At the time of publication Ascira’s website is parked with a “coming soon” message.
Despite having held at least one “VIP event” and actively marketing their opportunity, Ascira has yet to launch an online presence.
Our Ascira review is based on a presentation given by International Brand Ambassador Steve Martin, on or around February 16th, 2019.
Heading up Ascira is founder and CEO, John Sachtouras (right).
Sachtouras made a name for himself in Organo Gold.
Sachtouras joined Organo Gold in 2009 and, according to Greek Reporter USA, was making over $400,000 a month by 2013.
Not sure when he left Organo Gold but in July 2018 Sachtouras signed up with Jeunesse.
That didn’t work out, and by April 2019 Sachtouras had joined FutureNet corporate.
FutureNet started as a simple matrix cycler Ponzi. By 2019 it had jumped on the cryptocurrency bandwagon and was selling its worthless FuturoCoin.
In June 2019 FutureNet collapsed. The company announced a shitcoin fork reboot, but as of yet that doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere.
That brings us to Ascira which, despite the March 1st date on their website, is already in prelaunch.
This is based on at least one company event being held and leaders already in place.
Speaking of Ponzi schemes, let’s take a look at Ascira’s International Brand Ambassadors:
John Sachtouras introduced Steve Martin as part of FutureNet’s “corporate team” last June:
Hans Joerg “Happy” Hartmann and Gerti Navisotschnig are also from FutureNet:
Daniel Grenon has fronted a string of failed Ponzi schemes. We last came across him in September 2019, as the co-founder and the face of FXTV Global.
Andy Hansen’s Aspire Worldwide pyramid scheme collapsed in 2014. Victim losses at the time were pegged at $5 million.
Last we heard Hansen had fled regulators in Australia for the UK. Apparently he goes by Andrew now and has a beard.
Does any of this warrant a preemptive conclusion of Ascira as a business?
Of course not, that’s what the rest of this review is for.
But it does seem Sachtouras has assembled a certain type of marketer to front his company.
Read on for a full review of Ascira’s MLM opportunity.
Ascira’s Products
Ascira markets two products, Ascira Academy and Smart Travel.
Ascira Academy provides access to “on demand videos” from “the best professional, authors and successful leaders”.
Smart Travel is a discount travel portal spanning hotels, airlines, car rental, “excursions” (???) and luxury home (rental?).
While we know access to both Ascira Academy and Smart Travel is via a monthly subscription, retail pricing is not provided in Ascira’s marketing material.
Steve Martin does provide a figure of $99 a month for access to something, but whether this is retail or affiliate pricing and for what is unclear.
Ascira’s Compensation Plan
Ascira’s compensation plan combines retail and recruitment commissions.
Flat percentages are paid out initially, with residuals tracked via a 3×12 matrix.
Additional performance-based bonuses are also available.
Ascira Affiliate Ranks
There are fifteen affiliate ranks within Ascira’s compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Bronze
- Silver
- Gold
- Platinum
- Double Platinum
- Diamond
- Double Diamond
- Triple Diamond
- Blue Diamond
- Black Diamond
- Prime Ambassador
- Master Ambassador
- Global Ambassador
- Crown Ambassador
- Royal Ambassador
Other than stating rank qualification is based on Group Volume (GV), specific rank qualification criteria is not provided.
Retail Commissions
Ascira pays a 20% commission on the sale of Ascira Academy and Smart Travel to retail customers.
Whether this includes booked travel is unclear.
Recruitment Commissions
Ascira pays a 15% commission on the recruitment of new affiliates.
Residual Commissions
Ascira pays residual commissions via a 3×12 matrix.
A 3×12 matrix places an affiliate at the top of a matrix, with three positions directly under them.
These three positions form the first level of the of the matrix. The second level of the matrix is generated by splitting these first three positions into another three positions each.
Levels three to twelve of the matrix are generated in the same manner, with each new level housing three times as many positions as the previous level.
Positions in the matrix are filled via direct and indirect recruitment of Ascira affiliates.
A residual commission of “up to 35%” is paid on sales activity generated within an Ascira affiliate’s matrix.
Whether this includes retail sales activity is unclear.
Also other than Steve Martin disclosing 5% is paid on the first level (3 positions), specific matrix level percentages are not disclosed.
Matching Bonus
Ascira pays a Matching Bonus on commissions earned by downline affiliates.
The Matching Bonus is paid out down three levels of recruitment (unilevel):
- Associates earn a 10% match on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
- Premiums earn a 20% match on level 1 and 10% on level 2
- Superiors earn a 30% match on level 1, 10% on level 2 and 5% on level 3
- Ultimates earn a 30% match on level 1 and 10% on levels 2 and 3
These don’t correspond with Ascira’s affiliate ranks, so I’m unclear on how affiliates earn higher Matching Bonus rates.
Rank Achievement Bonus
Ascira pays a Rank Achievement Bonus starting at the Bronze rank.
Specific amounts per rank aren’t disclosed, however qualifying from Bronze to Royal Ambassador pays out over $2 million dollars.
Lifestyle Bonus
Silver and higher ranked Ascira affiliates receive a monthly Lifestyle Bonus.
Specific Lifestyle Bonus amounts aren’t disclosed but we do know it caps out at $10,000 a month.
Global Diamond Bonus
Ascira takes 3% of company-wide sales volume and places it into the Global Diamond Bonus pool.
Diamond and higher ranked affiliates receive equal shares in the pool, paid quarterly.
Note that Ascira’s marketing suggests higher ranked affiliates receive more shares in the Global Diamond Bonus pool.
Joining Ascira
Ascira affiliate membership is $499 for a Pro Pack or $4999 for the Founders Club.
Pro Pack membership includes:
- three months of Ascira Academy and Smart Travel
- one convention ticket
Founders Club membership includes:
- twelve months of Ascira Academy and Smart Travel
- four VIP convention tickets
These prices are good up until June 4th.
In his official Ascira business presentation, Steve Martin mentions $199 to $2499 affiliate packages. No details of these packages however are available.
Conclusion
Ascira’s Travel Smart is unlikely to be any different to the plethora of discount travel platforms already out there.
It’s probably white-labeled and well, you know how it goes. Pay a fee, book some travel, hope to make back at least what you spend in fees.
As for Ascira Academy, I can’t say Ponzi promoters are who’d I’d turn to for “education”.
I mean c’mon, John Sachtouras’ official FurtureNet Ponzi corporate title was “Global Ambassador of Education and Training”.
That said, Ascira has yet to reveal any videos in their library (or whether any currently exist). In the meantime though they’ll happily charge you almost $5000 for twelve months prepaid access.
Is any of this retail viable? Maybe. The only figure we have to go on is $99 a month.
Whether that’s one platform or both, who knows.
Either way it’s a lot of money to pay to people of questionable MLM backgrounds for education – or to make up for in discounted travel each year.
That leaves us with recruitment, which appears to be all Ascira is focusing on till early June.
Assuming commissions kick off on March 1st, Ascira will be operating as a pyramid scheme until they actually start to market retail.
That could happen in early June, or it might get pushed back.
Whenever it happens, it’s a hard-sell that after months of focusing on recruitment, Ascira’s affiliates are just going to flip a switch and become retail orientated.
Especially when you consider they’re under absolutely no obligation to focus on retail sales.
Also of potential concern is Ascira following in FutureNet’s footsteps through an in-house social network:
Despite John Sachtouras’s foray into Ponzi schemes and the respective history of some his International Brand Ambassadors, I’ve approached Ascira itself from a neutral stance.
I don’t think retail is ever going to be a focus here, and that means Ascira is never going to evolve beyond its pyramid pre-launch foundation.
$4999 a pop is quite costly and makes absolutely no sense given Ascira’s two platforms, access to which supposedly makes up the bulk of the asking price, are sight unseen.
Without the promise of recruitment commissions, would you drop five grand for access to a video library travel portal you haven’t even seen a demo of?
Yeah, neither would I.
That leaves people dropping $4999 for access to recruitment commissions, and you know how that’s going to play out.