PatrickPretty.com

Tag: U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas G. Wilson

  • DISTURBING: Out On Bail After Ponzi Arrest, Is Andy Bowdoin Giving Marching Orders? Email Attributed To Former ASD Executive Gary Talbert Advises Members To Tell Claims Processor They Were Purchasing ‘Advertising’

    Andy Bowdoin

    UPDATED 9:28 A.M. ET (U.S.A.) On Dec. 1, a federal magistrate judge set bail of $350,000 for AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin and ordered him not to commit a federal, state or local crime after his arrest by the U.S. Secret Service on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

    Bowdoin, 76, was specifically warned that he could be held in contempt of court for violating conditions of his bail. The conditions included an order not to obstruct the investigation or tamper with witnesses.

    Now an email attributed to former ASD and AdViewGlobal executive Gary Talbert has surfaced that is raising questions about whether Bowdoin is trying to suppress the victims’ count and manipulate ASD members who seek to file restitution claims with Rust Consulting Inc., the official claims administrator in the $110 million Ponzi case.

    The email specifically references Bowdoin’s arrest, but makes no reference to the bail conditions set by U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas G. Wilson in advance of a scheduled appearance by Bowdoin in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Dec. 17.

    Bowdoin made his initial court appearance before Wilson in Florida.

    “Got a email from Andy and he told me to go ahead and send this email out to everyone,” noted the email attributed to Talbert, who filed a sworn affidavit on ASD’s behalf in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2008. “He does have a hearing on Dec. 17th in Washington D.C. He and his lawyers are still positive on the out come.”

    “Here is just a idea and I think this will work for everyone,” the email continued. “This should keep everyone legal. Because I think everyone understood it was not a investment. I believe it is time to fill out the info. from Rust inc. with the following addendum.

    “Where it asks for your signature write in there ‘See addendum’.

    “Now put this in your own words on the addendum. Here is a out line.

    “On the addendum write that you knew this was not a investment and you where purchasing advertising. Now since the gov. stopped my advertising company and I did not get my advertising I would like to get my advertising money back from whom ever is holding it now. Sign it and send it in with the forms from Rust.”

    News about the email attributed to Talbert was spreading among ASD members last night. Separately, ASD figures Kenneth Wayne Leaming and Christian Oesch have filed an ASD-related lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims that apparently seeks the spectacular sum of $29 TRILLION from a federal judge, three federal prosecutors and a Secret Service agent involved in the ASD Ponzi case.

    On June 30, 2009, AdViewGlobal was cited as an extension of ASD in a racketeering lawsuit filed against Bowdoin by ASD members. The reference was dated June 29, 2009, the same day Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in federal prison for his Ponzi scheme.

    Federal prosecutors now say Bowdoin faces up to 120 years in prison if convicted of all counts against him.

    “AVG is the next iteration of the Ponzi scheme auto-surf programs, which [are] staffed with former ASD executives and Bowdoin disciples, including George Harris, the stepson of Bowdoin, who is listed as an AVG trustee, Gary Talbert, former ASD executive served as CEO of AVG and now serves as an accountant, Nate Boyd, a former compliance officer at ASD, serves as ‘Protector’ of the AVG association, and Chuck Osmin, a former ASD employee who testified on ASD’s behalf at the evidentiary hearing before this Court last fall is a customer service representative of AVG,” the RICO plaintiffs claimed.

    The grand jury that indicted Bowdoin began to meet in May 2009. During that same month, AVG was scurrying to reconfigure itself after gathering money from members and offering 200 percent “bonuses” for months. AVG launched in the aftermath of the seizure of tens of millions of dollars from Bowdoin in August 2008, the filing by the government of a second forfeiture complaint against ASD-connected assets in December 2008 and the filing of the racketeering lawsuit against Bowdoin.

    The December 2008 forfeiture complaint specifically named Bowdoin family members Edna Faye Bowdoin, George Harris and Judy Harris as beneficiaries of crimes committed by ASD. Edna Faye Bowdoin is Andy Bowdoin’s wife; George Harris is Bowdoin’s stepson; Judy Harris is the wife of George Harris.

    In January 2009, just days prior to its official launch in early February, AVG bizarrely both confirmed and denied it had ties to ASD.

    The appearance of AVG graphics in an ASD-controlled webroom after the federal seizure was an “operational coincidence,” AVG memorably explained. The announcement was attributed to Chuck Osmin, himself a former ASD employee.

    Even though AVG previously had denied ASD ties, the upstart surf then announced that Talbert was its CEO.

    “Since Mr. Talbert was and is the C.E.O. for both companies and had worked with the same web room company while at ASD, it would be very natural for him to choose and use many of the same venders (sic) that he had used before. So, the fact that ASD and AdView Global are using the same web room hosting company is no accident, in fact it is an operational coincidence,” AdViewGlobal said.

    Why the surf identified Talbert as ASD’s CEO was unclear. He was listed in his own sworn court documents in the ASD case as ASD’s “Human Resource Manager, Assistant CFO and Website Editor.”

    By March 2009, AVG announced that Talbert had resigned as AVG’s chief. It also announced that its bank account had been suspended, blaming the development on members.

    In May 2009, AVG announced that it had secured a new, offshore wire facilitator to help it gather money from members. The announcement was made on the same day the Obama administration announced a crackdown on offshore financial fraud. (See this story and included links for updates on AVG’s purported facilitator, KINGZ Capital Management. There is a tie between KINGZ and Minnesota Ponzi schemer Trevor Cook.)

    By June 25, 2009, AVG announced it was suspending cashouts, again blaming the development on members while threatening members and journalists with copyright-infringement lawsuits for reporting the news.

    Just four days later, on June 29, 2009, the RICO plaintiffs in the ASD lawsuit referenced AVG in a court filing docketed the following day, June 30. By September 2009, federal prosecutors made a veiled reference to AVG in filings in the ASD case.

    By Sept. 29, 2009, an email attributed to ASD spokeswoman Sara Mattoon was circulating among ASD members. The email specifically instructed members not to fill out a government form that would be used as part of the restitution process.

    “Soon after the ASD shutdown, the DOJ (Dept of Justice) set up a website for people to file a claim for the money they had in ASD,” Mattoon was quoted as saying in the email. “As soon as I heard about it, I told everyone not to do it because I could see what the Government was trying to do, but some people didn’t realize what it was and afterwards they regretted doing so.”

    The Matton email referenced an earlier email attributed to ASD member and purported trainer Robert Fava. Like the Mattoon email, the Fava email discouraged members from filling out the government form, describing it as “ammunition” that could be used against ASD.

  • Judge At Bail Hearing Orders Bowdoin To Surrender Passport And Not To Intimidate Witnesses, Court Officials; Order Issued Against Backdrop Of Payment Demand By 2 ASD Figures For $29 TRILLION From Federal Judge, Prosecutors, Secret Service Agent

    Andy Bowdoin and Kenneth Wayne Leaming.

    As AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin was explaining to a federal magistrate judge in Florida Wednesday that he’d honestly come by $110 million the government intends to make subject to criminal forfeiture, two other ASD figures were awaiting a ruling by a judge in another venue on whether they could proceed with their bizarre, ASD-connected lawsuit against the U.S. government.

    One of the men, Kenneth Wayne Leaming of Spanaway, Wash., described himself in court documents as a “sovereign man.” Records in Washington state show that he once filed a lien against a faith-based Franciscan hospital for $9.24 billion, threatening to attach the money, furnishings and fixtures of the healthcare facility, which serves tens of thousands of patients.

    Leaming, who also has a history of filing liens against public officials, has been assessed sanctions totaling at least $15,000 in Washington state for filing bogus claims, according to records. He also has been accused of the unauthorized practice of law.

    Leaming and Christian Oesch filed a complaint against the United States in July 2010. The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, appears to be tied to an earlier failed bid by Leaming and Oesch to demand a payment for the astronomical sum of $29 TRILLION from a federal judge, three federal prosecutors and a U.S. Secret Service agent for their actions in the ASD civil-forfeiture cases filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2008.

    At a bail hearing Wednesday in Florida after Bowdoin was arrested on federal charges of wire fraud and securities fraud for his operation of ASD, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas G. Wilson specifically ordered Bowdoin not to intimidate witnesses, jurors and officers of the court — and not to obstruct the investigation, tamper with witnesses or engage in retaliatory actions against witnesses, victims or informants.

    As a condition of bail, Bowdoin was ordered not to commit a federal, state or local crime. Wilson warned him that he could be prosecuted for contempt of court for violating the conditions of his bail.

    Bowdoin, 76, was granted bail after he told Wilson that he had a heart condition, diabetes and high blood pressure — and  that he gives his wife medication because she has a brain tumor. He noted that he looked forward to going on trial in Washington, D.C., on the charges for which he was arrested on Wednesday, and had lined up experts to testify on his behalf.

    Prosecutors argued that Bowdoin should be jailed, saying he was a flight risk, has ties to international countries, potentially could acquire false travel documents and has a large amount of money available to relocate.

    Wilson set bail at $350,000. Bowdoin was freed after bail was secured by two properties in his wife’s name and a relative agreed to post a surety bond. Bowdoin was ordered to surrender his passport and not to travel outside the Northern and Middle Districts of Florida and the District of Columbia. He was further ordered to report by telephone to the federal Pre-Trial Services Agency in Tampa each Wednesday by 4 p.m., except for when he is attending court in the District of Columbia.

    His first appearance in Washington is set for Dec. 17 at 1:45 p.m.

    In June 2010, the PP Blog learned yesterday, Leaming and Oesch prepared documents that demanded payments totaling more than $29 TRILLION from U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer; Jeffrey A Taylor, the former U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia; Vasu B Muthyala, an assistant U.S. Attorney; William Cowden, a former assistant U.S. Attorney and Roy Dotson, an active-duty agent with the U.S. Secret Service.

    According to a document obtained by the Blog, the public officials were sent “invoice billing statements” for the purported debt.

    Collyer, the presiding judge in the ASD forfeiture cases, had issued two final orders of forfeiture earlier this year. She later blocked Leaming and Oesch from filing documents in the ASD case.

    Collyer’s name was misspelled as “Collier” in the payment demand, which was made in the form of a “Notice of Final Determination and Judgment.” The bizarre document sought a sum that would more than double the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2009. The precise sum demanded from the public officials was twenty-nine trillion, four-hundred-forty-four billion, one-hundred-one-million dollars — “PLUS interest and compounded penalties.”

    Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, is the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within the borders of an entire country during an entire year. GDP for the United States in 2009 was about $14.25 trillion, meaning that Leaming and Oesch sought to collect from five public servants a sum that was more than twice the production output of the entire U.S. economy last year.

    Leaming and Oesch said they defined $1 as “one ounce of .999 fine silver, or a pre-1964 United States Silver Dollar, whichever value is greater.”

    In 2009, silver production in the United States totaled only 1,230 tons with an estimated value of $520 million, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

    The men said they’d accept U.S. “fiat currency” for payment if it was tied to the “spot price for silver as established on the date of tender at London, England.”

    When the public officials did not cede to the payment demand, Leaming and Oesch appear to have turned to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to enforce it, in effect arguing that Collyer, Taylor, Muthyala, Cowden and Dotson had defaulted on a contract.

    Such scorched-earth litigation has been referred to as “paper terrorism.” As part of the apparent strategy, Leaming and Oesch also sought to force the government to post a bond of $100 billion and to “Cease and desist in all investigation and harassment of ASD, its officers and staff, and its member/distributors FOREVER.”

    The U.S. Department of Justice responded by filing a motion to dismiss the complaint filed by Leaming and Oesch in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, arguing that the court had no jurisdiction over ASD-connected forfeiture matters, that Leaming and Oesch were trying to use the claims court as an appeals court and that neither man had standing in the forfeiture actions.

    The Justice Department pointed out that Leaming is not a licensed attorney and had been accused in 2005 by the Washington state Law Practice Board of engaging in the unauthorized practice of law.

    In 2009, Leaming filed a lien against St. Clare Hospital, a Franciscan facility in Lakewood, Wash., for more than $9.24 billion. The lien sought to attach the hospital’s money, furnishings and fixtures, according to records.

    See stories on Leaming.