On their website, Emaar Ventures claim:

Our Group of companies were incorporated in 2009. Although we  have had our mother company for over 20 years.

The Emaar Ventures website domain (“emaarventures.com”) however was only registered on the 8th of June 2016, revealing this to be a lie.

The official date of the founding of Emaar Ventures Company is June 27, 2009.

Its founders and non-replaceable leaders for today are Japanese businessmen, Kazuki Mariyatsu, Arabian business guru Mohamed Alabbar, Nikko Yamaguti, as well as a successful Russian businessman Vyacheslav Nikiforov.

The above paragraph, taken directly from the Emaar Ventures website has been copy and pasted from a website belonging to “Tokyo Investment Company”:

Tokyo Investment Company appears to be some sort of collapsed forex HYIP scheme.

No information is available about Kazuki Mariyatsu outside of Emaar Ventures and Tokyo Investment Company.

Mohamed Alabbar is an actual businessman from the UAE and Chairman of Emaar Properties.

Emaar Properties is

one of the largest real estate development companies in the world and known for developing the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building and the Dubai Mall,the world’s largest mall.

Vyacheslav Nikiforov is the name of a Russian Director and former football player. There’s no well-known person bearing this name connected to the business world.

It appears whoever is actually running Emaar Ventures simply appropriated Mohamed Alabbar and the Emaar Properties company name, added two more fictitious owners and ran with it.

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 Power On Network website indicating who owns or runs the company.

A Power On Network corporate webinar this review is based on is hosted by Nigel Allan.

On the webinar, Allan claims he’s “involved” in Power On Network and refers to the company in the possessive.

Allan does not disclose his specific role within Power On Network. If he’s not running Power On Network himself, Allan does not disclose who is.

What he does disclose is that Power On Network is purportedly based in Singapore and owned by “Global Power Pte”.

The Power On Network website domain (“poweronnetwork.com”) was registered on the 29th of August 2016, however the domain registration is set to private.

Nigel Allan (right) first popped up on BehindMLM back in 2013 as the co-founder of Brilliant Carbon, a collapsed pyramid scheme.

Allan resurfaced in 2014 as co-founder and President of OneCoin, a Ponzi points scheme.

Allan left / was fired from OneCoin (depending on who you ask) shortly after its launch. He quickly positioned himself as Master Distributor of Crypto888 Club, a similar Ponzi points scam.

Allan is suspected of running Crypto888 Club either directly or via proxy.

Crypto888 Club collapsed in early 2016, prompting a reboot as “Octa Partners”.

Octa Partners also collapsed a few months after launch, prompting a third reboot as Nano Club.

Allan’s involvement in Power On Network suggests that he’s either sold his share in Crypto888 Club or simply abandoned the company. When specifically Allan stopped promoting and/or left Crypto888 Club is unclear.

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…]

Last we checked in on the status of OneCoin in China, police in Guandong had arrested local OneCoin affiliates and seized $45.7 million dollars.

It is believed the Guandong investigation is ongoing but, other than OneCoin opening a bank account in Hong Kong last week, there’s been no OneCoin news out of China since.

Now a recently surfaced report, published on Ku6 nine months ago, reaffirms that OneCoin was and is still very much illegal in China. [Continue reading…]

The SEC shutdown of Zeek Rewards in 2012 has since spawned many Ponzi points clones.

Late 2013 saw the launch of one of those clones, Changes Worldwide.

Soliciting up to $25,000 investments into “revenue points” that were attached to a 90 day ROI payout, Changes Worldwide collapsed shortly after launch.

Owner Timothy Baggett, who’d joined the failed Bids That Give Zeek clone earlier that year, relaunched with Changes Trading.

Whereas Changes Worldwide attached itself to an irrelevant dietary supplement, Changes Trading sought to hide behind a day-trading platform.

In marketing Changes Trading, Baggett represented Changes Trading’s “system”

never had a losing month (and) generated 300% annual returns.

These claims were purportedly backed by ‘documented and verifiable results … showing returns of between 11% and 68% each month from January through December 2014‘.

Despite this, it wasn’t long before Changes Trading affiliates began reporting payout delays.

A few weeks later Baggett sold the company to Kimball Parker and his company, Make Your Future.

This was presented as a sell off, with Baggett claiming he’d

no longer be involved in the leadership or ownership of CTS, nor have a position of leadership or ownership in Make Your Future.

Just one month earlier however it was revealed Baggett had purchased Make Your Future.

As of August 2016, Make Your Future was still selling access to the trading platform.

Not surprisingly, Baggett and Parker’s representations that they were “professional and profitable traders” who “make money on a consistent basis” was baloney.

Through a lawsuit filed by the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission on September 21st, we can now reveal what actually happened. [Continue reading…]

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

The InnovAds website domain (“innovads.com”) was registered on June 22nd 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…]

There is no information on the BTC Fund Network website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The BTC Fund Network website domain (“btcfundnetwork.com”) was registered on the 20th of September 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…]

Would it be too much to expect a self-proclaimed multi-billion dollar company to hire coders to put together a custom app platform?

When it comes to OneCoin, apparently so. [Continue reading…]

myEcon dub themselves the “personal financial success company” and are based out of Atlanta in the US.

Founded in 2005, myEcon is headed up by CEO Larry Gates.

As per Gates’ myEcon corporate bio, he has

20 years of experience in communications, marketing and business operations.

Mr. Gates also has great people skills having spent several years in the financial services industry.

Further research reveals a 2009 blog post by Michael J Smith names Ivey Stokes and Alvin Curry as the original founders of myEcon.

Alvin Curry cites himself as Owner and President of myEcon on his LinkedIn profile. Ivey Stokes cites himself as Executive Vice-President.

Curiously, neither Curry or Stokes are credited by name on the myEcon website.

myEcon, Inc. is a privately held, debt free company based in Gwinnett County, GA, a suburb of Atlanta. The company was founded by a small group of entrepreneurs in 2005.

One possible reason is prior to launching myEcon, Ivey Stokes and Alvin Curry were respectively Chairman and CEO of Maxxis Group.

Maxxis Group, an MLM company launched in 1998, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2003.

In 2006, Curry and Stokes were listed as defendants in litigation brought by the appointed Chapter 7 trustee in Maxxis bankruptcy hearings.

Apparently, based on the court document, the trustee sued Stokes, Curry and others for breaching their fiduciary duty, for corporate waste and deepening the insolvency of Maxxis.

In other words, they didn’t act in the best interests of the company.

Larry Gates was a member of Maxxis Group’s Board of Directors and owned shares in the company.

On October 1st 2016 myEcon and Novae merged together.

As per a press-release issued on September 30th;

myEcon and Novae’s executive teams will begin efforts to blend corporate leadership.

Over the next several months, the companies will continue to take steps to integrate systems, marketing, organizations, and culture to create a huge conglomerate that will change the lives of millions across the country.

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

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

The Phoenix Trade website domain (“phoenixtrade.asia”) was registered on the 22nd of July 2016. Xie Chzhang is listed as the owner, with an address in Bejing, China also provided.

Possibly due to language barriers, I was unable to find anything further on Xie Chzhang.

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

Back in 2009 Juan Ramon Torres and Eugene Robison filed

a civil action under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), alleging that Stream Energy, through its multi-level marketing program, Ignite operated a fraudulent pyramid scheme.

Rather than making meaningful profits through its sales, the Plaintiffs contend that Stream is set up like a classic pyramid scheme to make almost all of its money through the recruitment of salespeople.

When I reviewed Stream about a year ago, I found it extremely odd that affiliates were charged $375 when they signed up.

This fee appeared to be funding the compensation plan.

Over time, Stream’s market has become saturated, and the Plaintiffs
claim that they have lost money as a result of their participation in the IA program.

The Plaintiffs allege that over 86% of individuals who signed up as IAs lost money in fees, collectively losing over $87 million.

In contrast, a miniscule number of individuals have made significant sums of money.

The lawsuit has been progressing slowly over the years. In October of 2015 an attempt to certify class-representation was granted.

Stream appealed the decision in Texas’ Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, who on September 30th upheld the District Court’s decision. [Continue reading…]