BBOM assets frozen, Judge agrees it’s a Ponzi
A day after I reviewed BBOM, Federal Police in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco announced that they had launched an investigation into the company.
Like TelexFree, BBOM accepts investments from affiliates in exchange for a monthly ROI, along with recruitment commissions and matching bonuses.
Whereas TelexFree used the guise of VOIP services, BBOM pretended they were selling GPS services to customers through a company named Embrasystem.
Upon further analysis of course things fell apart when you realised BBOM was paying out ROIs as soon as affiliates handed over their money, as opposed to when they sold the GPS systems they claimed to be selling through Embrasystem.
Following the announcement of Pernambuco’s Federal Police a few weeks ago, it seems they’ve been busy gathering evidence and building a case against the company.
Less than a month after the initial investigation announcement, presented evidence before a judge who subsequently ordered the freezing of BBOM and its management’s assets.
After analysing the documentation gathered by federal prosecutors, the judge agreed there was robust evidence indicating that BBOM’s business model is actually just a “Ponzi scheme”.
Participants are compensated only for referring others to the system, without regard to the actual generation of product sales.
In this case business sustainability is determined solely by payments made by members.
No surprises there… but just how flimsy was BBOM’s “we sell GPS trackers” business front?
The National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), the agency responsible for licensing companies selling GPS devices, did not grant authorisation to EMBRASYSTEM, known as BBOM or UNEPXMIL to sell this type of product.
Granted you don’t eed to worry about licensing when you’re not really selling GPS trackers but are infact running a 300,000 plus member strong Ponzi scheme, but still…
Seemingly under the impression that this was all just a big misunderstanding, following yesterday’s court decision, Ednaldo Bispo (BBOM’s Director) told reporters that
I don’t yet have access to the decision, but despite these irregularities the company’s payments to its promoters will continue normally.
I think our business model was not properly explained and as such I can understand the position of Justice. People do not like things they don’t understand.
It will be a great opportunity to show how BBOM works.
Not properly explained? Just so we’re clear here, you sign up to BBOM and pay them $300, $900 or $1500. They then pay you $80, $240 or $400 a month, depending on how much you invested with them.
The Judge certainly seems to understand the model:
According to a statement posted on the website of the Federal Court the 1st Region (TRF-1), Luciana Laurenti Gheller, substitute Judge in the 4th Federal Goiânia, held that the payments made to each participating affiliate “depends exclusively on the recruitment of new affiliates”.
BBOM charge membership fees ranging from £600 ($300 USD) to £3000 ($1500 USD).
What exactly Bispo and BBOM’s lawyers are going to “explain” in court is mystery.
Oh and the lack of a GPS license? No worries.
The company that provides the tracking service does not need approval, but the equipment, yes. We have all the approvals given directly to the manufacturer.
Naturally the manufacturer have to be licensed as they sell the trackers to retailers. And I’m pretty sure the Public Prosecutors and Judge have done their homework on who does and doesn’t need to be licensed.
I mean Public Prosecutors would have had to check with Anatel themselves to firstly establish whether or not they indeed needed a license and then whether or not they had one. Just saying…
Still, Bispo waltzing into court and attempting to school everyone on the matter should be amusing to report back on.
Oh and BBOM paying its affiliates with its assets frozen should be quite the spectacle too. Good luck with that guys.
Those affiliates in TelexFree would do well to observe the BBOM case, as it’s probably exactly what’s going to happen once TelexFree exhausts its avenues of appeal.
The name of Ednaldo Bispo was translated to “bishop” here. It is happening in many articles about Brazilian pyramids, as the automatic translator probably does not recognize many surnames.
Tic Toc Telexfree!
The funny thing is that as soon as Telexfree was blocked, their videos on youtube and facebook groups were flooded with spams from BBOM promoters, saying it was a “more serious” company and a better option.
Many Telexfree investors went to BBOM, even before the judicial blockade.
Now it doesn’t seem such a good second option!
One brazilian guy (Paulo Ricardo Figueiró), several Ponzi schemes:
TelExtreme > Clubmaxi > Mix PhoneClub > Evox > My Travel and Cash > Dreams and Gold > Telexfree > BBOM:
@Igor
Thanks for the pickup. These name errors I don’t have much hope of picking up but I appreciate the corrections.
Like I said before ALL these on line translators suck big time. Icaro’s youtube video is really a great find. It’s incredible how these people are not in jail!
This response is to the user that goes by the name “Icaro”. Not sure about all the other schemes that Paulo Ricardo Figueiró got involved in after Telextreme but for the record, Telextreme was NOT a Ponzi scheme and was NEVER shut down as a Ponzi.
The company’s demise came as a result of the company being sold to a new group that ended running the company to the ground in a relatively short period of time, which of course hurt many of us in the process that were making a good living from it.
Telextreme also wasn’t a “Brazilian” company and was operating in over 100 countries ans Brazil was simply “another country” it was doing business in.
It was a failure. It bloomed for a few months in 2008, and was never heard from again. Taking a lot of people’s money with it.
Much like TelexFree claims to be a US company based on two mailboxes?
@ K. Chang. It wasn’t a failure. If anything it was very successful. The problem here was the greed, ego and arrogance from the new management that took over and ended up changing the pay plan and shortly after that it was all over.
You can speculate whatever you want and I’m not going to get into an argument with you here. From what it looks like, seems like you are just assuming things and were never personally involved in the program.
As for me, I was the top earner in that program and I most definitely know about what “really” happened, and it wasn’t pretty for me and a bunch of honest, hard working people when the new ownership pulled a fast one on all of us!
Where I do agree with you is that Telexfree, which actually started out as “Disk Matrix” was operating out of a business center (similar to Regus.com) that answers phones and providers a mailing address and they used that just as a front, which if I’m not mistaken they still do!
From the what it looks like, you’re in the scheme and thus any observation you make is at best anecdotal evidence and cannot be relied upon.
The matter of fact, indisputable, is TelXtreme was popular in Brazil in 2007. In March 2008 it was allegedly bought by somebody called Eagle Ventures and big announcement was made about new management additions, VOIP for US customers, blah blah blah. Eagle also holds two other MLM companies, Hydrate2O and one other fancy shmancy name.
In October 2008 Eagle Ventures declare bankruptcy, and that’s the last anyone’s heard of TelXtreme.
Including Telexfree and BBOM, there are currently 18 companies under investigation for Ponzi Scheme in Brazil!
Some names might show up in the next weeks, like NNEX, Multiclick, Cidiz, Priples and GoBull.
http://economia.ig.com.br/2013-07-13/piramides-alem-de-telexfree-e-bbom-outras-16-empresas-estao-sob-suspeita.html
Some of those other firms under investigation are so ridiculous that Telexfree looks serious compared to them.
In Priples, for example, people apparently gain money to answer stupid quiz questions like “What is the full name of former president Lula?”, “Who won the last World Cup?”, “What is the capital of USA?”. Some say they don’t even need to get the right answer!!
@Igor what typically happens is shifty admins see a company taking off and then replicate it. If the model is dodgy the reincarnations tend to get sloppier and sloppier, only exaggerating the dodginess of the original model.
TelexFree’s core is take money from affiliates and redistribute it out to those still owed a weekly ROI. You can attach that Ponzi mechanic to anything, fake surveys, penny auctions, Youtube videos etc., etc.
BBOM busted trying to illegally transfer 2.4 million reais of BBOM assets through BBOM Director Ednaldo Bisop’s wife.
http://www.ebc.com.br/noticias/brasil/2013/08/bbom-usa-laranja-para-tentar-sacar-r-25-milhoes
i dint know that a company with 4000 franchises were a ponzi
@ben Now you do.
i think the time will tell
Time doesn’t tell, the comp plan does.
BBOM’s comp plan is Ponzi all the way.
OZ, did you really investigate this case to the real bottom? or you just publish what other people and blogs say?
Oh dear… that means you haven’t read the BehindMLM BBOM review then.
The BBOM compensation plan is a straight up Ponzi. What happens in the Brazilian courts is only a reflection of that.
ok,that means that your fonts are some people and blogs, you dont make a real probing by yourself, and yes i did read your review of bbom, thats why im telling you, hey man go to bottom not only the surface.
You’re right, this IS actually a blog and not a court room. “Some people and blogs” is also correct.
Ponzi schemes comes in all shapes and sizes, so a 4000 affiliates Ponzi scheme will be among the smaller ones (compared to ZeekRewards, TelexFree and SpeakAsia).
M_NORWAY i think that you are smart enough to know the meaning of franchise, i dint mean afilliates, i said franchises( physical stores) more than 4000 all over brazil, with a cost from 60.000 us to 120,000 us. dollars.
if you wanna know if its true consult de ABF of brazil, they are right now the number 1 in brazil
Perhaps a better question is… what exactly was inaccurate about the coverage thus far?
You keep saying “get to the bottom”… what at the bottom? A bunch of happy affiliates?
BTW, are you the same guy who’s posting stuff on my blog too?
you guys dont have a trustworthy source when it comes to investigate a company.why dont you personally go to brazil, and interview the owner of the company and you will get a real credibility in that matter and you can get real information from the other party ( prosecutors) so that you can come here and talk with property.
but you can start by requesting the information about the 4000 franchises of bbom in brazil, and later you can note that the prosecutor recognizes the mistakes comitted and say that bbom is not a ponzi
SpeakAsia had franchises too, as one part of the different investment opportunities. A franchise should normally sell products or services rather than different types of “opportunities”.
I haven’t analysed BBOM, so my answer to you was my first comment in this thread and the other thread. I simply confirmed that this is a blog and not a court room.
A Ponzi scheme is simply a fraudulent investment opportunity, where the payouts comes from the investors themselves (as a group), rather than from profitable business activities or investments. Most MLM Ponzi schemes will be a hybrid between Ponzi and pyramid scheme.
“Investment” is simply about if you give your money to someone else and let them handle your money, and expect to get a positive ROI after some time, based on the amount you invested rather than your own work.
A real and legit business opportunity will not be an investment, the ROI will be generated from your own work and from the work of people you have hired.
You can simply post the factual information you have, and preferrably a few sources?
Sources for the article are economia.ig.com.br and gazetaonline.globo.com. They have used both types of sources, both the company and the Court. The article reflects the situation when it was written on July 11th.
We don’t “investigate” companies, either. This is a blog, it’s neither an international police authority nor a Court.
The basic idea here is “sharing information, and providing a platform for doing it” (users are typically both contributors and readers).
Typical user group is “ordinary people, without any specific profession or education (e.g. lawyers, accountants, etc.)”.
1. Nobody cares about franchises. Affiliates pump money into the scheme and earn it back as a ROI, paid out of newly invested money. Franchises are just another smoke and mirror tactic available to Ponzi schemes.
2. You don’t need to “go to Brazil” to analyse a company, all you need is its compensation plan. Unless BBOM’s compensation plan material is inaccurate, then BBOM is a Ponzi scheme.
3. Attempting to shift the discussion onto topics of “credibility” and “accuracy is a thinly disguised derail attempt. Offtopic comments will be sent to the spam bin (this includes giant walls of untranslated Portuguese text).
So what constitutes as “trustworthy” to you? Newspapers and courts are not trustworthy, according to you. Company itself cannot be relied upon, and neither can the “franchises” as they don’t know all the truth.
So what can be trusted? Or is your motto “trust no one but your own senses”? One’s own senses can be easily tricked by fraud, and that’s what the government had accused BBOM of being.
Sounds like the logical extrapolation of your idea is “trust no one and nobody”, which is nonsense.
That description was a little vague. This one is probably better …
Most legit companies will earn most of their money indirectly through some type of WORK, automated or manual work. Work generates VALUE in itself (e.g. as a service) or value that can be added to the price of a product, and it will generate a PROFIT when the product is sold to a customer.
Work can be manual or automated, e.g. a “production machine” can replace manual work.
Recruitment of investors into an illegal investment opportunity isn’t that type of “value generating work”.
The 4000 franchisees could have earned a PROFIT on making the product available for ordinary customers, but making the illegal investment opportunity available for income opportunity seekers isn’t that type of “value generating work”.
A licensed stock broker will add value to the product he’s selling (if we assume he’s selling something legitimate).
An unlicensed franchisee selling illegal investments can’t claim the same.
It simply doesn’t matter what TYPE of agreements a company has sold, e.g. whether people are called “franchisees” or “affiliates” or “investors”. It’s about the REALITIES of a case, not about word smithing or constructed legal theories.
i think if the have real customers to support that plan its a legal business, the USA rules cannot be aplied in other country
I think you’ll find
the USAPonzi scheme rules apply practically the world over.you are very wrong
Right. Cuz Ponzi schemes are legal in Brazil. Lolamirite? Highfive!
i have a friend in brazil, he has been working with unepxmill for 2 years, he told me that unepxmil had real an physicals stores ( franchises) around 1500 before launching bbom, and almost 2 millions customers paying for de monitoring service. that can be acredited if you go to the asociation of franchises of brasil ABF, they can acredited this info
Friend schmend. Guess he must have missed the part where
https://behindmlm.com/companies/financial-links-between-bbom-telexfree-uncovered/
2 million customers and only 69,000 trackers manufactured (not even necessarily distributed to customers, just made to order)?
Game over son. Thanks for playing.
If they have … YES. Then they wouldn’t have been shut down either?
A customer is someone paying for the product or service with his OWN money, someone NOT affiliated to the company. It’s not about the type of “customer” generated in the affiliates’ back offices to qualify for payouts.
How many real customers did you or your friend have? You probably had a fair share of the 2 million customers, e.g. 5 customers each?
You should ask all the affiliates you know to send in affidavits (sworn statements) to the authority handling the case, and list all the real customers you have. That will clearly help BBOM out of legal trouble.
You should probably have done that many weeks ago.
bbom only has 4 months,unepxmil more than 5 years,and is a business with 2 million of non affilates customers paying the service, as of today unepxmill has more than 4000 franchises (physical stores where clients ( non affliates) go and get their monitoring service.
Thats why i say if they have enough clients to support the compensation plan they are legitimate.
As per the Federal Prosecutor’s investigation in Brazil, the above is a load of bullshit.
69,000 units ordered (not necessarily even distributed). The talk of millions is only theoretically what they’d need to justify the affiliate revenue flowing through the company. The reality is those customers don’t exist.
Don’t waste my time asserting that retail customers are paying for tracker units that don’t exist.
BBOM had plenty of opportunity to prove their “millions of customers” existed to a judge when their assets were frozen, but they couldn’t because they don’t exist. Affiliate money goes in, affiliate money goes out.
did the trial end? nope correct, all the papers are being verified, will you make a positive review if bbom proves its legitimacy??
The Federal Prosecutor’s investigation in relation to the fake customers has. What exactly are BBOM going to prove?
They took affiliate money for 1.5 million customers and only ordered 69,000 units, yet the company was paying affiliates their ROIs.
Where did that money come from?
Nevermind the financial transactions uncoveredbetween TelexFree and BBOM…
But please, keep holding your “there’s still hope yet” candlelight vigil. I heard for TelexFree’s fourteenth appeal they’ve secured a unicorn for a “we’re not a Ponzi scheme” expert testimonial.
if i post a link here wont you ban it? i think you will, you dont like the true, the lie is more convenient for you
“Waaah the Federal Prosecutors are lying…”
If your link can be summarised by the above, it will suitably be marked as spam.
Why do you need to post links for? BBOM has no customers, federal prosecutors investigated and uncovered a large discrepancy between revenue and tracker units ordered. To date BBOM have failed to publicly explain the discrepancy.
No amount of links changes that.
but allow me just a lilte link, dont you wanna see the true?
See above.
ok, i can tell you that will surprised in the next days with this case, you will be in shock
Yawn.
Ponzi scheme drama, from scheme to scheme it never changes. Neither do the delusional affiliates who invest in them.
(Ozedit: Either post your link or stop wasting my time)
there you have it
(Ozedit: swapped out provided link with original source over at iG)
they already delivered the documentation with the purchasing of 1,2 millions of trackers from their main supplier in USA
First of all the above story is dated mid-August.
Secondly:
Yada yada yada, the fact remains BBOM was paying out its guaranteed ROI before it had even ordered the trackers it had supposedly sold to retail customer to generate the commissions it was paying out.
Where did that commission money come from?
Affiliates.
Who was it paid out to?
Affiliates.
How was it paid out?
A guaranteed weekly ROI.
Color me entirely not surprised by your link.
you wanna see another one?
Provide a source? This was not mentioned anywhere in the iG article. And in anycase, it does not change the fact that BBOM was already paying out ROIs before the products that were supposed to have been sold to generate revenue were even delivered to the company.
I put in the iG link as it’s the original source. You posted a link to some stolen content replicated site, which itself credits iG as the source (although does not provide a link to the actual original article).
Proving they are not a Ponzi scheme is easy. All BBOM needs to do is provide a 1.5 million strong retail customer list to the nearest Brazilian court, to account for revenues generated and paid out to affiliates.
Yet they have thus far failed to do so and have had their assets frozen since July. You do the math.
i know that you are shocked with that news, they are legitimate
Like I said, provide all the links you want. Facts are facts.
BBOM took affiliate money, made up a bunch of crap about having retail customers but instead paid out existing affiliates with newly invested affiliate money.
That’s pure Ponzi right there.
If BBOM had 1.5 million retail customers they’d have shown proof of the retail orders and customer details to a judge and had the asset freeze lifted back in July. They haven’t and now they’re doing the Ponzi squirm.
they facts you quoted before from the same magazines, they were your main source of information now you say they are not trustworthy?
Is this guy brain-damaged yo? Someone please tell me what he’s crapping on about now.
“The facts” in the iG article do nothing to change the fact that BBOM took money from affiliates for customer orders it never had, and paid it out to existing affiliate investors.
the prosecutors recognized theirs mistakes in this case, thats the only fact i see, stop crying like spoiled child saying the bla bla bla they are ponzi cuz bla bla bla
And now you’re just making up shit? Where on Earth did it say that in the iG article?!
Final warning: Source your claims or they’ll be marked as spam. Leave the fiction for Facebook and Carlos Costa YouTube videos.
you erased those link cuz you know they trustworthy (Ozedit: removed offtopic derail attempt).
the truth will always shine above everithing:
http://www.acrealerta.com/index.php/capa/menu/noticias-da-hora/bbom-assinatura-de-tac-pode-resultar-no-desbloqueio-da-empresa-ainda-esta-semana
Champ, check out comment #49, the link to iG is quite clearly there.
Hardly surprised you missed it though. When a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme is staring you in the face and you miss it, what’s a text link between investors?
Lol, that Acre Alert article is dated August 26th.
And here we are on September 7th, with Federal Prosecutors uncovering financial transactions between TelexFree and BBOM, naming BBOM the Ponzi successor of TelexFree just days ago.
BBOM PR spin from back in August is amusing to look back on, thanks for posting it. Shows you just how clueless they are in retrospect.
Pity it does nothing to explain BBOM’s complete lack of retail customers or how they paid out affiliates on 1.5 million retail customer orders when they had only ordered 69,000 units (and haven’t been able to prove the existence of said customers).
Seriously, ‘According revealed Acrealerta.com sources’ – lol. That’s what happens when you write reports based on desperate affiliate investors making up bullshit.