After publishing over one-hundred and fifty articles covering Zeek Rewards intimately over just under five years, it feels odd not to have first-hand information to report on.

Unfortunately I don’t have direct access to the North Carolina courtroom Paul Burks’ trial is taking place in, so over the next few weeks we’ll be relying heavily on local news coverage.

The second day of Burks’ trial saw a seated jury hear opening statements from both the DOJ and Paul Burks’ attorneys.

Four witnesses for the prosecution were heard from and a new attorney joined Paul Burks’ defense team.
[Continue reading…]

In an effort to shirk responsibility for paying back over $13 million dollars transferred through it by Payza, PaymentWorld USA has asserted it has no control or anything to do with PaymentWorld Limited (a Hong Kong company) or PaymentWorld LTD SRL (a Moldovan company).

In the long-running saga, The Zeek Rewards Receiver has sued PaymentWorld as single entity, claiming CEO Roman Balanko ‘and PaymentWorld US had access to and control over the information and funds at issue‘.

In response to the contempt proceedings, filed by PaymentWorld USA and supported by three declarations by CEO Roman Balanko, the company claims

the Receiver completely ignores the fact that Mr. Balanko controlled only PW-USA, and PW-USA did not have a contractual relationship of any kind with Victoriabank.

The receiver assumes that because PW-USA operated the payment gateway through which the merchant transactions were processed, that it must necessarily have also controlled the flow of those funds in and out of Victoriabank.

Nothing could be further from the truth, and to agree with such an assertion is to completely ignore the operational and corporate distinctions between PW-USA, PW-HK (Hong Kong) and PW-SRL (Moldova), as well as the entirely different functions that various entities in the credit card processing industry perform.

The distinction between PW-USA, PW-HK and PW-SRL is the primary basis for PW-USA’s claim its role ‘in the processing arrangement by which Payza’s funds were transferred was specific and limited, and PW-USA was never in control over the actual transfer of funds in or out of any bank’.

Strangely enough, a document provided to BehindMLM directly contradicts PaymentWorld USA’s claims and suggests otherwise. [Continue reading…]

I was kind of half-expecting Burks to come up with an eleventh-hour reason to delay his trial again, but I was still surprised when he actually followed through.

On July 4th, the day before Burks’ criminal trial was to commence, his attorney filed a Motion to Continue Docket Call/Trial. [Continue reading…]

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

The Ads Division website domain (“adsdivision.com”) was registered on the 25th of April 2016, however the domain registration is set to private.

The official Ads Division Facebook group has one admin, Jeff Martinez.

On his Facebook profile Martinez (right) claims to be based out of the Marshall Islands, a known tax-haven.

Martinez’s Facebook profile is a little suspicious, having only been created in mid June.

Other than a YouTube video appearing on the Ads Division website that confirms Martinez is an actual person, no other information on him appears to be available.

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

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

The Bit Reen website domain (“bitreen.org”) was registered on the 17th of May 2016, however the domain registration is set to private.

Of note is the Bit Reen compensation PDF is titled “diapositivia 1”, which is Spanish for “Slideshow 1”.

The official Bit Reen Facebook page also contains an admin referral link bearing the name “Albert”.

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 Mavigold Charities International website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Mavigold Charities website domain (“mavigoldcharities.org”) was registered on the 27th of May 2016. Web design company Maxtra Technologies, based out of Uttar Pradesh in India, are listed as the owner of the domain.

At the time of publication, Alexa estimate that 100% of the traffic to the Mavigold Charities International website originates out of Nigeria.

Whether the anonymous owners of the company are based out of India or Nigeria however is unclear.

Hidden code on the Mavigold Charities International website suggests it is being run out of Lagos, Nigeria:

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 C4 Classified Ads website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The C4 Classified Ads website domain (“c4classifiedads.com”) was registered on the 9th of June 2015. David Coxon is listed as the owner of the domain, with a residential address in Lincolnshire, UK also provided.

David Coxon first popped up on BehindMLM’s radar back in 2012, as the Technical Director of The Advertising Net.

The Advertising Net was a $55 ten-tier matrix cycler Ponzi scheme. Sometime between 2012 and 2015 The Advertising Net collapsed, with a reboot launched in May, 2015.

The Advertising Net v2.0 was pretty much the same business model but with a smaller matrix cycler.

A visit to The Advertising Net website today reveals it was renamed “TAN Marketing”. Alexa statistics for The Advertising Net website suggest the scheme has once again collapsed.

A month or so prior to The Advertising Net’s relaunch, Coxon also launched Cfur Advertising.

Like The Advertising Net, Cfur Advertising was also a matrix cycler. It was designed to support The Advertising Net, with cycles generated through the scheme feeding directly into new The Advertising Net matrix positions.

The Cfur Advertising website is non-responsive, suggesting it too has long-since collapsed.

Read on for a full review of the C4 Classified Ads MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Virtual County Fair website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Virtual County Fair website domain (“virtualcountyfair.com”) was registered on the 10th of May 2016, however the domain registration is set to private.

The official Virtual County Fair Facebook group lists six admins;  LaCrisha Wallace, Robin Claspill, Trisha Rios, Noel Ennis, Latrina Johnson and Ray Woodard.

Ray Woodard appears to be the admin of Virtual County Fair.

On June 1st, Woodard posted a link to a Virtual County Fair YouTube video, with the caption: “SNEAK PEEK at what I’ve been working on”.

Virtual County Fair launched two weeks later on June 14th.

Ray Woodard (right) first appeared on BehindMLM’s radar as the admin of Money Go Round back in April, 2015.

Money Go Round was a matrix cycler, modeled on Achieve Community. Achieve Community was shut down by the SEC in February, 2015 for being a $3.8 million dollar Ponzi scheme.

When Money Go Round collapsed is unclear but today the Money Go Round website is non-responsive.

Recent scams promoted on Ray Woodard’s Facebook profile include Phoenix Power Rising (Ponzi cycler), FutureNet (Ponzi cycler) and 1×2 Marketing Suite (Ingreso Cybernetico matrix scheme feeder).

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

Back in March Darryle Douglas was arrested for failing to comply with a September 2015 court order.

The September 2015 order in question saw Douglas required to

• return any copies of the Zeek Rewards database he has in his possession
• appear for a deposition by the Receiver and
• produce all financial records from November 1, 2011 to the present for his personal and business-related accounts (prior to being deposed)

In April the Zeek Rewards Receiver indicated that Douglas had been or was about to be released, meaning he’d complied with the order above.

In a recently filed motion for summary judgement against Zeek’s top net-winners, Douglas’ deposition is confirmed to have taken place recently (the deposition document states the deposition took place on August 30th, 2016, which is obviously a typo).

While we only have excerpts of the full deposition (the complete transcript is over 100 pages long), what the Receiver has included in his motion is still pretty eye-opening. [Continue reading…]

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

The DreamHouse International website domain (“dreamhouseinternational.com”) was registered on the 29th of October 2015, however the domain registration is set to private.

The default language for the DreamHouse International is Spanish, suggesting whoever owns the company might be based out of a Spanish-speaking country.

That said Alexa currently estimate that some 98.6% of all traffic to the DreamHouse International website originates out of South Korea, so that’s a possibility too.

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…]