While South African authorities haven’t done much on the criminal side of things, last year SARS, the country’s tax regulator, informed MTI’s Liquidators it intended to bill them $34.46 million.

This amount, representing unpaid taxes by the $1.7 billion Ponzi scheme, was just shy of total recovery.

As of March 2023, the dispute between MTI’s Liquidators and SARS was expected to drag into 2024.

Now, the unexpected news that MTI’s Liquidators and SARS have reached a settlement. [Continue reading…]

The LT Wallet Ponzi scheme has collapsed.

The scam’s website is still up but withdrawals have been disabled. [Continue reading…]

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

SolaRoad’s website domain (“solaroad.io”), was privately registered on March 16th, 2023.

SolaRoad do provide executive information offsite on their GitHub page:

SolaRoad’s three featured executives are all purportedly based in the US. Naturally none of them exist outside of recently created LinkedIn profile.

“John Elways” is presented as having held “senior management positions” at Hewlett Packard.

This ties into SolaRoad claiming HewLett Packard is “one of the initiators of” their SolaDigital Foundation.

I couldn’t find any links between Hewlett Packard and SolaRoad or SolaDigital Foundation.

Hewlett Packard isn’t the only company name SolaRoad falsely claims association with:

While I wasn’t able to get names for the actors playing SolaRoad’s executives, I did land a few hits tying “John Elways” to Thailand.

This corresponds to SolaRoad holding a staged marketing event in Thailand last month (keep in mind the company has only existed for less than 3 months):

SolaRoad’s three executive actors were all present at the event, which seemed to be aimed at south-east Asian investors.

SolaRoad’s marketing videos feature “AI Ocean”, although this branding isn’t present on their website.

One clue as to who’s actually behind SolaRoad can be found in this staged influencer marketing video:

The two actors in the video, presented as social media influencers with millions of followers, both have distinct eastern European accents. So do all the extras.

Notably, again none of SolaRoad’s presented three executives are in the video. Bit odd considering it’s supposed to be a a “visit to Sola Digital Foundation Headquarters”.

I can’t say for sure but SolaRoad is likely being run by Russians and/or Ukrainians – either from Thailand or working with associates in Thailand.

Said associates likely have ties to China, as evidenced by SolaRoad’s May 15th Macau marketing event registration form:

This is available on the domain “solaroad.pro”, privately registered on April 25th.

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 third reboot of the The Future Trade Ponzi scheme launched as TFT Metaweb in late 2022.

I don’t have an exact date but TFT Metaweb also collapsed in early 2023. At time of publication TFT Metaweb’s previously accessible website has been taken down.

Enter The Future Trade again, rebooted for a fourth time on or around March 2023.

The Future Trade’s fourth reboot operates from “tft-max.org”, privately registered on October 9th, 2022.

The first three iterations of The Future Trade were Boris CEO Ponzi schemes run by Russians.

Interestingly, The Future Trade’s current newly set up FaceBook page is operated from Nigeria.

This raises the question of whether The Future Trade v4 is a true reboot or spinoff from an opportunistic scammer.

In an attempt to appear legitimate The Future Trade provides incorporation certificates for The Future Trade in Australia, and The Future Trade INT LTD in Seychelles.

A search of ASIC’s records reveals the Australian certificate is bogus. Notwithstanding, for the purpose of MLM due-diligence, basic incorporation in any jurisdiction is meaningless.

This is due to the ease with which scammers are able to register shell companies with bogus information.

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…]

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

BullTrade’s website domain (“bulltrade.io”), was privately registered on March 20th, 2023.

Over on BullTrade’s official YouTube channel, we find four marketing videos suggesting whoever is running BullTrade has ties to India:

Further supporting this is BullTrade’s “english” marketing video being a robodub. This is typical of non-native English speaking admins.

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…]

Family First Life has settled one of the robocall fraud lawsuits filed against it in Texas.

On April 18th, FFL, founder Shawn Meaike and parent company Integrity Marketing Group informed the court; [Continue reading…]

Warner Music fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Warner Music’s website domain (“warnermusicc.com”), was registered on December 4th, 2022. The private registration was last updated on April 15th, 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…]

BlueSky Film fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

BlueSky Film’s website domain (“bluesky-film.com”), was privately registered on April 17th, 2023.

On the desktop version of BlueSky Film’s website, if you click the “app” button on their home page, you’re redirected to a fraud message:

This message is hosted on a Chinese website domain. We can additionally confirm BlueSky Film’s ties to Chinese speakers via their website source-code.

Rather than acknowledge its ties to China (or Chinese scammers operating out of south-east Asia), BlueSky Film represents itself as “PT BlueSky Indonesia”.

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 Apex Power fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

The Apex Power’s website domain (“theapexpower.com”), was privately registered on December 16th, 2022.

Over on The Apex Power’s official YouTube channel, we find marketing videos featuring founder “Lahm Andreas”.

It’s the usual rented office production, featuring several non-native English speaking actors.

“Lahm Andreas” is actually Axel Capurro. Back in the day Capurro was the frontman for Italian heavy metal band ANEWRAGE.

That’s Capurro second from the right.

Still not convinced? Here’s a a screenshot from a The Apex Power marketing video, against a recent March 12th photo from Capurro’s personal Instagram profile:

The Apex Power marketing video was uploaded to YouTube on March 21st. You can see  Capurro’s wristband and ring are the same in both shots.

Originally from Italy, Capurro moved to Colombia sometime after ANEWRAGE disbanded in January 2021.

This is from the caption of a song Capurro uploaded to YouTube in January 2021;

Original song written during the really hard time I’ve been waiting to see my love again.

She is Colombian and I’m Italian and we’ve waited for each other for 8 months without the possibility to stay together until november 2020.

Capurro married his partner in Colombia in June 2021.

I’m assuming the rest of The Apex Power executive cast are Colombian nationals, or at the very least Colombian residents too.

The Apex Power’s official FaceBook group is managed from India.

The use of South American based actors with Indians managing social media is an emerging MLM Ponzi trend.

Recent examples BehindMLM has come across include Bitrobix and Mitotic Money, both collapsed.

Boris CEO Ponzi schemes are typically the work of Russians and/or Ukrainians.

While I can’t say for sure, I believe the same organized group of eastern European scammers are behind the recent South American Boris CEO scams.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, The Apex Power provides a corporate address in Scotland. The company doesn’t appear to have any actual ties to Scotland.

In further attempts to appear legitimate, The Apex Power provides incorporation certificates for various shell companies in Scotland, Romania, Canada, the UK, Pakistan and Uganda.

Due to the ease with which scammers can incorporate shell companies with bogus info, basic incorporation in any jurisdiction is meaningless when it comes to MLM due-diligence.

Finally, despite only existing for a few months, The Apex Power falsely claims to have “launched our company in 2019”.

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…]

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

Tecmactrade’s website domain (“tecmactrade.com”), was privately registered on July 1st, 2022.

Tecmactrade uploaded a Boris CEO marketing video to its official YouTube channel on January 2nd, 2023.

The video features a Russian dub-over, non-native English speaking actors and photoshopped office building footage.

All three of TecMacTrade’s presented executives feature in the video, but only “Kenneth White” speaks.

The other two are dubbed over with a Russian man speaking English. I’m putting this down to “Benjamin Turbin’s” and “Harold Wilson’s” accents not being camera ready.

Kenneth White has an Indian accent and doesn’t seem fussed she’s been given a traditionally male name.

In his spare time “Harold Wilson” likes to model clothing for Indian retailers:

The location for Tecmactrade’s rented office space marketing video is IHDP Business Park in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

To cement our Russian connection to Tecmactrade we first have this guy walking about in the video:

Very Boris looking, sticks out like a sore thumb and of course isn’t given a speaking role.

And then we have Russian language laptops given to the actors:

Putting all of this together, Tecmactrade is run by Russians and we have a classic Boris CEO marketing video shot in India.

Indians have also been hired to manage Tecmactrade’s official FaceBook page:

In an attempt to hide Tecmactrade’s Russian origins, the company provides bogus corporate addresses in the US, New Zealand and UK on its website.

Shell company certificates for Tecmactrade LLC and Tecmactrade Limited in the US and New Zealand respectively, are also provided.

For the purpose of MLM due-diligence, basic incorporation in any jurisdiction is meaningless. This is due to the ease with which scammers can incorporate shell companies with bogus information.

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…]