2 California Members Tell Court Zeek Rewards Left Them ‘On The Verge Of Financial Devastation’
For Californians Walsh J. Young Jr. and May Causing, the Zeek Rewards MLM scheme left them “on the verge of financial devastation,” according to a new filing in the Zeek Ponzi scheme case.
The self-written, self-submitted filing by Young and Causing appeared yesterday on the docket of Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen of the Western District of North Carolina. Mullen is presiding over the Zeek case brought by the SEC Aug. 17.
Causing plowed $5,000 into the Zeek scheme in April 2012, funding her Zeek account with an “Official Check” from Citibank, according to the filing and an exhibit that accompanied it.
Causing resides in Eagle Rock.
On June 4, Young plowed $2,000 into Zeek, using a cashier’s check from Bank of America, according to the filings. Later — on June 26 — he plowed another $6,000 into Zeek, again using a Bank of America cashier’s check.
Young resides in Bell.
The filing alleges that Zeek business meetings were conducted by affiliates in Rancho Cucamonga, Harbor City, Cerritos and Carson.
Prospects, according to Young and Causing, were told that they could purchase “name brand merchandise at 95% off of retail prices” and that the company had a “long standing track record with 15 years of rock solid business practices.”
The pitch, according to Young and Causing, included references to the business bona fides of Zeek operator Paul Burks and Kevin Grimes, “known to be the best MLM attorney in the industry.”
Prospects also were told that Zeek shared “50% of its daily profits with vested affiliates,” according to the filing.
The filing claims that Zeek pitchman Tom More had acquired “over a million VIP points” and that Dolly Inocencio had acquired “over 250,000 VIP points.”
All in all, the Zeek deal seemed to make sense, given the claims, according to Young and Causing.
“This offer made it difficult to walk away with taking no action and in consideration of the money being received by Mr. Tom More and Ms. Dolly Inonencio, early Zeek members,” Young and Causing wrote.
Then came news of the August SEC action, which alleged Zeek was a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme and Burks was a securities fraudster. The SEC said last month that its probe was ongoing.
The filing by Young and Causing closed with an assertion that they “have suffered a tremendous financial hardship and are left on the verge of financial devastation” — and it asked the judge and court-appointed receiver Kenneth D. Bell for help in making them whole.
Young and Causing also alluded to a “class” of Zeek members in their filing, but the meaning of that was not immediately clear. The caption of their filing complains of “false business practices, false hopes disguised as lucrative financial business opportunities and ill gotten gain.”
Bell said in court filings Monday that he will “investigate potential claims against professionals and others” involved with Zeek to determine “who may be liable for the role they played in facilitating the operation.”
Claims against the unidentified “professionals” and others will be pursued, if warranted, Bell advised the judge.
Clawback actions against Zeek “net winners” also are contemplated, Bell said.
Ever get asked “If you don’t even have any money in (insert scam program name here) why are you here trying to save the world? It’s our money, leave us alone!”
Yeah, me too.
Two of the most ludicrous whines heard are, ” You’re not a member, why do you care?”, and , ” You’re not a member, you can’t possibly know what is going on!” And there is always the old standard,”Everybody KNOWS it’s a ponzi!”
That’s something I learned long ago.
It simply doesn’t matter what I think.
There ARE victims like those described above.
There ARE those who are big time losers.
NOBODY, but NOBODY, has the right to defraud others, no matter what rationalization and justification used by shills, pimps and HYIP ponzi apologists.
The latest Ponzi-speak as to why participating in a Ponzi is not stealing, and I quote:
“No one is advocating stealing at all. HYIP’s is equal to gambling with the casino or lottery. The odds are generally against you, but if you have a strategy, you just may beat the house, and win a profit. If people don’t KNOW this, as you say, then it is because they don’t read the fine print. Every one of these sites all have what we call “terms and conditions.” JBP/PC has ALWAYS made it clear, that they don’t guarantee profits, and that you could very well lose money. Which if you become a member of that site, you’ve already legally agreed with the terms and conditions, as a member. So if you don’t read it, and you lose money, that’s not their fault, but YOURS. That is NOT stealing.
Now other programs may have very well ran away with people’s money, but JPB/PC is still online, and haven’t gone anywhere. Will it last forever? Of course not. That would be unrealistic, but if Fred really wanted to scam or steal the money, he would have already done that at the height of JSS-Tripler’s success in the beginning. So as I see it, as far as JBP/PC is concerned, no one is getting robbed of their money, and even if they did, no one put a gun to anyone’s head to join and invest their money. Fred didn’t steal anyone’s payment processor information, and take people’s money. Common sense teaches you to read the fine print, before you spend money on something, especially over the net.
Be honest with yourself. You post here because you’re trying to sell your book, and promote yourself, I highly doubt you’re overly concerned about people losing their money to an industry that will never die, unless the government just blocks the entire Internet for US citizens. I can’t speak for any other programs, but Fred has made it possible for people to actually earn extra money, pay their bills, buy new cars, houses, food, etc. and it’s people like you that cause more damage to people, than good, by your “help.” For the record, I have a job, so I don’t live completely off this program, but there are countless who do. You’re trying to help “big brother” shut down these kind of programs, but at the end of the day, they certainly don’t care about you. They shut down Zeek rewards, and you honestly think they took all that money, and reimbursed every one who invested with them? Just because a government calls something “illegal” doesn’t make it wrong. The government would allow these programs to exist, if it meant for them to make a profit. It’s a problem to the government, because they can’t oversee it. They desire to control all wealth…this is nothing new. There is risk everywhere, whether a Ponzi or the stock market…there are no guarantees in this world..never has been, never will be.”
My only reason for posting this entire post is that while he was referencing JBP/PC, the same claim was also made in every Ponzi (ASD, Zeek Rewards, CEP, 12DP, etc).
People are losing billions of dollars in Ponzi’s, and the ones doing the stealing think there is nothing wrong with them doing so. Makes you all warm and fuzzy inside doesn’t it. Not exactly the image they portray when they want you joining their Ponzi de Jour is it.
How can you tell if someone doesn’t have any idea of the law ???
Easy,
when they say something as ridiculous as that.
Having a disclaimer didn’t seem to help Zeek Rewards, Paul Burks or it’s members, did it ??
So much for the claim that there were “no victims in Zeek” or that “the SEC couldn’t find any victims”….
There could easy be a heap more such cases if the victims saw fit to take the same road as Young and Causing have taken…
“No one is advocating stealing at all. HYIP’s is equal to gambling with the casino or lottery. The odds are generally against you, but if you have a strategy, you just may beat the house, and win a profit. If people don’t KNOW this, as you say, then it is because they don’t read the fine print. … So if you don’t read it, and you lose money, that’s not their fault, but YOURS. That is NOT stealing.”
However, what they’re not pointing out here is that if the business model doesn’t work as advertised, then it’s fraud. If you tell prospective investors that the money they’re getting is from 50% of your daily penny auction profit when it’s coming directly from the money later investors are putting in, then that’s outright fraud. And fraud is stealing.
Not to mention that gambling is illegal in most states, so equating HYIP’s with gambling is probably not a good idea.
Quick note: Someone tried yesterday to submit a five-sentence “defense” for Frederick Mann and ProfitClicking/JSS/JBP.
The lede was an “F” bomb.
Four of the five sentences ended with exclamation points.
One of the sentences had nine exclamation points. There were 15 exclamation points in all, and the would-be comment ended with an “F” bomb.
The lede: “f*** you . . .!”
The close: “So shut the f*** up!”
It is known, of course, that some ProfitClicking/JSS/JBP folks also were in Zeek.
Patrick
I thought I have the Exclamation point record? ::sigh::
Only people who benefited from the scam want to believe there are no victims, that everybody can be like him, a beneficiary.
Less than $10,000 and these folks are at the verge of financial devastation? Why are they in Zeek to begin with? These folks need to find a second job. I feel bad for them, but I’m shocked that such a small amount of money would cause financial devastation in a state like California. Why are they living in the most expensive state in the union? I had no idea things were so bad in the country. Very surprising.
Yes, to my knowledge even Poker betting online is not legal (in USA). Which makes participating in online gambling a play with really sharp double edge sword. If you do not report profit from gambling/gambling-like/ponzi activities, you go to jail for hiding earnings. If you report it, you will be generously fine for participating in illegal activities.
There are many people living in ghettos/extremely poor areas in California. I bet some of them put all of their available resources in this scam.
I am not surprised they put this amount of money into Zeek when they truly didn’t have it to invest. They were told Zeek would take them out of their current poverty and make them wealthy. And the best part there was little or no work required to do so.
When people are desperate, they do desperate things. When you have all these people telling them how easy it is and how much money they are making, people believe it and fall for it.
My guess is that out of all the paid members of Zeek, I am sure this very same thing happened to at least 70% of the Zeek members. And it could have been as high as 85%. This is how Ponzi’s work. They prey on those who can least afford to lose their money by people like I posted his comments above.
There were three people who bragged they had quit their jobs to do Zeek ful-time. People warned them not to do it, but they did it anyway. This was just 4 weeks before Zeek collapsed. Why, because they thought they had found the goose that was laying the golden egg.
I am wondering if they made enough to get put on the hit-list for clawbacks. So this could be a triple whammy to them: quit their income job, have to give their gains back to the receiver and then have no source of income.
Now do you really think that Paul Burks and all the major pimps of Zeek really care about them?
There are plenty of areas, like Central Valley, Redwood Empire, and so on where cost of living are quite low compared to the coastal regions like SF Bay Area or Great LA.
Furthermore, it’s probably their “nest egg” and they were “egged on” by their friends and family to put money into this “sure thing”.
You and I are skeptical… we surf this website and learn about such crimes. Others are not as skeptical and don’t usually search this sort of websites.
Correct, DOJ clarified that in 2011. However, it is ILLEGAL for BANKS to take money related to online gambling. :)
http://vegasclick.com/online/legal.html