Two civilians have managed to get Lyoness’ bank accounts in South Africa frozen.

As reported by MoneyWeb on September 1st;

The application was brought on Sunday evening by Jianliu Lin and her husband Adriaan van den Bergh, both members of the multi-level marketing scheme.

The ex parte (where the court hears only one side of the case) application was brought late on Sunday so that Standard Bank could be served with the order first thing on Monday (29 August) to prevent any transfer of funds out of the company bank account.

Lin and van der Bergh, claim they brought their application “in the public interest”, on suspicion Lyoness is a Ponzi scheme.

Despite appearing to be a major promoter of Lyoness in South Africa, Lin frames herself as a victim.

Lin became a vice president in 2018 and invested a total of R6.1 million.

Lin explains how she paid another R4.5 million to the same Standard Bank account, for which she received 594.66 ‘Enterprise Clouds’ each worth R7 500.

“What I have noticed is that seemingly Lyconet keeps on rebranding the different products, thus as soon as I am entitled to a payout in respect of the points, there is a name change, and the branded products no longer exists, and I receive no payout,” she says her affidavit.

“I am truly trapped. I can honestly say that consenting to the constant rebranding and converting of products of Lyconet is not given willingly. Lyconet has trapped me. I either tick the box or lose it all.”

What triggered the ex-parte freeze application was Lyoness draining the R300 million held in their South African bank accounts, to just R11.4 million over a few weeks in June 2022 ($17.4 million down to $664,467 USD).

Lyoness and its associated companies are operated from Austria by owner Hubert Freidl (right).

The granted freeze will remain in place for 120 days.

Lin and Van den Bergh’s attorney claims complaints have been filed with the FSCA, the FIC and local police in Pretoria. They hope authorities will investigate “where the money went”.

As with its investment schemes, Lyoness frequently changes company names. Although Lyoness is its most well known branding, the Ponzi scheme also goes by Lyconet, CashBack World and myWorld.

Whatever Lyoness recruitment was going in South Africa has long-since collapsed. SimilarWeb doesn’t chart South Africa as a noticeable source of traffic to any of Lyoness’ websites.

BehindMLM last reviewed Lyoness as myWorld in Feb 2021. The Ponzi scheme has recently spread back to Europe.

SimilarWeb traffic stats suggest a recent recruitment boom in the Czech Republic and Germany has collapsed. New Lyoness investors are currently being recruited in Poland and Greece.