Control Finance’s Benjamin Reynolds is Karl-Joonatan Mets
Update 6th June 2021 – Based on information provided to BehindMLM after publication of this article, we believe Karl-Joonatan Mets was innocently hired by an Estonian/Russian production agency.
Based on BehindMLM’s own research, we have concluded that this production agency was working with and continues to work on behalf of Russian scammers.
We have published our findings in a followup article.
The original article tying Mets to Benjamin Reynolds, as published on March 25th, is preserved below for archival purposes. /end update
Control Finance Boris CEO Benjamin Reynolds has been outed as Karl-Joonatan Mets.
Why does that matter?
Because earlier this month the CFTC secured a $571 million dollar judgment against Reynolds.
Karl-Joonatan Mets is a young man from and living in Estonia. Over the last decade he’s made a name for himself as a stand-up comedian and poker player.
Off the bat the similarities between Karl-Joonatan Mets (left) and Reynolds (right) are obvious:
Needless to say if you’re going to hang someone out to dry for over half a billion dollars though, “similarities” doesn’t cut it.
Mets has a YouTube channel, on which he has some of his stand-up recorded.
This footage is from early 2017, preceding Control Finance’s launch later that same year.
The last video on Mets’ channel is dated July 12th, right about the time Control Finance launched.
In the video, titled “Night from Tallinn Tinder, ping-pong balls, not smoking cannabis, etc.”, Mets interviews various people on the street in Estonian.
At [3:44] the video switches over to English, which can be compared to Mets portraying Reynolds.
And if Mets’ repetitive downward arching speech pattern isn’t enough, there’s his nose mole towards his left eye (to the right when viewed from our perspective).
You can see the mole clearly in the two photos above. Mets’ pimples come and go but the mole features in every single photo of him available.
Mets’ mole sealed the deal for me.
So with Benjamin Reynolds outed as Karl-Joonatan Mets from Estonia, what of the CFTC $571 million dollar judgment?
The CFTC’s judgment is against Reynolds who, based on bogus UK incorporation data, they believe is based out of the UK.
This charade went so far as the court accepting the CFTC having served Reynolds, by way of publishing notices in a UK newspaper.
Meanwhile Mets, living in Estonia, is more than unlikely to have ever seen those notices.
He’s also probably not aware he’s up for over half a billion dollars either.
Does the CFTC care? Does the Southern District of New York court care? Does Karl-Joonatan Mets care?
So many questions!
To be honest I have no idea what happens going forward.
We have the CFTC trying to collect hundreds of millions from someone who doesn’t exist. And based on the judgment against Reynolds being final, apparently that’s the end of the case.
What a balls up.
This is indeed truly bizarre.
Potentially a major embarrasement for CFTC. Were they really that naive to so blindly believe Companies House data?
The fact that they went all the trouble to put the newspaper ads and hire the solicitor to try to serve the lawsuit seems to suggest so.
Does this mean that Mr Mets is liable for the fake person’s fines?
It’s even more astonishing that any civilized nation — let alone major global financial hub — should have a system like Companies House in place.
It appears that the poor chaps at CFTC didn’t get the memo that almost complete regulatory nihlism reigns in Britain.
It’s anarchy in the UK. Bulgarians are at least trying.
The Wirecard debacle has painfully revealed the even Germany is deeply rotten. If you follow the unbelievable twists and turns of the Wirecard case (–> a marvelous podcast series: cms.megaphone.fm/channel/wirecardsaga), you begin to think that perhaps Ruja Ignatova is as much — or perhaps even more — product of German corporate culture than Bulgarian.
I hope the scandals and embarassament like these will force decisions makers to fix the system and culture that makes criminality and corruption so easy.
Speaking of it, could this even be a move by US authorties in a process to make UK authorties liable for the fake person’s fine and fix their scam-abetting ways? This could explain the bizarreness…
Companies House in the UK is a complete paradox.
It is extremely efficient. It is however completely unregulated and registering anything, even out side of the UK, takes only a few moments.
Directors don’t even need to be UK subjects or residents. A scam company can have a similar name to a legit one. The documents that come out are impressive looking but obviously worthless if the entity behind it is a scam.
Scams like Solmax use their UK documents as fake proof of being legitimate, that idiotic gambling Alcore MLM that collapsed presented their UK certificate of incorporation as a gaming license, etc. And nobody seems to care.
Spot on Stevie. I believe it costs only 12 GBP (about 15 USD) to register a business and Companies House’s remit is basically to ensure annual accounts are filed.
It has no other regulatory or enforcement role as far as I’m aware.
Registration is therefore little more than a formality and guarantees nothing.
@ Ian, yup. And let’s not get started on the FCA, the “Fundamentally Complicit Agency” as Private Eye calls them.
Who withdraws a warning on Ruja Ignatova? Putting a London postmark on a fraud seemingly carries a lot of weight.
The FCA make ASIC look competent. I’m not prejudiced or much (of course I am) but the FIC and FSCA in South Africa really impress me with taking down MTI; and MTI was supposedly “regulated” by the CPA.
More action, less agency word salad please.
Stevie
Hol’up. The FSCA did start an investigation and went so far as to raid offices. But shortly after that MTI pulled an exit-scam and the majority of invested funds disappeared.
Steynberg is still at large, as are Cheri and Clynton Marks (who last I checked are living large in SA).
And despite MTI being a continuation of the BTC Global Ponzi scheme, run by the same people, nothing has come of SA investigations after 3+ years.
service by publication is usually the last step – it means every other method of contacting the defendant had failed.
The CFTC did what they did to show the court they did all they could to serve this “benjamin reynolds” … this is how lawyers operate.
No doubt they knew Company house info was bs, the address doesn’t even exist.
@Art
To what end though? How are you going to collect judgment, much the less over half a billion in judgment, from a party that doesn’t exist?
Did any of you submit this info to the CFTC and FBI?
forms.cftc.gov/Forms/TipsAndComplaints.aspx
complaint.ic3.gov/default.aspx
Yes.
Does anyone else believe this is just a paid actor?
Karl-Joonatan Mets is obviously an actor. What he can provide authorities with however is a paper trail to follow.
Even if that paper trail leads to Moscow (it could very well be Estonian scammers), that’s infinitely better than letting a half billion judgment stand against a non-existent person in the UK.
Hello
Karl-Joonatan Mets is an actor who was hired and used to introduce the company and had no idea about the scam. He has no connection to Benjamin Reynolds.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9497213/The-1bn-bitcoin-heist-organised-Britain.html
Take this false article down immediately or we have to take legal action.
Except for y’know, Karl-Joonatan Mets == Benjamin Reynolds.
But uh yeah sure, “no connection” lulz.
Karl-Joonatan Mets has no connection to Benjamin Reynolds like Humphrey Bogart has no connection to Sam Spade, or Marlon Brando has no connection to Don Corleone.
Karl-Joonatan Mets is just an actor, get your facts straight.
(Ozedit: snip, see below)
Are you dense? We know he’s an actor (see #11).
Benjamin Reynolds never existed but he was played by Mets. That makes Mets Benjamin Reynolds.
Who’s We?
Where’s the false article bit?
He got hired by Criminals, maybe he should do some due diligence next time and not just sell his face to any random scams then he wouldn’t have his pristine name besmirched like this.
I am Karl-Joonatan Mets. I was not hired by any criminals. It was a casting agent who was well known in the community, not some random person contacting me.
I never once claimed in the 2 videos I did, that I was the CEO or that my name is Benjamin Reynolds. They just took the videos and put “Benjamin Reynolds, CEO” in the video titles.
This article states that Im outed as being Benjamin Reynolds, the CEO when there is absolutely no evidence to that. This is just disgusting clickbait and I will hire a lawyer if needed, since this is just pure slander.
Karl-Joonatan was not playing Benjamin Reynolds. He did not say in the video that he is the CEO or the owner of Control Finance.
He was hired by a casting agent in Estonia in a popular Facebook group. He has had no direct contact with the criminals. When he found out he was represented as the CEO of Control Finance he immediately stopped making videos.
The article is full of false information. If you know he is an actor then you know the information in this article is false. Take the article down immediately.
@Mari-Liis, you’re a moron! The article will NOT be taken down because this is an obvious scam!
@Karl-Joonatan
Except that you were. Regardless of whether it was through a casting agent or not.
You played the part of an executive for a Ponzi scheme. Nothing changes that.
Exhibit A:
All that said, I’m happy to include your response as an update to the article. On the provision that you prove that you are actually Mets.
I’ll accept a photo of you holding up a sign that states @behindmlm, or a shot of paper with @behindmlm written on it to Mets’ Instagram (you don’t have to be in the latter). This photo is not for publication, it’s simply for verification.
What I won’t be doing is taking this article down, because what happened happened.
@Mari-Liis
So Mets knew he was representing a Ponzi scheme 3-4 years ago (2017), and effectively did nothing.
When BehindMLM uncovered Mets was representing Benjamin Reynolds, the first thing you did was make legal threats.
Did you threaten the casting agent or production crew? If you want to sue someone start there.
But you won’t, because your man took the money and hoped nobody would find out. That didn’t work out.
This isn’t the 1980’s, being Outed isn’t the horrifying situation you seem to be trying to make it out to be.
Also too many people associate any empassioned titling to be clickbait, you might want to look up what clickbait is before you use your ponzi-acting profits to hire someone that’ll ride you like a golden unicorn.
Ah see now you two overplayed your hand, did you go to the masses and do legal threats and attempted takedowns of their videos? Did you go comment on their videos that they are lying about who’s in charge?
*crickets*
Alright yeah you are definitely a standup for truth and liberty.
Got paid to do a job, did it. Enjoyed that sweet sweet money, and now it’s an issue.
Maybe our new friends are unaware what “Boris CEO” means. That’s Oz’s phrase to describe a non-existent company executive played by an actor. It happens all the damn time, necessitating the shorthand moniker.
The real story isn’t who played whom or who hired whom, it’s the irony of a non-existent person being on the receiving end of a half-billion dollar summary judgment.
The fact that the actor has in fact been identified as someone with a completely different name is proof that Oz was right when he stated years ago that “Benjamin Reynolds” never in fact existed.
No claims have been made that Mets was nasterminding the scam under the name of “Benjamin Reynolds,” so just calm down, Ok?
You do realise its not rocket science for the scammers to take the video and upload it under any youtube channel they create? The “sweet sweet ponzi money” I received was 750 euros(normal for commercials) and the evidence of that and how it all unfolded is in my messemger chats with the casting agent.
The casting agent just said “This was not the official control finance website that uploaded a video titleing you as the ceo Benjamin Reynolds” and that they cant control what other people upload. Thats when I said I dont want to do any more videos for the company.
Im sure Ive been under investigation for a long time, otherwise makes no sense Ive never been contacted by the authorities.
I can state with clarity that the videos were uploaded to Control Finance’s official YouTube channel. This was shutdown when the Ponzi scheme collapsed.
And even if you believed the “they cant control what other people upload”, since when do copyright holders not own their content?
A casting agreement doesn’t transfer ownership of your soul. If you gave a crap about you being presented as Benjamin Reynolds back in 2017 you’d have gotten the videos removed.
You were only outed as Benjamin Reynolds a few days after the CFTC judgment. That was the first time your name came up.
Our actor has no idea DMCA/youtube likeness infringements is a thing if he actually cared his face was attached to a scam back then.
Shame.
I never saw the “Benjamin Reynolds” youtube channel or that they named me him on the official channel.
I discovered one video with “Benjamin Reynolds, CEO” from another channel. I assume they made the Benjamin Reynolds channel and uploaded the videos naming me him shortly after that and I never saw that myself.
The video I found had very few views and I just assumed it mightve been some random person sharing the video on his channel (as the casting manager said) and mistaking me for the CEO, didnt think some kind of a ponzi scheme was being built.
Karl-Joonatan is also a victim of the scheme and his good faith was used.
He has never had any connection with scams and while making the videos he didn’t even understand that the videos could be used in a scam. He found out it is a ponzi scheme this week.
Karl-Joonatan was paid 750 EUR by Control Finance to play an executive, how is he a victim of the Ponzi scheme? Actual Control Finance victims lost money.
Given Mets was aware of the CEO videos back in 2017, and information on Control Finance was readily available at the time (see BehindMLM’s own published review), I find that hard to believe.
Mets doesn’t come across as a complete dumbass. A simple visit to Control Finance’s website would have confirmed it was a Ponzi scheme.
Mets knew the company name, flags bearing Control Finance’s logo were used as props in his marketing videos.
Mets didn’t know, because he didn’t bother to find out since he got paid.
He may have been misled, but he’s definitely not blameless for it.
I’ve also done promo gigs, i’m very very aware of who i’ve worked for.
Yes, Im sure every single person on earth is the same and notices the red flags around them the same way and always knows how to act perfectly when seeing them.
Im afraid this is not the case though and this is why scams have worked in the past and will continue to work in the future.
I’m pretty sure getting paid to get on camera and represent trading is happening in a rented office with other extras is a red flag for anyone.
And a quick visit to Control Finance’s website would have only raised more red flags. You’ve admitted you knew something was up, quit while you’re ahead.
While I didn’t know is a novel defense much like accidentally hitting another vehicle while driving,it doesn’t absolve responsibility unfortunately. Intent doesn’t undermine participation.
You realized something was up at some stage,but didn’t follow up,and now you’re here trying hard to sound something like an exploited child star with no say and no decisionmaking capacity
Its pretty obvious no one would accept 750 euros for 2 commerciala to get dragged into something like this when its pretty much the same you would get paid for normal commercials.
The evidence of that money is all in my messenger chats with the casting agent and will be shared with the authorities in case they havent seen it already.
After I had done the 2 videos, the 1 video where I was claimed to be the CEO in the title, was uploaded from some random channel and as the casting agent claimed “I asked the client, it was not from the official website, we cant control that”.
Thats when I stopped cause I didnt want people to think I was the head of the company(in my understanding I was just the promoperson for the company and introducing it and telling how things are going). (Also evidence of how I refused to do any more commercials when the CEO video popped out on the random channel in my chats with the agent)
I didnt realise how big of a deal this could turn out to be and didnt think how important it would be to try and get that 1 video down even if it was from a random uploader and barely had any views.
At that point the first video had come out on the website and on their Control Finance youtube channel also without any CEO or Benjamin Reynolds added to it.
They must have created the “Benjamin Reynolds” youtube channel later. I dont know if they put the CEO stuff and Benjamin Reynolds in the videos later on the official “Control Finance” youtube channel also, I never saw that.
If I had found out about the Benjamin Reynolds youtube channel or that they did the CEO title on their official channel, I wouldve definitely reported it. They really were lucky with their timing.
When I had quit I was thinking I never claimed to be the CEO of the company or any other position there, now they will just hire someone else to be the face of the company and Im glad I did the right thing morally and didnt accept any more money for something that didnt feel quite right.
Little did I know they already had everything they needed. I didnt keep constantly checking in on the website or the youtube channel over the years since I didnt know I had done something that could be used in a way anything close to as it was.
When Im being called “an actor” then the truth of the matter is that it was my very first commercial and I hadnt done pretty much anything before that, so when you see a wellknown casting agent who constantly calls people for castings on the public forum, you dont exactly have your guards up that you could be used in such a manner.
Id like to believe the casting agent didnt knowingly participate in the scam but Im sure the investigations will find that out if they havent already.
I honestly dont care what you two are saying and Im not going to try convincing you to take down the article.
Its pretty clear from the article itself you are trying to go as hard as possible- knowing my name you couldve easily messaged me like The Daily Mail did and gotten my side of the story aswell.
So Im just giving my side of the story here myself which I will also be contacting the police with, providing them with all the evidence.
As I said previously, you were featured as Benjamin Reynolds (stylized CEO) in official Control Finance marketing videos.
These videos were hosted on Control Finance’s official YT channel (the Benjamin Reynolds channel). The videos were embedded into Control Finance’s website.
What was re-uploaded elsewhere is neither here nor there.
This is as published in August 2017;
https://behindmlm.com/mlm-reviews/control-finance-review-crypto-trading-1-5-daily-ponzi-scheme/
Also you seem to have a chip on your shoulder about being accused of actually running Control Finance.
That’s not what this article states or implies. If you’re having trouble with the subject matter hire a translator.
Yeah the non-native English seems to be a barrier here.
Good on you for contacting the Police with the details. That’s a good way to help fix what you directly or indirectly contributed to. Perhaps they can make inroads to finding the actual criminals behind it.
We don’t know you personally, nor do the articles actually speak to anything that cares. There is one objective, exposing the lies.
Your face was attached to one. It happens. Learn from it.
Pls keep me updated on this one. I was scammed by this sh** (**shame on me**).
I don’t remember exactly when but I filed a message to FBI (fbi.gov/tips) after it was clear that CF was a scam.
I’ve provided the bitcoin address and all transactions I did to CF. I wonder if one day they’ll be able to track the MF behind the scam.