URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Zeek’s Paul Burks Indicted

Paul Burks.

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (3rd update 9:15 p.m. EDT U.S.A.) Alleged Zeek Rewards operator Paul R. Burks has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Charlotte, N.C., on charges of wire and mail fraud, wire- and mail-fraud conspiracy and tax-fraud conspiracy.

Burks, 67, of Lexington, N.C., is the third Zeek figure to be charged criminally.

On the tax front, the grand jury charged that Zeek Rewards, the MLM arm, and Zeekler, the penny-auction arm, failed to file corporate tax returns. So did Rex Venture Group LLC, the parent company.

Burks and “others” caused fraudulent 1099 forms to be issued for the 2011 tax year, which caused victim-investors to file false tax returns that reported “phantom” and “fictional ” income. Burks “engaged attorneys and tax professionals to legitimize the issuance of the 1099s,” the indictment alleged.

Meanwhile, the grand jury alleged, “Burks and others paid themselves large salaries and other payments from victim-investors’ funds and did not keep accurate and complete records of the payments.”

And, the indictment alleged, Burks and other used multiple bank accounts and offshore payment processors “to deposit funds from victim-investors and to make Ponzi payments” to them.

Link to Department of Justice statement.

More tomorrow on the PP Blog . . .