Last week, purely by co-incidence, I stumbled across an invitation in which it was claimed holdings company Insider21 had “acquired” Rippln.

Shortly after publishing an article on the story I was contacted by Stanley Abbott, Insider21’s VP of Strategic Alliances. In his email, Abbott wrote [Continue reading…]

One of the frequent questions we get regarding Ponzi schemes here at BehindMLM is the question of liability for a scheme’s top promoters. Typically these promoters are the “face” of the affiliate-field and the ones who “got in early” and collect the largest returns.

As part of the Zeek Rewards Receivership’s effort to recover funds to pay out those who lost money in the scheme (Zeek was on the verge of going belly-up had the SEC not shut them down), the Receiver has gone after Zeek’s top net-winner affiliates.

In addition to “baiting the hook” by creating a number of net winners, the Insiders operated the scheme with the knowing, reckless or at least negligent assistance and encouragement of a number of managers and advisors that greatly enhanced the perceived legitimacy and resulting success of the scheme.

Thus far some have settled with the Receiver repeatedly issuing statements in his quarterly reports about pending clawback litigation to be filed against those who refuse to return the money they stole. After a long wait and speculation over whether or not the general public would learn who these stubborn thieves are, today we can reveal that on the 28th of February 2014 the Receiver finally began his clawback litigation efforts against them.

Because Zeek’s Insiders “won” or received (the victims’) money in an unlawful Ponzi and pyramid scheme, they are not permitted to keep their winnings and must return the fraudulently transferred winnings back to the Receiver for distribution to Zeek’s victims.

In no particular order, here are the top profiters in Zeek Rewards who, despite Zeek Rewards being a $600M Ponzi scheme, believe they are entitled to keep the money they stole from their victims.

Ladies and gentlemen, the worst of the worst the MLM industry has to offer: [Continue reading…]

Despite Steve Labriola, TelexFree’s International Marketing Director, promising affiliates that “if there’s something going on we’ll let you know,” at the time of publication the company has failed to make any official announcement on the Massachusetts investigation.

Fresh from partying it up in Spain, Monday has all but come and gone in the US and nothing has been communicated to TelexFree’s affiliate-base. Well, nothing official anyway.

According to one Brazilian TelexFree affiliate, who had a “private meeting” with company owner Carlos Wanzeler at the recent Madrid bash, turns out Steve Labriola might be telling porky pies. [Continue reading…]

Despite the repeated claims that TelexFree’s existing compensation plan and business model was “absolutely not a Ponzi scheme”, the company has decided to recently announce some changes.

Likely due to the co-incidental timing of Massachusetts confirming a US investigation into the company and issuing subpoenas ordering TelexFree officials to appear before the SEC this Wednesday, TelexFree’s new plan feels like it was cobbled together hastily.

It’s confusing, it’s a drastic change from the old “invest $289 and get paid $20 a week for a year” plan and most people aren’t going to get it first time around.

After seeing the plan released in Portuguese last week, I’ve held off publishing my own analysis till an official English version came out. I noticed over the weekend several sources have published identical explanations of the new plan so I’ve put together what I believe to be as complete a review of the new plan as currently possible.

I’ve also tried to break it down and present the new plan as cleanly as possible, including what has changed from the old plan. If there’s some points people still aren’t getting, feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll try to further clarify.

Additionally corrections are also welcome. It is noted that for reasons known only to themselves, TelexFree have not provided anyone with official documentation yet. [Continue reading…]

Xenesta launched in early 2014 and are based out of Texas in the US. Operating in the health and nutrition MLM niche, Xenesta is headed up by Founder, Kyl Smith.

Smith (not to be confused for a less flabby Karl Rove), is credited with being ‘a pioneer in the world of natural medicine’ and has an extensive corporate bio on the Xenesta website. None of it however relates to MLM, at least not directly.

Further research didn’t turn up anything on the executive side of things, but Smith (right) did work for the Scientific Advisory Board over at Xooma Worldwide (health and nutrition). Smith joined Xooma in 2008 and his name was used heavily to promote the company:

Ron Howell of Xooma World Wide (A 17 year old established company) and Dr. Kyl Smith (The former founder of Focus Factor) and the inventor of the new product Focus UP, along with Randy Heaton (The Founding Distributor) and Master Distributor Ronnie Web have joined forces to bring you X20, MetaboWize and Focus UP.

I’m not sure what happened in subsequent years, but today Kyl Smith’s name doesn’t appear anywhere on the Xooma website.

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

Spinding, an MLM opportunity that offers affiliates participation in a series of $30 to $1890 cycler queues, has been having issues securing a credit card payment option for its affiliates.

Promised late last week, it turns out that the company was initially approved, however pending further compliance review, the terms of the agreement were then changed by the processor and subsequently rejected by Spinding.

The reason for the change?

Compliance issues. [Continue reading…]

Over the past month or so Steve Labriola, TelexFree’s International Marketing Director, has been flying around the world seeking to strengthen the company’s efforts to attract new affiliate investors.

The Dominican Republic, Haiti and Spain are just some of the countries Labriola has visited recently, and as he continues his affiliate investor recruitment-drive globally, his efforts haven’t gone unnoticed.

TelexFree are already under investigation in the US, South America, Europe and now with Rwanda confirming that they too are investigating TelexFree, Africa can now be added to the list. [Continue reading…]

After accepting $289 AdCentral investments on the promise of a $52 a week ROI for roughly two years, TelexFree recently announced some upcoming changes to its compensation plan.

Some details of the plan have emerged in Portuguese but as of yet no official English documentation has been released. Two days ago Carlos Costa, one of TelexFree’s owners, released a YouTube video that sought to cover some of the main aspects of the new plan.

Published on TelexFree’s official Facebook page, at the time of publication more than 1400 comments have been left in response to the video – mostly from Brazilian affiliates of the company.

Today I thought we’d take a look at some initial reactions to TelexFree’s upcoming compensation plan changes. [Continue reading…]

Back in January of this year, Allessandra Marques of the Acre Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that a US regulatory investigation into TelexFree is underway. Citing the “senstive” nature of the investigation, no further information was provided.

Despite the obviousness of regulators in Brazil likely being in contact with regulators in the US (TelexFree are registered in the US state of Massachusetts), on January 15th Steve Labriola, TelexFree’s International Marketing Director, declared that ‘there is no investigation started or presented to TelexFree in any shape or form.‘

Labriola went on to dismiss Marques claims, because he and TelexFree hadn’t ‘heard of anything‘.

As watertight as Labriola’s reasoning was, now it has been confirmed again that at least one US state is investigating TelexFree in the US. [Continue reading…]

I was recently asked by a BehindMLM reader to take a look at “Insider21”, an opportunity they were just introduced to by a friend.

Already in the process of going through the emails I’d flagged during the week for reply, I flicked over to the browser tab I had open for looking up new company review requests.

I punched in “insider21.com” and what came up was pretty bland:

The company listed three “brands”, none of which appeared to have anything to do with network marketing:

• Texstar – a “company (that) provides numerous investment opportunities by participating directly in oil and gas exploration and mining programs”
• Bonamour – a “lifestyle products company” and
• MSD Gold – “one of the most promising gold mining companies in the world”

If there was an MLM business opportunity within Insider21, I certainly wasn’t seeing it. [Continue reading…]