Like MPB Today And Data Network Affiliates’ Promoters, TVI Express Pitchmen Used Images Of Warren Buffett And Donald Trump; Government Of South Africa Reportedly Opens Criminal Probe Amid Pyramid Allegations
TVI Express, an MLM company whose pitchmen have used images of business titans Warren Buffett and Donald Trump to plant the seed they backed the firm, has come under criminal investigation in South Africa, according to web records and a media site.
Buffett and Trump are believed to have no ties to the firm.
News of the TVI criminal probe first was reported Dec. 30 by The New Age. The publication quotes a spokesperson for the South Africa Department of Trade and Industry, noting the TVI matter has become a “police case” involving pyramid-scheme allegations.
TVI, purportedly based in London, also is under fire in Australia. Meanwhile, there are reports the company has come under fire in the U.S. state of Georgia. Reports that Georgia officials have issued a cease-and-desist order could not be confirmed immediately.
It was not immediately clear if South Africa would seek to determine why TVI promoters sought to plant the seed that Buffett and Trump backed TVI, which purports to be in the travel business. An image of Buffett appears on the TVI home page — and images of Trump and former President Bill Clinton appear on an internal page.
A number of MLM schemes have produced photos or made references to Clinton, who once delivered remarks to tout the direct-selling industry. Clinton did not endorse a specific company, and the Code of Conduct of the Direct Selling Association (DSA) specifically prohibits “Deceptive or Unlawful Consumer or Recruiting Practices.”
In its Code of Conduct, DSA specifically requires member companies to provide information that is “accurate and complete.” At the same time, DSA says member companies “shall not present any selling opportunity to any prospective independent salesperson in a false, deceptive or misleading manner.”
TVI Express is not listed as a DSA member on the organization’s website.
Even as news about the TVI criminal probe was appearing online in South Africa, news that Buffett’s name allegedly had been used to sanitize elements of the George Theodule Ponzi scheme in Florida was appearing in the United States.
Images of Buffett and Trump also have been used by promoters of a purported “grocery” MLM in Florida known as MPB Today. Separately, images (and references) to Trump and television icon Oprah Winfrey have been used in promotions for Data Network Affiliates (DNA), an MLM company purportedly in the business of building a database to help the U.S. government and the AMBER Alert program rescue abducted children.
DNA now appears to have morphed into a company known as OWOW, which has positioned its products as cancer cures or treatments and even as a means of preventing the surgical amputation of limbs and growing tomatoes twice the size of ordinary tomatoes. DNA has a rating of “F” from the Better Business Bureau, the organization’s lowest.
During the summer of 2010, DNA changed the name of an offering known as the Business Benefit Package (BBP) to the “BBB,” the acronym used by the Better Business Bureau. The BBP package debuted in March. The name change appeared to be an effort to cloud search-engine results and confuse prospects who were searching for BBB information about DNA online.
Eventually websites bearing DNA’s name began to resolve to the OWOW site. DNA also used names such as TagEveryCar.com and LockInYourFreeSpot.com. Those sites also now resolve to the OWOW site.
See story on a major case brought by the FTC in August 2010. Among other things, the case alleged that images of Winfrey and Rachel Ray were used in sales promos without their consent in an acai-berry scam.
Quick note:
A reader sent us a message that ADSurfDaily members also were big on TVI Express — and that some sort of ocean cruise for TVI Express is scheduled for this month.
The email pitching the cruise is a thing to behold. It begins:
“It bulges us with pride and gratification to live the celebrated fact that TVI Express business opportunity in so many ways has been and remains still generously unbeaten and unsullied in the portrayal of a lifeblood role in accomplishing dreams and development goals, both personal as well as monetary, of so many lives all around.”
More from the email:
“If we look back, what do these two years spell?
“Nothing else but the beginning of a legendary anecdote hiking through the hierarchies of freedom, contentment, and success.”
Patrick
How can this be? Why Ken Russo and Faith Sloan have assured all of their people that TVIExpress is one of the best programs of its kind they have ever seen. Uh…..Wait…..I just remembered that Ken Russo and Faith Sloan say that about every program they promote. Never mind.
Just another in a long line of major scams pimped by Ken Russo and Faith Sloan, and soon to be shut down by the authorities. Then Ken and Faith will feign shock it was a scam, and they were duped..again. For people who claim to be so smart they sure are stupid.
Hopefully they will get their just rewards in the ASD case, as well as in this case, Regenesis2x2, MPBToday, and P2P to name just a few. One can hope.
What amazes me is that Mr. Trump and Mr. Buffett do not sue these guys into the next century. It’s not like they don’t have the finances to litigate, far from it. Perhaps they have chosen to use their genuine business sense and/or wisdom to to qualify the insanity these people practice daily with a response.
If you ignore them,they will hopefully go away…..
P.S. If only they would use a reference to Metallica… we all know Lars would sue them!
Lol Very True.
Hi Patrick,
You say that TVI Express headquarters are purported to be in London. I was asked to check the programme out by a member of Time Management Forum on the day that it was launched.
TVI Express claimed that it was situated in London W1. This was an obvious con, as the picture of the high rise building was nothing like buildings that exist in London’s exclusive Mayfair. Whoever placed the photograph of that building on TVI Express web site does not know the Berkley Square area of London. I remembered the old song “A nightingale sang in Berkley Square” It is not an area where they build high rise office blocks.
The building was just like the building where the old ICL building was located on the South side of the river at Putney Bridge, near where I live. I told Time Management Forum that I would go up to Mayfair and take a picture of what existed at the address they gave. I said that if TVI Express had a Company registration number and VAT registration number, I would pass the information on to their members.
The reply from T.I.M.E was to tell me not to bother as they had already moved offices. If you know where the new headquarters are supposed to be now, I will visit it to see of such things like company registration or VAT numbers exist.
The members of T.I.M.E who were among the first to buy into this shady deal include some of the slimiest snakes, who will devour one and other that one could hope to meet on the Internet. A clever journalist should have no difficulty extracting information about the purported London address from one of these snakes. I am sure that I could get South London press onto the matter.
Please let me know if you would like me to get some newspapers to investigate what is reported in T.I.M.E forum
PARTIALLY CONFIRMED: TVI Express head Tarun Trikha arrested in India
http://kschang.blogspot.com/2013/04/rumor-some-facebook-post-claims-tarun.html