Feds to release millions of dollars seized from owner of internet company, ‘Ad Surf Daily’

Federal prosecutors say they are now prepared to begin disbursement of more than $14M (fourteen million dollars) they have seized from an internet marketing company owned by Quincy, Florida businessman Andy Bowdoin.

Federal raid of ASD Headquarters in Quincy, Florida

The company, Golden Panda, offers members a way to make money by advertising online and pays them each time they click on another advertiser’s website. The US Attorney General’s office calls the business model a ‘ponzi scheme’ and that is why it has also seized $53M (fifty three million dollars) of assets from ‘Ad Surf Daily’ (ASD), another similar internet company also owned by Bowdoin. ASD is estimated to have approximately 125,000 members nationwide who have invested money in the company.

US Department of Justice Senior Trial Attorney William R. Cowden says the government will begin disbursement of the funds as soon as members are able to prove how much they actually lost. He states, “the government recently became owner of the Golden Panda funds, (a similar company they say is also controlled by Bowdoin) and it can now pursue cost effective mechanisms to remit funds to Golden Panda victims.”

Department of Justice

Cowden says he is also confident the Department of Justice will win its pending legal case against Bowdoin and ASD. When that happens he says the government will distribute those assets to ASD members in the same manner as Golden Panda. The Golden Panda funds are now ready for release but members who lost money must first prove just how much money they had invested in the company.

Despite ASD’s turbulent legal troubles, there are hundreds of ASD members who still support the company. Iowa resident Julie Van Zee doesn’t understand why the government seized ASD’s assets in the first place, “I was just trying to make an honest living and they stole from many hard working people.”
Van Zee heard about ASD from a friend who is also a member. Van Zee supports ASD and its CEO stating, “Andy Bowdoin and his wife are very honest people who may have made a few honest mistakes…and only wanted to help others grow their businesses.”

Cowden doesn’t see it that way. He wants to clear up any confusion about what is happening to the money seized from Bowdoin and ASD. Cowden says, “I see from one of the comments on your blog a recurring complaint that the government has been holding a person’s money for over a year now and should just give it back to the person. Unfortunately, this person’s money became Andy Bowdoin’s money when he or she voluntarily gave it to Bowdoin/ASD.

Ad Surf Daily CEO Andy Bowdoin

The government is using the civil forfeiture cases to strip ownership away from Bowdoin and move it to the government. You might explain that the government can’t give money it doesn’t own back to anyone. Perfecting ownership is the point of pursuing court orders forfeiting ASD/Bowdoin & Golden Panda/Busby property to the government as the law permits.”

Below is the July 27th press release describing the current legal status of Golden Panda and ASD. I will be posting new updates as they come in.

Channing D. Phillips
Acting United States Attorney
District of Columbia
Judiciary Center
555 Fourth St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530
July 27, 2009 Update
Golden Panda Ad Builder

In two related civil forfeiture cases now pending in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, the Department of Justice (through the United States Attorney’s Office) has alleged that funds and assets either seized from several Internet-based businesses (“Ad Surf Daily,” “La Fuente Dinero” and “Golden Panda Ad Builder”) or traceable to those operations, constituted proceeds of one or more federal criminal offenses. Specifically, the government alleged that each of these three so-called auto-surf businesses, which had promised income opportunities to their paying members, were actually “Ponzi” schemes that used new members’ money to pay income to earlier members in violation of the federal wire fraud and securities fraud statutes. Under federal law, proceeds of wire and securities fraud offenses are forfeitable to the Unite States. On July 24, 2009, the United States District Court issued an order forfeiting $14,048,598.07 to the government. This amounted to most of the funds that the government seized from bank accounts maintained by operators of the Golden Panda Ad Builder operation. Thus, the government now has perfected its title to these former Golden Panda funds, and it is now able to begin the process of remitting forfeited property to victims of the Golden Panda fraud scheme. Individuals who sent money to Golden Panda Ad Builder, and who suffered a pecuniary loss, will need to file petitions for remission or mitigation of the forfeiture with the Department of Justice. Under Section 9.8(a)(1) and (2) of Title 28 of the Code of Federal Regulations, in a petition for remission or mitigation of forfeiture a non-owner victim must demonstrate that it suffered a pecuniary loss of a specific amount directly caused by the criminal offense(s) underlying the forfeiture, or a related offense, and that the loss is the direct result of the criminal acts. In the near future, the Department of Justice will endeavor to contact former Golden Panda members with information about how they may properly file petitions for remission or mitigation with the Department (in writing and under oath). The Department will publish information on this website and also will provide information by email to potential petitioners identified to it. At this time, the United States does not have access to funds or property seized from or related to the Ad Surf Daily and La Fuente Dinero operations. The government’s effort to perfect those forfeitures remains under challenge.

Here is a link to the Attorney General’s civil complaint filed against ASD in August, 2008
http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/KGRG-7H9MY7/$file/ASDComplaint.pdf

____________________________________

Original Report from August 8, 2009

The US Attorney General’s office seized millions of dollars from investors of a marketing firm that sold ad space on the internet and investors should finally be getting ‘some’ of that money back.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum

The Florida Attorney General’s office is investigating ‘Ad Surf Daily’, a Quincy, a Florida based corporation founded by Thomas Bowdoin in 2006. This comes after the US Department of Justice seized millions from the company in July, 2008.  Bowdoin stated the purpose of the corporation was to ‘provide advertising space for websites on the internet’ but the USAG says the company is nothing more than an elaborate ponzi scheme.

Ad Surf Daily (ASD) is designed to pay members dividends by surfing various business websites.The AG states the company “members were entitled to earn “credits” by viewing other members’ advertising websites. One credit was received for each viewing of another member’s website advertising.”

The Florida AG says ASD is only able to pay members a profit when new members pay to join the company. In a complaint filed by Florida AG’s special counsel Keith Vanden Dooren he states “Defendants have engaged in a sales or marketing plan or operation to induce and cause persons to pay consideration, or to make an investment, in excess of $100 and acquire an opportunity to receive a benefit or thing which is
not primarily contingent on the volume or quantity of goods, services or other property sold in bona fide sales to consumers and which is related to the inducement of additional persons to participate in the same sales or marketing plan or operation.”

The company’s members are said to total upwards of 125,000 and they’ve invested millions. They accuse the Federal Government of holding their money hostage for nothing that they did wrong.

Marcia Breitenbach says she invested most of her savings in the company and is worried she has lost it all. “I’m trying to save my house, scraping by and others are much worse off than me.”

Even though the Florida Attorney General accuses the internet firm of running a ‘pyramid sales scheme’, it has not yet provided evidence to support those charges. The second judicial circuit court in Leon County, Florida has given the Florida AG until August 28 ,2009 to provide proof of wrong-doing.

Breitenbach is anxious for answers, “I’ve been patient and have contacted the Attorney General’s office many times and have gotten nowhere.”

Many ASD investors say they have no idea what’s happening with their money and fear they could lose their life savings. The US Department of Justice has frozen assets totalling tens of millions of dollars but has not said how that money will be distributed.

The Florida AG has agreeed to respond to my inquiries by tomorrow and as I investigative this further I will deliver a detailed account of how this happened and what the next steps will be. You can subscribe to my blog for updates as soon as they are posted.
Stay tuned.

Mike Mason – Investigative Reporter
Mike@MikeMason.Biz
Investigative Reporting Video Resume: http://bit.ly/Z512e
Blog: http://investigativereportermikemason.blogspot.com/

Tags: ad surf daily, andy bowdoin, asd, auto surf, investigative reporter mike mason