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Tag: Fun Club USA Inc

  • Zeek Figure Robert Craddock’s Fun Club USA Severely Sanctioned In Trademark-Infringement Case; Judge Orders Default For Failure To Follow Court Order

    OfferHubb.net Inc. sued Zeek Rewards figure Robert Craddock in February 2014, alleging Craddock “immediately” embarked on a web-based disparagement campaign after OfferHubb chose in July 2013 not to renew a contract with Craddock and Craddock’s Fun Club USA Inc.

    Co-defendants included Craddock’s wife, Sylvia Salgado Craddock, and Fun Club.

    Craddock was accused in the complaint of cybersquatting, trademark infringement, wrongful use of a computer, misappropriation of trade secrets, wrongful interference with economic relations, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, defamation and hiding behind a shell company.

    Now, a federal district judge in Nevada — following the October recommendation of a magistrate judge   — has ordered sanctions.  This includes the striking of the answer Fun Club filed in February. It also includes a default order against the enterprise.

    Why? Fun Club’s “failure to comply with this Court’s Order to obtain counsel,” Judge Richard F. Boulware II said in the order.

    Boulware also ordered the clerk to enter judgment and close the case. The financial fallout was not immediately clear.

    As the PP Blog reported in October (italics added):

    Fun Club and Craddock are referenced in a blistering memo filed in the Zeek Ponzi- and pyramid-scheme case by the SEC on Dec. 17, 2012. In the memo, the SEC accused Craddock of encouraging Zeek affiliates “not to cooperate” with Kenneth D. Bell, the court appointed receiver. The SEC further alleged that Craddock was spreading misinformation about how the agency viewed its own case against Zeek and that Fun Club appeared to have been formed 11 days after the SEC emergency action against Zeek on Aug. 17, 2012.

    Craddock has not been charged by the SEC with wrongdoing . . .

    The trademark-infringement claim may be particularly concerning to the MLM trade, given that Craddock has asserted he works as a copyright and trademark agent on behalf of MLM “programs.”

    On July 22, 2012, while purportedly working as a “consultant” for Zeek, Craddock filed a copyright- and trademark-infringement complaint against a HubPages website operated by Zeek critic K. Chang. K. Chang, who also posts on publications such as the PP Blog and BehindMLM.com, ultimately prevailed in the action brought by Craddock.

    Less than a month later, the SEC brought the Ponzi- and pyramid action against Zeek.

    Earlier this year, a website known as Changes Worldwide identified Craddock as its copyright agent. Filings by the SEC in June 2014 alleged that Faith Sloan, accused in April 2014 of securities fraud by the agency in its Ponzi- and pyramid complaint against the TelexFree “program,” sent more than $15,000 to an entity known as Changes Worldwide LLC after an asset freeze was imposed against Sloan in the TelexFree case.

    Sloan also was a Zeek affiliate. Whether proceeds that originated in Zeek and/or TelexFree made their way into Changes Worldwide is unclear.

    Craddock also was sued for trademark infringement and other alleged offenses by a firm known as BTG180, which accused Craddock of using the alleged Fun Club “shell corporation” to engage in a “shake-down” bid against affiliates of at least three MLM networks: Zeek, OfferHubb and BTG180.

    NOTE: Our thanks to the ASD Updates Blog.

  • 2 Attorneys Have Filed Court Notices For Robert Craddock’s Fun Club USA ‘And Other Entities Whose Assets Were Seized,’ According To Zeek Docket

    UPDATED 7:58 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The mystery of precisely who would represent Zeek Rewards figure Robert Craddock in a bid to intervene in the Zeek Ponzi scheme case may be over.

    Attorney Rodney E. Alexander of Charlotte has filed an appearance notice for Fun Club USA Inc., Craddock’s Florida business that raised funds for a court action challenging the Zeek case through ZTeamBiz.com.

    Meanwhile, attorney Michael J. Quilling of Dallas has applied to the North Carolina federal court handing the Zeek Ponzi scheme case for permission to represent Fun Club.

    Quilling’s application was sponsored by Alexander. Quilling is with Quilling, Selander, Lownds, Winslett & Moser, P.C.

    In court filings today, Alexander said he “is appearing in this matter as local counsel for Fun Club USA, Inc and other entities whose assets were seized in connection with” the Zeek case.

    Fun Club’s name does not appear as a defendant in the SEC’s civil case against Zeek, and it was not immediately clear whether a specific sum was seized from the company or whether Craddock and the unidentified “other entities” plan to argue that Zeek-related seizures in general by the government were unlawful.

    The filing did not identify the other entities.

    An email attributed to Craddock yesterday suggested that Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen had permitted politics to enter the Zeek Ponzi fray. The email described the law firm of the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek case as “politically connected” and therefore potentially lacking “any incentive to protect anyone” and positioned to “run up a bill and submit invoices to the courts so they can pay themselves.”

    Craddock did not explain why Mullen — a former Naval officer with 22 years on the bench — ever would play politics with Zeek. Zeek receiver Kenneth D. Bell, whom Craddock has painted as fee-hungry before Bell has submitted a single bill for the judge to review, is experienced as both a defense attorney and a prosecutor.

    As a prosecutor, Bell was heralded by the U.S. Department of Justice for gaining convictions in a case against a Hezbollah terrorist cell operating in the United States. (See Bell in this YouTube video speaking about the cell.)

    Craddock, though, appears to be dubious of Bell and his firm.

    “So now we have an overzealous government agency, making unsubstantiated claims and convincing a judge to freeze the bank accounts and, dismantle the penny auction and for what, so the receiver can employ 100 people making in excess of 500 an hour for 210 weeks or 4.3 years and burn through the $500 million they have grabbed in 16 bank accounts,” the email attributed to Craddock read in part.

    Scammers on well-known Ponzi-scheme forums such as MoneyMakerGroup also have planted seeds of doubt against the receiver. Zeek was promoted widely on forums listed in court filings as places from which Ponzi schemes are promoted.

    Bell has said there potentially could be 2 million victims in the Zeek case. Yesterday alone attorneys for accused Zeek operator Paul R. Burks of Rex Venture Group filed thousands of Zeek-related records under seal. It is part of Bell’s job to examine those documents.

    Craddock’s suggestion of political tomfoolery was curious, given that Craddock used the name of former Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and the SNR Denton law firm in Craddock’s initial fundraising efforts to hire counsel. SNR Denton dropped out soon thereafter. McCollum is a partner at SNR Denton.

    AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme pitchman Todd Disner was present on a Craddock fundraising call last month. Among other things, Disner asserted in court filings earlier this year that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme even after ASD President Andy Bowdoin pleaded guilty to wire fraud and admitted ASD was a Ponzi scheme.

    In a November 2011 lawsuit against the government for alleged misdeeds in the ASD Ponzi case, Disner also accused prosecutors of going shopping for a friendly judge when bringing the ASD Ponzi case in 2008. His claims were dismissed on Aug. 29, the same day Bowdoin was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison.

    At an unclear point in time, Disner became a Zeek pitchman. Like ASD, Zeek featured a 1-percent-a-day (or more) payout plan on top of commissions for sales.

    On Aug. 17, the SEC described Zeek as a Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that sold unregistered securities and raised $600 million.

    Craddock has described himself as a consultant for Rex Venture Group LLC, Zeek’s parent company.