While the sentencing of James Merrill next month will see the criminal side of TelexFree proceedings in the US wind up, down in Brazil they’re just just getting started.

Following a three year investigation by Brazilian Federal Police, last Thursday twenty-two Brazilian TelexFree scammers were indicted. [Continue reading…]

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

The UpCoin website domain (“upcoin.com”) was privately registered on November 21st, 2016.

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…]

There is no information on the Instant Bitcoin Profits website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Instant Bitcoin Profits website domain (“instantbitcoinprofits.com”) was privately registered on January 12th, 2017.

Further research reveals Instant Bitcoin Profits affiliates naming Rune Fjortoft as admin of the company. On his Facebook profile, Fjortoft began advertising Instant Bitcoin Profits on January 28th.

The official Instant Bitcoin Profits Facebook group was created the same day.

Rune Fjortoft is based out of Norway and first popped up on BehindMLM’s radar as the admin of Instant Cash Matrix in 2011.

Instant Cash Matrix was a recruitment driven pyramid scheme. In 2013 Fjortoft launched Mobile Blog Pro, another recruitment driven scheme.

Fjortoft (right) is also a serial participant in the MLM underbelly, typically signing up for Ponzi and pyramid schemes under the affiliate ID “mlmpronews”.

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

In his own words, when Chris Principe ‘first heard about OneCoin, (he) thought it was either a scam or a pyramid scheme‘.

That quickly changed  after OneCoin paid Principe to run a fluff-piece in his Financial IT publication.

In addition to paying an undisclosed amount of money to change Principe’s opinion of the scheme, OneCoin agreed to purchase copies of Financial IT for distribution among their affiliates. Principe also briefly appeared at OneCoin events to read PR scripts.

Copies of the Financial IT issue with Ruja Ignatova popped up all over social media, cited by OneCoin affiliates as “proof” of independent third-party media coverage.

This was important to OneCoin affiliates because to date, independent coverage by media organizations worldwide has universally concluded OneCoin is a Ponzi scheme.

Principe’s promotion of OneCoin evidently didn’t go unnoticed by other European scams, with Russia’s Skyway Capital the latest to seek Financial IT out. [Continue reading…]

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

The LiteFunds website domain (“litefunds.com”) was registered on January 11th, 2017. Muhammad Bakru is listed as the owner, with an incomplete address in Jakarta, Indonesia also provided.

Whether this is an actual person or not is unclear.

At the time of publication Alexa estimate the top two sources of traffic to the LiteFunds website are Nigeria (31%) and India (18%).

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…]

There is no information on the 2×8 Rocket website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The 2×8 Rocket website domain (“2x8rocket.com”) was privately registered on January 18th, 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…]

Stemtech International was founded in 2005 by Christian Drapeau and Ray Carter. The company is currently based out of Florida and operates in the nutrition MLM niche.

BehindMLM reviewed StemTech in 2012 and found the company had a strong focus on autoship affiliate recruitment.

Over the last eight months Alexa traffic estimates for the StemTech website indicate a consistent month to month decline in business.

In 2016 StemTech’s gross revenue was $43.5 million, down from $52.5 million in 2015.

On February 2nd, 2017, StemTech filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. [Continue reading…]

The M Network website is pretty user unfriendly.

A visit to the site sees it demand an affiliate referral code. There is a “nobody sent me” button, but if you click it M Network then demands you provide it with personal information.

I don’t know what’s on the homepage, but you can bypass this capture page by clicking links in the website footer.

One of those links is an “about us” page, which reveals M Network is headed up by “headmaster” Kerry Brown (yes, that’s his actual corporate title).

On his LinkedIn Profile, Brown lists his location as Utah in the United States. He also credits himself as M Network’s founder.

Kerry Brown’s corporate MLM career appears to have begun in 2005 when he was appointed Senior Product Manager of Xango. Brown left Xango in 2007.

In 2010 he was hired as Director of Marketing at Limu (also credited as Vice-President of Marketing). As with Xango, Brown was with Limu for two years before moving on in 2012.

In February 2015 Brown was appointed Chief Marketing Officer at Stream. On August 3rd Brown updated his Facebook profile to reflect he’d left Stream. That same day he changed his profile photo to an M Network banner.

On the non-MLM side of things Brown is founder and President of Six Nutrition.

Six Nutrition sell hydration supplements. The company does have an affiliate program but it’s single-level (non-MLM).

According to Brown’s LinkedIn profile, he left Six Nutrition in August, 2016.

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

On December 30th, 2016, Nerium International filed a lawsuit against Modere.

Nerium claims the lawsuit, which also sought a Temporary Restraining Order, was an attempt to stop

two of its high-ranking salespeople and a paid Nerium consultant from raiding Nerium’s salesforce and customers, in direct violation of their non-competition and non-solicitation agreements, for a competing company named Modere.

Both Nerium and Modere operate in the personal care MLM niche. [Continue reading…]

Nerium’s flagship product Nerium AD has come under fire, following the filing of a new lawsuit in Missouri

As per BehindMLM’s Nerium review (2014), the company claims Nerium AD (“Age Defying”)

contains the most effective ingredients available, including our exclusive, patented NAE-8 extract, which has powerful antioxidant properties that help reduce the appearance of many signs of aging.

According to plaintiff Christina Swiatek, Nerium AD also causes chemical burns, permanent skin damage. [Continue reading…]