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RIPPLING NIGHTMARE: Has TelexFree Been Dwarfed By Another MLM Ponzi Scheme? Better Living Global Marketing Reportedly Says It Has Taken In $3.3 BILLION — And Is Experiencing ‘Cash Flow Problem’
EDITOR’S NOTE: In a story dated today, BehindMLM.com has broken down claims made in a recent video in which Better-Living Global Marketing (BLGM) figure Luke Teng appears. The potential criminality at BLGM, purportedly based in Hong Kong, not only is alarming, it is stunning. Even more disconcerting is the level of disconnect surrounding the scheme, which had a Zeek Rewards-like business model and purportedly was in the penny-auction business . . .

Hang on to your hats! There could be an active MLM HYIP Ponzi scheme that is even larger than TelexFree, which allegedly reached across national borders to take in $1.2 billion before collapsing in April 2014. The alleged TelexFree sum would rival the epic Scott Rothstein Ponzi and racketeering scheme in Florida and potentially would make TelexFree the fifth largest Ponzi scheme of all time, regardless of the Ponzi business model used. (Like the shrimp delicacies memorably recounted by “Bubba Blue” in the movie “Forrest Gump,” Ponzi schemes come in many forms.)

In 2012, prior to the actions against TelexFree by various law-enforcement agencies, PonziTracker.com rated Rothstein’s caper as the 4th largest of all time in terms of investor losses, estimated at $1.4 billion. Only the Bernard Madoff (est. $17.3 billion), Allen Stanford (between $4.5 billion and $6 billion) and Tom Petters schemes (est. $3.7 billion) were larger.

BehindMLM.com is reporting today that BLGM’s Luke Teng claims to have set a “world record” for intake in his particular sphere of MLM.

If the claim attributed to Teng is correct — that BLGM has taken in $3.3 billion — it could blow both Rothstein and TelexFree out of the water and put BLGM in the same Ponzi seas as Tom Petters and his $3.7 billion scheme. Put another way, BLGM could be the fourth-largest Ponzi scheme of all time, regardless of form.)

If an online Ponzi scheme operating across national borders (including the borders of the United States) can put $3.3 billion on the table in two or so years of operation and creep up on Petters, are we on the cusp of the once unthinkable? Could MLM HYIP schemes rival or even eclipse Stanford and Madoff?

At $1.2 billion, TelexFree already has created a litigation quagmire that rivals the quagmires surrounding the Madoff, Stanford, Petters and Rothstein schemes. BLGM could go the same way. Both BLGM and TelexFree even could eclipse the Top 4 in terms of litigation and logistical nightmares, because millions of victims from dozens and dozens of nations are apt to exist. That condition was not present in the Madoff, Stanford, Petters and Rothstein schemes.

Zeek Rewards — the sixth-largest Ponzi scheme in history, according to the 2012 PonziTracker list — created a litigation monster that could be surpassed by both BLGM and TelexFree.

And yet willfully blind MLM hucksters and serial scammers still are pushing cross-border fraud schemes. The numbers alone show that the world never has seen such felonious self-indulgence at the street level of dealers:
- Zeek. Collapsed in 2012 after less than two years of operation. Victims: 800,000 to 1 million (est.). Dollar volume: $897 million. Source for dollar volume: U.S. court filings.
- TelexFree. Collapsed in April 2014 after operating for a little better than two years. Victims: 700,000 to 1.5 million (est.). Dollar volume: $1.2 billion. Source: TelexFree figures cited in Massachusetts Securities Division action in April 2014.
- BLGM: Operational, but reportedly experiencing cash-flow problem and not paying out or making selective payouts. Victims: Unknown number, but may rival Zeek and TelexFree. Dollar volume: $3.3 billion. Source: Luke Teng video cited by BehindMLM.com.
A Rippling Nightmare

The numbers are hardly the sole concern. As Behind MLM.com reported today, citing remarks made by Luke Teng in the BLGM video (italics added):

[8:13] Some leaders are still making good money. Because the leaders are taking cash from the new members and they use it to give them ecash.

So, that’s still a way for you to make money.

Our take: If true, this is beyond horrifying. It is alleged TelexFree created conditions that permitted members to transact business outside of the system, and some members even may have created an exceptionally dangerous black market for TelexFree’s earning units, which were known as “AdCentrals.”

As the PP Blog reported on March 24, 2014, an ad offering TelexFree AdCentrals at a firesale price appeared on an auction site. Viewers were encouraged to buy a bundle of 550 AdCentrals for $16,760. The asking price purportedly reflected a discount of $8,190 (33 percent), and the purchaser purportedly would earn $110,000 from TelexFree in the next year.

The situation in both TelexFree and BLGM is reminiscent of the truly disturbing Evolution Market Group/FinanzasForex scheme described in 2010 by federal prosecutors in the Middle District of Florida.

As the PP Blog reported at the time (italics added):

. . . there were schemes within schemes in a tangled web of domestic and international deception that featured dozens of bank accounts, shell companies and various fronts for money-laundering enterprises, including companies purportedly in businesses such as real estate and car washes.

The scheme was so corrupt, according to court filings, that some investors were told that, in order to leave the program whole, they had to recruit new investors, have the new investors pay them directly — and use the proceeds from the new investors to “recover” their initial outlays.

In short, if you wanted to recover your EMG/Finanzas money, you had to steal your way out of the “program” by gathering new cash from incoming recruits and keeping it.

Some of the money in the EMG/FinanzasForex case allegedly was tracked to the narcotics trade.

Based on the BehindMLM.com report, it also appears that BLGM may be trying work a second form of Ponzi fraud into its existing scheme. This would appear to involve an adverting rotator of some sort, something consistent with the AdSurfDaily MLM Ponzi scheme in 2008. In 2012, while sharing promoters in common with Zeek, a “program” known as JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid appeared to be trying to transition from a straight-line HYIP fraud into a fraud named “ProfitClicking” that would introduce an “advertising” function. Part or all of the earlier JSS/JBP fraud appears later to have morphed into something called “ClickPaid.”

So, in some ways, BLGM could be modeling ASD, JSS/JBP and other reload schemes to sustain its Ponzi deception.

Teng also may be channeling a notable delusion of now-jailed ASD Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin.

Indeed, according to the BehindMLM.com report, Teng is suggesting he may start his own bank.

Before Bowdoin was arrested in 2010, he claimed ASD was looking at acquiring an interest in a bank in South America and creating its own payment processor.

BLGM appears to have gained a head of steam in part from cash-gifting schemers in a “program” called “BlessingGoldClub” and also from former enthusiasts of the Zeek and Profitable Sunrise fraud schemes.
Nov 4, 2014
British Women Convicted For Roles In Cash-Gifting Pyramid Scheme With Bridal Theme

In May 2012, three American women and alleged “leaders” of a cash-gifting pyramid scheme were arrested in Connecticut for their roles in the purported “opportunity,” a pyramid that featured so-called “Women’s Gifting Tables” and had a food theme. Two of the woman later were sentenced to prison. The third woman was placed on three years’ probation and put under court supervision.

It now has emerged that 11 women in Britain implicated in a highly similar scheme have been prosecuted. Six have been convicted. The British scheme was known variously as “Give and Take” and “Key to a Fortune” and had a bridal theme.

MailOnline published a photo of promo material associated with the scam. It showed a beaming young woman, presumptively a newlywed, displaying a pile of cash from a bed.

The apparent message? Get a great start in wedded life by handing over your cash to a gifting scheme and waiting for your £3,000 to magically turn into more than £20,000.

Like the Connecticut cash-gifting scheme, the British scheme allegedly was led by older women, including some in their fifties or sixties. Both schemes featured false claims the “program” was legal.

The British scheme reportedly gathered on the order of £21 million, with about 90 percent of participants losing their money. Some of the participants appear to have purchased multiple positions, hoping to score more than one payout.

Western Morning News, quoting a prosecutor, reported the scheme was ruled with a “rod of iron.” In May 2012, federal prosecutors in the United States said the Connecticut scheme included an element of “intimidation” aimed at silencing people who questioned the scheme.

The scheme in Britain allegedly operated between May 2008 and April 2009. The Connecticut scheme operated roughly between 2008 and 2011.

From the BBC, quoting Judge Mark Horton (italics added):

“These cases and the actions and attitudes of these defendants demonstrate the way in which pyramid promotional schemes and chain gifting schemes can be secretly created and quickly spread amongst a vast number of people and over several counties,” he said.

Even members of Alcoholic’s Anonymous were targeted in the U.S. scheme, according to testimony in the case.

Vulnerable individuals also were targeted in the U.K. scheme, according to multiple media accounts.

In 2013, police in Canada issued a warning about a “Women’s Circle” cash-gifting scheme “making its rounds” in British Columbia. In 2010 and 2011, at least 15 women in the U.S. state of Michigan were charged criminally in an alleged cash-gifting scheme.

In February 2014, a prosecutor in Hawaii warned about a “Women’s Circle” gifting scheme operating in that state. The PP Blog reported at the same time that members of a cash-gifting scam known as BlessingGoldClub were trying to offload “units” in the Better-Living Global Marketing HYIP scam for $500. The units purportedly were being discounted from $1,295.

In the U.K. case, Judge Horton said, “The public need to be aware that schemes like this lead to the destruction of lifelong friendships and families and in some cases whole communities as friends and family are lured into such a scheme,” according to Western Morning News.

Sep 19, 2014
Hawaii Prosecutor Says ‘Women’s Gifting Circles’ Pyramid Scheme Operating In State — Plus, Update On ‘Blessing Gold Club’

“Women’s Gifting Circles” or “Women Empowering Women Circles” pyramid schemes are operating in Hawaii, said Kauai Prosecuting Attorney Justin F. Kollar.

“These schemes are marketed as a way to entice women through a tiered investment model, often using language that speaks in terms of ‘empowering’ women spiritually or financially,” Kollar said. “The people at the top of the pyramid collect money from those at the bottom of the pyramid, plain and simple. The people at the bottom are promised future rewards that are based on recruiting additional followers to start new circles. These schemes are illegal and are designed by predators to extract money from people who trust them.”

A similar scam led last year to federal prison sentences for two Connecticut women. There were reports that “Women’s Circle” scheme also was operating in British Columbia in Canada.

From a statement today by Kollar’s office (italics added):

In many cases, women who are being recruited are told not to talk about the circle for various reasons, or are told that the practices are legal as long as the dollar amounts are under a certain threshold. However, violators can be subject to criminal and civil penalties under State securities laws.

In other cash-gifting fraud news, a source told the PP Blog today that members of a cash-gifting scam known as BlessingGoldClub are trying to offload “units” in the Better-Living Global Marketing HYIP scam for $500. The units purportedly are being discounted from $1,295.

BLGM members have been fretting about not getting paid. The “program” is similar to the Zeek Rewards’ Ponzi scheme.

TelexFree figure Scott Miller also has been a proponent of cash-gifting. Miller’s Facebook site for TelexFree, alleged in Brazil to be a massive pyramid scheme, appears not to have been updated since Jan. 10.

Feb 18, 2014
The ‘Wave’ Continues — Plus, A Brief On BlessingGoldClub And Possible Promotional Ties To Better-Living Global Marketing, A Zeek-Like Scheme With A ‘Bidders Paradise’ Arm

The series of screen shots (below) show spam waves aimed here today that appear to originate in China. The would-be visitors tried to register to post “comments” in older stories detailing the MPB Today pyramid scheme, the Evolution Market Group and FinanzasForex fraud schemes and the ProfitClicking fraud scheme. Not pictured are URLs from another Oct. 8 wave, which sought to pull stories and/or post “comments” in threads on scams of more recent vintage, including Zeek Rewards and Profitable Sunrise.

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This is an expanded view of a wave tonight and the spammers’ bids to register to post “comments” here.

Through 12:49 p.m. EDT today, the PP Blog had received 24,575 spams this month alone. By 9:05 p.m. today, the number had risen to 25,264. The total in the past six months has exceeded 317,000. For a month or so, the Blog has been testing a new means of minimizing the effect of data floods on its core systems. This is a work-in-progress that occasionally has created inconvenience for legitimate readers and posters. We appreciate your thoughtful notes and patience as we continue this battle.

‘BlessingGoldClub’ Brief

Speaking of thoughtful notes, we received one today from a person knowledgeable about a purported “opportunity” known as “BlessingGoldClub,” which appears to be a cash-gifting scheme with some members trying to marry themselves to a purportedly Hong Kong-based, Zeek Rewards-like scheme known as Better-Living Global Marketing and an apparent subsidiary known as Bidders Paradise.

We referenced Better-Living Global Marketing in this May 12 thread involving former Profitable Sunrise pitchman and Zeek Rewards fawner John Schepcoff. It also is referenced in this June 5 story about an SEC subpoena aimed at Schepcoff.

We have briefly reviewed some information about Blessing Gold Club, which purports to be a “private membership association.” In any event, offering materials for Blessing Gold Club show children displaying handfuls of cash. If members now are congregating with Zeek and Profitable Sunrise scammers and pushing Better-Living Global Marketing, it could be yet another MLM disaster in the making.

The person knowledgeable about BlessingGoldClub is raising the prospect that gifters are trying to keep Better-Living Global Marketing/Bidders Paradise under the radar and may be avoiding traditional scam-pushing sites such as the Ponzi boards.

Longtime readers will recall that AdViewGlobal, a knockoff of the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, also purported to be a “private association.” According to an AVG consultant (in 2009) who had a criminal record for securities fraud, such structures permit individuals to practice medicine and law without a license.

And by the various magical constructions that existed within AVG, they apparently also make Ponzi and pyramid schemes “legal.”

Be careful out there, Folks. The bots and spammers are doing all they can do to make sure the scammers can thrive on the Internet.

Oct 8, 2013