When David Wood last appeared in public, the situation appeared rather grim.

Obviously under the influence of something, Wood appeared disheveled and suffering from an acute case of “God complex”.

That was early June. Less than a fortnight later Wood’s brother William walked out and since then things have been quiet.

With the future of Empower Network hanging in the balance, today Wood appeared in a new video to explain what exactly went down.

Turns out it was some “plant medicine” and amphetamines… [Continue reading…]

Spey Invest claim it was

set up in 2014 as the pilot online project of trading business by a group of enthusiasts headed by Daniil Solopov.

Despite the relatively young age of the Company, SPEY INVEST LTD has become well known to field-specific experts in Great Britain and also abroad as soon as one and a half years of its activity.

Two things;

First is that you probably don’t know anyone who has ever heard of Spey Invest. In fact, outside of the company’s own website, affiliate marketing and listings on HYIP scam sites, there is no independent third-party information about Spey Invest available.

The second is that the Spey Invest was only registered a few months ago on March 16th?

A “well-known company set up in 2014?” Yeah, no worries guys.

As for Daniil Solopov, there’s Facebook and LinedIn profiles set up – but nothing concrete verifying him as an actual person.

The Facebook profile has some random photos on it but no actual content dating back to when it was created in 2014. This is more in line with a purchased profile than one that was legitimately used and created.

Solopov’s LinkedIn profile cites stints with Russian HNW Investors and Mark Davies & Associates Ltd. He’s also apparently co-founder of Florify, a “trendsetting online floral platform”.

Solopov owns the Florify website domain (.co.uk), through a residential address in London. The Florify domain registration was last updated on May 2nd, 2017, suggesting that’s when Solopov acquired it.

Oh and there’s nothing about Solopov’s experience in the MLM industry.

And then of course there’s the fact that the image used to represent Solopov on the Spey Invest website is a stock photo (credit):

All the crafty buggers did was flip the image left-right and photoshop in the Spey Invest logo.

And if you’re wondering why the signature at the bottom of Solopov’s Spey Invest bio looks nothing like his name, that’s because it’s stolen from a Russian signature generator site:

I don’t know exactly what they typed to get the Solopov signature, but I got it pretty close with “Daniil Conf”.

The signature site being in Russian and corporate webinars in Russian strongly suggest this is all the work of Russian scammers.

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…]

According to a FAQ published on the Hyten Global website, the company is a “transition” from HopRocket.

From what I’ve been able to ascertain, the transition from HopRocket to Hyten Global took place on or around December, 2016.

The Hyten Global website domain (“hytenglobal.com”) was privately registered on October 14th, 2016.

HopRocket itself was launched in 2015 as a spinoff of the failed JM Ocean Avenue venture.

Whereas HopRocket provided no information about company ownership on its website, Hyten Global names Tim Richerson (CEO), Tuffy Baum (President) and David Price (International President) as co-founders of the company.

Conspicuously absent is Fred Ninow, one of the key players and co-founders of HopRocket.

Marketing material suggests Ninow was still part of HopRocket up until late 2016. Whether he’s involved in Hyten Global is unclear.

In a Hyten Global marketing video circa December, 2016, Richerson (right) stated

We knew through our research that nine out of ten people dream of traveling the world.

So based on that we created the absolute best travel product and booking engine in the industry.

But we also knew that there’d come a day that to have a complete lifestyle company, we would need other components.

So I’m here to talk to you about those other components that we’re going to offer.

Introducing: Hyten Global.

Tim Richerson’s Hyten Global corporate bio credits him with

30+ years of vast and varied experience that comprises consumer, financial and web based companies both in the public and private sector.

Prior experience includes: Member of the Young Presidents Organization, Chief Executive Officer of Interleukin Genetics, (at the time majority owned by a multinational direct sales company), Member of the Alan James Group (sold to Interleukin Genetics), President of Rexall Sundown, Inc. (a NASDAQ listed company sold to Royal Numico for $1.8 billion USD), Member of the Numico North American Executive Management Committee and Associate Advisory Board Member of the National Association of Drug Stores.

All three Hyten Global co-founders were HopRocket executives.

Prior to launching HopRocket, Tim Richerson’s and Tuffy Baum’s departed JM Ocean Avenue under controversial circumstances.

David Price served as COO of HopRocket and still cites the position as current on his LinkedIn profile.

Today the HopRocket website domain redirects to that of Hyten Global.

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

Citing the ongoing receival of ‘many tips and questions from the public asking if Lyoness is a pyramid scheme‘, the Norwegian Gaming Board has provided an update on their current investigation. [Continue reading…]

A decision to grant VictoriaBank a Motion to Dismiss back in May potentially placed $13.1 million dollars of stolen Zeek Rewards investor funds on the line.

While the court granted VictoriaBank a dismissal, it maintained a freeze order pending conclusion of the Receiver’s anticipated appeal.

The Receiver did indeed file an appeal, which will and slowly play out and reexamine the case in the Fourth Circuit.

In the meantime VictoriaBank filed a motion seeking to vacate the original freeze order, granting them access to the disputed Ponzi funds.

The Receiver filed a response in opposition and a decision on the matter was made on July 12th. [Continue reading…]

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…]