BehindMLM first reviewed Swiss Gold Global mid last year.

We concluded that there was a good chance the majority of affiliates were self qualifying for commissions, effectively making Swiss Gold Global a pyramid scheme.

That business model is unsustainable, so it wasn’t entirely surprising to learn the company has since made changes to its offering and compensation plan.

Today we take a look at those changes with an updated Swiss Gold Global review.

The Swiss Gold Global Product Line

Swiss Gold Global still market their “premium education program”, however now it is only available to affiliates.

A free Swiss Gold Global membership exists, however it only provides “limited access” to the program.

Full access to the Swiss Gold Global premium education program now costs $249 to $5000 (there doesn’t appear to be any difference between how much is paid).

Swiss Gold Global free and paid affiliate membership also provides access to an internal gold, silver and cryptocurrency exchange.

Free members and paid affiliates can also invest in bitcoin mining for $3000.

The Swiss Gold Global Compensation Plan

The Swiss Gold Global compensation plan is not provided on the company website.

A PDF of the compensation plan is hosted on the Swiss Gold Global website, and is viewable via a Google search. This document forms the basis of the following analysis.

Swiss Gold Global Affiliate Ranks

There are ten affiliate ranks within the Swiss Gold Global compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria they are as follows:

  • Affiliate – sign up with an affiliate package and be commission qualified
  • Manager – recruit and maintain at least two commission qualified affiliates
  • Team Leader – recruit and maintain at least three commission qualified affiliates (one Manager) and have a downline generating at least 1250 GV a month (no more than 60% from any one unilevel leg)
  • Director – recruit and maintain at least four commission qualified affiliates (one Manager and one Team Leader) and have a downline generating at least 3750 GV a month (no more than 60% from any one unilevel leg)
  • Executive Director -recruit and maintain at least five commission qualified affiliates (one Team Leader and one Director) and have a downline generating at least 75000 GV a month (no more than 40% from any one unilevel leg)
  • Ambassador – recruit and maintain at least five affiliates (one Director and one Executive Director) and have a downline generating at least 15,000 GV a month (no more than 40% from any one unilevel leg)
  • Senior Ambassador – maintain at least five recruited affiliates (one Executive Director and one Ambassador) and have a downline generating at least 30,000 GV a month (no more than 40% from any one unilevel leg)
  • National Ambassador – maintain at least five recruited affiliates (two Ambassadors) and have a downline generating at least 100,000 GV a month (no more than 40% from any one unilevel leg)
  • Gold Ambassador – maintain at least five recruited affiliates (two Ambassadors) and have a downline generating at least 100,000 GV a month (no more than 40% from any one unilevel leg)
  • Platinum Ambassador – maintain at least five recruited affiliates (four Ambassadors) and have a downline generating at least 100,000 GV a month

Once obtained, monthly qualification for the Team Leader and higher ranks are as follows:

  • Team Leader – meet the initial Team Leader qualification criteria, or have a downline generating at least 750 GV a month (no more than 60% from any one unilevel leg)
  • Director – meet the initial Director qualification criteria, or have a downline generating at least 1500 GV a month (no more than 60% from any one unilevel leg)
  • Executive Director – meet the initial Executive Director qualification criteria, or have a downline generating at least 3000 GV a month (no more than 40% from any one unilevel leg)
  • Ambassador – meet the initial Ambassador qualification criteria, or have a downline generating 7500 GV a month (no more than 40% from any one unilevel leg)
  • Senior Ambassador – remain commission qualified and maintain one commission qualified recruited Ambassador affiliate, or have a downline generating 25,000 GV a month (no more than 40% from any one unilevel leg)
  • National Ambassador – remain commission qualified and maintain two commission qualified Ambassadors, or have a downline generating 75,000 GV a month (no more than 40% from any one unilevel leg)

Commission Qualification

To qualify for commissions a Swiss Gold Global affiliate if they generate 50 PV or 500 PSR a month.

PV stands for “Personal Volume” and is sales volume generated by an Swiss Gold Global affiliate’s own payment of fees.

PSR stands for “Personal Shared Revenue” and is gold and silver purchase volume by an affiliate and their personally recruited free members.

Recruitment Commissions

Swiss Gold Global affiliates are paid $55 plus 10% of membership fees paid each time they recruit a new Swiss Gold Global affiliate.

A 10% residual commission is also paid out on level 2 recruitment (affiliates recruited by affiliates you’ve personally recruited).

A bonus $200 is paid out if a new Swiss Gold Global affiliate recruits three affiliates who each recruit one affiliate, within 30 days of signing up as an affiliate.

Residual Commissions

Residual commissions in Swiss Gold Global are paid out 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.

Swiss Gold Global cap payable unilevel levels at seven, with commissions paid out as a percentage of fees paid by affiliates within the unilevel team.

  • Affiliate – 5% on levels 1 and 2
  • Manager – 5% on levels 1 to 3
  • Team Leader – 5% on levels 1 to 4
  • Director – 5% on levels 1 to 5
  • Executive Director and higher – 5% on levels 1 to 7

Gold and Silver Commissions

If a personally recruited affiliate or member purchases gold or silver through the Swiss Gold Global internal exchange, the company pays a commission.

  • free member account orders generate a 2% commission
  • affiliate orders generate a 1% commission

Rank Achievement Bonus

Starting at the Team Leader rank, Swiss Gold Global pay affiliates a Rank Achievement Bonus as follows:

  • Team Leader – $100
  • Director – $200
  • Executive Director – $300
  • Ambassador – $500
  • Senior Ambassador – $750
  • National Ambassador – $1000
  • Gold Ambassador – $2000
  • Platinum Ambassador – $3000

Ambassador Leadership Bonus

The Ambassador Leadership Bonus pays Ambassador and higher ranked affiliates a bonus 2% of sales volume generated by non-Ambassador ranked affiliates in their downline.

Once a personally recruited affiliate qualifies as an Ambassador, that leg pays out a Generation Bonus instead (see below).

Generation Bonus

The Generation Bonus pays Ambassador and higher ranked affiliates a bonus percentage on downline volume via generations.

A generation in Swiss Gold Global is defined when another Ambassador or higher ranked affiliate is found in a unilevel leg.

This affiliate caps off the first generation of that leg, with the second generation starting after them.

If no second Ambassador or higher ranked affiliate exists in that leg, the second generation runs the full length of the unilevel leg.

Swiss Gold Global affiliates are paid a 3% generation bonus down up to three Ambassador generations in each unilevel leg.

Check Match Bonus

Ambassador and higher ranked Swiss Gold Global affiliates qualify for a check match bonus on commissions paid to personally recruited Ambassador or higher ranked affiliates.

  • personally recruited Ambassador affiliates pay a 10% check match bonus
  • personally recruited Senior Ambassador affiliates pay a 15% check match bonus
  • personally recruited National Ambassador or higher affiliates pay a 20% check match bonus

Global Bonus Pool

Swiss Gold Global take 1% of company-wide sales volume and place it into a Global Bonus Pool.

The Global Bonus Pool is split into four smaller pools, corresponding with Bronze Ambassador and higher ranks.

  • Senior Ambassadors earn a share in a 20% pool of the 1% Global Bonus Pool
  • National Ambassadors earn a share in a 20% pool of the 1% Global Bonus Pool
  • Gold Ambassadors earn a share in a 20% pool of the 1% Global Bonus Pool
  • Platinum Ambassadors earn a share in a 40% pool of the 1% Global Bonus Pool

Bitcoin Mining

Swiss Gold Global affiliate membership packages correspond with a daily bitcoin mining ROI.

Swiss Gold Global claim their mining is provided by Genesis Mining, a third-party cryptocurrency cloud-mining company.

Cryptographic currency mining contracts provided by 3rd party company Genesis – Mining.

These contracts are contingent to the Terms and Conditions of Genesis – Mining and not Royal Golden Enterprise GmbH or New Golden Life DMCC trading as Swiss Gold Global.

Daily ROI payouts are provided in Gigahash (GH) and Terahash (TH) amounts:

  • Silver affiliate membership ($249 plus $50 a month) – daily ROI of 200 GH
  • Gold affiliate membership ($797) – daily ROI of 500 GH
  • Ambassador affiliate membership ($3000) – daily ROI of 5 TH
  • Platinum affiliate membership ($5000) – daily ROI of 15 TH

Swiss Gold Global affiliates (including free members) can purchase a $3000 mining contract.

The standalone mining contract pays a daily ROI of 11 TH.

Note that how much bitcoin a GH or TH corresponds to fluctuates due to the nature of cryptocurrencies in general.

Gold and Silver

Swiss Gold Global affiliates are given a fixed value of gold or silver when they sign up.

How much of either gold or silver is determined by how much a Swiss Gold Global affiliate spends when they sign up:

  • Silver – $50 of 999.9 gold or 999.0 silver
  • Gold – $150 of 999.9 gold or 999.0 silver
  • Ambassador – $800 of 999.9 gold or 999.0 silver
  • Platinum – $1200 of 999.9 gold or 999.0 silver

Joining Swiss Gold Global

Swiss Gold Global affiliate membership costs $50 to $5000.

  • Silver – $249 plus $50 a month
  • Gold – $797
  • Ambassador – $3000
  • Platinum – $5000

Conclusion

Swiss Gold Global v2.0 expands the original recruitment-centric business model to include cryptocurrency mining.

The non-retail viability of the company’s education platform is demonstrated by it’s full inclusion only available via paid affiliate membership.

Swiss Gold Global’s original business model was never retail viable, so it’s good to see they’ve done away with the facade.

Unfortunately it’s been replaced by cryptocurrency mining, which is an income opportunity unto itself and not really retail.

As far as I can tell the Swiss Gold Global retail offering is gold and silver and bitcoin mining purchased by free members.

Realistically this is likely to be a fraction of revenue generated by the company, with the majority sourced by affiliates via fees.

A good indicator of this is to check whether your potential upline is commission qualified via their own purchase(s) each month or via retail gold and silver purchases.

I’d be pretty surprised if there are any Swiss Gold Global affiliates qualifying for commissions with standing monthly retail gold and silver orders.

As to the gold and silver itself, practically it’s just a vehicle to move money.

An affiliate invests and is given a set amount of gold or silver. That gold or silver doesn’t actually exist unless the affiliate requests delivery.

Otherwise the investment is liquid. “Storage” is free and an affiliate can request a withdrawal based on the current gold or silver price.

In this sense Swiss Gold Global’s gold and silver offering is more of a speculative investment platform through which fiat currency is primarily exchanged.

The bitcoin mining is a third-party offering, with Swiss Gold Global getting a cut of whatever commission they’ve agreed to with Genesis Mining.

The rest of the Swiss Gold Global compensation plan is recruitment-driven, maintaining the pyramid scheme nature of the original compensation plan.

This is re-enforced by how Swiss Gold Global themselves see the upper tiers of their compensation plan:

Four lucrative bonuses to look forward to when you have grown an organization with many Affiliate.

Retail sales don’t even factor into Ambassador and higher rank income.

The gold and silver platform as well as cryptocurrency mining are most definitely securities offerings, yet nowhere on the Swiss Gold Global website does the company indicate it’s licensed to offer securities in any jurisdiction.

Alexa currently estimate 13% of traffic to the Swiss Gold Global website originates out of the US, which might attract the attention of the SEC.

Perhaps not so surprising is the fact that Nigeria is the largest source of traffic. Nigeria is currently going through an interest boom in MLM fraud.

On top of potential securities fraud and pyramid recruitment, pay to play is also an issue with the Swiss Gold Global compensation plan.

Signing up as an Ambassador ($3000) or Platinum ($5000) affiliate automatically makes the affiliate ‘Ambassador Leadership Bonus qualified’.

This opens up the upper tiers of the Swiss Gold Global compensation plan and is clearly pay to play.

All in all the MLM side of Swiss Gold Global requires a constant stream of new recruits, without which the scheme collapses.

It is possible for the passive investment side of the business to continue without affiliate recruitment (gold and silver investment and mining), however those alone don’t generate significant revenue for the company.

Seeing as the gold and silver and mining is offered through Swiss Gold Global, it follows a collapse will see affiliates severed from their investment.

 

Update 14th April 2019 – As of late 2018 Swiss Gold Global has rebooted as Utopian Global.