The following excerpt from a recent New York Post article pretty much says it all:

Hollywood heavyweight Michael Lynton waded into the long-running Bill Ackman-Herbalife battle last year (by) helping the CEO of the nutritional-shake maker try to stop a looming regulatory probe.

Michael Johnson, the CEO of Herbalife, reached out in an e-mail to his pal Lynton, the CEO of Sony Entertainment, to help short-circuit an attempt by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) to have the Federal Trade Commission investigate the company.

Ugh, I feel infected by Herbalife’s PR sleaze just from reading it… [Continue reading…]

In the lead up to the blockbuster Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather and Manny ‘Pacman’ Pacquiao fight, billed as ‘the biggest pay-per-view sporting event in recent history‘, Showtime and HBO have been actively litigating against illegal stream providers.

To date two streaming websites have been shut down by court order in the US, with more litigation expected to be filed.

What caught my eye about the lawsuits was they were targeted streaming providers not because they’d streamed the fight (how could they, it hasn’t happened yet), but merely because they were ‘planning to illegally stream the fight‘.

In other words, advertising an intention to offer a stream of the fight was enough for a US court to have the two sites in question shut down.

The pay networks launched an attack in the Californian federal court against boxinghd.net, sportship.org and several other anonymous defendants offering a free stream of the fight.

The documents also accuse the defendants of promoting the illegal streams of the fight with advertising on the sites.

Since the legal action both websites have been shut down.

Upon reading an article reporting these developments, my thoughts turned to the streambox MLM opportunities we’ve seen emerge these last few months. [Continue reading…]

Feels like only yesterday we went through the Zeek Receiver’s 4th quarter 2014 fees and expenses report, with new updates now provided in the Receiver’s First Quarter Status Report for 2015.

Most of the information we’ve already covered in our ongoing coverage throughout 2015, which can be accessed via BehindMLM’s Zeek Rewards archives (articles written between Jan 01 and March 31st, 2015).

Below you’ll find a breakdown of new information and updates provided in the Receiver’s latest report. [Continue reading…]

On paper the uFun Club Ponzi scheme is pretty straight-forward.

Early adopters of the scheme invested real funds in exchange for uTokens.

Then, according to the rate of new fund investment, they are paid monopoly money which is then re-invested back into more uTokens.

Cash is made either by “selling” uTokens back to uFun Club, who pay out these requests with invested affiliate funds, or by selling uTokens to unsuspecting victims.

These victims are told uFun Club is legitimate and hand over real cash to top uFun Club investors. These investors then set up uFun Club affiliate accounts for the victims and transfer a set amount of uTokens into the account.

The account is then handed over to the unsuspecting victim and they then proceed to reinvest the monopoly funds paid out to them and accumulate more uTokens.

uFun Club investors who run unrelated businesses can also increase their share of uTokens, by accepting uToken payment for goods and services.

Meanwhile uFun Club publish a value of uToken to keep everybody from withdrawing, with said value artificially inflated by incremental amounts, and advertised as never going down.

When reserve invested funds weighed against withdrawal requests reach a certain threshold, uFun Club run a “split”, whereby everyone’s uToken amounts are reduced, with each coin/point remaining then raising in price.

Ponzi schemes have been doing this for years, commonly referring to the practice as a “restart”.

Hiding behind the facade of a cryptocurrency, uToken is little more than the Ponzi points model pioneered by Zeek Rewards, only they attached it to a penny auction (VIP points instead of uTokens).

And it is this model Thai police are now going to have to present to the Office of the Attorney General, in order to get the uFun Club Ponzi scheme classified as a “transnational crime”. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Money Go Round website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The website does have an “about us” link, however clicking on it currently returns a “404 not found” error.

The Money Go Round website domain was registered on the 30th of March 2015, however the domain registration is set to private.

Further research reveals an official Facebook page set up Money Go Round affiliates, with Lynn Torres, Ivan Mircic, Katherine Korytkowski, Scott Sparks, April Dohle, Donna O. Youngs, Eli Lama, Ray StingRay Woodard and Dusty Williams listed as admins.

It is extremely likely that one or more of these individuals are running the company.

My money is on Ray Stingray Woodard (right), with the following Facebook post dated 9th of April suggesting he is in charge:

*****LAUNCHING IN ABOUT 2 HOURS!!!!*****

COME AND TAKE THE RIDE OF YOUR LIFE ON MY NEW PROGRAM “THE MONEY-GO-ROUND” TONIGHT AT 9PM EST

A followup post on April 10th only strengthens the connection:

We had a GREAT launch and I feel so very Blessed and extremely excited!!!

We paid out to nearly 100 members on day 1. Some made as much as $680 the first day.

You have no idea how it makes me feel to have been able to help so many people…and we’re just getting started.

I have a great team of people that helped to make this happen… Dusty Williams,Donna O. Youngss, Jackie Apparicio, Helen Caronna, Scott Sparks (just to name a few) and the entire Team Texas Legacy… I can’t thank you enough.

There’s plenty of room on the Money-Go-Round for us to help so many more people… and this thing is spinning out of control so come take a ride with us… and LET’S GET DIZZY!!!

Other MLM opportunities advertised on Woodward’s Facebook profile include EzWealthBuilder (matrix-based Ponzi scheme), Total Takeover (pyramid scheme), Ingreso Cybernetico (Ponzi scheme) and Penny Matrix (pyramid scheme).

Of note is that at least one of the Money Go Round Facebook group admins above was an investor in Achieve Community.

A post on Ivan Mircic’s Facebook timeline dated 15th of April reads:

OMG…THIS IS ON FIRE…COME RIDE THE MONEY GO ROUND!

THIS WILL SURPASS WHAT ACHIEVE EVER WAS OR EVER COULD BE.

The SEC shut down Achieve Community in February, revealing it to be a $3.8 million dollar Ponzi scheme. Its founders are currently both facing criminal prosecution.

According to Ivan Mircic, Money Go Round is set to “surpass” the level of fraud Achieve Community was built on.

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

Are we finally going to see uFun Club’s rogue fugitive executives brought to justice?

If Thai authorities are to be believed, Interpol will is now overseeing a global manhunt to track them down. [Continue reading…]

WakeUpNow launched in 2009 and over its six years of operation failed to generate a significant amount of retail sales.

Combining an eclectic mish-mash of third-party products and services, the reality of WakeUpNow was that you signed up as an affiliate, paid a monthly fee and were then paid to recruit others who did the same.

After burning through millions of dollars in losses, the scheme collapsed two months ago with WakeUpNow formally terminating US operations around mid February.

Prior to that there had been speculation the company was going to file for bankruptcy.

Not even three months has passed since WakeUpNow collapsed, with former President Jason Elrod now gearing up to launch “Disrupt”. [Continue reading…]

The number of uFun Club investor complaints in Thailand has risen to almost three hundred, with 292 affiliates having filed claims for 110 million THB ($3.3 million USD).

The latest figures were released as Thai authorities prepare to file criminal cases against uFun Club executives. [Continue reading…]

Putting aside the fact that BitClub Network simply take newly invested funds and use it to pay off existing investors, the ruse behind the scheme is that BitCoin mining will somehow consistently deliver >100% ROIs every 1000 days.

That’s irrespective of how much is invested and irrespective of fluctuations in the value of BitCoin, otherwise BitClub Network’s premise doesn’t work.

Quite obviously, the only way >100% ROIs can be paid out by ignoring invested amounts and the value of BitCoin, is if the ROIs paid out are pegged to something else entirely.

That of course brings us back to newly invested funds, which appear to be running out.

Is BitClub Network on the verge of collapse? The introduction of ClubCoin certainly suggests so. [Continue reading…]

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

The TwizSales website domain (“twizsales.com”) was registered on the 27th of November 2014, with “Ufoma Makpe Ibikunle” listed as the owner. What appears to be an incomplete address in Cádiz, Spain is also provided.

This is inline with the TwizSales FAQ, which claims the company ‘is a register company from spain‘.

An “official” Facebook group has been set up for TwizSales, with Mariam Ufoma Makpa Ibikunle and Asif Bhatti listed as the group’s admins.

With Ibikunle owning the TwizSales website domain, it appears she is the admin of the company. Bhatti’s relationship to the company is unclear.

Whether or not Mariam Ufoma Makpa Ibikunle is an actual person is unclear. The Facebook profile was created on February 2015, for the sole purpose of promoting TwizSales.

A YouTube account bearing the same name was set up a month earlier in January.

The precursor to TwizSales appears to be esClicks, which was advertised on the Ibikunle Facebook account in March.

A visit to the esClicks website reveals it to be nearly identical to that of TwizSales (design is slightly different but content is pretty much the same).

esClicks appears to be a pay to click website, paying affiliates peanuts to click on ads.

The esClicks domain registration is identical to that of TwizSales, once again listing Ibikunle as the owner.

Asif Bhatti (right) meanwhile appears to be neck-deep in the MLM underbelly.

Promotions for all manner of scams can be found on his Facebook profile timeline, including MadvertisingPro (Ponzi scheme), Traffic Monsoon (HYIP), BnB Trades (Ponzi scheme), DigAdz (Ponzi scheme), Genesis Global Network (ponzi/pyramid hybrid), Globaliz Biz (Ponzi scheme), PayAdShares (Ponzi scheme), The Achieve Community ($3.8 million dollar Ponzi scheme shut down by the SEC) and GlobalAdShare (Ponzi scheme).

And that’s just within the last nine months…

Going back even further Bhatti was promoting Argent Global Network (Ponzi scheme), Paidverts (Ponzi scheme), Libertagia (pyramid scheme), AdCycleProfit (Ponzi scheme), WaraNetwork (Ponzi scheme), MutualWealth (Ponzi scheme), Partners Pay (Ponzi scheme), XtremeCashBox (Ponzi scheme) and AdsProfitWiz (Ponzi scheme).

Scattered among these promotions, Bhatti also pushes a bunch of low-key HYIP schemes.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say whoever is behind Mariam Ufoma Makpa Ibikunle likely has just as much experience with the MLM underbelly as Bhatti does.

I don’t think Bhatti himself is behind the account, but he obviously knows who is.

In any event, 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…]