My single biggest criticism of Empower Network has been that, at the monthly subscription levels, essentially you’ve got affiliates paying eachother for a product was readily available for free.

Pay your $125 a month to the person who recruited you plus an affiliate fee to the company, and off you go “working” your new Empower Network business – trying to get other people to do the same.

In answer to this long-standing criticism of their business model, Empower Network spent “millions of dollars to develop their own blogging platform.

Codenamed ENV2 and hyped up the wazoo as a “WordPress-killer” and something that would “change the way people blog forever”, on October 11th Empower Network purportedly spent $500,000 to launch their new blogging platform.

Here’s how that worked out: [Continue reading…]

In papers filed in support of ongoing legal action by the Federal Public Ministry in Goiás (GO-MPF), Brazil’s Ministry of Finance have declared BBOM to be an “unsustainable” Ponzi scheme.

In the papers, ‘presented to the Judge of the 4th District Court of the Judicial Section of the State of Goiás on Thursday (21/11)’, the Secretariat for Economic Monitoring of the Ministry of Finance (EEAS / MF) wrote that, after reviewing the case and BBOM’s business model, they could not

identify a fair and reasonable (legal) economic reason that could explain the explosion of profitability observed by BBOM.

The business is not viable over time, which is “emphasised by the absurd promise of stratospheric gains well above the gains earned in the competition.”

The department also stressed that “the business structure promoted by Embrasystem (BBOM) has no parallel in any other companies in their line of business.”

That last line isn’t that surprising, as I imagine there aren’t too many GPS fronted Ponzi schemes around. BBOM was certainly the first I’d heard of one (not only in Brazil but globally). [Continue reading…]

Two and a half years in the making and despite Speak Asia’s best attempts to thwart investigations into the company at judicial and local levels, Indian authorities  on the 16th of December finally filed a chargesheet against Speak Asia.

“The accused have been booked for forgery, criminal conspiracy and cheating among other charges under the Indian Penal Code and Prize Chit and Money Circulation Banning Act. The maximum punishment for these offences is up to seven years’ jail,” said B P Shelke, investigating officer.

Named in the chargesheet are

Tarak Bajpai; director of Tulsiyat Tek Rajiv Mehrotra; SpeakAsia prime franchisee Deepankar Sarkar; panelists Ashish Dandekar, Raeesh Shaikh, Rahul Shah, Sanjiv Dandona among others; and eight firms-SpeakAsia Online, Haren Ventures Pvt Ltd, Tulsiyat Tek, Tulsient Info System, Kritanj Management and Allied Services, Seamless Outsourcing, Seven Rings Education and Seven Rings International.

I wonder if any of Kumar’s AISPA cronies made it onto the list? Or were they truly just collective sheep operating solely on the promise of one day getting paid their Ponzi returns? [Continue reading…]

When an MLM company goes into prelaunch, how they conduct their prelaunch is usually indicative of how the opportunity will fare come launch.

With this in mind, a visit to the Quanta website isn’t very promising:

You can login and… well that’s it. Hitting the website with an affiliate referral link isn’t much better, although it does provide a video that names the co-founders of Quanta: [Continue reading…]

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

The Cycling Shares website (“cyclingshares.com”) was registered on the 18th of November, however the domain registration is private.

When asked by prospective affiliates for his or her information on social media, here’s what the Cycling Shares admin had to say:

You want to hear real or fake name ?

No admin tells real name, so its better to be silent on it, than telling fake name.

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 Le-Vel website indicating who owns or runs the business.

Le-Vel affiliates name “Paul Gravette” as the owner of Le-Vel, however his name does not appear anywhere on the Le-Vel website.

Further research reveals Gravette listing himself as “the owner” of Le-Vel on his LinkedIn profile:

In addition to Le-Vel, Gravette also claims ownership of Xyngular. Xyngular launched in 2009 and market a range of health, nutrition and weight loss products.

Linked off of Gravette’s LinkedIn profile is “Jason (Simon) Camper”, who also credits himself as an “owner / founder” of Le-Vel:

Ty Tribble (MLMBlog.net) named a “Jason Camper” as President of isXperia back in April 2011:

Another member of the executive team of isXperia is Jason Camper, president of the company. He is a 12 year professional when it comes to Direct Sales and Network Marketing Industry.

isXperia launched in 2007 and operate in the “health, wellness and skincare” MLM niche. At the time of publication, Camper’s name does not feature on the isXperia website’s “Executive Team” page.

A third name in relation to Le-Vel pops up in the company’ website domain registration listing, which names a “Justin Rouleau” of “Le-Vel Brands LLC” as the owner.

On his LinkedIn profile, Rouleau credits himself as “Director of Technology” at Le-Vel and a “web developer” at isXperia (2010 and 2011):

Of note is that the address provided for Le-Vel Brands LLC in the company’s domain registration (Texas), differs from an address provided on the Le-Vel website for “returns” (Utah).

I believe this is due to Le-Vel’s shippable products being manufactured in Utah, whilst the company is based out Texas. I tried to verify this on the Le-Vel website, but when I clicked “contact” the browser screen went dark and nothing happened.

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

The KASA Friends website domain (“kasafriends.com”) was registered on the 14th of November 2013, however the domain registration is set to private.

On the “contact us” page of the KASA Friends website, the company lists “Bonus Card Centar ltd” as a “processor company”. A contact address in Serbia, Belgrade is also provided.

Management wise a “Boban Savic” and Aleksandra Savic” are listed as “represent company” (company representative?) and “leader team” (team leader?) respectively.

Outside of the KASA Friends website, I was unable to find any further information on any past MLM opportunities the Savic’s were involved in.

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

In September of 2012 CEO David Wood “gave props” to Mack Zidan and named him Empower Network’s “top recruiter”.

I’m not sure whether now, over a year later, Zidan still holds the top recruiter title, however to date Zidan claims to have personally recruited over 2900 affiliates into Empower Network.

As a result Zidan, who refers to himself as “Mack Millions”, was a regular fixture at Empower Network’s 2013 events, winning multiple affiliate recruitment competitions held throughout the year.

Whereas once upon a time David Wood would refer to Zidan as “pure internet gangster”, these days the relationship between the two appears to have deteriorated.

How bad have things gotten? Today Mack Zidan openly accused Empower Network of fraud. [Continue reading…]

Nature’s Sunshine started back in 1972, with founder Gene Hughes encapsulating capsicum in the family kitchen and then selling it.

According to the Nature’s Sunshine website, initially Hughes was ‘selling encapsulated cayenne and other herbs and supplements to health food stores’. Later however

the family soon realized they wanted to touch more lives with their products, and they found the perfect vehicle for making this happen—direct marketing.

I wasn’t able to find a concrete timeline as to when Nature’s Sunshine began their MLM opportunity, but needless to say it’s been around for a while.

Today Nature’s Sunshine Products (NSP) can be found in 30 countries, represented by nearly 600,000 distributors.

Present day Nature’s Sunshine is run by Gregory L. Probert (right), who serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO (appointed October 2013).

Previously, he was Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Penta Water Company, President and Chief Operating Officer of Herbalife International of America, Chief Executive Officer of DMX Music and Executive Vice President of Worldwide Home Entertainment at the Walt Disney Company.

In addition to his position in Herbalife, Probert also served as an independent consultant to Nature’s Sunshine between October 2010 to June 2011.

On the corporate history side of things Nature’s Sunshine has had a relatively stable history. Of note though is a $600,000 SEC settlement reached back in 2009.

Wanting to crack into the Brazilian market in the late nineties, Nature’s Sunshine

paid more than $1 million in bribes to Brazil’s customs officials and government officials so it could circumvent import restrictions on products sold to its largest foreign market.

These payments continued into the 2000s, eventually catching the
attention of the SEC.

The SEC alleged that the nutritional supplements maker violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when its Brazilian unit made a series of cash payments in 2000 and 2001 to Brazil’s customs brokers and government officials so it could import unregistered nutritional products into the country, and then falsified its books to hide the payments.

According to the suit, the Brazilian subsidiary wasn’t able to register many of Nature’s Sunshine’s products to legally sell them in Brazil because of regulatory changes that resulted in many of the company’s supplements being classified as medicines.

As a result, the company’s sales in Brazil dramatically declined, the suit said.

To circumvent the import restrictions, the Brazilian subsidiary made undocumented cash payments, which were typically booked in its accounting records as “importation advances,” the SEC complaint said.

The Brazilian unit allegedly characterized these cash payments as legitimate import expenses, and Nature’s Sunshine failed to disclose them in its filings with the SEC, the suit said.

The company also was accused of violating federal securities laws when it filed misleading Forms 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2000; June 30, 2000; Sept. 31, 2000; March 31, 2001; June 30, 2001; and Sep. 31, 2001; and Forms 10-K for the fiscal years ended Dec. 31, 2000; and Dec. 31, 2001.

There was also a bit of a fallout with their then auditors, KPMG:

Under the settlement, Faggioli and Huff each agreed to pay a civil penalty of $25,000. Both men and the company settled without admitting or denying the SEC’s allegations.

Nature’s Sunshine disclosed in July 2007 that the SEC subpoenaed and the U.S. Department of Justice requested documents related to an internal investigation of its foreign operations by the company’s audit committee.

According to several Nature’s Sunshine shareholders in an ongoing lawsuit against the company over alleged insider trading and securities law violations, an investigation by its former auditor, KPMG LLC, found evidence showing that Faggioli knew of alleged fraud in his company’s international operations, and yet signed two letters to KPMG in March and August 2005 stating the contrary.

KPMG resigned in 2006 after it found that Nature’s Sunshine failed to take adequate remedial action, even after its investigation uncovered “control weaknesses” in its top management.

I’m unaware of any subsequent regulatory action against Nature’s Sunshine, so I’d suggest the above was largely the result of poor choices by executive management.

In anycase the SEC charges are related to the importation of product so, other than highlighting the failings of management at the time, I don’t think it’s of particular concern within the context of Nature’s Sunshine as an MLM opportunity today.

Read on for a full review of the Nature’s Sunshine MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Following in the footsteps of Colombia, who in late November suspended local WCM777 operations and launched a criminal investigation into the company, Peru’s Superintendency of Banking and Insurance (SBS) have today banned WCM777 from operating in the country.

Also caught up in the regulator’s announcement is TelexFree, with the SBS warning the Peruvian public that

companies Capital Market World 777 (WCM777) and TelexFREE are not allowed to raise money from the public in Peru.

In late November, just two days after Colombia declared WCM777 illegal, Peruvian congressman Jaime Delgado hinted that regulatory action was in the pipleline. Commenting on WCM777’s business model, Delgado  stated

WCM777 (World Capital Market) offers gains of up to 300% of the people who make an investment of between $399 and $1999 (USD).

It seems that, initially, the scheme works. However, as time passes and when it is not possible to convince more people (to invest, the company) stops paying (its existing) investors. Consumers should be alerted to this business.

And as previously reported on BehindMLM, TelexFree has been openly advertised as an investment scheme for some time now.

Somewhat curiously, when Peruvian media contacted the SBS back in early November with concerns about TelexFree being a Ponzi scheme, the agency advised that

(In TelexFree) this is not such a case because it manufactures a product (the Internet communication system) and do not provide interest on the money.

Whether or not the SBS had actually investigated TelexFree’s business model prior to issuing the above statement is unclear, however now a month later it seems they’ve changed their tune. [Continue reading…]