Ponzi scheme funds are dirty money.

Logically it follows that when invested in otherwise legitimate process, sooner or later the law is going to catch up and “claw back” the funds.

After much fanfare and posturing of legitimacy, this is exactly what we’ve seen go down with uFun Club’s investment in Bina Puri condos.

uFun Club did indeed invest funds in a Thai subsidiary of Bina Puri, one of Malaysia’s largest construction firms. And as a result of that, months of claims of legitimacy by association followed.

“Why would Bina Puri accept funds from a Ponzi scheme?”

“uFun Club has partnered with a big construction firm, of course it’s not a Ponzi scheme!”

“How can a Ponzi scheme invest in a construction project right under the noses of authorities and get away with it?”

And on and on it went…

Things first went awry when Bina Puri clarified that there was no such partnership, but rather all that uFun Club did was “express interest” in buying some condos.

These condos were part of the Bangkok Marina Resort and Spa development.

All was well until Thai police raided uFun Club’s local office and began making arrests.

As the investigation progressed, Bina Puri saw their Thai offices raided, as authorities sought to track funds laundered by uFun Club.

A week or so later Bina Puri then issued a statement, clarifying there being no partnership between uFun Club and the firm. Bina Puri had previously issued a similar statement late last year, however this mostly ignored by uFun Club affiliates.

Long story short, uFun Club had laundered 200 million THB ($5.9 million USD), which the firm will now have to pay back.

Following a followup meeting between Bina Puri, the developer of the @Room 46 condos, Thai police and the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) yesterday,

Developers of two condominium projects have been told by the police to hand over about 200 million baht in cash paid by Ufun Store Company for the purchase of 146 condominium units to the Anti-Money Laundering Office.

Earlier this month Thai police revealed that uFun Club had purchased forty-six condos in the @Room 46 project. uFun used the condos to wine and dine their top recruiting investors when they held local events in Thailand.

The discussion covered two options: that the two developers hand over the money they received from Ufun to AMLO or the AMLO impound all the condominium units bought by Ufun for public auction to raise money to compensate the affected investors of Ufun Store.

Currently Thai police hold the deeds to the uFun Club purchases, with the finer details of how the funds paid for them will be transferred to AMLO still being fleshed out.

The meeting was inconclusive and it was suggested that public receivers might have to file bankruptcy lawsuit against Ufun in order that its seized assets would be put on auction.

What isn’t in question though is that the properties were purchased with laundered Ponzi money, with any claim uFun Club might have to them forfeited.

And that’s the reality of Ponzi schemes attempting to launder funds through investment.

Yet it’s against this backdrop that uFun Club investors continue to be lead down the garden path… [Continue reading…]

Following the unveiling of what appeared to be an incredibly suspicious plan to drive Monavie into foreclosure, a Judge in Utah has now put the plans on hold.

We first reported about the foreclosure plans earlier this week, which were announced after Jeunesse purchased Monavie’s debt earlier this year and strongly suggested the move would see Monavie financially strengthened…

…only less than two months later announce Monavie was unable to pay its debt and was looking at foreclosure. [Continue reading…]

Following the revelation today that the Malaysian CEO of uFun Club has been apprehended in China, news today out of Thailand detailing an additional three arrests. [Continue reading…]

Encore3 claim to operate out of the US state of Georgia.

Details on the Encore3 management are limited, with the company website only revealing that Todd Spencer is the Founder.

Our mission began with founder Todd Spencer’s search for natural solutions to pain relief and common health issues.

No further information about Spencer or any of Encore3’s other executives are provided.

The email address used to register the Encore3 website domain (“ncore3.com”) appears to belong to an individual named “Beto Paredes”.

The same email used to register the Encore3 website domain appears on a “help wanted” ad bearing Paredes’ name.

The ad was posted on April 23rd and seeks a “Mandarin Translator/Interpreter” who will be

responsible for understanding/interpreting and reproducing statements, predominantly for a reading audience, from English to Mandarin.

We are seeking powerful and highly motivated individuals aspiring to learn and apply new knowledge from an exquisite Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) network company known as Encore3.

Here’s where things get murky.

Todd Spencer (right) is the former Vice-President of Product Development for Zhunrize. On his LinkedIn profile, Spencer additionally credits himself as Zhunrize’s Chief Operating Officer.

Zhunrize was launched in 2013 and saw affiliates invest up to $3000. In exchange, Zhunrize paid investors recruitment commissions and daily and monthly “profit-sharing” ROIs.

The SEC shut down Zhunrize in September 2014, revealing it to be a $105 million dollar global Ponzi investment scheme.

In December 2014 Zhunrize CEO Jeff Pan settled with the SEC. He lost his house and car, and is currently assisting a court-appointed Receiver with recovering Zhunrize funds.

Whether any criminal charges will be filed against Pan remains to be seen.

Todd Spencer meanwhile worked directly with Jeff Pan in Zhunrize.

According to the Zhunrize Receiver, Spencer had direct input as to the flow of funds within the scheme:

Zhunrize outsourced its back office functions to Vodaware, an IT and business services company.

The Receiver and his team has interviewed the Vodaware contractor who entered information into Quickbooks and paid bills as
directed by Jeff Pan or Zhunrize employee Todd Spencer.

Like Spencer, Beto Paredes was also involved in Zhunrize. His exactly role within the company however is unclear.

On his website, Paredes claims he ‘has extensive experience in training sales representatives and structuring MLM companies for success‘.

Paredes makes no mention of his involvement in Zhunrize.

Getting back to Encore3, the search for a Mandarin translator is of particular relevance because Zhunrize primarily targeted Chinese and Korean investors.

Are Todd Spencer “and the Encore3 team” looking to reboot Zhunrize and target investors who lost money?

Read on for a full review of the Encore3 MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

As part of an ongoing investigation that began back in September 2014, news out of China today that ten uFun Club suspects have been arrested.

In addition to the arrests, Chinese regulators are also claiming to have seized bank cards, laptops and other electronic equipment, along with $4.1 million USD. [Continue reading…]

Last we checked in on the Zhunrize Ponzi scheme bust, $70.7 million USD had been recovered and a Receiver put in charge of the company.

Now, after working for over four months to secure funds and establish a claims process through which Zhunrize victims can be compensated, the Zhunrize Receiver has filed his first quarter Status Report for 2015. [Continue reading…]

After first reading David MacGregor’s Motion to Dismiss clawback litigation recently filed against him, my reaction was to wait for a decision on the matter to be made.

For those unfamiliar with MacGregor (full name: David Ian MacGregor Fraser), he was recently sued by Receiver Kenneth Bell for stealing $89,722 from Zeek Rewards victims.

Zeek Rewards was an $850 million dollar Ponzi scheme, shut down by the SEC in August of 2012.

Earlier this morning I read an article covering MacGregor’s Motion to Dismiss over at Patrick Pretty.

In it, MacGregor (right) is described as being a Sovereign Citizen. In my own readings, MacGregor’s Zeek username “sovlife” never clicked.

In any event it’s been my experience that whenever the phrase “sovereign citizen” appears in conjunction with MLM, batshit crazy rhetoric typically follows.

Some individuals who may identify with the word “sovereign” have participated in various fraud schemes, have painted their fellow human beings as slaves (see Frederick Mann) government-owned property (see Kenneth Wayne Leaming) and have expressed an irrational belief that laws do not apply to them.

Other “sovereigns” have made wild claims that they hold diplomatic immunity and thus cannot be prosecuted or are answerable only to Jesus Christ.

And so with that in mind I began my own research. [Continue reading…]

The only mention of the owner of Palonius is the following sentence that appears on the company’s website:

From the Desk of Mr.Alen, CEO PALONIUS

The Palonius domain meanwhile (“palonius.com”) was registered on the 15th of April 2015, however the domain registration is set to private.

“Mr. Alen” hey? Yeah, so I’m going to go ahead and flag that as just a little suspicious.

In all likelihood, Mr. Alen, as represented on the Palonius website, doesn’t exist.

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 FamilyFunCycler website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The FamilyFunCycler website domain (“familyfuncycler.com”) was registered on the 10th of April 2015, with a “Chavez Walcott” listed as the owner. An address in Barcelona, Spain is also provided.

Further research reveals the address provided to belong to a hotel “W Barcelona”, who appear to be the only business on the street listed in the FamilyFunCycler domain registration.

I’m doubtful the FamilyFunCycler is being run out of a hotel, leaving a question mark as to the legitimacy of the domain registration information provided.

The name Chavez Walcott also appears to only exist in conjunction with FamilyFunCycler marketing material.

Of note is that an official FamilyFunCycler Facebook group is linked off the company website, revealing a closed group with three named admins; Goran Krstic (Serbia), Reena Saju (India) and Marie Queen (Spain).

A persusal of Krstic’s Facebook profile reveals marketing material for DigAdz (collapsed Ponzi scheme).

Reena Saju is promoting Super 2×7 (matrix cycler Ponzi) and Marie Queen AdMaximo, which she claims is “a clone of” the My Advertising Pays Ponzi scheme.

Queen has also recently promoted Super 2×7, AdBizCentral (120% ROI Ponzi scheme), Club9xAds ($3 micro Ponzi), BigBangCycler ($10 subscription-based matrix Ponzi), Success Cycler ($25 subscription-based matrix Ponzi), Massive Wealth Cycler ($17 micro subscription Ponzi), Bring The Bacon Home (short-lived Ponzi scheme that collapsed earlier this year), Unison Wealth ($35 matrix subscription Ponzi, has collapsed once already), Union Cycler ($2.50 micro Ponzi) and Cycles 24/7 (cycler-based Ponzi scheme).

Marie Queen seems to be the most active of the three, and being based in Spain would be my guess as to who is behind FamilyFunCycler. Or at least likely working closely with whoever is.

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

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

The Tri-Ads website domain (“tri-ads.com”) was registered on the 3rd of February 2015, listing a “James Lawson” as the owner. An address in the US state of Delaware is also provided.

A Facebook post on by Lawson (right) on Aprl 30th suggests that he is indeed the owner of the company:

Just put this site in Pre-Launch yesterday… Some promo videos for it…

Another opportunity advertised on Lawson’s Facebook profile is Global Mobile Network. Whether the prelaunch of Tri-Ads means Lawson is no longer involved in GMN is unclear.

Ditto why Lawson’s ownership of Tri-Ads is not provided on the company’s website.

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