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

BitArbi’s website domain (“bitarbi.com”), was registered with bogus information on July 31st, 2023.

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…]

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

Prostox’s website domain (“prostox.co”), was privately registered on July 12th, 2023.

Of note is Prostox’s sole marketing video featuring a woman with a distinct Indian accent (could also be Pakistan or Bangladesh).

While not definitive, this suggests Prostox is being run by someone with ties to the India, Pakistan and Bangladesh region.

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…]

Despite claiming it “believes in complete transparency”, BMcontract fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

BMcontract’s website domain (“bmcontract.io”), was privately registered on August 15th, 2023.

Despite only existing for about a week, BMcontract claims it

has a track record of providing an exceptional 99% success rate through its AI-driven trading strategies.

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 preliminary injunction against the Fundsz Ponzi Defendants.

The preliminary injunction was ordered on August 23rd, following consent motions filed on August 21st and 22nd. [Continue reading…]

Reyana Meta FX fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Reyana Meta FX’s website domain (“reyanametafx.com”), was privately registered on July 16th, 2023.

In researching this review, I noted most of the Reyana Meta FX marketing appears to target Bangladesh.

This suggests Reyana Meta FX might be run from Bangladesh, or at the very least is focusing promotional efforts there.

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…]

Bitfinex is a well-known crypto exchange tied to tether (USDT). Turns out it’s also an MLM company.

Bitfinex was launched in 2012 by Raphael Nicolle. Nicolle parted ways with Bitfinex during the in early 2017.

Today Bitfinex is owned by iFinex Inc., a BVI shell company.

Names we can attach to Bitfinex include:

• Jean-Louis van der Velde (CEO) from the Netherlands
• Giancarlo Devasini (CFO) from Italy and
• Paolo Ardoino (CTO), also from Italy

To the best of my knowledge, none of Bitfinex’s executives have any prior MLM executive experience.

Being one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges, Bitfinex has a well-documented history:

• in June 2016 the CFTC fined Bitfinex $75,000 for failing to register itself and “offering illegal off-exchanged financed commodity transactions”
• a 2019 investigation by the New York Attorney General revealed Bitfinex hid over $1 billion in losses through Crypto Capital Corp from its investors
• in October 2021 the CFTC again fined Bitfinex $1.5 million, this time for performing “illegal, off-exchange retail commodity transactions in digital assets with Americans”

There’s a fair bit more, with Bitfinex’s Wikipedia entry making for good reading.

Read on for a full review of Bitfinex’s MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Plaintiff Jessica Ponkey has prevailed in an appeal against a decision to close her LuLaRoe class-action.

Ponkey’s class-action was closed last year, following a Final Arbitration Award issued in April 2022. [Continue reading…]

M3ta Moguls fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

M3ta Moguls’ website domain (“me3tamoguls.com”), was privately registered on March 28th, 2022.

Further research reveals a July 2023 M3ta Moguls’ press-release, on which “William Coyle” is credited as CEO.

The press-release represents it was issued from Costa Rica:

Because of this, I believe “William Cycle” corresponds to William Coyle Jr.

Coyle’s LinkedIn profile places him in Quebec, Canada. If you look at his profile experience however, you’ll find Crypto Mutual Capital Trust and Costa Rica.

Crypto Mutual Capital Trust is a crypto Ponzi scheme that pitched 1% a day through the staking model.

Crypto Mutual Capital’s website is gone so presumably the scam, of which Coyle was co-founder and CEO, has collapsed.

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…]

Vicion Group operates in the cryptocurrency MLM niche.

The company represents it is based out of California, Las Vegas and Texas in the US.

In Mexico Vicion Group claims to be based out Xalapa in Veracruz.

Heading up Vicion Group are co-founders and co-CEOs Rolando Limon and Gabriel Garcia.

Vicion Group credits Rolando Limon with “12 years of network marketing experience”.

This is a red flag because, as far as I can tell, Limon has no credible digital footprint.

There is one “Rolando R Limon” FaceBook account, but it’s empty except for a November 2018 profile photo change. Note this same photo is used on Vicion Group’s website.

Vicion Group cites Gabriel Garcia as having “10 years of experience in MLM business and leadership”.

Further research into Garcia confirms Limon is an actual person:

MLM companies Garcia promoted prior to Vicion Group include Organo Gold (now Organo) and Appi Travels.

Appi Travels was a Ponzi scheme run by Danny Gauthier. The third iteration of the scam collapsed in July 2022.

Vicion Group operates from two website domains; “viciongroup.com” and “viciongroup.net”, both privately registered on January 5th, 2022.

Read on for a full review of Vicion Group’s MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Legal Punk presents itself as an MLM focused spinoff of the German law firm SBS Law.

Instead of just being upfront about that, SBS Law is presented as a “partner” on Legal Punk’s website.

Cited as co-founders of Legal Punk on its website are Andre Schenk, Andrais Hamori and Dirk Ulaszewski.

Andre Schenk is one half of SBS Law, the other being Stephan Schulenberg.

The disgraced legal duo are behind the defunct notorious law firm Schulenberg & Schenk.

Schenk and Schulenberg are best known for rubber-stamping OneCoin’s fraudulent business model in 2015.

The overall assessment of the different components of the OneCoin distribution system results in the fact, that the OneCoin distribution system is, in our opinion, a lawful system and not a progressive one (pyramid scheme).

OneCoin would go on to defraud consumers of over $4 billion dollars. It is the largest MLM Ponzi scheme ever to date.

Schulenberg also acted as OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova’s personal lawyer in Germany.

Ignatova remains at large. She was placed on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted list in July 2022.

In addition to representing Ignatova, Schulenberg has also represented OneCoin executives and promoters in Germany.

To the detriment of their victims, in 2020 Schulenberg managed to get two such OneCoin promoters acquitted.

In 2021, Schulenberg and Schenk made an appearance as Frank Ricketts’ lawyer in an ongoing OneCoin money laundering case. Ricketts has since obtained different counsel.

Andre Schenk is no better than Schulenberg. In 2016 Schenk appeared in a Schulenberg and Schenk YouTube video defending OneCoin.

Although Schulenberg denies it, the law firm Schulenberg and Schenk effectively rebranded as SBS Legal in January 2020.

This is believed to have been an attempt to distance the firm from OneCoin.

Possibly due to language-barriers, I was unable to to put together an independent MLM history for either Andras Hamori or Dirk Ulaszewski.

Update 30th August 2023 – BehindMLM reader Melanie has discovered Dirk Ulaszewski is founder of GranVital.

On its website, GranVital pitches itself as “a Spanish company with German roots in the area of ​​lifestyle and health, which preferably operates in Europe through direct sales.” /end update

On Legal Punk’s website, Hamori is cited as “a computer scientist, former high school teacher” and

founde(r of) an advertising agency in the late 1990s, which became a market leader in direct mail and direct mail in several European countries.

Dirk Ulaszewski is cited as a former Olympian and Herbalife and NuSkin executive, who

worked for many years in the sports business as well as in direct sales. He started his career in the 1990s at IBM, where his affinity for IT stems from.

Despite Legal Punk and SBS Law being based out of Germany, Legal Punk provides a corporate address in Las Palmas, Spain on its website.

This appears to correspond with a Spanish shell company;

The following general terms and conditions form the contractual rules for the services to be provided in accordance with this contract between LegalPunk International SL, vddGF Mr. Dirk Ulaszewski, Avenida de Valencia 24, GC-35250 Ingenio, Las Palmas, Spain (hereinafter: Legalpunk).

Legal Punk’s website presents in German and is very clearly aimed at German-speaking clientele.

Read on for a full review of Legal Punk’s MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]