Pedro Fort has been issued a $14.9 million judgment in the SEC’s Fort Ad Pays Ponzi case against him.

The March 19th judgment follows the SEC moving for $38.6 million in relief against the Fort Ad Pays defendants a few weeks back. [Continue reading…]

Atronocom operates in the MLM cryptocurrency niche. The company is headed up by CEO Thomas Koller.

Specific details of Koller’s MLM history, if any, are not provided.

In an Atronocom press-release however, Koller refers to himself as a “trader”.

Somewhat suspiciously, Koller (right) doesn’t appear to have a digital footprint outside of Atronocom.

As per the Atronocom website, the company claims to be based out of Dubai.

ATRONOCOM, as a limited liability company (Ltd.), is in Dubai “DMCC” Free Zone in formation and will be registered as Distributed Ledger respectively Blockchain, Software Development and technology provider Company until the end of January 2019.

The required permits will also be issued and published in the Central Register of the United Arab Emirates.

In cooperation with Abu Dhabi Global Market, the implementation and use of the components relevant for financial engineering will be discussed and put online in a structured manner.

Both Dubai and Abu Dhabi are known for having lax regulatory enforcement enforcement. There is no legitimate reason for an MLM company to be based there.

Whether Koller himself is based out of Dubai or elsewhere is unclear.

The use of euros by the company strongly suggests Atronocom is in actuality being operated out of Europe.

Update 20th March 2019 – As per Atronocom’s Twitter profile, the company is purportedly based out of Zug, Switzerland.

This all but confirms related Atronocom incorporations in the UAE are shell companies. /end update

Read on for a full review of the Atronocom MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

The FTC’s ongoing lawsuit against Redwood Technologies and owners Jason and Eunjung Cardiff, is evidently making life very difficult for the defendants.

Facing eviction from the family home, a Judge has also now denied a request for the return of the Cardiff’s passports – without which Jason claims he’ll lose his new job. [Continue reading…]

Seemingly out of the blue, last month World Global Network announced it was rebranding as Vyvo.

No explanation for the name-change is provided on the World Global Network website.

Here’s one possible reason:

BehindMLM’s first exposure to World Global Network was Global Mobile Network in 2013.

Back then Fabio Galdi was selling a VOIP service, advertising mobile app and power units.

Most of Global Mobile Network’s compensation plan was geared towards affiliate recruitment.

Power units saw Global Mobile Network affiliates pay $600 or $1600, and then $240 annually to maintain their position.

Payment of power unit fees qualified Global Mobile Network affiliates for commissions when their downlines purchased power positions (no retail).

Power units were eventually renamed power clouds.

In 2016 Galdi rebooted Global Mobile Network as Wor(l)d International, later again renamed to World Global Network.

On or around 2017 VOIP and anything to do with power was quietly abandoned.

In their place the Helo wellness bands were launched. A device you wear on your wrist that provides monitor signals to a phone app.

Among other things, Helo bands were marketed as being able to measure the mood of the wearer.

Other features like ECG/EKG, blood pressure, blood alcohol and blood sugar were marketed were initially marketed. Some features were later added, some never delivered on.

To that end there are some interesting complaints published on World Global Network’s BBB listing (note the company is active there and has replied to each).

The comments on our Wor(l)d International review are also worth a read. A recurring theme is broken promises and the overpriced cost of Helo bands versus similar offerings from other companies.

Anyway, here we are in early 2019 and World Global Network is now Vyvo. Let’s get into it.

Read on for a full review of the Vyvo MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Veribella operates in the personal care MLM niche and is based out of Colorado in the US.

Heading up Veribella is CEO Dave Fiala. Note however that Veribella marketing material cites Kirk Elliott as founder and President of the company.

No information about either Fiala or Elliott is provided on Veribella’s website.

Veribella isn’t the only company Fiala and Elliott work together in. They are both credited as founders of Spark Capital.

Note that this is not the Spark Capital that is based out of Boston and was founded in 2005.

They are two separate companies and the following information pertains to Fiala’s and Elliott’s Spark Capital.

As per Spark Capital’s website, they

strategically partner with some of those most creative and gifted people on the planet so they can fulfill their calling, focus on their gifts, and together we create products and services that are changing the world.

Spark Capital brands featured on their website include More (e-commerce, skin care and cosmetics), IQ (e-commerce) and Timberline Forestry Service (logging and mining).

Curiously, Veribella is not listed as a Spark Capital brand.

As far as I can tell Veribella is the first MLM venture Dave Fiala and Kirk Elliott have launched.

Read on for a full review of the Veribella MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

On March 15th the Zeek Receiver filed his Status Report for the fourth quarter of 2018.

Among other things, the Receiver revealed 44.2% of net-winner payments have been successfully clawed back. [Continue reading…]

Just before the FTC moved to shut it down, Digital Altitude transferred over half a million dollars to Paradise Media Ventures.

There doesn’t appear to have been any legitimate reason for the transfer, and so now the Receiver is demanding the funds back. [Continue reading…]

Earlier today a man describing himself as an “ordinary white man” opened fire on two New Zealand mosques.

As I write this, forty-nine people are dead.

The gunman has been identified as Australian citizen Brenton Tarrant.

Not only did Tarrant livestream his attack, he also published a 73 page manifesto before his arrest.

In the first page of Tarrant’s manifesto, he states he made money in BitConnect. [Continue reading…]

BizzTrek’s website provides no information about who owns or runs the company.

The BizzTrek website domain (“bizztrek.com”) was privately registered on August 2nd, 2018.

BizzTrek provides multiple office locations on their website, all of which are virtual addresses.

The only “team member” listed on BizzTrek’s official Facebook page is Chief Marketing Officer Ababil Sher.

Sher is based out of the UK and on Twitter describes himself as a “cerebral shapeshifter”.

Whether Sher is working alone or with others to run BizzTrek is unclear.

Update 8th May 2019 – Ababil Sher has been in touch and claims he’s “no longer working with BizzTrek”.

Even though they had me down as their ‘Chief Marketing Officer’, I never took on the role in an official capacity.

I was actually working with them as a marketing consultant doing their videos and presentations, but when they launched on March 24th, I pulled out.

Sher didn’t provide a reason as to why he “pulled out”.

Sher claims that BizzTrek is run by three co-founders; Rehan Gohar, Rizwan Gohar (brothers) and Gurpreet Dhaliwal.

All three BizzTrek co-founders appear to be based out of the UK. /end update

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 CryptoMonsoon website provides no information about who owns or runs the business.

The CryptoMonsoon website domain (“cryptomonsoon.io”) was registered on November 3rd, 2018.

No registrant is given or address details of the owner, other than the country Panama.

The official CryptoMonsoon Facebook page lists two admins; Ukari Obene and Aakash Munch.

Ukari Obene resides in Nigeria and cites himself as an Alliance in Motion Global affiliate on his Facebook profile.

Aakash Munch resides in London in the UK and of the two seems to be running the show;

Prior to CryptoMonsoon Munch appears to have been running some sort of forex trading scheme.

Read on for a full review of the CryptoMonsoon MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]