It’s been nearly two years since Speak Asia was shut down by the Indian authorities and since then, apart from some very public arrests, publicly little progress seems to have been made.

Led by a group of ringleaders with a murky connection to Speak Asia’s upper management, those who profited in the Speak Asia scheme have worked diligently to quell concerns those that lost money in the scheme.

Dangling the carrot of a business restart and the possibility of then recouping their investments via the recruitment of new investors, this strategy has largely worked.

Not due to any scrap of common-sense of plausibility of course, but rather the perception that the Indian legal system has been a playground for Speak Asia.

Hiring the best lawyers money can buy (paid out of Ponzi funds siphoned offshore), Speak Asia have thus far gotten away with lying to the Supreme Court of India, planting the seed that mediation could somehow absolve them of running a Ponzi scheme and insisting that if they just had a chance to explain their business model to a judge, that they’d be cleared of any wrong doings.

After a series of setbacks (much of Speak Asia’s legal proceedings were systematically demolished in late 2012 and early 2013 for being the time-wasting exercises that they were), in the anticipatory bail application for the All India Speak Asia Panelist Association (AISPA) Secretary, Ashok Bahirwani, for the first time ever an Indian court finally passed public comment on Speak Asia’s business model.

The verdict?

Speak Asia is a pyramid scheme. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Singles Matrix website indicating who owns or runs the business.

Infact, you can’t do or see anything on the Singles Matrix website other than to sign up and join the company.

The Singles Matrix website domain (“thesinglesmatrix.com”) was registered in May 2011 and names a Rephael Inbar of “W3 Ventures Inc.” as the domain owner.

Inbar (photo right) appears in marketing videos for the company and is credited as being the founder and creator of Singles Matrix.

Marketing videos for Singles Matrix first appeared online in November 2012, with the company’s website currently informing visitors that Singles Matrix is in pre-launch.

Inbar credits himself as the owner of w3 Ventures Inc. on his LinkedIn profile and has worked at a variety of IT related companies.

Inbar does have a history in internet marketing, but Singles Matrix appears to be his first MLM venture.

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

The legal battles between eAdGear (GoFunRewards/GoFunPlaces) and Randal Williams (JubiRev/JubiMax) continue to heat up with a modified complaint filed by Williams in a Western District court of Texas.

Back in February William’s filed a lawsuit against eAdGear in Texas, which after reviewing it I felt was rather general in nature:

Going over each side of both cases, it’s hard not to get a sense of vindictiveness arising from failed a failed joint business venture.

Whether or not William’s heart was ever in GoFunRewards or he was just there to gain contacts and funding I have no idea, but from eAdGear’s lawsuit and Paul Nash’s email above it certainly doesn’t seem like it.

If anything I get the sense that despite the allegations laid out against him, Williams is incensed that his time at GoFunRewards is now impacting his JubiRev business venture.

Just short of a month later eAdGear filed their own lawsuit against Williams in California, which laid out some serious shortcomings in William’s conduct as President of GoFunRewards and the pillaging of GoFunRewards to create his new venture, JubiRev.

Perhaps in retaliation for eAdGear’s lawsuit, Williams has now filed an amended complaint, complete with a slew of new accusations laid out against eAdGear and its management. [Continue reading…]

Addressing what is referred to as ‘the Vemma craze taking over campus‘, an article recently appeared in Texas State University’s “University Star” publication calling on students to be ‘careful to avoid getting swept up in quick money-making promises‘.

The article, written by “exploratory international freshman” Austin Tomlinson, claims that Vemma is a “dangerous pyramid structure” and paints a pretty bleak picture of the company’s marketing practices and MLM business model. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Digital Experts Academy website indicating who owns or runs the business.

On Digital Experts Academy’s “about” page, the company simply states:

Founded by a group of young Internet entrepreneurs who have been cashing in on the Digital Gold Rush over the last five years, DEA’s ultimate goal is to help its members become financially self sufficient as digital entrepreneurs in the new economy.

Meanwhile Digital Experts Academy’s website domain was registered on the 13th of August 2012, however the domain registration information is set to private.

If you click “promote” on the Digital Experts Academy website, the company redirects you to join something called “The Six Figure Mentors”:

In what appears to be a similar vein to Digital Experts Academy,

The SFM provides a state-of-the-art comprehensive direct marketing solution complete with the tools, training, coaching and community required to launch and grow a successful business.

Unlike Digital Experts Academy however, The Six Figure Mentors’ “About Us” page is a little more forthcoming with information on who’s running things:

In 2010 Internet entrepreneur Stuart Ross started the concept of forming an online community and training organisation to leverage the exact business model that enabled him to quit his job and build a multiple six figure income business his very first year online.

This community and training company is now known as The Six Figure Mentors (The SFM) and focuses on helping people generate more income, improve lifestyle and create more freedom by tapping into the power of the Internet.

The Six Figure Mentors is a membership site that sells membership for $297 upfront and $97 a month thereafter.

On a marketing video on The Six Figure Mentor website Stuart Ross refers to himself as a co-founder of both The Six Figure Mentors and Digital Experts Academy.

I couldn’t see any information about the other co-founder(s) anywhere else on The Six Figure Mentors website. The “SFM Team” page on The Six Figure Mentors website simply has a picture displaying “coming soon” on it:

Why this information is not openly disclosed on the Digital Experts Academy website is not known.

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

A bit of light news today with a report on Amway China’s recent sending of affiliates from China to Taiwan on “incentive trips”. Since March 12th, Amway has rewarded around 2000 of its affiliates (or “employees” as the Taipei Times report refers to them).

Straight out of the “weird files” though, things haven’t exactly gone to plan… [Continue reading…]

To claim that the aftermath of India’s Speak Asia scam has been long and arduous would be an understatement.

Back in mid 2011 the company had their primary bank accounts frozen and was effectively shut down. It was later revealed however that, amidst multiple investigations into the company, Speak Asia convinced a judge to unfreeze some of these accounts thus allowing Speak Asia to transfer over a hundred million dollars offshore to Singapore.

A few weeks India’s Crime Investigation Department (CID) managed to get the decision reversed and the accounts frozen again, but by then it was too late. The money was gone.

After much grandstanding between Speak Asia, Indian authorities and die-hard supporters of the company (mostly early investors who made lots of money or those who couldn’t afford to lose what they did and feel they have no choice but to continue to support Speak Asia in the hope the company will pay them back) in India’s legal system, today much of the focus is on the local management of the company, operating under the guise of organising and running panelist’s associations.

With a lack of updates on the status of a chargesheet being filed by the Economic Offenses Wing (despite promising to file a “watertight” case a year and a half ago now), observers and panelists both have been left to wonder what has become of the EOW’s investigation. [Continue reading…]

Lyoness was initially launched in 2003 in Austria by CEO Hubert Freidl. Despite now operating on a global scale and trading as “Lyoness International”, Austria remains the initial country that Lyoness launched out of and is naturally one of its most developed markets.

A decade later however and things don’t seem to be going all that well for Lyoness in their home country. Hundreds of investors have filed lawsuits against the company demanding refunds and Austrian authorities have launched a criminal investigation. [Continue reading…]

Harmless old small-town magician or devious mastermind behind the $600M Ponzi scheme that has devastated the MLM industry’s reputation?

Despite a the secret recording of a detailed discussion with initial investors laying out in detail the history of the Zeek Rewards’ Ponzi scheme, the debate surrounding the extent of Burks personal involvement and awareness he was running a Ponzi scheme has almost been as hotly debated as the opportunity being a Ponzi scheme itself.

Breaking his silence to the Associated Press for the first time since the SEC fined him and shut down Zeek Rewards, Burks had little to say to those that invested in Zeek.

Remorse and an apology?

Oh hell no. Fuck all y’all and the horses you rode in on! [Continue reading…]

One of the key factors in the perpetuation of the $600M Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme was the company’s affiliates being able to deceptively advertise their accumulated Ponzi points as actual revenue.

Despite the rhetoric about retail customers, publishing spam on the internet counting as “work”, the mythical success of the Zeekler penny auction and what not, at the end of the day Zeek Rewards affiliates pumped money into the scheme and were paid new investor money – based directly on how much money they put in themselves.

How?

For each dollar an affiliate invested, they were given a “VIP point” (after dumping some auction bids on fake customer accounts and publishing spam ads for the company). Each VIP point paid out a share of newly invested money daily, for a total of 90 days before expiring.

The problem lay with affiliates re-investing their daily ROI back into new points and simultaneously claiming that the money was actually paid to them first, before they re-invested it into the scheme.

The reality is that this money never existed. All that happened was a virtual transaction and the creation of new Ponzi points.

Analysis of Zeek Reward’s financials following the SEC bust revealed affiliates had generated roughly 3 billion VIP points through initial and continued re-investment.

If affiliates set their cash out at 100% and Zeek Rewards paid enough to ensure that no affiliates lost money over 90 days on their investment, this equated to a daily payout of $45 million.

How much money did Zeek Rewards have in their accounts?

$225 million dollars.

Taking in on average $5 million dollars a day for the month of July 2012 (the month before the SEC stepped in), it’s easy to see just how fragile the daily ROI house of cards was. And with ever-growing VIP point balances affiliates were generating, how ultimately it was destined to collapse under its own weight.

Despite all the points Zeek’s affiliates were generating, the money just wasn’t there to back it.

That of course didn’t stop affiliates from marketing their imaginary returns as actual earnings, despite never actually seeing the money (because it didn’t exist).

It’s sort of catch-22 if you think about it. Affiliates didn’t need to see the money because they believed they were re-investing it. This worked for Zeek Rewards because they didn’t have the money and played into re-investment to generate ever-increasing returns being a key component in the scheme.

Now, almost a year after the closure of the scheme and amidst a battle between initial investors who withdrew actual money and claim there were “no victims” in the scheme, those who invested later and lost their money and those who believe they lost money because the scheme was shutdown, despite the fact Zeek Rewards didn’t have the money to pay them, Receiver Kenneth Bell announced yesterday that affiliates will not be able to claim imaginary earnings or claim VIP point balances as actual money.

Why? [Continue reading…]