REPORT: SEC Moves Against ‘TrafficMonsoon,’ Calls It A Ponzi
The SEC has filed a lawsuit against the Traffic Monsoon “program” and called it a Ponzi scheme that had gathered $207 million, the Salt Lake Tribune is reporting. The assets of Traffic Monsoon and alleged operator Charles Scoville have been frozen, the newspaper reports. On June 1, the PP Blog reported that Payza — a payment […]
EDITORIAL: With Conviction Of Zeek’s Burks, Another Senior MLMer Faces Prospect Of Decades In Prison
UPDATED 4:31 P.M. EDT U.S.A. Zeek Rewards was always inexcusably horrid, fueled by serial willful blindness and the sort of practiced disingenuousness that props up so many MLM “programs.” In dollar volume, Zeek ended up being more than seven times larger than the $119 million AdSurfDaily MLM Ponzi scheme that put ASD operator Andy Bowdoin in federal […]
Baton Rouge Cop-Killer Was ‘Sovereign Citizen’ And ‘Moor’ — And Also Claimed To Have Been In Dallas
Gavin Eugene Long, the alleged mass murderer of police officers in Baton Rouge yesterday, was a “sovereign citizen” and “MOOR,” according to a bizarre filing in his name last year with the recorder of deeds in Jackson County, Mo. The news of the filing appeared in the Kansas City Star. Here is a copy of […]
BURKS TRIAL: Government Has Rested, Docket Says
Prosecutors have rested their case against Paul Burks of Zeek Rewards, according to the July 13 court docket. Lawyers for Burks asked for an acquittal, but U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. denied the motion. It appears Burks now will proceed with his defense. The trial got under way July 5. Burks, 69, is […]
ZEEK: Key Figures — And Paul Burks’ Defense
EDITOR’S NOTE: Prosecutors and Paul Burks are clashing over expert witnesses and the admissibility of certain evidence. The article below reproduces the anticipated core of Burks’ trial defense, as advanced by his lawyers. This article is not intended to be all-encompassing. Prosecutors, of course, have an altogether different take. They have posted the indictment against Burks […]
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Zeek Receiver Moves For Summary Judgment Against Class-Action Clawback Defendants; Kenneth Bell Says Defense Expert Witness Has Found No Evidence That ‘Disproves That The Business As A Whole Operated As A Ponzi Scheme’
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (3RD UPDATE 6:11 P.M. EDT U.S.A.) On virtually the eve of the criminal trial of Paul Burks, receiver Kenneth D. Bell has asked the court presiding over a huge class-action lawsuit against 9,400 alleged Zeek “winners” for a finding the MLM program was a Ponzi scheme. Such a finding would mandate […]
Grand Jury Was Meeting When Some Zeekers Waged Misinformation Campaign; Prosecutors Question Veracity Of Burks’ ‘Handwritten Notebooks’
New filings by federal prosecutors in the criminal case against Zeek’s Paul Burks reveal that a grand-jury investigation was under way within days of the SEC’s Aug. 17, 2012, shutdown of the “program” and confirmation by the U.S. Secret Service that it also was investigating Zeek. Burks was subpoenaed by the grand jury on Aug. […]
FEDS: Having Pocketed $11 Million In 2011, Burks Plowed Forward With Zeek, Despite Knowledge Of AdSurfDaily Ponzi Case
“Rather, [Andy] Bowdoin manufactured the revenue numbers to deceive members into believing that they could reasonably expect to receive an average daily return on their investment with [AdSurfDaily] of at least 1%. This percentage in no way corresponded to the daily revenue that ASD was generating, but had been determined by ASD’s operators to be […]
BULLETIN: FEDS: Burks Ran Scam Prior To ZeekRewards
BULLETIN: (4th Update 9:13 p.m. EDT U.S.A.) Accused Ponzi schemer Paul Burks ran a “pyramid scheme” known as FollowMe1X2 that was a precursor to ZeekRewards, federal prosecutors say. A quote about FollowMe1X2 that appears in a prosecution filing today also appears verbatim in a post on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum dated Sept. 4, 2010, by “charlieone.” […]
Alleged TelexFree Winner Tries To Sue Trustee For ‘Emotional Distress’; Separately, U.S. Judge Asks Dominican Court For Assistance
It may be a first in MLM clawback cases. Dwayne Jones, an alleged winner of more than $561,000 in the judicially declared TelexFree Ponzi- and pyramid scheme, is trying to sue Trustee Stephen B. Darr for “Emotional Distress and Anticipated Attorney & Court Costs.” In a proposed defendant class-action, Darr sued Jones and dozens of other […]
Stephen L. Cohen, SEC Official Who Introduced World To Zeek Case, Leaving Agency After Nearly 12 Years
“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. ZeekRewards misused the power of the Internet and lured investors by making them believe they were getting an opportunity to cash in […]