Payments Approved For Zeek Scam Victims

A federal judge has approved the first payouts for victims of the Lexington-based Zeek Rewards pyramid scheme.

 

The High Point Enterprise reported that the attorney supervising efforts to return money to the victims said a judge on Thursday approved the payments.

 

Kenneth Bell said the first payments should be handed out late next month. Bell indicated earlier this year that the first payments could be for about 40 percent of what victims lost in the scheme.

 

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shut down and seized the assets of Zeek Rewards in August 2012. Bell estimates that from January 2011 until August 2012, more than 700,000 people lost more than $700 million.

 

Zeek Rewards had said it was a multi-level marketing business operating in Lexington.