QNet was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Hong Kong.

As far as I can tell though, other than existing there in name, QNet has no business operations in Hong Kong itself.

The company was founded by Vijay Eswaran (right), who is based out of Malaysia. For all intents and purposes, QNet operates as a Malaysian company.

So the story goes;

In the mid-90s, Vijay Eswaran and Joseph ‘Japa’ Bismark, two young men from drastically different backgrounds came together in business and friendship.

Having found reasonable success in network marketing with an American company that was doing extremely well in the Philippines, the two joined forces and their group called the V Team consisting of bright, motivated and talented men and women, soon became the largest revenue earner for the American company.

At one point they realised that the Company was being dishonest with them and after all efforts to rectify the situation failed, the V Team and a few of their leaders sat around Vijay’s kitchen table to discuss the next steps.

About 1,500 people who had believed in the V Team leaders had joined the team. What were they going to tell them?

The easy way out was to tell them what the company owners did and wash their hands off any culpability.

However, they did not choose the easy way out.

With the fate of thousands of their team members at stake, and a liability in excess of USD 250,000, the two young men along with their core team members made a bold and crazy decision to start their own company, with the sole purpose of looking after the interests of the people who had trusted them and put their life’s savings into their hands.

On that fateful day in September 1998 in the Philippine Stock Exchange Centre (formerly Tektite Towers) in Manila, Philippines, the company today known as QNET was born.

QNet originally started out as QuestNet and promoted gold and silver coins.

In addition to GoldQuest and QI Limited, QNet has spawned at least 76 related shell companies.

QNet itself is a subsidiary of QI Group, which oversees the company’s operations globally.

The reason for this appears to be mitigation of corporate liability.

QNet sets up shop in a country under a different name. With QNet headquartered in Hong Kong, the company has been very careful not to conduct business in either Hong Kong or China.

Why, you ask?

Aside from Malaysia, QNet has run into regulatory trouble in pretty much every country it’s established a significant presence in.

• the Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry issued QuestNet a cease and desist (2003)
• the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan conducted an investigation into GoldQuest and found it to be a pyramid scheme (2003)
• the Nepalese Home Ministry banned GoldQuest from operating in Nepal (2003)
• the Sri Lankan government banned GoldQuest (2005)
• the Iranian government banned GoldQuest (2005)
• An Interpol alert resulting from a Philippine investigation saw Vijay Eswaran and several GoldQuest officials arrested in Indonesia, they were released and the charges dismissed after three weeks (2007)
• Afghanistan withdrew QuestNet’s license to conduct business (2006)
• Rwanda’s Ministry of Finance banned QuestNet after the National bank of Rwanda declared it a pyramid scheme (2008)
• Sudan banned QuestNet (2009)
• Syria’s Ministry of Economics shut down QuestNet for violation of commercial registration laws and operating a pyramid scheme (2009)
• Turkey issued a warning against QNet, after an investigation revealed it was simply a rebranding of the QuestNet pyramid scheme (2011)
• Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, the Egyptian government’s educational institute, issued a fatwa declaring QNet’s business model haram (2010)
• Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry banned QNet amid accusations of theft, falsification and failure to register (2010)
• India’s EOW froze several bank accounts tied to QNet as part of a major bust (2013)
• the Philippines’s SEC revoked QNet’s license to conduct business in the Philippines (2014)
• the Chairman of the Fatwa Commission of the Indonesian Ulema Council concluded the business model was not haram (it contained “elements of fraud”) and issued a fatwa (2014)
• India’s EOW prohibited QNet and its Indian subsidiary Vihaan from holding workshops and training sessions in Mumbai (2014)
• Central Police in Azerbaijan opened a criminal case into QuestNet, to investigate claims of fraudulent appropriation of money (2014)
• India’s EOW (Delhi) filed a First Information Report against Qnet and Vihaan Direct, alleging the companies were engaged in cheating and fraudulently operating an MLM scheme (2016)
• Authorities in Burkina Faso labelled QNet “a network of crooks” (2016)

As a result of QNet’s fraudulent global business operations, its management and affiliates have been arrested in India, Indonesia, Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan, Burkino Faso, Nepal and Algeria.

QNet founder Vijay Eswaran is currently a wanted fugitive in India.

Marketing copy on the QNet website also appears to be somewhat antiquated.

QNet claims to be one of “Asia’s leading direct selling companies”, however the scheme today appears to be predominantly promoted in Africa.

Alexa estimate the top sources of traffic to the QNet website are Cameroon (8.2%), Morocco (7.5%), India (6.4%), Tanzania (5.5%) and Algeria (5.4%).

With the exception of India, QNet appears to be all but collapsed across Asia.

As above, African authorities have only recently began cracking down on QNet. QNet’s operations in India are in turmoil, following multiple arrests and asset seizures across the country.

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

Good news for victims of the USFIA Ponzi scheme, a claim portal is likely to be opened sometime in the first quarter of 2018.

That prediction is based off the USFIA Receiver’s Ninth Interim Report, which states: [Continue reading…]

Kingsley Ezeude and Chukwuka Obi respectively invested $2216 and $2238 into the Traffic Monsoon Ponzi scheme.

Back in May the pair sued PayPal, alleging PayPal

as aware that Traffic Monsoon was operating a Ponzi/pyramid scheme and that Traffic Monsoon was commingling investor money and paying existing investors with new investors’ money, in obvious Ponzi/pyramid scheme fashion.

In response to the lawsuit PayPal filed both a Motion to Dismiss and Motion to Stay.

On  November 15th Judge Koh ruled to stay the case, effectively stopping it in its tracks. [Continue reading…]

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

The Vista Network website domain (“vista.network”) was privately registered on May 29th, 2017.

At the time of publication Alexa estimate that the US is the largest source of traffic to the Visa Network website.

This suggests that whoever is running Vista Network is also likely based out of the US.

Update 8th January 2018 – In a company web conference held on January 6th, in response to the recent regulatory crackdown on USI-Tech and BitConnect, the CEO of Vista Network is revealed to be Armen Temurian.

According to his Facebook profile, Temuian is based out of California in the US.

Other MLM opportunities Temuian has been involved in include Amway, Enagic, Epic (Master Distributor) and Organo Gold (Crown Diamond).

Why this information isn’t provided on the Vista Network website is unclear. /end update

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…]

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

The Reward Table website domain (“rewardtable.com”) was privately registered on November 22nd, 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…]

A class-action lawsuit that alleges WorldVentures is an illegal pyramid scheme was filed earlier this year.

This one slipped under the radar, so you’ll have to forgive the late coverage as I only found about the lawsuit yesterday. [Continue reading…]

Unknown to me as I was researching Viridian for our recently published review, the company was gearing up to completely abandon its MLM business. [Continue reading…]

As expected, the reboot of the Laser Online Ponzi scheme has collapsed a few weeks after launch.

Disgruntled investors also appear to have uncovered the true identity of Laser Online’s CEO, “Antonio Garley”. [Continue reading…]

Amid rumours Kari Wahlroos had, despite keeping up appearances, effectively left OneCoin, today the company announced he’s been demoted. [Continue reading…]

Viridian operate in the travel and utility MLM niches.

The company is based out of Connecticut in the US and was founded by Michael Fallquist.

Fallquist is the former COO of Commerce Energy and founded Viridian in 2009.

Today Fallquist is CEO of Crius Energy, cited as a “strategic partner” of Viridian. Viridian itself is headed up by CEO Paul Booth (right).

According to Booth’s Viridian corporate bio, he has

over 30 years of network marketing experience as both a successful distributor and key executive in multiple network marketing startups.

In addition to his Viridian position, Booth is also founder and CEO of Data Paradigm Inc.

(DPI is) a nationally renowned network marketing advisor and compensation plan designer.

DPI’s systems currently support multiple companies with hundreds of thousands of distributors and gross sales well over $1 billion annually.

Amid some positive experiences from DPI staff, I noted some GlassDoor reviews of DPI explicitly suggested problems with Booth’s style of management.

• “Had potential… just CEO is a type A monster”
• “As long as you don’t ever disagree with the CEO, you’ll do great!”
• “Great talent, very poor leadership”

In 2012 the state of Maryland fined Viridian $60,000 for “false and deceptive marketing practices.”

In 2015 Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory authority announced it was reviewing Viridian’s contracts, contract renewal, customer notification and enrollment procedures.

Also in Maryland, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Viridian and it’s parent company, Crius Energy.

The suit claims Viridian uses a “fraudulent and deceptive bait-and-switch sales model” and that Viridian associates “form a retail pyramid” that yielded the company a 30 percent profit margin in 2014, to the tune of $33.7 million.

As of December 2017, that lawsuit is ongoing. A Status Conference report filed October 18th, 2017, reveals settlement negotiations between the parties are ongoing.

Truth In Advertising reference a February 2017 Consolidated Class Action Complaint, which accuses Viridian Energy of

deceptively advertis(ing) low initial rates for energy followed by variable rate plans that are tied to the market rate when, according to plaintiffs, customers end up paying four, five, or six times more for their energy.

This is a combination of three separate class-action lawsuits, which were combined into the Maryland class-action referenced above.

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