Polish prosecutors have seized $6.4 million from Lyoness’ bank accounts.
The accounts were held with ING Bank Slaski SA and contain a mix of euros and zloty (PLN).
As per a notice issued to Lyoness victims in Poland, Warsaw Prosecutors concluded an investigation into Lyoness Europe AG.
The investigation began on January 1st, 2020, and is part of the wider case against Lyoness in Poland.
This specific investigation pertained to recovery of funds from Lyoness for distribution to victims.
Warsaw Prosecutors claim the seized funds were proceeds of a “prohibited act” committed by Lyoness in Poland.
The “prohibited act” being operation of a pyramid scheme.
Building on that finding, Warsaw Prosecutors cited Lyoness for
1. Representatives of the Lyconet Marketing Program (formerly the Lyoness Loyalty Program) recruiting an undetermined number of people in order to achieve financial benefit.
2. Collecting funds of participants in Lyconet Marketing as part of selling profit shares … with investment risk without a required permit.
Both offenses are violations of Poland’s Penal Code.
Funds seized from Lyoness’ ING Bank Slaski SA accounts totaled 21,09 million PLN and €950,163 EUR. Together this comes to just over $6.4 million USD.
Lyoness’ regulatory troubles in Poland date back several years.
In February 2014 Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) called Lyoness out for being a Ponzi scheme.
In May 2016 a ruling by the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection deemed Terms and Conditions Lyoness solicited investment under were illegal.
This was followed up by the CCCP certifying Lyoness was a pyramid scheme in December 2019.
That last certification is tied to recovery of funds by Lyoness’ Polish victims. Which brings us to the bank account seizures details above.
Following regulatory action against it across multiple countries, Lyoness rebranded as myWorld. The MLM side of Lyoness still runs through Lyconet.
Lyconet website analysis by Alexa reveals Lyoness recruitment is currently active in Macedonia, Russia and Kazakhstan.
The US, India and Macedonia make up top sources of traffic to myWorld’s website.
These countries typically rotate in and out as Lyoness collapses in one market and spreads to another.
This has been going since BehindMLM first reviewed Lyoness back in May 2012.
Lyoness is run by Austrian national Hubert Friedl and is based out of Austria.
Austrian authorities could put a stop to Lyoness but for whatever reason haven’t done so.
That’s not to say there aren’t legal developments pertaining to Lyoness from Austria. Every now and again some new court ruling is issued.
I stopped paying attention to the endless rulings some time ago as, outside of the courtroom, nothing seems to ever actually happen.