LikesXL launched in 2015 as a simple 50 EUR Ponzi scheme.

According to BehindMLM reader reports, LikesXL investors began experiencing withdrawal problems in late 2016.

In an attempt to continue to defraud investors, LikesXL announced it would launch “stunning new business building videos”, a “state of the art automated sales funnel” and “new and very exciting auction platform”.

Those ideas flopped however, with LikesXL website traffic continuing to decline throughout 2017.

In September 2017 website activity increased, coinciding with the launch of Xpro Trading and Service.

The Xpro Trading and Service website provides no information on who owns or runs the business.

The website domain (“xpro-service.com”) was registered by LikesXL owner Peter Kolar on July 15th, 2017.

Read on for a full review of the Xpro Trading and Service MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Pedro Fort has seemingly been caught out in a web of lies, leading to his attorney withdrawing from the case for a second time.

In a brief April 9th filing, Fort requested a “lawyer of the state” be appointed.

Fort made the request because his “lawyer has abandoned the case”. He also claims to not have “the resources to pay a lawyer of confidence”.

Failure to appoint a state attorney, Fort argued, would harm his right to due process. [Continue reading…]

The FTC’s lawsuit against Digital Altitude continues, with the latest seeing default judgment sought against the company and related entity defendants. [Continue reading…]

Following a cease and desist issued last month, Power Mining Pool’s website was quickly pulled offline.

Power Mining Pool’s admins strung investors along while they quietly executed their exit strategy, after which communication lines went silent.

Now North Carolina has confirmed Power Mining Pool failed to respond to the cease and desist notice, confirming the company’s owners exit-scammed. [Continue reading…]

New Image International (also commonly known as New Image Asia), claim to be ‘an award winning business created over 30 years ago in New Zealand‘.

The company operates in the health and nutrition MLM niche and today operates in a number of countries across Oceania, Asia and Africa.

Heading up New Image International is founder and Chairman, Graeme Clegg.

According to Clegg’s New Image International corporate bio, he

started out as a sheep farmer near New Zealand’s capital, Wellington.

It was on his farm that Graeme developed his groundbreaking ideas about health supplements and in 1984 decided to act on his research into the incredible health benefits of colostrum, nature’s first food.

Our focus on innovation and drive to deliver the best health and nutritional products has seen our expansion into numerous countries in the Asia Pacific region, earning New Image International multiple awards and positioning us as an industry leader.

Other than a dispute over unpaid OmegaTrend staff wages in 2010, New Image International appears to have had a clear run with regulators.

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

Members Choice operate in the personal development and streaming MLM niches.

An incomplete corporate address in Conyers, Georgia is provided.

Members Choice list two co-founders on their website, Howard Harrison Jr. (President and CEO) and J. William (Executive Vice President).

In his Members Choice corporate bio, Harrison claims he’s “better known as Pastor Howard”.

Prior to co-founding Members Choice, Harrison was an Executive Advisory Board member of the Noble 8 Revolution gifting scheme:

J. William (full name: Johnny William Cabe) claims to have been “active in network marketing for 40 years”.

On the Members Choice website Cabe is credited as “Dr. J. William”.

In 2015 Cabe (right) ‘pleaded no contest to five counts of unlawful practice of medicine‘.

The Rev. Johnny William “Bill” Cabe, the York County pastor who spent seven years in prison for stealing $8 million from church investors, will serve no prison time after pleading no contest Friday to 2010 charges alleging he claimed to be a doctor and performed exams on an 11-year-old boy he had befriended.

Cabe, 56, was charged twice in the 1990s on similar allegations of giving hernia exams and other improper contact with minor boys at Riverside Independent Baptist Church but was never convicted.

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

About a week ago we covered a co-founder conflict leading to Chris Record selling his stake in Tecademics.

Tecademics itself is no more and has been amalgamated into IQup.

One loose end that neither Tecademics co-founders Chris Record and Jim Piccolo or IQup seem keen to tie up however, is a missing $20,000 prize awarded to one of their affiliates. [Continue reading…]

Enforcement of Herbalife’s settlement with the FTC is certainly one of the more bizarre episodes of MLM regulation I’ve seen.

As part of the settlement, Herbalife agreed to “restructure” their business. And a big part of the restructuring was only paying commissions on actual retail sales going forward.

Considering retail sales volume was negligible to the point the FTC felt confident suing the company prior to the settlement, surely post-settlement Herbalife’s US MLM operations would be in trouble?

Not so.

Post enforcement of the settlement last May, Herbalife’s US revenue has fallen only by single digits quarter on quarter.

Outside of the stock market investor environment, this has led to speculation as to how Herbalife have curbed what should have otherwise been a dramatic decline in sales volume.

I might not have published anything on it myself, but this is certainly something I’ve personally wondered about.

Herbalife’s FTC settlement also saw the appointment of an Independent Compliance Auditor, to ensure adherence to the settlement terms.

In terms of public information, all we’ve been given is a hilariously redacted compliance report dated July, 2017.

Now, through a recent conference call, an explanation for Herbalife’s US sales revenue has surfaced.

Turns out Herbalife’s US affiliates have been fudging their retail sales figures. [Continue reading…]

Five years ago we covered leaked Lyoness internal video, in which owner and CEO Hubert Friedl laid out the company’s business model.

It’s all about positions, positions, positions, positions.

By making downpayments one can acquire positions in the Lyoness system.

I don’t go out to merely register someone, it’s not about registering people for the cashback card. Then I could as well just register you at the nearby swimming pool.

Five years later, nothing has changed. [Continue reading…]

MinerWorld, an MLM cryptocurrency touting 12 month mining ROIs, is under investigation in Brazil.

Yesterday Brazilian Federal Police and the Public Ministry announced they were investigating MinerWorld, on suspicion the company is a pyramid scheme. [Continue reading…]