TelexFree

2ND UPDATE 3:23 P.M. ET U.S.A. In another swipe at Herbalife and perhaps MLM recruiting schemes in general, activist investor Bill Ackman says he’s out to combat pyramid schemes by creating one himself. Ackman’s apparent tongue-in-cheek approach adopts a typical “tell five” MLM marketing technique as part of a bid to create Internet virality for […]

UPDATED 2:14 P.M. ET U.S.A. It is not unusual for financial fraudsters to seek to rub elbows with famous people or to imply ties to them as a means of sanitizing purported “opportunities” or accenting their own bona fides. Recent examples of this include Florida-based Ponzi-schemer/racketeer Scott Rothstein, who mixed with the elite as his […]

Perhaps you remember the TelexFree ad by a promoter who introduced “Aunt Ethel” by way of an artist’s rendering and accompanying narration. Ads for MLMs and network-marketing “programs” that depict an artist’s hand “drawing” the story are somewhat common. The ads are designed to make you want to jump right in. After all, if the […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: The screen shots below show that Rodney Blackburn ends his “Unison Wealth” promo at the 8:29 mark of a 14:27 video. At the 8:30 mark, the website of the SEC becomes the feature and remains so for nearly the next six minutes as Blackburn touts Achieve Community, Unison Wealth and Trinity Lines, Ponzi-board […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Legisi HYIP scheme was a Ponzi-board “program” that tried to hide underground in 2007/08, even as state and federal investigators were conducting an undercover probe that eventually led to the arrests and subsequent convictions of the purveyor-in-chief and a pitchman for the $72 million fraud. One of the evidence exhibits in the […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: In litigation related to Zeek Rewards, a Ponzi-board “program,” court-appointed receiver Kenneth D. Bell has raised a concern that network-marketers may be proceeding from one fraud scheme to another. Bell has asked a federal judge to take “judicial notice” of certain YouTube videos. ** ______________________** UPDATED 10:07 P.M. ET U.S.A. “Unison Wealth” is […]

BULLETIN: (Updated 10:18 a.m. ET Dec. 24 U.S.A.) Lucrazon Global, a purported revenue-sharing program pushed on Ponzi boards such as MoneyMakerGroup, has been sued in federal court by private plaintiffs who allege fraud. Named defendants in the Dec. 9 complaint in Massachusetts federal court are Lucrazon LLC and Lucrazon Global LLC, both of Delaware and […]

The “Achieve Community,” a Ponzi-board money-cycling “program” targeted at Christians and positioned by some network marketers as an alternative for people who don’t want to “sell out” to banks and their “tiny little 1% annual return,” would like you to know that Santa Claus and an elf are on the team. By buying one “EXTRA” […]

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING:  (6th update 9:35 p.m. ET U.S.A.) Nicholas Smirnow, still listed by INTERPOL as a person wanted by the United States in the alleged Pathway To Prosperity (P2P) HYIP Ponzi scheme that affected people in 120 countries, has been arrested at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, Canadian media outlets are reporting. U.S. […]

Meet the man tasked with paying out claims to victims of the alleged TelexFree scam. http://t.co/pzwszb8ky0 pic.twitter.com/7tkqlh8mRD — The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) December 16, 2014 The Boston Globe is reporting today that TelexFree bankruptcy trustee Stephen Darr has been told that 60,000 victims of the alleged MLM Ponzi- and pyramid scheme exist in South Africa […]

“The Achieve Community” money-cycler train wreck has announced it’s back on the rails (sort of) and will relaunch today (sort of), after losing its payment processor last month. The asserted relaunch is occurring on the heels of multiple warnings from regulators about scams spreading on social media. It’s also occurring against the backdrop of allegations […]