T. Lemont Silver

3RD UPDATE 4:52 P.M. ET U.S.A. Paul Burks, the principal behind the $939 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid scheme broken up by the SEC and the U.S. Secret Service in August 2012, has been sentenced to 176 months in federal prison, the office of U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose of the Western District of North Carolina […]

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: At long last, there is a spectacular crack in the ceiling of MLM HYIP Ponzi Land! Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen of the Western District of North Carolina has begun the process of ordering judgments against Zeek Rewards’ winners sued by receiver Kenneth D. Bell, according to the docket of […]

Many people in the antiscam community applauded Kenneth D. Bell, the receiver for Zeek Rewards, when he sued more than 9,000 individuals more than two years ago for return of their gains from the scheme. Those gains — more than $200 million — came from Ponzi proceeds, Bell alleged. And he pointed out that the […]

UPDATED 10:52 A.M. EDT U.S.A. The Colorado Division of Securities said it “will look into the extent” of promotional ties the UFunClub “program” now under investigation in Thailand may have in the state. Whether other U.S. states would follow Colorado’s lead was not immediately clear. Earlier cross-border MLM/network-marketing schemes such as Profitable Sunrise and WCM777 […]

BULLETIN: Florida resident Robert Craddock, a figure in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi-scheme story, has been indicted in a separate scheme involving the alleged theft of more than $135,000 from a compensation fund set up to assist businesses affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. The office of U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley III […]

UPDATED 10:24 P.M. ET U.S.A. Zeek Rewards “winner” T. LeMont Silver, his wife Karen and a Silver shell company known as Global Internet Formula Inc. allegedly hauled more than $2.3 million out of the shuttered MLM “program.” Receiver Kenneth D. Bell sued them in February 2014, alleging their gains had come from victims of the […]

BULLETIN: (Updated 11:11 p.m. ET U.S.A.) Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen has certified a class of more than 9,000 alleged “winners” of more than $1,000 in the Zeek Rewards scheme. Receiver Kenneth D. Bell sued more than 10 named “winners” in February 2014 in a case styled “Kenneth D. Bell v. Todd Disner, […]

One of the core signatures of an HYIP scam is highlighted when a “program” is presented as a “Plan B,” typically in the context of creating “multiple income streams” or “in case Plan A fails, you’d better have a “Plan B.” Zeek Rewards A-lister Keith Laggos gushed about Lyoness, his “Plan B” program. Zeek collapsed […]

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (3rd Update 10:03 a.m. ET Dec. 10 U.S.A.) The federal judge presiding over clawback cases against alleged Zeek Rewards “winners” has dismissed jurisdictional challenges and a claim by the winners that Zeek was not selling securities under the Howey Test. The rulings mean that clawback claims seeking millions of dollars […]

4TH UPDATE 3:44 P.M. ET U.S.A. Before the SEC announced its civil pyramid- and Ponzi-scheme case on Sept. 26 against eAdGear figures Charles Wang and Francis Yuen, the pair had been indicted on a criminal charge in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the PP Blog has learned. Docket records show the […]

BitClub Network apparently has found its first crop of 500 suckers willing to throw down $3,599 to become “Founders.” A link from a new post on Twitter suggests BitClub Network now is trying to line up 500 new suckers who’ll purportedly earn half of what the core group was promised. The new suckers will be […]