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

Lusate’s website domain (“lusate.com”), was first registered in 2015. The private registration was last updated on April 11th, 2023.

Lusate’s current website was created between March and May 2021. I believe the website sat dormant until the attached MLM opportunity, details of which are completely absent on Lusate’s website, was launched relatively recently (late 2022, early 2023).

Even if we take Lusate’s website creation date at face value, the company has thus been around for a maximum of two years.

On its website Lusate falsely claims it was “founded in 2011.

As to who is running Lusate, our first clue is the use of Yandex Translate on its website.

Website traffic to Lusate’s website began to pick up in March 2023. In April 2023 SimilarWeb tracked 98% of Lusate website traffic originating from Belarus.

For reference, Lusate website traffic was dead in February 2023. In March it was still negligible, climbing to around ~7000 total visits for April.

Belarus being the primary source of that traffic and use of Yandex Translate, strongly suggests Lusate is being operated by eastern Europeans. Typically this means Russians and/or Ukrainians.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, Lusate provides a corporate address in Ireland on its website.

This address is currently being used by the company Slack. The address has nothing to do with Lusate.

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…]

OneCoin’s current highest ranking promoter has quit the Ponzi scheme.

Instead of just admitting there’s nobody left to scam, Cordel King Jayms is citing “personal reasons”. [Continue reading…]

Fintoch has received a securities fraud warning from Singapore.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore added Fintoch to its Investor Alert List on May 4th. [Continue reading…]

NovaTech FX has added the US and Canada to its list of “restricted areas and regions”.

Practically speaking the move means little but it’s the loudest acknowledgement of securities fraud yet. [Continue reading…]

Herbalife has settled fraud allegations pertaining to its “Circle of Success” events for $12 million.

Herbalife has also agreed to stop misleading consumers by making changes to its corporate policies. [Continue reading…]

The SEC alleges Root Wellness founder Clayton Thomas stole $730,000 from an investor back in 2019.

Rather than defend the SEC’s charges, Thomas has opted for a settlement.

As alleged by the SEC in their May 9th Complaint, Thomas told the investor funds ‘would be used to purchase certain medical devices called the TM-Flow System.’ [Continue reading…]

While South African authorities haven’t done much on the criminal side of things, last year SARS, the country’s tax regulator, informed MTI’s Liquidators it intended to bill them $34.46 million.

This amount, representing unpaid taxes by the $1.7 billion Ponzi scheme, was just shy of total recovery.

As of March 2023, the dispute between MTI’s Liquidators and SARS was expected to drag into 2024.

Now, the unexpected news that MTI’s Liquidators and SARS have reached a settlement. [Continue reading…]

The LT Wallet Ponzi scheme has collapsed.

The scam’s website is still up but withdrawals have been disabled. [Continue reading…]

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

SolaRoad’s website domain (“solaroad.io”), was privately registered on March 16th, 2023.

SolaRoad do provide executive information offsite on their GitHub page:

SolaRoad’s three featured executives are all purportedly based in the US. Naturally none of them exist outside of recently created LinkedIn profile.

“John Elways” is presented as having held “senior management positions” at Hewlett Packard.

This ties into SolaRoad claiming HewLett Packard is “one of the initiators of” their SolaDigital Foundation.

I couldn’t find any links between Hewlett Packard and SolaRoad or SolaDigital Foundation.

Hewlett Packard isn’t the only company name SolaRoad falsely claims association with:

While I wasn’t able to get names for the actors playing SolaRoad’s executives, I did land a few hits tying “John Elways” to Thailand.

This corresponds to SolaRoad holding a staged marketing event in Thailand last month (keep in mind the company has only existed for less than 3 months):

SolaRoad’s three executive actors were all present at the event, which seemed to be aimed at south-east Asian investors.

SolaRoad’s marketing videos feature “AI Ocean”, although this branding isn’t present on their website.

One clue as to who’s actually behind SolaRoad can be found in this staged influencer marketing video:

The two actors in the video, presented as social media influencers with millions of followers, both have distinct eastern European accents. So do all the extras.

Notably, again none of SolaRoad’s presented three executives are in the video. Bit odd considering it’s supposed to be a a “visit to Sola Digital Foundation Headquarters”.

I can’t say for sure but SolaRoad is likely being run by Russians and/or Ukrainians – either from Thailand or working with associates in Thailand.

Said associates likely have ties to China, as evidenced by SolaRoad’s May 15th Macau marketing event registration form:

This is available on the domain “solaroad.pro”, privately registered on April 25th.

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…]

The third reboot of the The Future Trade Ponzi scheme launched as TFT Metaweb in late 2022.

I don’t have an exact date but TFT Metaweb also collapsed in early 2023. At time of publication TFT Metaweb’s previously accessible website has been taken down.

Enter The Future Trade again, rebooted for a fourth time on or around March 2023.

The Future Trade’s fourth reboot operates from “tft-max.org”, privately registered on October 9th, 2022.

The first three iterations of The Future Trade were Boris CEO Ponzi schemes run by Russians.

Interestingly, The Future Trade’s current newly set up FaceBook page is operated from Nigeria.

This raises the question of whether The Future Trade v4 is a true reboot or spinoff from an opportunistic scammer.

In an attempt to appear legitimate The Future Trade provides incorporation certificates for The Future Trade in Australia, and The Future Trade INT LTD in Seychelles.

A search of ASIC’s records reveals the Australian certificate is bogus. Notwithstanding, for the purpose of MLM due-diligence, basic incorporation in any jurisdiction is meaningless.

This is due to the ease with which scammers are able to register shell companies with bogus information.

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…]