BULLETIN: Paul Burks Of Zeek Rewards Sentenced To More Than 14 Years; Judge Comments On ‘Cheerleaders’

3RD UPDATE 4:52 P.M. ET U.S.A. Paul Burks, the principal behind the $939 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid scheme broken up by the SEC and the U.S. Secret Service in August 2012, has been sentenced to 176 months in federal prison, the office of U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose of the Western District of North Carolina said moments ago.

U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn Jr. presided over sentencing court for Burks, 70.  Zeek was an MLM scam that created hundreds of thousands of victims globally.

“But anyone could have seen what was going to occur outside himself and his (marketing) cheerleaders,” the judge said in court, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.

In clawback lawsuits, Zeek receiver Kenneth D. Bell has triumphed over thousands of net winners in the scheme.

When Burks was indicted in October 2014, the grand jury alleged that Burks and others offered a “bogus 125% return on investment” through a “sham internet-based penny auction company.”

Bell earlier alleged that some of the winners he sued were “serial” participants in Zeek-like schemes to defraud. Among the clawback defendants were Todd Disner, a figure from the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, and T. LeMont Silver, a promoter of multiple Ponzi schemes.

“Programs” such as Zeek and ASD often try to sanitize themselves by calling themselves revenue-sharing schemes.

Burks also was sentenced to make restitution in the amount of $244 million and to serve three years’ probation after his prison release. There are media accounts today that suggest Burks is in poor health.

Though 176 months is a lengthy term, there has been speculation that Burks would receive an even longer term, given the enormous size of Zeek and the number of victims.

Said Bell, the receiver, in a statement dated Feb. 13. “Judge Cogburn cited the need to balance the harm caused by Mr. Burks’ conduct against Mr. Burks’ extremely poor health and [the fact he is] 70 years of age.”

From a statement today by prosecutors (italics added):

At sentencing, Judge Cogburn stated that for the defendant’s scheme to work would have required a miracle on the order of the “loaves and fishes.” Judge Cogburn stated that a significant sentence was necessary to promote respect for the law, provide just punishment, and also deter others considering committing fraud. Judge Cogburn further noted that the scheme was “almost breathtaking” and emphasized that the defendant had time to stop it.

Dawn Wright-Olivares and Daniel Olivares of Zeek also have been sentenced to prison.