Joele Frank Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher (Joele Frank), a public relations firm based out of New York, has settled with the TelexFree Trustee.

Joele Frank was sued back in April as part of the Trustee’s clawback rampage.

According to the filing, Joele Frank was paid an $85,000 “non-refundable advance” by TelexFree two days before its bankruptcy filing.

Between April 11th and April 29th, 2014, Joele Frank provided $129,592 worth of services to TelexFree. About $80,000 in services was performed before TelexFree filed for bankruptcy. [Continue reading…]

Vida Divina are based out of California in the US and appear to operate in the weight loss MLM niche.

The CEO and Founder of Vida Divina is Armand Puyolt.

Puyolt was previously the master-distributor of Total Life Changes. A fluff-piece published by Ted Nuyten’s BusinessForHome claims Puyolt earnt $2 million in 2012 and $3 million in 2014.

Puyolt’s marketing shtick for Total Life Changes was that the company’s products cured his cancer.

In a Total Life Changes marketing call from 2015, Puyolt recalls the launch of the company.

[2:01] We were about to launch, I collapsed and I went into the hospital.

When I went into the hospital, the doctors literally given me six more months of life left because they figured out I had cancer.

I had a cancer right next to my heart and it was like right between my heart and my lungs.

I had another cancer in my stomach and the beginnings of minor tumors in other places around my body.

[3:30] Six months later, utilizing the products that my wife had found that we’d put together for Total Life Changes … everything started fading. As in the problems that I had medically.

[8:39] Five years later, I was supposed to die five years ago, not only am I still alive but the last test I had I had a full body scan (and) I have no signs of cancer.

[9:03] And I can tell you 100% I didn’t use no medication. I didn’t use no pharmaceuticals. I used Iaso tea and I used the Iaso gano. I used the Iaso chaga.

Iaso is Total Life Changes’ flagship brand of products.

Puyolt’s MLM career began back in 1996 as an affiliate with ACN. In 2000 Puyolt left ACN to join Metabolife International.

In 2005 Metabolife was found guilty of filing fraudulent tax returns and was fined $600,000.

Metabolife owner William Bradley also pleaded guilty to evading millions of dollars in taxes and was sentenced to 6 months in federal prison and 2 years of probation.

In response to falling sales, and facing more than $1 billion in personal injury legal claims related to Metabolife 356, Metabolife filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2005.

The company’s furnishings and property, including a large collection of artwork, were liquidated in late 2006 to compensate creditors and settle outstanding personal-injury claims. (Wikipedia)

In his LinkedIn profile, Puyolt claims to have left Metabolife International in 2004, a year before the company’s regulatory problems began.

In addition to launching an MLM coaching business in 2005, 2007 saw Puyolt join Kyani. In 2009 Puyolt left Kyani to join Total Life Changes as Master Distributor.

Puyolt claims he provided half the investment capital to launch Total Life Changes.

Puyolt left Total Life Changes in May, 2016. The launch of Vida Divina was announced shortly thereafter.

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

After publishing over one-hundred and fifty articles covering Zeek Rewards intimately over just under five years, it feels odd not to have first-hand information to report on.

Unfortunately I don’t have direct access to the North Carolina courtroom Paul Burks’ trial is taking place in, so over the next few weeks we’ll be relying heavily on local news coverage.

The second day of Burks’ trial saw a seated jury hear opening statements from both the DOJ and Paul Burks’ attorneys.

Four witnesses for the prosecution were heard from and a new attorney joined Paul Burks’ defense team.
[Continue reading…]

In an effort to shirk responsibility for paying back over $13 million dollars transferred through it by Payza, PaymentWorld USA has asserted it has no control or anything to do with PaymentWorld Limited (a Hong Kong company) or PaymentWorld LTD SRL (a Moldovan company).

In the long-running saga, The Zeek Rewards Receiver has sued PaymentWorld as single entity, claiming CEO Roman Balanko ‘and PaymentWorld US had access to and control over the information and funds at issue‘.

In response to the contempt proceedings, filed by PaymentWorld USA and supported by three declarations by CEO Roman Balanko, the company claims

the Receiver completely ignores the fact that Mr. Balanko controlled only PW-USA, and PW-USA did not have a contractual relationship of any kind with Victoriabank.

The receiver assumes that because PW-USA operated the payment gateway through which the merchant transactions were processed, that it must necessarily have also controlled the flow of those funds in and out of Victoriabank.

Nothing could be further from the truth, and to agree with such an assertion is to completely ignore the operational and corporate distinctions between PW-USA, PW-HK (Hong Kong) and PW-SRL (Moldova), as well as the entirely different functions that various entities in the credit card processing industry perform.

The distinction between PW-USA, PW-HK and PW-SRL is the primary basis for PW-USA’s claim its role ‘in the processing arrangement by which Payza’s funds were transferred was specific and limited, and PW-USA was never in control over the actual transfer of funds in or out of any bank’.

Strangely enough, a document provided to BehindMLM directly contradicts PaymentWorld USA’s claims and suggests otherwise. [Continue reading…]

I was kind of half-expecting Burks to come up with an eleventh-hour reason to delay his trial again, but I was still surprised when he actually followed through.

On July 4th, the day before Burks’ criminal trial was to commence, his attorney filed a Motion to Continue Docket Call/Trial. [Continue reading…]

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

The Ads Division website domain (“adsdivision.com”) was registered on the 25th of April 2016, however the domain registration is set to private.

The official Ads Division Facebook group has one admin, Jeff Martinez.

On his Facebook profile Martinez (right) claims to be based out of the Marshall Islands, a known tax-haven.

Martinez’s Facebook profile is a little suspicious, having only been created in mid June.

Other than a YouTube video appearing on the Ads Division website that confirms Martinez is an actual person, no other information on him appears to be available.

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

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

The Bit Reen website domain (“bitreen.org”) was registered on the 17th of May 2016, however the domain registration is set to private.

Of note is the Bit Reen compensation PDF is titled “diapositivia 1”, which is Spanish for “Slideshow 1”.

The official Bit Reen Facebook page also contains an admin referral link bearing the name “Albert”.

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 Mavigold Charities International website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Mavigold Charities website domain (“mavigoldcharities.org”) was registered on the 27th of May 2016. Web design company Maxtra Technologies, based out of Uttar Pradesh in India, are listed as the owner of the domain.

At the time of publication, Alexa estimate that 100% of the traffic to the Mavigold Charities International website originates out of Nigeria.

Whether the anonymous owners of the company are based out of India or Nigeria however is unclear.

Hidden code on the Mavigold Charities International website suggests it is being run out of Lagos, Nigeria:

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 C4 Classified Ads website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The C4 Classified Ads website domain (“c4classifiedads.com”) was registered on the 9th of June 2015. David Coxon is listed as the owner of the domain, with a residential address in Lincolnshire, UK also provided.

David Coxon first popped up on BehindMLM’s radar back in 2012, as the Technical Director of The Advertising Net.

The Advertising Net was a $55 ten-tier matrix cycler Ponzi scheme. Sometime between 2012 and 2015 The Advertising Net collapsed, with a reboot launched in May, 2015.

The Advertising Net v2.0 was pretty much the same business model but with a smaller matrix cycler.

A visit to The Advertising Net website today reveals it was renamed “TAN Marketing”. Alexa statistics for The Advertising Net website suggest the scheme has once again collapsed.

A month or so prior to The Advertising Net’s relaunch, Coxon also launched Cfur Advertising.

Like The Advertising Net, Cfur Advertising was also a matrix cycler. It was designed to support The Advertising Net, with cycles generated through the scheme feeding directly into new The Advertising Net matrix positions.

The Cfur Advertising website is non-responsive, suggesting it too has long-since collapsed.

Read on for a full review of the C4 Classified Ads MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Virtual County Fair website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Virtual County Fair website domain (“virtualcountyfair.com”) was registered on the 10th of May 2016, however the domain registration is set to private.

The official Virtual County Fair Facebook group lists six admins;  LaCrisha Wallace, Robin Claspill, Trisha Rios, Noel Ennis, Latrina Johnson and Ray Woodard.

Ray Woodard appears to be the admin of Virtual County Fair.

On June 1st, Woodard posted a link to a Virtual County Fair YouTube video, with the caption: “SNEAK PEEK at what I’ve been working on”.

Virtual County Fair launched two weeks later on June 14th.

Ray Woodard (right) first appeared on BehindMLM’s radar as the admin of Money Go Round back in April, 2015.

Money Go Round was a matrix cycler, modeled on Achieve Community. Achieve Community was shut down by the SEC in February, 2015 for being a $3.8 million dollar Ponzi scheme.

When Money Go Round collapsed is unclear but today the Money Go Round website is non-responsive.

Recent scams promoted on Ray Woodard’s Facebook profile include Phoenix Power Rising (Ponzi cycler), FutureNet (Ponzi cycler) and 1×2 Marketing Suite (Ingreso Cybernetico matrix scheme feeder).

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