MLM @ BehindMLM

Trust Your Universe has received a securities fraud warning from Austria’s Financial Market Authority.

InCruises has received a pyramid scheme fraud warning from Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKIK).

Gayle Toloff has been added as a relief defendant in the FTC’s ongoing Financial Education Services fraud case. Gayle Toloff is the wife of FES co-founder Mike Toloff.

The DOJ has stayed SEC civil proceedings against Forsage executives and promoters.

Default judgment has been granted against Forsage executive Mikhail Sergeev. The SEC alleges Forsage is a $300+ million Ponzi scheme. Sergeev, a Russian national, worked as Forsage’s Development Director.

Michael Shannon Sims, known in the MLM industry as Mike Sims, has consented to a preliminary injunction. The injunction pertains to commodities fraud charges brought by the CFTC. The CFTC’s January 2023 filed charges are in relation to a series of Ponzi schemes run by Sims (below), Todd Brisco (Sims’ brother in law), Tin Tran, [Continue reading…]

Indian authorities have frozen $16 million tied to QNet. The freeze order is part of a new QNet criminal case, initiated in Hyderabad on March 23rd. The new criminal case follows a fire at a QNet sweatshop in Swapnalok Complex on March 17th, which claimed the lives of five promoters.

Prolific MLM crypto Ponzi admin Ryan Mark Ginster has been sentenced to 27 months in prison. Ginster’s sentence was handed down following a entry of a guilty plea last December.

The SEC has been granted permission to serve EmpiresX fugitives Emerson Pires and Flavio Goncalves via email.

Swedish authorities raided Crowd1’s corporate offices last November. The previously unreported news was disclosed in a recent episode of Svenska Dagbladet’s paywalled Blenda podcast.