Lawyer For T. LeMont Silver, Wife, Shell Company Wants Out Of Zeek Clawback Case

Florida “Expat” and Zeek Rewards Ponzi-scheme figure T. LeMont Silver yuks it up in the Dominican Republic. Source: YouTube.

UPDATED 10:24 P.M. ET U.S.A. Zeek Rewards “winner” T. LeMont Silver, his wife Karen and a Silver shell company known as Global Internet Formula Inc. allegedly hauled more than $2.3 million out of the shuttered MLM “program.”

Receiver Kenneth D. Bell sued them in February 2014, alleging their gains had come from victims of the Zeek Ponzi- and pyramid scheme.

But now a North Carolina attorney and law firm for the Silvers and Global Internet say they never paid a $5,000 retainer and have racked up other unpaid legal bills. The attorney, Bruce Simpson, of James McElroy & Diehl of Charlotte, says he and the firm want out.

And it’s not just because of unpaid bills, Simpson advised Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen today in court filings.

On June 27, 2014, a San Antonio lawyer by the name of W. James Jonas III contacted the firm, seeking “local counsel” for the Silvers and Global Internet. Jonas would serve as lead counsel and “be responsible for all the heavy lifting,” according to Simpson.

James McElroy & Diehl was to be paid a $5,000 retainer by the Silvers and Global Internet, but the retainer was not paid, Simpson told the judge. Part of the agreement was that the clients regularly would pay for legal fees and expenses once the retainer was consumed.

The Silvers and Internet “have failed to pay any of the legal fees and expenses” and have been “generally unavailable,” Simpson said.

Moreover, “at several critical junctures related to the representation, Jonas has reported that needed activity or responses related to the lawsuit could not proceed because he was unable to obtain needed payment, cooperation and information from Mr. and Mrs. Silver and Global.”

The only information James McElroy & Diehl have on the Silvers and Global is that they can be reached through a San Antonio address for Jonas, according to Simpson.

Post-Zeek, the Silvers appear to have transplanted themselves from Florida to the Dominican Republic. They even were featured in a video about the “ExPat” lifestyle.

A $5,000 retainer is about 0.21 percent of the alleged haul of the Silvers and Global Internet.

Bell has raised concerns that Silver and some other MLMers are “serial” promoters of fraud schemes. Beginning in August 2014, Silver promoted a murky scheme known as Bitclub Network.

Jonas, a onetime Republican lobbyist, has had an interesting career. In 2010, the Houston Chronicle reported his life was in “ruins” after his then-wife caught him in 2007 having an affair with a “network marketing consultant.” During the following year Barack Obama won the Presidency and Democrats added seats in the Congress, causing the lobbying business of Jonas to take a serious hit.

Before long, he was involved in a messy divorce and behind on child-support payments, and a judge put him in jail, the Chronicle reported.

Jonas appears to have rebounded by 2013. The San Antonio Express-News reported he was paid “big city dollars” as the attorney for Crystal City, a small Texas town of 7,200.

Some Crystal City officials reportedly believed the city was grossly overspending on Jonas’s fees.

NOTE: Our thanks to the ASD Updates Blog.