A federal jury found Paul Burks, the founder of ZeekRewards, guilty Thursday on all four charges in a $939 million Ponzi scheme.
It was one of the largest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history, according to federal regulatory officials and prosecutors. The companies, which debuted in January 2011, were shut down and their assets frozen in August 2012.
The jury needed less than three hours to come back with its verdicts, according to Lia Bantavani, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina. Burks, 67, of Lexington was found guilty of wire and mail-fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud, and tax-fraud conspiracy.
“For nearly two years, Burks used deceit and dishonesty to engineer an extensive Ponzi scheme that amassed millions of dollars from thousands of victims, many in the Western
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Bonofa Management Arrested In Germany For $100 Million Fraud
by Ted Nuyten • • 0 Comments
According to an article in the German paper saarbruecker-zeitung the Bonofa management is arrested for an up to $100 million + fraud around Bonofa and Alpha Pool.
Master distributor Christian Goebel who lives on Ibiza – Spain was not immidiately available for a statement.
Founders Detlef Tilgenkamp (63), Thomas Kulla (54), Gernot Fuhr (60) and Martin Böhm (38) were last week arrested.
The google translation of the German news article:
Arrested Managers were the focus of financial investigation.
Established under a large raid in Saarland (Germany) financial jugglers celebrated on the Internet as “ingenious founders”
The four detained managers have since 2014 trouble with the Financial Supervisory. In addition to gang-fraud being investigated for breaches of the Banking Act.
After a major raid in which four financial jugglers were arrested, were more details on the activities of the
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Google Leads $75 Million Investment in Phone Fraud Startup
by Robert Hackett • • 0 Comments
Pindrop, founded in 2011, is a voice security company that combats fraud by analyzing and assigning risk to phone calls.
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Lawsuit: Former 5Linx President Craig Jerabeck – Fraud Accusations
by Ted Nuyten • • 0 Comments
According to an article in the Democrat & Chronicle, an USA Today company, former 5Linx President Craig Jerabeck joined Paycation and offered Business Development Deals to 5Linx leaders and lying to creditors.
The Democrat & Chronicle:
“One of the Rochester-area’s fastest growing companies is embroiled in a legal imbroglio between current and former management, with allegations ranging from the cherry-picking of successful sales employees to lying to would-be creditors about company finances.
5Linx Enterprises, a highly successful network marketing company that sells everything from nutritional supplements to coffee to wireless security systems, last year sued former company President Craig Jerabeck, who left the company in September.
The lawsuit alleged that Jerabeck breached a contractual pact by enticing a number of 5Linx top employees to join him at a new venture. Jerabeck has responded that he did not solicit
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Serial Entrepreneur Arrested for Scamming CrossFit Investors
by Kate Taylor • • 0 Comments
Josh Newman is known for his work in venture capital, film and fitness – and now, allegedly, for defrauding investors.
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Herbalife Director Is Being Charged In Brazilian Embezzlement Case
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
A director of U.S. nutrition company Herbalife is among 12 people charged in a years-old Brazilian embezzlement case that has never been mentioned in Herbalife public disclosures, according to court documents and company filings.
Herbalife has become one of America’s most closely-watched companies after billionaire investors William Ackman and Carl Icahn squared off with enormous bets on its future, with Ackman betting on its demise and Icahn on its success.
Prosecutors in Brazil charged current Herbalife board member Pedro Cardoso with money laundering in 2008 for allegedly participating in an embezzlement scheme a decade earlier that siphoned 26.7 million Brazilian reais ($10.4 million) from the state government in Espirito Santo.
The 8th Criminal Court of Vitoria ordered bailiffs to serve him with a subpoena in 2010, but they did not locate him and the case remains open, according to court filings and a court source.
According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules on disclosure, companies must report legal proceedings that are material to evaluating the integrity of a director. Herbalife has not made the information about Cardoso’s case public, according to proxy statements it has filed since 2009 when Cardoso joined the company’s board.
Cardoso said in a statement dated this week emailed to
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90,000 Checks On The Way To Defrauded Zeek Rewards Investors
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
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.
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TelexFree Co-Owner Pleads Not Guilty In Alleged Fraud
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
James Merrill entered a not-guilty plea for the TelexFree Inc. co-owner Wednesday in federal court in Worcester, his lawyer said.
Merrill, of Ashland, was president of the Marlborough-based phone service company, which is accused of running a $1 billion global pyramid scheme. His business partner, Carlos Wanzeler, remains a fugitive in Brazil and did not appear in court to face the charges.
Both men have been charged with nine counts of wire fraud and conspiracy. Each charge carries a possible maximum sentence of 20 years, but actual sentences are generally less than the maximums, according to the US Attorney’s office.
TelexFree sought federal bankruptcy protection in April, just as state and US securities regulators were days from filing civil fraud charges against the principals. Wanzeler fled the country that month to his native Vitoria, Brazil, while Merrill was arrested and held in jail for several weeks.
Merrill will remain home, wearing a GPS tracking bracelet and on $900,000 bail, officials said.