Although there’s no mention of Dream Life Vacation Club on the Xplocial website, the two companies share identical marketing copy on their respective “About Us” pages.

Lawrence B. Marcus (also known as Larry Marcus) heads up both Dream Life Vacation Club and Xplocial as CEO. I’ve previously covered Marcus’ MLM history over at the BehindMLM Xplocial review, with note that the company Provantage Legal (a previous venture of Marcus’) appears to have shut down.

The Provantage website was accessible when I wrote the BehindMLM Xplocial review back in July, but today the domain is parked (I’m not sure when the Provantage website was pulled).

Read on for a full review of the Dream Life Vacation Club MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Back when they were busy lying to the Supreme Court of India, Speak Asia planted the idea that if it was allowed to refund investors who hadn’t yet received a >100% ROI, that the authorities would permit the company to “restart operations”.

To this day there are Speak Asia investors who truly believe this is still going to happen.

With Ponzi schemes unable to pay out >100% of the money invested with them, the math plays out by paying those who haven’t withdrawn 100% yet from funds trapped in the system.

Funds trapped in the system primarily refers to money re-invested on the expectation of an even greater ROI down the track.

From a technical standpoint the Ponzi scheme counts these investors as having been paid more than what they put in, despite the reality that the actual money they invested is still locked up with the company.

So, the company pays nothing to these investors, uses the funds they initially invested and continue to re-invest to pay out those who haven’t re-invested yet, and then hopes the authorities will give them a free pass (“hey we paid out everyone!”).

The whole scheme hinges on the company being permitted to suck new investors in to make up for the deficit created by paying real money out, and also to some degree that those who were paid out will reinvest, re-trapping the money back into the system (with it ultimately getting paid out to earlier investors as intended).

Sooner or later of course the sustainability problems of a Ponzi scheme will still kick in and trigger a collapse. Of course nobody talks about that though, with the company only selling the idea that those who didn’t withdraw 100% of what they put in will get paid.

Speak Asia were the first company I’d heard of floating this idea, although it kind of fell apart when the Supreme Court decided the company was wasting its time.

Now, perhaps aware of the fact that Speak Asia’s deception won the company about twelve months of delays as things played out in court, TelexFree have begun to float a similar-sounding idea. [Continue reading…]

Lucrazon are based out of the US state of California and are set to launch in early 2014.

The company advises on its website that it is headed up by CEO and Founder, Alex Pitt (below right, also credited as “Alexy Pitt”).

Alex is a payment industry veteran for 20 years. He has developed technology such as payment gateways, electronic gift card platforms and specialized reporting systems that allowed his previous company, NMC, to become one of the largest Merchant Service Providers for Concord EFS utilizing BYPASS Front End, Concord Front End and Back End, as well as First Data platforms.

During his leadership, NMC’s portfolio grew to a $1.8 billion, providing services to Baja Fresh, McDonalds, Burger King, MonaVie and other major corporations.

Further research into Pitts’ MLM history turned up nothing. This may or may not be due to claims Pitt is from Russia and using an alias.

These claims popped up in different locations but I personally was unable to verify them. As it stands, apart from the mention of Monavie on the Lucrazon website itself, I was unable to ascertain whether or not Pitt has been involved in any other MLM companies. Lucrazon would appear to be Pitt’s first MLM venture on the executive side of things.

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

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

The Wings Network website domain (“wingsnetwork.com”) was registered on the 9th of November 2011, however the domain registration is set to private.

Why this information isn’t provided on the Wings Network website I can’t say, but the company’s compensation plan names a “Carlos Barbosa” as CEO.

As above, Wings Network simply refers to Barbosa as a “Portuguese citizen”.

Further research reveals Barbosa to have a strong affiliation with the Ponzi scheme BBOM. Below you can see a website advertising tickets to BBOM presentation Barbosa gave, promising an R$800 a month ROI.

See the details of this cheap Franchise in Carlos Barbosa Rs Rio Grande Do Sul where you can initially invest R $ 600,00 in Bronze Plan, R $ 1,800.00 in Silver Plan and $ 3,000.00 in Gold Plan.

BBOM was a $300 – $1500 Ponzi investment scheme that was shutdown by Brazilian authorities earlier this year.

An additional point of note is a template on the Wings Network website that appears to assign the affiliate account details of a “Joao Carlos Andrade”.

Andrade’s details are automatically entered in if no sponsor details are provided when a new Wings Network affiliate signs up.

On his LinkedIn profile, Andrade (using the name “John”) advises he also lives in Portugal, is a “senior advisor” of Wings Network and “diamond” investor in BBOM:

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

For a company that has incessantly tooted its own horn since announcing itself to the world back in April, things have gotten awfully quiet over at Rippln.

The last Rippln Facebook post was made on the 21st of November, just shy of two weeks ago.

The last official Rippln blog post was made on November 13th, three weeks ago.

And the last Rippln YouTube video was uploaded on November 5th, four weeks ago.

Like I said, this is a company that has run on a platform of over-exposure, so the switch over to silence now certainly has us confused. [Continue reading…]

In November 2011, after seven years of litigation, the Commercial Court in Belgium ruled that Herbalife was a pyramid scheme.

The case was brought forward by the non-profit organisation “Test Aankoop” and claims that Herbalife breached the WPMC (market practices act) by running a pyramid scheme.

Herbalife filed an appeal against the case, arguing that their ‘sales model is in full compliance with Belgian law’. Yesterday a decision was made on Herbalife’s appeal, with a Belgian court granting it and effectively reversing the earlier pyramid scheme decision.

As with everything Herbalife these days however, the finer details are murky and there’s much to be said about the the basis the appeal was granted on. [Continue reading…]

Immunotec launched in 1996 and market nutritional supplements, based on glutathione research conducted by Gustavo Bonous in the 1980s.

In 2007 Immunotec went public (IMM:CN), with shares in the company currently trading at 28 cents Canadian.

Immunotec is a Canadian company based out of Quebec, and is headed up by CEO Charles L. Orr (right).

In his Immunotec corporate bio, Orr is credited with having been an Immunotec “director” since 2006 and the CEO of Shaklee (health and wellness) from 1993 to 2000.

Mr. Orr is a seasoned professional with 23 years of experience in the direct selling field. Additionally, his work history includes extensive leadership responsibility in the financial services and computer industries.

Charles Orr signed on as Immunotec CEO in May 2013, replacing Robert Henry, who “departed” four days earlier on May 13th.

A subsequent “corporate update” from Immunotec in June reveals Henry did not depart from the position but was infact “terminated” on May 10th.

The Board asked for the resignation of Mr. Henry as a director of the Corporation and its subsidiaries.

As Mr. Henry declined to resign, the Board also approved the calling of a special meeting of the shareholders of Immunotec for the purpose of removing Mr. Henry from its Board.

Immunotec did settle with Henry for $500,000 after he was terminated:

Immunotec Inc. and Mr. Robert Henry, its former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, are pleased to announce that they have amicably concluded a final settlement to their mutual satisfaction with respect to the claims regarding Mr. Henry’s past involvement with the Company, for a total amount payable to Mr. Henry of USD$522,000.

What the story there is I have no idea, but it’d certainly be interesting to know why Henry refused the Immunotec Board’s request he resign, and why they then terminated him.

Whether we’ll ever find out unfortunately seems doubtful, with the above agreement notice ending in flowers and sunshine:

The Company thanks Mr. Henry for his contribution to the Company. Mr. Henry also expresses his appreciation to the Company’s founders, the management team and the Company’s employees, distributors and customers.

In anycase, read on for a full review of the Immunotec MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

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

The Cycler Buzz website domain (“cyclerbuzz.com”) was registered on the 19th of November 2013, however the domain registration is set to private.

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 Auto Recruiting Platform website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Auto Recruiting Platform website domain (“autorecruitingplatform.com”) was registered on the 7th of August 2011, however the domain registration is set to private.

Further research reveals Auto Recruiting Platform affiliates naming Don Glanville as the owner of the company:

Why this information is not available on the Auto Recruiting Platform website is unclear.

Glanville (right) first popped up on my radar back in 2010 through his involvement in GiveOpp.

GiveOpp tried launched with a super-secret marketing strategy under the guise of providing ‘communities with sustainable agriculture, water resources and social well-being‘. This approach ultimately failed to gain any traction, resulting in GiveOpp flopping shortly after launch.

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

Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen appeals rejected – I’ve lost count of the exact number of times TelexFree have had their various appeals dismissed, but I’m starting to think they found their lawyers in one of those 20 cent skill-based claw machines.

TelexFree’s latest appeal was filed in the Superior Court and appears to be an objection to a ruling in São Paulo.

According to the Superior Court website,

Desertion occurs when the part does not collect or collects less judicial fees required for filing an appeal.

So as I understand it, an administrative decision was made in São Paulo against TelexFree for either not paying or not paying in full, fees incurred via the filing of appeal(s) there.

This latest appeal was an attempt to overturn that decision, which has also failed. [Continue reading…]