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:
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.
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.
UPDATED 11:31 P.M. EDT (AUG. 26, U.S.A.) After the collapse of AdSurfDaily in 2008, there were at least four efforts to raise funds to “defend” the Ponzi enterprise and/or its participants. The PP Blog has received reports that at least one such effort is under way in the aftermath of the collapse last week of Zeek Rewards, which the SEC called a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that had affected more than 1 million people. Zeek also is under investigation by the U.S. Secret Service and the office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper.
Zeek members who cling to a belief that the government somehow got it wrong perhaps can save themselves both money and heartache by looking at the history of the various ASD-related efforts to “defend” the multilevel marketing “program” after the U.S. Secret Service seized 15 bank accounts (and about $80 million) in ASD-related proceeds in August 2008.
Here are briefs on the various ASD-related “defense” efforts:
“Andy’s Fundraising Army”: This bizarre effort was the fourth and final of a series of failed ASD-related efforts. Started by accused ASD Ponzi schemer Thomas A. “Andy” Bowdoin himself last summer (with the purported help of ASD cheerleader Tari Steward), the effort immediately devolved into a symphony of the bizarre.
With Bowdoin effectively having been out of public view for nearly three years, the purported “army” teased potential contributors for days with a photo that showed Bowdoin smiling broadly and looking confident. Among other things, the teaser asserted there was “MORE GOOD NEWS” and plenty of reasons to help Bowdoin raise $500,000 to pay for his criminal defense.
It went on to assert that “A Recent Survey of ASD Members Proves that the Vast Majority of You Want to Join Andy’s Fundraising Army” and that “[P]er standard and accepted industry guidelines, public opinion surveying of 140 members of a large group of members that all share a common interest or purpose, of any size, even in the millions, will give an excellent cross section of the opinions and viewpoints of the entire group.”
But the “army” site did not describe the characteristics of the 140 ASD members purportedly sampled. Nor did it define what specific surveying “standard” it applied or define the source of the purported “industry guidelines.”
And what would a good, MLM-like approach to raise funds for an accused HYIP scammer (1 percent a day) be without a “prelaunch” phase? With the teaser in place, a placeholder website for “Andy’s Fundraising Army” promised a full launch to come, along with the exciting opportunity for ASD members to send funds to the man accused of defrauding them to the tune of $110 million.
But like a bad HYIP dream, the “army” website naturally missed its first advertised launch date. This was blamed on the need for more “testing,” reinforcing one of the HYIP world’s longstanding clichés. It then missed its second advertised launch date, explaining that “one last important system is being finalized.” With the first two launch dates missed, the site reported that it had set a “Final Revised Launch Date.”
During the evening of July 26, 2011, the launch finally occurred. Like many things ASD, it provided minute after minute of MLM infamy. Indeed, Bowdoin appeared in a fundraising video with symbols of American patriotism as the backdrop.
Among other things, Bowdoin — who in 2008 described himself as a Christian “money magnet” and advised ASD members after the Secret Service raid that “God” was on the company’s side and that “Satan” had infiltrated the government — claimed in the video that he’d been “crucified” by U.S. law enforcement.
He blamed the ASD-related losses in civil court on a federal judge, the prosecutors and his own former defense counsel. Bowdoin asked members to provide $500,000 to help him pay his new defense team.
It is believed he raised about $26,000 in the following weeks — but things continued to unfold like a bad HYIP dream. There was a report that a hurricane knocked the fundraising site offline, for instance. By January 2012, the site had lost its ability to collect money via PayPal. Federal prosecutors declined to comment on the development, which occurred after Bowdoin had become a pitchman for “OneX.”
In April 2012, prosecutors described OneX as a fraudulent scheme and pyramid. Bowdoin pleaded guilty to wire fraud the following month, admitting ASD was a Ponzi scheme. His fundraising website, which published purported “expert” opinions from attorney Gerald Nehra and consultant Keith Laggos that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme, remained online for weeks after the guilty plea.
The “Andy’s Army” site is now offline and is listed as an expired domain. In recent days, Bowdoin — as part of his plea agreement — has dropped his last remaining claim to cash seized in the ASD case. (A third ASD-related forfeiture complaint was filed by the government in December 2010. Bowdoin entered a claim.) He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 29.
Nehra’s law firm later became counsel for Zeek, according to Zeek. And Laggos became a purported “consultant.”
Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer: Even as Bowdoin was rolling out his “army” website and repeatedly missing launch dates, ASD figures Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer were advancing a plan to raise money to sue the government. An email attributed to Disner surfaced in July 2011 that introduced a pronoun mystery: “We plan to go after Akerman Senifit (sic) next,” the email read in part.
Akerman Senterfitt was the name of Bowdoin’s original defense law firm in the civil portion of the ASD case. In the earliest days of the case, ASD cheerleaders on the now-defunct “Surf’s Up” forum positioned the well-known firm as the “Perry Mason” firm; the government, meanwhile, was said to be represented by “Gomer Pyle.” A federal judge was described as “brain dead” if she ruled against ASD, and a federal prosecutor was described as an individual who deserved to be placed in a medieval torture rack.
Why Disner chose the pronoun “we” was never explained. The July 2011 email followed an April 2011 email attributed to Disner that included this declaration: “Let the games begin!”
During this period, Disner and Schweitzer were soliciting funds to sue the government. This effort began at an unclear point of time after November 2008, the month a federal judge issued a key court ruling against ASD while saying Nehra’s opinion could not be relied upon in part because it “relied solely on the written words contained in the Terms of Service without independent investigation or review of ASD’s business records to ascertain how ASD operates in fact before opining.” (Bolding added.)
If the judge’s ruling could be reduced to two words, it might read, “Gomer won.”
At an unclear point in time, both Disner and Schweitzer became reps for Zeek. They filed their ASD-related lawsuit in November 2011, claiming, among other things, that the government had presented a “tissue of lies” when bringing the August 2008 forfeiture case. As part of their apparent strategy, Disner and Schweitzer pointed to purported expert opinions of Nehra and Laggos. Disner and Schweitzer produced those opinions months after ASD had lost two civil-forfeiture cases in both U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Months later, Bowdoin himself put both Disner and Schweitzer in a box. In May 2012 — after Nehra and Laggos both had opined ASD was not a Ponzi scheme and after Disner and Schweitzer had sued the government — Bowdoin admitted that ASD was a Ponzi scheme.
Bob Guenther and ASDMBA: In 2008, ASD member Bob Guenther became the de facto head of an entity known as the ASD Members Business Association. The stated goal of ASDMBA was to raise funds to hire Dallas attorney Larry Friedman to represent ASD members’ interests in the case.
ASDMBA soon devolved into a circus, with Guenther using its website to promote a company that was developing an online game. Along the way, Friedman sued ASD critic Jack Arons, triggering a side drama that lasted for weeks and burying Arons in an avalanche of paperwork. (As a matter of pure PR, high-powered Friedman came out the loser for bringing out nukes against a web critic armed with a fly-swatter. The avalanche finally ended, with Arons, a Florida retiree who lives in a manufactured home, largely unscathed.) Guenther, meanwhile, refused to provide a reliable accounting of how the tens of thousands of dollars raised by ASDMBA was spent, according to members.
Guenther bizarrely dismissed his critics as “left wing liberal no balled people,” calling one an “ignorant mouthy broad.” He also claimed ASDMBA was instrumental in returning money to ASD victims, saying the group retrieved funds for retired and active-duty police officers in Texas and California, and for a high profile Dallas Cowboy’s executive.
Nothing in the public record suggests Guenther had any standing to perform any services on behalf of ASD members. It later emerged that Guenther was a convicted felon. Months after the 2008 formation of ASDMBA, in March 2009, Guenther was charged with two felony counts of aggravated harassment. Mesa, Arizona, police said Guenther repeatedly violated a court injunction for workplace harassment that prohibited him from nuisancing Cheyenne Mountain and Affiliates, the Arizona business that was developing the online game promoted on ASDMBA’s website.
Guenther later accepted a plea agreement in the harassment case. No jail time was ordered.
ASD Members International: This one was hatched by members of the pro-ASD “Surf’s Up” forum, which became Bowdoin’s official mouthpiece after the key court ruling went against ASD in November 2008. ASDMI was a purported nonprofit entity formed in Missouri. Its bizarre mission was to raise funds to litigate against the government even if the government was proceeding lawfully. In short, ASDMI planted the seed that prosecutors and investigators would be sued and/or charged with crimes.
It is believed that at least 168 people contributed money to ASDMI.
Included in the ASDMI braintrust was former Surf’s Up moderator Barb McIntyre, who enforced a “Poof Penalty” when ASD members left links on Surf’s Up to stories on the PP Blog.
But if there was an ASDMI “star,” it was “Professor” Patrick Moriarty, one of the most unusual characters in the entire ASD drama. Moriarty was an early advocate for Curtis Richmond, a purported “sovereign” being who advanced a theory that all commerce was lawful as long as the buyer and seller agreed to a contract. Among other things, it was a position that would have legalized slavery and human trafficking. Richmond went on to accuse a federal judge of “TREASON” and to accuse investigators of theft.
Richmond was hailed a “hero” on Surf’s Up, which never revealed that Richmond had been found in contempt of court for threatening federal judges and was part of a Utah “Indian” tribe a federal judge ruled a “complete sham.” (This is the “tribe” known derisively as the “Arby’s Indians” because it once held a meeting in an Arby’s restaurant in Utah. The purported “tribe” also had a purported “Supreme Court.” The address for the “Supreme Court” was the address of a doughnut shop. Richmond was sued successfully under the federal racketeering statute (RICO) by public officials in Utah targeted in a vexatious legal campaign by Richmond and other “tribe” members.)
Moriarty later was indicted on charges of tax evasion. He pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to federal prison.
NOTE TO ZEEK READERS: This document, which was filed by federal prosecutors in December 2008, is the second of three known forfeiture complaints filed against ASD-related assets. It is highly recommended reading.
The document was filed about four months after the original — and best-known ASD forfeiture complaint — was filed.
The ASD case started as a civil case with a parallel criminal investigation. Zeek-related litigation may follow the same track. Ponzi investigations take time. The December 2008 ASD forfeiture complaint shows that investigators continued to “follow the money” and to destroy ASD’s cover story after the original forfeiture complaint was filed.
It likely is true that the August 2008 complaint has received the most attention — no doubt because it laid out the core elements of the government’s case. But the December 2008 filing was tremendously damaging because it provided the first real inside glimpse into how ASD truly was operating.
UPDATED 4:06 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) It happened after the collapse of AdSurfDaily in 2008 — and it’s happening now in the aftermath of the collapse of Zeek Rewards amid spectacular allegations by the SEC Friday of Ponzi and pyramid fraud.
The office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper issued a warning minutes ago about “reload scams” aimed at taking advantage of Zeek victims.
Here is the warning in its entirety (italics added):
Reload scams hit consumers when they’re down, offering to help them make back money they lost to a previous scam or bad business decision. These scams have been popular for years with telemarketing fraud rings but can also follow other types of fraud.
We’re now seeing reload scams seeking to recruit consumers who were members of Zeekler, a penny auction website headquartered in North Carolina that shut its doors last week and entered into a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC determined that Zeekler was a Ponzi scheme, using money from later investors to pay back earlier investors until the scheme started running out of money. The Attorney General’s Office is continuing to investigate Zeekler.
Blogs, news releases online, and individuals leaving comments in articles about the Zeekler shut down are already touting opportunities “for those that are looking for something that can help them replace the income they were receiving from Zeek Rewards.” If you’ve been a part of a scheme such as Zeekler that collapsed, or if you lost money to another recent scam, don’t fall for a reload scam. Better to cut your losses than lose even more.
The exact phrase quoted by Cooper’s office in the paragraph above appears in a news release for something called TheMayDayReport.
The SEC called Zeek a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that had affected more than 1 million investors. Cooper’s office opened a probe into Zeek in July, and the U.S. Secret Service also is investigating Zeek.
Over the weekend, the PP Blog received multiple spams aimed at Zeek threads. Purportedly from “Briant,” those spams promoted a “program” called Ultimate Power Profits. Like Zeek, Ultimate Power Profits has a presence on well-known Ponzi scheme forums such as MoneyMakerGroup.
Zeek’s former head cheerleader at MoneyMakerGroup — “mmgcjm” — also is the head cheerleader for Ultimate Power Profits at the forum.
On Friday — the same day of the Zeek collapse — an MLM “program” known as Vi-Tel Wireless (Vi-Tel) issued a news release to announce it was sponsoring a “Zeek Rescue Program.” Affiliates busied themselves heralding the purported rescue program across the web.
Vi-Tel called itself a “safe refuge.” Vi-Tel affiliates aimed sales pitches at websites carrying information on Zeek, leading to questions about whether reps were circling like vultures. It was remarkably awful PR.
In other post-Zeek news, an auction “program” known as Bidify now is offine. The company says it is trying to retool itself in the aftermath of the Zeek collapse.
Like Zeek prior to the collapse, Bidify denies it is an investment program.
Zeek, Rex Venture Group LLC and operator Paul Burks were charged Friday with selling unregistered securities as investment contracts.
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (UPDATED 6:25 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The SEC has filed an emergency action in federal court in Charlotte, N.C., that alleges Zeek Rewards is a $600 million Ponzi and pyramid scheme.
“The obligations to investors drastically exceed the company’s cash on hand, which is why we need to step in quickly, salvage whatever funds remain and ensure an orderly and fair payout to investors,” said Stephen Cohen, an associate director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “ZeekRewards misused the power of the Internet and lured investors by making them believe they were getting an opportunity to cash in on the next big thing. In reality, their cash was just going to the earlier investor.”
In its emergency filing, the SEC described Zeek as a classic Ponzi scheme. The agency charged that “approximately 98% of ZeekRewards’ total revenues, and correspondingly the purported share of ‘net profits’ paid to current investors, are comprised of funds received from new investors.”
Records show that the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme which, like Zeek, suggested that investors would receive a return on the order of 1 percent a day, also received only about 2 percent of its revenue from sources other than members. Zeek had members in common with ASD.
Zeek, the SEC alleged, “is teetering on collapse.”
Zeek CEO Paul R. Burks has been charged with selling unregistered securities as investment contracts, the SEC said. Burks presided over Rex Venture Group LLC, Zeek’s purported parent company. Rex Venture also has been charged. The SEC said it was aided in the probe by the Quebec Autorite des Marches Financiers and the Ontario Securities Commission.
Burks’ program holds “approximately $225 million in investor funds in approximately 15 foreign and domestic financial institutions, and those funds are at risk of imminent dissipation and depletion,” the SEC charged, noting that the Ponzi potentially could affect more than 1 million people globally.
A federal judge has ordered an emergency asset freeze and a receiver will the appointed, the SEC said.
“Through the ZeekRewards program, Defendants offer affiliates several ways to earn money, two of which involve the offer and sale of securities in the form of investment contracts: the ““Retail Profit Pool” and the “Matrix,” the SEC charged.
And, the agency said, the “compounding” effect has created a condition under which 3 billion Zeek “Profit Points” are outstanding.
“Based on the ZeekRewards current outstanding Profit Point balance, the company would be obligated to pay out approximately $45 million per day if all Qualified Affiliates elected to receive their daily award in cash,” the agency charged.
Amid Zeek claims that it paid out 50 percent of its daily net and that its business model was “proprietary,” investigators discovered that Zeek delivered an unusually consistent return of about 1.5 percent a day.
“In fact, the dividend bears no relation to the company’s net profits,” the SEC charged. “Instead, Burks unilaterally and arbitrarily determines the daily dividend rate so that it averages approximately 1.5% per day, giving investors the false impression that the business is profitable.
Similar allegations were made in 2008 against ASD operator Andy Bowdoin.
Zeek’s fabled Zeekler “bids” were described by the SEC as smoke-and-mirrors. From the complaint (italics added):
Despite encouraging affiliates to purchase and give away VIP Bids to promote and drive traffic to the Zeekler penny auction website, Defendants fail to disclose that almost none of the VIP Bids given away by Qualified investors are actually used on the Zeekler penny auction website. Of approximately 10 billion VIP Bids purchased by or awarded to investors, less than one-quarter of one percent have been actually used in auctions on the Zeekler penny auction website. Thus, the VIP Bids do little or nothing to actually promote the retail business.
Zeek operator Burks, meanwhile, “has withdrawn approximately $11 million while operating Rex Venture and ZeekRewards, of which approximately $4 million remains in his possession, custody or control.
Burks “distributed approximately $1 million of the funds garnered from ZeekRewards to family members,” the SEC said.
Amid high drama and confusing website reports from Zeek yesterday, including the virtual abandonment of its office in Lexington, N.C., and petition drives by Zeek affiliates to demand the return of Zeek, it turns out that “Burks has agreed to settle the SEC’s charges against him without admitting or denying the allegations, and agreed to cooperate with a court-appointed receiver,” the SEC said.
The U.S. Secret Service also is investigating Zeek, as is the office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper.
UPDATED 10:58 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Two new details have emerged in the mysterious shutdown yesterday of the office and websites of Zeekler/Zeek Rewards: The office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper told the PP Blog this morning that it has taken no action to shut down Zeek, the operator of an MLM and a penny-auction site.
“We have not taken action to shut the company down and are currently working to get more information so we can pass that along to consumers who may be impacted by this,” said Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for Cooper.
But Cooper’s office did say that it had issued a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) to Zeek on July 6. That’s weeks earlier than initially believed and leads to questions about whether Zeek had known for five weeks that it had been under investigation and did not inform participants.
Without providing details, Zeek announced on its Blog yesterday that it had canceled its Aug. 22 “Red Carpet” event. By early evening, the Zeek Rewards and Zeekler sites began to publish this message: “Zeek Rewards is currently unavailable. More information will be available shortly on this website.”
Earlier in the week, Zeek announced that “there won’t be any training, recruitment or leadership calls for the next few days while planning is going on.”
With Zeek leaving affiliates in an information vacuum, many of them took to the Web. At least two petition drives appear to be under way demanding the government to reopen Zeek. As of the time of this post, the PP Blog has been unable to confirm that an action by any government agency — state or federal — was responsible for Zeek’s sudden absence.
The Blog still is in the process of trying to piece together events in what has emerged as a bizarre and fluid situation. Sensing Zeek affiliates were vulnerable, some MLM opportunists raced to various sites such as The Dispatch newspaper in North Carolina and YouTube with offers to join their “programs.”
Zeek fans on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum almost immediately blamed critics for Zeek’s problems, with one poster declaring he’d already mined his profits from Zeek and was confident they could not be attached by prosecutors in the United States.
The Better Business Bureau said this morning that it was aware of reports that the doors at Zeek’s office in Lexington, N.C., were closed. The BBB added that it would publish more information as it became available.
Zeek is a purported arm of Rex Venture Group LLC, led by Paul R. Burks.
With a headline of “Red Carpet Wednesday – URGENT,” the Zeek Blog is reporting that a Red Carpet event scheduled Aug. 22 has been canceled.
Zeek, the operator of the Zeek Rewards MLM “program” and the Zeekler penny auction, provided no explanation for calling off the event. Zeek is a purported arm of Rex Venture Group LLC.
The office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said last week that it had opened an “examination” into Zeek’s business practices.
Earlier this week, some members of the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme announced a plan to “flood” a federal judge with letters of support for former ASD President Andy Bowdoin, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud in May in the ASD Ponzi case. An email circulating among ASD members that called for the judge to be flooded included two ads for Zeek.
Some Zeek promoters also are known to have promoted ASD, a 1-percent-a-day Ponzi scheme. Two Zeek promoters — Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer — sued the United States in November 2011. As part of the lawsuit, Disner and Schweitzer presented a federal judge an opinion from Laggos that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme.
Like ASD, Zeek plants the seed that a return of 1 percent or more per day is possible. And like ASD, Zeek denies it is offering an investment program.
The Dispatch newspaper of Lexington, N.C., published a story today that included a July 31 photograph of Zeek prospects waiting in line, apparently to get a chance to turn over money to the company.
At least one apparent Zeek supporter left a comment that the newspaper’s website that asserted that The Dispatch had printed untrue things about the company and that the reporter who wrote the story had not gone through Zeek “compliance training.”
Some Zeek supporters appear to hold the curious belief that reporters are required not to use the word “investment” when describing the Zeek “program.”
Zeek advises its members not to use the language of investments when describing the “program.” ASD did the same thing.
The U.S. Secret Service raided ASD in 2008, alleging that ASD has a massive Ponzi scheme that sought to avoid the use of the language of investments to keep its 1-percent-a-day program under the government radar.
Bowdoin later was indicted on charges of securities fraud, selling unregistered securities as investment contracts and wire fraud. The 77-year-old ASD patriarch pleaded guilty to wire fraud and faces up to 78 months in federal prison.
Federal prosecutors have asked that Bowdoin be sentenced to the maximum term despite his age, alleging he started a new 1-percent-a-day fraud just two months after the August 2008 Secret Service raid.
We regret to inform you that Red Carpet Wednesday, scheduled for Wednesday, August 22, 2012 has been cancelled. Please continue to monitor our websites for more information to be forthcoming.
“Well we have been dealt a setback today…the judge here agreed with the government to transfer us to the District Court in Washington DC… The same judge who railroaded Andy. I will make a motion for her to recuse herself and if she will not (and she will not) I will take an appeal.” — Remark attributed to Dwight Owen Schweitzer that is contained within email by former AdSurfDaily spokeswoman Sara Mattoon that discusses plan to “flood” a federal judge with letters of support for jailed ASD Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin, Aug. 13, 2012
Thomas A. "Andy" Bowdoin
Former AdSurfDaily member Dwight Owen Schweitzer — later to join former ASD colleague Todd Disner as a pitchman for the Zeek Rewards 1-percent-a-day-plus MLM scheme — is quoted in an email circulating among ASD members that ASD President Andy Bowdoin was “railroaded” by a federal judge.
The quotation attributed to Schweitzer was contained within an Aug. 13 email forwarded by Disner after being assembled by former ASD spokeswoman Sara Mattoon. Mattoon has a history of packaging communications friendly to ASD, adding her purported insights to the communications and emailing them to members. The Aug. 13 email calls for ASD members to “flood” a federal judge with letters of support for Bowdoin. The ASD patriarch and veteran securities swindler is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 29 in the District of Columbia by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer.
Previous Mattoon emails have quoted Kenneth Wayne Leaming, a purported “sovereign citizen” now jailed near Seattle after a 2011 investigation by an FBI Terrorism Task Force. Leaming was accused of filing false liens against at least five public officials involved in the ASD Ponzi case, harboring two fugitives wanted in a separate home-business scheme, being a felon in possession of firearms and uttering a bogus “Bonded Promissory Note” for $1 million.
Leaming, who is not an attorney, was said to be performing legal work on behalf of some ASD members.
In May 2012, Bowdoin pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the ASD Ponzi case and acknowledged that ASD was a Ponzi scheme and that his company never operated lawfully from the inception of its 1-percent-a-day (or more) “program” in 2006. Bowdoin, 77, originally remained free on bond after his guilty plea, pending formal sentencing.
But Bowdoin was jailed in June 2012, after prosecutors presented evidence that Bowdoin continued to promote scams after the U.S. Secret Service seized more than $80 million in ASD-related proceeds in 2008 and after Bowdoin was arrested on ASD-related Ponzi charges in 2010. Prosecutors identified those scams as “OneX,” and AdViewGlobal (AVG).
Like ASD, AVG was a 1-percent-a-day “program.” AVG, which launched in February 2009 after the seizure of ASD-related bank accounts in 2008, vanished mysteriously in the summer of 2009 after issuing threats to members and journalists. AVG was referenced in a lawsuit filed by ASD members who accused Bowdoin of racketeering.
Contained within the forwarded email dated Aug. 13 are at least two ads for the Zeek Rewards’ MLM which, like ASD, plants the seed that a return that corresponds to an annualized return in the hundreds of percent is possible. Precisely why the Zeek ads appeared in the email is unclear. They are attributed to a Zeek affiliate known as “Compassion Ministries” and display Zeek videos produced by USHBB Inc., a company that once produced ads for the Narc That Car pyramid scheme that collapsed in 2010 after the Better Business Bureau raised concerns about Narc and investigative reporters began to write about Narc and produce television reports about the “program.”
Even as the Mattoon email solicited support for Bowdoin as his Aug. 29 sentencing date approaches, it cautions ASD members to “be careful” if they write to Bowdoin in jail because “they read his mail.”
Disner and Schweitzer sued the U.S. government in November 2011, claiming the seizure of ASD’s database was unconstitutional. The lawsuit originally was filed in the Southern District of Florida, but a judge there granted a request by the government to transfer the case to the District of Columbia. The case now appears on the docket in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and has been assigned to Collyer.
The Aug. 13 email from Mattoon quotes Schweitzer as saying, “Well we have been dealt a setback today…the judge here agreed with the government to transfer us to the District Court in Washington DC… The same judge who railroaded Andy. I will make a motion for her to recuse herself and if she will not (and she will not) I will take an appeal.”
When suing the United States in November 2011, Disner and Schweitzer relied in part on a purported expert opinion from Keith Laggos that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme. Like Disner and Schweitzer, Laggos also has been linked to the Zeek Rewards’ scheme.
Laggos reportedly was fired as a Zeek “consultant” last month. Details surrounding the reported firing remain unclear.
Zeek is now the subject of an “examination” by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper.
Zeek’s news Blog published this baffling message yesterday (italics added):
Hello Fine People:
The team wanted to let you know there won’t be any training, recruitment or leadership calls for the next few days while planning is going on. Standby for some important announcements. Thank you for your patience!
The lawsuit against the U.S. government filed by AdSurfDaily figures Todd Disner and Dwight Owen Schweitzer now appears on the court docket in the District of Columbia, meaning the case formally has been transferred from U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer has been assigned the case, which was ordered transferred July 23 by U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of the Southern District of Florida. It will be at least the fifth ASD-related case Collyer has overseen. The judge has presided over at least three forfeiture cases, a racketeering lawsuit filed by some ASD members against ASD President Andy Bowdoin — and the criminal case against Bowdoin.
Disner and Schweitzer — who went on to become affiliates of the Zeek Rewards MLM “program” that now is the subject of an examination by the office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper — sued the United States in November 2011. The ASD duo alleged their Constitutional rights were violated when the government seized ASD’s database in 2008. The pair also alleged that undercover agents who joined ASD had a duty to inform ASD management and that the government had gone shopping for a friendly forum in the District of Columbia when bringing the civil forfeiture case against tens of millions of dollars in the personal bank accounts of Bowdoin.
Meanwhile, Disner and Schweitzer — relying in part on a purported expert opinion by purported MLM expert Keith Laggos that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme — accused the government of presenting a “tissue of lies” when bringing the ASD Ponzi case. Disner and Schweitzer contended that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme and had been conducting business lawfully before the federal seizure.
Only months after Disner and Schweitzer presented the Laggos’ opinion to Judge Altonaga in Florida, Bowdoin pleaded guilty in the District of Columbia before Collyer to a Ponzi-related charge of wire fraud.
In a statement of offense, Bowdoin acknowledged ASD was a Ponzi scheme and had never operated lawfully from its 2006 inception.
Laggos was hired as a “consultant” by Zeek, but the firm appears to have dumped him last month. Details surrounding Laggos’ departure from Zeek remain unclear.
Litigation surrounding the ASD case has been marked by bizarre events. ASD is known to have ties to the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement. ASD figure Curtis Richmond, a purported “sovereign” being, once accused Collyer of “TREASON.” Meanwhile, ASD figure Kenneth Wayne Leaming is jailed near Seattle on charges of filing bogus liens against at least five public officials involved in the ASD case, including a federal judge, three federal prosecutors and the lead U.S. Secret Service agent on the ASD case.
Leaming also is accused of being a felon in possession of firearms, harboring two federal fugitives from Arkansas involved in a massive mail-fraud scam centered around a home-based business and uttering a false “Bonded Promissory” note. Leaming now is seeking to sue President Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Earlier, Leaming and ASD figure Christian Oesch sought unsuccessfully to sue the United States, apparently for the staggering sum of more than $29 trillion.
“The complaints generally seek refunds and say the company has not lived up to its promises.” — Office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Aug. 7, 2012
BULLETIN: The Zeek “program” that marries an MLM scheme (Zeek Rewards) to a penny-auction site (Zeekler) is the subject of a state examination by the office of Attorney General Roy Cooper, the agency said this morning.
Cooper’s office did not provide specifics on what the examination would entail, but Zeek has been asked to provide “documents,” said Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for Cooper.
“I can tell you that we continue to have concerns about Zeek Rewards and have asked the company to provide us with documents so we can examine its business practices,” Talley said.
Cooper’s office first expressed those concerns publicly in June, after Zeek’s Blog linked to a television station’s report that suggested Zeek had been deemed legal. No such determination had been made, Cooper’s office said at the time.
Meanwhile, Talley said Cooper’s office had set up “a recorded message about Zeek Rewards.”
Such recordings typically are made “when we get a high volume of calls about a particular issue or company,” Talley said.
News about the Zeek examination occurred against the backdrop of a Saturday (Aug. 4) Blog post by Zeek that blasted unspecified “North Carolina Credit Unions” for expressing concerns about the company to Zeek customers. Zeek is a a purported arm of Rex Venture Group LLC. Paul R. Burks is the chief executive officer of Zeek.
Talley declined to comment when asked about whether Cooper’s office was aware of Saturday’s post on the Zeek Blog, which accused the credit unions of slander and implied Zeek would penalize members who questioned the company in public.
But Talley did note that Cooper’s office had received complaints about Zeek and that “[t]he complaints generally seek refunds and say the company has not lived up to its promises.”
Zeek plants the seed that participants can receive a daily return of between 1 percent and 2 percent, but denies it is offering an investment program. The company also denies it is operating a “pyramid scheme.”
“Programs” such as AdSurfDaily have made similar claims and have had a similar payout scheme. ASD was accused in 2008 by the U.S. Secret Service of operating a massive online Ponzi scheme that had gathered $110 million and operated across national borders. ASD President Andy Bowdoin pleaded guilty to wire fraud in May 2012. Zeek is known to have promoters in common with ASD, a company that became engulfed in both civil and criminal litigation.
In 2009, Bowdoin was sued by some of his own members under the federal racketeering statute. That lawsuit was placed on hold because of all the other litigation piling up around ASD, which was named in at least three federal forfeiture actions and was the subject of a federal grand-jury investigation in the District of Columbia that led to the indictment of Bowdoin on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and selling unregistered securities.
Like ASD, Zeek has a presence on forums referenced in federal court filings as places from which Ponzi schemes are promoted. Some Zeek members are promoting JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid, a “program” that claims it provides a return of 60 percent a month and may have ties to the “sovereign citizens” movement.
Consumers can access the state’s recorded message about Zeek by calling 919-716-6046.
Talley provided this transcript of the recording (italics added):
Thank you for calling the North Carolina Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division about Zeek Rewards. We cannot tell you whether or not to invest or participate in Zeek Rewards or any other company.
If you would like to file a complaint with our office, you can either leave a message with your name and address after the beep and we will mail you a complaint form, or you can visit our website at www.ncdoj.gov for an online complaint form.
Specific questions about how Zeek Rewards works should be directed to the company itself. Again, the Attorney General’s Office cannot give you investment or legal advice, and we do not endorse any program or business. However, we always encourage people to do their own research before investing in any business. Many people have asked if we have received complaints about Zeek Rewards, and we can confirm that we have received several complaints. Thank you again for contacting our office.
Zeek has gone viral and is being pitched by some promoters of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, an "opportunity" that purports to provide a return of 60 percent a month.
BULLETIN: The Zeek Rewards MLM “program” that is married to a penny-auction site known as Zeekler and plants the seed that an annualized return in the hundreds of percent is possible has declared that “all” Zeek criticism has been “unprofessional” and based on “false information.”
Some Zeek affiliates have said that Zeek provides a payout that averages about 1.4 percent a day, a figure higher than the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme.
Zeek has preemptively denied it is an investment program or “pyramid scheme.” Regardless, Zeek has a presence on HYIP forums referenced in federal court filings as places from which Ponzi schemes are promoted. The company has used offshore payment processors linked to numerous fraud schemes and employs business model similar to the $110 million AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme.
Zeek, which has members in common with ASD, gathers sums of up to $10,000 from members. Like ASD, it claims it is not offering an investment program. But Zeek now is blasting unspecified “North Carolina Credit Unions” for circulating a purported “internal memo” that allegedly was “at once unfavorable to Zeek Rewards and false.”
The Zeek Blog post was attributed to acting COO Gregory J. Caldwell, who replaced acting COO Dawn Wright-Olivares. While acting COO, Wright-Olivares once suggested that, if Zeek instructed members to change their preference in dispensing toilet paper in their private bathrooms (top-rolling vs. bottom rolling), they should do it.
Wright-Olivares now is Zeek’s “Chief Marketing Officer,” with Caldwell holding her former job, according to the company.
Caldwell, according to the Zeek Blog post, now is warning Zeek members to stick with the company line or face the consequences. The post did not spell out those consequences.
“It’s counter-productive for Affiliates to fan the flames of issues that are the proper responsibility of Zeek Corporate…and it’s a violation of the Zeek Policies and Procedures for which violators will be held responsible,” the post attributed to Caldwell and dated today read in part.
A North Carolina credit union had slandered Zeek, according to the post attributed to Caldwell on the Zeek Blog (italics/bolding added).
Zeek Rewards policy is to act quickly to support the Zeek reputation and the future of your business. Upon learning of the memo slandering Zeek, I called the head of Risk Management to track down the origin of the memo. Upon being discovered, the person responsible admitted he really didn’t know anything about the laws regarding direct selling or how to identify a legitimate network marketing company or opportunity. Like all our critics, he was behaving unprofessionally by acting on false information.
We intervened, shut down the misinformation at its source, and that would have been that…were it not for the inappropriate action of one of our own Affiliates who posted the memo online where it has been picked up and is now being used by our critics.
Prior to being arrested on Dec. 1, 2010, by the U.S. Secret Service amid allegations he was at the helm of an Internet Ponzi scheme that planted the seed affiliates received a return of 1 percent a day but were not making an investment, ASD President Andy Bowdoin also complained about slanderous critics. Bowdoin pleaded guilty in May 2012 to a Ponzi-related charge of wire fraud.
Although Bowdoin posted bond and remained free after the Secret Service brought its case, he is now jailed in the District of Columbia, amid allegations he continued to promote fraud schemes after the Secret Service seized more than $80 million in the ASD Ponzi case in August 2008 and after Bowdoin was arrested on Ponzi charges in December 2010. Federal prosecutors identified those schemes as AdViewGlobal and OneX.
Bowdoin, 77, is scheduled to be formally sentenced in the ASD case on Aug. 29.
Some Zeek members also have promoted OneX, which reportedly used at least one of the same offshore processors as Zeek (SolidTrustPay).
Zeek members also have been linked to a “program” known as JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid and purportedly operated by Frederick Mann, a former ASD pitchman who may have ties to the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement. ASD also had ties to “sovereign citizens,” including the now-jailed Kenneth Wayne Leaming (false liens/harboring fugitives/possessing firearms illegally after prior felony conviction/false uttering) and Curtis Richmond, who once accused the federal judge overseeing the ASD case of “TREASON” and as many as 60 felonies.
JSS/JBP purports to provide a return of 730 percent a year. JSS/JBP uses at least two of the same offshore processors used by Zeek (SolidTrustPay and AlertPay, now Payza).
Meanwhile, Zeek promoters also have been linked to a “program” known as Regenesis 2×2, which came under Secret Service scrutiny in 2009 and also had a presence on the Ponzi boards.
Before the ASD Ponzi raid by the Secret Service in 2008, ASD had moved “several million” dollars into SolidTrustPay, according to court records. AlertPay also is referenced in filings in the ASD Ponzi case. Both firms are referenced in filings in the Pathway to Prosperity HYIP Ponzi case brought in 2010 by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Filings in the Pathway to Prosperity case also reference the TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup forums — forums on which Zeek, JSS/JBP, ASD and the Legisi HYIP Ponzi scheme had a common presence. SolidTrustPay, meanwhile, was mentioned in filings in the Eagle Trades LTD fraud case. Terrance Osberger of Eagle Trades was indicted last month by a federal grand jury in Ohio on one count of wire fraud and 48 counts of money-laundering.
Eagle Trades also had a presence on the Ponzi boards.
The Blog post attributed to Caldwell came on the heels of a report yesterday by BehindMLM.com that the North Carolina State Employee’s Credit Union (NCSECU) had concerns about Zeek. (Link to BehindMLM story below.)
In June, the office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said it had concerns about Zeek. Cooper’s office expressed those concerns after a North Carolina television station suggested Cooper’s office had determined Zeek to be operating legally. Zeek’s Blog linked to the TV station’s report, but the TV station later removed the report. Cooper’s office said that no determination that Zeek was operating lawfully had been made.
From a post Friday at the Payza Blog at the close of U.S. business hours in the East. Companies sometimes make announcements late on Fridays to minimize PR fallout. Payza's announcement may put it at odds with customers who populate well-known forums whose members push HYIP and other scams that help fraud spread globally on the Internet
EDITOR’S NOTE: Payza seems to have taken an important step Friday in the battle against online fraud. The payment-processing company perhaps deserves an accolade for that. But it’s too soon to heap praise on Payza. We are particularly concerned about the phrasing of a specific line in Payza’s altered User Agreement. More on that below . . .
** ___________________________________ **
UPDATED 7:29 A.M. EDT (JULY 17, U.S.A.) Is Payza, the payment processor operating in Canada that recently changed its name from AlertPay, finally doing the right thing?
Or is it just lip service?
Payza has announced on its Blog that it is banning programs that show “[a]ny indication or demonstration of a literal rate of return on a contribution, payment or investment, while not being licensed to sell or solicit.”
Notice the phrasing (emphasis added): “any indication of a literal rate of return . . .”
What, precisely, does Payza mean? That expressing a literal return rate no longer is OK, but all can be cured if Payza’s current HYIP purveyors and Ponzi-board hucksters hide veiled or direct references to the return (perhaps in the back offices of HYIP affiliates or someplace else out of view of the public and search engines) or somehow find a word combination that avoids a literal expression of a return and instead relies on a deeply couched expression?
This is an important question because the HYIP “industry” cannot exist without the financial vendors that enable it, either by turning a blind eye or choosing not to peel back a single layer of the onion because choosing to see is bad for profits.
The last thing the “industry” needs is an invitation to become even more clandestine in its dealings, even more clever in its use of linguistic deception, information suppression or outright misinformation. The threat to individuals and the world’s financial infrastructure posed by con men and teams of accomplices in the thousands or hundreds of thousands already is untenable.
Payza needs to reassess its use of the phrase “literal rate of return.” Left untouched, that phrase easily could turn what’s already a dangerous, wink-nod “industry” into even more of one, thus providing scammers a new back door and actually making the problem of international financial chicanery on the Internet even worse.
Because AlertPay basically chose for years to gorge itself on HYIP fees and not to take the clues offered by the prosecution of e-Gold in the United States (by members of the same team that prosecuted the AdSurfDaily autosurf HYIP, BTW) and the disintegration of e-Bullion (while its operator stood accused of arranging the brutal contract slaying of his wife, a potential witness to e-Bullion’s Ponzi-sustaining fraud), we cannot yet offer Payza three cheers.
Owing to AlertPay’s history of choosing in e-Gold and e-Bullion-like fashion to see no evil, we question whether use of the word “literal” is just a means of signaling the scammers to do a better job of using language to disguise an investment program as something else or to hide and/or otherwise bury language that speaks to the investment elements. In the past few weeks, for example, the Payza-dependent JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid “program” suddenly changed the language on its home page to say it offers a “LEGALLY COMPLIANT & PATENTED SYSTEM.”
Let’s pause for a moment to state the obvious, something that somehow often gets overlooked by HYIP apologists: Real people — living, breathing human beings — are being sucked into these utterly contemptible “programs” that are being enabled by processors such as Payza and SolidTrustPay.
And suddenly — out of the blue — JSS/JBP announced it was using a “WORLD RENOWNED LAW FIRM” to assure compliance. These things bizarrely clashed with recent claims by Frederick Mann, the purported operator of JSS/JBP, that attorneys could not be trusted, that government employees weren’t welcome in the “program,” that registering with securities regulators was a sign “you’ve signed up to be a slave, part of the slave system, and then they have jurisdiction over you and can shut you down” and that JSS/JBP members had nothing to fear because the “program” had no presence in the United States.
Now, all of a sudden, JSS/JBP has found the religion of compliance — or at least the language of the religion of compliance.
The New Religion Of Compliance
The Payza-dependent Zeek Rewards MLM “program” also is preaching the religion of compliance, even as it plants the seed that it can provide a JSS/JBP-like annual return of between 365 percent and 730 percent without being the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC of multilevel marketing.
Part of what Zeek appears to be doing falls along the lines of not expressly stating a literal return. Welcome to the world of vomitous MLM in the year 2012. The players are eager to tell you what they’re not, less eager or completely unwilling to tell you what they are, and can bring a virtually unlimited supply of Stepfordians to the fore to help them cloud the issues.
Zeek has told the public it is not a “pyramid scheme.” It now says it will ban members who describe the “opportunity” as an investment program, despite the seed Zeek plants that participants can earn a return of between 1 percent and 2 percent a day. Some Zeek affiliates are practically tripping over themselves these days in what strikes us as a bizarre race to see how many times they can fit the words “attorneys” and “compliance” in their forum “defenses” for Zeek.
This Blog has not seen one instance in which a Zeek attorney has described the “program” as legal. Even so, we’ve seen plenty of examples in which Zeek affiliates implied that attorneys had given Zeek the all-clear and at least a few examples in which affiliates implied that agencies such as the SEC and FTC had scrubbed Zeek for compliance and found it in fine fettle. There have been hugely disingenuous claims from Zeek affiliates in this area — everything from describing the lack of any action against Zeek by the SEC or FTC as evidence that the agencies had examined Zeek and found nothing lacking to planting the seed that the lack of any action by the agencies is proof that Zeek is operating lawfully.
Zeek itself played this miserable game. In June, a North Carolina television station carried a report that suggested Zeek had been found to be operating lawfully by the office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper. Zeek linked to the TV station’s video report on its news Blog and certain Zeek promoters pointed to the report as proof of Zeek’s legitimacy.
But Cooper’s office said it never said Zeek was operating lawfully. After the TV station was contacted by Cooper’s office, which was concerned about the clarity and accuracy of the video report, the station removed the report. The incident produced one of those awkward moments that too often accompany the MLM trade: Zeek plainly liked the TV report because it construed Zeek as operating lawfully. The report then became a tool in Zeek’s PR arsenal — and Zeek wanted to make sure its affiliates had the same tool. It used its Blog to point affiliates to the video, and some of them predictably used it as evidence the Zeek critics were wrong and to plant the seed that Zeek had passed muster in North Carolina.
By linking to the report, Zeek tried to maximize its PR hand. When the report was removed, Zeek had nothing to say. The post on Zeek’s news Blog in which the company originally crowed that “Zeek Makes the Channel 2 News” now has been removed. Although the precise date and time in which Zeek removed the post are unclear, a Zeek affiliate with his own Blog sought to capitalize on the TV station’s report in a post that still remains.
That post featured a three-tiered headline that screamed, “Zeek Reward [sic] featured on Chanel [sic] 2 News[.] Zeek Reward [sic] featured on Chanel [sic] 2 News[.] Zeek Reward [sic] makes it on TV. Get In On the Action!”
This post on the "Empower Network" Blog of a Zeek affiliate included a three-tiered headline and a link that pointed readers to a TV station's report about Zeek. Like Zeek itself, the "Empower Network" is an MLM "opportunity."
The affiliate’s post included a graphic that described Zeek as a “Passive Income!” opportunity. One link on the site pointed to the now-removed TV station video. Another link, however, pointed to post that included a YouTube version of the TV station’s report. That YouTube report included a headline and “crawler” in a language other than English.
Like the post that included the three-tiered headline about Zeek’s TV appearance, the second post included the graphic that described Zeek as a “Passive Income!” program. The claim about passive income speaks to the heart of the issue of whether Zeek is selling unregistered securities as investment contracts and trying to disclaim its way out of an encounter with regulators.
Although a TV station took down its link to a video report on Zeek, a YouTube version apparently existed.
The Culture Of Willful Blindness
Confusing messages appeared repeatedly when the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case was playing out. All of it was monumentally embarrassing to MLM. In one instance — while it was awaiting a key ruling from a federal judge in October 2008 on whether it had demonstrated it had sufficient income and was not a Ponzi scheme at a hearing it requested and the judge granted in the interests of justice — ASD insiders leaked a story that ASD expected a revenue infusion of $200 million from a penny-stock company.
The ASD Stepfordians immediately raced to forums to spread the good news. But skeptics immediately questioned the claim, pointing out that Praebius Communications — the penny-stock firm that supposedly was going to provide ASD a $200 million injection — did not even publish audited financials. SEC records later showed that, in October 2008, the same month ASD was awaiting the court decision and claiming a new $200 million was coming on board, Praebius stock was being pumped in a fraudulent-touting scheme.
Over time, serious questions were raised about whether certain MLMers within ASD were engaging in bids to obstruct justice. Rumors were planted that federal prosecutors had secretly admitted ASD was not a Ponzi scheme but were clinging to the case as part of a bid to save face. In 2008, ASD members who did not even question the bizarre claims coming from ASD or ASD insiders raced to forums and spread a false report that Ponzi charges had been dropped against ASD in Florida. That development prompted the attorney general of Florida to issue a statement that, not only had Ponzi charges not been dropped against ASD in the state, they’d never been brought to begin with. Indeed, Florida charged ASD with operating a pyramid scheme.
The names of both AlertPay and SolidTrustPay appear in court filings in the ASD Ponzi case. It is hardly coincidental that both Zeek and JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid also have ties to the same processors, which are offshore from a U.S. perspective. These processors are the e-Golds and e-Bullions of Canada. They also are referenced in the Pathway to Prosperity Ponzi case, which the U.S. Postal Inspection Service called a global fraud affecting 40,000 people from 120 countries. In December 2010, the federal prosecutors handling the ASD case made the first public filing that referenced e-Bullion in the context of ASD.
In 2011, e-Bullion operator James Fayed was convicted of arranging the contact slaying of Pamela Fayed, his estranged wife who was found slashed to death in a Los Angeles-area parking garage. There is absolutely no doubt — zero — that e-Bullion was enabling Ponzi schemes. James Fayed has been sentenced to death for arranging the brutal killing of his wife, a potential witness against him.
It is beyond the pale — and almost beyond belief — that certain MLMers continue to insist there is something noble about these miserable money games, that they somehow represent the best of the free market and the entrepreneurial spirit, that they’ve somehow succeeded where other MLMs have failed.
What they are are recipes for financial and personal destruction that operate as slow-motion Ponzi schemes. They need to be destroyed, not duplicated. Far from being exciting, new niches — as some MLMers tell the story — they are form-shifting monsters that spread the greatest financial cancers devised in the history of mankind. They are so dangerous that external fraudsters target them as a means of unloosing secondary frauds — everything from the issuance and passing of bogus checks to organized credit-card fraud. Some of them have been linked to narcotics-trafficking or money-laundering operations. Some of the investigators who assisted in the ASD Ponzi case also developed this case.
From our May 16, 2010 report on the EMG/Finanzas Forex case (italics added):
Research by the PP Blog suggests the purported investment program was so sordid that promoters even claimed some of the funds were being used for the “humanitarian” purpose of assisting kidnapping victims in Colombia. In a sickening display of marketing theatrics, a claim was made that investors could “adopt” kidnapping victims for a payment of $1,000 and that the company would set aside $500 in corporate funds for each victim so that their families could have bright futures if the victims ultimately were released by their captors . . .
The HYIP scheme allegedly was associated with an entity known as Evolution Market Group (EMG), which purportedly had a Forex component known as FinanzasForex. Investigators alleged in January that there were schemes within schemes in a tangled web of domestic and international deception that featured dozens of bank accounts, shell companies and various fronts for money-laundering enterprises, including companies purportedly in businesses such as real estate and car washes.
The scheme was so corrupt, according to court filings, that some investors were told that, in order to leave the program whole, they had to recruit new investors, have the new investors pay them directly — and use the proceeds from the new investors to “recover” their initial outlays . . .
A Glimmer Of Hope
We do find a glimmer of hope in Payza’s announcement because Payza’s use of the phrase “any indication” implies it actually intends to exit the fraud-enabling business and intends to protect its reputation moving forward and make it harder for viral scammers who use its service to rob people without the aid of a gun.
A return — plainly stated or implied — would seem to fall under the “any indication” umbrella. Another indication is the presence of a “program” on the Ponzi boards. (Like ASD and EMG/Finanzas Forex, Zeek and JSS/JBP have a presence of the Ponzi boards.)
Yet another indicator of fraud is disclaimer language that seeks to cloud regulatory issues by planting the seeds that payouts are not guaranteed and that joining a “program” with a plainly stated or implied return does not constitute making an investment.
Much of the HYIP fraud “industry” exists because of the wink-nod deal and the willful blindness of the purveyors, including serial scammers with global reach and payment processors that gorge themselves on fees while serving what effectively are criminal combines consisting of like-minded individuals and “teams.”
Also banned, according to the Payza Blog post, is the the “[s]elling of Unregistered/Unlicensed Stocks, bonds, securities, options, futures, or investments in any entity or property, including (but not limited to) corporations and partnerships or sole proprietorship . . .”
Meanwhile, Payza says this (italics added):
“Solicitation, marketing campaign, direct selling or any other comparative effort will be considered a violation of the User Agreement. If you are registered or licensed to take such action, you may be requested to present documentation demonstrating authority to do so from a Securities Exchange Commission, Commodities Futures Trading Commission or other equal and comparative agency.”
Language in the full, six-paragraph announcement is exceptionally formal, bordering on the florid. But if the aim is for Payza to say no to fees and wrest itself from the wretched, pain-producing universes of HYIPs, autosurfs, cycler matrices and other “programs” that reach across national borders and fleece people on a global scale, the ornate language will become only a tiny footnote.
What’s far more important is that Payza will have said no to the scammers and a subculture of eager, greedy pitchmen who help financial crime spread globally and line their pockets on the current (or pending misery) of their marks.
It is possible these days for a scammer hiding in the darkest corners of the Internet to pick the pocket of a “customer” and contribute to a mortgage foreclosure or even the failure of a bank a continent away. Such “programs” often are pushed in the purported name of freedom itself, as a purported means of helping a neglected Everyman escape the shackles of poverty and become a free man who’s escaped his tyrannical captors.
But because the scammers’ schemes constantly evolve and because they often rely on overblown prose to disguise the fraudulent nature of their “programs,” it is going to take more than just words from Payza to incorporate any real change.
For example, could an “opportunity” that simply comes up with different naming conventions and avoids the traditional language of investments fool the checkers at Payza? Or could an “opportunity” that shields Payza from information perhaps by publishing it only in the back offices of the “opportunity’s” members escape scrutiny?
And because HYIPs and their willfully blind, serially disingenuous promoters already are infamous for wink-nod presentations, the use of disclaimers and even outright denials that an investment program of any sort is being offered, will the criminal minds who dominate this cancerous space go into overdrive to come up with new and more clever ways to disguise fraud schemes?
What To Watch For
Will panic engulf the HYIP sphere because of the Payza annoucement? Here are some things to look for:
Masked investment “programs” — perhaps aware they are under scrutiny — taking once-public forums offline and engaging in bids to further compartmentalize information and scrub negative information.
Management and affiliates of such “programs” making veiled or direct references to “attorneys” and “compliance” as a means of suggesting they are wholly lawful and embrace responsible corporate citizenship.
Increased lead times between “program” payment cycles, perhaps initially explained away as “growing pains.”
Payment bottlenecks to develop as “programs” horde cash or cash equivalents and become fearful that once-reliable enablers are hopping off the wink-nod fraud train because they realize the real world no longer is going to tolerate international lawlessness so a scammer on the TalkGold or MoneyMakerGroup forums can get rich by picking the pockets of senior citizens, deaf people, the unemployed and the struggling. (Also known as the AdSurfDaily problem.)
An uptick by scammers in the use of floridspeak as a means of talking around serious legal issues and masking the investment elements of a “program.”
The creation of bogus “regulatory agencies” and “trade groups” to create the appearance that a responsible party with legal authority is monitoring the store. (Note: A bogus regulator was an element of the George Theodule Ponzi scheme in Florida.)
The sale of purported memberships in these purported “regulatory agencies” and “trade groups.”
Read the Payza post, which was made Friday at the close of traditional business hours in the Eastern United States.
UPDATED 11:31 P.M. EDT (AUG. 26, U.S.A.) After the collapse of AdSurfDaily in 2008, there were at least four efforts to raise funds to “defend” the Ponzi enterprise and/or its participants. The PP Blog has received reports that at least one such effort is under way in the aftermath of the collapse last week of Zeek Rewards, which the SEC called a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that had affected more than 1 million people. Zeek also is under investigation by the U.S. Secret Service and the office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper.
With Bowdoin effectively having been out of public view for nearly three years, the 
UPDATED 4:06 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) It happened after the collapse of AdSurfDaily in 2008 — and it’s happening now in the aftermath of the collapse of Zeek Rewards amid spectacular allegations by the SEC Friday of Ponzi and pyramid fraud.
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (UPDATED 6:25 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The SEC has filed an emergency action in federal court in Charlotte, N.C., that alleges Zeek Rewards is a $600 million Ponzi and pyramid scheme.
