iX Global scammer Viraj Patil managed to convince a Judge in Kolkata to grant him interim bail.

Upon release, Nagpur’s Economic Offenses Wing immediately arrested Patil and threw him back in prison. [Continue reading…]

Sky TRX fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Sky TRX’s website domain (“sky-trx.com”), was registered with bogus details on September 7th, 2024.

Of note is Sky TRX’s website domain being registered through the Chinese registrar Alibaba (Singapore).

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…]

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

Odecent’s website domain (“odecent.com”), was first registered in 2022. The private registration was last updated on May 22nd, 2024.

Odecent came to BehindMLM’s attention courtesy of a reader tipoff. Said tipoff led us to a September 12th recording featuring Validus co-founder Mansour Tawafi.

Validus was a Dubai Ponzi scheme that collapsed in April 2023. In the September 2024 video, Tawafi states he’s “moving on” from Validus investor losses with Odecent.

This video today is to inform everyone about … my decision to move on with a new company called Odecent and join my old partners as part of what we believe will be a good solution.

Tawafi goes on to reveal Odecent was actually a failed Validus reboot launch in late 2023;

So around two months ago my partners from Validus, Billal and Salman, they came to me and they started speaking about the product that they were working on even before we met.

So before Validus they already started working on some very good products and they had a team that was developing these products for the last three years.

We also tried to launch this in Validus. Some of you may remember Fingenius was a product towards the end of Validus.

Towards the end of 2023 we got a stage where we wanted to… we actually gave it to some leaders to test but it didn’t run very successfully at the time.

In January we wanted to launch this but of course after the cease and desist order from the DFSA in mid December, the company became, y’know, operationally inactive.

Tawafi is referring to a Validus securities fraud warning issued by the Dubai Financial Services Authority on December 22nd, 2023.

So my partners, they came to me and said they want to start with this product now again, and they have created a whole system for it and they’re ready to do something.

Tawafi states he will be “taking a position, taking a role” within Odecent. As of filming however that role hasn’t been finalized.

The “Billal” and “Salman” Tawafi refers to are Billal Ali and Salman Shahzad.

Validus marketing cites Billal Ali as a co-founder of the Ponzi scheme:

Salman Shahzad appears to be a top Validus Ponzi promoter from the UK:

Another name we can attache to Odecent is Phil Moser, aka Philippe Moser. Moser hosted the Odecent prelaunch webinar, held on or around September 1st.

Moser, who appears to have ties to Canada, the US and Colombia, was a Validus executive.

Moser was instrumental in recruiting Validus victims across Africa and South America.

Prior to Validus Moser made a name for himself in ACN. At some point Moser split from ACN to join NeXarise, an MLM company launched by former ACN promoters in 2020.

Conspicuously absent from Odecent marketing is Parwiz Daud and Howard Friend.

Following the collapse of their post-OneCoin Ponzi AuLives, Parwiz Daud and Mansour Tawafi launched Validus in 2021.

Howard Friend was Validus’ CEO and, at least at the time he surfaced, appeared to be a random finance bro from Europe.

Neither Friend or Daud have made any public appearances since Validus’ collapse. They are both presumed to be laying low in Dubai.

As with Validus, Odecent appears to be operated from Dubai:

Due to the proliferation of scams and failure to enforce securities fraud regulation, BehindMLM ranks Dubai as 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 Odecent, read on for a full review. [Continue reading…]

The fourth and final EmpowerCoin and JetCoin Ponzi defendant has pled guilty.

At a change of plea hearing held on September 16th, Dwayne Golden pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. [Continue reading…]

Nykaa Mall fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Nykaa Mall’s website domain (“nykaa-mall.vip”), was registered with bogus details on September 5th, 2024.

Nykaa Mall has already attracted the attention of financial regulators. The Central Bank of Russia issued a Nykaa Mall pyramid fraud warning on September 6th, 2024.

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…]

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

InovoCB names Jimmy Nogues and John Martinez and co-founders on its website.

No information about either Nogues or Martinez is provided. Nor do Nogues and Martinez appear to exist outside of being named on InovoCB’s website.

It is unclear whether Nogues and Martinez, as represented on InovoCB’s website, actually exist.

InovoCB’s website domain (“inovocb.com”), was privately registered on September 29th, 2023.

It should be noted that InovoCB’s website defaults to French. This suggests links to a French-speaking admin.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, on its website InovoCB represents it is based out of Ontario, Canada. Whether InovoCB has any actual ties to Ontario is unclear (unlikely).

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…]

Legal action by Melaleuca has prompted a YouTube apology video from Hannah Lee Thaler. [Continue reading…]

Fresnillo PLC USDT fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Fresnillo PLC USDT’s website domain (“fresnilloplc.top”), was registered with bogus information on August 30th, 2024.

Of note is Fresnillo PLC USDT’s website domain being registered through the Chinese registrar Alibaba (Singapore).

Fresnillo PLC USDT has already attracted the attention of financial regulators. The Central Bank of Russia issued a Fresnillo PLC USDT pyramid fraud warning on September 6th, 2024.

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…]

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

Aurum’s website domain (“aurum.foundation”), was privately registered on August 1st, 2024.

Note that Aurum has disabled its website root. Access to Aurum is through a subdomain at “backoffice.aurum.foundation”.

Looking at the source-code of Aurum’s backoffice website we find Russian:

This suggests whoever is running Aurum has ties to Russia.

One name of note tied to Aurum is Sal Khan:

Khan is a serial promoter of MLM crypto Ponzi schemes. Khan is fresh off promoting TLC Trading.

TLC Trading, an MLM crypto Ponzi run by Polish and/or Russian scammers hiding in Dubai, collapsed for a second time last month.

Whereas TLC Trading was fronted by Armen Sargasyan, a Boris CEO played by Polish national Tomas Malodobry, Aurum is headed up by Jan Kroger.

Jan Kroger’s actual name is Krogan Jan-Burkhard.

Jan-Burkhard is a random crypto bro from Germany. Outside of dubious marketing claims made in various PR puff pieces, Jan-Burkhard doesn’t appear to have achieved anything significant in the crypto space.

It’s unclear whether Jan-Burkhard is a full-blown Boris CEO or is working directly with the Russians actually running Aurum.

I guess we’ll find out if Jan-Burkhard turns up in the usual rented office videos.

Other individuals featured in Aurum’s marketing material include:

• Ahmad Zen – Marketing Director
• Aleksei Mirko – Product Development Director
• Ivan Marjanovic – Growth Director

Ahmad Zen has ties to Dubai…

…and is a former Earn World Ponzi promoter:

Earn World collapsed in July 2024.

Aleksei Mirko’s social media is in Russian. Mirko and Ivan Marjanovic appear to be randoms plucked from who knows where.

Given the set up, it’s highly likely the same Dubai Russian scammers behind TLC Trading are behind Aurum.

I did note the use of “Standart” in Aurum’s marketing. That could tie into Kroger’s German roots or just reflect whoever put the material together.

The “CashFX (in association with EverFX) Scam – Now What!?” FaceBook group notes serial Ponzi promoter Luigi Bruni is also pitching Aurum.

Or was. Sometime over the last few days Bruni abruptly deleted all of this Aurum marketing efforts.

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…]

Wisdom Tree TRX fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Wisdom Tree TRX’s website domain (“wisdomtrx.vip”), was registered with bogus details on September 1st, 2024.

Of note is Wisdom Tree TRX’s website domain being registered through the Chinese registrar Alibaba (Singapore).

Wisdom Tree TRX has already attracted the attention of financial regulators. The Central Bank of Russia issued a Wisdom Tree TRX pyramid fraud warning on September 6th, 2024.

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…]