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

The BonanzaU website does have an “About Us” section, with vague marketing copy suggesting the company is headquartered in Hong Kong:

BONANZA SYSTEMS.LTD’s holding company PRIME MARKET SERVICE.LTD is established in Hong Kong.

If that is to be believed, then it’s likely that those running BonanzaU are from Hong Kong itself (Chinese).

The BonanzaU website domain (“bonanzau.com”) was registered on the 18th of July 2014, however the domain registration is set to private.

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…]

Back in October we covered an update from the Zeek Rewards Receivership regarding funds withheld for tax purposes.

Shortly after the Receivership announced that victim checks would be going out on September 30th, reports surfaced about 30% of payouts being withheld by the Receiver.

Clarifying why the funds were held back, the Receivership put out an update a few weeks later explaining that they were waiting on clarification from the IRS regarding potential tax issues.

I have heard from many of you that this withholding should not have been made because these distributions are not taxable. The tax laws on this issue are not entirely clear.

We have attempted to get a definitive opinion from the IRS but have not yet been able to do so. Given this uncertainty we acted on the side of caution and made the withholding.

As of the time of publication of this article, the Receivership still hasn’t heard back from the IRS. Why that’s taking so long I have no idea, but in the meantime the Receivership has decided to release the funds being held anyway. [Continue reading…]

PlanB4You launched earlier this year and targeted Europeans.

Soliciting 40 EUR investments from its affiliates, PlanB4You advertised an a 50 EUR ROI – dependent on new affiliate funds flowing into the scheme (see BehindMLM PlanB4You review).

Legally registered in the Netherlands, it wasn’t long before PlanB4You attracted the attention of local regulators. [Continue reading…]

We initially reported on the SEC shutdown of Zhunrize back in late September.

Over the last few months the case has slowly progressed, culminating in a settlement agreement reached yesterday. [Continue reading…]

On the back of a Herbalife millionaire claiming that retail sales to customers don’t matter, now comes a letter from the FDA concerning what they describe as a misleading marketing video.

In a letter dated December 17th to Herablife CEO Michael Johnson, the FDA’s Michael R. Taylor, Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine, writes [Continue reading…]

After Payoneer terminated Achieve Community’s payment processor services in early November, the opportunity has been in limbo for over a month.

Deposits into Achieve were re-instated two weeks ago via Asian processor iPayDNA, with members reporting unrelated companies showing up on credit card statements shortly thereafter.

Now it appears withdrawals are poised to start up again, with co-founder Kristi Johnson announcing today that Achieve has signed up with Global Cash Card. [Continue reading…]

Clawback litigation was filed against Zeek Reward’s top net-winners in Canada back in early November.

With the twenty-one day deadline to file a response well and truly past, the Receiver has now filed for default judgement against several non-responsive defendants. [Continue reading…]

“It’s like watching the blind lead the blind…”

Having likely colluded with fellow defendant Todd Disner, David Sorrells sought to escape the default judgement rendered against him back in July.

Like Disner, Sorrells figured if he ignored the clawback litigation filed against him, that he wouldn’t have to return the Ponzi funds he stole from Zeek Rewards victims.

Like Disner, yesterday Sorrells’ actions caught up with him. [Continue reading…]

As per the local rules of the District Court of Massachusetts, the James Merrill’s attorney and the US Attorney’s Office (DOJ) have filed an interim status report.

The report, filed ahead of today’s hearing (December 18th), provides some updates and insight into the status of the Wanzeler/Merrill criminal case. [Continue reading…]

Shedding light on what the MLM industry gets up to in China, comes news today that Avon has plead guilty to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the Securities Exchange Act.

Two separate cases were filed by US regulators, one by the SEC and another the result of joint-investigation by the US Attorney’s Office, the Department of Justice and the FBI. [Continue reading…]