Bonanza Global operates in the cryptocurrency MLM niche.

Corporate information provided by Bonanza Global appears to be baloney.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, Bonanza Global provides incorporation certificates for El Salvador and California in the US.

For the purpose of MLM due-diligence, basic incorporation anywhere is meaningless. This mostly comes down to the ease with which scammers are able to incorporate shell companies with bogus data.

Another red flag is Bonanza Global representing virtual office space in California is their “corporate office”:

Supposedly heading up Bonanza Global are co-founders Francisco Sarabia and Paz Sanchez.

Beyond the two photos provided, Sarabia and Sanchez have no verifiable digital footprints outside of Bonanza Global marketing.

Assuming the photos themselves aren’t stolen, this makes them prime Boris CEO candidates.

Further supporting this is SimilarWeb ranking top sources of traffic to Bonanza Global’s website as the US (54%) and the UAE (46%).

The UAE is guaranteed to be Dubai and sticks out like a sore thumb. Dubai is the MLM crime capital of the world and goes hand in hand with Boris CEO scams.

As to where the Bonanza Global scammers are originally from, the company’s official YouTube video originally targeted South Koreans:

We’re possibly looking at SEA scammers operating out of Dubai.

Bonanza Global’s traffic from the US can be explained by serial Ponzi scammers in the US pushing it on YouTube:

Bonanza Global’s website domain (“bonanzaglobal.net”), was privately registered on February 27th, 2022. Bonanza Global marketing went live in March.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

Newcrest Investments provides no credible executive information on their website.

Newcrest’s website is full of poorly photoshopped stock photos of offices:

A list of Newcrest Investments’ Board of Directors is provided…

…however none of these people appear to exist in the real world.

Where some of them do exist is on PayWot’s Board of Directors:

Paywot is a collapsed Ponzi scheme that was put together in 2020. The scam didn’t launch though until mid 2021.

Heading up Paywot was an actor standing in front of a green screen.

In the source-code of Newcrest Investments’ website we find reference to “capitalshares.ltd“:

Capital Shares in yet another Ponzi scheme. Newcrest Investments’ website is a clone of Capital Shares’ website.

And so we have Paywot –> Capital Shares –> Newcrest Investments, all from the same group of scammers. Note there are likely other Ponzi schemes out from the same group too.

Although they don’t publicise it, Newcrest Investments has its own YouTube channel, on which they have Fiverr testimonials.

This strategy was used both for Paywot and Capital Shares.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, Newcrest Investments provides incorporation details for Newcrest Investments LTD.

Newcrest Investments LTD was incorporated in the UK in October 2020. Considering Newcrest Investments’ website domain was only registered in February 2022, the UK incorporation appears to be unrelated.

Capital Shares represented it was being run through a Singapore shell company. Paywot went the dodgy Cyprus/UK route.

I did note that a white paper PDF on Paywot’s website was created by “Sunny King”. There is a crypto developer going by this name but it’s an alias.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

Seemingly in response to BehindMLM’s coverage of Nugen Universe, the Ponzi scheme has demanded affiliates immediately delete incriminating evidence. [Continue reading…]

LyoFI is a spinoff of the WeWe Global Ponzi scheme.

LyoFI’s website domain (“lyofi.com”), was privately registered on July 30th, 2021.

WeWe Global revealed the company, as a partnership with itself, in October 2021:

In the footer of LyoFI’s website, the following information is provided:

DIGIFI GROUP LTD
BRN: 2073860
Skeleton Bay Lot, Tortola BVI

The BVI is a scam-friendly jurisdiction that scammers only use to incorporate shell companies. Any MLM company representing ties to the BVI is an immediate due-diligence red flag. [Continue reading…]

SmartValue, which also goes by “SVPSL”, is an MLM company based out of Delhi, India.

SmartValue describes itself as “a revolutionary idea that has transcended itself beyond the ordinary”.

SmartValue was founded in 2000. I’ve also seen a 2006 incorporation date, suggesting the company operated informally over its first six years.

Heading up SmartValue is Managing Director Shivakumar Krishnamourthy (also spelt Krishnamoorthy).

I’m not 100% sure but I believe Krishnamourthy might be one of SmartValue’s founders.

In addition to Krishnamourthy, SmartValue currently has two other Board of Directors; Boddu Prasad Reddy and Nirmala Arora.

Despite being around for over two decades, SmartValue don’t really provide an official corporate history on their website. I also wasn’t able to peg down what Krishnamourthy was up to prior to SmartValue.

I suspect some of this might have to do with language-barriers as SmartValue focuses exclusively on the Indian market.

To their credit, SmartValue appear to have dodged any regulatory action since their launch – at least as far as I can see in English.

Read on for a full review of SmartValue’s MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

TDM Poolex Academy is part of a series of Ponzi schemes BehindMLM uncovered in our Homes CNL review.

Marketing videos for the various Ponzi schemes were hosted on a Vimeo channel bearing the name “Cryptocurrency”.

Shortly after our Homes CNL review went live, the scammers running the Ponzi factory deleted every Ponzi marketing video from the channel.

When I came across the Ponzi factory, TDM Poolex Academy was the latest Ponzi scheme listed.

TDM Poolex Academy provides no information about who owns or runs the company on its website.

TDM stands for “The Digital Millennium”. The Digital Millennium Academy has a website up over at “tdm-academy.com”.

The Digital Millennium Academy uses the same website template at TDM Poolex Academy. “Tdm-academy.com” was registered in July 2020. Nefi Pirez is listed as the owner through an address in Uruguay.

There are two females presented as executives on The Digital Millennium’s website:

No information about these individuals is provided, and they don’t seem to exist outside of The Digital Millennium’s website.

The Digital Millennium appears to be a precursor to TDM Poolex Academy.

I also noted TDM Poolex Academy marketing pointing to the domain “poolex.tk”. No registration details for this free domain are available.

TDM Poolex Academy’s website defaults to Spanish. The vast majority of TDM Poolex Academy marketing videos are also in Spanish.

This suggests TDM Poolex Academy is being primarily marketing to a Spanish-speaking audience.

TDM Poolex Academy’s website domain was privately registered on December 13th, 2021. We noted the TDM Poolex Academy “Cryptocurrency” channel videos were uploaded in June 2022.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

The Financial Education Services preliminary injunction was scheduled to take place on June 30th.

As far as I know the hearing took place. As of yet though there have been no further updates to the case docket.

I’m putting this down to the holiday weekend in the US. I’ll check back sometime next week.

In the meantime on June 28th, the Temporary Receiver filed his First Interim Report.

Among other things, the Temporary Receiver expressed “concern regarding the legality of the business model”. [Continue reading…]

Danny Gauthier’s Appi Travels Ponzi scheme has collapsed.

On or around June 30th, owner Gauthier shut down Appi Travels’ website.

Appi Travels’ website domain now redirects to a “website closed” image: [Continue reading…]

Xifra Global has received a securities fraud warning from Spain’s Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores.

Xifra Global is part of the Xifra Lifestyle Ponzi scheme, which was rebooted as Decentra earlier this year. [Continue reading…]

Emerson Pires, Flavio Goncalves and Joshua David Nicholas, have each been indicted on EmpiresX fraud charges.

Pires and Goncalves co-founded the EmpiresX Ponzi scheme. Joshua Nicholas worked with them to create the illusion of trading. [Continue reading…]