Mavie World, Ultron and several other promoters have acquired a stop and desist order from Quebec’s Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF).
Named respondents in AMF’s Could sixteenth order are:
- Mavie Lab Ltd
- Ultron Applied sciences Integrated
- FlipMe
- LottoDay
- Nick Lemay
- Stephane Plante and
- Nathalie Mercier
Mavie World and Ultron are run by Michal Prazenica, a Slovakian nationwide who fled to Dubai.
Mavie Lab Ltd is the British Virgin Islands shell firm behind the Mavie World Ponzi scheme.
Ultron Applied sciences Integrated is the Dubai shell firm behind Ultron, the know-how platform by means of which Mavie World runs its Ponzi scheme.
FlipMe is the third Mavie World Ponzi spinoff. LottoDay is the primary Mavie World Ponzi spinoff.
Nick Lemay, Stephanie Plante and Nathalie Mercier are Quebec residents and serial promoters of fraudulent MLM firms.
Earlier than they joined Mavie World and Ultron, Lemay, Plante and Mercier have been selling the Be pyramid scheme (aka Melius), and Validus Ponzi scheme.
Lemay additionally promoted Safir, one other MLM Ponzi scheme that collapsed in 2023.
Be continues to defraud customers below numerous buying and selling names. Validus collapsed in April 2023.
Following an inner investigation into suspected fraud, AMF (the Authority) filed for an emergency listening to with the Administrative Tribunal for Monetary Markets (the Tribunal) on Could fifteenth.
The Authority maintains that the respondents have dedicated and can proceed to commit quite a few severe breaches of sections 11 and 148 of the Securities Act in addition to Regulation 31-103 respecting registration necessities and exemptions and persevering with obligations of registered individuals by finishing up actions as a securities dealer and advisor, with out holding registration with the Authority and by making placements with the general public of types of funding supplied for in part 1 of the Act on securities, on this case funding contracts linked to a few instances within the discipline of cryptocurrencies, all with out maintain[ing] a prospectus topic to approval by the Authority or with out benefiting from an acceptable exemption.
The Authority states that its investigation into this matter is continuous, however that it is crucial that the illicit solicitation and placement actions of the respondents, which goal a very weak investing public, instantly stop.
Of their emergency ex-parte submitting, the AMF famous that Lemay, Plante and Mercier have been gearing as much as host a “large-scale promotional exercise in Quebec – at the moment deliberate for June 8 and 9 2024”.
The Authority emphasizes that the cash – already transferred to the respondents by the investing public within the type of cryptocurrency in addition to that which is prone to be additional paid to them following the aforementioned promotion and solicitation actions – is routed by means of web sites belonging to respondents who’re authorized entities included in international jurisdictions that may be certified as “tax havens”.
This case is prone to significantly complicate any doable try by the regulator to recuperate and doubtlessly redistribute to injured traders the cash that the respondents might have managed to extract from them as a part of their illicit actions.
The Tribunal scheduled a listening to on Could sixteenth. On the listening to the Tribunal confirmed securities fraud and granted the AMF’s request for an emergency stop and desist order.
Th(e) proof reveals that the Respondents are within the means of organizing a large-scale promotion exercise in Quebec … throughout which they pan to deliver collectively in particular person an viewers that would attain 1,000 folks residing in Quebec, with a view to soliciting and illicitly putting with this group of potential traders funding contracts that may be acquired by means of web sites of the respondents MavieLab LTD, Ultrong Applied sciences Restricted, FlipMe and LottoDay.
The respondents Nick Lemay and Stephanie Plante claimed to have every collected at least 120,000 USDT in commissions from their solicitation and placement actions referred to above.
As for Nathalie Mercier, she allegedly instructed an AMF investigator, as a part of an undercover operation carried out in the course of the investigation:
“I made greater than $17,000 selling the corporate and I don’t even do that full time.”
Within the opinion of the Tribunal, probative proof introduced by the Authority demonstrates that the respondents allegedly dedicated and would proceed to commit obvious breaches … by finishing up actions as a securities advisor and dealer and by making investments with the investing public of a type of funding supplied for in Article 1 of the Securities Act.
On this case securities contracts funding linked to a few companies within the discipline of cryptocurrencies – and providing enticing returns, all with out being registered with the regulator and with out holding a prospectus authorized by the Authority or with out benefiting from an acceptable exemption to take action.
For these causes … MavieLab LTD, additionally doing enterprise as Mavie World, Nick Lemay, Stephane Plante and Nathalie Mercier [are] forbidden to hold out any exercise with a view to finishing up, straight or not directly, a transaction f any type of funding lined by the Securities Act.
[The Tribunal] orders the respondents Nick Lemay, Stephane Plante and Nathalie Mercier to take away, inside a interval of 5 (5) days from this determination, any announcement, publicity or different publications disseminated, straight or not directly, through the web or in any other case, particularly on YouTube, FaceBook, Instagram and LinkedTree, in reference to any type of funding lined by the Securities Act, promoted and/or supplied by means of Mavie.
[The Tribunal] orders MavieLab LTD and every other particular person working the “mavie.international” web site, thirty (30 days after this determination and for the longer term, to dam entry to the “mavie.international” web site.
Ultron, LottoDay and FlipMe have additionally been ordered to stop and desist committing securities fraud, in addition to blocking their web sites in Quebec.
The Tribunal ordered the FMA to inform Mavie World and Ultron of the order “directly” on Could sixteenth. To this point neither Mavie World or Ultron have publicly acknowledged the Tribunal’s order.
The AMF went public with the order on Could twenty ninth.
For sure the Tribunal’s order successfully bans promotion of Mavie World, its spinoffs and Ultron in Quebec. Securities legislation is materially the identical throughout throughout Canada, nonetheless different provinces have but to problem official Mavie World and Ultron fraud warnings.
As of Could 2024, SimilarWeb tracked ~137,000 month-to-month visits to Mavie World’s web site (a 35% month on month discount).
High sources of visitors to Mavie World’s web site are Russia (28%), Hungary (9%), South Korea (7%), the UK (7%) and Chile (5%).
Neither Mavie World, its spinoffs or Ultron are registered to supply securities in any of those nations.