A plan to sell off the Aurum Foundation investor database to Tag Markets appears to have fallen through.
Aurum was an MLM crypto Ponzi that collapsed last month. The scam, believed to be run by Russians hiding in Dubai:
The Russians running Aurum however never fronted the scam. Instead they hid behind CEO Bryan Benson.
Benson, a Peruvian national, may have since disappeared. Following an update webinar that appears to have been recorded from an airport lounge, Benson was last seen on an Aurum webinar on August 5th.
Aurum is currently in the midst of a “Neyro” reboot, fronted by co-founder Andrew Isaacs.
Isaacs, believed to be a South African hiding out in Dubai, appeared in an August 24th update webinar to announce a “strategic partnership” between Aurum and Tag Markets.
What was publicly disclosed about the partnership was Tag Markets would pay $5 million for access to Aurum’s investor database. What secret deals were reached beyond that is unclear.
Instead of being honest about pocketing the money, the Russians behind Aurum came up with baloney about a “dedicated trading account”.
Tag Markets is a Dubai-based Ponzi factory run by owner Jared Esguerra and CEO Niklas Freihofer.
with a history of targeting collapsed MLM scams. So far these include Crowd1 (as Sonic AI) and Daisy Global (as Bit1). Zeus Funding, Exfusion and AITech don’t have any direct collapsed scam ties but are also Tag Markets scams.
Aurum’s Tag Markets reboot codename was to be OrbitOne:
Tag Markets is issuing this notice to protect its community and clarify that no partnership, commercial agreement, or recovery arrangement exists with Aurum.
Dear Zeus Master,
T.M. Financials Ltd (“Tag Markets”) informs its community, partners, collaborators, and the public of the entity operating under the name “Aurum” claiming to collaborate with Tag Markets.
Tag Markets acknowledges that it was contacted by Aurum, but following conversations, we regret to inform that we have decided to not move forward with any kind of collaboration.
Aurum stated in its marketing material that it collaborates with Tag Markets. This announcement was issued without our knowledge, aso no due-diligence or agreement was ever concluded.
According, Tag Markets confirms that:
Aurum has no relationship with Tag Markets of any kind: commercial, contractual or otherwise.
Tag Markets has not allocated, committed, or agreed to allocate any funds to Aurum or to any recovery, compensation, or loss-remediation program.
Any person who has relied on these representations should be aware that Tag Markets has not been involved whatsoever in any recovery process and bears no responsibility in this regard.
As part of our alerts campaign, we are reaching out to our community, key selected partners and collaborators of these false statements.
Tag Market’s announcement was shortly followed by another announcement from Aurum;
Aurum Update Regarding Tag Markets
We would like to provide an important update regarding the previously announced cooperation with Tag Markets.
Following the initial agreement, both teams began preparations for the technical integration.
Dedicated communication channels were established, and discussions around the infrastructure, the proposed $5 million trading account, and the integration process were actively underway.
During these discussions, Tag Markets strongly proposed the transfer of Aurum’s full partner structure as part of the cooperation.
Aurum did not agree to this approach. From our side, any potential migration of users and partner relationships must be handed exclusively through a controlled API integration, without transferring the complete Aurum structural tree.
At the same time, we have received significant feedback from our community regarding Tag Markets, including concerns related to direct recruitment approaches toward members of the Aurum partner network.
Considering these factors, Aurum has decided to place the cooperation and technical integration with Tag Markets on hold while the situation is reviewed.
Every Tag Markets Ponzi scheme run off a subdomain hosted on the domain “ibportal.io”. This cannot happen without selling off the investor database for migration, which is what happened with Crowd1 and Daisy Global.
So that part of Aurum’s announcement is baloney. I suspect either Aurum backed out of paying $5 million, or Aurum’s Russian scammers demanded more money.
Pending action from authorities, which in Dubai is less than unlikely, we’re probably not ever going to actually know. On that front though, Aurum and Tag Markets are in good company.
Aurum Foundation has received regulatory fraud warnings from the UK, Slovakia, Finland, Belgium (MiCA), Russia, Nigeria, New Zealand, Greece, Australia (twice) and Hong Kong.
Tag Markets has received regulatory fraud warnings from Russia, Austria, Slovenia and Luxembourg.
Instead of waiting to be fed more lies tied to another reboot scam ruse, Aurum victims actually hoping for recovery are advised to file complaints with local authorities and regulators.
The face of Aurum promotion to English speakers was disgraced Organo Gold co-founder Shane Morand.
Like Bryan Benson, Morand, a Canadian national believed to currently be residing in Spain, also appears to have disappeared. Morand’s last appearance on an Aurum webinar was on August 4th.
The Russians running Aurum might be comfortable in Dubai, but Benson, Isaacs and Moran probably aren’t ready for the “trapped in Dubai” life just yet.
These are suspects with ties to other countries who may be arrested if criminal investigations are launched.
Exactly how much was lost to Aurum Ponzi scammers remains unknown. On the MLM pyramid side of the scam, top recruiters like Irish national Hugh Paul Ward were reportedly making ~$710,000 a month.
If that’s the case the investment side of Aurum likely runs well into the tens or even hundreds of millions in losses.
