ANOTHER MLM PR DISASTER: Zhunrize, Alleged Worldwide Pyramid Scheme That Gathered $105 Million, Was Presented As A ‘Plan B’

From a Zhunrize slide as viewed through Open Office. Red highlight by PP Blog.

2ND UPDATE 5:25 P.M. EDT U.S.A. Purported “Plans B” are one of the core signatures of the the MLM HYIP sphere, which is known for incredibly toxic global frauds such as Zeek Rewards and AdSurfDaily. In 2009, an ASD reload scam known as AdViewGlobal was positioned as a “Plan B.”

The individual schemes of Zeek and ASD took in a combined sum of at least $969 million. AdViewGlobal appears to have disappeared with millions of dollars — after targeting ASD victims for a second time.

In 2012, Zeek and ASD figure Keith Laggos pushed the Lyoness “program” as a “Plan B.”

Laggos’ listeners were told that, if things went south at Zeek, Lyoness would be an excellent hedge through which $10,000 directed at the scheme might return “a quarter-million dollars.”

Lyoness is now under investigation in Australia, amid pyramid-scheme allegations.

“Plan B” also is known as “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” HYIP prospects often are told to join more than one scheme or to quickly get in another if something goes wrong with the current scheme, sometimes known as “Plan A.”

Plan B schemes typically are a means by which prospects are lured into a continuous cycle of MLM frauds. Zeek and OneX promoter T. LeMont Silver later went on to “Plan B” schemes such as GoFunPlaces/GoFunRewards and JubiMax/JubiRev. Those schemes cratered or encountered difficulties. Silver now is pushing the exceptionally murky BitClub Network “opportunity” as a Plan B.

MLM HYIP schemes may switch forms. They may appear as straight-line investment-fraud schemes such as Legisi, which collapsed after an SEC intervention in 2008. ASD was an “autosurf advertising” scheme that collapsed in 2008 after an intervention by the U.S. Secret Service. Zeek, a purported “penny auction” company, collapsed in 2012 after an SEC intervention.

WCM777, meanwhile, collapsed in March 2014 after interventions by the SEC and state-level securities regulators. WCM777 purportedly was a “cloud computing” company  that allegedly gathered more than $80 million. In April 2014, another MLM HYIP scheme — TelexFree — collapsed. The SEC and the Massachusetts Securities Division said it was conducting a billion-dollar, cross-border securities swindle. TelexFree positioned itself as a “VOIP” company that also was in the apps, cellphone and credit-repair businesses.

The trend now appears to be to wrap traditional products such as cosmetics and diet shakes into murky and confusing schemes that pay recruitment commissions. No specific payout may be mentioned.

The SEC yesterday announced fraud charges against the Zhunrize MLM scheme, accusing it of selling unregistered securities and operating a massive international pyramid scheme.

The phrase “Plan B” even appears in promo material for Zhunrize. The material also references Plan A. Based on this information, it appears as though Zhunrize was touting itself as both a “Plan A” and “Plan B” scheme.

“Do you know anyone who would like to develop a plan ‘A’ Or plan ‘B’?” the Zhunrize promo queries.

In the promo, Zhunrize prospects are told they can earn “thousands each month by helping others to save time, gas, money and avoiding crowds.”

One of the problems in this bizarre sphere of MLM is that tainted money from earlier scams may flow into emerging scams, in effect making banks and payment vendors warehouses for a continuous stream of fraud proceeds that flow between and among pyramid schemes and Ponzi schemes.

Like Lyoness, Zhunrize is involved in the shopping-portal business. Like Zeek and other “programs,” Zhunrize also was positioned as a “profit-sharing” or “revenue-sharing” opportunity.

In court filings, Zeek receiver Kenneth D. Bell has suggested that MLM may have a problem with “serial” participants in fraud schemes who tout purported “revenue-sharing” plans.

Case files associated with various recent HYIP/revenue-sharing schemes put losses in the billions of dollars. Because some promoters simply move from one scam to another, they are eviscerating wealth on a global scale.

If someone pitches you on an MLM “Plan B,” run like the wind.