With the criminal side of TelexFree wrapped up (for now), the SEC’s civil proceedings have resumed.

Back in September, 2014, the DOJ were granted a stay on all civil proceedings involving TelexFree, pending the outcome of their criminal case.

With Merrill sentenced to six years in prison back in March, the SEC are now looking to close their civil case against him. [Continue reading…]

On the day he was indicted, Richard Maike filed a motion seeking disqualification of a DOJ attorney working the case

Assistant United States Attorney Marisa Ford filed the April criminal complaint against Maike. She also lead the DOJ’s intervention in Maike’s defamation case against whistleblower Chuck King.

As part of proposed settlement in the defamation case, King was purportedly being pressured into signing off on documents with “untrue statements”.

The DOJ was concerned that King, who was representing himself, might wind up signing an agreement that would harm the government’s criminal case against Maike.

In his filing, Maike argued that Ford

breached the Ethical Standard for Prosecutors Act by ‘providing legal assistance in any case in which the United States is a party of has a direct and substantial interest‘.

In a response to the filing, the DOJ claim Maike’s motion is a ‘distracting red balloon, full of hot air but devoid of any substance‘. [Continue reading…]

Personally I think MLM regulation in the US is in a pretty good place.

Other than the host of affiliate autoship recruitment scams that still need to be cleaned up (nutrition niche, I’m looking at you), there hasn’t been any major Ponzi or pyramid scheme launches in the US since the Vemma and Herbalife busts.

With 50% or more retail sales volume the cornerstone of current regulatory enforcement (other than outright securities fraud on the Ponzi side of things), all the FTC and SEC need to do is enforce the law.

Not so according to the DSA, who for some reason believe the industry desperately needs to kill off any retail sales volume requirements. [Continue reading…]

Tracto Venture Network provide no information on their website about who owns or runs the business.

The Tracto Venture Network website domain (“tractoventure.com”) was privately registered on November 4th, 2016.

In a FAQ published on Tracto Venture Network website, the company claims to be an “Australian investment fund and platform”.

A search of the Australian Business Register turns up nothing for Tracto Venture Network.

An address in Sydney provided on the Tracto Venture Network Facebook page belongs to Servo Corp. As per their website, Servo Corp sell virtual office space at Tracto Venture Network’s provided address.

As such it appears Tracto Venture Network’s only corporate connection to Australia is a mailing address.

Further research reveals a video published to Vimeo eight months ago, naming Noel Peter Frith as CEO of the company:

Why this information is not provided on the Tracto Venture Network website is unclear.

As per the description under the video referenced above, Noel Frith is

Fintech Entrepreneur and Investor. Frith have been involved in the cryptocurrency world since 2010 where cryptocurrency is at its infancy. Since then, he has been investing into the cryptocurrency, mining and blockchain.

I wasn’t able to find any independent information verifying these claims.

Although Frith might look like someone hired on Fivver, he does appear to be running Tracto Venture Network.

There’s a video of him on Vimeo speaking at Tracto Venture Network’s opening ceremony late last year, purportedly held in Sydney.

At the time of publication promotion of Tracto Venture Network in Australia seems non-existent. Alexa estimate the primary source of traffic to the Tracto Venture Network website is Indonesia (58%).

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…]

BitQwik provide no information on their website about who owns or runs the business.

The BitQwik website domain (“bitqwik.net”) was privately registered on June 23rd, 2017.

Further research reveals a BitQwik marketing video featured on the BitQwik website is hosted on a YT channel bearing the name “opitimusX”:

This is one of the YT channel name variations used by Sherm Mason, who also goes by “OptimusX”.

Sherm Mason first popped up on BehindMLM’s radar as the admin of Magnetic Builder.

Magnetic Builder was a $29.95 recruitment scheme launched in 2011.

In 2015 Mason (right), launched at least five dubious schemes:

• Paradise Payments (February 2015) – a $2 to $1000 cash gifting scheme
• Magnetic Gratitude (April 2015) – a $580 matrix-based Ponzi scheme
• Summer Fun Matrix (July 2015) – a $22 three-tier Ponzi scheme and
• 3×9 Millionaire Machine (September 2015) – a $3 in, $435 million dollars out Ponzi scheme
• Instant Pay Christmas (November 2015) – a $5 to $800 cash gifting scheme

In 2016 Mason doubled down on his efforts and launched Elite Pay Alliance (matrix-based cash gifting), 5 Dolla Money Lines (pass-up chain-recruitment), Adstraordinary (matrix-based cash gifting) and Cash Rally GPS(Ponzi cycler).

So far this year Mason has launched Easy Odds, Just Got Bitcoin, 1 Big Bitcoin Team and Stack My Bits, all of which have collapsed.

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

Remember Marcelo Garcia Casil?

He’s the guy OneCoin hired to write a blockchain whitepaper back in May.

Given it’d previously been all but confirmed OneCoin didn’t have a blockchain, Casil’s appointment generated significant interest.

In the aftermath of the whitepaper announcement, Casil confirmed the work he did had nothing to do with OneCoin’s “existing IT”.

This seemed to further confirm OneCoin didn’t have a blockchain.

However less than a week after that exchange, Casil (right) pushed out a decidedly conflicting statement:

In recent days there has been publicity on the Internet suggesting that I have questioned the existing technological capabilities supporting the OneCoin cryptocurrency.

Any such suggestion is false and misrepresents my position.

If this statement sounded forced it’s because, by Casil’s own admission, it was.

I carelessly replied to questions on LinkedIn and Twitter about Onecoin, and in doing so I risked breaching my NDA, so I had to make that statement.

Now once again the story has changed, with Casil going on the record to claim he ‘made a mistake and … was foolish in getting involved‘. [Continue reading…]

1000 BTC Ezy provide no information on their website about who owns or runs the business.

The 1000 BTC Ezy website domain (“1000btcezy.com”) was registered on July 10th, 2017. Jermaine Cato is listed as the owner, through what appears to be a bogus address in the US.

The email address used to register the 1000 BTC Ezy domain is the same used to register that of BTC Fast Double.

BTC Fast Double was a Ponzi scheme that promised affiliates a 200% ROI in on bitcoin investments within 72 hours.

The BTC Fast Double website domain was registered on May 5th, 2017.

Despite the same email address used to register both the BTC Fast Double and 1000 BTC Ezy domains however, the BTC Fast Double Domain lists “Tommy Taylor” as the owner and another bogus address in California.

This suggests that neither Jermaine Cato or Tommy Taylor actually exist. Another likely pseudonym for the anonymous 1000 BTC Ezy admin is “Kitty Bitcoin”, the name of the YouTube channel 1000 BTC Ezy marketing videos are hosted on.

Of note is Alexa estimating that 84% of traffic to the BTC Fast Double website originates from Thailand. This suggests that the 1000 BTC Ezy admin are likely being operated out of Thailand too.

Broken English on the 1000 BTC Ezy website also supports this:

Why different sponsor’s bitcoin address and donate bitcoin address?

Don’t worry! that bitcoin address is a system bitcoin address if after payment completed it will redirection to sponsor bitcoin address automatically.

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…]

Pluggle provide no information on their website about who owns or runs the business.

The Pluggle website domain (“pluggle.com.ph”) was registered on April 6th, 2017. Alexis Palma is listed as the owner, with an address in Quezon City, Philippines also provided.

Possibly due to language-barriers, I was unable to find anything further on Palma.

Alexa currently estimates that 69% of traffic to the Pluggle website originates from the Philippines. That and the Philippine domain choice suggest Pluggle is operated from and primarily marketed within the Philippines.

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…]

Although we knew various members of William Apsotelos’ family had plead guilty in relation to the Genesis Acqusitions Ponzi scheme, we didn’t really know much about their individual circumstances.

At a sentencing hearing on Wednesday, July 26th, it was revealed that William Apostelos’ sister and her daughter “were in fear” of Apostelos and his wife. [Continue reading…]

Michael Gehart joined Visalus in February, 2010.

Visalus is a weight loss MLM company founded in 2005 by Blake Mallen and Nick Sarnicola.

Gehart had no prior MLM experience when he signed up as a Visalus affiliate.

He was recruited by

Vito Torriciano, a part-owner of the company, (at a) meeting with Nick Sarnicola, and with a few other ViSalus distributors.

In addition to co-founding Visalus, Nick Sarnicola was an employee and top earner between 2010 and 2016.

This position purportedly saw Sarnicola sit atop ‘several massive “downlines” of distributors and customers‘.

Gehart (right) claims he joined Visalus on the representation

he could purchase ViSalus product at a so-called “wholesale” price for an opportunity to re-sell to others at a “retail” price.

In a lawsuit filed on June 29th, 2017, Gehart claims that was a lie and that Visualus operates as an “illegal pyramid scheme”. [Continue reading…]