zeekrewards

After weeks of promising to reveal a “really good” revenue-sharing that MLM opportunity that everyone was welcome to invest in, a somewhat unexpected message appeared today over at ZTeamBiz.

November 13, 2013

Fellow Zeeker’s,  this is our final posting. As you know the goal was to assist the people of Zeek Rewards, and provide relevant information relating to the Zeek Receivership.

What? This from the guy who solicited donations to fight the Zeek Receivership and SEC, pledged his unwavering support for revenue-sharing MLM Ponzi schemes over the past year and a half and, only just last month, declared he was bringing Ponzi back Justin Timberlake style?

Robert Craddock, say it isn’t so!

Fellow Zeeker’s, this is our final posting. As you know the goal was to assist the people of Zeek Rewards, and provide relevant information relating to the Zeek Receivership.

Here are a few links you need to have to finish the process.

zeekrewardsreceivership.com

This site is operated by Kenneth Bell the appointed receiver for Rex Venture Group.

Again it has been a pleasure this past year providing updates to help you stay informed and hope you visit the zeekrewardsreceivership for further updates.

ZteamBiz.net

Using the phrase “out of character” to describe Craddock’s backflip and show of support for the Zeek Rewards Receivership is an understatement. It also raises the question of whether or not the Zeek Receiver and/or the SEC are behind it.

robert-craddockCraddock (right) was only last week professing his continued love and support for MLM revenue-sharing Ponzi schemes. Two weeks ago he was on the verge of announcing a “really good” scheme he apparently hoped would recapture the Zeek Rewards “excitement”.

Pending an announcement from either Craddock or the Zeek Rewards Receivership however, what exactly prompted Craddock’s sudden change of heart is a mystery.

What we do know though is that he’s not happy about having his Ponzi revenue-sharing plans thwarted.

So what happens when a staunch Ponzi supporter has his dreams irrevocably crushed by US regulators, is forced to accept he participated in a $600M Ponzi scheme and is being hounded by a Receivership to force him to pay back his Ponzi profits?

Typically one might suggest a bit of humility and acceptance. Not Robert Craddock though, he’s furious.

Faced with the reality of now being unable to spout bitter falsehoods at the SEC and Zeek Rewards Receivership, Craddock has now shifted the focus of his ire elsewhere.

In addition to pledging his full support behind the Zeek Rewards Receivership, Craddock has also announced a new website he is launching:

We wish everyone well and we will be taking on a new roll providing information on people that attack MLM companies with false, defaming and inaccurate information designed to cause disruption, and business interference with the great companies that operate each day, in a legal and compliant way.

The new site is slowing coming on line and we hope it is a source of information that allows you to make informed decisions and enable you to have a better picture of all the online posting, both positive and negative.

The new site is internetclowns.com

A quick visit to Craddock’s “Internet Clowns” site reveals articles on “extortion”, “criminals”, “the never ending blame game” and “why false information is so dangerous”.

Kind of ironic given Craddock’s ongoing refusal to accept that Zeek Rewards (who simply took new affiliate money and paid it to existing affiliate investors) was a Ponzi scheme, and his being responsible for mountains of misinformation about the scheme post shutdown (primarily through ZTeamBiz).

Currently Craddock’s website contains password protected sections on Troy Dooly (MLM Helpdesk), Patrick Pretty, Joseph Isaacs (FHTM pyramid scheme whistleblower, Joseph-Isaacs.com) and of course, myself.

robert-craddock-internet-clowns-website-authors

With the possible exception of Isaacs, all of authors on Craddock’s site were/are critical or have since become critical of the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme and Craddock’s involvement and continued defending of it.

Taken from the Internet Clowns “about us” page:

Internet Clowns is a highly skilled team of people that devote their time to getting at the truth. In the Network Marketing Industry, companies that have exhibited high standards, earned the respect of hundreds of thousands of people can be damaged over night with false and inaccurate postings on the web.

Internet Clowns is the site that levels the playing field, and takes these disrupting people (The Clowns) and exposes the lies that have been published for reasons unknown.

While I can’t speak for Patrick Pretty, Dooly or Isaacs, I can state that after almost half a decade of covering the MLM industry readers should be able to draw their own conclusions about BehindMLM’s track record on MLM coverage.

Contrast this with Robert Craddock’s impact on the MLM industry and… well. Craddock first appeared on my radar as the right hand man of Gregory Caldwell.

Caldwell owns “White Hat Solutions” and was essentially hired by Zeek as “active” COO, with a primary aim of silencing criticism of the company on the internet.

On the White Hat Solutions website Caldwell’s executive bio reads as follows:

Gregory J. Caldwell has owned corporate investigation and security management consulting firms for over thirty years.

During this time, he uncovered million dollar embezzlements, exposed a rogue IRS auditor, stopped a $5.1 million insurance fraud and was the court-appointed investigator for the largest serial murder case in Colorado.

Despite this however Caldwell somehow managed to miss Zeek Reward being a $600M Ponzi scheme. Caldwell even went so far as to issue the following statement in August of 2012, mere weeks before the SEC shut Zeek down:

All our critics (are) self-appointed with no standing in the professional community (and are) behaving unprofessionally by acting on false information.

In a Batman & Robin style relationship, Caldwell engaged Craddock to police the internet for Zeek Rewards criticism. The most public of Craddock’s efforts was the taking down of critic Kasey Chang’s hubpage on Zeek Rewards.

The page was later resorted, but not after Craddock, posing as a “Rex Ventures consultant” had it taken down under false pretences.

“K. Chang” noted yesterday that “Craddock” had identified himself in an email as a Rex Venture Group “consultant” interested in obtaining “K. Chang’s” phone number to discuss Zeek-related matters.

“I’m following up about the content you published on HubPages, regarding Zeek Rewards and companies connected with or believed to be connected with,” “Craddock” wrote, according to “K. Chang.” If you would respond with a number so I can discuss this matter with you.”

“K. Chang” added that “Craddock” used a Gmail address when contacting him, not an address linked to any of the Rex Venture domains.

That communication was signed “Robert Craddock” on one line, with the name of “Rex Venture Group LLC” appearing on the next line, according to “K. Chang,” who posts on the PP Blog in addition to maintaining the now-missing HubPages site.

After “K. Chang” received that communication, “K. Chang” received another one from “Craddock” that introduced the specter that a “corporate attorney” for Zeek “will also want to weigh in on this discussion if that is what it takes to keep your posting from being re-published on Hub Pages or anywhere else, as we believe and know this story contains false information and is disruptive to our affiliates.”

And since that debarcle, Craddock has pretty much been the public face of the “Zeek Rewards was not a Ponzi scheme” movement.

Greg Caldwell hasn’t been heard from publicly since Zeek Rewards was shut down. Whether he’s involved in Craddock’s new “silence the critics” website is unclear.

The tone of Internet Clowns certainly mirrors what Caldwell and Craddock were up to at Zeek:

Having arrived at Internet Clowns you may be asking, ”why are we here,” what do we do, who is a clown, and what do companies do when threatened and extorted by a clown.

As you are starting to understand Internet Clowns will expose the people, correct the problem and provide valid information to concerned people on the Internet trying to locate the truth.

Next, what do we do? Again we take the facts, investigate the people involved, expose the truth and lies to provide a better picture of the emails, websites and rumors now affecting you, your company and team.

Once we have investigated the facts, we place the person causing the disruption in our Clown database, do an extensive background check, research the events leading up to the posting or email(s) and provide a narrative, clearly for you to understand the events leading up to the posting.

Internet Clowns focus is to help everyone view the negative poster as what they are, an Internet Clown!

When you experience this event happening to you, just email us, we will provide a simple questioner for you. Next step will be to schedule a phone conference with you and your team. Internet Clowns will discuss the time line, pricing and expectations you can expect.

A business opportunity no doubt for Craddock, but a far cry from what the “really good” revenue-sharing company he had promised to reveal over the past few weeks.

At the end of the day, based on analysis of their business model, BehindMLM identified traces of a Ponzi scheme within Zeek Rewards well before the SEC shut them down. Eleven months prior to be exact.

This wasn’t a guess and it wasn’t speculation. I sat down and did what anybody conducting their due diligence on an MLM company should do.

I followed the money.

The rollercoaster that followed over the next 11 months was nothing short of remarkable, the journey of which is spread out over the archives of this blog. It spans dozens of articles and thousands of comments, in addition to the legal and death threats I received.

On August 18th of 2012 it culminated in over 100,000 visitors to BehindMLM in a single day. Visitors who wondered how the likes of Craddock had managed to shovel mountains of bullshit down Zeek affiliate’s throats on such a widespread scale.

Turns out following the money trumps theatrics hands down.

As Craddock’s online activities become increasingly personal in nature, specifically targeting those that dared publish what nobody else would at the time, I think it’s important to put his behaviour into context.

As more and more industry and MLM association darlings jumped on board and professed the company’s legitimacy, at times it it felt there was no end to the madness that had gripped the industry.

Today there are thousands of webpages all readily informing you that Zeek Rewards was a Ponzi scheme.

I have no idea what Craddock has published or plans to publish on his new website, but what I do know is that it’s little more than an attempt at distraction. A last-ditch effort by an utterly defeated Ponzi supporter with nothing else left, fuelled by a fallacy ridden “tit for tat” logic.

BehindMLM, Troy Dooly, Patrick Pretty and Joseph Isaacs didn’t get Zeek Rewards shut down. Paul Burks did when he launched the company with a Ponzi scheme business model.

Whatever Craddock throws up on his Internet Clowns website cannot change that simple fact, and I offer my thanks in advance for your continued support.

 

Footnote: Any comments left mentioning or discussing non-MLM related personal details and/or information of any of the authors Robert Craddock is targeting will not be published.

BehindMLM is and has always been first and foremost an MLM industry information resource.