Back in June BehindMLM reported that OneCoin was under police investigation in Finland.

The investigation, headed up by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), sought to establish whether or not OneCoin was operating in Finland as a pyramid scheme.

After months of quiet it was announced last week that the results of the NBI investigation were to be made public this Wednesday.

The report has since been published sometime in the last few hours, with the NBI not taking further action against OneCoin at this time. [Continue reading…]

Following an SEC filing in July alleging DFRF Enterprises to be a $20+ million dollar Ponzi scheme, the company has filed a response.

Founder and CEO Daniel Filho, who is also named in the SEC complaint, has asked for an extension to file his own reply.

DFRF Enterprises’ response to the SEC complaint is brief, with the company formally denying all ninety-four paragraphs in the complaint. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Net Paid System review website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Net Paid System website domain (“netpaidsystem.com”) was registered on the 31st of August 2015, 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…]

With his partner Kristi Johnson pleading guilty to wire fraud conspiracy back in June and the SEC’s case against Achieve Community continuing, we’ve been wondering what of Troy Barnes?

At risk of being found in contempt of court, in late June Barnes had to explain his non-participation in SEC proceedings.

Barnes plead ignorance and uses his son’s illness to explain his absence, at the same time pledging to ‘do everything (he) can to move forward in helping this case.‘

A month later the SEC filed an update, informing the court that Barnes was still not participating.

Things have been eerily silent on the criminal front meanwhile, leaving us to wonder why proceedings had commenced against Johnson but not Barnes.

Now we have an answer. [Continue reading…]

doTerra was operate in the essential oils MLM niche and was launched back in 2008.

The company operates out of Utah in the US and is headed up by CEO and President, David Stirling.

Stirling and other founding executives of doTerra came over from Young Living, a rival essential oils MLM opportunity. Stirling himself was Young Living’s Chief Operating Officer at the time of his departure.

Stirling (right) however maintains that he didn’t intend to go on to launch a rival essential oils MLM opportunity:

I did not leave YL to start a competing essential oil company. In fact, the thought had never occurred to me.

My entire heart and soul were with YL and its distributors, and I had no other desire than for the success of the company and those distributors who were working so hard to help make that success happen.

Two months before I was fired, I went down to Ecuador to meet with the owners for a few days.

Certain views and ideology were shared with me, with the desire they be integrated as a part of the company’s mission, going forward.

Some of these were contrary to what I felt I could support or even be associated with, to which I expressed my concerns. I knew as I left that my time with YL would be short, and it was.

Not long after my departure from YL, a few former YL associates, including myself, Dr. David Hill, Emily Wright and Greg Cook, came together and discussed the need the world has for a better way of sharing essential oil healing.

I will only say that we all felt strongly that it was the right thing to do, and were compelled to move forward.

While we had many YL distributor friends who likely would have joined dōTERRA in our early days, we were very careful to not approach them.

Nor were we then, or are we now, in possession of any distributor lists. That would be illegal.

I am proud to say that almost all of our leaders who built dōTERRA in the first two years were new to essential oils, and did what they did because they discovered the power of the oils and that they work in an almost miraculous manner.

dōTERRA’s mission is not to compete with or try to destroy other essential oil companies. Our vision is to become a very large multinational company, partnering with hospitals and research universities all over the world.

Nonetheless, with both doTerra and Young Living operating in the essential oils niche, and Stirling joined by several other Young Living executives, employees and distributors in the launching of doTerra, a lawsuit was likely inevitable.

Young Living filed suit in mid 2013, accusing doTerra of

stealing Young Living’s trade secrets, violating their duties to Young Living and improperly recruiting Young Living’s employees and distributors to leave Young Living.

The case was dismissed in October 2014;

Fourth District Court Judge Christine Johnson has dismissed all of the claims made by Young Living Essential Oils LC of Lehi against competitor doTERRA Inc. of Orem.

“It’s unfortunate that so much time, energy, and money on both sides have been spent on something that never should have been taking up time in our courts,” doTERRA President and CEO David Stirling said in a statement.

Arthur Berger, attorney for Young Living, said the judge ruled that the company waited too long to sue and not on the allegations of wrongdoing by doTERRA founders who remain as defendants.

Johnson also ruled that Young Living had failed to show that it had suffered anything other than negligible damages from the solicitation of distributors who did not end up joining doTERRA.

Young Living provided only “pure conjecture” on possible damages, and its own expert had admitted it may be impossible to identity them, the judge wrote in a 47-page ruling.

“Given the extraordinary effort (in both time and money) which has been invested into these proceedings thus far, the notion that this particular claim should proceed forward so that Young Living can request one dollar in damages is troubling,” Johnson wrote.

But the judge also said it was undisputed that some of those who went over to doTERRA had retained Young Living property, including computers and documents that the company says contained confidential information.

An investigation by an outside law firm also revealed that some Young Living distributors had been contacted by doTERRA officials using information only available from its rival, Johnson wrote.

“Other claims are still moving forward, including breach of contract claims against certain founders of doTERRA that they improperly solicited Young Living’s distributors and used Young Living’s confidential information in violation of their contractual agreements,” Berger said in an email.

I wasn’t able to find an update on the status of those claims, so I assume what’s left of the case is ongoing.

A month prior to Young Living’s lawsuit being mostly dismissed, doTerra received a warning letter from the FDA.

Based on our review, FDA has determined that several of your dōTERRA Essential Oil products including, but not limited to, “Melaleuca,” “Oregano,” “On Guard,” “Clove,” “Eucalyptus,” “Frankincense,” “Geranium,” “Lavender,” “Lemongrass,” “Myrrh,” “Peppermint,” “Rosemary,” “Wintergreen,” “Clary Sage,” and “Vetiver” are promoted for conditions that cause them to be drugs under section 201(g)(1)(B) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) [21 U.S.C. § 321(g)(1)(B)].

Conditions listed in doTerra advertising included ebola, cancer, asthma, bronchitis, Alzheimer’s Disease, diabetes and arthritis among others.

In response to the FDA’s letter, McKay Brown, senior director of corporate marketing for doTERRA, told the Herald Extra:

Because doTERRA’s products are natural products and are not registered with the FDA as drugs, we are restricted on the health claims that can be made for marketing purposes.

We recognize essential oils have profound health benefits, but do not claim our products cure or treat diseases including the Ebola virus or any other disease.

We are pleased to share that in our normal course of compliance auditing practices, we were already working to correct distributors marketing materials referenced in the FDA letter.

Since receiving the letter, we have contacted all the distributors who own the sites in question. They have all corrected or are working to correct their marketing materials to ensure they are compliant with FDA and company regulations.

To date there has been no further action taken by the FDA.

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

Last week I started to notice chatter about a new Empower Network compensation plan, scheduled to go live on November 1st.

Details have slowly been trickling in, with there now being enough information out there to put together a review of Empower’s “UniLine” plan.

Does it encourage retail? Is the pass-up plan really gone? Will your kung fu skills improve if you sign up???

Read on for a full review of Empower Network’s new UniLine compensation plan. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the No Clicking Shares website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The No Clicking Shares website domain (“noclickingshares.com”) was registered on the 9th of October 2015, 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 BitCoin Extreme website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The company does have an “about us” page on their website, but only the following vague marketing spiel is provided:

Bitcoin Extreme is a privately owned company operating on the Bitcoin exchange or trade market.

Founded in 2015 and managed over $1.5 million institutional investments which is now open to individual investors worldwide.

The BitCoin Extreme website domain (“btcxtreme.com”) was registered on the 8th of October 2015, however the domain registration is set to private.

There is mention of a “Philippines Payment Gateway” on the BitCoin Extreme website, and the official BitCoin Extreme Facebook page posts are written in Filipino.

This strongly suggests that whoever is running BitCoin Extreme is doing so out of the Philippines.

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…]

A year ago World Ventures lost their Norway appeal, which saw the ruling that World Ventures is a pyramid scheme upheld.

Six months later Steinar Husby, WorldVentures’ “official spokesperson” in Norway, told local media that the company was going to sue Norwegian authorities.

That was June 2015 but to date no legal action on behalf of World Ventures has surfaced.

Today if you try to visit the WorldVentures backoffice of a Norwegian affiliate, the following message is displayed:

At the present time, WorldVentures has temporarily ceased business operations in Norway.

Regrettably, this means that WorldVentures will not accept the enrollment of new Representatives or DreamTrips members in Norway.

If you are an existing Representative in Norway, please cease any activity promoting the WorldVentures business and products in all markets at this time.

Despite this ban being in place since December 2014, apparently it doesn’t apply to Steinar Husby. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Double Triangle Matrix website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Double Triangle Matrix website domain (“doubletrianglematrix.org”) was registered on the 29th of April 2015, with “Vladimir Stojanovic” of “Global Profit system LTD” listed as the owner.

An address in London, UK is also provided, however further research reveals this belongs to a mail forwarding service.

As such it appears Double Triangle Matrix has no physical presence in the UK.

The default country for new signups for Double Triangle Matrix is Croatia.

The default language for the Double Triangle Matrix website is Croatian, as are all the posts made to the official Double Triangle Matrix Facebook page.

This strongly suggests that Stojanovic is likely operating Double Triangle Matrix out of Croatia itself, or failing that somewhere in Europe.

Possibly due to language-barriers, I was unable to put together Stojanovic’s MLM history.

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…]