Faith Sloan, the last remaining TelexFree defendant, was scheduled to face trial on February 11th.

The SEC allege Sloan stole over a million dollars from TelexFree victims.

Unfortunately due to Donald Trump’s ongoing government shutdown, Sloan’s trial has now been delayed until the end of March. [Continue reading…]

Tryp provides no information on their website about who owns or runs the business.

The Tryp website domain (“tryprides.com”) was registered on July 12th, 2018.

The domain is owned by Robert McNulty, through a virtual office address in the US state of Nevada.

Further research reveals Tryp marketing material and affiliates citing McNulty as CEO of the company.

Why this information is not provided on the Tryp website is unclear.

McNulty has a history in e-commerce, most notably as founder, President and CEO of Shopping.com.

What you won’t find in Tryp marketing material however is McNulty’s tenure as Shopping.com CEO was marred by a market manipulation investigation by the SEC.

Later that year McNulty resigned, although he was hired back two weeks later as a “consultant” (nothing suss).

Shopping.com was sold off to Compaq a year later in 1999.

One thing I’ll note is the Wikipedia page for “shopping.com”, which states the site was ‘founded in Israel in 1998 by Dr. Nahum Sharfman and Amir Ashkenazi‘.

Robert McNulty’s name does not appear in the entry, so I’m not sure what’s going on there.

Update 20th January 2019 – Some insight from BehindMLM reader K. Chang that seems to fit;

McNulty founded Shopping.com back in 1996, stepped down by 1998. Shopping.com eventually was sold off to Compaq who owned AltaVista at the time.

Elsewhere in Israel, Sharfman and Ashkenanzi founded Papricom, dba DealTime.com in 1998. They bought the shopping.com domain in 2003 from Alta Vista and rebranded itself shopping.com and was eventually bought by eBay in 2005.

/end update

Five years prior to “founding” Shopping.com, McNulty was investigated by the SEC for, among other things, anti-fraud and securities law violations.

In a complaint filed by the Commission on September 30, 1994, McNulty was charged with orchestrating a complex scheme to defraud investors by using the proceeds of securities offerings by HQOS, HQOI, Auto Giant and Auto Depot to finance the operations of affiliated companies and the companies’ underwriter and market maker, Global America, Inc., rather than for the stated purpose of funding the issuers’ operations.

McNulty settled the charges in October 1995.

In late 2009 McNulty launched, Kaching Kaching, an e-commerce niche MLM company.

As of late 2010 the company was still operational but appears to have shut down sometime thereafter.

On his personal website McNulty has a section titled “What I’m doing now”;

My latest dedicated journey is a new company I’ve created (ibuy,inc [sic] / ibuyrite) that will enable independent small brick and mortar retail businesses to not only compete, but to thrive in this brave new world of eCommerce online retail.

At the time of publication the Ibuyrite website has an Alexa traffic ranking of 11.3 million, which is as good as dead.

In early 2018 McNulty co-founded SupplyBloc, in which he also held the position of CEO.

According to the SupplyBloc website, it

was founded with the mission of solving the greatest problems that businesses face in global commerce and e-commerce, namely those involved with supply-chain management.

Our solution rests on a foundation of deeply complex blockchain technology.

SupplyBloc initially planned to sell its SUPX ICO for $1 a coin.

In May 2018 SupplyBloc “temporarily paused” its pre-ICO, amid concerns the company might potentially be committing securities fraud.

As of January 2019 SUPX has failed to materialize.

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

Kingdom Wealth Alliance provides no information on its website about who owns or runs the business.

The Kingdom Wealth Alliance website domain (“kwamembership.com”) was privately registered on September 16th, 2018.

Two other domains used by Kingdom Wealth Alliance, “kingdomwealthalliance.org” and “kwaaffiliate.com”, were also privately registered last year.

In the comments at the footer of the “kwamembership” website, Stan Harris is referenced as having something to do with the company.

Dr. Stan Harris a.k.a. Dr. Breakthrough and his KWA Team of experts have a proven track record of discipline, diligence, and integrity.

Upon clicking on either the “privacy policy”, “terms and conditions” or “earnings disclaimer” links at the footer of the “kwamembership” website, I was redirected to a Power Lead System splash page.

BehindMLM reviewed Power Lead System in 2013. The recruitment-focused opportunity is owned by Michael Price.

Marketing videos on the Kingdom Wealth Alliance website are hosted on a YouTube channel in the company’s name.

The same channel features religiously themed videos hosted by Chris Leeper:

Tying all of this together is another unlisted video titled “Introducing KWA (Micheal Price [sic], Dr Stan Harris & Chris Leeper)”:

In the video Price explains;

[2:50] Kingdom Wealth Alliance is an alliance of experts … that are gonna teach people how to be financially wealthy.

We’re gonna start there just because that’s what most people are focused on.

But a lot of people are going to find out very quickly that Jesus talked more … about finances then he did about salvation.

Why? Well you’re gonna find that out through Kingdom Wealth Alliance.

Stan Harris is a serial scammer, perhaps best known as a top investor in the OneCoin Ponzi scheme.

Although he doesn’t reference the company by name, Harris boasts about how many people he scammed in the comments of the KWA Membership website;

By the grace of God I was the #1 recruiter and #1 income earner in 3 Companies simultaneously!

One company had 2.2 million members in it and 1.5 Million were on my team!

After OneCoin collapsed in January 2017 Harris stopped promoting it, leaving the 1.5 million investors under him in the lurch.

Prior to OneCoin Harris was promoting National Wealth Center, a Peter Wolfing cash gifting scam.

If Chris Leeper has an MLM history he’s kept it low-key. I suspect he’s found his way into Kingdom Wealth Alliance on the back of Price, Harris or both.

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

Options Rider was a Ponzi scheme launched all the way back in early 2015.

The scam was supposedly headed up by “Bob Roberts”.

To the best of my knowledge though nobody ever actually had any verifiable contact with Roberts.

Roberts was also tied to BancdeOptions, a company used to launder invested Options Rider funds.

By late 2015 Options Rider had collapsed. Bob Roberts was killed off in early 2016 and the scammers behind Options Rider disappeared.

Options Rider operated through bank accounts in Australia.

Despite Options Rider being a fraudulent company, in mid 2015 a liquidator was appointed. At some point the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) also got involved. [Continue reading…]

Viva Life Science operated as Viva America Marketing, until it was bought by David Fan in 1989.

Fan also owns Westar Nutrition, which he purchased six months after joining “a large network marketing company” in 1984.

Both companies are based out of California in the US.

Viva America Marketing was one of Westar Nutrition’s customers. Today Fan operates both companies; Viva Life Science is the MLM opportunity through which Westar Nutrition products are sold.

I did try to ascertain which MLM company it was that Fan joined in 1989 but came up blank.

Fan (right) has a history in the finance industry and prior to getting involved in MLM, was an investment banker (1970s).

For over twenty years, VIVA Life Science has built a platform of nutritional science that is setting the standard for the industry both in the US and abroad.

In 2015 Viva Life Science was issued a warning letter by the FDA over its manufacturing practices.

Following a series of inspections in November 2014, the FDA noted

serious violations of FDA’s regulations for Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) in Manufacturing, Packaging, Labeling, or Holding Operations for Dietary Supplements.

These violations cause the dietary supplement products Viva Kids Plus, Viva Ez Kids, B-Easy, LipoGuard, and SelGuard to be adulterated …  in that they have been prepared, packed, or held under conditions that do not meet CGMP requirements for dietary supplements.

The FDA also reported labeling violations related to product expiry.

In a followup letter dated June 13th, 2018, the FDA advised Viva Life Science had satisfactorily “addressed the violations” flagged in 2015.

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

I was contacted earlier today by a Magellan International investor lamenting their loss.

I was aware Magellan International had stiffed investors when they exit-scammed from the US, but out of curiosity I headed over to the company’s website.

In place of the Magellan International business website however is a “public notice”.

As above, the notice advises that as of December 15th, 2018, Magellan International has “ceased operations” globally.

Ruh-roh…  [Continue reading…]

Payza co-founder Firoz Patel has pleaded not guilty to charges relating to money laundering.

Patel also entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of Payza’s parent company, MH Pillars. [Continue reading…]

On its website SpilloverBot claims “David Fries” is Director of the company.

No information about Fries is provided, and the SpilloverBot use a generic stock photo of an office to represent him.

It is highly likely that David Fries, as represented by SpilloverBot, doesn’t exist.

The SpilloverBot website domain was privately registered on October 1st, 2018.

One thing we do learn from the registration is Shinjiru Technology Sdn Bhd  was used as the registrar.

Shinjiru Technology is a Malaysian company, potentially signalling a tie between operation of SpilloverBot and Malaysia.

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…]

After roughly ten months of being a fugitive, Firoz Patel is turning himself in.

Last March Firoz and his brother Ferhan were indicted on money laundering charges related to Payza.

The DOJ alleged that through Payza, the Patel brothers laundered over $250 million dollars for “child pornography rings and other criminal enterprises”.

Some of the criminal enterprises Payza provided services for were of the MLM variety. And for a decent amount of time Payza was the go-to processor for MLM underbelly schemes. [Continue reading…]

In response to a lawsuit that alleged $250,000 in securities fraud, Wakaya Perfection filed a Motion to Dismiss.

Stated reasons in the motion were for a lack of jurisdiction, or in the alternative compel the parties to resolve the matter via arbitration.

On January 14th Wakaya Perfection’s Motion to Dismiss was granted in part. [Continue reading…]