Following another day of grilling Nicolas Giannos, the Samoan uFun Club fraud case inches closer to a conclusion.

Next week will see final submissions from both the prosecution and defense, with Chief Justice Patu expected to make a ruling thereafter. [Continue reading…]

The MyAdvertisingPays website domain was registered in June 2013, with the scheme launching a few months later.

As we approach the end of 2015, that brings us to the typical two-year lifecycle of online Ponzi schemes, after which time liabilities racked up truly spiral out of control.

Typically what we see with such schemes at this point is either a collapse, regulatory shutdown (following an investigation having been carried out for months) or a compensation plan change.

No doubt in an attempt to stave off a collapse, and possibly aware regulators are closing in on them in the US, October 13th saw MyAdvertisingPays announced “The Most Important Update Ever Released!”. [Continue reading…]

Is there a better way to defend yourself in court by explaining exactly how you fleeced investors out of $126,000?

Probably. But for Nicholas Giannos, he decided to defend himself by declaring in court that funds invested with him were “his money”. [Continue reading…]

In an attempt to fend off being found in contempt of court, Sann Rodrigues recently asserted his Fifth Amendment right, along with claiming ignorance of the court-ordered asset freeze against.

Claim the SEC:

Neither of these arguments is availing.

[Continue reading…]

Building on claims by US affiliates that OneCoin is going to open up 184 banks last month, a Finnish affiliate recently announced OneCoin’s acquisition of an actual bank.

On the 13th of October the website “OneCoin-Finland”, quoting “country manager” Tommi Vuorinen, wrote:

The Company (OneCoin) has acquired its own bank, see the Hermes Bank, hermesbankonline.com.

This allows for the future of global banking services significantly the existing players in the sector at lower cost.

As per Hermes Bank’s website, they are incorporated in Saint Lucia and offer

banking solutions in accordance with internationally recognised principles and banking standards.

In an attempt to verify Vuorinen’s claim, a BehindMLM reader reached out to Hermes Bank. [Continue reading…]

5 Star Signals operate in the forex MLM niche and appear to be based out of Ireland.

As per the 5 Star Signals Terms and Conditions:

Jurisdiction and venue of any matter not subject to arbitration shall reside in The Republic of Ireland.

Heading up 5 Star Signals is CEO Mariska van de Langenberg.

As per van de Langenberg’s 5 Star Signals corporate bio, she has

over 25 years in international Corporate management and over 5 years in network marketing.

Further research reveals van de Langenberg (right) was an affiliate of Global One and Bonofa in 2013.

Global One initially launched in 2012 as Ultimate Power Profits and sought to capitalize on the Zeek Rewards penny auction Ponzi craze at the time.

Following the SEC bust of Zeek Rewards in August 2012, Global One abandoned plans to launch their penny auction Ponzi.

The company limped along as a straight recruitment opportunity for another year or so, before collapsing entirely in mid 2013.

van de Langenberg stuck with the company till she left it for Bonofa in May 2013.

Bonofa affiliates pay a fee to join and then earn commissions by recruiting other affiliates who do the same.

The company also ran an unregistered securities points scheme, which was purportedly attached to an IPO offering.

Going by their Alexa statistics, Bonofa appears to have collapsed late last year.

Van de Langenberg appears to have gotten out as Bonofa went into decline, with 5 Star Signals launching in mid 2014.

According to van de Langenberg’s Facebook profile, she is based out of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. This suggests that 5 Star Signals is registered in Ireland in name only.

Read on for a full review of the 5 Star Signals MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

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

The BZ Traffic website domain (“bztraffic.com”) was registered on the 22nd of August 2015, however the domain registration is set to private.

Alexa statistics estimate that some 83.2% of traffic to the BZ Traffic website originates out of Russia, strongly suggesting this is where the company is being run from.

Of note is that the BZ Traffic website is hosted on a private server, which previously was used to host Ads4Bux.

Ads4Bux was an ad-credit Ponzi scheme which launched in 2012. It has since collapsed with the current Ads4Bux website displaying a diagnostic script error message.

With Ads4Bux abandoned, it looks like whoever runs the site has now moved onto BZ Traffic.

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 LikesXL website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The LikesXL website domain (“likesxl.com”) was registered on the 24th of August 2015, with “Kolar Peter” (Peter Kolar?) listed as the owner. An address in Mauren, Liechtenstein (a known tax-haven) is also provided.

LikesXL itself would appear to be based out of Austria, with the default language on the LikesXL site set to German, the LikesXL website hosted with an Austrian company and Austria the country featured in example material explaining how affiliates sign up.

Possibly due to language-barriers, I was unable to find any further information on Peter Kolar.

Of note is that LikesXL is being promoted with dubious marketing pitches that mention a “well-known credit card company”:

A couple of board members of a Major CC company (some of them I have met personally) have been in contact with Mike Deese (MyAdvertisingPays) and other advertising platform owners for over a year, and they have learned a LOT…

This Major CC that we all know has now pre-launched their own Advertising Platform / Revenue Share last Saturday, starting from The Netherlands.

I was there and was amazed by what they have created. As you know, I have years of experience in this area.

This Major Company has partnered up with giants like Mercedes, Volvo, Disney Worldwide, Universal Studios, Sony, Gucci, Prada, MacDonalds, Versace, Porsche, Audi, etc etc., to name just a few.

These companies are paying millions in advertising each year and they will pay many millions to this new platform for people to simply view their ads and their offers.

It has been thoroughly tested in Norway for over 3 months with 8000 people. Launch will be on 19th of October.

MyAdvertisingPays is an ad-credit Ponzi scheme launched in late 2013, with it fast approaching the typical two-year Ponzi lifespan.

It should go without saying that reputable credit card companies aren’t in the habit of launching Ponzi schemes, so take pitches like the above with a dumptruck full of salt.

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 Bet Traders website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Bet Traders website domain (“bettraders.win”) was registered on the 13th of September 2015, however the domain registration is set to private.

Further research reveals the Bet Traders website hosts the logo of BidCash (right).

BidCash launched in late 2014 and under the guise of running a separate penny auction site, offered affiliates participation in a chain-recruitment scheme.

BidCash affiliates paid $90 to $11,350 for membership, with how much paid dictating how much of a residual commission they earned on recruitment.

The last post on the BidCash official Facebook page was July 2015, suggesting the scheme has since collapsed.

There is no information on the BidCash website indicating who owns or runs the business, but the BidCash domain is registered to “Juan Marcillio”.

Possibly due to language barriers I was unable to find any further information on Marcillio.

Either way, it would appear Marcillio is also behind Bet Traders.

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

iSexy Party Network operate in the eCommerce MLM niche and are based out of Georgia in the US.

Heading up iSexy Party Network is Founder and CEO, Blaine Klingaman.

One thing I noticed was a copyright message on the footer of the iSexy Party Network website, claiming that “iSexy Party Network, LLC” has been around since 1995.

The iSexy Party Network website domain was only registered in 2014, suggesting that the current iteration definitely hasn’t been around for 20 years.

Furthermore I looked up iSexy Party Network LLC on the Georgia Corporations Division website, only to discover the business was registered in April, 2015.

Klingaman has been promoting various “iSexy” branded opportunities on his Facebook profile since 2012, but they don’t appear to be similar to iSexy Party Network’s e-commerce offering.

Not sure what the story is there with that copyright notice, but it’s pretty misleading to claim you’ve been around 20 years when you haven’t.

On the MLM history side of things, Klingaman has been affiliate with GBG, NuSkin and Vemma.

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