Despite the assertion that Indian regulatory agencies are sitting on their hands as the December deadline to file a chargesheet in the Speak Asia Ponzi fraud case approaches, evidence that their investigations are still very much open continues to surface.

Following the granting of anticipatory bail just over a week ago to Speak Asia panelist and public spokesperson Aman Azad (alias Vivek Sharma), it was unclear how the authorities were going to proceed in the case.

At the time I opined;

Sounds like they’ve already gotten what they need then.

From memory the EOW didn’t bother responding to 383 either until the cronies got sand in their vaginas about it. And even then it turned out to be a complete waste of time.

I’m guessing today’s showing was probably more out obligation than anything. Six months without interrogation indicates they’ve moved up the Manoj Kumar foodchain.

And with the revelation of three new arrests in the case, sounds like I wasn’t too far off the mark. [Continue reading…]

Whether pegged to penny auctions, third-party travel affiliate deals, advertising credits, ebook libraries, health and nutrition products, casinos or what have you, for the most part the MLM “revenue-sharing” niche is dead.

Bar a few offshore companies based out of Hong Kong still taking affiliate investments, every other revenue-sharing based MLM company has either collapsed, stalled or voluntarily shut themselves down.

The reason for this of course is the SEC shutdown of Zeek Rewards, which pretty much cemented that the offering of revenue-sharing points in exchange for money, regardless of how it was described, boiled down to nothing more than a Ponzi scheme.

Under the MLM revenue-sharing model affiliates pump money into the scheme under a variety of guises, with affiliates who have previously deposited money into the scheme receiving a share of this money, typically by way of a daily payout (ROI).

Retail is usually attached to the model, however if affiliates are able to fund themselves is a negligible source of revenue, regardless of the product or service the opportunity attaches itself to.

On the rare few occasions a company has prevented affiliates from funding their own points, we’ve seen a general lack of interest from the industry and subsequent stalling (lack of revenue to pay out to those that participate) or outright failures (a previous incarnation of Bidify that was quickly dropped comes to mind).

Despite all of this however there are those that would have you believe the model is still viable.

The catch?

Secret patents that will provide ‘the right combination of legal and excitement‘, and also protect ‘protect the hard work, legal dollars and teams that have invested so much‘ into the model. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the KingUni website indicating who owns or runs the business, with the company only disclosing that it’s a

joint-venture with investors from China, South Korea, and the United States.

A corporate address is provided on the KingUni website, indicating that the company is registered in the US state of Nevada.

Interestingly enough the address provided (“3131 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Las Vegas, NV”), is that of the Wynn Las Vegas and Encore Hotel. No mention of KingUni is made anywhere on the Wynn Resort website, nor do they list any leasable office space (virtual or otherwise), so why KingUni are using their address on their website is a mystery.

Two additional corporate addresses are provided on the KingUni website, one in Shenzen China and the other Seoul Korea.

Both addresses however are marked “coming soon”.

The KingUni website domain (“kingunimobile.com”) was registered on the 23rd of August 2013, and lists a “Lee Jong Jin” as the domain owner.

I wasn’t able to find any further information on Lee Jong Jin, other than he or she appears to be based out Korea. The email address used to register the KingUni Mobile domain is a Korean-language domain, with the KingUni Mobile website itself being hosted out of Korea.

With the information that is currently known, Lee Jong Jin’s relationship and/or position within KingUni is unclear.

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…]

On their website legal firm Barnett & Linn list one of their practice areas as ‘SEC Compliance‘.

William Barnett and Roger Linn have each been representing business clients for over 30 years. Together they bring a wealth of experience and extensive knowledge to achieve efficient and practical solutions to their clients.

Barnett & Linn specialising in SEC compliance and the fact that they are based out of California, are likely the primary reasons WCM777 founder Xu Ming approached the firm for legal consultation.

Turns out Ming himself wasn’t sure if WCM777’s “Profit Points” compensation plan component would be seen as an unregistered security by the SEC.

In addition to offering affiliates a 100 day passive ROI on investments of up to $1999 and recruit commissions for bringing new investors into the scheme, WCM777 also offered affiliates what they called “Profit Points”.

Taken from the BehindMLM WCM777 review:

Profit Points are issued with each membership position purchase, with WCM777 claiming that the points ‘will be turned into stock when WCM goes public on NASDAQ‘.

In addition to points generated on the purchase of membership positions, 20% of all WCM777 affiliate’s earnings are held by the company “to purchase profit points” with.

Despite appearing to have “unregistered security” written all over it (points awarded on the expectation of future profit via the company going public), when approached for legal advice Barnett & Linn thought otherwise. [Continue reading…]

The mystery behind WCM777’s abrupt cancellation of their US business operations deepens, with news today that the BBB have listed the company under the “Ponzi schemes” section of their website.

Listed simply as “WCM777”, the BBB Los Angeles website reveals that a BBB file on WCM777 was “opened” on the 20th of August 2013. [Continue reading…]

On the 26th of October Columbian news network Noticias Uno (“News One), aired on the “Canal Uno” (Channel One) network), ran a story about Ponzi investment scheme WCM777 being a pyramid scheme.

Noticias Uno’s report (screenshot below), [Continue reading…]

Unaico first popped up on my radar in April of 2011. Back then you had a pretty basic setup, with Unaico operating as an MLM business opportunity pegged to the social network SiteTalk.

Both companies were run by CEO Rune Evensen, with the plan being that SiteTalk would generate revenue and commissions via shopping purchases made within the network.

Both Unaico and SiteTalk came under the umbrella of the Enigro Group, headed up by founder Jarle Thorsen.

Upon reviewing Unaico in 2011 I found that the SiteTalk side of the business looked fair enough, however the virtual shares the company was offering was a huge red flag.

Jarle Thorsen has a history of involvement in several pyramid schemes (Worldwide Alliance , T5PC , World Games Inc. and PlexPay), and in Unaico this seemed to have manifested itself via the offering of virtual shares.

In a nutshell, affiliates deposited real money with the company and were issued shares. These shares were tradeable amongst affiliates, with their value pegged to nothing more than affiliate speculation.

On the 12th of May 2012, Unaico put out a “media release” in which they announced

SiteTalk – The Opportunity Community, today announced the new brand name of ‘OPN – The Opportunity Network’ that will be taking over the operations of the direct selling side of the business.

OPN was also pleased to launch at this convention SiteTalk 2.0 which is the latest version of the social media platform that drives the OPN business oportunity (sic).

SiteTalk 2.0 features new shopping “Deals” that allows SiteTalk users to take advantage of great shopping discounts created in their local markets.

An address in Singapore was provided at the end of the press-release, with further research indicating a boatload of confusion over where The Opportunity Network and SiteTalk are actually based.

As noted above, one of the addresses used by The Opportunity Network is ‘#17-01 The Arcade, Collyer Quay, Singapore‘. This is the same address used on the Opportunity Network website domain (“opn.com”) registration, indicating it is a primary address.

Yet if one visits The Opportunity Network’s website, a different PO Box address in the Cayman Islands (a known tax-haven) is provided:

OPN LTD
TMF(Cayman) Ltd.,
1st Floor, Windward 1,
Regatta Office Park,
P.O. Box 10338,
Grand Cayman KY1-1003,
Cayman Islands

Adding even further confusion to the mix is The Opportunity Network’s Policies and Procedures, which state

Members waive all rights to trial by jury or to any court. All arbitration proceedings shall be held in the United Kingdom.

Three different addresses in three different countries spanning three different continents, with no clarification provided on The Opportunity Network’s website.

Despite changing their name in 2012 and relaunching themselves, I didn’t get around to a review until recently due to a complete lack of information released about the specifics of The Opportunity Network as an MLM business opportunity.

I suspect that a major contributing factor of this was The Opportunity Network’s new position on affiliate marketing of the opportunity:

Members must not produce their own literature, advertisements, sales aids and promotional materials, or Internet web pages.

For an MLM opportunity pushing a social network, the prohibition of independent affiliate marketing certainly seemed strange.

That spurred me on to further research behind the company name change, which led me to the Wikipedia entry of Enigro Group. In Unaico’s May 2012 media release quoted above, here’s the official reason the company provides for the name change:

“We felt that our nickname – “The Opportunity Network”, describes well who we are as a company today, and what our main focus is, so we decided to formalise that identity and make it our new official name – OPN” announced Rune Evensen, CEO of OPN.

I think a far more probable reason however was likely due to the ongoing regulatory problems Unaico was experiencing.

Shortly after the launch of the company showed the first allegations of it being a pyramid scheme surfaced. Thorsen has a background of pyramid companies Worldwide Alliance , T5PC , World Games Inc. and PlexPay.

The Norwegian Gaming Board has not drawn a full conclusion about Enigro, but they have warned against participation in the company.

They said: “After having made a preliminary assessment of Enigro, the Gaming Board is of the opinion that the company has clear similarities with illegal pyramid scheme.”

In April 2010 the company received attention by the financial authorities of Slovenia issued a warning against Unaico where they stated that this company was authorized to offer its services in Slovenia. The same warning was issued by the government of Austria.

In October 2010 the company Deloitte issued a press release in which it was denied any cooperation with Unaico.

Deloitte issued the press release in response to Unaico and SiteTalk marketing material in which allegations that Deloitte was involved in helping Unaico with their IPO.

In-investor club is also on the Finance Authority’s list of companies are cautioned not to invest money in. They said: “The FSA notes that I-investor Ltd. is not authorized to provide investment services in Norway, and therefore lacks the license required under Norwegian law.”

The company is consequently on international notification lists.

Both Pakistani and Chinese authorities have given their residents official warnings against involvement with Unaico, referring to the company as an illegal pyramid schemes and scams.

See the Enigro Wikipedia entry (Norwegian) for a full set of reference links certifying the above statements.

Write off the name change as an “identity change” sure, but I’m sure regulatory warnings being issued around the world probably had something to do with it too.

As for what happened to SiteTalk’s virtual share offering, the company appears to have converted them over into real-world shares on the Cyprus Stock Exchange.

Initially The Opportunity Network had planned to list themselves on the British GXG Stock Exchange through the shell company “ST Communities”, however that plan fell through when the listing was  terminated by GXG management.

ST Communities is a cash shell that is indeed on GXG
Markets however there is no way that the gentlemen in question would pass our screening process to be directors or controlling shareholders of a company on GXG should they attempt a reverse takeover.

Kind regards
Simon Kiero-Watson
Head of Markets, GXG Markets

ST Communities were terminated ‘as a result of a significant breach of both the General Rules of the Market (Rule 1.1) and the Disclosure Requirements (Rule 5.2).‘

Despite this, The Opportunity Network ultimately blamed their affiliates for the termination:

Dear OPN Members,

The main reason for this being the fact that the OPN members have been continuing contacting GXG. We have continuous urged you NOT to take contact with the GXG stock exchange, but there are numerous people still contacting the head office of GXG. You all need to help us to make sure that all your members get this information and warnings.

The company has 10 days to appeal against this decision. Our listing team have meetings with GXG Markets in London today, and they will deliver an appeal to this notice.

We will get back to you once we have further updates.

Regards,
The Management Team

Whether or not an appeal was filed I don’t know but The Opportunity Network was never relisted on the GXG Markets Exchange.

Instead they got themselves listed on the Cyprus Stock Exchange under the shell company “Global Digital Services PLC” on the 19th of August 2013 (stock code: STC).

In March 2013 The Opportunity Network’s Chief Compliance Officer Frank Ricketts appeared in a video where he heavily criticised the company’s critics. Referring to the GXG listing failure as a “mistake”, Ricketts went on to claim “the bloggers” who reported the failure and anyone else who did their due diligence were “idiots”.

Today no mention of the Enigro Group, Jarle Thorsen, SiteTalk virtual share offering or Cyprus IPO is made on The Opportunity Network website, with the company only acknowledging Rune Evensen and Thomas Nordlund (“co-founder / network director of OPN”) in the footer of the company’s website.

The Norwegian Wikipedia entry for the Enigro Group advises that ‘in the fall of 2011 and early 2012, both companies (Enigro and Unaico) were dissolved and their websites closed‘.

Read on for a full review of The Opportunity Network MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Xalo launched in October 2013 as an independent division of parent MLM company Xango. Both companies are based out of the US state of Utah.

On the Xalo website (hosted as a subdomain of the Xango website), the company explains

XANGO is the opportunity company. With the introduction of XALO Ageless, we’ve cultivated a unique new opportunity that incorporates the industry’s most generous payment structures and maintains XANGO’s unprecedented 50/50 split.

XALO compensation is a volume-based plan filled with bonuses and incentives as early as 5K. It creates multiple streams of income based on recruiting, customer base and residual income. It’s got lifestyle bonuses, cash bonuses and a handful of other ways for you to earn more — and to learn it faster.

And the best part? You can work the XALO plan right alongside the XANGO plan.

In the absence of any executive management information provided on the Xalo website, it is assumed that the management structure of Xalo and Xango are one and the same.

For further information on the Xango MLM business opportunity (including company history and background information), head on over to the BehindMLM Xango Review (October 2013).

Otherwise, read on for a full review of the Xalo MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Following weeks of commission delays for non-Brazilian TelexFree affiliates just over a moth ago, ewallet provider Global Payroll Gateway (GPG) abruptly announced that they could ‘no longer support TelexFree‘.

The announcement was made in mid September, with GPG informing TelexFree’s affiliates that International Payout Systems (i-Payout) would be taking over the supply of ewallet services to TelexFree.

No official reason was given for GPG’s dropping of TelexFree, however on their website GPG state

GPG maintains strict accordance with the USA Patriot act and a wide variety of other international financial regulatory and banking regulations.

GPG is very careful to follow all international regulations and laws concerning Anti-Money Laundering, Identity Protection and Payroll in general.

TelexFree is currently under criminal investigation in Brazil, with pending charges of money laundering and embezzlement being touted by Public Prosecutors.

About a month after my article on GPG dumping TelexFree went live I received an email from i-Payout, with the company wishing to clarify a few things.

In addition to informing me that I’d used the wrong domain to calculate their comparative size to GPG, i-Payout also insisted that they had

done a complete due diligence on TelexFree, assessed its needs, and confirmed the product as compliant with all US laws.

“Complete due diligence” you say? Go on… [Continue reading…]

I don’t know what’s up in Zeek Rewards ex-affiliate circles this week but after only days ago Robert Craddock dropped his “Zeek Rewards wasn’t a Ponzi scheme cuz we didn’t say it was” comedic bombshell, now we’ve got other angry Zeek Rewards net winners suggesting they should sue the government…

…and then use the lawsuit as blackmail leverage to get out of having to pay back their Zeek Ponzi winnings.

Want to know the grounds these Zeek Rewards affiliates are proposing they sue the government on? Read on… [Continue reading…]