I don’t really follow chatter surrounding the bigger downlines of MLM companies too closely, but over the last few weeks OneCoin has been rocked by a series of high-profile departures.

“Top Earner” David Imonitie, formerly of Organo Gold fame, joined OneCoin last October. For reasons he doesn’t go into, earlier this month Imonitie confirmed he had since left the company.

Under a murky deal allegedly reached between Ruja Ignatova and Armando Contreras, most of the US OneCoin affiliates have also jumped ship for iPro Network.

Well, at least those that can. Tom McMurrain did go soft on his OneCoin spam for a while. But amid rumors iPro Network wouldn’t have him, he’s gone back to promoting OneCoin by telling people how much they suck.

Amid an ongoing investigation by London police, now news that those at the top of one of the largest UK downlines are also leaving OneCoin.

Well, sort of. [Continue reading…]

BitForced provide no information on their website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The BitForced website domain (“bitforced.com”) was privately registered on January 29th, 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…]

Smart Media Technologies was initially launched in 2010 by David Martin.

Smart Media Technologies was bundled with YOBSYN, a social media network affiliates paid hundreds of dollars to access. Commissions were paid out when they recruited others who did the same.

In 2014 Smart Media Technologies affiliates were arrested in Bangalore, prompting the end of the scheme.

Martin (right) lay low, eventually to return in late 2015 with Skill Dragon.

Skill Dragon was initially supposed to be a revenue sharing type opportunity, based on mobile apps and eSports.

The concept flopped and so Dragon Mining, a cryptocurrency mining pool opportunity, was added to the company’s offering.

Dragon Mining never took off on its own, or at least not enough to entirely sustain itself.

At some point Martin decided to pull the plug and relaunch Dragon Mining as the core of the business.

That brings us to Lifestyle Galaxy, which is pretty much a rehash of Smart Media Technologies’ previously failed ventures.

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

SeneGence are based out California and operate in the cosmetics MLM niche. The company was founded in 1998 by Joni Rogers-Kante.

As per Rogers-Kante’s SeneGence corporate bio;

Joni began her career at 16 years of age, working for the Sav-On Corporation.

By the age of 23, she was the assistant manager of the top store in the Sav-On chain. Having learned from high level management, buyers and operations experts, she knew the corporate structure was not for her.

Armed with a vision and her business education, she pursued her dream of being an entrepreneur.

Joni was introduced to a direct selling cosmetic company and recognized the incredible opportunity the industry offered to women.

Joni’s 13 year direct selling career produced jewelry, cars, awards, trips and recognition yet, more importantly, a burning desire to create a plan for the establishment of her own company which we now know as SeneGence.

Prior to founding SeneGence Rogers-Kante was an affiliate with Mary Kay.

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

ViOS are based out of North Carolina in the US and operate in the health and nutrition MLM niche.

The company launched in the first quarter of 2016 and is headed up by co-founders Brock Agee and Joseph Land.

Prior to co-founding ViOS, Brock Agee was President of Nature’s Pearl.

In 2012 Agee was caught up in an FDA warning to Nature’s Pearl regarding cancer claims.

In a news video featured on the home page which includes the President of Nature’s Pearl, Brock Agee:

• “It [muscadine grapes] has been called the new way to prevent cancer …. ”

• “[H]ow doctors hope to stop cancer, one muscadine at a time.”

• “According to some doctors, the secret to beating cancer.”

• “[N]atural chemicals found in muscadines can help prevent cancers before they start.”

• “[I]t [muscadine grapes] can help people with a disease as terrible as cancer.”

Through his company Le Bleu Central Distributors, Inc., Agee also holds a license to deliver Le Bleu bottled water across North Carolina.

Better known as Joe Land, Joseph Land began his MLM career as an Amway affiliate. Land was also the Master Distributor of Nature’s Pearl.

Nature’s Pearl was sold off to Youngevity late last year.

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

OneCoin, being the Ponzi scheme that it is, was never going to risk launching in the most tightly regulated market in the world.

Despite stringing early OneCoin investors along with promises of a US launch, the charade was quietly dropped in October, 2015.

Spear-headed by Sal Leto, Maurice Katz and other affiliates, US OneCoin recruitment went underground.

While publicly OneCoin wasn’t operating in the US, through offshore shell companies and bank accounts, unofficially US residents were still being recruited into the scheme.

OneCoin management were of course fully aware this was going on, but money is money so they turned a blind eye to it.

Fortunately having to go through that many hoops to join an MLM opportunity sets off alarm bells in all but the most determined Ponzi scammers. And so recruitment of affiliates in the US ground to a halt.

That killed off recruitment commissions, with the situation further deteriorating when OneCoin cancelled all Ponzi ROI withdrawals back in January.

Unable to recruit new victims or cash out their Ponzi points, OneCoin’s US investors desperately began looking for a way out.

Enter iPro Network. [Continue reading…]

Back in December the Antitrust and Consumer Protection Authority (AGCM) ordered the suspension of OneCoin promotion in Italy.

In early January OneCoin responded to the AGCM’s promotional ban by claiming they’d ‘never promoted OneCoin and/or OneLife in Italy‘.

In late January police raids on recruitment events revealed OneCoin was still being promoted locally.

This prompted the AGCM to confirm OneCoin was a pyramid scheme and ban the company from operating in Italy entirely. [Continue reading…]

Pay Diamond provide no information on their website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Pay Diamond website domain (“paydiamond.com”) was first registered on the 26th of December, 2014. The registration was last updated on November 27th, 2015.

“PayDiamond Marketing & Sales Limited” is listed as the domain owner, with a virtual office address in Hong Kong also provided.

Alexa traffic statistics reveal that with the exception of Japan (12%), the majority of traffic to the Pay Diamond website originates out of South America.

The Pay Diamond website itself is hosted in Brazil and the default language of the Pay Diamond website is Portuguese (primary language of Brazil). Given this, it’s extremely likely that whoever is running Pay Diamond is also based out of Brazil.

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…]

SportArb provide a UK Companies House registration certificate on their website, which reveals Sport Arbitrage LTD was incorporated in August, 2016.

An office address in Birmingham is provided in SportArb’s incorporation documents. Further research reveals this to a suite of offices, with the same address belonging to over three hundred businesses.

Four executives are named on the SportArb website; Ronald Wald (CEO), Sid Clive (Senior IT Engineer), Mitch Stew (customer service) and Andres Martin (trader).

The SportArb website domain (“sportarb.com”) was registered in August, 2016 by Wald.

A LinkedIn profile is provided for each SportArb executive. They all seem pretty suspicious though, with only Sport Arbitrage LTD listed under “experience”.

If it were possible to see when LinkedIn profiles were created, I wouldn’t be surprised to find all four were created on or around the same date.

Outside of SportArb, none of the named executives appear to exist.

Suggesting whoever created the SportArb executive profiles might have slipped up, I found one discrepancy in the company’s corporate filings.

Ronald Wald’s LinkedIn profile his location as Dresden Area, Germany. In SportArb’s incorporation filings Wald’s nationality is “British” and through a London residential address, his stated country of residence is the UK.

This isn’t definitive by any means but when combined with the complete lack of information available about any of SportArb’s named executives, is highly suspicious.

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…]

On March 2nd the SEC filed a lawsuit against Vizinova and owners Renato Rodriguez (full name: Pablo Renato Rodriguez Arevalo) and Gutemberg Dos Santos.

Vizinova launched in March, 2014 and for all intents and purposes was a reboot of Phil Ming Xu’s WCM777 Ponzi scheme.

Both Rodriguez and Dos Santos were affiliates in WCM777. [Continue reading…]