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…]

Questra World are triggering regulatory alarm bells all across Europe, with the latest seeing the Bank of Slovakia issuing a warning. [Continue reading…]

As part of ongoing efforts to secure ill-gotten assets obtained by TelexFree co-owner Carlos Wanzeler, the DOJ sought to secure Boynton Beach and Coconut Creek properties in Florida.

The property in question is held in the name of Carlos Wanzeler’s brother Fabio and his wife Claudia. [Continue reading…]

As part of a filing pertaining to James Merrill’s restitution, the TelexFree Trustee has revealed

that the current estimate of the aggregate amount of allowed fraud victim claims is between $500 million and $700 million.

Unfortunately Merrill’s restitution order doesn’t name a specific amount, but rather consolidates his restitution with that of the Trustee’s efforts. [Continue reading…]

Despite the appearance of a grey area when it comes to MLM cryptocurrency companies and investment, I’ve maintained they’re still securities.

Be it Ponzi points like OneCoin or pump and dump altcoin scams, you’ve got affiliates investing real money on the promise or representation of a passive ROI; or in other words, the literal definition of a security.

Other than an enforcement action last month on a fraudulent bitcoin trading scheme, to date both the SEC and FTC have been quiet on regulation of the MLM cryptocurrency niche.

Following an investigative report into the “sales of digital assets by “virtual” organizations”, the SEC has concluded they are in fact securities offerings. [Continue reading…]

Crypto 7 Continents provide no information about who owns or runs the company on their website.

Marketing copy on the company’s “about us” section on their website appears to be copy and pasted from the Global Trading Club website:

Further analysis reveals the Crypto 7 Continents website to practically be a clone of Global Trading Club’s website.

Global Trading Club is a Ponzi scheme that launched in late 2016.

Global Trading Club affiliates invest $250 to $31,000 on the promise of a daily ROI for up to 475 days.

Reports of a collapse from Global Trading Club affiliates first surfaced in early May.

The Crypto 7 Continents website domain (“crypto7continents.com”) was privately registered on June 13th, 2017.

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…]