The receiver for ZeekRewards.com said last week that more than 90,000 checks are in the mail as part of his first distribution of refunds from the defunct Lexington Internet company.
Kenneth Bell said the value of the 90,297 checks is a combined $134.3 million. However, a combined $23 million was withheld for tax purpose.
Bell stated in August that the payout for most recipients is 40 percent of what they were owed “using the rising-tide method of calculation already approved by the federal court.” A rising-tide distribution is used by courts as a method to pay recovered assets to defrauded investors. The method serves to distribute money in a way that leaves as many investors as possible with the same percentage recovery of their total investment.
Each person receiving a check is owed at least $100.
In August 2012, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Rex Venture Group LLC, Zeekler, ZeekRewards.comand Paul Burks, their principal owner, of raising $850 million through unregistered securities. The companies were shut down and their assets frozen.
The companies raised the money from at least 2.2 million customers, including more than 230,000 in the United States and 47,000 in North Carolina.
U.S. District Court Judge Graham Mullen approved in July the distribution request of Sept.