Firoz Patel’s Payza tax fraud bill has claimed to $15.2 million, following adjusted undeclared income of $26.2 million USD.

Revenu Québec previously pegged Patel’s unpaid taxes at $10.8 million, however an ongoing investigation has revealed additional undeclared income. [Continue reading…]

News of the arrest of a Charles David Scoville in Utah broke last week.

Given the severity of the charge, I held off on reporting the story until I had absolute confirmation it was Traffic Monsoon’s Charles Scoville.

Following an unrelated June 18th filing by the Receiver, I can now confirm Charles Scoville, founder of Traffic Monsoon, has been arrested for aggravated sexual abuse of a child. [Continue reading…]

The Four Percent Group launched in mid 2016 and operate in the online marketing MLM niche.

The company is based out of the US state of South Dakota and is headed up by Founder and CEO, Vick Strizheus (actual name Vitaliy Strizheus).

According to his The Four Percent Group corporate bio, Strizheus (right) “started from zero back in 2006”.

Strizheus’ journey “from zero” in 2006 saw him arrested for insurance fraud in 2007. Prosecutors trying the case referred to Strizheus as a “con man”.

Strizheus plead guilty to one count of grant theft and was sentenced to 90 days in prison, commuted to time served on weekends because of his wife and three children.

Strizheus was also sentenced to five years supervised probation, after which he joined Empower Network in 2012.

Strizheus built his Empower Network business under “Big Idea Mastermind” branding.

As of 2014, Big Idea Mastermind was the largest downline team in Empower Network.

In May 2014 Strizheus abruptly announced he was leaving Empower Network and Big Idea Mastermind.

The details of Strizheus’ departure are still shrouded in mystery. In a video message Strizheus hinted at regulatory problems in South Dakota, however this was never elaborated on.

Outside of Empower Network, Big Idea Mastermind had its own products and services ($47 to $50,000) – complete with a single-level compensation plan.

For all intents and purposes, Big Idea Mastermind was Strizheus’ foundation for The Four Percent Group.

Read on for a full review of The Four Percent Group MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

As annoying as the GDPR might be, lo and behold some good has come of it.

Before we get into that though, let’s revisit early 2017. [Continue reading…]

A new motion by the FTC has requested the currently scheduled preliminary injunction hearing for June 26th be pushed back to July.

The FTC’s motion has consent from all of the named defendants, as well as the court-appointed temporary MOBE Receiver. [Continue reading…]

Of the affiliate lawsuits filed against LuLaRoe that are still playing out, the most prominent is a proposed class-action pertaining to the company’s return policy.

The six-count complaint claims damages in excess of $5 million and seeks to represent a nationwide class of distributors who either attempted (unsuccessfully) to return inventory or purchased inventory during the five-and-a-half month period in which LLR had a “100% Buy Back” policy.

The complaint claims unjust enrichment, breach of contract, and deprivation of distributors’ investments, among other things.

As of April 17th, the lawsuit had been stayed pending the outcome of compulsory arbitration.

On June 14th a Joint Status Report was filed, providing insight into how arbitration is playing out. [Continue reading…]

Following his indictment earlier this year, Payza co-founder Firoz Patel went into hiding.

Now, if a June 12th Facebook status update is to be believed, Patel has resurfaced in Quebec, Canada. [Continue reading…]

As it stands there are currently five active lawsuits filed against BitConnect and top investor defendants in the US.

Here’s an update on their current status as of June 16th, 2018. [Continue reading…]

LuLaRoe was founded in 2012 and was incorporated in California a year later in May, 2013.

Heading up the company is the co-founder husband and wife team, DeAnne and Mark Stidham (CEO).

LuLaRoe itself is an amalgam of the names of DeAnne Stidham’s first three grandchildren.

The LuLaRoe website very much presents Stidham (then DeAnne Brady) as the driving force behind the company.

Prior to LuLaRoe DeAnne had found success in network-based marketing.

It was during this time that she learned an important lesson; if you want to be someone who gets things done, act like you already are.

This self-empowering idea crystallized in her mind and directly led to her success with LuLaRoe.

DeAnne had long dreamed of one day creating her own clothing line. With the help of her husband Mark, LuLaRoe was launched.

Despite my best efforts I was unable to ascertain which companies DeAnne Stidham had success with prior to LuLaRoe.

Nonetheless LuLaRoe’s commercial success can’t be denied, with the company reporting around $1 billion in sales as of 2016.

LuLaRoe hasn’t had any run ins with regulators, however the company has defended numerous civil actions filed by former affiliates and customers.

In February, a lawsuit in Pennsylvania alleged the company collected sales tax from customers in states that actually don’t have a sales tax.

In March, after concerns about the quality of the brand’s apparel resulted in thousands of complaints on its Facebook and Twitter pages and inquiries with various municipal business bureaus, two LuLaRoe customers in California filed a class action lawsuit over the damaged goods.

The most prominent of these was a $1 billion dollar proposed class action filed in October, 2017.

Three former affiliates alleged LuLaRoe

encouraged them to borrow money, get loans, take out credit cards, and some were even asked to sell their breast milk to attain funds to purchase inventory.

The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed without explanation on January 12th, 2018.

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

Last we checked on Redwood Scientific Technologies, parent company of RengaLife, they were continuing to dig themselves a deeper hole over alleged FTC Act violations.

Redwood have missed multiple production deadlines, primarily relating to discovery requests by the FTC.

Following a motion by the FTC to find Redwood in contempt of court, a hearing was held on May 29th.

It wasn’t until June 12th however that an order was made. [Continue reading…]