California’s Department of Financial Protection & Innovation has issued cease and desists to ten MLM crypto Ponzi schemes. [Continue reading…]

The FocuStar “click a button” app Ponzi has collapsed.

As of roughly 48 hours ago, both of FocuStar’s website domains have been disabled.

FocuStar’s official YouTube channel is still up but comments are disabled. [Continue reading…]

A class-action filed back in June accuses Family First Life of selling dud leads. [Continue reading…]

Luiz Capuci and Emerson Pires are selling off real-estate assets in Florida.

The assets are frozen as per a Mining Capital Coin injunction, granted to the SEC in June.

Now the SEC has moved for contempt against both Defendants. [Continue reading…]

Matthew Goettsche was a key figure behind BitClub Network, a $722 million dollar Ponzi scheme.

Following Goettsche’s arrest in 2019 he pled not guilty. Goettsche was deemed a flight risk though and ordered into custody.

Following failed plea agreement negotiations, Goettsche appealed his detention and a $20 million bond was set in December 2020.

Goettsche satisfied his bail amount and was released to home incarceration.

Almost two years on and Goettsche is struggling with his release conditions. With tens of millions in ill-gotten gains still in play, Goettsche has asked a court for freedom.

*cue world’s smallest violin orchestra* [Continue reading…]

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

Zinter’s website domain (“ziner.pro”), was privately registered on August 15th, 2022.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, Zinter provides incorporation details for Zinter Limited.

Zinter Limited was incorporated in the UK on August 16th, 2022.

An MLM company operating or claiming to operate out of the UK is a red flag.

UK incorporation is dirt cheap and effectively unregulated. On top of that the FCA, the UK’s top financial regulator, do not actively regulate MLM related securities fraud.

As a result the UK is a favored jurisdiction for scammers looking to incorporate, operate and promote fraudulent companies.

For the purpose of MLM due-diligence, incorporation in the UK or registration with the FCA is meaningless.

SimilarWeb currently ranks top sources of traffic to Ziner as Bangladesh (43%), Vietnam (30%) and Switzerland (26%).

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…]

Yolllo fails to provide company ownership or executive information on its website.

Yolllo’s primary website domain (“yolllo.com”), was first registered in August 2021. The registration was last updated on June 21st, 2022.

Yolllo also operates from “yolllobusiness.com”, a private registration also last updated on June 21st.

“Yolllo Corp” is listed as Yolllo’s primary website domain owner, through an address in Florida. The same address appears on Yolllo’s website.

The address in fact belongs to OHM Americas, an industrial power supply manufacturer.

Following the August 2021 registration of its website domains, Yolllo held a staged marketing event it represented took place in Florida on December 17th:

It was your typical Boris CEO production. A rented function room populated with actors.

This now “unofficial” branded launch flopped and by mid 2022 traffic to Yolllo’s websites was non-existent.

This prompted a “relaunch” in Dubai, held just this past weekend.

The man in the photo above is Pasha Kidman, cited as Yolllo’s CEO.

On his personal LinkedIn profile, Kidman claims he’s fluent in English and Russian. He speaks English with a minor eastern European accent.

In 2020 Kidman appeared as an extra for a Rolls Royce dealership promo video shot in Miami:

In 2021 Kidman appeared in “Investing in America“, a TV series aimed at encouraging domestic and foreign investment in the US.

Kidman was onboard as early as Yolllo’s December initial launch event in Miami:

Kidman is very much a Boris CEO but his deception goes beyond just being hired to play Yolllo’s CEO.

Possibly tied to his apparent knowledge of soliciting foreign investment in the US, Kidman is also behind a recently created Florida company tied to Yolllo:

I can’t verify anything but “HappinessUp LLC” as an obvious shell company screams money laundering.

So if Kidman is Yolllo’s fall guy, who’s actually behind the company?

Boris CEO companies are typically the work of Russian and Ukrainian scammers.

To that end Yolllo’s official FaceBook page is being managed from Turkey and Ukraine.

Yolllo’s connection to Turkey is Maxim Gorbachev:

Gorbachev cites himself as co-founder of Yolllo. Who he’s working with isn’t disclosed.

The screenshot above is from a Yolllo marketing video dated July 2022, depicting the opening of a “Yolllo office” in Alanya, Turkey. Gorbachev was present at the event but whether he’s based out of Turkey or not is unclear.

In any event, this explains Turkey showing up as an admin location on Yolllo’s FaceBook page.

Revisiting that address in Florida Yolllo uses, the one that belongs to Ohm Americas?

Maxim Gorbachev is also the founder and Chairman of OHM Americas.

Corporate records tie Gorbachev and Pasha Kidman together through Eagle Next Group LLC and United MG Holdings LLC, two additional Florida shell companies.

Another name we can pin to Yolllo is Tino Ludwig, cited as “Asia Director of Development”:

Ludwig, believed to be a German citizen, made a name for himself promoting the Omnia Tech Ponzi scheme:

Omnia Tech collapsed in 2018, resulting in the vast majority of Ludwig’s 100,000+ downline losing money. A crypto trading reboot was launched but it was short-lived (more losses).

As many MLM Ponzi promoters have done, Ludwig has fled to Dubai.

In addition to continuing to promote MLM Ponzi schemes, Ludwig also instructs other scammers on how to launch scams from Dubai:

Dubai 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 Yolllo, read on for a full review. [Continue reading…]

My BlockX is a continuation of the securities fraud started with My Blockchain Life.

BehindMLM last revisited My Blockchain Life, noting the launch of a BlockX Trading AI bot opportunity.

After publication we had salty US BLKX bagholders pop up in the comments of that article, but as a business opportunity My BlockX was dead.

That changed a few months ago, when someone in My BlockX found an inroad into Colombia. [Continue reading…]

Ashraf Mufareh has been forced to admit OnPassive’s “FIFA sponsorship” is just a cable tv ad campaign. [Continue reading…]

Antares Trade is headed up by Alex Richter, played by Russian national Alexey Mikhailovich Zhirovkin.

Antares Trade and its spinoff Alcore Trade collapsed for good back in May.

Despite victim losses likely running into the hundreds of millions, Zhirovkin continues to be sheltered by Dominican Republic authorities. [Continue reading…]