As described by US and Canadian regulators, GSPartners was a “fraudulent investment scheme”. Citing GSPartners’ own marketing, over 800,000 investors are alleged to have been defrauded out of a billion dollars.

On September 9th, 2024, GSB Group and owner Josip Heit settled securities fraud allegations pertaining to GSPartners and related entities.

The initial stage of the settlement allowed for North American GSPartners victims to file a claim for a refund.

Twenty-one months out from the initial settlement announcement, not a single dollar has been paid out.

The GSPartners settlement provisioned for the creation of a claim portal, through which North American GSPartners victims in participating states and provinces could apply for a refund.

The victim claim part of the settlement is being handled by AlixPartners, a third-party firm the Texas State Securities Board described as

a firm consisting of more than 3,000 experienced personnel drawn from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, Securities and Exchange Commission and other public and private organizations.

AlixPartners opened the GSPartners victim claim portal in February 2025. The claim deadline expired on May 22nd, 2025.

Sidenote: Citing settlement violations and fraud, in March 2025 Texas pulled out of the GSPartners settlement.

Following private negotiations, Texas rejoined the settlement in October 2025. GSPartners victims in Texas were given another opportunity to file claims until October 17th, 2025.

After silence from AlixPartners since May 2025, on April 7th 2026 GSPartners victims who had filed a claim received an email;

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.

Coming up on two months, there have been no further updates. That is to say, thirteen months have gone by since the GSPartners victim claim portal closed.

Investors have been and continue to be kept in the dark as to the status of submitted claims. US and Canadian regulators aren’t communicating to victims. AlixPartners is silent.

To illustrate just how slow the GSB Group claim process has been, we’ll compare to two of the largest MLM Ponzi Receiverships to date; Zeek Rewards and TelexFree.

Zeek Rewards was a $900 million MLM Ponzi scheme shut down by the SEC in August 2012. As part of SEC proceedings, a receivership was set up to distribute recovered assets to victims.

The Zeek Rewards victim claim portal went live in May 2013. The claim deadline ended on September 5th, 2013. By May 2014, eight months later, the Zeek Rewards Receivership had processed and issued determinations on “approximately 150,000” of ~175,000 victim claims submitted.

TelexFree was a $3 billion MLM Ponzi scheme that collapsed in April 2014. The SEC filed suit later that same month, resulting in a court-appointed Trustee (owing to bankruptcy proceedings).

The TelexFree victim claim portal went live in May 2016. Following several extensions, the claim deadline finally expired on March 15th, 2017.

By October 2017, seven months later, the TelexFree Trustee’s team had processed and made determinations on 132,001 claims.

While it wasn’t an MLM opportunity, BehindMLM also tracked the Traffic Monsoon Receivership as a matter of public interest.

Traffic Monsoon owner Charles Scoville was a central figure in multiple MLM scams prior to Traffic Monsoon.

The SEC filed suit against Traffic Monsoon in July 2016, alleging it was a $207 million dollar Ponzi scheme. As with Zeek Rewards, a court-appointed receivership was established to handle victim restitution.

Following lengthy litigation in the SEC’s case, the Traffic Monsoon victim claim portal went live in January 2019. The claim deadline expired on April 10th, 2020.

By May 2021, thirteen months later, the Traffic Monsoon Receiver announced some 18,096 claims had been processed and either approved through a negotiation process or objected to.

I should point out communication during those thirteen months was regular, both publicly through Status Reports and between victims and the Receivership regarding individual claims.

Amid ongoing settlement proceedings, Josip Heit (right) rebooted GSPartners and its G999 token as DAO1 and Apertum. Through DAO1 and Apertum, Heit continues to defraud consumers out of North America.

The latest attempt to drum up interest in DAO1 and Apertum was in Beaulieu-sur-Mer on the French Riviera.

A May 19th post from Josip Heit on Instagram showcases a lavish but sparsely attended promo event held at Circé Restaurant.

One can certainly speculate as to the source of funding for such an event.

DAO1 and Apertum fraud warnings have been issued by New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and Alberta.

Alberta’s April 22nd DAO1 and Apertum fraud warning is of particular interest. Alberta is one of the settling North American jurisdictions in the GSPartners settlement.

If DAO1 and Apertum are being promoted across Canada, that would be a violation of the 2024 GSPartners settlement term sheet.

Per the term sheet, GSB Group and Heit are explicitly prohibited from

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.

Heit, DAO1 and Apertum are not registered to offer securities in Alberta or anywhere else in the world.

Pending an update from AlixPartners or North American authorities, how much longer GSPartners victims will be kept in the dark regarding claim determinations remains unknown.