Defendants LaShonda and Marlon Moore have had their Motion to Dismiss the FTC’s fraud case against them dismissed.

The FTC filed suit against the Moores last June, pertaining to the Blessings in No Time (BINT) gifting scheme. [Continue reading…]

Back in June 2021 the MOBE Receivership announced it had returned $15.2 million to the FTC for distribution.

After a period of uncertainty, the FTC has announced $23 million has been paid out to MOBE victims. [Continue reading…]

Brent Kovar’s penchant for lavishing gifts on women he hired, was revealed by the Profit Connect Receiver last November.

The Temporary Receiver identified three Profit Connect employees with the responsibilities of administering the financial and personnel operations of Profit Connect: SW, a former pharmacy technician hired as the accounting manager and, as she has stated, a long-term girlfriend of Brent Kovar, RU, a former pharmacy technician hired as an accountant, and JM, with no prior job experience who was hired as the junior accountant and receptionist at the warehouse.

The accounting staff could not demonstrate even the most elementary understanding of business accounting best practices, the accounting staff was overcompensated based on their skills and experience, the accounting staff were provided lavish non-cash gifts for their efforts, the accounting staff unquestionably followed Brent Kovar’s every request, and there were unusual and inappropriate relationships with the accounting staff.

“RU” has been identified as Ramona Uriarte. She is the first Profit Connect employee to settle with the Receiver. [Continue reading…]

Leonardo Cositorto is expected to be extradited from the Dominican Republic as early as next Monday.

Cositorto is behind the Generation Zoe Ponzi scheme. He was arrested on an Interpol issued warrant earlier this week. [Continue reading…]

Gauss Global operates in the MLM cryptocurrency niche. The company claims to be a “Dubai-based company”.

Dubai is the MLM scam capital of the world. Through limited extradition treaties and non-regulation of MLM related fraud, Dubai provides scammers a safe-haven.

Any MLM company representing it is based out of Dubai immediately raises red flags.

Heading up Gauss Global is “Dionisio Da Silva Simoes”.

Simoes’ Gauss Global corporate bio is very vague. Other than a corresponding LinkedIn profile, Simoes doesn’t exist outside of Gauss Global marketing.

I was going to write Gauss Global’s executives off as stolen stock photos, save for a marketing video uploaded on March 26th.

The video, uploaded to Gauss Global’s official YouTube channel and purportedly shot in Dubai, features Simoes and General Director “Martin Rojas”:

The guy on the left is Global Master “Bruno Pereira” who, despite having “20 years of network marketing”, also doesn’t exist outside of Gauss Global marketing.

The language spoken in the video is Spanish, which syncs with Gauss Global claiming it’s “a family owned company, from Portugal and Peru”.

I think rather than being from South America, this is more reflective of Gauss Global targeting a Spanish-speaking audience.

Gauss Global’s website domain (“gaussgloballlc.com”), was privately registered on November 30th, 2021.

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…]

Generation Zoe Ponzi scammer Leonardo Cositorto has finally been arrested.

Cositorto had been on the run in Colombia, openly flaunting an Interpol issued international arrest warrant.

Despite publicizing his movements throughout Colombia, it wasn’t Colombian authorities who nabbed Corsitorto.

He was picked up on April 4th in the Dominican Republic. [Continue reading…]

Last October BehindMLM covered YEP begging the public for $1 million, to cover $4.2 million in losses in 2020.

At the time I noted Driven Trading, which was curiously absent from YEP’s SEC filings.

I also noted a “coming soon” automation component being pitched to founders:

That’s now launched, seeing YEP adding securities fraud to its MLM offering.

Well, at least up until very recently. [Continue reading…]

The PlatinCoin Ponzi scheme has been rebooted as PlatinWorld.

PlatinCoin was a Ponzi scheme launched in 2017 by Ponzi promoter turned founder, Alex Reinhardt.

Reinhardt modeled PlatinCoin on the collapsed SwissCoin Ponzi, which he was a top net-winner in.

That’s Reinhardt on the left, celebrating theft of €94,000 EUR from SwissCoin investors. [Continue reading…]

RockRaise provides no verifiable ownership or executive information on its website.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, RockRaise provides a random “company registration number” on its website for “RockRaise SIA”. Under this RockRaise’s “General Manager” Axel Steen is listed.

Steen is featured in RockRaise’s marketing material but doesn’t appear to exist outside of the company.

I can’t confirm for sure but RockRaise’s Axel Steen is a good Boris CEO candidate.

Since launch RockRaise has switched out the actor representing the company. Steen is gone and it’s now “Alexander”:

Steen and Alexander have similar accents (I’m going with German).

RockRaise SIA is a Latvian shell company. Corresponding with this, RockRaise provides a purported corporate address in Latvia on its website.

Punching this address into Google Maps however reveals it’s some random residential building. RockRaise obviously doesn’t have any actual ties to Latvia.

It should further be noted that, for the purpose of MLM due-diligence, basic incorporation in any jurisdiction is meaningless.

The reason for this is any bogus information can be used for basic incorporation. Case in point:

One curiosity worth mentioning is RockRaise’s targeting of India.

The ploy is marketing nonsense but the Indian government gets a mention on RockRaise’s website:

Indian national holidays are also noted on RockRaise’s official FaceBook page:

These are unlikely to be coincidental. Whoever is running RockRaise is either based in and/or has ties to India, or at the very least is specifically targeting Indians.

Random stab in the dark but this guy might know who’s behind RockRaise:

Now if you’re wondering, “Well OK, what’s up with the German accents then?”, that’s where CPI Tech comes in.

Before it launched “cpitech” ran a RockRaise logo contest on 99 Designs:

CPI Technologies is a German blockchain bro company, headed up by founders Marvin Steinberg and Maximilian Schmidt.

Our company is located in Mainz, Germany. CPI team consists of software developers, Blockchain and smart contract experts, marketing and analytics geniuses, top-level UX / UI designers, copywriters, data scientists and mathematicians, all working together on innovative projects for customers from all over the world.

Whether CPI Tech is running RockRaise I can’t say, but they were definitely involved in setting it up. That involvement is also likely why RockRaise’s Boris CEOs have German accents.

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…]

iKapitol provides no ownership or executive information on its website.

iKapitol’s website domain was privately registered on November 29th, 2021.

In its marketing material, iKapitol claims to be “backed by Beat Markets incorporated in Spain”.

Beat Markets is represented to be a company with finance experience, “with a presence in Europe and Latin America”.

Does Beat Markets actually exist? Who knows. It should be noted that, for the purpose of MLM due-diligence, basic incorporation anywhere is meaningless.

One thing mention of Latin America and Europe does synch with is iKapitol’s website defaulting to Spanish.

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…]