With Dawn Wright-Olivares and who else looking set to testify against Paul Burks, we were looking forward to his scheduled May 2016 trial.

Burks, mastermind of the $850 million dollar Ponzi scheme Zeek Rewards, is facing multiple 20 and 5 year prison terms and potentially millions of dollars in fines.

Wright-Olivares was second in command for most of Zeek’s lifespan.

Whereas review of discovery is usually the reason for delays in MLM Ponzi cases, this one is a little different with scheduled discovery completed.

Rather it’s a Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference that’s behind the delay. [Continue reading…]

Typically when we see regulators go after attorneys in Ponzi busts, it’s usually a civil fine and the usual “we don’t admit or deny anything” rubbish.

Not so in the Genesis Acquisitions Ponzi bust, with the United States’ Attorney’s Office filing criminal charges against attorney Steven Scudder.

Scudder has been federally charged with aiding or abetting in wire fraud related to alleged Ponzi scheme leader William Apostelos.

Scudder was charged by bill information, according to documents filed in Dayton’s U.S. District Court. No court dates have been announced for a possible plea deal.

[Continue reading…]

H9 Water was founded in 2013 and are based out of Texas in the US.

Management wise details are sketchy. The H9 Water website advises that “Earth Products Inc.” are ‘the company behind H9‘.

Keith Hall and Steven Morse are listed as co-founders, however Keith Hall’s Facebook profile states he’s an “independent H9 partner”:

Steven Morse’s LinkedIn profile cites his as the CEO of Earth Products Inc., no mention of H9 Water.

Earth Products Inc. meanwhile doesn’t seem to do anything outside of H9 Water, so I’m not sure why it exists.

I wasn’t able to put together an MLM history on either Hall or Morse, suggesting H9 Water is their first MLM venture.

Read on for a full review of the H9 Water MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Elite Marketing Alliance launched in 2010 and operate in the health and wellness MLM niche.

On the management side of things, the Elite Marketing Alliance website identifies Robert (Bob) Yukes is identified as President of the company.

Bob Yukes is a multi-level marketing veteran having worked eight years as a CFO in the industry prior to joining EMA.

As CFO at his previous endeavor, he was instrumental in raising $1 million dollars of additional financing to aid their expansion into international markets.

Elite Marketing Alliance is cited as a parent company on the Joy To Live website. For those unfamiliar with the opportunity, Joy To Live heavily focuses on affiliate recruitment at the expense of retail.

Joy To Live also launched in 2010 and is headed up by Founder and CEO, Gerald Ricks. Ricks is also presumed to own Elite Marketing Alliance.

Late last year Ricks launched Magic 10 Marketing, a recruitment scheme marketing bottles of silver.

Back in 2013 Bob Yukes (right) was serving as President of Joy To Live, however today he is credited as CFO.

Despite claims Yukes “worked for 8 years in the industry”, I was unable to find any information on his MLM career prior to EMA and Joy To Live.

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

Andorra International launched in late 2015 and operate in the nutritional supplement MLM niche. The company is based out of California in the US.

A page on the Andorra International website is titled “Message From the Chairman”, however it fails to identify who Andorra International’s Chairman is.

Rather the page is used to provide a generic marketing spiel for the company.

Despite the odd anonymous Chairman’s message, Andorra International do identify James Hu as their CEO.

It is unclear whether or not Hu (right) also serves as Chairman. And if not, whether the anonymous Chairman is higher up than Hu in Andorra International’s executive hierarchy.

As per Hu’s Andorra International executive bio;

Prior to Andorra, Mr. Hu was Senior Director of Legal Affairs for Focus Diagnostics (sold to Quest Diagnostics), Associate General Counsel and Business Development for Martek Biosciences Corp (sold to DSM), and Vice President of Corporate Development and General Counsel for OriGene Technologies.

From the sounds of it, Andorra International is Hu’s first MLM venture as an executive. There is a James Hu in Organo Gold however I don’t believe they are the same person.

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

There is no information on the Social Cash Robot indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Social Cash Robot website domain (“socialcashrobot.com”) was registered on February 26th 2016, 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 E-Dinar website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The E-Dinar website domain (“e-dinar.io”) was registered on the 7th of October 2015, with “Insider Mine” of “LP Edinar-group” as the owner. An address in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is also provided.

“Mass media” articles provided on the E-Dinar website are little more than spam the owner(s) of E-Dinar have uploaded to various press-release websites.

The marketing videos on the website were made on the cheap, using the services of Fivver seller “Ivannicholo”.

Alexa currently estimate that 26.4% of all traffic to the E-Dinar website originates out of the US. Russia and Ukraine aren’t far behind, providing 19.4% and 16.6% respectively.

There’s a distinct lack of information available on Insider Mine and LP Edinar-group. My thinking is that these are likely just shell companies set up in Malaysia.

Between Russia and the US, I’m leaning towards the admins of E-Dinar being based in Europe.

This is based on the abundance of E-Dinar marketing material in Russian, as well as use of the Slovakian file locker to host the E-Dinar website (albeit the link was broken at the time of publication).

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…]

In yet another blow to merchants who facilitate the operation of MLM Ponzi schemes, a criminal charge has been filed against the owner of one of Zeek Rewards’ payment processors. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Leased Ad Space website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Leased Ad Space website domain (“leasedadspace.com”) was registered on the 1st of September 2015, with Richard Weberg listed as the owner. An address in the US state of Minnesota is also provided.

Weberg (right) first appeared on BehindMLM’s radar as a co-founder of Green Label Network. Despite prominently featuring in Green Label Network marketing videos, Weberg later disowned the company (see update on our review).

Under the guise of reselling WordPress (a free blogging platform), Green Label Network saw affiliates gift eachother $25 a month. Launched in 2013, the scheme never really took off.

Weberg is a GVO affiliate, with marketing material on the internet linking him to GotBackup? and Pure Leverage. Leased Ad Space’s website domain is also registered through GVO.

Last year Weberg launched Your Eight Steps, a $14.95 a month feeder into Weberg’s Pure Leverage downline.

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

AdGainBucks recently launched and operate in the ad-credit MLM niche.

The company provides no contact details on its website, however it does name Gennaro Avitabile as a major shareholder, Director and CEO.

Avitabile (right) claims to be originally from Italy, but has “lived several years in United Kingdom”. The UK is presumably where AdGainBucks is being operated from.

Possibly due to language barriers, I was unable to source an MLM history on Avitabile.

Avitabile does mention however that he didn’t want AdGainBucks to be ‘a cheap copycat like most of the revenue share company out there‘. This suggests some familiarity with the MLM revenue sharing niche, which is typically populated with Ponzi schemes.

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