Payments To 41,000 Zeek Participants At Risk

If you were a claimant in Zeek Rewards — and if you did not submit the required OFAC certification and release — you are at risk of not receiving a payment from the court-appointed receiver.

OFAC stands for the Office of Foreign Assets Control. As receiver Kenneth D. Bell explained on the FAQs section of the receivership website long ago (italics added):

United States law makes it illegal to transact business with, or send money to, certain persons or entities. We have received more than 170,000 Claims from Claimants in 157 countries. We are requesting this information so we can ensure that distributions made to Claimants are legally permitted to receive distributions under applicable law. The OFAC Certification we are requesting is a form certifying that neither you nor any person or entity for whom you may be acting is a person or entity with whom it is illegal for a United States entity to transact business because (a) of sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, (b) the person or entity is listed on or is included in a category enumerated on the list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons, or (c) other applicable regulations prohibit such transactions. Information on the Office of Foreign Asset Control may be found by clicking the following link: http://www.treasury.gov/about/organizational-structure/offices/Pages/Office-of-Foreign-Assets-Control.aspx. Information on the list of the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons may be found by clicking the following link: http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/SDN-List/Pages/default.aspx.

In an announcement dated Oct. 5, 2016, Bell said more than 41,000 claimants had not filed the required certification and release.

And, he noted, “The ZeekRewards Receivership cannot pay a claimant with a recognized claim unless the claimant submits an OFAC certification and release. Failure to submit an OFAC certification and release may result in these claims being forfeited.

“The Receiver anticipates filing a motion to obtain confirmation from the Court that, subject to certain limited exceptions, any claimant that has not electronically submitted its OFAC certification and release by December 31, 2016 will be deemed to forfeit his/her claim in the ZeekRewards Receivership. Once approved by the Court, the funds held in reserve for the forfeited claims will be released from the reserve for payments to claimants with allowed claims in this case.

“The Receiver has and will continue to contact all claimants that hold one of these more than 41,000 claims regarding the forfeiture of their claim.”

NOTE: Bold type added by PP Blog.