or entities that lost money in the scheme.

    “It appears from the investigation that there may be members who provided funds to ASD but whose information ASD did not enter into its database,” prosecutors said in January.

    Bowdoin, with Steward’s reported assistance, has busied himself since June to raise funds online for his criminal defense from the members he is accused of defrauding. A web entity known as “Andy’s Fundraising Army” has been sending “blast” emails for weeks to a list of ASD members that purportedly contains 77,000 names.

    Bowdoin also announced plans to complement his “Andy’s Army” fundraising efforts with a Facebook site, but no such site appears to have launched on the popular social network. At least three advertised launch dates for the Facebook site were missed.

    Meanwhile, the  “Andy’s Army” bid appears to have fallen flat, with Bowdoin stuck more than 95 percent short of his $500,000 goal after five continuous weeks of formal fundraising. Some ASD members have said they had received multiple fundraising appeals from Bowdoin in a single week.

    Screen shot: From the 2008 "millionaire" co-op promo.

     

  • UPDATE: AdSurfDaily ‘Blast’ Apparently Has Begun; PP Blog Has Received Complaints From Members Who Say They Never Agreed To Receive A Fundraising Email; One Member May Be A Witness For The Government In The ASD Ponzi Case

    Andy Bowdoin

    UPDATE: The PP Blog yesterday began to receive complaints from AdSurfDaily members unhappy that they were being solicited to help ASD President and accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin pay for his criminal defense.

    “Check this out,” one concerned ASD member said. “Andy is asking his victims to pony up in excess of $500K to help [h]is legal defense.”

    Another member said, “How do I put in a complaint? I live in Canada and what works in the USA may not work here. I don’t want any more e-mail’s from these people. I’ve already lost 15,000.00.”

    This morning the Blog received a complaint from a person it believes potentially is a witness against Bowdoin in the government’s Ponzi case.

    “[O]f all the people to send this to he [chose] to send one to me,” the person said. “[H]e needs help!!”

    The fundraising email purports to be “100% compliant with the Can-Spam Act of Nov. 2003” and to have been sent through “NetSuccessInc and/or it’s (sic) subsidary (sic) companies.” It encourages recipients to view Bowdoin’s fundraising message and provides a link to this website:netsuccessinc.com. The email itself is attributed to Bowdoin, and the netsuccessinc website provides a link to yet another Bowdoin fundraising site: AndysFundraisingArmy.com.

    The netsuccessinc.com site is registered in the name of “Millionaire Marketing International.” Tari Steward is listed as the contact person in the domain registration. Millionaire Marketing International is listed in Florida records as a fictitious business registered in 2009. It is owned by Net Success Inc.

    Florida records show that Net Success Inc. was dissolved in September 2010 for not filing an annual report. Steward is listed as an officer of the firm. Records in Florida also show that Steward was an officer of a company known as “Millionaire Marketing Inc.” That firm’s registration appears to have been dissolved in 2009.

    Steward is listed in federal court filings as a potential witness for Bowdoin in the criminal case.

    In a July email attributed to Bowdoin, recipients were advised that Bowdoin had “hired” Steward “and his company Global Online Success Inc.” to create the “Online Fundraising System for my Legal Defense Fund.”

    Bowdoin did not say whether he was paying Steward for his services. Why ASD members now were receiving emails that advised them to visit the netsuccessinc.com. domain, which appears to be owned by a dissolved Steward company (Net Success Inc.) tied to another Steward company (Millionaire Marketing International) that has a familial relationship with another dissolved Steward company (Millioniare Marketing Inc.), was not immediately clear.

    Potentially adding another layer of confusion in Bowdoin’s fundraising bid are these words that appeared in the “blast” email that asked prospects to visit the netsuccessinc.com domain:

    “You can contact us by snail mail at 2533 N. Carson St., Suite 3167, Carson City, NV 89706.”

    Why a company whose Florida registration was dissolved listed a snail-mail address in Nevada was not immediately clear.

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Accused Fraudster Andy Bowdoin Enters Defense That Could Provide Legal Cover For Autosurf Ponzi Schemes If He Wins Case; ASD Operator Claims Business Model Stands Up To ‘Howey Test’ Scrutiny

    Andy Bowdoin

    BULLETIN: In an argument that almost certainly will give comfort to operators of some of the most corrupt and insidious businesses on the Internet, AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin has advised a federal judge that his company and business practices are legitimate because they stand up to scrutiny when the “Howey Test” is applied.

    Bowdoin, 77, made the argument despite the fact the government claims that he signed a proffer letter at least two years ago in which he acknowledged ASD was operating illegally and that the prosecution’s material allegations were all true. In 2009, Bowdoin acknowledged in his own court filings that he had made statements against his interests over a period of at least four days in the hopes of avoiding a prison sentence by cooperating with investigators.

    But Bowdoin now says criminal charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities as investment contracts brought against him last year “must” be dismissed. It is believed that hundreds — if not thousands — of autosurfs are operating over the Internet at any given time.

    Separately, Bowdoin filed a motion to transfer the case to the Northern District of Florida’s Tallahassee Division from the District of Columbia, saying that trying the case in Florida was the fair and most cost-effective thing to do. The government is expected to oppose Bowdoin’s bid to move the case from Washington to Tallahassee.

    U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer, who was assigned the civil forfeiture case against Bowdoin’s assets after the U.S. Secret Service raided ASD in August 2008 and ordered $65.8 million found in Bowdoin’s personal bank accounts ceded to the government after nearly a year and a half of litigation, also was assigned the criminal case. Criminal charges against Bowdoin were announced in December 2010.

    Although Bowdoin previously claimed Collyer was biased against him and sought unsuccessfully to have her removed from the civil case, he has not raised the issue of bias so far in the criminal case. Instead, he petitioned Collyer for an order that would remove the case from her courtroom and put it in the hands of a federal judge in Florida, arguing that most of the witnesses in the case resided in Florida and that hearing the case in Collyer’s court would force unnecessary costs and transportation burdens on both Bowdoin and witnesses.

    An affidavit signed by Bowdoin requesting the transfer was filed yesterday. It appears to have been notarized by Judy Harris of Tallahassee, whom some ASD members said operated the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf with her husband, George Harris. George Harris is the son of Bowdoin’s wife, Edna Faye Bowdoin, and a Tallahassee home owned by the Harrises was seized in an ASD-related forfeiture complaint filed in December 2008.

    Both George and Judy Harris benefited from the ASD Ponzi scheme because a $157,000 mortgage on their house was retired with Ponzi proceeds, prosecutors said in December 2008.

    The Harrises also received a car valued at nearly $30,000 from the scheme, and the car also was paid for with Ponzi proceeds, prosecutors said.

    Florida records show that Judy Harris has been a licensed notary since at least October 2008. Why she would notarize a document for Andy Bowdoin when she, her husband and her mother-in-law were alleged to have been a beneficiaries of the ASD Ponzi scheme was not immediately clear.

    AVG, which purported to be headquartered in Uruguay and launched after the seizure of assets linked to Bowdoin and the Harrises, suspended payouts to members in June 2009. The surf blamed members’ greed for its problems. The name of Judy Harris also appears in a document filed in April 2009 with the Florida Department of State that canceled the fictitious registration of AVG, which also was known as the AV Global Association.

    Andy Bowdoin’s New Argument

    Prosecutors have not responded to Bowdoin’s new assertion filed yesterday that ASD can stand up to Howey Test scrutiny. A blistering response is expected in the days ahead because a ruling in Bowdoin’s favor to dismiss the case or an outright win by Bowdoin at trial could have grave economic and security implications for the United States.

    Autosurfs operate in the darkest corners of the Internet, fueled by corrupt promoters and scammers who position them as legitimate  “advertising” businesses that share revenue with participants. Untold sums of money — believed to be in the billions of dollars — have disappeared in recent years, and prosecutors say the enterprises operate as virtually pure Ponzi schemes.

    Purveyors almost certainly would view any win by Bowdoin as a mandate that legalized Internet-based Ponzi schemes and created a virtual license to collect vast sums of money and simply pocket it by claiming member payouts, which ASD called “rebates,” were not guaranteed.

    “[N]o guarantee or promise of any profits, any specific level of rebate payouts, or return on an alleged ‘investment’ occurred during the AdSurfDaily operation,” Bowdoin claimed. He also asserted that the allegations against him were Constitutionally vague and that none of the four civil cases brought against autosurfs — 12DailyPro, PhoenixSurf, CEP Holdings and the forfeiture case against ASD’s assets filed in 2008 — has clarified the legal issues.

    “As none of these actions has proceeded to final judgment, no judicial opinion has yet clarified whether payment of membership fees by advertisers into auto-surf businesses constitute unregistered sales of ‘securities,’ as alleged by the government,” Bowdoin claimed.

    The criminal charges “must be dismissed because the ad-surf business model employed by AdSurfDaily, Inc. and [Bowdoin’s] related businesses, as alleged in the indictment, cannot constitute an SEC-regulated ‘investment contract’ security as defined under the three-prong test established” by Howey, Bowdoin argued.

    The Howey Test is a threshold securities test and litigation benchmark from the 1946 U.S. Supreme Court decision in S.E.C. v. W.J. Howey Co. The decision spoke to the issue of what constitutes an “investment contract.”

    Bowdoin now claims the entire case against him is fatally flawed because he never sold investment contracts as defined under Howey.

    “[T]he Howey test,” Bowdoin argued, “determines whether a particular instrument or transaction is a prohibited, unregistered ‘investment contract’ by searching for the presence of three factors: ‘(1) the investment of money (2) in a common enterprise (3) with an expectation of profits to be derived solely from the efforts of the promoter or a third party.”

    ASD did not meet any of the three prongs of the Howey Test, Bowdoin argued.

    It was not an investment because ASD was an advertising company, not an investment company through which participants placed money at risk in anticipation of profit, Bowdoin argued. Therefore, he asserted, ASD did not meet the first Howey prong.

    Meanwhile, Bowdoin argued that ASD did not meet the second prong because participants did not place their money in a “common pool” put at risk in expectation of a profit.

    “[T]here was no ‘common enterprise’ at work here,” Bowdoin argued.

    And because ASD members had to click on ads and view them to get paid, they performed “actual efforts,” taking the third prong of the Howey Test out of play, Bowdoin claimed.

    “Here, the payment of both rebates and referral commissions were directly tied to the actual efforts of the advertisers,” Bowdoin argued.

    Prosecutors, though, asserted in the ASD forfeiture case that ASD told investors that rebates “will” be paid until investors received back 100 percent of the money they plowed into the scheme, plus a profit of 25 percent.

    Gerald Nehra, an attorney and expert witness for ASD in the forfeiture case, conceded under cross examination in 2008 that the ASD Terms of Service specified that rebates “will” be paid.

    Bowdoin’s most recent arguments also put him with odds with dozens of ASD members who claimed in court filings that the government had no “evidence” and no “witnesses.”

    In his filings yesterday, Bowdoin said he believed that the “vast majority” of the prosecution’s witnesses resided in Florida. He said he planned to counter them with witnesses of his own — as many as 136 — including George and Judy Harris, Rob Cefail of InTouch Marketing of Clearwater, and Tari Steward, who also provided Clearwater-based marketing services.

    At least 56 of ASD’s witnesses were ASD employees, Bowdoin said. The document was notarized by Judy Harris.