BehindMLM first reviewed Appi Travels in November 2016.

Founded and owned by Danny Gauthier, a serial scammer we’ve been tracking since early 2012, Appi Travels’ initial business model was your typical MLM travel niche pyramid scheme.

Following a tip-off from a BehindMLM reader, we published an updated Appi Travels review in early 2018.

In our updated review, we noted intact pyramid recruitment with the introduction of a gifting cycler.

Recently we were once again tipped off that Appi Travels has been adding and updating its compensation plan.

Today we take a look at Gauthier’s current offering in our third published Appi Travels review. [Continue reading…]

OneCoin affiliates in Romania have attracted the attention of authorities, who are looking to recover €400,000 in unpaid taxes. [Continue reading…]

The FTC initially estimated MOBE scammed people out of at least $125 million.

Based on ongoing forensic accounting efforts by the Receiver, that figure has now jumped to $318.5 million. [Continue reading…]

New Trend Network’s website provides no information about who owns or runs the business.

The New Trend Network website domain (“newtrendnetwork.com”) was privately registered on December 24th, 2018.

Alexa website statistics for the New Trend Network website peg South Africa as the primary source of traffic (85%).

It is highly likely that whoever is running New Trend Network is based out of South Africa itself.

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…]

It’s an open secret that MLM nutritional supplements are marketed throughout Asia using all sorts of spectacular (and completely unfounded) health claims.

For the most part regulators aren’t interested and so long as money flows in, MLM companies themselves turn a blind eye.

It is in this regulatory environment and company culture that a woman believed she could treat her fever with Nu Skin juice.

Five days later she died of organ failure. [Continue reading…]

After letting his mate Aidan Parr use his Telegram Ponzi bot in exchange for a 33% cut, Parr ran his own version of Laurie Suarez’s RecycleBot scam into the ground.

Parr’s Promine Technologies PowerBot collapse preceded Suarez publicly announcing he’d invest $250,000 of stolen Recycle Bot funds into the scheme.

That of course was when the pair were still on good terms.

Following Power Bot’s collapse, Parr has accused Suarez’s Ponzi bot developer of theft. Suarez in kind has admitted PowerBot was a Ponzi scheme all along. [Continue reading…]

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

Further research reveals a December 2018 press-release identifying HealX Nutrition as a partnership between Panacea Life Sciences and KulaBrands.

As I understand it, Panacea Life Sciences are manufacturing HealX Nutrition’s products. KulaBrands founder and CEO Peter Gantner (below right) is running the company.

Panacea Life Sciences is an independent non-MLM company run by President James Baumgartner.

Panacea was created with patients’ health and well being as our priority.

Our mission is to bring together the best minds in business, science, medicine, research, finance, and agriculture to create a global platform for the reintroduction of Hemp-based therapeutics into the mainstream of healthcare.

In our 2016 KulaBrand review we KulaBrands first appeared on BehindMLM’s radar in 2016.

Our initial KulaBrands review raised concerns over a lack of retail products and manipulated crowdfunding based business model.

After two years, products supposedly brought to market via KulaBrands’ crowdfunding include a toy figurine, a coffee mug, kids puzzle and games pack, usb cords, a laptop sleeve, an illustrated kids book, a waterless car wash and wax product and an infant pacifier “drop stopper”.

In mid 2017 KulaBrands registered itself with the SEC. Last we heard the company was hoping to raise $40,000 through an IPO.

The last SEC filing KulaBrands made was a Form C annual report filed in April 2018.

As per the report, KulaBrands recorded an annual net loss of $331.56, down from $33,981 the previous year.

The $40,000 IPO doesn’t appear to have taken place.

As per the provided corporate address, HealX Nutrition operates out of Colorado in the US.

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

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…]