Zeek Rewards insider and net-winner settlements update
An update from the Zeek Rewards Receveirship today concerning insider and net-winner settlements.
At the time of publication, all insiders bar Darryle Douglas have entered into settlements with the Receivership.
Douglas has thus far failed to hold himself accountable for his part in the $850 million Zeek Ponzi scheme, and remains in hiding. Default judgement in the order of $2.2 million was entered against him last month, with the Receivership yet to collect.
As for the other insiders, named we have Paul Burks, Dawn Wright Olivares, Daniel Olivares, Alexandre De Brantes as individuals and Beth Plyler and James
Quick as Co-Trustees of the Roger A. Plyler Revocable Trust and Co-Administrators of the Estate of Roger Plyler.
Burks Dawn Wright Olivares and her son Daniel Olivares agreed to a consent judgement back in July. This judgement saw
each of these defendants agreed to a consent judgment of $600 million to be satisfied with substantially all of their assets.
As to the other insiders,
The Co-Trustees of the Roger A. Plyler Revocable Trust and Co-Administrators of the Estate of Roger Plyler have confessed judgment in the amount of $5 million (which substantially exceeds the amount of Mr. Plyler’s estate).
Lori Weber and P.A.W.S. Capital Management have confessed judgment in the full amount of their net winnings.
Lori Weber’s settlement is of particular note, as she isn’t part of the core Zeek management group. Rather Weber is one of the named top net-winner investors.
Weber’s name appeared on a list of Zeek’s top investors facing clawback litigation back in March to the tune of $1,940,000.
To date, it would appear she is the only name on that list who has made efforts to settle with the Receivership. Good on her for returning the $1.9 million she stole from victims, her fellow net-winners now only look all the more despicable.
As to the specifics of each insider settlement,
Dawn Wright Olivares and Daniel Olivares, consistent with their guilty pleas to engaging in securities fraud and/or tax evasion, acknowledge in their settlement agreements that they received fraudulent transfers and breached their fiduciary duties to RVG.
Alexandre de Brantes admits the same, but states that he did so “unknowingly.”
The representatives of Mr. Plyler’s estate and trust similarly acknowledged receipt of fraudulent transfers based on the guilty pleas of the other Insiders, but neither admitted nor denied the allegations against Mr. Plyler because they lacked knowledge of the specifics of his involvement with RVG.
Mr. Burks, who continues to be under criminal investigation, neither admitted nor denied the allegations against him in his settlement agreement (but, as noted above, agreed not to contest the validity, amount or enforceability of his Confession of Judgment).
Lori Weber and P.A.W.S. Capital Management acknowledge that they received fraudulent transfers from the ZeekRewards scheme.
Fair enough on the technicalities, with the recovery of funds being what’s primarily important for the meantime.
And wow, the Burks criminal investigation is still going. Can’t wait to read about that when they’re done.
In addition to the above insider settlements, another wave of 36 settlements have been reached between the Receivership and named net-winners. The total amount recovered in these new settlements amounts to just shy of $704,000 (an average 59% recovery of what was paid out).
In his latest filing, Receiver Kenneth Bell has asked the court for permission approve the various settlement agreements reached.
Efforts against those still holding out continues…
Footnote: Our thanks to Don@ASDUpdates for providing a copy of the Receiver’s “Motion To Approve Settlement Agreements With Insiders And Additional Net Winners”.
Tick Tick Tick… It’s just a matter of time T Le Mont Silver Sr!!
Doubt they’ll put Burks in jail. He’s gonna forfeit all his property in exchange for probation, IMHO. Putting him in jail doesn’t look very good for the prosecutors.
I’d be more inclined to believe the sequence will be more like that of the Bowdoin / ASD prosecution.
IOW, the prosecution will be using the time involved in completing the civil case to assemble an unbeatable criminal case.
My reading of the situation since the inception of the Financial Action Task Force is that the days of HYIP ponzi opearators facing only criminal charges are long gone.
I find it unimaginable Burks will be allowed to walk away from a $600 million fraud under the current circumstances
Witness: Bowdoin / ASD, McKnight / Legisi, Gagnon / Legisi promoter, the way in which the Telexfree and WCM777 cases are being handled, the receiver / DoJ interaction in the Telexfree case and, in particular the involvement of multiple agencies, including the Secret Service and Homeland Security Investigations in the last couple of high profile HYIP ponzi / pyramid frauds.
What ticks me off is these people steal Millions of dollars from people and they give up some of their crap they bought and go on their happy way…
I get caught smoking a joint I get locked up for 3/mo (hypothetically)
I think they all should be locked up from Paul, Dawn, Daniel, all the main people. Just my opinion!
Unlike Burks, who does have a sick wife at home, Bowdoin was hated even by his own son, IIRC.
Burks also capitulated rapidly (on the advice of his attorney Noell Tin, I think) which are factors in his favor of getting off “lightly”.
It sure will be interesting watching to see how it pans out.
I put in $2,000 and did not get a dime from Zeek.
I got a check for $800.00 from the Receiver. Maybe I will get back more after the clawback.
Thanks for all the investigation you did on Zeek.
Knowing how many that have to be paid back money $800 might be all you get back from this whole deal. I can imagine people that paid in much less what they will be getting back in return.
Its a wise thing to know that just maybe we won’t have to worry about being refunded – if we can do research on these things before we spend.
The Receiver said that the first round of payments would represent 40% of the victims loss (approved claims), which is what you received. This is just the first round of payments. We know there will be at least 1 more and if I had to guess I would say there will be 2 more rounds of payments.
Remember, there were 9,000+ who did not settle with the Receiver who had to be sued. Toss in the big major winners who are fighting having to return their ill-gotten gain, and you can understand why this first round of payments was only 40%. Toss in the unknown timeline and success of suing the foreign winners, and this could take a long time to finally resolve.
I have said from the outset that I expected the final rate of return to the victims would be in the range of 80-85%, but I do hope it is more.
If past experience is any indicator, sadly many who get their money back will not have learned their lesson. Instead they will put it back in the next Ponzi they are pitched, and the odds are that this time they will lose it all. Some never learn.
So hang in there. More payments will be forthcoming, but it is just going to be a long time before it happens.
Is there a list of those who settled vs a list of those who have not yet settled?
I’m curious to see if the local Zeek bigwig here in town ever settled or is still holding out. I haven’t seen him around town for a long time, nor do I have the nerve to ask him.
Everyone with net winnings above $1000 who has not settled is listed as an attachement to the lawsuit RVG Receiver vs. Disner et al which is probably on the Zeek Receiver’s website
As you might expect its a large multi page attachment.
@Joe
Not that I’m aware of. The Receiver is intentionally leaving names off of the settled list for now.
Some zeek humor. This guy thought it was legal and wrote a book about it.
amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0915960036/ref=redir_mdp_mobile?ref_=cm_sw_em_r_dp_eKflub0ZMXK8M_im
Thanks for the heads up, my thoughts here – https://behindmlm.com/companies/zeek-rewards/a-sick-joke-robert-craddock-publishes-zeek-rewards-book/