CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A North Carolina woman has agreed to plead guilty to her role in a massive $850 million Ponzi scheme that promised victims a bogus return on investments, announced Anne M. Tompkins, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
Dawn Wright Olivares, 45, and her step-son, Daniel C. Olivares, 31, both of Clarksville, Ark., were associated with the Lexington, N.C. based Rex Venture Group, LLC (RVG), which owned and operated Zeekler and ZeekRewards.
According to the criminal charges and plea documents filed today in U.S. District Court in Charlotte, Dawn Wright Olivares, her step-son, Daniel Olivares, their unindicted co-conspirator and owner of RVG (identified in the charging document as “P.B”) and others engaged in a Ponzi scheme that raised more than $850 million through a sham internet-based penny auction company named “Zeekler” and its purported advertising division “ZeekRewards.”
The defendants and their co-conspirators lured investors by falsely representing that ZeekRewards was generating massive profits from its penny auctions, and promised substantial returns on their investment, as much as 125%. Zeekler’s purported profits were bogus and ZeekRewards operated as a fraudulent Ponzi scheme whereby the co-conspirators used monies from victim-investors to pay fraudulent returns to earlier victim-investors and to personally enrich themselves.
As a result, Dawn Wright Olivares, Daniel Olivares, “P.B.” and others induced victims worldwide, including over 1,500 victims in the Charlotte, N.C. area, to invest, thereby sustaining losses of at least $750 million. Dawn Wright Olivares was closely involved in the strategic operations and ultimately served as the Chief Operations Officer of Zeekler and ZeekRewards (together “Zeek”).
Daniel Olivares was RVG’s senior technology officer and was responsible for, among other things, database design, management and operations for Zeek. During the course of the conspiracy, Daniel Olivares personally enriched himself with victim funds totaling approximately $3.1 million. Other unnamed co-conspirators also personally enriched themselves with millions of dollars of victim funds.
The Secret Service, IRS, and other law enforcement agencies worked together to take down the scheme and bring the defendants to justice. “ZeekRewards used the enormous power of the Internet to rip off $850 million from hundreds of thousands of victims in less than two years. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to take down greedy scam artists who think nothing of stealing the savings of hard working people,” said Secret Service Assistant Director of Investigations Paul Morrissey.
“This case shows that the appearance of success can be a mask for a tangled financial web of lies” said Richard Weber, Chief, IRS Criminal Investigation. “The underlying structure can fall apart at any time and leave many investors in financial ruin. Criminal Investigation is committed to investigating Ponzi schemes in an effort to protect the financial well-being of the American public.”
Related Federal Cases
- Dawn Wright Olivares, $850M Ponzi Scheme, North Carolina 2012 · North Carolina
- Dawn Wright Olivares, $850M Ponzi Scheme, North Carolina 2012 · North Carolina
- Dawn Wright Olivares, $850M Ponzi Scheme, North Carolina 2012 · North Carolina
- Dawn Wright Olivares, $850M Ponzi Scheme, North Carolina 2012 · North Carolina
- Dawn Wright Olivares, $850M Ponzi Scheme, North Carolina 2012 · North Carolina
Key Facts
- State: North Carolina
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release ↗
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