Following his arrest on March 13th, CBI Global owner Coenie Botha contacted attorney Afrika Jantjies to represent him.

When Botha and Jantjies presented at court, Jantjies was promptly arrested as a CBI Global accomplice. [Continue reading…]

The Texas State Securities Board has confirmed GSB Gold Standard Corporation is still banned across the state.

On March 13th TSSB Enforcement Director Joe Rotunda posted the following to Twitter; [Continue reading…]

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed an amicus brief in support of BehindMLM.

The brief is part of ongoing litigation initiated by GSB Gold Standard Corporation. [Continue reading…]

Coenie Botha has been charged by the Bank of Namibia (BoN).

New Era were first to note Botha’s appearance “Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on a charge of fraud” yesterday.

As per a subsequent press-release issued by the Bank of Namibia earlier today; [Continue reading…]

Aiscend’s first red flag is failure to disclose ownership or executive information on its website.

Aiscend’s website domain (“aiscend.io”), was privately registered on July 25th, 2023.

In researching Aiscend I kept coming across references to B-Epic. This saw me return to Aiscend’s website, where I found mention of B-Epic in its Terms and Conditions: [Continue reading…]

Federation Network fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Federation Network’s website domain (“federation-app.com”), was privately registered on August 24th, 2023.

A marketing presentation hosted on Federation Network’s website cites “Sarah Cohen” as its CEO.

Cohen doesn’t exist outside of Federation Network’s marketing, making her a prime Boris CEO candidate.

In a January 8th Federation Network marketing video, we learn the actor playing Cohen speaks French.

The video is hosted by Halan Nelson, a French leader in the collapsed Mainet Ponzi scheme.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, Federation Network claims it has a $50 million insurance contract with Prudential Financial in the US.

In an attempt to verify this, a BehindMLM reader reached out to Prudential Financial.

Here’s the reply received from Prudential Financial’s Corporate Investigations Division;

Thank you for contacting the fraud investigations unit at Prudential Financial. The insurance certificate you attached is not genuine and in no way related to Prudential Financial, Inc. located in Newark, NJ, USA.

This appears to be a scam. Furthermore, there is no affiliation between Prudential Financial and any entity called “fdrtn network ltd”.

If you believe you have been a victim of a scam, you may do the following:

• Contact local law enforcement and report the fraud.

• You may also report the fraud on the FBI’s website for reporting internet crime – www.ic3.gov.

• Additionally, if you interacted with anyone using a messaging service like WhatsApp, you can report the account to WhatsApp as fraud as well.

• If you were using a mobile app related to this scam, you may also report the app to the app store from which you downloaded it.

Kind Regards,

Corporate Investigations Division

Federation Network also provides two corporate addresses on its website, one in the UK and one in Hong Kong. Neither address appears to have anything to do with the company.

Attached to these addresses is the shell company FDRTN Management Limited, registered in Hong Kong on February 22nd, 2024.

Due to the ease with which scammers are able to incorporate shell companies with bogus details, for the purpose of MLM due-diligence shell company certificates are meaningless.

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…]

GSPartners and NovaTech FX have been classified as “cryptocurrency scams” by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.

As per a press-release issued earlier this week, GSPartners and NovaTechFX are among a list of scams the MA AG’s Office warns of having ties to criminal activity. [Continue reading…]

369X operates in the cryptocurrency MLM niche.

369X’s website domain (“369x.io”), was privately registered on October 30th, 2023.

On January 20th Mavie Global held a marketing event in Budapest, Romania. At the event, 369X was launched.

In a January 19th Instagram post, 369X claimed to be in a “partnership” with Mavie Global and Ultron.

Mavie Global and Ultron are the same Ponzi scheme run by CEO Michal Prazenica.

369X seems to be an attempt to break into Central and South America, spearheaded by CEO Francesco Porcu.

Porcu appears to be an Italian national. Possibly due to language barriers, I wasn’t able to ascertain whether Porcu has an MLM history.

As per his 369X corporate bio, Porcu appears to have a history in non-MLM forex.

With nearly two decades of experience in the financial markets, Francesco played a pivotal role in funding efforts at Hantec Markets Ltd before founding Black Peral [sic] Securities Ltd in 2013, a highly respected and FCA-regulated online trading brokerage.

369X’s other named executives, Francesco Fiacchi (CTO) and Marco Baggioli (CCO), also appear to be Italian nationals.

That said, 369X, Francesco Porcu and Michal Prazenica are all based out of Dubai.

Instead of being honest about Dubai 369X operates through 369 Clearing Group Limited, a Seychelles shell company.

Due to the proliferation of scams and failure to enforce securities fraud regulation, BehindMLM ranks Dubai as the MLM crime capital of the world.

BehindMLM’s guidelines for Dubai are:

1. If someone lives in Dubai and approaches you about an MLM opportunity, they’re trying to scam you.
2. If an MLM company is based out of or represents it has ties to Dubai, it’s a scam.

If you want to know specifically how this applies to 369X, read on for a full review. [Continue reading…]

BFIC Gold fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

BFIC Gold’s website domain (“bficgold.io”), was privately registered on January 8th, 2024.

Perusal of BFIC Gold’s official YouTube channel reveals several Pakistani and Indian nationals tied to the company.

These include Mr. Zee;

Shivam Kashyap;

Sahil Raj Prajapati;

Mahesh Sharma;

Omar Khan;

SK Sagar; and

Asif Aslam;

A US resident we can tie to BFIC Gold is Tami Jackson:

Jackson is a serial promoter of MLM crypto Ponzi schemes. Prior to BFIC Gold Jackson was involved in Sam Lee’s HyperTech Ponzi schemes.

Omar Khan runs Innovation Factory, through which has launched multiple MLM crypto Ponzi schemes.

Khan first appeared on BehindMLM’s radar through B-Love Network early last year. B-Love Network was the second Innovation Factory Ponzi, following the collapse of Innovation Factory as a Ponzi scheme itself.

After B-Love Network collapsed, Khan rebooted as Bulleto in July 2023.

Bulleto’s website is still up but a February 24th post on its official FaceBook page suggest Bulleto is being merged with BFIC Gold.

BFIC Gold is the fourth reboot of the Innovation Factory Ponzi scheme Omar Khan launched in 2021.

Khan and his accomplices are originally from Pakistan and India. Since getting into MLM Ponzi scamming they have relocated to Dubai.

BehindMLM’s guidelines for Dubai are:

1. If someone lives in Dubai and approaches you about an MLM opportunity, they’re trying to scam you.
2. If an MLM company is based out of or represents it has ties to Dubai, it’s a scam.

If you want to know specifically how this applies to BFIC Gold, read on for a full review. [Continue reading…]

Solex fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website, at least not directly.

Kaj Larsen is cited as CEO on various Solex website blog posts. Loran Swensen is cited as Solex’s President.

Both Solex and Kaj Larsen are based out of Utah.

I wasn’t able to put together an MLM history on Larsen. His LinkedIn profile also doesn’t appear to have any employment history (I wasn’t logged in so maybe it was hidden?).

Loran Swensen’s LinkedIn profile places him in Arizona. In addition to his role at Solex, Swensen is also CEO of Innergy Development.

According to its website, Innergy Development is “a pivotal figure in advancing human wellness and holistic wellbeing.”

Products featured on Innergy Development’s website include:

• Theta Chamber – “allows your brain to move to the “theta state”” and sells for $78,500
• Inner Light LED Bed – “encourages relaxation” and sells for $49,900
• Inner Breath Hydrogen – “provides extensive protection against oxidative stress, inflammation, and allergic reactions” and sells for $5999 to $7200
• RF Inner Cleanse – “a thermal shock wave depth conditioning instrument that circulates RF (Radio Frequency) vibration energy through the meridians of the feet to the whole body” that sells for $1345
• Illuma Elite – “create[s] both 99.9% Hydrogen (H2) Or Medical Grade Ozone (O3)” and sells for $21,800
• Hyper Cube – “offers a gentle pressure ambient air environment, paired with a bed and Aqoustic [sic] Light Wave Therapy” and sells for $82,500
• Infinity Mat – “provides ergonomic support, recharging capabilities, and energy balancing features”, retails at $2497
• InnerSlim – “targeted muscle stimulation, triggering profound muscle contractions” and sells for $48,800
• ReFire Detox – “the world’s first Pressurized application of Transdermal Ozone” and sells for $69,500

Innergy Development claims its products offer “the latest in technology … with a price tag you can afford”. There is no FDA disclaimer on Innergy Development’s website.

Putting together Swensen’s history is a bit of a rabbit hole.

In or around 1993, Swensen (right) opened up a 3D animation video company called Multi-Dimensional Studios in Utah.

In 1998 Swensen, with business partner Jonathan Neville registered BioPulse. BioPulse shared office space with Multi-Dimensional Studios in Utah.

As reported by Norma Wagner of the Salt Like Tribune in February 2001, BioPulse opened up a “hotel clinic” in Tijuana, Mexico.

The Tijuana hotel clinic began taking reservations from patients in January and treats about 15 patients per month, said Neville.

BioPulse patients travel to Tijuana, Mexico, stay in a hotel, and pay $10,800 for the recommended three-week program where they receive as many as a dozen treatments.

Through its Tijuana clinic, BioPulse marketed questionable treatments to patients suffering from “AIDS, cancer, lupus, multiple sclerosis, hepatitis A, B and C, other degenerative diseases and chemical dependency.”

Neither Neville, Swensen nor the company’s two other listed officers hold medical licenses with the state of Utah.

And since they do not appear to be diagnosing or treating patients — but instead refer them to the hotel-based clinic — the state Department of Occupational and Professional Licensing (DOPL) has no purview over the organization, said DOPL spokesman Kim Morris.

The BioPulse treatment of most concern to Utah doctors is “colonics,” or intense enemas.

Intense enemas, which are becoming increasingly popular in alternative medicine, can break the wall of the colon, “which is extremely dangerous,” said Jay Jacobson, an infectious disease specialist at LDS and University hospitals in Salt Lake City.

Responded Neville: “We’re careful to have qualified physicians and nursing staff who understand the risks and take all precautions. They know what they’re doing.”

Another treatment that concerned the doctors is “Chelation Therapy” where chemicals are put in a patient’s bloodstream to remove heavy metals associated with such illnesses as lead poisoning.

But medical studies in the 1970s proved that its use for other therapies offers no benefits, [Marc Babitz, a family practice doctor at the University of Utah School of Medicine] said.

[BioPulse’s] web site also uses — often wrongly — medical jargon that the average person cannot understand, doesn’t back up its claims with any statistics or studies, and charges a lot of money for treatments not approved by the FDA, both physicians said.

In describing “Ultraviolet Blood Illumination,” BioPulse staff say the technique uses ultraviolet light as a disinfectant to kill viruses and bacteria.

They say the treatment produces “a custom-made vaccine” for the client and claims it has proven effective in the treatment of such “virus-causing diseases” as AIDS, hepatitis A, B and C, pneumonia, mononucleosis and herpes.

“It’s a misuse of language, it’s nothing like vaccines because vaccines don’t kill pathogens, they protect against them,” Jacobson said. ”

And these are not virus-causing diseases, these are diseases caused by a virus.”

“It’s sad when you can’t offer hope in traditional medicine. Often the normal response for patients is to search out other remedies,” said Babitz.

“But this is way off the map. This is harmful psychologically, physically and financially with absolutely no foundation for  success. It’s preying on unfortunate individuals.”

Neville said during the next few years, 25 other BioPulse rejuvenation centers will open throughout the world, but not in the United States until the company gets FDA approval to perform its therapies stateside.

Three months after it opened, BioPulse’s Tijuana clinic was shut down for offering “unauthorized treatments”.

BioPulse International, was prohibited from continuing an unauthorized treatment in which it used insulin to induce a coma-like state that it believed could work as a cancer treatment, Gruel said.

Loran Swensen, president of the publicly traded company based in Salt Lake City, said he is applying to the Mexican government for permission to continue the treatment.

BioPulse’s Tijuana clinic never reopened. At some point the company appears to have relocated from Utah to southern California.

A year after its Tijuana clinic was shut down, BioPulse appears to have been selling a “magic water” formula going by the name MICOM.

In April 2002 Joyce Brown was convicted of second-degree manslaughter. The charges followed the death of Edward Steward, a “health guest” Brown was “treating” with MICOM.

As reported by the Daily News, Brown had been dripping MICOM “into the veins of terminal cancer patients at her Kelso home.”

Brown claimed she was taught how to administer MICOM by Reynaldo Maldonado at his Mexican clinic.

Maldonado claims to have learnt about MICOM from then California resident Bobby Simpson.

Maldonado now says that he saw MICOM mixed with a 2-by-4 in a horse barn in Norco, Calif., by Bobby Simpson, who claimed that spiritual guidance and vast learning allowed him to invent this miracle cure.

“I stopped using his technology shortly after I found out that the quality controls were well below health standards,” Maldonado wrote in an e-mail to The Daily News.

Bobby Simpson’s son and business manager, Kim Simpson, laughed at Maldonado’s assertion.

He said he and his father, who suffered a stroke a year ago, mix the MICOM in a “facility in Norco, four walls, a roof, nice floor.”

Kim Simpson said he cut Maldonado out of the business after Steward died because Maldonado was packaging MICOM in IV bags in Juarez and shipping them to the United States.

“It was not supposed to come across the border, especially in IV bags. We didn’t want to go there,” Kim Simpson said. “We’re trying to stay away from any intrusive therapies.”

Outside of their dispute, Maldonado and Kim Simpson both chastised Brown after learning of Steward’s death.

Maldonado and Kim Simpson do agree on blaming Brown for treating people with intravenous infusions.

She should have stuck to dispensing MICOM as a drink, they said.

As part of their story on Steward’s death, The Daily News reached out to Loran Swensen.

MICOM hasn’t been tested in clinical studies, though BioPulse International, a small medical research company based in Salt Lake City, talked with the Simpsons.

The problem with MICOM was that it came in varying strengths, BioPulse president Loran Swensen said. Diluting it, he said, “wasn’t our job.”

In July 2002 the FTC filed a lawsuit against BioPulse, Jonathan Neville and Swenson.

Citing multiple violations of the FTC Act, the federal regulator alleged BioPulse’s treatments were fraudulent.

BioPulse International, Inc., BioPulse, Inc., and their principals advertised in print and on the Internet that their therapies – “insulin-induced hypoglycemic sleep therapy” (IHT) and “Acoustic Lightwave Therapy” (ALW) – could effectively treat a wide variety of cancers and other serious diseases.

The U.S.-based company offered its purported treatments in a clinic in Tijuana, Mexico.

The FTC alleges that the defendants did not have adequate substantiation for the safety and efficacy claims the defendants made for these treatments.

“In any language, health fraud trades on hope,” said J. Howard Beales III, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Instead of providing the FTC with proof their treatments worked, BioPulse, Neville and Swensen settled the FTC’s claims for $4.3 million.

Based on sword financial statements and provided balance sheets, the BioPulse settlement amount was suspended.

In addition the monetary component, the BioPule settlement also saw Swensen was subject to compliance reporting for five years.

Things get a bit strange after BioPule’s FTC settlement. An April 2016 ABC “sponsored segment” cites Swensen as the owner of Theta Wellness Centers.

The Theta Chamber at Theta Wellness Centers was developed for a very personal reason for the owner, Loran Swensen.

Now, after 25 years in business, Theta Wellness has helped more than 1,000 people with so many different things from anxiety to depression, brain trauma and addiction by using the chamber.

25 years prior to 2016 takes us back to 1991. I ran a Google search for “Theta Wellness” across January 1990 to January 2000. Not a single result exists.

I thought maybe Theta Wellness Center was a reboot of BioPulse, but BioPulse didn’t exist till 1998.

Given the source on this claim is a marketing puff-piece, perhaps claims about the origin of Theta Wellness Center are best taken with a grain of salt.

Today Theta Wellness Center operates out of northern California. As per the company’s website;

At Theta Wellness Center, we use a drug-free, scientific , neurological approach to correct chemical imbalances in the brain, which are the root cause of common problems such as drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, depression, anxiety, PTSD, video game addiction, and other unwanted behaviors.

Theta Wellness Center combines several cutting-edge technologies in each individuals program that has been clinically shown to produce results with a much lower recidivism rate.

“Therapeutic technologies” featured on Theta Wellness Center’s website are Innergy Development products. Loran Swensen isn’t mentioned anywhere on Theta Wellness Center’s website.

According to its website, Solex the MLM company launched in 2021.

Although he’s credited as the developer of Solex’s “AO Scan Technology”, Swensen is not credited as owner of the company anywhere on the Solex’s website

Why Solex ownership information is hidden from consumers is unclear.

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…]