E-Estate has received a securities fraud cease and desist from the Texas State Securities Board (TSSB).

Following an internal investigation, TSSB has identified E-Estate as a “fraudulent tokenized real estate investment scheme”. BehindMLM reviewed E-Estate in September 2025, coming to the same conclusion.

TSSB’s June 1st cease and desist targets E-Estate, known public directors and US-based promoters.

Five respondents are individually named:

  • E-Estate – registered through a New York address and PO Box in Panama
  • Brandon Stephenson – E-Estate’s CEO and co-founder (never seen in person, assumed fictional identity played by an offshore actor)
  • Mike Hamilton – credited E-Estate co-founder, appears to be Florida based having featured in Florida marketing videos and turned up at Florida marketing events (assumed fictional identity)

  • Karoll Peterson – credits herself as E-Estate’s “Head of Agents”, eastern European accent (assumed fictional identity, including representation based in Oregon, US)
  • Darrell Porter – E-Estate promoter, Texas resident

Per TSSB’s order;

E-Estate Group Inc. and its principals, Brandon Stephenson, Mike Hamilton, and Karoll Peterson, are illegally offering unregistered, fraudulent real estate investments to Texans through a multi-level marketing (“MLM”) network of sales agents, including at least one unregistered, Texas sales agent, Darrell Porter.

E-Estate’s fraudulent securities offering threatens immediate and irreparable harm to the public.

E-Estate’s Ponzi ruse sees the scam illegally solicit investment into fictional real-estate deals. Consumers are pitched on returns of up to 0.81% a day for 18 months.

Attached to this is an MLM compensation plan, incentivizing pyramid recruitment of promoter investors.

Part of E-Estate’s Ponzi ruse is the “SEC Form D” tactic, wherein scammers register a shell company with the SEC and File a Form D exemption form.

This registration and Form D exemption are then misrepresented as having registered the investment scheme with the SEC.

From an E-Estate press-release published on March 16th, 2026;

In 2026, E Estate Group Inc. filed a Form D notice with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which the company views as part of its broader effort to strengthen the legal foundation for activity connected to the U.S. market.

E-Estate said this step reflects its long-term approach to building within a sector where regulation, compliance, and market standards are still developing.

TSSB addresses this fraud in its order;

On April 16, 2026, Respondent Stephenson filed a Form D with the Securities and Exchange Commission claiming exemption from securities registration requirements under rule 506(c) for Respondent E-Estate.

Respondent E-Estate’s tokenized real estate investment offering does not comply with the requirements of Respondent E-Estate’s claimed SEC Rule 506(c) exemption in that its offering is being marketed to non-accredited investors and no steps are being taken in its online marketing to inform the public the offering is restricted to accredited investors

On E-Estate’s real-estate investing ruse, TSSB targets marketing of a Lake House property located in Oregon.

Respondent E-Estate and its partner EPG do not have a right to receive any income or profits from the Lake House property located in Lakeside, Oregon, represented to be in its inventory, and neither do any agents or other partners of Respondent E-Estate.

Respondent E-Estate and its partner EPG do not own or have any management rights related to the Lake House property located in Lakeside, Oregon, represented to be in its inventory, and neither do any agents or other partners of Respondent E-Estate.

TSSB previously issued Darrell Porter a cease and desist in 2024, pertaining to promotion of the collapsed Trage Ponzi scheme.

Respondent Porter is violating this previous Order by continuing to offer and sell unregistered securities in Texas as an unregistered dealer in violation of The Securities Act.

Porter appears to have acknowledged TSSB’s cease and desist by disabling his FaceBook account and deleting E-Estate promo videos on his YouTube channel.

Other E-Estate promoters have also gone underground.

When BehindMLM reviewed E-Estate last September, top promoters featured on its website were Martin McLean, Brian Johnson, Anthony DeLoatch, Vaughan Charles Morrill, William Jones, Sami Mostapha, Maurice Jenkins, Lynn Hamilton and Darrell Porter.

Brian Johnson, Vaughan Morrill, William Jones, Sami Mostapha and Lynn Hamilton have since disappeared.

Martin McLean (played by a man with an eastern European accent), Brian Johnson, William Jones and Sami Mostapha were assumed fake profiles.

Anthony DeLoatch, a North Carolina resident, is still promoting E-Estate:

Vaughan Morrill is a twice-convicted felon and has deleted E-Estate promo videos from his “Unlimited Freedom” YouTube channel:

Lynn Hamilton, a New York resident, is still promoting E-Estate:

Maurice Jenkins’ E-Estate profile credits him as a Level 8 Agent, responsible for stealing $43,665 and generating $2.1 million in illegal investment.

As of June 2026, new additions to E-Estate’s Ponzi promoter website list are Chelsi Leers, Karoll Peterson, Valerio Auguste and Brandon Ivey.

Karoll Peterson we’ve already covered; fake name, fake location, eastern European accent.

Chelsi Leers represents herself to be a “digital creator” living in Florida:

Leers’ E-Estate Agent profile credits her as a Level 13 Agent, responsible for stealing $307,444 and generating $5 million in illegal investment.

Valerio Auguste appears to be a Haitian immigrant with ties to New York. Auguste has recently nuked his FaceBook profile back to December 2024.

Auguste’s E-Estate Agent profile credits him as a Level 8 Agent, responsible for stealing $25,473 and generating $687,766 in illegal investment.

Brandon Ivey, aka “Bitcoin Brandon” and “ILCA”, is a California resident and long-time promoter of fraudulent MLM schemes; Shopping Sherlock (2012), Kryptogenix (2018), Up2Give (2021), World Crypto Life (2021), Batched (2022), MoveQuest (2024), Connect United (2024) etc.

Owing to E-Estate operating illegally in Texas, TSSB has ordered the Ponzi scheme and promoters to

Immediately CEASE AND DESIST from offering for sale any security in Texas until the security is registered with the Securities Commissioner or is offered for sale pursuant to an exemption from registration under The Securities Act.

Immediately CEASE AND DESIST from acting as securities dealers, agents, investment advisers, or investment adviser representatives in Texas until they are registered with the Securities Commissioner or are acting pursuant to an exemption from registration under the Texas Securities Act.

Immediately CEASE AND DESIST from engaging in any fraud in connection with the offer for sale of any security in Texas.

Immediately CEASE AND DESIST from offering securities in Texas through an offer containing a statement that is materially misleading or otherwise likely to deceive the public.

Speaking on TSSB’s order, Deputy Securities Commissioner Cristi Ramón Ochoa stated;

The use of blockchain technology, tokenization, or digital assets does not place an investment outside the reach of Texas securities laws.

And we will continue to prioritize protecting investors by taking aggressive action against those who violate our securities laws.

TSSB has requested E-Estate investors contact TSSB’s Enforcement Division. E-Estate and the other named Respondents have 31 days to contest TSSB’s order.

Whereas federal securities fraud is typically regulated with civil charges by the SEC (although wire fraud criminal charges are not uncommon), securities fraud at the state-level in Texas can be prosecuted criminally.

For repeat offenders like Darrell Porter, this is probably overdue.

At time of publication E-Estate has not publicly responded to TSSB’s securities fraud cease and desist order.

As of April 2026, SimilarWeb was tracking ~81,700 monthly visits to E-Estate’s website (“e-estate.co”).

Over the same period the US made up 78% of E-Estate’s website traffic, followed by Indonesia (10%) and Belgium (5%).

Be it the US or elsewhere, E-Estate is not registered to offer securities in any jurisdiction.