Zeek Reciever sues Gary Bessoni (zCustomers) for $3.3M
One of the core components of the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme was the dumping of worthless bids onto dummy Zeekler accounts.
Initially Zeek affiliates created these accounts manually, as nothing other than an email address was required. There was no verification, so pop in any old email address and off you went.
As affiliate Ponzi point balances increased however, and bearing in mind that affiliates could only dump so many bids on each created account, it soon became apparent that the task of creating new dummy accounts each day was laborious.
Specifically, as more and more affiliates began to require tens, if not hundreds of new accounts a day to dump bids onto, that time spent doing so was in conflict with the notion that earning in Zeek required little to no effort.
So began the search for a solution by Zeek Rewards corporate, which lead to the automation of generating fake accounts. These accounts were then sold back to affiliates, which in addition to solving the problem, also generated an additional revenue stream for the company.
Zeek charged $2.50 per dummy account and all was well until February 2012.
So as not to startle their affiliate-base, Zeek announced they were ceasing the service by citing laws that had nothing to do with decision.
The reality is that, painfully aware the bogus accounts they were selling served no other purpose than to perpetuate Ponzi fraud, Zeek sought to distance itself from any peripheral activities that might have seemed suspicious.
Immediately prior to Zeek shutting down their “5cc” service, zCustomers emerged offering the same service.
Analysis of the dummy email addresses zCustomers provided affiliates revealed that they were infact behind Zeek’s own “5cc” branded service.
Heading up zCustomers, through the shell companies Peak USA and Peak Impact, Gary Bessoni managed to pocket some $3.3 million dollars from Zeek Rewards investors.
Now it’s time to pay up.
We mentioned yesterday that a new lawsuit had been filed by the Receiver, but at the time the complaint was not yet available.
The complaint has since surfaced, revealing the case to clawback litigation filed against Gary Bessoni (right), owner of zCustomers, Peak USA and Peak Impact).
In the complaint, dated May 27th, the Zeek Receiver writes
Gary Bessoni played an important role in perpetuating the ZeekRewards scheme. Through his two shell companies, Peak USA, LLC and Peak Impact, LLC, Defendant Bessoni claimed to provide potential customers for RVG’s penny auction website, Zeekler.com.
These contacts or “leads” were then distributed or sold to ZeekRewards participants to be used as part of the participants’ requirements to gain points to supposedly profit from the Zeekler penny auctions.
In reality, however, the leads Bessoni sold to RVG were of little or no value to the auction business.
Instead, the leads were used to provide a cover of false legitimacy for and perpetuate the ZeekRewards Ponzi and pyramid scheme.
Preach!
To give you an idea of just how absurd the whole dumping of bids on fake email address accounts got in Zeek Rewards, here’s the amount some affiliates were purchasing:
From January until August 2012, Defendants sold thousands of these supposed “leads” to RVG, sometimes as many as 50,000 per week.
On average, Defendants provided RVG with approximately 10,000 leads per day.
The company was purchasing 50,000 customers per week from Defendants in August 2012, just a week before the shutdown.
The “leads” Bessoni sold to affiliates were typically created with email addresses using a “name + 3 digit number” format (ie. “John123@fakeemaildomaindotcom”).
And as Bessoni’s “scam within a scam” progressed, it became painfully obvious to all and sundry that the leads provided were being automatically generated:
Whether the leads were legitimate or fake was irrelevant to Burks and the other RVG insiders, which was, upon information and belief, evident and known to Defendants.
RVG’s real purpose in purchasing the leads was to promote the scheme’s false image as a legitimate advertising arm of the penny auction business.
The thing is, Zeek Rewards management didn’t care.
Upon information and belief, (Zeek Rewards) never verified whether the leads were truly legitimate customers or simply fabricated email accounts.
So long as the illusion that these customers existed was presented, that Bessoni was just printing off email address didn’t bother them.
Hell, even Bessoni himself danced around the issue when pressed on it:
Bessoni even admitted in writing that he was unsure whether the leads he provided were real or fabricated. In an email to Burks in May 2012 he wrote, “I hesitate on bringing on more supply because I am not sure what you are getting as valid leads.”
Burks didn’t give a shit though, forwarding close to $120,000 to Bessoni as payment for the bogus leads a week later.
Concluding that the leads Bessoni sold to Zeek Rewards and their affiliates ‘were of little or no value and were simply used to perpetuate the ZeekRewards scheme‘, the Receiver is now demanding Bessoni return the $3.3 million in stolen Ponzi funds he was paid for them.
If he doesn’t cave and pay back the funds (I’m guessing he’s already refused, hence the filing of this lawsuit), Bessoni’s response to the Receiver’s lawsuit should be a hoot.
How do you even begin to justify getting paid $3,354,751.80 for supplying millions of bogus leads you admit you have no idea are even legitimate?!
Stay tuned…
Footnote: Our thanks to Don@ASDUpdates for providing a copy of the Zeek Receiver’s May 27th complaint against Gary Bessoni.
