Pablo Renato Rodriguez has pled guilty to an AirBit Club criminal charge.

Rodriguez and partner in crime Gutemberg Dos Santos, were indicted in 2020 on criminal charges relating to AirBit Club. [Continue reading…]

MetaStake operates in the MLM cryptocurrency niche.

Without providing any specific addresses, MetaStake represents it is based out of the UK, Thailand and Seychelles.

MetaStake operates from two primary website domains:

1. metastakecoin.com – privately registered on October 2nd, 2022
2. metastakecoin.io – privately registered on October 16th, 2022

Heading up MetaStake we have co-founder and COO Sirinyaporn Tanakultitirat (aka Sirinya and Sinya Young), and CEO Bruno Pereira.

Sirinyaporn’s name (all variations), doesn’t appear anywhere on the internet other than MetaStake’s website.

MetaStake provides the following MLM history for Pereira;

Starting as a business representative at ACN, he went on to become the Vice President of Portugal at Amarillas Internet, and subsequently the Country Manager at Gano Excel.

Amarillas Internet is better known as AI Yellow, a pyramid scheme BehindMLM reviewed back in 2012.

BehindMLM first came across Bruno Pereira in April 2022, as a suspected insider of the Gauss Global Ponzi scheme.

Gauss Global has long-since collapsed. A comment left by a BehindMLM reader on our Gauss Global review is of interest:

Bruno Pereira is a low life scammer trying to became a big scammer.

In the past he promoted the Ponzi scheme Forsage, Bizzcoin and other Bitcoin Ponzi scheme that he deleted all the proof.

He uses basically the same text and strategy as other Ponzi scammers. Fronts as Master Coach but he is one the beneficiaries of the scheme.

Oddly enough, MetaStake had a completely different CEO a few months ago:

“Grant Williamson” appears to be some random guy’s head photoshopped onto a suit template.

The Gauss Global screenshot above places Pereira in Dubai, suggesting he might have fled Portugal as his Ponzi career progressed.

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

AutoTrade Golder founder and CEO Dinar Wahyu Saptian Dyfrig, better known as Wahyu Kenzo, has been arrested in Indonesia.

Indonesian authorities allege AutoTrade Gold was a 9 trillion INR Ponzi scheme (~$582 million USD). [Continue reading…]

Save Crypto Staking fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Save Crypto Staking’s website domain (“savecryptostaking.com”), was privately registered on December 24th, 2022.

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…]

Joshua David Nicholas has been ordered to pay $3.3 million in restitution.

The order follows Nicholas pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud last September.

That plea led to a 51 month prison sentence, handed down a few months later in November. [Continue reading…]

Met500 operates in the MLM cryptocurrency niche. The company represents it is based out of the UK.

Met500’s website domain (“met500.com”), was privately registered on September 6th, 2022.

Met500’s official FaceBook page was created on December 29th. The company launched on January 5th.

Met500 provides bogus executive information on its website:

None of Met500’s presented executives actually exist. The photos depicting them are mock-ups created on PlaceIt:

In an attempt to appear legitimate, Met500 provides UK incorporation details for Met500 LTD.

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.

Other than the use of a UK shell company, using an actor with a British accent in their marketing videos and providing a random UKcorporate address on its website, it’s unlikely Met500 has any actual ties to the UK.

As of January 2023, SimilarWeb tracks top sources of traffic to Met500’s website as Russia (15%), Argentina (12%) and the US (9%).

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…]

NewULife has filed an anti-SLAPP response to Awakend’s defamation lawsuit against them. [Continue reading…]

Fintoch operates in the MLM crypto niche and represents itself as “a Silicon Valley company from America”.

Fintoch’s website domain (“fintoch.com”), was privately registered on April 12th, 2022.

Fintoch presents its CEO as “Bobby Joe Lambert”.

Lambert doesn’t exist. He’s played by US actor Mike Provenzano.

Provenzano cites himself as a US-based actor, producer and director.

We can rule out Provenzano’s likeness being stolen by way of him appearing in multiple Fintoch marketing videos.

Most of Fintoch’s marketing videos appear to be shot in New York.

Whatever Provenzano is being paid, it’s enough to get him to commit to the role.

Early on Fintoch pitched itself as “Morgan DF Fintoch LLC”.

This tied into the marketing claim that Fintoch was owned by Morgan Stanley.

The of course was bogus, prompting Morgan Stanley’s legal department to issue an “important notice” in January 2023.

It has come to our attention that there are digital platforms impersonating Morgan Stanley, including Fintoch 分投趣 (“Fintoch”).

Please note that Fintoch is using Morgan Stanley’s trade name and/or Morgan Stanley’s trademark or a variation thereof without authorization and we do not assume any responsibility for any transactions or results that may arise from the aforesaid platforms.

Morgan Stanley does not have any affiliation or relationship with these platforms.

The notice was issued through Morgan Stanley’s Indonesian branch. This reflects Fintoch being primarily promoted across Asia.

SimilarWeb currently ranks top sources of traffic to Fintoch’s website as Cambodia (43%), China (24%), South Korea (17%), Hong Kong (7%) and Malaysia (6%).

This geo targeting strongly suggests whoever is behind Fintoch is likely based out of Asia. Boris CEO MLM companies however are typically the work of eastern European scammers (Russia/Ukraine).

While it’s impossible to verify without further information, with Fintoch we likely have:

1. Asians scamming asians;
2. eastern Europeans scamming Asians; or
3. eastern Europeans working with Asians to scam Asians.

One strong candidate is Singapore:

Beyond hiring US-based actors to play fictional executives, Fintoch doesn’t appear to have any actual ties to the US.

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…]

Creedbull provides no ownership or executive information on its website.

Creedbull’s website domain (“creedbull.com”), was privately registered on November 29th, 2022.

While there’s no corporate address provided on Creedbull’s website, a fictional address in the US is provided in its marketing material:

Odd grammar choices and spelling mistakes suggest whoever is running Creedbull isn’t a native English speaker.

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 Mirror Trading International tax issue in South Africa is expected to drag into 2024. [Continue reading…]