We haven’t quite reached Paul Burks levels of desperation yet, but James Merrill was certainly channeling him when he asked a court to suppress all evidence collected against him.

Merrill’s motion, if granted, would have effectively gutted the DOJ’s case against him – leaving the regulator unable to use any evidence obtained via seizure of TelexFree assets.

Given the evident lopsidedness such an order would create, yesterday Judge Hillman saw fit to deny Merrill’s motion in its entirety. [Continue reading…]

Looks like someone over at Kairos Technologies recently acquired The Book of Ponzi Excuses 101.

Over the last few weeks Kairos Technologies has had trouble paying affiliates. In addition to affiliate accounts randomly not working, last week the Kairos Technologies backoffice went offline.

The company also lost ePayments as a processor, which it replaced with Paysera, a small Lithuanian processor.

As these changes were being implemented, Kairos Technologies also limited affiliate withdrawals to preset amounts once a month.

On the Kairos Technologies website, the last three news items are all related to affiliate payment problems. [Continue reading…]

Momentis launched in 2010 and are the network marketing arm of Just Energy, a Canadian-based natural gas and electricity retailer.

Momentis is based out of Texas in the US and is headed up by CEO Andrew McWilliams (below right).

As per McWilliams’ Momentis corporate bio;

Andy is a leading producer in the direct sales industry and one of the industry’s most notable figures.

His 21 years of leadership and expertise have resulted in over $1 billion in sales and hundreds of millions of dollars paid out to independent representatives.

Prior to launching Momentis McWilliams was an affiliate with ACN and LuxuriLife, a purported $3500 a pop recruitment scheme.

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

There is no specific information on the Community Treasures website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Community Treasures website domain (“communitytreasures.co”) was first registered on August 1st, 2014.

Otis Francis is listed as the domain owner, with an address in the US state of Nevada also provided.

Marketing videos on the Community Treasures website are hosted on a YouTube channel bearing the name “Izangel Francis”:

Who the woman is in the marketing videos is unclear.

The email address used to register the Community Treasures domain was also used to register the domain (“iwaspromiseddonuts.net”).

The I Was Promised Donuts website is a photo feed that appears to belong to Mica Francis-Angel.

Curiously the I Was Promised Donuts website domain lists Otis Francis as the owner, however this time an address in London, UK is provided.

I was unable to find an MLM history for either Otis Francis, Izangel Francis or Mica Francis-Angel.

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

The original PLR System compensation plan was simple enough: Invest $25 and receive an eventual $100 ROI or invest $50 and receive an eventual $200 ROI.

Payments were paid directly to The PLR System affiliates, combining elements of both a Ponzi and cash gifting scheme.

The PLR System initially launched in late 2015 with current Alexa rankings for The PLR System website suggest the scheme has collapsed.

Owner Johnny Ganoza announced a “V2” reboot on August 25th.

Read on for a full review of The PLR System V2 MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

BitClub Network’s original premise saw affiliates invest on the promise of a 1000 day ROI.

When the anonymous owners of the scheme realized they were going to run out of newly invested funds long before 1000 days was up, they changed the ROI maturity period to 600 days.

The idea was that affiliates who initially invested would re-invest after 600 days, giving BitClub Network more breathing room.

Evidently this change wasn’t enough, with the company now set to dump early investor contracts. [Continue reading…]

When THW Global surfaced back in June, the company’s prime drawcard was affiliates purportedly able to earn up to $25 for watching “YouTube type videos”.

This made no sense, primarily because the commission rates touted by THW Global were disconnected from the reality of online advertising.

No legitimate advertiser on the planet is paying random users $25 to watch an hour of YouTube videos.

In a move that confirms the original “up to $25 an hour” commission rate was baloney, THW Global have rolled out the actual primary source of revenue for the company…

…and it’s got nothing to do with online advertising or YouTube like videos. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Whole World website indicating who owns or runs the business.

Whole World do however reveal they are based out of Russia. Russian registration numbers are provided on the Whole World website, along with a corporate address in Saint Petersburg.

The Whole World website domain (“wholeworld.biz”) was registered on April 27th 2013, with Gold Line Company Limited listed as the owner.

Gold Line International was the precursor to Whole World, with the company dropping Gold Line International branding in 2013.

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…]

Such is the pulling power of Ponzi schemes in Africa at the moment that even after MMM Global collapsed, local chapters of the scheme in some countries continue to lure victims in.

One of those countries is Zimbabwe, where regulators have admitted they are powerless to stop the scam. [Continue reading…]

Following the denial of a preliminary injunction motion a few weeks back, it appears Vemma didn’t have much left to bargain with.

Over the past few weeks they’ve been negotiating with Hanover Insurance, with a settlement reached on or around August 17th. [Continue reading…]