Gold Crowdfunding Review: OneX gang get into cash gifting

Gold Crowdfunding launched in mid 2014 and is headed up by President and Founder, James C. Hill.

No corporate address is provided on the Gold Crowdfunding website, however the company’s website domain provides an address in the US state of Utah.

Listed as the owner of the Gold Crowdfunding domain is Lynford Theobald of AutoTelNET, Inc.

The exact nature of the relationship between Theobald and Gold Crowdfunding is not clarified anywhere on the company website. Theobald’s name only appears as the creator of a “project” on the site, requesting members give him $150,000 to purportedly put towards gold mining operations in Tanzania (Africa).

As for James C. Hill (right), according to his Gold Crowdfunding corporate bio,

When he joined the workforce, he started in the psychiatric department with a hospital and worked directly with doctors and nurses in a new field research called “behavior modification”.

In the early 2000s he created an e-commerce program that was very popular in the United States. This was during the very early stages of the Internet. Since then he has created five e-commerce Internet-based marketing programs which have been widely accepted worldwide.

JC learned how to work with teams of developers and programmers and website designers around the world to expedite the development of e-commerce systems.

One of the “e-commerce programs” Hill refers to above is OneX. Under the pseudonym “J.C.”, Hill regularly hosted OneX affiliate calls during which he claimed to be part of a group of OneX admins.

OneX itself was a $5 entry recruitment-driven matrix-based scheme that paid affiliates to recruit new affiliates into the scheme. OneX acted as a cheaper feeder program for the shady investment scheme QLXchange.

One of OneX affiliates was notorious AdSurfDaily Ponzi kingpin Andy Bowdoin. Following the shutdown of AdSurfDaily, Bowdoin sought to recommend his investors join OneX under him in order to raise funds for his legal defense.

Public prosecutors quickly put a stop to that, with Hill named as one of the “principals” of OneX in a 2012 court filing:

In what is believed to be the first public filing that includes specific details about OneX, prosecutors produced an exhibit that identified one of the principals of OneX as James C. Hill, who allegedly also is known by the initials J.C.

The introduction of the document ends one of the long-standing OneX mysteries: the identity of “J.C.,” who once assured conference-call listeners that “God” was aboard the OneX train.

In mid 2012 Andy Bowdoin was sentenced to a maximum 78 month prison term. James C. Hill escaped prosecution.

Hill remained at large but appears to have been relatively quiet in the MLM arena these past few years… until now.

Read on for a full review of the Gold Crowdfunding MLM business opportunity.

The Gold Crowdfunding Product Line

Gold Crowdfunding has no retailable products or services.

Gold Crowdfunding affiliates market membership to the company itself, which will typically cost $10.

The Gold Crowdfunding Compensation Plan

Dubbed the “stairway to freedom”, the Gold Crowdfunding compensation plan is a single-level compensation structure pegged to a unilevel.

Affiliates make “donations” to affiliates in positions above them in the company via straight line recruitment tracking. However payments received are tracked via a unilevel (multiple positions can pay up to the same position in the larger downlines).

There are various levels within the plan, which are referred to steps. Gold Crowdfunding affiliates work their way up the compensation plan by recruiting new affiliates and making “donations” to their upline.

Step 1 cash gifting payments

When a new Gold Crowdfunding affiliate is recruited, they pay $10 to the affiliate who recruited them. The money paid is collected and placed into the recruiting affiliate’s account, which is referred to as a “project”.

In turn, after a Gold Crowdfunding affiliate has paid their $10 and starts recruiting new affiliates of their own, each pays them $10 when they join.

Step 2 cash gifting payments

After an affiliate has recruited four new affiliates and received $40, they advance to “step 2” of the Gold Crowdfunding compensation plan.

A $40 fee is charged to advance into “step 2”, with $20 going to the affiliate who recruited them (direct upline), $10 to the affiliate who recruited them (second upline) and $10 to the affiliate who recruited them (third upline).

Once an affiliate has qualified and paid their Step 2 gifting fee, they in turn qualify to receive Step 2 payments from their recruited downline (either $20 or $10, depending on how far down the affiliate paying the gifting fee is in the downline).

Step 3 cash gifting payments

Whether there are any additional qualification criteria to buy in at the third step level of the Gold Crowdfunding compensation plan is unclear. The official compensation plan material only states that affiliates need pay an $80 fee to buy in at this level.

$40 of this $80 fee is paid to the third upline (skipping the affiliate who recruited them and their direct upline), with $20 paid to the fourth and fifth upline.

Payout structure is the same as steps 1 and 2, however the first two immediate upline affiliates are skipped.

Naturally, once an affiliate has paid their $80 gifting fee, they in turn qualify to receive $40 and $20 gifting payments from their downline.

Step 4 cash gifting payments

Like Step 3, the only qualification to receive Step 4 gifting payments appears to be a payment of $200.

$100 of the $200 is gifted to the affiliate four positions above and $50 goes to the affiliates five and six positions above.

In turn, after paying their Step 4 fee, an affiliate qualifies to receive Step 4 gifting payments from their downline.

Step 5 cash gifting payments

Access to Step 5 requires payment of a $500 fee.

$250 of the $500 is paid to the affiliate five positions above. $125 is paid to the affiliates six and seven positions up.

In turn, after paying the Step 5 fee, an affiliate qualifies to receive Step 5 gifting payments from their downline.

Step 6 cash gifting payments

Access to Step 6 requires payment of a $1000 fee.

$500 of the $1000 is paid to the affiliate six positions above. $250 is paid to the affiliates seven and eight positions above.

In turn, after paying the Step 6 fee, an affiliate qualifies to receive Step 6 gifting payments from their downline.

Step 7 cash gifting payments

Access to Step 7 requires payment of a $5000 fee.

$2500 of the $5000 is paid to the affiliate seven positions above. $1250 is paid to the affiliates eight and nine positions above.

In turn, after paying the Step 7 fee, an affiliate qualifies to receive Step 7 gifting payments from their downline.

Joining Gold Crowdfunding

Affiliate membership with Gold Crowdfunding is $10.

All seven steps of the cash gifting scheme however total $6830. The scheme is marketed with the idea that recruited affiliates pay $6820 of the sum total, however it is possible for an affiliate themselves to self-fund the gifting fees. Especially at the higher steps of the compensation plan.

An affiliate can also join for free, however whether they will eventually have to pay $10 either directly or by passing up a $10 gifting fee paid to them by a recruited affiliate.

Conclusion

From the Gold Crowdfunding FAQ:

Is this a “gifting program”?

It is NOT an illegal gifting program. All crowdfunding programs are gifting programs in the sense that the very purpose of the platform or program is to receive financial gifts or donations from “the crowd,” a large group of people.

Attempting to mask itself as a legitimate crowdfunding platform, there is a distinct difference between Gold Crowdfunding and the platforms it attempts to compare itself with.

What does it cost to join Gold CrowdFunding?

You can enter your project with Gold CrowdFunding for free and refer as many people as possible to your website in order to hopefully donate at least $10.00 to your project.

In a legitimate crowdfunding platform, I can donate funds to any project I see fit. The platform itself doesn’t dictate where my funds go and there’s certainly no money to be made on my part by those who pledge funds after me.

The true nature of Gold Crowdfunding is betrayed in to the company’s Terms and Conditions:

If you apply to become an Independent Business Owner (“IBO”) with us, you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your identification and password information, and for restricting access to your computer.

You agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your identification and password. Moreover you agree that we reserve the right to terminate your IBO status immediately and without notice if we become aware of any suspicious, illegal, or immoral activities on your part or if you are convicted of any financial crimes or crimes of moral turpitude, or any crime considered a felony under the laws of the State of New York in the United States regardless of where such crime is committed, or if you use the Site or any information on the Site to mislead, or deceive anyone for the purpose of personal gain or enrichment.

The ironies of a cash gifting scheme warning affiliates not to engage in illegal activities aside, no legitimate crowdfunding platform refers to members of the public who donate as “Independent Business Owners”.

And even if Gold Crowdfunding were to engage in some pseudo-compliance and change the terminology of their Terms and Conditions, the company’s business model still give the game away.

For starters, nothing is being bought and sold. All that’s happening within Gold Crowdfunding is the transfer of money from new participants to those who joined before them.

This mechanic of money flowing from the bottom to those at the top for little else than to qualify to participate (receive gifts), is a hallmark of all gifting schemes.

If you’re wondering how James C. Hill and his OneX buddies make their money,

How does the company make money?

In the same way you do; it participates in the Donation Distribution Formula and receives donations.

They’ve simply positioned themselves at the top of the gifting chain. Admin stuffing of top positions is again another common characteristic of gifting schemes.

Does Gold CrowdFunding issue Form 1099 to the IRS to report my receipt of donations?

No. Gold CrowdFunding does not actually pay anybody anything and, therefore, has nothing to report to IRS.

So, money flows in at the bottom of the scheme and then is systematically gifted to those who joined earlier. As the amounts required to be gifted increase, so too do the positions the money is passed up.

Ultimately the goal is to be receiving $2500 and $1250 from gifting participants seven, eight or nine levels below you.

Perhaps most important of all in differentiating Gold Crowdfunding from legitimate crowdfunding platforms, is that gifting payments are paid out as they are made. The projects in effect are a farce, bearing little to no consequence on the flow of money up the scheme.

Whatever your purported project is, those who join after you will gift payments to you personally, solely for the purpose of qualifying to receive gifting payments from those who join after them.

The concept of having “Independent Business Operators” and not paying them anything is a paradox in and of itself. Explainable only by acknowledging that there’s nothing that differentiates Gold Crowdfunding from a cash gifting scheme.

As with all cash gifting schemes, once recruitment of new gifters dries up, the scheme goes kaput. Given the pass-up of gifting payments between seven to nine levels at the upper tiers of the scheme, that’s probably going to happen sooner rather than later.

But of course not before James C. Hill and friends have fleeced the lion’s share of payments from participants.

Oh and some of the money you gift will also likely wind up being put towards T. LeMont Silver’s Zeek Receivership payback fund (or ventures into bitcoin scamming).

Facing clawback litigation for his part in stealing funds from investors in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme, Silver has recently been pimping Gold Crowdfunding on Vimeo:

And if you’re thinking Silver’s involvement in Gold Crowdfunding seems a bit random, think again. Before Silver began ripping people off in Zeek, he was of course a OneX affiliate.

Round and round we go…