If you are found guilty for organizing a Ponzi Scheme in the USA this is what happens:
The Patrick Pretty website reports: 7.5 year in jail for former COO Dawn Wright Olivares and 2 years for CTO Daniel Olivares:
Patrick Pretty:
“The landing spots for two key Zeek Rewards figures now are known. Former Zeek COO Dawn Wright-Olivares is listed as inmate 29336-058 at FMC Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas.
The facility is a Federal Medical Center for female offenders and has an adjacent minimum security satellite camp, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
Daniel C. Olivares, the stepson of Wright-Olivares and the former senior technology officer at Zeek, is listed as inmate 29335-058 at CI Taft, a contracted correctional institution operated by a private corporation in Taft, Calif., according to the BOP website.
Wright-Olivares and
Tag Archive for Zeek Rewards
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Zeek Rewards Scam Pays Out Yet Another $89 Million
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
The receiver for defunct ZeekRewards.com said Thursday he has made a third distribution to victims of the Ponzi scheme, this time for $89.2 million.
Kenneth Bell said 112,734 checks were mailed July 31. The distribution raises to $246.05 million the amount that Bell has released from the ZeekRewards estate since September.
Bell said he was not able to distribute an additional $46.24 million because about 35,400 potential recipients still have not completed their eligibility requirements, such as electronically signing the legal release and certification required by court orders.
Bell said most victims who are qualified for reimbursement would get a check.
Bell raised his projection of what the average recipient should get from 60 percent reimbursement to approaching 70 percent. The next distribution, if possible, is set for Oct. 31.
In August 2012, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
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Zeek Rewards Receiver Sues 22 Australian Leaders
by Ted Nuyten • • 0 Comments
Zeek Receiver Kenneth Bell has filed on 29 December a Federal lawsuit entitled “Bell v. Bjerring et al”. Gert Bjerring is the largest fish in the pool with $826,000+ in Zeek Rewards commissions.
How an USA court has jurisdiction over Australian citizens has to be proven, however Australian Zeek Rewards net winners are most likely not pleased, the USA is going after them…
According to the lawsuit:
“Because Zeek’s net winners “won” (the victims’) money in an unlawful combined Ponzi and pyramid scheme, the net winners are not permitted to keep their winnings and must return the fraudulently transferred winnings back to the Receiver for distribution to Zeek’s victims”.
Gert Bjerring of Queensland, Australia, $826,801.73
David Mitchell of New South Wales, Australia, $298,802.10
Nicola Holloway of Queensland, Australia, $273,009.36
Sam Fawahl of Victoria, Australia, $232,564.55
Warren Hickey of Queensland, Australia, $159,757.73
Paul Mandelt of Western Australia, $128,913.02
Kelvian Hansen of Queensland, Australia, $111,799.43
Anni Thompson of Queensland, Australia, $95,566.00
Ann Audrey Hickey of Queensland, Australia, $83,487.05
R&J Thumm Family P/L as Trustee for Thumm Investment Trust, Australia, $80,130.26
David Cane of Queensland, Australia, $77,296.57
Donna Walton of Queensland, Australia, $76,730.36
Michael Georghiou of Victoria, Australia, $74,968.93
Thomas von Eitzen of Queensland, Australia, $74,854.07
Bradley Ferries
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Zeek Rewards CEO Pleads Not Guilty To Scam
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
A North Carolina man accused of being the mastermind of an $850 million Ponzi scheme pleaded not guilty Thursday to multiple federal charges of fraud and conspiracy.
Paul Burks, the founder and CEO of the ZeekRewards penny auction site, was arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge David Cayer at the federal courthouse in Charlotte. In late October, a grand jury indicted Burks on charges of wire, mail and tax fraud, and conspiracy.
Burks said nothing during his brief appearance in court. His plea was entered by his attorney, Noell Tin. If convicted on all of the charges he faces, Burks, 67, faced 65 years in prison and a $1 million fine. At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Cayer released Burks on $25,000 bond. No trial date has yet been set. Burks company and its Zeekler.com auction site was shut down by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in August 2012, after the agency concluded it had sold $850 million in unregistered securities.
Prosecutors say Burkes and his conspirators ripped off as many as 1 million investors with promises of big returns and what ultimately turned out to be bogus investments. Burks, who had been accused of pocketing as much as $10 million in investors’ money, agreed 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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Zeek Rewards Receiver May Spread To Canada
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
The receiver of defunct ZeekRewards.com is going international in his quest to retrieve “net winnings” from participants in the Ponzi scheme, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.
Kenneth Bell said in a legal filing Thursday he is requesting permission to pursue at least 23 Canadian residents who received a combined $2.91 million. The range of net winnings was $50,863 to $376,808 among the listed participants.
Bell defines net winners are those who had a net gain of at least $1,000 from the scheme.
In August 2012, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Rex Venture Group LLC, Zeekler andZeekRewards.com, all of Lexington, and 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. Bell said net winners received more than $283 million combined.
The filing comes about five weeks after Bell made good on his promise to identify U.S. net winners. He listed about 9,400 individuals in a 217-page legal filing available at www.zeekrewardsreceivership.com. The list contained 15 individuals from Forsyth County, 105 from the Triad and Northwest North Carolina, and 390 statewide.
He said
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Zeek Rewards Leaders Outside The USA Will Face Legal Proceedings
by Ted Nuyten • • 0 Comments
How the Zeek Rewards Receivership intends to go after Zeek investors who are outside of the USA, has made clear in his status report for the second quarter of 2014.
Receiver Kenneth Bell:
Counsel for the Receiver prepared a request for proposal, which it distributed to a select number of law firms in countries where the largest ZeekRewards net winners reside.
The Receiver Team has been in discussions with multiple overseas law firms regarding the logistics, strategy, and costs involved with pursuit of net winners residing in these firms’ various countries.
Claims against foreign net winners will likely be grouped by the country in which these individuals reside, with some actions being initiated here in the Western District of North Carolina and other actions being filed in the foreign net winners’ home countries.
The Receiver is evaluating the most efficient means of pursuing these individuals that will generate the greatest possible return for the Receivership Estate.
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Court Approves Quarterly Costs For Zeek Rewards
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
A United States District Court judge has approved the funds for the receiver handling the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme, according to a Monday filing.
Receiver Kenneth Bell and his firm McGuireWoods were awarded an allowance of $756,188.52 for the first quarter of 2014. The money is for fees and expenses by the receiver and his advisers, according to an order approved by Judge Graham C. Mullen.
Of the money, $151,237.70 will be held back pending further petition to and approval by the court. A total of $39,456.02 will cover recover reimbursement expenses, the order stated.
FTI Consulting also will receive $476,334 ($95,266.80 will be held back pending further petition to and approval by the court). The funds are for services rendered during the compensation period. FTI is the forensic accountant and database consultant utilized by Bell. FTI, Bell and his constituents at McGuire Woods make up the “receiver team.” They’ve been working since mid-August 2012 to recover money connected to Zeek Rewards.
Zeek was headquartered in Lexington under the parent entity of Rex Venture Group LLC. In other requests for funding from the court, Bell has said the investigation of an alleged fraud included about two million affiliates and one million investors throughout the
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Zeek Rewards Payments To Being Late September
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
Two years after their entrapment in a mammoth Ponzi scheme became public, victims of the Zeek Rewards swindle finally may receive some restitution this autumn.
The attorney overseeing what may become one of the largest pyramid schemes in U.S. history — which was run from a small office next to a coin-operated laundromat in Lexington — said the first, initial payments to victims could be made in late September. Receiver Kenneth Bell said last week that the first reimbursements could be for 40 percent of what victims lost in Zeek Rewards, which billed itself as an online multilevel marketing business but turned out to be a classic Ponzi scheme in which early customers were paid with proceeds from later ones.
“Let me emphasize that this is only a first distribution. I am entirely confident that we will make another distribution once we have recovered all assets possible,” Bell said.
Earlier this year, Bell sued former Zeek Rewards insiders, including ringleader Paul Burks of Lexington, and more than 9,000 individuals across the country who took more money out of Zeek Rewards than they contributed.
“This money rightfully belongs to affiliates with allowed claims. Also, I believe we will recover several millions of dollars more from
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Zeek Rewards Receiver Sues MLM Attorney Kevin Grimes And Howard Kaplan For $100 Million
by Ted Nuyten • • 0 Comments
Kenneth Bell, the Zeek Rewards Receivership, filed a request for permission to file separate actions against two of Zeek Rewards attorneys, Kevin Grimes and Howard Kaplan.
The Zeek Receivership:
From January 2011 until August 2012, RVG operated a massive Ponzi and pyramid scheme through ZeekRewards, an internet based so-called “MLM” (multi-level marketing) program.
Kevin D. Grimes served as legal counsel to RVG from around January 2012 until August 2012, when RVG was placed into receivership.
By virtue of his knowledge of RVG and ZeekRewards and his legal expertise, Grimes knew or should have known that RVG was perpetrating an unlawful scheme which involved a pyramid scheme, an unregistered investment contract and/or a Ponzi scheme.
Despite this knowledge, Grimes actively encouraged investors to participate in the scheme by creating a so-called “compliance” program that provided a false façade of legality and legitimacy and knowingly allowed his name to be used to promote the scheme.
Grimes knew or should have known that insufficient income from the penny auction business was being made to pay the daily “profit share” promised by ZeekRewards.
Grimes knew or should have known that the money used to fund ZeekRewards’ distributions to Affiliates came almost entirely from new participants rather than income from the Zeekler penny