Zeek’s Paul Burks Now In Federal Custody
Paul Burks, the 70-year-old operator of the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme, now is listed as prisoner No. 29723-058 at FMC Lexington. The facility is an administrative security federal medical center with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp in Lexington, Ky.
After being sentenced in February to more than 14 years, Burks was ordered to report to the facility no later than yesterday. He reportedly is suffering from significant medical issues.
Burks has become the third and senior-most Zeek executive sent to jail. Dawn Wright-Olivares and Daniel Olivares earlier began serving respective terms of 7.5 years and two years.
U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. of the Western District of North Carolina was the sentencing judge in all of the cases against the Zeek braintrust.
Zeek’s operations were similar to the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, which sent ASD President Andy Bowdoin to federal prison in 2012. Bowdoin, now 82, is scheduled to be released in February 2018. He is listed as a prisoner at Butner Medium FCI in Butner, N.C. The Butner prison also has a medical facility. Bowdoin, like Burks, had health issues prior to sentencing.
Like ASD, Zeek was a Ponzi-board “program.”
Troy Barnes, one of the principals of “The Achieve Community” (TAC) scam, was sentenced in April to 33 months in prison. TAC also was a Ponzi-board “program.”
Barnes’ Achieve colleague Kristi Johnson was sentenced to 21 months.
