LaCore Enterprises’ pay to play pyramid

While BehindMLM has a whole section on LaCore Enterprises, we’ve never actually reviewed Lacore’s first launch; bHip Global.

bHip Global operates in the nutritional supplement MLM niche. The company was founded in 2007 and is based out of Texas in the US.

BehindMLM first came across Terry LaCore back in 2013, as part of our coverage on Rippln.

These days LaCore Enterprises are more open about being behind the MLM companies they launch. Back in 2013 LaCore was much more secretive.

Even in 2013, LaCore (right) had been in the MLM industry for a number of years.

in the 1990s LaCore rose to the top distributor for Strategic Telecom Systems
LaCore secured his first MLM executive role as CEO of Netvision and CitiDirect
after that LaCore was appointed first Vice President, and then CEO of Kaire

Towards the late 90s, LaCore eventually wound up at Natural Health Trends Corp.

LaCore’s time at Natural Health Trends Corp came to an end in 2005. Three years later the SEC filed a related civil enforcement action.

On September 3, 2008, the Commission filed a civil action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas charging two former officers of Natural Health Trends Corp. of Dallas, Texas, with securities fraud and other violations arising from undisclosed related party transactions from 2001 through 2005.

The defendants are Mark D. Woodburn, of Southlake, Texas, NHT’s former president, director and CFO, and Terry LaCore, of Flower Mound, Texas, the former president of NHT’s chief subsidiary and an NHT director.

According to the complaint, from 2001 through August 2005, NHT’s top distributor paid Woodburn and LaCore, directly and indirectly, approximately $2.5 million in undisclosed payments.

As a result of Woodburn and LaCore’s activities, the complaint continues, NHT failed to disclose, or inadequately disclosed, the related party transactions in periodic filings, registration statements, and proxy statements.

LaCore settled the case in late 2008 for $50,000. As part of the settlement, LaCore was banned from being an Officer or Director of any public company for five years.

I’ll cut to the chase and note that, since then, LaCore hasn’t had any further securities fraud related run-ins.

Two years after leaving NHT and a year before the SEC filed suit, LaCore founded bHip Global in 2007.

LaCore would go on to launch LaCore Enterprises in 2011.

Initially an advertising agency, LaCore Enterprises eventually morphed into a fully-fledged white label MLM factory. The main components of LaCore Enterprises are itself and LaCore Labs.

LaCore Enterprises is the business side of the company, LaCore Labs handles products.

In addition to bHip Global, LaCore Enterprises are behind over a dozen MLM companies – all of which operate in the nutritional supplement niche.

Rippln saw LaCore try to get back into the wireless MLM niche. Launched in early 2013, by early 2014 Rippln had collapsed.

LaCore Enterprises has stuck to nutritional supplements ever since.

BehindMLM has reviewed most of the LaCore Enterprises company launches over the years. Today we’re limiting that coverage to bHip Global, the original LaCore launch.

Read on for a full review of bHip Global’s MLM opportunity.

bHip Global’s Products

bHip Global market a range of in house manufactured nutritional supplements… and sex lube.

Product categories featured on bHip Global’s website include energy & fitness, health and wellness and personal care.

Energy & Fitness

Blue Energy Blend – “may support hours of natural energy”
Pink for Women – “intended to address the health needs of today’s busy woman”
Red for Men – “specially-tailored to a man’s metabolic and hormonal needs”
Noni Gia – “a potent antioxidant that may help sustain and support a healthy immune system”

All of bHip Global’s energy & fitness products retail at $69 for a box of 30 single-serve sachets.

Health and Wellness

Purple Caps Xtreme – “combines essential vitamins like A, B & D along with natural ingredients like Cat’s Claw to help restore and enhance your well-being”, retails at $69 for a bottle of 30 servings

Personal Care

Pleasur – “a personal topical lubricant designed to amplify the sexual responsiveness in women of all ages”, retails at $69 (nice) for a 0.5 oz bottle (15 ml)

bHip Global’s Compensation Plan

bHip Global’s compensation plan pays retail and recruitment commissions.

“Pay to play” is heavily emphasized when new bHip Global affiliates are recruited.

bHip Global Affiliate Ranks

There are eleven affiliate ranks within bHip Global’s compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:

Affiliate – sign up as a bHip Global affiliate (either with or without a Package), and generate and maintain 50 PV a month (first PV qualification period is six weeks)
Bronze – recruit and maintain two Affiliates and generate 1000 GV in matched monthly residual commission volume
Silver – maintain two personally recruited Affiliates and generate 2000 GV in matched monthly residual commission volume
Gold – recruit and maintain four Affiliates and generate 4000 GV in matched monthly residual commission volume
Platinum – recruit and maintain six Affiliates and generate 8000 GV in matched monthly residual commission volume
Sapphire – maintain six personally recruited Affiliates and generate 16,000 GV in matched monthly residual commission volume
Ruby – maintain six personally recruited Affiliates and generate 32,000 GV in matched monthly residual commission volume
Emerald – maintain six personally recruited Affiliates and generate 32,000 GV in matched monthly residual commission volume
Diamond – maintain six personally recruited Affiliates and generate 64,000 GV in matched monthly residual commission volume
Blue Diamond – maintain six personally recruited Affiliates and generate 125,000 GV in matched monthly residual commission volume
Black Diamond – maintain six personally recruited Affiliates and generate 500,000 GV in matched monthly residual commission volume

PV stands for “Personal Volume”. PV is sales volume generated by retail sales and an affiliate’s own purchases.

GV stands for “Group Volume”. GV is PV generated by an affiliate and their downline.

Note that in order to count towards rank qualification, recruited Affiliates must be split evenly on both sides of the binary team. Recruited Affiliates can also be any rank.

Retail Commissions

bHip Global affiliates can earn up to 30% on retail order sales volume.

Retail commission rates are determined by how much a bHip Global affiliate pays when they sign up:

Recruitment Commissions

bHip Global pays a commission when personally recruited affiliates purchase affiliate packs:

recruit an affiliate who purchases a Partner Pack and receive $20
recruit an affiliate who purchases an Executive Pack and receive $40
recruit an affiliate who purchases a Professional Pack and receive $100

Residual Recruitment Commissions

bHip Global pays residual recruitment commissions via a unilevel compensation structure.

A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):

If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.

If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

Residual recruitment commissions are paid on Executive and Professional Pack recruitment, starting at the Gold rank:

Gold ranked affiliates earn a $5 Executive Pack residual and $10 Professional Pack residual
Platinum ranked affiliates earn a $10 Executive Pack residual and $25 Professional Pack residual
Sapphire ranked affiliates earn a $20 Executive Pack residual and $50 Professional Pack residual
Ruby ranked affiliates earn a $30 Executive Pack residual and $75 Professional Pack residual
Emerald ranked affiliates earn a $35 Executive Pack residual and $90 Professional Pack residual
Diamond and higher ranked affiliates earn a $40 Executive Pack residual and $100 Professional Pack residual

Residual recruitment commissions are capped at $40 on Executive Pack recruitment and $100 on Professional Pack recruitment.

The first residual recruitment commission is paid out to the recruiting affiliate, based on their rank.

What is left is then paid upline, again according to rank, until the entire $40 or $100 is paid out.

E.g. You are Sapphire and recruit a new Professional Pack affiliate.

You receive $50, leaving $50 to be paid out ($100 minus $50 paid to you).

The system searches upline across the unilevel team, looking for Ruby and higher ranked affiliates to pay the remaining $50 residual recruitment commission out to.

if a Ruby is found first, they receive $25 ($25 difference between $50 paid out and their $75 rate), with $25 still left to be paid to higher ranked upline affiliates
if an Emerald is found first, they receive $40 ($40 difference between $50 paid out and their $90 rate), with $10 still left to be paid to higher ranked upline affiliates
if a Diamond or higher is found first, they receive the full remaining $50 and nothing further is paid out.

Note that nothing is ever passed upline when Diamond and higher ranked affiliates receive a residual recruitment commission.

Diamond and higher affiliates always receive either the full residual commission amount on personal recruitment, or whatever it left still owing to be paid out on indirect recruitment.

Recruitment Bonus

bHip Global affiliates receive a $50 bonus when they recruit two affiliates.

Recruited affiliates must be placed on one on both sides of the binary team.

Residual Commissions

bHip Global pays residual commissions via a binary compensation structure.

A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a binary team, split into two sides (left and right):

The first level of the binary team houses two positions. The second level of the binary team is generated by splitting these first two positions into another two positions each (4 positions).

Subsequent levels of the binary team are generated as required, with each new level housing twice as many positions as the previous level.

Positions in the binary team are filled via direct and indirect recruitment of affiliates. Note there is no limit to how deep a binary team can grow.

At the end of each week bHip Global tallies up new investment volume on both sides of the binary team.

Affiliates are paid $50 per 500 GV matched on both sides of the binary team.

Once paid out on, matched volume is flushed. Any leftover volume on the stronger binary team side carries over (up to 250,000 GV).

Matching Bonus

bHip Global pays a Matching Bonus on residual commissions earned by recruited affiliates.

The Matching Bonus is paid out down using the same unilevel team structure as Residual Recruitment Commissions (see above).

bHip Global caps the Matching Bonus at five unilevel team levels, based on rank:

Bronze ranked affiliates earn a 5% match on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
Silver ranked affiliates earn a 10% match on level 1
Gold ranked affiliates earn a 10% match on level 1 and 5% on level 2
Platinum ranked affiliates earn a 10% match on levels 1 and 2
Sapphire ranked affiliates earn a 10% match on levels 1 and 2 and 5% on level 3
Ruby ranked affiliates earn a 10% match on levels 1 to 3
Emerald ranked affiliates earn a 10% match on levels 1 to 3 and 5% on level 4
Diamond ranked affiliates earn a 10% match on levels 1 to 4
Blue Diamond ranked affiliates earn a 10% match on levels 1 to 4 and 5% on level 5
Black Diamond ranked affiliates earn a 10% match on levels 1 to 5

Rank Achievement Bonus

Silver and higher ranked bHip Global affiliates receive the following Rank Achievement Bonuses

qualify for and maintain Silver and receive $50 a month
qualify for and maintain Gold and receive $125 a month
qualify for and maintain Platinum and receive $300 a month
qualify at Sapphire and receive $2000, maintain Sapphire to continue receiving $700 a month
qualify at Ruby and receive $5000, maintain Ruby to continue receiving $2000 a month
qualify at Emerald and receive $10,000, maintain Emerald to continue receiving $3200 a month
qualify at Diamond and receive $25,000, maintain Diamond to continue receiving $3600 a month
qualify at Blue Diamond and receive $50,000, maintain Blue Diamond to continue receive $4000 a month
qualify at Black Diamond and receive $100,000, maintain Black Diamond to continue receiving $4000 a month

Joining bHip Global

Basic bHip Global affiliate membership is $49.95 annually.

Full participation in the attached income opportunity requires 1500 PV or purchase of one of three packages:

Partner Package
Executive Package
Professional Package

bHip Global do not provide package costs anywhere on their website. I searched high and low and was still unable to lock down package costs.

The closest I came was this slide from 2012, detailing three package cost tiers; $200 (Partner), $500 (Executive) and $1000 (Professional).

These tiers are from a decade ago and should only be considered a guide.

bHip Global Conclusion

In my extensive search for bHip Global package costs I realized that bHip Global’s product offering today is a skeleton of what was originally on offer. Standout losses include a DNA “repair” product and weight loss.

I believe this is due to LaCore Enterprises spinning these products off as standalone MLM opportunities.

In any event, the end result is bHip Global’s offering today is extremely bland.

Our vision is quite simple. Help people around the world become the very best they can be while they help others do the same.

Nothing stands out from a marketing perspective. bHip Global’s products feel very much like an assortment of random supplements cobbled together. And there’s the lube, that doesn’t really tie into anything (energy for more bunga bunga?).

Before we get into bHip Global’s compensation plan, I want to point out that failing to disclose affiliate package costs is a major compliance red flag.

By hiding affiliate package costs, bHip Global leaves consumers unable to make an informed decision about its MLM opportunity. This is a potential violation of the FTC Act.

I suspect the reason bHip Global hides package information is because it leads into “pay to play”.

bHip Global incentivizes affiliates to spend more when they sign up by tying membership package costs to commission rates.

The 1500 PV qualification alternative is meaningless when weighed against three affiliate package price-points. bHip Global is effectively penalizing anyone who bothers to try and retail sale qualify.

And the irony is to reach 1500 PV, ideally an affiliate would be selling at least 750 PV. Why bother when you’re getting screwed out of 25% of the maximum 30% retail commission rate till you reach 1500 PV?

After incentivizing how much an affiliate spends when they sign up, the next thing to note is bHip Global has no retail volume qualifiers.

bHip Global affiliates can pay $1000 or whatever it is for max rank (note affiliate ranks are separate to paid pay to play ranks), pay whatever the 50 PV a month product order is each month on autoship (I suspect this aligns with one $69 product order), then just focus on recruiting others who do the same.

And this is your classic MLM pyramid scheme.

Whereas LaCore Enterprises’ compensation plan today typically do have a focus on retail, it seems they need to go back to the drawing board with bHip Global.

I noted official provided compensation plan documentation is a 2019 revision of an original 2016 plan.

The FTC is pretty clear on MLM companies operating without significant retail sales being pyramid schemes. bHip Global’s plan is long overdue for a revamp.

I couldn’t help but notice SimilarWeb currently ranking Colombia as bHip Global’s top source of traffic (57%). Colombia has emerged as a hotbed of MLM fraud in 2022.

I wouldn’t at all be surprised if bHip Global is being openly promoted as a “buy a package” pyramid scheme across South America.

That would see bHip Global turning a blind eye to fraud, which is disappointing given LaCore Enterprises recent retail focused MLM launches.

Unless you’re keen to lose money in an old school autoship recruitment scheme, bHip Global in its current state is best avoided.