Emerson Pires, Flavio Goncalves and Joshua David Nicholas, have each been indicted on EmpiresX fraud charges.

Pires and Goncalves co-founded the EmpiresX Ponzi scheme. Joshua Nicholas worked with them to create the illusion of trading. [Continue reading…]

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has sued EmpiresX and its executives for “at least $41.6 million” in fraud.

The CFTC’s lawsuit was filed in parallel with an SEC civil fraud lawsuit pertaining to the same conduct. [Continue reading…]

EmpiresX and its executives have been sued by the SEC for $40 million in securities fraud.

In addition to being fraudulent, Defendants’ offers and sales of EmpiresX securities violated the registration provisions of the federal securities laws.

The SEC brings this lawsuit to hold Defendants responsible for their fraud

The SEC’s lawsuit was filed on June 30th. EmpiresX, founders Emerson Pires and Flavio Goncalves, and head trader Joshua David are named as defendants. [Continue reading…]

Paraiba World affiliate investors who try to withdraw are reporting non-payment.

The Paraiba World Ponzi scheme is now approximately three weeks behind in withdrawal payments. [Continue reading…]

A group of Plaintiffs have filed a securities fraud lawsuit against Liyeplimal and associated scammers in the US.

The parties list is so long it spans three pages. Plaintiffs also managed to rip off BehindMLM without citation. [Continue reading…]

Mirror Trading International CEO Johan Steynberg has been sued by the CFTC.

According to the regulator, Mirror Trading International was a $1.7 billion dollar Ponzi scheme. [Continue reading…]

The FBI has added OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova to their top ten most wanted list.

US authorities have put up a $100,000 reward “for information leading to (her) arrest”. [Continue reading…]

LZTrade Fund operates in the trading bot MLM niche.

The company represents it is incorporated as

• Leizan Capital Limited in the BVI
• LZTD Investment Holdings in St Vincent and the Grenadines and
• LZTD Investment Holdings in South Africa

BVI and St Vincent and the Grenadines are scam-friendly jusridictions that automatically raise red flags. South Africa isn’t known for strong regulation of MLM related fraud.

More importantly though, these are all shell company incorporations. Basic incorporation of any type in any jurisdiction is meaningless with respect to MLM due-diligence.

LZTrade Fund is purportedly headed up by CEO Alejandro Morales and CTO Zhao Hua:

No information about either Morales or Hua is provided.

Further research reveals LZTrade Fund webinars featuring Alejandro Morales:

The combination of Alejandro Morales not existing outside of LZTrade Fund marketing and him having a British accent, makes him a prime Boris CEO candidate (i.e. played by an actor).

I wasn’t able to pin down a name but “Alejando Morales” might be a resident of Thailand. In 2017/2018 he made several visits to Invite Wine & Cocktail Bar in Bangkok.

Granted that was four years ago at best but be it Thailand or somewhere else, lends itself to Morales being an actor.

One final bit of supporting evidence I’ll throw in is the multi-socket adaptor in the webinar screenshot above. It matches a number of power sockets available in Thailand.

Zhao Hua is too vague of a name to turn up anything specific. That there’s nothing obviously verifiable suggests he’s likely an actor too.

LZTrade Fund’s website domain (“lztradefund.com”), was privately registered on March 29th, 2022.

SimilarWeb currently ranks top sources of traffic to LZTrade Fund’s website as Colombia (46%), Honduras (28%) and the US (27%).

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…]

NotchFX Trade provides no verifiable information on its website about who owns or runs the company.

NotchFX Trade’s website domain (“notchfxtrade.com”), was privately registered on September 12th, 2021.

Despite only existing since 2021, NotchFX Trade falsely claims it has been “running since” February 2017.

Janky English and the weird spelling of Dorothy…

…suggests NotchFX Trade is being run by a non-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 Klay Group “click a button” app Ponzi scheme has collapsed.

Following three days of withdrawal delays, as of a few days ago Klay Group’s website has been pulled offline.

Klay Group is your typical “click a button” app Ponzi, this time targeting Hungary. [Continue reading…]