Zeek Rewards Receivership closes, end of an era
On May 19th 2022, the Zeek Receiver announced the Zeek Rewards Receivership was officially closed.
This marks the end of an era here at BehindMLM, spanning eleven years and two hundred and thirty-two articles.
As per the Receiver’s May 19th update;
The final distribution has been completed, and the Receivership is now administratively closed.
The closure follows final distribution checks, sent out back in January.
On Wednesday, January 19th, we sent out over 121,000 distribution checks, which provided an additional $14.3 million to the victims of the ZeekRewards Ponzi scheme.
With respect to any ongoing issues with payments, the Receiver advises;
The 120 day expiration period for those checks has now passed, and no further distributions will be made.
If you received confirmation from the Receivership team that a reissued check is being sent to you, please look for its arrival in the coming weeks.
No further requests for replacement checks or wire transfers can be accepted at this time.
Although it’s more of a TelexFree thing, the Receiver also provided insight into non-communication reported by Zeek victims;
I have received thousands of calls and emails over the past several months regarding requests for distributions and reissued checks.
While I would like to be able to respond to each of your messages, with over 129,000 claimants, I have been unable to respond to individual communications regarding distribution-related questions.
Please note that as of this update, the Receivership is closed, and there will be no further responses to distribution-related communications.
This goes for BehindMLM too. BehindMLM isn’t and has never been tech support for Receiverships or Trusteeships.
All in all the Zeek Receivership resulted in victims with approved claims recovering 84% of their losses.
With this final distribution, we have returned a total of $371 million to the scheme’s victims.
I am proud of the Receivership Team and its diligent work that has provided such a robust return to the claimants.
Sincerely,
Matthew E. Orso
Successor Receiver
To put the $371 million paid out in context, Zeek Rewards itself was a $900 million Ponzi scheme (originally pegged at $600 million by the SEC).
BehindMLM reviewed Zeek Rewards in September 2011. The SEC would go on to shut Zeek Rewards down in August 2012.
The man behind Zeek Rewards, Paul Burks (right), was sentenced to fourteen years in prison back in February 2017.
Burks is currently being held in FCI Butner, a “medium security federal correctional institution” in North Carolina.
Burks, 75, is scheduled for release on February 15th, 2028.
This brings BehindMLM’s coverage of Zeek Rewards to a close. Thanks for reading.
still not receive the bank wire transfer.
and it has shut down.
it’s really funny.
Is Paul Burks eligible for earlly release at Butner, NC?
Not sure on this one. After sentencing of scammers my knowledge drops off.
It is possible. He tried earlier to get an early release citing his wife’s health issues, but it was denied. Congress enacted The First Step program for federal prisoners.
Federal inmates who successfully participate in recidivism-reduction programs will qualify for early release from prison under new rules.
The rules, mandated by Congress in a 2018 federal law called the First Step Act, allow inmates to earn 10 to 15 days of “time credits” shaved off their sentence for every 30 days of participation in certain programs or activities offered to them by the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
By earning those credits, they can qualify to be released early into halfway houses or home confinement. In some cases, inmates can also earn up to 12 months of credit that would be applied toward supervised release.
It is unclear if Paul is participating in any of these type of programs, or if he is even eligible due to his age.
He definitely isn’t going to be able to do it again when he gets out; unless he changes his name and appearance.
i still had a small balance that I did not receive and now it is closed and I can’t get the balance owed me.