BitClub Network Ponzi scammer Joby Weeks has spent $40,000 lobbying the US Senate, House of Representatives, DOJ and White House.

A public disclosure filing, covering January to March 2025, reveals Weeks hired JM Burkman & Associates to lobby on his behalf. [Continue reading…]

A Spanish court has sentenced GetEasy’s Tiago Fontoura Miranda to ten and a half years in prison.

GetEasy was a 2014 MLM Ponzi scheme built around a “GPS tracker” ruse. GetEasy represented it was based out of Macau but was operated from Europe. [Continue reading…]

ABB AI fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

ABB AI’s website domain (“cccocom.com”), was registered in September 2024. The private registration was last updated on May 19th, 2025.

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…]

Athena Group fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Athena Group’s website domain (“athenagroupai.com”), was privately registered on July 10th, 2024.

An official marketing video on Athena Group’s website names “Aderly Dupont” as President of the company.

Aderly Dupont is a former top Mavie Global (Ultron) Ponzi scammer:

Dupont’s FaceBook profile cites him as originally from Peru but now living in Quebec, Canada.

Quebec’s AMF issued a Mavie Global fraud warning in June 2024. Mavie Global’s Ultron Ponzi scheme went on to collapse later that same month. Athena Group’s website domain was registered a few weeks later.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Aderly Dupont directs his fraud at primarily Spanish-speaking consumers:

Accomplices of Dupont who also feature in Athena Group marketing videos are Julian Lopez F and Paula Franco.

In the footer of Athena Group’s website we find an address in Ajman Free Zone, UAE.

Within the context of MLM due-diligence, the Ajman Free Zone allows scammers to set up shell companies outside of active law enforcement. Athena Group is purportedly tied to the UAE shell company AthenaGroup FZC.

The Ajman Free Zone is also a stones throw from Dubai, the MLM crime capital of the world.

BehindMLM’s guidelines for Dubai are:

1. If someone lives in Dubai and approaches you about an MLM opportunity, they’re trying to scam you.
2. If an MLM company is based out of or represents it has ties to Dubai, it’s a scam.

If you want to know specifically how this applies to Athena Group, read on for a full review. [Continue reading…]

ZQ AI fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

ZQ AI operates from two known website domains; “zqai.xyz” and “zq88.shop”. Both of ZQ AI’s website domains were privately registered on May 20th, 2025.

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…]

Helping Hearts fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Helping Hearts’ website domain (“helpinghearts.co”), was privately registered on February 19th, 2025.

As of April 2025, SimilarWeb tracked 100% of Helping Hearts’ website traffic from South Africa.

This strongly suggests whoever is running Helping Hearts is also based out of South Africa.

Supporting this is citation of a South African shell company in Helping Hearts’ website footer;

This website is owned and operated by HELPING HEARTS INTERNATIONAL (PTY) LTD Randburg, Guateng.

Update 28th May 2025 – A reader comment below led me to “Coach Bernard”, aka Bernard Buchweitz.

Buchweitz, a serial promoter of gifting scams, in turn led me to a Helping Hearts marketing certificate:

The certificate cites Buchweitz as a Helping Hearts “executive leader”. The certificate also cites Stefan Pienaar as Helping Hearts’ founder.

Stefan Pienaar (right) is a serial fraudster from South Africa.

BehindMLM has previously come across Pienaar in Super 6 Group (crypto pyramid scheme), Dynamic Travel Network (travel ruse MLM pyramid scheme), and Crypto Wealth (MLM crypto gifting scheme).

Also worth noting are Bernard Buchweitz’s Helping Hearts marketing partners; Pastor John Kelch, Linda Method Hartley and Pierre Schoeman.

Buchweitz has since deleted and/or disabled public access to his Helping Hearts marketing efforts. Buchweitz is now promoting Givas, another gifting scheme.

Buchweitz moving on to a new scam suggests Helping Hearts has already collapsed. This would be Helping Hearts’ second collapse, the first iteration was hosted on a .BIZ website domain. /end update

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…]

Roobee AI fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Roobee AI’s website domain (“roobee-ai.com”), was privately registered on February 24th, 2025.

Roobee AI has already attracted the attention of financial regulators. The Central Bank of Russia issued a Roobee AI pyramid fraud warning on May 22nd, 2025.

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…]

Infinity Grid was a gifting scheme launched by serial fraudster Jacques Marais in 2022.

Infinity Grid has long-since collapsed, but Marais isn’t done scamming people.

As part of those efforts, on a May 13th Infinity Grid webinar Marais got into some heavy gaslighting. [Continue reading…]

Although it’s obvious who created, owns and runs DAO1, central to marketing is the false narrative that DAO1 is decentralized.

Rather than just be honest and transparent, DAO1’s owners and executives are presented as “advisors”:

While that marketing ruse holds tight, DAO1 has somewhat dropped the decentralized investment ruse by launching DAO1 Lite. [Continue reading…]

Bellator has revealed a series of debit cards of unknown origin to their MLM crypto investors.

In Bellator CEO and owner Micah Theard’s own words, the idea behind the cards is to allow investors to [Continue reading…]