Robert Craddock indicted for wire fraud
Before he became one of the prominent faces of the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme, before he solicited thousands of dollars from victims and then disappeared with the money, before he attempted to profit further by writing a book about his Ponzi scamming, before he attempted to sell those who invested under him in Zeek to the highest bidder, before he ran campaigns of untruths and vicious accusations against those who called him out…
Before all of this… who was Robert Craddock?
Turns out he was a fraudster who attempted to fleece over $100,000 from a disaster relief fund.
In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion back in 2010, BP set up a fund to compensate victims of the subsequent oil spill.
At the front of the queue was Robert Craddock (right), who wasted no time putting his hand up for a hand out.
Craddock put in a claim for $135,153, which was allegedly ‘lost earnings purportedly related to the impact of the oil spill on his businesses‘.
These businesses were
695online and its sister companies, Direct Pop.net Corp. and Mail-Block.com Corp.’, (which Craddock operated) from an office on South Clyde Morris Boulevard in Port Orange.
The problem?
The invoices Craddock submitted with his claim were made up.
As part of the scheme, Craddock crafted fictitious invoices to support the amount of lost earnings that he claimed.
When suspicion arose is unclear, but at some point Craddock’s claim attracted the attention of the Secret Service, who launched an investigation.
That investigation lead to charges of wire fraud against Craddock, with a federal indictment handed down late last week.
Craddock surrendered to U.S. Marshals following the indictment, and is now
free on $25,000 bail. (He) was (also ) ordered to surrender his passport and private pilot’s license.
An arraignment has been set for March 26th.
In addition to having to pay back the $135,000 he stole, if convicted, Craddock faces ‘a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison‘.
And at 54, needless to say if Craddock is sentenced to even 10 to 15 years, he can expect to spent most of his twilight years behind bars.
According to property records, Craddock had only just bought ‘a home complete with aircraft hangar that backs up to a runway in Spruce Creek Fly-In‘ back in January.
I guess it’s bye-bye to Craddock’s flying career now.
Meanwhile what becomes of Craddock’s retirement plans remains to be seen. Personally I’m tipping they’ll sold off when he’s convicted and ordered to pay back the $135,000.
How fitting that the man who left his mark on the MLM industry by running around accusing everyone of shenanigans, from MLM lawyers, to bloggers, to the government, to affiliates and MLM companies, was himself neck-deep in fraud all along.
Cheers to you Craddock. You’ve definitely been one of the more entertaining MLM characters I’ve had the pleasure of reporting on.
Shoutout to the BehindMLM reader who sent in this news tip!
He could also be looking at charges for his role in Zeek as he was issued a subpoena to appear before the SEC.
His Fun Club USA was severely sanctioned in trademark-infringement case (Judge Ordered Default For Failure To Follow Court Order) in the Offer Hub case, and that case is still ongoing, so his legal problems just compounded.
I thought about that. Will be interesting to see if he’s charged at a later date. This five years going on from 2010 so there’s plenty of time yet.
Also I wondered if this charge might have been brought about as a result of the Secret Service investigating his Zeek Rewards conduct.
As part of the Zeek investigation they might have done a little digging into his background and turned this up. No idea if that’s how it went down but it’s a possibility…
journalnow.com/business/business_news/local/unraveling-financial-fraud-in-zeekrewards-case/article_d21c9315-6668-5368-ad94-3efe70cd219a.html
A few strange things when I tried a quick google on the companies listed above.
First, Port Orange is on the eastern coast of Florida, on the Atlantic Ocean and since the oil spill was in the Gulf of Mexico I can’t see how he was at all affected, especially since these are listed with Dunn and Bradstreet as “software development companies”.
WTF does an oil spill in a body of water that is hundreds of water miles away have to do with internet and software companies? Second, a search for 695online gives notice at the bottom that
Hmm, I thought it might be like the european law that allows people to remove information about them in the name of privacy, even if the information is about potentially criminal activity, but digging a little more the complaints are about the use of copyright material relating to american translastions of japanese anime…thats strange, too.
The 695 site looks like a portal to free online games, perhaps 695 Online was pirating stuff? I dunno, but as we all know, if Robert Cradduck is involved its never clear whats happening, but you can’t be surprised that someone is getting scammed.
695online.com looks like it was a budget ISP back in the day, along with directpop.net
I was able to see one of the bogus “prnewswire” releases for directpop.
Mail-block was a Craddock special email filtering service.
From what I remember, it’s specially designed for MLM companies to provide email for their participants… because MLM companies can then filter out all the email containing keywords they don’t want their minions to see, like solicitation to join some other outfit.
695online.com was a dial-up ISP for a fee of $6.95 per month, charged quarterly to a customer’s credit card.
This could be where the seven complaints about unauthorized charges to customer’s credit cards came from. Perhaps their personal information (name, phone number, email) was more valuable to him than the ISP business itself…
Paul’s court appearance today was postponed. Thanks to Patrick Pretty for this link to the newspaper article:
journalnow.com/business/business_news/local/court-appearance-delayed-in-zeekrewards-case/article_60e8c480-cbf1-11e4-9e9c-97b41890a2d5.html
Aw cmon, let’s get this show on the road!
Has anyone other than me noticed Paul (from the journalnow link above) looks remarkably like “The Brain”??
http://images.sodahead.com/profiles/0/0/3/6/3/1/7/0/3/Pinky-and-the-brain-107523493925.jpeg
(sorry, I don’t know how to embed just the pictures)
More stalling tactics by Burk’s lawyers. If they keep this up the old guy will be passed away and not able to stand trial. Stupid court.
In regards to Craddock, this is good news but don’t expect this guy to be spending time in jail.
Until I see something solid like one of these crooks having assets seized or actually spending time in jail, I think this is all just a game. And these slime balls keep getting away with it encouraging followers to do the same.
I always remember my Grandmother saying if you are going to steal, don’t use a gun, use a pen. Hate to say it, but it is looking like she was right.
Is Robert craddock now on another scheme called NFT Rewards?
It is being pushed as a money maker everywhere just like ZEEK. It sounds suspicious.
“NFT Rewards” is a bit generic. Deets?