A consultant who shaped one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in recent memory and then profited from promoting it now faces federal charges. The SEC filed suit against Keith Laggos this week for his role in Zeek Rewards, nearly five years after shutting down the fraudulent operation that bilked investors out of millions.

Laggos joined Zeek Rewards in June 2011 and immediately became instrumental to the scheme's survival. He convinced the company to abandon its crude 125% guaranteed return promise and switch to a variable payout structure spread over 90 days. This tweak, Laggos publicly boasted, let Zeek Rewards stay just within the lines of pyramid and Ponzi laws. He was wrong.

But Laggos didn't just advise Zeek Rewards. He also controlled Network Marketing Business Journal, a trade publication he used to legitimize whatever MLM scheme he happened to be promoting. In June 2011, Laggos wrote a glowing feature story about Zeek Rewards, calling it the "company of the month" and hyping its earnings, customer base, and compensation plan. The ZeekRewards chief operating officer raised red flags about false claims in the article. Laggos published it anyway without corrections in the July/August 2011 issue.

The strategy worked. Laggos's promotional coverage helped seal Zeek Rewards' image among potential investors as a legitimate business. Meanwhile, he was taking undisclosed payments from the company for his consulting work and magazine puffery. By August 2012, Laggos was making roughly $40,000 a month from the scheme.

When Paul Burks, who ran Zeek Rewards, resisted Laggos's push to promote competing schemes, Laggos turned on him. He began pitching his downline of about 4,500 Zeek affiliates on Lyoness, another Ponzi operation, as a "plan B." The falling out was bitter enough that Laggos warned his network the FTC would "hit Zeekler within six months."

He was prescient about the closure but not the target. On August 18, 2012—just weeks after Laggos made his prediction—the SEC filed suit against Zeek Rewards and shut it down.

The charges against Laggos are specific. The SEC says he served as a paid consultant who modified the compensation plan while simultaneously using his publication to promote the scheme with undisclosed compensation. He knew or recklessly ignored that Zeek Rewards was operating as a Ponzi and pyramid scheme. The SEC acknowledges that some of Laggos's suggested features were intended to create a veneer of legal compliance. Zeek Rewards took the recommendations that suited it and discarded the rest.

Publication of Network Marketing Business Journal ceased shortly after Zeek Rewards fell. The SEC's lawsuit is a reminder that in the world of pyramid schemes, the line between consultant and con artist can be paper-thin.

🤖 Quick Answer

Who is Keith Laggos and what are the charges against him?
Keith Laggos is a consultant charged by the SEC for his instrumental role in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme. He joined the fraudulent operation in 2011 and restructured its payout system to evade legal scrutiny, while simultaneously profiting through promotion and controlling an industry publication.

What changes did Laggos implement at Zeek Rewards?
Laggos convinced Zeek Rewards to replace its crude 125% guaranteed return promise with a variable payout structure distributed over 90 days. He claimed this modification kept the scheme within legal boundaries for pyramid and Ponzi schemes, though this assertion proved legally incorrect.

What was Laggos's additional role beyond consulting?
Beyond advising Zeek Rewards, Laggos controlled Network Marketing Business Journal, a trade publication. This

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