A week after BehindMLM reported Bitcoiin was continuing to violate a securities fraud cease and desist, the company has collapsed.

Over $75 million is believed to have been invested during Bitcoiin’s ICO, which was scheduled to wrap up on March 30th.

Instead, Bitcoiin’s anonymous admins have pulled the plug early and done a runner with everyone’s money. [Continue reading…]

The level of MLM company registration fraud taking place in the UK is such that, whenever you see a Companies House certificate paraded about as proof of legitimacy, save yourself some time and just assume the company in question is a scam.

I can’t recall the last time I came across a legitimate MLM company for review incorporated in the UK, and it’s been this way for years.

The primary reason for this is that UK Companies House incorporation appears to be entirely unregulated.

Anyone from anywhere in the world can pay the £12 GBP fee and register online. Punch in whatever personal details you want and within minutes you’ll have an official looking certificate to provide gullible victims with.

Earlier this week Companies House published a press-release boasting of their “first ever successful prosecution for false company information”.

Sounds promising. But are we going to see actual registration regulation or is this a one-off? [Continue reading…]

When I first learned of Sergey Mavrodi’s passing earlier today, my first reaction was “What is he pulling this time?”

Such has been the staying power of Mavrodi’s MMM Global since it first popped up in 2011.

Without a doubt MMM Global is one of, if not the most pervasive fraudulent schemes in MLM history. [Continue reading…]

Mintage Mining is purportedly a partnership between David Childs (cited as owner of the company) and Darren Olayan, CEO of Nui.

BehindMLM reviewed Mintage Mining last December. We came to the conclusion that, at best the cloud mining business model would constitute a securities offering.

The lack of registration with the SEC at the time meant that, at worst, Mintage Mining could be recycling newly invested funds to pay off existing investors.

Likely due to the increasing number of issued cryptocurrency securities fraud cease and desists, Darren Olayan has attempted to brush off regulatory compliance by claiming Mintage Mining is “pre-compliant” with the SEC. [Continue reading…]

We’re a bit late to this one, but earlier this month Kannaway was accused of illegally selling cannabis oil in Belgium.

A March 19th report in Het Laatste Nieuws (HLN), Belgium’s top newspaper, accuses Kannaway affiliates of illegally selling cannabis oil.

HLN goes on to call out predatory marketing practices that target “severely ill patients”, as well as Kannaway’s “pyramid sales” business model. [Continue reading…]

Back in February the FTC sued serial MLM scam promoters Thomas Dluca, Louis Gatto, Eric Pinkston and Scott Chandler.

On March 12th an ex-parte Temporary Restraining Order was granted, freezing Dluca, Louis, Pinkston and Chandler’s assets.

On March 21st a “show cause” hearing was held, giving the defendants an opportunity to argue why a preliminary injunction shouldn’t be entered against them.

Despite all four defendants being made aware of the hearing, none of them showed. [Continue reading…]

In late 2017 the SEC filed charges against Ponzi admin Pedro Fort Berbel.

Fort, a Spanish citizen, stands accused of causing $38 million in investor losses through his Fort Ad Pays, The Business Shop and MLM Shop Ponzi scheme.

In an attempt to weasel out of liability, Fort filed a Motion to Dismiss on December 22nd of last year. [Continue reading…]

The latest move by Payza co-founder and fugitive Firoz Patel, has been to terminate payment processor services to US residents.

It appears now, like Patel, Payza itself is on the run from US authorities. [Continue reading…]

In my almost ten years of covering the industry, I’ve come to realize that if an MLM company tries to convince you they’re not selling securities – then they probably are.

This of course isn’t a hard rule, but it’s generally applicable to the companies that pay lawyers to convince you otherwise.

As far as I’m aware no MLM company with a “we don’t offer securities” legal opinion that has attracted the attention of US authorities, has been cleared of offering unregistered securities.

That’s because the securities law with respect to MLM investment opportunities is pretty clear-cut: MLM + passive ROI = security.

Over the past few years cryptocurrency has emerged as a dominant niche within the MLM industry. What that has sadly lead to is a reboot of dodgy business models, resurrected under the misguided belief that “cryptocurrency = no regulation”.

On one hand it’s not difficult to see how this myth arose, seeing as regulators have taken years to catch up with the cryptocurrency MLM niche.

On the other we’ve seen an uptick of securities regulation in the niche, all but confirming be it cryptocurrency or fiat, a passive ROI in MLM is a security regardless.

Yet there are still companies out there who think they’ve got it worked out, that the law doesn’t apply to them.

Worryingly, despite a number of their colleagues having gone down for rubber-stamping scams, there are also lawyers out there still willing to enable them.

Today we take a look at one such combination, Crypto World Evolution and attorney Scott Warren. [Continue reading…]

The collapse of the Farm Bank Ponzi scheme in Turkey has sparked investigations into sixty-five companies.

Thus far thirty investigations have been completed, with the Ministry of Trade claiming nineteen of the companies investigated are pyramid schemes. [Continue reading…]