Three IM Mastery Academy promoters in Poland have been charged with promoting a pyramid scheme. [Continue reading…]

Two Bolivian Pay Diamond scammers have been arrested in Argentina.

Following arrest warrants issued through Interpol, mother and son duo Brian Gutierrez (27) and Nilda Coque (47) were arrested in Buenos Aires. [Continue reading…]

iGenius, DreamTrips and Jifu are under investigation in Poland.

The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), is specifically investigating whether these companies are pyramid schemes. [Continue reading…]

Young NRG operates in the supplements and personal care MLM niches.

The company is headed up by founder and CEO Chris Simonian.

Back in 2021 Simonian was appointed President of Auvoria Prime:

Auvoria Prime launched in 2020 as “the third attempt to sell use of a non-profitable trading bot to gullible victims.”

In August 2023, SimilarWeb tracked around 12,000 visits to Auvoria Prime’s website. Over the past few months there has been a steady decline.

Seeing as Simonian doesn’t have a Young NRG corporate bio, we’ll quote from his still available Auvoria Prime bio;

Chris began his direct selling career at the age of 18. By age 22, he helmed a successful full-time organization, which spanned three continents.

In the early nineties, Chris worked with the late Mark Hughes at Herbalife, to help expand their product line and enhance their compensation plan resulting in a growth of over $100 million.

Chris later teamed up with Beachbody, to establish Team Beachbody, where he implemented one of the most successful customer acquisition programs in the industry, designed the compensation plan, created the recognition and incentive programs, and guided Team Beachbody to approximately $400 million in sales in just six years.

Chris was most recently with SeneGence International, where he led their International growth strategies building out a corporate Sales team in four countries, grew the Customer Service department to over 80 reps, supervised and grew Recognition and Events, opened three new countries and implemented training, tech, and social media programs resulting in high triple digit growth.

Although he’s credited as founder and CEO of Young NRG, Simonian doesn’t actually own the company.

Corporate records reveal Young NRG Inc. was incorporated in Texas in March 2023. Terry LaCore of LaCore Enterprises is the owner.

LaCore Enterprises owns and operates multiple MLM companies, most of which are in the nutritional supplement niche.

Read on for a full review of the Young NRG MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

A reader got in contact earlier today to share an odd email from the DOJ, regarding Infinity2Global founder Richard Maike.

As per the email, sent out as part of the DOJ’s Victim Notification System on September 8th;

Defendant(s), Richard G. Maike, has been released from federal custody.

The appeal in the case of defendant(s), Richard G. Maike, was decided on May 10, 2023. The appeal was affirmed.

Um… what? [Continue reading…]

AGS fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

AGS’ website domain “agspakistan.com”, was privately registered on April 27th, 2023. Note however that AGS didn’t officially launch till August 28th.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

Veqber Guild fails to provide verifiable ownership or executive information on its website.

Without explanation, Veqber Guild provides details for two CEOs:

Neither “Dash Bereford” or “Cristopher Marveq” appear to exist.

Over on YouTube we have the actor playing Dash Bereford with a non-native English speaker accent.

It’s not the strong Russian accent where used to but definitely sounds eastern European to me (possibly a Russia/Ukraine adjacent region).

Other actors in Veqber Guild’s marketing videos wear wigs and, in order to mask their thicker accents, are dubbed over.

At [0:23] on this Veqber Guild marketing video, we can see the PC in the shot is set to UTC +2.

This time zone corresponds with Kaliningrad Time and Russia’s Northwestern Federal District.

Veqber Guild’s website domain (“veqber.com”), was first registered in 2021. The private registration was last updated on March 14th, 2023.

Prior to March 2023 the “veqber.com” domain was parked. Thus it appears whoever is running Veqber Guild purchased the domain on or around March 2023.

Supporting this is Veqber Guild’s current website going live towards the end of March 2023.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, Veqber Guild provides incorporation details for Veqber GCG UK Limited.

Veqber GCG UK Limited was incorporated in the UK on March 14th, 2023.

An MLM company operating or claiming to operate out of the UK is a red flag.

UK incorporation is dirt cheap and effectively unregulated. On top of that the FCA, the UK’s top financial regulator, do not actively regulate MLM related securities fraud.

As a result the UK is a favored jurisdiction for scammers looking to incorporate, operate and promote fraudulent companies.

For the purpose of MLM due-diligence, incorporation in the UK or registration with the FCA is meaningless.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

The CFTC has secured a $1.7 billion consent judgment against Mirror Trading International.

The judgment follows settlement negotiations with South African liquidators, and a Joint Motion to approve the then proposed consent judgment on September 5th.

The court signed off on the judgment on September 6th. [Continue reading…]

Liska fails to provide verifiable ownership or executive information on its website.

While Liska does cite “Charlee Mangar” as its co-founder and COO…

…Mangar is represented by a stock photo and fictional corporate bio.

In other words, Charlee Mangar doesn’t exist.

Liska’s website domain (“liskaio.pro”), was privately registered on June 12th, 2023.

If we visit Liskar’s affiliate login page, we can see the native language is set to Chinese:

This suggests whoever is actually running Liska has ties to China.

Note that although it’s being run by Chinese admin(s), Liska is targeting the Philippines and Bangladesh:

Also note that, in an attempt to appear legitimate, Liska claims it has been “certified by the US MSB”.

We have a US MSB license and are regulated by FinCen.

Your funds are regulated and protected by US FinCEN

Liska appears to be registered with Fincen through Liska Finance Investments, a Colorado shell company.

FINCEN is not a financial regulator, nor has it “certified” Liska.

All whoever is running Liska has done is register a shell company with bogus details, and then register the shell company with FINCEN.

This requires minimal effort beyond supplying bogus details and payment of small fees. In other words, with respect to MLM due-diligence, it’s meaningless.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

Levarti fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Levarti’s website domain (“golevarti.com”), was privately registered on July 18th, 2023.

Further research reveals David Barton (aka DJ Barton) being cited as a Levarti co-founder:

Barton seems to be the face of Levarti for now. For some reason Levarti’s other co-founders are laying low.

Circa November 2022 Barton was involved in Hapi Travel.

In December 2022 Barton was promoting My Travel Ventures:

Barton was still promoting My Travel Ventures as late as June 2023.

My Travel Ventures is owned by Global Travel Destinations LLC.

Global Travel Destinations LLC is a Texas company. Corporate records reveal its tied to Hapi Travel, suggesting it’s a reboot.

Other MLM opportunities that have recently featured on Barton’s YouTube channel include Youngevity’s 8 Minute Trader and some solar power opportunity.

According to his LinkedIn profile Barton is based out of Texas. Presumably this is also where Levarti is being operated from.

That said, it should be noted that Levarti’s Policies and Procedures state;

These Policies and Procedures shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the Laws of the
State of Florida.

I’m not reading too much into that because elsewhere in Levarti’s Policies and Procedures it states:

Any Dispute not resolved in writing by negotiation or mediation shall be subject to and shall be settled exclusively by final, binding arbitration before … a panel of three arbitrators, in the City of Atascadero in the State of Floridania. [sic]

There are multiple references to “Floridania” in the document. Atascadero is in California, so it seems Levarti might have copy and pasted someone else’s Policies and Procedures.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]