Blessings In No Time, aka “BINT”, was a matrix-based pyramid scheme.
On June 9th BINT and husband and wife operators, LaShonda and Marlon Moore, were sued by the Texas AG.
Today the FTC and Arkansas AG have followed up with a joint federal fraud lawsuit.
The Moores (right) were pitching a “credit repair” service through their company “The Mogul Behavior”.
Evidently that didn’t work out, prompting the couple to launch a multi-million dollar gifting scheme.
Blessings In No Time was officially launched in August 2020.
Bint operated via an app and disguised their illegal gifting scheme as “linkfunding”.
What are the advantages of linkfunding?
When funding from the government and nonprofits falls short, many people turn to linkfunding, meaning that they will rely on the kindness of their community.
Online fundraising removes the traditional barriers that typically exist when asking for support, making it simple to overcome financial obstacles quickly or raise money for a worthy cause.
“Causes” were of course BINT scammers’ hip pockets. BINT affiliates stole from those who joined after them in typical gifting pyramid fashion.
Under the “linkfunding” ruse, the Moores claimed BINT was “a safe, lucrative, and legal moneymaking membership program.”
In truth, BINT has been an illegal pyramid scheme. BINT has solicited money from consumers and promised them investment returns as high as 800 percent.
These promises are false.
The supposed investment returns Defendants have promised members they would receive have been, in reality, merely funds other members paid to participate in the scheme.
By the program’s design, most members have not earned returns but have instead lost the money they have paid to participate in BINT.
Therefore, BINT has not been a safe, lucrative, or legal moneymaking program.
You won’t find a BINT review here on BehindMLM because I’d never heard of the company.
Here’s why:
To help perpetuate their scheme, Defendants have prohibited members from posting anything concerning BINT online or on social media.
Members who have violated this rule risked forfeiting the money they have paid into the scheme.
This prohibition has prevented aggrieved consumers from alerting other consumers that BINT has not been a legitimate enterprise.
The FTC alleges that through BINT, LaShonda and Marlon Moore have scammed consumers out of tens of millions of dollars.
Despite these substantial losses, BINT was marketed on the cliche that nobody that had lost had come forward.
a guest speaker introduced by Defendants LaShonda Moore and Marlon Moore told the BINT community in a recorded live video, “the last time I checked, and you can correct me if I’m wrong, there is not a person out there that can say ‘I lost money with BINT.’”
BehindMLM regularly sees this defense trotted out in defense of scams.
The Moores represented the amount of money deposited into BINT, $29 million, was a proof of its legitimacy. They also claimed IRS, FBI and Pentagon officials were also participating.
Noting these prominent BINT members, LaShonda Moore concluded: “So anytime you all think we’re doing something wrong, know that we aren’t.”
What might have finally triggered regulatory action was LaShonda Moore claiming BINT had been cleared by the Arkansas Attorney-General’s Office.
BINT moves this way for a reason. BINT has been to the attorney general’s office and has come out scotch-free [sic] for a reason.
We have attorneys for a reason. We say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to certain things for a reason. That’s because we are working legally.
And so I know a lot of times you guys send us ideas and you’re like ‘why can’t you do this?’ and you think that we don’t listen.
And that’s not the case; we listen. However, we’ve already been legally advised that that’s not in the best interest to the business of BINT.
Towards the end of BINT, the Moores trotted out a refund exit-scam.
Math being math, naturally there was no funds left by this stage to pay anyone.
Defendants … failed to provide requested refunds.
Moreover, LaShonda Moore recently admitted in a live video call that BINT no longer has the funds to provide the promised refunds and that the proposed defendants “do not have it financially to refund everybody in this community even if we wanted to.”
Throughout its operation, BINT collapsed three times. By February 2021 BINT victims had reported the scam to ‘the FTC, state attorneys general, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, among other authorities’.
The Moores have been accused of violations of the FTC Act and Arkansas DTPA. The FTC’s joint complaint alleges eight counts of fraud.
The complaint seeks to permanently enjoin BINT’s illegal operation and asks the court to award redress for injured consumers.
The complaint also seeks to impose civil penalties on the defendants under Arkansas state law.
Presumably due to the pandemic, BehindMLM has documented a number of gifting schemes similar to BINT over the past year.
Gifting schemes similar to BINT we’ve reviewed include
Thus far, at least as far as I’m aware of, none of the scammers named above have been held accountable.
I’ve added the FTC’s case against BINT and the Moores to BehindMLM’s case calendar.
Stay tuned for updates as we continue to track the case.
Update 18th January 2022 – A bench trial has been scheduled “for sometime during the week of 10/17/2022”.
Update 7th April 2022 – A motion to dismiss from the BINT defendants has been denied.
Update 13th July 2023 – LaShonda and Marlon Moore have reached a settlement with the FTC.
The settlement has been presented to the FTC Comissioners for approval, after which it will be filed with the court.
Update 10th November 2023 – Marlon and LaShonda Moore have been indicted on BINT related fraud charges.