BULLETIN: A federal judge has transferred from the Eastern District of Louisiana to the Western District of North Carolina a proposed class-action lawsuit against Rex Venture Group LLC, Zeek Rewards and Paul R. Burks.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Carl J. Barbier in New Orleans likely paves the way for Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen of Charlotte to issue a specific order to stay the case. Both Burks and Kenneth D. Bell, the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Ponzi scheme case brought by the SEC on Aug. 17 in Mullen’s courtroom, have sought the stay.
In August, Mullen issued an order that “[a]ll Ancillary Proceedings are stayed in their entirety, and all Courts having any jurisdiction thereof are enjoined from taking or permitting any action under further Order of this Court. . . .”
The prospective class action was filed in Louisiana on Aug. 24, a week after Mullen issued the stay in North Carolina.
Burks has contended that the Louisiana plaintiffs tried to circumvent the Aug. 17 stay issued by Mullen by bringing an action in another federal district.