Fortress Network markets itself as “the opportunity of a lifetime”.
The company is based out of North Carolina in the US and headed up by President and CEO Akili Dorian Omari.
On social media Omari (right) goes by “Dorian Akili Omari”.
Before founding Fortress Network, Omari was promoting local nightclub events. I wasn’t able to establish whether he has an MLM history.
Read on for a full review of Fortress Network’s MLM opportunity.
Fortress Network’s Products
Fortress Network has no retailable products or services within its MLM opportunity.
Outside of the MLM opportunity, Fortress Network affiliates are able to sell various products and services for a commission of “up to 25%”.
Fortress Network’s Compensation Plan
Fortress Network pays affiliates to recruit new affiliates.
Recruitment commissions are paid out of a $10 monthly affiliate fee, tracked via a 3×9 matrix.
A 3×9 matrix places a Fortress Network affiliate at the top of a matrix, with three positions directly under them:
These three positions form the first level of the matrix. The second level of the matrix is generated by splitting these three positions into another three positions each (9 positions).
Levels three to nine of the of the matrix are generated in the same manner, with each new level housing three times as many positions.
To qualify for MLM commissions, each Fortress Network affiliate must personally recruit three affiliates.
After this qualification criteria is met, Fortress Network pays $1 per affiliate directly or indirectly recruited into the matrix:
- level 1 – 3 positions to fill equates to a potential $3 a month
- level 2 – 9 positions to fill equates to a potential $9 a month
- level 3 – 27 positions to fill equates to a potential $27 a month
- level 4 – 81 positions to fill equates to a potential $81 a month
- level 5 – 243 positions to fill equates to a potential $243 a month
- level 6 – 729 positions to fill equates to a potential $729 a month
- level 7 – 2187 positions to fill equates to a potential $2187 a month
- level 8 – 6561 positions to fill equates to a potential $6561 a month
- level 9 – 19,683 positions to fill equates to a potential $19,683 a month
If the 3×9 matrix is filled and every affiliate recruited into it continues to pay monthly fees, the total potential income is $29,523 a month.
Joining Fortress Network
Fortress Network affiliate membership is $10 a month.
Conclusion
As opposed to being “the opportunity of a lifetime”, Fortress Network is a typical recruitment-based pyramid scheme.
You sign up, pay a monthly fee and that fee is used to pay up to nine other Fortress Network affiliates who joined before you (including whoever recruited you).
You then earn in the MLM opportunity by recruiting others who also pay affiliate membership fees.
This is literally the model of a pyramid scheme, as laid out in Fortress Network’s own marketing videos;
All you have to do to become successful is become a qualified rep. This is very simple.
All you have to do is simply share this with three of your friends.
Once they become members they will start to share with their friends, and you’ll see how fast the network begins to grow.
Seemingly aware he’s been running a pyramid scheme for some time, on January 2020 a video titled “Is It a Pyramid Thingy” was uploaded to Fortress Network’s official YouTube channel.
In the video, Dorian Omari claims “most people don’t know what a pyramid thing is”.
As opposed to explaining how Fortress Network is not a pyramid scheme, Omari trots out a series of scam excuse cliches.
[0:49] The bottom line is life is a pyramid. Doesn’t matter how you want to look at it.
Whether you want to use churches, organizations, companies, there’s always someone at the very top, a few people under them, then more people under them, and the masses under them.
So basically life is constructed like a pyramid, but what you have to ask yourself is, “is this an illegal pyramid scheme?”
[2:08] What makes a pyramid illegal, a pyramid scheme, is when a company does not have anything to offer for the value of the membership fee.
For instance, if you’re paying $50 a month into something and there’s nothing you’re getting in return for that, that will be a pyramid scheme.
And/or if the company you’re involved in only has recruiting and nothing else.
As someone who’s acutely aware of what a pyramid scheme is, let me clarify that Omari’s waffle is nonsense.
Regardless of the compensation plan used, if an MLM company does not generate the majority of company-wide revenue through retail sales, it’s a pyramid scheme.
That’s really all there is to it – both at a common-sense and regulatory level.
Fortress Network’s MLM opportunity has no retail sales. 100% of commissions are paid out of affiliate membership fees, which are tied to recruitment.
Ergo 100% of commissions Fortress Network pays out through its MLM opportunity are tied to recruitment, making it a pyramid scheme.
Attached to this is the “sell our products and earn direct commissions” component, but that has nothing to do with the MLM side of the business.
No MLM commissions are paid on the sale of products featured in Fortress Network’s online storefront. This means that 0% of Fortress Network’s company-wide revenue, with respect to their MLM opportunity, is generated via retail sales.
It’s for this reason I didn’t even bother covering the products listed on Fortress Network’s online storefront.
Every Fortress Network affiliate pays $10 a month. $9 of that is used to pay recruitment commissions and Omari collects the remaining $1.
As with all MLM pyramid schemes, when recruitment inevitably collapses so too will the business.
In addition to being illegal the math behind pyramid schemes guarantees that when they collapse, the majority of participants lose money.
Update 13th December 2020 – As at the time of this update Akili Dorian Omari has deleted every Fortress Network related video from the company’s official YouTube channel.
This includes the “Is It a Pyramid Thingy” video referenced in this review. Whether this is reflective of the state of Fortress Network as a business is unclear.