Mavie Global, Ultron and several promoters have received a cease and desist order from Quebec’s Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF).

Named respondents in AMF’s May 16th order are:

  • Mavie Lab Ltd
  • Ultron Technologies Incorporated
  • FlipMe
  • LottoDay
  • Nick Lemay
  • Stephane Plante and
  • Nathalie Mercier

Mavie Global and Ultron are run by Michal Prazenica, a Slovakian national who fled to Dubai.

Mavie Lab Ltd is the British Virgin Islands shell company behind the Mavie Global Ponzi scheme.

Ultron Technologies Incorporated is the Dubai shell company behind Ultron, the technology platform through which Mavie Global runs its Ponzi scheme.

FlipMe is the third Mavie Global Ponzi spinoff. LottoDay is the first Mavie Global Ponzi spinoff.

Nick Lemay, Stephanie Plante and Nathalie Mercier are Quebec residents and serial promoters of fraudulent MLM companies.

Before they joined Mavie Global and Ultron, Lemay, Plante and Mercier were promoting the Be pyramid scheme (aka Melius), and Validus Ponzi scheme.

Lemay also promoted Safir, another MLM Ponzi scheme that collapsed in 2023.

Be continues to defraud consumers under various trading names. Validus collapsed in April 2023.

Following an internal investigation into suspected fraud, AMF (the Authority) filed for an emergency hearing with the Administrative Tribunal for Financial Markets (the Tribunal) on May 15th.

The Authority maintains that the respondents have committed and will continue to commit numerous serious breaches of sections 11 and 148 of the Securities Act as well as Regulation 31-103 respecting registration requirements and exemptions and continuing obligations of registered persons by carrying out activities as a securities broker and advisor, without holding registration with the Authority and by making placements with the public of forms of investment provided for in section 1 of the Act on securities, in this case investment contracts linked to three cases in the field of cryptocurrencies, all without hold[ing] a prospectus subject to approval by the Authority or without benefiting from an appropriate exemption.

The Authority states that its investigation into this matter is continuing, but that it is important that the illicit solicitation and placement activities of the respondents, which target a particularly vulnerable investing public, immediately cease.

In their emergency ex-parte filing, the AMF noted that Lemay, Plante and Mercier were gearing up to host a “large-scale promotional activity in Quebec – currently planned for June 8 and 9 2024”.

The Authority emphasizes that the money – already transferred to the respondents by the investing public in the form of cryptocurrency as well as that which is likely to be further paid to them following the aforementioned promotion and solicitation activities – is routed through websites belonging to respondents who are legal entities incorporated in foreign jurisdictions that can be qualified as “tax havens”.

This situation is likely to considerably complicate any possible attempt by the regulator to recover and potentially redistribute to injured investors the money that the respondents may have managed to extract from them as part of their illicit activities.

The Tribunal scheduled a hearing on May 16th. At the hearing the Tribunal confirmed securities fraud and granted the AMF’s request for an emergency cease and desist order.

Th(e) evidence reveals that the Respondents are in the process of organizing a large-scale promotion activity in Quebec … during which they pan to bring together in person an audience that could reach 1,000 people residing in Quebec, with a view to soliciting and illicitly placing with this group of potential investors investment contracts that can be acquired through websites of the respondents MavieLab LTD, Ultrong Technologies Limited, FlipMe and LottoDay.

The respondents Nick Lemay and Stephanie Plante claimed to have each collected no less than 120,000 USDT in commissions from their solicitation and placement activities referred to above.

As for Nathalie Mercier, she allegedly told an AMF investigator, as part of an undercover operation carried out during the investigation:

“I made more than $17,000 promoting the company and I don’t even do this full time.”

In the opinion of the Tribunal, probative evidence presented by the Authority demonstrates that the respondents allegedly committed and would continue to commit apparent breaches … by carrying out activities as a securities advisor and broker and by making investments with the investing public of a form of investment provided for in Article 1 of the Securities Act.

In this case securities contracts investment linked to three businesses in the field of cryptocurrencies – and offering attractive returns, all without being registered with the regulator and without holding a prospectus approved by the Authority or without benefiting from an appropriate exemption to do so.

For these reasons … MavieLab LTD, also doing business as Mavie Global, Nick Lemay, Stephane Plante and Nathalie Mercier [are] forbidden to carry out any activity with a view to carrying out, directly or indirectly, a transaction f any form of investment covered by the Securities Act.

[The Tribunal] orders the respondents Nick Lemay, Stephane Plante and Nathalie Mercier to remove, within a period of five (5) days from this decision, any announcement, publicity or other publications disseminated, directly or indirectly, via the internet or otherwise, in particular on YouTube, FaceBook, Instagram and LinkedTree, in connection with any form of investment covered by the Securities Act, promoted and/or offered through Mavie.

[The Tribunal] orders MavieLab LTD and any other person operating the “mavie.global” website, thirty (30 days after this decision and for the future, to block access to the “mavie.global” website.

Ultron, LottoDay and FlipMe have also been ordered to cease and desist committing securities fraud, as well as blocking their websites in Quebec.

The Tribunal ordered the FMA to notify Mavie Global and Ultron of the order “without delay” on May 16th. To date neither Mavie Global or Ultron have publicly acknowledged the Tribunal’s order.

The AMF went public with the order on May 29th.

Needless to say the Tribunal’s order effectively bans promotion of Mavie Global, its spinoffs and Ultron in Quebec. Securities law is materially the same across Canada, however other provinces have yet to issue official Mavie Global and Ultron fraud warnings.

As of May 2024, SimilarWeb tracked ~137,000 monthly visits to Mavie Global’s website (a 35% month on month reduction).

Top sources of traffic to Mavie Global’s website are Russia (28%), Hungary (9%), South Korea (7%), the UK (7%) and Chile (5%).

Neither Mavie Global, its spinoffs or Ultron are registered to offer securities in any of these countries.