BullRun Review: Brazilian serial scammer launches bitcoin Ponzi
BullRun, not to be confused with BullRun the collapsed 2020 cycler Ponzi, operates in the cryptocurrency MLM niche.
Heading up BullRun is CEO Carlos Nobre. Nobre is from Brazil and has a long history of participation in MLM scams.
BNG was an MLM scam that scammed thousands in Brazil circa 2016.
As part of their coverage of BNG’s collapse, UnversoMLM cited Carlos Nobre (right) as the company’s Marketing Director.
UnversoMLM tied Nobre to UniverTeam, a Portuguese scam that was eventually sold off to the notorious OneCoin scheme.
Going back even further, in 2012 Nobre was promoting the AiYellow pyramid scheme.
The first MLM crypto scam I was able to pin Nobre to was Digital Goen.
Digital Goen was a Brazilian crypto Ponzi scheme advertising a 3% daily ROI. Digital Goen collapsed in December 2019.
Unless Nobre has since fled Brazil, his involvement in BullRun suggests the company is being run out of Brazil.
BullRun’s website domain (“bullrun.io”) was first registered in February 2019. The domain registration was last updated on March 1st, 2021.
BullRun’s website domain registration details point to the Netherlands and appear to be bogus.
Also bogus is the corporate address in Panama City that BullRun provides on its website.
Any ties BullRun has to Panama will be on paper only, through the shell company “Universal Real Properties SRL”.
Based on Alexa traffic estimates for BullRun’s website, the company is primarily being promoted in Guatemala (45%), Russia (22%) and the Philippines (8%).
Read on for a full review of BullRun’s MLM opportunity.
BullRun’s Products
BullRun has no retailable products or services.
BullRun affiliates are only able to market BullRun affiliate membership itself.
BullRun’s Compensation Plan
BullRun affiliates invest €100 to €100,000 EUR on the representation of a ROI.
No specific ROI details are provided on BullRun’s website.
BullRun promoters on YouTube are advertising an annual 364.79% ROI.
The MLM side of BullRun pays on recruitment of affiliate investors.
BullRun Affiliate Ranks
There are eight affiliate ranks within BullRun’s compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Bronze – sign up as a BullRun affiliate
- Silver – generate €10,000 EUR in downline investment across thirteen unilevel team levels
- Gold – generate €50,000 EUR in downline investment across thirteen unilevel team levels
- Ruby – generate €200,000 EUR in downline investment across thirteen unilevel team levels
- Emerald – generate €700,000 EUR in downline investment across thirteen unilevel team levels
- Diamond – generate €2,000,000 EUR in downline investment across thirteen unilevel team levels
- Double Diamond – generate €5,000,000 EUR in downline investment across thirteen unilevel team levels
- Triple Diamond – generate €10,000,000 EUR in downline investment across thirteen unilevel team levels
Note that no more than 75% of required downline investment is counted from any one unilevel team leg.
Residual Commissions
BullRun pays residual commissions via a unilevel compensation structure.
A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):
If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.
If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.
BullRun caps payable unilevel team levels at thirteen.
Residual commissions are paid as a percentage of funds invested across these thirteen levels based on rank:
- Bronze – 6% on level 1 and 4% on level 2
- Silver – 6% on level 1, 4% on level 2 and 3% on levels 4 and 5
- Gold – 6% on level 1, 4% on level 2 and 3% on levels 3 to 6
- Ruby – 6% on level 1, 4% n level 2, 3% on levels 3 to 6 and 2% on levels 7 and 8
- Emerald – 6% on level 1, 4% on level 2, 3% on levels 3 to 6 and 2% on levels 7 to 10
- Diamond – 6% on level 1, 4% on level 2, 3% on levels 3 to 6, 2% on levels 7 to 10 and 1% on level 11
- Double Diamond – 6% on level 1, 4% on level 2, 3% on levels 3 to 6, 2% on levels 7 to 10 and 1% on levels 11 and 12
- Triple Diamond – 6% on level 1, 4% on level 2, 3% on levels 3 to 6, 2% on levels 7 to 10 and 1% on levels 11 to 13
Leadership Bonus
BullRun takes 10% of company-wide invested funds and places them into three Leadership Bonus pools.
The Leadership Bonus pool are paid out based on rank:
- Diamonds, Double and Triple Diamonds receive a share in a 5% Leadership Bonus pool
- Double and Triple Diamonds receive a share in a 3% Leadership Bonus pool
- Triple Diamonds receive a share in a 2% Leadership Bonus pool
Joining BullRun
BullRun affiliate membership is free.
Full participation in the attached income opportunity requires an initial €100 to €100,000 EUR investment.
Conclusion
BullRun claims it is able to generate external revenue because they “are experts in obtaining returns from trading with crypto assets.”
Cryptocurrency is the defacto ruse used by MLM cryptocurrency Ponzi schemes.
BullRun provides no evidence of external revenue being generated, via trading or otherwise. There is also no evidence of external revenue being used to pay withdrawal requests.
The only verifiable source of revenue entering BullRun is new investment.
Using new investment to pay returns makes BullRun a Ponzi scheme.
None of this should come as a surprise given Carlos Nobre’s past.
As with all MLM Ponzi schemes, once affiliate recruitment dries up so too will new investment.
This will starve BullRun of ROI revenue, eventually prompting a collapse.
The math behind Ponzi schemes guarantees that when they collapse, the majority of participants lose money.