moneyswim-logoAlthough not strictly a MLM company, a BehindMLM reader approached me to look into the MoneySwim business opportunity.

Offering commissions based on the enrolment of others to the company, I decided MoneySwim loosely fell within the scope of the businesses I review on BehindMLM and agreed to review the business opportunity for them.

Here’s what I found.

The Company

With a ‘legal address‘ in Panama (which is nothing more than a PO Box), and the moneyswim.com domain name registered in Kelantan, Malaysia, I’m not entirely sure where MoneySwim the company is based.

The domain name is registered to a ‘Muhammadn Ridzwan’ of ‘Avida Holding Ltd’ and was created in July 2008. Presumably the company MoneySwim was launched shortly after this date.

Other than that, there’s not much information out there on these guys. Moneyswim themselves describe the company as being

an internationally recognized financial brand.

MoneySwim is a regulated financial institution operating in full compliance with MiFID/FSA regulations and guidelines.

The activities of financial institutions are a subject to Directive 2004/39/EC Article 47(2) TEC.

The MiFID are a European Union regulator for investment services whilst the FSA are the financial regulator for England.

A legal address in Panama, a domain address in Malaysia and alleged compliance only in Europe…?

Hmmm.

As for who owns and/or runs MoneySwim,

The MoneySwim trading team gathered in 2008 under the lead of Mr. Tony Saedo, a former NYSE employee, a proficient stock market trader from the U.S.

It involves over 100 traders all around the globe into a unique trading network, sharing experience and trading techniques.

Supposedly MoneySwim only show their ‘certificate of registration and compliance‘ to ‘investors who deposited more than $ 500‘.

Given that these certificates would normally be used by potential investors to gauge the legitimacy of a company, it’s pretty dodgy MoneySwim are only offering them to people who invest a certain amount of money with them. And only after they’ve invested said amount(s).

That said, MoneySwim claim to have ‘tens of thousands of customers‘ so if true, there’s obviously a lot of people out there who don’t care about this.

The MoneySwim Product Line

With investment their primary service, there’s no tangible products in MoneySwim other than the investment services they offer.

These investment services are provided to investors in three packages, each offering a different percentage return on investment (ROI) with differing minimum deposit amounts and maturity periods (the amount of time you have to wait to make a profit withdrawal).

Here are MoneySwim’s three investment plans in greater detail;

  • Starter – MoneySwim’s Starter plan has a minimum deposit amount of $10 USD and offers a daily ROI of 0.6%. You are unable to re-invest any of the profit made with this plan but don’t have a maturity period, meaning you can withdraw your money at any time.
  • Advanced – The Advanced plan offer a 1.2% daily ROI and allows you to re-invest your return back into your investment amount. The Advanced plan has a $500 USD minimum deposit amount and if you want to withdraw your profit, you need to wait out the 240 day maturity period.
  • Profit Master – Profit Master is MoneySwim’s premium plan and pays out a daily 1.7% on your deposit with re-investment of your profit permissible. The minimum deposit amount for Profit Master is $3000 USD and like the Advanced plan, if you want to withdraw your profit, you need to wait out the 240 day maturity period.

Money Swim claim all investments made with them are ‘absolutely secure‘ and also offer a ‘full and complete guarantee for all the profits and investments‘.

The MoneySwim Compensation Plan

More of an affiliate program than MLM, MoneySwim offer a pretty basic flat rate percentage commission on the deposits of investors you refer to the company.

The percentages paid vary depending on how many investors you’ve referred to MoneySwim, and they are as follows;

  • refer 1-3 investors and earn a 3% commission on their deposits
  • refer 4-10 investors and earn a 12% commission on their deposits
  • refer 11 or more investors and earn a 15% commission on their deposits

Note that you yourself do not had to have made a deposit to participate as an affiliate, you simply need to ensure those you recruit sign up with your affiliate code.

Conclusion

MoneySwim are intentionally vague about how they can guarantee financial returns other than stating they operate a ‘unique trading network‘.

Basically the business model can be summed up in one sentence: You invest X amount with MoneySwim, they then *mumble mumble kssschhhh we seem to have lost the connection ruh roh we’re experiencing technical difficulties, please standby* and then after 240 days the provide you with profit.

With an affiliate program they strive to ensure that new investors are always injecting cashflow into the company and the maturity period gives them enough time to plan in advance.

Notably the ‘Starter’ investment plan appears to be nothing more than a simply plan to show people the company pays out. Even if you invested $50,000 with the Starter plan, you’d still only be looking at $300 a day which would be easy enough for them to cover until the investor decided to kick it up a notch and upgrade their plan.

Also note that the company requires you to contact them if you plan to invest more than $300,000. I assume this to tell you that $300,000 falls outside their investment plan architecture, or to convince you invest even more than you were originally planning.

Either way I can’t help but ask what happens if the company makes bad investments. MoneySwim claim their returns are guaranteed but how can they do this?

They themselves have to work the money around to provide the return and nothing is certain in the investment world – at least that’s how I see it. One wrong major investment and all of a sudden you owe a ton of people a ton of ‘guaranteed’ money.

With a legal address in Panama and domain address in Malaysia, it seems that if shit ever did hit the fan Mr. Saedo and friends are positioned to cut and run without a trace.

Money goes in, magic stuff happens and you get a supposedly guaranteed return. You know what they say about things that sound too good to be true…