ZTeamBiz not done fleecing Zeek Rewards affiliates
Following the SEC shutdown of the $600M Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme, a group of merry net winners bandied together and began fleecing their downlines for money.
These net winners formed the cream of the crop of Zeek Rewards net winners, led by Captain Robert Craddock, a Zeek Rewards affiliate himself and former second in command of the company’s “threatening of critics” department.
The money ZTeamBiz fleeced from affiliates who donated was originally gathered to be used to defend all Zeek Rewards affiliates who donated against impending SEC litigation. Shortly after the bulk of the money that would be donated was donated however, this changed to the offering of a cookie-cutter attorney letter, provided at an additional cost.
Where did the rest of the money go?
It is widely believed that the bulk of it went towards financing the legal defences of the Zeek Rewards net winners that formed ZTeamBiz. In the months following the SEC shutdown, a number of legal initiatives were launched by ZTeamBiz affiliates to try to thwart attempts to recover funds they stole from their fellow affiliates.
To date, every single one of these actions has failed.
It is believed the rest of the money was put towards the launch of OfferHubb, which was touted as a viable Zeek Rewards replacement for disenfranchised affiliates.
OfferHubb sought to resurrect Paul Burks’ Ponzi points business model, replacing Zeek Rewards’ penny auction front with that of a daily deals platform.
At least that was the initial plan. When the litigation filed by Zeek Rewards’ top net winners was filed, with the rest of the ZTeamBiz affiliates watching on with bated breath, OfferHubb took a back seat.
Once said litigation was revealed to fruitless, with net winners and affiliates of ZTeamBiz likely having to pay back the bulk of their Ponzi proceeds, OfferHubb resurfaced and eventually launched a few months ago.
With nobody interested in Zeek Rewards v2.0 except those who made the most money in v1.0, OfferHubb all but flopped.
Facing impending clawback litigation from the Zeek Rewards Receivership, the ongoing failure of Offer “Zeek Rewards 2.0” Hubb and the widespread acceptance by non net-winners that Zeek Rewards was nothing more than a Ponzi scheme, it seems the folks at ZTeamBiz are launching one final effort to convince whoeever will listen to follow them into “new opportunities”.
In a notice titled “update on the events after Zeek Rewards” published on October 10th, Robert Craddock ZTeamBiz wrote
As you know, August 16, 2012 (the day Zeek Rewards was shut-down) seems like a long time ago, and many things have happened, alleged to have happened, and honestly — just never could have happened.
Sadly we have seen rumors and attempts to confuse all Zeek Affiliates and separate them from their hard-earned money. Please understand that the purpose of this email is to provide you with some valuable updates and help you navigate the mountain of information (and disinformation) that has circled the web over the last 14 months.
The circulation of disinformation? I’ll say. Could it be Robert Craddock and the Craddock 12 are finally going to come clean and atone for the mountains of bullshit they pushed onto Zeek Rewards affiliates?
Nah.
So, let’s put some rumors to rest. First of all … “is Zeek Rewards coming back?”
Sadly the answer is “no.” The harsh reality is, back on the 15th of August 2012, when Paul Burks voluntarily signed over ALL the assets of Rex Venture Group – it was just like reaching over and flipping a “kill-switch” and Zeek was officially history.
While I’m glad to see Robert Craddock ZTeamBiz finally admit this, it would have been nice if instead of running around promising affiliates the Zeek Rewards shutdown was temporarily and could be revered if everyone sent money to ZTeamBiz, that had of been acknowledged from the start.
Unfortunately that’s the only truth in the notice, with the rest of it reverting back to the absolute rubbish we saw circulated by Craddock and his crew just after the shutdown.
Second … “was Zeek Rewards a Ponzi scheme?” As of the date of this email, there has been NO court action to support or prove that Zeek Rewards was a Ponzi scheme!
While criminal charges are expected at a later date against Zeek’s management, the fact that the courts have appointed a Receiver, on the basis of evidence presented by the SEC that Zeek was a Ponzi scheme, pretty much kills the above sentiment.
That is if you’re delusional enough not to accept that taking affiliate money and paying it out over 90 days to existing affiliates was a Ponzi scheme all along. I call this “Ponzi points net-winner syndrome”.
Hell, here’s what Paul Burks himself, mastermind of the Zeek Rewards “not a Ponzi scheme” Ponzi scheme, said to Zeek Rewards victims just a few short months ago:
Asked if he had anything to say to victims, he shook his head.
“I never told anyone to invest more money than they could afford,” Burks snapped. “I didn’t tell them to do that. Never.”
He said if they lost money, “it’s their fault. Not mine. Don’t blame me.”
Could it be any clearer how this is going to play out in court?
The simple fact is, the reason why the Receiver attempted to get Affiliates to “voluntarily” turn over and give-back their earnings, was to help the Receiver build his case regarding “unregistered securities.”
Wait what? The Receiver was appointed by the court based on the evidence the SEC presented to them in their complaint. At no time has the Receiver had to build a case regarding “unregistered securities”.
The Receiver’s sole responsibility is the securing of funds from anyone who made money in Zeek Rewards and company assets, with the mind to return as much of it as possible to those who lost money in the scheme.
That’s it.
Keep in mind, it was “alleged” that the operation of the Revenue Share program was nothing more than a sale of unregistered securities. Again, this argument has NOT been proven in court.
Yet a Receivership has been appointed by a court to extract funds from the company’s net winners to pay back the net losers of the scheme. Why was the Receivership appointed?
Because a Judge agreed with the SEC’s evidence that Zeek Rewards was selling unregistered securities.
Does anyone, other than Robert Craddock and the Craddock 12, seriously believe that after Zeek’s net-losers have been made as whole as possible that Paul Burks is going to be able to talk his way out of this in court?
Third … “is it true that the Receiver is offering to make deals with certain Affiliates (with large earnings) with a “promissory note” to pay back a reduced amount over time?” The answer is “yes.”
CAUTION! Although the promissory note option may sound tempting … you might want to think twice.
Currently, NO motion(s) have been filed, and to enter into such a “promissory note” document with the intention of defaulting on the agreement may place you in a criminal proceeding — when as of now, this is a civil action.
Firstly Zeek Rewards was a $600M Ponzi scheme, resulting criminal proceedings aren’t a possibility, they’re a surety.
Secondly any “affiliates with large earnings” (read: Robert Craddock and his friends in ZTeamBiz) who don’t agree to pay back the victims they stole from, are going to be sued by the Receivership in any case.
Whether or not fleeing the US, as top Zeek Rewards affiliate T. LeMont Silver has recently done, will permit them to escape litigation from the Receivership remains to be seen.
The fact remains however that most of Zeek’s affiliates aren’t going to go to the extreme measure of relocating their families just to escape Ponzi clawback charges as Silver has done.
That means settling with the Receivership or duking it out in court… and then having to settle with the Receivership.
Like it or not, based on participation alone and any resulting criminal liability (such as the promotion of a blatant Ponzi scheme), anyone who made money in Zeek Rewards runs the risk of criminal proceedings being filed against them. All in due course once the net-losers in the scheme have been made as whole as possible.
Making deals with the Receivership has no bearing on this either way.
With Craddock’s garbage above out of the way, and keeping in mind the colossal flop his OfferHubb opportunity turned out to be, we then get to the real reason behind Craddock’s update:
With your permission, over the next few weeks we would like to continue to update you about the case, as well as provide recommendations of new opportunities that may be able to help you and your family recover your loss of income and the hope for a better tomorrow.
We look forward to helping you to make the best informed decisions and quickly put the challenges of the past 14 months behind you.
Sincerely
ZteamBiz.net
Pooling together what’s left of ZTeamBiz’s audience of net-winners into an email list for Craddock and Craddock 12 to pitch more Ponzi schemes to.
Ironically, all in the name of “recovering the loss of income”. Income that was lost as a direct result of participating in Ponzi scheme scam(s) Craddock and the Craddock 12 over at ZTeamBiz encouraged people to join in the first place.
In their defence, with clawback litigation just around the corner and failure of pretty much every MLM revenue sharing company that has launched this past year, I suppose Craddock and friends have to fund their eventual payments to the Zeek Rewards Receiver somehow.
Let’s face it, even participation in the few opportunities currently operating out of Hong Kong is hardly going to cover the mountains of money these people stole from Zeek Rewards affiliates.
Open up your wallets folks…
Footnote: The full ZTeamBiz October 10th update can be viewed over at the ASD Updates website.
I was contacted by an individual who claimed that Robert Craddock used some of the money sent for the legal defense fund to overhaul the engine on his plane. This person said they were in the “know.”
I pressed for this individual to send the “proof” of this claim to me by E-mail and they could use a totally anonymous name and gmail, hotmail, ymail, of whatever other anonymous E-mail carrier they so desired to use. Received nothing, but it was an intereesting twist to the events.
Wonder when Robert will tell how his “meeting with the SEC” went that he was issued a subpoena to attend? LOL! Of course there is no-way he wants this information known. But if I were one of the people who sent him money for the legal defense fund I would be demanding to know what happened, and an accounting of how the money was spent. Legal Defense fund my assets.
Dude has to have working equipment if he plans to fly T. LeMont Silver airlines down to the Dominican Republic.
Maybe its an AirBus and Craddock plans to take every affiliate who donated with him…
That’s how legal defense funds can be expected to be used. If the first plan fail the plane will be a “Plan B” in his personal defense strategy (similar to T LeMont Silver’s defense strategy).
“Fund raising” is about exactly that = “Get OTHER people to pay for something you feel very strongly for yourself”. When the money first have been collected, you can spend most of it on something you feel very strongly for. That’s the right spirit! That’s what fund raising really is about.
Amid allegations and investigations, Paul Burks, admitting no guilt, relinguished management of RVG to the Receivership. The Judge agreed.
Ever since, Zteam Biz has used the lag time between original allegation and final judgment to claim legitimacy, raise money, and promote similar schemes.
The fact is that Bell is only working with unproven allegations at this point and nobody has been convicted of anything. So what prohibits Craddock from claiming legitimacy?
Nothing.
If Troy Dooly can claim forthright honesty right up to the very instant he cops out and settles the SEC charges why can’t Craddock?
The answer is he can, he does, and he will.
Zeek Rewards’ business model.
To claim legitimacy knowing full well how Zeek Rewards worked, which was an open secret given everybody knew the comp plan and where the money went and came from, is outright fraud.
Credibility in the MLM industry tends to be in short supply for those who swear till they’re black and blue in the face that Ponzi schemes aren’t Ponzi schemes until a Judge rules on a case.
With Zeek Rewards all the variables were known before the shutdown so there is no excuse.
Had Burks of fought the charges there’d be an extra five minutes in the timeline for a court case to be resolved and we’d then still have the Receivership set up as it is today.
Burks knows those criminal charges are going to be filed one day, why waste time arguing your obvious Ponzi scheme wasn’t a Ponzi scheme when you can accept that it is and make up some waffle about not really being in charge and having to care for your wife.
The case is civil.
* There was enough proof to halt the company’s business operations 100% and to appoint a temporary Receiver.
* There was enough proof to fine Troy Dooly for promoting Zeek without disclosing his paid role as an “internet balance artist”, and to perform a clawback.
* There was also enough proof to perform clawback against one of the law firms (Grimes & Reese).
* There has been enough proof to freeze the content of eWallets, and so on and so forth.
Your conclusion is correct, Robert Craddock can claim legitimacy for as long as he want, but the arguments leading up to that conclusion were vague (e.g. the case was backed up by much more than Paul Burks’ agreement, SEC was involved too with a complaint).
In a way, they are saying exactly what people wanted to hear: that they was not stupid, that they were not involved in a scam, and so on.
Too bad that’s a lie, and thus, it’s all fraud.
You can say that, and I can agree but Craddock is acting as if the SEC has presented evidence, rather than proven its case. Apparently all but 36 net winners see it the same way.
Apparently whatever allows them to pocket the most money, is the smart thing. The rest is irrelevant.
Would I lie to you?
Would I lie to you honey? (Oh, no, no, no)
Now would I say something that wasn’t true?
I’m asking you sugar, would I lie to you?
My friends, know what’s in store
I won’t be here anymore
I’ve packed my bags
I’ve cleaned the floor
Watch me walkin’, walkin’ out the door
(Would I Lie to You by Eurythmics)
In retrospect, it was all LIES and GREED that Paul Burks started, in cahoots with Dawn and Darryl. I hope these three end up in jail for years!
Right. OK, I should have said no one has been adjudged civilly liable.
Annie Lennox. What a voice.
Certainly there is more to the case than Burks agreement. There is a mountain of SEC evidence floating around, but Burks settled with no admission of guilt and there has been no complaint filed against Craddock, the insiders, Zteam and the thousands of net winners.
For now there are only unproven and mostly informal allegations against the lot of them.
Unfortunately and sadly, Burks and Craddock still believe Denial is a river in Egypt.
In this case denial is a legal strategy not a state of mind. ZTeam knows the score, and its willing and capable of funding litigation.
They will force Bell to file a Complaint, present his evidence and prove that RVG broke securities laws and was a ponzi/pyramid scheme Presumably they hope for a dismissal on technical grounds or an interpretation of the law that might result in a favorable outcome or a settlement. Even then Bell has to find them and collect the money….not an easy task…globally.
As much as I hate to admit it, these guys know what they are doing. they have duped people and made millions which they will never disgorge and they are already laying snares for for the next generation of gullible internet wannabee “millionaires.”
Ponzis are tough to contain because like the drug trade, “there never seems to be a shortage of customers.”
You do have a point. However, we may also be speaking too soon as criminal charges have yet to be filed against the perps.
I will say this, wherever they decide to pop up and however they try to disguise their next scheming act, they will be renowned for being scam artists, and there will be no shortage of people in the know who will be willing to blow their cover when the opportunity arises.
Nowadays, it’s hard to cover up ones’ conniving ways or escape bad news no matter how long ago the first con had been perpetrated on the public.
It’s usually best to fly straight even when the opportunity for satisfying one’s greed appears just too easy to ignore, yet leads to the deceit of others.
It tends to come back around and haunt us later.
Oh how I can’t wait for the criminal case…