Coinye is a cryptocurrency that launched in 2014. It was abandoned shortly after launch, following a trademark infringement lawsuit filed by Kanye West.

On January 6, 2014, Kanye West’s lawyers sent the development team a cease and desist order on the basis that the then-unreleased currency constituted trademark infringement, unfair competition, cyberpiracy and dilution.

In response to the legal threats, the development team changed the name of the currency from “Coinye West” to “Coinye” and moved to a new domain name.

By January 10, 2014, the development team stated that they had removed all references to West but instead “to a half-man-half-fish hybrid,” a nod to a South Park episode in which West fails to realize why people are jokingly calling him a “gay fish.”

These actions were not sufficient to appease West’s legal team and a lawsuit was filed against the creators of the coin, prompting them to sell their Coinye holdings and leave the project. (Wikipedia)

Coinye as a cryptocurrency has since stagnated. Development of the coin is dead but it’s still tradeable.

Now, through the website “coinyecoins.com”, someone is trying to attach an MLM opportunity to Coinye.

The Coinye Coins website appears to be modeled on existing marketing literature for Coinye. The website lists Robin Clayton as CEO of the company, alongside of a photo of deceased actor Robin Williams.

Similarly the photo provided for COO Clive Bruce, is actually that of Bruce Berkowitz, an equity fund manager and registered investment adviser.

Needless to say it’s highly likely that neither Robin Clayton or Clive Bruce, as represented on the Coinye Coins website, actually exist.

The CoinyeCoins website domain meanwhile was registered on the 25th of December, 2015. The registration appears to be bogus, listing “COINYEYE” of “COINYECOINS” as the owner. An incomplete address in Thailand is also provided.

This conflicts with the Coinye Coins website and compensation plan material, which provide an address for “Coinye Digitial Inc.” in Malta.

Further research reveals Coinye Coins Malta address actually belongs to Fairwinds Management Limited.

Fairwinds Management provides cost-effective and efficient company incorporation services in Malta.

The minimum share capital required to set up a company in Malta is €1,165. The share capital does not need to be paid in full, however a minimum of 20% needs to be paid up.

This suggests Coinye Coins exists in Malta in name only.

A source of further confusion is the Coinye Coins “User Agreement”, which starts off with “Welcome, and thanks for using coinye.co”.

Coinye.co appears to be the source for most of the information on the Coinye Coins website.

The Coinye.co domain was registered on November 21st, 2015. Anil Shah of Alibag Webhosting is listed as the owner, with an address in Maharashtra, India also provided.

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…]

Back in March OneCoin lost their Mastercard merchant issuer.

Turns out being part of a million dollar drug gang is bad for business.

Mastercard have since denounced OneCoin, effectively announcing they want nothing to do with the company.

Given Mastercard are watching for links between merchants and OneCoin’s many shell companies, we’re probably not going to see a OneCoin branded Mastercard anytime soon.

Through their many shell companies, OneCoin had to seek out alternative processing channels. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the THW Global website indicating who owns or runs THW Global.

The THW Global website domain (“thwglobal.com”) was registered privately on the 29th of May, 2016.

Alexa currently estimate that 45.6% of all traffic to the THW Global website originates out of Russia. The Ukraine is the second largest source of traffic, coming at 10.3%.

This suggests whoever is running THW Global could be based out of Russia.

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…]

Just under a year ago, Daniel Filho was arrested in Florida.

Since then Filho has been in protective custody, with a criminal case slowly progressing to trial in the background.

A Joint Final Status Report was filed on June 13th, with a Final Status Conference scheduled for June 29th. [Continue reading…]

Paul Burks’ criminal trial is now less than a week away.

Last week the DOJ filed a lengthy trial brief, going over their gameplan for the trial.

As per judicial procedure in the lead up to a criminal trial, Paul Burks has filed his trial brief too. [Continue reading…]

The latest reincarnation of the failed BBOM Ponzi scheme saw them want a piece of the burgeoning MLM cryptocurrency niche.

Previously BBOM combined Ponzi ROIs with fictitious GPS tracker rentals. When the collapsed the scheme rebooted as InterBBOM, replacing GPS trackers with mobile apps.

That didn’t go anywhere and so the third attempt at BBOM began a few months ago… [Continue reading…]

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

On the Nova Coinage website “about us” page, the company claims

Nova Coinage Venture LLC. is a well recognized open joint stock company which was established in 2015.

The foundations of company were laid in USA, afterwards at the starting of 2016 the board of directors and management decided to reorganize and transform it into a Limited Liability Company with the merger of Stock Market and Crypto-Currency.

Nova Coinage Venture LLC. is based on a team of highly trained and skilled professionals having profound knowledge and market experience of years and years.

No proof of any of the above claims is provided on the Nova Coinage website.

A residential address in the US state of Michigan is provided as a contact address for Nova Coinage on their website.

A Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Filing Endorsement for Nova Coinage Venture LLC is provided on the Nova Coinage website.

This corporate registration does exist, however a PO Box address in Michigan was used to register Nova Coinage Venture LLC.

The Nova Coinage website domain meanwhile was registered privately on the 27th of January, 2016.

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 ProfiAds website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The ProfiAds website domain (“profiads.com”) was registered on the 13th of April 2016, however the domain registration is set to private.

The ProfiAds website default language is German, with German also featured on the company’s social media profiles.

This strongly suggests that the owner of ProfiAds is German, or at the very least speaks German.

Another possibility is the ProfiAds admin is Russian, with Alexa currently estimating that 60.5% of all traffic to the ProfiAds website originates out of Russia. The ProfiAds website is also hosted in Russia.

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 Tuned Hosting website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Tuned Hosting website domain (“tunedhosting.com”) was registered on the 20th of April 2015, with Rick Weston listed as the owner. An address in the US state of Oregon is also provided.

In 2013 Rick Weston (right) appeared on BehindMLM via comments on our My Fun Life review (comment #3 onwards).

My Fun Life, a recruitment-driven travel opportunity, was in decline for most of 2015. In March, 2016, CEO Dan Edwards announced the My Fun Life affiliate database had been sold to WorldVentures.

Prior to My Fun Life, Weston was an affiliate with North American Power.

North American Power was a recruitment-orientated utility MLM. The company terminated its MLM operations in 2015.

Weston also owns WP-MLM, a WordPress plugin that promises to ‘change how you MLM recruit online forever‘.

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

Volishon is an MLM travel opportunity that officially launched earlier this year.

The company is headed up by CEO Joel Santiago and based out of Georgia in the US.

As is common with MLM travel opportunities, the core focus of Volishon is affiliate recruitment. Six or so months in, today we take a look at where Volishon is at. [Continue reading…]