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

The Mo Brabus website does have an “about us” page, however at the time of publication the link returned a “404 page not found” error.

The Mo Brabus website domain was first registered on the 21st of February 2012. The registry entry was recently updated on January 7th 2015, possibly indicating that this is when it was acquired by its current owner(s).

As to the domain registration itself, the Mo Brabus website domain is set to private but does reveal the Mo Brabus domain uses the name-servers of “theirishnetworker.com”:

As per the “About Me” section of The Irish Networker, the blog website is owned by Emmet Pearse (right).

I am 36 years old I live in Northern Ireland in a small “City” called Derry.

I first got involved in network marketing in 2004 when a friend invited me to a hotel meeting about a gaming company from Malta.

Twenty minutes into the presentation I was hooked on the network marketing industry for life, I have the bigdealitus, I was going to make a million dollars over night and be driving a Ferrari by Tuesday lol.

Just like most new newbies in the industry I was not successful with my first company, I busted a gut trying to get it to work based on what I had been told by my upline but I crashed a burned.

I think I have an addictive personality, I just couldn’t quit, no matter how many obstacles came my way I just couldn’t quit network marketing, this is one of the main reasons why I am now a success in network marketing, Most people quit but not me.

Articles for the MLM opportunity Plexus Worldwide (weight loss) appear on Pearse’s blog, with the last post dated November 14th 2014.

Whether or not Pearse is still an active Plexus Worldwide affiliate is unclear.

What is clear though is that with the Mo Brabus website using his website’s name-servers, Emmet Pearse is either the owner or one of the owners of Mo Brabus.

Why this information is not disclosed on the Mo Brabus website is a mystery.

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

Two recent satisfying decisions in the WCM777 case has seen Vincent Messina, his relative’s company International Market Ventures and PMX Jewels ordered to return stolen investor funds.

For those unfamiliar with the parties, Vincent Messina is WCM777 CEO’s ex-lawyer, Internet Marketing Ventures (IMV) is a company owned by a relative of Messina and PMX Jewels a company Xu set up to launder WCM777 funds through Africa with. [Continue reading…]

If you’ve read even just one review here at BehindMLM on a matrix cycler scheme, you’d know that unequivocally these opportunities are identified for what they are: Ponzi investment schemes.

The recent SEC shut down of Achieve Community reaffirms that, with the matrix cycler positions Achieve offered its affiliates deemed “securities under federal law.”

Why?

Because ‘early investors (were) paid their purported investment returns from the funds of newer investors.‘

In the aftermath of the Achieve Community shut down, one would expect a number of similar matrix cycler Ponzi scams to distance themselves from Achieve. But how different can you really be when your core business model is the same?

One such business, Trinity Lines, recently sent out an email to its investors advising them that the scheme “is nothing like” Achieve Community. [Continue reading…]

This one’s a bit of an odd story, in that for once Herbalife themselves aren’t directly involved in controversy surrounding the company.

Well, sort of.

Reports out of Hong Kong a few days ago detail two of the company’s affiliates milking Hong Kong residents for $50 million HKD ($6.4 million USD).

How’d they pull that off? [Continue reading…]

I’m not sure how big the MLM industry was there, but news reports out of Bahrain claim that MLM opportunities have been banned.

Bahrain is a small island nation in the Persian Gulf, with an estimated population of 1.4 million as of 2014.

The ban on MLM was announced by the The Minister of Industry and Commerce on February 17th, with ‘increasing consumer complaints about such business practices‘ cited as the primary reason behind the move. [Continue reading…]

The manner in which WakeUpNow’s demise in the US has been handled has been nothing short of spectacularly incompetent.

We first got a whiff something was up when top affiliates in the company began uploading YouTube videos and issuing statements about the company closing.

That was on the 10th of February.

Prior to those announcements and since then, right up until a few days ago, WakeUpNow corporate maintained radio silence on the issue. Well, on anything really.

There wasn’t a peep to be heard from WakeUpNow’s own website, nor their usually frequently updated social media profiles.

It was only on February 16th and WakeUpNow corporate finally came out of their shell, via a blog post from CEO Phil Polich. [Continue reading…]

Following a statement from Achieve Community co-owner Troy Barnes claiming that the SEC was on his tail, comes the expected news today that the agency has indeed shut down Achieve Community.

In a complaint filed on the 12th of February in a District Court of Colorado, the SEC claim that Kristi Johnson, Troy Barnes, Work With Troy Barnes LLC and Achieve Community International LLC (collectively the defendants), were engaged in the running of “an ongoing fraudulent Ponzi scheme”.

From approximately April 2014 through the present, TAC has offered and sold “positions” in TAC to investors. These “positions,” which are securities, promise investors a significant return on their investment.

Whodathunkit? [Continue reading…]

Back in 2013 one of the more alarming MLM stories to surface was the case of hacking and corporate espionage between Visalus and Ocean Avenue.

As per a lawsuit filed by Ocean Avenue, Visalus hired a private investigator firm to conduct acts of hacking and corporate espionage at their behest.

In response to Ocean Avenue entering the market as a competitor with Visalus, Nic Sarnicola and Mallen on behalf of Visalus hired a private investigation firm called “Moser & Associates”, in Menlo Park California (the “P.I. Firm”).

The P.I. Firm at the direction of Visalus, and Nic Sarnicola hired a computer expert located in India referred to as “Sumit Vishoi” to access the email accounts of the former Visalus distributors working with Ocean Avenue, Ocean Avenue employees, Ken Dunn and Fred Ninow.

Additionally Visalus distributors who joined Ocean Avenue had their email accounts and other social media accounts and cell phone accounts hacked into shortly after Visalus discovered they had signed up with Ocean Avenue.

Further acts Ocean Avenue accuse Visalus corporate of include the illegal accessing and hacking of the company’s own servers and various accounts belonging to key staff and management.

Nate Moser, of the firm Moser and Associates, was even accused of breaking into Ocean Avenue’s offices and making off with one of their computers.

The photos below were included as an exhibit in Ocean Avenue’s civil complaint:

Ocean Avenue alleged that Visalus’ hiring of the firm was a response to several high-ranking Visalus affiliates joining Ocean Avenue in late 2012 and early 2013.

Despite the detailed claims against them, including photographic evidence, Visalus responded to Ocean Avenue’s lawsuit by stating it was “entirely without merit”. The company also vowed to “vigorously defend itself against (the) untrue allegations”.

Enter the Department of Justice, who covertly began investigating the case sometime in 2013.

This investigation has now concluded, resulting in four indictments on charges of conspiracy to access the e-mail accounts, Skype accounts, and computers.

“Without merit” hey? This should be interesting… [Continue reading…]

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

The company’s website does have an “about us” section, however only the following vague marketing spiel is provided:

BitCloudAcademy is not owned by any single person or entity, we are a team of experts, entrepreneurs, professionals, network marketers, and programming geeks who have all come to together to launch a very simple business around a very complex industry.

The BitCloud Academy website domain (“bitcloudacademy.com”) was registered on the 18th of December 2014, however the domain registration is set to private.

A visit to the BitCloud Academy website reveals an advertisement for a company webinar to take place on February 16th.

The webinar itself has since expired, but the link to it reveals two names; Mike Lavoie and Roberta Betts:

Mike Lavoie (right) first popped on BehindMLM’s radar as the co-admin of Cloud 2×2.

Lavoie partnered with Todd Hirsch to launch the opportunity, with the duo partnering up again to launch BitCoin Cycler in late 2014.

Both Cloud 2×2 and BitCoin Cycler were little more than recruitment-driven pyramid schemes, with Lavoie and Hirsch both having a long history of launching similar opportunities individually.

That said, whether Hirsch is involved in BitCloud Academy is unclear.

Roberta Betts meanwhile is another previous partner of Lavoie’s, with the pair credited with launching ProMatrix Plus in early 2013.

ProMatrix Plus saw affiliates invest in $25 matrix positions, with ROIs of up to $360 once enough new positions had been invested in. The scheme has long-since collapsed.

Betts (right) was/is also an affiliate in BitCoin Cycler.

What we appear to have with BitCloud Academy is the latest offering from a group of individuals with a history of launching dubious opportunities.

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

There is no information on the Advert-Force website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Advert-Force website domain (“advert-force.com”) was registered on the 21st of August 2014, however the domain registration is set to private.

One particular question in the Advert-Force FAQ stood out to me, as it is answered in Russian:

What is the minimum withdrawal?

Минимальная сумма для вывода $1.

This suggests that whoever is running Advert-Force is based out of Russia.

As always, if a 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…]