CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 Expected To Air Segment On Zeek Rewards Tonight; [UPDATE: Report Apparently Delayed]

UPDATE 8:07 A.M. EDT (APRIL 4, U.S.A.) The report did not air during the 8 p.m. or 11 p.m. broadcasts, possibly because developments in other stories took precedence. Our April 3 story is below . . .

The Blog of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 is carrying this teaser today: “360 Wednesday[:] One of the biggest financial schemes in U.S. history went down in a small North Carolina town with many losing their life savings. Watch AC360 at 8 and 11 p.m. ET.”

In August 2012, the SEC called Zeek Rewards a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that had defrauded people by the hundreds of thousands. Zeek was operated by Paul R. Burks and Rex Venture Group LLC of Lexington, N.C.

CNN’s apparent airing of a segment on Zeek will occur against the backdrop of mysterious disappearance of the Profitable Sunrise “program,” which purported to pay out more on a daily basis than even Zeek.  Zeek planted the seed that it paid out an average of 1.5 percent a day; the bizarrely named Profitable Sunrise “Long Haul” plan claimed it paid out 2.7 percent a day.

Payouts from the Long Haul were dubbed an “Easter Gift” and were due April 1, April Fool’s Day. The Profitable Sunrise website, however, has been offline since at least March 14. At least 34 regulators in the United States and Canada have issued Investor Alerts or cease-and-desist orders against Profitable Sunrise.

New Zealand and the United Kingdom also have issued warnings.

CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, yesterday issued a suspension order against an alleged Profitable Sunrise promoter.

Some Zeek promoters also promoted ProfitableSunrise, which traded on Bible verse

Zeek also has promoters’ ties to the $119 million, 1-percent-a-day AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, which operated from the small town of Quincy, Fla., and purported to be a Christian enterprise.  ASD collapsed after the U.S. Secret Service filed Ponzi allegations in 2008.