The Zhunrize Receiver has filed his sixteenth and final status report.

A December 19th motion also seeks to close the Zhunrize Receivership and discharge the Receiver. [Continue reading…]

As the DOJ’s investigation into BitClub Network continues, the company’s website has now gone offline.

As at the time of publication, attempts to load BitClub Network’s website throw up a 522 HTTP error (connection timed out). [Continue reading…]

The unsealing of the BitClub Network case docket confirms that, as of December 20th, co-founder Russ Medlin is still on the run from authorities. [Continue reading…]

Christopher Terry launched iMarketsLive back in 2013.

BehindMLM reviewed iMarketsLive in August the same year. Our analysis revealed iMarketsLive bundled a securities offering with pyramid recruitment.

Four years later we revisited iMarketsLive. This was roughly about a year after Terry told new recruit Alex Morton ‘he had been through hell and back and his company at the time was barely surviving’.

While a retail option had been introdcuced, iMarketsLive’s securities offering, now with an auto trader, was just as illegal as ever.

Our review was published in September 2017. In March 2018 iMarketsLive discontinued auto-trading.

By this time two fraud related regulatory warnings had been issued in Colombia, Curaçao and Sint Maarten.

The UK warned of iMarketsLive “scammers” in July 2018.

Two months later we learned the CFTC had also been investigating iMarketsLive, which likely prompted the company to drop its auto-trading service.

Of their investigation findings the CFTC stated;

iMarketsLive affiliates were receiving automated returns from an entity run by individuals who were not registered and thus authorized provide such a service.

Rather than defend the CFTC’s claims iMarketsLive settled. The settlement imposed a $150,000 fine and acknowledgement that the CFTC’s findings were “true and correct”.

Things were relatively quiet over at iMarketsLive for the rest of 2018 and for most of 2019. Then, out of the blue, in September 2019 Terry announced iMarketsLive was rebranding as IM Mastery Academy.

Whereas iMarketsLive was very much a Christopher Terry affair, IM Mastery Academy sees Isis De La Torre credited as co-founder.

Torre was also credited as a co-founder of iMarketsLive, in addition to being both companies’ CFO, but like I said, iMarketsLive was very much the Christopher Terry show.

In any event, today we revisit iMarketsLive for a third time as the newly relaunched IM Mastery Academy.

Read on for a full review of IM Mastery Academy’s MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

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

PayAsian’s website domain (“payasian.co”) was registered in April 2018.

Singapore is cited as the registrant’s country with no other details provided.

PayAsian do provide a whitepaper link on their website. In the company’s whitepaper, Hero Vu (right) is cited as PayAsian’s co-founder and CEO.

PayAsian’s other co-founders are not disclosed.

As per Vu’s PayAsian corporate bio, he’s

a Bitcoin evangelist and researcher on Blockchain, with over 15 years of experience in the Fintech field.

He is also a consultant for financial firms in Singapore.

According to Vu’s LinkedIn profile, he’s based out of Singapore.

As far as I can tell PayAsian is Vu’s first MLM venture.

Update 22nd December 2019 – PayAsian doesn’t appear to be Hero Vu’s first MLM crypto rodeo.

Following a tipoff from a reader, I was able to trace Vu promoting SunCoin in March, 2018.

Whatever SunCoin was, it never got off the ground and collapsed. From what I was able to find, it was attached to SunPay and appears to be the precursor to PayAsian.

According to reader “jun kintanar” in the comments below, SunCoin primarily targeted Cambodian investors. Vu exit-scammed with their money when it failed to take off.

Less than a month after Vu began promoting SunCoin, PayAsian’s website domain was registered (April 9th).

By late April/early May, promotion of PayAsian began in earnest.

Although Vu would likely hope nobody remembers SunCoin, reference to it today exists in PayAsian’s published whitepaper (oops):

There are also two references to SunPay in the whitepaper.

All of this suggests Vu knows exactly what he’s doing with PayAsian and, when the time comes, will once again exit-scam. /end update

On the regulatory front PayAsian has already attracted attention. The Philippine SEC issued a PayAsian securities fraud warning on November 14th.

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

Jacques Poujade’s attempt to reverse an order directing him to surrender money and assets has been denied. [Continue reading…]

In response to Plaintiffs Rui Chen’s and Wenjian Gozales’ pyramid scheme lawsuit, Premier Financial Alliance attempted to compel arbitration.

The motion was denied January 22nd, 2019, prompting PFA to file a Motion for Reconsideration.

On December 19th, PFA’s Motion for Reconsideration was also denied. [Continue reading…]

The Traffic Monsoon Receiver’s proposed claims process has been approved.

This means we now have a set cutoff date and procedural instructions for claim filing. [Continue reading…]

HashFinders provides no information about who owns or runs the company on their website.

HashFinders website domain was first registered in 2016. Currently Hashfinders’ registration is private and was last updated on September 5th, 2019.

On its website, HashFinders claims

In middle of 2016, the company HASHFINDERS was created in Korea with a group specialized in blockchain, cryptography and mining algorithms.

This backstory is baloney. A check on the WayBackMachine reveals that as late as August 2019 HashFinders’ website domain was parked.

The current website went live on or around September 5th, which is likely when HashFinders’ admin(s) took possession of the domain.

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…]

Russell Whitney’s estate has settled with the FTC.

As part of the settlement, a $1,428,616 monetary judgement has been awarded. [Continue reading…]