Following withdrawal of Richard Maike’s attorney back in April, he was given thirty days to find new counsel.

Maike is a named defendant in the DOJ’s Infinity2Global criminal case, which is scheduled to go to trial on July 22nd.

In a new motion filed on June 10th, Maike advises the court he’s found a new attorney.

Problem is the attorney will only represent Maike if the trial is delayed to February 2020. [Continue reading…]

A defendant in the FTC’s case against Redwood Scientific Technologies has agreed to a permanent injunction and suspended monetary judgment. [Continue reading…]

Keeping track of Antony Norman’s various scam launches is no easy task.

In our recently published Wellmont Capital review, we documented Norman’s acquisition of John Barksdale’s failed InnerQuest Global Limited Ponzi scheme.

In its dying days, InnerQuest’s last hurrah was IQ Legacy.

Norman (right) rolled IQ Legacy into Wellmont Capital. He also simultaneously launched IQ5050 which, less than a month out of launch, has already collapsed.

In a June 9th press-release, Sprinkle Group announced it had acquired InnerQuest Limited.

Sprinke Group is a company that only came into existence earlier this year.

Since then they’ve “entered into an agreement” with Wellmont Capital, tying Antony Norman to all three companies.

Call me cynical but there’s a good chance Norman has a thumb in Sprinkle Group too.

In any event, after Norman sold IQ5050 back to himself through Sprinkle Group, the company announced it will be ‘rebranded to the Bakuhatsu.io brand owned by Sprinkle‘. [Continue reading…]

BizKniz provides no information on its website about who owns or runs the business.

BizKniz’s website domain (“bizkniz.com”) was first registered in 2013. The domain registration was last updated in July 2018.

BizKniz’s website domain registration is private and provides no information on its owner.

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…]

Vibe Direct provides no information on its website about who owns or runs the business.

Vibe Direct’s website domain (“vibe.direct”) was registered on August 26th, 2018.

Dan Robison is the registered owner, through a residential address in the US state of Florida.

Robison lead me to a defunct Vibe Direct signup page, which according to Google cache contained the following paragraph:

Vibe Direct LLC was founded in 2018 by three business partners with over 100+ years of direct sales and social marketing experience.

Dan Robison, Todd Wallace and Jerry Lambert joined forces to bring together competitive priced services with a state of the art backoffice support system.

Vibe Direct’s current signup page does not provide this information. No idea why.

Dan Robison and Todd Wallace appear to have been working together for some time.

A 2005 press-release notes they were both appointed to Y-Tel International’s Board of Directors.

Surprisingly, Robison doesn’t have much of a digital footprint. I did find a Dan Robison in Ambit Energy but I’m not 100% sure it’s the same guy.

A resume on Todd Wallace’s website cites him as COO of TruConnect Direct from 2013 to 2016.

TruConnect Direct is a wireless service MLM company. Traffic statistics for TruConnect Direct’s website suggest there’s not much activity going on.

I couldn’t find any MLM related information on Jerry Lambert.

Update 10th June 2019 – A reader in the comments below mentioned Lambert was in Excel Communications.

According to Lambert’s LinkedIn profile, he was a “Senior Manager” in Excel from 1995 to 1997.

Lambert’s professional background otherwise seems to be heavily communications oriented. /end update

Considering these three claim to have “over 100+ years of direct sales experience”, it’s odd they haven’t been very public about it.

Read on for a full review of the Vibe Direct MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

It appears the FTC’s fraud case against Thomas Dluca, Louis Gatto, Eric Pinkston and Scott Chandler may have been settled.

On May 24th a Settlement Conference was scheduled for June 4th.

“All parties” were required to attendance the conference, which ran as scheduled. [Continue reading…]

Following claims Global Capital AG had approval of the Cambodian government to run a Ponzi scheme, Cambodian authorities have arrested co-founder Darren Yaw and his wife. [Continue reading…]

A Cloud Token affiliate investor has been “fined” 1000 CTO points, purportedly for failing to explain the opportunity to someone they recruited.

According to a recent Facebook post by Cloud Token admin Ronald Aai, an affiliate was “fined” 1000 CTOs for ‘fail(ing) to explain … how (Cloud Token’s) affiliate program works‘. [Continue reading…]

The Italian financial regulator CONSOB has temporarily suspended promotion of LiraCoin Club in Italy.

In a published May 29th bulletin, CONSOB states LiraCoin Club’s MLM opportunity constitutes an investment proposal. [Continue reading…]

As part of a consumer protection ruling in Austria, Lyoness has been ordered to compensate victims with interest.

The ruling covers Lyoness victim losses on investments made between 2007 to 2009 and in 2012. [Continue reading…]