Zeek Receiver Solicits Victim Letters For Feb. 13 Sentencing Of Paul Burks

Paul Burks will be sentenced Feb. 13 for his criminal role in Zeek Rewards, and the court-appointed receiver is soliciting letters from victims of the combined Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that affected hundreds of thousands of people.

Zeek gathered hundreds of millions of dollars in a massive fraud scheme broken up by the SEC and the U.S. Secret Service in 2012.

From receiver Kenneth D. Bell in an announcement dated Jan 19, 2017  (italics added):

Victims of these offenses are entitled to be heard at sentencing. If a victim would like to have a letter describing the impact that ZeekRewards had on them submitted to the Court please send an email to HearingLetter@zeekrewardsreceivership.com. In particular, the Court would like to hear about any of the below circumstances:

• Becoming insolvent;
• Filing for bankruptcy under the Bankruptcy Code;
• Suffering substantial loss of a retirement, education, or other savings or investment fund;
• Making substantial changes to his or her employment, such as postponing his or her retirement plans;
• Making substantial changes to his or her living arrangements, such as relocating to a less expensive home; and
• Suffering substantial harm to his or her ability to obtain credit.

I will be attending the hearings on behalf of all ZeekRewards victims and will present your letters to the Court.

Bell also is special master of the criminal case against Burks.

Burks, then 67, was indicted in 2014 on charges of wire and mail fraud, wire- and mail-fraud conspiracy and tax-fraud conspiracy. He was convicted by a jury in July 2016 at age 69 on all charges and potentially faces decades in federal prison.

Two of Burks’ former Zeek colleagues — Dawn Wright-Olivares and her stepson Daniel Olivares — previously pleaded guilty and now are listed as federal prisoners.