It’s increasingly looking like Troy Barnes will plead guilty, following a sealed plea agreement filed on October 25th.

Barnes was indicted for wire fraud last November. The charges stem from his involvement in the running of Achieve Community, a $3 million dollar Ponzi scheme.

Initially Barnes maintained his innocence and opted to go to trial. This appears to have been dropped, with news last week that he was looking to strike a plea deal. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on The Dollar Ventures website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Dollar Ventures website domain (“thedollarventures.com”) was registered on the 10th of June 2016, however the domain registration is set to private.

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 video on the Questra World website identifies Jose Manuel Gilabert as CEO of the company. Other than that, no information about Questra World’s management is provided.

A corporate address in Madrid, Spain is also provided on the Questra World website.

The same address appears on AirBnB (as a one bedroom apartment) for $45 a night.

The Questra World website domain (“questraworld.es”) was registered on the 30th of June. Questra Holdings is listed as the domain owner.

Questra World appears to have been initially launched as Questra Holdings in mid 2015. Questra Holdings used the domain “questra.es”, which today is non-responsive.

In September 2016 Belgium’s Financial Services and Markets Authority issued a regulatory warning against Questra Holdings.

Questra Holdings is not an authorized investment firm or credit institution in Belgium. It is therefore not allowed to provide banking and/or investment services in or from Belgium.

Moreover, the system proposed by Questra Holdings has every appearance of being of a pyramidal type or at least of a Ponzi fraud.

Whether this lead to the Questra World name-change is unclear.

Possibly due to language barriers, I was unable to find any further information on Jose Manuel Gilabert (MLM related or otherwise).

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…]

Nothing yet official from the Traffic Monsoon preliminary injunction hearing. We’re monitoring the hearing and will publish an article as soon as we hear something (the hearing is ongoing as I type this).

In the meantime, yesterday the Traffic Monsoon Receiver filed two revealing declarations in court. They pertain to Traffic Monsoon’s inner business operations and communications the Receivership has had.

Below I’ve sorted out the main points of the declarations into relevant categories. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Business Bot Incubator website indicating who owns or runs the business.

At the time of publication Alexa estimate that most of the traffic (100% or close to) originates out of the Ukraine. The default language of the Business Bot Incubator website is also Russian.

This strongly suggests that whoever is running Business Bot Incubator is based out of the Ukraine.

An incorporation certificate for “Business Bot Incubator LTD” is provided on the Business Bot Incubator website.

Records from the UK Companies House shows Business Bot Incubator was incorporated on October 7th, 2016.

Ben Nolan is listed as the sole Director of the company, with an address in Manchester, UK also provided.

Further research reveals over thirty companies using the same address, suggesting Business Bot Incubator exists in the UK in name only.

A UK incorporation costs about £20 GBP and requires little more than a UK-based address.

Ben Nolan likely doesn’t exist with the real owner(s) of Business Bot Incubator running the company from the Ukraine.

The Business Bot Incubator website domain (“bbi.world”) was registered on the 5th of October. The domain registration uses the same details as found in Business Bot Incubator’s UK incorporation.

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…]

Sunil Patel has appointed himself somewhat of an ambassador for Traffic Monsoon investors. Specifically, Traffic Monsoon investors who believe Ponzi schemes should be legal.

In response to the SEC shutting down Traffic Monsoon in July, Patel threatened to sue the SEC. He also offered to fly to the US and personally testify in court.

After perhaps realizing that wasn’t such a good idea, Patel (right) then positioned himself at the head of a pro-Ponzi movement.

Patel’s first order of business for the movement was organizing an August meetup at Brighton pier in south-east England.

A handful of pro-Ponzi supporters rocked up and pledged their support to Charles Scoville and Traffic Monsoon. Patel was on hand with a camera and filmed prepared statements from the Ponzi faithful.

Those statements, along with prepared affidavits, were handed to lawyers under the belief they would be presented in court at tomorrow’s hearing.

Whether or not that happens remains to be seen. In the meantime though, Patel has moved on to promoting a new Ponzi scheme. [Continue reading…]

With Paul Burks is going to jail and the SEC’s case against Zeek Rewards resuming shortly, the Receivership is all but winding down.

Pretty much all that’s left is getting $13.1 million dollars back from Roman Balanko and seeing through net-winner litigation. [Continue reading…]

This came as a bit of a surprise…

On October 24th James Merrill plead guilty to guilty to eight counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

The charges stemmed from Merrill’s involvement in running TelexFree, a $3 billion dollar Ponzi scheme.

As per a Status Report fled by the SEC on October 25th, turns out the court did not accept Merrill’s plea. [Continue reading…]

BehindMLM initially reviewed uThriv back in 2014. Major issues identified at the time were failure to provide information about uThriv’s products, a lack of retail focus and chain-recruitment.

On October 26th Joe Tessin, co-founder and President of uThriv, responded to our review.

Thanks for the things you shared. We have grown and made many improvements and continue to do so…. I would be grateful if you gave us another look and review!

Today we take another look at uThriv and go over what’s changed. [Continue reading…]

This one slipped through the cracks and was only recently brought to our attention by BehindMLM reader “TS”.

Turns out back in August a number of MBI International scammers were arrested in Taiwan.

The following is a run down in English, from a third-party translation and that of Kasey Chang. [Continue reading…]