One of the primary hurdles in establishing a claims process for TelexFree victims, was obtaining legal certification that TelexFree was a Ponzi scheme.

To that end the TelexFree Trustee filed a motion in October. In it, Stephan Darr requested a Judge rule on whether or not TelexFree operated a Ponzi scheme. This in turn would render them liable to pay out claims, for which the Trustee had attached a proposed “net equity” process.

On November 25th Judge Hoffman ruled on the matter, declaring TelexFree to be a Ponzi scheme. [Continue reading…]

As it stands, OneCoin affiliates are waiting upwards of four weeks for withdrawals to be processed.

Support are purportedly not responsive and messages regarding withdrawals are routinely deleted from OneCoin’s Facebook page.

Now, in yet another move that distances OneCoin from legitimate cryptocurrencies, OneCoin are demanding identification documents before withdrawals are processed. [Continue reading…]

2SL Start Living operate in the travel MLM niche, with the company claiming on its website to be

headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas (and) incorporated both in the United States and Colombia.

James Ward is credited as the CEO and co-founder of 2SL Start Living, with H. Smári Gröndal and Gudmundur S. Jonsson also credited as co-founders of the company.

James Ward (right) first popped up on BehindMLM’s radar in 2010, as the CEO of LGN Prosperity.

LGN Prosperity marketed travel vouchers, with each voucher generating a position in a matrix 2×2 cycler.

Vouchers could be purchased by affiliates or retail customers, with affiliates paid $600 when all six positions of the matrix they were in were filled.

Following months of affiliates not getting paid, in mid 2011 LGN Prosperity morphed into LGN International.

This name-change brought on the addition of commissions paid on travel services booked through LGN.

LGN International eventually collapsed in mid to late 2013, with Ward heading up iBizWave as CEO and co-founder in early 2014.

During the launch of iBizWave, Ward declared:

iBizWave will greatly surpass what was accomplished with LGN, and change tens of thousands of lives along the way.

iBizWave combined a matrix binary hybrid compensation plan, with an online “marketing software platform”.

iBizWave’s platform appeared to be mostly powered by WordPress, which left a question mark over the retail viability of their $50 to $750 packages.

Ward himself referred to affiliates buying into iBizWave as a “$675 investment”.

The iBizWave website is still online today (rebranded to “MyBiz Toolbox” at some point), however Alexa traffic estimates suggest the opportunity has long since collapsed.

A year and a half later after iBizWave’s launch sees Ward return to the travel niche with 2SL Start Living.

The question: Is retail actually viable in 2SL Start Living, or is this yet another recruitment-driven matrix opportunity?

Read on for a full review of the 2SL Start Living MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Instant Pay Christmas website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Instant Pay Christmas website domain (“instantpaychristmas.com”) was registered on the 7th of November 2015, with Optimus Dale listed as the domain owner.

Optimus Dale is a pseudonym of Sherm Mason, with Instant Pay Christmas marking Mason’s fourth MLM launch this year alone.

Mason first popped up on BehindMLM’s radar as the admin of Magnetic Builder, a $29.95 recruitment scheme.

Since February 2015, Mason has launched:

• Paradise Payments (February 2015) – a $2 to $1000 cash gifting scheme
• Magnetic Gratitude (April 2015) – a $580 matrix-based Ponzi scheme
• Summer Fun Matrix (July 2015) – a $22 three-tier Ponzi scheme and
• 3×9 Millionaire Machine (September 2015) – a $3 in, $435 million dollars out Ponzi scheme

As at the time of publication, Alexa traffic estimates suggest Paradise Payments, Magnetic Gratitude and Summer Fun Matrix have all but collapsed.

3×9 Millionaire Machine still appears to be chugging along, with Nigeria being the scheme’s number one source of website traffic.

An overall decline however has likely prompted Mason to launch a new scheme, which brings us to Instant Pay Christmas.

Read on for a full review of the Instant Pay Christmas MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

The Saivian website domain (“saivian.net”) was registered on the 30th of October 2015, however the domain registration is set to private.

Identified as President of Saivian on its website is John Sheehan.

As per Sheehan’s Saivian corporate bio:

Mr. Sheehan achieved success in complex organizations such as, network marketing, retail and non-profits.

John has worked and sold products to mlm companies, owned wireless stores in 6 states and have set records in membership and donations for non-profits.

Despite these claims, I was unable to find any specific information on Sheehan’s purported MLM history.

Of note is that his Saivian profile photo was the same used on his LinkedIn profile. A Google image search still ties the image to Sheehan’s LinkedIn profile, however the profile itself was recently deleted.

An additional point of interest is Saivian’s Marketing Director, Steve Gewecke.

Gewecke first popped up on BehindMLM’s radar back in 2012, as a VIP Founder of US Utility Direct.

Who owned US Utility Direct was never disclosed, with the company failing to launch on its advertised June 30th, 2012 launch date.

In August 2014 Gewecke resurfaced as the President of MyNyloxin.

MyNyloxin saw affiliates pay between $300 and $1500 for affiliate membership, with commissions paid out when they recruited new affiliates.

Today the MyNyloxin website domain is unresponsive.

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

When the court-appointed Receiver submitted a fee application for $294,452, Vemma weren’t happy about it.

Back in control of their company following the Receiver’s temporary stint, Vemma argued that Robb Evans & Associates’ (REA) fees were “excessive”.

Rather than the near $300,000 REA had requested, Vemma insisted the cost of the work performed by REA ‘would be no greater than $100,000‘.

Judge Tuchi has been deliberating on a decision regarding the requested fees for some weeks now, with a decision finally handed down yesterday.

The decision itself weighs in favor of REA receiving $236,966, a reduction of $57,486.

Perhaps the most interesting excerpt from Tuchi’s decision however, is the detailing of Vemma’s financial woes prior to REA’s Receivership appointment. [Continue reading…]

A combination of a media blackout order and language-barriers have made it difficult to report on the Austrian criminal case against Lyoness and CEO Hubert Freidl.

BehindMLM first reported on the Austrian case back in 2013, which is when I first became aware of an investigation by Austria’s “White Collar Crimes and Corruption” Public Prosecutor’s Office (WKSTA).

That investigation began in 2012, with legal action commencing around January of this year.

According to news reports out of Austria, a decision has been made in the WKSTA case:

The Criminal Court of Vienna has dropped its case against Lyoness on this point. For the judges Lyoness is not a pyramid scheme.

As it stands, Lyoness and Freidl have been given the all-clear. [Continue reading…]

The current state of Vemma’s financial affairs is unknown. However if a recent filing by owner BK Boreyko is anything to go by, things might be looking tight.

AZPACK Properties, LLC is an entity in Arizona which owns real estate. Arizona state records list a filing date for AZPACK Properties in 2013, with four manager/member individuals having a stake in the company.

Boreyko is one of the individuals listed, with a filing on November 24th revealing he has a 25% stake in the company.

AZPack Properties LLC as an entity have agreed to purchase Boreyko’s stake for an agreed sale price of $500,000.

The problem?

Whether or not the sale of Boreyko’s stake in AZPACK Properties violates the current Vemma preliminary injunction is unclear. [Continue reading…]

AdvoCare, founded by Charles Ragus in 1993, are based out of the US state of Texas.

Before AdvoCare, Ragus worked as a regional vice president for Fidelity Union Insurance, and as a multi-level marketing distributor for Herbalife.

Today AdvoCare is headed up by CEO Brian Connolly.

Brian Connolly (right) cut his MLM teeth over at Avon. Having joined the company back in 1978, Connolly worked his way up to Executive Vice President of Global Sales.

Connolly’s appointment to CEO earlier this month follows the retirement of Richard Wright in September. Wright had been CEO of AdvoCare since 2007.

On the legal front, courtesy of Wikipedia’s AdvoCare entry;

In July 2008, Olympic swimmer Jessica Hardy tested positive for the banned breathing enhancer, clenbuterol.

Hardy said she had never heard of the substance, attributing the positive result to either a tainted supplement or sabotage.

At the time, Hardy had been taking the supplement Arginine Extreme, which she had received for free from AdvoCare in exchange for making product testimonials, and she claimed in a subsequent lawsuit that the company’s product was tainted.

AdvoCare sued Hardy for making false claims.

An arbitration hearing reduced Hardy’s suspension after a scientific expert testified that the AdvoCare product was tainted.

AdvoCare disputed the panel’s findings, saying that two independent laboratories had not found any evidence of Clenbuterol in the supplements.

Hardy counter-sued Advocare for supplying her with the contaminated product.

Court records show a confidential settlement was reached between the two parties in early 2012.

AdvoCare has also been involved in at least one messy lawsuit with two of their affiliates:

In 2009, a Dallas County jury awarded $1.9 million in damages against AdvoCare after finding that the company had engaged in deceptive trade practices and unfairly canceled agreements with two of its distributors.

According to the lawsuit, litigants Bruce and Teresa Badgett of Arlington, Texas, had been active and profitable marketers of AdvoCare products for more than a dozen years before their distributorship was canceled by the company in 2006 “based upon vague and trumped-up charges.”

The jury found that AdvoCare engaged in false, misleading or deceptive practices that damaged the Badgetts and that the termination provisions of the distributor contract with AdvoCare were unconscionable, according to court documents.

AdvoCare disputed the ruling and on April 30, 2010, filed to appeal the decision on the basis that the plaintiffs were not customers and therefore did not fit the statutory definition necessary to be covered under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

The appeal was dismissed on March 13, 2012 and the company was ordered to reimburse the Badgett’s for court costs related to their defense in the appeal case.

Interesting assertion that AdvoCare’s affiliates are not customers.

Of note is that despite multiple civil lawsuits, on the regulatory front AdvoCare appear to be in the all clear.

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

You dump money into a scheme and in exchange receive a passive ROI?

That’s a security and, if your scheme is not registered with the appropriate regulators, soliciting such investment constitutes an unregistered securities offering.

The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets are responsible for

supervising the operation of the financial markets since 1 March 2002.

This means that AFM supervises the conduct of the entire financial market sector: savings, investment, insurance and loans.

On the 2nd of November, 2015, the AMF began fining 5 Star Signals. [Continue reading…]