Wings Network pending Securities Division bust?
Not content to sit idle while a new wave of reload scams target TelexFree investors, Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin’s office has announced the issuing of subpoenas to Wings Network.
We attended one of their events,’’ Galvin said. “We had heard from some investors who, in light of TelexFree, had become concerned — and we’re concerned.’
TelexFree of course being the $1 billion Ponzi scheme recently shut down by the SEC and Massachusetts Securities Division.
Wings Network’s business model sees affiliates buy into the scheme for between $299 to $1499, and after recruiting two new participants into the scheme then qualify to receive commissions when recruited affiliates purchase their $299 to $1499 position.
The more money an affiliate spends on their package and the more people they convince to sign up and purchase a position, the more money they earn.
Supposedly Wings Network is being run out of Portugal, but details on the company’s ownership are sketchy. That might change soon however, with news from Wings Network’s attorney confirming
the company had received subpoenas from Galvin and that lawyers for Wings Network met last week with the Securities Division. The regulators want to meet with company executives next week.
No word on whether the SEC have gotten involved, but as we saw with TelexFree recently, the Securities Division and SEC work closely together on these matters (both filed their respective complaints against TelexFree on the same day).
In response to media inquiries regarding possible regulatory action being taken against Wings Network, attorney D.J. Poyfair replied
Wings is cooperating with the state’s investigation and is “conducting its own internal investigation and it intends to address quickly any problems that it discovers.
If Wings Network discovers that significant issues exist, it would even be willing to suspend operations until the problems are properly addressed.
Yeah. “Investigating” the pyramid-scheme business model Wings Network uses was probably a good idea before the company launched. Bit late for that now.
Dozens of people have e-mailed the Globe, saying some people who participated in TelexFree are now shifting to Wings Network. Like TelexFree, it appears to be popular with Portuguese-speaking Brazilian immigrants.
With a complete lack of retail and the business model able to be boiled down to new affiliate money being used to pay existing affiliates based on their recruitment performance, I suspect the Securities Division investigation is likely to result in further action being taken against the company.
Stay tuned for that, and in the meantime – hats off to William Galvin for trying to clean up the MLM industry. It is very much appreciated.
They roped a lot of Brazilians into this pyramid scheme.
Here’s a screen shot of a Brazilian newspaper reporting: “Wings leva mais de 900 pessoas ao Hilton Hotel em Woburn”.
google translate: (Wings takes more than 900 people at the Hilton Hotel in Woburb, MA).
They’re holding 1000 strong recruitment galas and have no retail offering?
Perhaps they can carpool with TelexFree’s execs to the courthouse when their own regulatory action commences.
Wings Network promoters getting in trouble already,
Affiliates are mad cause they were told in the beginning that getting two people below them they would become consultant and would get up to $750 monthly.
Now the bonus for April is below $500 and if they don’t pay the monthly fee for the down line, cause they can’t find more stupid people to join the pyramid, they won’t get the bonus anymore.
All I can see here is a company trying to pretend that it’s bigger and more hot than it really is, plus an active marketing campaign promoting the same. And of course some failed expectations. But I haven’t checked each and every detail.
TYPES of marketing = “create some buzz” (similar to Wazzub and Rippln), “visions and missions”, “social marketing”. I only missed some statements about how Wings would “empower people”, but I haven’t checked each and every detail.
Search results only show a SLOW growth (compared to the size of the market).
That Facebook profile had 2 photos, showing 2 people and 4 people in a hotel, plus the facsimile of something that looked like a newspaper front page (but where the original seems to be missing at hellobrazilnews.com).
It’s probably up to people themselves to ASSUME that the 896 others (out of the 900) are hidden somewhere? 🙂
It actually confirms the impression I have about “very local pyramid scheme” and “fake it till you make it” marketing.
“Hello Brazil News” is WHOIS registered in Everett, Massachusetts:
It describes itself like this:
Just look at this “leader” from TelexFree: facebook.com/telexlatinos
Right after the events in mid april he starts feeding false hopes down his line, then he came up with a “plan b” to help all those he scammed; the plan b? Get them under his Wings pyramid.
That guy knows this is not a legit business, he’s not just an innocent victim.
Like I have affirmed before, the majority of these people getting in these piramids know it’s a pyramid. They are gamblers hoping to make money before it busts.
I know at least 2 people that jumped from TF to Wings. They see it as a friendly poker game where real money its used, meaning until the justice gets involved everybody makes money, even though its an illegal poker game because real money is being used.
Honestly, how many times are you going to walk into a wall before you realize there is a wall there. They just jump from one to the next, KNOWINGLY.
It looks like the SEC is breaking some Wings:
From wingsnetwork.com
How come I’m not getting this message? (is it only showing for US-based IP addresses?)
Can I get a screenshot? (send it via contact page)
Got it using a proxy. They are indeed only showing the message to US ip addresses. Thanks for the heads up, will have an article up shortly.
send it to you
Maybe only showing in U.S., Oz. This is what I see at WingsNetwork.com:
Sounds like a Min Xu/WCM777-like approach.
PPBlog
Thanks for the additional info guys.