On March 15th the Zeek Receiver filed his Status Report for the fourth quarter of 2018.

Among other things, the Receiver revealed 44.2% of net-winner payments have been successfully clawed back.

During Q4 2018, the Zeek Rewards Receivership collected $109,305.58 in settlement payments from net-winners.

To date the Receivership has clawed back $18.07 million from net-winners, ‘which amounts to 44.2% of their collective net winnings‘.

With respect to foreign net-winners, the Receiver has confirmed it

previously made calculated decisions to discontinue further efforts to enforce foreign judgments in countries other than Canada.

Whereas a lot of the MLM Ponzi schemes over the last years have targeted EU, Africa and Asia, Zeek Rewards was mostly an US-based scheme.

By “calculated decisions”, I suspect the Receiver worked out it wasn’t financially viable to further pursue clawback litigation outside of Canada.

Currently there’s also an additional $169.3 million tied up in US net-winner judgments, which the scammers are trying to appeal.

That litigation is playing out but it’s expected the Receivership will prevail.

If the Fourth Circuit affirms the Court’s certification
of the Defendant Net Winner Class, then the Receiver intends to sell the unsettled judgments at a significant discount.

Another $13.8 million has been awarded in judgments over disputed amounts, with the Receiver yet to move for summary judgment.

The only other significant Receivership action remaining is the ongoing VictoriaBank Payment World Payza clawback for $13.1 million.

In the action against Victoriabank, Payza, and Payment World, the extent of ongoing litigation will depend on the Court’s rulings, but it could involve written discovery, additional motions practice, and one or more hearings before the action reaches resolution.

The Receivership intends to see these final issues out, after which a final distribution payment is expected for Zeek Rewards victims with approved claims.

In Q3 2018, the Zeek Receiver estimated that the final distribution payment will see victims with approved claims recover 80% to 85% of their losses.