Early on in their since dismissed case the SEC flagged concerns about Debt Box’s owners fleeing to Dubai.

Now those concerns have been realized, along with what appears to be an attempted $400 million exit-scam.

News of Debt Box’s founders fleeing to Dubai broke back in April.

Other than the prospect of stolen investor funds being laundered offshore and said cofounders being out of reach of US authorities, nothing else appeared to be amiss.

On July 24th, Fortune reported on what appears to be a retconned exit-scam ruse dating back to March.

In early June, according to the police report obtained by Fortune, an officer in Draper, Utah was dispatched to investigate the reported abduction of Jason Anderson.

He interviewed the victim’s brother, Jacob, who said that Jason had gone to Dubai for a business meeting on March 1. When he tried to leave the country, his passport was flagged and he was taken to a back room by airport staff.

Then, according to the brother, he was driven four hours away and placed in a hotel room that was locked from the outside. Two of Anderson’s business partners, Brannon and Nelson, then allegedly spent two weeks “mentally torturing” him (the report offers no further details) until he agreed to sign away Debt Box and nearly $400 million, and attest that he owed “people” in Dubai another $90 million.

Anderson only managed to get a message to his brother through an internet-enabled T.V. remote and, without a passport, was unable to leave the country.

Keeping in mind the kidnapping purportedly took place in March and for some reason Jacob Anderson waited till June to file a report, Fortune goes on to claim:

  • the Utah police officer who took the report contacted the FBI, who told him “agents in Dubai were already aware of the situation”
  • Dubai police visited Jason Anderson in his hotel and found “no indication of kidnapping”
  • Dubai police confirmed “there was an active criminal case in Dubai against Anderson preventing him from leaving the country”

And then there’s Jason Anderson appearing in YouTube promotional videos throughout June 2024, sharing plans to relaunch Debt Box.

Fortune’s attempts to obtain further information from US authorities were unsuccessful. They did however make contact with Brannon’s and Nelson’s attorney, who told them;

his clients were not aware of a police report made by Jacob Anderson and denied any allegations of kidnapping.

Before I get into my observations, I have to point out Dubai is the MLM crime capital of the world. Authorities there turn a blind eye to MLM related crime and any news out of the region should be taken with grain of salt.

Also any money sent to Dubai should be considered stolen, already laundered and irrecoverable.

For now, all we can confirm is:

  • ~$400 million in stolen investor funds is missing
  • all but one of Debt Box’s principals have fled to Dubai
  • the one Debt Box principal still in the US is the only one pushing the “my brother was kidnapped” story

The SEC has signalled it intends to file a followup lawsuit and investigations in the US are ongoing. This led to the recent collapse of iX Global, an MLM company accused of partnering with Debt Box to defraud consumers.

With FBI agents in the US and Dubai also investigating, it’s assumed criminal charges will be filed at some point but there are no guarantees.

With $400 million on the line, an exit-scam ruse that makes no sense and at least three US nationals and primary suspects in Dubai, I think we’ve long since crossed over Debt Box’s fraud only being a civil fraud matter.