FTC investigating IM Mastery Academy for consumer protection
The FTC appears to have prematurely revealed it has launched a consumer protection enforcement action against IM Mastery Academy.
I don’t have any specific details on the case to report as of yet.
The press-release template on the FTC’s website is dated May 23rd, suggesting it was scheduled to publish later today.
As per the screenshot above there are no details accompanying the FTC’s press-release template, leading me to believe it was published prematurely in error.
Regardless, we now know IM Mastery Academy is under federal regulatory investigation in the US.
BehindMLM reviewed IM Mastery Academy and identified it as a pyramid scheme back in December 2019.
The “algorithmic trading” side of the business adds potential securities and commodities fraud to IM Mastery Academy’s business model.
As of yet though we don’t know if there’s parallel SEC and/or CFTC investigations.
Back in 2018 the CFTC fined iMarketsLive $150,000 for commodities fraud. Owner Chris Terry rename the company to IM Mastery Academy shortly after.
Outside of the US, IM Mastery Academy has received regulatory attention from Peru, Colombia, Spain (arrests), Seychelles and Poland.
I’ll be watching for further details on the FTC’s IM Mastery Academy case closely. Expect an update (hopefully with full case information) later today.
Update 23rd May 2023 – The FTC’s website has been updated.
We still don’t know anything about the FTC’s IM Mastery Academy investigation and lawsuit, but we do now know that the website entry pertains to a civil investigative demand served on Matthew Thayer.
Given we can’t confirm whether an FTC lawsuit has been filed, I’ve updated the article title to better reflect what is currently known.
Me today: Alrighty, after a busy weekend I’m going to get through my emails and some long overdue reviews!
MLM industry:
Oz:
today.rtl.lu/news/luxembourg/a/2071555.html
lequotidien.lu/a-la-une/im-mastery-academy-dans-le-collimateur-de-la-justice-luxembourgeoise/
Thanks Javier. Was aware of the securities fraud warning but not the subsequent arrests.
While in IM i didn’t receive any education and put in 10,000. Which is which is nothing for chris terry and the rest making over 100k-1 million dollar a month. They can easily refund all of us.
Anyways i never received education and was charge each month for it. They lie and used god to push stuff and get people motivated into earning them more money.
If you were not building there buisiness and luring people in then u got no help. Ofcours ethey would say oh there not motovated, like no ur scamming people and lying.
Jason brown , katie brown, elaine Gutierrez, and Nick Gomez. There the main ones in the group the top leaders. Spent over 6600 in member ship should of been free.
They were taking money to setup funded trading account so we wouldn’t have to pay membership. All of them especially nick gomex kept pushing this superbid coin that flopped.
Every time u seek help they would block you. There horrible people hiding behind word god and using it for extortion.
If i was undercover FBI agent i would have great case and would of arrest them all. Evidence is there and so is the crime.
These people make so much money a fine not going to do anything. Watch out for those people i mentioned above.
How is a company that only pays IBOs that have customers; even remotely a “pyramid scheme”?
They don’t pay Builders to build for the sake of building new builders to build more builder groups; while ignoring the gathering of customers (the definition of an illegal pyramid)..
They are incentivised and paid to gather customers.
In my particular group within IMMA, only about 6% are commissioned reps. The rest are ALL just customers.
NO PYRAMID HERE. . . PERIOD!
That’s slick. IM Mastery Academy is a pyramid scheme if the majority of revenue is coming from signed up affiliates (participants in the MLM opportunity).
Whether the affiliates qualify for commissions or not is irrelevant.
My name is Jeremiah all my family was investing just like me.
it’s pretty obnoxious that we wasted our f****** money for this investing we’re waiting for somebody to tell us for our money to receive.
meaning is I’m going to start putting lawsuits on I am a master’s academy if none of my family members don’t get their money so I need somebody to talk to me about this or something’s going to happen a big fat lawsuit is going to happen and I ain’t no joke.
You’re not getting your money back any time soon, even if the FTC does file a Complaint.
Hope you weren’t the one to recruit your family into IM Mastery Academy.
There are many deceptive practices of Triumphant Exchange Platform, a forex trading broker platform operated under IM Mastery Academy Worldwide by individuals identified as W and R Webb.
The scam employs sophisticated methods to lure victims via Facebook and Telegram Pages, promising profits through forex trading.
Victims are ensnared into investing, but end up being defrauded of significant amounts due to hidden fees, unauthorized capital injections, and complex schemes involving crypto wallets and fake BTC tokens.
Additionally, victims’ Telegram accounts are targeted, hacked, and deleted by the scammers to erase evidence of their fraudulent activities.
The Triumphant Exchange Platform scam operated by W. Webb and R. Webb through IM Mastery Academy Worldwide represents a highly deceptive and technologically sophisticated scheme. Victims are defrauded of significant amounts through hidden fees, unauthorized capital injections, and complex crypto transactions.
Urgent investigation and action are necessary to protect consumers and hold the perpetrators accountable for their fraudulent activities.
Well-researched IM Mastery Academy article from Bloomberg’s Alice Kantor [paywalled]:
bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-05-14/the-stock-market-multilevel-marketing-company-for-teens