GSB Group and owner Josip Heit have violated the North American GSPartners settlement.

Several DAO1 investors from settling jurisdictions attended an Apertum Foundation event in Hong Kong over June 12th to 14th.

GSPartners was a fraudulent investment scheme run under the umbrella of GSB Group.

Owner Josip Heit runs GSB Group from Dubai. Attached to GSB Group are a raft of associated companies registered in various jurisdictions.

Following over a dozen regulatory fraud warnings issued globally, GSPartners collapsed in late 2023.

In September 2024, GSB Group and Josip Heit settled securities fraud allegations with forty-five states and provinces across the US and Canada.

Under the terms of the settlement, existing regulatory warnings and enforcement actions must be adhered to pending payment of GSPartners investor refunds.

Upon completion of the refund process, a single consent order will replace all existing state and provincial level regulatory warnings and enforcement actions.

The settlement consent order is further explained in a Term Sheet, signed by Josip Heit as Chairman of GSB Group on September 5th, 2024;

Respondents shall enter into, on a no-admit, no-deny basis, consent orders with each of the Settling Jurisdictions, consistent with the Essential Terms of this Term Sheet, and to be memorialized in a negotiated template consent order (“Template Consent Order”) subject to jurisdictional pleading requirements, to cease and desist from the following activities upon successful implementation of and compliance with the Term Sheet, as confirmed by the Settling Jurisdictions:

Offering, selling, or renewing any security in the Settling Jurisdictions without first complying with all legal requirements or exemptions for offers or sales of securities set forth in statutes, regulations, caselaw, or other sources enacted by, adopted by, or in full force and effect in the Settling Jurisdictions.

In other words, till GSPartners victims are refunded, Josip Heit and any other respondents named by the settling jurisdictions are explicitly prohibited from committing further acts of securities fraud in said jurisdictions.

As of June 14th, 2026, GSPartners victim refunds have still not been paid out. With respect to the settlement, this means all existing GSB Group regulatory fraud warnings and enforcement actions remain in place.

This brings us to DAO1 and Apertum Foundation.

Following several failed attempts, Josip Heit launched DAO1 and Apertum Foundation as the fifth reboot of GSPartners and GSB Group.

  • Apertum Foundation replaced GSB Group
  • DAO1 replaced GSPartners
  • Apertum Foundation’s APTM token replaced GSB Group’s G999 token

DAO1 launched in late 2024. The business model swaps out GSPartners’ metaportfolio certificates for a purported trading bot. Other than that it’s the same unregistered investment scheme;

  • GSPartners members invested tether into metaportfolio certificates on the promise of a passive return
  • DAO1 members invest into trading bot plans on the promise of a passive return

As of June 2026, the current iteration of DAO1 sees it solicits investments of up to 70,000 USDT on the promise of a passive 350,000 USDT return:

The same GSPartners MLM compensation plan is used to financially incentive recruitment of DAO1 investors.

Pursuant to compliance with North American regulatory fraud warnings and cease and desist orders, officially Apertum Foundation and DAO1 are not available to North American residents.

Unofficially and in violation of the GSPartners North American GSPartners fraud settlement, this is not the case.

On June 12th to 14th Apertum Foundation held a DAO1 marketing event in Hong Kong.

Invitation to the event was by qualification only open to DAO1 members:

As above, Apertum Foundation covered travel costs of up to $15,000 for top DAO1 promoters.

Footage of the “Asia Hustle” event suggests attendance was mostly made up of South Africans and Europeans. There was however American residents in attendance, the majority of which reside in US states that are part of the GSPartners settlement.

Utah residents

Utah didn’t issue a standalone GSPartners enforcement action but did sign on as a GSPartners settling jurisdiction.

Utah was represented at Apertum Foundation’s “Asia Hustle” DAO1 event by Christian Jensen, Lynda Kasteler Jensen, John Moody and Kenneth Burgess, aka Ken Burgess.

Christian Jensen is married to Lynda Jensen and, as per Jensen’s FaceBook profile, is a Utah resident:

In 2023 Lynda Jensen travelled to Dubai to attend a GSPartners marketing event:

Here’s Christian Jensen receiving a “loyalty award” at the “Asia Hustle” DAO1 event:

Jon Moody’s FaceBook profile cites him as a Utah resident:

Here’s Moody posing at the “Asia Hustle” event with Apertum Foundation and DAO1 owner Josip Heit:

Kenneth Burgess is a Utah resident and former Vice President of Business Development and Director of Compliance at NewULife.

Here’s Burgess in a June 11th photo in Hong Kong with South African GSPartners and DAO1 promoter Andrew Eaton, Maryland resident John Forston III and GSPartners and Apertum Foundation executive Bruce Hughes.

Georgia residents

Georgia’s Commissioner of Securities took action against GSPartners and Josip Heit on January 22nd, 2024.

On the basis of the investigation, the Commissioner has found grounds to conclude that Respondents have engaged in acts or practices constituting violations of the Georgia Uniform Securities Act of 2008.

Through an Emergency Order, GSPartners, Heit and two local promoters were ordered to cease committing securities fraud across the state. GSPartners and Heit were also fined $500,000.

Georgia’s GSPartners securities fraud order against Heit remains in place till refunds are paid to North American GSPartners victims.

Georgia resident John Johnson wasn’t named in Georgia’s Emergency Order.

A GSPartners presentation Johnson hosted in 2022 however was cited by Florida’s Office of Financial Regulation, in a GSPartners securities fraud cease and desist order issued on November 17th, 2023.

Florida is a settling jurisdiction in the GSPartners North American settlement. Like Georgia’s regulatory enforcement order, Florida’s securities fraud cease and desist order remains in place till GSPartners victims receive refunds.

Johnson attended Apertum Foundation’s “Asia Hustle” DAO1 marketing event with wife Pam McVey Johnson:

What happens now?

It’s unlikely the above list of US residents active in Apertum Foundation and DAO1 is complete. Who these US residents have promoted DAO1 to, who didn’t qualify for a trip to Hong Kong, who else is still secretly involved are all unknowns.

Maryland resident John Forston III received a “loyalty award” at Apertum Foundation’s “Asia Hustle” DAO1 event:

Ethan Bast is a Michigan resident who also attended the “Asia Hustle” DAO1 marketing event with his wife:

While securities fraud is illegal in Maryland and Michigan, neither state is participating in the North American GSPartners fraud settlement.

Another example is Georgia resident Michael Dalcoe. Dalcoe was a named respondent and fined $500,000 by Georgia in its standing GSPartners securities fraud cease and desist order.

Dalcoe also has a secret DAO1 promoter account (click to enlarge):

As recently reported on BehindMLM, North American GSPartners victims in settling states and provinces have now been waiting thirteen months for a refund.

Through the settlement, GSPartners victim claims are being handled by AlixPartners. After nearly a year of silence, back in April AlixPartners informed GSPartners victims it was experiencing “unexpected challenges”.

In accordance with the GSB Settlement, we originally intended to distribute claim determination letters in March. However, unexpected challenges have caused a delay in our schedule.

Currently, we are actively working to gather further information from GSB to resolve these issues and expect to send determination letters as soon as possible.

As of June 2026, GSPartners victims report AlixPartners is not responding to enquiries.

Back in March 2025 Texas took the initiative and announced it had pulled out of the North American GSPartners fraud settlement.

I won’t absolve Mr. Heit of his latest frauds. The term sheet has been myriad violated by your clients, those that still exist.

Let’s litigate and see if you can look in a mirror.

Texas is done due your violations. Y’all violated the term sheet six ways to Sunday.

Nice job, and with all due respect,

Travis J. Iles
Securities Commissioner
Texas State Securities Board

Texas even went so far as to issue an Apertum Foundation securities fraud cease and desist in May 2025.

Settlement negotiations between the Texas State Securities Board (TSSB), GSB Group and Heit resumed around August 2025. In September 2025, Texas quietly rejoined the North American GSPartners fraud settlement.

The Apertum Foundation cease and desist was voluntarily dismissed by TSSB, on the representation Apertum Foundation and attached unregistered investment schemes were not available to Texas residents.

Whether Utah, Georgia, Texas or any of the other settling North American jurisdictions act on the settlement violations documented here remains to be seen.

At the very least the participating settlement jurisdictions could turn a blind eye to the violations but at least ensure GSPartners victims actually receive refunds.

BehindMLM confirmed US federal investigations into GSB Group and Heit in late 2023. There have been no updates on those investigations since.

Outside of the North American settlement jurisdictions, GSPartners victims have been left with no regulatory path to recovery. Their losses are, among other things, evidently being used to fund global travel and lavish marketing events.

Events that are then shared on social media with the intent to lure new victims into Apertum Foundation’s various schemes.

Earlier this month Apertum Foundation announced it was terminating its trading bot investment scheme and MLM opportunity.

APTM DAO has now emerged as a replacement, swapping out trading bots for an APTM token mining investment scheme:

As of May 2026, SimilarWeb was tracking ~15,000 monthly DAO1 website visits (down 23% month on month).

Over the same period 72% of DAO1’s website traffic originated from South Africa. 25% originated from Germany and the only other notable source of traffic was the Dominican Republic at 2.54%.

In addition to Texas, Apertum Foundation and DAO1 regulatory fraud warnings have been issued by Alberta, Latvia, Germany, New Zealand, Australia and Lithuania.