A few days ago Sann Rodrigues filed a motion requesting he be released from jail. Late last year Rodrigues was found to be in contempt and is currently being held at Florida’s Pinellas County Jail.

Rodrigues motion claims that it is impossible for him to pay the $474,503 he’s accused of dissipating.

The SEC argue otherwise, with hints they suspect Rodrigues might have millions squirreled away overseas. [Continue reading…]

As late as February 1st, 2016, Trudy Gilmond was still adopting a “if I ignore it, it’ll go away” approach to her upcoming Zeek Rewards trial.

Gilmond was sued by the SEC late last year for her role as a top investor in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme.

An attorney conference had been scheduled for February 1st, with SEC attorneys unable to reach Gilmond on the day.

A follow-up attempt to contact Gilmond (right) was made on February 3rd, with SEC attorney John Bowers claiming ‘Gilmond was unable or unwilling to respond regarding the issues presented‘.

As such, the SEC alone filed a proposed trial schedule on February 10th.

Judge Mullen signed off on the schedule on February 17th, ordering a five-day trial to kick off on September 11th, 2017. [Continue reading…]

Yesterday BehindMLM reported on a court order directing Payza, Payment World and VictoriaBank to return $13.1 million dollars in funds stolen through Zeek Rewards.

Today the Zeek Receiver’s filed accompanying Memorandum has also been unsealed, shedding light on the games the three entities have been playing over the past three years. [Continue reading…]

One of the enduring mysteries of the MLM industry these past few years was David Sharpe’s departure from Empower Network.

The official corporate line was that Sharpe left EN to focus on his health. Around the time he left, Sharpe revealed that he was suffering from Hepatitis C.

After a year or so of silence, Sharpe revealed that he had been given the all-clear.

It was a logical assumption that Sharpe would return to Empower Network, however as the months dragged on – it became apparent that wasn’t going to happen.

A big part of the allure of this mystery is the fact that up until recently, neither Sharpe or Wood had publicly addressed it. Sharpe appeared to have left Empower Network on good terms, with his going off on his own post-recovery not making a whole lot of sense.

Empower Network has always carried with it a sort of cultish vibe, with the “us vs. them” mentality strongly fostered among affiliates. Thus the answers behind Sharpe’s departure was always going to have to originate from the inside.

Turns out that’s exactly what happened a few weeks ago at Empower Network’s “Generation Hero” event. [Continue reading…]

The F15teen launched on February 15th and identify Mike Peever as the owner of the company on their website.

Mike has been an online marketer since the late 1990s. He has been a program owner/admin for 8 plus years.

Peever first popped up on BehindMLM’s radar in 2012 as the admin of Cash Club International, a six-tier matrix Ponzi cycler.

In 2013 Peever launched The Last Cycler, a $10 Ponzi pyramid hybrid.

2014 was a quiet year for Peever, with 2015 seeing him launch Decide Your Path ($15 matrix-based recruitment scheme) and Success Cycler ($25 subscription-based Ponzi).

Peever was also an investor in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme.

Alexa statistics for the Decide Your Path and Success Cycler websites suggest both schemes are in decline. This decline has likely prompted Peever’s recent launch of The F15teen.

Read on for a full review of The F15teen MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Amazing5 claim to be an “international wealth management company”, but on their website offer up no specifics as to who owns or runs the business.

The Amazing5 website domain (“amazing5.net”) was registered on the 29th of August 2015, however the domain registration is set to private.

As per the FAQ section of the Amazing5 website;

Amazing5 Limited is a fully registered investment company based in the United Kingdom.

The Corporate Headquarters of Amazing5 Limited is located here: 8-9 Talbot CT, London, United Kingdom, EC3V 0BP.

A Google search on the provided address reveals multiple business operating out of it, strongly suggesting it’s rented virtual office space. A UK company registration meanwhile costs about £20 GBP.

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 Passive Profit Magnet website domain indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Passive Profit Magnet website domain (“passiveprofitmagnet.com”) was registered on the 27th of November 2015, however the domain registration is currently set to private.

Up until recently, the Passive Profit Magnet domain was registered to “Kent Rainer Buenaventura” of “Revshare Income”. An address in Quezon City, Philippines was also provided.

The address Buenaventura used to register the Passive Profit Magnet domain matches the address provided on the Passive Profit Magnet Facebook page.

According to Buenaventura’s own Facebook profile, he is currently employed as a delivery driver.

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

The ongoing battle between the Zeek Rewards Receiver and Payza looks set to heat up, with the filing of a contempt motion on February 12th.

The motion requests the court order Payza, Payment World and VictoriaBank turn over stolen Ponzi funds, or in the alternative they be found in contempt. [Continue reading…]

In the lead up to a status conference scheduled for February 23rd, a Joint Interim Status Report has been filed by Daniel Filho and the DOJ.

In the report, the following points are clarified:

• discovery between the DOJ and Filho are complete
• Filho ‘does not intend to pursue defenses of insanity, public authority, or
  alibi’
• a pre-trial resolution is still on the table, with discussions between Filho and the DOJ continuing
• should the case go to trial, the DOJ estimate the ‘matter will take approximately two weeks‘
• Filho is going to request additional time on the 23rd to ‘review the discovery produced‘

We’ll have more for you following the February 23rd status conference hearing.

Footnote: Our thanks to Don@ASDUpdates for providing a copy of the Joint Interim Status Report, filed February 16th, 2016.

Update 27th February 2016 – At the February 23rd status conference, Daniel Filho requested an extension ‘to review (provided) discovery and if necessary, to have experts review discovery‘.

The extension extends to the next status conference, currently scheduled for March 31st.

Update 8th April 2016 – As per a Joint Interim Status Report filed on March 28th;

The United States made the remaining electronic material seized pursuant to the warrants in this matter available for inspection and further offered to provide copies of the material to the defense upon provision by the defense of a computer drive with adequate storage capacity.

Defense counsel has now requested a copy of that material and has agreed to provide the government with an adequate storage device.

Once the government receives that device and the FBI has made the requested copy, the government will promptly provide the copy to the defense.

At a hearing held on March 31st, it was ordered that the storage device will be provided to the DOJ by April 4th. Another status report is due for publication by May 5th and the next hearing has been scheduled for May 12th.

With well over a thousand MLM reviews published to date, for the most part the MLM companies I’ve reviewed have played fair.

Every now and then we run into a bad apple though, with today’s bad apple being Le-Vel.

BehindMLM reviewed Le-Vel over two years ago in December of 2013. I haven’t looked into the company since then, but it appears to be doing well.

As we do with all our reviews, a small (150×125) representation of Le-Vel’s logo was published with our article.

Not because it needed it, but out of aesthetic tradition. Typically when a publication reviews something, a visual of some sort is used to represent what is being reviewed. [Continue reading…]