OneCoin have been making all sorts of announcements to their affiliates over the last few weeks, with their efforts not going unnoticed by regulators.

Hungary appear to be the first country to have investigated the scheme, concluding that a public warning needed to be issued. [Continue reading…]

Last last month we reported that a settlement had been reached in the Zeek Rewards Receiver’s lawsuit against Kevin Grimes.

At the time details of the settlement were yet to emerge, so we weren’t sure what had been agreed upon.

Now in a settlement agreement filed on June 2nd, we can reveal that Kevin Grimes and Grimes & Reese (now R&R Law Group), will return $1.17 million dollars to Zeek Rewards victims. [Continue reading…]

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

The Forest Owner website domain (“forestowner.com”) was first registered on the 6th of December 2013, with the registration recently updated on the 14th of April 2015.

“Agency Creater LLC” is listed as the domain owner along with an address in Ulyanovsk, Russia.

This indicates whoever owns Forest Owner is likely based in Russia, with no further information provided.

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…]

Mostly losing their battle to retain stolen Ponzi funds, payment processor NxPay was recently ordered to surrender $9 million dollars to the Zeek Rewards Receiver on June 1st.

The funds are to be held by the Receiver until the legal dispute between the two parties is resolved.

Just one problem though…

NxPay now claim they don’t have $9 million to hand over. [Continue reading…]

Currently there is no information on the Pruvit website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Pruvit website domain itself (“justpruvit.com”) was first registered in 2013, with the registration recently updated on March 28th, 2015.

Jenifer Grace is listed as the domain owner, with the address in Kentucky provided belonging to bHip Global.

bHip Global first appeared on BehindMLM’s radar back in 2013, through the relationship between Terry Lacore and Rippln.

Lacore founded bHip Global in 2007 and was listed as a Director of Rippln (along with Jennifer Grace) on Rippln’s formation documents.

In 2008 Lacore had a securities fraud case filed against him by the SEC. The case involved millions of dollars in “undisclosed payments”, with Lacore settling the charges by paying a $50,000 civil penalty.

Rippln meanwhile was an MLM opportunity launched in 2013. Initially Rippln released a recruitment-heavy compensation plan, with this being revised a few months later in favor of a more balanced business model (albeit still problematic).

What then followed was nothing short of a drawn out catastrophe, culminating in Rippln’s demise by early January 2014.

I myself was highly critical of the Rippln fiasco, penning an opinion piece titled “Rippln is sunk: How NOT to close an MLM company” on January 28th.

Getting back to Pruvit, it seems Lacore isn’t the only Rippln figure to be involved.

A 1st of June post by Pete Delmonico, republished on Michael Rutherford’s Facebook timeline, reads:

Just had my first delicious drink! Feeling incredible! Showing great ketones in my system.

Thank you Michael Rutherford for coming down to San Diego with samples! Can’t wait til Tuesday when mine arrives!

Thank you Brian Underwood, Michael Beal and Mike R.

Brian Underwood was the CEO of Rippln and Michael Rutherford Rippln’s Master Distributor.

Whereas Pruvit’s corporate structure has yet to be revealed, Corporation Wiki reveals Terry Lacore, Brian Underwood and Chris Harding as Directors of the company:

I’m not sure who Chris Harding is.

In any event, it’s pretty obvious that while Pruvit might not have anything to do with the Rippln opportunity per say, that more than a few individuals who were involved in Rippln are now running Pruvit.

Recently Pruvit entered into a VIP launch, wherein those “on the inside” are able to sign up as VIP affiliates:

Today we take a closer look into Pruvit and explore what their VIP launch is all about. [Continue reading…]

Despite the Philippine SEC issuing an investment warning against the scheme earlier this year, promotion of EmGoldex in the Philippines appears alive and well.

The latest marketing efforts of local investors has seen them use the name and image of singer Aiza Seguerra.

This hasn’t gone unnoticed, with the singer now issuing a public demand that EmGoldex scammers refrain from using his name to perpetuate the scam. [Continue reading…]

“Oh shit, we done pissed off them royals now…”

In stark contrast to the lack of action Malaysian regulators and police have taken to combat the $1.17 billion dollar Ponzi scheme uFun Club, Malaysian royalty have reacted angrily to being associated with the scheme.

For our part in uncovering the scandal and reporting on what Malaysian media are seemingly unable to, BehindMLM today was threatened by his highness Tengku Sulaiman Shah ibni Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shad, with a $1328 fine and maximum three-year prison sentence. [Continue reading…]

Modeled on AdSurfDaily, StarAd24 sees affiliates invest in €50 “promotion packs” and pay up to €1000 when they join the company (20 positions).

The STARAD24 Affiliate Programme combines several well known and well proven compensation plan models, and has created a above (sic) average and very profitable system.

Each €50 position pays out an eventual €60 ROI, with ROI funds sourced from subsequent investment.

StarAd24 went into prelaunch almost a year ago (August 2014), likely retaining prelaunch status so as to sell the “getting in on the ground floor” illusion to new investors.

Being a HYIP Ponzi scheme (only single-level commissions are offered), StarAd24 naturally requires a constant influx of new investors to fend off collapse.

In a recent presentation the company announced a “new payment system”, which was none other than uPayCard.

Towards the end of the call things got interesting when the issue of uPayCard providing processor services to uFun Club was raised… [Continue reading…]

The controversy surrounding Jeunesse’s acquisition of Monavie continues, with recent promotional efforts suggesting Jeunesse is selling affiliate ranks to Monavie distributors.

Our source for today’s story is Calvin Becerra, who credits himself as a “Monavie Presidential Black Diamond and Mynt Founder” on his website.

In a video uploaded to YouTube on May 30th, Becerra mentions a “transition on Monday night”, which would have been June 1st.

This transition would appear to be Monavie affiliates being rolled into Jeunesse. [Continue reading…]

Good news for those of you who’ve been asking about claiming your losses in WCM777, with the Receiver late last week filing a proposed claims process.

Over $20 million will be returned to WCM777 victims, with the Receiver anticipating between 24,000 to 96,000 claims. [Continue reading…]