The company, ZeekRewards.com, was floated in January 2011 by Paul Burks. It was advertised as a “private, invitation only, affiliate advertising division” of the penny auction website Zeekler.com. The scheme promised up to 50% of “daily net profits” to its investors through a points-based reward system. The SEC said that the scheme created a false impression of “extreme” profitability, but 98 percent of the revenue paid to old investors came from the money put in by new investors.
Burks, 65, who lives in Lexington, North Carolina, is the sole owner of Rex Venture Group LLC. The company runs both ZeekRewards and Zeekler. The SEC also informed that Burks has agreed to settle without admitting any wrongdoing and has also agreed to cooperate with the appointment of a receiver by the court.
Stephen Cohen, an associate SEC enforcement director said, “ZeekRewards misused the power of the Internet, and lured investors by making them believe they were getting an opportunity to cash in on the next big thing.” He also said, “the obligations to investors drastically exceed the company’s cash on hand, which is why we need to step in quickly, salvage whatever funds remain and ensure an orderly and fair payout to investors.”
According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, things were already reaching towards imminent collapse as ZeekRewards took in $ 162 million while making cash payouts amounting to $ 160 million last month.
Anyone with half a brain understands a Ponzi Scheme. New investors are brought in to pay current investors. What is so hard to get?
I put $5K into Zeek and never withdrew a penny, so obviously I am sick to my stomach because I thought I did enough due diligence to “know better”. Guess I am the laughing stock now. But, it’s okay because I will continue on. Hopefully we might be some of our money back, we’ll just have to see.
I did find this new company that is in pre-launch that “on the surface” looks really good, but we have all heard that story before. I signed up for FREE (you can too) while it’s still in pre-launch and they are expecting THOUSANDS of people to be in this program. I was only 8 away from the top spot so, (considering it did not cost anything) I locked my spot. Can’t wait for massive spill over.
I believe the government made a grave mistake! I know many people who joined Zeek Rewards in the very early stages that were making an income far exceeding anything they had ever done.(Many of them had been on unemployment roles). In under 2 years we had over 200,000 peolple making a more than average income and 4,000,000 people over all who were subsidising there incomes. People could start making an income starting day one.
Zeek supposedly hired what they were told, was the best attorneys in net work marketing and compliancy of government issues and they made some changes to be compliant. I really feel the SEC could have leveled some fines and made zeek fix the compliancy issues and then let it restart.(I’m pretty sure that President Obama would have prefered not to put 4,000,000 people back on unemployment)
This B.S of theft is just that B.S. I have never met anyone I would have trusted any more than Paul Burks with any of my money!! The company had already paid out over $375,000,000. If He was such a thief why had he paid himself less than 2% of that. I really feel some Senator had a bur up his you know what and wanted to make an example of Zeek Rewards!! Telling it like it is!