Bonofa owners arrested in Germany
Following “months of investigation”, on May 19th 126 search warrants were issued on locations across the German states Saarland and Saxony.
Additionally arrest warrants for violations of the German Banking Act were issued for four individuals in particular, believed to be the owners of Bonofa.
Following a massive operation involving 1200 agents, Detlef Tilgenkamp (63) from Saarbrücken, Thomas Kulla (54) from Riegelsberg, Gernot Fuhr (60) from Wallerfangen and Martin Böhm (38, CEO of Bonofa) were arrested.
For those unfamiliar with the company, Bonofa launched in 2013. The scheme paid out recruitment commissions tied to their Cube7 social network, in addition to issuing virtual .comPoints tied to an eventual IPO.
As recent as May 7th, Bonofa were still soliciting new investment on the continued promise of an IPO.
The scheme was heavily promoted on the Obtainer Online MLM publication.
Charged with violations of the Banking Act, large-scale organized crime and operation of a fraudulent pyramid scheme, Bonofa management (two of whom are reported to be lawyers), are being held in custody at Saarbrücken prison.
In addition to Bonofa, Tilgenkamp, Kulla, Fuhr and Bohm (right) also ran the scam Alpha Pool.
Launched in 2010, Alpha Pool was a Ponzi scheme in through which investors were told they could double their money through managed high-yield investments.
In reality, most of the funds invested in Bonofa and Alpha Pool were instead ‘pumped into a private company network and probably also used to fund the luxurious lifestyles‘ of the company owners.
€1.1 million EUR has been seized since the arrests, with authorities estimating around 60,000 investors lost over €100 million EUR across both schemes.
This news restores my faith in the regulatory process.
Bonofa was an obvious ponzi scheme, yet it took 1200 agents over 2.5 years to put together their case and take action.
I wonder if they go after the Top Promoters and seek criminal charges and/or begin clawback to recover the investors’ money?
I guess the “we were just earning commissions for selling a product” (social media platform and services) excuse didn’t work for those charged.
Does anyone know a good article about alphapool?
I know a lot about Bonofa in depth from 2013. The idear that the founders where into insurance was from 2013 known.. but I never knew any details or the name alphapool.
I wonder as well if anyone has any facts or opinion about the latests developments in Bonofa like divvy or the promo adpacks?
Thanks
I hadn’t heard of it either. Think it was non-MLM.
Bonofa is RIP. And as far as I know Divvy has nothing to do with it.
I knew an employee of that company in Saarbrücken.
It only survived for 2 years as an employer of max. 50 local people hired to edit and design the glitzy web site, and a finance department devoted to collecting the cash from the hapless investors.
The employees were hand-picked for their extreme naivety, scarce employment options, and obedience in “carrying out orders” from the bullies pictured above without question. Pretty medieval stuff.
My contact told me that their fellow employees indeed consisted mainly of extremely stupid, naïve, gullible “bimbos”, mainly local with one french national who was tasked with being notoriously obsequious in carrying out her employers’ orders.
This must have been the individual who told a Mirror journalist that the company “has no refund policy”.
An empty-headed, depressing and nauseating crew to be around, apparently.
How do or can we recoup our money?
You could try approaching the person who recruited you, otherwise it appears you’re on your own.
if I want to recoup my investment from the company any legal way to do it?
if yes, can you advise me what to do, or direct me to someone he can. thank you.
That’s a question for a lawyer.
Four years after the fact though your money is long gone.
@Simon Chaaya – some months (just 3-4?) after the main criminals running this scam were arrested, Onecoin scammers purchased the database of victims and attempted to recruit them into The Onecoin scam.
Just curious if you ever received such a solicitation, and if you did, if you can share what that solicitation said, exactly.
Thx