Silver Star Live and owners Hassan Mahmoud and Candace Ross-Mahmoud have agreed to settle Commodity Exchange Act violations. [Continue reading…]

Charles Scoville’s bid to legalize Ponzi schemes through the Supreme Court has come to an end. [Continue reading…]

Traveling Vineyard operates in the wine MLM niche.

The company is based  out of Massachusetts in the US, and is headed up by “Chief Grape Stomper” Rick Libby.

Libby (right) claims to have coined the concept of a wine-based MLM opportunity. He acquired Traveling Vineyard following its bankruptcy in 2011.

The concept behind free home wine tasting and Traveling Vineyard had been my idea in 2001 when I worked for Geerlings & Wade, a leader in the direct marketing of quality wine.

If the home party concept could work for plastic storage containers and cooking utensils, why not wine?

I tested the idea with a dozen people and it took off. By 2005, Traveling Vineyard had thousands of independent consultants, who work from home hosting more than 100,000 home tasting events a year in 26 states.

After decades in various sales, marketing and management positions, I had finally fallen in love with a business.

Just when the Traveling Vineyard model had built momentum, a leadership change in the parent company triggered some strategic decisions with which I disagreed, particularly a decision to make changes to the programs we created that supported the self-employed independent wine consultants, our Wine Guides.

The Guides form the heart and soul of the business model. How could I be expected to tell these wine enthusiasts about program impacts to them that I completely disagreed with?

That’s when I left Traveling Vineyard and spent five years doing other things – until I heard about the bankruptcy filing.

I persuaded my wife, presented my case to dozens of friends and investors, emptied my savings accounts (yes, all of them), and made a run at it.

I knew that if our Wine Guides received the support they needed to be successful, the company would get back on its feet.

By November 2010, Traveling Vineyard was back in business. Today, we’re proud to have more than 2,500 happy and satisfied independent Wine Guides in nearly 40 states who love their home based businesses.

Read on for a full review of Traveling Vineyard’s MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

A $5 million dollar donation will provide doTerra access to cancer patients at St. Elizabeth Healthcare. [Continue reading…]

An FTC investigation has revealed less than 1% of commissions paid out by Neora were tied to retail sales.

Rather than admit the company operated as a pyramid scheme, Neora is suing the FTC. [Continue reading…]

The FTC has filed a lawsuit against the MLM company Neora (formerly Nerium), and owner Jeff Olson.

According to the FTC, Neora has operated as a pyramid scheme since inception as Nerium International in 2011. [Continue reading…]

BBC Token provides no information on its website about who owns or runs the business.

BBC Token’s website domain (“bbctoken.app”) was privately registered on July 17th, 2019.

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…]

CryptScalper provides no information on its website about who owns or runs the company.

CryptScalper’s website domain (“cryptscalper.com”) was privately registered on September 19th, 2019.

On their website CryptScalper claims to be incorporated in the UK as “CryptScalper LTD”.

UK incorporation is dirt cheap and for the most part unregulated. It is a favored jurisdiction for scammers looking to incorporate dodgy companies.

The London address CryptScalper provides on their website belongs to a charity store.

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…]

Heal Worldwide operates in the nutritional supplement MLM niche.

The company is based out of Florida and headed up by founder Stephen Munson.

Although not credited on Heal Worldwide’s website, in one marketing video Munson also credits Lauren Barley, his mother, and Paul Munson (brother?), as founders of the company.

In Munson’s own words, here’s how Heal Worldwide came about;

In 2014 I was in was sick, broke, stressed, depressed, hopeless and homeless.

My best friend has just died from Cancer, I got evicted from my home, I struggled sleeping and body was in horrible inflamed pain.

It was a long grueling battle and my confidence, courage, and faith seemed to be challenged every day.

At this point, I was all the sudden highly allergic to regular foods like Bananas, Strawberries, Black Pepper, Garlic and Vanilla.

If I ate any of those or sugar or gluten I would erupt in swollen red spots. My gut was wrecked and it was a maze to fix.

I understand health battles and I’d love to help you have great health and life-long happiness.

3 years of living in fear and it took traveling around the world to a divine meeting when I discovered a man named Dr. Pichaet who has spent 40 years studying Plant-Based Health and Beauty specifically focuses on Immune System Support.

I had the fortune of meeting 100’s of people who used his products and heard their stories and was amazed.

It only took me 8 days to experience my own health transformation and ever since I have been on a mission to share this with everyone in the world. This changed my life forever and it can help you too.

Stephen Munson, Founder of Heal

Munson is/was also active in the marketing side of MLM in general.

In 2017 a BehindMLM reader tied Munson to a “Hemp30” marketing course, purportedly offered in conjunction with the My Club 8 CBD opportunity.

Last year Munson appeared on the MLM Nation podcast.

On the episode page, Munson is described as

a 6 figure earner in network marketing in 2 previous companies and still earns residual income from them.

He’s also been a peak performance coach and then the right hand man to the co-owner of a MLM company, David Sharpe.

Today, Stephen uses his real life story of how he overcame 16 years of addiction… over a decade of poverty… and other personal tragedies to help others achieve more in life.

To the best of my knowledge the only MLM company David Sharpe has owned is Empower Network.

Empower Network launched as a gifting scheme in 2011. After several business model reboots, the company finally collapsed in 2017.

David Sharpe cashed out in early 2014. Whether Stephen Munson was still working for him at the time is unclear.

After Empower Network Munson appears to have briefly promoted DS Domination.

Read on for a full review of Heal Worldwide’s MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Just shy of two weeks ago the Traffic Monsoon Receiver requested permission to engage Canadian attorneys.

The attorneys are required to pursue judgement against Canadian Traffic Monsoon net-winners.

On October 28th the Receiver’s motion was denied. [Continue reading…]