The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld the rulings of a federal judge and rejected an appeal by AdSurfDaily figures Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer. The ASD duo had contended the seizure of records from ASD’s database in a Ponzi scheme case brought in 2008 by the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors violated their right to privacy and that Judge Rosemary Collyer was biased.
A three-judge panel rejected both contentions.
“Appellants’ purported evidence of bias amounts to nothing more than their disagreement with the judge’s actions in presiding over a related matter, and ‘judicial rulings . . . virtually never provide a basis for recusal,’” the panel ruled
Moreover, the panel ruled, “The dismissal of appellants’ Fourth Amendment claim is affirmed on the ground that appellants lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy in the records allegedly seized.”
ASD was a $119 million Ponzi scheme operating from Quincy, Fla. Disner and Schweitzer later became pitchmen for Zeek Rewards, which the SEC described in August 2012 as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid fraud operating from Lexington, N.C.
AdSurfDaily figures Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer — later to become pitchmen for the alleged Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme — have appealed the dismissal of their ASD-related lawsuit.
In August, U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer dismissed claims by the ASD duo that their 4th Amendment rights had been violated when ASD computer records were seized in 2008.
Disner and Schweitzer had no standing to make the claim and had no privacy interests in records they voluntarily conveyed to ASD, Collyer ruled.
In September, the duo sought to reopen the case and have Collyer removed from hearing it, but Collyer said no.
Disner and Schweitzer now have appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia the Aug. 29 final judgment and their denied motions to reopen the case and have Collyer stand down.
The combined ASD and Zeek schemes fetched at least $719 million, according to federal records. On Aug. 17, the SEC described Zeek as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid fraud.
ASD was a $119 million Ponzi scheme, according to the U.S. Secret Service. The Secret Service said in August that it also was investigating Zeek.
BULLETIN: AdSurfDaily figures Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer will not be permitted to reopen their lawsuit against the government and get a different judge to hear it.
U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer of the District of Columbia this morning denied a motion by the ASD duo that she recuse herself from the case. At the same time, Collyer denied a motion by Disner and Schweitzer to reopen the case.
“A judge’s sworn duty is to judge with fairness and impartiality, and absent a showing otherwise, a judge is presumed to be impartial,” Collyer ruled.
Disner and Schweitzer made no such showing, Collyer ruled.
“Plaintiffs have presented no reasonable argument why this matter should be transferred to another judge,” Collyer ruled. “Further, Plaintiffs do not present sufficient facts that would lead an objective observer to believe that the Court has rendered a biased decision in this matter.”
With respect to the Disner/Schweitzer motion to reopen the case, Collyer said this (italics added):
Plaintiffs were victims of an internet Ponzi scheme called AdSurfDaily, Inc. (ASD). Federal agents investigated ASD for wire fraud and money laundering and, pursuant to warrants, federal agents seized approximately $80 million of ASD’s funds and related assets. The Government obtained in rem forfeiture judgments against the funds and other property purchased with ASD monies. Plaintiffs brought this suit, alleging that the warrants and the seizure of the funds were invalid and seeking a declaratory judgment that their Fourth Amendment rights were violated.
Because Plaintiffs lacked standing to raise a Fourth Amendment claim and because they had no privacy interest in financial records they voluntarily conveyed to ASD, the Court dismissed the Complaint on August 29, 2012 . . .
A motion for reconsideration need not be granted unless the court finds there is an intervening change of controlling law, the availability of new evidence, or the need to correct a clear error or prevent manifest injustice . . .
A motion to reconsider is not “simply an opportunity to reargue facts and theories upon which a court has already ruled” . . . Nor is it an avenue for a “losing party . . . to raise new issues that could have been raised previously” . . .
Plaintiffs’ motion falls woefully short of this demanding standard. Plaintiffs do not allege an intervening change of controlling law, the availability of new evidence, or the need to correct a clear error or prevent manifest injustice. They merely reargue the same points they previously raised . . .
On Sept. 17, Disner and Schweitzer accused Collyer of “sophistry” in her handling of their lawsuit. The ASD duo insisted that ASD was a legitimate enterprise even after ASD President Andy Bowdoin pleaded guilty to wire fraud in May and admitted ASD was a Ponzi scheme.
In separate court actions brought by the government on ASD-related matters, Collyer has ordered the forfeiture of more than $80 million. That money was set aside to compensate victims of Bowdoin’s crime.
About 9,000 ASD victims already have received a total of about $59 million in compensation, and the government says it plans to reopen claims to victims who missed the January 2011 filing deadline because the ASD database very likely did not include the names of all members.
In their motion to reopen the case, Disner and Schweitzer curiously argued that Collyer — despite Bowdoin’s guilty plea, acknowledgment that ASD was a Ponzi scheme and prison sentence of 78 months — should have assigned more weight to the opinions of purported multilevel-marketing experts that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme.
They further ventured that Bowdoin’s confession was “coerced,” even though Bowdoin himself said it was not.
After their ASD days, both Disner and Schweitzer became pitchmen for Zeek Rewards, which the SEC described in August as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme.
ASD was a Ponzi scheme that gathered at least $119 million, federal prosecutors said.
AdSurfDaily figures Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer should not be permitted to reopen their lawsuit against the government for alleged misdeeds in bringing the ASD Ponzi-scheme case in August 2008, government lawyers said in court filings today.
Disner and Schweitzer, who became pitchmen for the alleged Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme after their ASD days ended, sued the United States in November 2011. Collyer dismissed their lawsuit in late August, ruling that Disner and Schweitzer lacked standing to bring their 4th Amendment claim.
Collyer dismissed the case on Aug. 29, the same date upon which she sentenced ASD operator Andy Bowdoin to 78 months in federal prison. Bowdoin, 77, admitted in May that ASD was a Ponzi scheme and that the firm never operated lawfully from its 2006 inception.
Summoning a fancy word in their bid to force Collyer to step down, Disner and Schweitzer accused the judge of “sophistry.”
The move by Disner and Schweitzer to prevent Collyer from hearing ASD-related matters was at least the third. Two others failed — one by purported “sovereign” being Curtis Richmond in 2009 and another by Bowdoin himself in 2009.
“Plaintiffs’ motion to reopen and set aside the Court’s Order of August 29, 2012, merely rehashes arguments previously raised and fails to demonstrate any error, let alone clear error, in the Court’s ruling granting Defendant’s motion to dismiss. Likewise, the record provides no support for Plaintiffs’ motion to recuse Judge Collyer and this motion, too, should be dismissed,” the government said.
ASD was a Ponzi scheme that raised at least $119 million, federal prosecutors said.
Zeek Rewards was a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme, the SEC said on Aug. 17.
Precisely when Disner and Schweitzer joined Zeek is unclear.
What is clear is that some very strange events have occurred since the U.S. Secret Service brought the civil portion of the ASD Ponzi case in 2008.
Purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming is jailed near Seattle on charges he brought false liens against Collyer, three federal prosecutors and a U.S. Secret Service agent who had roles in the case.
Leaming was arrested by an FBI Terrorism Task Force in November 2011. He since has sued President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder. Separately, Leaming sued a county sheriff in Arkansas.
Some ASD members claimed Leaming was doing legal work for them, even though he is not an attorney.
Disner, who solicited funds to sue the government for alleged misdeeds in the ASD case, also was involved in an effort by Zeek figure Robert Craddock to raise funds to intervene in the Zeek case.
Precisely how Craddock intends to do that is unclear.
On Aug. 29, the PP Blog reported that U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer has authorized the U.S. Department of Justice to reopen remissions claims for victims of the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme who missed the January 2011 filing deadline.
Earlier in August, prosecutors advised Collyer that “it is entirely possible” ASD’s database did not contain the names of all members and that money remained to provide a disbursement.
Under the plan, qualifying members who missed the filing deadline could receive a pro rata share of the remainder of funds seized by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008.
Although the date upon which the Justice Department will reopen remissions still is not known, the ASDUpdates Blog is reporting today that “they expect something to happen within the next few months regarding Claim Forms and submission of documents.”
Visit ASDUpdates to get important info on the new round of remissions.
MLM pitchmen and AdSurfDaily figures Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer — both of whom went on to become promoters of the alleged Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme — have accused a federal judge of “sophistry.”
Sophistry, according to Dictionary.com, means “a subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning.”
Disner turned to MLM after his days as a founder of the Quiznos sandwhich franchise. Schweitzer is a former attorney whose license was suspended in Connecticut. Both men live in southern Florida.
The curious assertion by Disner and Schweitzer against U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer appeared on Collyer’s court docket in the District of Columbia on Sept. 17, one month to the day after the SEC alleged in the western District of North Carolina that the Zeek Rewards MLM “program” was a $600 million Ponzi scheme and pyramid fraud that potentially had affected more than 1 million people.
Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen of the western District of North Carolina is presiding over the Zeek case. Kenneth D. Bell is the court-appointed receiver.
Zeek and ASD are known to have members in common.
The ASD Ponzi scheme, which collapsed in 2008, affected at least 97,000 people and created at least 9,000 victims, federal prosecutors said.
Disner and Schweitzer also were pitchmen for ASD, which federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia have described as a $119 million Ponzi scheme marketed MLM-style. The ASD duo sued the United States in November 2011, claiming their records in ASD’s database were private and thus unlawfully seized and accusing federal prosecutors and a U.S. Secret Service agent of presenting a “tissue of lies” when bringing the civil- forfeiture case against $65.8 million in the bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin in August 2008.
On Aug. 29, Collyer sentenced Bowdoin to 78 months in federal prison. Bowdoin, 77, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in May 2012, admitting in a statement of offense that ASD was a Ponzi scheme and that his business never operated lawfully from its inception in 2006.
But Disner and Schweitzer now claim Bowdoin’s admission “was a necessary part of his plea bargain” with the government. They further assert that Bowdoin’s admission was the “coerced confession of an 80 year old man.”
In court filings in May, however, Bowdoin said this:
“I have read this Plea Agreement and discussed it with my attorneys, Michael McDonnell, Esq. and Charles Murray, Esq. I fully understand this Plea Agreement and agree to it without reservation. I do this voluntarily and of my own free will, intending to be legally bound. No threats have been made against me nor am I under the influence of anything that could impede my ability to understand this Plea Agreement fully. I am pleading guilty because I am in fact guilty of the offense(s) identified in this Plea Agreement.” (Italics/bolding added by PP Blog.)
In the filing docketed Sept. 17, Disner and Schweitzer claim the Secret Service “manufactured” events to ensure that the ASD case was heard by Collyer. Earlier, Disner and Schweitzer advanced a theory that undercover agents who joined ASD in 2008 had a duty to identify themselves to ASD management.
Even after Bowdoin pleaded guilty in May, Disner and Schweitzer contended that the government’s case was a “house of cards,” according to court filings.
Disner and Schweitzer now have asked for their lawsuit to be reopened and to have Collyer removed from the case. In ASD-related litigation, Collyer has ordered the forfeiture of more than $80 million.
The bid by Disner and Schweitzer to have Collyer removed from ASD-related litigation is at least the third. In 2009, purported “sovereign” being Curtis Richmond unsuccessfully sought to have Collyer removed. So did Bowdoin.
Disner is now involved with purported Zeek Rewards consultant Robert Craddock in an effort to raise money to challenge either the SEC or the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek case.
Among the early theories advanced by Craddock was that Mullen — the judge in the Zeek case — was playing politics by appointing Bell’s firm as the receiver to enable the firm to gorge itself on fees.
Both ASD and Zeek were accused of selling unregistered securities as investment contracts. The U.S. Secret Service brought the ASD case, with the SEC bringing the Zeek case.
The Secret Service confirmed on Aug. 17 that it also was investigating Zeek. The SEC said that, since January 2011, Zeek had “raised more than $600 million from approximately 1 million investors nationwide and overseas by making unregistered offers and sales of
securities through the ZeekRewards website in the form of Premium Subscriptions
and VIP Bids.”
Zeek was an arm of North Carolina-based Rex Venture Group LLC and was operated by Paul R. Burks, the SEC said.
In their filing accusing Collyer of sophistry, Disner and Schweitzer appear to suggest that Collyer needs a lesson in MLM from purported MLM expert Keith Laggos and MLM attorney Gerald Nehra.
Laggos, an SEC defendant in a 2004 case that alleged he issued laudatory press releases without disclosing he was being compensated, is listed in court records as a Zeek consultant. Laggos settled the 2004 SEC case without admitting or denying liability but agreeing to pay more than $30,000, including a $19,500 civil penalty.
Laggos once opined that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme. Nehra also opined that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme. Richard W. Waak, Nehra’s law partner, is listed in court filings by Zeek as an attorney for the firm.
BULLETIN: A federal judge has dismissed the November 2011 lawsuit against the United States by AdSurfDaily figures Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer.
The dismissal of the lawsuit by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer came on the same day she sentenced confessed ASD Ponzi scheme operator Andy Bowdoin to 78 months in federal prison.
After their ASD days, Disner and Schweitzer went on to become promoters of Zeek Rewards, which the SEC now describes as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme. ASD was a $119 million Ponzi scheme.
Disner reportedly now is involved in an effort to raise funds to sue the SEC for its role in the Zeek case. Disner and Schweitzer also raised funds to sue the government for its role in the ASD Ponzi case, but Collyer today dismissed their complaint.
From Collyer’s order of dismissal in the case brought by Disner and Schweitzer, who alleged the seizure of their records on ASD’s database was unconstitutional (italics added).
They allege that federal agents seized money, uncashed checks, unendorsed checks, books, computers, and other assets and records created and maintained by Plaintiffs in the computers and servers that were in the custody and control of ASD. Plaintiffs maintain that their information was encrypted and password protected. Specifically, Mr. Disner claims that he is owed $53,000 . . . On September 17, 2008, the Government returned to ASD the computers that it had seized . . . Mr. Schweitzer avers that he cannot remember where his checks/money orders were drawn, that he put $3,500 into ASD, and that he was involved with ASD for “only a few weeks before it was shut down.”
UPDATED 2:32 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Confessed Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin of AdSurfDaily has asked U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer for mercy and for a sentence of “time served” and “home incarceration.”
Federal prosecutors have asked Collyer to sentence Bowdoin to 78 months, the maximum sentence under a plea agreement Bowdoin signed in May.
Bowdoin, 77, is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 29 in an online Ponzi caper federal prosecutors now say gathered at least $119 million and created at least 9,000 victims. The ASD patriarch has been jailed since June. Collyer ordered him jailed after prosecutors produced evidence that Bowdoin continued to promote scams — including another 1-percent-a-day scam — after the U.S. Secret Service raided ASD in August 2008 and arrested Bowdoin on Ponzi-related charges in December 2010.
The other 1-percent-a-day scam was AdViewGlobal, which collapsed in 2009. Bowdoin also promoted “OneX,” which prosecutors described as an ASD-like pyramid scheme.
Bowdoin’s sentencing is expected to be closely watched by members of Zeek Rewards, which the SEC described Aug. 17 as a $600 million online Ponzi and pyramid scheme that potentially could affect more than 1 million participants. Zeek’s business model of suggesting a return of more than 1 percent a day was possible strongly resembled the ASD business model.
“As an initial matter, Mr. Bowdoin pleaded guilty to the instant offense [wire fraud] [and] stands before this Court accepting of its punishment,” Bowdoin’s attorneys wrote in a memo to Collyer. “The Defendant does not accept punishment bitterly, but understands that he has committed a crime and that he must be punished.”
Bowdoin, according to his lawyers, disputes a government analysis that pegs total ASD losses by investors at $75 million. The actual loss, the lawyers argued, was $19 million.
“Mr. Bowdoin does not make this objection to minimize his activities,” the lawyers argued. “He only wishes to put the extent of the harm caused by his activities in the appropriate context.”
But Bowdoin’s advancing age and declining health are factors the judge should consider when sentencing Bowdoin, whose wife also is sick, the attorneys argued.
Bowdoin is remorseful for his illegal conduct and has accepted responsibility for his crime, his attorneys argued to the judge.
Unlike many Ponzi scheme cases, the government was able to seize tens of millions of dollars of assets in the ASD case before they could be dissipated, according to court filings. In August 2008, the U.S. Secret Service seized about $80 million from 15 ASD-related bank accounts.
Other seizures occurred in December 2008 and December 2010, for much smaller amounts, according to court filings. Some of the later seizures involved the bank accounts of individual ASD members.
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Federal prosecutors have asked U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer for an order that would reopen the remissions process in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case, potentially giving victims who missed the January 2011 filing deadline a chance to gain a pro rata share of the balance of seized assets.
The U.S. Secret Service seized about $80 million in the case. To date, the government has returned about $58.8 million to about 9,000 victims. Other victims might have missed the January 2011 filing deadline because ASD’s records were a mess, prosecutors asserted.
“The victims in this case include thousands of domestic and possibly international individuals and entities who provided funds directly to ASD,” prosecutors advised Collyer. “Although the government obtained the ASD member database, which contained the names of approximately 97,000 ASD members, it is entirely possible that this database does not contain all of the ASD victims.”
Separately, the U.S. Department of Justice said it did not oppose a reopening of remissions.
“Although the previous remission process was open for an extended period of time, [the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section] intends to administer a final remission process, whereby those who missed the original deadlines would be able to submit a petition for remission,” the Justice Department said in a letter to one of the federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia who is handling the ASD case.
“While the final details are still being determined, we envision that process starting shortly after the sentencing in this case, and providing approximately 45 days from the beginning of that process for individuals to file petitions. Petitioners who satisfy the requirements of 28 C.F.R: § 9.8 would be eligible for remission, and the granted petitioners would receive a pro-rata share of the remaining forfeited proceeds. The details of this process will be posted on the Ad Surf Daily page on website of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia.”
Eligible claimants, according to the government’s filing, must demonstrate (italics added):
(1) he or she incurred pecuniary loss of a specific amount; (2) the pecuniary loss was a direct result of the illegal act; (3) the victim did not knowingly contribute in, participate in, or benefit from, or act in a wilfully blind manner toward the commission of the offense; (4) the victim has not been compensated for the loss; and (5) the victim does not have recourse to other assets to obtain compensation.
The PP Blog will update this information as needed.
In other ASD news, prosecutors have formally put the total amount ASD gathered at $119 million, up from a preliminary figure of $110 million.
And prosecutors noted that “less than $50,000 came from sources other than ASD members.”
Last week, the SEC filed charges against an ASD-like “opportunity” known as Zeek Rewards. In case filings, the agency asserted that only 2 percent of Zeek’s revenue was external to the membership, making Zeek a “classic” Ponzi scheme.
Former ASD President Andy Bowdoin is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 29.
“Fortunately for the investing public, ASD’s popularity in the spring and summer of 2008 also drew the attention of the United States Secret Service, which investigated Bowdoin and ASD and discovered the true nature of the business model.” — Federal prosecutors, in Aug. 13 sentencing memo that asked a federal judge to impose the maximum prison sentence on 1-percent-a-day Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin.
Thomas A. "Andy" Bowdoin
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia have asked U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer to sentence acknowledged Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin of AdSurfDaily to the maximum term outlined in Bowdoin’s May 2012 plea agreement: 78 months.
News of the sentencing memo and detailed new allegations against Bowdoin, 77, broke one day after some ASD members were circulating an email that asked their fellow members to “flood” a federal judge with letters of support for the recidivist con man.
In a sentencing memo and accompanying exhibits, prosecutors advised Collyer that they had linked Bowdoin to AdViewGlobal (AVG), a collapsed 1-percent-a-day Ponzi scheme “that was simply a repackaged version of ASD.”
The criminal preparations to launch AVG began in October 2008, just two months after the seizure of tens of millions of dollars in ASD-related bank accounts by the U.S. Secret Service in August 2008, according to an evidence exhibit filed by prosecutors.
Bowdoin was a two-thirds owner of AVG, which did some of its banking in Switzerland, according to an exhibit.
And prosecutors linked Bowdoin to OneX, another alleged fraud scheme.
In what is believed to be the first public filing that includes specific details about OneX, prosecutors produced an exhibit that identified one of the principals of OneX as James C. Hill, who allegedly also is known by the initials J.C.
The introduction of the document ends one of the long-standing OneX mysteries: the identity of “J.C.,” who once assured conference-call listeners that “God” was aboard the OneX train.
When confronted about OneX, prosecutors said, Bowdoin claimed he’d done nothing wrong and was acting on “advice of counsel.”
” . . . it became clear that Bowdoin did not speak to a lawyer about OneX, but merely relied on another OneX promoter who had supposedly spoken to a lawyer,” prosecutors said.
But the most explosive revelations by the government concerned AVG. The exhibits show that investigators obtained emails going back and forth among AVG participants described as Bowdoin “co-conspirators.”
In one document obtained by investigators, Bowdoin describes two separate alleged thefts from AVG totaling $2.65 million, according to an evidence exhibit.
Bowdoin’s partner in AVG was former ASD executive Gary Talbert, according to an evidence exhibit. Bowdoin blamed the alleged theft on Arizona business associates of Talbert.
The Bowdoin story is one “that reads like a handbook on fraud and deception,” prosecutors said.
ASD’s patriarch and the co-profiteer of AVG cheated investors out of tens of millions of dollars, prosecutors argued, saying that Bowdoin’s career as a crook dated back “several decades” and caused victims to turn over more than $120 million to the huckster.
“He had no concerns for the lives he affected or destroyed, and he boldly continued or expanded his criminal conduct even while under the supervision of this Court,” prosecutors argued.
“Well we have been dealt a setback today…the judge here agreed with the government to transfer us to the District Court in Washington DC… The same judge who railroaded Andy. I will make a motion for her to recuse herself and if she will not (and she will not) I will take an appeal.” — Remark attributed to Dwight Owen Schweitzer that is contained within email by former AdSurfDaily spokeswoman Sara Mattoon that discusses plan to “flood” a federal judge with letters of support for jailed ASD Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin, Aug. 13, 2012
Thomas A. "Andy" Bowdoin
Former AdSurfDaily member Dwight Owen Schweitzer — later to join former ASD colleague Todd Disner as a pitchman for the Zeek Rewards 1-percent-a-day-plus MLM scheme — is quoted in an email circulating among ASD members that ASD President Andy Bowdoin was “railroaded” by a federal judge.
The quotation attributed to Schweitzer was contained within an Aug. 13 email forwarded by Disner after being assembled by former ASD spokeswoman Sara Mattoon. Mattoon has a history of packaging communications friendly to ASD, adding her purported insights to the communications and emailing them to members. The Aug. 13 email calls for ASD members to “flood” a federal judge with letters of support for Bowdoin. The ASD patriarch and veteran securities swindler is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 29 in the District of Columbia by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer.
Previous Mattoon emails have quoted Kenneth Wayne Leaming, a purported “sovereign citizen” now jailed near Seattle after a 2011 investigation by an FBI Terrorism Task Force. Leaming was accused of filing false liens against at least five public officials involved in the ASD Ponzi case, harboring two fugitives wanted in a separate home-business scheme, being a felon in possession of firearms and uttering a bogus “Bonded Promissory Note” for $1 million.
Leaming, who is not an attorney, was said to be performing legal work on behalf of some ASD members.
In May 2012, Bowdoin pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the ASD Ponzi case and acknowledged that ASD was a Ponzi scheme and that his company never operated lawfully from the inception of its 1-percent-a-day (or more) “program” in 2006. Bowdoin, 77, originally remained free on bond after his guilty plea, pending formal sentencing.
But Bowdoin was jailed in June 2012, after prosecutors presented evidence that Bowdoin continued to promote scams after the U.S. Secret Service seized more than $80 million in ASD-related proceeds in 2008 and after Bowdoin was arrested on ASD-related Ponzi charges in 2010. Prosecutors identified those scams as “OneX,” and AdViewGlobal (AVG).
Like ASD, AVG was a 1-percent-a-day “program.” AVG, which launched in February 2009 after the seizure of ASD-related bank accounts in 2008, vanished mysteriously in the summer of 2009 after issuing threats to members and journalists. AVG was referenced in a lawsuit filed by ASD members who accused Bowdoin of racketeering.
Contained within the forwarded email dated Aug. 13 are at least two ads for the Zeek Rewards’ MLM which, like ASD, plants the seed that a return that corresponds to an annualized return in the hundreds of percent is possible. Precisely why the Zeek ads appeared in the email is unclear. They are attributed to a Zeek affiliate known as “Compassion Ministries” and display Zeek videos produced by USHBB Inc., a company that once produced ads for the Narc That Car pyramid scheme that collapsed in 2010 after the Better Business Bureau raised concerns about Narc and investigative reporters began to write about Narc and produce television reports about the “program.”
Even as the Mattoon email solicited support for Bowdoin as his Aug. 29 sentencing date approaches, it cautions ASD members to “be careful” if they write to Bowdoin in jail because “they read his mail.”
Disner and Schweitzer sued the U.S. government in November 2011, claiming the seizure of ASD’s database was unconstitutional. The lawsuit originally was filed in the Southern District of Florida, but a judge there granted a request by the government to transfer the case to the District of Columbia. The case now appears on the docket in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and has been assigned to Collyer.
The Aug. 13 email from Mattoon quotes Schweitzer as saying, “Well we have been dealt a setback today…the judge here agreed with the government to transfer us to the District Court in Washington DC… The same judge who railroaded Andy. I will make a motion for her to recuse herself and if she will not (and she will not) I will take an appeal.”
When suing the United States in November 2011, Disner and Schweitzer relied in part on a purported expert opinion from Keith Laggos that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme. Like Disner and Schweitzer, Laggos also has been linked to the Zeek Rewards’ scheme.
Laggos reportedly was fired as a Zeek “consultant” last month. Details surrounding the reported firing remain unclear.
Zeek is now the subject of an “examination” by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper.
Zeek’s news Blog published this baffling message yesterday (italics added):
Hello Fine People:
The team wanted to let you know there won’t be any training, recruitment or leadership calls for the next few days while planning is going on. Standby for some important announcements. Thank you for your patience!
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld the rulings of a federal judge and rejected an appeal by AdSurfDaily figures Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer. The ASD duo had contended the seizure of records from ASD’s database in a Ponzi scheme case brought in 2008 by the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors violated their right to privacy and that Judge Rosemary Collyer was biased.
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Federal prosecutors have asked U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer for an order that would reopen the remissions process in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case, potentially giving victims who missed the January 2011 filing deadline a chance to gain a pro rata share of the balance of seized assets.
