With Acre’s Public Prosecutors rejecting Carlos Costa’s mediation proposals late last week, it fell on Judge Thais Khalil to go over the proposals and make a decision.

Khalil’s decision was handed down yesterday in the shadow of Carlos Costa running all over Brazil to declare “god used him” to create TelexFree and that “nobody will take it” away.

This was followed up by a rather amusing “the battle is coming to an end” video, which was published on TelexFree’s Facebook page with the following caption:

The battle is coming to an end. We trust in God, we trust in justice.

In stark contrast to the deceptive narrative TelexFree are shoving down their affiliate’s throats, common-sense has once again trumped the company’s marketing theatrics. [Continue reading…]

Max International launched in early 2007 and market products focused on ‘glutathione’ distribution to the body.

Max International was originally founded by three founders – Steven K. Scott, Fred Ninow and Gregory Fullerton, however only Scott remains with the company today.

Ninow left Max International in 2010, eventually going on to launch Ocean Avenue in late 2012. I’m note sure when Fullerton left but today he’s with Savi Health, credited as a co-founder on their company website.

Steven K. Scott (right) meanwhile has a long history of television marketing, specialising in brand awareness and marketing campaigns through The American Telecast Corporation.

Taken from Scott’s website (“stevenkscott.com”),

In 2007 a meeting took place that was to radically change the course of Steve’s life. He met Dr. Robert H. Keller, a renowned research scientist and medical doctor.

Dr. Keller, an immunologist, oncologist and hematologist had authored more than 100 articles that had been peer-reviewed and published in various medical journals and chapters to more than 75 medical textbooks.

But the night they met at Chuck Norris’s home, Dr. Keller showed Chuck and Steve his clinical studies on a patented breakthrough nutritional formula that was proven to significantly increased cellular production of Glutathione, one of the cell’s most important protein chains.

Dr. Keller had been using the product with his patients for more than ten years and had seen phenomenal outcomes.

Steve funded a new company to take Dr. Keller’s nutritional breakthrough to the world. The company was named Max International.

On the executive side of things Max International is headed up by co-CEOs Joe Voyticky and David Bagley.

Voyticky comes from a corporate law background and doesn’t appear to have an MLM history prior to Max International. Ditto Bagley, who comes from a nutritional sciences background and apparently “co-founded a nutritional company”.

On their website Max International advise that they are based out of Utah in the US.

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

Following what can only be described as a PR nightmare spanning multiple countries and continents, WCM777 have themselves come clean and acknowledged they were selling unregistered securities in the US.

All but confirming the company operated as a Ponzi scheme, owner Phil Ming Xu’s latest update on the WCM777 website is a bit… strange. [Continue reading…]

Healthy Habits Global launched in November 2013 and are based out of California in the US.

The company operates in the coffee MLM niche and is headed up by Founder and CEO Ted Fitzgerald (below right).

Fitzgerald’s Healthy Habits corporate credits him with a ‘17 year career in direct sales‘.

Prior to his direct sales career, Ted built many businesses from the ground up including athletic clubs, restaurants and other retail establishments.

Ted has hit the top positions in every company he has been involved in. He has build (sic) organizations of over 55,000 distributors with over $10 million in yearly group revenue.

On Fitzgerald’s LinkedIn profile he lists himself as having been an affiliate of Gano Excel from February 2009 to February 2011. In February 2011 Fitzgerald appears to have left Gano Excel to work for Symmetry Software (non-MLM).

Gano Excel market a Ganoderma based coffee, with Fitzgerald’s time there appearing to be the inspiration behind Healthy Habits Global.

Despite mention of a seventeen year plus direct sales career, I was unable to find any further information on Fitzgerald’s involvement in the MLM industry.

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

Hot on the heels of the revelation a few weeks ago that TelexFree is being openly promoted as an investment opportunity in Peru, today Peruvian congressman Jaime Delgado has issued a statement warning the public about WCM777.

Whilst the context Delgado’s warning was made in isn’t clear, the message to would-be and existing Peruvian WCM777 affiliate investors certainly is: [Continue reading…]

Brain Abundance operate in the dietary supplement MLM niche. No contact information is available on the Brain Abundance website, leaving the question of where the company is based out of unanswered.

The Brain Abundance website domain (“brainabundance.biz”) was registered on the 24th of September 2013, however the domain registration is set to private.

Despite the lack of contact information provided, Brain Abundance are forthcoming with their corporate staff. Named as CEO and co-founder of Brain Abundance is Eric J. Caprarese, with Pejman Behrouzi named as fellow co-founder and Chief Science Officer.

In his Brain Abundance corporate bio, Caprarese is credited with being ‘a top income earner in multiple companies over his 25 year career in‘ MLM.

In an interview conducted by MLM attorney Kevin Thompson earlier this year in March, Caprarese reveals his first exposure with MLM was with “the big ‘A'” (A.L. Williams & Associates, now Primerica).

According to Caprarese’s LinkedIn profile, his most recent MLM venture prior to Brain Abundance was PureNRG FX. PureNRG FX launched earlier this year and marketed a Playboy branded energy drink.

PureNRG FX is still running and operational today, however interest in the company has been in decline since mid June or so.

It’s worth noting that PureNRG FX itself was a relaunch the failed Blue Bird Bids MLM penny auction business. Blue Bird Bids was launched in late 2012 and sought to capitalize on the shutdown of the $600M Zeek Rewards MLM penny auction Ponzi.

In early 2013 Blue Bird Bids was scrapped and replaced by PureNRG FX (using a completely different business model and compensation plan).

Eric Caprarese doesn’t mention any involvement in Blue Bird Bids in his LinkedIn profile, however a Google search reveals a webpage dedicated to him on the Blue Bird Bids website domain (now defunct):

Unforunately the page that listing refers to has since been pulled from the internet, so in what capacity Caprarese was associated with Blue Bird Bids is unclear.

In addition to his involvement in Blue Bird Bids and PureNRG FX, Caprarese also lists himself as “President & CEO” of several non-MLM companies.

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

If I’ve learnt one thing over the past year it’s that if you want to launch a Ponzi scheme targeting South Americans, you definitely need to have the “god factor”.

Forget speaking Spanish or Portuguese, forget having a local presence, forget even having a business model that makes financial sense, as long as you profess that god sent you there’s a seemingly endless queue of South Americans waiting to throw their life savings at you.

These people don’t give a damn where the money you promise them comes from and, particularly once the “god factor” has been established, they’re also inclined to believe anything you say. [Continue reading…]

Three weeks ago twe broke the news that Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos had personally ordered a police investigation into the local business operations of WCM777.

Twenty one days later, the results of that investigation are out. [Continue reading…]

Epic launched in 2013 and is headed up by CEO Glen Jensen (see BehindMLM Epic review here). As part of their launch Epic offered what they call a “$100 Million Dollar Leadership Development Strategy”.

We realise that top talent in any industry should have the respect and recognition they deserve.

We are attracting the best and brightest people from around the world to join in this Epic era.

This “strategy” is openly advertised on the Epic website, accompanied by a link to a corporate epic email address:

Presumably the idea is that affiliates and management of other MLM companies are to email Epic and, if they join the company, receive some of the $100 million Epic are offering.

Not surprisingly, one existing MLM company has taken issue with Epic’s offer and have filed a lawsuit against both Epic and their parent corporation, eCosway. [Continue reading…]

In what has not the best week for our two favourite Hong Kong based Ponzi schemes currently ravaging the MLM industry.

Indeed, with one facing regulatory action in the US and the other allegedly closed and not paying out investors, things don’t look good at all. [Continue reading…]