Thank You for The Upfate Troy…

Troy,

The local news paper, the Dispatch, is reporting that Zeek shut down voluntarily and that the AG did not request them to shut down. I think that's interesting. Why would Zeek make that decision? You have any thoughts on it?
http://www.the-dispatch.com/article/20120817/NEWS…

Thanks,

Mark

Troy,
As usual when negative press is in the air everybody and their brother comes out of the woodwork with their Monday morning quarterbacking. I have been in this industry for over 20 years and love your blog as you dont REACT you VERIFY and report. People should learn from this practice. Speculation is a dangerous thing. The only thing more dangerous is ignorance. Unfortunately the two are usually one in the same. These things usually come down to WHO YOU KNOW and HOW MUCH DOUGH! People are fascinating. Keep up the good work.

Troy, any luck reaching Greg Caldwell? My wife and I are involved in Zeek (relatively recently) and have some friends we got involved. Would sure like to provide some concrete answers for them.

Thanks for your levelheaded work on this.

Chris

Troy, I am a Zeek Rewards Advertising Affiliate here in Lexington, NC.
Thanks for all of your updates and advice concerning our company.
Do you honestly think Zeek will be opening on Monday or at least sometime soon?
That is what I am hearing from other sponsors (up-line).
If not, what really happens to the money?
Also, if Zeek comes through this will the company be stronger?

Hi Troy. You’re mentioning things I haven’t heard yet that are VERY concerning. When did we learn that Feds are involved? I thought this was state level inquiry. Also, when did “liquidation” enter the equation? Sick family member or not, this man has a moral obligation to thousands to pass on the torch to someone else. If all this has been a one man project to enrich himself, then I’m appalled. CEOs with sick and dying family members don’t “liquidate” and upend the lives of their company members. In fact, we rarely hear of such struggles until after the passing of the loved one. I don’t mean to sound cold-hearted, but these are realities that the Zeek people have been prepared for. That all said, does “liquidation” mean I get my money back from purchasing thousands in sample bids to build my business? I’ve not made one dime since I’ve only been in this a short time. I know one thing “liquidation” doesn’t mean — getting my credibility back by telling others what “people of integrity” the leaders of Zeek are. So sad. One last point — why all the “I love Zeek” communiques to the authorities when, in the end, Mr. Burkes is just going to bale anyway? CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S COME TO THIS!

Alright the game's up. I've defended this company for months and tell me what this means: We're done folks.
http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/17/technology/zeek-r…

Troy,

I don't know why your newest post won't load but I'd like to see it because this is where my sentiments lie. I have so many mixed emotions right now like many of us. I've read the SEC complaint filed with the court and it's as ugly as it gets. There are a lot of really smart people who bought into this one. Sadder, there are a lot of people who couldn't afford to lose not only money, but HOPE, that bought into it. We all need to take a long look in the mirror and try to regain our self-respect and confidence.

The kicking of former Zeek affiliates, no the mutilating, by those within network marketing is the final straw. I'm a smart guy, although wounded and feeling stupid. I'm a doctor and own and manage a high quality group practice. I've invested well owning income producing real estate, done land development, and fixed up old houses to sell. I do volunteer healthcare in other countries, and serve my community along with my family. I swore I'd stay out of network marketing, and I'm now reminded why.

Failing at discernment with Zeek and becoming narrow-minded to the reality of what was happening was my biggest flaw. I criticized the critics, who were right and I will admit it. They had expertise I didn't. That's life, and the pursuit of wisdom is a process of success and failure. Failure's where you learn the most but only when you admit it and look in the mirror and within yourself.

But being bashed, called F—-ing stupid, idiotic, and far worse openly within the networking community has shown me it's not people I want to be associated with. I thought it was a community but it turns out it's a group of mean-spirited small-minded people who are so territorial in "their" companies that it's like a bunch of cults one against the other. No compassion, no empathy, no concern. Just the ugliest of human nature pouring out. with a superficiality beyond words unless you're one of "them." I'm thick-skinned, I don't care for myself because I make my own way in life. But I do choose who I associate with because we become our influences. This whole debacle has soured me from ever stepping into the networking arena again, and it's an attitude I've observed from afar but never realized how it could be unleashed. I realize I'm being harsh and generalizing, Troy. I also think I'm not far off the mark, and it's how people like me who are new to the community perceive it that really matters if it's going to gain respect and grow. My parents were shunned years ago when they stopped running their Amway business due to ethical problems in their group and friends became condescending hypocrites overnight. so I've seen this script before.

The bottom line is the combination effect is devastating to the networking community. The failure of Zeek on such a rapid scale along with the reaction of so many in the networking "family" is simply disgusting. It's not a family I want to be a part of and I wish the other 98% that struggle to really make anything with it all the best.. I operate within many other groups in my life, and never do I experience what I've seen in the past few days. We don't coddle each other, but we operate with certain baseline values of respect and decency that are never broken.

Lastly on a practical note, do you have any insight to the claw-back process? I made money here, and I have no intention of spending it for legal and ethical reasons. If we're allowed to keep profits, which I doubt, it will fund my medical volunteer trips. Otherwise, I will gladly return it so those less fortunate than me can have a little less pain. I've already offered some to my downline friends who I ache for more than myself for sure as there lives really needed this. But I thought I should wait and see what the process becomes. I have an upline member I know who has spent $20,000/month for several months and I know it's gone. This could be really ugly for him, correct? Any insight here would be most appreciated.

Humanity continues to disappoint me.

If you still want to claim that Paul Burks is a decent human being after reading the facts and numbers in the SEC filing, I think I’m just going to have to give up hope that any so called leader in MLM gives one bit of a crap about people.

You proudly proclaim in your video that you sometimes sided with Zeek just because of all the “negativity”.

How professional was that? And how was that looking out for the MLM community?

How many poor saps did MLM heavy hitters like Tissa Godavitarne, Brian Bear, and others drag into what so many of the “negative” people so easily recognized as a ponzi.

You tell the heartwarming story of the lady who can now see her husband because Zeek money allowed her to get eye surgery.

And then the wonderful follow up story about the man who could let his church have his services for free because he was making enough money from Zeek to no longer need their funds to get by.

Perhaps you will be willing to do the follow up story on people who now may lose their homes and be out in the street because their money went to pay for the lady’s eye surgery.

How about if the authorities decide that the lady needs to pay that money back. How happy will she be then and what kind of hardship will it create for her.

I suppose that lucky man will now have to ask his church to now start paying him for his services again.

Or even worse, if he is another clawback candidate, perhaps he won’t even be able to afford to work at his church because he needs another job to pay off his Zeek blessings.

Even if you are struggling to understand what the numbers mean in that SEC filing, the fact that

“Burks unilaterally and arbitrarily determines the daily dividend rate so that it averages approximately 1.5% per day, giving investors the false impression that
the business is profitable”

should show you that he was a liar and a con man.

The world isn’t all puppy dogs and rainbows Troy.

You may not like so-called “negative” people /critics, but your attempt at putting a positive spin on just about every red flag they mentioned to you has done far more damage to far more people than any of the “negative” people did.

Oh well, off I go to read more heart wrenching stories that your positive thinking helped create.

Very sad to here this new and how so many are effected as I was. Fortunately I had a back-up plan in case such a thing occurred.

Don’t give up faith on the industry there still are reputable companies out there that can make a difference in you ilfe.

There is an option if you are asking what’s next. Please watch this http://bit.ly/P5y6Lz

@Troy

I have an off-topic question, about the new comment system (it’s active from time to time). It’s not active now, so my description will be from memory.

It requires a “log in”, or a “sign up” plus a “log in”. So I tested the “sign up”, assuming I had to re-register into a new system. It led to “Username is alreday registered in the database”. So far it’s OK.

Then I tried to “log in”, using the same username, but left the password BLANK. It led to ERROR. So far it’s OK, it clearly want some input from me there.

THE QUESTION:
What kind of password does it want?
* email address?
* or does it want me to create a NEW password? I don’t have any OLD passwords here.

I would normally have found out of it by myself, putting in my email address on the next attempt, and creating a new password if the first method failed, and THEN asked if both methods failed.

Troy. Please let me know when your next video with go public, I can’t wait to see the fluff you throw out to try and make it look like you had nothing involved in this?

One of my good friends sent me a text when Zeek closed their doors, he was pulling out $30K a week… pretty tough pill to swallow, however I'm not going to be one to say anything negative about this situation. Like any concept which is 'new' like this, they are going to come under the eye of the government or regulatory bodies at some point in time, just like Amway did and many other companies have in the past.

Now whether or not that makes this type of business model legal or within regulation, I don't know, only time will tell at this point. I think some of the issues which will come out of this are whether or not they are selling unregistered securities or acting as a bank without a charter etc, those are going to be tough issues to deal with and with ponzi and pyramid being in the mix… they have a lot to deal with.

For all those involved, I hope that this program is proven to be legitimate and everyone can go back to business as usual.

I wonder what this means for Bidify and the other penny auction MLM's?

It is interesting that the SEC says they shut down Zeek Rewards because it was on the verge of collapse, but they also stated they shut it down because of the tremendous amount of money ZR had on hand ($225 million cash reserve + $162 million monthly income), which was enough to pay everyone back their original investment. How do those 2 things co-exist? Either it was broke and on the verge of collapse or it was so overwhelmingly profitable that even though they had already paid out $375 million they still had enough cash reserve to give everyone back their original investment… The facts simply don't support the conclusion.

One other thing, the news articles report that Paul supposedly "siphoned" $4 million, but yet the SEC came in and shut ZR down while charging a $4 million penalty – basically the SEC is the one who has "siphoned" $4 million! I think the "S" "E" "C" should stand for the Security Exchange Crooks! If they were really concerned about the affiliates, the SEC should give the $4 million penalty to the affiliates. Who exactly is siphoning money now? Moreover, I do not believe that Paul B. was "siphoning" $4 million, but rather being paid for his work in Zeek! He did not work for free and he should be expected to be paid.

It's a pitty that Zeek got to this position… Now we understand that we need to work for money and we need to put some effort in it…
How can we recover for the loss of income… http://nemrodkedem.com/zeek-recovery/
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