Master Key Bank: Antoun Toubia transitions to banking fraud
Master Key Bank is a new scam from serial fraudster Antoun Toubia.
This time it’s “AI” and banking fraud. [Continue reading…]
Exeno Review: Greg Rogowski’s new crypto Ponzi?
Exeno operates in the cryptocurrency MLM niche. The company launched in late 2020 as part of the Mining City Ponzi scheme.
Exeno.com is an innovative global e-commerce for a rapidly growing group of customers.
It enables purchasing all goods with cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, BTCV).
BTCV refers to Bitcoin Vault, a Ponzi shitcoin launched by Mining City owner Eyal Avramovich.
A Mining City update from early 2021 references Exeno’s integration:
Exeno was incorporated as Exeno sp. zo.o. (EXENO SPÓŁKA Z OGRANICZONĄ ODPOWIEDZIALNOŚCIĄ), in Poland on November 3rd, 2020.
The Directors of Exeno are:
- Tomasz Damian Babiak
- Bozena Joanna Glowacka and
- Grzegorz Rafal Rogowski
We know “Grzegorz Rogowski” as Mining City’s Greg Rogowski.
Rather than just be honest about owning and running Mining City himself, Eyal Avramovich appointed Rogowski, a former employee of his, as CEO.
You may or may not have noted this paragraph from the early 2021 Mining City press-release above:
Mining City does not own or assume any responsibility for Exeno. The rig is a completely different company with no ties to Mining City.
Greg Rogowski being CEO of Mining City and owning Exeno makes the “completely different” claim farcical.
To hide his ownership of Exeno, Rogowski removed himself as a Director in March 2021. Michael Piotrowski was also removed from Exeno’s Board of Directors.
On its website today, Exeno cites
- Tomasz Babiak as its CEO
- Bozena Glowacka as its CLO (Chief Legal Officer?) and
- Michael Piotrowski as its Lead Designer
Greg Rogowski doesn’t feature on Exeno’s website.
Throughout 2021 Exeno presented itself as an ecommerce platform Mining City investors could launder BTCV through for products.
Mining City collapsed in October 2021. In November 2021 Rogowski disappeared.
In March 2022 Rogowski reappeared to attribute his disappearance to a heart attack.
He then disappeared again and hasn’t been seen in public since.
Avramovich continues to defraud consumers with iMine, which he’s merged Mining City victim bagholders into.
Greg Rogowski has been replaced by iMine puppet CEO Jorge Mesquita.
On or around October 2022, Exeno replaced its defunct ecommerce website with its current website.
This coincided with the launch of Exeno Coin.
Exeno came to me from presumably a former Mining City investor, claiming Rogowski was behind it. Beyond the research above, I haven’t been able to definitively verify this claim.
If confirmation does surface that Rogowski is behind Exeno, I’ll leave an update below.
Rather than acknowledge it is a Polish company run out of Poland…
…Exeno pretends it is “based in the Marshall Islands”.
Read on for a full review of Exeno’s MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]
Crypto Arbitrage Team Review: 1825% annual ROI Ponzi scheme
Crypto Arbitrage Team fails to provide executive or ownership information on its website.
Crypto Arbitrage Team currently operates from the domain “mycat-team.com”, privately registered on October 22nd, 2022.
As of December 2022, SimilarWeb tracked negligible traffic to Crypto Arbitrage Team’s website.
The original incarnation of Crypto Arbitrage Team operated from “mycat.team”, privately registered on August 8th, 2022.
Based on official marketing videos on Crypto Arbitrage Team’s YouTube channel (example right), the original launch was on or around August 28th.
The reason Crypto Arbitrage Team changed domains appears to be a Bank of Russia pyramid fraud warning, issued on October 21st, 2022.
Twenty-four hours after CBR’s fraud warning was made public, Crypto Arbitrage Team registered its current domain.
To hide who’s behind Crypto Arbitrage Team, the company represents it is headed up by a CEO wearing a cat mask.
The person behind the mask has a digitally modified voice. I can’t quite place the accent but it’s definitely European.
Two actual people we can tie to Crypto Arbitrage Team are Luiza Ave and Ashok Sharma.
Ave is based out of Dubai and cites herself as the founder of Almalakia Capital Investment.
No idea what Almalakia Capital Investment is, but I couldn’t help but notice Ave claims to have obtained a Masters degree from Lomonosov Moscow State University.
In Crypto Arbitrage Team marketing videos, Ave is cited as as a “Global CAT Representative”.
Ashok Sharma is a Mumbai, India based serial promoter of crypto Ponzi schemes.
Recent MLM Ponzi schemes Sharma promoted include FVP Trade, LIQRCoin and Forsage.
FVP Trade was a Russian Boris CEO Ponzi scheme. The scam collapsed in July 2022.
Between the CBR fraud warning, a Boris CEO in a cat mask, Luiza Ave and Ashok Sharma, we have red flag ties to Dubai and Russia.
Russians are behind the vast majority of Boris CEO Ponzi schemes. A Boris CEO is an actor hired to mask the true operators of scams.
Dubai, equally notorious as Russia, is the MLM crime capital of the world.
BehindMLM’s guidelines for Dubai are:
- If someone lives in Dubai and approaches you about an MLM opportunity, they’re trying to scam you.
- If an MLM company is based out of or represents it has ties to Dubai, it’s a scam.
If you want to know specifically how this applies to Crypto Arbitrage Team, read on for a full review. [Continue reading…]
M80 Advertising Review: $75 a month adcredit pyramid scheme
M80 Advertising fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.
M80 Advertising’s website domain (“m80advertising.com”), was privately registered on December 4th, 2022.
Marketing videos on M80 Advertising’s website are hosted on a YouTube channel named “Curtis Webb”.
Webb has an M80 Advertising admin account under the referral name “fishmerman”:
Last year Webb was promoting VIP Global Stars, a LaCore Enterprises MLM company headed up by Eric Caprarese.
VIP Global Stars appears to have collapsed sometime in the second half of 2022. That brings us to the launch of M80 Advertising on or around December 2022.
Update 6th January 2024 – Sometime after this review was published M80 Advertising’s website was updated to reflect Jeremy Duncan as its owner.
According to his FaceBook profile, Duncan is a US national residing in Indiana. /end update
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…]
CryptoProgram Review: Crypto trading Ponzi scheme
CryptoProgram fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.
CryptoProgram’s website domain (“cryptoprogram.me”), was privately registered on October 28th, 2022.
Further research reveals CryptoProgram marketing videos featuring Ed Zimbardi.
Rather than just admit he’s running CryptoProgram, Zimbardi has created this backstory:
So this program has been going on offline … for decades. It’s only been private, offered to people that are in a specific network.
I’ve been part of it for quite some time and very excited about it, because it’s sustained itself for a long time. And there was no indication whatsoever, that it would be opened up to people, outside of the network.
Well, I enquired. Why did I enquire? Because I’ve been part of lots of high-risk, high reward programs that have come and gone.
I also know that the people I know behind the program, they make insane amounts of money. So it’s definitely possible to offer clients a big payout.
So I decided, to ask the people associated with this program on the back-end if they would… allow me to help them create this online program that they own. Because I wanna help people recover funds.
Zimbardi has a marketing history dating back to the early 2000s, specifically with lead generation.
In 2015 Zimbardi resigned as CEO of EZJR.
EZJR’s primary business is to improve the sales performance of brands, products and services by way of our proprietary eCommerce platform.
Our unique methodology minimizes the cost of generating leads and then maximizes the conversion of those leads into customers.
Between June 2015 and 2017 Zimbardi pitched himself as a marketing coach. In mid to late 2017, Zimbardi joined forex-themed MLM iMarketsLive.
In late 2018 the CFTC fined iMarketsLive $150,000 for committing commodities fraud. iMarketsLive quickly changed their name to IM Mastery Academy after the fine.
Zimbardi stopped promoting iMarketsLive on or around August 2018. After which he appears to have gotten into securities fraud and Ponzi schemes.
By his own admission, Zimbardi has “been part of lots of high-risk, high reward” scams.
Some of them offered tremendous rewards. Like doubling your account in twenty-two days. 3% per day, y’know five days a week. Just insane amounts.
I’ve lost a lot of money and some of the people that have followed me have lost a lot of money too.
This brings us to the launch of CryptoProgram in late 2022.
Of note is SimilarWeb currently tracking top sources of traffic to CryptoProgram’s website as the UAE (56%) and the US (36%).
Zimbardi’s social media profiles place him in the US state of Georgia. A high amount of CryptoProgram traffic from the UAE suggests Zimbardi has a partner or partners in Dubai.
Dubai is the MLM crime capital of the world. BehindMLM’s guidelines for Dubai are:
- If someone lives in Dubai and approaches you about an MLM opportunity, they’re trying to scam you.
- If an MLM company is based out of or represents it has ties to Dubai, it’s a scam.
To see how this specifically applies to CryptoProgram, read on for a full review. [Continue reading…]
Uulala & Batched reboot collapses, SEC investigation confirmed
Both Uulala and its Batched reboot have collapsed.
Affiliate investors can’t log in, meaning withdrawals are effectively disabled. [Continue reading…]
Crypto Liberty Review: Crypto trading/mining Ponzi scheme
Crypto Liberty fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.
Crypto Liberty’s website domain (“cryptoliberty.biz”), was privately registered on August 7th, 2022.
Despite only existing for a few months at best, Crypto Liberty falsely claims
the company started in 2018 with headquarters in Lithuania, Vilnius.
Supporting its Lithuania claim, Crypto Liberty provides a corporate address in Lithuania on its website. Whether this address actually has anything to do with Crypto Liberty is unclear.
The use of euros on Crypto Liberty’s website suggests whoever is running it is based out of Europe.
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…]
Arkbit Review: Boris CEO crypto mining Ponzi scheme
Arkbit provides no credible ownership or executive information on its website.
Supposedly Arkbit is headed up by founder and Chief Financial Officer Thomas Brewer.
“Thomas Brewer” is actually US actor Mike Wolfe. The only professional credit to Wolfe’s name is the 2019 short-film Sugardaddy:
We can rule out Arkbit just using a photo of Wolfe as he appears in at least one marketing video:
That video was shot in rented office space in Little Rock, Arkansas:
Arkbit provides details for several other executives, all of which are assumed to also be actors.
Arkbit’s website domain (“arkbitcapital.com”), was first registered in September 2021. The private registration was last updated on November 28th, 2022.
Arkbit’s social media profiles were created in late 2022, so it appears the domain was acquired by Arkbit’s owners in late 2022.
Typically Boris CEO Ponzi schemes originate from eastern Europe. I was unable to confirm this with Arkbit.
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…]
Ramon Perez & Nestor Nunez added to Forcount indictments
Two superseding indictments have been filed in the Forcount Ponzi criminal case, adding Nestor Nunez and Ramon Perez as defendants. [Continue reading…]
Global NFT Group Review: Kari Wahlroos’ latest Ponzi (2023)
Global NFT Group Community operates in the cryptocurrency MLM niche.
The company also goes by GNG and appears to be based out of Malaysia.
On the corporate side things Global NFT Group is incorporated as “Global NFT Group B.V.”, a Curacao shell company.
Heading up Global NFT Group is Tony Berntsen, Tony Sandberg and Saima Chaudhury.
Tony Berntsen is a Dutch national BehindMLM came across in 2017. Berntsen was CEO of First United Capital Group, purported parent company of the EarlyBird Academy pyramid scheme.
Both First United Capital Group and EarlyBird were/are also incorporated as Curacao shell companies.
First United Capital Group still has a website up. Tony Berntsen is still cited as CEO.
Tony Sandberg is First United Capital Group’s COO. Saima Chaudhry is its Executive Business Manager.
According to their respective social media profiles:
- Tony Berntsen is based out of Curacao
- Tony Sandberg is based out of Norway
- Saima Chaudhry is based out of the UK
First United Capital Group is “the Next Generation Global Investment Company” that brings our people together connecting capital and expertise with great ideas and products.
Although First United Capital Group isn’t mentioned on Global NFT Group’s websites, it appears to be another project from the group.
Global NFT Group operates from two known domains:
- “gng.community” – privately registered on November 29th, 2022 and
- “gngtoken.com” – privately registered on November 23rd, 2022
Update 26th March 2023 – The .community website cited above is still up, but “gngtoken.com” has been pulled offline.
Global NFT Group now goes by “Global NFT Group Investment Management”.
This reboot operates from “gngim.com”, privately registered on December 29th, 2022. As of February 2023, SimilarWeb tracks negligible traffic to the domain.
As per comment #6 left below this review, GNG token has been rebooted as PNGVN token.
This otherwise appears to just be a cosmetic reboot. /end update
Read on for a full review of Global NFT Group’s MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]