Ageo Product Line, more commonly known as APL, was launched in 2011 in Kazakhstan.

Despite appearing to be a European MLM company (the company’s Terms and Conditions reference “the law of Republic of Cyprus”), on their website APL provide a corporate address in the US state of Delaware.

Research reveals the Delaware address provided actually belongs to IncServ, who on their website provide a “corporate formation” service.

This suggests that APL exists in the US in name only.

APL is headed up by Founder and President, Sergey Sergeevich Kulikov (right).

On his VKontakte social media profile, Kulikov cites the corporate address for APL as Moscow, Russia.

Why a Russian MLM company decided to incorporate itself as a shell company in the US is unclear.

As per Kulikov’s APL corporate bio, APL was founded due to a disagreement with management of an MLM company Kulikov was an affiliate of.

At the age of 17 Sergey learnt about MLM business.

He built such a structure in a month that even experienced multi level marketers do not always manage to build in a year.

His earnings were rapidly growing until one day senior staff members of that company deprived the ambitious student of the major part of the structure.

Sergey couldn’t tolerate that kind of injustice.

He quitted [sic] the company and decided to build his own MLM company where no partner would face injustice and unfairness from a leadership.

The MLM company Kulikov references isn’t mentioned by name. And possibly due to language-barriers, I was unable to research it myself.

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

One would think it’s pretty hard to misinterpret “Your company is not registered with us or authorized to conduct business in our country”, but that’s exactly what Miner World’s CEO is claiming. [Continue reading…]

iGlobAd operate in the advertising MLM niche and claim to be “based in London, UK”.

The company cites Mackenzie Carter as CEO, however this person doesn’t appear to exist.

Mackenzie Carter is a generic enough name in and of itself. iGlobAd provide no photo of Carter and his corporate bio is copy and pasted from Janrise Advertising and Branding:

iGlobAd has incorporated itself in the UK as “I Glob Ad Limited”, however as far as legitimacy goes a UK incorporation certificate isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.

The ripping off of an Indian advertising firm’s copy and use of a shell UK incorporation strongly suggests whoever is running iGlobAd is likely based out of India.

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…]

Tracking MacroCoin is a game of cat and mouse.

The company continues to come up with new business names to market itself, all under the same UECB Group banner.

With MacroCoin abandoned and the MLM opportunity website shut down, IMP Europe has emerged as the new name of the company. [Continue reading…]

Shuang Hor began as Double Crane Enterprises in 1987.

The company is based out of Taiwan and was founded by “a group of Taiwanese entrepreneurs”.

In 1996 Double Crane Enterprises was “restructured” and renamed to Shuang Hor.

I’m not sure why, but in Taiwan the official company website is still branded Double Crane Global.

The company seems to otherwise be known as Shuang Hor in English, so from here on out to avoid confusion I won’t be using Double Crane Global.

Since 1996 Shuang Hor has branched out into Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Myanmar (operating as Double Crane Co.).

The Shuang Hor website (Taiwan) identifies Ku Ping-Chia (right) as CEO of the company.

Beyond a name and Chinese language marketing video, Shuang Hor provide no information on Ping-Chia.

Likely due to language-barriers, I was unable to turn up any third-party information myself.

On their website Shuang Hor cite a commitment to “honest management, stable growth, and zero-criticisms in the past 30 years”.

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

Two days ago I became aware of an asset seizure related to a property owned by Edward and Brian Krassenstein.

The brothers are the owners of the now closed Ponzi promotion platforms, MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold.

In their forfeiture complaint, filed August 21st, the DOJ accused the Krassenstein brothers of conspiring to commit wire fraud. This strongly implied that the Krassenstein brothers were facing a wire fraud case of their own.

A number of related cases have been filed under seal which, along with information previously not on the public record, reveals the DOJ are not pursuing criminal charges against the Krassensteins. [Continue reading…]

The single-biggest challenge faced by online MLM Ponzi schemes is credibility.

In addition to proof of an external revenue source, registration with securities regulators is one of the tallest hurdles to overcome.

So important is convincing your investor-base that you’re above board, that some companies will openly lie about it.

Miner World is one of those companies, having recently represented it was registered with Paraguay’s SEC equivalent, the National Securities Commission (CNV).

The CNV was having none of it though, today issuing clarification that Miner World’s claims are “illegitimate”. [Continue reading…]

Brothers Edward and Brian Krassenstein owned the MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold internet forums.

Easily the two largest publicly accessible Ponzi promotion platforms on the internet, both MoneyMakerGroup and TalkGold were pulled offline last month without explanation.

Today BehindMLM can exclusively reveal that, in relation to their operation of both forums, the DOJ has accused the Krassenstein brothers of wire fraud. [Continue reading…]

Finland was one of the first countries to announce a OneCoin investigation.

Unfortunately Finnish authorities put investigating the Bulgarian Ponzi scheme in the “too hard” basket.

Naturally the Ponzi problem didn’t go away, and people in Finland continued to be recruited into and scammed by OneCoin and its affiliates.

With complaints from the public continuing to pile up, two months ago police in Ostrobothnia announced they’d opened a new criminal case.

The new case stems from tax fraud reports filed by Finnish tax authorities, as well as complaints from the general public.

Ostrobothnian police today revealed they are pursuing a Finnish OneCoin affiliate suspect for tax fraud and money laundering. [Continue reading…]

Cerule operate in the nutritional supplement MLM niche and was initially launched as Desert Lake Technologies. Regulatory records show the company also goes by the name “Klamath Falls’ Antarctica”.

Desert Lake Technologies launched out of Oregon in 1999. The company changed its name to Cerule in 2014.

Cerule is a family-owned business based out of Oregon in the US. The company is headed up by CEO Greg Newman (right).

As per Newman’s Cerule corporate bio;

Greg is a co-founder of and original investor in Cerule, a company started by his father in 1999.

In January 2014, after the passing of his father, Greg assumed the role of President and CEO of Cerule and has been focused in continuing the legacy and vision his father had to build Cerule into a science-based global nutritional supplement business that brings benefit to people’s health and well being in a wholistic way.

Prior to Cerule Newman was involved in the tech and alternative energy industries. To the best of my knowledge Cerule is Newman’s first venture as an MLM executive.

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