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Tag: MoneyMakerGroup

  • DEVELOPING STORY: Zeek Winners Begin To Receive Subpoenas

    Alleged Ponzi scheme Zeek Rewards wrapped itself in the American flag and symbols such as the American penny coin to attract business. The purported “opportunity”  has created problems for hundreds of thousands of members in the United States and other countries.

    The PP Blog has received a report that some members of Zeek have received subpoenas issued by the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme case. The SEC alleged in August that Zeek was a $600 million Ponzi and pyramid scheme operated by Paul R. Burks and Rex Venture Group LLC.

    Receiver Kenneth B. Bell said earlier this week that a first round of about 1,200 subpoenas would be issued to “affiliates who profited most from ZeekRewards.”

    Early details are sketchy about precisely what information the subpoenas demand. Bell wrote on the receivership website that recipients “are required to fully respond to the subpoena.

    “If you do not have possession, custody or control of any of the documents requested simply say so in responding to the subpoena. However, you are required to make a full reasonable effort to locate all documents requested, including electronic documents and email,” Bell wrote.

    The issuance of the subpoenas demonstrates that online HYIPs dressed up as multilevel-marketing “programs” can — at a minimum — create civil exposure for participants. Profits received from such schemes are viewed as ill-gotten gains subject to clawback.

    In an Oct. 8 court filing, Bell advised Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen that he planned to pursue Zeek winners and others through common-law and and clawback claims “under applicable fraudulent transfer statutes.”

    In addition to Zeek winners, potential clawback targets include Zeek officers, employees and professionals who benefited from the scheme, according to Bell’s Oct. 8 filing. As many as 100,000 people potentially received ill-gotten gains from Zeek, while about 800,000 Zeek members experienced losses.

    Zeek wrapped itself in the American flag while pitching its offer globally, claiming among other things that winners of its Zeekler auctions for sums of U.S. cash would be paid through offshore payment processors. North Carolina-based Zeek has never explained the striking incongruity of auctioning U.S. cash and offering to deliver it via payment processors linked to fraud scheme after fraud scheme promoted on Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

    Auctions for cash mysteriously went missing from Zeek in June. On Aug. 4, 13 days before the SEC filed an emergency action to halt the alleged Zeek Ponzi scheme, the company publicly complained about “North Carolina Credit Unions” that were warning customers about Zeek.

    On June 5, the company bizarrely planted the seed that, if Zeek instructed members to change their preference in dispensing toilet paper, they should do it to demonstrate how coachable they are. Just days earlier — on May 28, Memorial Day — the company claimed it was closing two U.S. bank accounts and urged members to cash commission checks by June 1 or they would bounce.

    Zeek’s auction arm was known as Zeekler and was married to Zeek Rewards, the MLM side of the business. The SEC said in August that Zeek commingled funds and that Burks “unilaterally and arbitrarily” determined Zeek’s daily dividend rate so that it averaged “approximately 1.5% per day, giving investors the false impression that the business is profitable.”

    In 2008 and 2009, the U.S. Secret Service made similar allegations against AdSurfDaily and operator Andy Bowdoin. Bowdoin, 77, was charged criminally in December 2010. He pleaded guilty to a Ponzi-related charge of wire fraud in May 2012. Bowdoin was sentenced in August 2012 to 78 months in federal prison.

    ASD operated as an “autosurf” HYIP that planted the seed that members would receive a return of 1 percent a day.

    Precisely how many Zeek members live outside the United States and benefited from the scheme is unclear. In July, the PP Blog reported that a Zeek-related article carried on Google News claimed that Zeek had 100,000 members in Brazil alone.

    An issue that potentially could emerge in the coming weeks is whether the receiver will be successful in seeking clawbacks from non-U.S. members of Zeek who received more from the scheme than they put in. How many Zeek members fit the profile is not yet known.

    HYIPs that operate across borders on the Internet introduce the specter of international red tape and also potentially bring language barriers into play. In the days after the SEC brought the Zeek case, some purported international members of Zeek effectively thumbed their noses at the United States and Zeek victims, crowing on Ponzi-scheme forums that they’d keep their Zeek money no matter what.

     

  • UPDATE: As Proposed Money-Saving Measure, Zeek Receiver Asks Judge To Treat Oct. 8 Preliminary Liquidation Plan As Status Report; Meanwhile, Yet Another Zeek Member Declares Herself A Fraud Victim

    A woman who described herself as a Zeek victim filed copies of postal receipts in federal court today. Source: Screen shot of federal court files. Redaction by PP Blog.

    UPDATED 8:26 A.M. EDT (OCT. 31, U.S.A.) Saying it would save money, the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme case has asked a federal judge to treat the receiver’s Oct. 8 preliminary liquidation plan as a status report. (See Oct. 9 PP Blog story.)

    Separately, yet another Zeek member has declared herself a victim of the alleged $600 million Zeek fraud scheme operated by Paul R. Burks and Rex Venture Group LLC. Two other Zeek members effectively did the same thing earlier this month. On Aug. 17, the SEC alleged that Zeek was a massive Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that potentially fleeced more than 1 million people.

    In August, Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen of the Western District of North Carolina ordered receiver Kenneth D. Bell to file the first status report in the case by Oct. 30. Among other things, status reports inform judges about the efforts under way to recover proceeds linked to alleged fraud schemes and return them to victims.

    In the Zeek case, status reports are due within 30 days of the end of a quarter — for example, the third quarter of the calendar year ended Sept. 30, making the first Zeek status report due Oct. 30. The second is due Jan. 31, 2013, a month after the end of the fourth quarter of the calendar year on Dec. 31, 2012.

    Bell said in court filings today that the information in the Oct. 8 report included “the same information” due today.

    “Given that a separate Quarterly Status Report would be redundant, and in the interest of preserving Receivership assets, the Receiver respectfully requests that the Court order that the Preliminary Liquidation Plan be treated as the Receiver’s First Quarterly Status Report,” Bell petitioned Mullen.

    Mullen had not acted on the request by late this afternoon, according to the docket of the case.

    How Zeek enthusiasts on Ponzi-scheme boards such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup will react to Bell’s request was not immediately clear. One-percent-a-day (or more) schemes such as Zeek gain a head of steam in part because willfully blind scammers who populate the Ponzi cesspits position the “programs” as legitimate.

    The demonization of Bell on the Ponzi boards and elsewhere began shortly after the SEC brought the Zeek case. As was the case in the AdSurfDaily prosecution brought by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008, some Zeek members have claimed that the government is manufacturing victims where none exist. The ASD and Zeek Ponzi schemes fetched a combined sum of at least $719 million, nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars, according to court filings.

    Both frauds operated as classic Ponzi schemes that recycled money from members to create the illusion of sustainability and profitability, according to investigators.

    Both Zeek and ASD were promoted on forums listed in federal court filings as places from which Ponzi schemes are promoted. Earlier schemes promoted on the forums include Legisi and Pathway To Prosperity, which gathered a combined sum of more than $140 million and affected tens of thousands of people, according to court filings.

    Legisi operator Gregory McKnight faces sentencing next month in his Ponzi scheme case. Alleged Pathway To Prosperity operator Nicholas Smirnow, meanwhile, is listed by INTERPOL as a wanted fugitive. As was the case with Zeek, the SEC and Secret Service led the Legisi probe. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service brought the Smirnow/Pathway to prosperity case, saying the scam affected individuals in 120 countries.

    ASD operator Thomas A. “Andy” Bowdoin is serving a 78-month prison sentence. He was sentenced in August 2012.

    Despite claims that Zeek created no victims, at least three individuals already have claimed in court filings to have been scammed by Zeek.

    In a filing docketed today, Maria Aide Gomez claimed she sent North Carolina-based Zeek parent Rex Venture Group five postal money orders for $1,000 each in May and paid an additional $300 to maintain her Zeek membership.

    Gomez described herself as a “Victim of fraud and deception” on the part of Zeek, Rex Venture Group and Paul R. Burks, the operator of Zeek and Rex Venture. The money orders Gomez sent to Zeek were purchased at a post office in Washington state, according to exhibits that accompanied the filing.

    Bell, the receiver, is experienced as both a defense attorney and a prosecutor. The U.S. Department of Justice lauded Bell a decade ago for his successful prosecution of a Hezbollah terrorist cell operating in the United States.

  • UPDATE: Teetering ‘Wealth4AllTeam’ Scheme Reportedly Was Using I-Payout, Same Facilitator Cited By ‘OneX’ Scheme In July

    Screen shot: I-Payout website showing logos of "Global Strategic Partners." Ponzi-forum reports surfaced yesterday that the Wealth4AllTeam HYIP scheme was using I-Payout. In July, a scheme known as "OneX' that federal prosecutors previously described as a fraud and a "pyramid" announced that it was transitioning to I-Payout.

    UPDATE: Wealth4AllTeam, one of the many HYIP schemes pushed by Zeek Rewards “I Got Paid” cheerleader “Ken Russo,” reportedly was using I-Payout as a payment facilitator, according to new Ponzi-forum reports.

    Wealth4AllTeam appears to have suspended operations, leaving the Ponzi forums in an uproar amid claims that it is transitioning to a new business model that incorporates something called “Project Genesis.”

    Earlier this year, Wealth4AllTeam planted the seed that it would sue the RealScam.com antifraud forum  for publishing information unfriendly to Wealth4AllTeam.

    “I-payout quick links has been removed….all the attached bank account has been deactivated..there is no option left to deposit or withdraw…Looks like W4all have a hold on I-payout,” MoneyMakerGroup poster “jhakas22” claimed yesterday.

    If the report is true — and MoneyMakerGroup poster Tobwithu claimed that he (or she) “can confirm that all links at i-payout are gone!’ — then it means that Wealth4AllTeam was using the same facilitator to which the mysterious “OneX’ scheme claimed it was transitioning.

    In April, federal prosecutors described the purported OneX “program” as a “fraudulent scheme” and “pyramid” pushed by former AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin. ASD was a $119 million Ponzi scheme. In August, Bowdoin was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison.

    On July 19, the PP Blog reported that OneX claimed it had dropped SolidTrustPay — a Canada-based processor linked to fraud scheme after fraud scheme — in favor of I-Payout. That announcement was made by “J.C.,” later identified by federal prosecutors as James C. Hill.

    I-Payout’s website publishes the logos of HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Barclays and other “Global Strategic Partners,” including Bank of America.

    “J.C.” made the OneX I-Payout announcement on July 17, the same day the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations was grilling HSBC executives on HSBC’s anti-money-laundering practices, including an executive who announced his resignation in front of the panel.

    (Also see June 20 PP Blog report about OneX claim that it was working with a processor with a tie to Bank of America. Given events that occurred after the dropping of Bank of America’s name and the appearance of the bank’s name on the I-Payout site, it appears “J.C.” was alluding to I-Payout in June.)

    Any number of ASD Ponzi-scheme pushers used Bank of America’s name to sanitize the ASD fraud. In raising Bank of America’s name in June and announcing the I-Payout transition in July, OneX appears to have been doing the same thing.

    Name-dropping to sanitize fraud schemes is common in the HYIP sphere. So are lawsuit threats and other bids to chill websites that publish information critical of HYIPs.

    In July, Robert Craddock, a purported “consultant” for Rex Venture Group LLC — the operator of the Zeek Rewards MLM scheme — sought to have a HubPages site operated by Zeek critic “K. Chang” removed from the web by filing a complaint with HubPages about purported copyright and trademark infringement and libel. Craddock’s efforts succeeded temporarily.

    In a bizarre Blog post on Aug. 4, Zeek claimed that “all” criticism of Zeek was unfair and planted the seed that unspecified “North Carolina Credit Unions” were circulating a purported “internal memo” that allegedly was “at once unfavorable to Zeek Rewards and false.”

    The Zeek post, attributed to then-acting COO Gregory J. Caldwell, complained the credit unions were slandering Zeek and warned Zeek members to toe the company line.

    Thirteen days later, the SEC filed an emergency court action that described Zeek as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme.

    Craddock now is involved in a purported effort to defend Zeek affiliates from clawback actions by the court-appointed receiver in the SEC’s Zeek case. That effort began after the SEC’s actions against Zeek and also included name-dropping. During a pitch for Zeek members to send in money, Craddock dropped the name of former Florida Attorney General (and former U.S. Rep.) Bill McCollum.

    McCollum, now a partner at the SNR Denton law firm, no longer is in public office. Precisely why Craddock mentioned McCollum’s name is unclear, although Craddock initially said that the Zeek affiliates were hiring SNR Denton. That effort appears now to have fallen through.

    As Florida’s Attorney General, McCollum sued ASD for fraud in August 2008. Some ASD members countered that McCollum should be sued for Deceptive Trade Practices for holding the view that ASD was a fraud. Although McCollum’s office later dropped the ASD lawsuit, it said it had gathered names of ASD fraud victims and provided them to the U.S. Department of Justice, which had established a remissions process through which ASD victims could receive compensation from proceeds seized by the U.S. Secret Service in the ASD Ponzi case filed at the federal level in the District of Columbia.

    Zeek is known to have members in common with the ASD Ponzi scheme. Some Zeek members also promoted OneX, the scheme promoted by ASD’s Bowdoin after his December 2010 arrest by the U.S. Secret Service on Ponzi-related charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.

    Bowdoin told prospects that OneX was good for “college students.”

    “Ken Russo” also is known as “DRdave.”

  • BULLETIN: Citing Gregory McKnight’s ‘Semantic Obfuscation,’ Prosecutors Ask Judge To Sentence Convicted Legisi HYIP Swindler To 15 Years — ‘The Top Of The Sentencing Guidelines’; Like Zeek, ‘Program’ Was Pushed On The Ponzi Boards And Instructed Members Not To Use The Word ‘Investment’

    This grainy likeness of Legisi HYIP operator Gregory N. McKnight appears in U.S. court files.

    BULLETIN: Yesterday’s scheduled sentencing of convicted Legisi HYIP swindler Gregory N. McKnight has been delayed until Nov. 19, but federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Michigan have asked U.S. District Judge Mark A. Goldsmith to sentence McKnight to 15 years in prison.

    McKnight and Legisi relied on “semantic obfuscation” in which investors were told they were joining a “loan program,” not making an “investment,” prosecutors said.

    A 15-year sentence is at “the top of the sentencing guidelines of 151-188 months” and “may serve to discourage others who are inclined to involve themselves in similar criminal conduct,” prosecutors argued to the judge.

    In February, McKnight, 52, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the Legisi Ponzi caper. The scam, which planted the seed a return of between .25 percent a day and 12 percent a month was possible, was popularized in part on Ponzi boards such as MoneyMakerGroup and Talk Gold.

    Court filings show that Legisi used some of the same payment processors used by the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, including e-Gold and e-Bullion. ASD operator Andy Bowdoin was sentenced in August to 78 months in federal prison.

    “The principle mechanism by which investor funds would be funneled to defendant was through the utilization of the internet via digital currency, particularly e-gold and e-bullion,” prosecutors said in the McKnight sentencing memo. “The use of these non-traditional funding methods provided McKnight with the opportunity (at least for a while) to conduct the scheme below the radar of regulators.”

    And, prosecutors pointed out, “[i]n 2007, the United States government seized the property in approximately 58 e-gold accounts due to various criminal violations, including McKnight’s account . . . Moreover, in 2008, e-gold and its operators were convicted of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the United States . . . And in 2006, the United States government commenced a forfeiture suit against e-bullion for operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, wire fraud, and money laundering . . . James Fayed, the owner and operator of e-bullion, was later convicted in the State of California of having his wife murdered and sentenced to death row.”

    Legisi gathered about $72 million. The SEC and the U.S. Secret Service led the probe, which resulted in civil charges against McKnight by the SEC and a criminal charge of wire fraud against him by the Secret Service.

    Legisi pitchman Matthew John Gagnon also was charged civilly and criminally in the Legisi case.

    From the prosecution’s sentencing memo on McKnight (italics added/bolding in original):

    As if the exorbitantly high interest rates were not enough to induce investors into defendant’s scam, Legisi also offered a referral program whereby investors could earn a 5% to 7% commission on the amount of new funds that a referred investor placed in the program. As McKnight explained, “[a]s an Active Member of Legisi.com, you are encouraged to refer friends, colleagues, and your own website visitors to us and benefit from an additional source of income — a 5% – 7% incentive bonus for each new account opened by your referrals and on any and all future deposits from them!”

    Legisi was an acronymn that stood for “Lucrative Electronic Gold Income Services International,” prosecutors said. HYIP schemes spread in part because unlicensed/unregistered brokers (such as Gagnon) push them online to earn “commissions.”

    The MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum — one of the outlets from which Legisi was pushed — is specifically referenced in court filings in the Legisi case.

    Zeek Rewards, which the SEC described last month as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme selling unregistered securities, also was heavily pushed on the Ponzi forums. Zeek used both domestic and offshore financial vendors, including AlertPay and SolidTrustPay in Canada.

    Zeek planted the seed it could provide a return of between 1 percent and 2 percent a day, far higher than Legisi’s maximum suggested payout of 12 percent a month. Like Zeek, ASD suggested a payout on the order of 1 percent a day. The ASD scheme gathered at least $119 million, federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia said.

    ASD relied on wordplay to dupe investors. So did Legisi, prosecutors said in the McKnight sentencing memo (italics added):

    In addition to operating a Ponzi scheme, McKnight committed various securities violations. While McKnight himself referred to Legisi as a “loan” program, and demanded that “members” not refer to their “loan” and an “investment,” Legisi was, in reality, an investment contract, which is considered a security and therefore regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This semantic obfuscation was quite obviously an attempt to sidestep the securities laws.

    From a footnote in the prosecution’s McKnight sentencing memo (italics added):

    [Legisi] Investors originated from all 50 states and approximately 33 foreign countries (Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Demark, England, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia,
    South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Spain, Thailand, Trinidad West Indies).

    Read the prosecution’s sentencing memo on McKnight and recommendation of 15 years’ imprisonment.

  • Wealth4AllTeam, ‘Program’ Pushed By Zeek ‘I Got Paid’ Cheerleader ‘Ken Russo,’ Appears To Have Suspended Operations

    There are Ponzi-forum reports today that “Wealth4AllTeam” has suspended operations. Wealth4AllTeam was a “program” pushed by legendary Ponzi-forum huckster “Ken Russo,” also known as “DRdave.”

    “Ken Russo” regularly made “I Got Paid” posts for Zeek Rewards on the TalkGold Ponzi forum. He also led cheers for Club Asteria, a “program” that encountered trouble from CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator. Meanwhile, Ken Russo led cheers for the bizarre JSS Tripler 2 “program,” which appears to have based its name on the JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid scam-in-progress purportedly operated by Frederick Mann.

    JSS/JBP appears now to be morphing into a scam known as “ProfitClicking.”

    Among other things, the JSS Tripler 2 scam touted by “Ken Russo” hatched a companion fraud scheme known as “Compound150.”

    A message today on the Wealth4All website accessible by clicking a link styled “Click Here for Other Forms of Payments” says “Temporally [sic] Down Please Check your e-mail.”

    Separately, a message on the Ponzi boards attributed to “Wealth4allteam Management” in part says this (italics added):

    As you are aware from previous communications, we have been working hard at getting our Project Genesis off the ground. The goal of Project Genesis is to create a business model that offers the right balance between a product and a rewarding financial opportunity. We’ve created an amazing model that will offer several income opportunities to a wide spectrum of people, from beginners to the more experienced network marketers.

    In the past, we also informed you that we were consulting with both our legal team and with a compensation consulting firm to help us integrate our existing pay structure with the new model. During these consultations, it has become clear to us that the required changes to the current compensation plan are too drastic and complicated to be done effectively. Based on that, our counsel has advised us to create a completely new business model that will better serve everyone for our new business.

    On Aug. 17, the SEC called Zeek a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme. Just weeks earlier, “Ken Russo” left a series of “I Got Paid” posts for Zeek on the TalkGold Ponzi forum.

    Included in his signature line was a link for the Wealth4AllTeam “program.”

    Precisely what Wealth4AllTeam’s “Project Genesis” entails is unclear. The name, however, is reminiscent of an earlier scam known as the “Alpha Project” that was linked to another scam known as FEDI.

    Read more on the FEDI scheme. FEDI operator Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, also known as “Michael Mixon,” pleaded guilty in September 2009 to fleecing investors out of millions of dollars and to financing terrorism.

  • DISTURBING: ‘ProfitClicking’ Thread At MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi Forum Used In Zeek-Related Disinformation Campaign That Delivers Traffic To Troy Dooly’s Blog While Creating Brand Confusion And Opportunity To Harvest Leads For Poster Known As ‘freezeekler’

    EDITOR’S NOTE: The PP Blog sought comment from Troy Dooly of MLMHelpDesk this morning (Sunday) on the disturbing Zeek- and Ponzi forum-related developments reported in our story below. (Story appears below screen shots.) Dooly has not responded as of the time of this post, but the PP Blog will publish his comment if and when received. (UPDATE 10:24 p.m. Dooly has responded to the request for comment. His comment has been added to the story below.)

    Various efforts to mislead Zeek members and the public about the SEC’s Aug. 17 action against Zeek Rewards amid allegations that Zeek was a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid fraud now are under way online. If you’ve received an email attributed to Zeek member Dave Kettner that claims “[t]he SEC acknowledged that there are a couple of problems with the case against Zeek Rewards and Rex Venture group,” it almost certainly is best to be extremely skeptical of the claims. Similar claims were made by apologists for the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme.

    These are among the claims attributed to Zeek-member Kettner, who is using the pronoun “we” when referring to the SEC:

    1. We (the SEC) are not able to find a victim in this case. We are not able to find anybody at this time that has been harmed by Zeek Rewards.
    2. We (the SEC) are having a hard time finding a security. In the complaint, it said that Zeek was selling securities and was an investment scheme.

    Beginning in August 2009, dozens of AdSurfDaily members flooded the docket of U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer with claims the government had produced no “VICTIMS” in the ASD Ponzi case. The pleadings appear to have been based on a template shared by one or more ASD downline groups. Included among the filers was Todd Disner, then an emerging figure in the ASD story and now an emerging figure in the Zeek story.

    Collyer rejected each and every one of the claims. In September 2011, the U.S. government announced it had identified at least 8,400 ASD victims. Two months later — in November 2011 — Disner filed a lawsuit against the government that alleged it had produced a “tissue of lies” and that ASD was a legitimate enterprise. About seven months later — in May 2012 — ASD operator Andy Bowdoin pleaded guilty to wire fraud and admitted ASD was a Ponzi scheme and that the company never had operated lawfully. The government now says it has identified at least 9,000 ASD victims.

    Justia.com has archived Collyer’s ASD docket and the related filings here. Disner’s unsuccessful filing is Docket No. 91. The ruling rejecting his claim (and others) is Docket No. 96. Despite the denials, other ASD members continued to use the same no “VICTIMS” argument, which incorporated a conspiracy theory that government evil was afoot. Collyer eventually issued en masse denials.

    Disner, Kettner and Zeek figure Robert Craddock are known to be involved in an effort to raise funds purportedly to defend Zeek affiliates while taking the SEC to task. The effort has been marked by shifting stories, contributing to an atmosphere of confusion. PP Blog guest columnist Gregg Evans wrote about some of that confusion here. The SNR Denton law firm, once presented by Craddock as the attorneys for Zeek affiliates, now appears to have withdrawn its representation. Meanwhile, a website known as ZTeamBiz that was gathering funds for the purported Zeek defense has been blocked by PayPal, a development ZTeamBiz blamed on purported fear of competition by eBay. eBay owns PayPal.

    RealScam.com (GlimDropper) now is reporting that ZTeamBiz is soliciting money via “electronic check drafts” and potentially putting contributors’ banking information at risk.

    Meanwhile, it’s worth pointing out that the U.S. Secret Service confirmed on Aug. 17 that it was investigating Zeek. Beyond that, the office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper has confirmed it is investigating Zeek. At least two proposed class-action lawsuits also have been filed against Zeek. The SEC is hardly Zeek’s only worry.

    Here, now, our story about how a Ponzi-board poster appears to be causing Dooly’s MLMHelpDesk.com to load beneath a different URL in an apparent bid to create confusion about the SEC’s Zeek action while also leeching off Dooly’s work product to gather “leads.”

    1.

    "freezeekler," a MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum poster in the "ProfitClicking" thread, is using his (or her) forum signature to help disinformation about Zeek spread online. ProfitClicking may have ties to the "sovereign citizens" movement.

    2.

    The redirect from the signature of "freezeekler" at the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum causes Troy Dooly's MLMHelpDesk.com Blog to load under a URL styled "draftsforcash.com."

    3.

    On the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum, "freezeekler" says his (or her) plan with the "ProfitClicking" program is to "withdraw at least until I have my investment back."

    UPDATED 10:24 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) TO ADD FIRST COMMENT FROM TROY DOOLY. UPDATED AT 11:25 P.M. TO REFLECT COMMENT FROM DOOLY THAT THE OFFENDING PAGE DESCRIBED BELOW HAS BEEN REMOVED. UPDATED 9:13 A.M. (SEPT. 10) TO FIX REDUNDANCY IN THIRD PARAGRAPH.

    Efforts to spread disinformation about the SEC’s action in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi case intensified on the web yesterday. One such bid occurred within the thread on the “ProfitClicking” scam-in-progress at the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum, where a poster known as “freezeekler” is using the following “signature” line (italics added):

    Hot! ZEEK REWARDS Coming Back, NOT GUILTY? NEW updated information!

    “freezeekler” apparently also is in “ProfitClicking,” given his (or her) MoneyMakerGroup comment about a plan to “withdraw at least until I have my [ProfitClicking] investment back.”

    MoneyMakerGroup is listed in U.S. federal court filings as a place from which Ponzi schemes are promoted. Records show that five major scams promoted on the forum in recent years — Zeek, AdSurfDaily, Legisi, Pathway To Prosperity and Imperia Invest IBC — allegedly gathered a combined sum of at least $868 million. By contrast, the 2013 budget for the city of Las Vegas is $468.8 million, according to a May report in the Las Vegas Sun. The population of Las Vegas is approximately 590,000.

    In terms of the number of victims — currently estimated at between 1 million and 2 million — Zeek may be the largest Ponzi scheme ever investigated by U.S. law enforcement. Its membership base may be at least 10 times larger than ASD, whose base was estimated by the U.S. Department of Justice at 97,000. Zeek’s estimated cash-drawing power of $600 million appears to have been approximately five times larger than ASD’s.

    When “freezeekler’s” signature link is clicked, a redirect kicks in and visitors are taken to a URL styled “draftsforcash.com” and a page styled “zeekrewards.” (draftsforcash.com/zeekrewards.) When visitors move their mouse, a lead-capture ad then loads for a 60-minute “webinar” for an unspecified program that asks viewers to submit  their name, email address and phone number.

    Although visitors may believe they are at the “draftsforcash” site’s Zeek Rewards page, they’re actually at the site of Troy Dooly’s MLMHelpDesk.  MoneyMakerGroup’s “freezeekler” appears to have caused the redirect to Dooly’s Blog to occur without causing the URL for MLMHelpDesk to appear in the location bar. Visitors unfamiliar with Dooly could come to believe he is the owner of “draftsforcash.”

    That domain, however, is registered on the name of Bargain Crusader Inc., according to a whois search. When the “zeekrewards” page is stripped from the “draftsforcash.com/zeekrewards” URL, visitors see Blog whose sole story appears under a headline of “Daily, and Weekly fantasy sports leagues.”

    The “skin” for the one-post Blog, according to a link at the site, is provided by “online casino uk site in cooperation with play roulette for fun weblog.”

    Dooly tonight expressed concern about the Ponzi-forum development.

    “This is nuts,” he said in an an initial email to the PP Blog. “Thank you for sharing this info with me. I will do a post tomorrow on this issue.”

    In a second email to the Blog, Dooly said his company took quick action to ensure the offending page was taken down.

    “My COO jumped on the issue as soon as I sent it to him,” Dooly said.

    ProfitClicking is an ASD-like autosurf formed from the carcass of the JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid “program” that suddenly went missing last month amid reports of the sudden “retirement” of Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSS/JBP.

    Mann is a former pitchman for the ASD Ponzi scheme. JSS/JBP claimed to have more than 1 million members. Its cash-sucking power remains unclear.

     

  • UNBELIEVABLE: In Wake Of Zeek Collapse, Members Get Pitch For ‘Wealth Creation Alliance’; Promo Features Strange Use Of Capital Letters; Pitchmen Are Called ‘Prosperity Advocates’ — And Promo Claims Tie To Bank Of America

    UPDATED 11:55 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) On Aug. 17, the SEC accused the purported Zeek Rewards revenue-sharing program of being a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that had affected more than 1 million people. Zeek was touted on the MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold Ponzi forums.

    Now comes word that Zeek members are being pitched on a “program” known as “Wealth Creation Alliance” (WCA), which declares it is operated by an “Executive Dream Team,” makes strange use of capital letters in a sales promo, calls its pitchmen “prosperity advocates” and also has a presence on the Ponzi boards.

    Like Zeek, WCA says members can send in sums of up to $10,000.

    Zeek said participants were purchasing “bids”; WCA says its product is “ad units.”

    The WCA “program” according to one promoter, touts a relationship with offshore payment processors and even Bank of America.

    Bank of America also handled the banking for the 2008 AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, according to federal court files. A tie to the emerging WCA “program” could not immediately be confirmed.

    Like ASD and Zeek, WCA has a purported “advertising” component and tiered commissions, according to one promo for the “opportunity” viewed by the PP Blog. Zeek-like language also is present in WCA. Both companies, for example, purport to operate (or have operated) a “profit pool.”

    Some Ponzi-board apologists for Zeek have described it as a “freedom company.” WCA, meanwhile, says it “will apply the proven “Free Enterprise” formula” and emerge as a firm “Of the People, For the People and Built By the People.”

    These email remarks (below/italics added) were received by at least one Zeek member and were attributed to Paul Skulitz, the purported owner of WCA. Many of the words on the left margin curiously begin with capital letters, which leads to questions about whether WCA and/or its pitchmen are communicating in code to certain prospects and are sympathetic to the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement.

    Some “sovereign citizens” are preoccupied by the use of capital letters.

    The capital letters in the first words in the first three lines of the email form the acronym “WCA,” for instance. Whether WCA has any “sovereign” ties is unknown.

    Welcome to our rapidly growing family of prosperity advocates here at “Wealth 
    Creation”. It is our intention to develop a program that is innovative, profitable 
    And sustainable. Our priority is to build a successful  ‘long term home’. 

    You and your families deserve dynamic success and we at WCA are committed 
    To providing you with the vehicle and tools to take control of your life and reach 
    Your greatest goals and dreams. Many of you want to become wealthy and free 
    And we intend to help you do just that! These goals will be met by putting in 
    Place a business model that is not simply exchanging money for money. The 
    WCA model will apply the proven “Free Enterprise” formula of providing 
    Much-needed product and service solutions to the global marketplace. We 
    Are building a sustainable business model with powerful products and services 
    That are in much demand. 

    To unleash the viral power of “Word of Mouth”, we are using a 15%, two level 
    Bonus plan along with a powerful global revenue pool that will be shared with 
    All active affiliates. This plan has produced some of the largest earnings in direct 
    Selling history. 

    An “Executive Dream Team” is guiding our business. These business professionals 
    Bring well over 120 years of high-level business experience to WCA.  They have 
    Run companies and built marketing teams globally over the past 40 years and are 
    Committed to building a company that is, “Of the People, For the People and Built 
    By the People”. 

    Our core product/services are a virtual marketing and advertising tool and a global 
    Directory.  These tools have been developed over the past decade by our CTO (Chief 
    Technology Officer) and are time tested and proven effective. Many of these product/
    Services are available at no charge to our free affiliates. All of our advertising products 
    Can and are being used to promote not only WCA but also any other business or program. 
    There will be certain limitations. These products/services carry a huge profit margin, 
    Which fuel both our first (10%) level and second (5%) level commissions and our 
    Company wide profit pool.

    Our business plan is dynamic and will require flexibility on your part as we roll out 
    Our different divisions, which will include, but not be limited to: 

    Our online banner and text ads, our marketing and communication tools 

    Our robust global directory where both affiliates and customers can advertise 
    Showcase their products/services and causes our upcoming online mall featuring 
    Products/services at a tremendous value

    Our Life Literacy University, where individuals and families can tap into the wisdom 
    Of some of the world’s greatest mentors on topics as diverse as family finance, fitness/
    Nutrition, self-esteem, generational wealth creation, goal settings & achievement, travel 
    & leisure, personal & spiritual development, language skills, public speaking and family 
    And friendship dynamic. As the community develops there will be online empowerment 
    Opportunities as well as regional gathering to learn your favorite topics.

    As with any legitimate business, you will be able to buy these offerings at a discount 
    For personal use, make them available for resale on your website and generate profits 
    Or share the program with others and enjoy referrals bonuses on their purchases. What 
    Sets this apart form everything else is the company wide global profit pool. This is the 
    Best of it all… As our volume grows you will participate in the profit of the entire company 
    On a daily basis. WCA is truly committed to ‘ Sharing The Wealth ‘!’

    We are committed to building people, who will develop culture, which will change this
    World and make it a better place to raise our families.  We are committed to a revolution
    In the hearts and minds of each and every child of God who believe in their hearts, “There 
    has to be a better way!”

    We are fully operational right now and in our company pre-launch, this simply means 
    that you are able to sign up for free and receive your business website and purchase 
    advertising units as well. You can also refer and sign others in as well. We are also 
    currently receiving payments and more importantly we are paying referral bonuses 
    and daily profit sharing. Our pre-launch will continue through October 2012. We 
    will hold our first major event the first weekend of November. (Details will be 
    forthcoming) 

    As we continue to upgrade our system to provide the very best opportunity for you, 
    please be patient as there will be moments of brief interruption of service while we 
    attend to necessary online functions. We just recently finished one fantastic 
    improvement to provide additional protection internally and the systems are 
    systematically coming back online. Our 65% auto re-purchase feature, our 
    100% default system and several other features are being put fully into operation. 
    All of these will have a wonderful affect on your profits and the company’s sustainability. 

    As we continue to improve daily and roll systems out for you, stay excited and 
    positive what the future holds in store for you. 

    Thank you for you time and your trust, 

    Best Wishes, 
    Paul Skulitz Admin
    if you’ve questions
    [Deleted by PP Blog]

  • ** UNCONFIRMED ** Some Credit Cards Or Payment Accounts Tied To Zeek May Be Getting Charged For Subscriptions In Aftermath Of Collapse ** UNCONFIRMED **

    UPDATED 12:18 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) There is a report on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum today of at least one member of the Zeek Rewards’ “program” getting charged $99 for a monthly renewal:

    Here’s how the post read (italics added):

    “Your Diamond renewal has been processed
    Order Total: 99.00
    Order Date: 8/5/2012 6:06:51 PM
    Subscription Renewal Date: 7/29/2012
    Order Number: [deleted by PP Blog]
    This will appear on your statement as ZeekRewards.com.
    Thanks!
    ZeekSupport

    The poster went on to point out that the “[d]ates are off though.”

    And the poster also asked, “Anyone else get this? Probably old renewal only processed now, knowing how slow they’ve been.”

    Last week, the state of Maine cautioned Zeek members to contact their service-providers to cancel Zeek billings. Here is the statement from Maine’s Office of Securities and Bureau of Financial Institutions in its entirety (italics added):

    Maine’s Office of Securities and Bureau of Financial Institutions today alerted consumers that federal regulators recently took action to stop an alleged massive online “profit sharing” Ponzi scheme that appears to have attracted Maine investors. The site, ZeekRewards.com, was placed into receivership and had its assets frozen by a North Carolina District Court on August 17 following an action by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for securities fraud against the site, as well as a related entity, Rex Venture Group, LLC, and internet marketer Paul R. Burks of Lexington, N.C.

    According to the SEC’s complaint, ZeekRewards and defendants raised $600 million dollars from more than one million internet customers and investors nationwide and overseas through the website, ZeekRewards.com, which began operating in January, 2011. Customers were offered several ways to earn money through the ZeekRewards profit-sharing program, which the SEC alleges was marketed in violation of federal law. ZeekRewards operated a classic Ponzi scheme by paying the first wave of investors with new funds solicited from subsequent investors using false and misleading statements.

    “Some Maine financial institutions reported receiving requests for assistance from customers who invested in ZeekRewards.com, so, unfortunately, we have good reason to believe there may be a number of Maine victims of this scheme,” said Bureau Superintendent Lloyd LaFountain III. LaFountain encouraged anyone who purchased an interest or otherwise invested in ZeekRewards through a monthly subscription or other recurring payment plan administered by their financial institution to contact the institution immediately to make sure future payments are not deducted from the customer’s account.

    The receiver in this case has identified $225 million in investor funds in 15 foreign and domestic financial institutions, but is still currently identifying assets and victims of the scheme. Securities Administrator Judith M. Shaw urged investors to stay abreast of developments by monitoring the receiver’s website: www.zeekrewardsreceivership.com. Shaw pointed to another resource for investors, an SEC site to keep investors apprised of updates, www.sec.gov/divisions/enforce/claims/zekerewards.htm.

    “Scam artists rely on the internet as a reliable forum for perpetuating fraud,” noted Shaw. “The fact that this scheme reportedly pulled in over one million investors worldwide underscores the importance of thoroughly investigating any kind of profit-making venture before investing, regardless of how the venture is styled or presented The Office of Securities stands ready to assist all Maine citizens with objective information so that investors can make informed investment decisions.”

    Last Updated: August 31, 2012 12:33 AM

    Visit the webpage of the Maine Office of Securities and Bureau of Financial Institutions.

  • BULLETIN: CFTC Says California Man At Helm Of Ponzi Scheme Targeted At Deaf Christians; Marc Perlman Charged With Fraud Amid Claim He Advised Investor To Sell House Quickly And Plow Proceeds Into Forex Scheme

    BULLETIN: The CFTC has gone to federal court in the Southern District of New York, alleging that Marc Perlman of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and his firm, iGlobal Strategic Management LLC, were running a commodity-pool and Forex Ponzi scheme targeted at deaf Christians.

    Perlman and the company have been charged with fraud. The CFTC said the scheme sucked in “at least $670,000 from at least 17 people.”

    In at least one instance, the CFTC charged, Perlman encouraged an investor “to sell a house at a price that would result in a quick sale, stating that the profits that the iGlobal Investor would earn with iGlobal would make up for the lost equity.”

    It is at least the third major fraud scheme targeted at the deaf community since 2009. In October 2010, the SEC charged an entity known as Imperia Invest IBC in a caper that sucked in millions of dollars and affected thousands of people with hearing impairments. In 2009, the FTC charged Affiliate Strategies Inc. (ASI) in a government-grants scam. The Noobing autosurf was in the ASI stable of companies, and promotions were targeted at the deaf.

    Both Imperia Invest and Noobing were promoted on the MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold Ponzi forums — the same venues from which Ponzi schemes such as AdSurfDaily and alleged Ponzi schemes such as Zeek Rewards were promoted.

    “Perlman furthered his and iGlobal’s fraudulent scheme by playing upon the Christian faith of certain iGlobal investors, using claims about his own faith and references to scripture to obtain the trust of certain iGlobal investors,” the CFTC charged.

    Victims hailed from Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Pennsylvania, the CFTC said, noting that Perlman is deaf.

    “Perlman offered to have calls with certain potential iGlobal Investors through a video phone system that enables communication through sign language,” the CFTC charged. “During these calls, Perlman told certain potential iGlobal Investors that he was offering them the opportunity to invest in a forex investment system that would yield profits of 10 percent each month. He later revised this projected number to 5 percent after certain iGlobal Investors invested funds.”

    The U.K. Financial Services Authority assisted in the CFTC probe, CFTC said.

    Read the complaint.

  • As Zeek Apologists Solicit Funds And Plant Seed They’ll Sue SEC, Guest Columnist Asks, ‘Whose Lawyer Is This Anyway?’

    DISCLOSURE: Gregg Evans, a longtime member of the antiscam community, is a longtime PP Blog contributor. He was not compensated for this column, and his views are not necessarily the views of the PP Blog.

    Whose Lawyer Is This Anyway?

    By Gregg Evans

    A group of Zeek Rewards’ affiliates claim they have retained SNR Denton to do, well, something about the SEC taking over Rex Venture Group, Zeek’s corporate parent. What they intend to do is a mystery at this time. You see, Rex Venture Group, and with it Zeek, is dead. Nothing left but the shell that is in possession of a court-appointed receiver.

    There can be no resurrection here: Paul Burks, the previous owner has turned the company over voluntarily to the receiver and, under the terms of the consent judgment, he cannot change his mind, he cannot appeal, he cannot argue that he didn’t violate securities laws and he can’t reboot the company under a different entity.

    Zeek is no more: All that’s left is to gather up all the money and distribute what’s left back to those that it was stolen from.

    The first problem with this is that not all that was stolen can be recovered, a part of it is going to be spent in the effort to return it and not everyone lost, which means some people won. Fairness, and by the way the law, says that those winners should have to return not only their ill-gotten gains, but in fact they should also return part of their original investment so that they proportionately bear the same loss rate as everyone involved.

    In short, if the average “investor” is only going to recover $30 of the $100 they sent in, why should someone who sent $10,000, and profited in the end, only have to return their net winnings? It’s only fair that they should in fact have to return all their profits, but also 70% of their contributions, so that they bear the same loss as everyone else. If you sent in $10,000 and didn’t take out a dime, I think you’ll see the logic there. If, on the other hand, you were among the early investors who made a sizable profit, you may think differently.

    Zeek presented in online pitch as “Passive Income!” opportunity.

    It was once claimed that some affiliates were “earning” over $1 million a month from Zeek. If you’re a big winner, you might be quietly hoping that the receiver isn’t going to try to get anything back from you and you might be thinking that if he does, you might be wise to get an attorney to do everything legally possible to prevent any of your “profits” being taken from you to be added to the pool of funds eventually refunded to the people who weren’t as lucky as you. Well and good. I don’t agree with you, but then again, I wasn’t getting a million dollars a month in Zeek “profit sharing.” You’re certainly entitled to the best legal talent you can pay for.

    Ah, but you’re too greedy to even accept that. No, you’re not going to use your own money to get that very pricey legal team working to keep you from losing money in the Ponzi scheme like almost all the others, you want the losers to contribute to a fund to pay your lawyers.

    That’s chutzpa, Sparky.

    The names so far mentioned as being behind this legal effort are hardly innocents. Among them are some names very familiar to those of us who follow online investment frauds, Ponzi schemes and MLM hucksters. These are the big recruiters. They pimped this scam, flaunted the money they were raking in, money that was ultimately stolen from their own downlines. Now they’ve cranked up their downlines, incited the victims and are shouting from the Internet hills about the injustice of the evil government shutting down their favorite scam, because, after all, it was still paying.

    Never mind the $3 billion deferred liability that Zeek Rewards had only $225 million to pay. Never mind that only 2% of Zeek’s revenue came from an actual business and that 98% of the money paid out in the end was coming from new money paid into the affiliates programs. (The very definition of a Ponzi scheme.)

    I’d venture you’d be a little less admiring of Paul Burks if the SEC, Secret Service and North Carolina Attorney General had not investigated this scam and it had collapsed of its own weight a few weeks or days later than the SEC action. There were signs that Zeek was in fact about to implode in the very near future anyway. Had that happened I’d expect a few of you would be raising complaints as to why the authorities had let the scam continue when they knew about it and had been investigating it. (Search “CMKX Scam” for an example of that.)

    But with apologies to Arlo Guthrie, that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

    I’m here to talk about your lawyers, and how you’re trying to get the people whose stolen money you have, to pay lawyers so you don’t have to give any of that stolen money back. First, you’re asking people to send the money to you, not to the lawyers. Second, you’re telling them to please not call the lawyers.

    This raises a few issues. To begin with, if the people involved lost money they can of course take advantage of the tax code to at least save on their taxes. They could also, if they retained counsel in relation to their business deduct that money, too. They cannot deduct any contribution they make to someone else’s legal bills.

    In order for them to be able to say they paid a lawyer in relation to a business expense, the IRS is pretty insistent that they paid lawyers, not paid someone else who paid a lawyer, especially when the lawyer in question won’t even take your calls. I’m not an attorney myself but I’m pretty certain that some ethical rule somewhere says you have to take calls from your client. Which brings us to another thing:

    Who is the client, and what is the client’s interest?

    In a solicitation letter published on the Internet, the people soliciting donations say that the law firm will only communicate with 12 people. Forgive me if I take that to mean that only those 12 people are formally the clients represented, and that means that the attorney’s in question MUST represent those 12 people and ONLY those 12 people, and any interest any other people may have that is against the clients are by default adversarial.

    So if, for instance, those 12 people were all net winners wishing to avoid a clawback action, hundreds of thousands of investors who lost would be the enemy, and by the tenets of the legal profession, said lawyers would be opposed to their interests in any conflict. There were early reports of over a million investors in Zeek Rewards. At a later news conference, the receiver said that number may well be over 2 million.

    Mathematically speaking a Ponzi scheme results in at least 88% of participants who are net losers, a percentage that rises the longer a scheme continues, so of the 2 million, 1,760,000 people are likely net losers here. But these lawyers are only looking out for the 12, who I’ll bet are all net winners.

    I’ll go out on a limb and say that all of them are big-time winners; at least one had a video posted showing off a new luxury home he implied was paid for with Zeek Reward profits. And they want the losers to pay for their lawyers, because after all, Zeek was still paying. There was over $225 million left in the till and if the evil government had just minded their business they could have gotten a pretty good chunk of that, too.

    So, am I wrong? I’m talking now to the 12 people who are allowed to call the lawyer, and to the lawyer, too for that matter. I think this is rotten to the core, but prove me wrong. Make public the retainer agreement between whoever the clients are and SNR Denton.

    If you’re good enough and shameless enough to get your victims to pay for your lawyers, good on you, but I think you owe it to the people you’re asking to pay for it to show them just exactly what they’re paying for, and whose interest is being represented here.

    Oh, and since you’re telling people to pay you, and not the lawyers, and since that means they can’t deduct it on their taxes, I ‘d like to offer my own opinion that any money you get is regular income as far as the IRS is concerned, and you’d better report every penny of it as such.

  • Zeek Fallout Almost Too Strange To Contemplate

    For starters, Zeek affiliates being approached by upline sponsors and email/website appeals to send in money “to defend Zeek Rewards and all of our independent businesses as per our legal rights of due process” might want to read this July 25 PP Blog post.

    It’s about how wordplay was used to sanitize HYIP scams.

    For additional background, Zeek affiliates might want to read this July 28 PP Blog post.

    It’s about how purported Zeek “consultant” Robert Craddock sought to disable the Hub of Zeek critic “K. Chang.” Craddock now is part of the effort to raise funds to “defend” Zeek affiliates.

    Zeek and untold thousands of its minions are known to have a tin ear for PR. That tin ear is on full display again today, with a “warning” from the leaders of the effort to “defend” Zeek from the SEC’s Aug. 17 allegations that it was a $600 million Ponzi and pyramid scheme not to contact the SNR Denton law firm.

    “We have asked the firm to provide us the names of the individuals that are calling; we will refund your donation and will remove you from the group to be represented if you call. The law firm is only going to discuss the case with the 12 leaders and we will put out the information to the entire group on this site.”

    “This site,” as it were, is this site, which calls itself ZTeamBiz.

    ZTeamBiz, which calls itself a “professional organization,” says its has hired SNR Denton. The precise reason why is unclear, although ZTeamBiz says the “SEC has tried to make us all believe that Zeek Rewards was an ‘investment’ and a Ponzi scheme. All the pages that were submitted by the SEC indictment has all been one sided and what we believe to be a misrepresentation of the truth and facts of what Zeek Rewards was as a viable and legal business.”

    And ZTeamBiz also accused the SEC of misleading a federal judge.

    One of the persons on the ZTeamBiz squad — although it’s unclear if his presence is formal or informal — is Todd Disner. Disner is a former pitchman for the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme and, along with former attorney Dwight Owen Schweitzer, sued the government in November 2011. Disner and Schweitzer alleged that prosecutors and a U.S. Secret Service agent presented a “tissue of lies” to a federal judge when bringing the civil portion of the ASD Ponzi case in August 2008.

    Disner and Schweitzer made that claim after ASD had lost the case in U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals. Among other things, Disner and Schweitzer claimed the government had gone shopping for a friendly judge when it brought the forfeiture proceedings.

    That judge allegedly was targeted with a false lien by Kenneth Wayne Leaming, who also targeted three federal prosecutors and a Secret Service agent with false liens, according to the FBI. Leaming was arrested by an FBI Terrorism Task Force in November 2011. He is a purported “sovereign citizen.” All five of the federal officials targeted in the alleged lien campaign have ties to the ASD case.

    ASD President Andy Bowdoin pleaded guilty seven months later to a Ponzi-related charge of wire fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday.

    Zeek is known to have members in common with ASD, which federal prosecutors have described as a $119 million Ponzi scheme that created at least 9,000 victims before its 2008 collapse amid allegations by the U.S. Secret Service of Ponzi fraud.

    Like Zeek, ASD claimed it was not offering an investment program. And like Zeek, ASD planted the seed it offered a daily payout rate of 1 percent a day or more.

    Like Zeek, ASD came under investigation by the U.S. Secret Service. The agency has referred to ASD as a “criminal enterprise,” with the U.S. Department of Justice calling ASD “insidious.”

    Those descriptions apparently were not enough to dissuade investors from throwing money at Zeek, which has listed ASD members as “employees.”

    On Aug, 4, Zeek itself blasted unspecified “North Carolina Credit Unions” for raising concerns about Zeek. Zeek warned members to toe the company line.

    The SEC was in federal court 13 days later.

    Zeek also is known to have members in common with JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, which appears now to have morphed into something called “ProfitClicking.” Both JSS/JBP and ProfitClicking may have ties to the sovereign-citizens movement.

    A domain registered in the name of purported JSS/JBP operator Frederick Mann once linked to videos featuring Francis Schaeffer Cox, a purported sovereign citizen implicated in a murder plot against public officials in Alaska.

    Because HYIP scams typically are promoted on Ponzi-scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup — and because Zeek, JSS/JBP, ProfitClicking and ASD all had a presence on those forums — questions have been raised about whether cash was circulating between and among various fraud schemes and placing U.S. banks in the position of possessing fraudulent proceeds.

    A receiver has been appointed to marshal the assets of the alleged Zeek fraud.

    Despite the appeal by ZTeamBiz for Zeek affiliates to send in money to “defend” themselves and the company, the interests of all Zeek affiliates almost certainly are not equivalent.  Net “winners” almost certainly are at risk of clawback lawsuits from the receiver. Such court actions are used to enlarge the pool through which victims of a Ponzi fraud receive a disbursement designed to make them as whole as possible.

    It’s often the case that victims never are made whole and receive disbursements of dimes or even pennies on the dollar. Such is the case to date for victims of the 2009 Trevor Cook Ponzi caper in Minnesota. That scheme was a form of affinity fraud targeted largely at people of faith, including senior citizens.

    Post-Ponzi receiverships sometimes turn into an international paper chase because scammers hide money offshore.  Reverse-engineering a Ponzi caper can take years. Even as Zeek receiver Kenneth D. Bell begins his duties, scammers on the Ponzi boards are planting the seed that the receivership cannot be trusted.

    In the 2009 Mantria/Speed of Wealth Ponzi scheme case, which in part was pushed MLM-style, a federal judge issued a specific order not to interfere with the receiver.