Nathaniel Woods Plants Seed That Zeek Receiver Issued ‘Bogus Subpoena’ And Committed Felony; Claims Reminiscent Of Assertions Made In AdSurfDaily Ponzi Case

UPDATED 5 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Various members of the Florida-based AdSurfDaily 1-percent-a-day Ponzi scheme advanced various theories that judges, prosecutors and investigators committed various felonies during the course of the probe and follow-up actions in court. The claims were absurd on their face and, when the arguments were rejected, they were replaced by conspiracy theories. Time after time the conspiracy theories expanded to accommodate unpleasant fact sets, with various “defenders” of ASD retreating into an infinite set of contingencies and conflating one artificial reality after another.

Now, a Florida resident and apparent participant in Zeek Rewards has filed a document in federal court that accuses the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Ponzi scheme case of committing a felony. The receiver, Kenneth D. Bell, is a former federal prosecutor who once successfully prosecuted a Hezbollah terrorist cell operating in the United States.

The PP Blog contacted the Zeek receivership today to seek comment from Bell. The Blog’s message was not immediately returned.

In separate filings that appear on the docket of Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen of the Western District of North Carolina, Nathaniel Woods claimed Bell or Bell’s receivership team unlawfully mailed a “bogus subpoena” to him in Ocala, Fla., thus committing a felony under Florida law.

Mullen is presiding over the Zeek Ponzi case. In August, the SEC accused Zeek of operating a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme. Zeek’s business model was very similar to the model of ASD. ASD’s business practices triggered both civil and criminal investigations by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008.

The subpoena, Woods claims, was meant for the purposes of “intimidation and harassment” on the part of the receiver.

And Woods further claims that sending a “bogus subpoena” from North Carolina to Florida through the U.S. Mail constitutes “simulated process” under Florida law, a “third degree felony.”

An accompanying document filed by Woods as an exhibit claims that “preliminary Zeek Rewards records” reviewed by the the receivership show that Woods received more than $496,000 from Zeek but paid nothing (“$0.00”) into the purported program.

Bell is seeking the return of the money, describing it as “money lost by victims,” according to the exhibit.

Woods is seeking to quash the subpoena, which demands records of Woods’ interactions with Zeek dating back to January 2010. He also claims the subpoena was only an “alleged subpoena” and was improperly served.

A domain styled “500FREEBIDS4U.COM” is registered in the name of Nathaniel Woods at the Ocala street address to which the subpoena was sent, according to records. Other domains listed with an email address that appears on the registration data attributed to Nathanial Woods include Mybidshack10k.com, Mybidshackhow.info, Mybidshack4u.com and Mybidshackearn.info.

Daryle Douglas, a onetime purported Zeek executive, also has been associated with a MyBidShack entity, according to researcher “K. Chang.”

Zeek was a purported “penny auction” company operated by Paul R. Burks through Rex Venture Group LLC in Lexington, N.C. The penny-auction site was known as Zeekler. Zeek’s MLM arm was known as Zeek Rewards. Burks has consented to a judgment in the case. He has neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s allegations, which include securities fraud and the sale of unregistered securities.

On Aug. 17, the U.S. Secret Service said it also was investigating Zeek. The SEC has said Burks duped investors into believing the purported Zeek “program” was paying a legitimate return of about 1.5 percent a day.

Bell has said that perhaps 1 million people sent money to Zeek. Viewed by the number of potential victims and the number of transactions, Zeek may be the largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history.

Earlier this month, Bell said the receivership had gathered evidence that nearly 1 billion transactions were conducted through Zeek in about 18 months.

AdSurfDaily was a Ponzi scheme that promoted a payout of 1 percent a day. It has about 100,000 members and gathered about $119 million, also in about 18 months, according to records.

Records suggest that Zeek, which launched after the Secret Service brought the ASD Ponzi case, did about five times the dollar volume of ASD and potentially had 20 times the user volume.

The civil portion of the ASD case dragged out for all or parts of five years. ASD President Andy Bowdoin admitted in May 2012 that ASD was a Ponzi scheme. In August 2012, less than two weeks after the SEC brought the Zeek case, Bowdoin was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison.

ASD and Zeek are known to have had members in common.

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15 Responses to “Nathaniel Woods Plants Seed That Zeek Receiver Issued ‘Bogus Subpoena’ And Committed Felony; Claims Reminiscent Of Assertions Made In AdSurfDaily Ponzi Case”

  1. Is “bogus subpoena” a legitimate legal term??

  2. Interesting! Another of the Zeek thieves that can’t lie straight in bed. The FL statute can be found here: http://law.justia.com/codes/florida/2011/titlexlvi/chapter817/parti/section817.38/ , and according to the reading it is a second degree misdemeanor. That is all likely irrelevant, however, as the receiver is serving “real” process, not simulated…!

  3. The story is also here:
    http://www.the-dispatch.com/article/20121121/NEWS/311219983/1005?Title=Zeek-profiteer-challenges-subpoena
    Another claim is

    Among other things, Woods alleges that the subpoena was not personally delivered to him, which he said is something required by federal rules. He also argues that he did not receive proper notice of the subpoena and that it created an undue burden and expense on his life.

    “undue burden and expense on his life” – the poor thing.

  4. Wait till he starts getting them from the IRS.

  5. I only have to read two pages to realize he’s full of ****, and I’m not even a lawyer.

    He identified himself as a “non-party” to quash the subpoena.

    Then he argued that he was not served properly as no notice was served on each party.

    But he’s a non-party, so he doesn’t need to be served any notice!

    That’s why you should not file form letters written by someone else.

  6. Identifying yourself as “non-party” is standard when claiming inadequate service. You have to come in ex-parte because if you come in as a party, that means you have accepted the fact that you were served.

    Failure of service only extends the process, but doesn’t do much else. When they have the hearing, the judge will just grant the motion and then the other side will deliver service at the hearing. The only time I’ve seen failure of service work as a defense was when you were right on the edge of the statute of limitations, where you squash the complaint, they then issue another, and then you claim it is time barred.

    For a subpoena, all the other party has to do is serve one on you once you come to court. They can even mail it to you and use substituted service, since you’ve identified yourself as residing at that address in the court filing.

  7. Jimmy: They can even mail it to you and use substituted service, since you’ve identified yourself as residing at that address in the court filing.

    Isn’t this what they have essentially done already though?

  8. […] both;}BULLETIN: An apparent Florida member of the Zeek Rewards “program” who claimed last week that the court-appointed receiver situated in North Carolina had served a subpoena improperly from […]

  9. From Jordan Maglich on Nov 30, 2012:

    Before specifically addressing Mr. Woods’ claims, the Receiver first explained that he had determined to issue the subpoenas by mail, rather than certified mail or Federal Express, because of the time and cost efficiencies. Indeed, service by certified mail or federal express would have cost “more than five times as much.” Next, the Receiver noted that Mr. Woods, who is alleged to have profited by more than $500,000 from the scheme, admittedly received the subpoena, and had filed the Motion to Quash simply as a delay tactic. Nevertheless, rather than engaging in further litigation over the legitimacy of his service of the subpoena, the Receiver indicated that he had already re-served Mr. Woods by Federal Express and certified mail with a subpoena issued by the Middle District of Florida, thus rendering the Motion to Quash moot.

    Article at: http://www.ponzitracker.com/main/2012/11/30/zeek-rewards-update-subpoenas-challenged-affiliates-want-exa.html

  10. U don’t no Jack Shit. U claim, “The SEC has said Burks duped investors into believing the purported Zeek “program” was paying a legitimate return of about 1.5 percent a day.” U don’t no Jack Shit. No where on Zeek’s website or on there audio tapes will U find any reference to any claim of percentage.

    U don’t no Jack Shit.
    U don’t no Jack Shit.

  11. Jack,

    From the SEC complaint:

    ________________________________________________

    44. Defendants represent that daily awards are calculated by dividing “up
    to 50%” of daily net profits by the number of Profit Points outstanding among all Qualified Affiliates. This calculation results in a daily dividend paid to each Qualified Affiliate that consistently has averaged approximately 1.5% per day.

    45. In fact, the dividend bears no relation to the company’s net profits.
    Instead, Burks unilaterally and arbitrarily determines the daily dividend rate so that it averages approximately 1.5% per day, giving investors the false impression that the business is profitable.

    ________________________________________________

    You also might want to see the Zeek math, as explained here by a Zeek affiliate who also was promoting the JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid abomination:

    http://patrickpretty.com/2012/06/12/modern-mlm-purported-jss-triplerjustbeenpaid-promoter-whos-also-a-purported-zeek-promoter-tells-zeek-members-they-can-post-their-ads-on-his-blog-to-earn-zeek-payouts/

    Wouldn’t you know! It comes out to 1.498 percent a day over the course of a week!

    Of course, the affiliate got the info from Zeek.

    Patrick

  12. Plenty of victims of Zeek in the Chinese community, it seems. Here’s a Chinese report. I’ll have the translation up tomorrow on my blog:

    http://www.worldjournal.com/view/full_lit/20844640/article-%E8%80%81%E9%BC%A0%E6%9C%83%E9%A8%99%E5%B1%80?instance=lit

  13. K. Chang: Plenty of victims of Zeek in the Chinese community, it seems. Here’s a Chinese report. I’ll have the translation up tomorrow on my blog:

    Hi K. Chang,

    Thanks for the link. When you complete the translation, please revisit this thread and leave a link to your Blog.

    Patrick

  14. K. Chang: Translation is up:

    http://amlmskeptic.blogspot.com/2012/12/zeek-rewards-victims-are-all-around.html

    Thank you, K. Chang. This provides significant context that will be beneficial to speakers of Chinese and English alike.

    Patrick