The SEC has sued OnPassive and owner Ash Mufareh (aka Ashraf Mufareh), for $108 million in securities fraud. [Continue reading…]

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

Empic’s website cites Isaac Hoffman Y. as “CEO & Shareholder” of the company.

This is in direct contrast to Empic’s official YouTube channel, which names “Jorg K. Kottenbrink” as its CEO:

Kottenbrink above is represented by the man above and a dubbed over robo-voice.

This is typical of non-native English speaking scammers.

Like Isaac Hoffman, Jorg Kottenbrink doesn’t exist. The scammers behind Empic have stolen footage of Urban Angehrn, CEO of Austrian financial regulator FINMA.

Obvious giveaways in Empic’s doctored video are the robovoice not matching what Angehrn says and there being no mention of Empic itself (when Empic is mentioned it’s clear Angehrn is saying something else).

The specific video Empic has doctored is a 2020 video featuring Angehr, then Group Chief Investment Officer of Zurich Insurance Group.

There are two other videos on Empic’s YouTube channel; a robo-dubbed tutorial and a robo-dubbed rented office video featuring actors.

Although not always, Boris CEOs and rented officers with actors are typically the work of Russian scammers.

Empic’s website domain (“empic.ltd”), was privately registered on March 12th, 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…]

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

Capitalium’s website domain (“capitalium.biz”), was privately registered on June 30th, 2023.

Some names we can attach to Capitalium are Brian Rhodes and Tim Waider:

“Master Trader Jake”:

And Mike Dwyer:

Brian Rhodes is a US national and serial promoter of MLM crypto Ponzi schemes.

BehindMLM first came across Rhodes in 2022 as a promoter of Biman Das’ FastBNB Ponzi scheme.

After FastBNB collpased we ran into Rhodes again with Easymatic and QunoMine.

More recently Rhodes has been promoting CoinMarketBull (collapsed), Vortic United and InvesableAI.

Tim Waider made a name for himself in One World Network, before joining Total Life Changes in 2020.

By April 2021 Waider was promoting MLM crypto Ponzi schemes like EtherConnect on YouTube:

Since then MLM Ponzi schemes Waider has promoted include Nimbus Platform, FastBNB, BitMonsters and InvesableAI.

Master Trader Jake appears to be from Hungary but I wasn’t able to pin down his actual name.

Prior to signing on with Capitalium, Jake was flogging 1529% annual returns through JetBot.

JetBot is an illegal crypto investment opportunity, offering passive returns through purported automated copy-trading.

Mike Dwyer doesn’t seem to exist outside of Capitalum’s marketing.

With respect to MLM due-diligence, Jake and Mike Dwyer appearing to hide behind pseudonyms is a red flag.

Of note is Capitalium’s website is only offered in English and Chinese. This could mean someone who speaks Chinese is behind Capitalium.

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…]

My Daily Choice’s Akashx trading investment scheme has collapsed.

In an undated communication from “Akashx Team” shared with BehindMLM, a “liquidity sweep” on gold is being blamed. [Continue reading…]

Onewiex fails to provide credible ownership or executive information on its website.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, Onewiex provides Canadian, Dubai and Hong Kong shell company certificates.

Due to the ease with which scammers are able to incorporate shell companies with bogus details, for the purpose of MLM due-diligence these certificates are meaningless.

Onewiex is purportedly headed up by CEO “Oliver Wilson”:

Wilson is played by Mikhail Eidelson (Михаил Эйдельсон), a fifty’ish year old Russian national from St. Petersburg.

Eidelson’s social media profiles were deleted prior to him signing on to play Oliver Wilson. This demonstrates some effort to conceal WIlson’s actual identity from Onewiex investors.

Pursuant to Onewiex pretending to be based out of Canada, its marketing videos feature stock footage of Canada combined with the usual rented office environments.

Everyone in Onewiex’s marketing videos speaks with an eastern European accent.

Of note is Onewiex’s FaceBook account being managed from Ukraine:

We also note a recently held Onewiex event in Dubai:

The majority of participants in the audience appear to be Asian. This suggests Onewiex is targeting their marketing at Asia.

Onewiex’s Korean dubbed marketing videos stand out as having more views than other languages.

Interestingly enough though, Onewiex’s website traffic doesn’t match its marketing efforts.

As of July 2023, SimilarWeb tracks top sources of traffic to Onewiex’s website as the Netherlands (20%), Saudi Arabia (17%), Croata (17%), the US (15%) and France (12%).

One explanation is that Onewiex launched in late 2022. Onewiex recruitment in Asia has already collapsed.

Putting all of this together, we have Russian scammers operating out of Russia, Ukraine and Dubai.

Boris CEO Ponzi schemes out of Russia and Ukraine are nothing new. Dubai meanwhile is the MLM crime capital of the world.

BehindMLM’s guidelines for Dubai are:

1. If someone lives in Dubai and approaches you about an MLM opportunity, they’re trying to scam you.
2. 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 Onewiex, read on for a full review. [Continue reading…]

U-Farm fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

U-Farm’s website domain (“co-ufarm.com”), was privately registered on February 20th, 2023.

If we look at the source-code of U-Farm’s website, we find Chinese:

This strongly suggests whoever is running U-Farm has ties to China.

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…]

Three of Jan Gregory’s MLM crypto Ponzi schemes have received fraud warnings from California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation.

As per an August 9th press-release, the DFPI has cited CloudFi, CoinMarketBull and Vortic United for “violations of California securities laws”. [Continue reading…]

Eddie Alexandre will pay $213,639,133 in restitution to EminiFX victims.

The CFTC’s civil EminiFX case has also been reopened. [Continue reading…]

A fourth robocall fraud lawsuit has been filed against Family First Life’s parent company, Integrity Marketing Group.

Plaintiff Aaron Rapp filed suit in Indiana back in June. [Continue reading…]

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

Zolttan’s website domain (“zolttan.com”), was privately registered on June 30th, 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…]