UPDATED 9:08 A.M. EDT JULY 21 U.S.A. Matthew G. Pruden, an attorney with the Tin Fulton Walker & Owen law firm, is a defense lawyer in the June 2015 criminal case against “Achieve Community” figure Kristine Louise Johnson (Kristi Johnson), according to the docket of the case.
North Carolina-based Tin Fulton Walker & Owen also is representing alleged Zeek Rewards’ operator Paul R. Burks in the criminal case against him brought by federal prosecutors in the Western District of North Carolina last year and in the civil case brought by the SEC in 2012. Pruden’s name appears on a Plainsite.org version the docket in the SEC’s civil case against Rex Venture Group LLC, the company through which Burks allegedly operated Zeek.
Achieve, like Zeek, is alleged to have been a pyramid- and Ponzi scheme. Pruden was appointed by the court to represent Johnson, who has pleaded guilty to a charge of wire-fraud conspiracy.
Though bizarrely dismissed by some Zeek cheerleaders as country bumpkins in the early days after the SEC brought its civil case, Tin Fulton Walker & Owen is a distinguished law firm. (Read GlimDropper of the RealScam.com antiscam forum, posting at Quatloos, covering a 2012 Robert Craddock barb against the firm.)
Among the firm’s most famous clients is Gen. David Petraeus, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency who received probation and a fine after admitting “to the unauthorized removal and retention of classified information and lying to the FBI and CIA about his possession and handling of classified information.” (Jake Sussman, the Petraeus lawyer quoted in this April 23, 2015, AP story on the Petraeus sentence, also is a lawyer for Zeek’s Burks.)
Achieve’s Johnson pleaded guilty to wire-fraud conspiracy on June 30. She is free on bail. Though listed as a Colorado resident, she was charged criminally in the Western District of North Carolina — the same venue in which the criminal charges against Burks were filed.
It is known that Zeek and Achieve had members in common.
Whether the cases against Burks and Johnson raise any potential conflicts for Tin Fulton Walker & Owen was not immediately clear.
Certain documents that appear to be related to Johnson’s passport have been sealed in the criminal action against her. Certain documents in the Zeek case also are sealed.
Pruden assisted Johnson when she appeared in court last month and pleaded guilty, according to documents in the case.
NOTE: Our thanks to the ASD Updates Blog.